"Hurry, over here!"
"Leader, the situation with the wounded on the main level is quite serious, I am afraid."
Yuji, bound and under specialist guard, had been brought into the underground base. He leaned against the damp cold wall and watched Akatsuki members rushing back and forth through the narrow passageways, their faces full of anxiety.
At this moment, they were treating the wounded soldiers who had just fought against the Hidden Rain Village. The air carried a faint smell of blood. The rudimentary environment, harsh surgical conditions, and limited skilled medical personnel made Akatsuki's treatment process visibly and painfully difficult.
He watched a medical ninja with a grave expression say something to Yahiko and then turn and leave. Yahiko's expression was solemn.
"Such difficult circumstances. It is genuinely remarkable that your organization has managed to fight the Hidden Rain Village until now."
A voice came from behind. Nagato turned his head toward the masked figure.
"Treat the wounded with this medicine."
Yuji said simply.
Nagato looked at him.
"What your organization is facing is a critical problem. Although relying on Sand Village medicine can preserve a portion of your fighting strength, it only treats the symptoms rather than the underlying issue. Your medicine reserves are too small.
Each battle produces casualties in considerable numbers, which means the already limited supply can only cover a fraction of the wounded, with no guarantee of saving even those it reaches."
He continued.
"What are you suggesting?" Nagato asked.
"Your Akatsuki operates across the entire Land of Rain. The battlefield extends far beyond this single location. If you had sufficient Sand Village medicine in reliable supply, you could dramatically reduce this kind of loss.
Furthermore, if your organization could establish a mature internal medical team, that would also address the problem at a structural level."
Nagato stared at the masked figure in silence.
The other party made it sound straightforward. Achieving it was an entirely different matter.
"Simply cooperate with me, and I can ensure your organization has a reliable ongoing supply of pharmaceuticals. Your organization's finances are not exactly healthy right now, are they? Even if you manage to scrape together small amounts occasionally, the purchasing channels from Sand Village merchants are constrained, and those merchants cannot give you more than a trickle. Gradually, your casualty numbers will only continue to rise."
Yuji chuckled quietly.
Nagato said nothing.
There was no such thing as a free arrangement in this world. This mysterious person had directly stated a hope that Akatsuki would eventually take over the Hidden Rain Village. Managing the Land of Rain would then yield benefits for whoever was behind this. This already ran counter to Akatsuki's founding principles.
At this moment, Yahiko and Konan arrived. Nagato stepped forward and whispered a few words to Yahiko.
Yahiko listened, then slowly approached.
"Please be assured. Once we relocate to our new base after some time, we will release you."
"You would disregard the sacrifices of your comrades for the sake of your own ideals?" Yuji questioned.
"It is not disregarding them," Yahiko replied. "It is carrying their sacrifice in our hearts. When peace comes one day, everything will have meaning."
He continued.
"The reason you sought us out is simply to use us to overthrow the Hidden Rain Village's rule and take over this country. Later, you would attempt to extract this country's resources and interests for your own purposes. We will absolutely not agree to this kind of betrayal of the Land of Rain."
"Regardless of which force or organization you represent, I can only say that you have come to the wrong people."
"Furthermore, you appear to have misunderstood Akatsuki's actual purpose. We do not want to stand in opposition to the Hidden Rain Village. If it were possible, we would rather cooperate with the Hidden Rain Village to rectify the Land of Rain's situation together.
The Hidden Rain Village would remain the visible governing authority of the Land of Rain on the surface while we operate from a less visible position. We do not crave power."
Yahiko corrected the mysterious figure's framing plainly.
"I have not misunderstood you. Rather, you simply do not understand Salamander Hanzo."
Yuji interrupted without any particular politeness.
"You intend to resolve the situation through communication and dialogue. Some of you even show a degree of genuine respect toward Salamander Hanzo. But do not forget what the Land of Rain's current power structure actually represents.
It is the product of absolute dominance maintained through force over many years. Hanzo himself is a figure who emerged from the most brutal flames of war and survived by being stronger than everything around him."
"Powerful, domineering, and with an absolute reverence for strength. For someone like him, your very act of rising to this level is already a provocation he cannot tolerate. Even if you were given the opportunity to stand before him and speak, what he would be thinking throughout is how to kill you. Not how to engage in equal dialogue."
"From beginning to end, in his eyes, you are all enemies. Not companions."
His words caused a visible shift in Konan's and Nagato's expressions. But Yahiko remained completely unmoved.
"You have your own understanding of the situation. I have mine."
He paused.
"However, thank you for your concern."
After saying this, Yahiko turned and walked away. Konan gave the masked figure one last sharp look, then quickly followed Yahiko until both disappeared into the passageway.
Only Nagato, who had been tasked with continuing to hold the prisoner, remained with a few other Akatsuki members.
"He is truly out of his mind."
Yuji sighed inwardly.
It could be said that Akatsuki's greatest strength and its greatest vulnerability were both Yahiko.
He had originally intended to infiltrate Akatsuki under the guise of a righteous wandering warrior type. But even under that framing, making a meaningful impression or gaining genuine influence within the organization in a short timeframe would be relatively difficult.
The primary problem was that he did not have much time to spare right now. He could not afford to carefully execute a slow step-by-step plan. His only viable approach was to use medicinal resources to make his value and importance undeniable.
Furthermore, he absolutely had to infiltrate Akatsuki's ranks rather than simply maintaining an external trade or cooperation relationship. A purely external arrangement would never give him a clear view of Akatsuki's internal workings and decision-making.
Before long, as the conflict between Akatsuki and the Hidden Rain Village escalated toward its inevitable decisive confrontation, he needed to be on the inside.
Being captured as a prisoner who could not defeat the three of them served a purpose in itself. It would cause the three to slightly lower their guard against him, believing their combined strength was sufficient to keep him in check.
Remaining inside the organization under these circumstances offered considerably more operational flexibility than any outside position.
The next step was to be in a position to influence their decision-making process at the critical moment.
Of course, there was currently no clean way to simply eliminate the three of them. That was not the goal. The goal was to ensure that both Akatsuki and the Hidden Rain Village suffered heavy enough losses against each other that when the Sand Village eventually sent its forces, a complete harvest could be reaped.
Most importantly, the goal was to instigate Akatsuki into a decisive confrontation against Hanzo's forces. This was not simply about eliminating Hanzo's soldiers. On that point alone, Yuji did not need to intervene directly. Nagato could accomplish that by himself given sufficient provocation. But to influence Akatsuki's direction, one had to influence Yahiko. And judging from the negotiations just now, the difficulty of that task was extraordinarily high.
He glanced sideways in a particular direction.
"White Zetsu has been lurking in the shadows throughout all of this. There has not been a single opening to move against him."
He thought through the sequence.
"That approach is completely off the table for now. First, I need to change Yahiko's fate and prevent Nagato from acquiring the power of the Rinnegan prematurely. Then wait for Obito's situation to play out before any further steps can be discussed."
"The first priority is to use Akatsuki to deal with Danzo and Obito."
He narrowed his eyes, thinking it through carefully.
...
Read upto 70 chapters ahead@ keepsmiling818 p2reon