This Akatsuki meeting ended very quickly.
So quickly that some people hadn't even reacted before it was directly adjourned.
In the end,
Due to the failure of the first capture mission for the Kyubi Jinchuriki, to avoid further alerting the enemy,
Pain had to begin postponing the entire tailed beast capture plan.
Regarding this,
Although Kakuzu, Deidara, and others had some complaints,
They were also ignored by Pain.
...
However,
What they didn't know at this moment was,
Inside the Akatsuki base.
Shortly after the meeting adjourned,
A spatial vortex appeared here.
Then,
A man in a black robe with a vortex mask appeared.
The moment he appeared,
He spoke in his usual deep voice:
"The Kyubi capture mission,"
"As expected... failed?"
"..."
Hearing this,
Pain and Konan immediately turned to look, and saw the masked man's red Sharingan flickering slightly.
After a moment, Pain slightly nodded and said calmly:
"An accident occurred."
"This plan seems to need postponing again."
"..."
Hearing this,
The masked man felt speechless inside.
These two people still hadn't seen the strangeness in this...
After a moment,
He slightly calmed his mind.
That's right.
He naturally knew.
This failure was fundamentally not an accident.
After all, with Itachi, Konoha's number one filial son, around, how could the Kyubi Jinchuriki be breached so easily...
In fact,
From the very beginning,
When the masked man recruited Itachi,
He never expected that he would actually help Akatsuki overthrow the Shinobi World or attack Konoha.
After all,
This guy was a ruthless person who could annihilate his clan for Konoha's sake.
Therefore,
The masked man had also long known,
The reason he was willing to join Akatsuki was completely to protect Konoha.
In other words,
While this guy seemed to have betrayed Konoha,
In reality, he was fundamentally a spy with his heart still in Konoha.
The reason he joined Akatsuki was probably to monitor Akatsuki and thus protect Konoha.
This Kyubi capture mission was a perfect example.
And from the start,
The masked man was deeply aware of this.
But he didn't expose it.
Because he had been cleverly using Itachi's power all along.
Although this exploitation came with certain risks, after all, Itachi's strength was great, and he might be killed instead.
But, if used well,
With his Mangekyo Sharingan strength, capturing Tailed Beasts would be twice the result with half the effort.
Anyway, as long as they finally successfully gathered the nine Tailed Beasts and completed the Infinite Tsukuyomi, it would be his victory.
As for that Kyo, who possessed even greater strength...
Exploit him?
No way.
The masked man had never thought about it.
As the only person in the entire Akatsuki who had escaped the masked man's control, he was no longer someone who could be easily schemed against.
Perhaps,
Only after he became the Ten-Tails Jinchuriki,
Could he steadily win against this golden-eyed guy...
The masked man pondered slightly in his heart.
After a long silence,
He finally raised his eyes again, and then said indifferently:
"In that case,"
"Let's push back the plan to collect the Tailed Beasts a little further."
"Peace in the Shinobi World is already close at hand,"
"Don't be too impatient... Nagato."
The masked man said slowly, his tone slightly strange.
In fact,
The plan to capture Kyubi had long ago been placed at the end of the task list by the masked man.
After all,
As the strongest Tailed Beast,
Kyubi's magnitude was far beyond what other Tailed Beasts could compare to.
Capturing it,
Required careful consideration.
Therefore,
The masked man had never mentioned this task to Nagato.
But he never expected,
Just after he went out for a few days, he came back and found out...
Nagato had already started!
This first Kyubi Jinchuriki capture plan, the masked man hadn't even had time to participate in it.
Nagato had taken the liberty to dispatch Itachi and the others.
When this happened,
Without thinking, the masked man knew,
This kid Nagato,
Must have gotten anxious.
Therefore,
He was saying this now, hoping to stabilize Nagato's mindset.
After all,
As the owner of the Rinnegan, the masked man didn't want him to prematurely ruin the Eye of the Moon Plan.
And at this moment,
Hearing the masked man's words, Pain paused slightly, then lowered his eyes and said indifferently:
"...Understood."
As things stood,
He naturally knew that he had been a bit too hasty before.
As could be seen from the failure of this Kyubi capture, currently, Akatsuki's preparations were still insufficient.
They hadn't completely mastered the intelligence on the Jinchuriki.
Luckily this time,
The matter of capturing the Tailed Beast hadn't attracted Konoha's attention,
Otherwise,
Akatsuki's plan might have been prematurely aborted...
Thinking this,
Nagato raised his eyes again, gazing deeply at the masked man ahead, and said deeply:
"Madara, next..."
"Let's still act according to your previous plan."
"..."
...
Amegakure, on the streets.
A light drizzle still fell slowly, hitting the tall buildings, hitting the ground, and also hitting the pedestrians' umbrellas.
Although Amegakure was in a perennial rainy season, it wasn't storming every day.
In fact,
More often than not, it was this kind of continuous light rain.
At this moment,
Kyo, holding an umbrella, walked alone in the rain.
His gaze was leisurely.
In fact,
The outcome of this meeting was something Kyo had long anticipated.
After all, from the moment Itachi applied to go to Konoha, Kyo understood that this guy was going to start acting.
Sure enough,
This time, they returned completely empty-handed.
If Pain and Konan hadn't happened to know about Jiraiya's formidable strength,
Itachi's sandbagging would probably have been exposed long ago.
However,
Regarding this situation,
Kyo was naturally happy to see it.
After all,
This way, he finally had enough time to properly rest for a while.
Starting from a month ago,
Kyo had been busy with various Akatsuki missions and system tasks.
First, there was the initial trip to Konoha to carry out the subversion plan, then later the trip to Iwagakure to recruit Deidara, and then not long ago the trip to Tanzaku Town and recruiting Hidan.
Kyo had hardly rested at all.
Although the battles in these missions weren't too tiring, after all, Kyo was instantly killing every time he fought,
However,
Running around the Shinobi World all day was truly a bit tiring.
Being properly lazy was the way to go.
"Decided..."
"Starting today, I'll just be a slacker for a while first."
Thinking this,
Kyo curled his lips and walked forward.
His figure gradually faded away.
Raindrops flew.
...
Time flowed like water, leaves fell in succession.
Although Amegakure had never bloomed any flowers,
Outside,
Flowers bloomed and withered again and again.
Spring passed, autumn came.
Unconsciously, another few years had passed.
And on this day,
A rare sunny day.
In Amegakure,
The nine members of Akatsuki, after various minor missions over three years, finally assembled together again.
But this time,
It was no longer some minor mercenary mission.
Today...
Was the beginning of the true Tailed Beast 'Peace' Plan!