Chapter 225 Yu Xi's Thoughts

Nagato's breathing was like an old bellows, and every breath was filled with the smell of blood.

The chakra tubes of the Outer Path Demon trembled on his bony back like a group of dying snakes.

He looked up at the woman standing in the ruins, the sunlight pouring down from behind her, gilding her outline.

"Why?" Nagato's voice was hoarse, "Why would someone like you interfere with Akatsuki's plans?"

Yu Xi tilted her head, her golden pupils glowing like liquid metal in the sunlight.

She brushed aside a piece of fallen rubble with the same gracefulness as if she were brushing dust off her sleeve.

"This is an interesting question." She chuckled, her voice like a spring hitting a stone, "Why not ask from another angle - why do the tailed beasts belong to the five major ninja villages?"

Nagato's Samsara eye shrank slightly. He had never thought about this question before.

In his understanding, the tailed beasts are natural disasters, weapons, and dangerous beings that must be controlled.

The Akatsuki organization's collection of the tailed beasts to create the ultimate weapon is just another way of exploiting the existing order.

"Do you know how the tailed beasts were assigned to the five major ninja villages?" Yu Xi took a step forward.

The soles of her boots made no sound on the wet stone slabs, as if her weight did not belong to this world.

Nagato shook his head subconsciously, and this action strained the wound in his lung, causing him to cough violently.

Blood overflowed from the corner of his mouth and dripped down his chin onto the torn Akatsuki robe.

Yuxi sighed and suddenly put her hand on Nagato's shoulder.

A warm force surged into his body, instantly repairing most of his internal injuries.

Nagato was shocked to feel the chakra flowing again in his body. This method of healing was completely beyond the scope of medical ninjutsu.

"When Hashirama Senju and Madara Uchiha founded Konoha," Yu Xi took back her hand and continued,

"Konoha was extremely poor, and the Second Hokage, Senju Tobirama, came up with a brilliant idea - to capture the tailed beasts and force other ninja villages to buy them."

Nagato's pupils trembled violently.

This truth was like a kunai, piercing directly into the core of the worldview he had constructed over many years.

"Impossible..." he muttered, "The Tailed Beast is..."

"Commodity or weapon?" Yu Xi sneered.

The clouds above the Hidden Rain Village were gathering again, but the crack that was pierced by Yu Xi still stubbornly let in the sunlight.

Nagato looked at the golden light and suddenly felt dizzy.

The peace he pursued all his life, the hope he placed on the tailed beast weapons, were all built on such an absurd foundation?

"You don't actually need the tailed beast." Nagato said with difficulty, "Then why do you want to..."

"Because they shouldn't be used like this." Yuxi interrupted him, and a trace of emotion that Nagato couldn't read flashed in his golden eyes, "Just like you shouldn't be used by that fake Uchiha Madara."

Nagato raised his head suddenly, and complex lines appeared in his Rinnegan.

He wanted to use the eyes of the legendary Six Paths Sage to see through the true nature of the person in front of him.

But all he saw was a golden void—no chakra was flowing there.

There was no jutsu structure, nothing, it was like staring into the sun itself.

"Don't bother." Yu Xi seemed amused by his actions.

"The Samsara Eye can indeed see through ninjutsu, but I don't use chakra." She raised her right hand, palm facing up, and a ball of blazing red light appeared out of thin air.

The red light shone on Nagato's pale face, and he felt an instinctive fear.

"What exactly... do you want to do?" Nagato's voice was as dry as the wind in the desert.

Yu Xi retracted the red light, put his hands behind his back, and looked up at the closing crack in the clouds.

"Unify the ninja world." She said simply, "If those two idiots, Hashirama Senju and Madara Uchiha, had directly unified the entire ninja world instead of doing some ridiculous five-nation balance, the wars that followed would not have happened at all."

Nagato's heart began to beat violently.

Unify the ninja world?! This crazy idea was something he had only fantasized about during his most rebellious teenage years.

Later, I was taught by teacher Jiraiya to believe in the understanding between people...

Yuxi suddenly moved closer, her face almost touching Nagato.

Golden pupils filled Nagato's entire field of vision, "Let me guess, you're thinking about those beautiful words about understanding and peace that Jiraiya taught you?"

Nagato gasped and subconsciously tried to retreat, but was restricted in place by the chakra tube of the Outer Path Demon Statue.

"Don't be nervous, I can't read minds." Yu Xi stood up with a playful smile on her face.

"It's just that I've lived too long and have met too many idealists like you. You always overcomplicate things. Peace doesn't require mutual understanding, it only requires an absolute force that no one can resist."

She turned and walked towards the ruined edge of the tower, overlooking the Hidden Rain Village below which was beginning to stir.

The villagers saw the sun breaking through the clouds for the first time and walked out of their houses, their faces filled with confusion and anxiety.

"The Fourth Ninja World War." Yu Xi's voice suddenly became loud, as if announcing to the entire Ninja World,

"Not to rule by fear as Akatsuki planned, but to unify by force. There will be no five great nations, no separatist ninja villages, only one complete ninja world."

Nagato's fingertips were clenched tightly, his nails dug deeply into his palms, his brows were furrowed, as if he was under great pain and pressure.

This woman, Yuxi, her madness is chilling.

The power she displayed was unfathomable, like a bottomless abyss.

However, what frightened Nagato the most was not her strength.

But some of the things she said actually made him involuntarily identify with them.

Recalling the wars over the years, Konan and Yahiko's sacrifices

And the establishment of the Akatsuki organization, isn’t the root of all this the divided ninja world system?

Nagato couldn't help but fall into deep thought, the waves in his heart becoming more and more turbulent.

Yuxi's voice lingered in Nagato's ears like a ghost.

"You hesitate because you still have concerns." Although she did not look back

But those clear words were like a sharp sword, piercing deep into Nagato's heart.

Xiaonan, the woman who has always been by his side,

Can her life be saved?

Nagato's heart was filled with worry and anxiety.

"I can even heal your body and let you witness the birth of a new world with your own eyes." There was a hint of temptation in Yuxi's words, as if she was describing a beautiful future to Nagato.

Nagato slowly closed his eyes, various images flashing through his mind.

The smile on Yahiko's face before his death, and the paper flowers folded by Konan.

There was also the lonely figure of Teacher Jiraiya when he left, and all the fragments of memory flooded into my mind like a tide.

It all comes down to one question: If there really is a more direct path to peace and justice, then why are we still groping in this endless darkness?