Time passed slowly.
Jiraiya's burly body trembled slightly, as if he were bearing a weight of a thousand pounds.
His eyes were closed, and his mind flashed back to the cold, rainy days in the Land of Rain, and the three children struggling to survive amidst the flames of war.
The cheerful and confident Yahiko, the gentle and strong Konan, and... Nagato, the one with the legendary eyes whose gaze was filled with Pain and confusion.
"The Child of Prophecy... the one who would bring change to the world... how could it turn out like this..."
Jiraiya's voice was hoarse, carrying a heavy weight of self-reproach and unbelievable pain.
"Nagato... Yahiko and Konan... what on earth did they go through?"
After a long time, he snapped his eyes open. In those eyes that had weathered countless storms, the chaos had been replaced by a deep sorrow and resolve.
He took a deep breath, forcibly suppressing his surging emotions, and looked at Minato. His voice was a bit steadier, but it carried a heavy exhaustion.
"Minato, let me see what they look like..."
Minato nodded without the slightest hesitation. He pulled a scroll from beneath the desk and formed hand seals to release the seal.
As a puff of white smoke dissipated, several lifelike portraits with precise lines were spread out on the tabletop.
These were the portraits of the Six Paths of Pain he had drawn immediately after the battle, especially the Tendo Pain with orange hair and a cold expression, wearing the black cloak with red clouds.
"Sensei, please look." Minato pointed to the portrait of Tendo Pain.
"This is the leader of the six, and also the speaker, the one who claims to be your disciple.
In battle, these six share their field of vision and coordinate perfectly. They have absolutely no physiological weaknesses of living people, and..."
Jiraiya's gaze was fixed intently on the face of that orange-haired youth; time seemed to freeze at this moment.
The color instantly drained from his face, and an extreme shock erupted in his eyes.
"This face..." Jiraiya's voice trembled so much it was almost out of tune, "...is Yahiko?! This is impossible... how could it be Yahiko?!"
That sunny youth Yahiko, who was determined to use communication and understanding to end the war...
His face now appeared coldly as the leader of a destructive organization!
Both Tsunade and Minato remained silent. After a good while, Jiraiya finally raised his head with difficulty, his gaze turning to the portraits once more.
But this time, he was no longer focused on Yahiko's face; instead, he scanned every single face among the Six Paths of Pain.
He looked extremely carefully, his brow furrowing tighter and tighter.
Minato added at the right time: "Sensei, I observed a very critical point during the battle: the feeling these six people give me... is very unnatural.
They have no aura fluctuations of living people, their joint movements seem stiff at certain angles, and their evasion of fatal wounds is entirely based on shared vision and reaction speed, rather than biological instinct.
Especially their eyes... although they all take the form of the Rinnegan, that sense of emptiness... makes me suspect that they are not living people, but..."
"...but corpses!"
Jiraiya abruptly finished Minato's sentence, his tone categorical.
He pointed to one of the Pains in the portraits. "During the Second Shinobi World War, I saw this Shinobi during an encounter at the border of the Land of Rain! At the time, he was a member of an elite Jonin squad from Amegakure!"
His finger moved quickly to another Pain's portrait: "This person's hairline features and the shape of his ears... I remember! He was a bounty hunter who once chased us while we were on a mission in the Land of Hot Springs!"
"Minato, your guess was absolutely correct! The Six Paths of Pain... are not living people at all!
They are all corpses controlled by Nagato using the Rinnegan! He took Yahiko, as well as these powerful corpses he once killed or collected..."
"...and turned them all into puppet weapons to realize that plan!"
The impact of the massive truth caused Jiraiya to feel a wave of dizziness and a bone-chilling cold.
Yahiko was already dead, and Nagato had turned him into a puppet; what on earth was the reason behind this?! He wanted to go and ask the other party why in person!
Tsunade also stepped forward. Rarely, she did not speak any words of mockery, but simply patted Jiraiya's shoulder heavily; everything was understood without words.
Inside the Hokage Office, only a heavy silence remained, weighing on everyone's hearts.
...
Just as the entire Shinobi World was filled with a tense atmosphere, actively preparing for war to deal with the threat of the Akatsuki.
Takuno's Wood Clone, planted inside the Akatsuki, had already completed its secret mission.
It had assisted the Akatsuki in successfully sealing the Eight-Tails' and Nine-Tails's chakra into the Gedo Statue.
This sealing ceremony took far longer than the sum of the previous seven times.
The reason was none other than the fact that the objects being sealed were the Eight-Tails and Nine-Tails, who possessed the most vast amounts of chakra.
Although only a portion of the Eight-Tails and half of the Nine-Tails were captured, the majestic energy they contained actually surpassed the sum of the chakra from the first seven Tailed Beasts!
Of course, this was also inextricably linked to Takuno's Wood Clone "putting in the work without the effort."
On the surface, his clone participated in the sealing, but in reality, its heart was not in it.
Its true purpose was to perceive the subtle changes during the fusion process of different chakra attributes at close range, rather than sincerely helping the Akatsuki seal the Tailed Beasts.
If Takuno really wanted to help, then even if it were just his Wood Clone, completing the seal would only take a moment.
At this moment, Takuno's original body stood alone on the silent surface of the moon. His deep gaze pierced through the void, staring down at that blue planet emitting a hazy glimmer—Earth.
The evolution of the situation had become irreversible; the final moment was approaching step by step.
The Akatsuki's secret strongholds had already been exposed. Its peripheral members were almost completely wiped out under the encirclement of the Five Great Shinobi Villages, and now only the code-named members were still struggling to hold on.
With the situation having reached this point, the initiative in battle had quietly changed hands.
It was no longer like the original story where Obito took the initiative to declare war on the Shinobi World; instead, the Shinobi Allied Forces composed of the Five Great Shinobi Villages were about to sound the horn for a full-scale offensive against the Akatsuki!
However, Takuno was still somewhat curious about the development of things.
Even if the Gedo Statue had successfully absorbed the chakra of the nine Tailed Beasts, it still needed a crucial period of transformation to complete its final evolution.
Could the remnants of the Akatsuki led by Nagato really hold out until the moment the Statue's transformation was complete under this storm-like offensive from the Allied Forces?
More importantly, Obito seemed to have no intention of awakening that army of a hundred thousand White Zetsu.
This meant that the current Akatsuki was almost using its meager strength to single-handedly confront the power of the entire Shinobi Alliance!
He could guess Obito's calculations; the chess piece known as Nagato had already spiraled out of control and no longer met Obito's expectations.
For an out-of-control chess piece, Obito was happy to see it being "eaten."
All he had to do was ensure that Nagato's Rinnegan was not taken by others, and wait for the dust to settle to reap the rewards.
At this moment, Nagato was at the center of the vortex. Internally, the Akatsuki members were unsettled and on the verge of collapse, with members dispersing at any moment;
Externally, tens of thousands of powerful enemies were watching like tigers, surrounding them heavily.
Even more fatal was that he himself was being meticulously plotted against behind the scenes by the insidious Obito; one careless move and he would step into a carefully woven spiderweb.
In this desperate situation of internal and external difficulties and lurking dangers, Nagato wanted to find a path to success.
Its difficulty was no different from an ordinary person walking a tightrope over a ten-thousand-foot abyss; this was truly a difficult situation!
However, the survival crisis of the Akatsuki and Nagato was, for Takuno, nothing more than distant and irrelevant background noise.
His current gaze was focused only on his ultimate goal.
After assisting the Akatsuki in completing the sealing of all the Tailed Beasts, a key part of his plan had already been settled.
At this moment, the core task before him was to fuse the Kekkei Mora that belonged uniquely to him—that ultimate power that transcended Kekkei Genkai and Kekkei Tota.
How long would this process take? Takuno himself could not give a definitive answer.
But this uncertainty did not make him anxious in the slightest.
Even if he were immersed in the fusion of power, he would absolutely not miss that great war that was about to sweep through the entire Shinobi World.
Because Takuno only needed to dispatch a Wood Clone carrying his will and power to participate in it, which would be enough to handle the situation.
If he completed his exploration of the Kekkei Mora during this period, then all would be well.
If at the moment Kaguya was awakened, he still had not successfully fused the Kekkei Mora...
...then the Wood Clone on the battlefield would forcibly awaken him from his deep state of fusion.
At that moment, regardless of success or failure, he would have no choice but to activate that... final plan.
Thinking of the outline of that final plan, Takuno subconsciously licked his somewhat dry lips, and a flash of almost crazy determination passed through his deep eyes.
As for how to seize that ultimate power of the Chakra Fruit, he already had a somewhat vague conception in his heart.
But this conception itself was like a gamble with fate, filled with unimaginable fatal risks.
Once it failed... the outcome would be death and total annihilation!
Even his trump card, the ability of "Toki-Mayumi" to reverse time, would also completely fail within his plan, unable to restore his existence.
Fear? Shrink back? A negative answer came from the depths of Takuno's soul.
Did he fear death itself? No! Survival is an instinct; if one can live, one naturally doesn't want to die.
But what he feared more was another kind of "death"—stagnation!
According to Takuno's current strength, even if he really did stagnate, his strength was already sufficiently powerful.
Even if Kaguya really were resurrected and regained all her power after leaving her newly awakened state, he was confident he could survive in her hands, forming a stalemate.
Even if he failed, he would be able to retreat completely; the worst result would be nothing more than going to another planet to live.
But he was extremely afraid that because of this one instance of timidity and retreat, he would forever cut off the door of possibility leading to higher levels and stronger power.
If he stopped today out of fear, when that weakness caused by cowardice brought endless regret in the future, everything would already be irreversible!
Therefore, even if the road ahead had hundreds of millions of dangers, was a mountain of blades or a sea of fire, there would never be the slightest hesitation in Takuno's heart!
Even if the final outcome was to be smashed to pieces on the path of seeking the peak of power... for him, that would be enough!
This was the path he chose.
For this, even if he died, it would be worth it!
...
The top of the towering Rain Tower was being struck incessantly by the cold rain, making a monotonous and dull sound.
The damp air was filled with the smell of rust and dust, mixed with a faint scent of blood.
Those were the traces left over from previous battles, as well as the invisible pressure and anxiety filling the tower at this moment.
The core members of the Akatsuki were either standing or sitting, scattered within this temporary council hall inside the high tower.
The news that the external Shinobi Allied Forces were gathering and advancing at an alarming speed weighed on everyone's heart like an invisible giant rock.
Hearts were unsettled, and undercurrents were surging.
And in this moment of life and death, even the members of the Akatsuki, where every individual was incredibly powerful, each had their own different attitudes.
In a corner, the Hiruko puppet controlled by Sasori of the Red Sand made a slight mechanical friction sound.
Sasori's original body was hidden within it, his face showing no ripples.
"Death? Heh... Eternal art is my only pursuit.
A decaying physical body is nothing more than a shackle; destruction is also a process of reorganizing form.
The Allied Forces? They're just some temporarily active material storehouses. My puppet army is waiting for new collectibles."
He was indifferent to the upcoming great war, as if what was being discussed was not a decisive battle concerning life and death, but a material collection activity about to begin.
To him, death was far less terrifying than "imperfection in artistic form."
Hoshigaki Kisame carried his massive Samehada on his shoulder, leaning against a cold support pillar.
His shark-like face showed no expression, only his small eyes revealed a trace of indifferent calm.
He stroked the rough blade of Samehada, feeling its slight hum, as if soothing an anxious child.
He was even more indifferent to the danger he was about to face.
The ideal world would eventually descend; this was the blueprint jointly drawn by Mr. Madara and Mr. Pain.
As for who would complete the final steps, whether it was the 'Pain' planned by Mr. Pain or the 'Infinite Tsukuyomi' envisioned by Mr. Madara, or...
He paused slightly, as if chewing over a certain thought.
...or the power displayed by that Mr. Suzaku... it's all the same to me.
What he wanted was simply to witness the arrival of that world without falsehood, without betrayal, and without this endless cycle of killing.
For this reason, the arrival of the Shinobi Allied Forces did not make him feel any fear at all.
He would swing Samehada and fight until the last moment, until he saw that new world with his own eyes.
Konan stood quietly by Tendo Pain's side, like a silent paper flower.
Her gaze never wavered.
There was similarly no expression on her face, only a kind of almost frozen determination.
Whether it was a storm or thousands of troops outside, her position had never changed.
She would be with Nagato until the end of her life.
She would not question, would not waver; her existence was the most steadfast extension of Nagato's will.
Since Nagato had already come this far with Yahiko's dying wish, how could she possibly hold him back at this time?
Whether it was before, or now, or even a future without a future, she would always accompany them as they walked on.