Nagato's pupils instantly widened!
"You want to take my Rinnegan..."
A flash of anger crossed Nagato's face!
Akihara Kagura wants to steal his Rinnegan!
Akihara Kagura intends to betray the Akatsuki, to steal his Rinnegan at the most critical moment of this plan!
"Isn't that quite normal?"
Akihara Kagura raised his eyebrows, glancing at the snakes also wandering in this direction from afar: "Lord Orochimaru wants your Rinnegan too. Many people in this world desire the Rinnegan. Adding me to that list isn't too much..."
"Kagura, you..."
Even Jiraiya was shocked by Akihara Kagura's thoughts!
"Today, I must thank Jiraiya-sensei..."
Akihara Kagura slightly tilted his head, looking at his teacher with a light chuckle: "If it weren't for you and Lord Orochimaru helping me probe Nagato's information, I wouldn't have had enough confidence to take Nagato's Rinnegan..."
"It turns out to be somewhat fortunate..."
Akihara Kagura raised a finger, rubbing his temple: "I've been contemplating how to kill Brother Nagato. Initially, I planned to find an opportunity to lead the Root members to besiege the Akatsuki. Unexpectedly, Jiraiya-sensei came to the Akatsuki..."
"Kagura..."
Jiraiya, seeing Akihara Kagura's scheming look, trembled and asked, "So, you used me to find Nagato, used me to gather information on him, and now you want to seize his Rinnegan here..."
He...
Had become a tool for his student to test Nagato!
A teacher realizing this fact could never calm down!
Jiraiya's body stiffened as he stood up. He looked at his student as if recognizing Akihara Kagura for the first time.
"Little Jiraiya..."
Sage Fukasaku, understanding Jiraiya's feelings, couldn't help but softly try to comfort him, hoping he wouldn't be too upset: "Though... at least this solves the trouble of Nagato and the Rinnegan for the ninja world..."
"Yes, the result is good..."
Akihara Kagura nodded, his gaze still on Nagato: "Moreover, since the day I met Brother Nagato, I have been thinking about when I could obtain his Rinnegan. That's why I kept secretly interacting with him..."
"..."
Nagato's heart tightened sharply.
Akihara Kagura looked at Nagato, calmly continuing: "Holding great power in Konoha, and likely to become the next Hokage, if not for your Rinnegan, why would I have any dealings with a small organization like Akatsuki?"
"In fact, it's not easy..."
Akihara Kagura shook his head, speaking of his troubles: "To keep others from discovering my intention to seize Nagato's Rinnegan, I've painstakingly created this opportunity. Everyone's attention has been drawn to the duel between Uchiha Itachi and Uchiha Sasuke..."
"Cough, cough..."
Nagato coughed lightly, looking at Akihara Kagura, and said in a deep voice: "The duel between Uchiha Itachi and Uchiha Sasuke is your scheme?"
"Ah, something like that..."
Akihara Kagura didn't deny it.
This was the core of his scheme.
Taking advantage of the duel between Uchiha Itachi and Uchiha Sasuke to attract the attention of Black Zetsu and Uchiha Obito, and then seizing Nagato's Rinnegan here, making it an irreversible fact.
"However..."
"A pair of Rinnegan is precious..."
"But for someone who has endured for ten years, the value of a pair of Rinnegan is far from enough. I need more to feel I'm not at a loss..."
Akihara Kagura nodded, his eyes showing confidence as he looked at the seemingly determined Nagato: "As long as I have the Rinnegan, I can take over Brother Nagato's plan. Simply using tailed beasts to create war weapons to prevent wars is somewhat wasteful..."
"Wasteful?"
Nagato frowned, not understanding Akihara Kagura's meaning.
"Why not be a bit bolder..."
Akihara Kagura pondered while trying to explain his thoughts to Nagato and Jiraiya: "If Brother Nagato gave me your Rinnegan, and then let me gather the weapons of the tailed beasts, with the power of Wood Release and the tailed beasts, I could easily destroy the entire ninja world..."
"!!!"
Akihara Kagura still hasn't forgotten his ambition!
Jiraiya and Nagato's hearts clenched. How could this extremely insane guy still not forget the idea of exterminating all life in the ninja world!
Even worse...
How could he have actually started to implement it!
"Don't you think this is more interesting?"
Akihara Kagura looked at Nagato and continued softly, "Since killing is supposedly for peace, why not simply kill everyone..."
"What?"
Nagato felt as if he hadn't heard clearly.
Jiraiya's ears seemed to be hallucinating. Hearing Akihara Kagura's words, his mind vaguely returned to ten years ago...
Ten years ago...
In the Land of Rain...
That boy named Akihara Kagura claimed it would be better to kill everyone in the ninja world, that only by killing everyone could wars be stopped. Now that boy had grown up into what he was now...
At that time, he just thought Akihara Kagura was extreme and believed that he had given up those extreme ideas...
However,
That boy seemed to have never given up.
That boy had buried all his thoughts in his heart, realizing them step by step according to his own plan, always wanting to massacre the entire ninja world!
"This world is too boring..."
Akihara Kagura sighed, like a bloodthirsty maniac, "Lord Danzo taught me how to kill with Wood Release at Root. To satisfy him, I practiced killing diligently and finally became a qualified killing tool..."
"I've killed many people..."
"It still feels somewhat insufficient..."
Akihara Kagura looked up at the overcast sky, seeming somewhat desolate, "I used Lord Orochimaru's threat to openly resurrect the past Hokages. I manipulated them to force the newly appointed Lady Tsunade into starting a war. I thought killing on the battlefield might be interesting..."
"!!!"
Jiraiya felt a chill run down his spine!
This...
The past Hokages of Konoha...
Had always been under Akihara Kagura's control?
Jiraiya had always thought Lady Tsunade was forced into war by the Second Hokage and even believed that Akihara Kagura helped end the war, feeling fortunate that his disciple was powerful enough to single-handedly resolve the conflict without causing any casualties...
Wait... no...
Konoha has always been implementing the Five Kage Summit...
Jiraiya could hardly imagine, couldn't dare to imagine, how many things Akihara Kagura had secretly done, manipulating the past Hokages!
Akihara Kagura sighed deeply, "I personally ended Konoha's wars with Sand Village and Mist Village, only to find that the wars you all feared were too boring. War itself still couldn't excite people..."
"The power of Wood Release is too strong..."
"Yet to me, it seems so weak..."
"I can easily destroy a village, but I can't annihilate a land."
"However..."
"The combined power of the nine Tailed Beasts is enough..."
Akihara Kagura looked at Nagato and said softly, "To let others in the ninja world live trembling under the threat of weapons of war, they would live in constant fear for their entire lives..."
"Instead of making them live in terror of being destroyed by weapons of war, as a deterrent to stop wars, it's better to let me control the weapons of war and give them a swift end, to see what it's like to destroy the ninja world..."
"..."
Everyone present didn't know what to say.
"This child..."
Shima, the elder toad, shivered involuntarily as she looked at Akihara Kagura, who spoke lightly of destroying the ninja world, "Little Jiraiya, is this the child with a slightly extreme personality you and Fukasaku talked about?"
"Dear, this seems more than just a bit extreme..."
Fukasaku, the elder toad who had lived for hundreds of years and seen many people, looked at Akihara Kagura, having never seen anyone like him...
"Is it Danzo's fault again…"
Jiraiya could only shake his head and let out a heavy sigh, "Even after ten years, your thinking is still so extreme, Kagura..."
Jiraiya had always disapproved of Nagato's plan. Although Nagato's plan was somewhat extreme, compared to Akihara Kagura's approach, it seemed relatively mild.
"Enough..."
"That's all for now."
Akihara Kagura flexed his fingers and slowly formed a hand seal, "Nagato, hand over the Rinnegan. It wasn't yours to begin with; you were only keeping it for me..."
Boom!
The ground suddenly split open!
A massive vine shot directly towards Nagato!
"Shinra Tensei!"
Nagato raised his hand and released a wave of repulsive force!
The vine was instantly shattered into countless pieces by the impact of the repulsive force!
"How boring."
Akihara Kagura raised his fingers, and vines sprouted from the ground around Nagato once again, "Nagato, given how difficult it is for you to even move, how can you resist the power of Wood Release?"
"Don't underestimate me!"
Konan's figure swiftly flew over, and the paper wings behind her suddenly shot out numerous paper shurikens, darting towards Akihara Kagura like blades!
"Nagato, run!"
Konan blocked Akihara Kagura while loudly urging Nagato to escape using his gravitational abilities, "I'll hold him off!"
"Fire Release: Fire Dragon Flame Bullet!"
Akihara Kagura opened his mouth and spewed a massive flame towards Konan!
The scale of this flame was even more terrifying than when Jiraiya used Sage Mode. The flames clashed with the paper shurikens instantly, burning them to ashes and nearly engulfing Konan's body!
Konan had no choice but to fly aside quickly, avoiding the flames, and dive towards Akihara Kagura, with countless sheets of paper falling from her body towards Kagura's area!
Many of these sheets of paper bore black incantations, indicating they were explosive tags that Konan had prepared in advance to engulf Akihara Kagura!
"Hell Path: Summoning Technique!"
Not only did Nagato not flee, but he also summoned a gigantic King of Hell, which opened its massive mouth and extended a long tongue, sucking in all the fallen Pain puppets, immediately beginning to chew!
"Hurry... hurry..."
Sweat dripped down Nagato's face as he watched the King of Hell's mouth intently, hoping it would chew faster!
This was the power of the Hell Path.
As long as the Pain puppets were intact, no matter how damaged they were, they could be resurrected by the King of Hell and quickly return to battle!
Nagato was acutely aware of his own limitations.
Only by using the Six Paths of Pain in conjunction could he have a chance against Akihara Kagura. His immobile body would be nothing more than a sitting duck against such a terrifying enemy!
Meanwhile,
Konan continued to shower Akihara Kagura with explosive tags.
Akihara Kagura looked up at the falling tags and raised his hand, slowly forming a hand seal.
"Chidori Stream!"
Lightning surged from Akihara Kagura's body!
Compared to Sasuke's Chidori Stream, Akihara Kagura's covered an area of over a hundred meters. Lightning flashed around him, instantly neutralizing the explosive tags, turning them into useless scraps of paper!
"There's no hope."
Jiraiya watched the figure standing quietly amidst the lightning.
His gaze shifted to Konan, still scattering explosive tags from the sky, and then to Nagato, desperately waiting for the King of Hell to revive the Six Paths of Pain.
"Kagura's talent is too overwhelming."
Jiraiya sighed, his heart filled with mixed emotions, "Maybe it's also his deep cunning. I've never seen him use Lightning Release, but this level of technique is even more terrifying than the Raikage of the Cloud Village..."
"Let's restore our chakra..."
Fukasaku sat down, gently reminding, "Little Jiraiya, someone wants to destroy the ninja world. This isn't the time to be in a daze!"
"You're right!"
Shima also sat down quickly to recover from her injuries.
"I know..."
Jiraiya sat down, reaching into his pocket for a soldier pill. He looked at it nostalgically, "If Tsunade were here, at least my injuries would heal quickly..."
"By the way..."
"Where's Orochimaru?"
Jiraiya couldn't help but glance towards the direction Orochimaru had escaped, regretfully patting his thigh, "I should have made him stay a bit longer to deliver the news of Kagura trying to seize the Rinnegan..."
"Don't be so reckless, Jiraiya..."
A voice suddenly appeared beside Jiraiya.
~~~
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