Chapter 352: The Akatsuki's Movements
Konoha in June was coming to the end of the rainy season, and the sky began to clear.
While Team Haruno Sakura was training in the sun, some countries were still in continuous overcast and rain.
The Land of Rain, known as the Crying Country, was one such place.
Rainy days here were exceptionally numerous, especially in this season. The continuous, heavy rain persisted for months; the sun and stars were hidden, and the mountains lay submerged.
Amegakure (Village Hidden in Rain).
On the tallest tower in the west of the village, a gentle woman with a purple paper flower on her head was standing by the window.
"I haven't seen the sun for a month."
She looked at the light rain outside the window and said softly.
"Konan, if you don't like it, just make it stop." A ninja with short orange hair walked up behind her, stood by the window, and said faintly.
"No need, let nature take its course, Pain." The woman named Konan shook her head. Her appearance was beautiful and angel-like. Her gentle eyes looked back at Pain and asked, "Why did he call us over?"
"That Madara guy..." Pain was about to answer when he suddenly felt a stir and turned around with Konan.
"Madara, you've come..."
"There are some things I need to discuss with you." The man wearing the spiral mask emerged from the ripples of space-time, appearing in front of the two. "Things that will affect the actions of the 'Akatsuki'."
He used the alias Uchiha Madara to act in the shadows of the ninja world, but his true identity was Uchiha Obito.
Pain and Konan exchanged glances.
"Let's go."
The Akatsuki's Conference Room.
It was a very spacious hall with three sofas in the middle, and nothing else.
The overly simplistic decoration made the room appear exceptionally empty. Pain's voice even echoed in the empty room.
"What happened?" He sat on the sofa and asked calmly.
"The spy clan I arranged in the Land of Water has been eradicated," Uchiha Obito said coldly, looking at Pain.
"What does the matter of the Land of Water... have to do with the Akatsuki?" Konan frowned slightly and asked indifferently.
"Of course it does. They were responsible for relaying information about the Three-Tails' resurrection," Obito glanced at the woman and explained. "Without them, our operation to collect the Three-Tails Isobu will be greatly affected."
"Lacking intelligence support?" Pain asked.
Obito nodded: "That's right. Although we already roughly know the time and waters of Isobu's resurrection, without local people familiar with the Land of Water's environment to provide intelligence support, it will be very troublesome for our people to find Isobu!"
Pain lowered his eyes, pondered for a moment, and asked, "What do you want to do? Control another spy clan or the Mizukage?"
"No, that would be too troublesome," Obito shook his head in denial. "And the Mist Village will certainly not make that mistake again..."
"Even without the intelligence support of spies, the Akatsuki's strength fears no one in the Mist Village. We can completely disregard them," Konan reminded. "If the Fifth Mizukage and the Six-Tails Jinchuriki dare to obstruct us, we can just kill them!"
The masked man still shook his head.
"I originally had the same thought, but the situation has recently changed," he said, flicking the armrest of the sofa. "According to intelligence, Konoha and the Mist have formed an alliance, and they have a common goal: to fight against our 'Akatsuki' organization!"
Pain sneered: "Another country that regards us as a thorn in their side."
"No, they already hated us to the bone; now they have just joined forces." The masked man said calmly. "The Mist is half-crippled and won't recover in a short time. They won't have much impact on our plan. If we only consider them, we can indeed forcibly carry out the mission to retrieve Isobu. But now, there is the variable of Konoha..."
"You mean," Konan's eyes darkened, "Konoha will help the Mist capture the Three-Tails?"
"There is no real mutual trust between the Five Great Ninja Villages. The Mist Village would not possibly let Konoha intervene in the matter of capturing a Tailed Beast," Pain said confidently. "Besides, the Mist and Konoha have only just formed an alliance and are still in a state of mutual vigilance."
"No, you are wrong."
Obito stood up and walked around the hall.
Pacing back to the sofa, he said, "There is a new variable. We haven't taken her seriously in the past, but now that I think back, it seems we underestimated her too much..."
"Her?" Konan, with a woman's intuition, keenly felt that the "she" Obito mentioned referred to a woman.
A girl they once deemed insignificant to the overall situation.
"That's right, the Ice Style girl named Haruno Sakura." Obito sat on the armrest of the sofa, looking deeply at Konan. The seriousness in his tone showed he was not joking.
"The power of Ice Style..." Pain said in a low voice. "It should be far inferior to your Sharingan and my Rinnegan. Why would you attach so much importance to a ninja with little potential? Even if she steps into the 'Kage' level, in front of the Rinnegan, she is just a slightly stronger ant!"
His words were full of undeniable confidence.
This was also the truth. The Akatsuki had recruited powerful rogue ninja from various countries, whose strength was terrifying, comparable to the Kage of each village, but in Pain's eyes, the power of the Rinnegan was one level higher than them! He had fought with some unruly members. The so-called "Kage"-level ninja were not much different from ordinary ninja in front of his eyes!
"But she has indeed caused us a lot of trouble. Moreover, we cannot be too careless. I recently collected some information about her. In Haruno Sakura's strength composition, Ice Style is not the main combat power. She also masters several powerful secret techniques that are even trickier than Ice Style!" Obito said solemnly. "You should still have an impression of the battle that took place in the Land of Waves last month."
"The intelligence did mention such a thing. And then?" Pain retorted.
The matter of the Land of Waves was too far away and should have nothing to do with them. It was only because the impact was significant that they paid attention to it.
"One of the combatants has been confirmed to be Haruno Sakura," Obito replied.
"She grows fast, and it looks like she is far from her limit. It seems... we have another enemy who is a thorn in our side!" Pain sneered, with a hint of irony in his voice.
"In addition, it was her and the Fifth Mizukage who completely defeated the inner traitor clan in the Land of Water this time." Obito ignored Pain's tone and continued. "After this, the Mist and Konoha established diplomatic relations. I don't know what deal was reached between these two villages, but the level of direct trust between the Mist and Konoha seems higher than we imagined."
"My previous plan to use the Fourth Mizukage to cripple the Mist was discovered by them... The Mist now utterly despises the Akatsuki. I suspect they might adopt a mentality of 'rather let Konoha get the Three-Tails than let the Akatsuki get the Three-Tails,' allowing Konoha to participate in the Tailed Beast capture plan!"
After hearing Obito's analysis, Pain and Konan immediately fell silent.
"Even if the Mist and Konoha join forces, they can't send out many more masters," Pain pondered for a while and said. "To be safe, we can send two teams for the Three-Tails retrieval mission. No matter how much Konoha and the Mist gather, they won't be able to muster the strength to withstand two Akatsuki squads."
"Agreed. The first group executes the mission, and the second group provides support. To avoid any accidents, I will personally participate in this mission!" Obito tapped his mask, pointing at himself and said. "Under the identity of candidate member Tobi. Coincidentally, Sasori's team only has him left, so I can team up with him as the second support group."
"Sasori?" Pain frowned slightly, thinking for a moment.
"Konan, how much has his combat power recovered now?"
As a puppeteer, Sasori's combat power was closely related to the puppets he carried.
According to the intelligence reported by Zetsu after the battle, Sasori's puppets suffered heavy losses after fighting Haruno Sakura. The highly intimidating Giant Scorpion and the trump card Kazekage Puppet were directly destroyed, and the Hundred Puppet Master Technique was almost half wiped out. His strength instantly dropped significantly...
The woman closed her eyes, the purple eyeshadow covering her eyes making her look even more alluring. She recalled for a while and then said, "It went smoothly. The number of puppets for the Hundred Puppet Master Technique has been greatly replenished, and Deidara's corpse was also given to him to create a new Human Puppet. Because the corpse was very complete, the puppet's combat power is well-preserved, so Sasori's current combat power has not dropped severely."
"Very good," Pain nodded.
"If Konoha also sends people, it will be those old faces again. They only have a few ninja who dare to confront us," he looked at the masked man and said. "Sasori happens to be countered by Haruno Sakura, so it's best not to let him encounter that girl."
"I know that," Obito waved his hand a little impatiently and said. "The Three-Tails' resurrection time is estimated to be around the beginning of next year, with an error not exceeding a few months. Before that, according to the plan, we were supposed to collect the Jinchuriki of the Five-Tails, Seven-Tails, and One-Tail in the second half of this year. However, due to Konoha's meddling, the major ninja villages have already heightened their vigilance against us. If we drag it on any longer, things might change!"
"You want to move the plan up?" Pain sat up straight and asked.
"Yes... before they raise their vigilance!" Obito said. "First, capture the Five-Tails, which is disliked by its village, and the Seven-Tails, which is in a small country. Then, the One-Tail Jinchuriki. According to intelligence, he is also very unpopular in his village and is the type that no one would be willing to rescue if he were taken away. In short, the time can be moved up a little!"
Pain and Konan exchanged glances.
"This is several months earlier than the original plan, and many tasks in the plan haven't been completed yet! For example, the intelligence collection work for the Eight-Tails..." Konan countered. "Isn't this too rushed?"
"The remaining work can continue to be completed after the plan is launched," Obito retorted. "It's impossible for us to wait until the plan is perfectly prepared before proceeding! Especially since the major ninja villages are starting to show signs of uniting against us, future events may change rapidly!"
"First, we will use clever tactics to capture the first few Tailed Beasts. Once we have accumulated enough power, we can even directly attack a country or a ninja village to capture the Jinchuriki!"
"Alright, what you said does make sense... I agree," Pain nodded and said.
"Then... who goes?"
"The Five-Tails will be handled by me and Sasori," Obito said. "As for the Seven-Tails, let Uchiha Itachi and Hoshigaki Kisame be responsible!"
❃❃❃
⤑ Show your support with Power Stones!
⤑ Unlock a Bonus Chapter every time we hit 400 Power Stones!
❃❃❃
♕ Get early access to 30+ advanced chapters on Patreon!
🔗 https://www.pat-reon.co-m/c/Hollowborn
(Just remove the hyphen (-) to open the link!)
💬 Enjoying the story? Drop a review!
Your support really helps the series grow—thank you!