After finishing all this, Rorin finally couldn't hold on any longer. He closed the Eight Gates and collapsed onto the ground.
But suddenly, he felt as if his body were about to explode. Cracks began appearing on his hands, and Rorin was shocked!
[Host! Host! Quickly uninstall All-Killing Ash Bones! Your body still can't handle it!]
"Huh? Does that mean I can only use this thing once?"
[No, Host. Once you uninstall it, it will still remain in your inventory. You can install it again next time.]
Rorin's lips twitched slightly. Fine, then. He temporarily uninstalled All-Killing Ash Bones.
Letting out a long breath, the abnormal changes in his body finally stopped. He slowly shook his head and gave a helpless smile.
Originally, he thought that as long as he successfully opened the Gate of Death and used All-Killing Ash Bones, he could continue using it even after closing the Gate of Death.
But reality taught him a lesson—he had been overthinking it.
"System, can you check how long I can sustain it if I keep the Gate of Death open?"
[Give me a moment, Host. Let me check!]
Hearing this, Rorin slowly lay back down. Although opening the Gate of Death hadn't killed him, it had still placed an enormous burden on his body.
[Host, according to my analysis, you can currently maintain the Gate of Death for at most one hour.]
[Even though you are now immortal, the Gate of Death burns blood vitality as the price for activation. If the blood in your body runs dry, you will be forced into dormancy, waiting for your body to regenerate enough blood before you can awaken.]
Rorin frowned slightly. He hadn't expected the duration to be so short.
"System, can you check my current physical condition?"
[Mm, Host, your condition isn't too bad. As long as you rest quietly for a week and replenish your nutrition, you'll be fine.]
Hearing this, Rorin understood his condition and felt relieved.
"But this time, there really was an unexpected gain, even if the process was a bit dangerous."
"But for now, it seems I still need to steadily stabilize my strength at the Six Paths level. Otherwise, the usable time for All-Killing Ash Bones is just too short."
Then he thought of Isshiki Ōtsutsuki. Earlier, he had deliberately allowed the other party to inject his data into his body, mainly because there was a piece of information Isshiki possessed that he wanted.
That was the location of the other Ten-Tails controlled by Isshiki Ōtsutsuki. Although Rorin knew that Ten-Tails was within this alternate dimension, the place was simply too vast.
The system had said it would take some time to finish analyzing, so for now, he could only wait.
As long as Rorin could absorb the Ten-Tails' power into himself, he would naturally obtain strength at the Six Paths level.
After sorting everything out, Rorin willed it and took out the Deprivation Device.
Even though he hadn't used it in a while, he was still as skilled as ever—after all, it was simple to operate.
The optimization process took about half an hour. After that came the upload. Looking at the bloodline item on the interface, Rorin smiled slightly. Just as he was about to install it—
[Host, I suggest you don't install that bloodline for now.]
Rorin was puzzled. "Why?"
[Your body is in poor condition right now. With your current physique, you won't be able to withstand an Ōtsutsuki bloodline. You can wait until you've fully recovered before installing it.]
[Also, because the strength of this bloodline is too great, even after optimization, your body will adapt to it gradually rather than gaining full control all at once.]
So that was the case. It seemed he had been too impatient. Since the system said so, Rorin didn't insist and withdrew his eager hand.
Right, if both the Ōtsutsuki bloodline and All-Killing Ash Bones were off-limits for now, then this other thing should be fine.
Rorin took out a container. Inside it was the Byakugan he had just dug out from Isshiki Ōtsutsuki's eye.
"System, the Byakugan should be transplantable, right?"
[Mm, that's no problem.]
Rorin grinned. "Then I'll leave it to you, System!"
[Leave it to me!]
Soon after, Rorin gently closed his eyes and fell into a deep sleep.
...
Meanwhile, in the outside world—the Land of Fire, at the bounty exchange.
Nagato and Konan walked out. They had come here to leak the basic information of the Akatsuki members.
The main purpose was to give the Raikage a heads-up about which villages the rogue ninjas in the Akatsuki came from.
They believed that since the Raikage wanted to rescue the Eight-Tails jinchūriki, he would definitely investigate all intelligence related to the Akatsuki.
"Nagato, where are we going next?" Konan asked.
Nagato slowly raised his head and looked at the sky.
"I have an idea, but I'll need to contact Itachi first."
The two then left the bounty exchange and arrived at a cave.
Nagato transmitted a thought wave to Uchiha Itachi, who was far away in the Land of Lightning. About fifteen minutes later—
Uchiha Itachi logged into the account, and the two began a video meeting.
"Nagato, is something urgent?" Itachi asked.
Nagato nodded slightly. "Itachi, I have an idea. I want to hear your opinion."
Itachi immediately became interested and waited for him to continue.
"We only have four people right now. We should probably recruit some allies. Who in the organization do you think we could bring over to our side?" Nagato explained his thoughts.
Itachi fell into deep thought, then shook his head.
"Nagato, forgive me for being blunt. The people in the organization are all rather eccentric. They likely don't care about the ninja world or peace. I don't think they would agree with our ideals."
Nagato lowered his head in silence. Thinking about it carefully, that was true. At present, two members were obsessed with art, one with money, and the remaining ones were Uchiha Madara and Zetsu—both their enemies.
Then Nagato thought of someone and sighed softly.
"If only Kisame were still here."
A spark of realization flashed in Itachi's eyes, and he smiled faintly.
"Nagato, if you hadn't mentioned it, I might have forgotten about Kisame."
Nagato looked up at him. "Don't tell me… Kisame is still alive?"
Itachi nodded slightly, a hint of guilt appearing on his face as he began to explain.
"At the time, I intended to leave the Akatsuki. To avoid having to fight Kisame in the future, I made an agreement with Rorin to have him tied up and taken to the Hidden Leaf Village. He is currently imprisoned there."
The two exchanged a smile. If it was Kisame, they could indeed bring him onto their side.
"In that case, our next step is to infiltrate the Hidden Leaf Village and rescue Kisame," Nagato said, nodding slightly as he glanced at Konan beside him.
"Alright, I'll leave it to you. I can't get away right now. Once you've rescued Kisame, we'll persuade him together," Itachi replied.