Chapter 352: The True Leader of the Akatsuki
"Let's go. Time to reclaim the Nine-Tails!"
At the tallest tower in Amegakure, as the words left Deva Path Pain's mouth, the Six Paths of Pain stood in a row. The Akatsuki's strongest force appeared, radiating an overwhelming sense of oppression.
Unfortunately, the atmosphere was immediately shattered by a crackling, mechanical sound.
Konan pushed out Nagato, who was sitting in a wheelchair with tubes inserted all over his back. The aura of the Six Paths of Pain was instantly ruined.
The Six Paths stepped aside, and Konan pushed Nagato to the front, positioning him beside Deva Path Pain.
Konan said with concern, "Nagato, how about letting Madara retrieve the Nine-Tails instead?"
At this point, Nagato's face was withered. Though his chakra reserves remained vast, his physical body was on the verge of collapse.
Any further high-intensity combat would only accelerate his physical decline, making his already short lifespan even more precarious.
Konan didn't want Nagato to risk going to Konoha.
"I don't trust that man."
That so-called Madara—whoever that Uchiha really was—Nagato had never once placed his trust in him.
Only the Eight-Tails and Nine-Tails remained. The Eight-Tails had already been handed over to Sasuke's team, and Nagato wanted to personally retrieve the strongest, the Nine-Tails.
They were just one step away from total domination—Nagato would not allow any surprises.
"…Alright then."
Seeing the determination in Nagato's eyes, Konan said nothing more. Among the trio, she had always been the obedient one, the dependable woman behind the man.
"Summoning Jutsu!"
The animal path of Pain—a petite girl—formed hand seals and let out a soft shout. Black summoning patterns formed from her hands and emerged mid-air.
Boom!
With a puff of white smoke, a giant summoning beast with a long, sharp beak emerged from the cloud.
Whoosh whoosh whoosh… The Six Paths of Pain leapt onto the giant bird's back.
Konan also jumped on with Nagato's wheelchair.
The giant summoning bird then soared off in the direction of Konoha.
On a tower in Kirigakure, a shadow clone of Li Yao emerged from a space rift and glanced at the departing bird.
"It's almost time."
The clone of Li Yao smiled. With Nagato now on the move, Naruto's rushed Sage Mode training would soon be complete.
The clone flew toward the site where Jiraiya had died. The area still bore visible damage from the battle and hadn't been fully repaired—easy to recognize.
"Earth Style – Mass Technique!"
Arriving at Genkai Lake, the clone immediately activated the Mass Technique, bestowing the shadow clone a fictional body mass of ten thousand tons. His body's imagined density also increased exponentially.
Water pressure? No problem.
The clone plunged into the lake and began diving.
Genkai Lake was exactly what Li Yao had suspected: the site from which the Sage of Six Paths had drawn the earth to seal Kaguya Ōtsutsuki. Its perimeter already exceeded a thousand meters in depth.
With such depths, normal people wouldn't even get close, if not for the protection of the Mass Technique.
Though, there were other methods Li Yao could have used to reach the bottom.
For example, Hydrification Jutsu, or water-permeation techniques, or even simply walking through a spatial rift—any of these would suffice for him to reach the thousand-meter-deep lakebed unharmed.
He had too many tricks. What was unreachable for others posed no problem to him.
"Good… Still relatively intact."
Soon enough, the clone located Jiraiya's body at the bottom of the lake.
Perhaps because it was so close to Amegakure's structures and the water was too deep, there were few large carnivorous fish around. Combined with the mild undercurrents, Jiraiya's corpse remained fairly well preserved.
The clone retrieved one of Jiraiya's bones and returned.
Back in Amegakure, the clone casually grabbed a random low-chakra ninja and, using the Flying Thunder God Technique, teleported to Tsunade's home in Konoha.
Then, the clone departed for Kumogakure.
Li Yao suddenly recalled that at this point in time, Sasuke had already fought Itachi, joined the Akatsuki, and was on his way to capture the Eight-Tails.
It was likely that Obito was already tailing Sasuke, preparing to help him transplant Itachi's Mangekyō Sharingan.
The clone heading to Kumo might just find them both.
"Yin Seal: Barrier Technique!"
With a thought, Li Yao cast a chakra-concealing barrier over Tsunade's house. Based on the Yin Seal, it could perfectly mask all chakra activity within, making it undetectable—even to the Byakugan.
"Alright, time to summon Jiraiya and let him see firsthand the consequences of leaving behind an unsolvable code."
With a thought, a sealing technique activated. Black chakra marks spread across the living room floor, quickly forming the pattern of the Impure World Reincarnation summoning.
At this point, his version of the Impure World Reincarnation was different from what was written in the Scroll of Seals.
Madara had known the risks of the technique, and so did Li Yao.
If the reincarnated individual knew the hand signs for the technique, they could perform them in reverse and break free from the summoner's control.
With infinite chakra and an immortal body…
If someone as strong as Madara were to break free, the devastation would be unimaginable.
So, Li Yao improved the technique.
In the original, Orochimaru also improved it, which is how he could control the First and Second Hokage without them breaking free.
Madara only escaped because he had access to the Rinnegan's shared perception ability—he immediately learned all of Kabuto's Impure World Reincarnation hand signs through Obito's eye.
That's how Madara was able to undo the summoning contract on his own.
However, Orochimaru and Kabuto's modifications were still unstable. Some reincarnated individuals could still ascend by force of will.
Li Yao's version was different—his improvements were far more thorough.
He didn't even need hand seals.
Using his absolute chakra control, he had designed a much more complex version of the technique with even more binding contracts.
His Impure World Reincarnation was vastly more powerful.
The revived ninja had virtually no chance to resist.
"Impure World Reincarnation!"
Once the sealing formula was complete, Li Yao placed Jiraiya's bone and a living human sacrifice into the summoning circle. With a thought, he injected chakra and activated the technique.
A burst of white light shone from the seal.
Jiraiya's bone turned into fine white powder and dispersed.
The sacrifice was soon engulfed by the swirling white powder, which quickly covered his entire body. Jiraiya's form began to materialize.
"This is… Tsunade's house!"
The moment he opened his eyes, the first thing Jiraiya noticed was that he was in Tsunade's house—clearly, he was quite familiar with the place.
Only then did he notice Li Yao standing in front of him.
(END CHAPTER)
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