In the future the Sage of Six Paths had envisioned, after Kagami unified the ninja world, the millennia-long history of war came to an end. The entire world found true peace. But this peace came at a cost. With no wars, there were no souls to harvest. And though Kagami's desire for conquest eventually led him to wage war on other, parallel universes, the Sage could not obtain the souls of those who died in other worlds.

His grand plan, the manipulation of a thousand years of manipulation—a plan for which he had sealed his own mother, Kaguya, and devoured the souls of his brothers—had come to a halt. Without a steady supply of souls to help his growth, his own ascension to a true God of Chakra would also stop. How could he bear it? Kagami, this unforeseen variable, had not just disrupted his plans; he had threatened his very destiny. Sage didn't knew how could kagami suddenly appear in his visions because he was not present when he envisioned his plans. How could someone change the future. This has happened for the first time but sage was determined to change it again to his own liking. If kagami could do it so could him he thought.

The hatred he felt for the one who blocked his path to ascension was absolute.

If his true body had not been in a critical, vulnerable state, he would have killed Kagami long ago. But for now, he could only manipulate Nagato and the Akatsuki from the shadows. He had no intention, however, of placing all his hopes in them. He had already decided that if Nagato failed, he would seize the power of the Ten-Tails for himself, using Naruto's body to ascend to the Six Paths level. From there, he could resonate with his true body, unleashing his full power. Then, no matter how strong Kagami was, he would be no match for him. The power he had gained from devouring souls for over a thousand years was beyond anything Kagami could possibly imagine.

"So that's how it is," Nagato said, nodding in understanding. As a man who pursued peace, who had been willing to turn himself into a living weapon to intimidate the world into submission, the idea of a man who would plunge the world into endless war was abhorrent. Kagami's very existence was a threat to his own plans for peace. He had to be killed.

"Then we should hurry and assemble the akatsuki and kill Kagami now," Nagato said, his voice firm as he controlled Pain. The current Akatsuki was small—only himself, Konan, Itachi, Orochimaru, Zetsu, and Juzo—but with the Sage of Six Paths on their side, he felt they were more than enough. Though Kagami was powerful, the Akatsuki were not weak. He himself was a formidable force, and with the legendary Sage at his back, he was confident they could succeed.

But the Sage of Six Paths simply shook his head. "Nagato, you do not understand the true strength of Uchiha Kagami. To defeat him, we must have more powerful allies. We must first make you the Ten-Tails' jinchuriki." He was inwardly speechless. If Kagami was so easy to deal with, why would he have come to Nagato for help in the first place?

Nagato was shocked. He hadn't expected Kagami to be so powerful. Though he was still wary of the Sage, he did not doubt his words. It was impossible that he would be lied to about such a critical matter.

"Then let us first capture the Tailed Beasts and revive the Ten-Tails," Nagato said decisively, "while at the same time recruiting more powerful allies. But... the Nine-Tails Jinchuriki is still in Konoha. How can we capture him without confronting Uchiha Kagami?"

The Sage simply smiled. "You need not worry about that problem. Because..." He controlled Naruto's body to release a wisp of the Nine-Tails' chakra. "...the child I have possessed is Konoha's Nine-Tails Jinchuriki."

He had planned this from the beginning. It was why he had gone directly to the Hidden Rain Village after his reincarnation. As for Naruto's soul... it had been devoured. A necessary sacrifice to ensure he had perfect control of the vessel.

Nagato's eyes lit up. This simplified things immensely. He had been trying to figure out how to abduct the jinchuriki without alerting Kagami, but the Sage had delivered him directly to their doorstep.

"In that case," Nagato said, "we just need to capture the other Tailed Beasts." Taking advantage of the chaos from the recent invasion of Konoha, the Akatsuki had already managed to capture the jinchuriki of the Two-Tails, Three-Tails, and Four-Tails. They had yet to extract the beasts, however, due to a lack of manpower. Now, they only needed to capture the One-Tail, Five-Tail, and Seven-Tail. As for the Eight-Tails, "Madara" had already provided him with a large portion of its chakra, which had been absorbed by the Gedo Statue. Still, to perfectly revive the Ten-Tails, he would need to capture Killer B and drain the last of its chakra from his body.

The Sage of Six Paths nodded. "Half of the Nine-Tails' chakra is still sealed within Minato Namikaze's body. We will need to find a way to get it back. But..." he smiled, "...leave that matter to me." As the one who had secretly controlled the ninja world for a thousand years, he knew where everything was. He would release Minato's soul from the belly of the Reaper Death God and seize the chakra for himself.

"Then let us split up," Nagato said. "The Stone, Sand, and Cloud villages suffered heavy losses in their last attack on Konoha. I will personally go and 'persuade' them to join forces with us to deal with Uchiha Kagami." He was confident that with the combined might of the four great ninja villages, not even Kagami could stand against them. After all, how could one man fight against the entire world?