This puppeteer is a bit... well...

Chapter 107 Chase in the Rain (Please Subscribe)

It rains every day in the Land of Rain, but today's rain is unusually heavy, with raindrops making a continuous "splashing" sound as they hit the ground.

"Tap tap tap..."

Six people dressed in high-necked robes sped across the muddy ground.

Konan stared at the blurry, rain-blurred view ahead, a sense of unease creeping into her heart. "Nagato, I have a bad feeling about this."

The red-haired boy, whose bangs obscured his eyes, turned to look at her and nodded. "Be careful, I have a bad feeling about this too."

"I think there will be problems with Yahiko."

"Snapped!"

Nagato stopped in her tracks.

The five companions took a few steps ahead before stopping the car.

"What's wrong?"

Faced with her companion's question, Nagato lowered her head and remained silent, her unusual eyes, hidden by her bangs, filled with anxiety.

"Nagato?"

Xiao Nan expressed her doubts.

Nagato snapped out of her daze, looked up abruptly, and upon seeing the familiar face, gasped for breath like a drowning survivor.

"What's wrong, Nagato?"

Xiao Nan rushed over to check on the situation.

Nagato raised his hand to stop him.

"I'm fine," he said, panting. "But after hearing what you just said about Yahiko, I thought of some terrible things. Perhaps the unusually heavy rain made someone who was already uneasy even more anxious."

"...Should we go to Yahiko's place?" another companion asked hesitantly.

"No, we should trust Yahiko."

Nagato looked at the four companions besides Konan. These were all veterans who had joined the Akatsuki from its inception, and each one was a comrade worth entrusting one's life to.

"The situation at the southern base is also a matter of life and death for everyone. Since Yahiko entrusted us with the investigation, we must not let him down."

Seeing Nagato's resolve harden, Konan felt reassured and smiled. "In that case, let's move forward."

"That's right, let's speed things up, figure out the situation as soon as possible, and get back."

"Um!"

……

"Oh no, oh no, oh no..."

Inside a closed underground cave.

A pale, humanoid creature was running around in circles in a panic.

Beneath the giant golem, Uchiha Madara, with his withered white hair and emaciated body, glanced at him listlessly before closing his eyes to rest.

Seeing this, the pale-faced, humanoid creature became even more anxious, running up to the old man and shouting, "Madara, why are you still so calm? Nagato is going to find that killing god from Sunagakure! He's going to be killed!"

Ban didn't speak, but simply opened his eyes and stared straight at him.

The white anthropomorphic creature shut its mouth and instinctively took a few steps back.

Then he felt something was off.

Why did I move backward?

Lacking common sense and physiological structure, White Zetsu did not understand what fear from the depths of its heart was; it was simply puzzled by this action that went against its own nature.

"White Zetsu..."

Ban called out the name of the anthropomorphic creature in a weak voice, as if he might pass away at any moment.

White Zetsu didn't care about any of that.

He felt no sadness whatsoever; he was simply curious about what Madara was going to say.

"What's wrong?"

"This is probably the last day of my life."

"Huh!?"

White Zetsu looked at the old man with surprise and asked, "With the Gedo Mazo's chakra sustaining your life, you could easily live for several more decades, right?"

"Of course, no problem, but if I continue to live, Nagato will die." Uchiha said, his cloudy left eye turning into a scarlet Sharingan. "If we want Nagato to truly awaken the Rinnegan, he needs to understand the cruelty of the world and abandon his naive ideals... This may be an opportunity, but it is also a crisis for him. If I don't help him, he won't be able to get over this hurdle."

"So how are you going to help him?" White Zetsu asked like a curious child. "Won't you die if you pull out the Gedo Statue's tubes, or are you going to ride the Gedo Statue to rescue him?"

Madara Uchiha couldn't help but laugh. "If I still had the chakra to control the Gedo Mazo, I wouldn't have gone through all that trouble."

"So what are you going to do?"

Madara did not answer, but looked at another White Zetsu hanging upside down on the tree roots.

This White Zetsu looks thinner, with a face that resembles a vortex formed by several twisted and rotating baki.

"Uzumaki Zetsu... you shall be called Uzumaki Zetsu!" Madara said in a low voice.

As the words fell, the vortex fell naturally, like a ripe fruit.

Snapped!

Whirlpool landed face-first on the ground, his body twisted in an extremely irregular way, like a puddle of mud.

Madara Uchiha hesitated.

He began to doubt whether he had made the decision too hastily.

But considering the current situation, he decided to bite the bullet and carry it out anyway.

"Zetsu, you wrap me up to move around." Madara Uchiha took a deep breath and looked at him intently. "If it's you, even if you tear apart the Gedo Mazo, you can still sustain my life for a while."

"Oops, sorry, I think I've gone off on a tangent."

"Egg, do you have an egg?"

"I didn't!"

"Wow, you don't have eggs? That's amazing!"

"Of course, do you have eggs?"

"I don't think I have any."

Looking at the two Zetsu who ignored him and chatted about pointless topics, Ban fell silent.

He once again fell into self-doubt.

Is it really okay to hand over your body to this guy to control?

Especially seeing Zetsu, who was face down and limp like a rag doll, calmly chatting with another White Zetsu, made him doubt himself even more.

He didn't doubt that Vortex would disobey his orders, but he worried that the guy might do something strange with his body.

For example, striking a particularly embarrassing pose.

Wouldn't that ruin his lifelong reputation?

No, we need to get insurance.

Madara Uchiha, upon realizing his plan, suddenly split off a dark figure from his body.

"Hey, what's this?"

The two figures, white and desperate, staring at their own color and thoughts, couldn't help but show astonishment.

"This is the embodiment of my will." Madara Uchiha glanced at White Zetsu, then turned his gaze to the black figure. "Black Zetsu, from now on, you will carry out the follow-up plans in my place."

"I am you, and your pursuit is my pursuit."

"In that case, let's leave it at that!"

……

Southern stronghold.

Looking at the fully equipped and ready-to-go troops, Long Er asked, "You all understand the performance of the equipment I gave you and are proficient in using it, right?"

"I've already mastered it."

"Then let's set off. Reach the enemy camp within three hours, and then use the weapons I gave you to wipe them all out. We must reverse the village's current decline with an absolute victory."

"Yes."

"Set off."

Long Er took the lead and galloped ahead.

Hong lagged slightly behind by half a step, following closely beside her.

The remaining ninjas followed in a cone formation.

After a day and a night of rest, everyone was in high spirits and ran with great speed. Hundreds of pairs of ninja shoes pounded in the muddy ground, splashing up bursts of water.

"Tap tap tap..."

The group drove along for about half an hour before they saw several figures ahead.

Because of the heavy rain, it was impossible to see who it was.

But on the battlefield, there are only your own side and the enemy.

Without Long Er giving any instructions, three squads sped up and rushed forward.

"Nagato is the enemy!"

The people who came immediately stopped and looked at the red-haired boy in the middle.

"What should we do?" a companion asked anxiously. "In this situation, the southern stronghold is probably doomed."

"withdraw!"

Nagato gritted his teeth and gave the order.

Although he was eager to know what had happened at the southern stronghold, the other side had a large and powerful force, and it was not the time to dwell on that.

Upon hearing Nagato's order, everyone breathed a sigh of relief and then turned and ran away.

Three teams of puppeteers were in hot pursuit.

Two of them took out a scroll while running and opened it. As a puff of white smoke drifted by, a strange device appeared in their hands.

This is a six-in-one bamboo dragonfly.

A bamboo dragonfly is formed by a hand sword attached to a steel spiral rod, and six identical bamboo dragonflies are attached to an abacus-like device.

Inside, gears are interwoven horizontally and vertically, wedged onto a steel bar, which is then connected to a spiral rod wrapped with wire.

The two men, while running, gripped the handle with their left hands and pulled the line sharply with their right hands.

"Buzz!"

With the sound of the line taut in an instant, six bamboo dragonflies spun simultaneously, and six shuriken shot out at a speed that no human could possibly throw.

The distance of several hundred meters passed in the blink of an eye.

Those who were fleeing ahead were killed before they could even react, their chests pierced by the shuriken.

But this thing was incredibly powerful, yet its accuracy was terrible; only two of the twelve shuriken hit their mark, one of which grazed the edge of the leg.

Although it only grazed the edge, the shuriken spun so fast that it sliced ​​off half of the leg.

The person was still running at high speed when he broke his leg and fell to the ground, rolling several times before finally stopping.

The sudden turn of events brought the remaining four to a halt.

"Don't worry about me, run!"

The person who fell raised his head and roared at Nagato.

But the more this is the case, the harder it is for Nagato to make the choice to abandon him.

If they were already dead, that would be fine, but they are still alive and well. How could these people who act out of a belief in protecting peace possibly abandon the lives of their comrades?

Let's go together.

Two companions, one on each side, carried the injured man on their shoulders and continued their escape.

but.

Carrying the weight of another person slowed them down considerably. Attacks from behind also forced them to waste time dodging.

With this addition and subtraction, the pursuers are getting closer and closer.

"You guys go first."

Nagato stopped and turned to face the pursuers.

The others were startled and quickly stopped in their tracks. "We'll go together."

"If we all go together, neither of us will be able to leave."

"I'll cover your retreat with you," Xiao Nan insisted.

Nagato stared at the girl's face, lost in thought for a moment, but was quickly jolted back to reality by the sound of enemy footsteps.

"You guys should leave now," Nagato said firmly. "I can leave anytime I want, you're just holding me back."

Xiao Nan and the others weren't angry at the harsh words; instead, they were touched.

She gazed intently at Nagato, about to speak.

Nagato spoke first: "Yahiko is still waiting for us to go back and report the situation."

Upon hearing this, Xiao Nan paused, a look of hesitation on her face.

"Let's go!"

Seeing the approaching enemy, Nagato urged.

Konan gave him a deep look and said emphatically, "Nagato, don't die!"

"I won't die." Nagato smiled. "I haven't seen the peace Yahiko spoke of yet, how could I die?"

"You must survive!"

Xiao Nan gave one last word of advice before leaving with her two companions.

Hearing the footsteps behind her gradually fade away, Nagato breathed a sigh of relief, then looked up at the pursuers.

shhhhhh...

Four men landed in front of him, while the remaining eight crossed the long gate and chased after the remaining deserters from both sides of the road.

"Come back here!"

Nagato's expression tightened, and he turned around to reach out and grab it from a distance.

An unparalleled suction force was generated from the palm of his hand, and the puppeteers who had already run seven or eight meters were pulled back into the air.

"what!"

The four puppeteers standing in front of Nagato were startled and immediately took out kunai and threw them at him.

Nagato made a fist with his right hand and slammed it down on the ground. Without even looking at the fate of the eight puppeteers who were smashed into the ground, he turned around and raised his empty left hand.

An invisible repulsive force erupted, repelling all the flying kunai and sending them flying along with the four puppeteers.

(End of this chapter)