The Mantis Stalks the Cicada, Unaware of the Oriole Behind

Inside the tower, cold winds mixed with torrential rain poured in through the shattered French windows, rattling the broken glass on the floor.

Black Zetsu's yellow pupils contracted sharply as he stared intently at Naruto Uzumaki, who was standing on shattered ice and enveloped in the golden light of Yang Release.

"Flying Thunder God?" White Zetsu's face was contorted in extreme pain, his voice shrill. "From the vicinity of Hidden Leaf to Amegakure, such a long distance, how could you possibly travel directly there without needing any intermediate Coordinates..."

"Who told you I don't have Coordinates?" Naruto tossed the specially made trident Kunai in his hand into the air, flipped his wrist, and caught the falling hilt.

He didn't give those two monsters a chance to continue their nagging. A sonic boom erupted beneath his feet, creating a large crater in the ground. Naruto transformed into a golden-red afterimage, instantly closing in on Naruto right in front of him.

"Wood Release: Wood Splintering..." White Zetsu had just Hand Seals.

Naruto's left hand, with its five fingers spread like iron clamps, gripped White Zetsu's throat tightly. His extremely powerful and masculine Chakra, like boiling magma, poured into the pale body without reservation.

"Ugh--!" White Zetsu let out an extremely shrill scream, and half of his body emitted thick smoke as it carbonized and peeled off at a speed visible to the naked eye.

Seeing that the situation was not good, Black Zetsu decisively abandoned White Zetsu's body. He transformed into a pool of viscous black liquid and was about to use his Mayfly Technique to escape into the ground through a crack in the wall.

"You mud from the sewers, you dare to try and burrow underground in front of me?" Naruto sneered, raising his right leg high and stomping it hard on the ground.

Ice Release: Absolute Zero Domain!

Click click click!

An extreme cold storm, mixed with the domineering Chakra of Yang Release, instantly swept across the entire top floor of the tower. The surrounding walls, the ground, and even the raindrops falling in the air were all frozen into an indestructible azure glacier in the blink of an eye.

The black liquid that Black Zetsu had transformed into was stuck three inches deep in the ice, completely frozen.

Whoosh whoosh!

Three steel bars, each as thick as Adamantine Sealing Chains, shot out from behind Naruto. Their tips, like spears, pierced the ice precisely, lifting Black Zetsu and the ice block into the air and locking them firmly in place.

In less than five seconds.

Kaguya Otsutsuki's strongest hidden agent was left hanging in mid-air like a dead dog.

Naruto dusted off his hands, dragged over a broken metal chair, and sat down casually in the middle of the room. He crossed his legs and glanced at the end of the dense network of Chakra pipes.

Nagato sat inside the life support device, looking like a withered tree.

He didn't even glance at Zetsu struggling in mid-air. His dim Rinnegan were fixed on the woman at the doorway, who was folding her tattered paper wings, looking past Naruto.

Inside the tower, only the howling wind and rain outside the windows could be heard.

"You're alive." Nagato's withered chest heaved violently, his voice hoarse like two rusty iron plates rubbing together. "Why... are you standing with the people of Hidden Leaf? Have you forgotten how Yahiko died!"

Konan remained silent. Her boots clicked crisply on the broken ice. She stopped five steps away from Nagato, her gaze sweeping over the Black Rod brutally embedded in his Nagato. A fleeting pang of heartache crossed her eyes, but it was quickly suppressed by her intense clarity.

"I haven't forgotten." Konan's tone was surprisingly calm. "Yahiko died because of Hanzo's schemes, because we were too weak, and because we had naive illusions about peace."

"Since you haven't forgotten!" Nagato gripped the armrests of his wheelchair tightly, a few strands of dry gray hair fluttering in the wind. "Why did you betray the Divine Nation! What kind of Genjutsu did Hidden Leaf use on you?!"

"They didn't do anything." Konan met Nagato's gaze without flinching. "It was I who saw things clearly that you've been blind to."

With a flick of her sleeve, a blank sheet of paper, devoid of any incantation, drifted down, transforming into a paper crane that landed on Nagato's withered knee.

"Nagato, we've cried in the rain for so many years, thinking that as long as the world feels the same pain, we can become the gods of the new world." Konan gave a self-deprecating smile. "But have you ever wondered why that man who calls himself Madara Uchiha, and his subordinate Zetsu, are so dedicated to helping us collect the Tailed Beast?"

Nagato frowned. "It's just mutual exploitation. They need me to clear obstacles, and I need their intelligence network to establish deterrence. It's all within my calculations."

"Stop patting yourself on the back, buddy." Naruto leaned back in his chair and interrupted Nagato with a sneer. "You really think that skinny guy like you can handle those eyes? You don't even know whose parts are stuck in your eye sockets."

Nagato's pupils constricted sharply. "What nonsense are you talking about!"

"Don't get excited. I came all this way not to kill you, but to remove your tubes." Naruto pointed at Black Zetsu in mid-air. "That dark thing was about to gouge your eyes out through those tubes when you were using your life force to control the Deva Path."

Despite screaming in agony from the intense heat of the Adamantine Sealing Chains, Black Zetsu, suspended in mid-air, still roared, "Nagato! Don't listen to this Nine-Tails brat's attempts to sow discord! Your Rinnegan is the destined Eye of God, and Hidden Leaf is trying to break your will!"

"If you bastard utter another word, I'll chop you up and feed you to the dogs." Naruto's gaze turned cold, Yang Release chains tightened abruptly, causing Black Zetsu to emit a dull cracking sound before falling completely still.

Konan bent down, looking Nagato in the eye. "Naruto showed me the truth they pieced together from Orochimaru and various ancient texts in the Hidden Leaf basement. Zetsu's true identity isn't Madara's will at all; he's just a parasite that's lived for a thousand years."

She paused, emphasizing each word. "And the Rinnegan you're so proud of was transplanted to you by Madara Uchiha before he died. From the time your parents were mistakenly killed by Konoha Ninja when you were young, to Yahiko being forced to his death by Hanzo... behind all of this, there's the shadow of that scoundrel and that Masked Man."

"Impossible..." Nagato retorted instinctively, her body trembling violently.

"Why is it impossible?" Naruto leaned forward, elbows on his knees, staring directly at Nagato. "Can't you use your brain for a second? The Senju Clan and Uchiha Clan have been fighting for hundreds of years, and only a few monsters have emerged from the top. How could you, an Uzumaki orphan whose bloodline isn't even pure, seamlessly awaken the Sage of Sage of Six Paths' eyes? Did a pie fall from the sky and just happen to land in your eye socket?"

Nagato gasped for breath. The purple light deep within his Rinnegan began to erratically fluctuate.

He wanted to refute it, to shout that it was all a lie. But the illogical details that he had deliberately ignored over the past few decades flooded his mind like a burst dam.

Why does the man who calls himself Madara always appear precisely when the Akatsuki is facing dire straits?

Why is it that every time I overdraw my Chakra and my body deteriorates, that person not only doesn't stop me, but instead watches coldly, even with a hint of anticipation?

"Pain can bring clarity. That's what you told me." Konan reached out and tightly grasped Nagato's trembling hands, which were shaking from the excessive force. "Nagato, we've been deceived. Our Divine Nation, the peace we've protected in Amegakure for so many years... it was all just a monkey show in someone else's script."

"Shut up... shut up!"

Nagato abruptly shook off Konan's hand. The image of Yahiko lying in a pool of blood flashed through his mind, along with the agony of personally stabbing his comrades' corpses with Black Rod to create the Six Paths of Pain.

What if all of this was a trap set by someone else?

Then what was all the suffering he endured in his life? A complete joke?!

"I don't believe it!" Nagato raised his head and let out a desperate roar like a dying beast.

Boom!

As his emotions completely collapsed, the countless black Chakra lines connected to his back suddenly burst forth with an extremely dazzling dark red light.

From the depths of the tower, a muffled roar, seemingly emanating from hell, resounded.

A gigantic, withered wooden statue, its entire form obscured, loomed in and out of existence in the space behind Nagato. From its ten empty eye sockets, a tremendous, irresistible, and intensely greedy suction force suddenly arose.

The Demonic Statue of the Outer Path!

"Ah--!" Nagato suddenly spat out a mouthful of black blood, and his entire body shriveled up at a visible speed. The Golem didn't care about his life or death at all, and was frantically squeezing out the last bit of life essence from his body through the tubes.

"It's eating him!" Konan's expression changed drastically. The piece of paper in her hand instantly transformed into a sharp blade, which she slashed fiercely at the black pipes.

When!

The paper blade struck the pipeline, producing a burst of sparks, but the pipeline remained completely undamaged.

"Get out of the way!" Naruto pulled Konan behind him, his right hand forming an extremely concentrated Yang Release Rasengan, which he then pressed directly against the Root of the clump of Black Rod.

Just as Yang Release was about to cut off the pipeline.

The air beside Nagato began to distort without warning.

A massive spatial Uzumaki appeared out of nowhere, and its intense gravity instantly disrupted Naruto's attack rhythm.

A hand wearing a black leather glove suddenly emerged from the Uzumaki and, with incredible speed, grabbed directly at Nagato's right Rinnegan!

"Naruto Uzumaki, those eyes don't belong to him."

A cold, deep voice emanated from the depths of the spatial Uzumaki. Obito Uchiha, wearing an orange single-eyed mask, stepped most of his body out of the void. The Sharingan that was exposed revealed an indifference that showed no regard for Nagato's life.

"You coward, you've finally decided to crawl out of your shell?"

Without any hesitation, Naruto's Rasengan instantly transformed into a raging dark red. Eight Gates: Gate of Wonder, open!

He shattered the air in front of Obito with a single punch.

"I said I'd pull the plug on him, who do you think you are, daring to steal my job?!"