"What? That's impossible!"
Nagato's eyes widened, his face twisted in disbelief at the scene before him.
Chibaku Tensei was his ultimate move.
Back then, the Sage of Six Paths had used this technique to create the moon.
Nagato wasn't as powerful as the Sage, but it shouldn't be something that could be broken so easily, right?
For a moment, Nagato actually wondered if his Rinnegan was some kind of defective knockoff.
He was completely speechless.
But Nagato wasn't the type to sit around and wait to die.
He took a deep breath and controlled the Deva Path to fly into the sky.
This time, he was going to use all of his chakra and hit them with everything he had.
"Is he trying to use a full-power Shinra Tensei?"
Watching the Deva Path rise into the air, neither Madara nor Hashirama made a move to stop him.
To be honest, if Nagato could focus all the repulsive force of Shinra Tensei into a single point instead of blasting everything around him indiscriminately, then maybe Madara and Hashirama would be a bit more cautious.
But right now... it didn't matter.
No matter how powerful a full-strength Shinra Tensei was, it couldn't even move a single hair on them.
Besides, this place was so close to the Hidden Rain Village.
Unless Nagato didn't care about the village anymore, there was no way he'd dare use it like that.
But with his emotions boiling over, Nagato subconsciously ignored the village's presence.
All he wanted now was to hit them with something massive—to prove he wasn't someone to be messed with.
Luckily, Konan stayed calm.
She saw the Deva Path rising into the sky, noticed how twisted Nagato's face looked, and quickly tried to reason with him.
"Nagato, calm down. If you use that move here, forget whether you can even handle the backlash—our village definitely won't survive it. You don't want to see everything we've built destroyed, do you?"
Konan's words at least brought Nagato back to his senses a little.
"Konan, you're right."
Nagato was in pain. At this moment, a suffocating pressure welled up in his chest. He desperately wanted to vent, but reality gave him no room to release it.
This feeling of being stuck—neither up nor down—made him feel like coughing up blood.
"Pu~"
In the end, Nagato couldn't hold it in. He spat old blood.
"Don't worry. You'll feel much better once it's out."
Wiping the blood from the corner of his mouth, Nagato knew it was time for negotiations.
"Look, he's coming down."
Accepting reality, Nagato lowered himself, and naturally, Deva Path descended from the sky as well.
Seeing this scene, Minato and the other two understood—this was Nagato admitting defeat.
Of course, none of them said it out loud. Even Nagato had his pride.
"Can you tell me what that little black orb is exactly?"
Hearing Deva Path's question, Six Paths Hashirama laughed heartily. He summoned the Truth-Seeking Orb to float beside him and replied, "You mean this thing?"
"Yes."
"This is called a Truth-Seeking Orb. It's a form created using Yin-Yang Release, infused with high-density chakra of all seven attributes—Yin, Yang, and the Five Elements."
Hearing that, Nagato furrowed his brows. He thought of the black rods he himself had created.
The black rods were also products of Yin-Yang Release. They were his weapons, and more importantly, the receivers used to control the Six Paths of Pain.
Compared to the Truth-Seeking Orbs, his rods didn't have the Five Elements infused into them. It wasn't that he didn't want to—he simply couldn't.
To put it plainly, he didn't have the ability. If he forced the infusion, it would worsen his already frail body. And even then, it might not work.
"Alright, speak. What do you want from me? But if your demands are too much… I'm not promising I'll agree."
Six Paths Madara and Six Paths Hashirama looked at Namikaze Minato, signaling for him to speak.
Namikaze Minato chuckled lightly and didn't refuse.
"It's simple. I want Nagato to give up this unrealistic plan of collecting and capturing the tailed beasts."
Minato thought that after the earlier talks and a one-sided battle, Nagato would agree quickly.
But unexpectedly, Nagato's controlled Deva Path shook its head.
Nagato's attitude made Madara very displeased.
"Stop wasting time talking, just kill him."
"Madara, calm down. This isn't our time-space after all. Let the Fourth Hokage handle it."
"Tch~"
Madara scowled in annoyance but gave Hashirama some respect.
Minato looked at Deva Path with confusion and asked, "Why? Don't you believe what I just said?"
"Yes, I don't trust you."
Guys, who would understand?
I was living peacefully in Amegakure, then suddenly people from Konoha showed up, telling me all kinds of worldview-shattering things. Then they destroyed several of my Six Paths puppets and expected me to believe them.
If you were in this situation, could you believe them?
"What a stubborn fool."
Madara, who was stopped by Hashirama before, now wanted to attack Nagato again.
Fortunately, Deva Path spoke up in time: "However, until I find out the truth clearly, I won't go after capturing the tailed beasts."
"I see."
Hearing Nagato's answer, Minato finally relaxed.
He could accept this outcome.
Anyway, he didn't lie. No matter what methods Nagato used to verify, as long as he knew the truth, the plan to capture the Tailed Beasts would naturally no longer be brought up.
"Alright, you can leave now."
Seeing Nagato start to send them off, Six Paths Madara sneered coldly and said, "One last thing to tell you: your Rinnegan actually belongs to Uchiha Madara."
"Hm?"
The three from Konoha left, but Nagato, back at the base, kept frowning.
What the Fourth Hokage said struck both of them deeply, especially the last part where Madara claimed that the Rinnegan wasn't really Nagato's. This made them particularly concerned.
If what Uchiha Madara said was true—that the Rinnegan wasn't Nagato's but Madara's—then it meant Nagato, who possessed the Rinnegan, had all along been controlled by someone else.
Then, was the death of Yahiko and the destruction of the organization also the result of manipulation by someone behind the scenes?
"Nagato, do you believe what they said?"
"Which part are you talking about?"
"Everything. Including the last part where Uchiha Madara said the Rinnegan isn't yours."
"Logically, they have no reason to lie to us. I can tell that if it weren't for Jiraiya-sensei's connection, I would've long been killed by Madara and the First Hokage. You can also see that if they wanted to kill me, it wouldn't take much effort."
Konan nodded. Setting other things aside, just the Power of the Truth Seeking Ball alone was something the Six Paths of Pain couldn't handle.
Thinking about the terrible state of the puppets like the Naraka Path just now made Konan shiver all over.
"Whether they lied to us or not, I will verify later. But the matter of the Rinnegan makes me somewhat puzzled."
"What puzzles you?"
"If this pair of Rinnegan really belongs to Uchiha Madara, then why does Madara still have his own pair of Rinnegan? Could it be that after giving the Rinnegan to someone else, he could still awaken a new pair again?"
"This can't be possible, right? Otherwise, it's just too absurd."
The two of them pondered over this question for a long time but couldn't figure out why Uchiha Madara would have a second pair of Rinnegan.
"Forget it, let's not dwell on things we can't understand for now. What we need most is to quickly verify what the Fourth Hokage said. If it turns out they're telling the truth, then capturing the Tailed Beasts might not even be necessary."
"What about Zetsu then? How do you plan to handle him?"
"Let's keep him as is for now. We'll decide everything after we've clarified the situation."
"Alright."