This Time, I Really Have to Thank You (Please Vote with Monthly Tickets!)

Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh...

Dark figures darted swiftly through the dense forest, accompanied by piercing whistles of wind.

They moved with incredible speed, flashing past amid the dappled light beneath the canopy. Had it not been broad daylight, one might have mistaken them for ghosts prowling through the darkness.

The man at the front was none other than the Third Tsuchikage, Ōnoki.

When he learned that his disciple Deidara had shaken off Konoha's assigned guide and secretly slipped out of Konoha alone, he was immediately alarmed and hurried after him.

Ōnoki knew full well that Deidara had already been targeted by Akatsuki. If he encountered Akatsuki alone in the shinobi world, the odds would be overwhelmingly against him.

This should have been nothing more than Iwagakure's private affair. At most, Konoha, as the host, would need to send a few people to assist the Third Tsuchikage, Ōnoki.

However, considering that Deidara's unauthorized departure from Konoha might have been to meet with the mysterious God Organization, the Fourth Raikage, Fourth Kazekage, and Fourth Mizukage had all followed behind the Third Tsuchikage without hesitation.

After several Five Kage Summits, the Five Kage had essentially accepted one fact.

The Five Great Shinobi Villages no longer possessed enough strength to wipe out Akatsuki on their own. Though no one wanted to admit such an embarrassing truth aloud, the fruitless Five Kage Summits time and again had already proven it indirectly.

Thus, the God Organization had become the Five Great Shinobi Villages' "lifeline" against Akatsuki.

Yet for some unknown reason, Wind Chime and Flame Demon of the God Organization, who had once been relatively active, had both vanished without a trace recently. As a result, Konoha had completely lost its means of communicating with the God Organization.

This forced everyone to focus their attention on Deidara,