Late at night in Amegakure.
Nagato lay in the life-support device with his eyes closed. The instant the Rain Tiger at Will Technique spread out, the chakra signatures of the entire village unfolded in his mind like a net.
Every person, every corner, lay within his perception.
But something was wrong tonight.
Several hundred chakra signatures showed faint fluctuations. They were not violent, but like undercurrents beneath the water's surface—vague, intermittent, barely there.
Nagato opened his eyes, ripples spreading through his Rinnegan.
"Konan."
The moment he spoke, sheets of paper gathered in the air, and Konan appeared beside the life-support device.
"You felt it too?" Konan's expression was grim.
"How many?" Nagato asked.
"Three hundred seventy-two." Konan paused. "They're all residents of border villages. The abnormalities began appearing one after another three days ago."
Nagato sat up, and the tubes of the life-support device gave off a faint hum.
"Abnormalities?"
"On the surface, they behave normally." Konan walked to the window and looked at the rain outside. "They work when they should work, eat when they should eat, but there's something wrong with their eyes."
"What's wrong?"
"Empty." Konan turned around. "Like walking corpses."
Nagato fell silent for several seconds before Human Path Pain walked in.
"I'll bring one here."
Konan nodded and vanished amid fluttering paper.
Ten minutes later, a middle-aged man was brought into the secret chamber. His expression was vacant, and he stood motionless where he was.
Human Path Pain stepped forward and pressed a hand against the man's head.
"Mind Reading."
The man's pupils instantly widened, and his body began to shake violently.
Through Pain's vision, Nagato saw the man's memories.
The scene showed the streets of Amegakure.
No, not the present-day Amegakure.
Corpses littered the streets, blood mixed with rainwater flowing everywhere. Buildings had collapsed,