Given Ryun's current strength, if he wanted to dig out those Rinnegan, not only could the Spiral White Zetsu hiding in the shadows not protect Nagato, even if Uchiha Madara himself came, he would only meet death.
There were three reasons why he did not take action to dig out the eyes.
First, he did not want Uchiha Madara to die too easily. He had said he would make that old man die a miserable death. Even if Ryun did not go after him now, Uchiha Madara could only linger on in a dark cave, not daring to show his face outside until death.
The belief supporting his survival was using his own Rinnegan to be reborn.
That old man had schemed for so long, thinking all beings in the ninja world were within his chess game, viewing everyone as pawns and himself as the only player moving the pieces...
Ryun had indeed been manipulated and played like a pawn by Uchiha Madara before, so he swore to make the other party experience that same feeling of despair.
Killing that old dog hiding his head and tail now would not bring Ryun much satisfaction of revenge.
He wanted Uchiha Madara to think he held all the winning cards. He wanted to shatter all of the other's ambitions and plans at the moment of his greatest confidence. He wanted to personally destroy everything Uchiha Madara was proud of, then make him experience the most despairing death.
Only then could the hatred in his heart be resolved.
The second reason for not digging out the eyes now was that Nagato was useful, or rather, the Akatsuki organization Nagato was part of was useful to him.
Since the future Akatsuki organization wanted to collect the tailed beasts, they could not bypass the obstacle that was Ryun, because he held four tailed beasts in his hands.
The Akatsuki organization could be Nagato's pawns, Uchiha Obito's pawns, Uchiha Madara's pawns, so why couldn't they become his, Uchiha Ryun's, pawns?
After Ryun absorbed the tailed beasts' chakra and completed his arrangements on them, he could very well have released those tailed beasts. The reason he kept them was entirely to scheme against the Akatsuki organization.
After stating the above two reasons, the remaining final reason was also the most important.
His arrangements on the nine tailed beasts were to sweep away all obstacles and enemies. These enemies included not only people within the ninja world, but also certain extraterrestrial beings.
He needed to deal with Kaguya Ōtsutsuki, and he even more needed to deal with the potential threat of the Ōtsutsuki clan.
This wasn't him looking for trouble out of boredom, but rather, only through Kaguya Ōtsutsuki could he obtain complete intelligence on the Ōtsutsuki clan, which was very important for his future dealings with this extraterrestrial race.
The Rinnegan, the Gedo Statue, the nine tailed beasts, the Ten-Tails Divine Tree, Kaguya Ōtsutsuki, the Ōtsutsuki clan—these existences all had inseparable, close connections to each other. Ryun's vision was not limited to just Uchiha Madara.
The road ahead was still long. Seeking momentary pleasure was not wise. Achieving his own wishes and ambitions required careful arrangements one by one.
Ryun's greatest advantage currently did not come from his strength, but from his knowledge of the general trajectory of the future ninja world. Most of the time, he could stay one step, even several steps, ahead of others.
Even though his arrival had tangibly affected the ninja world, that did not mean the original plot from the source material was useless.
Useful intelligence would never go out of date; it just depended on how one understood and utilized this intelligence.
After leaving the Akatsuki base, Ryun stayed in the Land of Rain for several more days.
During this time, because those "hounds" were biting down hard on him, he deliberately showed himself in large towns and even prepared to trap and kill the pursuing forces of the Five Great Nations.
However, what he attracted this time was not some easily killed small fry, but… a truly big trouble!
"Ryun, surrender… Come back to Konoha with me. The Hokage wants to see you…"
Sakumo Hatake looked at the killer before him and spoke in a deep voice.
The current Great Ninja War had paused because of Ryun alone. Konoha's White Fang had also temporarily withdrawn from the border frontlines, returning to being the Third Hokage's strongest guard.
This time, the S-rank mission he took was to work together with elites from various ninja nations to track down Uchiha Ryun's exact location.
Their group originally had ten people. They thought that with their powerful strength, they could fight Uchiha Ryun head-on. However, after several dozen exchanges, four of them were directly killed.
Although the situation was very bad, Sakumo Hatake could still say words asking him to surrender. This was somewhat beyond Ryun's expectations.
White Fang's strength was indeed very strong, but his mind shouldn't have any major problems. Why would he still dare to boast so arrogantly while at a disadvantage? Did he really think they had a chance of defeating him? Ryun was very puzzled by this.
"I didn't expect you to be among the arrivals, but you should know you are not my match. This battle has proven that. I am curious where your confidence in asking me to surrender comes from…"
Ryun casually tossed aside the corpse of an elite jonin from Kirigakure and coldly asked Sakumo Hatake, who was not far away.
"Don't waste time. Activate the mark. Let the lords take action together to kill this traitor. Alone, we are not his match!"
An elite jonin from Iwagakure spoke in a deep voice. He then ignored Sakumo Hatake and channeled his chakra into a complicated mark.
Watching the crystal mark begin to emit strange light, Sakumo Hatake opened his mouth but ultimately could not say anything to stop it.
Finding Uchiha Ryun and activating the crystal mark—this was their shared mission!
"This is… a Flying Thunder God space mark?" Looking at the technique formula on the crystal mark, Ryun frowned slightly and couldn't help but ask in confusion.
Although he had not learned the Flying Thunder God Technique, he had seen its spatial formula. The mark on this crystal was somewhat similar to the Flying Thunder God mark, and the entire mark was much larger than the Flying Thunder God mark.
"This is your Konoha's masterpiece, Uchiha Ryun. Your time of death has come!" The Iwa jonin spoke with a ferocious smile. He had no intention of hiding Konoha's masterpiece for them. Instead, he wanted to provoke Ryun's anger and his hatred towards Konoha even more.
"Are there still some schemes I don't know about? Or does that old guy Sarutobi Hiruzen… plan to come find me personally through the Flying Thunder God Technique?" Ryun tilted his head and looked at Sakumo Hatake in confusion.
If it was just that… then he wouldn't mind killing that old guy here.
"This is a spatial coordinate. The Five Kage will arrive soon. I'm afraid you cannot escape…" Sakumo Hatake sighed and finally told the truth.
"Spatial coordinate? The Five Kage???"
Ryun was still somewhat confused at this moment. It was understandable that the Five Kage urgently wanted to kill him, but unless all five could arrive simultaneously, he could totally use the time difference to kill them one by one, right?
It was unrealistic for the five to stay together at all times just to kill him. However, Sakumo Hatake's words and the appearance of the Flying Thunder God formula made Ryun consider the possibility that the Five Kage might really team up to come after him.
"They want to come here using the Flying Thunder God? But as far as I know, aside from the Second Hokage, no one in Konoha has been able to master this space ninjutsu, right?"
Ryun's words even included Namikaze Minato.
Without Kushina's step-by-step analysis and breakdown of the spatial formulas, Minato, at this point in time, even if he had come into contact with the Flying Thunder God Technique, would simply be unable to comprehend those profound spatial formulas in a short time.
It could be said that, in this world, due to Ryun's interference, for Namikaze Minato to fully master the "Flying Thunder God Technique," it would take at least three to five years more than in the original timeline, and this was a very conservative estimate.
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