After Naruto and the big fox had a friendly chat with Shukaku, they finally managed to obtain one-tenth of his Chakra.
And this Chakra turned into a tanuki the size of a teapot.
Naruto held up the mini Shukaku and gestured for Sasori and Deidara, who were standing nearby, to take a look.
He figured there shouldn't be much of a problem using this thing to fool Pain.
After all, the mission was only to capture the Ichibi, and it was never specified that he had to be at full power.
He can't say they didn't capture it, right?
Sasori and Deidara looked at each other and nodded.
"As expected of Cult Leader!"
"Impressive!"
"Now Pain won't have anything to complain about."
As Deidara chimed in, his fingers kept rubbing together.
Obviously, he was hinting that since the mission was complete, it was time for Naruto to hand over his reward.
Naruto smirked and tossed a thumb-sized Gelel's Stone to Deidara, and then gave Sasori a fist-sized piece.
Deidara wanted to protest, but then it occurred to him that they were all on the same team and getting anything at all was already a win, so he decided not to push further.
With the mission completed, the trio wasted no time and hurried back to the base.
Originally, the two of them had wanted to take advantage of the remaining time to study the Gelel's Stone, after all, Pain had given them three days.
But they couldn't refuse Naruto's insistence.
After all, now that he had completed the mission, he was officially a full-fledged member of the Akatsuki.
"Huh?!"
"What's going on?!"
"Did someone attack our base?!"
As soon as Naruto reached the outskirts of Amegakure, he noticed the surroundings were littered with signs of destruction.
Buildings were collapsed, and scorch marks were everywhere.
Anyone who didn't know better might've thought Pain had been practicing his Shinra Tensei at home.
'Wait…'
'Could it be that old man Jiraiya has come to gather intelligence?!'
'But then again, that old man was probably busy confessing his love to Tsunade right now, so it seems unlikely that he would come over to gather information.'
'Besides, the Akatsuki was now a righteous organization, so there is no need for covert investigations.'
Whoosh…
Suddenly, Konan appeared in front of the three people, flapping her wings.
She said coldly, "The leader has ordered everyone to go to the conference room."
"Now."
Ever since Nagato had informed her that there was a traitor within the organization, she had started viewing everyone with suspicion.
So, of course, she wasn't going to be polite to them.
On top of that, Nagato had coughed up blood several times today and it can be seen that his condition was worse than ever.
Right now, she was itching to find the traitor and make them pay a thousand times over, so how could she possibly have a pleasant expression when facing the others?
After delivering the message, Konan turned and flew away immediately.
But before leaving, her gaze stayed on Kurosaki Ichigo for a moment.
"What's this about now?"
"Don't tell me we have to go save the world again?"
Deidara muttered sarcastically, mockery evident on his face.
Judging from past experience, Pain would only summon everyone in the organization when there was a major crisis in the Shinobi World.
"Who cares?"
"Anyway, we already completed our mission."
"Don't expect me to do any more work."
Sasori replied flatly, his mind already drifting toward his laboratory.
Naruto covered his face and felt even more distressed for his Senior Brother.
He was starting to realize that, given the current state of the Akatsuki, even without his interference, collecting the Biju would've been nearly impossible.
Just look at these two, their hearts weren't even in the organization anymore.
Not to mention money-obsessed Kakuzu and the doting brother Itachi …
'It seems that the only truly reliable talent in the Akatsuki was myself!'
"Let's go see what's going on first."
"Don't slip up when talking to Pain later."
They had specially coordinated their statements before coming back.
If Pain asked why Ichibi was only the size of a palm, they were fully prepared to baffle him into silence.
After the two slackers agreed, they led Naruto toward the Akatsuki's conference room.
Naruto followed behind, his expression slightly more serious.
He was afraid that if he saw Obito, he would lose control and attack him.
"Sit."
Pain's cold voice rang out as soon as they entered the conference room. His gaze swept over the others, scrutinizing them carefully.
He didn't even ask them whether they had successfully captured the Ichibi's Jinchuriki.
After taking his seat, Naruto's eyes immediately landed on a white-masked man. When he was thinking about what skills he would use to deal with Obito, his expression suddenly became strange.
Because…
He discovered that this masked man was not Obito!
As the hairstyle was wrong!
Looking at the other party's soft hairstyle, it is not difficult to tell that this guy is Sasuke's brother.
'Strange…'
'Why is Itachi imitating Obito?'
'Could it be that he was secretly trying to hint at the other party, implying that he had already discovered Obito's secret?'
"Today."
"Our organization was attacked!"
"Regardless of who did it…"
"I suspect there is a traitor in our organization who revealed the location of our base, which is why we were attacked."
Itachi: "!!!"
Sasori & Deidara: "!!!"
Kakuzu: "!!!"
Naruto: "???"
Pain's gaze lingered on everyone for a moment, as if trying to find any problems in their expressions.
Sasori and Deidara instinctively thought they had been exposed.
Because when it came to attacks...
Of course, Sasori remembered the attack that the Ten Thousand Crawler Puppet had fired into the sky before.
He subconsciously thought that he had been exposed, and was about to reach his hand into his robe. Fortunately, Naruto saw that something was wrong with this guy and gave him a light kick, which stopped Sasori from triggering a self-destruct sequence.
Naruto remained completely calm.
If Sasori had been exposed, there is a high probability that Nagato will directly attack himself and Sasori.
But since they were all sitting here in a meeting, it was clear he hadn't discovered anything yet.
Deidara's face was expressionless, but his back was already drenched in sweat.
He had also leaked the location of Akatsuki's hideout before.
'Could it be that Pain had discovered something about me recently?'
'That's not right...'
'How did Pain suddenly become so smart?'
'Don't panic! Don't panic!'
'As long as I don't admit anything, no one will find out!'
After a moment of panic, Deidara actually relaxed. His risk of exposure depended entirely on Sasori and Naruto, but since they were also undercover agents, they wouldn't do something so reckless.
So the traitor Pain was referring to must be someone else.
"Well?"
"Does anyone have anything to say?"
Pain noticed that there was nothing unusual in everyone's expressions, and his mood grew worse.
'So…'
'The reason why the plan to gather the Biju has not been successful over the years is entirely because someone was sabotaging us from within!!'
'Bastard!'
'Don't let me catch you, or you'll be in trouble!'
Nagato felt that there was nothing to talk about now, so he thought of playing a trick to see if he could get the traitor to slip up.
"There's actually a traitor in our organization?"
"I hate being betrayed the most."
Kisame casually placed Samehada on the table with his backhand, indicating that he would not let the traitor go and making his position clear.
"Leader, you know me."
"I am a believer of Jashin-sama. I am definitely not an undercover agent."
Hidan shrugged, looking completely at ease.
The moment he finished speaking, a cold sweat broke out on Kakuzu's forehead. He was not sure whether he was the traitor that Pain mentioned.
'But if they found out I'd secretly let the Kyubi's Jinchuriki into the organization...'
'Everyone here would probably tear me apart and take my life savings!'
'No!'
'That absolutely cannot happen.'
"Leader, you know me."
"I'm the one making all the money for the organization."
"There's no way I'd betray the organization!"
Pain nodded slightly at their responses. But when he glanced at the others, his eyes suddenly stopped on Itachi, who was wearing a mask.
"Uchiha Itachi, do you have anything to say?"