As the hidden-room door creaked open, a familiar yet unfamiliar figure emerged.
The figure stopped in the doorway and looked at Konan. "Konan, sorry to have kept you waiting!"
Konan's eyes grew misty. "Nagato, you're finally standing again!"
There was no doubt about it.
The figure who had emerged from the hidden room was none other than Nagato, the leader of the Akatsuki Organization.
But this time, he wasn't riding in his wooden chair. He had walked all the way to Konan on his own two feet, one step at a time.
Nagato glanced down at his legs. "With the healing abilities of our Uzumaki Clan, my leg injuries should have healed long ago. It was only because supplying the Demonic Statue of the Outer Path was so taxing that they took so long to mend."
Konan nodded happily. "Everything's getting better!"
Nagato smiled with confidence. "Yeah, everything's getting better!"
"Hm?"
Konan suddenly let out a small gasp.
Only then did she notice that three ink-black tomoe seemed to have appeared in the Rinnegan in Nagato's eye sockets.
Noticing her confusion, Nagato explained, "I didn't expect the Rinnegan to change like this, either."
In the original timeline, Nagato remained crippled because the Demonic Statue of the Outer Path was constantly draining his Chakra. Afterward, he fed each Tailed Beast captured by the Akatsuki Organization into the statue.
In other words, he had become nothing more than a tool for reviving the Ten-Tails.
Of course, that was also because in the original timeline, he believed that with the Rinnegan, he was already invincible and had no need to grow stronger. All that mattered was reviving the Ten-Tails as quickly as possible.
But in this timeline, the situation in the Shinobi World was unpredictable.
Nagato had to deal not only with the