Chapter 50: Sasori and the Asura Path
"No problem," Nagato answered decisively. "This bit of Pain is nothing compared to the suffering of the people in this country."
Yahiko fell silent for a moment, then looked away.
In this world, power comes with a price.
Since Nagato had chosen this path, excessive pity would instead be an insult.
"One more to go."
Yahiko turned around and looked at the five paths of Pain lined up neatly. "The one specializing in slaughter and weaponry—the Asura Path."
Konan stepped out from the nearby shadows, holding a sealed intelligence scroll in her hand.
"This is intelligence just sent by Zetsu."
Konan's cool voice rang out. "That Genius Puppeteer from Sunagakure who went rogue years ago, known as 'Sasori of the Red Sand,' appeared yesterday at the border of the Land of Wind."
"He destroyed a small Village and left no survivors, all to plunder a batch of rare Puppet Materials."
Yahiko picked up the intelligence and rubbed it between his fingers.
Flames rose, and the paper turned to ash.
"Since he has Kage-level strength, let's go recruit him. While we're at it, we can see if we can find Materials suitable for the Asura Path from that crazy Puppeteer."
"I'll go prepare."
Nagato said, "With the Heavenly Dao and the Naraka Path working together, we should be able to take him down."
"No, you stay."
Yahiko reached out and pressed down on Nagato's shoulder.
"Your body needs rest. Moreover, these newly made Pains need to be broken in, and Amegakure's surveillance network cannot be interrupted."
Nagato was stunned for a moment: "But..."
"No buts."
Yahiko interrupted him, "Although Kakuzu has been given psychological suggestions, that guy is greedy by nature. While I'm away for these few days, you must use your strength to suppress him. Don't let him empty out the Village's treasury."
At the mention of Kakuzu, the worry in Nagato's eyes faded slightly.
Although that money-grubber was strong, he truly couldn't stir up any trouble in front of the Rinnegan.
"I understand." Nagato sat back down in his chair. "Then who will you take? Zetsu's intelligence shows that Sasori is not only skilled in puppetry, but his poisons are also very troublesome."
"Konan and I will be enough."
Yahiko turned his head to look at the blue-haired woman beside him. "Think of it as a long-overdue business trip, my lady Angel."
Konan was slightly taken aback, then a very faint, rare smile appeared on her cool face.
"As you command, Leader."
...The next day.
The rooftop terrace of the Amegakure Tower.
Wild winds swirled with torrential rain, raging a thousand meters up in the sky.
But if one looked down, they would see a completely different scene.
The once lifeless Amegakure, which resembled a graveyard, was now brightly lit.
Giant neon signs flickered in the rain, with red, green, and purple lights intertwining, casting a bizarre glow on the streets below.
Casinos, brothels, black market exchanges... countless wandering Ninjas and outlaws were spending money like water here. The smell of alcohol and perfume mixed with the earthy scent of rainwater, rising to form an aura called 'Desire'.
This was a breeding ground for vice, and a paradise for the desperate.
"Even after seeing it many times, it still feels incredible."
Konan stood at the edge of the terrace, letting the rain soak the tips of her hair. "Yahiko, have we really changed this country? Or have we just turned it into another kind of Hell?"
"Hell?"
Yahiko stood with his hands in his pockets, overlooking the decadent steel jungle beneath his feet, his eyes showing no hint of wavering.
"If the alternative is that 'pure' Hell where everyone can only wait to die and can't even eat their fill, then I'd rather choose this one."
He reached out and pointed at the most prosperous street below.
"Look, that's the casino opened by Maeda. Although it's full of scams, at least the servers there can collect a full salary every month to buy medicine for their children at home."
"Since this world is rotten to the core, then let's build a palace in the mud."
Yahiko turned his head and looked at Konan. "Until true peace arrives, letting people eat their fill is the greatest justice. As for whether the methods are dirty... that's a question only the weak care about."
Konan looked at the side profile of the man before her.
She could feel that since that valley, Yahiko had changed.
He had become strange, cold, and awe-inspiring.
But for some reason, this change gave her an unprecedented sense of peace.
The youth who used to only shout slogans and dream of mutual understanding between people was dead.
In his place was a hegemon who could truly shoulder the title of 'God'.
"Let's go."
Yahiko stopped looking at the bustling night view and turned toward the darkness.
"The sand in the Land of Wind is quite hot; let's not keep our new member waiting too long."
Whoosh—!
Countless pure white sheets of paper gushed out from behind Konan, quickly gathering and folding in the storm.
A few seconds later, a giant paper crane with a wingspan of over five meters appeared out of thin air, hovering outside the terrace.
The two of them leaped onto the back of the paper crane.
The giant paper crane let out a whistle as it broke through the air, its wings vibrating as it instantly tore through the curtain of rain, turning into a white streak of light and racing toward that western land filled with yellow sand and death... Two days later.
The Land of Wind border, the Sea of Death Sand.
This was a forbidden zone for life.
The blazing sun was like a vicious instrument of torture, scorching everything on the earth.
The air was distorted by the high temperature, and as far as the eye could see, there were only rolling yellow sand dunes and occasionally exposed bleached animal bones.
"Aaaah!!!"
A shrill scream broke the silence of the desert.
It was the final wail of a human before death.
Puchi.
A giant mechanical tail stinger, like that of a scorpion, shot out from the yellow sand, precisely and cruelly piercing the chest of a fleeing Sunagakure Ninja.
Blood splattered onto the scalding sand, instantly evaporating into dark red scabs.
"The third one..."
From the shadow of a sand dune, a bizarre figure slowly crawled out.
It lay on the ground like a giant humanoid scorpion, its back covered in a heavy mechanical shell, dragging that long tail stained with blood.
And beneath that shell, the face revealed was not human, but a wooden, expressionless mask.
hiruko.
Hailed as the Puppet with the strongest defense, it was also the walking disguise of Sasori of the Red Sand.
"Too brittle."
The mechanical tail swung violently, tossing the Sunagakure Ninja's corpse aside like trash.
"Bones of this quality aren't even qualified to be made into collection pieces. The current Sunagakure is truly getting worse with each generation."
Sasori controlled hiruko, slowly crawling toward the corpse.
He was in no hurry to leave.
For a Puppeteer, any corpse had recycling value, even if it was just taking a few ribs to make joints.
Just as hiruko extended its poison-coated mechanical claw, preparing to dismember the prey.
In the sweltering air, there wasn't a hint of wind.
But he suddenly stopped his movements.
His intuition as a top-tier Puppeteer made him sense an extremely dangerous aura rapidly approaching from directly above.
This feeling was like being locked onto by some kind of natural predator at the top of the food chain.
"Who?"
hiruko's massive body swung around violently, and that still-dripping tail stinger reared up high, pointing toward the cloudless blue sky.
In that direction.
A white dot was rapidly enlarging.
It was a giant paper crane that looked completely out of place in this absolutely dry desert.
And standing on the crane's back were two figures in black robes with red clouds, looking down at him.
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