"Damn Konoha shinobi — have they finally withdrawn from the Land of Snow?"
On the wasteland of the Land of Snow, a tall man draped in a cloak watched the last group of Konoha ninjas withdraw. He walked forward with a sullen face.
"Kazahana Dotō—that idiot had so many resources in his hands and yet the Fifth Hokage handled him with ease. What a disgrace to the Organization."
The man threw back his cloak, revealing a rugged, broad face.
"My apologies, Boro-sama. I failed to stop the Konoha ninjas from wiping out our cult..."
Behind Boro, a short man spoke up timidly and confessed.
"It's not your fault, Bug. This is the result of Kazahana Dotō's incompetence."
Bug's words contained no real blame; after all, even Kazahana Dotō, who commanded the Snow Country's regular forces, couldn't stop Konoha's army. There was no way Bug's underlings could have blocked the Leaf shinobi's advance.
Boro, a member of the Akatsuki Organization's inner ring, had previously been a cult leader in the Land of Snow.
He possessed the Lava Release kekkei genkai; he was discovered by Yōwan and absorbed into the Organization. Between him and Kazahana Dotō—the one overt, the other covert—he controlled the country.
When Konoha attacked the Land of Snow, they treated Bug's small group like a roadside obstacle: they sent a few jonin and wiped out several of Bug's minor cult lieutenants.
Boro himself did not participate in that operation because he had gone to the Akatsuki Organization's new base to undergo human modification.
When he returned, there were only the remnant forces led by Bug left in the cult; they could only start rebuilding from scratch.
"Boro, will this year's test subjects still be handed over in full?"
Just as Boro was about to assign tasks to Bug and begin regrouping the cult members, a red figure appeared behind them.
"Sasori?"
Boro recognized the voice and raised an eyebrow in surprise.
"You, who are praised as the Organization's busiest man—what are you doing in the Land of Snow?"
Boro was displeased by Sasori's appearance. In his view, the Land of Snow had been his and Kazahana Dotō's turf. Now that Kazahana Dotō was dead, Boro considered himself the true ruler of the Snow Country.
"What, are you going to replace Kazahana Dotō and become the new queen?"
Sasori didn't look pleased either. Every one of these guys fancied themselves as something important. When Sasori of the Red Sand made a name for himself in the shinobi world, Boro had still been an uncivilized monkey. Although Boro was older than Sasori, Sasori thought even the puppets he'd made had more humanity than this fellow.
"Sasori-sama, we'll try to gather the test subjects, but you know how things are now — we can't be too blatant..."
Bug forced a smile and stepped forward to speak smoothly.
The "test subjects" mentioned were containers intended to find a suitable vessel for Jigen—he needed a body capable of bearing his power so that when the Divine Tree was cultivated he could be resurrected. Many children were sent into the Organization for that purpose, and then all trace of them vanished.
Sasori had led that experiment. As for Amado, he had devoted all his energy to developing artificial humans.
"Incompetent."
Sasori's words made Boro's face change.
Bug was even more embarrassed and couldn't find words to respond.
"If you can't gather them, then forget it. The weak always find excuses for their own frailties."
Sasori continued unloading his disdain, paying no mind to the ugly looks on the men before him.
"Much of the Snow Country's technological research has been stolen by Konoha; that has left many researchers resentful. Add to that the elders' dissatisfaction with Kazahana Dotō's governance—these are potential forces we can use to seize the Snow Country in the future."
Sasori analyzed the present situation carefully and believed they still had a chance to retake political control of the Land of Snow.
The Snow Country was an important base. Now that the Akatsuki Organization had lost Amegakure, they needed a new fallback stronghold. A place the Leaf had already struck once—like the Land of Snow—would be a reasonable choice.
"In short, I'm done talking. What you do next is up to you."
Sasori had no intention of staying to help. Success or failure, it was none of his concern.
What he wanted was to drive the giant puppet he had made, defeat that Fifth Hokage, turn him into one of his human puppets, and have him serve him forever.
If he could accomplish that, it didn't matter whether he ultimately lived under the Uchiha or the Ōtsutsuki banner—either would do.
As for Jigen's talk about sharing chakra fruits with inner-ring members in the future, Sasori had zero interest.
After saying that, Sasori vanished from before them.
"Arrogant bastard."
Watching Sasori leave, Boro scowled; he was furious at Sasori's attitude.
"He only managed to kill the Third Kazekage, and this brat's got the nerve to act so cocky in front of me. If I ever meet that so-called strongest Kazekage, I'll make his death a lot uglier."
Boro sneered at Sasori's assassination of the Third Kazekage. To him, that "strongest Kazekage" was nothing.
One day, he vowed, he would twist Sasori's head off and kick it.
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