Inside a dim cave, several faint shadowy figures stood in Akatsuki's base.
This was the Illusionary Projection Technique. Simply put, members of Akatsuki could turn their chakra into "thought waves." Pain would receive these waves and project illusions in a fixed location.
In short, it was a way to communicate without showing up in person.
Zetsu emerged from underground. Akatsuki missions were always done in pairs, but Kakuzu was clearly missing a teammate.
"One of them died. Though you could say he was killed by the enemy, to be more accurate, he was probably killed by his own side."
"Well, it was his own fault for being slow and dragging things out."
Kakuzu crossed his arms and looked to the side with a bit of annoyance.
Zetsu projected the actual image. Basically, the enemy and the ally were blown up together by Kakuzu.
"On purpose."
"Definitely on purpose."
Sasori and Orochimaru both gave the same take. They didn't like each other, but when it came to judging others, they sounded exactly alike.
"He could've just dodged."
Kakuzu still acted like he was in the right. Having weak people tagging along was annoying—they just got in the way. He'd rather do things alone.
Pain didn't seem interested in blaming anyone. After all, these rogue ninjas all had strange personalities.
Getting killed for being too weak wasn't surprising.
But until they found someone new to join the team—or until another member died—Kakuzu wouldn't be given any major missions for now.
"Akatsuki is about to enter the next phase, which is the Tailed Beasts."
"Tailed Beasts are mostly controlled by the Five Great Nations, though a few are still missing."
"You can look into them while you're out on missions."
Kakuzu seemed to remember something and said,
"The Fourth Mizukage, Yagura Karatachi, who was the Three-Tails' Jinchuriki, is already dead."
"The Three-Tails should still be in the Land of Water, but no one knows who the new host is."
Kirigakure's reforms happened so fast it left people confused.
After the Fourth Mizukage died, no one else was ever named as the new Three-Tails' Jinchuriki.
Pain nodded. It made sense for Kakuzu to go to Kirigakure—his sense for money was always sharp.
That place had also been grabbing money like crazy lately, though the targets were different from Akatsuki's.
They weren't interfering with each other, and for now, it didn't seem like Kirigakure could do anything to hurt Akatsuki's plans.
Pain decided to wait and see what Kirigakure's real goal was with all these reforms and changes.
The Rinnegan quietly scanned the people around, finally settling on Juzo, who was trying his best not to be noticed.
"Juzo, you're in charge of matters related to the Land of Water."
"Aren't there any other missions?"
Juzo tried to avoid it, but in the end, he still got dragged in. He reluctantly gave a response.
Itachi silently watched the unwilling Biwa Juzo with his Sharingan.
He wasn't very familiar with the Land of Water. After the Third Great Ninja War ended, Kirigakure Village pretty much went quiet.
Aside from the occasional spy, it barely made its presence known.
With a big ocean between them, even though it was called the Village of the Bloody Mist, that was just something they'd heard about.
"You know that place well, don't you?"
Pain didn't give Biwa Juzo a chance to refuse and quickly ended the projection technique.
Juzo and Itachi sat on opposite sides of the fire. As soon as they opened their eyes, Juzo's face fell.
"This is just unreasonable. I really don't want to go back to that annoying place."
It felt like your new boss telling you to return to your old job to dig up some info—except the old job is heavily armed and ready to kill you.
Just thinking about it made Juzo's head ache.
The next morning.
After walking through the forest, they reached a huge cliff that marked the border of the Land of Water, with rushing water below.
Juzo planted his big sword in the ground and looked across to the trees on the other side.
This spot was still a bit away from the Land of Water, and the forest did a good job blocking the view of Kirigakure Village.
Normally, no one would cross the border from this point.
Juzo glanced at the woods, looking a bit puzzled. He could've sworn the last time he came through here, the area was covered in thick mist.
Why was it almost all cleared up now?
Since Karatachi Yagura died, had Kirigakure Village finally given up on that insane mist policy?
"So, have you been to the Land of Water before? It's kind of like my hometown."
Juzo looked back at the quiet Itachi. Low-key and quiet — that was his strongest impression of the Uchiha.
"Not for a mission."
Itachi answered honestly.
"What about for a trip?"
He was only trying to lighten the mood, but Itachi stayed totally silent and didn't respond at all.
Juzo paused, then let out an annoyed "Tch" through his teeth.
"Forget it. You're really no fun. Anyway, the mission's not hard — we're supposed to assassinate someone from the Land of Water's Daimyo family."
"There are too many heirs in the Land of Water, so stuff like this happens."
"Kirigakure Village isn't allowed to directly interfere with Daimyo affairs, and the Daimyo isn't supposed to meddle in village matters either. That's how the balance works."
"That's why the Daimyo is coming to us now. Once this job is done, we'll also need to dig around for info on the Three-Tails."
Juzo gave Itachi a simple summary of the mission.
It wasn't a tough job — they had done plenty of assassinations before.
Leaving aside the tailed beast part, this was just a normal assignment.
Itachi nodded slightly, seeming deep in thought.
"The old rule in Kirigakure Village was to immediately catch and kill any foreign ninja found on their land to get intel."
"But now things seem to be changing because of reforms."
Juzo thought back to the old hardliners who were still in the village and shook his head helplessly.
Even if reforms were happening, there was no way all of those stubborn guys had been replaced.
And when it came to dealing with rogue ninja, that likely hadn't changed either.
After a brief pause, Itachi joined the conversation.
"They don't do prisoner exchanges, and they've got a special unit just for hunting down rogue ninjas. That's about all we know."
Biwa Juzo nodded, then pointed at Itachi, whose face was half-hidden in his Akatsuki cloak.
"Yeah, because your Konohagakure is soft, you and Orochimaru get to live easy as rogue ninjas."
"Oh, right—if I get caught here, just kill me right away and run. That's Plan C."
"Alright, do you have a Plan D or not? If not, let's just go."
Itachi usually didn't bother making detailed plans anyway. He was good at thinking on the fly.
Itachi lowered his eyes and said quietly,
"No more plans."
The two of them moved quickly, crossing the border and heading straight toward the Daimyo of the Land of Water's residence.
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