"Tell the leader not to worry. The Tsuchikage treats Deidara like his own grandson. Even if he gets caught, it won't matter. Just have the leader remind Deidara not to get carried away and blow himself up."
After having Kisame pass along the message, Shirozumi prepared to leave the Land of Waves right away.
As for Kisame and Itachi, they had no other assignments for the time being.
The Land of Waves lay between the Land of Water and the Land of Fire, so the two of them could stay there for now, gathering intelligence while helping safeguard the country's development.
Kisame wanted to check on the progress in the Land of Water, while Itachi wanted to visit Konoha again to see Sasuke. Both places were close by.
Shirozumi set off alone once more.
"I need to find a chance to get my hands on the Flying Thunder God Technique. Even if nobody can learn it, the Flying Thunder God Formation will do."
The grueling long-distance travel had left him with a bit of a headache, and Shirozumi mulled it over.
Of the Five Great Shinobi Villages, Kirigakure and the soon-to-be Sunagakure were the easiest to negotiate with.
Both villages would go through the death of an old Kage and the succession of a new one, whose personality would be completely different from their predecessor's.
At the same time, neither village was like Konoha in the Land of Fire, with its tangled, redundant, and complicated web of internal power struggles.
Whenever Shirozumi thought about how Mitokado Homura and Utatane Koharu had lived from the founding of Konoha under the First Hokage all the way to the destruction of the shinobi villages in Boruto, he couldn't help wanting to laugh.
What did it mean to be a blight that lasted a thousand years?
In any case,
the Land of Wind was close to Amegakure. After all, Amegakure itself was a battlefield during the Fourth Shinobi World War, caught between the other nations.
There wouldn't be any geographical obstacles to working with Sunagakure.
But the Land of Water was different.
Even traveling from the Land of Fire to the Land of Water required taking a ship out to sea.
And the Land of Rain and the Land of Water had the entire Land of Fire between them.
Not many people could learn the Flying Thunder God Technique, but the Flying Thunder God Formation was another matter.
Even three Konoha nobodies had learned it, so it couldn't be all that difficult.
Konoha.
After returning to Konoha, Kakashi turned in the mission from the Land of Waves and collected the reward.
Watching Naruto jump around, saying he was going to the supermarket to buy limited-edition Instant Noodles, Kakashi sighed.
"Forget the Instant Noodles. I'll treat you all to barbecue tonight."
Kakashi waved the reward he had just received.
"Really? Long live Kakashi-sensei!"
~
After making a bit of a racket, the three Genin left the Hokage's office.
Kakashi then told the Lord Third how their C-rank mission had unexpectedly escalated.
First they had encountered a ninja, raising the mission from C-rank to B-rank. Then they had run into Momochi Zabuza, a Rogue Ninja from Kirigakure, and it had escalated to A-rank.
As the Lord Third listened to Kakashi's account, he showed no sign of worry or lingering fear. He took a puff from his pipe, then smiled. "Kakashi, it seems entrusting Naruto and Sasuke to you was the right choice."
"Lord Third, there's one more thing I need to report."
Kakashi had thought it over for a long time on the way back. He felt he should tell the Lord Third about Shirozumi and his group, as well as what their companion had said to Sasuke.
After all, it wouldn't stay secret for long even if he kept quiet.
"We also ran into Uchiha Itachi. He's joined an organization."
"Oh? Tell me more."
The Lord Third turned slightly toward him, still composed.
He was one of the few who knew about Itachi.
He had been the one to send Itachi to infiltrate the Akatsuki Organization.
"Itachi used Genjutsu to control me. His companion said some things to Sasuke..."
Kakashi repeated to the Lord Third what Sasuke had told him.
Kakashi didn't know whether Sasuke had held anything back, so he told the Lord Third everything he knew.
"Asura, Indra?"
Even Hiruzen Sarutobi, known as the Shinobi World Professor, had never heard those names.
But then they had mentioned Hashirama Senju and Madara Uchiha, whom he knew well.
"When did Madara fuse with Senju power? Where did they get that information?"
Hiruzen Sarutobi took another long drag from his pipe, his brow furrowing.
He couldn't tell whether this person's claims, as relayed by Kakashi, were information Itachi had meant to pass to Konoha through him.
He didn't know whether they could be trusted.
As Kakashi went on to talk about Naruto and Sasuke, Hiruzen's tightly knit brows gradually relaxed.
"Lord Third, do you think what they said was true?"
Just before explaining the final method, Kakashi suddenly paused.
"Kakashi, what they said isn't important. Their motive is.
The outlandish stories they told earlier were all meant to do one thing: help Sasuke obtain Naruto's 'power.'"
"Kakashi, Jiraiya once told me that the Great Toad Sage of Mount Myōboku had given him a prophecy. It said one of Jiraiya's students would become the Child of Prophecy who would change the Shinobi World.
Back then, Jiraiya and I both thought it meant Minato. Later...
In any case, if Naruto becomes Jiraiya's student in the future, he may well be the Child of Prophecy who will change the Shinobi World.
Add the Uzumaki Clan's constitution and the Nine-Tails' power.
Even without that so-called Asura Chakra the man mentioned, those things would be enough to grant someone terrifying power."
Hiruzen Sarutobi set down his pipe and began to analyze the situation.
As for the idea that Naruto might become Jiraiya's student, Hiruzen wasn't saying it because he had read a script of the future. It was simply a reasonable deduction.
By the end, Hiruzen Sarutobi had thought of a name.
"Orochimaru."
"Lord Third, what did you say?"
Kakashi froze.
"This may be a scheme by Orochimaru."
Hiruzen Sarutobi looked grave. "Orochimaru defected because he was researching the transplantation of First Hokage Cells and conducting illegal human experiments. I caught him doing it. This sounds exactly like Orochimaru. That so-called goodwill is just his manipulation."
"Besides, Orochimaru hasn't been heard from since he defected. He may well have joined that organization too!"
"Then Orochimaru's target is..."
"Sasuke. Or perhaps both Sasuke and Naruto."
"..."
Kakashi's expression turned grave as well.
His admiration for the Lord Third deepened.
He couldn't believe the Lord Third had so easily figured out something he'd been puzzling over for ages.
If Shirozumi knew, he would have had to admire Hiruzen Sarutobi too.
How the hell did he manage to get every step wrong, arrive at the wrong conclusion, and still come up with the right answer to a completely different question?
"Uh, wait, Lord Third."
Kakashi suddenly remembered that he hadn't finished explaining the last part. "That man gave Sasuke two choices in the end. One involved harming Naruto—it was probably cell transplantation. The other..."
"Huh?"
Hiruzen Sarutobi looked baffled. "What? Kakashi, say that again?"
"Uh..."
"..."
After confirming he hadn't misheard, Hiruzen Sarutobi fell into a long silence.
At last, he sighed deeply. "Kakashi, have you been reading too many of Jiraiya's adult novels and lost your grip on what's real and what's fiction?"
Thinking about Kakashi's situation, Hiruzen felt he ought to read less himself from now on. Maybe he should just use the Crystal Ball to peep into the Women's Bathhouse instead. At least he'd be watching something real.
Before you continue