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"Damn it, this is bad! Is anyone following us?" A Hidden Stone ninja, clutching a bloodied arm, cast a frantic look over his shoulder. Behind them lay only the oppressive silence of the forest, with no visible sign of pursuit.
However, in the world of shinobi, the naked eye was a treacherous judge of safety. If the enemy was a professional, they could be standing ten feet away, hidden by a veil of chakra or a simple camouflage jutsu. To navigate such a situation safely, a Sensory Ninja was an absolute necessity.
Their reconnaissance squad had started with six members. They had been tasked with infiltrating the Hidden Cloud Village, but the mission had spiraled into disaster. They were detected and ambushed by a Cloud strike team. In the end, four of their comrades had sacrificed their lives in a desperate rearguard action, buying just enough time for the final two to break the encirclement.
"Nothing," the accompanying Sensory Ninja replied. He was in no better shape; blood seeped through his fingers as he pressed against a jagged gash in his side. His face was pale from the exertion of maintaining his detection field while losing blood.
"Keep moving. We have to get this intelligence to the Tsuchikage..."
Without another word, the two survivors plunged deeper into the dense foliage, their breathing heavy and ragged as they pushed toward the border.
High above the forest floor, perched on the thick branch of an ancient tree, two figures clad in black cloaks adorned with red clouds watched the retreating ninjas. Their expressions were a study in contrast.
"You're just going to let them go?" the red-haired young man asked, his voice tinged with a rasping, mechanical edge.
"Don't you think that a pile of bodies on both the Stone and Cloud sides will make the conflict between them burn much hotter?" the black-haired youth countered. His eyes, though weary, held a depth of cold calculation.
"And what about Jiraiya?" the red-haired youth, Sasori, asked. "He's sniffing around. What do we do about him?"
"I have no desire to fight him," Itachi Uchiha replied simply.
"Itachi! Watch your attitude!" Sasori's temper flared. He was already on edge. "If it wasn't for Pain's insistence on taking you back in, I wouldn't be caught dead partnered with you. You're a liability. If it weren't for you and your messy baggage, my original partner wouldn't have deserted!"
"I apologize," Itachi said, his voice level and devoid of irritation.
Faced with Sasori's interrogation, Itachi remained stoic. If there was anyone in the Akatsuki he considered "reliable," it was the man known as Yoshida Shin—or rather, Asachi Midorima. Midorima had quietly extracted Sasuke and brought him back to the Leaf, fulfilling the promise he had made.
Itachi knew very little about the man's true identity or ultimate goals, but his intuition told him that Midorima was a reservoir of deep secrets. However, since the successful rescue of Sasuke, Midorima had vanished from the Akatsuki's radar entirely, leaving a vacuum in the organization's power structure.
"What good is an apology?" Sasori muttered, his brow furrowed in annoyance.
While the loss of Midorima was a blow to the Akatsuki's strength, Sasori didn't exactly miss the man. Living with Midorima had been a constant exercise in frustration; the man had a penchant for "accidental" large-scale attacks that often caught Sasori in the crossfire.
But what truly bothered Sasori was the political fallout within the organization. He was the one who had recruited Midorima. Now that Midorima had essentially defected because of the chaos surrounding Itachi, Sasori, as the "introducer," felt the weight of the blame. He had spent days worrying about his standing until Pain finally reassigned Itachi to him.
The situation was absurd. Either both of them should have stayed, and the "betrayal" would be forgotten, or neither should have come back, making the next meeting a simple matter of life and death. Having only one return made the hierarchy feel unbalanced.
"By the way," Sasori asked, looking at Itachi out of the corner of his eye, "why did Pain agree to let you back into the fold so easily?"
"Because of the blood shed..." Itachi took a deep breath, the image of his final encounter with Kimimaro flashing through his mind.
"You've locked Sasuke away. Tell me, who was the one who rescued him?"
Itachi could still see the smirk on Kimimaro's face—a cold, mocking expression of contempt for the Leaf's internal failures. Itachi respected Kimimaro's resolve; he was a warrior who had stayed true to his path until the end. In a moment of silent tribute, under the watchful, judging eye of Uchiha Madara—or the man claiming to be him—Itachi had placed his forehead protector on Kimimaro's corpse.
It was a symbolic gesture, a way of telling the man in the mask that his ties to the Hidden Leaf were severed once and for all. He was now a rogue in truth as well as title.
"Hmph. Don't answer if you don't want to," Sasori sneered.
Suddenly, a pale, white figure coalesced from the bark of the tree behind them. White Zetsu's head emerged, his voice high and mocking. "Gentlemen, it's time for the meeting."
The two exchanged a glance, leaped from the branch, and sprinted toward a nearby mountain. Sasori stood with his back to Itachi, scanning the horizon for any hidden pursuers, while Itachi began to weave a series of intricate hand signs against the rock face.
A seam appeared in the seemingly solid stone. Itachi stepped into the fissure first, with Sasori following close behind. As soon as they were inside, the mountain rumbled softly, and the crack vanished, leaving the hillside looking as undisturbed as it had for centuries.
The interior was a cavernous hall, dominated by the looming, skeletal silhouette of the Gedo Mazo statue. Around the base of the statue, the flickering, translucent projections of four other members took shape.
"What is the status of the Hidden Cloud?" the voice of Pain echoed through the chamber.
"Everything is proceeding normally," Itachi reported.
"And the Hidden Stone?"
"Their reconnaissance unit was ambushed and surrounded," Sasori answered. "We intervened from the shadows to ensure a few survivors escaped. Once they return to their village, they will undoubtedly escalate their operations against the Cloud. Aside from the local ninjas, we also spotted Jiraiya in the area. Do we move against him?"
"Jiraiya? No..." Pain replied. "You followed the plan and refrained from capturing the Two-Tails, correct?"
"We did," Sasori said, though his voice betrayed his confusion. "After Yugito Nii died, the Tailed Beast dispersed. We had a window to seal it, but we let it go. I still don't understand. Our goal is the collection of the Tailed Beasts. Why pass up a perfect opportunity?"
"We are not yet in a position to wage an open war against all five Great Shinobi Nations simultaneously," Pain explained, his Rinnegan glowing faintly in the dark. "We must bleed them first. If the world realized the Akatsuki had abducted the Two-Tails, it would force the villages into a defensive alliance. They would unite against us, and even with our power, that would be a grueling conflict. Instead, we use this 'unfortunate accident' to stoke the fires of hatred. We want the Great Nations to tear each other apart. If we can trigger a Fourth Great Shinobi War, the chaos will provide the perfect cover to harvest the Tailed Beasts at our leisure."
Konan stepped forward into the light of the projection, her voice calm and analytical. "As for Jiraiya, he will find nothing here that points to us. When he returns to the Leaf and reports to the Hokage, no one will link the death of the Two-Tails' Jinchuriki to the Akatsuki. They will see it as a tragic conflict born of 'misunderstandings' and old grudges. Our task is to weave these 'coincidences' into a web of war, leaving the villages too preoccupied with their own survival to notice our true movements."
"Will the Hidden Leaf truly fall for such a transparent ruse?" Itachi asked.
"Whether they believe it or not is irrelevant," Pain said, looking between Itachi and Sasori. "As long as their suspicion is directed elsewhere, our goal is met. I will assign the Stone and Cloud matters to others. You two are to depart immediately for the Hidden Sand... Sasori, you are familiar with that territory, aren't you?"
"Is the target Shukaku?" Sasori asked.
"You will receive your final instructions upon arrival," Pain said. With those words, the Astral Projection Jutsu flickered and died. The mountain cave plunged back into absolute darkness.
"Let's move," Sasori said. "Target: the Hidden Sand."
Itachi nodded, though his heart was far from at peace. He knew that very soon, the sands of the desert would be stained red.
In a separate, hidden location, Pain ended the technique and turned to face the masked man known as Obito and the shark-like Kisame Hoshigaki.
"Is Itachi truly reliable this time?" Pain asked.
"Before, he lacked a reason to truly abandon the Leaf," Obito replied, his voice deep and rasping. "But this time is different. He has burned his bridges. There is no home for him to return to."
"What is the next phase?" Konan asked. "Do we strike at the Heart of the Fire?"
"No," Obito said, a cold light glinting behind his mask. "The Leaf is too complex, too many variables. We leave them alone for now. If we can secure the other Tailed Beasts, the Leaf will fall like a rotten fruit. Our next objective is to draw the Hidden Sand into the fray... alongside the Hidden Mist. We will lock them into a struggle unto death."
"Is that necessary?" Pain asked. "I thought the Hidden Mist was already under your control?"
"I controlled the Third and Fourth Mizukage," Obito admitted, "but a resistance force is growing within the village, a faction that wants to end the era of the 'Bloody Mist.' I intend to travel to the Mist personally to crush this rebellion once and for all."