Akatsuki Meeting

"What is it, 04?"

The ninja following behind frowned when he saw the leader stop and spoke up.

At the same time,

they glanced toward where 04 was looking. However... neither of them noticed anything, though they remained on guard.

04 said in a low voice, "Did any of you sense something strange? It feels like someone is watching us!"

Watching them?

The moment 04 spoke, the others immediately became alert and looked once more in the direction he was staring, their eyes sharp.

But,

they saw no movement at all. One of them even tossed the sack in his hand onto the ground and darted over.

Only after confirming that no one was spying on them did he return and shake his head at the leader. "No one!"

He had swept the area just now and found no trace of anyone.

"Maybe I'm being overly cautious. Let's go!" 04 had only sensed a faint anomaly. Since no one was watching them, then no one was watching them!

That feeling of being watched was probably just because he had been too tense. They had been abducting Konoha's civilians lately, and it had put him on edge. It seemed he needed to relax.

There were too many Konoha ninja. Repeatedly kidnapping civilians was far too dangerous!

With that thought, he led his men into the Utatane Clan grounds.

Bang, bang—

Just as the Root ninja completely left, smoke rose from the spot they had been watching. The roof tiles suddenly transformed into two figures—Jiraiya and Tsunade!

"That was close. We almost got discovered!"

Jiraiya looked at the Utatane Clan grounds, which had returned to calm, and patted his chest.

The moment 04 focused on them, he had realized something was wrong. He and Tsunade had immediately used the Transformation Technique to