"The Akatsuki is flourishing in the Land of Rain, which has made Hanzou wary."
Madara scoffed, not bothering to hide his scorn as he thought of their constant talk of "mutual understanding."
"With such a naive leader and ideals, their demise is their destiny."
"Haven't you always wanted more subordinates?"
"This is a good opportunity to set Nagato on the right path, so he can help us achieve the Infinite Tsukuyomi."
Jin's eyes moved almost imperceptibly.
Danzo is gone, yet the Akatsuki still has to go through this?
But that was normal; a tall tree catches the wind. Hanzou, as the leader of Hidden Rain Village, could not tolerate an organization with its own ideas that didn't follow orders existing right under his nose.
Getting rid of the Akatsuki before it gained too much power was the safer approach.
After giving a rough outline, Madara waved his hand to dismiss him: "White Zetsu will give you the specific intelligence. Go."
Jin turned to other rooms to find the root white zetsu, discovering it playing with Fuu, who could now run, jump, and speak fluently. The two carefree individuals seemed quite happy together.
"Oh! Jin, you're here!"
The root white zetsu ran over, holding Fuu up with both hands, showing him the plump child it had been feeding.
"Look how fat she is! She's been eating a lot lately. Black Zetsu keeps complaining that she's wasting food."
"Eh She's growing quite fast"
Jin grabbed Fuu as if she were a kitten, ruffled her fluffy green hair a couple of times, and taught her to say his name.
"From now on, you must call me 'Jin' sama, understood?"
"Ji, Ji-in… sama…?"
The two-year-old child could already speak fluently, but perhaps because White Zetsu wasn't a good teacher and Black Zetsu was too lazy to bother, Fuu's pronunciation was still a bit off.
"Ji-in sama!"
She tilted her head and repeated it, finding the handsome older brother in front of her particularly familiar. Her little mind naturally categorized him as someone close.
So she invited him to do her favorite thing: "Ea, eat… eat!"
Well, well, the first thing out of her mouth was about food. Would the dark-skinned hot girl from the original timeline be raised into a chubby girl by Black Zetsu and White Zetsu?
Jin had a look of utter exasperation, wondering if he should manage Fuu's figure in the future.
White Zetsu, meanwhile, was rattling off information.
"After the two trade routes built by Akatsuki opened, it took less than two months for Hanzou to seize control of them."
"Over the past two years, the Akatsuki's numbers have grown, and sometimes they don't obey his orders, refusing many missions, so he's super unhappy."
"Just now, Konoha and Sunagakure are at war, so he secretly made a deal with Konoha."
"If he can help deal with the Akatsuki, he will side with Konoha to jointly resist Sunagakure."
White Zetsu looked at him curiously and asked, "Jin, what are you going to do?"
"Since someone is taking the initiative, we'll just watch for now."
Looking at Fuu's trusting eyes, Jin mischievously tossed her gently into the air, then eased his grip and caught her steadily. The naturally brave Fuu not only didn't cry but burst into laughter.
"When the Akatsuki is at its wit's end, won't that idiot Nagato have to listen to whatever I say?"
"I know!" White Zetsu suddenly understood, slamming one fist into the palm of his other hand: "That's what you humans call 'killing with a borrowed knife,' right!"
"Oh, has the idiot been reading too? Not bad, not bad."
Jin tossed Fuu one more time, seemingly pleased with her unusually bold personality, and laughed maniacally: "Hurry up and grow up, little one When you're grown, catch Tailed Beasts for me"
"Chiwah!" Fuu giggled in her tender voice, calling out twice: "Catch, catch Tailed Beasts! Hehe!"
White Zetsu asked, "So, shall we leave now?"
"Yes, let's go."
Casually handing Fuu to another White Zetsu, Jin motioned for the root white zetsu to come with him.
"First, let's meet and lay the groundwork, and sound out Nagato's current thoughts."
...Everything the clone saw and felt was transmitted back to Naraku. Thinking of the vibrant "Akatsuki" from the original timeline perishing in the continuous rain, transforming into a world-destroying organization composed of rogue Ninja, he felt it was a bit regrettable.
But as Madara said, simply trying to stop all conflicts of interest and even great power wars through verbal communication is simply unrealistic.
Instead, Nagato's later approach of collecting Tailed Beasts to coerce the world into forced peace had a certain feasibility.
It just couldn't last very long.
Nagato, who summoned the Gedo Statue, was already at his limit. Even if the plan succeeded and the Ninja World submitted to his rule, as soon as he died, the suppressed conflicts would immediately erupt.
To achieve long-term peace, it still had to be… Naraku shook his head, temporarily casting aside this distant idea, and refocused on the matter at hand.
Now, the "Akatsuki" was destined to face disaster; he only needed to go with the flow.
However, Yahiko was a good person, so he could try to save him as much as possible, at least not let him die so completely that there was no hope of recovery.
As for the other members of the Akatsuki… he would act according to circumstances.
If they caused the plan to fail, it might even be necessary for Jin to personally eliminate them, just like in the original timeline.
Naraku leaned against the wooden table with his usual expression, staring blankly at the sleeping Itachi, his finger poking at the latter's slightly trembling ear tip, tracing its soft curve.
Deep down, Naraku believed that he was still a cold-hearted pleasure-seeker—he lacked Yahiko's benevolent and compassionate heart, and also Naruto's ambition to prevent all tragedies.
His narrow heart could at most accommodate the few people around him.
Beyond that, how many casualties there were, honestly, did he truly care? Was he willing to sacrifice his own interests and endanger those he cared about to actively change things?
He tugged at the corner of his mouth, realizing that he still couldn't lie to himself.
Yes, he didn't really care that much.
So, from the moment he created the "Jin" persona, he knew that he would eventually have to actively do bad things with this identity, and he had mentally prepared himself.
It was the same when he attacked the Yun Mu Clan, and when he raided Takigakure to seize the Jinchuriki.
Since he wanted to maintain the "Jin" identity and lurk beside Black Zetsu as a villain, he had to eliminate enemies who obstructed the Eye of the Moon Plan. His few bottom lines were only not to harm innocent civilians.
If any Ninja got in the way, then he would let them face their fate.
Itachi stirred in his sleep, letting out a vague whimper like a young animal. Naraku came back to his senses, knowing that this little lord was probably hungry and about to wake up.
"Formula, formula…"
He muttered, pulling open the drawer to find the can almost empty. It seemed he needed to hurry to the store to buy new ones.
Mikoto happened to be out that afternoon, so Naraku resignedly dressed Itachi, strapped him to his back with a baby carrier, and the two, one big and one small, went out to buy things together.
"Bro, bro…! …Hehe…"
Itachi was at the stage where everything was curious. He looked around from Naraku's back, occasionally letting out happy giggles.
"Flower!"
Seeing a dandelion by the roadside, he pointed at it. When Naraku picked it and handed it to him, he immediately grabbed the flower, excited as if he had a new toy.
Naraku looked back at him, asking gently, "Do you like flowers, Little Itachi?"
"Li…" Itachi stretched out his little arm, the dandelion petals in his hand brushing Naraku's cheek, "Like them!"
When Itachi grew up and became a cool, emotionless guy, who would believe he was this amusing as a child?
If only Naraku had a camera now, he would definitely put this embarrassing history on his wedding ceremony to show everyone…
"If only Naraku had a camera now, he would definitely put this embarrassing history on his wedding ceremony to show everyone…"