Nagato gasped, his entire scalp tingling with a numb sensation.
Too ruthless!
Even after living a lifetime, he never imagined someone could be so wicked.
No wonder the first generation of the Akatsuki Organization died so miserably back then; who among the three of them could have imagined that the high-level officials of these hidden Villages could be so black-hearted?
But thinking carefully, it actually made sense.
If they didn't have such filthy hearts, the hidden Villages wouldn't have developed to their current state.
"Fine, I understand!"
"Tell Uchiha Jin that I will help him handle it."
"Using the name of the Akatsuki Organization doesn't matter; the organization doesn't care about that at all."
"As for recruiting other members of the Akatsuki Organization, that's a bit of a hassle. After all, my current physical condition is very poor, and I'm almost entirely relying on White Zetsu merging into my body to sustain my life."
"So no matter what I do, it's hard to avoid White Zetsu."
"However, don't worry."
"Let me first confirm the intelligence on those Akatsuki Organization members. Once I'm sure, I'll bring them into the Magic Lantern Body Technique, and then I'll find a way to persuade them."
"But I need time. Tell Uchiha Jin not to be in a hurry."
"Finally..."
"I hope he can fulfill his promise to me, otherwise even in death, I, Nagato, will not let him go!"
Nagato's tone was extremely resolute.
Yes!
His willingness to work for Uchiha Jin was primarily for Konan's safety, and secondly to see if Konoha's 'unification' action could achieve the dream of peace in Yahiko's heart.
As for himself, he had no hope left.
He had died long ago!
He had died on the day Yahiko died; the person living now was merely a shell.
Therefore, regarding his own future treatment, Nagato couldn't even be bothered to discuss it.
Konan gave a soft sigh at this.
As Nagato's only remaining close friend, she naturally understood his thoughts. She nodded deeply before slowly speaking: "Rest assured, Nagato, I trust my own judgment."
"I've stayed in New Konoha for a while now. Through my interactions with the people of Konoha, the various hidden Villages, and the various Ninjas, I have a relatively good understanding of Uchiha Jin's character."
"So I can give this guarantee: New Konoha is indeed a good place to end up."
Nagato nodded and breathed a slight sigh of relief.
Immediately after.
After the two chatted briefly for a while longer, Nagato disconnected the Magic Lantern Body Technique.
Konoha.
After Konan got up from the bed, she opened the room's window again. Looking out at the silent and peaceful Village, a faint smile couldn't help but appear on her face.
Meanwhile, on the other side.
Land of Grass.
Nagato, having disconnected the link, opened his eyes, and the White Zetsu inside his body began to chatter incessantly.
"Little Nagato, who were you contacting just now?"
"Did you find something delicious again?"
"I really want to try some too. Staying in your body every day is so boring."
"I don't care, I want to eat ramen, I want to eat dango!"
"..."
White Zetsu began to protest.
It couldn't be helped!
He wasn't a pure human to begin with, and his brain was already messed up. It was fine when he stayed inside Obito's body; at least although Obito had some mental issues, he could at least bicker and chat with him...
But what about Nagato?
To White Zetsu, this guy was a total mute; you couldn't get a word out of him if you tried.
Just like now, even though he chattered nonstop, Nagato—even if his expression was a bit gloomy—still couldn't be bothered to pay attention to White Zetsu.
Yes.
Perhaps in the beginning, when faced with White Zetsu's talkativeness, Nagato would lose his composure and curse out loud.
Now, however, it was different!
After spending this much time in contact with White Zetsu, Nagato had long since developed a certain immunity and automatically filtered out White Zetsu's words.
The reason for doing this was actually out of helplessness.
Because Nagato discovered that with a guy like White Zetsu, the more attention you gave him, the more he would push his luck.
Even if you scolded him, he took it as interaction and would actually be very happy instead.
So after this period of contact, Nagato naturally had his own set of coping methods.
And that was—ignoring him!
No matter what nonsense White Zetsu spouted, he simply wouldn't respond.
But this time was an exception. After thinking for a moment, Nagato spoke calmly: "The Eight Trigrams Sealing Style on Konan—through her efforts during this time, she has managed to break open a slight crack."
"She just contacted me, so I've decided to temporarily shelve our previous plan."
"Konan is willing to act as a spy for the Akatsuki Organization for the time being, so there's no need to rescue her yet. The specific rescue operation will be postponed until after the capture of the Three-Tails and Six-Tails."
"Pass this on to Obito and Black Zetsu!"
Hearing Nagato's reply, White Zetsu became interested.
He basically had no interest in'serious business' and instead continued his various chatterings.
Clearly.
He only wanted to 'interact' with Nagato, whereas he didn't care about the serious business at all.
Unfortunately, however.
Nagato had no intention of dealing with White Zetsu. After finishing the official business, he directly closed his eyes and began to rest.
White Zetsu: "..."
His mouth twitched, and the veins on his forehead bulged.
He felt like he was truly going crazy!
Although he had long known Nagato was a mute, he hadn't expected Nagato to be so silent to this extent.
It was simply... unbelievable!
Although he didn't know what the emotion of anger was, at this moment he deeply resented Black Zetsu and Obito.
It was all because of these two guys, otherwise he wouldn't have to suffer like this!
Yes.
In his view, they should have just given Nagato a regular White Zetsu clone. Wouldn't that have saved Nagato just like they saved Obito before?
They just had to make him possess Nagato...
But—sigh!
A higher rank crushes those below!
In his helplessness, seeing that Nagato was ignoring him, White Zetsu still passed this message on to Black Zetsu.
Meanwhile, on another point.
Black Zetsu, who was currently performing a mission in the Hidden Mist Village while closely monitoring the Three-Tails and Six-Tails, naturally passed the information from White Zetsu to Obito without a second word.
Obito looked bewildered.
Something like the Eight Trigrams Sealing Style, Konan could actually break out of it herself?
Even if it was just breaking open a crack, it still seemed somewhat incomprehensible to him.
After all, the one who placed the seal on Konan was Minato Namikaze, his former mentor. How could Obito not know how strong Minato Namikaze was?
But, unfortunately.
Although Obito faintly felt like something was slightly off, in the end, he just scratched his head and couldn't be bothered to think about it anymore.
It couldn't be helped.
His intelligence stat was only a two!
This level of thinking really wasn't his forte.
Waving his hand casually, Obito then spoke: "Since Konan doesn't need rescue, then it just happens to save us some trouble. There's no need to worry too much about Nagato's side either. The most important task now is still waiting for the revival of the Three-Tails and Six-Tails."
"As long as these two Tailed Beasts are captured, our plan will have progressed to the late stages."
"Once the last one, the Nine-Tailed, is captured, then it will be time for Nagato to die!"