Hearing Ryōsuke's words, the Four-Tails immediately declared, "Lord, I am willing to submit from now on."
Receiving such treatment was no worse than what the Sage of Six Paths had given them. Of course, it was also possible that he was the one the Sage of Six Paths had spoken of—the one who would guide the Tailed Beasts.
Ryōsuke was naturally delighted to hear this. Another Tailed Beast had submitted. If only the other Tailed Beasts were this self-aware.
Although Ryōsuke could create a sealing jutsu to completely extract a Tailed Beast's power for a Jinchūriki to use, it could never compare to the value of a willing, submissive Tailed Beast.
Standing atop the Five-Tails, Zabuza saw the Four-Tails submit to the God King and suddenly felt that the God King was truly incredible. He had made yet another Tailed Beast submit.
In other ninja villages, he had never heard of a Tailed Beast willingly submitting. Only the God King possessed such immense charisma.
He calculated the Tailed Beasts the God King had already collected. Two from the Mist Village, one from the Cloud Village, one from the Waterfall Village, and two from the Stone Village. That made six great Tailed Beasts in total.
And these were just the six he had personally witnessed while following him. This was already a terrifying level of combat power.
The God King might also be that person from the Leaf Village, which meant theoretically there were two more. One was the Nine-Tails, which originally belonged to the Leaf Village, and the other, according to shinobi world intel, was the Two-Tails Jinchūriki, who was also in the Leaf Village.
Thinking of this, Zabuza's face filled with utter astonishment. To actually have eight of them already, almost gathering all the Tailed Beasts—it was truly terrifying.
The God King also had the ability to make Tailed Beasts completely submit. If eight Tailed Beasts submitted, just thinking about it was a terrifying prospect. There was likely no ninja village in the shinobi world that could contend with eight Tailed Beasts.
At this moment, Ryōsuke was thinking that it was time to set off. He needed to find a place to hide the Four-Tails and the Five-Tails. This area was full of bare mountains, and the massive forms of the Tailed Beasts were not easy to conceal. He had to find some hidden locations.
Thus, he took the two Tailed Beasts and the four people—naturally including the unconscious Kurotsuchi—and headed toward the borders of the Land of Waterfalls. There were still quite a few primeval forests there, which would naturally make it easier to hide the Tailed Beasts.
Meanwhile, Konan, who had set out from the Rain Village toward the Land of Waterfalls, began gathering information on the whereabouts of the three people the organization had sent out earlier. After those three arrived in the Land of Waterfalls, no further news had been sent back.
Fortunately, the Land of Waterfalls was not large. Furthermore, she was standing on a paper crane high in the sky. Looking down from above, she could observe a very large area.
Soon, she found an astonishing battlefield. Massive mountain peaks had actually been sliced clean in half. Observing the cuts, it looked as though it had happened not long ago. There were also massive ravines.
Driven by curiosity, she descended directly from the sky to the ground. Just who could have caused such terrifying destructive power?
While looking around, she suddenly spotted a torn piece of a black cloak with red clouds. Her eyes filled with shock.
'This...'
A bad premonition instantly welled up in her heart.
'Could those three guys have...'
She immediately began searching. Half an hour later, she found three different sets of mangled remains, clearly belonging to three people.
Those three guys were actually dead.
Who exactly had attacked them? Such destructive power didn't seem like the work of a Tailed Beast; it looked more like blade wounds.
With such a large-scale attack, could it be that legendary man who could use a massive Susanoo and called himself Uchiha Madara? Only by encountering a guy like that could these three have died so miserably.
One had to know that Kisame, Jūzō, and Kakuzu were all Kage-level experts, with perhaps only Jūzō being slightly weaker.
But anyone capable of joining Akatsuki was someone meant for great things. Collecting Tailed Beasts was naturally not a task for the weak.
Konan's expression was extremely grim. To think that the three of them had actually encountered this guy here and been killed. This disrupted Akatsuki's plans. They had lost three major generals all at once.
She didn't know if the Seven-Tails had also been snatched away by this guy, or if it was still in the Waterfall Village.
Suddenly, it occurred to her—could the Waterfall Village be nearby? It was necessary to thoroughly investigate and gather intel. She carefully searched for human footprints, traces of pathways, and the like.
Before long, she discovered traces of human passage. For there to be signs of humans in this desolate wilderness meant there really was a village nearby. It must be hidden.
Following the tracks, she arrived at a waterfall. The traces disappeared completely upon reaching this point. Konan frowned.
'Could it be behind the waterfall?'
She immediately leaped in, successfully passing behind the waterfall and landing steadily. There were still some bloodstains on the ground. Konan guessed that this was likely the passageway into the Waterfall Village, so she sneaked inside.
She subdued two Waterfall Village ninjas inside the tunnel. They were instantly restrained by her Paper Ninjutsu. Under her interrogation, she obtained information.
She learned what had happened here a few days ago. Three people in black cloaks with red clouds had arrived, but they suddenly encountered that White-Masked Man in Black. Not only did he save the village, but he also killed all three of them. Even the Seven-Tails was now in the hands of that White-Masked Man in Black.
Konan felt somewhat exasperated. This guy had snatched Akatsuki's target this time, the Seven-Tails, which was meant to be used to revive the Gedo Statue. Without the Gedo Statue, there would be no way to deter the shinobi world and bring about peace.
She had to find intel on this guy. He had already collected the Seven-Tails, and had also collected the Cloud Village's Eight-Tails. His whereabouts were not hard to guess.
The closest place to here was likely the Stone Village; it was highly probable that this guy had headed there. Once she found his trail, she would notify Nagato to make a move.
Against such a terrifying guy, she didn't think she had the ability to win. Perhaps only Nagato, with his Rinnegan, could defeat him.
Having formed her hypothesis, Konan walked out of the waterfall, mounted her paper crane, flew into the sky, and set off toward the Land of Earth.
At the same time, she used her high-altitude advantage along the way to observe the situation on the ground. She would be able to spot any sign of movement below.
A few days later, Konan was looking down from above as usual. Suddenly, her expression changed slightly.
Entering her line of sight were actually two massive monsters. Looking at their tails... one had four and the other had five. Weren't these the Four-Tails and the Five-Tails?
On top of the Tailed Beasts was a White-Masked Man in Black, also wearing a black cloak with red clouds.
What was up with this guy? His clothes were almost identical to those of Akatsuki members.
Akatsuki also had a guy in an orange mask who called himself Uchiha Madara; this white-masked person seemed to be someone else. Yet there were also rumors that this guy was Uchiha Madara. Who exactly was the real one?
Now, relying on her high-altitude advantage, she could track down the other party's secret base. Then, she would notify Nagato to strike this guy down.
Meanwhile, the seated Ryōsuke sensed someone spying on him, the gaze coming from high in the sky. Looking up, he saw a blue-haired figure riding a paper crane.
'Isn't that Konan?'