Chapter 336: We Have a Traitor Among Us!
Knock knock!
At the end of a desolate alley, the door of a rundown house was being knocked on.
However, although Kakuzu and his companion had been waiting there for quite a while, there still seemed to be no response from inside.
Standing at the doorway, they could see through the gaps in the wooden boards that the interior of the house was thick with cobwebs, a desolate scene that had not been cleaned in a long time. Occasionally, the cries of stray cats echoed from nearby.
Oyashiro En furrowed his brows as he surveyed the surroundings. He then cast an impatient glance at Kakuzu standing before him and said,
"Kakuzu-san, do you really believe that such a godforsaken place could be hiding the top-secret information of Yunming City?"
"I'm telling you, stop wasting time already."
For Oyashiro En, who had spent most of his twenty years in Hell Valley hunting birds with stones just to survive, "godforsaken" was already a particularly severe term.
And indeed, as Oyashiro En described, this stretch of street was so desolate that it hardly looked like anyone had lived here in ages.
Yet, hearing this, Kakuzu merely shot him a glance without responding, as if too lazy to engage.
Instead, he simply insisted on knocking once more on the rotting door.
Knock knock~
Just as the sound echoed, a black shadow suddenly leapt down from the rooftop.
"Honored guests, please follow me, nya~!"
Landing nimbly before them was an orange ninja cat wearing a red outer robe. Judging by its appearance, it was none other than Hinata, the ninja cat Uchiha Fugaku had once summoned.
At this moment, Ninja Cat Hina stood up on her hind legs before them and pointed toward a section of wall nearby. Then, with a light leap,
Whoosh! the wall rippled like water, and she disappeared into it.
At this, Kakuzu finally spoke in a flat tone:
"Let's go. The barrier's been opened."
"An illusion?"
"My Blood Dragon Eye couldn't even see through it?"
Seeing this scene, Oyashiro En was momentarily stunned, a look of surprise flashing in his eyes. He hurriedly followed Kakuzu into the wall.
With a single step forward, the scenery changed dramatically.
From a foul-smelling, abandoned street, they were now standing inside a vast, luxurious courtyard.
At the main gate, a young ninja clad in Uchiha attire stepped forward to greet them.
Though he appeared less than twenty years old, his eyes gleamed with a brilliant scarlet — the distinctive triple-tomoe Sharingan.
"Even the gatekeepers here have triple tomoe? Just what kind of monsters are hiding inside?"
Oyashiro En arched a brow, inwardly grumbling to himself.
Meanwhile, the Uchiha ninja approached and calmly introduced himself:
"My name is Uchiha Seijiro."
"After your discussion with the elders, if you need detailed information about the Land of Lightning, you can come to me."
After briefly introducing himself, Seijiro led the two of them toward a high hall deeper within the courtyard.
Passing through the long corridors of the mansion, they quickly arrived at a tearoom.
Seijiro slid the door open and gestured for them to enter.
Inside, a middle-aged man and a young man were seated in solemn silence.
The middle-aged man was Uchiha Kagami —
back in the Hell Valley days, he had served as Uchiha Ci's kenjutsu instructor. He was a man of keen intellect, able to persuade even a powerhouse like Kakuzu and was viewed by the Great Elder Uchiha Setsuna as a key candidate for elder succession within the Uchiha clan.
Skipping over this "old acquaintance," Kakuzu, standing at the threshold, couldn't help but glance at the square-faced young man seated beside Kagami. After the Hell Valley events, Kagami had been Kakuzu's liaison, but this young man he had never seen before.
Moreover, from the young man's body, Kakuzu could feel a rare and overwhelming pressure.
"Could this guy be the so-called Grim-Eyed Uchiha Fugaku?"
Before the two could think much more, Uchiha Kagami, acting in his capacity as an elder, pulled out a scroll from his sleeve and placed it on the table, looking toward them:
"Kakuzu, this is the internal defense layout of Yunming City's inner district you requested."
After handing over the scroll, Kagami cast a glance at Oyashiro En standing beside Kakuzu, his gaze lingering momentarily before bluntly asking:
"And you — should I call you Oyashiro En, or... Homura of the Blood Pool?"
"Oyashiro En," he answered.
"Good."
Uchiha Kagami nodded, first looking directly at Homura:
"I'm a straightforward man; I dislike beating around the bush, so I'll get right to the point."
"Whatever grievances there were in the past, let's set them aside for now. Oyashiro En, during this time you've been recruiting black-market operatives underground in Yunming City, stirring up quite a few forces. We've already helped you handle some of the fallout. As for the arena and underground market you want to build, we have the authority to invest in you."
"Also — we've already brought your daughter back to the Uchiha clan for protection."
The room instantly fell into a silence so heavy that even a pin drop could be heard.
Upon hearing Kagami's final sentence, Oyashiro En froze, then his eyes immediately reddened!
"What did you say?!"
He slammed his hands onto the table, an intense surge of chakra erupting around him.
But at that moment,
the always-quiet Uchiha Fugaku, who had been calmly sipping tea, suddenly opened his eyes and locked gazes with Homura.
And in the blink of an eye,
the silent clash of genjutsu concluded with the activation of the Mangekyō Eye Technique: Tsukuyomi.
Moments later, Oyashiro En obediently sat back down.
"You sought to use Uchiha Ci to enact your revenge. Whether Ci lived or died didn't really matter to you."
"You are the most unstable element within this newly formed organization!"
"That's why Kakuzu brought you here."
Hearing this, Oyashiro En's mouth twitched violently. He jerked his head to the side and glared bitterly at Kakuzu beside him.
This whole "hunt the traitor" game he had initiated himself — and yet, by the end, he realized—
"The traitor was me?!"
Uchiha Kagami cast a calm glance at the two with varying expressions and said coolly:
"So, whether you think me despicable or heartless, it doesn't matter."
"For tomorrow's assassination operation, Oyashiro En, I need you to be absolutely clear on one thing—"
"Uchiha Ci's life takes precedence over everything else!"
Then,
Uchiha Kagami turned toward Kakuzu. After a moment of thought, he asked:
"One more thing — regarding that organization called 'Akatsuki,' Kakuzu, I need an explanation."
"Why did you choose to join Akatsuki?"
Having dealt with the unstable element that was Oyashiro En,
Kakuzu let out a long breath, his eyes narrowing slightly, feeling unusually refreshed.
Facing Kagami's question, he lifted his dark green eyes, pondered for a moment,
then pulled a ring from within his sleeve, sized to fit the middle finger.
Engraved upon it was a single character: North.
This was the "North" ring among the ten rings of Akatsuki.
North, representing the Big Dipper, which governs death — thus the bearer of this ring was tasked with mastering life and death. It fit perfectly with Kakuzu's abilities to seize life through his Earth Grudge Fear secret technique and transfer it to himself. After the founding meeting, Yahiko had given this ring to him.
"As for those three who founded Akatsuki—"
"They're no different from this guy," Kakuzu said, glancing at the subdued Oyashiro En.
"They were all fixated on Uchiha Ci, trying to exploit him to fulfill their own ambitions."
"However,"
"Five days ago, that little girl from Kirigakure changed the nature of the organization."
"Thus, I came to believe—"
"that joining Akatsuki would allow me to better accomplish the task you entrusted me with—"
"protecting Uchiha Ci!"
Upon hearing this, Uchiha Fugaku raised an eyebrow slightly.
Then he asked with curiosity:
"Collecting the defense plans for Yunming City's inner district was for this purpose too?"
"Then,"
"What exactly do you intend to do?"
Kakuzu slightly lifted his head, his gaze penetrating through the tearoom toward the towering castle at the city's heart.
"Roughly speaking,"
"to offer a grand tribute—"
"for the descent of a god!"