Removing the Rinnegan wasn't an option.
They believed that these were the eyes of the Sage of Six Paths and a blessing from him. How many people coveted that power? Within the Akatsuki alone, at least two were after the Sage's Eyes: Orochimaru, and the masked man who called himself Madara Uchiha. Orochimaru had already defected, so he could be dismissed for the time being. Konan was confident she could handle the other members, but the masked man was another story. She had no idea how to deal with someone as elusive and unpredictable as him.
Besides, the organization was filled with S-rank missing-nin. If not for Nagato's overwhelming power holding them in check, what would they do if they learned he had lost the very eyes that guaranteed his authority?
Konan watched Naruto closely, worried he might try to take the Rinnegan for himself.
Naruto ignored her stare and simply continued, "Then that only leaves the second method." He paused for a moment. "Absorb the chakra from one of the Tailed Beasts."
He knew that in a possible future, a reanimated Nagato had absorbed some of the Eight-Tails' chakra, which not only restored his red hair but healed his withered body completely. The root of Nagato's condition was the toll of the Demonic Statue and the Rinnegan, a massive infusion of chakra was all he needed to recover.
"Impossible!" Nagato said at the same time Konan insisted, "We will do it!"
To Nagato, the Tailed Beasts were tools for creating weapons, the means to realize Yahiko's ideals. He couldn't just use one to heal himself. But Konan was only thinking of the man in front of her.
"Nagato!" she said, her voice sharp with worry.
He shook his head. "My mind is made up, Konan," he said softly.
"Nagato-kun, you disagree with this, and you disagree with that," Naruto said, his raspy voice holding a note of exasperation. "You're making this very difficult. You can't bring about peace like the Sage of Six Paths without a body strong enough to support that ambition."
'He could just absorb one of the beasts completely and wait couple years for it to revive,' Naruto thought, 'but he's dead set against it.' It seemed to be a common problem with powerful shinobi, they were all so stubborn that borders on self-destruction.
Nagato gave Naruto an apologetic look, which was quickly replaced by a quiet resolve.
"This is my destiny," he said quietly. "I will pursue peace in my own way and realize Yahiko's ideal."
'What bullshit destiny,' Naruto sighed to himself. 'You were just a tool Madara found to cultivate his eyes.' From the very beginning, Nagato had been chosen by someone else.
Konan looked at him, her expression filled with a quiet heartache. She moved to stand behind him, gently pressing her body against his back. 'No matter what you choose, I'll support you. I'll be by your side until the very end.' In their own way, they each protected what they cherished most.
"Then we'll have to go with the third option," Naruto's voice cut through the quiet moment, breaking them out of their private world.
'A third method?' Nagato thought, the emotional weight of his decision suddenly lifting. 'Why didn't you say it all at once.'
Konan's eyes lit up. 'Of course there's a third method,' she thought. 'When someone offers two options, there's always another. Most people often just don't mention it.'
Nagato's problem was, at its core, a matter of excessive chakra consumption. Solve that, and the rest would follow. Naruto had anticipated this, guessing Nagato would refuse the first two choices.
Naruto smiled, enjoying their reactions. "After all," he said proudly, "I have a reputation as the 'Pure Land Tracker'."
"Pure Land Tracker?" Nagato murmured the name. 'As expected of the clan's thousand-year-old elder.'
Konan thought, 'I don't understand it, but it sounds impressive.'
"To solve your problem, Nagato-kun, I'll need to prepare a few things." Naruto circled him with an exaggerated air of contemplation, nodding to himself. "Three days," he announced. "I'll be back in three days."
"Okay!" Konan answered before Nagato could refuse again.
Nagato could only offer Naruto another apologetic glance.
The three days were for a trip Naruto needed to take. With his ability to fly, a journey to the Land of Lightning, the Land of Earth, and the Land of Wind would be a simple matter.
--**--**
In Iwagakure, the Third Tsuchikage, Onoki, was plotting with his son, Kitsuchi, inside the Tsuchikage's office.
More than a decade had passed since the last Great Ninja War, and the major hidden villages, with the exception of Kirigakure, had recovered much of their strength. As one of the great ambitious figures of his era, Onoki's mind was stirring once more.
"That organization, Akatsuki, has completed quite a few missions for us," Onoki said from his seat, reading over a scroll. The grand chair looked almost comical beneath his short stature, and a closer look revealed he wasn't touching it at all. He was floating less than a centimeter above the seat, a subtle use of his Earth Release: Lightened Boulder Jutsu. a technique that allowed for flight but with a significant drawback: the user's physical strength was reduced while it was active. In that regard, it was far inferior to true Flight.
"Father, do you mean we should stop giving them missions?" Kitsuchi asked, his tall, burly frame a stark contrast to his diminutive father's. It was hard to believe they were related.
"You failure!" Onoki leaped up and smacked Kitsuchi on the head with the scroll, but the motion seemed to tweak his back. He grumbled, rubbing his lower back. "What are you thinking? I'm saying that for any mission that doesn't involve village secrets, we should give the difficult ones to them. They do the work for seventy percent of the commission, and their success rate is perfect. We don't lose any of our own shinobi, and we pocket a clean thirty percent. It's a fantastic deal, no matter how you look at it."
"You're right, Father," Kitsuchi said, rubbing the spot where he'd been hit. He gave a simple, honest smile that belonged more on a farmer than on the second-in-command of a hidden village. "You always think of everything."
Anyone who took him at face value was in for a rude awakening. This was the second most powerful man in Iwagakure. His mastery of Earth Release was exceptional, perhaps even surpassing Onoki's own, and neither of the village's jinchuriki could compare to him. If not for his inability to learn Onoki's ultimate technique, the Dust Release, he would have been the undisputed Fourth Tsuchikage.
*Crash!*
The office door flew open. An Iwagakure shinobi stumbled inside, breathless. "Ts-Tsuchikage-sama, It's an emergency!"
"The grave of the Second Tsuchikage... it's been dug up!"
Onoki's eyes went wide. Beside him, Kitsuchi stiffened.
===============
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