Chapter 233 - He Was Waiting for the Right Moment
Tatsuhata didn't share the plan he was still refining. Madara didn't press him for it. In Madara's mind Tatsuhata was a piece on his board, but a piece was not a slave - a minimum of respect was still owed.
"As long as you know what you're doing."
Madara gave a quiet sound of acknowledgment, then continued.
"Now let's talk about recovering the Rinnegan. Based on what you've told me, the Rinnegan is currently being escorted to Iwagakure by Konoha ninja - which means our opponents for this operation will be Iwagakure's forces and Konoha's White Yaksha. Is that right?"
"Not only them. The Fourth Hokage possesses the Flying Thunder God. He himself could appear in Iwagakure at any moment, and he would bring an unknown number of reinforcements with him."
Madara's expression darkened.
That technique again. Hashirama's damned brother.
After a few seconds of silence, Madara spoke with a furrowed brow. "Which means our opponents could very well be the combined strength of all five great villages."
If that was the case, things would be difficult.
Not because he lacked confidence in winning. The problem was that winning wasn't the objective - recovering the Rinnegan was. If they fought and won but lost the Rinnegan in the process, the victory meant nothing.
The Rinnegan was irreplaceable to the Moon's Eye Plan.
And compounding that problem: there was only one pair of Rinnegan in existence. If those eyes were destroyed, everything was finished. The Moon's Eye Plan would become as unreachable as a reflection on water.
"Do you have a plan?"
Madara asked.
He had turned the problem over himself and couldn't find a clean approach. Stealing the Rinnegan from under five villages' combined protection was extraordinarily difficult. Even White Zetsu's Mayfly Technique had its limits - against large barriers it could manage, but against a small high-intensity barrier, passing through without triggering it was a different problem entirely.
"I do have something in mind."
Tatsuhata nodded. He wasn't sitting idle.
"But before I lay it out and ask whether it's viable, I need to settle one thing first." His gaze shifted to Orochimaru. He was addressing him directly now.
"My position?"
Orochimaru's smile was sardonic.
"That's right."
Tatsuhata looked at him steadily and asked: "Orochimaru. Do you want to join the Akatsuki?"
"I told you - I have no interest in your Moon's Eye Plan. I have no desire for a peaceful new world. What I seek is immortality. The truth of all jutsu."
Orochimaru said his ambitions plainly.
Even Madara turned to look at him at that.
Immortality. The truth of all jutsu.
Quite an arrogant young man - though calling Orochimaru young depended entirely on the comparison. Measured against Madara, even the Third Hokage Sarutobi Hiruzen was a young man.
"So. Do you want to join the Akatsuki?"
Tatsuhata was not deflected. He pressed the question a third time.
"If I agree to join, what do I gain? And what am I expected to give?"
"Once the Rinnegan is recovered, I will allow you to observe it at close range. In exchange, you contribute your fighting strength. I need you to participate in the operation to take the Rinnegan back."
"Participating in the operation is fine. But only observe?"
"Only observe."
Tatsuhata said it without room for negotiation.
Beside them, Madara's brow pulled together. The Rinnegan was his eyes. He didn't hold back.
"Tatsuhata. Who is this person called Orochimaru? If I remember correctly, he was the Third Hokage's student - one of the so-called Three Legendary Sannin. You're working with someone like that? Aren't you afraid of Konoha using him to play you?"
"He is currently a Konoha missing-nin. He is wanted for crimes including experimenting with forbidden jutsu, desecrating the First Hokage's tomb, and killing fellow villagers. His Wood Release came from the First Hokage's remains. His eyes were taken from a member of the Uchiha clan. With Konoha's conservative sensibilities, they would not pay that kind of price to use him as a double agent against me. And Orochimaru's defection happened before Nagato's Rinnegan was ever exposed."
Tatsuhata said all of this without any particular delicacy.
Orochimaru didn't bristle. Because every word of it was accurate. He had no patience for dishonest flattery, but he also had no objection to someone stating facts plainly. He did what he did, and he wasn't afraid to have it said aloud. If you're bold enough to do something, you'd better be bold enough to hear it spoken.
After hearing the summary, Madara looked Orochimaru over again and offered a brief assessment. "A capable individual, at least."
Orochimaru smiled slightly in acknowledgment.
Tatsuhata asked for the third and final time. "Orochimaru. Give me a straight answer. Are you joining the Akatsuki?"
"I'll join."
Orochimaru nodded.
The draw of the Rinnegan was simply that strong. He could theoretically attempt to take it on his own, but the honest difficulty was considerable. He lacked confidence in his ability to overcome Minato and Hyuga Ritsu. One-on-one he might have a reasonable chance - but seizing the Rinnegan was inherently going to mean fighting outnumbered. Even with the Reanimation Jutsu in hand, his odds alone weren't good enough. The technique had real limitations - the reanimated subject's strength never fully matched what it had been in life, and if the subject was unwilling to cooperate, suppressing their will with binding seals weakened them further.
So joining the Akatsuki was the right call.
Even if all he got at the end was the right to observe the Rinnegan at close range - that was still infinitely better than never seeing it at all. As a missing-nin, legitimate access was simply not an option. Force was his only path.
"Good. Orochimaru. Welcome."
Behind the tiger-head mask, the corner of Tatsuhata's mouth lifted. His mood had improved somewhat. He almost found himself wondering whether his run of bad fortune had finally hit its floor.
He pushed the thought aside and continued. "By convention, when someone joins the organization they receive a ring as a token. Unfortunately the organization suffered a setback recently and the rings are gone for the moment. But we can act together regardless."
Nagato was dead. His body and the Deva Path's body had both been taken by Konoha. Every unclaimed ring in Nagato's possession had become war trophies along with them. And without the Rinnegan, the rings were functionally decorative anyway.
"That kind of formality doesn't matter to me. What matters is what we do next."
Orochimaru smiled pleasantly.
He had no interest in tokens. He had joined for the Rinnegan. As long as he could get close to it - ideally take it entirely - nothing else was of consequence. His eyes settled on Tatsuhata.
"Let's get to it. How do you intend to take the Rinnegan back?"
Madara was looking at Tatsuhata as well.
Facing both sets of sharp eyes, Tatsuhata answered without hurry.
"The core difficulty in recovering the Rinnegan is the Fourth Hokage. His Flying Thunder God is genuinely troublesome. If we can't find a way to pin him down, wherever we make our move we'll be facing the combined response of every strong ninja from all five great villages."
October.
The air had turned cold.
In the Land of Earth especially - situated in the continent's northwest - the wind blowing down from the far north already carried a bite that made you shiver.
The escort unit had entered the Land of Earth. Iwagakure was less than half a day's travel away.
They had moved slowly the entire journey, deliberately keeping their pace cautious in preparation for an attack that might come at any moment. That caution had cost them time. It was already the seventh of October, and only now were they close to arriving.
Whether to feel disappointed or relieved was hard to say - but the entire journey had passed without a single attack from Uchiha Tatsuhata. The only interruptions had been a few groups of bandits in the Land of Fire and the Land of Earth, none of whom had lasted long. The shinobi world had never belonged exclusively to ninja - chakra simply made ninja the most visible actors on that stage, while ordinary people scraped out difficult lives in the shadows of the endless conflict between nations and villages.
"Half a day left."
Kitsuchi's mood had lifted considerably.
Once he was back inside Iwagakure, his task would be complete. He could set down the weight he had been carrying. He glanced back at the group behind him. Everyone was moving in focused silence - except for Konoha's White Yaksha, Hyuga Ritsu, who appeared to be somewhere else entirely in his thoughts.
Kitsuchi's brow creased. He almost said something. He knew the old principle well - the last stretch of a hundred-mile journey is the hardest half - and this point, this close to success, was exactly when things were most likely to go wrong. But his lips moved and nothing came out.
He had no authority over Konoha ninja. He certainly had no standing to lecture someone whose strength exceeded his own. He couldn't even offer a reminder without it being presumptuous.
All he could do was make sure his own vigilance didn't slip. The Rinnegan was on his person. If an attack came, he would almost certainly be the first target.
Ritsu was genuinely distracted.
The reason wasn't complicated. Today was the seventh of October. In the original course of history, the night of the Nine-Tails attack was only a few days away.
Of course, his presence had already reshaped the shinobi world beyond recognition. But Uzumaki Kushina's delivery date appeared to have remained on schedule - or close enough that the difference didn't matter.
And when a female jinchuriki gave birth, she was at her most vulnerable.
In the original timeline, Uchiha Obito had seized that exact moment to attack Konoha, triggering the Nine-Tails incident and killing both Minato and Kushina.
Obito should be dead by now.
But Uchiha Tatsuhata was not Obito, and he was no easier to deal with. He might just as easily recognize the opportunity that Kushina's delivery presented and move to exploit it.
And that made the absence of any attack during this journey entirely understandable. Tatsuhata was probably waiting - waiting for the moment when the Fourth Hokage would be unable to come to their aid, when he would have no choice but to be somewhere else entirely.
Knowing that didn't make it easier to solve. Kushina's delivery was coming regardless. Minato was the Hokage and her husband - he would be at her side. And if Tatsuhata created any kind of distraction or pressure on the village at the same moment, the chance of reinforcements arriving from Konoha would drop to nearly nothing.
"I can only rely on myself."
Ritsu murmured quietly, the difficulty weighing on him.
He still hadn't decided which path to take. Should he go all-out against Tatsuhata the moment he appeared and seize the Uchiha bloodline - the last piece he needed? Or should he hold back slightly, let Tatsuhata recover the Rinnegan and advance the Moon's Eye Plan, and wait for Uchiha Madara to be revived so he could target a bloodline of far greater purity?
The two options fought each other back and forth in his mind without resolution.
"Senpai. What are you thinking about?"
A voice like a feather landing cut into his thoughts.
He pressed two fingers against his temple, then smiled and looked at Uchiha Aika walking beside him. "I'm thinking about why Uchiha Tatsuhata hasn't tried to take the Rinnegan yet."
"Did you come up with an answer?"
"One possibility."
"What is it?"
"He's probably waiting for the right moment."
"The right moment?" Aika tilted her head, her brow slightly creased. "When would that be?"
"Why did Rin stay in the village instead of coming on this mission?"
"Isn't it because she's a... oh. Because of Kushina-senpai -"
"Shh."
Ritsu cut her off quietly.
Kushina's imminent delivery was not a secret known only to a handful of people - it was classified information known to many, but all of those people were Konoha ninja. The ninja from other villages had no idea.
Aika stopped herself immediately. Even without the warning she would have caught it herself.
She dropped her voice low. "Senpai - if Tatsuhata really does move at that moment, doesn't that mean we won't be getting any support from the village?"
Ritsu smiled. "Don't worry. Even without the village's support it doesn't matter. We protect the Rinnegan if we can protect it, and if we can't, that's how it goes. But I will keep you safe. That I can promise."
Aika's cheeks turned faintly pink. She looked away and said nothing.
"Ugh."
Hyuga Akiba, walking just behind them, made her feelings unmistakably clear with a single sound. The look she directed at Ritsu was the look a person reserves for something deeply, personally offensive.
Ritsu gave her a sideways look that communicated exactly what he thought of the interruption.
Akiba looked back at him with equal conviction.
Ritsu returned his gaze to the horizon. Ahead, the outline of a village had become visible in the distance. They were almost at Iwagakure.