The Miserable Cloud Village

Natsuki forge ahead bravely, Natsuki are unstoppable, Natsuki are lost in their daydreams.

Unfortunately, the idea was grand, but the reality was harsh.

Natsuki, wielding Kunai, Body Flicker charged towards his opponent, and then, that was the end of it.

He only felt a sharp pain in his neck, and before he knew what was happening, he was lifted up by the other person with one hand.

He struggled, but he was powerless. His neck was tightened more and more, and his vision slowly turned black.

Just when he thought he was going to die, a tremendous force struck him, and he was thrown away.

Ignoring the pain all over his body, Natsuki took deep breaths of air, never before had he felt that the air could smell so sweet.

"Go, call your leader here. I have what you want."

A devilish whisper reached his ear, but even so, Natsuki didn't dare to go in and disturb the sealing process. He touched his neck and looked at the other person, speaking with difficulty.

"My lord, may I ask what this is? It will be helpful for my chief to ask."

Jigen smiled slightly, not bothering to argue with this insignificant person. He stretched out his hand, and a deep blue spatial vortex formed beside him. He reached directly into it, and when he pulled it out, he was holding an unconscious person in his hand.

"See? It's him. Your leader will be interested."

Natsuki squinted, carefully examining the person.

But the more he looked at this person, the more familiar he seemed. Suddenly, a flash of inspiration struck him, and he remembered: this was Killer B, the Eight-Tails Jinchuriki. This was the person that Suikazan Fuguki had carried on his shoulder before.

But if this person is Killer B, then who was the one before?

Even though Natsuki was just an outer member, he understood the importance of the Tailed Beast Jinchuriki to the organization. So without thinking, he simply said, "I'll go report right away," and ran off.

Before Jigen could wait long, the Akatsuki members, led by Pain and Obito, came out.

When Pain saw Jigen, his first impression was that this person seemed quite ordinary and posed no threat whatsoever. However, the moment this thought arose in Pain's mind, a chill ran down his spine—this was definitely a master.

Pain wasn't the only one with this feeling; Obito, Zetsu, Moryo all shared it.

They exchanged glances, each seeing wariness in the other's eyes.

On the other side, Jigen watched the Akatsuki members with great interest, especially focusing on the Rinnegan of their leader.

As Otsutsuki, he immediately grasped the essence of the matter and inwardly admired how this person had developed the Six Paths Power of the Rinnegan in such a way; it was quite interesting, to be honest.

Seeing that the members of the Akatsuki remained silent, Jigen didn't seem to mind and spoke first.

He raised Killer B in his hand to attract everyone's attention, and then got straight to the First Gate.

"My name is Jigen, and I want to join the Akatsuki. This is my sincerity."

Jigen's words clearly surprised the Akatsuki members. They had thought he wanted to hire Akatsuki for a difficult mission, or that he wanted to exchange something from them. They never expected that he wanted to join Akatsuki.

Pain, being the leader, stepped forward at this crucial moment.

"You've presented such a generous gift, is it merely to join Akatsuki? We're all intelligent people; please be frank, what is your purpose in joining Akatsuki? If it contradicts Akatsuki's goals—"

Pain pointed at Killer B in the other's hand, "Even if he's the Eight-Tails Jinchuriki, we won't take him."

Of course they wouldn't accept it; they would have just robbed it.

Jigen smiled generously, not caring at all about the hidden threat in the other party's words. He raised his hand and tossed Killer B directly to the other party, showing his sincerity.

Akatsuki saw that the other party had thrown the Eight-Tails Jinchuriki over without saying a word. Obito and Zetsu immediately stepped forward to catch it. Because of a previous mistake, the two carefully checked it and finally confirmed that it was the real thing.

Obito showed a satisfied expression, nodded at Pain, and even found Jigen across from him more pleasing to the eye.

"I am very sincere. As for my purpose, it does not conflict with Akatsuki's. I am looking for a person, or more precisely, a type of constitution. I have been searching for this kind of person for a long time, but I have no clue. Therefore, I want to join Akatsuki and use the organization's power to help me find it."

This objective, it can be said, does not conflict with Xiao's goal at all.

Jigen first demonstrated his sincerity and then explained his purpose, which already showed his greatest goodwill.

At this point, Pain had no reason to hesitate any longer. Such a master had come to surrender with such generous gifts; he had no reason to refuse.

"Then, welcome to Jigen at Akatsuki."

There was no welcoming ceremony, no feigned hospitality; after a simple announcement, Pain led Jigen into the base.

Next, they need to seal the Eight-Tails, so they have to hurry.

Time flies, and two days have passed since the attack on Kumogakure.

That day, just as the Fourth Raikage A was getting annoyed about applying for various funds for the village's reconstruction, an inappropriate knock came at the door.

The veins on the Fourth Raikage A's forehead throbbed; if the knocking hadn't been so urgent, he would have slammed his fist on the table and started cursing.

"Come in."

The Fourth Raikage A took a deep breath, calmed himself down, and kept reminding himself that this was a critical period for the reconstruction of the village, and he could not get angry or impatient.

But some people just keep walking right into his line of fire.

The ninja who entered was visibly panicked, and his words were incoherent.

"Lord Raikage, Lord Raikage, something terrible has happened!"

The veins on the Fourth Raikage A's forehead throbbed even more violently. He raised his hand, about to slap the table, but only halfway down when he remembered the village's finances and immediately restrained his strength.

Even so, the table still let out a muffled thud as it succumbed to the weight.

"I'm perfectly fine. Let's talk things out calmly. Don't make such a fuss."

The ninja who was reporting actually calmed down a bit after being yelled at by the Fourth Raikage A, A.

He took a deep breath, trying to calm himself, before speaking, "Lord Raikage, Killer B still hasn't returned. This has exceeded the estimated time, so I rushed over to report."

"What? Killer B hasn't come back yet!"

The Fourth Raikage A was now quite agitated. Reflecting on the past two days, he had been so busy that he had neglected to pay attention to Killer B, and he hadn't expected that Bee would not have returned for so long.

The Fourth Raikage A, suddenly stood up, leaving the reporting ninja behind, and Body Flicker to the hut where he had previously monitored Killer B's location, where he could find out Killer B's current whereabouts.

Upon arriving at their destination, they found only ruins; it turned out that this place had also been destroyed during Pain's attack.

With a dark expression, the Fourth Raikage A immediately summoned Mabui had also been working non-stop for two days.

"Do you have any follow-up surveillance footage from Killer B's side?"

Mabui was also taken aback, and subconsciously said, "Killer B, hasn't he come back yet?"

Alright! Needless to say, Mabui must have overlooked Killer B as well.

The Fourth Raikage A was now even more anxious. He had a premonition that Killer B might be in trouble.

"Quickly, gather the Sealing Team and rearrange the magic array. I need to know Killer B's movements as soon as possible."

Unfortunately, such a massive and complex sealing array is not so easy to set up.

It took a whole day for the sealing ninjas to set up the magic array properly.

When the emerald green light screen re-condensed in mid-air, there was no longer any light representing Killer B on it. No matter how the sealing ninja tried, there was only a faint fluorescent green glow on it.

The room was deathly silent. The Fourth Raikage A, A, stared blankly at the screen, remaining motionless for a long time. The other sealing ninjas dared not make a sound either, fearing the wrath of their respective Raikage.

The tracking mark is gone. This kind of mark placed in the recipient's body will not disappear on its own unless it is removed by a master or the recipient has died.

Neither of these two possibilities is acceptable to the Fourth Raikage A.

The Fourth Raikage A was filled with remorse. How could he have been so careless? After the village was attacked, he hadn't inquired about Killer B's situation, assuming he would return on his own.

If I had paid even a little more attention, things wouldn't have turned out this way.

The Fourth Raikage A numbly left the room and walked alone through the village, which was busy with reconstruction.

Occasionally, the sound of weeping could be heard from houses or tents along the roadside; these were the relatives of those who died in the attack that day.

A gentle breeze brushed against my face, and the initial bewilderment upon hearing the devastating news of Killer B gradually dissipated, followed by a raging fire of anger.

Revenge—revenge is a must!

Konoha.

It has been more than three days since Taiichi returned from Cloud Village.

During those three days, aside from initially reporting to Minato that Killer B hadn't been captured, he didn't follow up on the matter further.

In the past few days, Taiichi has resumed his role Jonin, the Konoha Hospital, and the guest lecturer of the Ninja Academy Medical Interest Group.

In short, I won't allow myself much time to rest.

Rest? That's impossible for him. Work and cultivation are the best forms of entertainment for him. Only someone who makes no contribution to the village would think about how to rest all day long.

This is Taiichi's highest enlightenment.

Of course, enlightenment is enlightenment, and reality is reality.

One's awareness must be high enough; only then will one have the motivation to strive for advancement.

However, Taiichi enjoying himself, the entire Konoha was incredibly busy.

Although Konoha wasn't directly attacked like Cloud Village, the Capital of Fire still a different story.

In some ways, the impact of the attack on the Capital of Fire was greater than that of the attack on Konoha.

The Akatsuki single-handedly extended its influence beyond the ninja realm to the entire secular world.

These past few days, whenever Taiichi leads the three little ones to the Mission Hall to accept missions, this is always the case.

Squads, including members of the Hyuga, Inuzuka Clan, or Aburame, were constantly being drawn into the organization. Their mission was simple: to find members of the Akatsuki and their hideout.

Konoha has really gone all out, sending so many squads on this village-assigned mission, even though the village doesn't receive any benefit from it.

Fortunately, Taiichi managed to swindle a large sum of money from the Daimyo, enough for Konoha to continue its extravagant spending for quite some time.

"Teacher, are we going to have another assignment today?"

After submitting a D-rank cat-finding mission to her teacher, Yami saw that she still had some time to spare and couldn't resist taking on another D-Rank Mission.

They had an agreement with their teacher that they could only accept C-Rank Mission after completing 30 D-Rank Mission.

Therefore, their team has been frantically taking on D-Rank Mission during this period, even during the days when Taiichi was not around.

Don't ask how these rookies, without a team Jonin, got the mission. Those who know, know. Even in Konoha, there are many unspoken understandings. It just depends on whether you have the eyes to see it and the heart to carry it out.

Needless to say, neither Jiangtai, Yami, nor Uchiha Itachi lacked these two qualities.

"Haha, Yami, you're really impatient. But I'm sorry, not today. My cultivation is about to make a breakthrough, and I need to meditate for a while."

Taiichi stroked Yami's little head and said with some regret.

"Oh, is that so? Then your cultivation is definitely more important, Teacher. We can do the mission anytime, so we're not in a hurry."

Yami was very sensible and knew what was important. After saying that, she pushed Taiichi with both hands, urging him to leave quickly. As for the three of them, she would take care of themselves.

Taiichi was pushed along by the little girl, and shook his head with a wry smile, but he also obediently left the Mission Hall. Today's breakthrough was indeed very important, and he himself had to treat it with caution.

After urging Taiichi away, Yami skipped over to Jiangtai and Itachi and told them about Taiichi's situation.

While both were happy for Taiichi, they also felt quite helpless.

Looking up at the bright Sun Barrier in the sky, I wondered if it was too early to go back at this hour.

"Um... how about we stick to the old method?"

Jiangtai leaned closer to the two of them and whispered a suggestion. After speaking, she looked around worriedly, as if afraid that someone would hear them plotting something.

Yami's eyes lit up, and she nodded her little head repeatedly. This was also why she urged Taiichi to leave; only when the teacher was gone could they do their "mischief."

"Who's coming this time?" Yami asked in a low voice.

"It was me last time, you were the time before that, and now it's Itachi's turn."

Jiangtai and Yami's gazes both turned to Itachi, who had remained silent the entire time, causing him to quickly raise his hands in a gesture of surrender.

"Understood, understood, I'll do it this time!"

After saying that, he didn't hesitate, looked around, and found a quiet corner to walk over.

Yami and Jiangtai followed closely behind, the two of them flanking Itachi, hiding him deep in a corner so that no one else could see him.

In just a short while, Uchiha Itachi had gone in, but now Taichi Matsushita had come out instead.

Taiichi casually patted Yami and Jiangtai's heads twice, then walked directly towards the Mission Hall.

On the spot, Jiangtai and Yami suppressed their urge to beat him up. After "Taiichi" entered the Mission Hall, the two of them immediately surrounded Itachi.

"You little brat, you're deliberately trying to take advantage of us, aren't you!"