Konoha Camp
Kyoso first brought Yahiko and the others to see Jiraiya. After hearing about the heavy casualties among the Rain Ninjas, Jiraiya sighed and said, "You've all worked hard."
"This is what we, as allies, should do," Kyoso replied. "If you need anything, please don't hesitate to ask, Lord Jiraiya."
Jiraiya gently nodded, then turned his gaze to Yahiko and Konan. Seeing their heavy expressions, he didn't say anything further. In a battlefield like this, his words of comfort wouldn't do much. It was better to let them resolve their own emotional struggles.
Kyoso also thought that it would be good for Yahiko and the others to quickly learn the brutal truth of war. He didn't disregard life, but in war, too much compassion would only lead to death. Moreover, in his opinion, the Akatsuki now, except for a few key individuals at the top, were just a disorganized mass. If they survived now, they would only drag the group down in future missions.
He needed to report back to Hanzō, giving a detailed account of the mission and the performances of Yahiko, Konan, and the others.
The person Hanzō had asked him to keep an eye on, Asahi, hadn't shown any extraordinary skills. On the other hand, Konan's ability to control paper with her secret technique was impressive, placing her among the top tier of jōnin.
Konan then called Asahi aside, and the two of them went to a secluded corner of the camp.
"During the battle earlier, the paper jutsu and the killing of those Iwa ninjas—was that you?" Konan asked.
"I only killed a few of them," Asahi replied.
"Are you intentionally hiding your abilities?" Konan asked.
Asahi gently shook his head. "Explaining my secret techniques, which involve you, Konan, is complicated. I've tried explaining it to Kyusuke before, but like you, I can't reveal details about the Tier 2 Authority to others. So, I thought it would be better not to let anyone know for now. You must think the same, Konan."
Konan fell silent for a moment. Indeed, she agreed that revealing Asahi's connection to her would make their relationship appear even more unusual to outsiders, especially Yahiko. She didn't want to add more misunderstandings.
Misunderstandings...
Konan suddenly lowered her gaze. "Among those who sacrificed their lives this time, many were from our Akatsuki."
Yahiko was in pain over this; these people had been their companions, friends with whom they had spent day and night.
Now, due to a war started by others, they had lost their lives.
Asahi sighed lightly, saying, "In the future, we might lose even more comrades. War is always like this."
Konan bit her lip and said softly, "Have the people high above, who are leading this war, ever truly felt this kind of pain? Otherwise, how could they coldly look down on all of this?"
Asahi quietly looked at her. Konan glanced up slightly, meeting his gaze.
"Then let them all feel this pain. When we are strong enough, it will be they who beg us for peace," Asahi said.
Konan's heart tightened, and she turned her head, saying, "let's go check on Yahiko."
When they returned, they found Yahiko sitting with the other Akatsuki members, speaking with a smile, offering comfort despite the sadness he had shown earlier.
Asahi felt a slight sense of relief. At least this was something a leader should do. If one were to always wallow in their emotions, they would be an incompetent leader.
Seeing Asahi and Konan return together, Yahiko simply smiled.
"You're back."
The others looked at them with strange expressions.
Konan felt a flutter of unease and sat down next to Yahiko, speaking quietly.
"Yahiko, I... was worried you might be too sad, so I asked Asahi to talk to you."
Yahiko just responded with a quiet "Hmm."
At that moment, someone in the group spoke up, "This time, we could defeat the Iwa ninjas thanks to Konan!"
When Asahi sat next to Kyusuke, Kyusuke nudged him with his elbow, but Asahi remained unfazed.
Yahiko smiled. "Yes, who would have thought Konan would become so strong? Lord Kyoso even said we should ask Lord Hanzō to grant you the rank of jōnin."
In the Akatsuki, there were also jōnin, but apart from the three main leaders, only Kyusuke and Daibutsu held that rank. However, this jōnin status was self-assessed in private and wouldn't be recognized formally unless Hanzō confirmed it. Yahiko's jōnin status was the only one that would be officially acknowledged, as the standards for jōnin in a hidden village were far stricter. But in wartime, many processes could be bypassed.
Asahi thought Yahiko's jōnin rank was inflated. His strength seemed to be only slightly above that of a chunin.
Every day, someone in the camp was assigned a mission.
After the Rain ninjas ambushed a Grass ninja outpost, they rested for two days. However, Kyoso left every day, sometimes with Rain ninjas and sometimes with Konoha ninjas.
As Hanzō's right-hand man, Kyoso was competent in all areas. His primary task was to actively assist the Konoha ninjas in fighting against the enemy.
Asahi saw a reconnaissance team returning with injuries. They had been on a high-risk mission. If they encountered enemies, it would be a fight to the death.
In other words, once Konoha or the Rain ninjas detected enemy reconnaissance teams, they wouldn't let them escape.
Though there were daily casualties, these were still just minor skirmishes. The main battlefield between Konoha and Iwa was in the northern borders of the Fire Country, where Konoha's "Yellow Flash" was active.
Asahi often heard news about Minato Namikaze, the "Yellow Flash."
Yahiko remarked, "We are all students of Jiraiya-sensei, but Minato Namikaze is far stronger than any of us."
He now felt a strong sense of urgency about his own strength. If his power stayed stagnant like this, how could he achieve his goals in the future?
Yahiko approached Kyoso and asked if he could be included in the upcoming mission.
Kyoso agreed and the next day assigned Yahiko and his group a reconnaissance task.
Reconnaissance teams were usually small, as too many members would risk exposing them. Yahiko only called Konan, Asahi, and Kyusuke.
Outside the borders of the Rain Country, there were Iwa and Grass ninja outposts.
Discovering new outposts would be a success, but the ultimate goal was to find the enemy's main camp.
This required avoiding these outposts and venturing deep into enemy territory, which even Konoha ninjas had difficulty doing. The only one who could easily accomplish this was Minato Namikaze, the "Yellow Flash," who moved freely on the battlefield.
As they approached the border of the Rain Country, Asahi suddenly said,
"Konan can use her ability to fly to scout from the air."
Yahiko thought for a moment and immediately felt this was a good suggestion. He looked at Konan and said, "It's worth a try, but be careful and don't fly too low."
Konan nodded, spreading paper wings and flying into the sky. The three of them heard the sound of wind, and Konan's figure had already soared high into the air.
"Konan looks like an angel," Kyusuke said, unable to stop himself.
Yahiko, watching Konan's figure, felt a surge of emotion. He turned to Asahi and Kyusuke and said, "Let's move forward too."
Konan would periodically descend from the high skies to report her findings to Yahiko and Asahi.
The surroundings were mostly cliffs and valleys, with no dense forests to obscure their view.
The positions of the enemy outposts were easily visible from above. Listening to Konan's account, Yahiko marked the locations of the outposts on a map.
Thanks to Konan's wide field of vision, Yahiko and his team could remain in relatively safe positions without being detected by the enemy. After advancing a certain distance into the Grass Country's borders, they discovered five or six new outpost positions.
Yahiko said, "With Konan here, we might be able to go further and find the enemy's main camp."
Konan felt no particular fatigue; her chakra was abundant, and the results gave her great motivation. But Asahi shook his head. "We should hold off for now. The enemy's main camp likely has barriers like ours, and they'll be hard to spot with just the naked eye. We've already gathered enough valuable information. If we're detected now, escaping would be nearly impossible."
Yahiko thought it over and agreed. They had already gathered useful intelligence, and it would be better to plan more thoroughly before moving on the enemy's camp.
"Alright, we won't take any more risks."
The four of them carefully returned along their original path, avoiding the enemy outposts. Fortunately, they left the Grass Country without further incident.
Yahiko immediately took the information they had gathered to report to Kyoso.
When Kyoso learned it was Konan's success, he immediately recognized her strategic value.
After a moment's thought, he said to Yahiko, "You've made a significant contribution. You also made the right choice. The enemy's camp most likely has protective and sensory barriers, usually to prevent reconnaissance by ninja beasts. If you had approached carelessly, you would have been detected."
Kyoso then took Yahiko and Konan to meet Jiraiya.
Jiraiya was both surprised and pleased. Creating a ninja beast with intelligence was an incredibly expensive task, and a flying ninja beast was even rarer. And now, there was a human who could do it.
Currently, the only ninja with flying abilities was the Third Tsuchikage, who had caused Konoha a lot of trouble on the battlefield. This forced Konoha to update their concealment barriers multiple times.
Asahi had stayed in the camp after the mission and saw Yahiko return with a gloomy expression.
"What's wrong?" he asked.
Yahiko pondered for a moment before answering, "The Konoha people said they could assign a sensory ninja to work with Konan to find the enemy's camp. But Kyoso refused."
Asahi's mind stirred, and he instantly understood Kyoso's intentions.
"Kyoso's reason was that Konan can't carry anyone while flying yet. It's too risky, and he didn't want her to take that risk."
However, Yahiko was certain that Kyoso couldn't know so much about Konan's jutsu. If he truly didn't want her to take risks, he wouldn't have hesitated. But clearly, his refusal to let Konoha assist with finding the enemy's camp was an intentional move, and the meaning behind it made Yahiko uneasy.
Asahi looked at Yahiko and said, "It seems Hanzō doesn't want the war to end too soon. For the war, the value of intelligence is greater than anything else. If Konoha knows the enemy's movements, they'll have the upper hand in the coming battles."
Their mission had already provided Konoha with valuable information about enemy outposts, and there was little they could do about it.
Yahiko sighed. "I figured it would be like this."
He thought back to the complicated look Jiraiya had given him earlier and felt even more disheartened.
Everyone had their own agenda. Was it truly impossible for people to be honest with each other?