The Land of Cedar Mission!

"But that guy isn't stupid. Why would he leave the protection of the Akatsuki?"

For no apparent reason, Shimura Danzō felt a little irritable.

He knew there was a potential threat, but he couldn't do anything about it.

It was so frustrating!

"Achoo!"

Far away, out at sea in the Land of Waves, Uchiha Ye suddenly felt a chill down his back and sneezed.

"Why do I feel like someone's watching me?"

Uchiha Ye rubbed his nose, feeling a little uneasy.

Three days later!

The group returned to the Land of Rain.

"Welcome, Momochi Zabuza!"

Deva Path Pain gathered everyone and welcomed Zabuza into the organization through a Magic Lantern Body meeting.

"Thank you!"

Faced with Deva Path Pain's welcome, Momochi Zabuza thanked him modestly.

"Hey, Zabuza! I never thought we'd meet again here!"

At that moment, Biwa Juzo, who rarely showed himself or spoke, took the initiative to greet Zabuza.

"It really has been a long time, Senior Juzo!"

They had both defected from the village because they couldn't stand the Mizukage's oppressive policies.

And now, they had met again here!

It had to be said that life's twists and turns could be truly amazing!

Soon after, Momochi Zabuza inherited the codename Genbu, bringing the Akatsuki's roster back to full strength.

"Since Genbu has joined us, there's a mission that needs to be assigned to you and 'Kuchin' (Deidara)."

As if to test Zabuza's abilities, Deva Path Pain assigned them a mission. "A powerful figure in the Land of Woods recently learned that the daimyo of the Land of Woods, who has long been wary of him, plans to hire the Hannya Group to assassinate him."

"So he hired us to protect him and eliminate the Hannya Group of the Land of Woods!"

Zabuza didn't see any problem with this kind of mission.

Especially since he had crossed paths with the Hannya Group of the Land of Woods before.

They were quite strong!

It was a good mission for proving his strength.

Since Zabuza had no objections, Deidara certainly had none either.

"Perfect. I can use this chance to test out my new technique!"

At just twelve years old, Deidara was clearly afraid of nothing.

Naturally, he didn't consider the Hannya Group of the Land of Woods a threat.

Of course!

This time, Uchiha Ye didn't keep the fact that he had encountered Raiga Kurosuki and acquired the Thunder Blades from the others.

First, it was impossible to hide!

Zabuza and Haku had both witnessed it.

Second, the organization's rules allowed members to keep spoils they acquired outside of missions.

So Uchiha Ye had every right to claim the Thunder Blades.

Deva Path Pain didn't think anything of it.

Even though Uchiha Ye had no Lightning Release, using the Thunder Blades did seem a little strange.

As long as Uchiha Ye carried out his missions well, Pain didn't care.

Perhaps Uchiha Ye simply liked the Thunder Blades and wanted to collect them?

But just because Deva Path Pain wasn't curious didn't mean Uchiha Obito wasn't.

After all, in his view, it was strange in every way for Uchiha Ye, a Lava Release user, to acquire the Thunder Blades and use them.

"What is this guy really after? Does he really just want to use the Thunder Blades to get stronger, with no other motive?"

He found it baffling.

He simply couldn't understand it.

So he suspected there was something fishy about it.

Uchiha Ye had already seemed mysterious to him.

Now he had done something else that Obito couldn't make sense of. How could it not make him even more wary?

He tried to take some time to figure out why Uchiha Ye had done it.

In a room somewhere in Amegakure.

"With this, I've already secured a Lightning Release powerhouse for the ninja village I'll establish in the future!"

His reason for acquiring the Thunder Blades was simple.

He was preparing to build up strength and lay a solid foundation for his future ninja village!

"But..."

Looking over the documents on the desk, he couldn't help but praise them. "As expected of Orochimaru's research. It's obscure, yet impossible not to get absorbed in!"

He created one Shadow Clone to train and another to keep watch for White Zetsu, in case he was being monitored.

As for his real body, during a break, he had taken a brief look at Orochimaru's research documents.

Then, before he knew it, he was engrossed.

They revealed many secrets of the ninja world and the human body, broadening his horizons considerably.

But his peaceful routine was soon interrupted.

Three days later!

'Byakko' Konan personally arrived to deliver Pain's orders, assigning the two of them a new mission.

"The Land of Cedar mission..."

Taking the mission scroll from Konan and reading it, Uchiha Ye raised his eyebrows. "Interesting. The Cloud Ninja Village is after their secret technique. It must be something good!"

The mission was simple!

The Cloud Ninja Village had set its sights on a secret technique belonging to the Land of Cedar.

To keep the Cloud Ninja Village, which had recently been aggressively collecting ninjutsu, from stealing their ancestral secret technique, they hired the Akatsuki, whose reputation had recently risen among the smaller nations, to protect it and fend off the Cloud Ninja.

"Going up against the Cloud Ninja Village? That's something to look forward to!"

Sasori of the Red Sands barely cared about the mission itself. He was far more interested in their opponents this time.

Of course, that was in keeping with Sasori of the Red Sands' personality.

After all, they might run into some high-quality Human Puppet "materials"!

"But the story's changed again!"

If he remembered correctly, this had happened years later in the original story, with the Raikage leading the mission in person!

When the Land of Cedar faced that crisis, they had chosen to hire an organization called the Xuanyuan Clan to fight the Cloud Ninja.

"Is the original story drifting further and further off course?"

Uchiha Ye thought, feeling a little apprehensive.

That meant he would have less and less of the original story's advantage to rely on.

In the end, all he would have left was his intelligence on the various characters.

He needed to seize this window of opportunity and grow stronger before his advantage dwindled.

The Land of Cedar, an island nation to the southeast of the Land of Lightning.

According to the mission briefing, the two of them needed to stop the Cloud Ninja shinobi in the forest outside the Daimyo Palace of the Land of Cedar.

"Who will it be?"

Sitting in a tree, Uchiha Ye rested with his eyes closed and wondered, "I hope they're interesting!"

Below him!

Sasori of the Red Sands was maintaining his Puppet, apparently not worried about being ambushed at all.

"I hope they aren't all worthless. Then I might be able to pick out a few more to improve my Puppet army!"

After muttering that, he too slipped into the forest and waited for the enemy to arrive.

The two of them didn't have to wait long!

Just two hours later, sounds came from within the forest.

"I heard the Land of Cedar hired a group of powerful people to deal with us. Do you think this mission will be difficult?"

The voice belonged to a rather timid-sounding man who didn't seem very old.

"Hmph! Oroi, you're such a coward. So what if the Land of Cedar hired someone? Do you really think they can match the Cloud Ninja?"

"Exactly, Oroi. You're being way too cautious."

"What kind of powerful people could the Land of Cedar possibly hire? We've got Lady Yugito, the Jinchuriki, with us this time. Those people would be lucky to hold off three of our jonin. But they definitely can't beat Yugito."

Another man spoke, his voice slightly deeper. As they drew closer, his words grew clearer.

"The Two-Tails Jinchuriki, Yugito?"

Hearing that, Uchiha Ye couldn't help licking his lips, his eyes burning with excitement. "Looks like we really do have an extraordinary opponent!"

Just as he said that, the three Cloud Ninja, who had been moving forward, suddenly stopped.

The kunoichi at the front looked sharply toward Sasori of the Red Sands' hiding place and shouted in a stern voice, ready for battle. "Who's there? Show yourself!"

The next moment, Sasori of the Red Sands slowly emerged from the shadows. Hiruko's gaze swept over the three, and he immediately looked pleased. "Excellent Puppet materials!"

Sasori of the Red Sands had been discovered not because the three Cloud Ninja were particularly powerful.

It was simply because Sasori of the Red Sands hadn't bothered hiding his presence at all.