Akatsuki Base.
A frog hiding in the corner trembled in fear.
This was because Jiraiya, using the Toad Stealth Technique, was hiding inside the frog's belly, his body shaking uncontrollably. This tall man felt as if his heart had been struck by lightning.
His student, Akihara Kagura...
had been colluding with the Akatsuki all along!
Jiraiya remembered the time he introduced Akihara Kagura to Nagato and Konan. Back then, Kagura had jokingly mentioned joining the Akatsuki...
He had thought it was just a joke.
But that joke turned out to be true.
Considering Kagura's extreme personality, it was not surprising that he would collude with the Akatsuki. Nagato, Konan, and Kagura—these three troublesome students had teamed up.
In hindsight, Jiraiya felt a sense of relief.
Luckily, he had come to the Akatsuki's base. The fact that Kagura was a spy for the Akatsuki had never been exposed, not even to its members.
If this information never got out, then when the Akatsuki captured the Nine-Tails in the future, Kagura's covert assistance would spell significant trouble for Konoha...
Compared to Jiraiya...
some members of the Akatsuki were even more troubled.
Deidara clutched his head with one hand, shaking it vigorously, unable to accept that his long-time enemy, Akihara Kagura, was a member of the same organization!
"Ahhh, how can that bastard be a member of the Akatsuki!"
Deidara shouted in annoyance, deeply resenting Kagura, the perpetrator: "I joined the Akatsuki just to kill him!"
"..."
Sasori gave Deidara a sympathetic look.
If Deidara knew that his constant companion was Kagura's puppet, and that Kagura had always been aware of his every move...
Deidara...
might explode in anger on the spot.
"Calm down, Deidara."
Sasori sighed, trying to console his fragile teammate: "It's the truth, no one wanted this. At least now that Kagura is one of us, you can challenge him anytime..."
"I'm not his match right now."
Deidara's head drooped in defeat.
"..."
The Akatsuki members were at a loss.
Even Jiraiya and Orochimaru, hiding in the corner, felt suffocated.
Was Deidara an idiot?
If he's not Kagura's match, what's the point of complaining here?
Would the Akatsuki expel Kagura just because of one person's objection? Who in the ninja world would give up someone like Kagura?
Even Jiraiya, knowing Kagura had joined the Akatsuki, didn't think of killing his student first but rather changing his mind...
"Enough."
Konan stepped forward, speaking sternly: "Deidara, Sasori, Hidan, Kakuzu, we will address Kagura's issue later..."
"I heard that Konoha has mobilized a large force to search for information on Uchiha Itachi. To avoid a sneak attack by Konoha ninjas, you should go to the border of the Land of Rain and the Land of Fire to monitor for any enemy presence. Pain and I have urgent matters to discuss..."
"Are you worried that Konoha will send people to hunt us down?"
Pain frowned, realizing it was a possibility.
After all, the Akatsuki had caused such a stir in the ninja world, and with the four Hokage revived by Edo Tensei, there was a chance they might come after them.
"Then let's go."
Sasori was the first to leave the Akatsuki base.
"Sasori, wait for me!"
Deidara quickly followed.
"..."
Kakuzu and Hidan exchanged a glance and also left immediately.
"Konan."
Pain looked at Konan in surprise, understanding her intent: "Why did you send them away? Is there something wrong?"
"Someone has infiltrated the base."
Konan raised her hand, pointing to the spot where the frog was hiding. The walls of the Akatsuki base began to crack, revealing traces of paper.
This was the Dance of the Shikigami.
Compared to before, Konan's abilities had improved significantly.
The base was still filled with Konan's paper. When Jiraiya used the Toad Stealth Technique to infiltrate, he hadn't noticed that the frog he hid in was squatting on a piece of paper.
"Jiraiya-sensei."
Pain's gaze fell on the frog, his expression turning grim: "You still haven't learned your lesson from ten years ago..."
"..."
Jiraiya remained hidden inside the frog's belly, the frog hopping a few times, seemingly moving naturally.
However...
Everything the frog did was observed by Konan. There was no way this frog was just an ordinary animal.
Even if it were an ordinary frog...
It had already overheard too many secrets and had to be eliminated for safety!
Sheets of paper converged in Konan's palm, forming a paper spear. She raised her hand and hurled the spear directly at the frog!
!!!
The frog opened its mouth wide in terror!
A large hand suddenly stretched out from the frog's mouth, catching the paper spear thrown by Konan. A sigh echoed through the base: "Konan, you used to be the most compassionate person. I didn't expect you to become so ruthless now..."
As Jiraiya's figure slowly emerged from the frog, his gaze fixed on Pain and Konan, intending to have a serious conversation with his two former students. He already knew that Nagato was behind Pain since their meeting ten years ago.
"Kagura, that guy..."
Jiraiya frowned, recalling their encounter ten years ago.
At that time, he met his two students, intending to discuss their situation and uncover the true purpose of the Akatsuki organization...
But...
Something went wrong back then.
At that time, Jiraiya still didn't know the true purpose of the Akatsuki, but he knew his student Akihara Kagura was even more extreme than the Akatsuki. Furthermore, with the news of Orochimaru defecting from the Akatsuki, Jiraiya lost interest in probing into the organization's secrets...
After all...
No matter how extreme the Akatsuki's goals were...
Could they be more extreme than what Akihara Kagura wanted to do?
Over the years, Kagura seemed to have been corrected, or so Jiraiya thought. But it turned out he had secretly colluded with the Akatsuki...
"It seems we can't let Jiraiya-sensei leave today."
Pain, with his Rinnegan fixed on Jiraiya, spoke calmly: "To prevent the secret of Kagura being a member of the Akatsuki from being leaked, we have to keep you here..."
"When did this happen?"
Jiraiya wanted to understand clearly.
Akihara Kagura held an important position in Konoha, with immense power and access to many of its secrets, even rivaling the Fifth Hokage Tsunade.
The defection of the first Hokage's advisor, Shimura Danzo, was nothing compared to the harm caused by the defection of the second Hokage's advisor, Akihara Kagura!
Moreover...
Is there a problem with the position of the Root's leader?
The first Root leader colluded with Orochimaru, and the second colluded with the Akatsuki?
"Ten years ago... perhaps even earlier..."
Pain no longer hid anything from his teacher, never being a good liar: "Uchiha Obito introduced him to the Akatsuki. When we met in front of Yahiko's grave ten years ago, Kagura had already joined the Akatsuki..."
"Even when we had conflicts before, Kagura deliberately held back to let us go. All this happened right under Jiraiya-sensei's nose..."
"Earlier than that..."
Jiraiya's face grew even more somber.
If it was ten years ago, Jiraiya could have some expectations; however, if it was even earlier and involved collusion with Uchiha Obito, things had already spiraled completely out of his control!
No wonder...
No wonder successive Hokages always failed to capture Uchiha Obito!
According to the information provided by Tsunade, successive Hokages had made no progress in hunting Uchiha Obito or investigating the Akatsuki. Occasionally, there were matters that required the attention of all five Hokages in the village, preventing them from solely focusing on hunting down rogue ninjas...
"Ten years ago, we made an agreement."
Pain looked at Jiraiya and continued softly: "The Akatsuki supported Akihara Kagura in becoming Hokage, and Kagura supported the Akatsuki in capturing the Tailed Beasts..."
"Wait a minute..."
Jiraiya interrupted Pain, frowning in surprise: "This sounds somewhat familiar..."
"..."
Pain and Konan hesitated, seemingly feeling the same way.
This...
This sounds a bit like the situation with Shimura Danzo and Hanzo the Salamander?
There aren't many sunny days in the Land of Rain, and there isn't much new news either!
Shimura Danzo once colluded with Hanzo the Salamander to overthrow the Akatsuki to seize the Hokage position; Akihara Kagura colluded with the Akatsuki to seize the Hokage position and overthrow the ninja world?
The Root's leaders seem to get more outrageous with each generation...
One generation surpassing the previous one?
"However..."
"Jiraiya-sensei should be grateful to Kagura back then."
Pain looked at Jiraiya, shaking his head slightly: "We originally planned to kill you, but Kagura stopped us because he needed your support to become Hokage..."
"Hah, should I be grateful to him then?"
Jiraiya patted his own head. He didn't consider this a stroke of luck, but rather he felt a sense of relief about the Third Hokage Sarutobi Hiruzen's arrangements before his death. With a sigh, he said, "It was indeed wise of the old man not to make him Hokage…"
Fortunately.
Fortunately, I chose Tsunade.
Otherwise, who knows what might have happened!
"Forget it, let's not talk about him for now."
Jiraiya abruptly ended the topic about Akihara Kagura, intending to discuss it with Tsunade once he returned to Konoha. "Let's talk about the Akatsuki organization first. The Akatsuki has been constantly collecting tailed beasts in the ninja world. What exactly is their purpose?"
"A terrifying weapon of war."
Pain did not deny his plan and took the initiative to explain, "Once we collect all the tailed beasts in the ninja world, we can create a weapon powerful enough to threaten the entire world. This weapon could wipe out an entire village in one strike, easily destroy a great nation…"
"At that time, peace will descend."
"Anyone who dares to start a war will feel the pain that war brings. Tens of millions or even hundreds of millions of people will be killed. Humanity will understand the horrors of war and fear its cruelty. From then on, peace will be maintained through deterrence, and people will refrain from waging war due to the threat of this weapon."
"This idea is too extreme…"
Jiraiya frowned, trying to reject his student's bizarre idea. "To prevent the pain of war, you would preemptively kill billions to threaten against the onset of war…"
"Our plan is already very mild."
Pain shook his head, providing a real-world example, "Compared to Kagura's previous suggestion of killing everyone in the ninja world and periodically cleansing the population, our plan is much more humane and less severe."
"…"
Jiraiya found himself unable to refute.
Compared to the plans proposed by Akihara Kagura, the Akatsuki's plan seemed almost mild, even somewhat compassionate.
"No!"
Jiraiya immediately dismissed this thought from his mind and hastily spoke, "Regardless of whether your plan's level of harm to the ninja world is a hundred or fifty, it is still a great harm. Such plans are unacceptable…"
"This is not true peace."
Jiraiya looked at Pain and continued in a solemn tone, "Nagato, this is merely a compromise based on deterrence, nothing but a false peace under the rule of might…"
"Humanity is weak and ignorant."
Pain shook his head again, seemingly having no hope of correcting Jiraiya's thoughts. "God uses scars and pain to prompt them to grow and think. All so-called false compromises ultimately stem from God's guidance…"
"Jiraiya-sensei."
"You are merely a weak mortal who cannot comprehend the mind of God. Only beings as strong as Kagura and I can understand that this plan is the correct one."
"Weak people believe our plan is too terrifying."
Pain, observing Jiraiya's furious expression, continued to explain using the example of Akihara Kagura joining the Akatsuki, "But true strong people choose to join us…"
"…"
Jiraiya found himself unable to argue.
This tall, white-haired man sighed, feeling a trace of sadness in his heart. "I really don't know what my students have been doing behind my back. But without a doubt, you have all strayed down the wrong path…"
Jiraiya looked at Pain and earnestly continued to advise, "Just because you and Akihara Kagura agree to do the same thing doesn't mean it is right…"
"Well then, Jiraiya-sensei…"
Pain's gaze at Jiraiya gradually turned cold. "How can you be sure that you are right? How can you stop us? To both Kagura and me, everyone else in this world is weak…"
"Have you forgotten?"
"Jiraiya-sensei…"
"I bear the eyes of a sage bestowed by heaven, and Kagura possesses the unique sage's body in this world…"
"The sage's body and sage's eyes symbolize the Sage of the Six Paths, who founded ninjutsu and brought peace to the ninja world. When the sage's eyes and body unite…"
Pain looked at Jiraiya as if he were observing a small ant. "Jiraiya-sensei, how can you possibly resist the Sage of the Six Paths?"
~~~
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