"Cult Leader!"
"You absolutely cannot give it to them!"
Seeing the greed in Deidara's eyes, Sasori immediately jumped out to stand in front of Naruto. He didn't even want Deidara to get another glance at the Gelel's Stone.
If such a treasure was in the Cult Leader's hands, Sasori felt it was only a matter of time before he entrusted its power to the Cult Mechanicus.
There was no way he'd let a damned heretic get his hands on it!
After all, the Gelel's Stone could unlock entirely new technologies. Whichever faction obtained it would gain an overwhelming advantage in their war of ideologies.
"You two, follow me."
"Once the mission's completed, I'll give each of you a Gelel's Stone."
Naruto tossed the stone in his hand teasingly before pocketing it again.
Although this thing was developed into a Spirit Stone by the big fox, Naruto suspected that there must be some abilities of this thing that have not yet been developed.
Using it to pull Deidara into his camp was a worthwhile investment.
Of course, he naturally did not want to see a situation where one of the two evil cults gaining too much dominance.
So Naruto plans to give a few pieces of Gelel's Stones to both Sasori and Deidara.
'Hmm…'
'With just a couple of stones, they probably won't be able to cause too much trouble.'
'And I can use this chance to earn Senior Brother's trust.'
'It's a win-win!'
"Deal!"
"Hey, have you considered joining the Scientific Truth Society instead?"
Deidara's eyes gleamed as he made a decision that would've made the First Leader, Haruno Sakura, livid.
When Sasori heard this, he was so furious that he raised his hand and shot a Chakra Cannon, intending to obliterate this insolent fool on the spot.
But Deidara didn't even flinch and took out a Scientific Ninja Shield without hesitation and blocked Sasori's attack. His skillful movements were almost tragic.
It is enough to show that they have had many battles in their daily lives.
"Let's go find Gaara first."
"I have a way to extract the Biju without killing him."
After Naruto finished speaking, Naruto pulled out his Akatsuki robe and changed into it. After all, he had to put on the uniformwhen the mission began.
Who knew if there was some 'die if you take it off' curse lurking around? He wasn't about to waste a life over fashion.
After hearing this, Sasori seemed to be hesitant to speak.
He always felt that doing so was like betraying the Cult Mechanicus.
But considering that the Cult Leader is leading the team and he can also get the Gelel's Stones, he felt he could make an exception.
As for Deidara, his idea is simple.
He just wanted to get the Gelel's Stones and see if he could poach some people to disgust the heretics.
Naruto opened a portal and led them to the outskirts of the New Sunagakure.
…
The believers who were monitoring the outskirts of the New Sunagakure discovered that figures in the black robe with red clouds pattern appeared around the Ten Thousand Crawl Puppet and immediately sounded the alarm.
"Holy Son!!"
"We've got trouble!"
"That righteous organization has discovered our plans!"
Gaara and Kankuro were still discussing something when they saw their subordinates hurriedly running to the conference room to report.
"Damn it!"
"It's them again!"
The big guy Kankuro smashed his fist into the steel table, leaving a dent as he cursed.
Some time ago, the Cult Mechanicus was preparing to break away from the Land of Wind and establish their own nation.
Since this mysterious organization appeared at this time, they must be here to stop them!
Gaara crossed his arms, thought for a long time, and then spoke, "Don't worry."
"Sasori-senpai is undercover in the Akatsuki."
"Let me gather some information first."
He pulled out a brick-sized communicator from his waist, and quickly dialed Sasori's number...
Beep, beep, beep…
Beep, beep, beep…
Naruto was still thinking about how to avoid being harassed by the Cult Mechanicus's members after entering when the voice of the communicator rang in his ears.
When he realized it wasn't his, he turned around and looked at Sasori and Deidara with a grim expression.
'Seriously?!'
'We're on a mission to take a Biju!'
'Who forgets to silence their phone?!'
"Whose phone is ringing?"
Deidara put his hands behind his head and said with great disdain.
"Tch…"
"That ringtone must be one of your Mechanicus's stupid communicators."
"Our Scientific Truth Society's devices are way more advanced."
He pulled out a sleek, palm-sized silver communicator, which looked somewhat like the pager in Naruto's previous life.
Naruto immediately felt that the communicator on him was very outdated.
"We have a lot of interesting things in the Scientific Truth Society."
"You can…"
"Not interested."
This time, Naruto cut him off before he could finish.
'Join the Scientific Truth Society?'
'I'll just ask Sakura-Bro for a couple of their gadgets later.'
Sasori pressed the answer button, and Gaara's voice immediately came out.
"Sasori-senpai!"
"Has our plan been exposed?"
"Damn it! The Daimyo of the Land of Wind actually hired the Akatsuki!"
Naruto: "..."
He had imagined countless possible reactions from Gaara, even being called a traitor by him.
'But what's going on with this guy speaking like a villain now?!'
'Why do I feel like the Cult Mechanicus is secretly plotting something big?'
Sasori glanced at Naruto, then looked at Deidara, who was shamelessly eavesdropping. After hesitating for half a second, he pulled his own Cult Leader aside and gave him a quick explanation.
"The Cult Mechanicus plans to secede from the Land of Wind."
He sounded almost guilty when he talked about this.
Naruto's first thought was that this was good news.
After all, as long as these guys weren't forcing prosthetics and mechanical ascension on everyone, it'd be beneficial for the world.
"This way, we can properly embrace all believers into the church's arms."
But Sasori was afraid that Naruto might misunderstand, so he added one more sentence at the end, which instantly made the original founder worried.
"Whatever."
"Just hand me the communicator first."
Naruto now understands that the Cult Mechanicus is beyond salvation, and that only the Akatsuki can restrict them.
'Hmm…'
'I guess that's one upside of joining them.'
"Gaara, it's me."
Gaara on the other end was still thinking about countermeasures when he heard a familiar voice.
"Naruto?!"
"You're back?!"
"That's great!"
"Our Cult Mechanicus is saved!"
Gaara's tone did a complete 180, and he became like a chatterbox, talking nonstop, more chatterbox than even an old man.
Naruto was mentally stunned for three whole seconds.
After suppressing the urge to smack some sense into him, Naruto began to talk about what happened this time.
"Gaara, I'm here to extract the Biju from your body."
Naruto didn't want to fool the kid, so he got straight to the point and told him the purpose of this trip.
Of course, it is normal for Gaara to resist.
After all, to the Jinchuriki, these words sounded like...
'I have sharpened the knife, please give me your neck.'
But Naruto planned to reassure him.
"What!?"
"That's amazing!"
"I've been wanting a brand-new body for a long time!"
Gaara, who is on the other end of the communicator, was ecstatic.
Since Sasori joined the Cult Mechanicus, cult's puppet conversion tech had advanced leaps and bounds. For Gaara, nothing could be more gratifying than abandoning his physical body.
"Wait…!"
"That's not what I mean!"
"I have a way to revive…!"
"Naruto! I'm coming to find you right now!"
Gaara didn't even listen to what Naruto said. He hung up the phone after saying a few words, which made Naruto almost smashed the communicator to the ground.
'Damn it!'
'You brat, at least listen to my explanation!'