Chapter 607: Do You Also Want to Dance?
Madara Uchiha did not make things difficult for Nagato and the other two. Before obtaining the Rinnegan, he didn't think much of them, and after obtaining it, he regarded them even less.
They were just three ants, not worth Madara Uchiha breaking his word for!
Taking the Rinnegan, Madara Uchiha left the Land of Rivers with Black and White Zetsu.
Not long after Madara Uchiha left, the minds of Nagato and the others cleared. Yahiko shivered and blurted out, "Not good, we were tricked!"
Konan also shook her head, her face pale as she said, "Was that a Genjutsu just now?"
Nagato recalled the feeling he had just experienced and speculated, "It shouldn't be a Genjutsu. It was Black Zetsu; he controlled our thoughts."
"We were targeted by Black Zetsu when we were very young. He must have placed some special means inside our heads."
Konan said anxiously, "Then what do we do? Madara Uchiha has obtained the Rinnegan. Can Ishiro still deal with him?"
Nagato remained silent.
Yahiko, however, suddenly said, "Konan, didn't Ishiro give us a pair of Byakugan before?"
Konan was stunned for a moment, then took out a bottle from her ninja tool pouch. Inside the bottle, a pair of pure white eyes was preserved in nutrient solution.
Konan said, "It's here. I'll transplant them for Nagato right now."
Naturally, Yahiko didn't stop her. While watching Konan transplant the eyes for Nagato, he said, "Do you think Ishiro knew long ago that Madara Uchiha would snatch the Rinnegan?"
"That's why he gave us a pair of Byakugan so early on."
When it came to Ishiro, Konan's reaction was a bit slower. Only then did she understand Yahiko's meaning.
"Yahiko, are you saying that Ishiro has a way to deal with Madara Uchiha after he reclaims the Rinnegan?" Konan asked with some pleasant surprise.
Yahiko hesitated for a moment, then said, "Perhaps. He sees much further than we do."
Yahiko was right, but also wrong. It wasn't that Ishiro was certain he could deal with Madara Uchiha, but rather that he needed Madara Uchiha to deplete the Six Paths power within Naruto and Sasuke.
If those two saviors used the power given to them by the Sage of Six Paths against him, would he, a transmigrator, be able to beat the Children of Prophecy?
Therefore, Ishiro needed someone to draw the fire, to force Naruto and Sasuke to actively use up their Six Paths power.
Whether they used it on Madara Uchiha or Kaguya Ōtsutsuki, it didn't matter.
For Madara Uchiha to reach his peak, he had to clash head-on with Naruto and the others, so Ishiro wasn't panicked.
After the transplant surgery was completed, Nagato tried opening his eyes. He looked around, somewhat unaccustomed to the visual shift from the Rinnegan to the Byakugan.
Konan asked, "Nagato, can you use the Byakugan? Is there any rejection from your body?"
Yahiko also cast a concerned look.
Nagato sensed for a moment, then frowned and said, "There seems to be."
Konan said worriedly, "How can that be? Ishiro said there is no threshold for transplanting the Byakugan. You could even master the Rinnegan, so transplanting the Byakugan shouldn't be dangerous."
"Was my transplant surgery just now incorrect? Let's go find a medical ninja to take a look."
Nagato thought for a moment, shook his head, and said, "It's my perception that's wrong. This feeling... it doesn't seem like rejection."
Yahiko said, "Why not try and see if you can use the Byakugan's abilities?"
Nagato nodded. Just as he was about to try activating the Byakugan, he suddenly froze.
He turned his head to look around, and his gaze landed on a fragment of the Chibaku Tensei.
Nagato reached out his hand toward the stone fragment and whispered, "Banshō Ten'in (Universal Pull)."
As soon as his voice fell, the stone fragment was attracted into his hand.
Yahiko and Konan didn't react immediately, as they had seen this scene many times.
But immediately after, both of them exclaimed in unison. Konan said directly, "Banshō Ten'in? Isn't that a Rinnegan dōjutsu? Nagato, how can you still use that move?"
Yahiko added, "Nagato, could this be an ability of the Byakugan?"
Nagato shook his head and said, "No, my Byakugan is still fusing with my body. This is the Rinnegan's ability."
Konan said, "But your Rinnegan was gouged out."
Nagato said, "I'm not sure either, but it seems I can still perform some of the Rinnegan's dōjutsu."
Subsequently, Nagato tested all the Rinnegan dōjutsu he knew before.
The result was that he could still use dōjutsu he used frequently, like Shinra Tensei (Almighty Push) and Banshō Ten'in.
These dōjutsu seemed to have been engraved into his soul, becoming his instinct.
However, he could not perform high-level or infrequently used dōjutsu like Limbo: Border Jail.
After figuring out the Rinnegan dōjutsu, Nagato focused his attention on the Byakugan again.
He sensed carefully for a while, then said, "I understand. My Byakugan is merging with the nature of the original Rinnegan."
"Yes, and also the power of the First Hokage's cells in my body. No, wait, there's also the power of our Uzumaki bloodline."
Konan thought for a moment. She seemed to recall Ishiro mentioning this situation during a chat one day.
After a while, Konan said, "I remember now. This is a sign that the eyes are about to evolve."
"Nagato, your Byakugan might evolve into a higher-level eye. Just like the Rinnegan."
Yahiko said excitedly, "Really? That's great! Once Nagato's eyes finish evolving, we'll go help Ishiro."
At this time, Konan shook her head. She said, "It won't work. Ishiro said that the evolution of eyes requires a massive amount of energy."
"The reason Madara Uchiha waited until his old age to awaken the Rinnegan was related to his eyes accumulating chakra."
Yahiko was stunned. There was such a requirement? But their Akatsuki organization didn't have any massive chakra source.
At this moment, Nagato said, "Let's go find Sasori!"
Konan didn't react immediately and asked, "What Sasori?"
Yahiko, however, said excitedly, "Sasori of the Red Sand? Nagato, are you talking about the Ryūmyaku (Dragon Vein)?"
Nagato nodded and said, "That's right. If I can absorb the power of the Ryūmyaku, these Byakugan should have enough power to evolve."
Konan said, "But, will Sasori of the Red Sand agree? Nagato, you've lost the Rinnegan. Can you still suppress him?"
"According to Ishiro, with the enhancement of the Ryūmyaku's power, Sasori's current strength is also very powerful."
Nagato shook his head and said, "Actually, there's no need to suppress him. Sasori is a research fanatic. He doesn't care about things we consider important."
"He only cares about his puppet research. He occupied the Ryūmyaku only for research."
"As long as we don't interfere with his research, he won't make things difficult for us. If we are helpful to his puppet research, he will even cooperate with us."
"As long as I don't absorb the entire Ryūmyaku, Sasori won't mind."
"If I tell Sasori my method of controlling the Six Paths of Pain, he should agree to let me absorb a part of the Ryūmyaku."
Seeing that Nagato was confident, Konan and Yahiko said, "Alright then, let's go now."
After speaking, the three of them didn't return to the Hidden River Village but rushed hurriedly toward the location of the Ryūmyaku.
On the other end, Madara Uchiha and Black and White Zetsu stopped before they even left the Land of Rivers.
At this moment, a white head drilled out of the ground in front of Madara Uchiha.
This was the main body of White Zetsu.
The main body of White Zetsu didn't come alone; behind him followed an army of thousands of White Zetsu.
The main body of White Zetsu drilled out of the ground and said to Madara Uchiha, "Madara-sama, I am late."
Madara Uchiha said, "Not late."
After speaking, Madara removed one of White Zetsu's eyes and replaced it with a Rinnegan.
The main body of White Zetsu didn't hesitate. He crossed his fingers to form the "Snake" seal and shouted, "Rinne Tensei no Jutsu (Outer Path — Samsara of Heavenly Life Technique)!"
When the main body of White Zetsu performed the Rinne Tensei, the thousands of White Zetsu clones placed their hands on the White Zetsu clone in front of them, and the foremost White Zetsu clone placed his hand directly on the main body of White Zetsu.
Then, starting from the outermost periphery, the White Zetsu clones began to wither rapidly like plants one by one.
As the number of dead White Zetsu clones reached a certain level, bursts of white steam began to rise from Madara Uchiha's body.
This process lasted for quite some time. By the time it ended, the thousands of White Zetsu clones and the main body of White Zetsu had all died.
But Madara Uchiha didn't care. He looked at his hands, felt the hot blood boiling inside his body, and laughed loudly, "This body feels right!"
After speaking, Madara Uchiha took out the Rinnegan from the main body of White Zetsu and placed both Rinnegan into his own eye sockets together.
As the transplantation of the Rinnegan was completed, Madara Uchiha laughed loudly again. At this moment, his strength finally returned to its peak.
No, he was stronger than his peak moment back then!
Back then, he awakened the Rinnegan in his dying years, but his body was already decayed, so he had never experienced this kind of power.
This was his first time feeling true Sage-level power.
Madara Uchiha didn't indulge in this power; his goal was far more than this.
He asked Black Zetsu behind him, "Tell me the whereabouts of the nine Tailed Beasts in detail."
Black Zetsu was equally indifferent to the collective death of the White Zetsu main body and clones.
Even if the only one left in the entire ninja world now was the White Zetsu clone he was possessing, he didn't take it seriously.
White Zetsu were consumables to begin with.
Oh, no, there was also a traitor who received the order but didn't come, namely "Ah Tu".
Black Zetsu was obviously prepared and immediately said, "The One-Tail Jinchūriki, Gaara, is now the Fifth Kazekage of Sunagakure."
"The Two-Tails is within the Land of Fire, and the Six-Tails is within the Land of Whirlpools. Neither of these two Tailed Beasts is inside a Jinchūriki."
"The Four-Tails Jinchūriki Rōshi and the Five-Tails Jinchūriki Han are now both in Iwagakure."
"The Three-Tails Jinchūriki Ao and the Seven-Tails Jinchūriki Fū are both on the battlefield in the Land of Water."
"The Nine-Tails was split into Yin and Yang halves by the Fourth Hokage, and both are now on the battlefield in the Land of Water as well."
"Only the whereabouts of the Eight-Tails are unknown!"
Madara Uchiha thought for a moment, then turned to look in the direction of the Land of Wind and said, "Let's start with the One-Tail."
Black Zetsu asked, "Madara-sama, should we summon the Gedo Mazo?"
Madara Uchiha glanced in the direction of the Land of Water and said, "I can sense that the Gedo Mazo is fighting there. Leave it alone for now."
Black Zetsu nodded and said, "Sunagakure was destroyed by Iwagakure before. The new Sand Village is a bit further south."
Speaking of which, the two went to the Land of Wind.
Under the governance of Baki and Gaara in recent years, the Sand Village had recovered a lot of vitality. The entire village had nearly six thousand ninjas.
This number was almost catching up to the scale of the Sand Village before Ishiro's rise.
Of course, that was the scale after a certain Ninja World War.
Such a Sand Village, if placed after the end of the Second Great Ninja War, would have considerable strength.
But in the current situation, Baki and Gaara felt absolutely no sense of security.
Especially after they received news that Iwagakure was attacking the Land of Water, this feeling became even more obvious.
Was Iwagakure preparing to start a war of unification?
Everyone in the Sand Village knew that if Iwa won this battle, it meant there would be no more obstacles for Iwa to unify the ninja world.
Baki and the three Gaara siblings had discussed it. If that day really came, they would voluntarily disband the Sand Village.
They, the high-ranking officials, would voluntarily go to Iwagakure as hostages.
This was the only way they could think of to save the lives of the thousands of ninjas in the Sand Village.
If Iwa lost, then the Sand should be able to linger on for a long time.
Precisely because they had lost the ambition to contend for supremacy, the Sand did not send anyone to participate in the Great War in the Land of Water this time.
The Sand was clearly out of touch with the situation in the ninja world. Not only did they not know that Sages had appeared in the ninja world, but they didn't even know that many Super Kage-level individuals had appeared.
Perhaps to the Sand Village, there was no difference between Super Kage level and Sage level.
In their eyes, Ishiro alone could crush the Sand Village. As for the strength of other Iwa ninjas, they had no mind to pay attention.
The Sand waited for news from the Land of Water battlefield with resignation.
For some reason, Gaara felt a bit uneasy. Instead of processing documents, he stood alone at the window of his office, gazing at the sky outside, dazing off.
Suddenly, a small black dot in the distant sky entered Gaara's vision.
He woke up from his trance, watching the small black dot slowly enlarge until he recognized it was a person, a ninja who could fly.
Flying without any external force—had the Iwa ninjas attacked? Gaara was a bit worried.
But soon his thoughts changed, because after approaching the Sand Village, that person directly turned into a blue giant!
Boom!
When Madara Uchiha's Perfect Susanoo slashed his blade into the Sand Village, the shocked Gaara finally reacted.
However, whether he reacted or not actually made no difference.
Next, Madara Uchiha plowed through the Sand Village like chopping melons and vegetables.
Gaara's full-strength attack only earned him one strike from Madara Uchiha.
In less than a minute, Madara Uchiha left carrying the unconscious Gaara.
And the entire Sand Village was now a mess. Although some people were lucky enough to be alive, there weren't many.
Kankurō died, and Baki died too, but Temari was alive.
When the disaster struck, she was fast and lucky—mainly lucky—and dodged Madara Uchiha's indiscriminate attacks.
However, Temari felt no joy at all for her luck. She was staring blankly at the Sand Village turned into ruins.
Excluding the less than two thousand Sand ninjas out on missions, it would be extremely lucky if a few hundred of those remaining in the village survived.
The family fortune that the Sand had tremblingly accumulated over many years was squandered by Madara Uchiha in less than a minute.
And for this, Madara Uchiha hadn't even used his full strength.
Years of hope were extinguished in an instant. Temari was utterly disheartened. She wanted to commit suicide but was stopped by other Sand ninjas who had luckily survived.
Madara Uchiha paid no attention to the Sand Village behind him; he was already heading towards the Land of Fire.
Capturing the Two-Tails didn't take much time. Madara Uchiha arrived at the Two-Tails' hiding place provided by Black Zetsu and settled it with a single look.
Then, carrying Gaara in one hand and dragging the Two-Tails, who had fallen into a Genjutsu, with the other, he headed towards Iwagakure.
Iwagakure, in a conference room in the Tsuchikage Building. A huge sensory barrier was installed here.
This barrier could monitor movements in the entire ninja world.
Starting from when Ishiro left Iwagakure, this barrier was activated.
The sensory ninjas sensed when Orochimaru, Ishiro, and the others entered the moon.
The war in the Land of Water was also being monitored in real-time here.
Likewise, the Iwa Sensory Division received news of the battle between Madara Uchiha and Nagato immediately.
Then, Madara Uchiha's whereabouts had been under Iwa's control the whole time.
Of course, part of the reason was that Madara Uchiha had no intention of hiding his tracks.
With Madara Uchiha's arrogance, he disdained sneaking around.
When Madara Uchiha arrived at Iwagakure with a Jinchūriki and a Tailed Beast, Ōnoki had already received the report.
He reminded ninjas at all posts to raise their vigilance and be ready to deal with emergencies at any time.
At the same time, he transferred Shizuka Minamoto and Rion, who were giving advice to Natsuki and the others, over.
Then he came to the roof of the Tsuchikage Building and looked south.
What was meant to come had finally come. Hopefully, the village's preparations were sufficient!
The opponent was Madara Uchiha, which made Ōnoki feel uncertain. Madara Uchiha was the deepest fear in Ōnoki's heart.
Even though Iwagakure's strength was no longer what it used to be, and had even produced so many Sages one after another, the fear in Ōnoki's heart had not diminished.
When Madara Uchiha arrived at Iwagakure, he was somewhat speechless looking at the village, which had made itself into a turtle shell.
He hesitated for a moment, then unleashed Susanoo and slashed down at the Four Red Yang Formation.
Unfortunately, the full-strength blow of the Perfect Susanoo failed to break the Four Red Yang Formation.
The Four Red Yang Formation merely shook a little before recovering.
Madara Uchiha frowned. He knew of the Four Red Yang Formation, but the power of the one before him seemed greater than he remembered.
Madara Uchiha's sense was correct. This was an upgraded version of the Four Red Yang Formation after Ishiro gathered all the sealing jutsu masters in Iwagakure to study it.
Taking a deep breath, Madara Uchiha started to get serious.
He first cast Chibaku Tensei, forming over a dozen huge meteorites over Iwagakure.
Then he created over a dozen clones, each using the Perfect Susanoo.
Madara Uchiha's goal was clear: brute force. He wanted to smash open this turtle shell in front of him directly.
However, Madara Uchiha soon changed his view of Iwagakure.
This wasn't just a turtle shell; it had spikes!
Before the dozen or so meteorites in the sky could fall, beams of attacks shot out from within Iwagakure.
A massive sea of fire engulfed a meteorite immediately. Once the flames dispersed, an exceptionally thick stream of water followed.
The red-hot rock was flushed by cold water and immediately cracked. At this moment, a bolt of lightning followed closely and hit the cracking meteorite.
Boom~
The meteorite exploded in mid-air, sending fragments flying everywhere.
Madara Uchiha was stunned for a moment. Iwa's attacks could actually penetrate the Four Red Yang Formation?
He soon understood why. Iwa was using space-time ninjutsu to teleport the ninjutsu from inside the Four Red Yang Formation directly to the outside!
Madara Uchiha frowned and thought about it. This method seemed somewhat similar to Kumogakure's Heavenly Transfer Technique.
This was a space-time ninjutsu that could only transport in one direction.
People on the outside couldn't attack the interior of the Four Red Yang Formation in reverse.
After faking his death, Madara Uchiha still cared quite a bit about the situation of ninjutsu. He knew that Kumo had developed a space-time ninjutsu capable of transporting objects.
He also knew that the Third Raikage could use the Heavenly Transfer Technique for spatial transportation.
He just didn't expect that the Heavenly Transfer Technique could also be used to transport ninjutsu.
It seemed that the development of space-time ninjutsu in the ninja world had been quite fast these years.
While Madara Uchiha was pondering, dozens more waves of attacks were launched from within Iwagakure, smashing all the meteorites in the sky to pieces.
This wasn't over. While this part of the Iwa army attacked the meteorites with combined ninjutsu...
There were other Iwa ninjas attacking the Susanoo of Madara Uchiha's dozen clones.
The Iwa army was divided into combat phalanxes; they had a clear division of labor and a tight rhythm.
Some used Earth Release plus Water Release to form swamps to restrict Susanoo's movement.
Some used the Hiding in Mist Jutsu to obscure the vision of Madara Uchiha's clones inside the Susanoo.
Some used Lightning Release to paralyze Madara Uchiha's clones.
Some used Water Release to block Susanoo's advance.
Some used huge earth walls to withstand Susanoo's attacks.
Some used high-power Wind Release to attack Susanoo directly.
There were even several rock golems formed by the Rock Golem Jutsu rushing up to wrestle with Susanoo.
Most outrageously, there was a wave of Wind Release that blew countless exploding tags to the side of a Susanoo, setting off a huge firework display.
This kind of attack would certainly be hard-pressed to hurt Madara Uchiha himself; with his agility, he could easily dodge these attacks.
But it was obviously impossible for him to break the Four Red Yang Formation with brute force.
Iwa made it clear they wouldn't let him attack the Four Red Yang Formation continuously.
Madara Uchiha also thought about exhausting the chakra of the four people maintaining the Four Red Yang Formation through a war of attrition.
But he soon realized he was wrong. Through the Rinnegan, he could see the positions of the four eyes of the Four Red Yang Formation. Besides the four casters, there were four other ninjas responsible for providing chakra.
Of these four, two were from the Uzumaki clan, and the other two were the targets of his trip, the two Jinchūriki.
And around the four formation eyes, many Iwa ninjas were sitting cross-legged. Obviously, these people were chakra sources prepared by Iwa.
Madara Uchiha felt there was a great hope of exhausting Ikura and the other three's chakra.
But hoping to exhaust Riori Uzumaki and the other three, or even the numerous Iwa ninjas, was basically hopeless.
He gave up after attacking for only a few minutes.
At this time, Black Zetsu drilled out of the ground at the right moment again. He said, "Madara-sama, on the Land of Water battlefield, there is also a former Four-Tails Jinchūriki and a former Five-Tails Jinchūriki."
"If capturing Iwagakure takes too much time, we can use those two Jinchūriki for emergency use first!"
Black Zetsu still took great care of Madara Uchiha's face. He didn't directly say "what if we can't capture it," but rather "if we can't capture it in a short time."
But Madara Uchiha didn't appreciate it. His Rinnegan looked through the Four Red Yang Formation and saw Ōnoki standing on the roof of the Tsuchikage Building.
He said to Ōnoki, "Ōnoki, with just a Four Red Yang Formation, do you also want to dance?"
"You know nothing of power!"