Even though, in many people's eyes, Hyuga Kiyonari was a "good person" with profound thoughts—
If you asked him to answer honestly, he'd probably say: "I'm just an ordinary person."
For instance, he actually had the ability to help Uzumaki Naruto improve his situation, but he never went that far. All he did was share some money and a mask during that brief encounter.
To others, it looked like he was standing up for Naruto.
To him, it was more like he'd happened to find a hundred bucks on the way out, and Naruto happened to be there, so he split it with him. That's all.
Of course, he could've chosen not to give Naruto anything, but there was no need.
And it was the same when it came to dealing with the Uchiha.
Hyuga Kiyonari didn't need to charge into the front lines himself. All he had to do was talk—or hide behind the scenes and write scripts. He'd already told Tsunade his guiding principle: "I just happen to have the ability." To him, both were effortless—simply things he wanted to do.
He never thought he was special, and he would never use a label like "good person" to glorify himself.
He had selfish motives too. He even… wanted to do some bad things.
The Cloud delegation would need at least three or four days to return to Kumogakure, and today was already almost over. That meant Tsunade had less than three days left to prepare.
She was in a hurry.
So tonight… plenty of people probably wouldn't sleep well.
As for Kiyonari, he was thinking about something else.
Until today, he hadn't expected Konoha to make a move this big. His original plan for the Hyuga main family was to have Tsunade cooperate with Hinata to suppress those old men's delusions.
But now, perhaps the methods could be more aggressive. After all, the conflict between the branch and main families wasn't as simple as "dividing an inheritance."
Also, he could plant a seed in the ninja world in advance. Even if something unexpected happened, nothing would draw more attention than "Konoha and Kumogakure in a standoff."
…
It rained, as it always did.
As if the sky had a hole that could never be patched, endlessly pouring cold rain onto the earth. The rain drummed on the rooftops, a monotonous, unbroken lullaby.
"Whoosh!"
Konan landed at the far end of the corridor, folding away the paper wings behind her, then stepped inside. This tall tower was Akatsuki's core, the core of the Land of Rain, and… now, her home.
At this moment, exhaustion was written all over her face.
Nagato's health wasn't good. And as the de facto manager of both Akatsuki and the Hidden Rain, she had to handle countless tedious affairs every day: information on new members and recruitment, compiling intelligence, distributing funds and supplies for the village, coordinating missions between Akatsuki and the Rain ninja…
Konan didn't have overwhelming power. The only thing she could do was shoulder as much pressure as possible for Nagato, so he could focus on carrying out that grand plan.
To fulfill Yahiko's dream.
Click—
Konan pushed open the door to her room.
It wasn't large, and it was simply furnished: a bed, a table, a wardrobe—nothing more. The walls were cold steel, bare and undecorated. Outside the window, rain streamed down the glass, blurring the world beyond.
She closed the door and let out a long breath.
"Finally… I can rest."
Even though the village wasn't big, the troubles never ended. She still had to deal with intelligence from Zetsu—like the recent conflict between Konoha and Kumogakure. But what gave her the biggest headache were the two new members.
Kakuzu and Orochimaru.
Kakuzu was manageable. He was obsessed with money—so long as Akatsuki's finances were handed to him, he would do the job diligently. In a way, that even made things easier for Konan. At least she didn't have to track every expense herself anymore.
That was the good news. The bad news?
Kakuzu often killed his own partners and delivered their bodies to the underground bounty exchange for a reward. Every time she recruited a new member, Kakuzu killed one. Rogue ninja strong enough to qualify weren't easy to find, so in the end, her workload hadn't truly decreased—it had simply shifted.
As for Orochimaru…
Every time Konan thought of him, a wave of disgust rose in her chest.
It wasn't even that she still held a grudge over the past. It was because whenever Orochimaru looked at Pain, his eyes were full of greed. He'd joined Akatsuki for only one reason: to seize the Rinnegan at the right moment.
And his experiments required huge amounts of funding. Every time he came to Konan asking for money, he named a number so large it sounded absurd.
Worse still, Kakuzu hated it.
In Kakuzu's eyes, Orochimaru was a spendthrift who did nothing but burn money. All that "human experimentation" and "forbidden technique research" was meaningless waste. Kakuzu wanted to stash the money away, not spend it on Orochimaru.
So the two of them were constantly arguing—or fighting.
But when two immortal monsters fought, it never produced a result. They could stab each other, set each other on fire… and it was still just wasted time and energy. In the end, she was the one who had to clean up the mess.
Konan walked to the wardrobe and removed that signature black cloak patterned with red clouds, revealing a purple bodysuit underneath.
It was made of a special material with strong waterproofing. In a country where it rained year-round, it was practically essential. If you wore ordinary clothes, you'd be soaked through in less than ten minutes, wet fabric clinging to your skin—no one liked that cold, sticky feeling.
The purple fabric wrapped snugly around her body, outlining graceful curves—slim, balanced, carrying the mature allure of an adult woman.
She walked to the table to sort through the intelligence she'd received today, but the moment her eyes landed on the tabletop, her entire body went rigid.
There was an unfamiliar black notebook on the table.
It lay quietly at the center. The cover was pure black, with no decoration or text. It looked ordinary—like a cheap notebook you could buy from any random bookstore.
But the problem was—
It shouldn't be here.
Konan's face changed instantly, paper-like fissures spreading across her skin.
This was her unique technique—Dance of the Shikigami—turning her body into countless paper fragments. In that state she could ignore physical damage, making it extremely useful against ambushes and assassinations. The jutsu represented a lesson learned.
She immediately checked the state of the room's barriers. But a moment later, shock appeared on her face.
None of the defenses had been triggered, yet the notebook was undeniably sitting on the table.
That meant the intruder's stealth was far beyond her understanding.
Who was it?
Konan rapidly filtered through possible suspects.
The first person she thought of was Zetsu.
That half-black, half-white creature had a special ability—he could merge into the ground and walls and travel underground like a ghost. If it was him, it really was possible he'd avoided all her safeguards.
But why would Zetsu do this?
Another possibility was the masked man who called himself "Uchiha Madara." He possessed space–time ninjutsu, but likewise… he had no reason to do something like this.
Konan decided to step forward and open the notebook.
On the inside cover, written in neat, tidy handwriting, was a single line:
"Amegakure Log. The time is… thirty years later?!"