While Teizawa and Mei were cuddling in the morning light, a suffocating sense of despair filled a dark underground cavern elsewhere.
Stalactites hung from the ceiling.
Water trickled down their pointed tips, striking the ground with crisp, rhythmic taps that echoed through the deathly silence.
It sounded like some ancient clock, every beat hammering against the heart.
Nagato lay on a cold stone slab, his body secured to it by several thick chains to keep him from rolling off while unconscious.
His face was as pale as a corpse. His cracked lips trembled faintly, and he looked like a body that had just been dug out of its grave.
His Rinnegan were only half-open, their unfocused pupils reflecting the pitch-black stone overhead.
His breathing was shallow and rapid. Every breath seemed to take all the strength he had left.
"That damned Deidara... You deserve to die..."
Nagato's voice was hoarse and feeble, scraping from the depths of his throat like sandpaper grinding against stone.
He clenched his teeth so hard that his jaw muscles bulged like blocks of iron.
Something turbulent churned within his eyes.
Who did he hate most right now?
Surprisingly, it wasn't Teizawa.
On the contrary, he felt an indescribable sense of kinship with that man.
They both wanted to put a permanent end to the wars that had plagued the world for a thousand years.
Their methods were simply different.
Nagato wanted the world to experience pain and use fear to suppress war.
Teizawa wanted to unite the shinobi world and crush all opposition with absolute power.
In Nagato's eyes, they were fundamentally the same kind of person. They had merely made different choices and followed separate paths.
But Deidara...
That blond madman who had betrayed him...
Nagato genuinely wanted to tear him apart and devour his flesh.
It was bad enough that the man had betrayed the Akatsuki and defected to Sunagakure. Now he had dropped that world-shattering bomb directly on Amegakure.
After that single deafening explosion, Amegakure was gone.
His village. His home.
The place where he, Yahiko, and Konan had grown up together.
All of it had vanished in an instant.
The towers, the pipes, the shantytowns built from sheets of metal...
The Rain shinobi and civilians who hadn't managed to evacuate in time...
Everything had been wiped from existence.
It hurt.
It hurt so deeply that merely thinking about it made him want to die on the spot.
Konan stood beside him, sheets of paper drifting unconsciously around her.
Her expression was equally grim as she watched Nagato suffer.
But she didn't cry.
Only exhaustion and sorrow filled her dark brown eyes.
Amegakure meant just as much to her.
It hadn't merely been a village. It held all her memories.
It was Yahiko's dream.
It represented every year the three of them had spent together.
Now it was gone.
Not even a trace remained.
"Nagato..."
Konan's voice was so soft that it seemed she was afraid of disturbing something.
Nagato didn't answer.
"Nagato, are you really going to lie there and accept defeat?"
Obito's low, raspy voice emerged from the darkness, carrying an unreadable undertone.
He stood within the shadows, his orange spiral mask concealing his expression. Only his crimson Sharingan remained visible, gleaming eerily in the darkness.
"I didn't rescue you just to watch you become a useless wreck."
Konan spun around and positioned herself in front of Nagato. The sheets of paper around her converged into a shield.
"What exactly do you want, Madara? Or rather, who are you really?"
Her voice was cold and sharp, filled with anger and suspicion that had been suppressed for far too long.
She had never trusted the man who called himself Madara.
From the day he first appeared before the Akatsuki, she had sensed that something was wrong with him.
He had struck a deal with Nagato and provided them with a great deal of assistance, but he had never revealed his true face.
Nor had he ever truly trusted anyone.
Obito sneered.
"I've already told you. I am Madara."
He paused, shifting his gaze away from Konan and toward Nagato on the stone slab.
"But that isn't important. What matters is that Teizawa is far more troublesome than we expected."
"If we want to carry out our plan, we'll have to cooperate honestly and hold nothing back."
"Konan, move aside."
Nagato's voice came from behind her.
It was weak and hoarse, but carried an unquestionable resolve.
Konan didn't move.
"Move."
Nagato repeated himself.
Konan bit her lip before reluctantly stepping aside.
Nagato laboriously turned his head and looked at Obito.
The weakness and madness that had previously clouded his Rinnegan were gone.
All that remained was the profound exhaustion of a man who had been driven into a corner.
"I don't care who you are... I only want to know what method you have."
Obito was silent for a moment.
"Teizawa is troublesome. He seems to know many things he shouldn't possibly know."
He paused.
"But I have a way for you to defeat him."
Nagato stared at him.
"What way?"
"Your body has already reached its limit. Even without this battle, you wouldn't have lasted more than a few years."
Obito spoke at an unhurried pace.
"But if your body could be restored to its peak condition, allowing you to unleash the Rinnegan's full power, Teizawa wouldn't stand a chance against you."
"How would I recover?"
Nagato's voice was strained.
Obito looked directly at him.
"Do you know about the First Hokage's cells?"
Nagato's pupils contracted slightly.
Of course he knew about them.
Hashirama's cells possessed extraordinarily powerful vitality and regenerative abilities. They were a key component in countless forbidden techniques.
But transplanting them carried enormous risks.
The recipient's body could begin growing trees uncontrollably until they were eventually consumed by them.
Throughout history, only a handful of people had successfully survived the procedure.
"You want me to transplant Hashirama's cells?"
Nagato's voice sounded as though his throat were filled with sand.
"Not transplant them," Obito replied, shaking his head. "Fuse with them."
"Your Rinnegan already possesses tremendous power. It should be able to suppress the side effects of Hashirama's cells."
"Combined with your Uzumaki vitality, your body won't collapse as long as the procedure is performed correctly. Instead, it will become vastly stronger."
"When that happens, you won't merely return to your peak. You may even surpass it."
Nagato fell silent.
Konan opened her mouth, wanting to object, but swallowed the words before they could escape.
"All right," Nagato whispered.
Obito smiled.
"A wise decision."
(End of Chapter)
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