The Most Miserable Kazekage

Let the sea of paper swirl around him. Fei Yun's Sharingan turned as he glanced at the giant serpent and the sand-iron warhammer in the distance.

They were merely a borrowed Rinnegan and an Akatsuki being controlled by others. You probably could not even protect yourselves, so why would I choose to join you?

Fei Yun paused before continuing, "If you want to cooperate, secure your own position first. You and Nagato right now—hmph—are nothing more than pawns like Itachi."

Konan forcefully suppressed the doubt in her heart. She wanted to draw out more information, so she spoke again.

"The power of the Rinnegan is absolute. No one can sway Nagato's will."

Fei Yun said nothing more. His gear-shaped Mangekyo Sharingan rotated as he attempted to find Konan's true body within the sea of paper.

Konan also knew just how terrifying the Sharingan was. She constantly concealed and shifted the location of her true body. Since she could not persuade him, she intended to bring Uchiha Feiyun back to the Hidden Rain Village and slowly obtain the information he knew.

The atmosphere abruptly turned murderous, because Fei Yun had discovered that a large number of explosive tags had been mixed into the sea of paper!

Damn, is she really trying to bury me in money?

As expected of the legendary richest woman in the Shinobi World!

"Try this!" Deidara's voice came from the sky. Having fully prepared himself, he had returned. Dozens of extremely fast clay birds rushed over, merging with the sea of paper and Konan's explosive tags.

They swept toward Uchiha Feiyun at the center all at once!

He formed a hand seal with two fingers and shouted!

At the same time, Konan detonated countless flying paper blades.

The violent explosions continued for quite a while, reducing the ground to a devastated wasteland as fire and smoke surged into the sky.

"Did we get him?"

"Yeah!"

Deidara excitedly clenched his fist.

Konan floated in midair, paper churning around her. She stared fixedly at the center of the explosion when, suddenly, a magatama-shaped chakra disc flew out of the smoke and shot straight toward Deidara's mount.

"What is that?"

Deidara hurriedly controlled his clay bird to evade it.

The smoke was blown away, revealing a massive golden chakra giant throwing out a second magatama disc from its hand—the third form of Susanoo.

Fei Yun said coldly.

"This is called Yasaka Magatama!"

Deidara had already dodged the second Yasaka Magatama, but the first one flew back and collided with the second.

"Not good!"

Konan and Deidara cried out at the same time. Their combat instincts told them that the collision of such powerful chakra constructs would definitely cause something terrifying.

Sure enough, massive fiery energy exploded in the sky. Although Deidara immediately used his giant clay bird to block it, he was still blasted away and sent crashing into the distant desert, his fate unknown.

Fei Yun controlled Susanoo, wielding a massive chakra blade as he charged toward Konan, who had successfully avoided the explosion.

Konan formed hand seals. A sea of paper and countless paper clones appeared all around her, staring intently at the golden chakra.

Giant.

Fei Yun swept his gaze around. "As expected of Akatsuki members. You really are troublesome to deal with."

Konan panted lightly. "What exactly is this technique of yours? How can it be so powerful?"

The giant formed from such enormous chakra possessed terrifying defense and attack power. Konan felt as though she had no chance of defeating it.

Fei Yun asked in confusion, "Hmph, you do not even know Susanoo? Has it never been used in front of others before?"

But that made sense. With someone so absurdly powerful around, his trump cards could never be known to outsiders.

Fei Yun crossed his arms and continued, "You are too weak. If you want to take me down, send Nagato instead. Only he can entertain me."

"Can you tell me how you know Nagato exists?"

Konan was not intimidated by Fei Yun's aura. After all, she still had trump cards of her own. She might not necessarily lose against this Uchiha man.

Fei Yun had not intended to fight to the death in the first place, so he was naturally in no hurry to attack. He simply said, "I will give you a piece of information. Back then, when you were captured by Hanzo, Nagato led the Akatsuki members to rescue you."

Konan's gaze darkened upon hearing this. That had happened many years ago, yet Uchiha Feiyun knew about it too.

Fei Yun stared directly at Konan's true body. "They died, but do you know how they died?"

Konan clenched her fists. "Weren't they killed by Hanzo and Danzō?"

Fei Yun shook his head.

Konan looked puzzled. She truly could not imagine any other possibility and could only wait for Fei Yun to continue.

Fei Yun went on, "This is the information I am giving you. Your former companions were all killed by that so-called Uchiha Madara and Zetsu."

"What?"

"How is that possible!"

Konan's beautiful eyes widened, and her entire body trembled slightly.

"They... they had no reason to!"

"Why would they do that?"

Those companions had been the people Konan cherished most. There had been boys who admired her, close friends, comrades who had stood by her through life and death. Even after so many years, every face remained so clear, every voice so familiar.

Konan often dreamed of those beautiful days at night. From that day onward, she had never smiled again.

After Yahiko died while saving Nagato, all that remained in Konan's heart was coldness. The gentle girl who loved folding paper and loved to smile had died that day, leaving behind only an angel who acted according to divine will.

Konan was not stupid. On the contrary, she was very intelligent.

As memories flooded back, many things she had once been unable to understand gradually became clear.

Fei Yun said softly, "Why?"

"Because they would ruin the life-and-death bond between you and Nagato, and hinder Nagato's growth!"

"This entire situation had been arranged for Nagato. That masked man must have come into contact with Nagato long ago."

Konan still found it difficult to believe, but she knew this Uchiha Feiyun surely knew many secrets. Therefore, she still intended to use all her strength to capture him.

As long as she captured Fei Yun, she could use Pain's abilities to obtain all the information in his mind.

Sensing the killing intent radiating from Konan, Fei Yun lost his patience as well.

"Forget it. I will kill them in my own way anyway. Since you will not listen, then die."

Fei Yun's gaze turned cold as immense chakra surged within him.

Just as both sides prepared to strike, Konan and Sasori, who was still fighting, both paused. They had received their leader's order to retreat.

Konan gritted her teeth. "Uchiha Feiyun, I will investigate what you said."

Seeing that Konan was about to leave, Fei Yun called out, "If you want to verify whether I am telling the truth, it is actually very simple. Bring me your companions' corpses, and I will use Edo Tensei to revive them."

"Wouldn't you know the truth as soon as you asked them?"

Konan looked back once, then transformed into countless paper butterflies and flew away.

Sasori grabbed Deidara, who was rolling his eyes, and quickly caught up to Konan before leaving with her.

"Orochimaru, just you wait! Next time, I will definitely kill you!"

Orochimaru came to a stop not far from Fei Yun and asked.

"Alright, shall we chase them?"

"Fei Yun?"

Fei Yun dismissed the enormous Susanoo and followed Orochimaru's gaze toward the direction in which the Akatsuki members had left.

"Then why aren't you chasing them?"

Hearing that, Orochimaru's straight posture bent slightly. He coughed. "I have used up a tremendous amount of chakra."

Fei Yun shot him a sidelong look. "You said your chakra was greatly depleted earlier too. How were you still so vigorous when fighting Sasori? Are you really done now? Have you reached your limit?"

Both of them had achieved their objectives, so they were in quite relaxed moods.

Orochimaru had been endlessly annoyed by Akatsuki's threats. They were even more bothersome than being wanted by the great nations.

Now that Akatsuki had learned through Fei Yun that Orochimaru was not someone to be trifled with, things would surely be much quieter in the future.

Fei Yun had originally come to kill Uchiha Itachi, but he had also discovered Akatsuki's strength. Thus, he intended to change his strategy and see whether he could divide them internally and make Akatsuki fight itself.

If the plan succeeded, his chances of killing Uchiha Obito and Uchiha Yo would rise dramatically. Even if he could not trick them to death, he could at least make their lives miserable, could he not?

Fei Yun was not worried that Nagato and Konan would not believe him. Nor did he expect them to turn against their allies immediately. How they speculated and whether they believed his words did not matter to Fei Yun. As long as he planted a seed of doubt in their hearts, that was enough. They would investigate the clues themselves and eventually come seeking answers.

Fei Yun watched the direction in which Konan's paper butterflies had vanished, a cold smile curving across his lips.

"This is truly interesting. What will Akatsuki's end be?"

He murmured softly.

The Mangekyo Sharingan in his eyes slowly faded, returning to ordinary black pupils.

Orochimaru stood beside him, his golden snake eyes flickering faintly. His hoarse voice carried a trace of amusement.

"Fei Yun, it seems you understand Akatsuki far more deeply than I imagined."

Fei Yun glanced sideways and smiled.

"You are not bad either. You understand Sasori's traits perfectly."

Orochimaru chuckled twice. "After all, we were once companions."

Fei Yun did not respond. Instead, he raised his head to look at the sky, as though pondering something.

After a moment, he spoke. "They retreated too suddenly."

"Pain's—Nagato's—order was likely not simply to make them leave."

Orochimaru folded his arms. "What do you mean?"

Fei Yun narrowed his eyes. "Nagato probably wants to use us to deal with or weaken Konoha as well. After all, Konoha is what they hate most. Much of the Land of Rain's suffering came from Konoha."

Orochimaru's lips curled upward. "The enemy of my enemy is my friend."

"Interesting."

Orochimaru licked his lips, revealing a cold smile.

"It seems we must speed up our plans."

Fei Yun did not answer. He merely turned and walked into the distance.

Orochimaru raised his brow at the sight.

"Not chasing them?"

"There is no need."

Without looking back, Fei Yun said, "Since Konan said she would investigate, she will certainly verify my words. And once she truly tries to revive her dead companions..." His steps paused slightly, and a cold curve appeared on his lips. "That is when the real show begins."

Orochimaru's eyes were full of confusion. He was curious about what Fei Yun had said to Konan earlier, so he followed with snake-like steps.

"What interesting thing is it?"

"Tell me about it."

Fei Yun said irritably.

"Why do you care about this nonsense?"

"The Chunin Exams jointly held by the nations will begin soon, right?"

"You should hurry up and get prepared!"

"Heh." Orochimaru extended his long tongue and licked his handsome face.

"Everything is ready. We are only waiting for the stage to be set."

"Good. Have you convinced the Kazekage? Has Sunagakure agreed to the alliance?"

"The Kazekage and the daimyo of the Land of Wind dream of defeating Konoha and dividing up the Land of Fire's territory. With such a good opportunity, how could they possibly let it pass?"

Orochimaru paused, then smiled sinisterly. "As long as we have Sunagakure's cooperation and the Nine-Tails in our hands, when the time comes, we will throw it into Konoha. That sight... hahaha!"

The two laughed strangely together, imagining the splendid scene of returning to their homeland.

For this day, Fei Yun had crawled out of the grave, fought his way up from being a Chunin, and endured countless wounds.

He had waited many years, while Orochimaru laughed even louder, because he had waited even longer.