The next day came and Yugito was settling in well.
Unfortunately, the operation to round up the remaining samples of bijuu chakra couldn't wait despite the surprising addition of Yugito. Yesterday, Konan acquired Yonbi's chakra, Rei got hold of Ichibi's chakra, Tsunade took a liking to the Nanabi girl and got some of her chakra while Mei brought in a freaking Nibi jinchuuriki...
Now only Sanbi, the most important of the bunch, remained.
Why was he the most important?
Because Rei wholly believed in using whatever waves Akatsuki will create in the future to provide yet another cover for his next steps. For that, Sanbi had to go to Yagura. Well, there might or might not be a scheme of Rei... or two involved in that but details aside, even the messages of 'Yozora was here' were basically just warnings to other villages that Yozora can threaten them... at least, that's what the villages would see, and partially, that was really their purpose.
But Rei had something else in mind when he asked his girls to relay this message after their tasks are done. These messages were a direct provocation to other small gatherings of strong ninjas...
Groups such as...
Nah, there was no other group than Akatsuki like that. Or will be, since Akatsuki was not yet created.
Anyway, the problem with these mercenary underworld organizations was rather simple. They mostly relied on a good reputation, especially at the start. Akatsuki needed to be the best in the underground sphere to gather sufficient funds.
So, Rei thought hard and long, basically from lunch to brunch, and at the end of his enlightenment, he found a very simple solution to the equation. He just had to create his own organization and make it famous. Not through mission success rate, rather through attacking other villages or their strong ninjas. Humiliate a village here, poke a jinchuuriki there, perhaps show a middle finger to the Raikage and voila, Yozora would be famous.
As for attacking jinchuuriki, Rei knew it had no relevance as of yet but later? When Obito finally becomes dead set on Project Moon-Eye? Oh, Rei would pay a fortune to see the expression of the future Obito when he finds out that some group called Yozora was in possession of the Nibi jinchuuriki and that they attacked some other jinchuuriki as well. When the boy finally realizes he has competition...
Better yet, once Yozora gained notoriety, Akatsuki would have to step up their game in order to get more funds so Rei hoped they would come to light sooner than in canon and other nations would focus on them. He certainly planned to help this to happen as best he could. Not that it would be so hard since he knew Akatsuki were a bunch of arrogant self-centered pricks.
Meaning they would never rest until they claim first place in the notoriety.
Rei decided they could have it and he would even give some intel on them at the right time to the right people. The more eyes on them, the less on him.
Nobody could say he was not generous!
...
"I feel bad for the girl." Tsunade impassively said, looking at the cave where Rin was screaming bloody murder as the Sanbi was in the process of being stuffed into her.
It was already evening so she found a spare minute to visit Rei, Konan, and Mei observing the place while Ringo was preparing herself. This was her mission.
"She could have been a good medic if only she learned how to freaking fight. Stupid fangirl of that Kakashi boy. All she knows is healing which is nice but utterly useless in the field if you are captured in a second." Tsunade brutally summed up Rin's situation, not leaving the girl any dignity left.
Sure, Tsunade wanted to see at least one medic on a team but that didn't mean she would suffer an incompetent medic ninja who could not even properly throw a kunai. If there was something Tsunade hated more than people who dismissed her, it was medic ninjas who didn't train to fight and kill.
"I am ready." Ringo suddenly said, clad in her own black cloak with a hood and two chakra metal swords strapped on her waist.
She was doing some serious observation for the last hour. Rei and the girls got the prime seats to watch how one of the best assassins of Kiri worked. And even Rei had to agree that he didn't put as much thought or consider as many angles as Ringo did when planning on executing an attack on the enemy base. It was both weird and gratifying to see that Ringo learned something useful even after her apprenticeship to him ended.
Rei had set up some observation seals inside the cave... how, not even Ringo who meticulously watched it knew, but thanks to them, he and his girls sans Ringo, who was currently sneaking closer towards her first target, the two guards at the entrance, could see what was happening inside without actually having to leave the comfortable nearby hill.
"Atta girl, Ringo made yet another two lads lose their heads!" Mei exclaimed, watching two heads fall towards the ground and Ringo catching them before they finalize the fall and gently placing them on the ground. She then fluidly caught the falling bodies and soundlessly dragged them into the bushes before also depositing the heads there.
"Yeah, well... that was fast." Rei nodded. Ringo's movement of preventing bodies from creating any sound was certainly well-practiced. Even he doubted he could do as well as she due to the sole reason of him not really having the needed muscle memory for it. Obviously, by now, Ringo was doing it on instinct alone.
Rei then snapped his fingers, activating the observation seal and a hologram-like structure of the cave appeared on the right side while a screen appeared on the left side in the air.
The girls gawked at it, seeing something like that only in cinemas and Rei smirked. 'It is so easy to impress.' He shook his head.
While this world had Televisions, in fact, his Biri-Biri Company sold the best of them, they were not really that widespread nor 'modern' so seeing such a screen was something of a novelty for the girls. 'Well, that just means I will have to add television to the house in the dimension. Maybe we could have a nice evening with popcorn while watching movies together?'
Rei stopped thinking about it when he noticed Ringo bypassing the first line of defense, starting to take care of the chunins from behind.
"Let's see what is in our newest member, shall we?" Konan calmly said with a slight trusting smile.
"Hmph, it's not like this is hard for Ringo. This mission is actually right up her alley! Why are you making such a big deal out of it?" Mei snorted, crossing her arms. She wanted to end this quickly by 'smoking' the Kiri ninjas out but Rei put a quick stopper to that so she was now a bit butt-hurt.
Tsunade just watched in amusement, not really knowing Ringo's skillset or ability all that well due to her spending much of her time in Konoha. She stayed quiet and just observed.
Rei sighed. He liked Ringo and didn't like her endangering herself before she was deemed strong enough by him... alas, the woman wanted to prove herself and here they were... His gaze sharpened when she finally felled the last chunin in the first line of defense. While he was impressed she didn't alert anyone, Rei knew this was just a start.
"This is where the real challenge begins..."