Orochimaru officially joins Akatsuki
Sasori looked to Tendō Pain.
"Your call. He might just be here to steal Akatsuki's information."
Orochimaru argued calmly:
"I won't do that. I'm simply interested in Akatsuki."
Pain thought briefly… then approved.
Sasori still hesitated.
"Is this really a good idea?"
Pain's logic was cold and practical:
"Better to keep him where we can watch him than let him roam free."
"As long as I'm here, he can't do whatever he wants."
Orochimaru nodded.
"You're stronger than me. That's true."
Pain snorted.
"Good. At least you know fear."
They left—
and Orochimaru stared at Pain's back, murmuring:
"Strange… I feel like I've seen him somewhere before."
"Fate really is… interesting."
Akatsuki becomes active across the ninja world
With new members recruited, Akatsuki began moving openly:
gathering wealth
assassinating daimyō
igniting conflicts between small nations
The major villages started paying attention—Konoha included.
Hokage's office: bad news
A masked ANBU entered.
"Hokage-sama. New intel."
The Third Hokage opened the scroll and frowned.
Orochimaru joined Akatsuki.
What is that snake planning now…?
Hiruzen knew Orochimaru too well—unlike Jiraiya, Orochimaru never acted without purpose.
And Konoha was already unstable:
a mysterious masked man was active in the shadows
Danzō was dead
the village's internal power balance was tense
Hiruzen exhaled.
"Another season of trouble…"
Now, the only real pillar he could rely on was Tsunade.
The two advisors, Homura and Koharu, were basically just noise at this point—especially after Tsunade's reforms started cutting into their "cake."
Still, Hiruzen couldn't offend Tsunade right now.
He needed her as a counterweight to Uchiha Yusuke.
So he made a decision:
Call a high-level meeting.
Konoha high-level meeting
Core figures gathered in the Hokage building.
Yusuke and Tsunade were both present.
Hiruzen shared the intel and asked for opinions.
But because Orochimaru was Hiruzen's former student… many stayed silent.
Everyone knew it:
Hiruzen had once hesitated and let Orochimaru escape.
Chasing him now would be politically ugly, and nobody expected Hiruzen to suddenly order an all-out hunt.
Even Tsunade didn't believe the old man would move that decisively.
Yusuke cares less about Orochimaru… and more about Akatsuki
Yusuke wasn't obsessed with Orochimaru.
But Akatsuki?
That was a storm that could overturn the entire shinobi world.
To Yusuke, the truly dangerous pieces were:
Nagato/Pain with the Rinnegan
Obito with space-time ninjutsu
Black Zetsu, lurking for a thousand-year plan
These were the kinds of enemies that eventually created the Fourth Shinobi World War.
So Yusuke stepped forward:
"This Akatsuki is dangerous."
"I want to personally lead a team to investigate."
Hiruzen was surprised—this kind of thankless job usually didn't get volunteers.
But Yusuke had his reasons:
his strength had improved again
he was one step away from Eternal Mangekyō
his newly built ANBU unit needed real field pressure to grow
Kakashi, Guy, and Kurenai were strong, but still not true "Kage-level."
This would harden them.
Tsunade immediately jumps in
Tsunade stood up with interest.
"Investigate Orochimaru and Akatsuki?"
"Sounds fun. Give it to me."
It wasn't duty.
It was competition.
Yusuke kept avoiding direct clashes with her—and she hated that.
Hiruzen tried to stop her:
"Tsunade, let Yusuke handle it."
"The village still needs you to hold things together."
Tsunade waved it off.
"Let Shizune handle it."
"I want to stretch my legs."
Hiruzen hesitated.
Her hemophobia was a real concern, and it was secret.
But this was mostly intel work… and he could send elite escorts.
So he asked Yusuke:
"Let Tsunade go with you. Any objections?"
Yusuke calmly nodded.
"No objections."
Decision made.
Mission designation:
Rank: Ultra S
Objective: Investigate Akatsuki
Departure: two squads move out
Next day, Yusuke assembled his team at the Konoha gate:
Might Guy
Kurenai
(Kakashi late as usual…)
Guy nearly exploded from impatience.
"This is wasting the flames of youth!"
Kakashi finally arrived with the same old excuse—helping an old woman.
Yusuke internally scoffed.
At this hour the market isn't even open.
Kakashi really did inherit Obito's "late-arrival tradition"—even the excuses are the same.
Then Tsunade arrived, leading Genma, Raido, and Iwaashi—Minato's former guard trio, capable of performing Flying Thunder God as a team.
Hiruzen wasn't careless.
With Tsunade's regen + a teleport-capable escort unit, even if something went bad, retreat was realistic.
Yusuke just nodded politely.
Tsunade, annoyed at his calmness, decided even harder:
I'll make this guy admit I'm better.
Search strategy: where Akatsuki might appear
Tsunade focused on Otogakure—connected to Orochimaru.
Yusuke aimed toward Water Country—because Obito's next moves and the "Bloody Mist" era were looming, and rumors tied Akatsuki activity to that region.
Both routes made sense.
But Akatsuki specialized in vanishing footprints.
That's why even the Five Great Nations stayed mostly clueless for so long.
First real lead: a black-market exchange
Yusuke's team traveled through Fire Country, investigating:
masked-man traces
black cloaks with red clouds
rogue headbands
No luck for a long stretch—expected, because Kamui makes Obito nearly impossible to track.
Finally, near Mount Kōmyō / the Fire Temple area, they reached a black-street exchange (bounty station).
A contact reported:
"A man in a red-cloud cloak came here. Black mask."
Yusuke immediately connected it to one name:
Kakuzu.
Because Akatsuki members usually had "beliefs," and Kakuzu's belief was the most obvious:
Money.
A veteran criminal who'd been around forever—rumored to have once even tried assassinating the First Hokage.
And now…
Yusuke finally had a thread worth pulling.
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