Nagato: Konan, is Takasaki more important to me than you?

Just as Sakura Haruno was planning how to get Takasaki to write her name more often in his next diary entry.

Land of Rain.

Ever since Nagato proclaimed himself a god, the ceaseless rain in the Land of Rain had not stopped for a single moment.

Fortunately, the Land of Rain bordered the sea, and its underground drainage systems were sufficiently advanced to channel the rainwater into the ocean in time, preventing any catastrophic flooding.

In fact, every single drop of rain was condensed from Nagato's chakra.

The reason for this was to ensure that any ninja entering the Land of Rain would be coated in the water, allowing Nagato to sense them immediately and gather intelligence.

After all, this was the birthplace of Nagato, Yahiko, and Konan, as well as the temporary base of operations for the Akatsuki.

At this moment.

The top floor of the high tower.

The Akatsuki conference room.

Pain, controlled by Nagato, sat at the head of the long table. His Rinnegan eyes gazed at the dozen or so external members of the Akatsuki gathered around, as he arranged the military deployments for the Land of Rain.

Usually, he would delegate such arrangements to Konan, an internal member of the Akatsuki.

However, for the past two days, Konan had been acting strangely, appearing distracted in everything she did.

She had even spent most of her time alone in her room at the top of the tower, refusing to come out.

So much so that he had to personally convene this meeting.

The internal members of the Akatsuki included Itachi Uchiha, Deidara, Kisame Hoshigaki, Kakuzu, Hidan, and Konan; these individuals were primarily responsible for hunting the Tailed Beasts scattered across the various nations of the Ninja World.

As for the external members, they were war orphans adopted by Nagato, specifically organized to form the military force of the Land of Rain.

While listening to the reports from various departments, he turned his head to look at the seat beside him.

That was Konan's seat.

It was empty.

What on earth is going on with Konan these past few days? She's so distracted, Nagato thought to himself.

Konan, who had always been obedient to his every word, was now not even attending the meeting.

This feeling displeased him.

Once the meeting concluded, he would go and ask her about it personally.

Meanwhile.

The top floor of the high tower, Konan's private chambers.

The doors and windows were tightly shut.

At every corner of the corridor outside, a Paper Dove was stationed to monitor any movement.

For the past few days, she had been using the Paper Doves she had formed to act as her eyes and ears, searching for traces of Takasaki, but she had found nothing.

The Ninja World was vast, with dozens of countries, both large and small.

With so little intelligence, finding one person in such a vast sea of humanity was no easy task.

She could not deduce Takasaki's location from his first diary entry.

However, Takasaki's second entry had provided her with a new discovery.

She once again retrieved the diary from her consciousness space and browsed through its contents.

That girl named Hinata actually has a diary too!

And in the second entry, Hinata had received an additional reward! Yet, she had received absolutely nothing.

This was because Takasaki had not mentioned her name in his second entry.

It seems that the girl named Hinata has already grasped the rules of the diary and is actively approaching Takasaki, trying to get him to write her name more often in the diary so she can obtain rewards.

And Hinata is doing it quite successfully; she even received an additional reward of a 10% increase in physical strength.

Physical strength was just as difficult to increase as chakra reserves.

Her weakest point was taijutsu.

And it was her taijutsu that she most wanted to improve.

What did a 10% increase in physical strength even mean?

Even if she trained her taijutsu diligently for a year, her physical strength might only increase by 10%.

Yet, a single diary entry from Takasaki could grant Hinata a 10% increase.

If she could obtain such rewards, she would certainly be able to make the Akatsuki even more powerful.

The problem was that she needed to know where Takasaki was to have a chance to approach him and do something that would leave a deep impression on him, thereby causing him to write her name in the diary.

Suddenly.

She seemed to sense something: "Someone is here."

The Paper Doves she had deployed outside had detected someone approaching.

It was Pain, controlled by Nagato.

Konan had just tucked the Diary back into her consciousness space when a knock sounded at the door, followed by Pain's voice: "Konan."

Konan first pulled back the curtains and opened the window, only then turning the doorknob to open the door.

"Konan, you didn't attend the meeting just now. I need a reasonable explanation." Pain's pair of Rinnegan eyes stared fixedly at Konan.

"I apologize. I had a very important matter to attend to."

"What matter?"

Konan instinctively wanted to speak about the Diary, but the moment the thought crossed her mind, a paralyzing fear of death instantly washed over her entire body.

The matter of the Diary could not be revealed to anyone, or she would die.

Konan was very clear about this rule.

She did not doubt for a second that the Diary possessed such power, so she changed her words: "Some personal business of mine."

"Your personal business?"

Pain frowned. "You and I grew up together; I know everything about you. I can tell you've been preoccupied lately."

Pain sighed. "In the Akatsuki, we are superior and subordinate, but in private, we are partners who share everything. Tell me, perhaps I can help you."

"For the past few days, I have been thinking about someone. His name is Takasaki, and he..."

Konan tried to force out the rest of the sentence.

The sense of crisis brought on by the Diary surged through her body once more.

Konan keenly sensed that if she continued, it would mean leaking the secret of the Diary.

Left with no choice, she had to change the subject: "You cannot help me. My personal business is something only I can resolve."

"Not even to me can you tell?" Pain asked, astonished.

Konan shook her head. "No, I'm sorry."

As the words fell, Konan's body gradually scattered, transforming into sheets of Paper Shuriken.

The paper drifted out the window, coalescing into hundreds of peace doves that flew in different directions, searching the vast Ninja World for traces of Takasaki.

Pain stood alone in Konan's private room, his heart far from calm.

For the first time, he felt a subtle barrier forming between himself and Konan.

In the past, Konan had clearly shared everything with him.

Yet now, she had secrets to keep from him?

"Is it that man named Takasaki who caused Konan to treat me this way?"

"Takasaki... it sounds like a man's name."

"Is this man that important to Konan? More important than me?"

For reasons unknown, Nagato, who was controlling Pain, felt an unusual surge of irritation.

Leaf Village.

In the greenery outside the Ninja Academy gates, Naruto crawled out, wailing: "Sakura clearly said she would kiss me, so why did she end up beating me instead?"

Sakura Haruno had beaten him many times before, but this was the only time Naruto felt wounded not just in body, but in spirit.

He felt as though he had been deceived by Sakura Haruno.

He hadn't received Sakura's first kiss, and he had even betrayed Takasaki; Naruto felt he had truly let Takasaki down.

Since he had done something wrong, he had to apologize in time—this was Naruto's Ninja Way.

He walked into the school and arrived at his classroom, seeing Takasaki fast asleep in the back row.

He went up to Takasaki and patted him. "Stop sleeping."

Takasaki opened his eyes, bleary with sleep, and sat up.

Having stayed up late grinding ninjutsu, he hadn't gotten a full night's rest, making him prone to drowsiness.

Furthermore, on his way to school, Hinata had treated him to two bowls of Ichiraku Ramen.

With a full stomach, he was even more prone to sleepiness.

As soon as he reached the classroom and sat down, he had barely flipped through his textbook before the urge to sleep washed over him, and he slumped onto his desk.

Being woken by Naruto, he rubbed his sleep-crusted eyes, saw Naruto's appearance, and laughed on the spot: "Naruto, did you peek at a girl bathing?"

"No." Naruto shook his head firmly. "How could I do such a thing?"

"Then why does your head look like a pig's head after being caught peeking at a girl bathing?"

"Sigh, I..."

Naruto touched the large, swollen lump on his head from Sakura Haruno's beating, as well as his bruised, blackened eye. He sat down beside Takasaki and sighed. "It's a long story, but I'll keep it brief. I'm sorry. I accidentally told someone else about how you taught me to get other students to help me cheat. I came here specifically to apologize to you..."