After the masked man disappeared, Black Zetsu naturally had no intention of staying any longer and silently rose to take his leave.
Once both the masked man and Black Zetsu were gone, Konan finally let out a long sigh and spoke:
"Nagato, why do you have to oppose that guy so directly? That kind of ancient monster is far too strange. Making enemies of him at this point brings us no benefit at all."
With only the two of them left in the room, Deva Path Pain's expression finally showed a hint of emotion. After a mont of silence, he spoke:
"I feel like I don't have much ti left."
As soon as he said this, Konan's body trembled violently. She then forced a smile and replied:
"What nonsense are you talking about? Aren't you doing just fine?"
Deva Path Pain—or rather, Nagato controlling him—gave a bitter smile:
"My own body—I know it best. In recent years, the burden these eyes place on has only grown heavier. I'm afraid… afraid I won't be able to hold on for that long.
"Besides, I've always felt that this 'Madara' has ulterior motives in secretly steering the Akatsuki's developnt this way. Akatsuki is the hope that Yahiko and we shared. I will never allow our dream to be exploited by others."
Hearing this, Konan was reminded once again of the forr owner of this body. Thinking of Yahiko, the weakness she had shown earlier vanished, replaced by resolve:
"I understand. Don't worry, Nagato—no matter what happens next, I'll stand behind you. The three of us will never be separated!"
...
Elsewhere, in an underground cavern sowhere beneath Agakure.
Inside the cave, Black Zetsu sat facing the masked man who had just appeared at the Akatsuki base. After a mont of silence, the masked man suddenly pulled off his mask, revealing Tobi's face.
"Yare yare… what a headache."
Seeing Tobi's unserious deanor, Black Zetsu silently shook his head, but still offered a rare word of praise:
"You arrived just in ti today. If you hadn't appeared when you did, I might not have been able to persuade that stubborn mule, Nagato."
Tobi waved his hand indifferently, but a mont later his expression grew serious as he looked at Black Zetsu and said:
"It was a truly wise choice of yours to have Lord Madara keep Danzo's body. Just as you thought, Nagato is indeed an ungrateful wolf that can't be tad. He's starting to look down on us more and more. What should we do next?"
Black Zetsu gave a disdainful smile and comnted:
"He's nothing more than a clown inflated by the power of the Rinnegan. After calling himself a god for so long, he's ended up fooling even himself.
"Since he refuses to obey, we should start preparing to build a new furnace—start anew. If necessary, we can even push him to the forefront and reclaim those eyes."
Seeing the sinister smile on Black Zetsu's face, Tobi subconsciously shrank back his neck:
"When it cos to being devious, you really are sothing else. Go on—what do you plan to do next?"
Black Zetsu hesitated for a mont before speaking:
"With Gekko Hoshiyomi still alive, everything definitely can't proceed according to the original plan. We must have our own core force. That's exactly why I told Nagato to wait another three years.
"Relying solely on people like Kisa, whom we inserted into the organization, is not enough to control the entire Akatsuki. We need to spend ti assembling our own foundation."
Tobi frowned.
"But at a ti like this, where are we supposed to gather that many usable people?"
At this point, Black Zetsu's eyes flickered as he spoke:
"If I rember correctly, Konoha seems to have a ninjutsu that allows one to control corpses, called Impure World Reincarnation (Edo Tensei). The Danzō you're controlling was once part of Konoha's upper ranks—search through his mories carefully and see whether there's any record of that technique."
Tobi froze for a mont upon hearing this, then suddenly opened up his body, revealing Danzō's corpse wrapped inside him.
Relying on the Mangekyō Sharingan's ocular techniques and the curse marks Madara had left behind earlier, Tobi easily entered the depths of Danzō's mories.
After searching through Danzō's mind, Tobi exited the body with an excited expression and said to Black Zetsu:
"Found it. When Danzō staged his rebellion, he briefly possessed the Scroll of Seals. That's when he read records related to the Impure World Reincarnation."
Under normal circumstances, even if Danzō's consciousness still existed, it would be extrely difficult to fully reconstruct the Impure World Reincarnation technique. But Tobi was directly reading his mories, so he obtained the complete records with ease.
After a bout of frantic writing, the full Impure World Reincarnation technique was laid out before Black Zetsu. Seeing this, Black Zetsu nodded in satisfaction:
"I originally thought we'd have to infiltrate Konoha, but this turned out to be much easier. With this technique, organizing our own forces will be simple.
"Over the next three years, I'll have the other White Zetsu search all the major ninja villages for the bodies of powerful shinobi. You'll be responsible for handing this technique to Hiruko—see if he can improve it, or perhaps use the cells of the deceased and Hashirama's cells to clone bodies through White Zetsu, creating corpses that are difficult to steal.
"With an army of Impure World Reincarnated warriors, seizing the initiative in the future will beco far easier."
After giving these instructions, Black Zetsu hesitated for a mont before adding:
"Also, have your subordinates keep a close eye on Uchiha Sasuke's movents. See if you can find an opportunity to lure him over to our side. He should make a very useful piece."
...
While various sches were unfolding in Agakure, Hoshiyomi was also laying out his own plans.
Since he had already exposed himself during the Chūnin Exams, there was no longer any need to hide his identity.
Hoshiyomi knew very well that once the Chūnin Exams were over, only three years remained until the Fourth Great Ninja War. He intended to use these final three years to significantly strengthen his own faction.
In the current shinobi world, there were still many figures who had appeared in the original story but had yet to show themselves—people like Guren and Jūgo.
Though their strength wasn't overwhelmingly powerful, they were still forces that couldn't be ignored.
Moreover, after the Chūnin Exams, because Orochimaru was behaving himself within Konoha, Sasuke never caused trouble by defecting, and the village remained peaceful.
Hoshiyomi figured that with Itachi and Shisui around, Sasuke had little reason to defect anyway. Even if he did, Hoshiyomi was confident he could bring him back.
Thus, after giving Minato a heads-up, Hoshiyomi planned to leave the village for a while to look for opportunities to recruit Jūgo, Guren, and others into Konoha.
After studying the map of shinobi world for a mont, Hoshiyomi quickly chose his first target—Tenbin Jūgo, the source of the curse mark in the original story, a man who would go berserk due to his automatic absorption of natural energy.
Once the target was decided, there was no reason to hesitate. After informing Tsunade, Hoshiyomi went to Orochimaru's laboratory and summoned him.
The two imdiately set out from Konoha, heading straight for Tenbin Village.
...
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