Leaving Konoha

"The Nine Tails' Jinchuriki is Jiraiya-sensei's student, Naruto Uzumaki," Nagato replied. "Though we already knew that, it was only after meeting him that I realized he could become the kind of person who could carry peace."

Nagato raised the arm pierced by a Black Receiver and looked at the Summoning Scroll the Animal Path had brought over and opened before him. Chakra gathered at his five fingertips.

"Is that so? I didn't expect you to think so highly of him. But what about the mission? Are we giving up on capturing the Nine Tails?" Konan frowned slightly. She didn't care whether Nagato had some new plan; she would support him no matter what it was. But capturing all the Tailed Beasts had been Akatsuki's greatest goal for so many years. She didn't understand why Nagato would suddenly abandon it.

"No. I have another way to get the Nine Tails." As he spoke, chakra pierced the tips of Nagato's fingers, drawing blood. Then, after Konan's name on the Slug Scroll, he wrote the four characters of his own name in blood and left a bloody handprint. "I plan to bring Naruto into Akatsuki."

"Looks like you really do think highly of Naruto." Konan frowned. "What do you plan to tell Madara?"

"We don't need to pay Madara any mind. We can just do what we want." At the thought of Obito Uchiha, a flicker of displeasure crossed Nagato's eyes. For now, he had no intention of exposing Obito's true identity. He would wait until he had actually met with him before deciding what to do. "Madara is only our temporary partner. We're not on the same side. Naruto is completely different from Madara. You'll see him for yourself one day. He's like a second Jiraiya, and he's even more talented than Jiraiya."

Nagato hadn't been joking when he told Naruto earlier that he wouldn't hurt him.

Though he had once tried to kill Naruto, Nagato was a pragmatic man with principles.

To him, Naruto was just a stranger with the nominal status of "fellow disciple." He had never planned to kill Naruto in the first place, since there was nothing to gain from it. Later, when he wanted to "kill" Naruto, it was because he wanted to obtain the chakra treasure inside him. After the Sage of Six Paths stopped him from carrying out that plan, Nagato naturally changed his attitude toward Naruto. He found a different way to deal with him and took up his role as Naruto's senior disciple again.

As far as Nagato was concerned, his current methods of handling his junior disciple Naruto were a little despicable and rough, but he truly wasn't hurting him. As long as Naruto did as he was told and acted in accordance with their shared interests, Nagato could make sure he benefited.

Compared with Itachi Uchiha, who cast Tsukuyomi on Sasuke every time he caught him, Nagato thought he was already a very gentle, considerate, kind, and sweet senior disciple. Naruto would understand his "good intentions" sooner or later, in exactly the way Nagato wanted.

When Konan heard Jiraiya's name, her eyes dimmed a little. But she said nothing, and Nagato paid it no mind.

Nagato stared at the long list of names on the Slug Scroll before his and Konan's. They were an eyesore. So he simply used the Human Path's ability to erase them all, one by one.

His ability could easily extract the souls of living people. Erasing these defenseless names was nothing at all.

Once only his and Konan's names remained on the scroll, Nagato looked satisfied. "That's much easier on the eyes..."

There was something thoroughly inhuman about this behavior. It was the sort of thing where you took someone else's path and left them nowhere to go. But it made Nagato feel good, body and soul.

Sakura Haruno, who was using Katsuyu in Konoha to treat the Konoha Ninja, suddenly realized that her connection to Katsuyu had been severed. All the Katsuyu clones in Konoha also vanished where they stood with a "poof!"

"What's going on? Why can't I summon Katsuyu?" After trying several times and finding herself unable to summon Katsuyu at all, Sakura looked at the injured covering the ground, her face on the verge of tears.

Without Katsuyu's ability to heal groups of people, she would have to treat the injured one by one. And Yamato wasn't in Konoha right now. The ninjas trying to stop Naruto kept bringing more wounded to Sakura...

Hearing Naruto's roars in the distance, Sakura suddenly felt utterly helpless. Today, she had suddenly lost her master, her teacher, and her senior disciple, and then, for no apparent reason, she had lost Katsuyu. Now Naruto had completely lost his mind, too. Everything around her had changed, and she had no idea what the future would bring...

"If Naruto joins Akatsuki, peace in the future will be all the more secure." After erasing the "extra" names from the scroll, Nagato turned to Konan. "Now, let's go to Shikkotsu Forest using the Reverse Summoning Jutsu."

Konan nodded. All six Paths of Pain were now ready to go, and Tsunade and Hinata had been stuffed back into Yatagarasu's beak.

"I'll go first. Once I succeed, I'll summon the Pains over. Wait until they've left, then use the Reverse Summoning Technique." As he spoke, Nagato began forming Hand Seals. Since this was his first time using the technique, he had to be careful.

Then Nagato suddenly stopped, as if he'd thought of something.

"Konan, did you bring your Explosive Tags?"

The question came out of nowhere.

A rare look of embarrassment appeared on Konan's face.

"How did you know? I brought some." She'd thought Nagato didn't know she'd secretly prepared Explosive Tags.

"How many?"

Fortunately, Nagato didn't seem interested in asking why she'd brought them. Konan breathed a sigh of relief.

"All of them..."

Nagato nodded. Konan really was the kind of woman who spoke little but meant business. She'd stood by his side all this time without ever making a single threat, but who could have guessed she was carrying six hundred billion Explosive Tags? That was enough to blow Konoha up hundreds of thousands of times over, wasn't it? Kakuzu's spirit must have been sobbing in the afterlife. No one would believe she hadn't spent a single coin on that many Explosive Tags.

"Exactly how many?" Though Nagato trusted Konan's Explosive Tags, he still wanted to confirm the exact number. After all, the two of them would certainly be "uninvited guests" in Shikkotsu Forest. It was always better to be prepared.

"Um... six hundred billion." Konan wore the kind of expression a woman might make after spending too much on shopping and getting caught.

"Excellent!" Nagato nodded with satisfaction and continued forming Hand Seals. "We're going to Shikkotsu Forest now."

He didn't care about money. Explosive Tags were much more useful than money. Konan had done well.

With a loud "poof," Nagato used the Reverse Summoning Jutsu and disappeared.

Before long, Nagato also brought Yatagarasu and the Pains over one after another with the Summoning Technique.

This was as good as telling Konan that the Reverse Summoning Technique worked.

Seeing this, Konan began forming Hand Seals as well. A thoughtful look suddenly flashed in her eyes. She used Paper Shuriken to smash the chakra transmitter Nagato had been using, then nodded with satisfaction, formed Hand Seals, and performed the Reverse Summoning Technique, following Nagato to Shikkotsu Forest.

The giant Paper Tree standing on the mountain outside Konoha slowly came apart as Nagato and Konan left, turning into scraps of paper that fluttered through the air.

The white scraps drifted everywhere, as if someone were scattering funeral paper over Konoha.

The Konoha Ninja, who had formed a mountain-climbing team and struggled to find their way there with apprehension, saw the bleak scene before them and wore mournful expressions.

The enemy had actually escaped ahead of time, and taken their Hokage with them. Konoha was in a terrible state.

Not only had the entire village been leveled and its people suffered heavy casualties, but the enemy had even abducted the Fifth Hokage from the village. For Konoha, one of the Five Great Shinobi Villages, it was nothing short of a crushing humiliation.

Once the news spread, Konoha would lose all its prestige in the Shinobi World. And more important than Konoha's reputation was the fact that nearly all the Hokage faction's strongest fighters—Jiraiya, Kakashi, Shizune, and the others—had been killed.

In the future, the hardliners led by Danzo would surely rise to power and take control of Konoha. The Konoha they knew, the one that championed the Will of Fire, peace, and stability, would likely never return. It had been buried beneath the scraps of white paper fluttering through the sky.