It had been several days since they left Konoha.
The group had crossed mountains and rivers, passing through who knew how many villages.
After walking a little farther, they felt the wind gradually growing stronger.
Once they entered the trail across the grassland, the wind became even more violent.
As far as the eye could see, endless green vegetation stretched in every direction.
Among it bloomed countless orange flowers called—
Ghost lanterns.
This proved that they were already close to Kusagakure.
The ghost lantern flowers blooming across the grassland looked to Itachi like signposts leading to hell.
"We can make our move soon, right, hmm!"
Deidara nodded, a strange device mounted over his right eye.
It looked... like a miniature telescope.
Over the past few days,
Konan had been following behind Hyuga Sho and the others, maintaining a distance of 500 meters.
Deidara and Hidan, meanwhile, had ambushed them in advance in the Land of Grass and prepared their traps.
"Can we finally start slaughtering them?"
Hidan sat cross-legged atop a clay bird and rubbed the back of his neck.
He and Deidara were both dressed in the Akatsuki's black robes with red clouds.
Their youthful faces held two different kinds of madness.
Deidara, the terrorist obsessed with the art of explosions.
Hidan, the immortal who enjoyed killing people as sacrifices to Jashin.
Of course,
there was also Konan, who had been following behind them in flight.
Three members of the Akatsuki Organization.
With such power, destroying an entire country would not be a problem.
Because
both Deidara and Konan could act as long- and mid-range attackers.
Especially Deidara.
Exploding Clay had immense destructive power and was perfectly suited for large-scale slaughter.
Hidan, meanwhile, possessed superb Taijutsu, no weaker than Asuma's, who had earned the title of one of