The Sole Planner

Nagato, who possessed "all" the intelligence of this world, turned his suspicious gaze toward the Sage of Six Paths and immediately discovered more and more suspicious points about him.

First of all, the Demonic Statue of the Outer Path was something the Sage of Six Paths had created after splitting the Ten-Tails. The strange thing was, since he had already used the Ten-Tails' Chakra to create the nine Tailed Beasts, why on earth did he need to leave behind the Demonic Statue of the Outer Path?

With his strength, wouldn't it have been simpler to just split the Ten-Tails into nine parts? When Minato Namikaze split the Nine Tails, he didn't go through the unnecessary trouble of leaving behind a shell of the Nine Tails, did he? The only function of the Demonic Statue of the Outer Path, once created, was to revive the Ten-Tails.

If it weren't for the deliberate actions of the Sage of Six Paths, the Demonic Statue of the Outer Path would not exist in this world at all. And without the Demonic Statue of the Outer Path, the so-called plan of Black Zetsu to revive the Ten-Tails and Kaguya Otsutsuki would be nothing more than a castle in the air, impossible to initiate and with zero possibility of realization.

Therefore, the entire foundation of the plan to revive Kaguya was established by the Sage of Six Paths from the very beginning.

Furthermore, the connection between the Demonic Statue of the Outer Path and the Rinnegan was also created by the Sage of Six Paths.

If a single Demonic Statue of the Outer Path were not enough to compel someone who obtained it to use it to revive Kaguya, the Sage of Six Paths used his reputation, which had lasted for thousands of years, combined with the connection between his iconic Rinnegan and the Demonic Statue of the Outer Path. This gave everyone who obtained the Demonic Statue of the Outer Path sufficient motivation to revive the Ten-Tails.

Moreover, the prerequisite for obtaining the Demonic Statue of the Outer Path was awakening the Rinnegan, which was like a test. It ensured that everyone who could obtain the Demonic Statue of the Outer Path possessed the sufficient aptitude to use it.

Such a design could only be achieved by the Sage of Six Paths. Because in this world, only two people had ever awakened the dual Rinnegan: the Sage of Six Paths and Madara Uchiha.

The Sage of Six Paths was the first person in this world to awaken the dual Rinnegan, and at the same time, he was the first person in this world to possess the Demonic Statue of the Outer Path. When the Sage of Six Paths awakened the Rinnegan, the Demonic Statue of the Outer Path did not exist at all. Therefore, the connection between the Rinnegan and the Demonic Statue of the Outer Path was created after his time.

Then, the second person in this world to awaken the Rinnegan, Madara Uchiha, summoned the Demonic Statue of the Outer Path through the ocular power of the Rinnegan the moment he awakened his eyes. If this wasn't the work of the Sage of Six Paths, then who else could it be?

Just as Itachi could tamper with Sasuke's eyes to allow him to use Amaterasu, as the first person to possess both the Rinnegan and the Demonic Statue of the Outer Path, the Sage of Six Paths had the full capability and opportunity to link the ocular power of the Rinnegan with the Demonic Statue of the Outer Path.

Apart from him, Nagato could not find a second person to suspect. Kaguya Otsutsuki's eyes were a pair of Byakugan and a Nine-Tomoe Rinnegan. It was neither a normal Rinnegan nor did it have the Demonic Statue of the Outer Path, and by the time the Demonic Statue of the Outer Path existed, Kaguya had long since been sealed. Therefore, the matter of the Demonic Statue of the Outer Path should have nothing to do with Kaguya.

And yet, this connection between the Rinnegan and the Demonic Statue of the Outer Path was the core of the plan to revive Kaguya.

For an insider like Nagato, he was very clear that things like Black Zetsu or the stone tablet were actually insignificant in the overall layout; one could say they had no meaning for existence at all.

With the foundation of the Rinnegan summoning the Demonic Statue of the Outer Path, all the layouts regarding Kaguya's revival were already complete.

Because the Sage of Six Paths himself had said that he had already realized that sooner or later, a reincarnate of Indra would attempt to awaken the Rinnegan.

In other words, the Rinnegan being awakened by the second person after the Sage of Six Paths could be said to be an inevitable result. For example, someone like Orochimaru had never seen the stone tablet nor heard the nonsense of Black Zetsu, yet he still researched the secrets of the Rinnegan.

And once someone awakened the Rinnegan, just like Madara, they would inevitably summon the Demonic Statue of the Outer Path.

Then, regardless of whether there was a stone tablet, with the abilities of a Rinnegan user, they would inevitably discover the function of the Demonic Statue of the Outer Path and would inevitably revive the Ten-Tails because of their trust in the Demonic Statue of the Outer Path. And then, going a step further, after becoming the Ten-Tails Jinchuriki, the Eye of the Moon Plan would naturally fall into place. It was only under the instigation of the God Tree that Madara "merged" with the God Tree.

From this perspective, even the act of the Sage of Six Paths scattering the nine Tailed Beasts across the world was intentional.

Because only with such a layout could the user of the Rinnegan attract the attention of the whole world during the process of reviving the Ten-Tails, causing chaos everywhere. Finally, in a situation where they were enemies with everyone, they would be forced to absorb the God Tree and launch the Infinite Tsukuyomi.

Otherwise, if the nine Tailed Beasts were kept together from the start, the person who obtained the Rinnegan wouldn't have to deal with anyone, could easily become the Ten-Tails Jinchuriki, and like Sage Katsuyu, just find a place to stay home—what if they didn't launch the Infinite Tsukuyomi? Wouldn't that be a total waste of effort?

That wouldn't do. Anyone who wanted to become the Ten-Tails Jinchuriki had to be someone who dared to be an enemy of the whole world, and in the end, be slapped in the face by the whole world, forced to merge with the God Tree.

That's right, it had to be someone like Madara Uchiha, a maniac who wouldn't allow others to dance. Not someone like Sage Katsuyu, a lazy homebody with no motivation for a thousand years.

Thinking about the possibility of a homebody like Sage Katsuyu becoming the Ten-Tails Jinchuriki, with the Sage of Six Paths underground being so furious that smoke was coming out of his seven orifices and he couldn't even keep his coffin lid down, Nagato almost laughed out loud again, feeling that such an ending would be too hilarious.

He even had an impulse to return to Shikkotsu Forest right now and transplant the Rinnegan to Sage Katsuyu.

Well, fortunately, he held back.

"Nagato, why are you always laughing?" Konan's tone was somewhat reproachful. She felt that Nagato was being too unserious; he had just finished laughing, and now he was laughing again! Did he have no sense of crisis at all?

"It's nothing." Nagato shook his head and said, "I just feel that the initiative in this matter is actually on our side. No matter what the Sage of Six Paths is thinking or planning, it requires our cooperation."

He looked at the Demonic Statue of the Outer Path in front of him and added, "For example, if the situation exceeds our imagination, we can completely destroy the Demonic Statue of the Outer Path. That way, no matter what schemes or tricks there are, they will have no place to be used."

He might not be able to beat the Sage of Six Paths at cards, but he was quite good at flipping the table.

Even Kakashi could use Kamui to destroy the Demonic Statue of the Outer Path. With Nagato's current ability to use his eyes like plug-and-play devices, destroying the Demonic Statue of the Outer Path was not a difficult task.

Of course, this point also confirmed the abnormality of the Sage of Six Paths. If he really didn't want the Ten-Tails to be revived, wouldn't everything be solved if he had just destroyed the Demonic Statue of the Outer Path? Surely one couldn't say that the Sage of Six Paths was not as strong as Kakashi, right?