When Konan pushed open the door of the tower, Pain was standing in front of a map.
It was still raining outside. The rain was beating on the steel pipes on the outside of the tower and flowing down the windows. There were no lights on in the room, and only the gloomy skylight shone in from the window. I could barely see the large and small marks on the map.
Hearing the Opening Gate sound, Pain raised his head.
Konan put away the paper wings behind his back, walked to the map, and put the message he just received on the table.
"Our people found traces of Nine-Tails Jinchuriki."
Pain was shocked, Konan continued.
"Two days ago, in a small town northwest of Land of Fire, someone saw Naruto Uzumaki."
Pain picked up the message and quickly looked down.
There is not much content above, it only records the time when Naruto appeared, what he was wearing, and the general direction in which he left the town.
Konan waited until he finished reading before continuing.
"The people who were with Naruto at that time were..."
She paused.
Pain looked up at her.
Konan was silent for a moment, but still said the name.
"Jiraiya teacher."
Pain said nothing.
He lowered his head and looked at the message in his hand again. After a while, he asked.
"Why are you sending it back now?"
"The person who discovered them was a local informant. He had no way to contact Rain Village directly, so he could only leave the message at the agreed place."
Konan pointed to a small town on the map.
"The nearby White Zetsu Clone just got the news today. By the time it rushed over, the person had already left."
Pain looked where she pointed.
The town is close to the northwest of Land of Fire. The roads nearby are not complicated, but once you continue to go east, several different routes will soon branch out.
"Which direction did they leave from?"
"East."
Konan's finger moved forward along the map for a certain distance.
"They were seen leaving town from here."
Pain looked at it for a while.
If the message had just been sent back, White Zetsu might still be able to catch up. But now two days have passed, and Jiraiya and Naruto may change direction at any time.
"Let all the nearby White Zetsu Clone disperse and look for them in the towns and mountain roads along the way."
"I've already informed them."
Konan put down his hand and continued.
"There are currently three White Zetsu Clone relatively close to there. As long as they do not move too far away, there should be new information soon."
Pain nodded.
"Don't get close immediately after you find it."
"Since they have been moving outside, they will definitely be on guard against tracking. White Zetsu only needs to determine the location. If you are too close, it will easily alert them."
Konan understands what he means.
She glanced at the map and asked again.
"Do you need to ask others to come back early?"
The members of Akatsuki are scattered in different countries, and some of them are still performing their own tasks. Waiting until the location of Nine-Tails is confirmed before convening, it will inevitably be delayed for a few days.
Pain shook his head.
"What we have now is only the place where they appeared two days ago. We don't even know where they went next. There is no point in calling people back at this time."
He put the message back on the table.
"Wait until White Zetsu finds them before deciding on subsequent actions."
"Okay."
Konan did not stay any longer, turned and left the room.
The door closed again.
After Konan said "Teacher Jiraiya", the two of them kept talking about Naruto's position and next arrangements, and never mentioned that name again.
Pain stood alone in front of the map, looking at the marked town.
Not long after, the space behind him suddenly became distorted.
A vortex appeared out of thin air, and a man wearing a mask walked out of it.
"I heard that Nine-Tails appeared."
Pain There is no looking back.
"The news from two days ago. By the time White Zetsu arrived, they had already left."
Masked Man walked to the map and saw the information that had just been sent back on the table.
"There are White Zetsu tracking underground. It should be only a matter of time before we find them."
As he spoke, he glanced at several roads on the map.
"As long as Jiraiya doesn't suddenly leave the country with Nine-Tails, they won't be able to run far."
Pain heard him mention White Zetsu and suddenly asked.
"Black Zetsu Still no news?"
Masked Man looked at Pain and paused.
"No."
"After the last operation to capture Four-Tails and Six-Tails at the same time, Black Zetsu has never appeared again."
Masked Man doesn't think there's anything unusual about this.
"Black Zetsu was originally responsible for organizing outside intelligence. Sometimes in order to keep an eye on a person, he would stay outside for a long time. It is not surprising that he was not notified in advance."
Pain looked down at the map.
"But he rarely breaks off contact completely."
"It's been so long since this time, even you don't know where he went."
Masked Man then realized the meaning of Pain's words.
He turned around and faced Pain.
"You doubt him?"
Pain nodded.
"Not many people knew the time and plan of the operation in advance, but Chiya Uchiha accurately found the location of Six-Tails, and Kazekage happened to appear on the other side of Four-Tails. There were problems in the two battlefields at the same time. It doesn't look like a coincidence."
"He knows our plans very well."
Pain raised his head, Rinnegan looked at Masked Man.
"After the operation, Black Zetsu suddenly disappeared again. He is very suspicious."
Masked Man fell silent.
In his opinion, Black Zetsu is Madara's will left behind. Black Zetsu has been by Madara's side since he was still alive.
Others may betray, but Black Zetsu has no such possibility.
"No, absolutely impossible."
Masked Man's tone was much more serious than before.
"He will never betray."
"The information about the last operation must have been leaked by other personnel, and it cannot be him."
Pain looked at him and did not continue to argue.
There is now no evidence to prove Black Zetsu's betrayal, and no evidence to clear his suspicion. Masked Man obviously trusts Black Zetsu very much, and if he continues to ask, he will not get any other answer.
After a while, Pain nodded.
"I'll pay attention."
Masked Man looked at the map on the table again.
"Notify me after the location of Nine-Tails is confirmed."
Pain said.
"Until then, don't tell other members this news."
Masked Man turned his head and glanced at him.
Pain continued.
"Since someone in the organization may have leaked information, the fewer people who know about it, the better. Wait until White Zetsu locates Nine-Tails, and then summon them."
Masked Man has no objection.
The space was distorted again, and his body was caught in the whirlpool and quickly disappeared into the room.
Pain was left alone at the table.
The rain outside the window became heavier and heavier, and soon covered the tall buildings in the distance.
After leaving the small town, Naruto and Jiraiya continued walking eastward along a forest road.
The clothes Naruto just bought fit perfectly, and it was much more convenient than before when he was on the road. But he couldn't take any time off along the way. Not long after leaving, he separated two Shadow Clones and began to try to integrate the wind attribute Chakra into Rasengan.
Jiraiya walked in front, looking back from time to time.
The main body of Naruto is responsible for providing Chakra, and two Shadow Clones stretch out their hands. One maintains the property changes of Rasengan, and the other continuously adds the wind attribute Chakra.
It was pretty stable at first.
But as the wind attribute Chakra continued to increase, Rasengan rotated faster and faster, and an extremely sharp friction sound began to come from inside.
Jiraiya Hearing the noise, he immediately stopped.
"Disperse first, don't practice this on the roadside!"
Naruto raised his head.
"Wait a minute, I'll be able to do it right away this time..."
Before he finished speaking, Rasengan in his palm suddenly tilted to the side.
Naruto's face changed.
The out-of-control wind attribute Chakra instantly rushed out from the edge of Rasengan.
Bang!
Naruto and Shadow Clone were overturned at the same time, and Shadow Clone exploded into a ball of white smoke in mid-air.
Several wind blades grazed the road and hit the nearby trees hard. The rough bark was torn open on the spot, a large piece of wood inside was also chipped away, and wood chips flew everywhere.
Naruto rolled around on the ground, quickly got up and looked at his hands.
Fortunately, this time Rasengan lost control and turned to the side, leaving only a few light red marks on his palms.
Jiraiya walked to the tree, looked at the wound that was still leaking sap, and then looked back at Naruto.
"If you keep bombing all the way like this, no one else will have to look for it. We will report the location ourselves."
Naruto patted the dirt on his clothes.
"It was clearly stable just now, but for some reason at the end, it suddenly became crooked."
"That's why I told you to stop."
Jiraiya walked back, grabbed Naruto's shoulders and turned him towards the road ahead.
"Wait until you find a suitable place to practice. The noise you make now can be heard from miles away."
Naruto was still a little unwilling and looked back at the tree that was torn apart by Wind Release.
"Obviously it was almost..."
"Every time it's a little bit close, every time it explodes."
Jiraiya pushed him to move forward.
"Let's go on our way first. Don't take the official road ahead. Let's go around through the mountains and forests."
Naruto Hearing that he was going to take a detour, his face suddenly dropped.
"Are you going to the mountains again?"
"Cut the nonsense."
Jiraiya patted the back of his head.
"It's not because you, a brat, have caused me so much trouble along the way."
"It's obviously you who asked me to practice!"
While arguing, the two men left the road and quickly entered the nearby forest.
After a while, a piece of soil on the roadside slowly rose up.
A pale face emerged from beside the tree root.
White Zetsu Clone glanced at the road first, then moved his eyes to the tree that was torn apart by Wind Release.
The wound on the tree trunk was still very new, broken wood chips were scattered on the ground, and tree sap was flowing down along the crack.
White Zetsu Clone looked deep into the woods for a while, his body reintegrated into the tree roots and soil, and he chased after the two in the direction they left.
(The next step is, Xianzi vs Xiao.)