Deidara was preparing to regroup with Kisame and the others when, suddenly, a pair of long legs—no, a little girl with long legs—jumped out from the bushes nearby.
"Kurotsuchi, what are you doing here?" Deidara asked curiously.
"Deidara-nii, let me join the Akatsuki with you!" Kurotsuchi demanded, hands on her hips.
"What? You're giving up on becoming the Legkage—oh no, I mean the Tsuchikage?"
"After hearing what you said earlier, I realized the Akatsuki is way cooler than Iwagakure. So, the position of Tsuchikage doesn't seem that appealing anymore," Kurotsuchi replied, her face full of longing.
"Hey, if you leave like this, the old man's going to be furious, you know," Deidara said, reluctant to bring her along. Mainly because she was still just a little bean sprout—not much appeal there.
Look at Konan, look at Mei Terumī, and then look at Tsunade.
Kurotsuchi! Kurotsuchi!
You need to eat more and grow up faster! You have no idea how much your Deidara-nii has sacrificed for you.
"Who cares! At worst, he'll be angry for a few days, but it won't change anything," Kurotsuchi said confidently.
With a granddaughter like this and a rebellious student like Deidara, Onoki truly had terrible luck.
"Fine, hop on!"
Deidara and his group headed toward Amegakure.
Back in Iwagakure, Onoki was indeed furious when he returned to the village.
"What?! That little brat Kurotsuchi ran off with Deidara?!"
Hearing this news, Onoki felt a tightness in his chest, a pain far greater than anything Deidara's explosions had caused him earlier.
"Yes, that's what she said," Akatsuchi, who had been with Kurotsuchi earlier, replied. Having lost his ability to fight, he couldn't stop her.
"Send a diplomatic letter to Amegakure immediately! Tell that brat Deidara to send Kurotsuchi back! That place, filled with rogue ninjas, is far too dangerous!"
"When she comes back, I'll definitely ground that unruly girl! Ground her!" Onoki roared.
"I doubt she'll come back," Akatsuchi muttered quietly.
Amegakure.
Although Deidara hadn't been gone long, upon his return, he immediately sensed that something was off about the village.
Previously, while the oppressive architecture gave the village a gloomy atmosphere, the people at least had passion and energy. But now, it felt as though the entire village had lost its vitality.
"Suigetsu, what's going on with the village?"
On his way to find Nagato, Deidara ran into Suigetsu, who was idly chewing on a blade of grass, arms behind his head, leaning lazily against a wall.
"What do you mean? Everything's normal, isn't it?" Suigetsu replied, puzzled.
"By the way, who's this? Did you pick up another girl on your trip, Deidara-nii?" he asked, blatantly eyeing Kurotsuchi.
What do you mean, 'picked up another girl'?
Why does that sound so wrong?
Deidara was about to retort and demand to know who had been spreading such rumors when Kurotsuchi interrupted, "Deidara-nii, you've brought back other girls before?"
"Of course not!" Deidara denied righteously.
"Yes, you did! What about Karin?"
"And Haku—"
"Wait! How do you know Haku is a girl?"
"Ah!" Suigetsu's mouth fell open, and the blade of grass dropped to the ground.
"Isn't it obvious? Haku's so pretty—of course she's a girl! I was even planning to confess to her!" Suigetsu exclaimed, as if he'd just suffered a devastating blow, questioning his entire existence.
Deidara found this increasingly amusing. "You? Confess to a girl? I thought all you cared about was swinging that big sword of yours around."
"Well, playing with swords is definitely fun, but don't you think the Hōzuki Clan's and the Yuki Clan's kekkei genkai are a perfect match?" Suigetsu explained.
"Back in Kirigakure, the village was afraid of the two clans growing too powerful, so intermarriage was strictly forbidden. But now that we're free from Kirigakure, I've got to give it a shot!"
"I see. Well, good luck. Haku's so pretty—she's bound to have plenty of admirers!" Deidara teased.
"But Deidara-nii, didn't you just say Haku isn't a girl?" Suigetsu asked, on the verge of collapse.
"I was just joking. How would I know something like that?" Deidara waved dismissively.
"Really?" Suigetsu asked, still skeptical.
"Really! I swear!" Deidara declared, full of conviction.
He truly didn't know Haku's gender. So, Suigetsu, this is something you'll have to figure out for yourself!
"Deidara-nii, are you done chatting?"
"Can you answer my question now?" Kurotsuchi asked, smiling politely but with an unmistakable edge beneath her demeanor.
"Nothing happened! Karin was rescued by Sasori-nii back in the day."
"Oh, Sasori-nii—you haven't met him. He was my former teammate, but he's been offline recently and was replaced by Kisame," Deidara explained nonchalantly, his tone confident, as he genuinely had no interest in Karin.
Seeing Deidara's natural expression, Kurotsuchi's fake smile transformed into a genuine one, radiant like a blossoming flower in spring. She suddenly seemed cheerful and lively again.
Returning to the original topic, Deidara continued questioning Suigetsu. "Don't you think the village feels lifeless?"
Suigetsu scratched his head and pointed below. "Deidara-nii, do you mean this?"
Deidara looked down and saw a street near the river, where a large number of ninjas had gathered. Some were chatting, some napping, others playing cards or drinking—all of them clearly slacking off.
"What's going on?"
Could it be that the Akatsuki's secret slacking techniques had been leaked?
"It's because the commission fee cut from their missions is too high. No one has any motivation anymore, so they're just hanging around, killing time," Suigetsu explained.
This is bad!
Deidara rubbed his forehead. He needed to talk to Konan about this. If this continued, Amegakure was doomed!
Bidding farewell to Suigetsu, Deidara brought Kurotsuchi to the central tower's office. Inside, Tendo (Pain's Deva Path) was, as usual, sorting through paperwork.
With experience, Nagato had developed his own tricks for handling administrative tasks.
For trivial matters, he approved them outright—Konan wouldn't complain.
For moderately important issues, he pretended to read, nodded a few times, and got away with it.
For anything involving money, he slashed the budget by at least 80%—otherwise, Konan would definitely object.
As a result, the number of documents requiring careful review was reduced to a bare minimum. And for those few, he simply asked Konan for her opinion and filled in the forms accordingly. This way, Konan essentially handled them for him.
Yes! Nagato, you're a genius!
"Rinnegan!"
Kurotsuchi gasped in awe. No wonder Deidara-nii was so confident—it was because of these legendary eyes!
Tendo quickly looked up, visibly excited.
"Deidara, you've come at the perfect time. Looks like I can leave this afternoon's paperwork to Konan again!"
~~~❃❃~~~~~~~~❃❃~~~
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