At the border of the Land of Rain stood a long-abandoned underground grotto, which Toyotomi Yinglang had temporarily cleared and secured with multiple concealment and defensive barriers. Its damp chill had been dispelled, replaced by a gentle warmth, a sense of energy like the pulse of the earth, emanating from several faintly glowing pieces of dragon vein ore at its center (placed there by Toyotomi Yinglang beforehand).
For the time being, this had become a refuge for Yahiko, Nagato, and Konan, as well as the place where Toyotomi Yinglang would "deal with" them.
Soft light filled the grotto. Yahiko sat against the wall, grief, anger, and profound exhaustion still lingering on his face, but his eyes no longer held the utter despair of before. Instead, they carried the gravity of someone forced to think calmly after being driven into a corner.
Konan silently sorted the few clean sheets of paper she had left, her movements more focused than usual, as though she wanted to recover a trace of calm from the familiar act.
Nagato huddled in a corner a little farther from the other two, his purple hair disheveled, his arms still wrapped around his knees and his Rinnegan tightly shut. His body no longer trembled as violently as before, however; he merely exuded a deathly silence.
Toyotomi Yinglang stood at the center of the grotto, his moon-white Kariginu spotless and out of place amid the crude surroundings. His calm gaze swept over the three of them, and he spoke without preamble:
"First, the foundation."
He extended a hand, palm upward. Three strange "seeds," each the size of a grain of rice, appeared out of thin air and hovered silently. They gave off soft, milky-white halos, and liquid seemed to flow within them.
"These are 'chakra seeds,'" Toyotomi Yinglang explained