After leaving Amegakure, the masked man's mood darkened.
He hadn't wanted Nagato to go to Konoha alone. But there was no way to stop him.
Both sides understood the unspoken truth about the "Uchiha Madara" claim. As long as it wasn't dragged into the open, it didn't matter. Nagato believed what he needed to believe. As long as he still clung to that grand, naïve ideal, things could continue.
But since Nagato couldn't be stopped, the real question became what to do next.
The masked man felt Nagato was dangerously overconfident. Konoha's strength might exceed even Nagato's expectations.
Setting aside whether Uchiha Sasuke had transplanted Itachi's eyes and awakened a second Eternal Mangekyō Sharingan, Fujimoto Tōma alone was enough to make him uneasy. Each time he observed Tōma from the shadows, the sense of threat only grew stronger.
That strength might not be inferior to Nagato's Rinnegan.
It might even surpass it.
At that moment, a figure wearing the same black cloak with red clouds appeared beside him. Half his face was white, half black.
Zetsu.
"Are you really letting Nagato go to Konoha?" Zetsu asked.
"If he doesn't go, who will?" the masked man shot back.
"But if he fails," Zetsu pressed, "we may lose the Rinnegan entirely."
"And who can stop him?" the masked man countered. "If he doesn't go, who captures the Nine-Tails?"
Zetsu fell silent.
Even Black Zetsu hadn't expected that, after the First Hokage, Konoha would produce yet another Hokage with power beyond the norm. And unlike others, Fujimoto Tōma wasn't a reincarnation tied to ancient bloodlines.
So where did that strength come from?
But that wasn't the problem right now.
The problem was the Nine-Tails.
"Zetsu," the masked man said after a long pause, "prepare to retrieve the Rinnegan."
Zetsu stiffened.
That meant the masked man believed Nagato might lose.
"You think Nagato can't beat him?" Zetsu asked.
"Possibly," the masked man replied quietly.
If the Rinnegan were still wielded by the original owner, there would be no hesitation. But Nagato wasn't Uchiha Madara. Even with Uzumaki blood, he couldn't fully draw out the Rinnegan's potential.
Against Fujimoto Tōma, that difference might be fatal.
Still, stopping Nagato outright wasn't an option. The masked man lacked the power to restrain him.
So the only choice was contingency.
If Nagato succeeded, all was well.
If he failed, the Rinnegan had to be recovered immediately.
Waiting until afterward would be too late. If Nagato couldn't defeat Tōma head-on, then they certainly wouldn't be able to snatch the Rinnegan directly from Tōma either.
Preparations had to be made now.
Shikkotsu Forest.
Unaware of Akatsuki's calculations, Fujimoto Tōma finally saw results from days of relentless work.
Swift Release was real.
And it exceeded expectations.
Tōma hadn't expected Swift Release to offer much beyond incremental improvement. Instead, the boost was overwhelming.
If his speed before had placed him among the fastest, now he had crossed into something else entirely.
Godlike speed.
The reason, Tōma suspected, had two parts.
First, his base physical condition far surpassed Hiruko's. Even before mastering Swift Release, his raw speed wasn't much slower than Hiruko's enhanced state.
Second, wind and lightning were Tōma's natural affinities. Both had been refined to an extreme degree. Either element alone, used in ordinary techniques, carried power far beyond the norm.
When those two were fused into Swift Release, the result was explosive.
The enhancement wasn't limited to movement speed.
Every action accelerated. Muscle response. Body coordination. Even hand seal execution became faster.
That part didn't matter much. Most of his techniques required only one or two seals anyway.
What truly surprised him was his vision.
Extreme speed usually came with a fatal flaw. Dynamic vision couldn't keep up. Reaction lag followed. Just like Kakashi before obtaining the Sharingan, using Chidori without enhanced perception was a gamble that could get you killed.
Speed without perception was self-destruction.
Tōma had worried Swift Release would be the same. He could cheat briefly with sensory perception, but maintaining that at maximum speed for long periods seemed unrealistic, even in Sage Mode.
Those concerns vanished the moment Swift Release stabilized.
The technique enhanced everything uniformly.
When Swift Release chakra circulated through his entire body, his dynamic vision rose alongside his speed, perfectly matched.
No lag. No delay.
So that was the answer.
That was why Hiruko, even after accelerating dramatically, could still react.
It wasn't personal talent. It was the nature of Swift Release itself.
Now, a dangerous thought took shape.
If this speed were layered on top of Flying Thunder God… who in this world could still react?
The only requirement was landing the mark.
That, at least, was becoming harder.
When Tōma first unveiled Flying Thunder God, enemies didn't know how to respond. Now, nearly everyone did. His reputation had turned the technique into common knowledge.
The simplest counter was also the most obvious.
Destroy his marked tools.
Flying Thunder God required a medium. Kunai, shuriken, seals. Break them, and the technique had nowhere to anchor.
In theory, that worked.
In practice, destroying every marked object in front of Tōma was a different matter entirely.
Still, every serious opponent now prepared for Flying Thunder God, even if most preparations failed.
Tōma exhaled softly.
Speed had reached a new height.
Now the question was simple.
Who could still keep up?