Five days later.
Wearing a black cloak, Rei Kaguya returned to the small town near the ruins of Uzushiogakure with a helpless expression.
Over the past few days, he had traveled across most of the small nation that was the Land of Whirlpools.
While searching for the Uzumaki clan descendant mentioned in the optional mission, he had also cleaned up those wandering shinobi groups with fairly notorious reputations in the Land of Whirlpools.
Before he knew it, he had raised his [Dark Harvest] stacks from the thirty stacks he had after defeating the Konoha Anbu squad to his current 379 stacks.
By consuming a soul fragment from a Shimura clan Anbu, he had also raised [Dark Harvest]'s stacking limit to 999 stacks and increased the soul-strengthening effect attached to it to the second tier.
From that perspective, Rei's mission to the Land of Whirlpools could be called a massive profit.
Even though he had failed to complete the first optional mission because Minato Namikaze arrived in time, causing him to miss one secondary rune draw chance, that fact remained unchanged.
Unfortunately, while farming jungle camps, Rei had not found any information related to an Uzumaki clan descendant.
After seriously pulling out the mission requirements and reading them back and forth several times, Rei decided to return to Uzushiogakure one more time before going back to his homeland to participate in the war against Konoha.
Since the battle against that Konoha Anbu squad had happened here, perhaps the opportunity to find that Uzumaki clan descendant was also here?
With that thought, Rei entered the clan grounds of the Uzumaki clan, a place that received very little attention in the original work and was only mentioned because of the Mask Storage Temple that housed the Shinigami mask.
The battle that had happened in the forest outside the village five days ago had not affected these rarely visited ruins too much.
As Rei walked through, he only saw some already-decayed outer buildings collapse due to the aftermath of that battle. The remaining areas still retained the appearance they had when the Uzumaki clan was destroyed.
Walking through such a dead shinobi village naturally felt somewhat oppressive.
Fortunately, Rei had lived in Kirigakure for fifteen years. The high-pressure atmosphere all year round had forged his nerves to be extremely tough.
Even if he saw a figure in a black cloak flash past inside the ruins of a building by the roadside, not even the slightest fear would arise in his heart—
Hm?
Wait.
A black-cloaked figure flashed past?
Rei withdrew his absent-minded state and quickly chased in the direction where the black-cloaked figure had disappeared.
Rei was fast, but that black figure was not slow either.
As they flickered and leaped through the ruins, their figures rapidly moved from the western side of Uzushiogakure's ruins to the eastern side, where there were fewer buildings.
In the end, that black figure stopped in front of a tall collapsed building.
"Hm? You're not attacking first?" Seeing Rei stop roughly twenty meters away from him, the red-haired youth wearing a black robe turned his head in surprise and looked in his direction. "You chased me so closely that I thought you had some improper intentions…"
"Not quite. I just suddenly saw someone appear here, so I instinctively wanted to see who it was."
Looking at the red-haired youth's face, Rei sucked in a cold breath. The muscles across his entire body tightened.
Not because of anything else.
It was because in the red-haired youth's left eye socket, which was not covered by his long bangs, there was an eye with a pale purple base and pupils surrounded by several rings.
The Rinnegan.
Nagato!
Although according to the timeline Rei had organized based on his previous life's memories, Nagato at this point should not yet have experienced Yahiko's death. He should still be the Child of Prophecy who believed in his close friend's ideals and believed that things other than violence could be used to build a bridge toward peace.
But…
Encountering a healthy, peak-condition Nagato head-on without any preparation was still enough to make every transmigrator who knew the future experience cardiac arrest.
Damn system.
The Uzumaki clan descendant you wanted me to find couldn't be Nagato himself, could it?
Damn it.
Nagato was not a chip-damage master like Minato Namikaze, who lacked powerful offensive methods.
His attacks really could kill people!
Rei silently cursed his bad luck and quickly began thinking about how he should communicate with Nagato so that he would not develop hostility toward him.
But to Rei's surprise, before he could think of how to speak, Nagato directly called out his identity.
"The Kaguya clan's Dead Bone Pulse… Are you a Kirigakure shinobi?"
"Yes."
While feeling annoyed that he had overreacted because of this unexpected event, Rei silently withdrew the bone blade that had slid out from his palm and cautiously answered Nagato, who had made no movements.
"I'm tracking down missing-nin from my village… What about you? Judging from your hair color, are you an Uzumaki clan descendant?"
"Me? An Uzumaki clan descendant?"
Nagato thought for a moment, then nodded lightly.
"You could count it that way. Although this homeland is also my first time visiting."
"Are you planning to rebuild Uzushiogakure? With those eyes? With the power of the Rinnegan?"
Seeing that Nagato seemed harmless, Rei continued following the line of thought that he was a Kirigakure shinobi.
This question first made Nagato freeze. Then he shook his head with slight helplessness.
"Right. The Kaguya clan is a shinobi clan with a long history. It isn't strange for you to know about the Rinnegan… But rebuilding Uzushiogakure? I don't have that kind of thought."
"I only came because a new war is about to break out between Kirigakure and Konoha. At the same time, one of my companions mentioned that someone saw an intense battle erupt near the ruins of Uzushiogakure. So on a whim, I came here to take a look at this homeland I had never seen before."
"In the end, as expected, this place is also a pitiful land trampled by war and ambition, left with no choice but to bleed tears helplessly."
Nagato paused.
Then he changed the subject and asked Rei, who was considering how to reply, "Can you answer one question for me, Kirigakure shinobi?"
"I'll decide whether to answer based on how sharp the question is, Uzumaki clan—"
"No. I am not someone from the Uzumaki clan."
Nagato shook his head and interrupted Rei. Then he raised his hand and pointed his thumb at his shinobi forehead protector. With a firm and proud tone, he introduced himself.
"I am Nagato. Nagato of Amegakure's Akatsuki."
"Akatsuki… huh?"
Listening to Nagato, the future big boss who would try to rule the shinobi world through nuclear deterrence, introduce the first-generation Akatsuki that had yet to add red clouds to its black robes with such a proud youthful tone, Rei's expression could not help becoming a little complicated.
"Rei Kaguya. I am Rei Kaguya of Kirigakure."
After hearing Rei give his name, the caution hidden deep in Nagato's eyes relaxed slightly.
He took a deep breath, then asked Rei in a serious tone, "Rei-kun… right? What I want to ask is… how much longer do you think this war will last?"