In the heart of Amegakure, now quietly taken over by the newly reformed Akatsuki, the rain finally fell without interruption.
The constant drizzle muted the city's hum, wrapping it in a sense of eerie calm.
Inside a dim chamber high above the metallic rooftops, Obito and Nagato stood opposite one another, speaking softly as the rain tapped against the glass.
They had done it.
Amegakure was theirs.
Hanzo was dead, the old tyrant buried beneath the ruins of his own paranoia.
The village, once suffocating under his rule, now served as the perfect veil, isolated, strategically placed, and ignored by the great nations too preoccupied with their own wars or internal chaos, as in Konoha recently, their biggest threat.
Obito's calm, measured tone filled the silence between them. His every word was deliberate, weighted with calculation.
Across from him, Nagato's voice carried restrained excitement, the kind of simmering conviction that always hovered on the edge of zealotry.
"Everything has gone according to plan," Obito said. "With the major villages distracted, we can expand our influence freely. Amegakure is just one step."
Nagato nodded slowly, the mechanical hum of his chair faint under the rainfall. "Hanzo's gone. The people are beginning to believe again. Konan and I have already restructured the militia. They're loyal."
That loyalty was no accident.
Obito had earned it—painstakingly.
After saving their lives, restoring Nagato's ruined body, and improving his Rinnegan's efficiency through what he called his "unique vision," both Nagato and Konan had come to see him almost as a savior.
He gave them Hanzo's head, and with it, the closure they'd sought the most for months.
And in return, they followed his directives without question.
Obito had been the architect of everything, the Six Paths of Pain, the systems, even the concept itself.
After meeting Nagato and Konan alongside Black Zetsu months ago, he'd worked with them to build a way to unleash the full potential of the Rinnegan without destroying Nagato's fragile Uzumaki body further.
It had taken months of testing, sealing work, and even some bioengineering enhancements, but in the end, they succeeded.
The Six Paths of Pain system decentralized the Rinnegan's strain, dividing its abilities among six separate bodies, each one acting as an extension of Nagato's will.
It wasn't just a workaround—it was evolution.
The results were terrifying.
Each Path specialized in one of the Rinnegan's six core abilities, turning limitation into precision and giving him a terrifying advantage in battle.
With his chakra transmitted through the rods embedded in each body, Nagato could act in six places at once, his influence spanning entire regions while he remained hidden in the heart of Amegakure.
The rods functioned like antennas, carrying his will seamlessly across distance.
Not only did they have synchronized vision, but even if one body fell, the others continued the battle, each specializing in one of the Six Paths techniques.
It was efficient, stable—and cruelly brilliant.
The core of it all was Nagato's life-support chair: a fusion of sealing arts and advanced chakra engineering, designed to both sustain him and channel his power outward.
It turned him into something almost divine, an entity with six avatars and one mind.
His vast Uzumaki chakra powered the network, while the Rinnegan's energy, Madara's legacy, was divided precisely among them, preventing the catastrophic backlash that would have otherwise torn his body apart.
But even with that, Obito wasn't done.
He had gone even further, expanding the Animal Path's power by tracking down and capturing colossal, near-extinct summons from remote northern islands across the Mountains' Graveyard.
The sight of the giant skeletons scattered there had first sparked his investigation, pushing him to uncover their origin and reclaim the surviving beasts for Nagato's control.
Using Kamui, he transported the beasts himself, binding them one by one under Nagato's control.
The process was exhausting, but it worked.
Those beasts became the foundation of Pain's devastating summon arsenal.
That was why, now, Nagato and Konan looked at him with heavy gratitude.
They didn't need to know that he was no Madara, only pretending to be.
Obito preferred it that way.
To the world, Pain was God, Konan was his Angel, the true leaders of the Akatsuki, and Obito, "Tobi," remained the shadow behind them, unseen and unchallenged.
The rest of the Akatsuki only saw the surface. Kakuzu, the first addition, Obito himself recruited, also believed Pain was the true leader due to Obito's public behaviour.
"Most of Hanzo's elites are gone," Nagato said, his voice steady now.
"Only scattered troops remain. Once they see the Six Paths, they'll surrender. But Danzo…"
"Danzo's different," Obito finished, tone darkening slightly. "He's not just another warlord. He's a survivor. Paranoid, cunning, always with backup plans. We can't underestimate him."
Konan, standing quietly to the side, folded her arms. "He won't give up easily," she said, her tone calm but wary.
"If anything, he'll come back to investigate what happened in the Amegakure once he realises something is amiss. He's also been heavily looking around the entire world for the two of you ever since that time."
Obito's Sharingan flared faintly beneath his mask. "He doesn't need to. I'll make sure he has nowhere left to run if he comes again."
Nagato gave a slow nod. "Then we end it. Hanzo, Danzo, anyone standing in our way. When it's done, the world will finally understand peace."
"Peace," Obito echoed, his tone soft but unreadable.
To Nagato, it sounded like agreement.
But behind the mask, Obito's smile was thin and hidden.
Peace, yes—just not the kind Nagato imagined.
Obito, however, internally concluded that the chances of Danzo or Konoha still having the energy to meddle in Amegakure's affairs were slim.
At this point, it was likely only Danzo himself who still knew about him, Nagato, and their dojutsu.
Still, irritation flickered beneath his calm expression as he recalled the events of the past few months.
The world had shifted in strange, unpredictable ways, and through his own investigation, supported by White Zetsu's network, he had gradually pieced everything together.
There was a clear fracture inside Konoha's old power structure, a growing internal war between the traditional leadership and a new, dangerous group: Ryusei Senju, Tsunade, their smaller circle of allies, Orochimaru and his subordinates, and even perhaps the Uchiha clan.
And somehow, that fourteen-year-old boy—Ryusei Senju—had not only survived their purge attempts but turned the entire attack back on them.
He had forced both Danzo and Hiruzen to summon Tobirama just to escape their own defeat. Even Obito found that hard to believe.
Ryusei Senju had been on his radar for a while, ever since he inherited Madara's Eye of the Moon plan.
At first, Obito considered Ryusei as a perfect future subordinate, one of the Akatsuki's future inner S-rank members.
However, Ryusei still didn't need help. And now, Konoha itself couldn't even drive him out.
It made Obito quietly sneer at Konoha's decline.
Yet he also knew better than to underestimate Tobirama, likely its new de facto leader.
Unlike Hiruzen or Danzo, Tobirama was sharp, dangerous, and pragmatic.
Even Madara, for all his hatred, had grudgingly acknowledged the man's intellect.
That alone made Obito uneasy.
Another strong, calculating figure appearing now, on top of Minato still being alive, meant an extra 'Peak Kage' obstacle when he would eventually have to infiltrate Konoha and seize the Nine-Tails.
He didn't like it one bit.
As for Ryusei, Obito decided it was better to leave him alone for now.
The boy didn't need the Akatsuki, and they currently didn't have the strength to force his cooperation anyway.
From what Obito had gathered, Ryusei's current power wasn't far from his own or Nagato's.
Then there was that other event, the mysterious attack on the Hyūga clan three months ago. Dozens of Main Branch members had been slaughtered, their eyes stolen.
That, more than anything, disturbed him deeply.
There were no records, no rumors, no trace of such a being or power, not in Madara's knowledge, nor in any history Obito had uncovered.
And that frightened him most.
Madara was supposed to know everything, yet even he had never mentioned such a figure, nor the strange secrets of the Hyūga that surfaced during that same incident.
For the first time in a long while, Obito felt the world moving beyond the script that Madara had written.
Unpredictable powers, shifting alliances, and new monsters appearing from nowhere, it was all becoming dangerously unstable.
He clenched his fist slightly.
The truth was simple: in this world, everything still came down to who had the strongest fist.
If he wanted to keep control, if he didn't want to drown in this chaos, he needed more power.
His gaze darkened.
"Maybe," he thought, "it's time I take back the other eye."
He had always dismissed the idea before, considering it beneath him to reclaim a gift once given.
But things were different now.
Even Black Zetsu had begun heavily pressing him to do it with various logical arguments.
And for the first time, Obito couldn't find a reason to disagree.
Instead, he finally spoke again. "I've already also made another move while the world looked the other way. After the old Mizukage's death, I took control of Kirigakure. Their next in line, Yagura, the new three-tails jinchuriki, was the strongest and most fitting to succeed. I bound him under my control with my best genjutsu."
Konan's eyes narrowed slightly. "You're controlling an entire Kage now?"
"Exactly," Obito said simply. "Kirigakure will serve as our second base. Amegakure remains the heart, the shadow. But Kiri… Kiri is a mask. A major hidden village, still recognized by all nations, is perfect for financing, logistics, contracts, and legitimacy. From there, we'll build Akatsuki's funds and resources far faster than we ever could from this rain-soaked tower."
"With Kiri working behind the scenes, and Amegakure secured, we've rebuilt what we needed. The other informant networks have been established fully. Our spies in each of the Five Great Nations are already feeding us reports. And even the initial S-rank core members have been recruited successfully."
He paused, thinking. "The first one was Kakuzu, just as planned, as it was the most logical. He'll manage the finances. After all, even an organization like ours needs a proper economic backbone. The rest will come soon enough."
Konan tilted her head slightly. "And the tailed beast plan?"
Nagato's voice grew deeper. "It continues as before. The Akatsuki will gather them all, not just to harness their power, but to create something greater—a weapon that can control the entire world."
Obito continued the thought without missing a beat. "The Ten-Tails' husk will serve as the foundation. Under Nagato's control, the Rinnegan becomes the perfect extraction system. We'll siphon the chakra of all nine beasts, store it, and channel it as needed. A power network spread across the planet, one that enforces order by fear alone. We, the Akatuski core inner members, will be administrators of it."
Konan frowned slightly. "A world forced to obey."
Nagato looked straight ahead, his voice quiet but resolute. "A world that finally learns pain. Only then will peace take root."
Obito said nothing for a few seconds, his mind elsewhere.
The plan was solid—perfect on paper—but the world was shifting faster than even he liked.
So he finally spoke, voice low and decisive. "Good. Then we move sooner. Begin collecting the tailed beasts ahead of schedule. If we hesitate now, this chaos will devour everything before we act."