At this moment, Chiyo and Sasori, who had been waiting quietly in the room next door, stepped out.
Chiyo spoke slowly, "Fourth Hokage, in my opinion, Rasa is probably planning to play deaf and dumb this time and muddle through. What do you intend to do next?"
Chiyo had just listened to the entire meeting from beginning to end. Regarding Rasa's reaction, although she was somewhat surprised, it was more or less within her expectations.
After all, Rasa no longer had any trump card in his hands that could turn the situation around.
No matter how bad things got, what could really happen? At worst, things would just stay as they were.
In contrast, Minato appeared unusually calm. He said evenly, "Everything is within my expectations. Next, we just need to make a trip to Sunagakure to settle the matter."
After saying that, he turned to look at Sasori beside him and continued with a smile, "Sasori, there are some secrets that I think can be told to you now."
Hearing this, Sasori's curiosity was immediately stirred, and he quickly asked, "Oh? What secrets?"
Minato gently placed his hands on the backs of Sasori and Granny Chiyo.
Then he used the Flying Thunder God Technique and instantly brought them to a quiet courtyard.
The moment they landed, they saw two people in the yard engaged in a fierce exchange at extremely high speed, while another person stood quietly to the side watching.
Looking closely, two of the three were people Sasori knew well.
Sasori immediately recognized one of them as Konan, and when he saw the other person, his eyes widened and he blurted out,
"Leader?"
Sasori had long been aware of the good relationship between Konan and Konoha.
But he had never imagined that Konan would actually have her own residence in Konoha. That truly shocked him.
At the same time, the two fighting in the yard were none other than Nagato and Yahiko.
When they noticed Minato arriving with the others, they quickly pulled apart and stopped fighting.
Nagato first gave Sasori a slight nod.
"It's Sasori."
Clearly, Minato always handled matters thoroughly. Since Sasori could appear here at this moment, it meant he had already chosen to submit to Konoha.
Since everyone was now on the same side, there was no longer any need to hide personal identities.
Nagato slowly said, "I am Nagato. I am also Pain."
Although Nagato was showing himself in his original body, his tone and demeanor when speaking were still the same as before.
Sasori first looked toward Yahiko, seeing the curiosity on his face and the way his eyes kept darting around. Then he turned to look at Nagato's steady and composed expression.
After only this brief observation, Sasori quickly judged that the person before him was indeed their former leader.
In the ninja world, there were countless incredible transformation techniques.
Many ninjas rarely showed their true faces, because concealing one's own information was a required lesson for every ninja.
Just like Sasori himself in the past, who most of the time hid inside Hiruko.
Although he felt slightly puzzled about why the leader had disguised himself as that yellow-haired Pain before, what made him even more curious was something else.
'Why has the leader's terrifying Rinnegan disappeared?'
The two people in front of him clearly did not have the Rinnegan.
Even though Nagato's tone and attitude were no different from before, the bone-chilling pressure that used to radiate from him was completely gone.
Even so, Sasori still respectfully greeted him, "Leader."
Even if the leader had now lost the Rinnegan, it was obvious that the Akatsuki still stood on Konoha's side.
From now on, they were allies in the same camp.
Sasori felt somewhat more at ease.
Nagato gave a slight nod in acknowledgment.
At this moment, Sasori turned his head to look at Minato. A trace of emotion showed in his eyes as he said slowly, "I didn't expect Konoha's foundation to be this deep and powerful now."
In that short instant, Sasori understood many truths hidden beneath the surface, but there was one thing that still puzzled him.
"Then why did you send me to stop Rengoku from chasing down Kumogakure last time?"
Sasori was referring to the time when the Two-Tails, Yugito, was killed.
If he had not intervened to stop him back then, Kumogakure would likely have suffered even heavier losses. Even the Eight-Tails jinchuriki, Killer B, might have died.
Hearing Sasori's question, Minato explained unhurriedly, "If both of their jinchuriki had died, would Kumogakure still have had the courage to invade Konoha again?"
Sasori carefully recalled the fierce war from half a year ago and thought of Rengoku's performance on the battlefield. Suddenly, he understood.
All of it had clearly been deliberate and carefully planned.
However, it was obvious that Rengoku's later sudden disappearance had not been intentional, but forced by circumstances. [T/N: More like forced by over-confidence.]
Otherwise, according to the original plan, how could they have so easily let Kumogakure retreat unharmed?
For a moment, all kinds of complicated thoughts flashed rapidly through Sasori's mind.
He began to reexamine the current situation and the tangled relationships among the various forces.
But Konoha had only recruited Sasori for two short days, and yet they were already telling him so many confidential matters without reservation.
Sasori felt very satisfied with this.
Because it undoubtedly showed Konoha's high level of trust in him.
And for someone like Sasori, who had long been used to acting alone and hiding himself, such trust was especially rare and precious.
Before this, Minato had already informed Konan about Sasori's arrival and related matters.
So when Sasori was brought here, Konan did not show the slightest surprise.
Instead, Yahiko, standing at the side, circled around Sasori with a face full of curiosity, constantly looking him up and down.
After all, the face Sasori was showing at the moment was that of a young boy, without a trace of age on it, nothing like a man already in his thirties.
In comparison, Yahiko was much younger. When he died, he was only fifteen.
And it had only been a year or two since his resurrection.
During this time, Yahiko had been busy readjusting to his body, spending a great deal of energy and time.
As a result, his growth in maturity had been relatively limited. At this moment, he still seemed somewhat youthful, and naturally more curious than most.
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