Pain, that is, Nagato and Konan, observed the unconscious Utakata.
"Nothing can stop God!"
Konan held back the urge to smack the back of Nagato's head to stop him from daydreaming, but in the end she simply let out a tired sigh.
She was already used to his delusions, but they still drained her mentally to this day.
"How is everything on the other side?" she asked Zetsu, who was nearby.
Yahiko's corpse tilted its head, also reflecting Nagato's interest.
"Surprisingly… good?"
"Details, Zetsu, explain!"
"Well, the organization has earned at least five times what it made last year during the looting of the Water Capital," Zetsu reported. "It turns out that when chaos breaks out, civilians account for seventy percent of the damage. Kakuzu, Sasori, and the others you sent have definitely completed the mission… although perhaps a little too well."
Konan's gaze demanded further explanation.
"By the time Kirigakure's reinforcements arrived, Sasori had already killed the Daimyo of the Water Country and the nobles who were hiding in the same bunker as him."
"What?!" Konan's eyes widened. "He wasn't supposed to do that!"
Even Nagato used his real body to show surprise, that's how shocked he was.
Kill a Daimyo?
Was Sasori in a bad mood or something?
Akatsuki did not fear the power of mere mortals, but dealing with so many flies would be extremely irritating for God!
"How can you say things are going well with developments like this?!" Konan snapped at Zetsu.
"Well, here's the strange part: the civilians who fled the capital now believe it was the Kirigakure shinobi who betrayed the Daimyo and attacked the palace. From what I've gathered, a handful of Kumo shinobi disguised as civilians spread the rumors, and adding the reinforcements people saw entering without even acknowledging them…"
To the civilians, seeing Kirigakure shinobi enter the capital in the middle of chaos did not feel like reinforcements coming to help them—it just looked like additional forces there to destroy their lives.
This was especially true because the reinforcements prioritized the Daimyo and his entourage, deliberately ignoring pleas for help on their way to the castle.
"By the way, Sasori said he's going to keep the corpses of Kirigakure's reinforcements," Zetsu added belatedly. "He says he needs to replenish some puppets."
"Wait, let me get this straight," Konan said, rubbing her face as she tried to process it. "The people, manipulated by Kumo shinobi, now believe the capital incident happened because Kirigakure tried to stage a coup or something like that, correct?"
"That's right."
"And the others?" Konan felt the situation was surreal.
"You mean us? We're just a small group, and it's not like we leave witnesses behind, so… no, I don't think we'll have many problems on that front. Especially with Hidan—the guy acts like he's at a festival!"
Konan exchanged glances with Nagato (the real one) and then looked at the unconscious Utakata.
The operation had gone beyond perfectly.
They had the jinchūriki they needed for their plan, more money for explosive tags to deal with the supposed "Madara" when he showed his fangs, and the world's nobility would neither pursue them nor blame them for the death of a Daimyo…
So why did she feel this sense of unease?
"What about Kirigakure and Kumo?" Nagato asked, now more focused on the situation still unfolding not far from them. "What is the situation between them?"
If it weren't for the fact that the Three-Tails was not currently in Kirigakure's possession and they still did not know where it had reformed, he would not have minded becoming the third party and showing everyone a world of pain while adding it to his collection.
"In short? It doesn't look good for Kirigakure," Zetsu shook his head. "In the long run? Kumo's forces have penetrated too deeply into Kirigakure territory. They've dismantled their outposts and are having serious problems—logistically and with reorganizing. I'm not optimistic about them…"
"And Madara?" Nagato hadn't heard from him since the start of this dual operation and felt slightly uneasy.
Even if God surpassed any plan made by mortals, that man still gave him a sense of danger, especially with that strange space-time ability of his.
"He took a huge bag of popcorn and went to watch the show."
Knowing Obito's hatred for Kirigakure, Zetsu was not surprised he was enjoying the spectacle of its imminent downfall.
"I see…" Nagato lost interest. "Konan, we're leaving."
"Understood."
"Ah, Nagato—no, Pain," Zetsu interrupted. "I found traces of Orochimaru near the conflict zone. Should we…?"
Orochimaru had defected from Akatsuki after attempting to kidnap Kakuzu to study the secrets of the Earth Grudge Fear technique. Apparently, the idea of having five lives as backup, combined with his already excessive survival methods, was attractive enough to outweigh loyalty.
"Just a snake. He'll pay for his betrayal later. We have more important things to do," Nagato said, shaking his head. He had no intention of personally dealing with someone so insidious.
"As you wish."
…
Orochimaru did not want to be here, but he needed to settle this matter.
Since analyzing the blood sample he obtained from Chad on that beach, he had been unable to focus properly on his research.
It was irritating.
Such distractions had become unacceptable, so he had to confront it before he made a mistake in some crucial experiment.
Tsunade owed him an explanation, but given that she had hidden the situation for so many years—and her personality—he knew that confronting her directly would only lead to aggressive evasion and a complete breakdown of whatever little remained between them.
So there was no choice but to find the other side of the matter: Chad.
"To think that idiot would end up dead at his hands…" Orochimaru sighed, remembering Jiraiya, that hopeless pervert who, despite being born a civilian like him, had reached an impressive level of strength.
If only he hadn't been tricked so many times by those slimy toads…
His subordinates, scattered across the Land of Water and other villages, had been feeding him intelligence gathered and purchased from the underground market about the ongoing war between Kumo and Kiri.
In fact, one could even say his intelligence network was better than both villages' combined.
"Has Kirigakure become this incompetent?" he asked himself after reading the latest intelligence scroll.
Setting aside the absurd speed of Kumo's advance and what happened in the capital—clearly also Kumo's work—did those Kirigakure fools really believe Konoha was involved in all of this?
And of all possibilities, the Uchiha?
They still hadn't realized the blood-soaked crown had already been placed on their heads!
"Launching cannonballs using only human arms…" Orochimaru's eyelid twitched as he recalled Kumo's naval assault, carried out by Chad. "Surprisingly effective. Did he reinforce his muscles with chakra, or was it purely physical strength?"
There were precedents.
He could not help but remember a certain genin in a green spandex suit…
…
Kumo front toward Kirigakure.
"No wonder people hate wars," Chad looked at a Kirigakure ninja whose neck was twisted 180 degrees in the wrong direction. "Dealing with so many bodies is a complete hassle!"
Even after the Blood Mist era, Kirigakure still had a considerable number of clans with kekkei genkai, but most of the enemies eliminated or captured were civilians with nothing worth studying.
Since they had nothing to contribute—and he certainly was not going to leave people behind to guard—he eliminated all prisoners.
Leaving them alive would only mean leaving a problem behind.
The troops' advance had been so clean that even the Kumo shinobi leading them suspected it might be an elaborate trap set by the Mizukage.
They had no idea it was precisely thanks to the Mizukage that he could operate with such low losses; the intelligence about patrol numbers and schedules had been invaluable.
But of the entire situation, Chad had no complaints about B's behavior.
The seventh outpost they had crossed would have cost dozens of shinobi if taken traditionally, but with a perfect jinchūriki on their side, things changed.
"B, fire a Bijūdama there."
"Wheeeehh!"
KA-BOOM!
Then they moved on.
Honestly, they could have done this at every outpost, but it would draw too much attention.
Only when he realized this outpost had already sent its report and could no longer be intercepted did he stop being "subtle" and became more practical.
"Promising him a three-month exclusive concert stage without Kiyui stealing his spotlight did wonders for his behavior," Chad thought as he directed everyone to set up camp for the night after reaching their designated location.
Then he saw a small white snake moving unnaturally before slipping into a bush—and realized they had a visitor.
"What kind of snake has Orochimaru been bitten by now?"
He did not follow immediately. He finished giving orders, checked that no one was missing, and only then went in the direction the white snake had gone.
Of course, it might have just been a wild snake, and he could be overthinking things.
But when he saw that pale face, he knew that was not the case.
"What do you want this time, Orochimaru?" he said, unwilling to engage in a long conversation—if he stayed away too long, people would look for him, and it would not do for them to see him with this snake. "I'm sure you know this isn't the right time. And I still remember our encounter on the beach, when you tried to take my disciple."
Orochimaru showed a rare hint of uncertainty, as if he did not know where to begin.
"Then I'll get straight to the point," he said—clearly he also did not want to waste time. "What do you know about your origins? I mean your true origins, aside from the kunoichi Inazuri."
Chad blinked twice.
"Did you really come here for that?" he looked at Orochimaru, as if he could not believe he was bringing this up right now. "Do you expect me to call you dad or something?"