Uchiha Madara began to move, slowly walking past Pain toward the mouth of the cave.
"It's convincing, yes. But ultimately, meaningless."
"The balance between the Five Great Nations was never built to last. Otherwise, why would two more Shinobi World Wars have broken out after the First?"
"They've always mistrusted each other. All we have to do is wait for the right opportunity—for everything to go back to how it was."
Pain didn't turn around. "But our plan to gather the Tailed Beasts has been exposed. That's the core of the Akatsuki's third phase."
Madara slightly turned his head. "This rumor Danzo released—Iwagakure will certainly retaliate. And besides, the Tailed Beasts must be sealed in order, from One-Tail to Nine-Tails. If the order's off, the Demonic Statue may become unstable or even collapse."
"Plus, we still haven't located the Two-Tails, Six-Tails, or Eight-Tails. But you—just to test Deidara—you sent him and Sasori after the Five-Tails. And thanks to sheer coincidence, they ran into Jiraiya in the Land of Hot Water and failed."
"If you ask me, Jiraiya's involvement probably isn't unrelated to Orochimaru."
Pain finally turned to face him. "According to intel from Zetsu, there's no sign of Orochimaru in the Land of Hot Water."
Madara stepped out of the cave. "True, he hasn't been seen. But because of Jiraiya's involvement, I've uncovered some interesting leads."
"A few years ago, when Orochimaru was still in the organization, he went back to Konoha to strike a deal with Danzo. Then he intentionally exposed his location and fought with the Third Hokage. That incident is what led Konoha to assign Jiraiya the mission to track Orochimaru—and investigate Akatsuki."
"So, Jiraiya interfering with Deidara and Sasori's mission… might not be coincidence at all. It could very well have been set up by Orochimaru."
Pain's expression didn't change. "I've already sent Sasori and Deidara to investigate Orochimaru. He was never loyal to the Akatsuki anyway. This time, they won't fail."
Madara's figure slowly receded into the distance. After a long silence, his voice echoed faintly:
"Orochimaru's not that easy to deal with. Especially when it comes to staying alive—he's a master of survival."
A month passed in the blink of an eye.
For an entire month, the Land of Lightning and Land of Wind waited with barely disguised anticipation for Iwagakure and Konoha to go to war. They were so eager it was almost pathetic.
But what they got instead… was a statement of denial from Iwagakure.
In a joint declaration from both the Tsuchikage and the Land of Earth's Daimyō, they claimed that the alleged alliance between Iwa and the Akatsuki—and their plot to spark a war—was completely fabricated, a shameful smear campaign.
Iwagakure had always pursued peace, they insisted. They had never collaborated with Akatsuki, nor had they any intention of capturing all the Tailed Beasts to create a superweapon to dominate the world.
They also emphasized that Rōshi (Four-Tails) and Han (Five-Tails) had always served as special advisors to Iwa's Council of Elders. They had never betrayed the village, and Iwa would never abandon its own.
As for Deidara joining Akatsuki, they claimed it was entirely his personal decision as a rogue ninja, and pointed out that not all Akatsuki members are from Iwa.
They backed this up with intel showing that Sasori of the Red Sand, a genius puppeteer from Sunagakure, was also an Akatsuki member. It was Sasori who had ambushed Iwa's Five-Tails Jinchūriki in the Land of Hot Water.
(**Clarification: Sasori used a human puppet in the ambush—one that looked exactly like the Third Kazekage, and even wielded his Kekkei Genkai: Magnet Release – Iron Sand.)
The statement concluded with a strong warning: Iwagakure would not tolerate anyone attempting to tarnish their reputation with false accusations.
At Kumogakure, the Fourth Raikage burst out laughing.
"Hypocrite Ōnoki," he sneered—then promptly smashed through the newly rebuilt wall of his office.
A month ago, he had destroyed the office wall out of excitement when he first heard Iwa was going to war with Konoha.
This time, he did it out of rage—because he had lost his chance to avenge his father.
After calming down, the Raikage quickly dispatched infiltration units into both the Land of Fire and Land of Earth to gather intel.
Even if Iwa had backed down, that didn't mean Kumo couldn't seize the opportunity to capitalize.
At Sunagakure, the statement caused an uproar.
They didn't start wrecking buildings like the Raikage did, but the emotional blow was no less severe.
Because it confirmed something deeply unsettling—
The Third Kazekage, once considered the village's strongest Kage, had not just vanished.
He had been turned into a puppet by none other than Sasori, the very genius the village had once celebrated.
Back then, the Third Kazekage had mastered Magnet Release and created the powerful Iron Sand techniques.
Then he vanished.
At the same time, Sasori—praised as a genius puppeteer—also disappeared.
The village searched high and low for the Kazekage, but failed.
Internal chaos followed.
Other nations might have taken advantage if the Land of Wind had not been so poor—there was little profit in conquering a desert.
At that crucial moment, Iwa extended a hand, and with Kumo as an ally, they launched the Third Great Ninja War, both to snatch resources from the Land of Fire and to deflect attention from Suna's internal instability.
But in the end, Konoha won, and Suna never recovered.
Now the truth came out:
The strongest Kazekage had been killed and turned into a puppet by one of their own.
The current Kazekage, Rasa, immediately summoned Chiyo, Sasori's grandmother.
He demanded both a reasonable explanation and a public response.
Chiyo simply said she had long since stopped involving herself with Suna's affairs.
But she promised one thing:
"As long as I'm still breathing, I will personally bring Sasori back to the village."
Konoha
Naruto sat in his classroom, reviewing the latest Mirror World sync data.
First up—the Third Hokage, upon seeing Iwa's official statement, had called an emergency council meeting.
Despite the public denial, Konoha had already deployed reinforcements along nearby borders, and the council agreed it could still be a feint, so they decided not to withdraw troops for now.
Next, Naruto checked Itachi's memory feed. He and Kisame were currently traveling through the Land of Vegetables, doing bounty work.
He then opened Kabuto Yakushi's memory file.
Naruto really wanted to plant a Flying Thunder God seal on this tool of a man, but he hesitated—interfering now might trigger unpredictable changes.
He was still counting on Orochimaru's Konoha Crush plan to kick off eventually.
Orochimaru himself was holding a meeting.
While adapting to his new body, he showed zero interest in the war—or rather, the lack of one.
After reviewing Kabuto's latest intel on Sasuke, Orochimaru was very satisfied.
Such a pure and emotionally vulnerable Sasuke—he was sure the boy would never escape his grasp.
And now that Kabuto had betrayed Sasori, feeding him fake intel, the puppet master and Deidara were currently wasting time in the Land of Fields.
Orochimaru was already planning how to deal with them.
He was confident—his Reanimation Jutsu had nearly reached perfection.
After learning Sasori had turned the Third Kazekage into a puppet, Orochimaru even summoned the Kazekage right in front of his subordinates.
He said it was a "special gift" for his former partner.
Naruto skimmed through other data—
Kakashi had personally requested a transfer to the border near the Land of Grass.
For the first time, Naruto saw Asuma through Shikamaru's feed, but Asuma had been sent by the Third Hokage to "eat sand" in the Land of Wind.
Then Naruto's eyes lingered briefly on Hinata's icon, but after a moment's thought, he closed the window and teleported to Konoha's front gate.
Neither of the Tailed Beasts were present.
Looked like Kurama and Muō were fighting again.
Naruto opened Muō's feed—only to see a massive screen showing the Four-Tails slamming the ground repeatedly with his tails.
Confused, Naruto noticed that every time Muō's tails hit, Kakashi's silver-haired head popped up out of the ground nearby.
"This looks like… Whack-a-Mole?"
Naruto turned his head toward the newly appeared Kurama.
"You won again?"
"Would I ever lose?"
Kurama was in high spirits after his latest victory.
He chuckled as he watched Muō on the screen. "Hah! Looks like Muō's really pissed at that mop-head."
Naruto raised an eyebrow. "What happened?"
Kurama pointed at the screen. "During one of their matches, that mop-head used Lightning Release and actually cut off two of Muō's tails."
Ryūchi Cave
The White Snake Sage, now in the form of an elderly woman with orange hair and golden reptilian eyes, lay lazily on her throne, smoking.
Above her throne was a massive stone-carved dragon head, its mouth holding a scroll inscribed with: "Ryūchi Cave."
After a while, the White Snake Sage sat up and gave an order:
"Tianxin. Go warn Orochimaru—tell him to avoid those two from Akatsuki."
From the corner of the chamber, a girl emerged.
She had long green hair and wore a golden crown.
She was Tianxin Hime, one of Ryūchi Cave's top elders.
"My lady… Why warn Orochimaru of all people? Wouldn't it make more sense to send Manda instead?"
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