Nearly a month had passed since the Water-Fire Two Kage Meeting ended.
The Akatsuki organization, which had become famous after serving as guards during the Two Kage Meeting, finally intended to end its stay in the Land of Iron and begin its journey back to the Land of Rain.
"Uwaaah… I feel like after this month, my mastery of the Shadow Clone Technique has already surpassed ninety-nine percent of the shinobi in this world…"
Beneath the moonlit, star-sparse night sky, Yahiko lay on a rooftop covered in a layer of fallen snow.
While counting the stars above, he complained to Nagato, who was sitting beside him.
"Seriously, just expanding a small organization of a few dozen people to around two hundred has already kept us so busy that we can barely tell day from night. It makes us wish we could use the Multiple Shadow Clone Technique and work overtime all day without rest. I really don't know how the leaders of those big shinobi villages manage and operate their villages properly…"
"Who says they don't?"
Nagato, whose dark circles had become much heavier lately, sighed.
He reached out with chakra and pulled over a clump of glittering white snow, then looked at it somewhat absently.
"Just providing the necessary food, clothing, shelter, and travel for more than a hundred new companions has already forced us to use the payment we received from Rei Kaguya. When I think about the expenses that will come after we return to the Land of Rain—building our own stronghold and base, the various costs necessary to maintain the organization's normal operation, and the spending needed to purchase weapons and medicine for the new members…"
"Even if we can take the full one billion ryo payment from Rei Kaguya's black-market account, without any income, it will probably only be enough to last a few years."
"That's exactly why the major shinobi villages keep starting wars and try so hard to expand their sphere of influence into more countries…"
Yahiko sighed with great emotion and shook his head.
"Without enough missions and commissions, a shinobi village cannot support that many shinobi. And the consequence of being unable to support enough elite shinobi is that their military strength declines, they gradually lose their nation's trust, and then they fall even further into financial deficit…"
"Sigh. If we had not tried managing a large organization ourselves, we probably would never be able to stand in the shoes of the higher-ups of the great nations and look at these things with empathy like we can now, right?"
"This might be one of the reasons Rei Kaguya tempted us into attending the Two Kage Meeting…"
Nagato looked up at the bright river of stars.
A thoughtful light flickered in his eyes.
"If we only shout slogans about hoping for peace, then anyone can do that. But if we want to truly realize peace, we must see the objective causes that lead to wars breaking out, then try to find the answer to solving them…"
"We have to use nonviolent methods to temporarily bring peace to this war-torn chaotic world, and at the same time, we have to find ways to solve the fuses that ignite endless wars… Isn't there way too much we need to do?"
Yahiko let out a mournful cry.
He spread himself into a large "大" shape and collapsed on the rooftop, no longer wanting to move.
Nagato, however, was not as pessimistic.
He stretched, took out the token Rei had given them from his robes, and stared at it thoughtfully.
"That may not necessarily be something we need to complete entirely on our own… At least regarding the matter of solving the fuses of war, I feel that guy Rei Kaguya probably would not mind providing us with some ideas and helping us conduct some trials for him."
"Hm? Why do you say that?"
Yahiko turned his head and assumed a posture of attentively listening.
"Because that guy has never really hidden his ambition to unify the shinobi world."
Nagato recalled how Rei had once chatted with him about some things he had heard from people who came from the future, and the way Rei had shown an attitude of being too lazy to evaluate the other party's chosen path.
He spoke unhurriedly.
"Do you still remember what he told us? The reason he did not want to continue fighting Konoha was not because he couldn't win, but because after winning, he could not guarantee his rule over the Land of Fire. Since he had already thought about how to rule the Land of Fire after the war, then he should also have thought about the various problems he would face after the shinobi world was unified, right?"
"In any case, there is no conflict of route between us and him for the time being. So borrowing some ideas from him and then testing the feasibility of those ideas ourselves should not be a problem, right?"
Yahiko sat up from the eaves and seriously considered Nagato's proposal.
If he had to name the people who had influenced his and Nagato's thoughts, they were none other than their teacher, Jiraiya, and Rei Kaguya, who maintained a very subtle relationship with them.
As an old orthodox Konoha shinobi who was born and raised in chaotic times and had received shinobi education since childhood, Jiraiya's way of thinking carried a strong shinobi flavor.
Although his pursuit of and yearning for peace could not be denied, had he ever given them a concrete plan for reaching peace?
No.
But Rei Kaguya was different.
As a shinobi from Kirigakure, Rei should have possessed a mindset even more shinobi-like than Jiraiya's, but unexpectedly, he had many ideas that did not seem like those of a shinobi at all, as well as some concepts that were far too advanced for this era.
Yahiko could not understand how Rei had formed such a unique way of thinking in a closed and cold environment like Kirigakure.
But that did not prevent him from hearing, amid Rei's bewitching "nonsense," certain things that could touch his heart and make him think seriously.
"Then, Nagato, aren't you worried that we might be influenced too much by Rei Kaguya's ideas, then slowly break away from our neutral position and completely fall to his side?"
After the silence continued for a while, Yahiko opened his mouth and asked Nagato the question that made him somewhat hesitant.
"We should not deny things that are right, Yahiko."
Nagato held his friend's hand with his slightly cold one and spoke freely.
"Jiraiya-sensei, who taught us, is from Konoha of the Land of Fire. Because we agreed with Jiraiya-sensei's ideas, we founded Akatsuki according to his teachings and worked continuously to build peace through means other than violence…"
"In the same way, although Rei Kaguya is from Kirigakure of the Land of Water, for us, who were born in the Land of Rain, his identity is at least somewhat better than that of Konoha shinobi who once invaded the Land of Rain, right?"
"If we can accept Jiraiya-sensei's teachings, then we can also accept the correct and beneficial parts of Rei Kaguya's ideas, allowing Akatsuki's ideals to become more complete."
"Do not forget. Although we selected the newly joined members very seriously and strictly, among them, there are definitely spies specially sent by the major shinobi villages to gather intelligence…"
"But so what? As long as everyone can work hard to realize Akatsuki's ideal and build peace, why should we care what their true identity behind the scenes is?"
"…Tch. Seriously. Are the Rinnegan really that powerful? Even when looking at these things that do not exist in a physical form, you see faster and more clearly than ordinary people like us…"
Yahiko's face showed a self-mocking smile.
At the same time, he casually teased his friend.
Nagato smiled indifferently and pulled Yahiko up with force.
"Maybe that is the case. But you are not allowed to slack off because of this and then push the work you should be doing onto me, Yahiko."
"Who do you think I am? I am Yahiko, the leader of Akatsuki. A little blow like this is nothing…"
"Ah, Yahiko, Nagato. So you two were here."
Several soft sheets of white paper drifted over on the wind and transformed into Konan's upper body in front of Nagato and Yahiko.
"Come to the meeting room quickly. There is an emergency that needs the two of you to make a decision."
An emergency?
One that needed the two of them to decide?
Nagato and Yahiko exchanged a look, then immediately leaped down from the eaves and rushed quickly toward the meeting room.
By the time they arrived, Konan and Karin Uzumaki were already waiting inside.
"What happened?"
Yahiko asked directly as soon as he entered.
"Is someone trying to rescue the Kekkei Genkai shinobi we're holding again, or is another group of unidentified shinobi approaching us from outside?"
"Um, neither of those…"
Karin raised her hand.
At the same time, she somewhat awkwardly began playing with her red hair.
"I was just interviewing the last batch of new members with Konan, preparing to assign them work according to what they were good at, when I suddenly discovered that one of them had a very strange chakra…"
"A very strange chakra? How strange?"
Nagato frowned.
His body rapidly entered a state of alert.
"It's just… that chakra is very, very similar to the chakra of someone I often sensed in the venue during the Hokage and Mizukage meeting."
Karin gestured in the air with her hand.
At the same time, she looked directly at Nagato, who belonged to the same clan as her, and said softly, "Because I never entered the meeting room, I cannot be sure exactly which person inside, aside from Rei Kaguya, that chakra belongs to… But Nagato, you have seen them. If you use Kagura Mind's Eye to sense him, you should be able to identify his exact identity, right?"
Someone who appeared in the meeting room during the Two Kage Meeting…
A certain chakra?
Yahiko and Nagato exchanged a look and quickly began making a simple process of elimination in their minds.
The Third Hokage, Hiruzen Sarutobi, and the Third Mizukage were already elderly men in their fifties or sixties. They clearly would not do something this ridiculous. Even if they wanted to, there would be plenty of people in their villages who would stand up and stop them from running to a small organization like Akatsuki to work undercover and humiliate themselves.
By the same logic, Minato Namikaze, who had just been promoted to Fourth Hokage, could not possibly be so idle shortly after taking office that he could come to Akatsuki for a part-time job.
Then the only remaining candidates were the Mizukage guard from Kirigakure, Yagura Karatachi, and the Hokage guard from Konoha, Jiraiya.
"It… It shouldn't be you, right?"
With an indescribably complicated expression, Nagato activated the Kagura Mind's Eye Karin had taught him.
Then a chakra with the same feeling as Jiraiya's clearly appeared within Nagato's perception.