Scarlet hair drifted through the cold rain, like shattered lotus petals stained red.
Nagato knelt on the ground, his hand unconsciously reaching for his now unevenly cropped hair. He was completely dazed.
He hadn't even seen how the other man had done it.
It was a form of sheer willpower that transcended ninjutsu and taijutsu.
"Bastard! What did you do to Nagato?!"
A furious roar shattered the eerie silence.
Yahiko instantly stepped in front of Nagato and spread his arms, like an angry lion protecting its cubs. He glared at the man in the sky.
Konan came to her senses, too. Countless sheets of paper flew from her sleeves, circling around her and forming a pair of poised paper wings. Her gaze was sharp.
They didn't know who this newcomer was, but anyone who hurt their friend was an enemy!
Yet faced with their hostility, Lin Feng—or rather, "Uchiha Madara"—didn't so much as twitch an eyebrow.
His gaze didn't linger on Yahiko and Konan for even half a second. Instead, he continued to look down at the red-haired young man behind them, who seemed utterly bereft.
"I have no interest in talking to a brat like you."
Lin Feng's voice was calm, yet carried an innate air of superiority. Yahiko felt as though his fury had struck a cushion, leaving him unbearably frustrated.
"I'm just disciplining my junior, so he understands that power isn't for playing pretend."
Junior?
Yahiko and Konan both froze.
This inexplicable stranger was claiming that Nagato was his junior?
"Who the hell are you?!" Yahiko demanded. "Stop with the tricks!"
At last, Lin Feng deigned to look at Yahiko. His gaze was like that of someone watching a child throw a tantrum.
"You're not qualified to know who I am."
He chuckled, his laughter filled with undisguised mockery.
"But you, Yahiko. I hear you've been going around proclaiming that you'll bring peace to this country through 'dialogue' and 'understanding'?"
Yahiko's expression stiffened.
That was the core belief of the Akatsuki. How could this man know about it?!
"That's right!" Though unsettled, Yahiko still held his head high and answered loudly. "War and hatred can't solve anything! Only mutual understanding can bring true peace! Lord Hanzo has already approved of our ideals!"
He had deliberately mentioned Hanzo, hoping the name of the "Demigod" would intimidate the stranger.
"Hanzo?"
Lin Feng repeated the name, the curve of his lips growing wider. He looked as though he'd just heard the biggest joke in the world.
"He's just an old lizard clinging to life, with poison in every breath."
"His so-called approval is nothing but a trap to lure you in and wipe you all out. And you actually believed him."
Boom!
His words exploded in the minds of Yahiko, Konan, and Nagato like a thunderclap.
"You're lying!" Yahiko turned deathly pale and protested heatedly. "Lord Hanzo genuinely wants to work with us!"
"Is that so?" Lin Feng's voice was tinged with amusement. "Did he tell you that he's already joined forces with Shimura Danzō of Konoha, and that they're preparing to surround you at the site of your next meeting?"
Shimura Danzō!
The name sent a shock through all three of them.
Of course they knew it. He was the leader of Konoha's Root, infamous throughout the Ninja World for his ruthless methods and willingness to do whatever it took.
Hanzo... would work with a man like that?
For the first time, Yahiko's convictions wavered violently.
He looked at the man in the sky. Every word the stranger spoke struck right at the deepest fears in his heart.
"H-how could you know all this?" Konan asked, her voice trembling slightly. She was calmer than Yahiko, and more attuned to the strangeness of the situation.
It was as if this man could see through everything.
Lin Feng didn't answer Konan's question.
That was exactly what he wanted.
By wielding an overwhelming advantage in information, he could create an air of mystery and oppression, and completely break down their defenses.
His gaze returned to Nagato.
"Nagato, stand up."
This time, his voice carried an irresistible command.
Nagato shuddered, then slowly rose to his feet, as if against his own will.
Yahiko hurriedly turned and grabbed him. "Nagato, don't listen to him!"
But Nagato seemed not to hear. He stared blankly at the man in the sky, his lips moving. At last, he asked the question that had been weighing on his mind.
"Who... are you, really?"
"Why do my eyes... react to you like..."
He couldn't even describe the feeling properly. It was a burning ache and a sense of resonance from deep within his soul, as if a wanderer had found his home, or a servant had seen his master.
Here it comes!
Lin Feng's heart tightened. He knew they had reached the crucial moment.
He couldn't just say, "I'm Uchiha Madara, and I gave you those eyes." That would be too deliberate, and beneath Lord Madara's stature.
He needed an answer more befitting "Madara."
"Those eyes belonged to me before you were born."
Lin Feng's voice drifted over, as if he were stating an indisputable fact.
"I merely left them in your possession for a time, while I waited for the day they would return to their rightful owner."
"And yet, as their custodian, you've used them to take part in this childish game of peace. Don't you think you've let this power down?"
Left in his possession?
Custodian?
Those words left Nagato, Yahiko, and Konan utterly confused.
Hadn't Nagato's Rinnegan been his since birth? How could they have been left to him by someone else?
"Lies!" Yahiko roared again. He would never let anyone shake Nagato's resolve. "Nagato's power is his own! It has nothing to do with anyone else!"
"Oh? Is that so?"
Lin Feng curled his lip.
Just then, Konan could no longer hold back. The paper wings behind her snapped open!
"Paper Style: Paper Shuriken!"
Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh, whoosh—!
Thousands upon thousands of sheets of paper hardened with Chakra shot toward Lin Feng in the sky like a torrential downpour!
Each sheet was as sharp as a blade!
It was a test, and a warning!
Yet faced with this airtight barrage, Lin Feng didn't even move.
He simply raised one hand, palm facing the rain of paper.
"Preta Path."
He uttered the three words softly.
The next moment, an unbelievable sight unfolded.
As the thousands of paper shuriken came within a meter of him, they seemed to be sucked into an invisible black hole. The Chakra on them was drained in an instant, leaving behind soft, ordinary sheets of paper that drifted down from the sky like a shower of pale snow.
A tiny counterclockwise-spinning sigil appeared in Lin Feng's palm, then vanished in a flash.
Konan's face turned deathly pale.
She could feel the Chakra connection between herself and the paper being forcibly severed and devoured by some incomprehensible force!
Nagato was even more shaken. His pupils contracted sharply!
That ability to absorb ninjutsu was one of the Six Paths abilities of his own Rinnegan!
He had managed to discover it himself, but there was no way he could use it as casually and effortlessly as the man before him!
He... really did understand these eyes! He understood them even better than Nagato did!
Lin Feng slowly lowered his hand, as if he had done nothing more than an insignificant little thing.
He looked at the three below, who had fallen completely silent, then turned his gaze back to Nagato.
"Do you still think those eyes are yours?"
His voice wasn't loud, yet it struck Nagato, Yahiko, and Konan like a heavy hammer.
Nagato's body began to tremble. His entire worldview was crumbling.
If these eyes weren't his... then what did anything he possessed even mean?
He looked at Yahiko beside him and saw the concern and resolve in his close friend's eyes.
Then he looked at Konan and saw her wariness and protectiveness.
No!
Nagato jerked his head up. For the first time, his Rinnegan blazed with a will that was truly his own!
"Even if you gave me these eyes, so what?!"
"Right now, all I want is to bring peace to this country with Yahiko and Konan! If you try to stop us, then I..."
"Oh?" Lin Feng cut him off, his voice carrying a hint of approval and amusement. "At last, you've started thinking for yourself. Not bad."
"Since you've brought up peace..."
Lin Feng slowly floated down from the enormous sphere of rock, stopping at eye level with the three of them.
"Then I'll give you a chance to prove you're capable of bringing 'peace.'"
His gaze swept across the three of them, finally settling on Yahiko.
"Hanzo the Salamander."
"Didn't you say he'd approved of you?"
"Then go kill him. Bring me his head, the one wearing that breathing mask."
"If you succeed, I might consider acknowledging your laughable ideals of peace."
Before you continue