Disguise

Jiraiya, Nagato, and Konan stared at Yota’s current appearance, utterly dumbfounded.

"Th-this… you’re going to disguise yourself as Nagato?" Jiraiya was the first to react, blurting out in surprise.

Yota nodded, then blinked. His originally black-and-white eyes instantly turned purple, six concentric rings appearing within them. They had become Rinnegan in an instant.

Nagato’s expression shifted slightly. As the Rinnegan’s previous owner, he could clearly sense the immense ocular power in Yota’s eyes. It even far surpassed what he had possessed when he wielded the Rinnegan.

Back then, he had sensed that the Rinnegan still had untapped potential, but he had lacked the strength to draw it out. Simply sustaining the Rinnegan had consumed so much Chakra and life force that he could barely endure it.

Moreover, the Rinnegan had fused with Yota seamlessly. Unlike Nagato, the Rinnegan’s original wielder, Yota did not experience that incomparably sluggish, powerless feeling when drawing upon its ocular power. Otherwise, Nagato’s Rinnegan would not have remained activated at all times.

Naturally, Nagato did not know that the Rinnegan’s true original owner had been Madara Uchiha. They had never been his eyes, so of course they were inconvenient to use. Had he not been a member of the Uzumaki Clan, he would have long since been drained dry by the Rinnegan.

The Rinnegan Yota had absorbed and modified through the Munch-Munch Fruit, however, were no different from eyes that had grown on his own body. Even if Madara Uchiha gouged them out and implanted them into his own sockets, he would find that the Rinnegan no longer matched him perfectly.

Then darkness spread from behind him, and a massive statue appeared at his back. Both its aura and the feeling of its Chakra were identical to the Demonic Statue of the Outer Path from before.

That was only natural, though, because it was the Demonic Statue of the Outer Path. The black rods embedded in Yota’s body were merely for show, but because his mastery of the Rinnegan went far deeper than Nagato’s, his control over the Demonic Statue of the Outer Path was no weaker than Nagato’s.

Nagato and Konan could not understand the point of Yota’s actions, but Jiraiya immediately grasped his intent. Clearly, Yota had seen Akatsuki’s future potential and intended to pull off a cuckoo’s nest takeover.

When the time came, he could simply wait for Obito Uchiha and Black Zetsu to gather every member of Akatsuki, then kill the two of them. At that point, the entire Akatsuki would be his for the taking.

Having read the original manga, Jiraiya knew full well that while Akatsuki’s ninjas were hardly good people, not all of them were utterly evil. More importantly, they were indeed very useful.

Yota was already strong enough, but he had no foundation in the Naruto World. If he could take control of Akatsuki and the Rain Ninja Village, then his claim of becoming someone who set the rules might truly have a chance of coming true.

Nagato asked in confusion, "What’s the point of taking my appearance? Do you want the Rain Ninja Village? But you wouldn’t need to disguise yourself as me for that!"

Yota shook his head. "You aren’t my target. The entire Akatsuki is. Though Akatsuki may seem insignificant now, with Black Zetsu’s help, it will definitely become a powerful organization in the future."

That was true enough. The greatest contributor to Akatsuki’s ease in recruiting all those S-Rank Rogue Ninja was undoubtedly Black Zetsu—or rather, the many White Zetsu under Black Zetsu’s command.

Only because so many White Zetsu tirelessly gathered intelligence could they locate those S-Rank Rogue Ninja and learn their habits, allowing them to bring them under their control.

Otherwise, no matter how powerful Nagato was, how could he possibly recruit so many S-Rank Rogue Ninja without precise intelligence? Those rogue ninjas were elusive and cautious. Even when Akatsuki first appeared, Konoha, the greatest ninja village in the world, had not been able to uncover their backgrounds!

"You have that much confidence in Akatsuki? No, I should say, you have that much confidence in those two mysterious people?" Nagato asked in surprise.

Yota did not answer. Instead, he looked directly at Jiraiya. "I don’t want to say it again. You explain it to them."

Jiraiya scratched his head, an earnest expression appearing on his face as he began explaining everything to Nagato. In no time at all, he had told Nagato about every deception he had suffered.

"So… all of this was just a scam. I was nothing more than a pawn? Even the Rinnegan were never mine? Yahiko also died because of their schemes!" Nagato muttered, his expression terribly grim.

Yota glanced at him. "You took it better than Jiraiya. At first, Jiraiya thought I was lying to him."

"Because you have no reason to lie to me. After all, we’re already meat on the chopping block."

"And this sort of thing is easy to expose. In just a few years, the results will become clear. So why would you lie to me?"

Nagato sighed, then continued, "But you weren’t in any of this… so is this a future without you?"

"Probably. Under normal circumstances, I might have died on the battlefield of the Third Great Ninja War. I only changed my fate because I encountered a bit of good fortune later on." Yota nodded.

"After all, I wasn’t this strong when I was young. I was just an ordinary cannon-fodder genin. Under normal circumstances, my chances of surviving the Third Great Ninja War were less than ten percent."

Upon hearing this, Jiraiya, Nagato, and the others could not help but look at him, surprise showing in their eyes.

After all, there were rarely any late bloomers in the Naruto World. Every Kage-level powerhouse had inevitably shown their talent when they were young.

Even so-called dead last students, such as Obito Uchiha and Uzumaki Naruto, had only appeared weak. Their true strength had never been lacking, and any genuinely experienced ninja could see their potential.

Perhaps the only people who had truly fooled everyone were Obito Uchiha and Might Duy. Even then, such people had never been without signs.

Might Duy trained in taijutsu relentlessly every day in Konoha, and there had never been a shortage of people who saw him. Anyone who paid attention could see that his training volume far exceeded that of an ordinary genin. Obito Uchiha was simply single-minded; in truth, neither his Chakra reserves nor his ninjutsu were weak.

As for genuine cannon-fodder genin, hardly any had ever defied fate and changed their lives. Becoming a Special Jonin would already be like smoke rising from their ancestors’ graves. As for becoming a Kage-level powerhouse, that was something they could not even dream of.

Yota claimed that he had merely been ordinary cannon fodder when he was young, only changing his fate after gaining a fortunate encounter—and that he could even foresee the future. This left all three of them intensely curious.