"Looks like this guy is pretty wary of Chiya," Konan said as she walked over to Pain.
"Wiping out the Sarutobi Clan, which numbered in the thousands, in such a short time means he's clearly quite capable," Pain said calmly.
"So what do we do now? Do we keep following his orders and pair Zetsu with Chiya?" Konan asked.
"We don't have any better options right now." Pain turned to look at Konan. "Have you found any leads on the woman Chiya asked us to protect?"
"Yeah." Konan nodded.
"That fast?" Pain asked, a little surprised.
After all, the vast majority of the Akatsuki's intelligence came from Zetsu, and Zetsu was in cahoots with the Masked Man.
Without relying on Zetsu, and with Konoha tightly controlling information about the Uchiha, finding out Mikoto's identity wouldn't be easy.
"No, it didn't take much effort. I simply asked her name, then did a quick investigation. Her name is Uchiha Mikoto. The interesting thing is, she seems to be Uchiha Itachi's mother," Konan said.
"That is pretty interesting. The common belief is that there are no Uchiha survivors apart from Itachi's younger brother. Who would've thought there was another one besides Uchiha Izumi? Looks like the Uchiha Clan Massacre wasn't as simple as we imagined."
Pain murmured to himself, "Well, it doesn't have much to do with us. All we have to do now is make sure the plan goes smoothly."
As he spoke, he rose into the air and floated toward Amegakure.
Konan unfurled her Dance of the Shikigami, her body turning into countless scraps of paper as she followed him.
At the foot of the mountain.
Chiya looked bored as he said to Zetsu, "You two are so slow."
"You're just too fast," White Zetsu quipped, handing him a few scrolls.