During the stalemate on the battlefield, reinforcements for both sides began to arrive.
Nagato, controlling the four remaining Pains, rushed over, preparing to launch an attack on the mysterious masked man. At the same time, Obito Uchiha received a new Sharingan from a White Zetsu clone. Since the masked man knew he couldn't defeat Nagato while Konan was protecting him, he prepared to use the Sharingan's ultimate forbidden jutsu, Izanagi.
When the mysterious masked man saw the Pains, his brow furrowed slightly. "The Deva Path has arrived as well. There are still four of them left. Did Itachi and Kisame fail?"
"That's right," Black Zetsu said in his hoarse voice. "Even though the power of the Mangekyo Sharingan is strange, and some of its unique abilities can rival the Rinnegan, Itachi is seriously ill. He's been using Susanoo constantly, so his visual power should be nearly exhausted by now, right?"
"Hmph, yes," the masked man nodded after hearing this. "Itachi has carried out quite a few missions for the Akatsuki. Kisame has reported how many times he's used Susanoo. Perhaps he can't even activate the second form of Susanoo anymore."
Black Zetsu chuckled. "Should we find a way to get Sasuke's Mangekyo Sharingan for him? If he goes blind, he seems pretty useless..."
"No need!" The masked man shook his head and glanced at Itachi Uchiha in the distance. The once-genius youth now looked so weak he needed Kisame Hoshigaki's support just to walk. "Hmph, so Itachi is just a failure!"
After cursing, the masked man said in a deep voice, "Instead of wasting time on him, it's better to find a way to lure Sasuke to our side! That kid was able to open a perfect Susanoo in the Hidden Waterfall Village. He can achieve that with just a regular Mangekyo Sharingan. The strength of his eyes has surpassed even Shisui Uchiha's!"
The masked man had personally witnessed that astonishing arrow in the Hidden Waterfall Village and had seen the might of the perfect Susanoo. To be honest, he was truly shocked.
Because the masked man was aware of Itachi's plan to die to pave the way for his younger brother, he still didn't know that Sasuke had already obtained the Eternal Mangekyo Sharingan. They still believed Sasuke only had a regular Mangekyo.
And so, a magnificent misunderstanding was born.
The masked man and Black Zetsu both believed that Sasuke Uchiha was a genius who surpassed all previous generations of the Uchiha clan, with the potential to even surpass Madara Uchiha himself. They were already plotting. After Itachi died in battle, they would use the brothers' relationship to recruit Sasuke. Such a powerful Uchiha genius... what a waste to leave him in Konoha.
Eager to recruit Sasuke as soon as possible, the masked man looked at the weak Itachi with growing disdain. "You and Kisame stay here!"
He couldn't even defeat the Six Paths of Pain! he thought. If this were his younger brother, Sasuke would have activated his perfect Susanoo and killed a Pain with a single strike. Even Nagato might not be a match for him! This older brother is a complete failure. Even without us plotting against him, he'll probably just end up as another soul killed by Sasuke's blade!
Itachi still had no idea that because of his battle with Pain, the masked man was now extremely disappointed in him. After hearing the command, Itachi simply nodded, coughed a few times, and replied, "Yes, I understand."
"Hmph!" The masked man snorted coldly. His body suddenly twisted and disappeared from sight, swallowed by a space-time vortex.
A moment later, he reappeared in the air on the back of the Archaeopteryx summon, driving a wooden stake into its head. "Wood Style: Cutting Technique!"
The Archaeopteryx vanished in a puff of smoke.
Nagato and Konan began to fall, but fortunately, both could hover in the air and barely maintain their stability.
"Dance of the Shikigami: Paper Shuriken!" Konan's wings quickly shot out a storm of paper needles.
However, the needles simply passed through the masked man's body, completely unable to harm him.
Nagato frowned and commanded in a deep voice, "Konan, don't stop! Let's test how long he can keep that up!"
"Understood!"
The paper needles that passed through the masked man's body cycled back to her wings, creating a continuous assault.
However, the mysterious masked man just sneered and suddenly deactivated his phasing ability, allowing the paper needles to pierce his body.
"Almighty Push!"
It was a rare opportunity. The eyes of both the Deva Path and Nagato lit up as they unleashed a powerful repulsive force toward the masked man's position. Whatever the reason—perhaps his visual power was drained or his chakra was low—this was their chance.
Like a torn cloth, the masked man's body was instantly crushed into a bloody pulp by the two repulsive forces and fell to the ground.
Konan's face showed some hesitation as she looked at the puddle of blood on the ground. She couldn't help but ask, "How did he... just die like that?"
"I don't know." Nagato shook his head. After thinking for a moment, he looked up and said, "Perhaps it's because his Sharingan's power was exhausted?"
After all, they had been fighting for a long time. Konan's paper bombs alone had forced the masked man to waste a lot of time phasing. It was possible that his visual power had run out, or that his jutsu had failed. In any case, they had seen him die with their own eyes.
Konan's face still held a sliver of doubt. "Nagato, could it be... he cast a genjutsu on us?"
"Impossible." Nagato shook his head and pointed to his Rinnegan. "The power of the Rinnegan is incredible. Genjutsu has no effect on me."
Nagato firmly believed in the power of the Rinnegan. Still, he descended with Konan to inspect the pile of crushed red flesh. "This guy is definitely dead," he said in a deep voice.
Seeing that his friend was still suspicious, Nagato comforted her, "Alright, let's go reorganize the Akatsuki first, then we can..."
His words stopped abruptly.
The fragments of flesh and blood before his eyes suddenly blurred and dissipated.
Immediately after, Nagato felt a wooden stake pierce through his chest. The other end of the stake was held in the mysterious masked man's hand.
"Nagato!" A look of horror flashed across Konan's face. In her sight, the wooden stake seemed to appear out of thin air, emerging from Nagato's chest.
The mysterious masked man's voice was hazy and sinister. "Nagato, there is a genjutsu in this world that the user casts on themselves. Its effect is to turn all damage they receive, even death, into an illusion..."
"...There's such a ninjutsu?" Nagato gritted his teeth. Just as he was about to counterattack, a mass of black liquid suddenly enveloped his body, imprisoning him.
Black Zetsu, having laughingly taken over Nagato's body, sneered, "Back then, we transplanted the Rinnegan into your body. Now, it's finally time to harvest it!"
"Rinnegan..." Nagato persisted, clenching his jaw. No matter how hard he tried, he could only control his lips to speak. "The Rinnegan is mine!"
He couldn't even use his own dōjutsu. Years of weakness and illness, the life force drained by the Demonic Statue of the Outer Path, and the toll of using the Rinnegan had drained Nagato's life away bit by bit.
"Nagato..." Black Zetsu manipulated Nagato's arms to clasp together and said with a sneer, "When the true owner of the Rinnegan uses it, it doesn't consume life force... Now, its true owner is coming back! Outer Path—Samsara of Heavenly Life Technique!"
-----
Bonus:
Obito: You know, Sasuke opened his perfect Susanoo with just a Mangekyo!
Black Zetsu: What in the world? This kid is even more amazing than Madara!
Obito: Yeah, I was shocked too. He's way too strong!
Black Zetsu: I thought the Indra reincarnates were getting weaker with each generation, but Sasuke has reached a whole new level! At this rate, he's no different from the original Indra!
Obito: Itachi is such a failure. He uses his Mangekyo once and has to rest for half a month. Look at his little brother!
Black Zetsu: We can let Sasuke kill Itachi, then recruit Sasuke...
Itachi: What are you two talking about? Rinnegan, open!
Black Zetsu: ???
Obito: A little brother will always be just a little brother?