"That…" Uchiha Yasuo scratched his cheek and said with a grin, "Leader, manpower is easy to handle. I can recommend someone."
"There is someone on the black market called Kakuzu, who is said to have once attempted to assassinate the First Hokage. His strength is not bad."
"Most importantly, he loves earning money but never spends it, so he definitely has quite a lot of savings at home."
"If we recruit him, we can completely confiscate his savings and solve the organization's current funding shortage!"
Seeing that Uchiha Yasuo was not stirring up trouble this time but was instead standing in the organization's position and offering strategies, Pain immediately let out a sigh of relief and nodded in satisfaction.
"Gaining both talent and wealth, hm?"
"Very good. We can recruit that Kakuzu later."
"Since it is your suggestion, you will be responsible for the recruitment."
"Do you have any other recommendations?"
"Other people…" Uchiha Yasuo tilted his head and thought for a moment. 'Deidara should only be about ten years old now. Hidan should be roughly the same age. They only join Akatsuki a few years later. Or we could take a look at Hoshigaki Kisame, but he has not killed Suikazan Fuguki yet, so it might still be a bit early.'
"Eh!" The moment he thought of Kirigakure, Uchiha Yasuo's eyes suddenly lit up. He turned his head toward Obito and bared his teeth. "Leader, Obito can make Kirigakure declare war on Konohagakure. Because I cannot leak information about a comrade, I will not say the reason. But this is greatly beneficial to the organization—far more important than recruiting comrades."
"Hm?" Pain was stunned when he heard this and immediately turned to look at Obito.
Seeing that even such a secret piece of information was known, Obito grew even more wary of Uchiha Yasuo's "prophecy" ability.
But whether it was Kirigakure or Konohagakure, both were his enemies. Seeing the two villages fight each other to the death was exactly what he wanted, so he nodded and said: "After the war begins, I will make Kirigakure declare war on Konohagakure."
Pain nodded after hearing this and waved his hand: "Very good. Yasuo, your prophecy ability is indeed strong enough. If you see any other information beneficial to the organization, feel free to say it."
"I see!" Hearing Pain say this, Uchiha Yasuo immediately laughed.
His gaze circled around Pain, and then he revealed that same punchable expression again as he said with a smiling squint: "Hey, Nagato, do you want to stand up?"
"What?" All those who knew of Nagato's existence could not help but feel their hearts jump, and their expressions changed in unison.
Pain was a human puppet, so no expression could be seen on him; Obito's face was covered by a mask, so nothing could be seen there either; Zetsu was originally a plant person; but Konan's expression was very obvious—at a glance one could see that something was wrong.
Everyone present was a seasoned schemer. Although they did not know who the Nagato in Uchiha Yasuo's mouth was, just from Konan's expression they knew that this "Nagato" was definitely another important figure.
At once, everyone stopped talking and merely looked quietly at Uchiha Yasuo, their faces full of the look of wanting to watch the fun.
"Hey, Nagato, with how badly you're injured right now, you can't even stand up. Maybe one day you'll just drop dead. That's not something I want to see."
"But it just so happens that the ability of my left eye's eye technique is to use Yang Release to replenish life force. It couldn't be more suitable for you!"
"Hey, how about I help treat you and let you stand up from that wheelchair again?"
Uchiha Yasuo spoke with a smiling squint, egging him on nonstop.
"Just think about it. If you can appear in your full-power state, why would we need to recruit any comrades?"
"Just you alone would be completely enough to beat down the whole of Konohagakure!"
"At that time, sweeping away the Five Great Nations in one stroke and forcibly seizing the Tailed Beasts might not be impossible either."
He spoke of this in a light tone, but everyone who heard it could not treat this information as something trivial.
Orochimaru and the others were inwardly shaken for no reason. They looked at one another, all wanting to know just who this so-called Nagato was, how powerful he was, and why he was so highly regarded by Uchiha Yasuo.
Konan stood up nervously and looked toward Pain at the side, just waiting for Pain to make the final decision.
Pain was silent for a while before finally speaking: "The power of prophecy is indeed terrifying. Then… have you seen the arrival of peace?"
"Haha…" Uchiha Yasuo laughed loudly. "No, I have not seen the arrival of peace. I saw the destruction of the Shinobi World—caused by my own hands!"
"Are you satisfied with that answer?"
"Has your reason already been devoured by hatred?" Pain shook his head regretfully. "Forget it. No matter what the future result is, I will not change the direction in which I advance."
"But your choice is the right one. As long as Gods descend into the world, mortals can only submit to the arrangement."
"You come with me. I will take you to see Nagato."
"Everyone else, meeting dismissed!"
Under the strange gazes of everyone, Uchiha Yasuo hopped along behind Pain and headed toward the top of the tall tower.
Once they reached the very top, there was only a single enormous room here. When the door was opened, they saw the emaciated, skin-and-bones Nagato sitting upright in a wheelchair, all sorts of messy tubes plugged into his back. Those were left on him by the Outer Path Demonic Statue back when it had been summoned.
Back then he had been too young, his strength insufficient, and the Rinnegan had not been his original pair.
With so many negative buffs stacked on him, first his legs were blown up by Explosive Tags, and then he forcibly activated the Outer Path Demonic Statue and was violently drained, nearly reduced to a dried-up human husk.
Even with the powerful recovery ability of the Uzumaki Clan, he had never been able to heal over all these years and could only move around in a wheelchair.
But now things were good—Uchiha Yasuo had come, and a savior had appeared!
Pain and Konan stood to the left and right of Nagato, staring closely at Uchiha Yasuo, afraid he might do something dangerous.
Uchiha Yasuo, however, did not mind in the slightest. He sat cross-legged on the ground and said with a grin: "Hey, Leader, my eye technique can use Yang Release to replenish your life force and can definitely restore you to your former state. But you can't expect me to work for nothing, right?"
Seeing that Uchiha Yasuo opened his mouth by asking for benefits, Nagato and Konan instead felt much more at ease. After all, no one acts early without profit, and they had long been tricked into PTSD by others, so they did not dare casually take any bait.
"Go on, what do you want?"
"Very simple—I want revenge! I want to destroy Konohagakure!" Uchiha Yasuo did not hide his hatred for Konohagakure at all. "This has no conflict with your goals. I trust you won't refuse, right?"
"Fine. I can agree to that. Akatsuki needs to collect all the Tailed Beasts and resurrect the Ten Tails. Konohagakure is a target that must be defeated."
"No, not defeated—destroyed!" Uchiha Yasuo interrupted Nagato's words. "You're not planning to wait for Konohagakure to come attacking first, are you?"
"The Land of Rain has recovered quite well under Akatsuki's governance these past years, but with just one war it would immediately be beaten back to its original state."
"Konohagakure can afford to fail countless times, but once the Land of Rain fails, it has no future left!"
"You need to take the initiative and attack Konohagakure, Nagato!"
"You want them to feel pain? Then you must start the war on their own land!"
"In all the past Shinobi World Wars, Konohagakure has never once been invaded all the way into the village by its enemies. That is why those ignorant common villagers ignore the contributions our Uchiha Clan made for the village and believe their own happiness is only natural!"
"Nagato, I deeply agree with your belief—those who have never experienced pain will never understand the value of peace!"
"So, let us go to Konohagakure and let that ignorant bunch properly experience the pain of war!"
"I imagine that after this village-extermination event, they will all surely begin to love peace!"
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