Chapter 228 - We're Going to Find Orochimaru Right Now
The rain over Amegakure had stopped.
The black clouds overhead were slowly pulling apart. Bright light poured through the gaps. The sun sat squarely at its highest point, pouring heat down on the streets below. An entire morning had burned away in the chaos of battle.
But the clearing skies and spreading sunshine brought no relief to the Rain ninja watching over the village from their hidden positions. Their morale was fracturing. Ever since their god had taken control of Amegakure, the rain over the village had stopped being a natural phenomenon. It was an expression of divine will. Six days out of seven, every week, the village was shrouded in endless rain. Only Sunday was exempt.
Today was not Sunday.
The rain had stopped on its own, and there was no way to interpret that without arriving at some deeply unpleasant conclusion. The best possible explanation was that their god had been pushed to the point where he could no longer maintain the technique and had cut it off willingly. Worse possibilities included injury. Worse still: death.
The Rain ninja were barely holding together. A cluster of jonin had gathered and were arguing loudly about what to do next.
"None of you have forgotten what god ordered us, have you? If you go out there now you'll just be getting in the way."
"Getting in the way? The rain has stopped. Something might have happened to god. Maybe he needs us out there, not standing here like statues."
"Are we actually talking about the same god? You think god needs our help? Are you serious?"
The argument dissolved into noise.
Without anyone of sufficient authority to bring the room together, they had sunk into internal bickering and complete paralysis. Perhaps, somewhere beneath all the shouting, a fear was driving them that none of them were ready to name or look at directly.
Under the weight of that fear, they didn't dare step out into the village streets. They didn't dare confront the ninja representing the five great villages. They stayed in their shelter and used the argument as a way to numb themselves, waiting for whatever outcome was coming to finally arrive.
Out in the streets of Amegakure, the surviving ninja from all five villages had gathered together. From Konoha: Uchiha Shisui and Yakushi Nono. From Sunagakure: Pakura, Baki, and Yashamaru. From Kumogakure: Dodai and one other jonin. From Kirigakure: Mangetsu Hoshigaki, Rinrin Yuyuri, Dosu Kinuta, and Zabuza Momochi.
Iwagakure had suffered worst of all. Only Kitsuchi was still standing.
"The rain stopped?"
Kitsuchi tilted his head back and looked at the clearing sky. "If I remember correctly, the rain blanketing this village was a technique used by the target. If the rain has stopped - does that mean the target has been dealt with?"
Every head turned immediately to Uchiha Shisui and Yakushi Nono.
The question of where the Rinnegan had ended up was not something any of them could be calm about. They were practically crawling out of their skin - every one of them fighting the urge to grab Shisui by the collar and demand an answer.
Yakushi Nono kept her head down and continued treating Yashamaru's severe injuries. Uchiha Shisui swept the group with a single look and said nothing.
The four villages' ninja exchanged glances, barely keeping their anxiety in check. They were worried Konoha would deceive them. They had been stuck out here the entire time, far from the operation's inner circle, with no idea what had actually happened underground. If Konoha had decided not to share the Rinnegan and simply told them the mission had failed, there was nothing any of them could do about it. The agreement signed between the five Kage didn't carry enough binding force to prevent that - especially not against Konoha. Konoha could break the agreement without paying any serious price.
Because Konoha was the undisputed strongest village in the shinobi world right now.
And precisely because of that, not one of them dared be the first to speak up. They suppressed their anxiety and waited for the answer Konoha was about to give them.
A moment later, a yellow flash crossed their field of vision.
Minato had returned.
He had brought Jiraiya and Hyuga Ritsu back with him.
The former was pale, his expression stricken, his grief and despondency written plainly on his face for anyone to read. The latter, by contrast, looked like a man who had just received excellent news. The contrast was baffling. What exactly had happened down there?
Jiraiya looked devastated. Ritsu looked pleased.
Had they gotten the Rinnegan or not?
Pakura drew a slow breath and spoke first. As one of the two Kage present, she could address Minato as a near-equal.
"Hokage. Was the target captured?"
Minato answered directly. "The target is dead."
Pakura blinked.
Kitsuchi pushed in immediately. "Then the Rinnegan - Hokage-sama, you got the Rinnegan, didn't you?"
When he asked the question everyone had been holding back, every face in the group snapped toward Minato at once.
Minato's expression didn't shift. He had known this question was coming the moment he resurfaced. His gaze moved across the assembled faces.
"Yes. The Rinnegan is with me now."
He chose not to lie.
The reasoning was simple. One lie required more lies to protect it. He might get lucky and keep it buried - but involving the Rinnegan, the four other villages would exhaust every available resource investigating the truth. Better to say it plainly now.
The moment his words landed, every person present except Shisui, Yakushi Nono, and the still-unconscious Yashamaru went wide-eyed and stared at him with barely suppressed hunger.
"Hokage-sama, would it be possible to let us see what the Rinnegan actually looks like?"
Mangetsu Hoshigaki asked with shameless earnestness. He wanted visual confirmation with his own eyes.
"There's nothing to see. None of you are research specialists - showing it to you now would tell you nothing useful. If you want to understand the Rinnegan properly, follow the agreement we made and send your best researchers. That was the arrangement."
Minato declined without hesitation.
Those eyes were extraordinarily precious to him right now - not only because they were connected to the legendary Sage of Six Paths and carried depths that hadn't even begun to be mapped, but because he was acutely aware that Uchiha Tatsuhata was still out there. Tatsuhata and Nagato had been partners. The possibility that Tatsuhata was nearby, watching, waiting for a moment to seize the Rinnegan, could not be dismissed.
So he was not going to put those eyes on display for a crowd. He had been extremely careful even during the collection of the Rinnegan and Nagato's body.
He looked around the group. "Everyone, today's operation is concluded. Faster than I expected - which is good news. No more fighting through rain and exhaustion. That said, my chakra expenditure was considerable, so I can't transport everyone back to their respective villages immediately. I'll need to ask everyone to rest in the Land of Rain for two days."
A mountain range stretched from north to south as far as the eye could see. Standing at the summit, you could look east and find endless white snowfields, with a bone-cutting wind coming straight at your face. Turn west and the view became green and alive, full of summer growth.
One mountain range. Two entirely different worlds.
The Land of Iron lay to the east. The Land of Taki lay to the west.
Uchiha Tatsuhata moved quickly. After Nagato's Phantom Body Transfer Technique had run its course and his consciousness had returned to his real body, he had resumed his journey toward the Land of Iron without delay, arriving soon afterward at the border between the two countries.
"Samurai of the Land of Iron. I hope you won't disappoint me."
Tatsuhata stood on the peak, staring out over the white expanse ahead of him, his crimson eyes full of hunger for power.
But just as he was about to step into the frozen territory of the Land of Iron, a rustling sound came from behind him. He withdrew his raised foot and turned.
Zetsu had appeared at his back.
A flicker of confusion crossed his eyes. "Black Zetsu. What is it?"
He knew Black Zetsu circled nearby regularly. It was Madara Uchiha's creation, after all, and its entire reason for existence was to revive Madara and push the Moon's Eye Plan forward. But Black Zetsu was usually discreet about it - not constantly showing itself to make its presence felt. It preferred to stay hidden and would avoid appearing unless it had a reason to. Showing up uninvited only earned Tatsuhata's irritation.
So he was genuinely puzzled about what had compelled it to surface now.
"Tatsuhata. Something terrible has happened. Nagato is dead."
"What?"
Tatsuhata went still. "Who did you just say is dead?"
He had heard it clearly. His mind was simply refusing to process it.
"Nagato is dead."
Black Zetsu said it again.
The half-black face showed no readable expression, but the slight tremor in the voice revealed everything. Of course Black Zetsu wasn't calm. Nagato was dead. The Rinnegan had been taken.
This was catastrophic.
Nagato's importance was beyond question. Reviving Madara Uchiha and executing the Moon's Eye Plan both required Nagato and the Rinnegan. Nagato could, in theory, be replaced. The Rinnegan could not.
Without the Rinnegan, even the Demonic Statue of the Outer Path would be nearly impossible to control. Sealing the nine Tailed Beasts would become a fantasy.
"You're telling me Nagato is dead?"
A vein jumped at Tatsuhata's temple. "Are you joking? He had the Rinnegan. And he wasn't even trying to fight Konoha to the last - how did he die?"
"Nagato used the Rinnegan to unleash an enormous attack. The White Zetsu hidden in the area were all destroyed along with the surroundings, so I have no clear picture of exactly what happened. I only know that Nagato was killed, and the Rinnegan has ended up in Konoha's hands. It appears they intend to study it jointly with the other four villages."
Black Zetsu relayed what it had been able to gather.
At least the Rinnegan hadn't been destroyed. That was the one sliver of fortune in an otherwise terrible situation.
Not having Nagato as the vessel was a significant problem, but as long as the Rinnegan itself was intact, another vessel could eventually be found.
"The Rinnegan is still intact?"
Tatsuhata had arrived at the same conclusion. The tightest knot in his expression eased slightly. The situation had not yet reached its worst possible outcome.
"The Rinnegan is in Konoha's hands..." He couldn't stop himself. "Damn it. I truly hate this kind of headache."
From the moment he had accepted the Moon's Eye Plan and committed himself to seeing it through, nothing had gone smoothly. He had hit obstacle after obstacle. The early ambition to move fast had been ground to dust by reality, and he had adjusted - decided to be deliberate, steady, careful.
And now Nagato, one of Madara's most important remaining pieces, had been eliminated. Worse, Tatsuhata had told Nagato the full details of the Moon's Eye Plan. Konoha ninja were likely going to extract that from Nagato's memory. After that, reclaiming the Rinnegan and hunting the nine Tailed Beasts would become exponentially harder.
"Tatsuhata. We need to take the Rinnegan back."
"I know that."
Tatsuhata pulled the tiger-head mask from his face, revealing an expression knotted with frustration. "I know we have to get it back. But taking the Rinnegan out of Konoha's hands isn't going to be easy. If I charged in recklessly, I might not get the Rinnegan at all - and I might not come back out myself."
Even Black Zetsu paused at that.
But it said nothing, because Tatsuhata was right.
Konoha's strength was genuinely unreasonable right now. Nagato's defeat was the clearest possible proof of that - and that had been Konoha operating away from home, on a foreign raid. Inside Konoha itself...
"But if they damage the Rinnegan, then everything is over."
Black Zetsu said it before it could stop itself.
This was what happened when you cared too much. It had lived for a thousand years, but this moment was closer to success than it had ever been before. It genuinely could not afford to let this opportunity slip away. If this one failed, there was no telling whether another chance to save its mother would ever come.
"Don't panic."
Tatsuhata's voice came out sharp and hard. His expression settled into something cold and absolute. "Konoha knows exactly how precious the Rinnegan is. They will not casually damage it. Our situation is urgent, yes - but not so urgent that we throw ourselves at the problem without thinking. We need a solid plan to get it back."
"A solid plan?"
Black Zetsu thought privately that there wasn't much room for solid plans at this point.
Tatsuhata's brow tightened. "Black Zetsu. I asked you before to track down Orochimaru and Sasori of the Red Sand. Do you have anything yet?"
The shift in topic was so abrupt that even Black Zetsu blinked.
But after a brief hesitation, it answered. "There are leads. Orochimaru appears to be hiding somewhere in the Land of Lightning. Sasori of the Red Sand is in..."
"Knowing where Orochimaru is will do. We're going to find Orochimaru right now."
Tatsuhata said it with the weight of finality.