"Hello."
Kakashi kept his tone respectful. Whoever these people were, they had just saved his life.
"First time meeting. Let me introduce myself—I'm Konan, member of the Akatsuki."
Kakashi's brow twitched. Another new name.
The Akatsuki.
"You're the ones who saved me?"
"That's right."
"Thank you."
Konan waved it off.
"No need. We didn't save you for your gratitude. We did it because this is what we want—what we dream of. For this world."
"This world is broken right now. Greed, power, profit… they've started every war you can think of. Countless people have lost everything—homes, families, lives. We're here to end all of it."
"We'll give everything we have. That's the Akatsuki."
"Kakashi… will you join us?"
Outside the room, Sasori listened and felt nothing but contempt.
Why didn't she feed me that pretty speech when I joined?
She just strong-armed me instead. Half my puppets got wrecked because of it.
Kakashi's first instinct was suspicion. Some random organization he'd never heard of suddenly wanted to "save the ninja world"? Saving the world wasn't that simple. The Five Great Villages were like immovable mountains. Anyone else was just noise. How the hell were they supposed to stop wars?
He thought for a second and came up blank.
"Can you actually do it?"
"Yes."
Konan met his eyes, completely serious.
"We fight because we still have hope. Even if your dream doesn't line up with ours, we know what happened to you. Your father—the White Fang—gave everything to the Leaf and still ended up like that. You gave everything too… and Danzo tried to kill you. Probably on the Hokage's orders."
"Don't you want revenge?"
"Join us and you'll have the power to take it."
Kakashi went quiet.
Saving the world? Ending all wars? Those goals felt too big, too far away. He couldn't even picture them.
But revenge? That he understood. For himself. For his father.
"I'm in."
Konan smiled.
"Welcome to the Akatsuki. From today on, you're one of us. Tomorrow I'll introduce you to the rest of the team."
She turned and left.
Kakashi stayed where he was, trying to process everything. A brand-new organization that wanted to save the world? Sounded like a joke.
The next day Konan brought a mostly recovered Kakashi to an underground meeting room. Several figures stood on the other side, all wearing the same red-cloud black cloaks. High collars hid half their faces. The dim light made it impossible to see clearly.
Kakashi was more convinced than ever that this wasn't a normal group.
Then the man in the center spoke.
"Kakashi. Welcome. My name is Pain. I'm the leader of the Akatsuki."
Kakashi looked at him. Short orange hair, sharp features, strange piercings on his nose and lower lip. Rings of patterns rippled across his eyes—nothing like normal human eyes. The pressure rolling off him was intense.
"Some kind of kekkei genkai?" Kakashi wondered.
He stepped forward.
"Kakashi. Good to meet you, leader."
Pain gave a small nod, then gestured at the others.
"We already know what happened to you. This ninja world is rotten—corrupt. The hidden villages are like parasites feeding off the world. They're the root of every disaster."
"Every one of us here has been through hell."
"This is Sasori of the Red Sand. From Sunagakure."
Kakashi's head snapped toward him.
Sasori. Kakashi knew exactly what that name meant. Sasori's parents had died at his father's hands. By every rule of the ninja world, Kakashi owed a blood debt.
Before Kakashi vanished, the Leaf had tried to spin it as Rasa murdering Sasori. Chiyo's public denial had killed that rumor fast. Now, standing face-to-face with the real Sasori, Kakashi knew the Leaf had been lying the whole time.
A bitter smile tugged at his mouth.
"Rasa didn't kill Sasori… but Danzo sure tried to kill me."
He looked straight at Sasori.
"I'm sorry."
Sasori waved it off like it was nothing.
"Don't be. War is war. People die. It's normal."
Bullshit. Sasori felt plenty. But he'd already figured out the pecking order here. The way the rest of the Akatsuki treated Kakashi versus how they treated him? Night and day. Kakashi was the golden boy. Sasori was the afterthought.
If he made a move on Kakashi right now, the others would back Kakashi in a heartbeat.
Compared to this place… maybe Rasa was the better option after all.
Sasori had carried a grudge against Rasa for a long time. But after seeing how the Akatsuki operated, he was starting to rethink everything. And that massive Sun Disk Rasa was building? Sasori still wanted to tear it apart and study every piece.
Pain pointed at the next two.
"This is Kakuzu. From Takigakure."
"This is Zetsu."
"Two more members couldn't make it today. You'll meet them soon enough. With you, that makes eight of us total."
"Starting today, you work with Zetsu."
Kakashi turned to look at the strange figure wrapped in a giant green plant. Half his face was bone-white and unsettling. The other half was charred black. The whole thing looked wrong.
Pain continued.
"Your missions are simple. Two goals. First—get stronger. Second—gather intel on the Tailed Beasts. That's the key to saving this world and ending every war."
High above them, a masked figure watched from the shadows.
"Kakashi… you owe me again."
"This time we'll build it together. A world where Rin exists."
Under the mask, Obito's face twisted into something unhinged.
"Even if we have to burn the entire world down to do it."