Obito had already managed to successfully retreat from Kumogakure. Kumo's forces, despite all his efforts and tricks, were unable to harm him in the slightest.
If it wasn't for buying time for Akatsuki's members, he wouldn't even need this time, he could evacuate directly!
However, when he arrived at the designated meeting point, he found the place empty. After a moment of hesitation, he took out Akatsuki's ring.
It was a special communication artifact of Akatsuki, which not only assisted in sealing the Tailed Beasts within the Demonic Statue of the Outer Path, but also, once activated, notified others to connect and communicate.
Basically, it was like modern communication devices...
In the next second, images of Zetsu, Kisame and others appeared.
"Hey, I just wanted to call you, why are you not at the agreed place?" Obito couldn't help but asked: "Where did you go?"
"It's good that you came, Tobi! I was just about to ask you to connect." Seeing Obito, Deidara breathed a sigh of relief, and said: "You have no idea, that guy Natsuo stopped us."
"That guy is really fierce. If we hadn't lowered our heads in time, I'm afraid you wouldn't have seen us!"
"What happened?" Nagato, who had just appeared, looked at Deidara and the other two. "Why did Natsuo appear there? Have you completed your mission?"
"We could say yes." Zetsu said softly. "He rescued the Jinchuriki from the Two-Tails, but I kept some of the Two-Tails' chakra. Which should be enough."
"As for why he was there..."
Deidara, Kisame, and Zetsu looked at Itachi in unison. "Of course a spy informed him of our actions!"
'A spy?!' Obito's expression changed slightly and Nagato instantly became serious as well.
They all looked in the direction of Itachi, eyes full of vigilance.
If there is a spy in Akatsuki, this man would be the prime suspect. Was he the one who informed Konoha about our operation?
Zetsu and Deidara also looked at Itachi with a murderous look on their faces. Regarding Itachi's identity, Zetsu and Kisame knew it from the beginning.
However, when they looked, what they saw was Itachi's puzzled expression.
"Are you doubting me?" Itachi kept his face impassive, but his eyes reflected genuine confusion. "I haven't done anything at all!"
"Don't forget that you were the ones who, suspicious of me and fearing that I would reveal information, decided to have Kakuzu watching me all the time..."
"If you want to know if I did something, why don't you ask him?"
He had not revealed any information. If he had, he would have escaped from Amegakure immediately afterwards... Even if he had the Eternal Mangekyo, he didn't want to compete with the Rinnegan and several Akatsuki members at once!
Konan, Kakuzu, Nagato....
With this equipment, he would be completely trapped in Amegakure.
Itachi hurried to explain, as he looked around. "Kakuzu, why don't you say something...? Where is Kakuzu? Why isn't he online yet?"
"Killed by you?" Deidara frowned.
"Kakuzu and I are in Amegakure. Do you think I could act without the leader noticing?" Itachi snorted coldly.
That's true. Everyone nodded slightly.
So why didn't Kakuzu show up? In fact, not only Kakuzu, even Konan hasn't appeared...
When one member activates contact, everyone else can feel it through the ring receptors on their hands and immediately go into contact mode.
How is it possible that so much time has passed, and they haven't shown up?
The Akatsuki members showed confusion on their faces.
"Konan!" Nagato's expression changed slightly. In the next second, he went offline directly.
Itachi frowned and left a sentence: "I'll go down and have a look." That said, he also logged out.
Leaving behind Obito and the others looking at each other in confusion.
After a while, Itachi came back online with a strange expression.
"The situation is clear, the spy is Kakuzu... It was he who betrayed us by revealing our operation." Itachi said quietly. "They were blaming the wrong person."
"So where is the leader? Why hasn't he connected?"
"And what about Konan?"
Deidara and the others still had guarded looks on their faces. As shinobi, they do not easily trust others.
Itachi is acting like he's innocent, but God knows if he's playing tricks right now, trying to figure out where they are.
The leader is the one who deserves the most trust!
"About the leader and Konan..." Itachi looked uncomfortable. "Konan was ambushed and captured by Kakuzu, who has defected from Akatsuki. He took her directly."
"The leader is going after them right now."
Hearing this, Obito couldn't help but ask: "Why would Kakuzu take Konan? It's hard enough to defect from Akatsuki, why bother taking Konan?"
"Well, maybe... maybe..." Itachi worked hard to organize his words, but finally discovered that he, who was used to fighting and killing, did not have this literary quality, so in the end he could only speak directly. "Well, he might be trying to sell Konan to Natsuo."
Everyone fell silent upon hearing this. This possibility... It's pretty big to happen.
Brother Kakuzu was very excited back then, has he finally acted now?
…
In the middle of the jungle, Kakuzu was running desperately. He carried the unconscious Konan on his shoulders, his steps were frantic, not caring about leaving any traces, only focused on increasing his speed to the maximum.
Meanwhile, behind him...
[Boom! Boom! Boom!]
It was as if an invisible, colossal creature was chasing him, crushing the trees behind him like grass, with astonishing ease. However, the creature that felled the trees could not be seen, as if it had become completely invisible…
"Kakuzu!!!" An angry voice rang out, laden with suppressed anger, but still managed to articulate words. "If you release Konan now, I will allow you to leave."
"You know me, I will never break my promise, I only want Konan!"
"Leave Konan here!" In the end, the voice was filled with almost crazed fury.
Kakuzu knew that voice well, it was the voice of the leader he knew so well! But...
"Sorry, leader, who let Akatsuki have no money?" Kakuzu chuckled and looked back. "I've had enough of this lately."
"Dodging and hiding, not letting me earn any reward... Do you know how much we lost with that?"
"And who made that buyer full of sincerity." Kakuzu laughed. "Do you know how much he paid for Konan? Getting this money is comparable to my ten years of hard work in Akatsuki!" Kakuzu's eyes were full of madness and greed.
"Sure enough, it's still Natsuo!" Nagato behind him gritted his teeth, his eyes were full of anger.
When Natsuo first took over the Uchiha clan, he set a very high price for Kage-level kunoichi. That's when Kakuzu almost wanted to drag Konan to claim the bounty. Of course, the result was that Konan beat him fiercely.
Since then, every time Natsuo increased the price of the reward, Kakuzu couldn't help but talk to Konan; focusing on the spirit of sacrifice that a shinobi should have and explaining the precarious financial situation of their own organization.
How much money was missing? Well, about the same amount as the reward Natsuo offered for a Kage-level kunoichi.
This is the time when someone has to sacrifice themselves, the core members of the organization should step up to be a hero.
Of course, whenever this happened, Konan would look at Kakuzu with a speechless face, and then beat him up.
After so many years, Kakuzu's behavior was public knowledge. But even Nagato didn't expect that Kakuzu actually took the risk of being hunted down by him to attack Konan.
Although her skill was not weak, how could she so easily defeat Konan, who was also a Kage-level kunoichi? Even if she is poisoned and drugged, it shouldn't be impossible for her to call for help before she loses consciousness...
What did Kaku do to achieve all this?
"Kakuzu, no matter how much Natsuo gives you, I'll give you double!" Nagato gritted his teeth and said, "Don't you love money? I'll give you more money, is that okay?"
Is it just about money? He can offer it too!
However, Kakuzu chuckled. "Stop joking, leader. We know how much we have in Akatsuki, how much can you offer?"
"Natsuo offered 5 billion, let alone double that. If you can get 5 billion without problems, I will release her immediately!"
"Don't forget, boss, I'm the one who handles the money... If you want to fool me, you'll have to show something real."
Hearing this, Nagato opened his mouth but could not utter a word.
It's not that Akatsuki doesn't make money. But Akatsuki also spent a lot of money.
In addition, Nagato and Konan use part of the money to subsidize Amegakure. This is the place where his, Konan and Yahiko's dreams are, how could they not contribute?
Although they still had a lot of assets, taking out 5 billion in one go...
Not to mention 5 billion, not counting real estate and other fixed industries, but only working capital, it is a question whether he can afford 100 million. This is a number beyond the imagination of ordinary shinobi.
Nagato said unwillingly: "So you trust Natsuo to be able to get this amount of money?"
This is 5 billion! Uchiha is so rich?
"Of course I believe it!" Kakuzu was full of confidence. "People like you who know nothing about economics have no idea how much money Uchiha has!"
"He won't need to mortgage anything, his liquid funds are enough to pay my compensation!"
"Besides, I didn't ask Natsuo to take out so much cash in one go, he can definitely pay in installments!"
The corner of Nagato's mouth twitched. He really didn't know if the Uchiha clan had that much money. But he is very clear that the Uchiha clan's industries even extended to Amegakure.
Driven by years of research in advanced technology, the Uchiha clan has formed a complete assembly line of electrical products in the Land of Snow, with extremely high quality but surprisingly low prices and excellent value for money.
With that kind of production spanning the market throughout the Shinobi World, it's no wonder the Uchiha clan has so much money.
"But are you so sure that Natsuo will keep his promise?" Nagato was still trying to persuade him. "This is 5 billion, isn't it enough to tempt him to betray you?"
"Anyway, if he kills you, no one will know!"
However, Kakuzu said impatiently: "Okay, I don't know if he will betray his promise?"
After so long as business partners, did he really think Kakuzu was so naive as to not probe his business partner?
Kakuzu understood it completely. For someone like him, money was everything. But for someone like Natsuo, money was just a number. If Natsuo needed it, he just had to reach out and he could get a large amount. And also...
"Leader, stop trying to persuade me." Kaku turned around. "Akatsuki is under siege from the shinobi world and its future is increasingly bleak, but Uchiha is like a rising sun, with infinite potential..."
"Even if he doesn't give me money, I'm willing to get closer to Uchiha!"
Of course, the service attitude would not be so good if he doesn't give money, at least Konan is obviously too expensive as a gift.
Hearing this, Nagato sighed softly, knowing that there was no hope of making Kakuzu release Konan through words.
At first glance, the Akatsuki organization seemed to be one step away from its dream, all that remained was to recover the Nine-Tails from Konoha. But with Natsuo guarding him, God knows if they can really capture the Nine-Tails.
In order to reduce Kumogakure's surveillance, they chose to go into hiding for a long time, causing Kakuzu's income to drop significantly, making him decide to betray them.
Such a person obviously cannot be persuaded to come back with words. So...
"Kakuzu, do you really think you can make me back down just because you have a hostage?" Nagato inhaled deeply.
Six Paths of Pain!
The next second, five figures suddenly appeared around Pain, as if they were stepping on something in the void. But if you look closer, you can vaguely see that they are standing on a creature invisible at first glance...
"Indeed, it is something similar to what he told me... Some kind of invisible summoning beast...?" Kakuzu narrowed his eyes slightly when he saw the scene in front of him. "I'm definitely no match for the leader."
He knew this from the moment he was invited by the leader years ago. But...
"Fortunately, Natsuo also gave me an ace up my sleeve."
And just at that moment, 'Pain' extended a hand.
"Come here!"
"Banshō Ten'in!" The powerful gravitational force appeared out of thin air.
Kakuzu let out a muffled snort, several threads released from his back, and a round-faced masked monster emerged from behind him and leaped towards Pain.
Under the effect of the Banshō Ten'in, he quickly headed straight towards 'Pain'.
"Hmm?" Nagato frowned. He knew very well that the masked monster made of black threads was Kakuzu's secret technique.
But...
What was that mark that was engraved on the monster's strange mask?
---
I will post some extra Chapters in Patreon, you can check it out. >> patreon.com/TitoVillar
---