"What should we do?" White Zetsu whispered, looking nervously at Black Zetsu. "Now that Lord Emiya has been suppressed, are you sure there won't be any problems?"
"There won't be..." Black Zetsu sounded a bit anxious itself, but it still had complete confidence in Emiya Shirou. Still, it knew it couldn't just sit back and do nothing.
It needed to prepare its last resort—a method that could bring Emiya Shirou back to life.
Gritting its teeth, Black Zetsu slowly sank into the ground. "I'll go find Nagato and have him use his Rinnegan to resurrect Wei Yuan completely!"
This was a precaution, just in case anything unexpected happened. Black Zetsu had planned for this contingency all along. As long as Emiya Shirou could be revived, his power would be more than enough to overwhelm all the Hokage present.
However, when Black Zetsu found Nagato, he was already in serious trouble.
As Nagato and Konan escaped from Konoha, Danzo Shimura had been secretly tracking them. At the same time, both Orochimaru and Obito Uchiha had caught up. They had barely even made it out of the village.
Obito and Orochimaru blocked their path.
"Hand over the Rinnegan," Obito said, his voice cold as he looked at Nagato with disdain. "Those eyes were never a treasure you were meant to have. Emiya Shirou was soft-hearted with you, but I won't be."
"Orochimaru... Obito Uchiha..." Nagato gritted his teeth, glaring at Obito. "So, you betrayed the Akatsuki after all, you traitor!"
"The Akatsuki is my organization," Obito shot back, spreading his hands with a flash of anger on his face. "I'm the one who gave you all a new start, but you chose to side with Emiya Shirou. You were the ones who betrayed me first!"
If it hadn't been for that, he wouldn't be here now, trying to take Nagato's eyes by force.
"So you've decided to fight..." Nagato knew there was no point in arguing. He steadied his breath, gathering his chakra and assuming a combat stance.
Orochimaru, as usual, seemed unconcerned. Aside from his knack for escaping, he wasn't much of a threat. But Obito Uchiha's Kamui was a different story. His ability to phase through attacks was bizarre, and defeating him, even with the Rinnegan, wouldn't be easy.
"Nagato..." Konan was also extremely tense. She understood Obito's powers to some extent and had once devised a strategy to counter him. But after Emiya Shirou appeared, she had abandoned the idea.
Still, she had a battle plan in mind. The problem was, her plan required a specific location and time to set up a trap—neither of which she had right now.
"Don't worry," Nagato said, shaking his head to calm Konan and steel himself for the fight. "I'll finish this quickly!"
"Before you say that," Orochimaru said with a smile, taking a step back, "why don't you check behind you?"
"..."
Nagato turned his head slightly and saw Danzo Shimura.
"The Rinnegan... a kekkei genkai like that," Danzo began, slowly undoing the seal on his arm, "should belong to Konoha."
"You dare show your face!" Nagato's anger flared at the sight of him.
This whole mess started because he had tried to assassinate Danzo. He had thought the opportunity was lost, but he never expected Danzo to show up during their escape, giving him a chance for revenge.
Unfortunately, it was like jumping out of the frying pan and into the fire. Taking care of Danzo shouldn't be a problem, but dealing with Obito was another matter entirely.
But there was no turning back. Everyone here wanted the Rinnegan, and no one was willing to waste a second.
"Brat." Danzo, confident he had figured out Nagato's abilities, charged forward. His ninja blade swung directly at Nagato. "The Rinnegan... I'll be taking that for myself."
"Die!" Nagato raised a hand and unleashed Shinra Tensei, killing Danzo instantly and sending his corpse tumbling away. He immediately turned his attention to Obito, activating missiles on his shoulder that fired laser blasts.
However, Obito dodged every attack with Kamui, phasing through them as he calmly advanced on Nagato. He didn't believe Nagato could defeat him. In fact, he believed no one without a space-time ability could.
"This guy!" Nagato was growing frustrated. Every attack missed. He knew Obito's power was a problem, but facing it in combat felt hopeless. It was as if he were completely at Obito's mercy.
But then, an even greater threat appeared from behind.
"Nagato, watch out!" Konan shouted, seeing Danzo appear again. "Danzo is still alive!"
As she spoke, she sent a flurry of paper shuriken that pierced straight through Danzo, taking him down once more.
But something strange happened. Danzo's corpse vanished. A moment later, he reappeared and charged again. This time, his body was covered in the black lines of a curse mark, and he moved with shocking speed.
"What is going on?!" Konan triggered explosion tags at Danzo's feet, blowing him to pieces, but he emerged from the debris and charged again.
This was not good. Both Konan and Nagato broke out in a cold sweat. They were forced to admit the horrifying truth: neither Obito Uchiha nor Danzo Shimura could be killed.
"You truly can't kill either of them," Obito observed from the side.
He had quickly figured out Danzo's trick. Seeing the numerous Sharingan on Danzo's arm, he understood he was using Izanagi. It turned any unfavorable outcome into an illusion. As long as Danzo had Sharingan to sacrifice, he could keep using it. Obito realized Danzo had become a truly troublesome opponent.
Naturally, Obito wasn't going to share this information with Nagato. He was happy to watch Danzo weaken him, which would only make it easier to steal the Rinnegan for himself.
"Shinra Tensei!" Nagato roared, unleashing a tremendous repulsive force.
But neither Danzo nor Obito seemed to care about his desperate attack. They both advanced, ready to finish him.
In the end, Danzo was the fastest.
Even as his body took more damage from Konan and Nagato, each fatal injury was simply turned into a dream by Izanagi. When his body reappeared, he was right in front of Nagato.
Danzo reached out and forcibly gouged out one of Nagato's eyes. Ignoring Nagato's cry of pain, he quickly began to flee back toward Konoha. He could have killed Nagato then and there, but he wanted to create more problems for Obito and Orochimaru. By leaving Nagato alive, he hoped they would be too busy fighting each other to chase after him and the Rinnegan he had just acquired.
"Hmph..." Danzo looked at the Rinnegan in his hand with pride. He needed this power to make himself stronger.
"Now... I finally have it." He was satisfied. He had seen the power the Rinnegan displayed when Nagato had single-handedly defeated Hiruzen and the Sannin.
"It cost five Sharingan..." Danzo glanced at his arm. Out of the eleven Sharingan, five were now shut tight, their light extinguished forever. "But... it was worth it."
He glanced back at Obito and Nagato, who were still fighting, then made a hand sign to deactivate Izanagi.
The next moment, Danzo's body suddenly froze. He looked as if he'd been hit by a genjutsu. The remaining six Sharingan on his arm flickered with a strange light. If an Uchiha had been present, they might have recognized it as a special genjutsu transfer seal placed on the Sharingan.
The genjutsu embedded in the seal had a single command: once Danzo deactivated Izanagi, he would implant the Rinnegan into his own eye socket.
Without hesitation, Danzo dug out his own eye and slammed the Rinnegan into the empty socket.
"Ah..." Danzo could only grit his teeth and endure the searing pain. But he could already feel a gentle chakra rapidly healing the wound. Then, the optic nerve began to connect.
The moment the Rinnegan was embedded, Danzo snapped out of the genjutsu. His first instinct was to test his new power and figure out what had just happened to him.
However, implanting the Rinnegan was only the first part of the plan. The end of the transfer seal's genjutsu was just the beginning of another.
When Black Zetsu saw Danzo with the freshly implanted Rinnegan, its thoughts were a complicated mix.
"What now?" White Zetsu's half of the face was no longer calm. "Nagato's Rinnegan has been taken by Danzo! The other one will probably end up with Obito soon!"
"Don't panic," Black Zetsu's half said with grim confidence. "Danzo carries a curse mark left by Wei Yuan. Wei Yuan can use that mark to control him and force him to cast the Rinne Rebirth technique to bring himself back. Now, we just have to pass the message to Wei Yuan..."