"Done."
Naruto dusted off his clothes and returned to the group.
At this time, Gaara had been revived by the Totem of Undying.
After being resurrected, he stared blankly at the mechanical body he had prepared, his eyes hollow and lifeless.
Nearby, Sasori and Deidara stood in silence.
Before, Naruto said that he wanted to complete the organization's mission to capture the Ichibi.
And technically, they had captured it...
Except it was now sealed inside him!!
They wondered how were they supposed to explain this to Pain?
Were they just supposed to hand him over and offer up both the Ichibi and Kyubi at once?
Meanwhile, Minato was equally confused.
He found that his son was completely unharmed, proving that what Kyubi had just said was true.
'But...'
'Why does it feel that the violent Kyubi was completely different from before?!'
Minato didn't understand, but he was deeply shaken.
He desperately wanted to know what Naruto had been through all these years and what had happened in the outside world.
But now, he doesn't have much time left.
This Chakra was originally meant as a last safeguard for the Kyubi's seal, and after the earlier exertion, it is almost time for him to dissipate.
"Naruto."
"Take good care of yourself."
"I... I have to go now."
Minato's voice suddenly echoed in Naruto's mind. When Naruto returned to the sealed space, he saw Minato floating in the air with golden light flickering all over his body.
"Although I still don't fully understand what's going on, but seeing you like this... makes me happy."
"Please forgive me... Naruto."
Minato said this with a smile, but he felt mixed emotions in his heart.
'My son seems to enjoy playing jokes on me very much.'
He just noticed that during the conversation between the other two people, he discovered that Gaara was the current Kazekage.
'Naruto's personality really took after Kushina...'
"Dad!"
"Next time we meet, remember to help me beat up Kakashi!!"
Minato: "..."
'Yep. He really does take after Kushina!'
Naruto shouted excitedly, completely ignoring his old father's Chakra that was about to dissipate.
After all, this was just a remnant of his soul, and if he wanted to truly revive his parents, he'd need to pull their souls from the Pure Land.
While Naruto was still saying goodbye to his father, Kankuro, the second-in-command of the new Sunagakure, saw that their Holy Son and Kazekage had not returned yet, and that a fierce battle had erupted in the distance.
Earlier, Gaara had been so overjoyed by the news of the Cult Leader's return that he'd forgotten to inform Kankuro.
And Kankuro distinctly remembered Gaara's previous orders...
If the Akatsuki really comes to cause trouble, they will bombard their headquarter using the coordinates provided by Sasori.
Given the battle outside, there was no doubt that is Akatsuki had come for them!
"All artillery units, adjust trajectory!"
"Fire at the Akatsuki's headquarters!!"
Following Kankuro's order, dozens of gun muzzles on the Ten Thousand Crawler Puppet adjusted their angles at the same time, and three seconds later, a rainbow of Chakra Cannon's shells streaked across the sky.
The whole process lasted only two minutes. After it was over, Kankuro immediately ordered the Ten Thousand Crawler Puppet to evacuate to retreat to avoid retaliation from the Akatsuki.
In addition, the Chakra Cannon technology they used this time was learned from the Scientific Truth Society.
Even if the Akatsuki traced the attack, they'd probably blame them instead of the Cult Mechanicus...
"You guys..."
"Setting off fireworks in broad daylight?"
Naruto had just emerged from the sealed space when he looked up and saw Sunagakure firing colorful projectiles into the sky.
The three people on the side fell silent at the same time.
Gaara and Sasori looked at each other and decided not to tell the Cult Leader the truth.
Meanwhile, Deidara was grinding his teeth so hard they might crack.
Because he'd just realized that the Cult Mechanicus was shamelessly stealing the technology of their Scientific Truth Society.
If there weren't three heretics on the scene and the Gelel's Stones that Naruto had promised, he would've exploded right then and there.
'Never mind!'
'I'll just report this matter when I get back!'
"Yeah..."
"We had to celebrate the Cult Leader's return in style."
Naruto: "!!!"
When Naruto heard Gaara say this, his face changed and he quickly shut his mouth and stopped asking questions.
He really didn't want to get dragged back into playing the cult leader again.
"Alright, you go handle your business."
"We've got things to do, so we'll be leaving first."
Naruto pulled Sasori and Deidara and ran in the direction they came from without looking back, not giving Gaara any chance to say anything.
Amegakure, Akatsuki's hideout…
Nagato, who was resting with his eyes closed, suddenly snapped his eyes open and looked at the sky.
"WHO?!"
"WHO DARES?!"
He could sense the hundreds of projectiles raining from the sky and immediately mobilized the Six Paths of Pain to defend.
The Deva Path Pain hovered in the air, using the power of the Rinnegan to deflect as many attacks as possible.
But the bombardment was too widespread and too fast, so the Six Paths of Pain only blocked two-thirds of them.
The remaining attacks still rained down on the Akatsuki's hideout.
"Cough, cough…"
"Damn it!"
"Who the hell attacked us?!"
Nagato first spat out a mouthful of blood from overexertion, and when he saw the mess in the base, he vomited again in anger.
For their Akatsuki's hideout to be discovered and bombarded from a distance, there was only one explanation...
There was a traitor in the Akatsuki!!
Nagato almost fainted from anger when he thought of this.
'Damn it!'
'I trust all of you so much!'
'Who on earth did such a thing?!'
Nagato took a few deep breaths, controlled Deva Path Pain and immediately went to find Konan to discuss the matter.
He was ready to summon everyone together to find out the damn traitor!!
"Cult Leader…"
"I think we should just run for it."
Sasori is very worried now because he knows that the Cult Mechanicus must have attacked the Akatsuki's hideout just now.
And then there was the issue of capturing the Biju.
Even though they had indeed caught the Ichibi, the Biju was in Naruto's body, and he naturally didn't want the Cult Leader to walk back into the lion's den.
"That makes sense."
"Our mission has technically failed."
"Unless you're planning to extract the Ichibi from yourself and hand it over?"
Deidara also had a bad feeling.
Because he always felt that it was very wrong for the Cult Mechanicus to suddenly and ostentatiously use the technology of the Scientific Truth Society.
"Failed!?"
Naruto became furious when he heard them say they were going to pack up and run away.
'If everyone in the organization was like these two guys...'
'How would the world ever know peace?!'
"I'll just take a bit of Shukaku's Chakra back as proof."
"You two said Pain's easy to fool anyway."
As Naruto spoke, he sank his consciousness into the sealed space to check on things.
At this time, Shukaku was currently trapped in a hamster-wheel-like cage, his tiny legs pumping furiously as he ran in circles.
Meanwhile, Kurama lounged lazily with a whip in one hand and a novel in the other, occasionally flicking the tanuki to keep him moving.
"Stinky fox!"
"I will fight you... ah!"
"Stop hitting me... Stop hitting me! I'll keep running, alright?!"
Tears welled up in Shukaku's eyes as he desperately sprinted.
"Big Fox."
"Give me some of Shukaku's Chakra."
"Take it yourself."
The conversation between the man and the fox was as casual as buying vegetables on the market, without any regard for Shukaku's feelings.
Shukaku was so angry that his whole body was shaking, and he cursed at the two angrily, "You...you are going too far!!"