A Baffling Situation

The next day, Itachi and Juzo, who had already set out on a mission, were summoned into Akatsuki's true headquarters by Pain using the Holographic Body Technique.

Without even entering, Itachi more or less knew what had happened.

"Orochimaru has defected from the organization. Keep an eye out while carrying out your missions. If you find him, track him down and kill him. Bring back his ring."

Pain's voice was somewhat gloomy within the phantom projection. Clearly, he had not expected Orochimaru to pull something like this right under his nose...

The others' projections stared down at their noses, with no intention of speaking.

Most of them were much like Orochimaru, having defected from their villages. They had nothing better to do, so they joined Akatsuki to find something to occupy themselves with.

"While carrying out your missions, if you come across anyone suitable, you can try to recruit them into the organization..."

Seeing how distracted everyone was, Pain grumbled inwardly.

At the same time, Orochimaru's departure made him realize that he needed to bring in more people and prepare a few replacements to fill vacancies.

Otherwise, if someone died gloriously, was crippled, or defected, they would be short-handed. That would affect their progress far too much.

"Kid, do you know something? You met Orochimaru only yesterday, and today he defected from the organization..."

After their consciousnesses withdrew from headquarters, Juzo looked at Itachi strangely and spoke in a low voice.

"I don't know anything. Maybe he went off to seek the truth. If I found something to do, I'd leave too."

Hearing Juzo's question, Itachi responded quietly.

Wasn't that the truth? They simply could not find anything better to do. If they had something else to do, who would want to work for someone else?

Besides, Akatsuki's ideals were incredibly complicated, basically one lie wrapped around another.

Link after link.

"Yeah, we're all lost people..."

Hearing Itachi's words, Juzo sighed softly, his tone full of complexity.

"What is this mission? After it's over, I'm going back to Konoha."

Itachi said nothing in response to Juzo's sigh, merely changing the subject with a question.

At the same time, he voiced his own plans.

The words Kakashi had said half a year ago still echoed clearly in Itachi's mind.

They left him too uneasy to eat or sleep.

If meeting Orochimaru had not been his top priority and could not be delayed, he never would have put it off for so long.

But now that he was in Akatsuki, he had to follow Akatsuki's rules, which was why he had waited half a year before meeting Orochimaru.

After all, once you were in the world, you could not always act as you pleased.

And his current strength did not support acting recklessly within this organization.

"You want to return to Konoha... As for this mission..."

Hearing Itachi's words, Juzo's tone became somewhat complicated.

He slipped a hand into his robes and silently stroked the wooden carving he could never finish, carefully feeling the tiny contours against his fingertips.

"This mission is to investigate the whereabouts of the Three-Tails in the Land of Water. Mist Village has remained in its Bloody Mist state for years, so the outside world has no idea what is happening inside now. Since the Three-Tails concerns our plan, we need intelligence on it..."

After sighing, Juzo quietly explained the mission.

"Why this mission? Mist Village is currently closed off. The moment we enter, we'll be exposed. Facing a major village then would be suicide."

Hearing Juzo's words, Itachi's voice changed, losing its usual calm.

"Kid, can we still go back?"

Lost in his own world, Juzo seemed not to hear Itachi at all as he murmured softly.

"Go back my ass. We lost that chance long ago."

Seeing Juzo lose his composure, Itachi felt that something was increasingly wrong and snapped irritably.

He did not understand why this had happened. Orochimaru had left at such a critical point, yet they had still received such an absurd mission.

"Our organization is already short on people. Why are we still doing this? And although Juzo is somewhat weak, he's carried out missions diligently all these years."

In Pain's office.

Pain looked at the masked man across from him and asked with a complicated expression.

"You received news of what happened half a year ago, didn't you? Of my junior's strength."

Obito did not answer Pain's question. He merely spoke softly of something that seemed irrelevant.

"So what? Is that power so strong? It was only suppressing someone with one hand."

Pain felt contempt for Obito's words, though his voice remained calm.

"Then how strong were you when you were twelve?" Obito seemed not to hear Pain's words at all, merely asking another seemingly irrelevant question.

Pain fell silent, recalling that time. The three of them had probably only recently become Jiraiya's disciples then...

Before that, they had been eating moldy bread...

Sleeping in damp caves...

"So what? No matter how gifted he is, he cannot surpass my Sage Eyes, the Rinnegan. That is the limit imposed by the rules!"

Pain stubbornly retorted.

"Mm, he will indeed be limited by the rules. Still, find someone to keep an eye on him. Don't let things get out of hand."

Obito felt disdain for Pain's words.

He knew perfectly well where Nagato's Rinnegan had come from.

"Juzo has been in our organization for so long. I can just speak to him and have him monitor Itachi and report on him. Why must we do this? What's the point?"

Looking at the man before him who called himself Uchiha Madara, Pain felt a wave of contempt. This man had no vision at all.

"No other reason. I simply don't trust him."

Obito replied softly, Itachi's figure and his unpredictable temperament appearing in his mind.

Most importantly, he could calculate Pain's every move precisely, yet when it came to Itachi Uchiha, he always felt as though he could not see through him.

Moreover, Itachi's eyes were on the same level as his own.

He had only one Mangekyo Sharingan, and that was his weakness. Itachi, however, had a pair. If he was careless, even he could suffer a setback.

So long as he did not keep track of Itachi's movements, he could not rest easy.

Because if he waited any longer, who knew how much stronger Itachi would become.

Compared to Juzo, Obito had a greater appreciation for Kisame, whom he had recruited himself.

And Kisame was his man. He was not only meant to monitor Itachi, but also to serve as a nail driven into Akatsuki.

After all, Akatsuki had grown increasingly powerful. It was no longer the tiny handful of people it had once been.

He could no longer underestimate this force.

"Fine."

Pain gave Obito a deep look, thoughtful.

But remembering that the plan still required the other man's help, and that it was not yet time to tear off all pretenses, he said no more.

After all, the theory, implementation, and everything else behind this plan had all been designed by the rat hiding beneath that mask.

Itachi had considered many things, but he alone had forgotten himself.

In the original story, Juzo's death had never been because Juzo was too weak. It had merely been a trap aimed at him and Akatsuki.

Its purpose was to monitor him, to monitor Akatsuki.

It was a masterful move by Obito, accomplishing two things at once.

Juzo's mistake was that he had become Itachi's teammate, his companion...