A few days later, during an online meeting of the Akatsuki organization.
As the last light flickered on, Yahiko said, "Everyone's here. The meeting officially begins."
"First, regarding the new official member, Kisame Gōki, a rogue ninja from Mist. I've already tested his abilities. From now on, he will temporarily join Raiga and Kakuzu's team."
Since the leader wouldn't be participating in operations, pairing off left one person extra.
The others didn't seem to care much about Kisame joining—after all, he didn't have any particularly impressive achievements.
The only thing worth noting was that he had "ambushed and killed" Fuguki Suikazan while being his subordinate.
And Fuguki Suikazan, as one of the Seven Swordsmen of the Bloody Mist, was only on par with another low-ranking member within the Akatsuki.
Put that way, it wasn't surprising that no one thought much of it.
Except for Raiga, of course.
"Hmph, this guy could only kill Fuguki by 'ambushing'—he's definitely not stronger than me!" Raiga secretly rejoiced.
Finally, he could escape being the weakest in the group!
"I heard you killed that Fuguki guy. Pretty impressive!" Raiga said with a sinister chuckle. "But don't worry, I wasn't close to him either, so I won't bully you too much!"
Yahiko gave a strange look. They had only tested a fraction of Kisame's strength, and even that was already greater than Raiga's—not to mention Raiga had also lost his weapon.
Who exactly would be bullying whom here?
Kisame smiled and replied, "Thank you, Senior Raiga. When we meet in person, let's get even more 'familiar'!"
Raiga laughed heartily, "Haha, of course, no problem at all!"
Kakuzu then asked, "I heard you were under the command of the Fourth Mizukage directly. So do you know who's really pulling the strings in Mist?"
Though addressing Kisame, Kakuzu's eyes were clearly fixed on Tobi.
When Kakuzu was practically naming him already, Obito's lips twitched slightly beneath his mask. "It was me."
He originally wanted to hide his connection with Kisame, allowing Kisame to act as a nominal neutral member and thus strengthen his own voice within the Akatsuki.
But he had already exposed his involvement in the Nine-Tails disaster. Combined with the hints from his senpai and Kakuzu's suspicions, further concealment would just be meaningless.
"Still, this isn't so bad. They all think Kisame joined the Akatsuki just because of his ties to the Fourth Mizukage. Now that my identity is exposed, logically Kisame should no longer obey me. This exposed identity might even better conceal the connection between me and Kisame!"
After pulling off a mental victory maneuver, Obito finally felt a bit better.
"Controlling the Mizukage? Why would you do that?"
Unlike the Nine-Tails disaster, which Yahiko had previously disliked, he wasn't particularly against "Tobi" manipulating the Mizukage.
After all, the Nine-Tails disaster was pure destruction that heavily impacted ordinary civilians.
But "Tobi" controlling the Mizukage only crushed the powerful upper-class families. The impact on common people actually came more from the rebellion of the [Rebel Forces].
Obito shrugged, "I just wanted to help take some pressure off the organization. If we could control two tailed beasts beforehand, launching our plan would be much easier."
Yahiko frowned and asked, "Then why didn't you tell us? With the organization's help, the Three-Tails could've already been sealed, avoiding all these later problems!"
Obito rolled his eyes and quickly shifted blame, "Sigh, I was mainly thinking about Ruiga's feelings. After all, it's his hometown. What if he becomes resentful toward the organization after finding out about this?"
"Eh? Me..."
"Enough, that's all in the past now!" Yahiko directly ignored Ruiga's reaction and continued, "I've received intelligence that the Raikage has noticed our activities in the Small Countries and plans to hold a Kage Summit to discuss ways to stop us!"
Obito dramatically sighed, "See? I told you before—spreading Chakra control techniques and Ninjutsu would eventually draw attention from these big nations. Now what? The organization will be completely exposed to daylight!"
Kisame, the new guy, suddenly spoke up, "Compared to ordinary people learning Chakra control, the real attention-grabber is definitely the Mizukage being controlled!"
"Great comeback!" Obito secretly applauded in his heart, trying to create a false impression of hostility between himself and Kisame, "Do you even know what I'm doing?"
"Enough, now's not the time to argue!" Yahiko interrupted, "I'm asking for your opinions on how to respond!"
"Obviously, hide our tracks and don't get caught!" Black Zetsu laughed, "Surely we won't attack their Kage Summit?"
Ruiga scoffed, "Who would be stupid enough to attack the Kage Summit? That's just asking for trouble..."
Before his words could finish, Ruiga sensed a gaze filled with malice fixed on him, causing his physical body outside to instinctively shiver.
Following the feeling, Ruiga asked, "Sasori, why are you staring at me like that?"
Sasori coldly replied, "Sorry, but I'm that fool!"
Ruiga: Σ(°△°|||)︴
Yahiko questioned, "Attack the Kage Summit? Sasori, what exactly are you planning to do?"
Sasori withdrew his gaze and calmly explained, "First, we need to divert attention! In the Three-Tails incident, simply capturing it might not have mattered much. However, Tobi controlling the Six-Tails Jinchuriki and exposing our connection to the Nine-Tails disaster has made things serious. Having three tailed beasts already makes them think about the Bijuu!"
"Although no one has directly linked Tobi to our organization yet, once someone brings it up, we'll immediately be placed in a very disadvantageous position! Therefore, before that happens, we must use an even more deceptive target to divert their attention!"
"Still, even if we need a distraction, attacking the Kage Summit seems way too risky!" Konan said.
"The commotion must be big enough and impactful enough to make them believe in this target's authenticity!" Sasori explained.
Ruiga asked, "You haven't even said yet—what target do you plan to use to divert attention?"
"Immortality and resurrection—only such taboo subjects are attractive enough to match our organization's style and won't raise suspicion!"
"Immortality? Resurrection?" The others exchanged skeptical glances. Who would actually believe such things?
But when they remembered how Sasori had turned himself into an eternal puppet, it didn't seem so shocking anymore.
Hearing the mention of resurrection, Obito's eyes flickered slightly, but he quickly regained his composure.
"Where did Sasori hear about [Gedo: Saibaiman]? Too bad—it won't work!"
Black Zetsu had told him that [Gedo: Saibaiman] could only revive someone who had died recently—Rin had been gone far too long.
As for resurrecting Madara Uchiha, Black Zetsu had explained that since he was the Rinnegan's original master, part of his soul had always remained inside the Rinnegan.
They could achieve his full resurrection—not to mention even reviving Madara's body from the [Impure World Reincarnation]!
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