"Spies are traitors!"
Pointing at Itachi Uchiha, Deidara shouted with both mouths, on his face and hand: "Itachi Uchiha is a traitor! He and Lin Qing are in cahoots. He betrayed us and got Konan captured by Lin Qing!"
"Konan is so beautiful. If she falls into Lin Qing's hands, what might happen to her... I can't even bear to think about it!"
Sasori gave a cold laugh.
Coward.
He could bear to think about it.
Sasori and Itachi Uchiha had no personal grudge, but if Pain decided to kill Itachi Uchiha, he'd just have to reluctantly accept Itachi's corpse and turn him into a puppet, so he'd have something to remember him by.
"I'm not a traitor," Itachi Uchiha said.
Deidara stepped forward. "Then why is your face red?"
"I'm in high spirits."
"Then why did it turn yellow?!"
Itachi Uchiha didn't respond. He simply met Pain's gaze in silence and said, "If I were a traitor, I wouldn't have come back."
Pain's eyes turned even colder. "I asked you to explain what a 'spy' is."
Kisame Hoshigaki, who was on good terms with Itachi, sensed the tension and stepped forward. "A spy is a spy. No need to explain it. Mr. Itachi definitely isn't one. There must be some misunderstanding."
Pain gave a slight shake of his head.
"Wrong."
"I'll tell you what a 'spy' is—"
His Rinnegan released an endless killing intent.
"A spy is someone who deserves to die."
From the very first day Itachi Uchiha joined the Akatsuki, Pain had felt that something was wrong with him.
Of course, the others present weren't exactly righteous, either.
The difference was that the others directed their wicked intentions at outsiders.
Itachi Uchiha seemed more inclined to target his own people in the Akatsuki.
The others were one