Chapter 359: Ring of Zero! Intelligence from the Tenshukaku!
"Whoo..."
Standing within Susanoo and gazing out at the now unobstructed view before him, Uchiha Ci found himself looking over a land that had once been devastated by his previous visit—reduced to rubble, and later cleared by the Hidden Cloud into a vast plain.
And at the edge of his vision stood the Tenshukaku, perched atop a towering six-hundred-meter-high rock pillar.
Uchiha Ci exhaled lightly.
On his way here, he had unleashed nine volleys of Yasaka Magatama, Sage Art: Blaze Release—Great Sword of Annihilation: Flame Dragon Dance, and Hell Stab: Five Release — Great Elemental Reversal Sword, three colossal composite jutsu. Even with the chakra reserves of half an Eight-Tails, nearly half his chakra had been consumed.
Of that, the Hell Stab: Five Release — Great Elemental Reversal Sword was the most draining. Of the half of his chakra that had been used, three-quarters had gone into testing the power of that technique alone.
By Uchiha Ci's estimation, this move had already surpassed the power and scale of a standard Tailed Beast Bomb. At its center, the explosion could even tear through his full-powered defense.
After all, anything beyond that level would approach the Truth-Seeking Balls formed by combining seven chakra nature transformations.
In other words, he could still use that technique one more time.
"Add to that two uses of Sage Mode for a total of ten minutes—this time, defeating the Raikage head-on shouldn't be a problem."
Roughly calculating his remaining trump cards, Uchiha Ci was about to move forward when—
"Uchiha Ci!"
A cold shout rang out from behind.
Startled, Uchiha Ci turned his head to see a red-haired young man walking slowly across the ruins of a collapsed wall, wearing a complex expression on his face.
It was none other than Sasori of the Red Sand.
"Sasori?"
Sasori hesitated slightly, deliberated for a moment, then pulled out a scroll from his Akatsuki robe—identical to the one Uchiha Ci wore—and tossed it toward Susanoo. Turning his head away with clear reluctance, he said,
"This is from Kakuzu. He asked me to give it to you."
Uchiha Ci blinked in surprise. Dispelling Susanoo, he landed on the ground and caught the scroll with one hand.
"Kakuzu gave me something?"
He opened the scroll directly, curiosity piqued. From the side of the scroll, he keenly spotted the crest of the Uchiha Clan.
That clue made things clear.
Kakuzu—had he teamed up with someone in the clan?
Inside the scroll were two things.
The first was the Kusanagi Sword that he had lost during the battle at Hell Valley.
The second was his usual gear: Uchiha-crest clothing, a black high-collared shirt, shinobi utility pants with multiple pockets, leg bindings, black ninja boots, a sealing armband engraved with the kanji for "sword," and thousands of high-quality ninja tools of various kinds.
"Perfect timing!"
Drawing the Kusanagi from the scroll, he flourished it with a few elegant slashes before sheathing it again.
Uchiha Ci's eyes lit up.
He had been agonizing over how to cut through the Third Raikage's turtle-like armor, and now the clan had sent him his weapon.
Only after mastering the god-tier Lightning Release: Chakra Mode did he truly understand how lucky he had been to defeat the Third Raikage last time at Hell Valley.
If the Raikage had simply changed tactics—using a speed too fast for the eye to follow, abandoning his priority to kill Uchiha Ci and dodging all attacks—Ci would have had no way to stop him from slaughtering his comrades.
That last time, it had only been thanks to the sharp instincts of the Great Elder Uchiha Setsuna, and the two coordinating flawlessly, that they managed to force the Third Raikage into impaling himself with his own Hell Stab, weakening him significantly.
Only then had the finishing blow with the sword come close to succeeding.
Judging by the Raikage's current mastery of Lightning Release: Chakra Mode, his proficiency with the Lightning Armor now even surpassed Uchiha Ci's own, reaching a level beyond the gods.
He was a monster made of pure stats!
Most of the jutsu Uchiha Ci had recently developed were large-scale, destructive area-of-effect techniques. But against someone like the Third Raikage—renowned for his speed and defense—most of those techniques, Susanoo included, were little more than big targets.
This battle would inevitably shift toward a smaller scale, requiring precision.
Victory would come down to a fleeting moment in a space no wider than an inch.
In that kind of fight, having a perfectly fitting, indestructible weapon capable of cutting through Lightning Armor was absolutely crucial.
At the same time, the fact that the clan had sent him his usual gear and weapon conveyed something else—a message from the Uchiha.
No matter whether he was now a rogue ninja or a so-called unforgivable traitor seeking to upend the shinobi world—
The clan was telling him:
"The Uchiha Clan will always be your home."
The thought warmed Uchiha Ci's heart.
Just then, Sasori, after handing over the scroll, hesitated briefly. He seemed like he had something he wanted to ask but didn't know how to start. With an awkward look on his face, he called out again:
"Uchiha Ci, stay here a little longer!"
"Hm?" Uchiha Ci blinked in confusion, staring at Sasori's conflicted expression with no clue what was going on.
What the hell was with this guy? Blushing like a teapot about to whistle.
Before Ci could analyze this oddball's shifting mindset—
Two figures suddenly leapt down from the wall. One of them lit up the moment they saw Uchiha Ci and waved excitedly.
"Hey, Ci—!"
"Mei Terumi?" Uchiha Ci was stunned again as he saw Mei Terumi jumping toward him, dragging along Hozuki Mangetsu who was forcing one of his eyes open into a Byakugan.
What shocked him more was that both were now wearing the Akatsuki's red cloud robes, and Mei Terumi even had a ring on her right middle finger engraved with the kanji for "White."
He had no idea the Akatsuki were currently in the middle of a coordinated operation, so this sudden turn of events threw him completely.
"You—you joined Akatsuki?!"
"Aren't you trying to become the Mizukage?!"
"That… can wait," Mei Terumi waved the questions away vaguely, clearly unwilling to explain now. "Put this on—Yahiko and the others have already gone ahead to the Tenshukaku. We've just received urgent intel!"
Caught off guard by the suddenness of it all, Uchiha Ci instinctively took what Mei Terumi tossed to him.
It was a ring engraved with the kanji for "Zero"—the Akatsuki's leader's ring, representing emptiness, a world without war or pain.
Mei Terumi spoke solemnly:
"Once you wear this ring, your chakra can be converted into 'thought waves.' The ring amplifies them and manifests a genjutsu projection—used to transmit critical intel."
"Intel?" Uchiha Ci frowned slightly and glanced at the distant Tenshukaku.
Had Yahiko, Nagato, and Konan already arrived?
If they were already there, they had probably predicted he would head there next.
But if they were about to meet in person anyway—
What kind of intel would need to be sent urgently through a genjutsu projection instead of waiting just a few minutes?
Not daring to delay further, Uchiha Ci slipped the ring onto his thumb.
In the next instant—
The ring autonomously drew out a portion of his chakra.
Then, before him appeared a translucent projection—a long-haired figure with Rinnegan eyes, caught mid-air in a defensive retreat. The image was unmistakably a genjutsu clone of Nagato.
The moment Nagato saw Uchiha Ci, his eyes widened slightly. Then, in a voice rapid with urgency, he barked:
"Uchiha Ci! I used the Human Path's ability to search—!"
"The Daimyō of the Land of Lightning is not here!"
"And… the plan on Iwagakure's side is too complicated to explain now! You must immediately evacuate everyone from this place—!"
"Wait—!"
"Damn it!"
"He saw you!!"