Konoha's entrance.
Against the backdrop of the blazing gate, Akatsuki members in black cloaks with red clouds stood in a line in the middle of the street. The road beneath their feet was cracked inch by inch, fine fissures spreading all the way to the end of the street.
At the far end, Anbu Captain Hawk descended from the sky. Shadows flickered around him as over a hundred Anbu shinobi darted like phantoms onto the rooftops of shops on either side, faintly encircling the Akatsuki members in a fan-shaped formation.
"Who is Pain?" Hawk asked loudly.
Deva Path Pain stepped forward and said expressionlessly, "Move aside, or die."
"If I'm not mistaken, your target is the Tailed Beasts, right?" Hawk continued.
"So our intelligence really was leaked."
Kakuzu snorted angrily. "It's all that traitor Shisui's fault!"
"You're going to leave empty-handed."
Hawk lied with a straight face. "Nine-Tails Jinchuriki Kushina went to the Land of Iron with the Fourth Hokage. Your intelligence is certainly surprising."
Deva Path Pain said calmly, "Then what about the Three-Tails and Gyuki?"
"How could the Three-Tails and Gyuki possibly be in Konoha? What a ridiculous idea!" Hawk said in exasperation.
"When Orochimaru launched the Konoha Crush Plan, I saw the Three-Tails and Gyuki appear near Konoha at the same time." Kisame Hoshigaki grinned.
So the missing One-Tail really had been captured by Akatsuki... Hawk said grimly, "You saw wrong."
"A dignified Anbu Captain, resorting to childish denial?" Kisame Hoshigaki laughed scornfully.
"Precisely because I'm the Konoha Anbu Captain, what I say is absolutely true!" Hawk said solemnly, talking utter nonsense.
When it came to invaders, what Hawk wanted most as Anbu Captain was to take them out—not stand here yapping endlessly. It annoyed the enemy, and he hated acting this way himself.
But there was