Zombie Sage in Naruto

Chapter 197 Madara: Nagato has grown up.

"solved!"

"Has the battle been decided...?"

Konan and Hanzo both looked to the other side. Although they couldn't see the head of Yama in the Hell Path or Danzo's soul being separated, their combat skills allowed them to make a rough guess.

"Just by touching his head, Danzo became completely still. At first glance, it looked like a genjutsu attack, but it was definitely a soul attack. The Rinnegan really does have a dojutsu that can directly attack the soul."

Hanzo swung his scythe, slashing horizontally and cutting through a large area of ​​explosive tags. With a glance, he saw even more explosive tags separating from Konan's body and surging towards him like a storm.

He had no intention of fighting Xiao Nan to the death. He kept retreating, releasing poisonous mist from his body, which corroded the explosive tags in batches, as if he wanted to have a war of attrition with Xiao Nan.

Konan is troublesome, but not to the point that even a powerhouse like Hanzo is helpless. The only one he really cares about is Nagato.

"It's your turn next."

Nagato deactivated Sage Mode—Danzo had Izanagi to escape, but Hanzo did not, so Nagato did not need to use Sage Mode to deal with him.

He tossed Danzo's body aside, letting it soak in the water. He vented most of his hatred, and although there was dissatisfaction in his eyes when he looked at Hanzo, it did not reach the level of hatred.

In retrospect, although Hanzo had conflicts with the Akatsuki, the losses he caused to the Akatsuki were all within a controllable range. Even the time when Hanzo personally took action, he was ultimately scared away by Kaede Tsukasa and did not actually capture the young Nagato.

Hanzo stared intently into Nagato's eyes, a hint of possessiveness indeed appearing in them, but not much.

"Danzo is completely dead, not just unconscious. It seems I was right; you attacked Danzo's soul directly." Hanzo stood in the rain, holding his scythe, and said.

"His fate will be your fate, but I will send your soul to a pure land, I will not imprison you."

"What cold-blooded words! That's how confident a manipulator of souls is. The last person to speak to me like that was Kaede Tsukasa... but he's already become a powerful figure who dominates the ninja world. He might even be comparable to Hashirama Senju and Madara Uchiha in terms of absolute strength back then. And you, Nagato, are still in a small place like the Land of Rain, leading a tiny organization to oppose me," Hanzo said coldly.

Nagato's eyes had become much more dangerous.

He possesses the eyes of a sage and is a descendant of the vortex, naturally possessing immense vitality. Even if he doesn't reach the level of a sage's body, it far surpasses the imagination of ordinary people.

However, this configuration seems to have left no intimidating reputation in the ninja world, and very few people in the major ninja villages know that he is the second Sage of Six Paths.

“When I have dealt with you and taken control of Amegakure, this world will welcome their god. Only I can lead this world in the right direction. These eyes will see the way forward.”

Nagato's eyes widened.

Rinnegan - Intimidation!
This was a binding technique that relied on immense eye power to unleash an effect comparable to the Golden Binding Technique, crashing down on Hanzo like a mountain.

The falling raindrops stopped in mid-air and then burst open, unable to withstand the sudden pressure.

"Challenging God is inherently reckless."

Nagato swung several black rods with his backhand, aiming them at Hanzo's body.

Hanzo immediately broke free of the oppressive aura, dodging to the side. More toxins immediately surged from the poison sac in his abdomen, infecting the surrounding air and water, and the purple color continued to spread.

Konan transformed into countless sheets of paper and scattered, while Nagato raised his hand and unleashed Shinra Tensei, forcibly clearing away the spreading poison.

"You seem to be very good at physical combat and poisoning, which are close-range fighting styles. I'm different. I have no weaknesses, and I can easily suppress you in long-range combat."

Nagato said coldly, "I don't know whose support you're waiting for, but whoever it is, they can't save you. The Land of Rain will be the beginning of a transformation of the ninja world."

He had studied at Mount Myōboku and firmly believed in the prophecy of the Son of Prophecy.

Look, he is the second person in the world to possess the Rinnegan. Combined with the Great Toad Sage's prophecy, who else could it be but him? The upheavals in the ninja world today surpass the sum of many past years. No matter how you look at it, it seems that it is time for change.

Although the guy named Kaede Tsukasa seemed to act faster than him, that method of reaping was nothing more than disguised enslavement. Even if he could use the Mukoro Tsukuyomi to cover the entire planet and forcibly pull everyone into the illusion to fight to the death or even live, it would only be replacing straightforward killing with slow exploitation.

This is not the right path. There can only be one savior of the world, and there can only be one path to change!
"Konan, step back. I'll deal with Hanzo," Nagato commanded.

A pile of papers coalesced into Konan's upper body: "Be careful, Hanzo is not someone you can easily deal with. I'll go and hold off those Amegakure ninjas so they can't get in your way."

Now, Konan has begun to have the confidence to take on an entire village by herself—although it's a small village with no other strong fighters besides Hanzo.

With Konan's current strength, after serving as a lackey for so many years under Kaede Tsukasa, working day and night to manufacture explosive tags, she has made great contributions to the arms trade of the entire Hidden Leaf Village and even the entire Land of Fire, and has indeed trained the ability to mass-produce explosive tags.

Konan's standard attack method is to scatter explosive tags everywhere to blow up all the enemies. Compared to the high-intensity work in Konoha, dealing with a large number of grunts is not a burden for Konan at all.

What truly distracted Konan was Nagato's situation. Since Yahiko's death, Nagato's personality had changed again, which greatly worried Konan.

Hanzo continued to fight and retreat, constantly creating poison circles of varying sizes. He was practically a walking poison gas bomb, and a high-yield one at that, at the cost of slowly poisoning himself.

He can't hold out much longer; if he doesn't escape soon, he'll poison himself to death.

The continuous bursts of impact caused one depression after another to appear out of thin air on the earth. Furthermore, substances that had extinguished all life continued to leak out in the center of Amegakure. Even if it was just a leak, it was enough to cause fatal damage to the surrounding ecosystem.

Villagers continued to die from the poison, clutching their necks in agony as they struggled to their deaths.

Panic, screams, pleas—chaos spread rapidly through Amegakure, a small but oppressive yet relatively peaceful village.

When many villagers of Amegakure realized something was wrong, their first reaction wasn't to flee, but rather confusion and bewilderment—how could anyone in this world dare to challenge Lord Hanzo's rule? The crucial point was that this commotion had been going on for quite some time, yet Lord Hanzo still hadn't been able to defeat the enemy?
"Lord Hanzo is the sun of Amegakure, a great bulwark against all external enemies!"

"No matter who it is, they will die. In the end, Lord Hanzo will be the victor. We just need to protect ourselves first."

The villagers, living in a closed country, were unaware that the outside world had changed drastically and was no longer what they knew.

Even without Nagato's surprise attack on Hanzo, it wouldn't be long before the Musou Tsukuyomi officially spread, completely enveloping Amegakure, and the information cage would inevitably be violently destroyed by Kaedeji.

Many of the villagers living in the ninja village are descendants of ninjas, and their average quality far exceeds that of towns controlled by the powerful and wealthy. They are all potential ninjas and people who are willing to dedicate themselves to Kaedeji. Kaedeji would never let them go.

These villagers are dying one after another in the aftermath of the battle. Nagato may have some pity for these civilians, but he has to use great power to effectively suppress Hanzo, the legendary demigod who has ruled Amegakure for decades.

Hanzo was even more reckless. He trusted no one and didn't care about the lives of the villagers—if he could use these lives to delay Nagato's attack, it would be worthwhile for Hanzo.

"Hanzo, you are not worthy to be the leader of this village at all. You are completely unconcerned that the spread of the poison will kill your villagers."

While the Rinnegan's field of vision is not as good as the Byakugan's, it is far superior to that of ordinary eyes. With his combined vision and sensory abilities, Nagato took in the entire situation in Amegakure. As he watched the people crying and fleeing, Nagato couldn't help but frown, a hint of hesitation creeping into his heart.

This slight hesitation, when applied to the battle, was keenly noticed by Hanzo, and he was immediately invigorated.

"War will cause death. When the power is strong enough, even a battle between you and me can be as destructive as a life-and-death battle between dozens or hundreds of ordinary ninjas. I thought you were mentally prepared before you attacked me."

Hanzo was in a very sorry state. Facing Nagato, he really didn't have any good killing moves. Could he swing his scythe? Or use poison? Nagato had long been prepared for these methods.

Hanzo took a breath and said, "Moreover, death is no longer something that people can't accept. In the past, it was because of the years of war and too many deaths that we had to get used to the fact that everyone could die at any time. But now it's different. There is a chance to be resurrected after death. Konoha has even turned resurrection into a complete industry chain! Death is no longer the same as the separation of life and death in the past."

It is a different kind of long sleep—a literal long sleep, where one falls asleep and, no matter how long, eventually wakes up, and upon waking, is alive again.

If the weight of death becomes lighter, and people become indifferent to death as their final destination, then there will only be more and more people who court death.

The world should have become more chaotic, and Nagato would not allow such a thing to happen, nor would he agree with the practice of sending people into illusions to solve the problem.

Nagato snorted coldly: "This is an evil and heretical practice, and I will correct it."

He slapped the ground, and various summoning beasts with Rinnegan appeared one after another, with the Cerberus charging at the forefront, forcing Hanzo to summon the Salamander as well.

However, the giant salamander no longer possessed its former imposing presence, not because of old age, but purely because a part of its soul had been taken away by Kaede Tsukasa, causing it to constantly endure excruciating pain and making it impossible for the salamander to concentrate.

When several spirit beasts collided wildly, their simple running could collapse countless houses, creating even more brutal destruction in a very short time.

Whenever a spirit beast is knocked away, it tumbles and rolls on the ground, crushing countless people in its wake.

The reinforcements that Hanzo had been eagerly awaiting finally arrived.

"It's gotten to this point. Amegakure is a stable source of experimental subjects; we can't just give up like this."

Tenzo finally arrived late—in fact, he had been making great efforts to get there. Ever since Orochimaru received Hanzo's plea for help, Tenzo had set off.

Fortunately, Hanzo was cautious enough that he noticed something was wrong and called for help before Nagato made his move, and he finally got help.

"Someone's coming! My paper rain couldn't stop him!"

Xiao Nan shouted.

"I sensed it. An unusual chakra is rushing towards me. It seems this guy is Hanzo's accomplice."

Nagato slowly raised his head, ignoring the fierce battle between the summoned beasts and the panting Hanzo. He had already flown into the sky, looking in the direction of Tenzo, his expression gradually turning fierce: "This feeling, there's no mistake, Yahiko possessed this kind of chakra back then!"

In other words, after Yahiko died, that guy was replaced!
Swish!
Tenzo's speed was incredibly fast, almost like that of a ninja specializing in taijutsu. In a flash, he was already standing between Hanzo and Nagato. The rain seemed to only realize it afterward, as it was torn open by his speed, creating a tunnel.

Hanzo was greatly disappointed: "Why is it a brat? Why isn't Orochimaru here!"

"Lord Orochimaru has more important matters to attend to, so I have to do it myself. But don't worry, I have brought some good things as Lord Orochimaru instructed, enough to help you get out of danger."

Tenzo glanced at Nagato expressionlessly, then paused and said, "This is the Rinnegan. According to Lord Jigen, obtaining the Rinnegan in an era without the Ten-Tails is an extraordinary achievement."

But that's all it is. It's just the Rinnegan, an eye with special eye techniques. And because its bloodline is closer to the Ten-Tails, it naturally has the ability to control the Ten-Tails.

"Where is Jigen? Tell him to come out here! Yahiko's blood debt must be repaid with his blood!"

Nagato's emotions fluctuated violently, his voice filled with murderous intent: "He only knows how to hide behind others because he fears the power of me, a god!"

Yahiko initially risked becoming Jigen's vessel largely to protect Nagato, as Nagato could have been Jigen's target!

Nagato has not forgotten this point, and considers killing Jigen as a mid-term goal.

Tenzo shook his head: "You... god? It's just a Uzumaki clan member's body housing those Rinnegan eyes. Can this really be called a god? Well then, I'll show you this. Orochimaru instructed me that this should help you clear your head... Summoning Jutsu!"

A coffin emerged from the ground, followed by a loud crash as a large foot shattered the coffin lid.

"Hmph, that brat Nagato has grown up, he successfully... wait, am I still dead?"

(End of this chapter)