Land of Rain, Akatsuki Organization's Base.
"Drip, drip"
After days of continuous rain, it had finally lessened a bit, but the sky was still frighteningly gloomy.
Yahiko stood in the rain, looking at Nagato's corpse before him, his face full of sorrow. His companion, as close as a brother, the bridge representing a future of peace, had collapsed.
"Yahiko," Konan said, suppressing her grief, her voice trembling slightly, "The enemy was after the Rinnegan, right?"
Since that day, she had searched for a long time, finally finding Nagato's corpse in a ditch in a depression.
Collapse, sorrow, disbelief, the emotions in her heart were indescribable. After returning to the base, she postponed it for a while, waiting for Yahiko, who was busy promoting a ceasefire between the three countries, to return.
The funeral was about to be held.
Yahiko was silent for a moment, then said, "That's not important anymore, we—"
"Whoosh!" A gale howled, and the dense black clouds in the sky were instantly torn apart. The already drizzling rain was swept away by the wind, and an earth-yellow Earth Dragon flapped its wings, slowly descending from the high sky.
Due to perspective, the closer the dragon got to the base, the more enormous it appeared. Three people stood on its scale-covered back.
"Prepare for battle!" Yahiko said in a deep voice, drawing the scroll from his waist. After unfolding it, he gripped the Greatsword that had been Summoned.
It was clear that the newcomers were not friendly. Such a huge Summoned Beast, with the ability to fly, was very troublesome.
What's more, it was at a time when Nagato had died...
Thinking of this, his heart sank. Could it be that they were the ones who took the Rinnegan? "Flap~ flap~" The sound of the Earth Dragon's wings beating the air was deafening. It was less than a hundred meters above them, and in the blink of an eye, it landed on the ground.
"Thump!"
"Buzz~ crack" The ground trembled, ripples spread across the water surface, and spiderweb-like cracks appeared on the long-abandoned buildings not far away.
Immediately afterward, the three people on the dragon's back jumped down.
"Careful of the ground!" Yahiko said urgently.
He could see clearly that countless Shadows darted out from under the feet of the shortest kid, constantly moving through the shadows of the entire building complex.
"As expected." The leading kid saw Nagato's corpse covered in the Akatsuki Organization robe from afar, and said such a sentence. Then, in a somewhat complicated tone, he said, "Take them all back."
"Swish! Swish! Swish!"
The Shadows on the ground bulged and stood up, quickly knocking down all the nearby companions.
[Too fast!] Yahiko struggled to cut off a Shadow with his Greatsword under Konan's cover, then saw Konan being knocked unconscious by an extremely swift Shadow. He himself didn't last long either, falling to the ground in just a few seconds.
As his consciousness faded, he vaguely heard footsteps approaching, stopping in front of Nagato's corpse.
"The Rinnegan is indeed gone."
"Sigh~" After a sigh, Yahiko, or rather, Yahiko II, fell into a coma. His last thought dissipated in his mind:
[Is it all just a dream after all?]—"If the Land of Rain didn't have such continuous rainy weather, it would really be a good place to see the stars."
Lin Ke stood in the ruins of the building, looking up at the bright full moon and the twinkling stars, and sighed.
The black clouds dispersed by the Earth Dragon allowed a clear moon to be seen here, but unfortunately, the distant clouds were drifting over. The geographical environment of the Land of Rain was such that unless someone like Senju Hashirama or Uchiha Madara could forcibly change the environment, temporary destruction could not completely solve the environmental constraints.
Speaking of which, I could have Senju Hashirama find a way to destroy some of the mountains in the Land of Rain and the Land of Wind to let the rain pass, and then use Advent of a World of Flowering Trees a few more times to change the environment there.
He was already considering how to transform The World and make The World a better place.
Because he was so strong and had an absolute advantage in intelligence, there was no reason why The World shouldn't belong to Konoha, and wouldn't it be his in the end?
Since it was all his world anyway, changing the environment and starting to farm was the right path.
Uchiha Sasuke put down Yahiko and said, "Nagato's Rinnegan was indeed taken. The time of death and the time of Jiraiya's disappearance are related, and it should have happened within a few days."
In other words, Nagato's death, the disappearance of the Rinnegan, and Jiraiya's capture were all connected, and Uchiha Madara's suspicion was growing.
Lin Ke controlled Hermit Purple to use dust to create a map on the ground. As Chakra was rapidly consumed, the map and Jiraiya's location were revealed.
"Let's go." Leaving a spare ordinary Shadow to watch over the unconscious Akatsuki Organization members, he took the lead and walked through the ruins of the building.
This place should have been a town before, but it was destroyed in the war. Akatsuki Organization had partially modified the ruins and used it as a Base.
It was not particularly far from Rain Hidden Village. Akatsuki Organization were theoretically all ninjas from Rain Hidden Village, and they all wore Forehead Protectors, which was why Hanzo felt his position was threatened.
More and more young people no longer believed in Hanzo, who had done nothing in the Third Shinobi World War, and instead followed Akatsuki Organization and Yahiko, who was determined to achieve peace.
Surrounded by Shadows, the three quickly crossed more than ten kilometers and arrived at the location marked on the map.
This was a dark, abandoned building. The Shadow quickly entered. Utakata entered Tailed Beast Mode next to him, sensed for a while, and shook his head, "It's empty inside, but—"
He looked at the ground, "There is a very weak Chakra reaction deep underground. It should have been a few meters underground just now, rapidly diving, just like White Zetsu. It's monitoring us."
Too deep underground, he was not good at Earth Release Ninjutsu and it was difficult to go down and catch the opponent.
Lin Ke re-read the map and found that the positions of Zetsu and Jiraiya had changed again.
About the same distance, but the direction changed.
"Does Zetsu seem to know we are looking for it?" Uchiha Sasuke frowned.
Being led around, Lin Ke was a little puzzled, why was the other party sure that he could find them, and even deliberately brought Jiraiya, designing it to be a little bit of a lure.
It was as if they knew he could read minds to obtain information.
After Uchiha Madara cultivated White Zetsu with Hashirama Cells, they were born to be able to travel underground, without eating, drinking, or defecating. They just wanted to hide underground, and even if Earth Release ninjas drilled down, it would be difficult to catch them.
Although he had Earth Style: Subterranean Voyage Technique, he would never dare to go underground easily, it would be troublesome if it was a trap.
"Temporarily give up on Jiraiya."
Lin Ke made a judgment. They had no chance of winning if they wanted to play Hide-and-Seek with Zetsu. Black Zetsu and White Zetsu were both top Hide-and-Seek masters.
Anyway, the information was already in hand, and it was certain that Jiraiya had fallen into the hands of Old Madara and Zetsu, so he had to go to Senju Tobirama to discuss the subsequent troubles.
In case Old Madara went to the Main World using Boat Crossing Technique, there was only Tsunade there.
Or even more troublesome, if Old Madara went to other worlds...
Who knows what kind of monsters would be raised by then.
I must have overlooked some important information. Lin Ke always felt that something was wrong. Madara's actions were too purposeful.
It didn't feel like they had no information at all.
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