The Horse Talisman's Divine Power

Danzo had a point. Once Hanzo's anger had subsided, he thought it over and realized it was true.

After all, someone who had risen to the upper echelons of a village was unlikely to do something so foolish.

But... someone still had to take responsibility for the crime of damaging the village and daring to challenge his authority. Otherwise, how could he appease the public? How could he quell his own anger?

As for Hanzo's concerns, Danzo had a good idea. "You need a scapegoat, right? This is exactly the kind of thing Shimura Danzo excels at!"

"Lord Hanzo! It must have been the Akatsuki, overstepping their station and trying to humiliate you in front of the people of Amegakure. They wanted to seize power for themselves, so they resorted to this 'divide-and-conquer scheme'!"

With Danzo laying it out like that, Hanzo stopped pretending not to understand—

"Tell me your plan!"

Sometimes the truth didn't matter. All that mattered was maintaining his authority in the eyes of the people and keeping his rule intact.

Hanzo took the Kusarigama off Danzo's shoulder and slowly turned around. Then the curtain behind him was suddenly sliced in half, and his low voice drifted past Danzo's ear. "Don't give me those roundabout riddles politicians love."

Danzo narrowed his one eye to a slit, thinking, Finally, he took the bait... He pulled a scroll from his sleeve, one he'd prepared in advance and written in Hanzo's voice, and spread it across the table.

"Of course... we exterminate them root and branch!"

At a temporary Akatsuki base, the members were handling the aftermath after Hanzo had removed his gas mask in the village and poisoned tens of thousands of Amegakure's people.

"Damn it... damn it...!"

Beside the wall, Yahiko looked at the people lying in beds, weakly groaning from the poison. Unable to do anything for them, he was tormented by helplessness and could only pound the wall over and over to vent his frustration.

He didn't blame Hanzo. In fact, he admired how the elderly man still did everything in his power to protect the village. As for the people poisoned by accident... Naive Yahiko believed Hanzo had resorted to that desperate measure because he had no other choice...

His heart was filled with nothing but deep self-reproach...

"Yahiko... don't blame yourself... it won't help..."

Seeing that Yahiko's fist had begun to bleed, staining the dented wall red, Nagato felt a pang of distress.

"But! Even Jusuke...!"

Jusuke was one of Akatsuki's veteran members. He was among the first to join after the three founders, and now he'd been poisoned while investigating the "riot" in Amegakure and was lying in bed. How could Yahiko, their leader, not be worried sick?

"I wonder how many antidotes we can buy..."

Aside from Chiyo of Sunagakure and Tsunade of Konoha, almost no one could cure Hanzo's poison. The underground black market had some antidotes for sale, but they were nowhere near enough. Besides, Akatsuki didn't have much money.

"If I just stand by and watch my important comrades die in agony, what kind of leader does that make me?"

"Yahiko! Nagato! We found a way to cure them!"

Just as Yahiko was feeling helpless and sinking into even deeper despair, Konan suddenly pushed open the door with good news.

"R-really?!"

The moment Yahiko heard that his Akatsuki comrades could be saved, his gloomy expression transformed. He didn't even think about propriety between men and women as he excitedly grabbed Konan's hands and asked.

"Y-yeah...!"

Though the sudden hand-holding made Konan, who was at that awkward age, feel embarrassed, Yahiko's goofy yet utterly thrilled face made her unable to pull away. She could only wait for him to calm down, realize something was wrong, and let go with a red face—

"Th-then, Konan, take me to see what you found!"

Following Konan to a sickroom, Yahiko pushed open the door and saw Jusuke's face. He showed no sign of poisoning; in fact, he looked even livelier than before.

"Yo! Big brother Yahiko! What's wrong? Why do you look like a little girl who's about to cry?"

"You rascal, I wasn't crying!"

Yahiko gave him a heavy punch in the stomach, but seeing that Jusuke was energetic enough to joke around, he finally felt the weight lift from his heart. Still...

He didn't see any gifted healer who could make an antidote.

"It was little Jack."

Konan led Yahiko to the temporary ward next door, which was filled with stretchers and beds. Jack simply waved her little hand, and a soft green light shone from her palm. The patients, whose poison had seeped into their bones, were instantly restored to full health.

That's right, this was the Horse Talisman's divine power: "healing." Perhaps "repelling all external forces" was a better description. As the talisman of healing among the Twelve Talismans, it could save anyone who was still alive, no matter how badly they were hurt!

But the Akatsuki members didn't know what a Talisman was, or what True Magic was. They had their own explanation—

"That looks like her special ability."

"Yeah... I think Jiraiya-sensei mentioned something like this before. There are techniques that can only be inherited through blood ties and genes. Usually, only people of the same bloodline can inherit them, and no one else can learn them. I think they were called..."

"Kekkei Genkai!" Nagato supplied.

"I wonder whether having a special power in a world like this is a good thing or a bad thing..."

The three couldn't help worrying about Jack. This wasn't Konoha, which was known as a "cradle of geniuses." A child discovered to have a Kekkei Genkai would probably be used as a "tool" and exploited for the rest of her life...

"But that's exactly what we in Akatsuki want to change!"

Yahiko clenched his fist and looked toward the distant sky as it slowly cleared. Sunlight fell across him. Akatsuki wasn't doing enough yet, but he believed that one day they would succeed!

Night fell. The clear weather didn't last long in the Land of Rain; evening brought yet another steady drizzle. But the Akatsuki members' excitement wasn't dampened by the wet weather.

In a damp cave outside Amegakure, Nagato, Konan, Yahiko, and several Akatsuki veterans met with a man who claimed to be "Hanzo's messenger," Kanzo.

"You're the leader of Akatsuki, Yahiko, are you?"

"A hero so young! I never imagined that Akatsuki would be led by someone so young."

"Not at all, Kanzo. You're too kind." The moment he was praised, their leader Yahiko couldn't help scratching the back of his head and grinning. The poker face he'd worked so hard to put on earlier crumbled at once.

"I am Salamander Hanzo's deputy. My name is Kanzo, and I've come to deliver Lord Hanzo's verbal message."

"I've heard of Akatsuki's deeds. They say you oppose the use of force and insist on resolving problems peacefully."

"That's Akatsuki's belief." Yahiko, Nagato, and Konan were always proud whenever their ideals came up. Akatsuki was moving in the right direction. Surely a better world couldn't be far off, right?

"Lord Hanzo wishes to meet with you. He's already recognized Akatsuki and wants to discuss in person how to win the hearts of people across nations and lead the world down the path to peace."

Kanzo smiled warmly and spoke in a gentle tone. He almost believed his own words, but they still had a powerful, inspiring effect on the Akatsuki members.

"The meeting is set for tomorrow morning. I hope you'll all do us the honor of coming."

"Certainly! We'll be there!"

After smiling and seeing Kanzo off, Yahiko couldn't contain his joy and practically jumped into the air. He could see it: his dream, Akatsuki's dream—the dream of "world peace"—was drawing closer!