Jiraiya said, "Tsunade, I'm entrusting the village to you for this period. Satoshi and I are going to the Land of Rain."
Tsunade felt like she had been tricked. She had agreed to not be Hokage, but it turned out she wasn't Hokage in name only, right?
That Jiraiya fellow, it seemed, besides peeping and writing smut, actually had a few tricks up his sleeve.
Since things had come to this, Tsunade had no choice but to agree.
"Be careful."
Jiraiya grinned. "Don't worry, I'll definitely... Wuwuwu, Satoshi, why are you covering my mouth?!"
After leaving the office, Jiraiya and Satoshi went their separate ways, to rest for a night before setting off.
That evening, Satoshi gently wiped his swords at home.
After a good night's sleep and a hearty meal, he arrived at the village entrance to meet Jiraiya.
"Let's go."
A few days later.
Land of Rain.
Two white-haired figures, one in front of the other, quietly entered this land.
Gazing at the silhouette of the huge village, faintly visible in the rain and mist, Jiraiya stopped.
He turned his head to look at Satoshi, who was holding a large black umbrella behind him and asked, "Satoshi, how about you wait for me here?"
Jiraiya was a little hesitant, not because he was worried Satoshi would encounter any danger.
Just as he said, he himself was very good at running away.
What Jiraiya was worried about was that the moment Satoshi saw an Akatsuki member, he would chop them to death with a single strike, not even giving them a chance to argue.
After all, Jiraiya still held a faint glimmer of hope in his heart.
He wanted to ask Konan and Nagato, what exactly had happened over the years to bring them to this point?
What if they could still turn back?
"What's wrong?" Satoshi raised the umbrella in his hand. "Do you have a better plan?"
Jiraiya pondered for a moment and said, "Moving together, two people make too big a target, and the risk of exposure will also increase."
Satoshi thought for a moment and said, "If they discover us, wouldn't it be better to just kill them all? After all, our original goal is to completely eradicate the dangerous Akatsuki."
"But what you said also makes some sense. How about you wait for me here, and I'll come pick you up after I've finished killing them?"
"..."
This was exactly what Jiraiya was afraid of.
This student of his was too radical, which made him a little scared.
Jiraiya sighed, and finally expressed his thoughts, "Speaking of which, Konan is your senpai, so when you see them, can you let me ask a few questions first?"
Satoshi nodded. "No problem. Let's go, Jiraiya. I've been here once before and have already memorized the layout."
As his voice fell, Satoshi's figure was the first to disappear into the rain. He led Jiraiya silently through the dark alleys. Relying on his powerful perception ability, he easily avoided the patrolling ninjas.
Jiraiya asked curiously, "How did you get in last time?"
"I summoned the Great Toad Sage and asked him to send me in. How about we trouble him again?"
Jiraiya's face turned pale. "No, no, we can handle these small matters ourselves. He's an old man, let's not bother him."
"Oh. Follow me, there's a shortcut here..."
The two figures moved quickly, stealthily heading towards the core of Akatsuki's base.
Meanwhile, deep within the base.
Paper gathered, and Konan's figure silently appeared before Pain.
Her voice was low. "Pain, that Uchiha brat is here again. This time, he brought Jiraiya-sensei."
Pain still maintained his cold demeanor. "This time, they're coming for us."
He understood Jiraiya too well. Outwardly carefree, but sometimes terrifyingly stubborn. His arrival in Amegakure today was probably with a resolve to admonish, or even to end things.
Before Yahiko's death, he too had believed in the possibility of peace. But that faith had long been devoured by endless pain and despair.
He had personally buried the past, and now, he wanted the whole world to taste this profound agony.
Konan was silent for a moment, then asked softly, "Are we going to be enemies with Jiraiya-sensei?"
Pain did not hesitate. "This time, no one can stop my plan."
"I understand."
...
On the other side, Satoshi and Jiraiya arrived at Akatsuki's base.
Just like last time, the path was unobstructed, and it seemed no one had discovered their arrival.
"It's too quiet, something's not right." Jiraiya stopped, signaling Satoshi to be careful.
"Satoshi, be careful, I sense an ambush."
Satoshi didn't speak, he had already slowly drawn his blade. His Sharingan slowly rotated, its crimson glow illuminating the dim passage, locking onto the cold aura lurking in the shadows.
He mocked, "Come out, Akatsuki members. Your stealth skills are really mediocre. Do you want to consider going to Konoha's Academy to learn? I'll give you an eighty percent discount."
"Hmph! Arrogant brat!" A cold snort rang out.
Swoosh! Swoosh!
Two figures flashed out of the shadows, one after the other, completely blocking the passage.
One was tall and burly, with bluish skin, carrying a huge, strangely shaped blade wrapped in layers of white bandages on his back.
The other was a blond youth, with a playful smile on his face and a clay ninja tool pouch at his waist.
Jiraiya quickly glanced at Satoshi and asked, "Can you handle these two?"
"No problem, three minutes."
Jiraiya nodded. "Be careful."
With that, he leaped up, jumping over Kisame's head.
"Where are you running?"
Kisame had just raised Samehada when he was kicked away by Satoshi.
"You two are mine."
"Don't look down on me! You brat who doesn't understand art!" Deidara was instantly enraged, his cheeks flushed.
He plunged both hands into the ninja tool pouch at his waist with lightning speed.
The mouths that split open on his palms chewed wildly, instantly spitting out a dozen palm-sized white clay birds. The dozen clay birds, like arrows released from a bow, let out piercing screeches and pounced on Satoshi from different angles.
"Art is an explosion!"
Boom! Boom! Boom!
Deafening explosions instantly ripped through the base's tranquility, and shockwaves swept through the entire passage.
Hot air currents, carrying rubble and smoke, surged in all directions, and the steel walls were twisted and deformed by the blast.
Thick smoke billowed, obscuring vision.
"Tch, how boring." Deidara pouted.
"Indeed, it's not very interesting."
The smoke was dispersed by a stream of water that appeared out of nowhere.
Satoshi's figure slowly emerged from a rapidly spinning water vortex. The violent explosion was completely blocked by this precisely defended Water Release. Not even a single strand of hair was missing.
He casually dispersed the water vortex. "Can you stop playing these childish games? Do you think you're still a three-year-old toddler?"
"And these things are really ugly."
"Ugly? You dare insult my art!"
Deidara's face instantly turned from red to purple, veins bulging on his forehead, as if he had suffered a great humiliation.
Art was his lifelong belief and pursuit!
"I'll show you what true art is right now."
As his voice fell, Satoshi's figure instantly vanished.
The next second.
"Wh-what..."
Deidara felt his hair stand on end, a cold killing intent instantly pressed against his spine.
Satoshi appeared behind Deidara, his left hand having silently and precisely affixed an explosive tag, drawn with strange runes, to Deidara's back at some unknown point.
"This is true art."
Mutually Multiplying Explosive Tags Technique!
The explosive tag affixed to Deidara's back instantly erupted in blinding light. But this was just the beginning. Within the light, countless new explosive tags densely and wildly split from the first tag.
In the blink of an eye, tens of thousands of explosive tags completely enveloped Deidara.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
This explosion was far beyond what the previous clay birds could compare to.
Tens of thousands of explosive tags were detonated in chain reaction within the same confined space.
Blinding white light instantly swallowed everything in the passage.
The entire Akatsuki base trembled violently, and the incredibly sturdy steel structure emitted groans and cracking sounds under the unbearable stress.
This was a Ninjutsu with an extremely high upper limit. The only trouble was that explosive tags were a bit expensive, a single battle would cost a lot of money.
Satoshi only had six hundred million, so he had to use them sparingly. This time, ten thousand would suffice.
Under the firelight, Kisame's shark-like face showed a stunned expression for the first time. He instinctively took a step back, and the huge Samehada twisted restlessly.
That brat who always talked about art and loved to make noise... was he gone just like that?
Not even a decent resistance?
An S-rank rogue ninja, like a toy easily crushed in his hands?