The black hand crawled up Nagato's trouser leg like squirming sludge.
Eventually, the black substance covered half of Nagato's body.
Nagato's own half of his face seemed to fall asleep.
On the other, blackened side, his purple Rinnegan snapped open, gleaming with a light that did not belong to Nagato.
"Well, well. I had just finished setting up a new pawn when I sensed something wrong here."
A hoarse voice, different from Nagato's, emerged from his mouth.
"Something unexpected really did happen."
The eerie sight made Konan's skin crawl.
"What the hell are you? Get off Nagato!" Konan swept a hand across her waist, producing a kunai covered in explosive tags.
"Me?"
"I am Madara Uchiha's will, Black Zetsu," the black creature said as he controlled Nagato's body to form hand seals.
"You really are the biggest variables. I always thought you might affect our plan, but Madara Uchiha kept stopping me from killing you. Now I'll just have to dispose of you. Heh heh heh."
"I'll give you a good ending in Nagato's memories."
"Die!"
Before his words had faded, Black Zetsu controlled Nagato's body and slammed a hand onto the ground.
At the same time, a strange white creature with a very similar appearance emerged from the ground.
A pitch-black tendril shot from Black Zetsu, instantly connecting to the white creature.
"Not a chance!" Konan's gaze sharpened, and the kunai in her hand whistled through the air toward the black tendril.
But Black Zetsu merely glared with the Rinnegan, and the speeding kunai stopped abruptly less than an inch from the tendril, as though it had struck an invisible wall, unable to advance any farther.
"Damn it, why won't it detonate?" Konan's eyes stretched wide with fury as she discovered that her connection to the explosive tags had been severed.
Summoning Technique-Demonic Statue of the Outer Path!!
The earth shook at once.
The ground behind Black Zetsu split open, and a massive hand rose from deep underground and slammed heavily onto the ground.
Shattered stones flew everywhere.
Bracing against the ground, the massive hand hauled an even larger, more terrifying body out of the earth.
It was a giant resembling dead wood, its body studded with black rods and its face bearing nine tightly shut, hideous eyes.
The moment it appeared, several thick black rods shot from its body and plunged viciously into the white creature.
Vast amounts of chakra were continuously drawn through the black rods and poured into the Demonic Statue of the Outer Path.
"If Nagato weren't still a useful pawn, I wouldn't even have to waste this White Zetsu."
Black Zetsu gave a crazed laugh and brought his hands together.
The giant statue's eyes suddenly opened halfway, flashing with light.
"Kill them!"
Roar!!
The Demonic Statue of the Outer Path raised its massive hand and brought it crashing down toward Yahiko and the others.
An enormous shadow instantly engulfed them.
Konan formed hand seals at the sight, and countless sheets of paper flew from her body to block the massive hand, trying to hold it back.
"No, it's too strong! I can't hold it!" Konan held both hands skyward, struggling to brace against it. She felt the tremendous force of that hand tearing apart the paper shield she had formed.
She gritted her teeth, a trace of resolve flashing in her eyes. "This is everything I've got."
Just as Konan was about to activate all her explosive tags to blast the massive hand apart,
a hand patted her shoulder.
Konan turned and saw Pero throwing a stone at the massive hand.
The next instant, the stone struck the hand and was crushed to dust, filling the scene with smoke.
Boom...
"Did it work?" Konan did not dare lower her guard and remained in her fighting stance.
But a dull rush of air came from within the smoke.
The massive hand broke through the smoke. Though the stone, propelled by Pero's strength, had left pitted marks on it, the stone's poor material meant the impact had done no damage. The massive hand continued crashing toward them along its original path.
At the sight, Black Zetsu jeered, "It's useless, useless! The Demonic Statue of the Outer Path is the strongest tailed beast. Even without tailed beast chakra inside him, his defense and strength surpass the entire Shinobi World!"
Pero felt it was time for this farce to end and walked forward.
Konan opened her mouth, watching the figure walking ahead suddenly disappear.
Pero's calm voice drifted through the empty air.
"All right, leave it to me."
The giant statue's fist came crashing down, only to stop abruptly in midair.
Puzzled, the Demonic Statue of the Outer Path turned his hand over and discovered a figure holding up his fist with one hand.
He could not advance an inch.
"What have you been babbling to yourself about since you showed up?" Pero brushed nonexistent dust off himself, even finding the leisure to use Super-Vision to see a brightly glowing energy source near the Demonic Statue of the Outer Path's chest.
He paused. "Finished talking? My turn for a heart-to-heart."
As soon as he finished speaking, Pero vanished from the spot, and a ripping sound rang out like wood being torn apart.
A human-shaped hole appeared in the Demonic Statue of the Outer Path's chest, with Pero's back visible through it.
As though all his strength had been drained away, the Demonic Statue of the Outer Path collapsed to the ground. With a bang, his enormous figure vanished in a cloud of smoke.
Black Zetsu controlled Nagato's body to retreat two steps, utterly shocked. "H-how is that possible?"
In that instant, Black Zetsu realized the gap between himself and Pero. That feeling.
It was just like his mother, Lady Kaguya-or even... greater!
"How can trash like you, without even any chakra, be so strong?!" Black Zetsu screamed himself hoarse.
[Core essence of the Ten-Tails detected. Can be fused to obtain additional abilities.]
Pero ignored Black Zetsu's shouting and merely looked at the dark red sphere he had seized from the Demonic Statue of the Outer Path's chest.
"System, explain."
[After fusion, the host's body will be able to generate chakra, granting the ability to use ninjutsu.]
"How much will this improve my strength?"
[Assessing... The improvement to the host's strength is negligible, but it can replenish approximately 0.5% evolution energy.]
"Not bad. Fuse it, then."
[Fusing... Fusion complete, host.]
The dark red bead in Pero's hand turned into several streaks of red light and merged into his body.
With Super-Vision, Pero could see pale blue light pumping from his heart and flowing throughout his body. With each beat of his heart, the pale blue light gradually deepened.
From the ground, Black Zetsu watched the figure in the sky. Seemingly noticing some change, his eyes widened further and further.
"What did you do?! Why do you suddenly have chakra?!"
The next instant, Pero, whom Black Zetsu had seen in the distance, suddenly appeared right in his face.
Looking at those faintly glowing red eyes mere inches away, Black Zetsu could not help feeling afraid.
"Madara Uchiha's will? You might fool Madara Uchiha with that, but don't take me for an idiot."
With that, Pero reached out, grabbed Black Zetsu, and tore him off Nagato.
Rip.
Pero squeezed Black Zetsu into a ball and casually tossed him onto the ground.
Then red light flashed, and Heat Vision blasted Black Zetsu, burning him to ashes.
He then grabbed Nagato by the collar and shook him up and down.
A pained expression appeared on Nagato's face, as though he had just awakened from a nightmare, and he opened his eyes with difficulty.
"Stop... stop shaking me. Put me... down!"
Seeing Nagato awake, Pero set him down, and Konan and Yahiko gathered around him anxiously.
"Nagato, how are you?"
"Nagato, your eye?"
Yahiko suddenly noticed that where Nagato's right Rinnegan had been, his eyelid was now deeply sunken, as though someone had gouged out the eyeball inside.
Nagato froze for a moment before he realized.
He reached out, trembling as he touched his right eye. The eyelid that should have bulged now felt completely empty.
Why had such a creature appeared? Where had he come from? Why had he targeted him? Why did he have to suffer such pain for no reason?
Was Yahiko's path really so difficult to follow?
He stared fixedly at Yahiko with his sole remaining Rinnegan and spoke in a hoarse voice.
"Yahiko, our justice isn't wrong, is it?
"With so many people dead and so many wars, isn't all this pain enough to make us grow?"
"Didn't you say you wanted to become the god of the Shinobi World?"
"I've seen the true nature of war in this world. The leaders of those shinobi villages and the nations' daimyo don't know pain. Those who don't know pain will never know what peace is."
Nagato's gaze shifted to Pero.
"Only by possessing the power to destroy a nation in an instant and making them feel pain can we bring stable peace to the world."
After listening to Nagato's speech, Pero shrugged helplessly and thought,
Well, that rescue was for nothing. He's still going to make the world know pain.
"But innocent people at the bottom shouldn't become casualties of war."
Then again.
"I've decided, Yahiko." Nagato's voice grew cold and firm. "We have to become strong enough. We have to wipe out every shinobi village, every leader, and every nation's daimyo!"
"We'll take over this world with our own hands-true peace!"
A strange fluctuation appeared around Pero. Though extremely faint, he still noticed it.
It turned out that Black Zetsu had shed his tail like a lizard, leaving a small portion of himself to possess the White Zetsu hidden underground and escape.
"That guy actually played dead? Right, there wasn't a Rinnegan in that lump I just burned. I overlooked that."
Pero glanced sideways and secretly memorized Black Zetsu's chakra without giving chase.
Before you continue