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"Let me sense it for a moment!"
After saying this, Uchiha Madara immediately focused his senses. In no time, he locked onto the location of his eyes and pointed toward the Land of Rain. "It's in this direction."
"But to pinpoint the exact location, we'll have to get closer!"
"Let's just teleport there directly!"
Kaito glanced in the direction Madara was pointing, made a rough judgment, and said, "If it's this way, then it can only be the Land of Rain."
"Heh, interesting! Looks like Black Zetsu is hiding right under everyone's nose."
"Alright then, let's go check it out first!"
"But we shouldn't get too close, and not too many people should go. We don't want to alert him."
"Madara and I will go confirm the location first."
"Once we've locked onto him, we'll summon everyone to set up an inescapable trap and capture Black Zetsu!"
With that, Kaito focused his mind and instantly teleported himself and Uchiha Madara to the border of the Land of Rain.
As soon as they arrived, he spread out his mental senses and asked Madara, "Try sensing again, which direction?"
"That way!"
Madara immediately pointed toward Amegakure, the central area of the Land of Rain.
At the same time, Kaito also managed to detect the presence of Black Zetsu and Uzumaki Nagato inside the village.
His brows slightly lifted in surprise. "Didn't expect that guy to be right here. Well, that saves me a lot of trouble!"
"I've locked onto Black Zetsu and Uzumaki Nagato's locations. Let's go!"
Without hesitation, Kaito once again teleported with Madara, and the next second, they appeared inside a massive underground chamber within a tall building in Amegakure.
"Wha—!?"
Black Zetsu instantly sensed the sudden intrusion and turned his head in shock toward Kaito and Madara.
The moment he recognized them, his expression changed drastically. "How is this possible!? How could it be you two?! How did you find me now!?"
"And… Madara, you're fully revived?! What the hell is going on!?"
Even as he shouted in panic, Black Zetsu wasted no time—he immediately tried to grab Uzumaki Nagato and sink into the ground to escape.
"Dōjutsu – Time Freeze!"
In the next instant, Kaito's Eternal Mangekyō Sharingan activated, and he unleashed the power of his left eye.
Time stopped.
Black Zetsu, along with all the White Zetsu inside the building, froze completely in place, unable to move an inch.
However, Uzumaki Nagato, Yahiko, and Konan were unaffected—because there was no need to restrain them.
"Done! Let's seal this guy up first."
With that, Kaito took a step forward. Under the horrified gazes of Nagato and the others, he reached Black Zetsu, raised his hand, and unleashed a surge of complex sealing techniques.
In an instant, Black Zetsu was completely covered in a dense network of seals, forming a highly intricate and powerful restraint.
He was now utterly incapable of resisting or escaping.
Only then did Kaito focus his mind again and temporarily transfer Black Zetsu into a small prison dimension within the Space-Time Gate.
Inside this small space, time was also frozen. Even if Kaito lifted the time-freezing dōjutsu on Black Zetsu, he still wouldn't be able to move.
Next, Kaito took just a few seconds to teleport throughout the building over a hundred times, knocking out and sealing away every hidden White Zetsu.
He stored them in another special dimension meant solely for holding White Zetsu.
After finishing everything, he flashed back to the large chamber.
"AHHH!!! MY EYES!"
The moment he returned, he saw Uchiha Madara standing in front of Uzumaki Nagato, calmly plucking the Rinnegan from his eye sockets and placing them into his own.
Then, Madara turned to Yahiko and Konan with an indifferent expression.
"Brats, these eyes don't belong to this kid—they're mine."
"Black Zetsu just temporarily stored them in this Uzumaki brat."
"You didn't actually believe an Uzumaki could awaken the Rinnegan, did you? Heh!"
Though his words were spoken with absolute certainty, Yahiko and Konan refused to believe him and just protected Nagoto.
Nagato however was starting to believe. Because deep down, he had always felt like something was missing from his memories.
Not only that, but he had never been able to fully control these eyes.
They constantly drained his chakra and even sapped a small amount of his life force.
That was far from normal.
And now, the moment they were removed, his entire body felt lighter, as if a crushing weight had been lifted from him.
It was the first time he felt truly free.
"Madara, you really have no sense of delicacy, huh? Couldn't you at least explain things properly before yanking out his eyes?"
Kaito sighed, shaking his head in exasperation.
Without saying much more, he immediately teleported Hashirama, Tobirama, and several others to the room.
Then, without any further explanation, he appeared in front of Nagato.
As Yahiko and Konan looked at him in horror, he placed a hand gently on Nagato's forehead.
A moment later, a warm, radiant light surrounded Nagato's head, filling the room with a comforting glow.
"Wh-What are you doing?!"
"Stop!"
Yahiko and Konan shouted in alarm, attempting to rush forward and pull Kaito away.
"Yahiko! Konan, wait! I'm fine! This man is healing me!"
Nagato suddenly lowered the hands that had been clutching his empty eye sockets.
When he opened his eyes again, they were no longer the Rinnegan—but his original, bright, and clear eyes.
"Nagato… your eyes… they're back?!"
Yahiko and Konan froze in shock, staring at him in disbelief.
At the same time, their gaze shifted back to Kaito, full of suspicion and confusion.
"Yeah."
Nagato nodded firmly. He glanced at Kaito with a complicated expression, then bowed slightly in gratitude.
"Thank you, sir… for restoring my eyes."
"It's nothing," Kaito replied with a light smile, waving off the gratitude. "I was just cleaning up Madara's mess."
"By now, you should have realized… what he said was true. The Rinnegan wasn't yours to begin with, was it?"
"Nagato… is that true?"
Yahiko and Konan looked at Nagato with wide eyes, waiting for his answer.
Nagato took a deep breath, gently touching his newly restored eyes.
"I had doubts before, but the moment I lost the Rinnegan, I was almost certain. And now, after this man restored my true sight, I know for sure—those were never my eyes."
"Not only that… my memories have returned."
Nagato clenched his fists, his expression darkening.
"In those memories… I finally saw the truth."
"My parents… were killed by Black Zetsu."
For years, he had mistaken his true enemy for his savior. For years, he had followed and trusted the very being who had taken everything from him.
Looking back, it was almost laughable.
No… it was downright pathetic.
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