"What?!!!"
Konan: "Kyūsuke?!!"
Hearing Konan's voice, Kyūsuke, Daibutsu, and the others immediately lit up with joy. Leaning forward past the two towering men in front of them, they finally spotted the people they had been so worried about at the back of the group.
"Brother Yahiko! Nagato! Konan!"
"You're all safe, thank goodness!"
"You had me worried sick!"
Pain remained expressionless, while Konan and Nagato stared at them in shock.
"You guys…"
Kyūsuke assumed the three of them had returned on their own and hurriedly began reporting what he knew.
"Brother Yahiko! I don't know if you've heard, but Konoha's Danzō has led the ANBU across the border into the Land of Rain."
...
He knew.
...
They only learned the truth long after Yahiko's death.
...
Kyūsuke had planned to tell everyone along the way, but they ran into these people not long after setting out. Because of that, even Daibutsu and the others only learned from Kyūsuke that Danzō Shimura had brought Konoha's ANBU into the Land of Rain.
No wonder Kyūsuke had insisted on rushing everyone out to rescue Yahiko and Nagato.
"Why would Konoha's Danzō lead an ANBU unit all the way into the Land of Rain?!"
"No idea. But he's definitely not here with good intentions."
Seeing that the three of them were unharmed, Kyūsuke finally relaxed.
"Thank goodness everyone's safe. Thinking about it now, the promise Hanzō, the leader of Amegakure, made was a little too perfect. Just hearing rumors about our 'Akatsuki,' and he immediately agreed to let us meet face-to-face with the Kage of the Five Great Shinobi Villages… Everything went so smoothly it almost felt unreal."
At the words "our Akatsuki,"
Hidan, Kakuzu, Deidara, Sasori, Kisame, and Itachi, all hidden beneath their straw hats, showed faint looks of surprise. To them, the strength of the people across from them was seriously lacking. Even the strongest among them were only about as strong as ordinary village jōnin.
People calling themselves the Akatsuki?
And more importantly, Konan and Nagato actually knew them?
"Kyūsuke…"
Nagato's throat was dry, his voice nothing like the soft, gentle tone Kyūsuke remembered.
But Kyūsuke, Daibutsu, and the others had lived day in and day out with Yahiko, Nagato, and Konan. There was no way they could mistake the three standing in front of them for anyone else.
Seeing how stunned they looked, Daibutsu assumed they had just been through a brutal fight.
"How are you? You look badly hurt. Come back with us first, we'll get you treated."
Daibutsu stepped forward, reaching out to support Nagato.
Unexpectedly—
"Clang!"
Hidan's massive scythe slammed down in front of him, blocking his path.
"What do you mean by that?" Daibutsu asked, a trace of anger creeping into his voice.
Kyūsuke noticed that these people were dressed exactly the same as Yahiko, Nagato, and Konan were now. He raised a hand, stopping Daibutsu and the others who were about to move.
The initial rush of joy at seeing the three again had faded. Now that he'd calmed down, Kyūsuke immediately sensed that something was off.
Forcing himself to stay composed, he looked at the man he had bumped into earlier.
"Sorry about that earlier. Did you guys save Yahiko, Konan, and Nagato?"
"Us? Save Konan and Pain?" Hidan threw his head back and burst out laughing, almost doubled over. "It was the woman behind me who forced me to join the organization, you know!! Us saving them? That would mean we could actually beat them first, hahaha!"
As if losing to the three of them was nothing to be ashamed of, Hidan casually pointed behind him…
More precisely, at two people.
And a corpse.
At the same time, Hidan reached up and removed the straw hat from his head.
Revealing slicked-back, silver-white hair.
And…
A forehead protector that marked him as a missing-nin from Yugakure.
"Defector ninja?!"
"They're defectors?!"
"What's going on? Nagato! Konan! Brother Yahiko! They're saying you forced them to join our organization?"
"Akatsuki is supposed to be an organization built around dialogue and reconciliation, one that exists to achieve peace!"
Aside from Itachi Uchiha, who remained cold and impassive, that statement nearly made the rest of the current second-generation Akatsuki members burst out laughing.
"Dialogue and reconciliation?"
Sounds more like nuclear negotiations.
Sasori's lips curled into a cold smile as he removed the straw hat from his head, revealing the forehead protector that marked him as a missing-nin of Sunagakure.
"A missing-nin from Sunagakure of the Land of Wind?!"
That left the original Akatsuki members even more stunned. Seeing missing-nin from two different villages appear before them in a single day was simply…
As if to mock them, the others removed their hats as well.
"A missing-nin from Kirigakure of the Land of Water!!"
That shark-like appearance was unmistakable. There was no doubt he was a Kirigakure ninja.
"That one is… a missing-nin from Takigakure."
"And even that kid is from Iwagakure…"
Deidara: "Who are you calling a kid?! Yeah! I'll blow you all to pieces, hm! Sasori-danna looks younger than me anyway, hm!"
Sasori of the Red Sand shot him a frosty glance. That was exactly why he hated leaving Hiruko.
At this point, only Konan and Yahiko were still wearing their hats, while most of Nagato's face remained hidden beneath his umbrella.
Slowly, Konan removed her hat, and Nagato lowered the umbrella.
Only Yahiko remained untouched, the pure land in both of their hearts.
Pain… did nothing.
"This is…"
A forehead protector of a missing-nin from Amegakure?!
The original Akatsuki members' minds went completely blank. What had happened in such a short time? Had they been forcibly taken over? Why were Brother Yahiko and the others wearing uniforms from "another organization"? Those black cloaks patterned with red clouds… that had to belong to a different group, right?
"Just who are you people?!"
Kyūsuke stared at Kisame and Kakuzu as he demanded an answer.
"Us?" Kisame grinned, revealing a mouthful of sharp, shark-like teeth. The bandage-wrapped Samehada was hoisted casually over his shoulder.
"We are the…"
"Though perhaps 'current' isn't quite right anymore. You can think of us as the strongest missing-nin organization in the ninja world—Akatsuki."
The original Akatsuki members, Kyūsuke, Daibutsu, and the rest, were completely dumbfounded.
"The strongest…"
"A missing-nin organization…"
"Akatsuki?!!!"
The people standing across from them were calling themselves Akatsuki?! And Brother Yahiko, Konan, and Nagato still seemed to be their leaders.
Then what were they?!
What did that make them?!
What on earth was going on?!
"Let's put this argument on hold for now."
Itachi Uchiha, who had not spoken until now, removed his hat, allowing the former Akatsuki members to clearly see his eyes.
After returning to Konoha, he no longer wore Akatsuki's cloak, nor did he wear a Konoha forehead protector, or even that of a missing-nin.
So the best proof of who he was lay in one of Konoha's most powerful bloodline clans, the Uchiha clan's—
Sharingan.
"Those eyes! That's Konoha's Sharingan?! You're an Uchiha?! From Konoha?!"
Itachi Uchiha did not answer Kyūsuke's question. Instead, he continued at his own pace.
"You mentioned earlier that Danzō led a large number of ANBU across the border between the Land of Fire and the Land of Rain, and that Hanzō of the Salamander, the leader of Amegakure, invited your leader to meet today."
He paused, drawing the attention of both the former and current Akatsuki members.
"I believe you should continue with your original plan and move immediately to stop the Yahiko and Nagato you're talking about from meeting Hanzō of the Salamander."
Nagato: "What do you mean, Itachi?"
Itachi Uchiha: "Based on our previous experiences crossing worlds, this place is another parallel world that shares the same history as ours. Our presence won't interfere with the versions of ourselves native to this world, and therefore won't affect the Nagato and Yahiko of this world who are already on their way to meet Hanzō."
"!!" Konan gasped. "You're saying…"
"I don't know why their message never reached you back then," Itachi continued, "but if we hurry now, given our speed, we may still be able to catch up to this era's Nagato and Yahiko."
The original Akatsuki members were utterly lost.
"What era? What are you even talking about? Nagato, what is this Konoha guy saying?"
Nagato and Konan's eyes widened. They had long since forgotten to answer Kyūsuke's question.
After a brief pause, they turned and ran straight outside.
Controlling Pain required the Demonic Statue of the Outer Path and chakra rods, and it also demanded close proximity. That forced Nagato to temporarily leave Pain behind.
Konan used her paper techniques to seal Pain, wrapping him up like a mummy and hiding him in a concealed location. She then replaced Nagato's legs with paper, helping him move forward.
"Hey!!" Hidan yelled.
The other Akatsuki members were already gone in a blur, slipping past him as they took off after the two of them.
"Seriously?!" With his scythe slung across his back, Hidan shot after them as well.
The original Akatsuki members had no chance of keeping up with a group of S-rank missing-nin. They were left behind almost immediately, and before long they couldn't even see the others' silhouettes anymore.
"What kind of speed is this?!"
"That's insane!"
They were panting hard, legs burning, exhausted to the point of misery.
Even so, none of them stopped. As unbelievable as it sounded, they weren't completely lost on what that Uchiha had meant.
And Konan's earlier move, sealing Pain with the Sacred Paper Emissary Jutsu, had unintentionally made one thing clear: the one those people called Pain wasn't their Brother Yahiko at all, but a controlled ninja tool.
Nagato's legs, unable to move properly, were an even louder warning of the nightmare that was about to happen.
Because they couldn't match the pace, the distance between the original Akatsuki and the current Akatsuki only kept widening.
Nagato, Konan, Itachi Uchiha, Kisame Hoshigaki, Hidan, Kakuzu, Deidara, and Sasori—eight of them—raced through the rain.
Aside from Konan and Nagato, the others were used to much drier countries. Even the Land of Water where Kisame was born wasn't anything like the Land of Rain, where the downpour never seemed to end.
Deidara's expression was sour, but the kid didn't say a word.
Hidan opened his mouth to start complaining, only for Kakuzu to snap at him and shut him down.
Kakuzu could tell Nagato and Konan were already on edge. If that loudmouthed idiot said the wrong thing, the two of them might just bury him alive on the spot.
Whether it was Nagato's Chibaku Tensei or Konan's Sacred Paper Emissary Jutsu, sealing an immortal and leaving him trapped in darkness, unable to live and unable to die, would be effortless for them.
Itachi: "Do you remember what time the meeting with Hanzō was supposed to be?"
Nagato didn't hide it. "Four in the afternoon."
Sorrow flickered in Konan's eyes. If only she'd been more careful back then, if only she hadn't been caught by Hanzō's men…
Itachi quickly ran the timing in his head.
"It's not even nine in the morning yet. Even if Kyūsuke and the others are slower than us, it shouldn't be impossible for them to catch up."
Yahiko and Nagato had left early, so they wouldn't have needed to rush. They definitely wouldn't be moving as fast as Kyūsuke and Daibutsu's group, running like their lives depended on it.
"Then why didn't they catch up back then?" Itachi asked.
***
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