The Akatsuki Organization's summons signal.
Orochimaru's expression briefly froze.
He lowered his gaze to his abdomen, then raised a hand to press against the spot where his ring lay.
"Of all times."
He did not hesitate.
Chakra swiftly flowed into the ring.
The next instant, his consciousness was forcibly drawn away.
His vision went dark.
When his senses returned, Orochimaru was standing in a dim space.
There were no solid walls around him.
Towering, spectral fingers rose from the darkness.
Blurry figures stood atop separate fingertips.
Pain sat at the very front.
Konan stood beside him.
Kakuzu, Hidan, Biwa Jūzō, and Zetsu appeared one after another.
Orochimaru's consciousness had barely settled when a crushing wave of ocular power bore down on him from ahead.
That power was deep and vast.
Like a dark ocean with no end in sight, it instantly engulfed the entire space.
An ordinary shinobi would likely have lost consciousness under that pressure.
Orochimaru, however, did not resist.
He allowed the ocular power to sweep over him.
The brief pressure soon dissipated.
And in that instant, he caught something unusual.
Pain's Rinnegan was far too rigid.
Its ocular power was indeed immense.
Yet it lacked the fluidity that should have belonged to the eyes themselves.
This was not the natural flow of the Uchiha Clan using their ocular techniques.
Nor was it the deft control of a shinobi who had awakened his own bloodline limit.
The Rinnegan's ocular power was locked firmly within the eye sockets.
It was more like a foreign object forcibly embedded in the body.
It could provide passive protection.
It could increase resistance to ninjutsu and genjutsu.
But Pain could not truly wield it.
A glimmer of understanding crossed Orochimaru's eyes.
Pain was not the Rinnegan's true owner.
"Welcome back."
Pain's voice was