Kakuzu averted his gaze, his heart filled with bitterness.
The little conscience he had left was already condemning him.
The expressions of Sasori and Deidara were extremely subtle.
They felt that even if they really broke into the Cult Mechanicus, they might not be able to bring Gaara out.
Not to mention sending three traitors to catch them.
Sasori was certain that the Kurosaki Ichigo before them was the Cult Leader of the Cult Mechanicus, and although Deidara doesn't know the background of the guy in front of him, he can pretty much guess that the other party is from the Cult Mechanicus's camp.
"Let's go."
"I expect to see you return with the Ichibi in three days."
After giving the new recruit his orders, Pain called Kakuzu aside, as if he still had something to discuss with him.
Nagato felt that he had not been in charge of the organization's affairs for too long in the past two years, causing everyone to have all kinds of wild thoughts.
There was Itachi, who wore a mask all day, the long-missing Uchiha Madara, and the slacking-off Sasori and Deidara.
Now, even Kakuzu was starting to show signs of going rogue.
If it weren't for the fact that this Kurosaki Ichigo looked somewhat like Yahiko, Nagato might not have even given him a chance.
And for some reason, every time he tried to start capturing the Biju, some fool would pop up talking about destroying the world or conquering it.
By now, Nagato was utterly exhausted, both physically and mentally.
Naruto, Sasori, and Deidara exchanged glances before silently walking out of Amegakure. Once the three of them were outside, Deidara suddenly jumped in front of the other two.
He pointed at the two of them and said with a sneer, "Hey! Kurosaki Ichigo!"
"You, a heretic, actually dared to infiltrate our Akatsuki!"
"If you don't want me to expose you..."
"You'd better hand over the Gelel's Stone you have!"
Sasori instantly dashed forward, swinging a mechanical hammer at Deidara's head. Although there was no expression on his face, his tone was furious.
"Heretic! Shut up!"
"If I hear you disrespect our Cult Leader again…"
"Don't blame me for being ruthless!"
Naruto covered his face, unable to watch the two fight.
'Good grief…!'
'Deidara, how do you even have the nerve to call me out for infiltrating your organization?'
'Aren't all three of us here as undercover agents?'
From Naruto's perspective, this guy just wanted to extort Gelel's Stones from him.
"Cult... Leader!?"
"You are Uzumaki Naruto!?"
Deidara was no longer surprised by Sasori calling him a heretic, but he suddenly caught the word 'Cult Leader' in Sasori's words.
Both the Cult Mechanicus and the Scientific Truth Society knew clearly that their leaders and the other side's leader were all from Konoha Village.
It was only because the evil Hokage tried to stop their expansion that she captured their leaders.
When Deidara thought about the Kyubi's Jinchuriki coming to join the Akatsuki, he was completely baffled.
'Wait…'
'Pain just told everyone they were preparing to capture all the Biju's Jinchuriki.'
'Showing up now is like walking straight into the line of fire, isn't it?'
"Damn it! I'll purify you heretics today!"
Sasori pulled out a scroll and summoned several cybernetic puppets on the spot. Seeing that the two were about to start fighting again, Naruto quickly spoke out to stop them, "Stop fighting."
"Have you forgotten the mission Pain gave us?"
Naruto actually didn't care about the mission Pain had assigned him, but he did want to collect the Biju.
Besides, as his ancestors said… whatever you do, do it well.
At the very least, he had to find a way to become proper members of the righteous Akatsuki first.
After hearing what Naruto said, the two stared at each other for a full ten minutes before finally putting away their weapons.
Sasori looked at Naruto for a long moment before hesitantly speaking up, "Cult Leader... why don't we just pack up and run away?"
"I don't want to stay in this crappy organization for another day."
"All they do is hold meetings nonstop, and it's seriously interfering with my artistic research."
"If we don't run away this time, Pain will really come after us."
Sasori couldn't understand why the Cult Leader would bother infiltrating Akatsuki, and he earnestly tried to persuade Naruto to pack up and return to the church with him.
Even Deidara, who usually butted heads with Sasori, wholeheartedly agreed with him this time.
Because if they exposed their ties to their respective churches, it would undoubtedly bring utter ruin to their organization.
The best course of action now was to gather their things and disappear with their churches before Pain realized what was happening.
"As much as I hate to admit it, you heretic finally said something right."
"Besides, I haven't even mastered intermediate chemistry yet."
"Coming to this damn place every day seriously interferes with my studies."
To be honest, Deidara also wanted to capture Gaara, the Holy Son of the Cult Mechanicus, but Sasori had made it clear that if Gaara was captured, he would lead the Cult Mechanicus in a mutual destruction pact with the Scientific Truth Society.
Naruto: "…"
After listening to the two of them, Naruto was utterly speechless.
'I thought you two had been slacking off for a while, but it turned out you were just looking for an excuse to ditch Akatsuki altogether!'
"You two…"
"This isn't the first time Pain's sent you after the Ichibi, is it?"
Naruto remembered how Pain had looked at these two like he was one step away from blasting them with Shinra Tensei.
Clearly, they'd been dragging their feet for way too long.
"Yeah."
"I'm usually pretty busy."
"I need to study Chakra machine spirits, develop new equipment, and write academic papers..."
Sasori bowed slightly to Naruto, then opened his mouth and began to report on his work in a chattering manner.
At the end, he even threw in a casual remark about how easy Pain was to fool.
The mission to capture the Ichibi had been assigned two years ago, on the night when the green moon appeared. No one knew why Pain was in such a hurry.
So, after receiving the mission, he and Deidara walked out of Amegakure… and immediately forgot about it. They just went back to doing whatever they wanted.
Whenever Pain asked, they'd just sweet-talk their way out of it.
"Yeah, Pain's indeed pretty easy to fool."
Thanks to all the books he'd read over the years, Deidara's intellect and worldview had expanded significantly. Now, whenever he looked at Pain, there was an inexplicable sense of superiority in his eyes.
'Just you wait, Sasori!'
'Once I go back and finish studying all the books on the chemistry, it'll be judgment day for your Cult Mechanicus!'
Deidara felt the time wasn't right yet, so he decided not to bother with the other party for the time being.
With that, he turned and started walking away.
Seeing that the guy was about to outright betray the organization, Naruto pulled out a thumb-sized Gelel's Stone.
This made the two of them instantly shift their gaze to Naruto, staring at the stone in his hand that was emitting a faint glow.
"I knew you had it!"
"Praise Cult Leader Naruto!"
The two had different reactions. Sasori looked as if he could already see the Cult Mechanicus's ideals spreading across the world.
Meanwhile, Deidara was practically heartbroken. Seeing such a treasure in the hands of his rival was worse than death itself.
'No!'
'I have to find a way to get my hands on that thing!'