Several days later, deep inside a tower in the Land of Rain.
In the dim chamber, a dense web of pipes remained connected to the gaunt figure.
Nagato's breathing was heavier than before, and the gray sky outside the window was reflected in his Rinnegan.
The damage to the Demonic Statue of the Outer Path had drained a great deal of his chakra and life force, but his back remained straight, like an old tree holding up these ruins.
Space warped, and a black vortex appeared out of thin air. Obito stepped out of it, his robes fluttering gently in its wake. His orange mask concealed his expression, leaving only a scarlet Sharingan gleaming with a cold, eerie light through the eyehole.
Konan stood beside Nagato, her purple hair faintly shimmering in the gloom. Her gaze settled on Obito, cold as frost, and her voice carried anger she could barely suppress:
"Uchiha Madara, look what you've done! Konoha moved the Nine-Tails Jinchuriki ahead of time and evacuated every villager. Our attack did nothing to weaken them-we only burned down a few empty houses.
Kakuzu and Sasori almost died there, and half the puppets of the Six Paths of Pain were destroyed. This was your supposedly foolproof plan?"
Pain raised a hand, signaling Konan to stop. Obito's mask was reflected in his Rinnegan, and his hollow voice carried a rare trace of self-reflection:
"Konan, I was careless this time. I never expected Hyuga Tianyi to be so powerful-Sage Mode, Flying Thunder God, Magnet Release. That combination of abilities was more troublesome than our intelligence suggested.
And Konoha responded far faster than I anticipated.
Those fire drills were a trap laid for us from the very beginning. It seems our intelligence was leaked-or our enemy can foresee the future."
Obito neither argued