A Trade Fair in Amegakure

How to educate Itachi and Sasuke was something Fifth Hokage Tsunade should be worrying about. It had little to do with Kizaru.

After handing Sasuke and Itachi over to Tsunade safe and sound, Kizaru left Konoha once more.

Compared to Konoha, Nagato's Akatsuki and the Land of Rain they governed were what Kizaru cared about more.

A new trade center would be established here, and Kizaru's economic colonization plan would officially begin.

The day after Kizaru returned to Amegakure, Nagato and Obito held an internal meeting at the Akatsuki base.

At the meeting, Nagato bluntly told all the official members that the organization's plans had changed. Instead of capturing Tailed Beasts, they would focus on turning Amegakure into a power that surpassed the Five Great Shinobi Villages.

Such an ambitious goal truly surprised some of the members. Nearly all of them were rogue ninja from the Five Great Shinobi Villages, and they knew how powerful and well-established those villages were.

A powerful shinobi village was about more than just strong ninja. It also needed a complete system of jutsu, ample financial backing from its daimyo, and large and small shinobi clans to support the village's foundations. The combination of all these strengths was what ensured the Five Great Shinobi Villages' standing.

If the official Akatsuki members joined Amegakure, the village's top combat strength would match, or even surpass, that of the Five Great Shinobi Villages.

But what about everything else? Amegakure lagged far behind the Five Great Shinobi Villages in its reserves of jutsu, funds, and personnel—even compared to Sunagakure, the weakest of the five.

With the Akatsuki members' formidable strength, they could certainly wipe out Sunagakure with ease. But that didn't mean Amegakure would surpass Sunagakure. Amegakure still had a long way to go.

Fortunately, there was hardly a