Deva Path Pain glanced indifferently at Naruto but gave no response.
Naruto, however, suddenly felt his blood surge.
Clenching his fists, he shouted loudly:
“Hey, you over there! Listen to me!”
“Even if my future self is restrained by your future self…”
“In the end… I will definitely win!”
“I will defeat you, and I will become Hokage!”
“Do what I say, keep moving forward, and never give up. This is my ninja way!”
Deva Path Pain replied indifferently, “Oh? Is that so?”
He had no interest in wasting words with this little brat, so he continued looking up at the video.
He really wanted to know whether his future self had ultimately succeeded.
The video continued playing.
On the screen, Deva Path Pain looked indifferently at Naruto lying on the ground and said:
“Although you say that my idea of peace is false, in my opinion, the peace you speak of, where people understand one another, is even more false!”
“And your value lies in handing over the Nine-Tails to me so that I can create a Tailed Beast weapon. With the immense power of that weapon, I can make the entire shinobi world experience pain!”
“In this way, they will be intimidated by the Tailed Beast weapon and feel genuine fear from the bottom of their hearts. They will no longer dare to start wars, and thus… true peace will be achieved!”
Naruto said, “Pain, stop dreaming! That kind of peace won’t last long either!”
Deva Path Pain shook his head, seemingly unwilling to argue with Naruto any further.
He pulled one black rod after another from his sleeves and used them to restrain Naruto.
The scene changed.
The grown-up Sakura, Shikamaru, Neji Hyuga, and the others were there.
They observed the situation on the battlefield while discussing how to deal with it.
Seeing Naruto pinned down by the black rods, however, none of them dared to step forward.
After all, their opponent possessed the terrifying Rinnegan!
Going over there would be no different from throwing their lives away!
Outside the video, inside the alternate dimension, the Konoha shinobi watching the video finally began to notice something was wrong.
The location in the video seemed to be…
Konoha Village!
It looked as though the entire Konoha Village had been completely destroyed!
Might Guy clenched his fists, two streams of white vapor shooting from his furious nostrils as he said:
“This must have been done by those Akatsuki bastards! Even if it happened in the future, it is absolutely unforgivable! Once we leave this alternate dimension, I’ll make them pay!”
Having received the Byakugan as a reward from the Myriad Realms Ruler, his strength had increased tremendously, and he was already eager to test it.
Kakashi also wore a grave expression as he said:
“Judging from the video, it seems that many people died. Konoha Village is so vast, yet the entire place was destroyed. Just what kind of jutsu could do something like this?”
奈良鹿久, however, noticed something unusual, his eyes flashing sharply.
He turned to the Third Hokage and said:
“Lord Third, I think I’ve discovered… a weakness of the Akatsuki.”
The Third Hokage’s cloudy eyes lit up slightly.
“Oh? What weakness?”
Shikaku said, “Do you remember when the Sixth Show-Off King, Tobi, appeared in the video? At the future Five Kage Summit, he told everyone about his Eye of the Moon Plan.”
“You mean…?”
Shikaku nodded and said solemnly:
“Based on the information we’ve obtained so far, although Tobi is powerful, he only possesses the Sharingan. He is far inferior to the leader, Pain, who possesses the Rinnegan.”
“In other words, the Akatsuki’s original purpose in collecting the Tailed Beasts was exactly as Pain said: to use the Nine Tailed Beasts to create a Tailed Beast weapon, intimidate the entire shinobi world, and achieve peace through that fear.”
“But Tobi said that the purpose of the Akatsuki collecting the Tailed Beasts was to create something called the Ten-Tails, then have Tobi himself become its Jinchuriki and cast Infinite Tsukuyomi, trapping everyone in the shinobi world in an illusion and creating a world without war or betrayal within that illusion.”
“They can’t even agree on what they’re collecting the Tailed Beasts to create. This means that Tobi and Pain are either using each other, or one of them has deceived the other!”
The Third Hokage silently nodded.
If Shikaku’s analysis was correct, then an internal conflict would inevitably erupt within the Akatsuki in the future!
When that happened, they could take advantage of the opportunity, rally the entire shinobi world, and eliminate the Akatsuki in one fell swoop!
With this thought, the Third Hokage looked toward Danzo and said:
“Once the ranking of the Ten Show-Off Kings is finished, we’ll immediately convene a Five Kage Summit and do everything we can to locate the Akatsuki!”
Danzo nodded.
He then glanced at Naruto, who was currently provoking Pain from afar, before turning back and speaking thoughtfully:
“We absolutely cannot let Naruto recklessly use his reward opportunity. If we can have him ask the Myriad Realms Ruler to revive the First Hokage, then the village will basically be safe.”
The Third Hokage nodded.
“I’ll personally persuade Naruto later.”
Just then.
A scene in the video playing above the alternate dimension caused the twelve young shinobi of Konoha to cry out in alarm.
“What is she doing?”
“Is she going there to die?”
“Don’t!”
Hearing their cries, the Third Hokage and Danzo couldn’t help but raise their heads and look toward the video.