It carried a scroll wrapped in oilcloth in its mouth, crawled up to the group, and opened its jaws, letting the scroll fall into the mud.
Then it looked at Liuyu and the others with its cloudy little eyes, glanced at Konan and Nagato, gave a gurgle in its throat, and clumsily crawled away.
Konan picked up the scroll, wiped off the muddy water, and unrolled it.
After reading only a few lines, her expression changed.
"It's... it's Lord Hanzō's messenger." Her voice trembled.
"Lord Hanzō... invites us to hold 'peace negotiations' at Cliffside outside Amegakure in three days...
He says... he acknowledges our ideals and is willing to grant the Akatsuki legal status, so we can build a peaceful Land of Rain together..."
Nagato leaned over to read it too. A flicker of hope crossed his Rinnegan, but unease outweighed it. "Lord Hanzō... is he really willing to talk to us?
But... we've requested an audience so many times before, and he always refused..."
"Because you had no value before," Liuyu said flatly, interrupting their whispers. "Now you do."
He turned, his gaze settling on Nagato's face. Those Rinnegan reflected a faint gleam in the rain.
"Those eyes showed him a 'possibility.'" Liuyu's voice was soft, yet it pierced Nagato's heart like a spike of ice.
"Not the possibility of peace, but the possibility of a 'threat.'
So he chose 'negotiations'-a more efficient, more covert way to eliminate you."
Konan and Nagato went deathly pale.
"No... he wouldn't..." Konan murmured. "Lord Hanzō is the hero of the Land of Rain. He..."
"A hero?" Liuyu laughed, his laughter filled with undisguised mockery.
"Child, there are no heroes in politics, only hunters and prey.
And you have gone from insignificant insects to... prey worth taking seriously."
He stopped looking at their