I'm talking nonsense? Then see for yourselves

Though Konan was unwilling, she still obeyed Nagato and stepped aside. Uchiha Yi lightly tightened his grip, and the paper spear in his hand instantly crumbled to ash. He watched Nagato with an amused smile. "From the sound of it, you think you're a match for me?"

"Uchiha Yi, you're far too arrogant! You should know that you're facing a god! A god's power is beyond your imagination!" Nagato trembled with rage as he shouted. With another roar, a tremendous surge of chakra erupted from his frail body, and several black rods shot toward Uchiha Yi.

But Uchiha Yi merely reached out and caught one rod, knocking all the others away. Nagato secretly rejoiced. Those black rods carried the Rinnegan's power of the Outer Path. They could transmit chakra, restrain Tailed Beasts, and suppress the chakra within a person's body. He thought touching one would leave Uchiha Yi unable to use his chakra.

The next second, however, he was dumbfounded. Uchiha Yi scoffed. "These things you made with the Rinnegan's Yin-Yang Release have their uses, but they're still a long way from being enough." He squeezed, crushing the black rod into powder.

The black rod had shattered? Nagato stared, unable to believe his eyes. Uchiha Yi shook his head with a hint of weary disdain. "Take a break, Nagato. You're no match for me."

He thought he was kindly advising Nagato, but he had no idea that his words had sent the man, who had always considered himself a god, into a fury. "Uchiha Yi, don't think I'm out of options! Since you're begging to die, I'll show you the power of a god!" Nagato formed hand seals and shouted.

"Summoning Technique: Demonic Statue of the Outer Path!" A gigantic monster suddenly appeared, smashing straight through Konan's barrier. Uchiha Yi smiled. He hadn't come to take Nagato's life. Naturally, he had something else in mind.

"Sage Art: Gate of the Great God!" At his shout, countless red torii gates descended from the sky, pinning the Demonic Statue of the Outer Path so firmly that it couldn't move. With Uchiha Yi's current strength, these gates were even more powerful than those unleashed by the First Hokage at full strength. Suppressing the statue, nothing more than the Ten-Tails' empty shell, was child's play.

Nagato was utterly dumbfounded. Ever since he had obtained the Rinnegan and learned to summon the Demonic Statue of the Outer Path, he had considered it invincible. Even Hanzō the Demigod could only flee in disgrace. He hadn't taken that mysterious Madara Uchiha seriously either, believing the man couldn't possibly stand against him, let alone threaten him with schemes.

Yet now, that invincible power had been suppressed. Ignoring Nagato's shock, Uchiha Yi flashed onto the statue's head. Then something even more incomprehensible happened.

The Demonic Statue of the Outer Path actually opened its eyes on its own. Tailed Beasts were sealed within those eyes, and normally even Nagato couldn't manipulate them. Yet now Uchiha Yi had opened them, and chakra from the Four-Tails, Five-Tails, Six-Tails, and Seven-Tails began spilling out.

"No! He's going to release the Tailed Beasts!" Nagato panicked and turned to shout, "Konan!" She said nothing, merely nodded before unleashing her ultimate trump card. "Dance of the Shikigami."

Six hundred billion paper Explosive Tags formed a tidal wave of paper, first enveloping the target, then trapping them in ten minutes of successive explosions that would leave nothing behind.

Countless paper Explosive Tags poured down, wrapping Uchiha Yi into a paper parcel in the blink of an eye.

"Uchiha Yi, don't move. I have six hundred billion paper Explosive Tags here. If they all go off, do you think you can withstand them?" Konan's tone was rigid, her face cold as ice.

"Tsk, tsk. Such a beauty, yet she's always wearing that stern expression." Uchiha Yi shook his head while closing the Demonic Statue of the Outer Path's eyes.

He had only been testing whether he could control the statue. After all, he possessed the Transmigration Rinnegan, a level above the ordinary Rinnegan. He hadn't expected it to actually work. He could even temporarily sever the connection between the statue and Nagato.

He hadn't intended to take control of the statue, though. He had merely collected some Source Chakra from the Four-Tails, Five-Tails, Six-Tails, and Seven-Tails.

Nagato immediately dismissed the summoned Demonic Statue of the Outer Path and shouted to Konan.

"Do it!"

Boom! Konan didn't hesitate. The six hundred billion paper Explosive Tags detonated instantly. The sight was spectacular and bizarre. Just as the explosions were about to engulf Yi, a spatial vortex suddenly appeared.

It was Kamui: Space-Time Vortex. Like a black hole, it swallowed every explosion from the six hundred billion Explosive Tags. Uchiha Yi stood before Nagato and Konan without a scratch.

Neither Nagato nor Konan spoke. Only now did they realize that Uchiha Yi's strength far exceeded anything they had imagined.

"Your... your eyes!" Nagato suddenly started. He had only just noticed.

When testing his control over the Demonic Statue of the Outer Path, Uchiha Yi had activated his Transmigration Rinnegan. They resembled Nagato's Rinnegan, with the same concentric rings, but Yi's eyes were azure blue, with two tomoe linked end to end in each pupil.

"You have the Rinnegan too?" Nagato's voice was full of disbelief. Though they looked different, he could sense that they truly were Rinnegan.

"More or less," Uchiha Yi answered vaguely.

But Nagato didn't dwell on that. "I never expected you to possess these divine eyes too," he said gravely. "Then why are you standing in my way? Aren't we the same?"

"Wait, let's get something straight first. I wasn't born with my Rinnegan-" "Impossible! Don't tell me you evolved them yourself!" Nagato refused to believe Yi.

"That's right. They evolved." Uchiha Yi shrugged. "Believe it or not, my Rinnegan evolved step by step. Yours did too."

"Impossible! The Uchiha only have the Sharingan. How could they evolve into the Rinnegan? Besides, I was born with my Rinnegan. They didn't evolve!"

"Are you sure?" Uchiha Yi smiled.

"What makes you so certain you were born with your Rinnegan? Are you more powerful than the Sage of Six Paths? Don't be so full of yourself, Nagato. Thinking you're chosen doesn't actually make you invincible-"

"You're lying! Nagato was born with his Rinnegan! He is the chosen one!" Konan couldn't help interrupting.

"Pfft. The chosen one? Don't make me laugh." Uchiha Yi chuckled, then his gaze turned cold and his voice deepened.

"No one is the chosen one. Even if someone were, it wouldn't be you, Nagato. And what makes you think those Rinnegan are really yours?"

"What do you mean?" Despite his anger, Nagato was surprisingly calm.

Uchiha Yi didn't answer his question and simply continued.

"The Uchiha's Sharingan can keep evolving. After the Three-Tomoe Sharingan comes the Mangekyō Sharingan. You don't need to tell us that. We already know," Konan said coldly, her gaze growing even colder as she watched Yi.

"But you don't know that beyond the Mangekyō Sharingan lies the Eternal Mangekyō Sharingan, do you? Oh, right." As if recalling something, Uchiha Yi smiled. "Here's a friendly tip: Sasuke Uchiha, who just joined the Akatsuki, has already evolved his eyes into the Eternal Mangekyō Sharingan."

Nagato seemed to understand what Yi was getting at.

"Uchiha Yi, don't tell me that when the Eternal Mangekyō Sharingan evolves again, it becomes the Rinnegan?"

"Exactly. That's how it works."

"Nagato, don't listen to his nonsense! He may be strong, but that doesn't mean we can't beat him together. I refuse to believe he's that powerful!" Konan couldn't listen any longer.

"I'm talking nonsense? Then see for yourselves."

As soon as Uchiha Yi finished speaking, his Transmigration Rinnegan abruptly faded, returning his eyes to their ordinary appearance. Before either of them could react, however, his eyes changed again.

His irises, originally black against white, instantly turned scarlet. One tomoe appeared, followed by a second and a third, before they transformed into the pattern of the Mangekyō Sharingan. The changes didn't stop. A Rinnegan much like Nagato's emerged, then instantly transformed back into the Transmigration Rinnegan he had displayed earlier.

Konan opened her mouth without making a sound, then turned toward Nagato. She couldn't tell whether this was an illusion or reality, but one look at his stunned face told her immediately-it was real!

Nagato had seen everything clearly. From the ordinary eyes to every stage of the Sharingan, all of it was genuine. The Rinnegan were real too.

He had never awakened the Sharingan, but with the Rinnegan's perception, there was no way anyone could fool him. Now, however, he noticed something he should have realized long ago-Uchiha Yi could actually control his own Rinnegan!

Ever since Nagato had fully awakened his Rinnegan, he had been unable to deactivate them. Kakashi's Sharingan was the same, but at least Kakashi could switch between the Three-Tomoe Sharingan and the Mangekyō Sharingan. Nagato couldn't change his eyes at all.

And when he thought carefully, plenty of things seemed strange. Why had his Rinnegan been uncontrollable from the moment they awakened? Why had he gone berserk at first, only to remember nothing afterward? Most importantly, if the Rinnegan were the legendary Sage Eye, why did they constantly devour his life force?

Even when he wasn't drawing chakra from the Demonic Statue of the Outer Path, his eyes slowly drained his vitality. How was that fitting for the Sage Eye? He had never noticed before, with nothing to compare them to. But now, with Uchiha Yi standing before him possessing the same Rinnegan, Nagato suddenly realized-perhaps these eyes weren't his at all?

"Ngh!" Konan gave a muffled groan and toppled over stiffly.

Uchiha Yi frowned and turned toward Nagato. Nagato had just used a divine genjutsu on her. Konan had no defenses up against him, so it was hardly surprising that she had succumbed.

"Forget it. None of that matters anymore," Nagato said quietly. His gaze settled on Konan, lying on the ground, and his tone softened considerably. "Whether these Rinnegan are mine doesn't matter now. I only ask that you leave her alone. Before Yahiko died, he entrusted Konan to me. I haven't done a good job caring for her all these years. Now I only want you to let her go."

Uchiha Yi understood immediately-was this surrender? Nagato thought he was about to attack and, knowing he couldn't win, had simply conceded, asking only that Konan be spared. Yi was momentarily speechless before saying, "Don't worry. I won't kill you. You're a useful pawn. Someone has tampered with you, and I still need you to find out what's going on."

Nagato fell silent. Now he fully believed Yi. If Yi really attacked, even with his Rinnegan, he would only manage a brief struggle. Anyone else would have taken his eyes already. Yet precisely because of that, he became even more certain that something was wrong with his Rinnegan.

He raised his head and stared at Yi, his tone utterly earnest. "I'll cooperate with you. I won't tell anyone what happened today, so no one will suspect anything. Please take care of Konan. If possible, let her forget all of this completely and live out her life as an ordinary person." Without waiting for Yi's reply, he formed a hand seal, and his body vanished with a poof.