Mysterious Book

"However, compared to these confirmed facts..."

"There's something I need you, Konan, to personally investigate.

"Hm?"

Konan let out a soft, puzzled sound.

The Masked Man didn't seem to mind. In his usual low voice, he continued:

"While we were carrying out the mission, that guy said he had some personal business and went out for a while.

"Afterward, he obtained a mysterious book from a shopping district in the Land of Fire."

"When I asked him about it, he deliberately brought out an unrelated novel to throw me off."

"Unfortunately for him, I saw right through it."

The Masked Man smiled as if everything were under his control, then went on:

"So I want to know whether there's anything suspicious about the mysterious book Chen Xiaoxi has..."

"Konan, since you were the one who recruited him,"

"you should go and investigate it yourself."

"I remember the cover was yellow..."

A few minutes later.

Elsewhere in Amegakure, inside Chen Xiaoxi's home.

Bored out of his mind, Chen Xiaoxi continued flipping through the copy of Icha Icha Paradise he'd gotten from Hatake Kakashi, working toward completing his side quest.

"Tsk, tsk, tsk. No wonder it's the Ninja World's best-selling book..."

"No wonder Kakashi likes it so much."

Chen Xiaoxi flipped through the pages quickly, chuckling to himself.

The stories in here...

They weren't just thrilling—they were downright thrilling.

Just then,

his bedroom door suddenly opened.

"Click."

A flurry of paper scraps swirled into the room, then gathered together to form a person.

Chen Xiaoxi turned around and immediately saw Konan standing beside him.

What was she doing here?

Chen Xiaoxi's expression stiffened.

Meanwhile, Konan glanced discreetly at the book in Chen Xiaoxi's hands and said:

"Chen Xiaoxi, I came to... Hm?"

She had barely gotten halfway through her sentence when she abruptly stopped, frozen in place.

In that brief moment, she had already clearly seen what the book described...

Konan's expression froze.

She was completely dumbfounded.

Th-this... was the mysterious book the Masked Man was curious about?

Was something wrong with his head?

Before coming here,

Konan had imagined all sorts of possibilities about the "mysterious book" the Masked Man had mentioned.

A secret scroll of ninjutsu, intelligence about another country, geographical records, and so on.

But she had never imagined... it would be a trashy romance novel full of explicit content!

That Masked Man definitely had something wrong with his head!

After standing there stunned for quite a while,

Konan stiffly turned to Chen Xiaoxi, her expression strange as she asked:

"D-did you go out of your way to buy this book?"

"Uh, yeah."

Chen Xiaoxi nodded and raised the book. "What, do you want to read it too?"

"..."

Konan's expression stiffened.

"N-no, thanks."

"I won't keep you from your book. I'll be going."

With that,

Konan, still wearing a strange expression, immediately spread her paper wings and fled through the window. Chen Xiaoxi could just make out a faint blush on her face.

Meanwhile, in the room, Chen Xiaoxi stood holding the smutty book, completely bewildered.

What was that about?

She'd left before she'd even finished talking?

Even if Icha Icha Paradise was pretty explicit, surely it wasn't enough to shock her that badly?

Chen Xiaoxi scratched his head.

Never mind. He'd just keep reading.

A short while later,

Konan returned to the meeting hall, her expression deeply peculiar.

The Masked Man's gaze shifted. In a low voice, he asked:

"Well?"

"Did you find any useful information?"

"..."

Konan fell silent for a moment. At last, she raised her eyes and stared straight at the Masked Man, speaking coldly:

"No."

"Your theory was wrong."

"That book in his hands was just an ordinary novel."

"Don't you think you're being a little too suspicious of him?"

As she finished speaking, Konan furrowed her brow slightly.

The Masked Man froze for a moment.

Just an ordinary novel?

That...

That couldn't be right.

Had he really gone all the way to a bookstore several miles away just to buy an ordinary novel?

The Masked Man was baffled.

If that was true, he had far too much free time.

Obito suddenly realized that he seemed to understand less and less of the strange things this boy named Chen Xiaoxi did.

After a long while,

he decided to set aside his doubts for the time being, then turned to the two of them again and said:

"Never mind. Let's leave that aside for now."

"A few days ago, I asked you to investigate Chen Xiaoxi's past in the major nations. Have you made any progress?"

That was the task Obito had secretly given them.

Hearing this, Pain didn't answer. Beside him, Konan closed her eyes and shook her head, replying calmly:

"There's nothing suspicious."

"After searching through various intelligence networks, we found that"

"there's no record of anyone named 'Chen Xiaoxi' in any nation or organization in the entire Ninja World."

"So the most likely explanation is—"

"Like us, all records of him were destroyed during the war."

"He's truly a lone wanderer, left without a home."

Konan lowered her eyes and finished speaking softly.

In truth,

Konan had already begun to believe, halfway through the investigation, that Chen Xiaoxi had also lived through war.

Otherwise, he couldn't have reached such a high level of strength at such a young age.

Great warriors were forged by suffering.

Just like Nagato.

Just like Konan.

Just like Yahiko, who had died.

Like Chen Xiaoxi, they had all endured the ravages of war and vanished from the records of every nation.

What's more,

a few days ago,

while talking with Nagato, Konan had suddenly noticed something surprising—

In some ways, Chen Xiaoxi's appearance was remarkably similar to Yahiko's when he was a child!

Once she realized this, Konan finally understood.

Now she knew why Chen Xiaoxi had seemed so familiar the first time she met him.

Perhaps that was also why she'd felt an instinctive fondness for him.

After all, compared with the dangerous Masked Man standing before her,

Konan would rather trust someone who shared the same tragic past as her—

a solitary boy who had emerged from the desert.

"Nothing suspicious..."

"So we can at least be sure this guy isn't a spy from some hidden village."

"...Very well."

"Then we'll suspend our investigation into him for now."

The Masked Man stood up, the light in his Sharingan flickering as he spoke in a low, steady voice:

"The Akatsuki's recruitment is still underway."

"We can't let this one guy's joining delay our plans."

"After some time,"

"I'll probably bring in a rather unusual member."

"You should all hurry up and recruit the people on the list I gave you earlier."

"...All right."

Pain nodded slightly.

As things stood, the Akatsuki had only six members in the open.

Aside from him and Konan, the two leaders, there were Chen Xiaoxi, Kakuzu, an unreliable Orochimaru, and an even more unreliable Venus Flytrap Zetsu.

To carry out their great plan for peace,

they obviously still needed more people.