The time spent as a guest in the Cloud Village lasted only three days. After signing in three times and obtaining the items he needed relatively more, Lexon chose not to continue "shearing the sheep" and left directly with Kakuzu.
Staying in the Cloud Village to sign in further would only yield items that provided no boost to his strength.
Currently, Lexon's strength had faintly reached a certain limit. Signing in for miscellaneous items would only accumulate "quantity" but would make it difficult to achieve a "qualitative" transformation.
Of course, this didn't mean that the accumulation of "quantity" was useless. It was just that the power increase from accumulating "quantity" was obviously not as significant as before; it was much smaller, and the time required for that "quantity" to take effect would be longer.
What he could focus on now was the Tailed Beast chakra. If he could sign in for all the Tailed Beast chakra, he might be able to converge it into becoming the Ten-Tails Jinchuriki, achieving a "qualitative" leap and becoming an existence at the Six Paths level.
Aside from that, things like the Eight Inner Gates and the Tenseigan would also have significant effects.
Upon leaving the Cloud Village, the Fourth Raikage, Ay, openly thanked Lexon for sparing his brother, Killer B, and swore an oath that the Cloud Village would never go to war with Lexon in the future.
Kakuzu, who had been by his side, had also figured out what was going on with Uchiha Lexon over these past few days.
This guy...
He had actually let the Jinchuriki run away on purpose.
But even knowing this, Kakuzu merely watched his nose and his heart, pretending to know nothing.
The reason, of course, was out of gratitude to Uchiha Lexon for saving his life twice...
And not for some boring reason like being afraid the other party would suddenly instantly kill him...
This time, Lexon and Kakuzu's "Tailed Beast Capture Plan" was considered a failure.
They had gone to Mount Heluo in the Land of Lightning, fought two Jinchuriki, and in the end, accomplished nothing. Not a single beast was captured successfully, and the identity of "Akatsuki" was revealed.
Although the Fourth Raikage, Ay, explicitly stated he would try his best to block news of the "Akatsuki" organization regarding this incident, vague information would inevitably leak out.
However, the one good thing was... all this blame... could be dumped onto Uchiha Itachi and Kisame Hoshigaki.
After all, their intelligence had lost its timeliness and they hadn't notified anyone in time, leading to this situation.
It took them two and a half days to return to the Hidden Rain Village.
"The 'Tailed Beast Capture Plan' is temporarily terminated." Tendo Pain spoke expressionlessly, his emotions unreadable. "Since the news leaked, the Ninja World is already speculating that we have some malicious intent. This has had a certain negative impact on our interventions in wars between nations; some countries and organizations are already refusing to hire us..."
"The focus of 'Akatsuki's' development is still on this point right now. The time to thoroughly begin capturing Tailed Beasts has not yet arrived. So, let's leave it at this for the time being."
Tendo Pain spoke slowly.
"Alright," Lexon agreed easily.
"Okay," Kakuzu also responded.
"Your pair will continue to do what you were supposed to do before," Tendo Pain said.
His meaning was obvious: he wanted Kakuzu to make money for the organization.
"Okay..." Lexon and Kakuzu replied in unison.
"By the way, Kakuzu..." Tendo Pain's gaze fell upon Kakuzu, his look faintly sharp. "In this incident, did anything noteworthy happen?"
"No." Under the dual gaze of Lexon and Tendo Pain, Kakuzu shook his head firmly.
"Uchiha Lexon... what do you think?" Tendo Pain turned to look at Lexon. "Was there anything noteworthy?"
Whether it was an illusion or not, Lexon faintly felt the other party's gaze carried a sense of scrutiny and wariness.
Does he know something?
Lexon thought to himself.
Did Zetsu pass on some intelligence...
He thought of the intelligence officer of the "Akatsuki" organization who could travel through the ground.
"Uchiha Itachi," Lexon smiled and spat out a name. "With Itachi's ability and intellect, he shouldn't have been discovered, and he certainly shouldn't have let the intelligence lag behind. So, there must be a problem with him."
[Pure Heart] activated.
"Uchiha Itachi, is it..." Tendo Pain mused slightly.
In this incident, he also harbored some suspicions about whether Uchiha Itachi had deliberately delayed the intelligence to frame the other "Tailed Beast Capture Team" consisting of Lexon and Kakuzu.
Combining Uchiha Itachi's motives for joining "Akatsuki" with some of his behaviors... and the slightly reasonable speculative words spoken by his fellow clansman, Uchiha Lexon.
He faintly felt that Uchiha Itachi might indeed be a problem.
"I understand," Tendo Pain nodded coldly. "You may go."
"Then... before we go, a handshake?" Lexon said.
However, Tendo Pain shook his head and said indifferently, "We have shaken hands enough."
Sure enough, he knows something...
Lexon didn't mind too much. Tendo Pain had already been freeloaded by him to the limit anyway; there was nothing precious left on him.
Subsequently, he left with Kakuzu, one following the other.
"He let the Eight-Tails Jinchuriki go..." After Lexon and his partner left, sheets of white paper flew into the factory, converging into the form of Konan, who spoke in a clear, cold voice.
"I know," Pain nodded.
"Nagato, I think we should deal with him directly." Konan's gaze was somewhat cold.
Tendo Pain, controlled by Nagato, shook his head slightly and said, "He won't hinder our plans for now."
"But he might in the future..."
"Just as I said before, he can get things done."
"But he let the Eight-Tails Jinchuriki go," Konan retorted.
"It would have been more troublesome if he hadn't let him go," Tendo Pain said. "Now is not the time to drive the Great Ninja Villages into a frenzy... As for the man Uchiha Lexon, I will find a way to deal with him when the time comes."
"I hope so..." Konan said nothing more, turning into white paper and flying out the window.
...
Meanwhile, on Lexon's side.
On his way back to his room, he encountered an unexpected person.
Dressed in the black robe with red clouds of the "Akatsuki," with long black hair, golden vertical slit pupils, purple eye markings extending to the nose, pale skin, and wearing blue magatama-shaped earrings.
The newcomer looked at Lexon, extended a long tongue, and licked the corner of his mouth, his gaze carrying an inexplicable meaning.
A name sprang to Lexon's mind.
Orochimaru.
[Reviews - Power St0nes - Comments are highly appreciated to keep me going.....(+50 chapters) patre0n.c0m/talecrafter]