The night was as thick as ink that wouldn't dissolve, splashed across the entire sky.
It was still raining outside the cave; the wind swirled with raindrops, whistling through the desolate alleys, making the withered grass on the ruins shiver as if someone were weeping in the shadows.
A figure wearing a black trench coat embroidered with red clouds quietly walked out of the cave, released a lizard, and placed a small note in its mouth.
The figure let the lizard go, but suddenly, a foot appeared and crushed the lizard to death.
The figure looked at the newcomer in panic; with pure black messy hair and black almond-shaped eyes, it was none other than Ryou, who had been regarded as a savior by the Akatsuki during the day.
"Ryou, you—"
The man was shocked, but not because Ryou had become younger; he was shocked by how Ryou had discovered him.
"Oh, you actually know my background. It seems you're from Root. Be a good boy and tell me everything you know!"
Before losing consciousness, the Root undercover only saw a pair of crimson Sharingan.
But Ryou couldn't interrogate him because Danzo had placed the Cursed Tongue Eradication Seal on the members of Root. Once the recipient tried to reveal information related to Danzo, their entire body would become paralyzed and unable to move.
As soon as Ryou asked about things related to Danzo, the Root undercover would start twitching; even if he were allowed to write it down, he wouldn't be able to.
"Damn it! That bastard Danzo!"
"Hmph, don't think I won't know your purpose just because of this."
Ryou looked at the intelligence analysis the Root undercover was trying to transmit.
This person was a Root Ninja, sent by Danzo to go undercover in the Akatsuki so that Danzo and Hanzou could keep track of the Akatsuki's movements at all times.
As for the matter of the Rinnegan, he didn't know about it at all.
Although Nagato's Rinnegan was exposed, there were too many eccentric people and strange eyes in the Ninja World; the Root members hadn't noticed it at all.
Nor did they recognize it as the famous Rinnegan of the Ninja World.
Actually, he couldn't be blamed.
The Rinnegan was only a legend; even Jiraiya only recognized the eyes of the Sage of Six Paths after seeing records at Mount Myōboku.
The Root Ninja had come out late at night to transmit intelligence specifically about Ryou.
It was impossible for Root members not to know Ryou.
The Root undercover wanted Danzo to bring people over to capture Ryou and seize the forbidden jutsu he possessed.
"Danzo, is that old geezer in the Land of Rain too?"
Ryou suddenly recalled that in the original story, the Akatsuki was besieged by Hanzou's Amegakure and the Root led by Danzo.
Danzo was also to blame for Nagato attacking Konoha later on.
This old fellow wanted to do everything, but succeeded in nothing.
Ryou stuffed the crushed lizard along with the intelligence into Obito's mouth.
"Bastard Ryou, do you think I'm a trash can?"
"Obito, aren't I just giving you some protein? Tell me, how long has it been since you last ate?"
Then, Ryou pressed down on the Root undercover and sucked forcefully, directly turning him into a withered corpse.
Then, another life spore appeared within Ryou's body.
Seeing this, Obito only felt that Ryou was wicked; this was truly an evil Uchiha!
Black Zetsu took Tobi to clean up the Root corpse, and Ryou immediately returned to his room.
Not long after Ryou left, Nagato sensed some movement and walked out of his room, feeling a bit puzzled by the traces outside the cave.
But finding nothing, he went back to rest.
Ryou was practicing Ninjutsu in his room.
He split off four Spore Clones.
Within the Land of Rain, Ryou had killed a few bandits to replenish his spores to ten; he had consumed one earlier to heal Dafo, and now he had replenished it by absorbing the Root Ninja.
Ryou pointed at the leftmost Spore Clone and said, "You, use Earth Release to sneak out and find a place to practice Fire Release."
The Spore Clone nodded and used the Mayfly Technique to leave the Akatsuki base and practice outside.
Being a Ninja isn't like cultivating immortality where one can increase magic power just by meditating.
A Ninja's training is just like studying; it requires constant memorization and familiarity.
Practicing Ninjutsu naturally makes noise; fearing that he might expose himself, Ryou sent the Spore Clones out to train.
Ryou didn't know the Shadow Clone Technique, but the Shadow Clone Technique was a secret technique developed by Tobirama based on Hashirama's Wood Clone.
And the supportive nature of the Spore Technique was superior to the Wood Clone; Ryou's Spore Clones were even better.
Now, he didn't need the Shadow Clone Technique for training; the results of the Spore Clones' training were equivalent to the main body's training.
And Life Spores even had the possibility of exceeding the main body.
"You, take Madara's Sharingan training scroll and master the Sharingan."
"You, take Tsunade's Monster Strength and practice it!"
"You, go practice the Rasengan and develop a fire-attribute transformation for it."
Ryou was in a hurry, and he had to be, because Madara wouldn't have the patience to wait for him to develop slowly.
If one day Madara suddenly told him to go to Sunagakure to kill the Fourth Kazekage and seize the Ichibi Shukaku.
Could Ryou say that his 'male period' had come and it wasn't convenient?
Of course not; no matter what, he had to become strong as quickly as possible. Time waits for no one!
If Ryou hadn't needed to save a few spores to save his life, he would have sent all the spores to train by now.
Furthermore, his spores weren't infinite; they couldn't be generated beyond ten. Ryou estimated that his body couldn't yet withstand the nutrition of so many life spores.
Perhaps his base stats just needed to become a bit higher.
The clones had all gone to train, so what about the main body? The main body went for a walk... Ryou lay on Konan's bed, sniffing deeply, his face full of a perverted expression.
"Konan, hehe! Konan!"
The one person and two Zetsus on the wall were disgusted seeing this expression.
Tobi was a bit puzzled: "Why does Ryou-sama look like he's taking a dump?"
Obito's teeth itched with annoyance: "Damn it, this guy used to give Rin Medical Ninjutsu guidance; he must have taken advantage of her."
"Ryou, I'm going to kill you!"
Black Zetsu thought for a moment; if Madara were killed or sealed, he would treat Ryou as an alternative.
No need for some illusory world to deceive him; he'd just use his mother's beauty to tempt him.
His mother's face was like a goddess descending to earth, like a fairy in the moon; a thousand years ago, many emperors fought bitterly over her beauty.
He believed this kid would definitely be infatuated upon seeing her and obediently become his mother's puppet.
It was truly vulgar, but it would be easy to control.
The next morning.
Yahiko, Nagato, and Konan got up early to start their day's schedule.
Last night, Konan hadn't gone to Ryou to learn the secret technique because she considered that he needed to rest at night, so she planned to find him during the day to practice Medical Ninjutsu.
Yahiko said to Konan, "Konan, you stay and guard the base, and while you're at it, learn Grandpa Ryou's Medical Ninjutsu. Nagato and I will go to the black market to replenish supplies."
"Okay!"
Konan nodded and watched Nagato and Yahiko leave.
The Akatsuki was indeed a peace organization, but the prerequisite for peace was having the power to protect oneself.
Being in a place of frequent conflict, it was absolutely impossible for the Akatsuki to survive without some self-defense capabilities.
But Amegakure wouldn't sell weapons to the Akatsuki, so they could only go to the black market to replenish Ninja tools and scrolls.
Ryou was in his room, receiving the experience from the Spore Clone that was practicing the Rasengan.
Ryou had already developed the Big Ball Rasengan; now he was thinking of ways to take it a step further and develop a fire-attribute form for it.
In the original story, there was no fire-attribute Rasengan; the most common one was the wind-attribute Rasenshuriken.
The Rasenshuriken is the ultimate shape transformation of Wind Release, capable of cellular-level cutting, and is a forbidden-level Ninjutsu.
Ryou naturally wanted to copy it directly and develop Wind Release: Rasenshuriken.
But unfortunately, his Chakra didn't have the wind attribute.
Yes, Ryou's original Chakra attributes were Yin, Yang, Fire, and Lightning.
After merging with White Zetsu cells, he added Water and Earth, so among the seven attributes, only Wind was missing.
Without Wind, he naturally couldn't develop Wind Release: Rasenshuriken.
Ryou was skilled in Fire Release Ninjutsu, so he wanted to add Fire Release to the Rasengan to develop a fire-form Rasengan.