"This is..." Seeing the appearance of the King of Rivers, Konan and Nagato were both stunned. This monster hadn't been used by Kaoru before. Just how many trump cards does this guy have...
"All right, before the Rinnegan is taken off Nagato, you two will stay inside this catfish's belly for a while..." Kaoru patted the King of Rivers in front of him and said with a smile.
"You want to imprison us?!" Hearing this, Konan's face was full of anger.
"It's not imprisonment. I'm helping you. Now that you've failed to seize the Nine-Tails, if you return to Amegakure, that Uchiha Obito will not let you off easily. The Rinnegan... he's always wanted it too."
"Besides, Nagato's Six Paths of Pain have been destroyed, leaving only a crippled original body. You're no longer his match."
Konan and Nagato fell silent upon hearing Kaoru's words. Nagato no longer had the deterrence of Pain, and maybe Uchiha Obito would really do as he said.
"All right, I'm tired of talking nonsense. It's decided." As Kaoru spoke, the King of Rivers opened its bloody mouth wide, extended its tongue, and directly scooped up Nagato's body, swallowing him into its belly.
"Nagato..." Watching Nagato being swallowed without any resistance, Konan weakly called out.
"Miss Konan, it's your turn now..." Kaoru made a gesture inviting her, and the King of Rivers' tongue extended again.
"Don't use that tongue to wrap around me, I'll go in by myself..." Looking at the sticky tongue, Konan frowned and said.
"Suit yourself." Kaoru smiled.
"Hmph..." Konan snorted coldly, then had no choice but to actively crawl into the King of Rivers' bloody mouth.
"All right, that settles things for now. Counting the time, the other ninja should be coming soon..." Kaoru muttered softly, then casually summoned the King of Rivers, which returned to the alternate dimension.
After dealing with Nagato, Kaoru stepped out of the paper tree and headed back to Konoha Village.
"Kaoru is back!" Seeing Kaoru's return, the Konoha Jōnin who had been searching for him and Pain shouted excitedly.
"Brother!" Wan'er was the first to greet him, followed by Yūgao Uzuki.
"Brother, are you okay?"
"Kaoru, are you all right?"
The two women asked in unison.
"I'm fine. Although Pain was a bit difficult to deal with, he was no match for me," Kaoru smiled.
"So... what about the Six Paths of Pain?" Kakashi frowned and asked.
"We'll talk about that after we get back to the village," Kaoru didn't answer directly but said to Kakashi.
"Okay, you just went through a battle and definitely need to rest," Kakashi nodded, agreeing with Kaoru.
...
Inside the Hokage building, Kaoru roughly explained the process of defeating Pain. He described how he first dealt with the Asura Path, then the Naraka Path, and finally the Deva Path, but that was all. As for meeting Nagato and Konan, Kaoru didn't mention a word.
"After dealing with the Six Paths of Pain, I withdrew," Kaoru summarized.
"So... you only took care of the Six Paths of Pain but didn't deal with the original body?!" At this moment, Jiraiya spoke up, having deduced from his battle in Amegakure that the six Paths of Pain were all corpses, and the real controller was Nagato.
"From this, Nagato should have already escaped back to Amegakure. If he recreates new Six Paths of Pain, it will be difficult to catch him..." Hearing Kaoru's words, Tsunade frowned.
"I apologize, Hokage-sama. This time it was my failure for not thoroughly eliminating that Pain," Kaoru nodded toward Tsunade, showing a remorseful expression.
"You saved the entire Konoha Village from Pain's hands. How could I blame you?" Tsunade smiled and shook her head. Repelling Pain's invasion single-handedly, she wouldn't blame Kaoru for this minor matter. On the contrary, he should be praised.
"All right, this battle caused considerable damage to Konoha Village. Everyone, help with the village's reconstruction now," Tsunade waved her hand and ordered.
...
Earlier, a few kilometers outside Konoha Village, an aloe-like floating creature was closely watching the situation—none other than Zetsu.
"I didn't expect that Uchiha Kaoru to be this powerful," Black Zetsu said.
"Yes, the self-proclaimed god Six Paths of Pain looked like a ridiculous puppet in front of him..." White Zetsu also sighed.
They saw Kaoru defeat the Six Paths of Pain, enter the paper tree where Konan and Nagato were hiding, and after a moment, come out safely. Finally, they saw Kaoru reunite with Konoha's ninja and return to the village together.
"Kaoru entered Nagato's hiding place. Konan and Nagato should have been killed by him," White Zetsu said after watching Kaoru and the Konoha ninja leave.
"Whether he killed them or not, just check it out. It doesn't matter if Konan and Nagato are dead, as long as the Rinnegan isn't destroyed by that Uchiha Kaoru," Black Zetsu said, then his whole body slowly sank beneath the ground.
Inside the paper tree made by Konan, Zetsu's body emerged again from the ground.
"Strange, Konan and Nagato are both missing..." White Zetsu was suspicious when he saw the empty paper tree.
"But we clearly saw Uchiha Kaoru enter here alone and leave alone. Konan and Nagato should still be inside..." Black Zetsu said in a low voice, then glanced at the metal rods scattered on the ground and fell into thought.
"It seems the metal rods behind Nagato were taken away, meaning Nagato was probably taken by someone..."
"Space ninjutsu... that's the only possibility," Black Zetsu analyzed cautiously. "That Uchiha Kaoru must have used some kind of space ninjutsu to take Nagato and Konan away. Damn it, what exactly is that kid's purpose?"
"No matter what, we should find Obito first. Without the Rinnegan, we can't control the Outer Path Gedo Statue, let alone collect the Tailed Beasts," White Zetsu said, a trace of anxiety appearing on his face.
...
Inside the space created by Obito's Mangekyo Sharingan, Obito finally explained the truth about Itachi to Sasuke. Although Sasuke had heard it once before, he immediately expressed to Obito his willingness to follow him and form his own "Hawk" team to take revenge on Konoha.
Having achieved Obito's goal, Obito took Sasuke out of the space, where Suigetsu and Karin greeted them.
"Suigetsu, Karin, now we're going to find Jūgo and form an elite team called 'Hawk'," Sasuke said to them.
"And the goal of 'Hawk' is only one thing, which is—" Sasuke paused.
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