Waterfall Village's Plea for Help

Pain and Konan exchanged a glance, and a ripple finally appeared in their silent pupils.

"According to the intelligence that came out, Hidan was blown to pieces, leaving only his head, which was buried in some unknown ruin. I didn't expect that he could come back alive under such circumstances..." Konan said with a hint of surprise in her tone.

"It seems the Evil God he worships does have some tricks up his sleeve. Let's go see him." Pain walked out with his perpetually zombie-like face.

"Kakuzu? Is he dead? What a pity. I should have made him listen to me and worship the Evil God with me long ago, otherwise he wouldn't have been killed by those brats." Hidan sighed with great melancholy. After all, he was afraid that he could never find anyone in this world who could be his perfect partner again.

"Since Sasori is dead, you can team up with Deidara from now on," Pain said indifferently.

"That idiot who pursues art? Whatever, as long as it doesn't interfere with my killing, it's fine." Hidan licked his lips in a perverted way and looked at Pain: "According to the agreement, shouldn't you find someone to help me complete the ritual first? After all, without Kakuzu's assistance, it wouldn't be good if the ritual to please the Evil God was interrupted."

Pain and Konan weren't surprised, since the condition for Hidan to join Akatsuki was to help him complete the killing ritual to please the Evil God. However, they had never seen the so-called ritual play any role over the years, and over time, they came to regard the ritual as Hidan's perverted killing addiction.

"I'll go with you," Konan said from the side. "Where will the ceremony be held?"

"I've heard that Kakuzu defected from Hidden Waterfall Village because he was treated unfairly there. Let's make it the site of the blood sacrifice ritual to commemorate Kakuzu."

"Wow, it's so hot, so hot! It's really hard to pick up noodles with my left hand!" Naruto said, half frustrated and half satisfied.

"Let's see if you dare to abuse forbidden techniques again!" Sakura said angrily from the side.

"Haha, it's alright, Sakura will heal me anyway!"

"Idiot, medical ninjutsu isn't a panacea. Besides, forbidden techniques are forbidden because they consume a lot of the user's energy or cause great harm or even death. If you do this again, you really might die!"

Just as Naruto was about to crack a joke, a boy with a gentle smile on his face walked in.

"Sakura, Sakura, the Hokage has summoned you for an urgent mission."

"An emergency mission? Sai, do you know what kind of emergency mission it is?"

"I don't know, but the people from Team 8 and Team 10 have also been drafted, so the situation must be complicated."

"Well, let's get going without delay."

"Ugh, wait a minute, I... I'll be done soon!" Naruto picked up the bowl of soup noodles and gulped it down, quickly finishing the fight. "Burp~~~ I'm done!"

"Um... Naruto, the Hokage didn't tell me to inform you," Sai said awkwardly.

"Yes, yes, you should stay in the village and focus on recovering." Sakura nodded in deep agreement.

"How can this be? The members of Team 8 and Team 10 are here. How can Team 7 be absent? Besides, look, my injury has actually healed a long time ago!" To prove his words, Naruto decisively untied the bandage on his right hand and even recklessly swung it around a few times.

"See, Sai, I told you so... Hey? Sai, why aren't you saying anything? What are you doing staring at what's behind me?"

"Heh, since your injury has healed a long time ago, does that mean you've been faking illness to gain sympathy these past few days?" A resentful voice sounded behind Naruto.

"Yeah, you noticed that..." Naruto suddenly remembered something, his face filled with horror, and he hurriedly changed his words, "No, no... Ahhh!"

"You pretended to be sick and made me worry, you pretended to be sick and made me take care of you Tenten, and now you want to pretend to be disabled? Today I'm going to beat you into a cripple!"

The Hokage's office.

Looking at Sakura, who was still furious, and Naruto, Naruto head was swollen like a pig's head, Tsunade's lips twitched, unsure of what to say.

Finally, Kakashi stepped in to break the slightly awkward atmosphere. "Hokage-sama, what kind of urgent mission requires us all to be gathered here?"

Not to mention that the Konoha Twelve have grown into strong individuals capable of standing on their own, he and Kurenai Yuhi alone, these two elite Jonin, are enough to handle most S-rank top-secret missions. The fact that they were all gathered together this time shows that the difficulty of the mission has surpassed that of most S-rank missions.

"It's an urgent request for help from Hidden Waterfall Village. Two mysterious people dressed in red clouds and black clothes have invaded their village and have wiped out most of the ninjas guarding it."

"A mysterious figure in red clouds and black clothes? A member of the Akatsuki!" Kakashi had already fought against the Akatsuki many times, reacted quickly, and the others also looked grave. Anything involving that powerful and crazy mysterious organization was definitely not a simple matter.

"Is it about taking the Tailed Beasts?" Kurenai Yuhi asked.

"No, according to the leader of Hidden Waterfall Village, their village's Seven-Tails Jinchuriki disappeared long ago, and this attack seems to be purely for killing!"

"Simply killing?" Kakashi frowned slightly. Although the Akatsuki was full of S-rank rogue ninja from various ninja villages and were extremely dangerous, based on his understanding, those people should have been driven by some kind of ambition to finally erupt after years of forbearance. There was no reason for them to do anything unnecessarily at such a critical moment.

"Yes, according to the description of the leader of Hidden Waterfall Village, one of them is a female ninja who has never appeared in the Shinobi World before. Her abilities seem to be related to origami. As for the other one, she should be the mastermind behind this operation. She is also the ninja who worshipped the Evil God that appeared last time, Hidan!"

At this point, everyone looked at Shikamaru with surprised and uncertain eyes. Shikamaru, who had been looking unfocused and lost in thought, changed his lazy and indolent demeanor and said with great certainty, "That's absolutely impossible. I saw his body explode into pieces last time, leaving only his head buried in the ground!"

"After all, the enemy is a member of that mysterious organization. We don't know what kind of abilities he has. Perhaps physical regeneration is one of his abilities, but it will take a long time to recover." Tsunade shook her head. There are just too many mysterious and strange ninjutsu in the Shinobi World. Even the forbidden technique of Impure World Reincarnation could be developed by her great-grandfather. In her opinion, Hidan is nothing special.

Everyone was secretly horrified. The fact that it was impossible to kill was troublesome enough, and if it could also continuously regenerate its body, perhaps only an all-powerful sealing technique could be effective.

"Waterfall Village is our ally, and we cannot turn a blind eye to their plea for help. However, the enemy's abilities are extremely dangerous, especially Hidan. We must not be distracted at all when fighting him."

"The reason I gathered you all here is because, Shikamaru, you have experience fighting Hidan; Kurenai Yuhi, your genjutsu might be Hidan's nemesis; Kakashi, you probably know the Akatsuki the best among us."

"Therefore, Team 7's mission is to probe and stop that female ninja, Team 8 is responsible for cooperating with Kurenai Yuhi to control Hidan with genjutsu, and Team 10 is to assist Team 8 in creating an opportunity for Kurenai Yuhi!"