Chapter 229: Konan: This Is Not Me!
"Oh?"
Shiromo hadn't expected Konan in the Limited Tsukuyomi world to appear in Konoha.
That was very strange.
Up to now, Shiromo still hadn't seen a single familiar face. Judging only from the Hokage Rock, he could at most confirm that the Limited Tsukuyomi world was definitely set after Tsunade succeeded as the Fifth Hokage.
After all, Tsunade's stone-carved head was already there.
Konan appeared here.
Could she be scouting the area, preparing to capture the Nine-Tails?
Shiromo still didn't know what kind of positioning the Akatsuki had in the Limited Tsukuyomi world.
He couldn't arbitrarily assume that the Akatsuki hadn't changed, or that they had turned into pure mercenaries who worked for money like in the movies.
"Let's go. Follow her."
When Shiromo saw the [Konan] across the street walk out of the sushi restaurant and head toward the outskirts of the village, he said a word to Hikari beside him and followed.
If the Akatsuki in this world still had objectives related to the tailed beasts, then they should have a large amount of relevant intelligence.
As for why they didn't just pull all the jinchūriki in as spectators.
Wouldn't that let everyone directly "call out coordinates" like Fū and Yugito?
In reality, this idea really wouldn't work.
To be honest, the only one who would willingly help by reporting locations was Fū.
Yugito was still an unknown factor. Even if she was willing to report, it would mostly be out of curiosity about what Shiromo and the others were trying to do.
As for the rest…
Rin?
She wasn't the Three-Tails' jinchūriki anymore.
Whether there even was a jinchūriki at all was another question.
A tailed beast couldn't switch perspectives on its own without a jinchūriki.
Gaara?
Without Naruto, his good buddy, influencing him, Gaara might be willing to help.
But Gaara was also the one who needed the least help.
The One-Tail was either inside him, in the Sunagakure Village, or already in the Akatsuki's hands and captured.
Then there was Naruto.
Letting Naruto come in as a spectator—just imagine him watching and suddenly empathizing with the people in the Limited Tsukuyomi world, spouting things like "life in the Tsukuyomi world is still life" or "we can't sacrifice others to save ourselves", and that would already be considered lucky.
And asking him to report locations to help capture tailed beasts?
The remaining few were more or less the same.
That was why this method wasn't adopted.
Shiromo and the others didn't lack this bit of time.
There was no need to involve these people and add chaos for no reason.
"Who goes there?!"
After leaving Konoha, [Konan] suddenly turned around. A spinning paper shuriken hovered in front of Shiromo.
"Clearly, the Akatsuki in this world don't recognize Shiromo. Or rather, this illusionary world simply doesn't have Shiromo or Uchiha Hikari in it at all."
Up in the hidden "audience seats" in the sky, Orochimaru began to comment on the situation below.
"This is actually quite normal. Before the Limited Tsukuyomi was activated, we already knew that Shiromo came from the future, and Uchiha Hikari came from the past. It's perfectly reasonable that they don't exist in the Limited Tsukuyomi world."
"So what do we do now?"
Konan watched the other version of herself below confronting Shiromo.
She wondered if Shiromo was going to repeat the same old trick.
But it didn't seem possible this time.
After all, even Uchiha Hikari, the creator, didn't know this world's past and future. Shiromo also couldn't use future events to gain trust.
Below.
Facing [Konan]'s questioning, Shiromo began to respond.
"I've heard of your organization's deeds and greatly admire your ideals. I'd like to bring my friend and join you."
Shiromo pointed at the Akatsuki cloak on [Konan].
Since Limited Tsukuyomi's Konan was openly wearing the Akatsuki cloak and appearing in Konoha, freely entering and leaving, it meant she had no intention of hiding at all.
So Shiromo went straight with this line.
He admired the Akatsuki's ideals, even though he didn't yet know what the Akatsuki's ideals in the Limited Tsukuyomi world actually were. Acknowledge them first, then talk.
He could slowly probe and draw them out afterward.
"Is that true?"
Hearing Shiromo say this, [Konan] looked slightly surprised. Even the paper shuriken in front of Shiromo stopped spinning.
"Absolutely. The two of us came to Konoha precisely to look for the Nine-Tails' jinchūriki."
Shiromo affirmed it and directly brought up the tailed beast.
If the Akatsuki in the Limited Tsukuyomi world had information on tailed beasts, mentioning it now would naturally lead into the topic.
If they didn't, then Shiromo had guessed wrong, which would also mean the Akatsuki had no tailed beast intel. In that case, there was no need to waste time. They would just leave.
By coincidence, Shiromo guessed right this time.
"The Nine-Tails? You're planning to act directly in Konoha? I didn't expect your resolve to be even stronger than ours. You're actually this impulsive."
[Konan] slowly walked up to Shiromo, pinched the paper shuriken, and turned it into a white rose, which she tucked into Shiromo's clothing.
Then [Konan] walked past Shiromo, took a few more steps, slightly raised her head to look at the sky, and let out a sigh.
And then, she spoke of the Akatsuki's ideals in the Limited Tsukuyomi world…
"Yes. Our Akatsuki's ideal is to exterminate all 'furry-lovers' in this world. And the most crucial targets are the source of all evil—the nine tailed beasts."
"The nine tailed beasts are the root cause that opened the era of the Five Great Nations and unleashed sin upon the ninja world."
"What our Akatsuki must do is capture the nine tailed beasts, slaughter them together, and completely eliminate these nine burning furries."
Limited Tsukuyomi's Konan looked up at the sky and solemnly, earnestly delivered this speech.
This completely stunned Konan as a spectator.
"This isn't me. This is absolutely not me!"
Normally taciturn, Konan hurriedly spoke up to explain herself in the face of the increasingly strange looks from those around her.
"What I'm actually more curious about is how Shiromo is still managing not to laugh."
Fū was extremely puzzled by Shiromo below, who was still maintaining a perfectly serious expression.
Below.
Shiromo, wearing an expression of "I completely understand", walked to Konan's side.
"That's right. In fact, Hikari and I are also extreme anti-furry advocates. Although she comes from the Uchiha clan, the one she hates the most is Uchiha Madara, who once used the Sharingan to control the burning-furry Nine-Tails."
"It was precisely because of this hatred that we decided to come to Konoha first and execute the Nine-Tails."
"The Uchiha clan?"
[Konan] froze upon hearing this and looked toward Uchiha Hikari: "I've heard that once the Uchiha clan's Sharingan reaches a certain level of ocular power, it can control tailed beasts?"
"Uh, yes."
Uchiha Hikari, still reeling from the shocking setting of this world's Akatsuki, subconsciously nodded.
"That's perfect. I was wondering how just the two of you dared to deal with the Nine-Tails. If you have the Sharingan, that makes things much easier."
"In that case, I'll lure out the Nine-Tails' jinchūriki, and you control the Nine-Tails and have it directly…"
"Commit suicide and ascend?"
"Exactly!"
"..."
The corner of Shiromo's mouth twitched as he thought of a problem: "Doesn't your organization have someone called Uchiha Itachi? He also has the Mangekyō Sharingan. Why did you only think of this now, after meeting Hikari?"
(End of this chapter)