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"With this, the two-person teams are finalized. Proceed with your respective missions. Kagaya and Haku, remain."
Following these words from Pain, the Akatsuki members gradually dispersed. Finally, only Pain, Konan, Kagaya, and Haku remained.
Kagaya knew it—the main event he had anticipated had arrived!
"Kagaya, I have a mission for you."
Sure enough, after the other Akatsuki members left, Pain's first words were to assign a mission specifically to Kagaya.
Kagaya had already anticipated this scene. Unmoved, he spoke calmly.
"What is the mission?"
Pain's lips moved, uttering the mission he intended to assign to Kagaya.
Upon hearing it, Kagaya's eyes widened, his face full of disbelief.
"Are you certain?"
*****
Half a month later.
On a road.
"Never thought I'd become partners with you."
"I was about to say the same."
Kakuzu shot a sidelong glance at Hidan.
"Don't annoy me, or I'll kill you."
Hidan scoffed.
"Go ahead and try, then."
"I don't want your heart."
******
In a snowy field.
Kisame and Itachi walked, neither speaking, creating an atmosphere of quiet tranquility.
Halfway through, Itachi suddenly stopped, turned his head, and glanced into the distance, lost in thought. Perhaps the snow had triggered some memory.
Turning his head back, Itachi took a step forward, following Kisame, and continued on.
Izumi followed obediently behind Itachi, her small face red from the cold.
*****
Beside a grove of cherry blossom trees.
Deidara looked at a building in the distance.
"Art is an explosion!"
As the word "explosion" left his lips, the distant building violently exploded.
Deidara wrapped his arms around himself and sighed in rapture.
"Ah, it's art."
Sasori closed his eyes and muttered helplessly.
"I don't really understand your art."
"It's the beauty of the fleeting moment. You should try to understand it too, old man."
*****
Near Konohagakure.
Kagaya reached out, slightly lifting his straw hat, looking at the village in the distance.
'Back in this place again... But should I make a move against you? Naruto.'
Memories from half a month ago surfaced.
At that time, Pain had said this to Kagaya:
"Infiltrate Konoha and capture the Nine-Tails Jinchūriki!"
Kagaya: "Are you certain?"
Pain: "Certain."
Kagaya: "But didn't we agree before to only gather intelligence, not capture? Why the sudden change to capture?"
Pain: "You and Konoha's Nine-Tails Jinchūriki were in the same graduating class, weren't you? In that case, you should know each other. Since you're acquainted, capturing him should be much easier, or so I think. Moreover, capturing Konoha's Jinchūriki would greatly weaken Konoha's strength. In the future, when the Akatsuki assists you in invading Konoha, it will be much easier, won't it?"
Kagaya: "..."
Pain: "Go. Even if you cannot capture the Nine-Tails Jinchūriki, it's fine. Just weaken Konoha's strength to some extent."
That was the content of the conversation between Kagaya and Pain at the time.
The Nine-Tails was undoubtedly the strongest of the nine Tailed Beasts. Pain wanted to use Kagaya to capture the strongest Tailed Beast with minimal effort.
However, Kagaya never expected Pain to order him to capture the Nine-Tails this early. It was utterly illogical. Even if the Nine-Tails were to be captured, it should be the last Tailed Beast captured.
If they captured the Nine-Tails first, it would be useless because the Tailed Beasts must be sealed in order, from the One-Tail to the Nine-Tails.
Why did Pain want him to capture the Nine-Tails now?
This matter had only been disclosed to Kagaya and Haku. Within the entire Akatsuki, aside from Pain and Kagaya's group, no one else knew about Kagaya's mission.
Why hide this mission? At a glance, it served two purposes: testing and precaution.
Testing Kagaya's hatred for Konoha, and guarding against Itachi's intervention.
If Kagaya captured the Nine-Tails Jinchūriki, any possibility of reconciliation with Konoha would be lost forever. Kagaya, of course, had no need for reconciliation with Konoha. The problem was... the Nine-Tails Jinchūriki was Naruto...
As for Itachi, not informing the others about this mission was likely also to prevent Itachi from interfering.
Of course, for Kagaya, none of this really mattered. He had never intended to reconcile with Konoha from the beginning—at least, not before Danzō's death.
For Kagaya, the biggest question was whether to make a move against Naruto?
And what was the fundamental reason for Pain ordering him to capture the Nine-Tails so early? It couldn't possibly be as simple as making him incur Konoha's undying hatred.
Furthermore, to be honest, with Kagaya's current strength, attempting to capture the Nine-Tails had an 80% chance of failure. Konoha was, after all, the Number One Shinobi Village. For Kagaya to try and oppose Konoha alone right now was wishful thinking. Pain should know this as well. So, why still send him to capture the Nine-Tails?
"Kagaya, you're in pain, aren't you?"
Haku looked at Kagaya with concern.
Kagaya slightly relaxed his furrowed brows and shook his head.
"I wouldn't call it pain. It's just... I'm suddenly unsure of what to do."
That guy Naruto... back in the Ninja Academy, because Kagaya was the only one who didn't look down on Naruto, the two had always been on good terms. Although Naruto was always clamoring about defeating Kagaya, that was just Naruto's way of expressing closeness.
However, later, after awakening his Sharingan, Kagaya began to distance himself from Naruto. He was truly afraid during that period; he didn't dare to make friends.
Then, before he could emerge from the shadow of his comrades' deaths, his parents suffered their fate. After that, Kagaya's heart closed off completely. He actively distanced himself from Naruto and Sasuke. Later, Shisui's death led to Kagaya directly defecting from Konoha. From that moment on, he had no further contact with Naruto or Sasuke.
Afterwards, even when he infiltrated Konoha, he only dared to watch his former friends from afar. From beginning to end, Kagaya never made contact with them. He had become a "coward," no longer daring to open his heart to anyone. Even later with Izumi, Kagaya only actively interacted with her when saving her; other times, he wouldn't initiate contact.
After Shisui's death, Kagaya's world turned grey. It wasn't until he met Haku in Kirigakure that a little color returned to his world. Then, after obtaining the "Impure World Reincarnation," the colors in his world became more vibrant.
Now, honestly, in his heart, Kagaya leaned more towards capturing Naruto. Even if it meant extracting the Tailed Beast and killing Naruto, he wanted to weaken Konoha. But deep down, a voice kept telling him he couldn't do that.
'Why? Why can't I do it? For Konoha? No, absolutely not. I hold not an ounce of goodwill towards the current Konoha. Then is it for Naruto? Do I not want to make a move against Naruto?'
Kagaya lifted his head, looking at the sky. Suddenly, he remembered something.
'That's right, now that I think about it, the 'Complete Akatsuki' event should be finished.'
[The Death of Uchiha Shisui—Completed. The Night of the Uchiha Massacre—Completed. The Complete Akatsuki—Completed.]
The system's voice arrived as expected. Once again, Kagaya saw the starry sky. Three patterns floated among the stars.
The first two had been seen before. The third was no longer a silhouette but clearly depicted all the current members of the Akatsuki, though it didn't include Izumi or Haku.
[Completion of three major events unlocks the 'Seeking Bonds' function. Seeking Bonds currently allows you to return to the past to witness and change some of the bonds you have missed.]
As the system spoke, the appearance of the starry sky began to change. The image for [Events] slowly faded away, replaced by another image.
[The first bond to seek: The Genius Acknowledged by Others and the Deadlast Acknowledged by the Genius.]
It was a picture: a young Kagaya and a young Naruto facing each other, forming the seal of confrontation.