"Sasori of the Red Sands, what are you doing here?"
Pakura was somewhat surprised. She couldn't understand why Sasori was here.
But Sasori didn't spare her so much as a glance. He only watched Chiyo on the bed, the worry in his eyes plain to see.
With no one answering her, Pakura felt rather awkward. Zhengye naturally didn't stand by and watch, but spoke up to smooth things over:
"Sasori, the Akatsuki has announced its dissolution. What are your plans?"
Sasori abruptly raised his head. "What did you say? The Akatsuki disbanded?!"
At the same time, muffled noises came from nearby.
Pakura and Zhengye looked toward the sound, only to discover Deidara dumped in a corner with his hands bound and his mouth gagged.
"Oh my, isn't this Deidara?"
Looking amused, Zhengye walked over and peeled the tape off Deidara's mouth.
"What happened?"
"Did our Uchiha genjutsu knock you out again?!"
"Ow, that hurts!" With the heavy-duty tape ripped off his mouth, Deidara felt his face burning.
But he immediately shook his head and asked impatiently:
"Uchiha Zhengye, what did you just say? The Akatsuki disbanded?"
"Of course." Zhengye smiled. "The Hidden Sand Village declared war on Amegakure and the Akatsuki."
"Pakura and I made a special trip to Amegakure and beat Pain into the ground."
"Now Amegakure has surrendered, and I forcibly disbanded the Akatsuki."
"Impossible! There's no way you could beat our leader!"
Deidara struggled desperately, disbelief, defiance, and indignation written all over his face.
"Do you think I'd bother lying to someone I've already beaten?"
Deidara fell silent, seemingly trying to persuade himself to accept it.
"Mmm..."
At that moment, Chiyo, who had been unconscious for a while, let out a groan and slowly opened her eyes.
It took several seconds for her cloudy eyes to gradually