Chapter 248: The Akatsuki's Response — The Coalition's All-Star Squad
The rain never stopped falling...
Land of Rain
Amegakure
The Central Tower
By now, the full Akatsuki had gathered here.
Pain, Konan, Obito Uchiha, Itachi Uchiha, Zetsu, Kisame Hoshigaki, Sasori, Hiruko.
Aside from Deidara, now back under Iwagakure's custody, and Kakuzu — dead — and Hidan, reduced to nothing but a severed, still-living head — the rest of the Akatsuki's members were all present and accounted for.
"That's the situation."
Black Zetsu laid out everything that had happened at the Five Kage Summit.
Since Hiruko had bailed early, he had no knowledge of what came after — so the account left off there.
"Heh heh. Didn't expect that bunch to actually go through with an alliance."
"Then again, Kirigakure's still as useless as ever."
Kisame's small eyes flicked side to side.
Having defected from Kirigakure himself, he held little affection for the village — outright contempt, if anything.
"Is that really the point here?"
"Shouldn't we be focused on the Hokage instead?"
Sasori shot Kisame a cold glance.
According to the intelligence Zetsu had brought back, the Hokage — already unmatched three years ago — had only grown stronger over the past three years.
A shinobi's greatest window for explosive growth in strength fell between the ages of twelve and twenty.
And right now, that Hokage was sixteen — squarely in the golden window of a shinobi's most rapid growth phase, across their entire lifetime.
If left unchecked, sooner or later...
No. She'd already become an obstacle Akatsuki simply couldn't get past.
Kakuzu, dead. Sasori himself, present. Itachi Uchiha. Obito Uchiha. All of them, at some point, had been defeated at her hands.
And more terrifying still — all of that had happened three years ago.
Konan's cool amber eyes swept slowly across the room.
These proud, unruly missing-nin — cowed like this by a single person?
"On that subject, I actually have a proposal."
Zetsu broke the silence, looking around at the group.
"What proposal?"
Sasori spoke up.
"Mōryō."
Having personally witnessed the fight between the pink-haired girl and the Six-Tails, he no longer held out any hope for Mōryō's terracotta army accomplishing anything useful on their own.
Even if it succeeded in wearing down the Five Great Villages, so what?
As long as that pink-haired menace stayed alive, their path forward would remain effectively blocked.
Never in his wildest imagination had he anticipated that this plan — deceiving Madara, deceiving Obito, deceiving Nagato, everything running so smoothly for so long — would produce, in the span of barely a dozen years, a figure like this.
"Revive Mōryō."
"Use him to kill, or at minimum critically wound, the Fifth Hokage."
Zetsu spoke calmly — but his words drew a furrowed brow from Pain, from Konan, and even from Obito.
Their goal was peace. Not reviving ancient demons.
Human. Demon.
Two entirely different kinds of existence.
Using someone else's strength to eliminate an enemy — that, they could accept.
But using a demon's power to kill a human being?
That, they could not.
It was like two brothers in conflict, and the younger one calling in outsiders to strike down his own kin.
Was that even reasonable?
Seeing the three of them visibly displeased, Zetsu pressed on:
"That Hokage's strength is something I've rarely encountered in my entire life. Looking across history, only Hashirama Senju and Madara Uchiha could stand as her equals."
"Even against a demon a thousand years old, I have serious doubts he could actually kill her."
"All we need is a plan that eliminates both Mōryō and the Hokage in the same stroke."
Listening to this, Obito genuinely wanted to say something.
Rarely encountered in your entire life?
You've probably been alive shorter than I have.
"Then why not just take a hard shot at the Hokage while she's occupied fighting Mōryō?"
At that, Hiruko posed the question.
Black Zetsu looked at him like one might look at an idiot.
Defecting from Konoha purely out of jealousy — that told you everything you needed to know about this man's vision.
Black Zetsu didn't blame him for it, exactly.
The man's mind was built for jutsu research, not for handling something like this.
"Heh heh. Five Kage all gathered together, tens of thousands of shinobi, more elite fighters than you can count."
"You try to take a shot at the Hokage in that situation, and let's just guess who dies first, shall we?"
Kisame sneered at Hiruko.
If they actually followed his idea, even if it succeeded, Akatsuki would inevitably face swift, brutal retaliation afterward.
In a moment when the entire shinobi world was uniting against a common demon, and a human traitor gets exposed working against them from within?
Who else would deserve to die, if not him?
Though, technically, helping so-called Yomi revive Mōryō in the first place already made all of them traitors to humanity too.
"If the Hokage can't overcome Mōryō, we have a fallback plan."
Zetsu continued, and every eye in the room shifted slightly.
"The Demon Lantern Castle."
"The remnants of Kusagakure hold one of the Sage of the Six Paths' treasures — the Box of Ultimate Bliss."
"Boss carries the Sage's own eyes, so operating the Box would come naturally to him."
"We use the Box of Ultimate Bliss to reseal Mōryō, guaranteeing he can never be revived again."
"And in the process, we can also resolve the tragic fate of the Land of Demons' Shrine Maiden lineage — no longer forced to seal Mōryō's body inside their own flesh."
Zetsu's proposal left everyone privately impressed, despite themselves.
How does he know so much about all of this?
Pain, meanwhile, hadn't said a word the entire time.
He was turning over a different question in his mind.
Why does Zetsu keep steering me away from acting directly myself?
Does he think I can't beat this Fifth Hokage?
The thought left Pain's calm, near-detached expression faintly troubled.
Just as he was about to speak, a memory surfaced — those three years spent alongside Jiraiya, here in the Land of Rain, all those years ago.
Jiraiya had once taught him: for the sake of friends, for the sake of comrades, for protecting the people who mattered most —
Think before you act.
One rash, impulsive move wouldn't just hurt yourself — it could get the people who mattered to you hurt as well.
And he had already lost one irreplaceable comrade. A dearest friend. A brother.
If Zetsu genuinely seemed this wary of this Hokage, and he acted rashly out of pride now...
"Fine."
Pain spoke, calm.
Clearly, he'd accepted Zetsu's plan.
!
Konan stared at Pain in open disbelief, as if she could hardly accept that this was truly Pain — Nagato — speaking.
Even Obito shot Pain a surprised glance at that.
Clearly, he hadn't expected Pain to actually agree to Zetsu's plan either.
Though Obito's surprise didn't last long.
If you're on board with it, then I don't have to be the villain here.
Either way, you're just a puppet in all this anyway.
"Obito Uchiha."
"This task falls to you. Capture the Shrine Maiden, and hand over the body sealing Mōryō to Yomi."
"Your abilities suit this perfectly."
Pain turned to Obito, who'd been standing off to the side, seemingly uninvolved.
Obito: ...
Not sure if I should say this out loud, but —
You get to be the good guy, and I get to be the villain?
I release the demon, and you get to be the one who cleans up after?
Thanks so much for making me the traitor here...
"...Fine."
Obito answered, thoroughly resentful.
Rin. Wait for me.
Everything I'm doing is for you.
I'll build a world where you still exist.
This is all just a price to pay along the way.
Itachi, who'd stayed silent the entire time, simply watched everything unfold without a word.
I need to find some way to get this information to Sakura in Konoha.
"Itachi. You'll come with me to the battlefield in the Land of Wind's desert for a while."
"We'll back up the Five Kage, in case Mōryō proves too much for them and no one's left to hold him back."
Pain seemed to have his own reasons for turning to Itachi specifically.
"...Fine."
Itachi paused briefly, then quietly agreed.
Coincidence? Or has he already started keeping an eye on me?
"Kisame. Sasori."
Pain turned to the two of them next.
"Head to the Demon Lantern Castle immediately. Retrieve the Box of Ultimate Bliss."
"Prepare for Mōryō's eventual resealing."
Both Kisame and Sasori acknowledged the order.
"And Hiruko."
Pain looked to the last remaining member.
"Keep up your disguise as Hanzō the Salamander. Take two thousand Amegakure shinobi and join the coalition."
Hiruko: ???
He'd only just managed to slip away, and now they wanted him to go back?
"Don't worry — if Hanzō the Salamander were still alive today, he'd be pushing eighty. Use that as the excuse to stay out of actual combat."
"There's minimal risk of exposure."
Pain seemed to already anticipate exactly what Hiruko was worried about.
He needed Hiruko to leverage Hanzō's identity to get Amegakure troops involved in the coalition, drawing attention away from Amegakure itself.
Especially given Hiruko had already accepted the Tsuchikage's invitation to the Five Kage Summit — skipping the coalition afterward would badly damage the demigod persona's credibility.
But once involved, extracting himself wouldn't be so simple.
Right now, these two thousand Amegakure shinobi existed to keep the coalition satisfied — so that, going forward, no one thought too hard about turning their attention toward Amegakure itself.
Fortunately, with Zetsu embedded in Kumogakure to smooth things over on Hiruko's behalf, this shouldn't pose too much of a problem.
After all, the current Fifth Raikage had all but adopted Zetsu as a mentor figure at this point.
Surely the Five Great Villages wouldn't ask a near-death old man like Hanzō the Salamander to actually go fight on the front lines?
"...That Konoha Hokage wants me to tell her the story behind the Sannin title."
"How am I even supposed to answer that?"
Hiruko muttered, dejected.
On the surface, everyone had received an assignment — but if you were ranking them by pure danger, his was easily the worst.
Embedded within an entire coalition army, one slip-up would mean instant exposure, and there'd be nowhere left to run.
"Once things settle here, come with me. I'll tell you exactly what to say."
Pain's brow furrowed slightly as he answered, calm.
The offer drew a curious glance from both Kisame and Sasori.
Pain actually knows the story behind the Sannin title?
With that, the Akatsuki's assignments were finalized, and everyone scattered to their respective tasks.
Pain looked around the now-empty room, his brow creasing slightly.
They'd lost Deidara, Kakuzu, and Hidan.
Their numbers were thinning. If something unexpected happened now, there'd be no one left in reserve to cover the gap.
Should we look into recruiting one or two new members?
—
Land of Demons
By now, the Five Great Villages' all-star squad had assembled here.
Konoha's Copy Ninja, Kakashi Hatake.
Kumogakure's Raikage attendant, Darui.
Sunagakure's Kazekage's elder sister, Temari.
Iwagakure's Tsuchikage's personal disciple, Deidara.
"Heh. Never thought this bunch would end up on the same team someday."
Darui, the cat-patterned greatsword slung across his back, regarded the others with lazy amusement.
"Yep yep, and this is a great chance to show off my art!"
Deidara was easily the most animated of the four.
Having been dragged back into custody, he'd already seen firsthand exactly how strong the Hokage was, and held no more faith in Akatsuki's grand plans.
The Two-Tails, Seven-Tails, and Nine-Tails were all sitting safely inside Konoha.
How on earth was Akatsuki supposed to pry a tailed beast out of that absurdly overpowered pink-haired Hokage's hands?
Even Pain showing up in person would probably end up eating a couple of good solid punches for his trouble.
Add in that terrifying Tobirama Senju on their side, the two Sannin — Tsunade and Jiraiya — plus that Uchiha woman who'd crushed a Kazekage's sand with a single stomp, and Sasuke Uchiha, who'd traded blows evenly with a Raikage in swordsmanship...
Deidara held zero optimism for Akatsuki's plans anymore.
Which meant the smart move was to get out while he still could.
Forget being called Akatsuki's "Azure Dragon."
Call me the Third Tsuchikage's personal disciple, the strongest candidate for Fourth Tsuchikage, heir to Iwagakure's Explosion Release, and Deidara — the bombing artist!
"Hi, everyone. I'm Temari, looking forward to working with you all."
The youngest of the group, Temari had no particular interest in standing out on this mission.
She simply intended to follow her team leader's — Kakashi's — orders without complaint.
Still, she was curious about the Copy Ninja himself.
Someone earning that title had to be built around the Sharingan, surely.
But — where exactly was his Sharingan?
Temari studied Kakashi's plain, dark eyes with some confusion.
And it wasn't just Temari — even Darui found himself curious about the same thing.
He'd faced Kakashi in combat once, out on the front in the Land of Frost, and back then, Kakashi had definitely still had his Sharingan.
Only Deidara, blissfully unconcerned with such things, showed no interest whatsoever.
"I'm Kakashi Hatake of Konoha. As for this eye..."
Kakashi had clearly noticed both Darui's and Temari's curiosity.
"Well, some things happened, and it broke."
"But don't underestimate me because of it, all right?"
Kakashi's eyes crinkled into two cheerful crescents as he smiled at Temari and Darui.
"Ah, whatever. So what's the plan from here?"
Darui didn't bother pressing further — if the man didn't want to explain, there was no point digging. Better to focus on the mission at hand.
In a way, Darui and Kakashi's temperaments weren't so different.
"According to intelligence the Tsuchikage provided, the Land of Demons' Shrine Maiden is currently under an Iwagakure squad's protection, in a canyon somewhere in the Land of Demons."
"We need to rendezvous with that squad and take custody of her."
"Then we cross the Land of Earth and the Land of Rain to reach the Land of Wind, and escort her into the uninhabited desert — the site we've chosen as our battlefield against Mōryō's forces."
Kakashi pulled a map of the shinobi world from his tool pouch, tracing out the route.
"That's one hell of a march..."
Darui murmured, studying the map.
"It really is."
Temari nodded in agreement.
Practically crossing half the shinobi world.
She'd never been assigned a journey this long before.
"No worries, though — our talented Iwagakure friend here happens to be able to fly people around."
Kakashi grinned, pointing at the blond man beside him.
Having personally been part of the team that once captured Deidara, he knew exactly what the man was capable of.
"Hey, hey, hey, you're just gonna sell me out like that?!"
Deidara glared at Kakashi, thoroughly displeased.
Molding a clay bird capable of carrying four people in one go was going to have his jaw sore for days from all the chewing!
"Well — if you'd be so kind~~~"
(End of chapter)
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