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Samehada bit down ferociously upon Gengetsu, voraciously draining his chakra at an alarming rate.
By the time Gengetsu managed to violently shake Samehada loose, the sentient blade had already siphoned away a truly considerable volume of chakra. That stolen chakra was now being continuously and steadily channeled directly into Mangetsu's depleted body.
Thanks to the rapid replenishment of his chakra reserves, Mangetsu's entire being was finally infused with renewed vitality. As he faced Gengetsu once more, he at last possessed the fundamental confidence to continue the battle.
"Well? How was that?" Mangetsu demanded, gripping Samehada tightly in both hands, his eyes locked unwaveringly onto Gengetsu.
"Not bad at all," Gengetsu acknowledged. He released the Steam Imp Threat technique, his form reverting back to its original appearance. "At the very least, you understood how to exploit the 'weakness' I provided you to achieve victory. Even though you relied on Samehada to do it—well, Samehada was forged precisely to be used. In battle, tactical intelligence sometimes matters far more than raw power."
"What are you trying to say?" Mangetsu demanded.
"Since you haven't disappointed me... then I can find the spirit to get serious." The corner of Gengetsu's mouth curled upwards. "You are the future of the Hozuki clan. You absolutely must shoulder your responsibilities. I will attempt to teach you. But how much you manage to absorb will depend entirely on your own ability. And if you fail to endure the training... I will kill you!"
"I have an illness," Mangetsu reminded him pointedly.
"Tsunade has medicine," Gengetsu retorted instantly.
"No, you don't understand. What I mean is, I may not have much longer to live," Mangetsu stated, shaking his head.
"That is your concern, not mine." Gengetsu shrugged dismissively. "You are the current head of the Hozuki clan, not me. If you dare allow these secret techniques to be lost, I will settle the score with you in the afterlife!" Gengetsu declared with absolute severity.
"..." Mangetsu blinked, feeling an immense, inexplicable weight of pressure suddenly settle upon his shoulders.
...
High atop a distant mountain peak, the members of the Akatsuki stood watching the battlefield unfold below from their elevated vantage point.
The distance was considerable. All they could faintly discern were tiny, ant-like dots darting and clashing chaotically.
Regarding the vanguard of reanimated shinobi dispatched ahead, opinions within the Akatsuki were far from unified.
Deidara was chomping at the bit to spearhead the charge himself and subject the Hidden Mist Village to indiscriminate, blanket bombardment. Mui, in stark contrast, was far more subdued and restrained. Itachi remained silent, offering no opinion whatsoever.
"Why aren't we launching a direct surprise assault on the Hidden Mist Village right now? Their main forces are completely tied down by those reanimated shinobi! All we need to do is sweep in and we could obliterate the entire village!" Deidara exclaimed, his voice brimming with manic excitement.
Mui did not utter a word. Pain also maintained his heavy silence.
Deidara clicked his tongue in annoyance, unable to grasp what he could have possibly said wrong.
"What is our objective in coming here?" Itachi asked coolly.
"To locate the Six-Tails' jinchuriki," Deidara replied.
"So you were aware of that after all."
"What is that supposed to mean?"
"If we wished to annihilate the Hidden Mist Village, relying solely on our current strength, we could indeed accomplish it. However, if we were to wipe the village out too swiftly, do you truly believe Asachi Midorima would still reveal himself? Furthermore, while the Hidden Mist Village's strength may have fallen far from its former glory, it is still regarded as one of the Great Shinobi Villages in the minds of many. Have you paused to consider what the consequences would be if Midorima refused to emerge, and yet we still destroyed the Hidden Mist Village? The other Great Shinobi Villages would instantly unify and direct all their collective fury upon us. At that point, even without Midorima entering the fray, the Akatsuki would be obliterated. Without the Ten-Tails at our disposal, the Akatsuki facing off against four Great Shinobi Villages simultaneously would find itself under insurmountable pressure."
Itachi laid out his reasoning with measured patience.
Deidara shot Itachi a sidelong glare, the smile on his face turning icy cold.
"Applying continuous, unrelenting pressure on the Hidden Mist Village is the method to force Midorima out into the open. Am I wrong about that?" Deidara shot back.
"You are correct. Everything you said is correct. The problem is, no one anticipated that the Hidden Mist Village would be this fragile. And there is another point you must not forget: the Allied Shinobi Forces are already en route. We have only one viable path remaining—locate the Six-Tails' jinchuriki and force him to reveal himself. Otherwise, once the Allied Shinobi Forces arrive, whether the Hidden Mist Village is destroyed or not will no longer be of any real consequence," Itachi replied.
A skeptical expression flickered across Deidara's face, but no one else spoke up to challenge Itachi's assessment.
Itachi did not bother to elaborate further.
The truth of the matter was, the moment the Akatsuki had become embroiled in this conflict, the Hidden Rain Village's eventual destruction had become an unstoppable inevitability. However, whether the Hidden Mist Village was annihilated or not was not the critical variable. To put it another way, even if the Hidden Mist Village somehow managed to survive, the threat it posed to the Akatsuki would remain negligible.
It was not that the Hidden Mist Village could not be destroyed. It was that it could not be destroyed so quickly.
The village served as bait. As long as it continued to exist, Midorima would be compelled to reveal himself.
Although Itachi's ultimate objective diverged significantly from that of the Akatsuki, he could still deduce what Pain and the others were thinking with reasonable accuracy.
Still, he truly could not be bothered to explain all of this in exhaustive detail.
At that precise moment, Zetsu suddenly emerged from the ground and landed on the mountain peak, appearing before the other members of the Akatsuki.
"We have a serious problem," Zetsu announced.
"What has happened?" the Deva Path demanded.
"An island is currently approaching the coast. It is now only about twenty nautical miles away," Zetsu reported.
"An island?" The Deva Path was momentarily dumbfounded.
He had known full well that the Allied Shinobi Forces were mobilizing to reinforce the Hidden Mist Village. However, what he had envisioned was a massive shinobi army requiring a vast fleet of ships to make the crossing over the sea. He had never once imagined that they would instead procure a mobile, moving island to serve as their transport.
"What do we do now?" Itachi inquired.
"We cannot allow them to make landfall," the Deva Path declared grimly.
"But what can we possibly do to prevent them from coming ashore?" Itachi countered.
"Kabuto, you will remain here and monitor the battlefield. The rest of you, come with me. We are going to halt the Allied Forces from disembarking," the Deva Path commanded.
"I'll stay here as well. After all, I need to keep a close watch on this brat and ensure he doesn't attempt any underhanded tricks," Obito chimed in, raising his hand casually. "Oh, and don't forget to secure as many hostages as you can. He might be able to 'resurrect' another batch of shinobi... This is the Hidden Mist Village, after all. There ought to be quite a few formidable shinobi buried beneath its soil, wouldn't you agree?"
"Exercise caution," Pain said coldly.
"Rest assured... I know precisely what needs to be done," Obito replied with a nod.
Without uttering another word, the Deva Path leaped down from the mountain peak.
Immediately following him, the remaining Five Paths of Pain trailed in his wake. Deidara summoned his massive clay bird, vaulted onto its back, and hauled Mui up with him. Without sparing Itachi a single word of farewell, he took off into the sky immediately.
Itachi turned his head and cast one final, lingering glance back at Obito. Then, he too leaped down from the summit.
Once everyone else had departed, Obito stood alone, rubbing his chin in deep contemplation as he pondered his next course of action.
Everything was now fully prepared, lacking only the final, crucial catalyst. All that remained missing was the Six-Tails' jinchuriki.
As for the lives of Pain or the other members of the Akatsuki, in the face of securing the Six-Tails, they were of absolutely no importance whatsoever.
From this point onward, he needed to proceed with the utmost caution. After all, the closer one drew to the critical moment, the more prone things were to catastrophic errors.
"What do we do next?" Kabuto asked Obito.
"Next, we locate the shinobi of the Hidden Mist Village. We need to make some... preparations first. After all, we can't rely solely on the Akatsuki's efforts," Obito said, turning back to face Kabuto with a broad, meaningful grin.
Without a shadow of a doubt, Kabuto's utility was utterly irreplaceable.
At this moment, Obito felt profoundly fortunate that he had managed to acquire Kabuto before this "final decisive battle." This stroke of luck had rendered his overarching plan substantially easier to execute.
However, there was one point within his scheme that aligned perfectly with the Akatsuki's objectives. He, too, desperately wished for Midorima to emerge as quickly as possible. After all, the Infinite Tsukuyomi was equally dependent upon the chakra of the Ten-Tails to become a reality.