Mei Terumi smiled faintly, glancing around the area before her gaze settled on Yugito.
"With such a grand lineup today, gathering so many Kage in one place, how could I not come prepared?"
The plan was already in motion. The Akatsuki no longer needed to hide; it was time for a quick battle to reap the benefits.
"You talk a big game," Onoki snorted coldly, his tone dripping with disdain. "Those standing here are the Kage of their respective villages. Do you really think ordinary ninja pose a threat to us?"
The gap between a Kage-level ninja and an elite Jonin was enormous.
The Five Great Ninja Villages had plenty of elite Jonin in their ranks, but actual Kage-level powerhouses? You could count the renowned ones on two hands.
Onoki highly doubted that Kirigakure possessed the military strength to hold off both him and Rasa simultaneously.
Not to mention, Jie was watching the drama unfold from the sidelines.
A man's name was like a tree's shadow. Although Onoki didn't entirely believe Jie was as terrifyingly powerful as the legends claimed, the fact that the young man had ascended to the position of Hokage proved he possessed at least Kage-level strength.
At a critical juncture like this, having another Kage-level fighter on the board was an invaluable asset.
Hearing Onoki's boast, Mei merely chuckled. "The Tsuchikage needn't worry about that. Since I dared to initiate this trap, I obviously have absolute confidence in its success."
"I just hope you can protect yourself later, Tsuchikage. Otherwise, Iwagakure will become the next Kumogakure."
Her expression suddenly hardened, and she shouted sharply, "The plan is in motion. Come out!"
As soon as her voice fell, Onoki, Yugito, and the others suddenly noticed a spatial vortex slowly materializing in the empty air nearby. A moment later, several figures clad in black cloaks emblazoned with red clouds stepped out from the distortion.
'Kamui?' Jie thought, watching from a distance. 'It seems Obito finally realized his own combat strength is mediocre. Has he been reduced to a human transport vehicle for the Akatsuki?'
Seeing the vortex, Jie couldn't help but complain inwardly.
After receiving Itachi's intel earlier, he had used the excuse of sightseeing to scan the entirety of Kumogakure with his Thousand-Pupil Byakugan.
Yet, despite his thorough sweep, he hadn't found a single trace of the Akatsuki.
If he hadn't eventually discovered a few residual spores resembling those left by White Zetsu, he would have genuinely believed Itachi had been fed false information.
But looking at it now, it all made sense.
The Akatsuki members must have been hiding inside the Kamui dimension the entire time. Obito really was just acting as their taxi, deploying troops directly onto the battlefield.
These thoughts flashed through Jie's mind, but he quickly dismissed them. Obito's real combat ability wasn't that impressive to begin with. Without Kamui's absurd intangibility carrying him, he was only around ordinary Kage level at best.
His attention quickly settled on two figures among the newcomers. One was his dear little brother, Itachi Uchiha.
The other was an orange-haired young man with black piercings across his face and purple eyes marked by concentric ripples.
The Deva Path of Pain.
'The Rinnegan. What a treasure,' Jie pondered, staring intently at the eyes in Yahiko's skull. 'Should I track down Nagato's real body and take them for myself?'
Nagato's Rinnegan was a true treasure.
After Madara Uchiha used Izanagi to escape death, he fused his own power with Hashirama Senju's flesh and eventually awakened the legendary eyes by combining the powers of Indra and Asura.
Although they lacked the tomoe of the ultimate Rinne Sharingan, their raw power was still enough to shake the ninja world.
The eyes granted control over attraction and repulsion, allowed the user to manipulate the Six Paths of Pain through shared vision, summon the Gedo Statue, and even drag meteors down from the sky.
In terms of pure destructive power, they truly deserved the title of the "Eyes of God."
It was after the appearance of the Rinnegan that the power balance of the ninja world truly started to spiral out of control.
In the early days, a Kage-level ninja stood at the absolute peak of the world, while Jonin were the backbone of every hidden village.
But by the time of the Fourth Great Ninja War, Kage-level fighters seemed to appear everywhere, and ordinary Jonin had become almost insignificant. If you couldn't reach the Six Paths level, then no matter how strong you were, you were still just an ant before the true monsters on the battlefield.
Because of that, Jie had no intention of letting the power of the Rinnegan slip through his fingers.
With that thought in mind, Jie quietly activated his Thousand-Pupil Byakugan and scanned the surrounding area.
Pain was only a corpse puppet. Even if he ripped the eyes from its sockets, it would be meaningless. Those eyes were merely projections maintained through the chakra receivers.
To obtain the true Rinnegan, he had to find Nagato himself.
Jie knew the Rinnegan could control bodies from a distance, but the user couldn't be infinitely far away. Unfortunately, the technique's range was far greater than he had expected.
Even with his enormous field of vision, he found no trace of Nagato.
He couldn't even locate Konan.
'Looks like I'll have to use Sage Mode.'
By entering Sage Mode, he could trace the chakra flowing through the black receivers back to its source.
Just as Jie was considering whether to crush the Deva Path first before searching for Nagato's real body, Pain suddenly spoke.
"Itachi," the Deva Path said calmly, his ripple-patterned eyes fixed on Jie. "This is your first time seeing your brother in years. Aren't you going to greet him?"
Jie paused, slightly confused.
'What kind of development is this? Did our secret communications expose Itachi's undercover identity?'
While Jie was still thinking, Itachi stepped forward. His expression was cold and indifferent as he looked directly at Jie.
"It has been a long time, brother," Itachi said calmly. "How does it feel to serve as the Hokage while also acting as the young patriarch of the Uchiha Clan?"
A wave of confusion instantly hit Jie.
'What kind of backstory did this guy come up with now?'
'And why didn't he warn me beforehand?'
'Does he seriously expect me to improvise everything on the spot?'
But as those thoughts crossed his mind, excitement suddenly rose in Jie's chest.
Ever since he faked his death to help Itachi awaken the Mangekyo Sharingan, he hadn't had many chances to show off his acting skills.
Looks like it was finally time to put those skills to use again.
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