Transplant

Before, while Nagato was training in Senjutsu, he had no time to spare for Cerberus. After using it to get to the Black Pool, he had simply left it there.

The dumb dog wasn't like the Summoning Beasts of the Three Great Sage Regions, which had the intelligence of ordinary people.

Without orders from Nagato, it had no idea what to do. It had stayed in the acidic mist, being corroded the whole time and yelping in pain. Its instincts told it to get as far away from the Black Pool as possible, but it didn't dare stray too far from its master, Nagato. Now it was crouched on the ground, its single dog head corroded into three. It seemed to be nearly out of its mind from the acid mist.

When Nagato approached, all three of Cerberus's large heads turned toward him. Its eyes looked utterly pitiful, and they were glistening with tears.

Because the Black Receivers had disappeared from Nagato's body, not only had Pain's eyes returned to normal, but Cerberus's had as well. They looked much livelier now.

Shikkotsu Forest truly deserved its reputation as a sacred place. Nagato felt that after spending some time here, Cerberus's intelligence had improved a tiny bit. It had gone from completely brainless to merely stupid.

"Summoning Jutsu."

As soon as he saw Cerberus, Nagato promptly summoned Asura Path over from the Black Pool. It was wearing nothing but pants, and he didn't want its corpse to be corroded by the acid mist. Then he tossed Asura Path onto Cerberus and continued using the dog as transportation.

Cerberus's three heads perked up excitedly, and it seemed delighted. Carrying Asura Path, it followed Nagato as the two of them retraced their route.

Before long, they spotted a cluster of shadows in the distance, both large and small. It was probably Konan and the others.

"Is that you, Nagato?"

As soon as he got closer, Nagato heard Konan call out to him.

By the moonlight, he could see her standing in the green mist. She was still where he had left her, and it seemed she hadn't moved a single step. Pain's bodies lay scattered all around her.

"It's me," Nagato replied.

Konan hesitated for a moment, then immediately walked toward him.

"Did you successfully learn Senjutsu?"

When she saw Nagato, Konan asked in a perfectly calm voice.

Nagato looked at her tired face, worn from staying awake for so long, and nodded. "I did."

A smile spread across Konan's face. "I knew you'd succeed!"

Her voice brimmed with joy.

As if she'd never doubted him at all.

Katsuyu, perched on Nagato's back, turned her head away with a helpless look and muttered inwardly.

She wondered who it was that had immediately pulled out all her Explosive Tags after seeing Pain's bodies suddenly collapse.

Konan had looked so fierce, as if she were about to blow up Shikkotsu Forest right then and there. She'd scared Katsuyu's main body half to death.

Fortunately, Nagato had left a Lizard here. Otherwise, Katsuyu wouldn't have known how to explain to Konan that Nagato was still alive. Konan didn't believe her at all and hadn't been willing to go with Katsuyu to the Black Pool to check.

Thinking of how fierce Konan had looked, Katsuyu still broke out in a cold sweat. She'd lived in Shikkotsu Forest for so many years, only for it to nearly get blown up over a misunderstanding. Who could she complain to about that?

Nagato and Konan walked back together. When he saw that Tsunade was now wrapped up tightly in Explosive Tags, he immediately understood that while Konan had been here alone, things hadn't been nearly as easy for her as she was making them seem.

"A hostage..." Konan explained quietly.

Clearly, if Nagato had died, she would have blown up Shikkotsu Forest, and Tsunade would have died with it. Hinata, lying right next to Tsunade, certainly wouldn't have survived either.

"Well done..." Nagato said, nodding in understanding. He gave Konan a thumbs-up, thinking that she was incredibly dependable and had handled things brilliantly. She was the kind of person he'd want on his team for a ranked match.

He walked over to the unconscious Tsunade and placed his hand on her head.

Honestly, Nagato was increasingly convinced that kidnapping Tsunade had been the right decision. The old woman was like a living search engine: if there was something he didn't know, he could just search her brain for it. It was incredibly convenient.

Before long, using the Human Path's ability, Nagato obtained the information he wanted from Tsunade's mind.

After closing his eyes and committing it to memory, he said to Konan, "Konan, give me the Byakugan and Sharingan."

He planned to transplant these eyes now. The Sharingan especially—he needed to implant it as soon as possible. It was his trump card against Obito.

Konan handed him the three eyes, sealed inside a paper pouch. "You're planning to transplant them now?"

Although she didn't quite understand what Nagato was doing, Konan had no intention of stopping him, nor would she ask questions.

Nagato nodded, took the three eyes, and cut open his left arm right in front of her.

He didn't even blink as he cut into himself, as if he couldn't feel pain. Katsuyu couldn't help exclaiming, "You're a real masochist." After seeing so many sophisticated medical techniques, she found Nagato's crude methods hard to stomach.

Chakra gathered in Nagato's right hand, as sharp as a blade. It looked somewhat like a proper medical ninja's Chakra Scalpel, but if you insisted on calling this thing a knife, it was fit only for butchering pigs.

It was fine for chopping meat or cutting into Nagato, but if he used it to operate on a normal person, they'd all end up dead.

Once Nagato had cut open his left arm, the cross-section of his skin and muscle was exposed. It looked horrifying, yet strangely, not a single drop of blood flowed out.

"Is this the effect of using Senjutsu?" Konan couldn't help asking.

"Not necessarily," Katsuyu answered from Nagato's back. "Nagato is the first human to learn the Senjutsu of Shikkotsu Forest. Even I don't know how much his body has changed. This might simply be his body's normal state."

Nagato paid no attention to Katsuyu and Konan's conversation. Like an elementary school student carefully repairing an appliance, he concentrated on pushing a Byakugan into the wound in his left arm.

Then he brought the split edges together and let the wound begin to heal.

"What's the point of doing that? You haven't connected it to the optic nerve," Katsuyu reminded him. She really did have a good temper. Though she disapproved of Nagato relying on "someone else's power," she still offered him advice.

"I don't need to," Nagato replied. As the wound on his forearm healed rapidly, he controlled the nerves there, following the information he'd obtained from Tsunade, and connected them to the Byakugan.

When the wound had completely healed, his forearm looked no different from before. Nagato clenched his left fist, felt that the Byakugan had grown perfectly inside his arm, and smiled with satisfaction.