"Have you considered it?"
"Juzo Biwa, would you like to challenge Chen Xiaoxi and switch partners?"
Deva Path Pain's voice rang out again, cool and detached.
"Uh..."
"Never mind,"
"I actually think partnering with this Uchiha brat is pretty good."
Juzo Biwa's expression tightened. He stammered as he spoke.
The moment he finished, everyone present fell silent.
Good grief, you changed your tune fast...
"..."
At that, Deva Path Pain withdrew his gaze and said calmly:
"If that's the case, then the initial teams for Akatsuki are settled for now.
"Unless something unexpected happens, they won't change."
"Next,"
"we'll discuss Akatsuki's operational guidelines."
"Since we have a new member, I need to explain them again."
"Listen carefully, Itachi Uchiha—"
Deva Path Pain looked over at him with an impassive gaze and said evenly:
"Akatsuki's ultimate plan is to achieve true peace in the Ninja World through overwhelming strength.
"To do that, we need to accomplish three steps."
"First, collect wealth through bounty work and commissioned missions from various countries, providing the financial foundation for all of Akatsuki's future operations.
"Second, establish a mercenary organization that belongs to no country, and start wars on a small scale.
"Then, monopolize the war commissions of small countries by offering low prices, expanding the scale of the conflicts.
"After that, we'll be able to break the shinobi systems of the great nations and monopolize all wars."
"And the third step, the most important one—"
Deva Path Pain paused slightly and gazed at Itachi Uchiha as he said coldly:
"is to collect the Nine Tailed Beasts and turn them into weapons,"
"then use that absolute power to conquer the entire Ninja World and achieve... true world peace!"
"?"
At those words, Itachi Uchiha's heart lurched!
Even he, who had always been so composed, couldn't stop his pupils from contracting sharply.
He had learned about Akatsuki before and knew of some of its operations.
But he had never imagined
that its ultimate goal was to collect the Tailed Beasts and conquer the world.
Itachi Uchiha's breath caught slightly.
Seeing this, Orochimaru wore a somewhat surprised smile and said:
"My, my,"
"I didn't expect you to be so shocked by Akatsuki's goals, Itachi."
"How interesting."
Hearing this, Itachi merely lowered his eyes slightly and didn't respond.
Meanwhile, Chen Xiaoxi chuckled inwardly.
Of course Itachi was taken aback.
After all, he was practically the person in the entire Ninja World who hated war the most.
Back then, afraid that a Uchiha Clan rebellion would cause other countries to attack the Leaf Village and trigger the Fourth Shinobi World War, he had simply wiped out his entire clan himself to prevent the revolt.
For someone like him,
Akatsuki's plan for peace was bound to come as a shock.
That was why he would hold back during so many of his later missions, sometimes even going so far as to throw the fight.
His fateful battle with his younger brother, Uchiha Sasuke, in particular, was practically a Pacific War worthy of being recorded in Ninja World history.
So Akatsuki's goal of inciting wars ran completely counter to everything he believed in.
And yet,
after a moment of silence,
Itachi raised his eyes again and said expressionlessly:
"Understood, Leader."
"As a member of Akatsuki, I'll do everything in my power to contribute to Akatsuki's ultimate cause of peace."
The spy within a spy from the Leaf Village, Akatsuki's fourth great actor,
had finally used his unruffled acting skills to voice words he didn't believe.
From beginning to end,
his expression never changed.
Akatsuki's first team assignment meeting
soon came to an end.
A few members (namely, Juzo Biwa) had objected to their assigned teams and asked to switch partners with Chen Xiaoxi.
In the end, though, he had no choice but to give in.
At that moment,
everyone but Chen Xiaoxi
began to leave in pairs.
Leader Pain had ordered them all to start building rapport and learning to work with their partners.
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At that moment,
as he strolled down the streets of Amegakure,
Chen Xiaoxi made his way leisurely toward his residence.
In fact,
ever since leaving the System Secret Realm, Chen Xiaoxi's life had slowed down considerably.
Back then,
afraid that the Menos Grandes of Hueco Mundo would devour him,
Chen Xiaoxi had trained day and night almost every day,
learning Kido and Flash Step while studying swordsmanship and Hakuda, and never once slacking off on his Bankai training.
But now, after leaving the realm,
he could raise his strength directly by completing all kinds of side quests.
He had to admit, it made things a whole lot easier.
And at this team assignment meeting,
Konan seemed to have deliberately given him a team of one. With no teammate to hold him back or drag him down, that suited him just fine.
As for his duties,
in short, there were two—
First, support the other teams in their operations.
Second, eliminate Akatsuki's enemies.
In other words, from now on, he wouldn't have to go out and take commissions or bounties for money like he used to.
He could pretty much say goodbye to being a wage slave.
And if the other teams could handle their missions, Chen Xiaoxi wouldn't need to support them either. He could slack off with a clear conscience.
As for eliminating Akatsuki's enemies—
that duty was rather broad.
After all, Akatsuki wasn't exactly committing heinous crimes across the Ninja World, but they were certainly getting into trouble all the time.
So there were bound to be plenty of enemies watching them closely.
Even if nothing else, anyone coveting Amegakure could be counted among Akatsuki's enemies.
"Hmm, wait—"
"If I use this time to build up Akatsuki's reputation so much that no one dares to attack..."
"Wouldn't that mean I could skip the second duty altogether?"
A flash of inspiration struck Chen Xiaoxi.
He was instantly amused by his own idea.
Good grief,
if he actually pulled that off, he could slack off at work in plain sight from then on. That'd be sweet...
With a faint smile, Chen Xiaoxi pondered his plan
as he walked up to his residence.
But before he could go inside, he spotted two figures approaching from another direction.
The person in front was Juzo Biwa, carrying Kubikiribōchō on his back.
Following behind him was Itachi Uchiha, who had just joined and was still wearing his Konoha Anbu uniform.
Seeing the pair, Chen Xiaoxi immediately understood.
It seemed that as his partner, Juzo Biwa had been assigned to show the new recruit, Itachi Uchiha, around and help him choose a residence in Amegakure.
Just as Chen Xiaoxi noticed them,
the two of them naturally noticed him too.
But their expressions were completely different.
Itachi Uchiha's expression didn't change, but a flicker of surprise passed through his eyes.
Juzo Biwa, walking in front, visibly stiffened. Without a word, he turned and took the long way around, just as he had before.
The alert Itachi Uchiha immediately noticed something was off,
but still feigned surprise as he asked:
"Mr. Juzo,"
"why are we taking a detour? That way's shorter, isn't it?"
"Or is there... something over there we're not supposed to go near?"
"..."
Juzo Biwa furrowed his brows, annoyed.
"Tch,"
"Isn't it obvious? It's that Golden-Eyed Brat!"
Golden-Eyed Brat?
Itachi Uchiha paused, then his gaze flickered slightly.
It seemed he was talking about the man named Chen Xiaoxi...
Come to think of it,
ever since they had entered the base earlier,
Masked Man Madara Uchiha had shown an unusual amount of interest in Chen Xiaoxi.
He had even seemed to deliberately steer the conversation toward him to provoke a fight between the Leaf Village's Fox Ghost and Chen Xiaoxi...
Itachi had seen all of it.
And
what puzzled him even more was this:
If Chen Xiaoxi really had such incredible strength, why had he never heard of him before?
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