Power was a good thing.
But you could have too much of a good thing.
Emiya Shirou's strength made Black Zetsu deeply uncomfortable. If a puppet was strong, it could help revive Kaguya. But if it was too strong, it could disrupt the entire plan.
Emiya Shirou's power... it was definitely beyond even that of a Ten-Tails Jinchuriki. It was enough to make Black Zetsu almost miss Uchiha Madara.
Madara had always been the backup plan, and Black Zetsu had abandoned him for Shirou in a heartbeat. But the moment Shirou showed signs of going off-script, Black Zetsu was already thinking about bringing its backup puppet back into play.
The damn thing really was like a player switching sides in a game.
Of course, Emiya Shirou didn't bother calling out Black Zetsu on its thoughts. After all, the idea had come from Shirou himself, and he had actively encouraged it.
"Alright," Shirou said without turning his head. He gave his order to Black Zetsu before immediately launching himself into the sky. "Start prepping for Madara as soon as you're back. You two, go find Danzo's corpse and recover the Rinnegan. I'll go save Nagato and Konan first."
"Understood." White Zetsu immediately melted into the ground and disappeared.
When Shirou reached Nagato, only Konan remained. She was slumped on the ground, clutching a seriously injured and dying Nagato. As for Obito and Orochimaru… both had sensed the danger long ago and had already fled.
Before he left, Obito had taken Nagato's last remaining Rinnegan. He needed it if he had any hope of negotiating with Shirou later.
"Lord Emiya!"
When Konan looked up and saw Emiya Shirou, her eyes cleared instantly, and a flash of hope crossed her face. "Lord Emiya, can you save Nagato? With your medical techniques…"
"Konan, don't…" Nagato weakly interrupted. Both of his eyes were gone, and his body was collapsing.
He couldn't see much point in living anymore.
Even if he survived, what could he do?
Shirou landed beside them and placed a hand on Nagato's chest to check his injuries. A ball of warm, white light appeared in his palm.
"Lord Emiya… this is…" Nagato felt a pure chakra surging through him. He was shocked as this incredible power flowed into his body, restoring his depleted life force.
Even more incredibly, as Shirou's hand moved over Nagato's empty eye sockets, new eyes began to grow. Nagato could see again.
"This is…?"
"Yang Style," Shirou answered calmly.
It was the power to create life itself—the kind of ability every medical ninja dreamed of, though it was far beyond medicine and closer to the realm of the gods.
Nagato touched his new eyes, stunned and overjoyed. But his joy quickly faded as he noticed something was wrong. He looked at Shirou's closed, empty sockets.
"Lord Emiya, your eyes…"
"Oh, I lost my pair, too," Shirou said, not seeming to mind being blind. For him, losing his sight wasn't a big deal.
He didn't mention his battle against all four Hokage. He just gently patted Nagato's shoulder. "But for now, I can't make new eyes for myself yet. I'll need you all to help out for a while longer."
"Lord Emiya…" Nagato's expression filled with remorse, and he apologized sincerely. "It's all my fault. I shouldn't have acted so rashly and lost the Rinnegan…"
He hadn't just failed, he had dragged Shirou down with him. He had lost his Rinnegan, and now Shirou had lost his as well.
The bigger problem was… if both of them were without the Rinnegan, how could the Akatsuki's plan move forward?
Only the Rinnegan could summon and control the Gedo Statue. Only the Rinnegan could seal the tailed beasts. They were facing a massive problem.
"Don't worry," Shirou said, completely relaxed. "Black Zetsu is already looking. Maybe we can recover one of the Rinnegan." He added quietly, "If not, it's okay. The ninja world still has ways to create a new one."
Yes. There was still a chance to create a new pair of Rinnegan.
After all, the Uchiha clan hadn't died out. Sasuke Uchiha, in Konoha, still had a good chance of awakening the Rinnegan in the future. Shirou had been thinking about a second Rinnegan for a while now, ever since his second resurrection.
Of course, the real goal wasn't just the Rinnegan. What truly mattered was Sasuke himself. Shirou just needed an excuse to bring the boy under his control and make sure his strength didn't fall behind.
Because… none of them had much time left.
-----
Back inside Konoha, after Emiya Shirou and Black Zetsu had left, a group of Konoha ninjas finally realized the threat was gone. Their fear faded, and soon they were all talking about what had just happened.
"All four Hokages couldn't defeat that man…"
"When his chakra erupted, I couldn't even breathe. I couldn't move an inch. What kind of enemy is that…?"
"I heard… he's a medical ninja."
"But his thinking is a bit extreme… Supposedly, the wars in the ninja world enraged him, so now he's trying to force peace using drastic methods…"
While the regular ninjas gossiped, some of the kids who had been taking the Chunin Exam were also discussing Shirou. But they knew even less.
So Shikamaru, the brain of the group, laid out what he had pieced together, helping them organize what they knew about Emiya Shirou and even figure out why he had turned against Konoha. Leaning his head against a wooden pole, Shikamaru summarized it for them.
"The ancient medical ninja, Emiya Shirou, was resurrected by the Second Hokage's Edo Tensei after a thousand years. After the First Hokage died, he stopped the First Great Ninja War."
"Because of that war, and maybe the Second and Third wars that followed, he lost hope in the ninja world. So, after being revived, he came up with a plan to create an ultimate weapon to force the world into permanent peace under the threat of total destruction."
"He sounds like a good guy…" Rock Lee said, giving a big thumbs-up.
"Huh?" Everyone stared at him in surprise, as if they couldn't understand how he came to that conclusion.
But… maybe he was right? Even if Konoha and Shirou were enemies now, his motives seemed to come from a good place.
"Idiot, Lee!" Tenten quickly smacked him on the head and awkwardly explained to the others, "Lee's injuries still haven't fully healed…"
"Actually, Lee isn't entirely wrong," Shikamaru sighed, glancing at Naruto. "But even if he's a good person, he's still destined to be our enemy."
"That's a little scary…" Ino shivered beside Shikamaru. "He's the one who defeated all four Hokages single-handedly…"
Facing that kind of power was a burden none of them wanted on their shoulders.
But at that moment, Naruto turned to face his friends, clenched his fist, and made a bold promise to everyone there.
"I will stop him!"
"…"
The group of kids looked at each other. Only Jiraiya, standing at a distance, had a worried expression on his face. But after hearing Naruto's promise, he finally managed a relieved smile.