"Universal Pull."
The assassin had only barely escaped the pull's range with the Substitution Technique and was still adjusting her position in midair when her body suddenly stiffened.
Once again, she was uncontrollably dragged toward the red-haired boy.
Then, under her somewhat desperate gaze, a black rod slid out from Nagato's sleeve and pierced through her abdomen in a single strike.
"Gah…"
The female assassin whose body had been pierced spat blood and collapsed to the ground.
In utter terror, she discovered that she had already lost all control over her chakra.
"Give up resisting. Your chakra has already been completely controlled by me. If you obediently admit defeat and allow yourself to be restrained, your village may still have a chance to pay money to redeem you."
Nagato looked at the female shinobi before him.
Although she wore no forehead protector, she had used Sunagakure's signature Scorch Release Kekkei Genkai.
His tone was calm as he uttered terrifying words that made her pupils violently shrink.
"You would not want your body, with its precious Kekkei Genkai, to become an experimental subject on someone else's operating table, or be taken away as a breeding tool, would you?"
"Have my village pay ransom to redeem me from your hands? Are you serious, leader of Akatsuki?"
"Why does every person I capture think I'm the leader of Akatsuki? We have always said Yahiko is the leader of Akatsuki…"
Nagato pressed his brow in some distress. Then he sighed and nodded.
"You do not need to worry about that problem. Akatsuki is an organization established by people who have gathered together to realize peace. When conditions permit, we will try our best to handle disputes in a way that leaves room for both sides."
"Well? Have you made your decision?"
The female shinobi, whose hair was tied into a black bun while the hair at her temples was dyed orange, closed her eyes.
Enduring the agony of her abdomen being pierced through, she clenched her silver teeth and answered in a low voice.
"…Guh. Kill me."
"The village will not acknowledge that a shinobi who tried and failed to assassinate the Kage of another nation was acting under their orders. Nor will they be willing to see me, who was captured alive, continue living."
"If Akatsuki truly is the neutral organization pursuing peace that you claim to be, then kill me and bury my corpse somewhere no one will find."
"Sigh. The same with Kumogakure's people and the same with Sunagakure's. Why are they all the kind of people who start wholeheartedly seeking death the moment they're captured?"
Nagato shook his head.
Using the black rod, he sent his own chakra into the other party's body, disrupted her physical balance, and caused her to faint straight to the ground.
"That's very normal. The profession of shinobi is educated like that from childhood. They can use any means necessary to complete a mission, but they absolutely cannot bring trouble to the village either. If the village behind them truly paid you ransom, wouldn't that be the same as admitting that these assassins were sent by them?"
"Before they are certain they have the ability to start a war and defeat their opponent, they will not hand over evidence that can be brought into the open to other villages."
Rei Kaguya turned out from a nearby corridor and looked at Nagato, whose face was filled with helplessness.
"Honestly, you would be better off directly selling those two Kekkei Genkai shinobi you captured to Kirigakure. At least I would treat them as important experimental animals and protect them properly. They would not silently die in some unknown corner, be branded as missing-nin, and have all their identity and honor erased by their village."
"Where do you think I heard the speech I used to scare this person?"
Nagato threw Rei Kaguya, who had secretly slipped out during the summit, a disdainful look.
Then, while carrying the woman on the ground—who was very likely Sunagakure's elite jonin, Pakura—over his shoulder, he asked Rei Kaguya,
"And you? Instead of staying at the summit and arguing with Konoha's old and new generations of Kage, why did you run out alone? Don't think I don't know that you are the person who can decide Kirigakure's negotiation terms."
"As for the summit, I left it to my Bone Clone. As long as no fight breaks out, Konoha's people cannot possibly see through it."
Rei Kaguya shrugged.
After looking at the beautiful Sunagakure woman with a curvy figure on Nagato's shoulder with a face full of regret, he spread his hands and said,
"As for why I ran out… hm, mainly because I discovered that Jiraiya on Konoha's side is also using a Shadow Clone to attend the talks. And it probably won't be just today. So I plan to follow him and see what he is sneaking out alone to do."
"Jiraiya-sensei?"
Nagato raised his brows.
He did not really understand why Rei Kaguya was focusing on Jiraiya, who, among Konoha's old, middle-aged, and young trio, was relatively less important and less prominent.
"Is there something about him worth your attention?"
"On the night of the first day of the summit, I saw him in an izakaya in a nearby town and discovered that someone used the Reverse Summoning Technique to summon him elsewhere for a while."
Rei Kaguya lightly glossed over how he had discovered this matter, then continued speaking about the key point.
"Jiraiya is a sage recognized by Mount Myoboku, and he also bears the Great Toad Sage's prophecy. He should have told you about the Child of Prophecy, right, Nagato?"
"He did."
Nagato narrowed his eyes and nodded.
"So, you think Jiraiya-sensei's abnormal movements are related to this matter?"
"He is a trusted guard accompanying the Third Hokage to participate in the negotiations. Other than something related to the Child of Prophecy, what else do you think could make him abandon his teacher and disciple in front of an aggressive me and sneak off alone to handle it?"
Rei Kaguya snapped his fingers.
Closing one eye, he asked with a light smile,
"How about it? Do you want to come with me and see what Jiraiya is actually doing, Child of Prophecy?"
"…I'll have a Shadow Clone go with you."
"Suit yourself."
Nagato formed the ram seal required for the Shadow Clone Technique.
Then, watching "himself" disappear together with Rei Kaguya, he slowly sighed.
"I need to find a way to make the companions in Akatsuki strong enough to stand on their own too… Otherwise, I can't even use my main body to participate in interesting things like this."
…
At the same time, within a small city in the Land of Iron.
Jiraiya, who had slightly changed his attire, was walking along a street that could not be called prosperous, searching among the pedestrians for targets who might fit the Great Toad Sage's prophecy.
The Great Toad Sage had said that his encounter with those two targets who carried different possibilities would happen in the near future.
But right now, it was a critical period for the negotiations between Konoha and Kirigakure. Jiraiya did not want these two people, whose positions and goals were both completely uncontrollable, to affect the summit.
So he secretly slipped out using the Shadow Clone Technique and began searching on his own for the targets mentioned in the prophecy.
"The girl with the Byakugan… the hero who knows the past and future… With only those two descriptions, they won't be easy to find."
"When it comes to the Byakugan, they may be related to the Hyuga clan. But if I start from that angle, then there is a decent chance the target mentioned in the prophecy will appear in Konoha…"
"Sigh. I hate people who speak in riddles and refuse to say things clearly…"
Just as Jiraiya complained about the Great Toad Sage, that riddle-loving old toad, while somewhat absentmindedly looking left and right at the pedestrians on the street, two figures sitting in a small roadside shop and eating something entered his sight.
The younger woman had beautiful, well-maintained black hair and wore extremely luxurious clothing. At a glance, she looked like a noble young lady from an aristocratic family.
Judging from how she occasionally rubbed her eyes and looked unused to something, she seemed to be wearing colored contacts to alter the characteristics of her eyes.
As for the middle-aged man who looked even older than Jiraiya, he had a pair of listless dead-fish eyes, a mask covering the lower half of his face, and a head of short white hair that Jiraiya found very familiar.
Jiraiya could not help rubbing his eyes.
Then he opened them even wider.
Great Toad Sage, are you joking with me?
Or did someone place me under a genjutsu without me noticing?
Why am I seeing a Kakashi Hatake who is even older than I am!?