Suddenly being called out by name, Itachi's heart skipped a beat.
'Oh no!!'
'When?!'
'How was I exposed?!'
'Even in Konoha, barely anyone knew I was a undercover agent. How did Pain find out?!'
Under his mask, Itachi was drenched in cold sweat.
Although he remained motionless, he was panicking like a cornered dog at this moment.
But after observing for a few seconds and seeing that Pain didn't make a move, he felt relieved again.
'No…!'
'Pain is just bluffing!'
'If he were sure, he wouldn't be playing this game right now.'
"Well?"
"Do you have nothing to say?"
Pain narrowed his eyes. The more he looked at Itachi, the more he felt something was wrong.
'Got you!'
'I was wondering why something was off about you these years.'
'First, you start wearing goggles, then a mask...'
'And during the whole operation against Orochimaru's mutated form, you were nowhere to be seen, and when you came back, your uniform was gone.'
'There is no such thing as coincidence in this world!'
In Pain's eyes, Itachi had clearly been using these weird behaviors to secretly pass on information.
Of course, the most important point is...
Every time Itachi was sent out to inquire about the information of the Kyubi's Jinchuriki, Uzumaki Naruto, this guy always returned empty-handed.
Meanwhile, look at Sasori and Deidara. They at least report on Sunagakure's internal defense capabilities.
Sometimes, they even noted down what Sunagakure's Shinobi had for lunch.
But look at this Itachi!!
Either he 'couldn't find' Uzumaki Naruto today, or he 'lost track' of him tomorrow!!
After so many years, the only information Pain received was what Naruto looked like!
'Damn it!'
'Uchiha Itachi, I've had my eye on you for a long time!'
The more Pain thought about it, the angrier he got, but in order not to wrongly accuse anyone, he decided to hear Itachi's excuse first.
However, before Itachi could speak, Kisame stood up beside him up.
"Leader, from what I know of Itachi-san..."
"There's no way he's an underco..."
Boom…
Before Kisame could finish his words, Pain blasted him away with a single gesture, sending him crashing into the meeting room wall.
"Are you questioning me?"
Kisame struggled to break free from the wall and finally stopped talking.
When the others saw that Pain was a little angry, they immediately straightened their postures.
As for Naruto, his attitude has always been serious.
After all, he couldn't embarrass his Senior Brother!
Faced with the leader's suspicion, Itachi glanced at the slacking duo, Sasori and Deidara, and replied nonchalantly, "No matter how you look at it..."
"These two seem way more suspicious than me, right?"
"Every time we have a meeting, they're nowhere to be found..."
"It seems like they have a higher chance of leaking information!"
To be honest, Itachi is very dissatisfied now.
'Why?'
'These two guys are absent from every meeting and can't be found all day long. If you want to suspect someone, shouldn't you look for them first?!'
'Why do you start doubting yourself right away?!'
'Although I, Uchiha Itachi, is an undercover agent...'
'But over the years, I have really been working hard for the Akatsuki!'
Pain turned his gaze toward the two slackers, who had been zoning out, and had to admit that Itachi had a point.
"Where is the Biju that I asked you to capture this time?"
Bang…
Naruto instantly perked up when he heard this and slammed the teapot containing Shukaku on the table on the spot.
"Captain! This time, it's all thanks to Sasori-senpai and Deidara-senpai!"
Sasori and Deidara were stunned at first, then quickly caught on and played along.
"Yeah."
"We did capture Shukaku, Leader."
"Uchiha Itachi, don't go throwing baseless accusations around!"
As the teapot-sized Shukaku was revealed, the conference room suddenly fell into dead silence.
Everyone present had several question marks floating above their heads, while Sasori and Deidara just felt a little embarrassed.
Pain looked at the palm-sized Shukaku in front of him and fell silent.
"This…"
"Ichibi looks like this!?"
Everyone has heard of Biju to some extent, but they had never heard of a Biju the size of a palm!!
However, the Akatsuki has not captured any other Biju yet. So although this small Shukaku seems a bit ridiculous, Pain couldn't outright call it impossible.
If Obito had been there, he would've flipped the table and screamed at Sasori and Deidara for daring to fool Nagato like this.
"What's going on here?"
Pain still sensed something was off and coldly turned his gaze toward the trio responsible for capturing Ichibi.
"I.....We killed Gaara."
"When we captured Ichibi, it was already like this."
Naruto spoke with utmost sincerity, ready to stage a show of 'calling a horse a zebra' for his Senior Brother.
Deidara was afraid that Pain would become suspicious, so he quickly chimed in, "Yeah!"
"Leader, don't you trust us?"
Worried that Pain still didn't believe it, Naruto shot a glance at Kakuzu in the corner.
The ever-money-minded Kakuzu immediately caught the scent of money, so he stood up and began to defend his boss.
"Leader, I don't see a problem."
"After all, they did say they killed the Jinchuriki to capture the Biju."
"Maybe this is what Ichibi looks like."
After hearing what his subordinates said, Pain nodded and stopped pressing Sasori and the others.
"Uchiha Itachi."
"Is there anything else you want to say now?"
"Why is there no information about the Kyubi's Jinchuriki in all these years?"
Bang…
Deidara abruptly stood up and slammed the table.
"Leader, why are you wasting time talking to this traitor?"
"Everyone, let's just attack him together!"
"I've known for a long time that there's something wrong with this guy!"
Right now, Deidara had to speak up, as they urgently need a scapegoat, so Itachi would have to take the fall for now.
Anyway, he has been displeased with Itachi for a long time.
"Wait!"
Seeing that the situation was not good, Itachi quickly raised a hand, signaling he still had something to say.
'Oh no!'
'Today, my cover as an undercover agent is definitely blown!'
'Fortunately, I've always been cautious around Pain...'
Itachi glanced at the orange-haired young man in the corner, pointed at him and started talking.
"The moment this guy joined, our base got attacked..."
"Shouldn't he be under suspicion too?!"
Naruto opened his mouth, ready to spin another tale, but was interrupted by his Senior Brother and Konan.
"Impossible!"
"Impossible!"
For some reason, both Konan and Pain rejected Itachi's accusation at the same time.
Ichigo looks so much like Yahiko and has the same ideals as Yahiko. They would rather believe that they are undercover agents than believe that Ichigo is an undercover agent.
Whoosh…
The moment the words left Itachi's mouth, several other Paths of Pain suddenly appeared in the conference room, holding black sticks and thrusting toward Itachi.
"Caw… caw…"
But the moment the black sticks struck, the 'Itachi' in the seat dissolved into a flock of crows, scattering into the air.
"A clone?"
"After him!"
"We must kill that traitor today!"
When Pain saw that Itachi actually dare to resist, he was now 100% certain this guy was the mole in his organization.
He immediately ordered the others to give chase.
Meanwhile, Naruto was pulled aside by Konan. First to receive his official Akatsuki's robe, and then to hand over Shukaku's Chakra.