Konan's Amegakure Log

Though many people saw Hyuga Kiyonari as a kind man with profound thoughts, if he had to answer for himself, he would probably say, "I'm just an ordinary person."

He could have helped Naruto Uzumaki improve his circumstances, but he hadn't gone out of his way to do so. During their brief encounter that day, he had simply given Naruto some money and a mask.

To other people, it looked like he was standing up for Naruto.

But to him, it was like finding a hundred bucks on the street and splitting it with Naruto because he happened to be there. That was all.

Of course, he could have kept it all to himself, but there was no need.

It was the same with dealing with the Uchiha problem.

Hyuga Kiyonari didn't need to charge into battle himself. He could just say a few words or stay behind the scenes and write the script. His personal philosophy had already been explained to Tsunade: "It just so happens that I have the ability to do it." As far as he was concerned, both of these things were easy enough to do, and they were things he wanted to do.

He had never thought of himself as special, and he would never use a word like "good person" to describe himself.

He had his own selfish motives, too. He even... wanted to do some bad things.

The Kumogakure delegation would need at least three or four days to return to Kumogakure, and the day was nearly over. In other words, Tsunade had less than three days to prepare.

She was in a hurry, so tonight... quite a few people would probably have trouble sleeping.

As for Hyuga Kiyonari, he was thinking about something else.

Before today, he hadn't anticipated that Konoha would make such a drastic move. His original plan for dealing with the Hyuga Main Family was to have Tsunade work with Hinata to suppress the old men's delusions.

But now, perhaps he could be a little more aggressive. After all, the conflict between the branch family and the main family wasn't as simple as "dividing up the family estate."

Besides, he could plant a seed in the Shinobi World ahead of time. Even if something unexpected happened, it wouldn't attract more attention than "Konoha and Kumogakure facing off."

The rain fell as relentlessly as ever.

It was as if the sky had sprung an irreparable leak, pouring endless streams of cold rain onto the earth. The water beat against the rooftops, making a monotonous, steady lullaby.

"Whoosh!"

Konan landed at the end of the corridor, folded away the paper wings on her back, and stepped inside. This tower was the heart of the Akatsuki, the heart of the Land of Rain, and... her home now.

At that moment, her face was etched with exhaustion.

Nagato was in poor health, and as the de facto manager of the Akatsuki and Amegakure, she had to deal with countless tedious matters every day: information on new recruits and recruitment efforts, organizing intel, allocating the village's funds and supplies, coordinating missions between the Akatsuki and the Rain Ninja...

Konan didn't have great power of her own. All she could do was shoulder as much of Nagato's burden as possible, so he could focus on carrying out their grand plan.

Making Yahiko's dream come true.

"Click—"

Konan opened the door to her room.

The room was small and simply furnished. There was a bed, a table, and a wardrobe. That was all. The walls were made of cold steel, without a single decoration. Rainwater streamed down the window, blurring the world outside.

She closed the door and let out a long breath.

"I can finally rest."

Though the village wasn't large, it had no shortage of problems. She also had to deal with the intelligence Zetsu sent over, such as the recent conflict between Konoha and Kumogakure. But what gave her the biggest headache were the two newest members.

Kakuzu and Orochimaru.

Kakuzu was relatively easy to handle. He was obsessed with money, and as long as she put him in charge of the Akatsuki's finances, he would do the job diligently. In a way, that had actually made things easier for Konan. At least she no longer had to worry about every single expense the organization incurred.

That was the good news. What about the bad?

Kakuzu often killed his partners and took them to the Underground Bounty Station to collect the bounties. Every time she recruited a new member, Kakuzu killed one. Missing-nin with adequate strength weren't easy to find, so in reality, her workload hadn't decreased at all. It had only shifted.

As for Orochimaru... every time Konan thought of him, a wave of revulsion rose in her heart.

It wasn't that she still held a grudge over what had happened back then. It was because whenever Orochimaru looked at Pain, his eyes were filled with greed. There was only one reason he had joined the Akatsuki: to wait for a chance to seize the Rinnegan.

His experiments also required huge sums of money. Whenever Orochimaru came to ask Konan for funds, he would name an astronomical figure.

Worse still, Kakuzu loathed this.

In Kakuzu's eyes, Orochimaru was just a wastrel who burned through money. All those so-called "human experiments" and "forbidden jutsu research" were utterly pointless waste. He only wanted to save the money, not let Orochimaru spend it.

So the two of them got into an argument or a fight every few days.

But two immortal monsters fighting could never lead to a result. They could stab each other and set each other on fire... but it was all a waste of time and energy. In the end, Konan still had to clean up after them.

Konan walked to the wardrobe and took off her signature Akatsuki cloak, revealing the tight-fitting purple garment underneath.

It was made of special material and was highly waterproof. In a place like the Land of Rain, where it rained all year round, clothes like this were an absolute necessity. If she wore ordinary clothes, the rain would soak through them in less than ten minutes. The wet fabric would cling to her skin, and nobody would enjoy that cold, clammy feeling.

The purple fabric hugged her body, outlining her graceful curves. Her slender, well-proportioned figure had the distinctive allure of a mature woman.

She walked over to the table, intending to sort through the intelligence she had received that day. But the instant her gaze fell on the tabletop, she froze.

A strange black notebook had appeared on the table.

It lay quietly in the middle of the tabletop. Its cover was pure black, without any decorations or writing. It looked perfectly ordinary, like the cheap notebooks you could buy at any bookstore.

But the problem was—it shouldn't have been there!

Konan's expression changed instantly, and cracks like the edges of paper appeared across her body.

This was her unique technique, the Dance of the Shikigami. It let her transform her body into countless scraps of paper, a state in which she was immune to physical attacks. It was extremely useful against sneak attacks and assassinations. This technique embodied a lesson.

Next, Konan began checking the state of the barriers in the room. But a moment later, a trace of astonishment appeared on her face.

None of the security measures had been triggered, yet the notebook had appeared on the table all the same. That meant the intruder's stealth abilities were far beyond anything she could comprehend.

Who could it be?

Konan quickly ran through the possible suspects in her mind.

The first person who came to mind was Zetsu.

That two-faced man had a special ability that let him merge with the ground and walls, moving freely underground like a ghost. If it was him, he might indeed have been able to bypass every security measure.

But why would Zetsu do this?

There was another possibility: the masked man who called himself "Uchiha Madara." He had mastered Space-Time Ninjutsu, but he had no reason to do something like this either.

Konan decided to step forward and open the notebook. On the title page, a line had been written in neat handwriting.

"Amegakure Log. The date is... thirty years in the future?!"