Chapter 55: Akatsuki's Decision, Naruto's Request
"Oh?"
The moment those words left his mouth, every single Akatsuki member turned their heads to look.
Uchiha Itachi narrowed his eyes slightly, carefully concealing the unfriendly glint within them.
He too had already analyzed that this organization might have originated from Konoha.
But he wasn't going to say it.
First, because the possibility wasn't actually that high.
Second… that was the village he still deeply loved.
What if the Akatsuki ended up destroying it because of this?
"How do you figure?"
Pain asked slowly, his voice calm.
"Sasori, explain your analysis."
"We can analyze it based on the Black-Robed Organization's actions so far," Sasori replied in that low, hoarse, artificial voice of his.
"The Black-Robed Organization's first operation happened during the Chūnin Exams in Konoha.
The member they dispatched was someone from the Uzumaki clan.
According to our investigation, the girl's original name is Karin.
After the Uzumaki country was destroyed, she wandered with her mother, eventually settling in Kusagakure.
Later, after her mother died, she participated in Kusagakure's Chūnin selection exam and came to Konoha.
Then, overnight, her strength improved dramatically.
She continued hiding her true power and participated in the Chūnin Exams.
Finally, during the exams, she fought Orochimaru head-on in order to protect Uchiha Sasuke.
From this incident, we can infer one thing:
The root cause of all these changes… lies within Konoha Village!
And not long ago, another major event occurred in Konoha.
The Hyūga clan's eldest daughter, Hyūga Hinata, experienced an enormous increase in strength within an extremely short period of time.
Very strange.
The situation is quite similar to Karin's.
And the person responsible for this change… was named Byakuya.
Therefore,
I suspect that Karin's sudden growth was also caused by Byakuya.
Byakuya.
Currently twelve years old.
Both parents were ordinary Konoha shinobi.
His father was a Special Jōnin, his mother a Chūnin.
Both died on missions.
Since childhood, Byakuya has been exceptionally outstanding.
Always ranked first in the Academy.
His strength is remarkable.
Based on my deduction,
he was very likely scouted by the Black-Robed Organization and selected to become one of their core operatives."
After hearing Sasori's logical and well-supported analysis, the entire room fell into silence.
Then, the discussion slowly began.
"Hmm… when you put it that way, it really does sound plausible, yeah!"
Deidara broke into a wide grin.
"I wanna go test this Byakuya guy myself!
Just one explosion and we'll know everything!
Yeah!"
"Konoha Village, huh…"
Kakuzu slowly lifted his head.
He was reminded of a certain legendary man.
"Hmph… boring."
"Someone like that would make a wonderful sacrifice to God~"
Hidan spread both arms wide and laughed.
"I think I'll go play in Konoha for a bit~"
"Your analysis is indeed very reasonable,"
Itachi spoke slowly, his voice calm.
"But… it is not accurate."
"Indeed, it's not accurate.
I'm not certain whether my guess is correct either.
After all, the intelligence we have is too scarce."
Sasori turned his head toward Hidan and Kakuzu.
"But we can test it out and gather some information.
Trying won't cost us anything anyway."
"Testing Byakuya will be put on hold for now,"
Pain said slowly.
"For the time being, our priority is gathering intelligence.
After all…
Our ultimate goal is to collect the tailed beasts and start the war.
We cannot afford to expose the organization ahead of schedule.
If we go to Konoha to probe, there's a high chance we'll reveal ourselves prematurely.
Moreover…
The appearance of this Black-Robed Organization isn't necessarily a bad thing.
We can pin certain actions we've taken — actions we cannot be linked to — onto them.
As long as this Black-Robed Organization does not interfere with our grand plan,
we can simply ignore them.
Once we have collected all the tailed beasts, no matter how powerful that organization might be, they won't be able to cause any real trouble against us."
"Makes sense…"
Black Zetsu listened silently.
In truth, his feelings toward the Black-Robed Organization were extremely complicated.
On one hand, he wanted to communicate properly with them, to see whether they shared the same goal as him.
On the other hand, he wanted to quickly destroy them, eliminating any possible variables that might appear during the execution of his grand plan.
"Truly troubling…"
The discussion soon came to an end.
The final decision:
Zetsu would be responsible for closely monitoring Konoha Village.
And especially monitoring Byakuya.
...
While the Akatsuki began preparing to fully surveil Byakuya,
Byakuya himself used the Flying Thunder God Technique and arrived directly at Tanzaku Street.
Right beside Naruto.
But the moment he appeared, a sharp scream rang out from nearby.
"KYAAAAA!!"
The corner of Byakuya's mouth twitched.
Of course he knew exactly who that screaming person was — Naruto's mother, Uzumaki Kushina.
Onee-san, is it really necessary…?
Have you seriously never seen the Flying Thunder God Technique before?
Byakuya silently grumbled inside his heart.
"Byakuya!"
Meanwhile, Naruto was extremely excited.
And extremely curious.
"How did you suddenly appear like that!?
Hahaha!
That kunai you gave me really is amazing!
The moment I poured some chakra into it, you just popped right here!
So cool!
Is this some kind of special summoning technique?
Like the toad summoning jutsu that the Pervy Sage taught me!?
I remember during the Chūnin Exams,
we also summoned Iruka-sensei with a scroll!"
"It's not a summoning technique. This is a space-time ninjutsu I came up with myself~"
Byakuya said with a smile.
He deliberately did not say it was the Flying Thunder God Technique.
After all, he never had the right to access the Second Hokage's ninjutsu archives.
So theoretically… he shouldn't know this technique.
"You came up with it yourself!?"
Kushina stared at Byakuya in utter shock.
Right after she spoke, she gave an awkward little laugh.
Because she suddenly realized how overly dramatic her reaction had been.
Screaming like that just because someone appeared using Flying Thunder God…
It was seriously embarrassing.
Of course, the real reason was that she had been too absorbed in reminiscing about the past,
so Byakuya's sudden appearance had genuinely startled her.
"I never would've thought you'd have such talent in ninjutsu.
This is way more impressive than Kakashi back in the day!"
After a brief moment of embarrassment, Kushina quickly recovered and looked at Byakuya with genuine admiration.
"This space-time ninjutsu of yours… it's very similar to the Second Hokage's Flying Thunder God Technique~
Could you tell me the hand seals?"
"Of course I can.
But… hold on just a moment."
Byakuya nodded, then turned to look at Naruto.
"Naruto, why did you call me here?"
"Uh…"
Naruto scratched the back of his head sheepishly.
"Actually… we ran into a problem…
Granny Tsunade just refuses to come back to Konoha and become Hokage no matter what.
I wanted to ask if you had any good ideas…"
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