Meanwhile.
The people sneaking peeks at the Diary were not just in Konoha. There were others within Amegakure, too.
In the same Tower, the only sound was the steady patter of rain.
Konan sat gracefully on the edge of her bed with her legs crossed. Her clothing had not changed at all. The village was poor to begin with; one Akatsuki robe would see her through to the finale. With her legs crossed, the toes exposed by her Ninja sandals showed purple nail polish.
She supported the Diary on her thigh with one hand and ran the other through her pale purple hair, her face filled with shock.
"So there's more than just the Rinnegan?"
She read that Konoha now possessed eyes called the Tenseigan, whose supposedly reality-defying abilities were on much the same level.
They were even stronger than what Nagato's Rinnegan had demonstrated, apparently capable of destruction on a world-ending scale.
And even if that ability could not be used, granting puppets life and raising an army of tens of thousands already sounded terrifying.
Trading puppets for human lives was a profitable exchange no matter how she looked at it. Chakra could be replenished at any time; human lives could not.
"Should we change our approach?"
Konan rested her hand on her exposed thigh and pondered. These days, their organization was still busy making money, making money, and making more money.
Without money, they could not take a single step.
No matter how shrewd or thrifty Konan was, she could wear out her abacus and still not squeeze out more than a few coins.
If they wanted to grow stronger and make progress, they absolutely could not turn the surrounding villages into enemies. There might be deadly grudges between them, but there was no helping it. For the