Chapter 328: I Choose You, Boss Cat!
"Tsk." Amamiya Kenichi clicked his tongue and pouted slightly. "I thought Nagato would seriously consider my proposal and choose to work with me directly. Still, the fact that he's already wavering is a good sign. All I need now are a few more catalysts to make him understand that my method is the only way to bring peace to this Ninja World."
At first, Kenichi had assumed Nagato had already made up his mind. He had not expected him to remain this hesitant.
Still, hesitation was not necessarily a bad thing. In a way, it was exactly what Kenichi wanted. It meant Nagato's heart was already conflicted. In that case, all he needed to do was place a few more weights on the scale, and the problem would solve itself.
"A war mission from Iwagakure? And it's aimed at Sunagakure?" Kenichi rubbed his chin, a little curious. "What exactly is that old man Ōnoki trying to do?"
The thought only stayed in his mind for a moment.
After all, in the Naruto world, this sort of thing was far too common to be worth dwelling on.
Although the Ninja World had entered a relatively stable period after the Third Great Ninja War, that so called stability only meant there was no full-scale war engulfing the entire world. Local conflicts still existed everywhere.
The Akatsuki Organization's ability to thrive was inseparable from the schemes and struggles of the great hidden villages. Otherwise, it would have been a complete fantasy for Akatsuki to develop without drawing their attention. Of course, with Kenichi's presence, the organization had already attracted much more notice than it should have.
Still, Nagato was the one handling all those matters. Kenichi could not be bothered. He was just a member of the organization. If the sky fell, Nagato could hold it up.
That was one of the main reasons Kenichi had joined Akatsuki in the first place.
"Well, I should get ready. I can take Uchiha Hikari out to relax a little too. But if we're going to Sunagakure, should I call Sasori?" Kenichi muttered to himself.
He had a feeling Sasori might actually be interested in this mission. After all, Sunagakure was his hometown.
"So, should I ask?" Kenichi packed up his things and walked out of the laboratory.
"Nagato, what about Jiraiya-sensei?" After the communication ended, Konan looked at the friend beside her and asked.
She knew Nagato had no interest in discussing Amamiya Kenichi any further. That man had already given him enough headaches lately, so she decisively changed the subject.
After hearing Konan's question, the irritation in Nagato's heart eased a little. He raised his head, the Rinnegan in his eyes flickering faintly, and saw the situation in Amegakure through the eyes of Pain's Deva Path.
At that very moment, Jiraiya was crouched outside the women's bathhouse, making those familiar, suspicious snickering sounds.
Nagato felt a little helpless.
He truly could not understand why his teacher, a man whose name was known throughout the Ninja World, loved peeping into women's bathhouses so much.
He had been watching Jiraiya the entire time, trying to determine why his teacher had entered Amegakure in the first place. But what he had not expected was that Jiraiya's daily routine was astonishingly fixed. He was either peeping into bathhouses, drinking in brothels, or locking himself in his hotel room to write novels.
It left Nagato rather speechless, but at the same time, he also let out a quiet sigh of relief.
He did not want to face his former teacher.
If Jiraiya liked peeping into bathhouses, then let him. As long as he was not here to investigate the Akatsuki Organization, Nagato did not care.
"Let him be. That's probably his only hobby anyway. As long as it doesn't affect my plan, it doesn't matter." Nagato controlled Pain to leave, though to be safe, he still left one body nearby to watch in case Jiraiya tried to follow.
"Sensei is really childish," Konan said with a faint smile.
She also had no desire to stand against Jiraiya.
When she first saw Jiraiya arrive in Amegakure, she had been surprised, and even a little happy. After all, this was the man who had taught them how to become ninja.
But because of Akatsuki's plan, because of Yahiko's last wish, and because of Nagato's insistence, Konan still forced herself to suppress the urge to rush out and reunite with her teacher. Instead, she quietly returned to the organization's base.
"I didn't expect Sensei to have this side either," Nagato said, and a faint smile appeared on his face.
It was the first time he had smiled since Yahiko's death.
Seeing Jiraiya reminded him of the days when the three of them studied under him. Back then, he, Yahiko, and Konan were all together, training hard, getting teased from time to time, and living through days that now felt impossibly distant.
Everything back then had been so good.
"Someone really is watching me." Outside the women's bathhouse, Jiraiya pushed aside the bushes in front of him, but instead of peering inside, he quietly pondered the situation.
This small village of Amegakure felt strange to him.
At first, Jiraiya had only come here to shake off Orochimaru's pursuit. But from the moment he entered the village and sensed the subtle chakra mixed into the rain, along with the overall abnormal atmosphere of Amegakure, he had immediately realized something was off.
So he had begun a covert investigation.
He wanted to find out who exactly was hiding inside this village.
"But even in Sage Mode, I can only sense a very vague line of sight. The other side is extremely cautious." Jiraiya stroked his chin, then, almost by reflex, started grading the women in front of him in his notebook, scribbling down strange letters like C, B, D, and E.
Then his expression suddenly changed.
"Hmm? This chakra?"
Jiraiya froze for a moment, then turned his head.
The next second, he saw someone slowly walking toward him from the far end of the street, sword in hand, gaze locked on him.
Jiraiya rubbed his face.
If he had known Orochimaru would hold such a monstrous grudge this time, he swore he would never have written about him.
No, more accurately, he never should have agreed to let those idiots at the publishing house release Orochimaru's deluxe illustrated edition.
"Jiraiya!" Orochimaru's voice was thick with killing intent.
Jiraiya shivered from head to toe.
He immediately bolted out of the village on instinct. He did not even want to ask why Orochimaru was in Amegakure. All he knew was that if this kept up, Orochimaru might still be chasing him even after he made it back to Konoha.
"Bad luck, bad luck!" Jiraiya veered sharply to the left, barely dodging Orochimaru's ninjutsu, and Amegakure instantly descended into chaos from the arrival of the two Sannin.
Nagato found himself with a sentence lodged in his throat that he genuinely did not know whether to say or not.
"Nagato, should we intervene?" Konan clenched her fists.
She had naturally noticed the commotion in the village. This was Amegakure. It was Akatsuki's private territory, and it was also her home now. Yet it was currently being torn up by outsiders.
Well, not exactly outsiders.
Jiraiya was their teacher, and Orochimaru was a member of the Akatsuki Organization. Orochimaru clearly knew the organization had a base here, yet he still attacked without hesitation.
"No. If we interfere, Orochimaru may realize that Amegakure is the organization's true base. And our involvement would also draw Sensei's attention." Nagato shook his head.
He had thought about intervening, but it was not the right move.
Although many members of Akatsuki had been brought through Amegakure before, several of them still believed this place was merely a hidden stronghold, not the organization's true headquarters. If Orochimaru saw too much, Amamiya Kenichi would likely learn about it too, and that would be troublesome.
Worse, the secrecy of the Akatsuki Organization would be compromised entirely. Nagato had no desire to wake up one day and find Amegakure surrounded by furious brutes from the great villages and those damned Konoha ninja.
"Then we..." Konan was getting visibly anxious.
She knew exactly how destructive Jiraiya could be. She also knew that Jiraiya and Orochimaru had once fought fiercely enough to destroy half a small town. If the same thing happened in Amegakure...
"No. Sensei is already planning to retreat." Nagato shook his head again.
Through the eyes of the Rinnegan, he had been monitoring the situation outside the whole time. Jiraiya was deliberately drawing Orochimaru away from the village.
That made Nagato's heart warm a little.
Sensei was still Sensei.
Still that rough looking but unexpectedly meticulous man.
I just hope we never have to become enemies, Sensei...
"Amamiya-nii, are we going to Sunagakure?" On the airship, Uchiha Hikari tilted her head and asked while Kenichi steered them toward the Land of Rice Fields.
Kenichi nodded at first, then shook his head after thinking it over.
"We need to stop by the Land of Rice Fields first to pick something up. Oh, right, Hikari, do you know how the countries and villages are distributed nowadays?" Kenichi asked.
After all, Hikari was from the Warring States era. Strictly speaking, she was an old relic. Back then, the world had not yet been divided into so many countries and hidden villages.
"I do! Shiori-nee already told me about the current history of the Ninja World!" Hikari said proudly, rubbing her nose.
Then, with a mysterious look, she pulled something out of her pocket and handed it to him.
Kenichi paused, then smiled when he saw it.
Another pair of gloves.
This pair was black and gray, with the fingers cut off at the first joint and even a small hook stitched into them for hanging.
Kenichi could only feel speechless.
How many pairs of gloves was this now?
He genuinely could not understand why Hikari loved knitting gloves for him so much. He already had more gloves than a normal person could reasonably use in several lifetimes, yet Hikari was still making more.
It was honestly exhausting.
"Hikari, why not make something else for a change?" Kenichi ruffled her hair.
He had no choice. Hikari had already taken out her knitting tools again. At this rate, before the airship even reached the Land of Rice Fields, Kenichi might have to change professions and start running a glove shop.
"Huh? What does Amamiya-nii want, then?" Hikari asked curiously.
Kenichi went blank for a moment.
Yes. What did he want?
And given Hikari's personality, he genuinely believed that if he casually answered that question, she might produce an entire warehouse full of that one item.
The odds were disturbingly high.
"...Gloves are fine. I actually like them a lot." Kenichi silently killed off every thought of saying scarves or socks.
He really felt those words should never be spoken aloud. If he mentioned either one, Hikari would probably bury him under a mountain of hand knitted goods before the month was over.
"Mmm!" Hikari nodded happily and resumed knitting.
But as Kenichi watched her hands move, he gradually fell silent.
The ball of yarn in her hands looked strange.
He could not quite explain why, but it clearly did not look like ordinary yarn. Normal yarn tended to pill no matter how good the quality was, but the material Hikari was using was sleek and smooth.
Even more importantly, the color and texture looked very unusual.
"Hikari, what exactly are you using?" Kenichi finally asked, unable to hold back his curiosity.
"This is Ninja Cat fur!" Hikari immediately held up the ball of yarn and handed it to him.
Kenichi froze.
Ninja Cat?
The kind he was thinking of?
Then that meant this entire ball of yarn was basically cat fur.
No wonder it felt so strange.
Kenichi touched the yarn in his hand, then thought of another problem. Where had this much fur even come from? He knew a bit about cats. Even long-haired breeds should not have enough fur to form a ball that large, right?
At least not under normal circumstances.
"Did you sign a contract with a Ninja Cat?" Kenichi asked, increasingly curious.
There were many kinds of summoning beasts in the Ninja World. While the creatures of the Three Great Sage Regions were the most revered, there were also ninken, ninja crows, and naturally, ninja cats.
And the Ninja Cat clan had deep ties with the Uchiha.
So it was not strange at all that Hikari might have contracted one.
Kenichi was a little envious, though. He liked ninja cats too, but he had never had the time to contract one. Back when he followed Orochimaru, he had been buried in experiments, work, and study every single day.
There had truly been no room in his schedule for something like that.
"Mmm, this is my Ninja Cat! Her name is Boss Cat!" Hikari said proudly as she clapped her hands.
A large amount of chakra immediately surged out of her.
Kenichi's brows rose.
Usually, one could roughly judge the strength of a summoning beast by the amount of chakra required to call it. The stronger the creature, the greater the consumption.
But was that name actually serious?
Boss Cat?
Should he pull out a Poké Ball at this point and throw out a Machamp for balance?
Then, before he could say another word, the airship suddenly dipped.
A colossal figure appeared in front of him.
.....
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