The Rinnegan.
The eyes that command life and death.
Even though Nagato hadn't yet created the Six Paths of Pain, Byakuya already ranked his strength above both Pakura and Sasori. He was the strongest shinobi Byakuya had encountered so far.
He even wondered if a healthy Nagato right now might actually be stronger than the emaciated version from the future.
One thing was certain: put the Rinnegan on a dog, and that dog would have Kage-level power.
And Nagato had the Uzumaki clan's monstrous vitality on top of it. Madara Uchiha really did understand every bloodline the Sage of Six Paths had left behind.
Yahiko flashed his usual bright smile. "May I ask your name?"
"Shuten-doji."
"Ah? Shuten-doji? Isn't that the name of the legendary demon king?"
Byakuya answered calmly, "It's just my code name for missions."
Sasori had already noticed the trio.
When Nagato leaped down and stood in front of Byakuya, facing Sasori alone, the red-haired puppet master asked coldly, "Akatsuki wants to interfere in my business?"
"This Leaf ninja is useful to us," Yahiko replied. "We won't allow you to kill him."
Sasori's gaze flicked to the Third Kazekage puppet, then to Konan. She whispered, "If I'm not mistaken, that puppet uses Magnet Release. That's the Third Kazekage—the one who went missing. The spark that ignited the Third Great Ninja War was his disappearance. Sunagakure searched the world for him, giving Kumogakure the opening they needed."
Byakuya jumped down from Tagorihime's head and climbed the dune. "Sasori of the Red Sand is the one who assassinated the Third Kazekage and turned the famous Kazekage into a human puppet.
If you travel with him, Sunagakure will definitely retaliate against the Land of Rain once they find out.
Besides, without Sasori killing the Third Kazekage, the Third Great Ninja War might never have happened."
The structural contradictions in the shinobi world had already reached a breaking point. The war would have come with or without the Third Kazekage's death—only the timing would change. Byakuya was simply pinning a mountain of blame on Sasori.
"You don't need to threaten us!" Konan shot him a cold glance. "We've already decided to help you."
She had seen through the masked Leaf ninja's clever use of their desperate desire for peace.
Byakuya waved Tagorihime over.
The blue-black serpent slithered up the dune and looked down at Nagato and Sasori. "I was talking to him. Those eyes of his seem unusual. Is that a kekkei genkai?"
Byakuya stood shoulder-to-shoulder with Yahiko and turned to him.
Yahiko kept his sunny smile. "Probably a kekkei genkai."
Sasori suddenly shouted, "You insist on stopping me?"
Nagato spread his arms. "You're welcome to try."
Sasori stared at those Rinnegan eyes and manipulated the Third Kazekage puppet.
"Magnet Release: Iron Sand Drizzle!"
A wave of iron sand needles surged toward Nagato like a storm.
"Shinra Tensei!"
Byakuya instantly ducked behind Tagorihime's coils.
BOOM!!!
It wasn't an explosion.
It was the deafening roar of countless grains of sand being blasted away.
If you hadn't been standing in the middle of the desert and heard the sheer volume of sand being hurled into the sky, you could never imagine such a sound existed.
"Byakuya, what kind of jutsu was that? It's incredible!" Tagorihime exclaimed.
She curled her massive body into a protective ball around him.
"Shinra Tensei. Nagato's eyes are the legendary Rinnegan."
"Rinnegan? I've only heard of the Byakugan and Sharingan from Konoha."
"The Rinnegan is above both. Legend says it controls life and death itself."
"Wow, Byakuya knows so much!"
Their conversation was swallowed by the raging sandstorm.
When the wind finally died and the sand settled…
Tagorihime shook the sand off her coils. Byakuya grabbed another handful of soldier pills, stuffed them into his mouth, and climbed back onto her head.
The dune they had been standing on was gone.
In its place was a deep crater.
Nagato leaped onto the crater's edge and looked up at the eerie serpent with Byakuya on its head. "Sasori has—"
Byakuya cut him off instantly.
"Storm Release: Torrential Lightning!"
He poured every last drop of chakra he could refine into the jutsu and spat it toward Nagato.
Yahiko and Konan, who had just reappeared looking disheveled, saw it and roared in horror: "Nagato, watch out!"
Nagato thought the Leaf ninja was attacking him.
But the raging river of blinding lightning roared straight over his head and slammed downward.
Countless iron sand needles collided with the torrent, exploding on contact.
Yahiko and Konan split left and right to support Nagato.
"Water Release: Water Dragon Bullet!"
Using Water Release in the desert required far more chakra.
Konan's hands blurred through seals.
She raised her right arm. Hundreds of paper cranes burst from her sleeve and flew toward the lightning waterfall.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!!!
The paper cranes detonated like explosive tags.
Byakuya sat heavily on Tagorihime's head, gasping. "As expected of Sasori of the Red Sand."
The thick sand cloud finally settled.
A black sphere slowly shed countless iron sand needles.
Sasori reappeared in everyone's sight.
Nagato couldn't hide his shock. "Impossible! He blocked my Shinra Tensei!"
Byakuya explained, "The Third Kazekage's iron sand sphere protected him. Your jutsu only repelled the sphere—it never touched Sasori's real body."
In the next instant, Byakuya called out, "Sasori-senpai, are you still going to chase me?"
"Heh. You think these three naïve fools can stop me from killing you?"
Byakuya froze for a split second, then realized: to block Shinra Tensei, Sasori had spent a huge amount of chakra and hadn't sensed the approaching Sunagakure ninja.
A moment later, several Sand ninja appeared on the ridge.
One of them was Pakura.
She stared in stunned silence at the Third Kazekage, now reduced to a human puppet.
The culprit needed no introduction.
Chiyo's grandson, Sasori, crouched on the Kazekage puppet's back, iron sand wings spread like demonic butterfly wings.
Sasori finally noticed Pakura and greeted her flatly. "It's you, Pakura."
"Sasori… you… you killed the Third Kazekage?"
"Yeah. I did. He failed to protect his comrades. Didn't he deserve to die?"
"That was Sunagakure's Third Kazekage!"
Sasori suddenly let out a manic laugh. "Of course I know he was Sunagakure's Third Kazekage! The reason our village lost that war was because of this beloved Kazekage!
I killed him so he could apologize to all the Sand shinobi who died at the hands of Konoha!
Was I wrong? No, I was right! Absolutely right! If you can't protect your comrades, you deserve to die!!!"
"Scorch Release: Extremely Steaming Murder!!!"
Pakura had completely lost control. She poured everything into her Scorch Release, launching more than a dozen burning orange spheres at Sasori from every direction.
Sasori stared at her rage-twisted face for a long moment, then said nothing more. He turned the Third Kazekage puppet and fled.
The spheres collided.
A mushroom cloud erupted.
The sandstorm that followed was even more violent than Shinra Tensei.
Byakuya jumped down from Tagorihime again. The serpent curled into a protective ball around him.
He also quietly revised his earlier assessment: even with the Rinnegan, Nagato's current combat strength was still far from the true pinnacle of the shinobi world.
The current Akatsuki was still just a roadside group. Their power wasn't enough for anyone to take them seriously.
With strength like this, you want to mediate between the villages and force them to sit down and negotiate for peace?
Delusional.
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