Nagato glanced at the fallen Preta Path behind him. Amaterasu shouldn't have been this powerful. While Amaterasu could burn everything, its speed of incineration shouldn't have been this fast. Otherwise, Preta Path wouldn't have lost the chance to absorb the energy. This person's Amaterasu was far stronger than Uchiha Itachi's.
Realizing there was no way he could win, Nagato sighed.
"I want to see Konan first."
"Fine," Kazuki replied, using his communication ninjutsu to send a message to Karin.
Soon, under the guidance of Kazuki's shadow clone, Karin arrived at the tree hollow, carrying a large wooden box. As she opened it, inside was the controlled Konan, still under a genjutsu.
Seeing Konan unharmed, Nagato breathed a sigh of relief. The scene reminded him so much of the past. Back then, Konan had also been captured, and Hanzo the Salamander had ordered him to kill Yahiko. If Konan were conscious now, she would never want him to make this choice.
Nagato looked at Kazuki's youthful face and sighed.
"Can I trust you?"
"You don't really have a choice," Kazuki replied calmly. "The only thing valuable about you to me is the Rinnegan. Once I have them, I'll let you go. Otherwise, you and Konan will die."
Nagato knew Kazuki was right. If it were possible, he would have preferred to rescue Konan himself. However, his Rinnegan was powerless against this man. His frail body simply couldn't handle a fight with Kazuki.
"I understand." Without further hesitation, Nagato reached up and gouged out his own eyes, tossing them to Kazuki.
Kazuki was cautious, letting his shadow clone catch the eyes. After confirming they were authentic, he sealed them away in a scroll.
"Is that enough?" Kazuki asked, watching the now empty-eyed and desolate Nagato.
Without the Rinnegan, Nagato wouldn't survive much longer. Kazuki shook his head, it was none of his concern. His Mangekyō Sharingan spun slightly, releasing Konan from her genjutsu.
The newly freed Konan looked around in confusion. Upon seeing Kazuki, her eyes filled with caution, but when she saw Nagato, her face became tense and worried.
"Nagato! What happened to you?"
Konan rushed to Nagato's side, checking his condition, only to find that his eyes were gone.
"Where are your eyes? Did he take them?"
Hearing Konan's voice, Nagato felt relieved. At least the handsome young man had kept his word.
"It's okay, Konan. As long as you're alive, that's all that matters." Nagato smiled gently, trying to ease Konan's mind and quash any thoughts of revenge. This Kazuki of the Gekko Clan was far too terrifying, even more threatening than 'Madara Uchiha.'
Konan glared at Kazuki in frustration.
"You're a villain. You only took the Rinnegan for its power! There's no way there's some hidden truth about these eyes."
Kazuki, unaffected by her accusation, smiled.
"Perhaps if you knew the truth behind these eyes, you wouldn't hate me. You might even thank me."
"What truth? These eyes belonged to Nagato! You took them purely for their power. I don't buy into any nonsense about evil powers!" Konan scoffed.
"The power itself isn't inherently evil," Kazuki replied calmly, "but the eyes? They weren't Nagato's to begin with."
"What do you mean?" Konan and Nagato both looked shocked.
"These eyes originally belonged to Uchiha Madara," Kazuki said.
"Madara Uchiha?!"
Nagato was stunned. "Why would Madara's eyes be given to me?"
"To use you," Kazuki explained plainly.
Memories of their encounter with 'Madara' flooded Nagato and Konan's minds. They had been working according to his will the entire time, shaping the new Akatsuki under his orders.
Konan, though still skeptical, asked, "Do you have any proof?"
"No real proof, but Uchiha Sharingan can only be fully controlled by a member of their clan. Anyone else who implants it cannot close its eye. The same applies to the Hyuga Clan's Byakugan. If the Rinnegan was truly yours from the start, shouldn't you have full control over it?"
Nagato and Konan were stunned. Indeed, Nagato had never been able to close his Rinnegan at will. Its constant activation had been draining his chakra all along. If it weren't for his Uzumaki bloodline, he would have been consumed by the power long ago.
"All this time, I thought the Rinnegan was just too powerful to control... Turns out, it never belonged to me in the first place!" Nagato let out a bitter laugh.
"Nagato..." Konan wanted to comfort him, but the words wouldn't come.
Kazuki looked at the two of them, then spoke casually.
"Madara Uchiha is dead, and the masked man you've been following is not Madara. His real name is Uchiha Obito. He was using you as well, but I killed him. All you need to worry about now is Zetsu."
"I'll be going now." With those words, Kazuki used the Flying Thunder God technique to teleport away with Karin.
This was the first time Kazuki had spared his enemies. But in their current state, neither Nagato nor Konan posed any threat to him. Even if they wanted revenge in the future, they lacked the power to do anything about it.
Konan and Nagato didn't pay attention to Kazuki's departure. Though shaken by the revelation, what mattered most now was that without the Rinnegan, they had lost the ability to fulfill Yahiko's dream.
"It doesn't matter if it was Madara or Obito. None of them matter anymore," Nagato said quietly.
"Without the Rinnegan, I can't protect Amegakure."
Konan remained silent, thinking of Yahiko.
After a long pause, Nagato spoke again,
"Konan, there's only one way left to protect Amegakure."
"What is it?" she asked.
"We need to ally with Konoha."
"Konoha? But I just killed so many of their people. They'll never agree to that," Konan replied, shocked.
"Not their Hokage, no. But Kazuki... he might help us."
"Him?"
"At the very least, he's trustworthy."
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The fanfic is finished on p@treon/tambeerg