Amegakure was indeed destroyed by Sunagakure's Chakra Cannon. Regarding this, Konan on the Mechanical City had witnessed with her own eyes.
But Nagato said Amegakure was destroyed under his wish... Konan didn't understand, yet vaguely she could. That feeling of half-understanding puzzled even herself.
"Did Yahiko die by Sunagakure's hand?"
Nagato asked again.
Konan didn't know the intent behind Nagato's question, but after a moment's hesitation, she nodded. "Yes."
"No, he died under Hanzo's ambition!"
"Did you die by Sunagakure's hand?"
Nagato asked once more. This time, Konan finally understood.
"No, I died under Madara's conspiracy."
"Wrong, you died under Madara's longstanding wish!"
Contrary to expectations, Nagato still refuted Konan's answer.
He explained, "Madara never wanted to harm any unrelated person. You were merely a convenient step to realizing his longstanding wish, so he plotted against you. Just like Amegakure."
"I never wanted to harm any person or village. They were merely accidentally caught in the crossfire during the process of fulfilling my wish."
'So that's it, so that's it, so that's it...'
Looking at Nagato's calm expression, yet hearing the hint of madness in his tone, a flicker of understanding arose in Konan's heart, and her heart ached for Nagato's actions.
Because that was a path of thorns.
"Konan, you ask me why I still willingly become Madara's pawn, helping him complete his plan, even knowing he was behind everything..." Nagato looked at the little girl before him, the emotions rising in his heart being ground away bit by bit. "Because I want to create a world where tragedies won't happen again!"
Yahiko and Konan's deaths caused Nagato immense pain.
He regretted more than once… if only he had been able to XXX back then.
But when he realized Konan's death was Madara's doing behind the scenes, and recalled Ryuji's words about Yahiko's actions not truly guarding peace but rather promoting Hanzo's aggression against the Land of Iron in another way, he understood...
All tragedies originate from human desires.
If everyone's desires cannot be satisfied, then there will be disputes, conflicts, and war. And war, in turn, affects innocents, causing all sorts of tragedies.
If he couldn't eradicate the source of the problem, even if he had saved Yahiko, saved Konan back then, similar things would happen again. Could he save them time and again then?
No.
Even as powerful as he is now, Nagato was well aware there were many things in the world beyond his power.
Therefore, the only way was to eradicate the source of all problems.
Human desires are insatiable. He also lacked the ability to satisfy everyone's desires. So the only option was to suppress human desires.
And what can suppress human desires is only absolute force.
Thus, he needed the Tailed Beasts' power. He needed to become a god capable of suppressing all war.
"Konan, if you intend to stop me, I will kill even you."
Nagato's gaze was resolute as he looked at the girl before him.
…
Floating Continent.
Eastern side, cliff edge.
The Allied Forces' elite infiltration team clung to the cliff face using Chakra, motionless.
"Kakashi, how much longer do we have to wait?" Obito whispered.
"Wait a bit more!"
"What exactly are we waiting for?"
"Waiting for Sunagakure's Shinobi to come out of the city to engage in battle." Kakashi said calmly.
"Are you insane? They have such high walls to defend; why would they come out to fight?"
Hearing this, the other team members also looked over.
Kakashi's expression remained unchanged, calm as ever. "They definitely will."
"Can you explain the reasoning?" Nakiyoshi asked.
"Hah..."
Seeing everyone's lack of trust, Kakashi couldn't help but sigh. "Over these five years, every village spent all their savings to build the Sky Castles, even causing deficits in their respective daimyo's finances... if just a Sky Castle caused that, what about the Mechanical City?"
"Although the Land of Wind's specialties are bestsellers in the Shinobi World, and the Daimyo is wealthy, they also implemented a nationwide water circulation system. Even with real estate development plan subsidies, they couldn't possibly have money left after building the Mechanical City and mass-producing puppets."
"That logic makes sense, but what does it have to do with whether they'll come out to fight?" Obito still didn't understand.
Hearing this, Kakashi habitually rolled his eyes.
Shisui beside him couldn't help but smile. "Because they're out of money and need to avoid financial expenditure, so they definitely won't want to fight inside the city where it can easily cause structural damage."
"So that's it!" Obito had a sudden realization. "Even if we don't know the enemy's personnel distribution inside the city, if the main force comes out to fight, our chances of encountering enemies will be greatly reduced."
"Exactly!" Kakashi nodded, instructing, "So everyone, conserve your energy. Wait until Sunagakure's people come out to fight. Then, Obito, use Kamui to infiltrate the Mechanical City with us."
"Leave it to me!"
…
On the battlefield, the Allied Shinobi Forces charged towards the Mechanical City with earth-shaking roars. Finally, after paying a heavy price in casualties, they reached the base of the city wall.
Due to the angle, the Gatling crossbow cannons and Railguns couldn't fire here. Apart from the Golden Figure previously pushed against the wall by the Third Hokage, they were temporarily safe.
"One Golden Figure can't stop all of us. Everyone, charge up and seize the Mechanical City's walls!"
The Third Raikage roared, leading the charge up the wall first.
Others followed suit, adhering Chakra to their feet, running straight up the vertical surface.
The Mechanical City's walls were a hundred meters high and over a hundred kilometers wide. The Allied Shinobi Forces running on it looked like ants. The Golden Figure previously pushed against the wall by the Third Hokage, seeing this, turned and swatted at the wall as if swatting insects. With each swipe, large numbers fell, leaving vast bloodstains on the wall.
"Everyone, hurry! Once we get inside and engage the enemy in close combat, this big guy won't dare chase us for fear of causing friendly fire!"
Jiraiya, seeing the heavy casualties, couldn't help but speak up to boost morale.
This was very effective. Everyone nearby who heard it gave it their all, accelerating their run upwards.
Shinobi were fast; a hundred meters could be climbed in just a few seconds.
But just as they had climbed halfway, ten-meter-wide axe-blades fell from above. Like windshield wipers, they swept from left to right, bringing down showers of blood and flesh. Even Kage-level experts... these axe-blades weighed nearly ten tons. Swinging down from a fifty-meter height using pendulum principles, their momentum was so great that even Kage-level experts couldn't take them head-on. They could only leap away from the wall to avoid them, being forced back down.
The Third and Fourth Raikage, who could withstand them, though unharmed, were also knocked down by the tremendous force.
Then, countless metal flower buds flew out from the city wall.
Densely packed steel needles shot out as the buds bloomed, raining down like a metallic flower shower, claiming one fresh life after another.
Capturing the Mechanical City wouldn't be that simple.