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A sound of footsteps approaching is what caught his attention, as the real leader of the Akatsuki was about to make his appearance known.
Out from the shadows stepped an unusually tall man, standing at a height of 10', blonde-haired, very lean and muscular man with tan skin in his late thirties. Draped over his shoulders was a hot pink feather coat, his pants were black and designed with the usual Akatsuki red clouds, strangely, he wore a pair of dress shoes instead of shinobi sandals, under his coat was a plain white open shirt that revealed his chest and abs, on his face were a pair of curved, thin white sunglasses with red lenses. From the slashed Suna hitai-ate functioning as his belt buckle, it was easy to mark him as a nuke-nin from Sunagakure. This was Donquixote Doflamingo.
"Zetsu seemed quite adamant about handling the Kyuubi jinchūriki himself don't you think? Though whoever he wants to deal with personally must've really pissed him off." Doflamingo spoke, making his presence in the room fully known.
However, Pein didn't seem fazed in the least by the man's sudden appearance, which meant that he knew that the man was here all along and was already accustomed to dealing with him.
"He will complete his mission just as all the members will." Pein spoke with the utmost seriousness.
However, Doflamingo never lost the maniacal grin that seemed to always be present on his face. "You're far too serious all of the time Nagato, loosening up every now and then will do you some good. If you're this wrapped up in the plans of the organization, the plan is bound to end in failure. Take a step back from our goals and just enjoy what's around you for the moment!" Doflamingo declared as he spread his arms out wide and took a dramatic pose.
"That is for me to decided." The man's attitude didn't seem to affect the figurehead leader for the Akatsuki one bit.
Taking on a more serious expression Doflamingo loked down at Pein's spectral figure, "Don't take these next three years too lightly though. Once the jinchūriki are aware of our presence, they will no doubt increase their strength dramatically...Though such a thing wouldn't be too difficult to deal with, most jinchūriki rely on brute force alone and once they lose control of themselves, that's all they're able to utilize."
"We will have to wait until the other members report back with their assessments and we will prepare accordingly. After which we will just have to wait until the Ichibi reforms. Then our plan will be set in motion."
With those final word said, Pein's figure flickered out of existence, leaving Doflamingo alone in the cavern.
Akimichi Barbecue Restaurant - Konoha
After leaving the Hokage's Office, Naruto had been slowly making his way towards the restaurant where they had planned to meet up today after the ceremony.
Naruto still found it hard to believe that after everything that has happened between them, that Minato had tried to force him to play a part in his prophecy. That was the reason that he was slowly walking to his destination instead of just Shunshining there, he needed some time to cool off before meeting up with his teammates. Although he had rather good control over his emotions for someone his age, what just happened had gotten him pretty worked up.
Though he was pleasantly surprised that Natsuki hadn't told their parents about what had happened with Kurama. If she had, it would have been the first thing that he was accused of rather than about his abilities or their prophecy.
He was also surprised that neither of his sisters nor his mother tried to push him to sign the toad contract that their family was so fond of. It appeared that the three of them had finally gotten the message that he would never be a part of their family again, so they were taking a backseat for now and just letting things play out. Though he could see it in their eyes that they really wanted to celebrate his celebration to chūnin with him.
He had to admit that knowing that he would no longer be bombarded from all sided with pleas for him to come back to their family and live in their estate with them took a lot of weight off of his shoulders. He wasn't really a cold person by nature and he disliked having to brush them aside every time they tried to cling to him, but far too much had happened at this point for anything else to be a viable option.
He shook his head to bring him back to reality as he walked into the barbecue restaurant that he had become so familiar with. Their team often celebrated the complete of a successful mission here or came here for special occasions such as today. The comparison could be made that barbecue was to them what ramen was to Team 7. They had actually run into Team 10 here on more than a few occasions as it was Chōji's family that owned the restaurant.
"Naruto-nii!"
Naruto looked up to see Satsuki waving excitedly at him from their usual booth in the corner.
"Yo." Naruto gave a small wave to them as he made his way to the booth and took a seat on the side that Satsuki was on, with Hana sitting directly across from him.
Just as he arrived, the waiter came over. It appeared he had kept them waiting for quite a while, seeing as how it was already lunchtime. It'd be best to order their food now. Having been here so many times after becoming genin, they didn't even have to look at the menu to decide what they wanted. The three chūnin placed their usual order and a little extra for the celebration.