Three Choices

Her presence was overwhelming. Aside from Nagato, Tsunade was the only one who radiated a leader's aura, and everyone's attention was drawn to her without their even realizing it.

The members of Taka looked at Tsunade with great interest, wondering, Who is she? She seems pretty arrogant.

They glanced at the mask on Tsunade's face, then at the mask on Obito's, their expressions turning strange. Suigetsu even grinned. Though the patterns on their masks were different, both had just one hole, leaving the right eye exposed. It looked a little ridiculous. There was no way both of them just happened to be missing their right eye, was there? Was wearing a mask like that some kind of habit among Akatsuki members?

"Cough. This is a new member of our organization." Seeing everyone looking at Tsunade, and realizing she had no intention of introducing herself, Nagato cleared his throat and introduced her in a grand tone. "Her codename is the One-Eyed King! You can get to know each other better when there's an opportunity."

So this was the One-Eyed King? The four members of Taka looked at Tsunade, then at Obito, all expressing the same thought with their eyes: So you're just an ordinary one-eyed guy.

Obito immediately experienced what Zetsu had just gone through. Was he being targeted too? What the hell was a One-Eyed King?

The atmosphere grew awkward for a moment. Tsunade and Obito both glared at Nagato in displeasure. The two one-eyed people thought Nagato was deliberately stirring up trouble.

"Cough." Nagato cleared his throat again and looked at the four members of Taka, preparing to change the subject. "You're the Taka squad, right? I asked you here because I want to confirm where you stand."

"Where we stand?" Sasuke spoke at once. "We've already left Akatsuki. Whatever we do from now on has nothing to do with you."

The moment the brat opened his mouth, Nagato got the impression that he was immature and withdrawn, like an introverted minor. Well, not like one—he was a minor, and one with only an elementary-school education.

"You already know the situation in the outside world, don't you?" Nagato patiently spoke to him in the tone one might use with an idiot. "You're now an international criminal. Hidden Leaf Village has revealed all your information to the shinobi of the world, and your name has been added to their wanted list."

"That's my business," Sasuke replied bluntly. "It has nothing to do with you."

"Then what about the Eight Tails?" Nagato asked calmly. "You didn't capture it as agreed."

Sasuke glanced at Obito, who sat silently in his seat, then looked back at Nagato. "What are you planning to do?"

"I can give you three choices." Nagato held up three fingers. "First, you can fulfill your agreement with Akatsuki right now and capture the Eight Tails. Once you successfully hand it over to us, I'll announce that you have nothing more to do with Akatsuki. Whether the Five Great Villages hunt you down after that will have nothing to do with us. Second, you can officially join Akatsuki. We'll let bygones be bygones, but from now on, you'll have to follow the organization's orders. Third, you can refuse the first two choices—but I'll kill you right now."

As Nagato finished speaking, a faint killing intent hung over the scene. Sasuke stared expressionlessly at Nagato's Rinnegan, anger rising in his heart.

The Uchiha were naturally prone to emotional behavior, and awakening the Mangekyou Sharingan made them even more extreme. Nagato only had to look at Sasuke's eyes to know that the kid was surely thinking up all kinds of crazy ideas.

But it didn't matter. As far as Nagato was concerned, Sasuke wasn't important at all. He had no particular talent, nor did he have a belief in peace that could sustain it, like Naruto. If Nagato hadn't been certain that this kid was one of the Sage of Six Paths' pawns, and worried that killing him might lead to some unexpected result, he wouldn't have bothered wasting his breath. He didn't think Sasuke had the strength to bargain with him.

The Mangekyou Sharingan was an incredibly powerful eye. Used well, it wasn't necessarily incapable of opposing the Rinnegan. Obito, Shisui, and Itachi all had exceptionally powerful abilities. Sasuke was different, though. His only talent was making people think he had talent. After all, he was the Uchiha Clan's only surviving member. If they didn't praise him, there'd be no one left to praise.

There was no need to mention how he performed with ordinary ninjutsu. Once an Uchiha reached the Mangekyou level, what mattered was the power of their eyes.

Judging from all the known Mangekyou abilities, Obito had the dual Kamui, a top-tier space-time ability that was outstanding in both offense and defense. As long as he didn't do anything stupid, it was difficult for anyone to kill him. Shisui's ocular power was Kotoamatsukami, the most powerful genjutsu. Even the Rinnegan might not withstand genjutsu of that caliber when both his eyes were intact. After all, according to Itachi's calculations, Sasuke with the Eternal Mangekyou couldn't even resist Shisui's Kotoamatsukami with one eye. That showed just how powerful the genjutsu was.

As for Itachi's eyes, although neither of their individual abilities was as absurd as those of the other two, he was the only one who truly possessed both Tsukuyomi and Amaterasu. His Susanoo also came equipped with two legendary weapons: the Totsuka Blade and the Yata Mirror. The ocular powers of those three were exceptionally strong, especially when they had just awakened the Mangekyou and both eyes were still healthy. Anyone who wanted to deal with them had to be careful, or they could easily get caught off guard.

Sasuke was different, though. Compared with those three's Mangekyou abilities, his were practically a free bonus for topping up a phone. They were the worst known Mangekyou abilities, bar none.

Both eyes had the same ability: Amaterasu. One eye unleashed it, and the other controlled it. Leaving aside the flaws of the technique itself, the time Sasuke needed to gather ocular power before he could use Amaterasu was more than enough for someone to kill him several times over.

Against people who liked wearing armor, the only thing his Amaterasu could do was strip their clothes off. He was like some little delinquent of the Shinobi World: whoever he glared at had their clothes burned away. No wonder he was Naruto's good buddy.

And unlike the kind-hearted Naruto, Sasuke was a weakling who sowed chaos, did whatever he wanted, and centered everything around himself as a revenge-driven avenger. He was certainly not someone Nagato believed could carry the burden of peace.

Should he kill him? No. He'd just have to put the kid in his place and make him behave.

Just by looking at Sasuke, Nagato knew the kid posed no threat to him at all. He could kill him easily, whether now or in the future.

Sasuke stared intently at Nagato's Rinnegan. His gaze wavered, and his pitch-black pupils turned red, three black tomoe slowly spinning within them.

In his vision, Nagato's body became a steadily expanding shadow, gradually looming over him until it filled all the space he could see.

Sasuke's mental world turned pitch-black. He raised his head and could see only Nagato's ever-growing shadow and the Rinnegan rising higher and higher as the shadow expanded, as if hanging in the sky. Like two full moons in a pitch-black night, they radiated a cold, merciless ocular power that sent a chill through his entire body. The spark of fighting spirit that had just appeared in him instantly vanished.

Simply to resist the Rinnegan's relentless ocular power, Sasuke had unconsciously activated his Three-Tomoe Sharingan.

Not long ago, he had trembled in fear before Itachi's Susanoo. Now, facing Nagato's Rinnegan, that same terror and sense of helplessness returned. If a surge of Chakra inside him hadn't propped up his pride, Sasuke would have already lowered his head.

As the option of bowing down and admitting defeat surfaced in Sasuke's mind, his sense of failure grew stronger. At the same time, an arrogant force suddenly burst from the Chakra inside him, rising like a burning flame. It carried a savage, furious aura, as if royal authority had been insulted, and flowed into every part of his body. It drove Sasuke to stand his ground stubbornly, without giving an inch.

Intense fear and invincible pride—two utterly opposing emotions—intertwined inside Sasuke. His face grew more and more twisted, his expression increasingly savage.