Inside a secluded inn on the border of the Land of Crafts--
Deidara leaned lazily against the window, his long golden hair casually tied behind his head, toying with a lump of clay in his hand. Outside the window, the sunlight from the Heavenly Screen shone down, illuminating a brutal battlefield— Might Guy's "Daytime Tiger" tore through the air, and the violent shockwave swept everything away.
"Hmm... that move has a touch of artistry, hmm!" Deidara narrowed his eyes, a smile of appreciation playing on his lips. "But compared to my explosion, it still lacks a bit of impact, hmm!"
He turned to look at the scorpion on the other side of the room, only to find that the other was completely ignoring him, its head down, intently fiddling with the newly purchased materials—a few pieces of rare metal, the bones of some unknown creature, and several bottles of liquid shimmering with an eerie light.
"Hey, Sasori, say something, huh!" Deidara pouted in dissatisfaction.
Scorpion slowly raised his head. Beneath the Puppet mask of Hiruko, his cold eyes swept across the Heavenly Screen before he lowered his head again to continue adjusting the parts in his hands, his voice hoarse and indifferent:
"Taijutsu? They're nothing more than a burst of power in an instant, with absolutely no sustainability."
Deidara raised an eyebrow. "Ha! At least it's better than your Puppets, right? Your pile of junk couldn't produce this kind of effect, hmm!"
Scorpion's fingers paused slightly, then he sneered, "Art... is not about destruction, but about eternity."
"Eternity?" Deidara scoffed. "No matter how exquisite your Puppet is, it can't withstand a single 'C4 Garuda' from me, hmm!"
Scorpion didn't reply, but silently continued assembling the parts in his hands, while his mind wandered—
(Indeed... the current Puppets are not perfect yet.)
(If we could obtain even stronger materials... for example, the corpses of those powerful beings in the Heavenly Screen...)
His gaze swept back to the Heavenly Screen, settling on the Impure World Reincarnation Minato Namikaze.
(The Impure World Reincarnation body of the Fourth Hokage...)
Deidara, seeing that Sasori was ignoring him again, sighed in boredom and changed the subject, talking about his recent experiences. "Speaking of which, I went to the Land of Earth to replenish my clay the other day. Those Iwa ninjas all ran away from me when they saw me. Hmm! How boring! I wanted to show them my new art—'C4 Garuda'!"
Sasori finally stopped what he was doing and said coldly, "You're too flamboyant, Deidara. The entire Shinobi World is watching Akatsuki right now, Pain has already ordered them to keep a low profile."
"Tch!" Deidara rolled his eyes. "Anyway, with a leader as powerful as that, who would dare to cause trouble? Hmm!"
Scorpion did not respond, but silently embedded the newly assembled mechanism into the Puppet's joints.
(The future seen through the Heavenly Screen... if all the enemies are that powerful...)
(Perhaps I should start preparing in advance.)
Outside the inn, several ninjas from the Land of Crafts were cautiously keeping watch.
"Is it confirmed? It really is Deidara and Sasori from Akatsuki?"
"No mistake... Although they've changed into civilian clothes, they look exactly like the ones in the intelligence..."
"Go quickly and inform the leader! But under no circumstances should they be alerted!"
However, they didn't notice --
A tiny Clay Spider was silently crawling up the nape of one of the ninjas' necks...
Deidara suddenly grinned and flicked his finger slightly—
"Bang!"
A faint explosion was heard in the distance, followed by panicked shouts.
"Hmm! Finally, something fun is happening!"
The scorpion didn't even raise its head, but simply said:
"Boring."
Within the territory of the Land of Rice Fields--
Kakuzu carried a corpse, Earth Flow casually ahead like dragging a sack. The corpse still bore the marks of being pierced by the tentacles of the Earth Grudge Fear, and the blood had long since dried.
"Tsk, Orochimaru... he's still so good at hiding." He grumbled in a low voice, his green pupils gleaming coldly in the shadows.
Hidan, carrying the Bloodstained Triple-Bladed Scythe, followed behind listlessly, kicking pebbles in the road with his toes. "Kakuzu, you're too long-winded. If we can't find it, we can't find it. Anyway, the Lord Jashin won't care who the sacrifice is."
Kakuzu snorted coldly, "Idiot, the bounty is the important thing. We can't have come all this way for nothing."
"Ha! You'll end up handing over all the money you earn anyway, won't you?" Hidan grinned, revealing sharp teeth. "If you ask me, we should just storm into the nearby villages and hold a grand ceremony—"
"Shut up," Kakuzu interrupted him. "Pain said we need to keep a low profile now."
Hidan rolled his eyes. "Tch, the leader is just too cautious. The Heavenly Screen Veil has already exposed almost everything about Akatsuki, what's with the talk of keeping a low profile!"
Kakuzu ignored him completely, silently calculating her profits from this encounter.
(The six million taels bounty, plus the two minor characters I dealt with earlier... is barely enough to cover last month's losses.)
(However, if we could capture Sasuke Uchiha...)
His gaze swept towards the dense forest in the distance, where several small snakes were silently slipping into the grass.
The pupils of several small snakes reflected the departing figures of Kakuzu and Hidan. Their gazes were shared, fixed on an underground base somewhere—
Orochimaru leaned lazily against the laboratory chair, his silver hair like frost, with faint ice patterns appearing on his skin. In the culture tank in front of him, Sasuke was immersed in a special medicinal solution with his eyes closed, his body wrapped in Cursed Seal patterns.
"Kakuzu... Hidan..." Orochimaru licked his lips lightly, "How lively, such persistent hunters."
Kabuto Yakushi pushed up his glasses, the lenses reflecting a cold light. "Should we get rid of them?"
"No need," Orochimaru chuckled. "Let them search at their own pace... Even if they turn the Land of Rice Fields upside down, it will be meaningless."
Bounty Office, the underground base of the Land of Rice Fields --
Kakuzu threw the body on the counter, and the dust that kicked up made the old man behind the counter frown.
"Iwagakure missing-nin from Iwagakure, with a bounty of six million ryo," Kakuzu said coldly.
The old man slowly flipped through the ledger, glanced at the corpse, and said, "Confirmed. However..." He lowered his voice, "There's a new bounty on the table that you might be interested in."
Kakuzu raised an eyebrow. "Speak."
The old man pushed over a scroll, on which was—
Bounty Target: Orochimaru's whereabouts
Amount: Twenty million taels
Posted by: Anonymous (suspected high-ranking member of Iwagakure)
Hidan leaned over and whistled, "Wow, Kakuzu, should we switch careers and become bounty hunters?"
Kakuzu put away the scroll and snorted coldly, "Let's go."
"Huh? You're leaving already? Aren't you going to ask for details?"
"Idiot..." Kakuzu without turning his head, "This bounty is clearly a trap."
Hidan shrugged, shouldered his scythe, and followed. "Alright, alright~ We've got enough sacrifices anyway."
On a desolate mountain path on the border of the Land of Lightning--
Uchiha Itachi and Kisame Hoshigaki walked side by side, both dressed in ordinary traveler's attire, their cloak hoods concealing their prominent Forehead Protector and distinctive features. Kisame carried Samehada, which was wrapped in bandages, and occasionally glanced up at the Heavenly Screen, while Itachi Earth Flow silently ahead, his gaze lowered, his thoughts churning like an undercurrent.
"Itachi-san, that Konoha Ninja with the kappa-like haircut is ridiculously strong~" Kisame grinned, his sharp teeth gleaming coldly in the sunlight, "That 'Daytime Tiger' attack, if I took it head-on, it would probably blast even my Samehada into dust, right?"
Itachi did not respond, but simply raised his head slightly to look at the figure of Six Paths Madara in the Heavenly Screen —his white hair was like snow, surrounded by nine Truth-Seeking Orbs, and the pressure of the Rinne Sharingan seemed to be able to penetrate time and space.
(The changes in Madara... from the initial Eternal Mangekyō Sharingan, to the Rinnegan during the Impure World Reincarnation, and now to the Six Paths Form...)
(This is by no means a coincidence.)
Seeing that Kisame didn't answer, Kisame continued, "Speaking of which, your Uchiha Clan ancestors were truly terrifying. Even in death, they were still so capable of causing trouble." He tilted his head, "Of all the content Heavenly Screen has released, he has appeared the most times, getting stronger each time, almost like he's leveling up."
"..."
Itachi's pupils contracted slightly.
(Upgrade? No... more like... "unlock".)
He recalled the inscription on the stone tablet at the Naka Shrine, the secrets passed down through generations of the Uchiha Clan, and even Pain's Rinnegan —those eyes that resembled Madara's in the Heavenly Screen.
(If Madara's Rinnegan wasn't innate, but rather "acquired" through some means...)
(So, is Pain's Rinnegan the same?)
Kisame suddenly stopped, the bandages on Samehada twitching slightly. "Itachi-san, are we really going to the Land of Lightning? Orochimaru is too cunning; we might just end up wasting our time there."