Akatsuki's Expansion Plan

The Demonic Statue of the Outer Path stood in the void, its ten thick fingers like stone pillars. At that moment, the people standing on them were the main characters of this gathering.

"Hehe, I didn't expect we'd meet again so soon, Itachi."

Orochimaru's voice echoed through the void, carrying a sticky, slithering quality.

His apparition stood on one of the fingers, his snake-like eyes gleaming with a cold light in the darkness.

His gaze fell on Itachi, filled with undisguised greed, as if he were looking at a rare treasure—or a delicacy that hadn't yet been served.

Itachi stood there expressionlessly, his eyes lowered, as if he hadn't heard Orochimaru or couldn't be bothered to respond.

Orochimaru didn't mind his silence. If anything, the curve of his lips widened.

His voice grew even more "friendly," soft enough to raise goosebumps:

"As fellow countrymen and Akatsuki comrades, you can always come to me if there's anything you don't understand or want to discuss."

He paused, his snake-like eyes narrowing slightly.

"Let's get along."

Before Itachi could reply, another voice cut in.

"Discuss? Get along?"

The voice was hoarse, its tone full of undisguised mockery.

Sasori of the Red Sand's apparition stood on another finger, as if sneering at something.

"Since when did you become so friendly? That doesn't sound like something you'd say, Orochimaru."

He turned his head, his hollow puppet eyes "looking" toward Itachi.

Though his face showed no expression, the schadenfreude in his voice was unmistakable.

"You, the new Uchiha kid over there, should stay away from that disgusting creep. That snake wouldn't take such an interest in you for no reason."

He lowered his voice further, as if sharing a secret, though everyone present could hear him.

"Before you, he harassed another kid from the Uchiha Clan, too.

"But it seems that kid gave him a good thrashing, and he slithered off in disgrace like an eel."

Sasori's gaze shifted from Itachi to Orochimaru, his glee undisguised.

Orochimaru listened to Sasori's taunts, his expression perfectly calm. He chuckled softly, but the sound seemed to chill the air.

Ignoring Sasori, he turned his gaze back to Itachi, his tone still gentle.

"If you make up your mind, you can contact me anytime."

When he realized he was being ignored, Sasori's gaze turned cold.

The killing intent seemed to pierce straight through the puppet shell of Scarlet Amber and strike Orochimaru.

"You—"

Itachi listened indifferently to their exchange, silently filing away the information he'd gleaned from their words.

"Orochimaru and Sasori of the Red Sand seem to have a serious grudge between them.

"Especially Sasori. He seems to hate Orochimaru."

His gaze moved between the two. He hadn't activated his Sharingan, but his powers of observation were still keen.

"From what Sasori of the Red Sand just said, Orochimaru once fought Kou... Kou and actually lost."

A flicker of shock crossed Itachi's eyes.

It was faint and quickly suppressed, but a storm stirred in his heart.

As a Konoha shinobi, he knew all too well how terrifying Orochimaru's strength was.

He had fought in the Second Ninja World War and the Third Ninja World War, taking part in countless battles, both large and small. His achievements in battle were legendary, making him one of the best-known top fighters in the Ninja World.

Now in middle age, he was at the peak of his strength as a shinobi.

And yet such a powerful man had been defeated by Kou...

It wasn't that Itachi underestimated the "big brother Kou" he'd known since childhood. On the contrary, it was precisely because he understood Kou so well that he was shocked.

A hard-working genius—that was how Itachi saw Kou.

He didn't have the top-tier talent of Itachi or Shisui. In fact, among their Uchiha peers, his talent could only be called average.

Even taking into account the novel ideas that always seemed to pop into his head and the maturity of his insight, he was still only above average.

Yet through his own efforts, he had step by step become the most outstanding of their generation in the Uchiha Clan, winning over everyone in the clan who had doubted him.

With a warm, outgoing personality so unlike that of a typical Uchiha, he had also earned the approval of nearly everyone in Konoha.

In a sense, he had even somewhat improved Konoha's negative impression of the Uchiha Clan.

Itachi and Shisui had sincerely respected and admired someone like big brother Kou.

Back then, they had seen Kou both as their role model and as what they believed the Uchiha should become in the future.

But that didn't mean Itachi agreed with everything about him.

Talent was the one thing Uchiha Kou lacked.

Through his efforts and unconventional approach, he had indeed forged his own path to strength, reaching the level of an elite jonin at a young age.

But that was also where his limits lay.

The level of an elite jonin and that of a Kage were entirely different realms.

The most important thing needed to reach Kage Level was talent.

Itachi had expected that, given Kou's talent, it would take him at least another decade to reach that level.

Yet only five years had passed since Kou defected, and now he had not only reached Kage Level but had even defeated Orochimaru, a veteran Kage-level fighter.

Itachi couldn't help looking toward Kou, puzzled.

"Kou, what have you been..."

"Haha! I won!"

A smug voice interrupted his thoughts.

Kou stood on another finger, waving his arms around. His face, a mosaic-like blur, was brimming with triumph.

He pointed at the apparition facing away from him, his voice full of a winner's satisfaction.

"Tobi, you loser! Get down on your knees before your big brother Kou!"

Tobi's apparition had his back turned, dejectedly drawing circles on the floor of the void.

A moment later, "Tobi" jumped to his feet and shouted in his comical voice, sounding completely unconvinced.

"Tobi refuses to accept that! You must have used your Sharingan to watch my moves, Senior Kou!

"One more round, one more round! Best two out of three!"

"Quit whining like a dog. If you can't handle losing, don't play!"

Kou fired back without holding back, his tone full of scorn.

"If you're bad, practice more!"

"Ready, set, rock, paper, scissors!"

Tobi paid no attention to his taunts. Excitedly turning around, he raised his hand again.

His comical voice echoed through the void, perfectly matching his ridiculous act.

"Tch, you never listen to a word anyone says..."

Kou clicked his tongue in annoyance, his tone carrying genuine exasperation and distaste.

As if sensing something, he turned and met Itachi's gaze as the young man studied him.

"What are you looking at?"

Though the apparition blurred his face, the displeasure in Kou's eyes was unmistakable.

He snapped,

"Never seen a handsome guy before?"

Itachi opened his mouth, then replied stiffly,

"...We're apparitions right now. We can't see each other's faces."

"Shoo, shoo!"

Kou completely ignored Itachi's reply, waving him away as if he were a pesky fly.

"This is a grown-up's game, kid. Stay out of it. Go home and find your parents."

He paused, his tone turning unmistakably mocking.

"Oh, right. I forgot your parents are both dead."

Itachi: "..."

His expression didn't change, but the pause in his silence seemed a moment longer than usual.

"That's enough."

A deep voice came from above, carrying an invisible weight.

Pain stood on the highest finger, his purple Rinnegan looking down at everyone present.

His gaze was devoid of emotion, yet it silenced them all.

The noisy atmosphere fell silent at once.

Kakuzu's look of indifference as he watched the show with narrowed eyes softened slightly, a glint flashing in his murky gaze.

Sasori said nothing more, merely glaring coldly at Orochimaru.

Orochimaru still wore that faint, enigmatic smile, but his gaze had returned to Pain.

Tobi stopped fooling around, too. He hunched his shoulders like a mischievous student caught by the teacher and stood obediently in place.

Even Kou dropped his carefree demeanor, folding his arms across his chest and looking calmly at Pain.

Konan stood silently beside Pain, slightly below him. Her gaze swept over everyone present before finally settling on Pain, her eyes full of helplessness.

Pain scanned them all with his purple Rinnegan, pausing especially on Kou and the figure beside him who was disguised as "Madara" and pretending to tremble in fear.

After a long silence, he spoke in a low voice.

"I called everyone together for a meeting because I wanted to tell you..."

"About Akatsuki's expansion plan."

Silence filled the void.

No one spoke, but each of them silently weighed something in their mind.

Pain simply stood there, looking down at them all with his purple Rinnegan.

Like a... true god.