Those explosive tags seemed to be chasing him, splitting nonstop as they flew.
Four times four made sixteen.
Sixteen times sixteen made two hundred and fifty-six.
Two hundred and fifty-six times two hundred and fifty-six made sixty-five thousand five hundred and thirty-six!!
More than sixty thousand explosive tags were hot on his heels.
After years of pursuing art, the blond, ponytailed boy had never encountered anything this unreasonable. Speechless didn't even begin to cover it. It was like "speechless" had opened the door and invited itself all the way home.
There wasn't even time to curse. With over sixty thousand explosive tags chasing him, Deidara could only force the clay giant bird to accelerate.
At the same time, he kept producing tiny clay birds, sending these explosive clay creations crashing into the tags so they would detonate before getting too close.
His hand dove into his ninja pouch again and again. Deidara didn't even have time to think about how much explosive clay he had left.
To be fair, as an artist, Deidara wasn't unfamiliar with working day and night molding explosive clay. But never before had he been forced to sculpt tiny clay birds until his fingers went weak and numb like this.
Veins popped out across Deidara's forehead, his face puffed up in rage like a steamed bun. Only after dealing with most of the sixty thousand plus explosive tags did he finally see the end in sight.
Seeing only a little over a hundred tags still flying toward him, Deidara finally showed a hint of a victorious smile. But when his hand reached into the ninja pouch again—
Gone?!
He had actually burned through all of his explosive clay?!
Before he could react, an explosive tag slammed into him and detonated.
"Boom!"
A loud explosion echoed across the sky. Luckily, only the tip of the clay bird's tail was damaged. As for Deidara himself, having played with explosives his whole life, his resistance to blasts was fairly high, so he didn't suffer any serious injuries.
At worst, his smooth blond ponytail had turned into a wild golden explosion of hair.
But there were still more than a hundred explosive tags left. If they all went off, he'd be in real trouble.
With no other choice, cursing nonstop and vowing to make that white-haired man remember this, Deidara ordered the mouths in his palms to start chewing on the clay giant bird beneath him. He broke it down into countless tiny birds to intercept the remaining explosive tags.
By the time the giant bird had been chewed down to a bare skeletal frame, the final explosive tag was finally destroyed.
"…"
After finishing off the clay bird's remains, Deidara realized he had no idea where he was.
He walked to the spot where the man known as the Second Hokage had been standing earlier. A small slip of paper lay there, with words written on it:
[Find your own way back.] [Route map]
"Bastard!!!!"
"Damn it!! I'll remember this, hmm!"
…
On the other side, after leaving the note, Tobirama Senju used Flying Thunder God to return directly to the Missing-nin guesthouse. From start to finish, it took less than three minutes.
Sasori looked at Tobirama Senju with a dangerous glint in his eyes. "Where's Deidara?"
"Told him to come back after using up all his explosive clay," the Second Hokage replied casually, raising an eyebrow.
Sasori stared at him for a moment. After confirming that Deidara's life wasn't in danger, he withdrew his killing intent.
Hashirama Senju laughed heartily, urging everyone to get along and not cause conflicts. Konoha had plenty of beautiful scenery, delicious food, and good sake, he said. They could take their time and enjoy themselves.
He looked as though he truly regarded this group of S-rank Missing-nin as tourists.
He didn't even bother mentioning sealing their chakra.
This left the Akatsuki members, now face-to-face with the legendary First and Second Hokage, completely at a loss. Their earlier vigilance suddenly felt like children bluffing in front of adults.
Experienced ninja knew how to read the situation. Even though the two Hokage and the young people beside them showed no hostility, none of the Missing-nin present, including Pain (Nagato), dared to act recklessly.
Hamura Ōtsutsuki had returned for once and even brought quite a few souvenirs for his nephew.
As soon as he stepped into the courtyard, he sensed the power of Pain's Rinnegan and heard Tobirama Senju lecturing Deidara.
He burst out laughing, feeling like Tobirama Senju was a lot like him. "My brother always says I may look cold and aloof, but inside I'm full of nasty little urges to mess with people."
Hashirama laughed along, saying his little brother was exactly the same.
Pain watched the silver-blue-haired young man walk in and frowned slightly. "Hyūga Clan?"
Hamura Ōtsutsuki also noticed Pain and Ōtsutsuki Obito. "This is truly surprising. I never expected to see anyone besides my brother and mother possess the Rinnegan."
Brother? Rinnegan?
Pain asked, as if it were the most natural thing in the world, "Who is your brother?"
"I am Hamura Ōtsutsuki. My brother is Hagoromo Ōtsutsuki."
Never heard of him…
"Oh, right," Hamura Ōtsutsuki added with a smile. "People here seem to call him Rikudō Sennin."
"…"
In the ninja world, who didn't know the legend of Rikudō Sennin? And Nagato's eyes were the legendary Sage's eyes. Now they were looking at Ōtsutsuki Obito from another parallel world, and then this Hamura Ōtsutsuki claiming to be Rikudō Sennin's younger brother…
Well…
The expressions on the Akatsuki Missing-nin were exactly what you'd expect.
The Konoha side was secretly delighted. They wanted to laugh, but with Akatsuki here in full force, Konoha's basic courtesy and respect still had to be maintained.
Indra opened his Mangekyō Sharingan. The Yin-attribute chakra, the same oppressive kind Madara Uchiha had, made the air feel unpleasant, heavy with an invisible pressure.
He looked at Pain. Through the chakra rods in Pain's body, it was as if he were staring straight at Nagato, who was somewhere nearby.
"So you're Ashura's descendant."
He let out a cold sneer. "If you're truly Ashura's heir, then why do you possess Father's Sage Eyes?"
The sarcasm in his voice was unmistakable. Beside him, Ashura clearly worried his brother might start fighting the young man across from them who had the same eyes as their father, so he hurriedly spoke up, trying to smooth things over while also apologizing to the Missing-nin on Indra's behalf.
"Sorry, sorry! My brother isn't very good at communicating with people. He's actually kind at heart. He just saw that you have the Rinnegan like our father, so he got curious, that's all."
Pain reflexively asked again, "Your father?"
Ashura scratched the back of his head, looking simple and easy to fool. "You already know his name. He's the one you're all familiar with, Rikudō Sennin."
No! We've only heard the legends! We're not familiar with Rikudō Sennin at all!!!
What is going on with Konoha?!
Are you people reviving fossils now?!
"I think…" Even Hidan, who was usually the loudest one, sounded a little subdued. "Not storming Konoha head-on and coming to scout for information first was the right call."
He leaned on his scythe in his usual sloppy stance and gave Pain a thumbs-up. "As expected of Boss. Always thinking ahead."
The conversation could've ended right there.
But of course he had to add one more line, completely unneeded. "Speaking of which, I've always been curious…"
Hidan pointed at Obito Uchiha and blurted out, "Who the hell is this guy anyway?! There's no way his status is just 'trainee' in our organization, right?"
Kakuzu really wanted to slam his head down.
The dumbest people aren't the ones who never notice anything. They're the ones who finally realize what everyone else figured out ages ago, and then ask about it in the most innocent, clueless, and downright suicidal way possible.
"Hmm…"
Obito Uchiha rubbed his chin, looking genuinely deep in thought.
Everyone else was just as curious about how this unusually wired Uchiha was going to answer a question that felt like a full-blown Shura battlefield.
"Hmm…" Obito pondered for a moment, looking like he was seriously struggling, then finally said, "Back then, I was probably similar to Pain. You could say I was the one pulling the strings behind the scenes. But now I've truly turned over a new leaf and returned to Konohagakure to serve as a ninja, together with Itachi Uchiha!"
When he finished, he even solemnly addressed the entire Akatsuki:
"I am Obito Uchiha, a Konoha ninja who once aimed to become Hokage and now seeks redemption. Please take care of me!"
"..."
Are you screwing with us?
From Pain's attitude alone, everyone had already guessed that "Tobi" was likely someone even higher-ranking than Pain, the real mastermind behind Akatsuki, something like the chairman of the board in an elite corporation.
And now the chairman had defected?
Impressive. Truly impressive.
So…
The Akatsuki members couldn't help but start questioning everything.
Were they really here to gather intelligence on Konoha?
Or was this actually just a trip?
For a small but elite S-rank Missing-nin organization like theirs, having a "disbandment trip" overseas didn't sound that strange, did it?
Pain and Konan were so angry they didn't even want to speak.
But looking at Konoha's current lineup and scale, just as Hidan had said, not launching a direct attack and instead scouting first had been the right call.
Leaving aside the sudden appearance of all those relatives of the Rikudō Sennin, just the First, Second, and Fourth Hokage alone were already terrifying enough.
And on top of that, there were two Fourth Hokage who had turned the tide of the Third Shinobi World War by themselves, two Obito Uchiha who had taught him how to use the Rinnegan, one of whom even possessed the Rinnegan himself, the progenitor of the Byakugan, and the progenitor of the Sharingan along with his brother.
Nagato didn't dare overestimate himself.
For the sake of world peace, he couldn't afford to burn through his life force prematurely.
He still needed to collect the Tailed Beasts and make the world feel pain.
But…
What was with those looks from the Konoha ninja, as if they could see straight through his future?
Why did it feel so inexplicably uncomfortable?
What the Akatsuki members didn't know was that this kind of crushing advantage had a name—
—I know the plot.
Both Obito Uchiha, along with the First, Second, and Fourth Hokage, even knew how Pain would die, what he would say before his death, and roughly understood that before Pain attacked Konoha, Akatsuki would be nearly wiped out.
Aside from the true masterminds, Tobi and Black Zetsu, it seemed only Kisame would be left.
And according to rumors, he didn't even participate in the Fourth Shinobi World War. Most likely, he died along the way.
With the lodging registration for all Akatsuki members complete, Adult Obito took out the mission scroll, only to find that it wasn't marked as completed.
"Maybe they need to stay here for a while longer?" Minato Namikaze guessed.
Sasori spoke coldly, "You Hokage really have some nerve. Aren't you afraid we'll just kill a few Konoha ninja we don't like?"
"Hahahahaha."
Hashirama Senju burst into laughter, and then—
An overwhelming wave of chakra and killing intent exploded without warning, so intense it made souls tremble.
"Konoha is my home, the village I founded. Every single person here is my family, a part of my own body…"
The newly built Missing-nin guesthouse began to shudder violently.
Crack. Crack.
Pillars, floors, walls—all of them split with deep fissures.
Hashirama Senju's long black hair lifted and whipped about in the storm of chakra. "I will not spare anyone who dares harm them. So you'd better rein in your behavior. Understood, brat?"
To outsiders, Sasori appeared to be inside Hiruko, short, ugly, and impossible to judge in age.
His true body looked like that of a fourteen- or fifteen-year-old boy, but in reality he was already well into his thirties. Even if Minato Namikaze had lived, he might not have been much older than Sasori.
Yet there was only one person who could call him a brat.
And that was Hashirama Senju.
Especially with that overwhelming, domineering chakra, no one dared to ignore his words.
This was—
The legendary God of Shinobi!!
Sasori of the Red Sand, Hidan, Kakuzu, Pain, Konan…
All of Akatsuki stared with their eyes wide open.
The image of the man who had laughed heartily, acted warm and approachable, and let his own younger brother bully him without daring to talk back shattered instantly.
What stood before them now was the real Hashirama Senju, a man who had completely hidden his terrifying side.
A dragon.
Like a demon whose seal had just been broken.
Had the God of Shinobi and the Demon of the Ninja World been swapped by mistake?
After the initial shock, Pain began to think.
If both this God of Shinobi and himself were determined to kill the other…
Then who would win?