Before long, visible changes began taking place in Yahiko's body.
His skin, which had been ashen and stiff from death and his long existence as a puppet, gradually regained a healthy rosy hue.
The tiny blood vessels beneath his skin began pulsing once more, carrying signals of life's return.
A faint breath, almost inaudible yet undeniably present, began to emerge rhythmically from his nose.
"Cough, cough..."
Several minutes later, a soft coughing sound came from Yahiko's throat, breaking the silence.
His tightly shut eyes trembled slightly a few times before snapping open!
These eyes were no longer the hollow, indifferent eyes he had possessed as Deva Path Pain.
In their place were clear pupils that belonged to Yahiko himself, filled with the confusion of someone newly awakened and the lingering agony in his body.
"Where... am I..." Yahiko's voice was hoarse and weak, as though it had traveled through a long, dark stretch of time, carrying bewildered confusion.
He instinctively raised a hand and touched his abdomen.
That place... the fatal pain from his memories had vanished.
Then he touched where his heart was, feeling a strong, vigorous heartbeat.
Yet a violent headache struck immediately afterward, making Yahiko clutch his forehead.
The fragments of memory in his mind remained chaotically fixed on that desperate betrayal outside Amegakure...
Shimura Danzō's scheme, Hanzo of the Salamander's coercion, and...
In order to protect Nagato and Konan, he had rushed without hesitation toward the kunai in Nagato's hand...
Seeing this, Naruto released his control over Tobi.
Having lost nearly all of his Chakra and most of his life force, Tobi's body collapsed limply onto the ground as though it had been hollowed out.
Though a trace of weak Nine-Tails Chakra still remained within him, his life force had been massively depleted by Life Reincarnation.