Konan's Letter

On the streets of the Land of Rain, people wearing raincoats or carrying umbrellas hurried through the dense rain.

The people living here seem to have long been accustomed to this kind of weather. No one stops, no one talks, only the sound of footsteps wading through the puddles.

No one among the passersby noticed the black-haired youth silently moving through the crowd.

"The rain today is exceptionally heavy."

Holding an umbrella, she moved lightly through the gaps in the crowd.

He looked up at the leaden sky, which hadn't cleared since the beginning, and sighed helplessly.

"Sigh, I don't know what Nagato was thinking, choosing this particular day to hold the meeting."

"At least consider us out-of-towners! First it Mist Village, then it was Rain Village; I feel like I'm about to get eczema from all this stuff."

Kou forcefully patted the slightly damp morning robe he was wearing, which, though not soaked with a single drop of rain, revealed a hint of helplessness on his face.

Today's meeting was much more tiring than I had anticipated.

Recalling what he had learned from Raiga Kurosuki not long ago about the "Moon" organization, he felt a sense of trouble.

"Tsk, that damned Kenji!"

He clicked his tongue in disapproval, then turned his gaze away from the leaden sky outside the window, preparing to leave this village, which made his mood feel stale, as quickly as possible.

Compared to the disastrous weather of the Land of Rain, even the perpetual Mist Village and dampness of Kirigakure seem much drier and more comfortable.

Just as Kou was about to quicken his pace and head straight towards the gate of Amegakure, a familiar, hoarse, and deep voice drifted over from a street corner not far away, its outline blurred by the rain:

"Are you leaving so soon? Don't you plan to have a good talk with your new partner before you go?"

The footsteps that had been knocking stopped abruptly.

He turned his head and looked coldly at the man with the Spiral Mask who was sitting alone in a dumpling shop on the street not far away, waving at him leisurely.

He leaned the umbrella handle against his shoulder, deliberately putting on a gloomy expression, and walked straight into the dango shop, which was empty except for Obito. He casually placed the still-dripping umbrella on the umbrella stand by the door and sat down opposite Obito quite naturally.

"What's wrong? You look like you're in a bad mood."

Obito narrowed his eyes slightly and asked slowly:

"Which clueless bastard did something to make you angry?"

"... I wouldn't be angry, some people aren't even worthy of making me angry."

I'm just a little annoyed by this awful rainy weather.

Kou spoke casually, and without any hesitation, picked up a string of three-colored dumplings from the plate on the table:

"Speaking of which, where's Deidara? Didn't he leave with you?"

Could it be that that kid finally couldn't stand you anymore and chose to run away on his own?

"Oh, no, I get along quite well with that kid."

Obito shifted his gaze from Kotori's face, which was chewing on a dumpling, and looked out the window at the still-pouring gray rain, explaining leisurely:

"Deidara was just called away by Sasori, probably to discuss the details of their upcoming mission with his partner."

After all, Sasori is used to working alone, and suddenly having a strange partner, especially a teenager, is understandable—he might want to give Deidara a hard time before the mission even officially starts.

As he spoke, Obito withdrew his hand from the table, turned his gaze back to Kotori's face, and his tone became more serious:

"Compared to those trivial things, there is one thing that I care about quite a lot."

"Nagato's decision to pair you with Konan this time was indeed somewhat unexpected."

He looked into Kou's eyes, which seemed particularly deep in the dim light of the dumpling shop, and lowered his voice even further:

"Nagato must have had his own reasons for making this arrangement."

If you have the opportunity to work with Konan on a mission later, remember to pay close attention to her actions. If you notice anything unusual, please let me know immediately.

Akatsuki is currently in a crucial phase of accumulating strength, and in a few years, the plan to capture the Tailed Beast can be officially launched.

At this crucial moment, we absolutely cannot allow any unexpected changes to occur!

Looking at Obito, who was looking extremely serious and whose every word was full of effort for the Akatsuki and the Eye of the Moon Plan, Koko felt a surge of extremely complex emotions.

From the beginning, Obito had not brought up his private conversation with Raiga Kurosuki.

In the past, he might have simply thought that Obito didn't care what Raiga Kurosuki might do behind the scenes.

After all, in that man's eyes, Raiga Kurosuki was at best a convenient tool used to monitor Uchiha Itachi.

The idea of a tool doesn't need to be taken seriously.

However, considering what Raiga Kurosuki had just said to him, Obito's current nonchalant and deliberate avoidance of questioning became quite meaningful.

Was it Obito deliberately sent Raiga Kurosuki to test him with those words, or did Raiga Kurosuki really come to Obito without Obito's knowledge, asking him to protect the child named Ranmaru?

Kou stuffed the half-eaten dumpling into his mouth, chewing slowly, pondering the two possibilities repeatedly in his mind, but ultimately couldn't come up with an answer that was convincing enough for him.

The information is still too limited, and I cannot make a definitive judgment at this time.

The only thing we can do now is to avoid Obito doesn't bring it up himself...

Just as Kou swallowed the string of dumplings in his mouth and was about to change the subject, his peripheral vision was suddenly drawn to a shadow moving slowly through the gray rain outside the window.

It was a paper crane made of oiled paper, flapping its wings vigorously in the dense rain. Following the faint trace of Kou's breath left in the air, it flew through layers of rain and arrived at the glass window of the dumpling shop, its outline blurred by the rain, and then flew straight towards Kou.

"This is... a message from Konan?"

Knock instantly recognized the owner of the origami crane, then opened the window and held out his palm to the crane that was still flapping its wings in the rain.

The origami crane landed steadily in Kou's palm, then slowly unfolded its wings, which were slightly damp from the rain, and unraveled itself into a neat letter.

Under Obito's curious gaze, Kōji began to read the contents of the letter carefully.

"Why are you contacting me at this particular time? I guess you want to discuss a mission we'll be working on together."

Obito, watching Kōji's face darken, spoke slowly and deliberately, with a hint of schadenfreude:

"It seems you won't be able to get a divorce anytime soon."

"... Unfortunately, you're absolutely right."

He shifted his gaze from the neat handwriting on the letter and sighed heavily.

He then folded the letter again, casually slipped it into a hidden pocket inside his robe sleeve, and stood up, waving casually at Obito:

"Then I'll be going now. If you don't have anything else to do recently, don't forget to go back to Mist Village as soon as possible."

There's still a ton of work piling up in Mist Village. As the Fourth Mizukage, you shouldn't just sit back and do nothing all the time. You should at least do some of the work you're supposed to do.

After all, the more Mist Village makes, the more beneficial it will be for our future plans, right?

"I'm sorry, I have other things to take care of recently."

Obito responded calmly:

"After leaving Amegakure, I probably won't go back to Mist Village first."

You don't need to worry about Mist Village. With the woman by your side, Kisame, and our Shadow Clone left there, nothing will go wrong in Mist Village.

"... Yeah."

Kou gave Obito a meaningful look, then turned around and strode away without hesitation.

"Then let's meet in Mist Village later."

"Ah, Mist Village."

Obito watched as Kō gradually disappeared into the rain and responded softly.

The figure wearing the orange Spiral Mask also vanished silently from the dumpling shop in the next instant.

On the table, only two empty plates, a cup of still-warm tea, and a tablecloth slightly damp from the rain that had drifted in through the window remained...

--

Sigh, I fell asleep after finishing coding last night and forgot to post it. Looks like I need to adjust my sleep schedule...

There are about five or six chapters left before the transition chapter ends.