Decision Time

After taking Shisui's eyes, Akimitsu teleported to the Hidden Rain Village, and when straight to the location of Hanzo, the leader of this village.

As soon as someone entered his quarter, Hanzo was alarmed. However, even before he could act, he saw a pair of deep red eyes with a strange pattern looking deep at him. Following this, he instantly felt like he was falling into deep hypnosis.

He tried to resist by disturbing his chakra, however, his resistance only lasted for a few moments before his eyes briefly turned into a Mangekyou Sharingan as well--signifying that he was also under control.

Akimitsu took out a pair of contacts for him to wear to hide his eyes, then he controlled him to do his bidding.

After that day, Hanzo spent a lot of time tracking the movement of the Akatsuki until he finally had a second encounter with Nagato and Konan.

…

On a rainy night, Nagato looked at the person in front of him and screamed: "It's you, Hanzo. How did you find my true body."

"You do not need to know so much."

Without any hesitation, Hanzo rapidly made many hand seals: "Fire Style: Flame Tornado"

Of course, the real Hanzo does not know such Jutsu, but Akimitsu does; it was his invention. By controlling Hanzo, he can use all the Jutsu he is knowledgeable about.

Meanwhile, Nagato's face changed after seeing this, so he hurriedly used a Water Release Jutsu. A vast amount of water hit the fiery tornado, extinguishing it. However, powerful steam was created as a result of this, hindering the sight of everyone present--except for the hidden Akimitsu.

He controlled Hanzo to rush to Konan, who was next to Nagato and preparing to aid him in this battle. Using the chain of his weapon--kusarigama--he threw it to wrap around Konan--who was caught off guard and yanked her towards him. Nevertheless, she reacted quickly.

With a wave of her hand, countless paper-shape kunai appeared in the air before rushing towards Hanzo. Knowing that these papers were infused with chakra, the latter did not underestimate them.

Nor did he evade this attack. He used a powerful Fire Ball to burn them completely to ash. In that short interval, Konan took this opportunity to get rid of her entanglements.

Meanwhile, during this brief confrontation, Nagato used a Wind Release to clear the steam in the surrounding. However, as soon as he did this, Hanzo released a breath of poison towards him. Knowing how infamous Hanzo's poison was, Nagato was forced to use the power of the Rinnegan.

A powerful repulsive force was released from his body to push away the poison from him. Immediately afterward, Yahahiko's body--which had just turned into Pain--appeared in front of Nagato.

He raised his hand, then an attractive force came out from his body forcing Hanzo to fly to him. Pain then used a repulsive force once Hanzo's body was closed to him.

Puff! Hanzo's body turned into a piece of wood.

'Substitute Jutsu? When?' thought Nagato.

Before he could react, one Hanzo rushed to kicked Pain's body away, then another one rushed towards him. As for Konan, another Hanzo was also keeping her occupied.

Without much of a choice, Nagato summoned the Demonic Statue of the Outer Path to attack Hanzo, who was forced to evade.

"Multiple Shadow Clone Jutsu? You are not Hanzo. Reveal your true self," said Nagato with a deep voice.

However, Hanzo did not say any words. By using the snake hand sign, he said: Wood Style: Binding Technique.

Countless wooden branches came from the ground and started entangling the giant status. With a severe expression on his face, Nagato used the Geddo Statue to break those branches, but they kept growing back. Furthermore, these branches rapidly consumed his chakra.

This was the true Wood Style that Hashirama used and Akimitsu did not have to implant the first Kage's cell to achieve this.

Wood Style is the simple combination of water and earth nature transformation. Of course, Hashirama's was unique. After studying and theorizing, Akimitsu discovered that this particular Wood Style had Yang Release added to it, so he did the same.

As an Osutsuki, even without a Rinnegan, he still had a tremendous talent for controlling chakra. So, after years of studying, he was still able to use this Kekei Genkai. Well, in such a case, Kekei Tota.

"Why don't you reveal yourself, coward," said Nagato again with frustration. Unfortunately, no one answered him. He knew that he was in trouble as the amount of chakra needed to keep using the Rinnegan took a heavy burden on him. However, despite using so many Jutsus at once, his opponent seemed completely fine.

Meanwhile, in a secret location, Black Zetsu had an ugly look on his face.

"What's wrong?" asked Obito Uchiha.

"Nagato was attacked by a powerfu enemy. According to the situation, he might not last long."

"Oh, with his strength, who could pose such a danger to him?"

"It appeared to be Hanzo the Salamander."

"There is no way that Hanzo alone has such an ability--especially after Nagato awakened the power of his Rinnegan," said Obito.

"It appeared that he was controlled by someone."

After pondering for a while, he said: "Let's go check it out." Using Kamui, he disappeared. Meanwhile, Black Zetsu thought that something was wrong, so he also left by entering the ground.

As soon as Obito appeared not far from Nagato's battle, he suddenly discovered that he was in the same place, but everything was grey. He could still see Nagato, but it felt like they were separated by countless distances.

'Space Ninjutsu?' thought Obito. He looked over to see another Hanzo not far from him. Without hesitation, he used Kamui to enter his dimension, then teleported back to the real world. Nevertheless, he still found himself in the grey world.

Obito then tried a few times. 'It seems that I can still enter my own space, but I cannot leave this one as well. In that case, only by defeating the user of this Jutsu could I be able to leave.'

So, he rushed to the 'Hanzo' in front of him. Unfortunately, his opponent seemed to have no desire to confront him. It seemed to just not want him to intervene in Nagato's battle.

As for Black Zetsu, after arriving at the scene, he did not immediately intervene but watched from a distance. With his intelligence and cunning nature, he could tell that something was wrong.

However, he did not see anything or anyone unusual besides Hanzo himself.

'Forget the fact how odd it is for Hanzo to be able to use Wood Style, the amount of chakra he used in this battle showed that whoever is controlling him has more chakra than even an Uzumaki with a Tailed Beasts inside them.'

The battle raged on, destroying everything in its path. Unfortunately, Nagato was slowly losing. Deva Path Pain was occupied and unable to do anything, Konan was barely hanging by a thread, and his chakra was quickly running out.

Despite all of this, Black Zetsu did not immediately take action.

'Given that Obito did not show up, does that mean he was also occupied by the secret manipulator? How does he know about Obito? Does that mean that person knows about me as well?

'That's impossible. I have been hiding for more than a thousand years. Even the Sage of Six Path does not know about my existence.' Nevertheless, the whole situation is weird.

'The question now is whether I should intervene? At the rate that things are going on, Nagato will die and lose the Rinnegan. I have spent so many years planning, and now, I'm so close to success. Could it be I have to wait longer before I can revive mother?"