Amegakure.
As always, an endless drizzle shrouded the village that never saw the sun. Rainwater streamed down the Tower and into the waterways below with a rushing sound.
Lin Ze appeared high in the air outside the Tower. His eyes, which had taken on an ordinary color, shifted slightly as his senses probed inside the tallest tower ahead.
A moment later, he raised his eyebrows slightly.
"Nagato..."
Lin Ze murmured to himself, a flicker of surprise crossing his eyes.
Within his perception, three distinct chakra signatures stood out inside the tower ahead. One was astonishingly vast, like a bottomless lake. It belonged to the wielder of the Rinnegan, Nagato.
The other two were somewhat weaker. One belonged to Konan, while the other was concealed and chilling, hidden deeper inside the Tower.
But what truly drew Lin Ze's attention was not Nagato's own chakra.
It was something hidden inside him.
Lin Ze closed his eyes and sensed it carefully for a moment, then opened them with a glimmer of understanding.
"So that's it... this world's Grand Burial is actually inside Nagato?"
He could feel something inside Nagato resonating with the "Eternal Space-Time Grand Burial" he had mastered. The resonance was faint, but it was undeniably there, like two powers of the same origin calling out to each other.
"It seems this world chose Nagato."
Lin Ze murmured to himself, then vanished from midair with a movement.
Inside the Tower.
Nagato sat on the apparatus connected to the Demonic Statue of the Outer Path that sustained his life. Several black chakra receivers protruded from his back, and he looked utterly emaciated.
His eyes were closed as he used the "Rain Tiger at Will Technique" to perceive every corner of the entire Land of Rain.
Suddenly, he opened his eyes, a trace