Black Zetsu

Nagato's fuming was answered with silence. The only reason Nagato could tell that Sato hadn't left yet was due to the sound of his breathing.

"Why don't you answer me?! Cat got your tongue?"

Nagato gritted his teeth; he was questioning Raikage Sato with all his heart.

"Big countries like yours use small countries like dirt; I was born with the Rinnegan to bring back peace."

"Wars will stop when you guys feel the same pain that we do. This is mine and Akatsuki's mission."

"You don't deserve the rinnegan, Raikage! You will only make the situation worse for everyone."

Nagato's outburst was met with silence once again. Only Nagato's heavy breathing sounds could be heard.

Nagato's face turned blue; even after he explained his goals, the Raikage didn't answer him.

Was he being totally ignored?

Nagato began to try and struggle out of his wheelchair to confront Sato himself. But he fell back down when a rough hand landed on top of his head.

Thump

Nagato winced, he knew this was Sato's hand but he was confused, as to what Sato wanted to do.

Although soon he didn't feel confused, a warm sensation soon washed over him; his tired body somehow started to feel alive.

Nagato immediately recognized this warm energy. It was pure Yang chakra; when he had the rinnegan, he could use it too.

'The Raikage is giving me Yang chakra? He must have felt sympathy for me and wants to heal me.'

This kind of chakra was used to heal wounds and regrow body parts. That's why Nagato's tired body felt better, but the biggest difference Nagato felt was in his empty eye holes.

An itching sensation had spread around that area.

Nagato could feel two eyeballs grow back in his eye socket; his Uzumaki blood worked its magic and reconnected these new eyes with his optic nerves.

"I can see again. You gave me my eyes back."

Nagato stammered with surprise; his somewhat dry hand touched his eyes with care, but soon he froze.

"No! Something is wrong. You regenerated my eyes, but I don't have the rinnegan."

Nagato trembled. His eyes turned bloodshot, and he began panting hard once again, but this time he was panting out of shock.

He had assumed that after his eyes regenerated, he would still have had the rinnegan. He thought the rinnegan will have weak pupil power, but at least he will still have the Rinnegan as the Rinnegan should be in his genes.

But he doesn't have the rinnegan. He had normal eyes. Suddenly Nagato had a terrible thought appear in his mind.

"You finally understand the truth, Akatsuki leader. That's right, genetically, you do not have the rinnegan."

Sato smiled slyly; his hands went up and down as he played with the plucked rinnegan.

"When I took these eyes from you, I noticed it had a smell completely different from your body."

"This happens when the eyes and body do not match. I have seen this situation before, when my village experimented with Byakugan transplants."

"Your situation reminded me of that, but I still wasn't totally sure. After all, you were so confident that you were the savior, just because you thought you were born with a rinnegan."

Sato laughed sarcastically; he hammered the point home to Nagato.

"I had to confirm my theory; I regenerated your eyes just to check, if Rinnegan was indeed your eye."

"Turns out, you always had normal eyes. You were not born with the rinnegan, Mr. Savior."

"Someone used you to store their rinnegan. You are just a fool who thought he was the second coming of the sage."

Nagato's face was dead gray, as if his soul left his body. He was slumped in his wheelchair; his whole world was just shattered by Sato.

Sato mercilessly broke Nagato's spirit; he did not pity the man. If Sato hadn't learned the revival jutsu from Chiyo, his whole village would remain dead.

Sato had to see his parents and Hinata's mangled corpse a few minutes ago, and Nagato was the culprit. If Sato wasn't thinking logically, he would have torn Nagato to shreds already.

But he still had use for Nagato; Nagato was necessary for his next set of plans.

"Akatsuki means dawn, doesn't it?"

Sato shook his head and spoke to the dead-looking Nagato.

"You want to bring dawn; I accept that. Wars do need to stop. I understand that too."

Nagato's dead eyes regained a bit of light; he looked up at Sato.

"You are lying. Big villages like yours don't care about the small country's future."

Sato chuckled lightly and pointed towards himself.

"That might be true, but I personally understand you very well. I was born the son of two wanderers."

"I survived my childhood with pure tenacity; I became a ninja just to revive my dead parents. I understand the pain you speak of."

"I have felt it myself."

Nagato was shocked; he didn't know that Sato had a childhood like this. Nagato felt Sato might be an unexpected ally of his.

"If you are telling the truth, can you give me back the rinnegan? We can work together."

Sato shook his head directly, joke. Why would he do that? Nagato's face turned dark, but then he sighed and gave up.

"I understand; you won against me fairly. You can use the rinnegan."

"As long as you work for peace, Akatsuki will work for the hidden cloud."

Nagato gave in and surrendered to Sato. But contrary to his expectations, Sato smirked and denied him again.

"Akatsuki will work for me; that much is fine."

Sato held the two rinnegan up to Nagato's face and closed his fist around the eyes.

"But I will not use these eyes. I am a civilian, these eyes will be a burden to me."

"Besides, I am a human; I don't need something that smells alien like this."

"Bringing peace or something, I will decide that as a human being."

Sato's words shook Nagato's heart. Didn't Sato have any greed for the rinnegan?

"But what will you do with the rinnegan, if you don't plan to use it?"

Nagato asked hastily; he could trust Sato as Sato knew pain due to his childhood, but others might misuse the rinnegan.

"What will I do with it?"

Sato chuckled. He clenched the rinnegan tightly while secretly looking down at the ground.

"I am going to destroy it, of course! Something which smells this alien doesn't need to exist."

The moment Sato said this, he tightened his body as if expecting an attack.

Nagato noticed this and was about to ask what happened; that's when a pitch black goo burst out of the ground and wrapped around Sato.

"What?! Who is this?"

Nagato exclaimed in shock, and soon he was even more shocked.

"That face, you are Zetsu! What are you doing, black Zetsu?"

"Raikage is someone who understands pain; Akatsuki has decided to work with him. Stop attacking him."

Nagato was furious; black zetsu was a member of Akatsuki, why was he attacking while ignoring Nagato's orders, Nagato was Akatsuki's leader.

Most of all, how did Sato know he was going to be attacked?

Nagato had seen Sato tense up, when he spoke about destroying the rinnegan. How did he know Black Zetsu would attack him if he said this?

"Wait!"

Nagato's brain spun; he suddenly understood what just happened.

"That rinnegan is not mine. Only the original owner will want to stop you from destroying it."

"Zetsu! You secretly gave me the rinnegan! You manipulated me all this time."

Nagato gritted his teeth in anger; he tried to tear Zetsu away from Sato, but he couldn't do it.

Sato's body was tightly taken over by black Zetsu, and from the looks of it, Sato was struggling against him as well.

"Raikage, you knew I would come. You spoke about destroying the rinnegan, just to lure me out."

Black Zetsu ignored Nagato and spoke to Sato in a hoarse voice.

"You are smart Raikage, but I have seen countless people like you, die from misplaced belief in their abilities."

"You expected me to come for you, but you didn't know that I can control you."

"This is my special ability; once I take control, you can't resist me. Now you will become my puppet."

Black Zetsu had won; he had finally caught Sato off guard. He was waiting for such an opportunity, for a long time.

Sato might be a civilian, but he had tailed beast chakra; he was the perfect guy to use rinne rebirth and revive Madara.

Unlike Sato, the previous owner of Rinnegan Nagato, was always cautious. Black Zetsu couldn't take over his body; he had to play the long game with Nagato.

But Sato stupidly let him attack, which doomed him.

Now, Black Zetsu doesn't have to wait anymore; after he revives Madara, Sato will die from the jutsu's side effects, and Madara will collect the tailed beasts himself.

His job was almost done.

"Hahaha, you showed up at last. No way you actually took my bait."

Zetsu paused; he had almost taken over Sato's body, but Sato was still laughing happily.

Black Zetsu suddenly felt a bit bad; why was Sato laughing?

There was no way to escape his control; he was made of Kaguya's yin-yang release. Not even the ten tails Jinchuriki could escape his control.

Sato was just a civilian; there was no way he was going to escape!

"Wait, I didn't notice it before, but your fingers are making a hand sign!?"

Now black Zetsu was starting to feel a bit panicked.

"What jutsu are you about to use!"