Probing

"The capture of the Nine Tails cannot be considered a failure!" Nagato glared at Zetsu. "I simply changed my mind on a whim. The Nine Tails is already within my grasp."

"What do you mean by that?"

Obito asked Nagato with his head bowed, while Tsunade looked toward Nagato with curiosity.

"Nagato doesn't need to explain himself to you; he is the leader of the Akatsuki." Konan couldn't help but speak up. "Nagato's meaning is already very clear. He will handle the Nine Tails himself. Madara, if you are impatient, there is no problem with leaving it to you."

Nagato smiled slightly, watching Obito's reaction.

This bastard, right in front of Sasuke and Kisame, kept acting like he was the one pulling the strings and that Pain was just his subordinate, acting as if he were some big shot. If he dared to step out of line in front of him, he would gouge out his Sharingan.

Obito's right eye narrowed slightly, and he said slowly, "Of course, Nagato is the leader of the Akatsuki. I just wanted to clarify his thoughts."

Zetsu stood to the side, wearing a smile that was wretched and looked quite punchable.

"Nagato, you must be careful of that half-black, half-white creature." Katsuyu warned in Nagato's mind. "He gives me a very wrong feeling."

"He is something that crawled out of the Demonic Statue of the Outer Path." Nagato replied in his mind. He hesitated about whether to tell Katsuyu the true identity of Black Zetsu, but after thinking it over, although he trusted Katsuyu deeply, he decided it was better not to share that intelligence.

"What kind of plans do you people have? What is the point of disrupting the peace? And why target the Tailed Beasts?" Tsunade suddenly roared at the top of her lungs, her voice so loud it sounded like she was starting a fight.

Nagato frowned at Tsunade's shouting. "Konan, gag her."

He felt that Tsunade was far too noisy. Previously, the Deva Path had been so annoyed by her shouting that he had wanted to blow up Konoha, and now Nagato also detested her habit of yelling at every turn.

Konan nodded and used several sheets of paper to firmly seal Tsunade's mouth, and the world instantly became quiet.

"Nagato, what are you planning to do with Lady Tsunade?" Katsuyu asked in Nagato's mind; it hadn't forgotten how Nagato had dealt with Konoha earlier.

"Rest assured, she won't die, so don't worry about it. I cannot let her go, but I won't kill her either." Nagato shook his head, then said to Obito, "The capture of the Eight Tails is left to you. What is Sasuke's current attitude?"

"He wants to leave the Akatsuki and take revenge on Konoha himself." Obito said indifferently. "Let's discuss this when we return. Sasuke caused too much of a scene when capturing the Eight Tails. Kumogakure is currently demanding a Five Kage Summit; it seems they are targeting us."

This intelligence was identical to the original plot, and Nagato nodded secretly.

"A Five Kage Summit?" Konan and Tsunade, who heard this, both had looks of surprise in their eyes. It seemed the outside world was already in turmoil.

"Is this the Hokage?" Obito looked at Tsunade, who was making muffled noises but unable to speak. "What do you intend to do with her?"

"Keep her; she is my bargaining chip for dealing with Konoha." Nagato thought for a moment and replied. "As long as I have her, Konoha will not become a problem for us. I am certain of that."

"What about that one-eyed little girl?" White Zetsu suddenly interrupted. "She's useless, right? Should we kill her?"

The one-eyed girl he referred to—Hinata—was looking at Zetsu's bizarre appearance with timid eyes, which made Zetsu feel very uncomfortable. Upon hearing this, Tsunade glared fiercely at Zetsu.

Zetsu and Obito were both the type of people who looked down on everyone. They certainly had intelligence on Hinata, but in their eyes, she was just a girl with the Byakugan. Without the Byakugan as a marker, they wouldn't even recognize who she was.

However, Zetsu's comment about the "one-eyed girl" caused Obito to fix his gaze on him as well.

In an instant, the three one-eyed individuals present all had their eyes locked onto him.

Zetsu: "..."

Cold sweat dripped down his white half, while his black half showed a look of anger in its eye, seemingly cursing White Zetsu for being an idiot in his heart.

Due to certain reasons, all three one-eyed people present were in a bad mood, and White Zetsu had walked right into the line of fire; he deserved what was coming to him.

Nagato even spoke up to lecture this yin-yang creature: "Do not concern yourself with matters that do not fall under your purview. Zetsu, you are, after all, responsible for the organization's intelligence work; stop thinking about killing and fighting all day long. The intelligence you gathered regarding the Nine Tails this time was deeply flawed. By the time I arrived at Konoha, the Nine Tails' jinchuriki wasn't even in the village. By the time I turned Konoha upside down, Naruto Uzumaki had only just returned."

The Akatsuki's previous intelligence gathering on Konoha was clearly very wrong. Moreover, Obito had deliberately requested to keep the Demonic Statue of the Outer Path to seal the Eight Tails while he went to Konoha to capture the Nine Tails. Such behavior was truly treacherous; it felt as if it were intentional, as if he wanted to use Konoha to weaken his condition. But Nagato had no evidence, so he couldn't be bothered to mention it.

"Ah? ..." White Zetsu opened his mouth wide. Why did it feel like everyone here was targeting him? Even the way Konan looked at him was icy cold.

"Forget it." A thoughtful look flashed in Obito's eyes as he advised, "Let's go. The situation has already become chaotic, and there is still much work to be done."

Nagato combined the intelligence he had gathered and thought that since he, the leader of Amegakure, was not dead, Amegakure would still be seen by the outside world as the headquarters of the Akatsuki. Because of this, the Five Kage might set their sights on Amegakure. Thus, he had to return early to make preparations. He nodded and said, "Very well, let's return to Amegakure. There can be no more mistakes regarding intelligence on the Five Kage Summit."

Obito turned his back upon hearing this, blocking Nagato's view of his Sharingan, and said, "My speed is faster; let me take you back?"

His long-range space-time movement ability required him to suck the people he wanted to transport into the Kamui dimension to accomplish it.

And this technique was also one of his most commonly used methods of attack. Once an enemy was sucked into the dimension, it was no different from being defeated by him.

Even when battling the Fourth Hokage, Obito had repeatedly attempted to suck him into the dimension, which showed that in his view, even the Fourth Hokage's Flying Raijin could not escape from his dimension.

If it were the Nagato of the past, entering Obito's dimension without the Paths of Pain activated would be no different from being captured by Obito. But things were different now; Obito's other eye was with Nagato, so Obito's dimension was no different from his own backyard.

Nagato understood that this was Obito testing him, testing whether he still trusted him. After pretending to think for a moment and glancing at the expressionless, flawless Konan, Nagato nodded and agreed to Obito's suggestion: "Very well, that is indeed the fastest way."

Just as Obito would recruit Sasuke to make up for his current lack of combat power, as the leader of the Akatsuki, with the organization lacking strength and facing the possibility of an attack from the Five Great Nations, Nagato did not intend to kill Obito as long as he behaved himself.

With the Five Kage Summit being convened, and because Nagato was not dead, it was unknown what decisions the Five Kage would make; infighting at such a time would be unwise.

Moreover, in the eyes of Madara Uchiha and Black and White Zetsu, both he and Obito were merely pawns to be used, so Obito might also be his potential ally.

Of course, if Obito's brain was truly broken, making Nagato feel that he could not deal with him, killing him and taking his other Sharingan was also an alternative plan for Nagato. In any case, to Nagato, Obito was no longer of much consequence.