"The Fourth Mizukage? Isobu?"
"Hm? You didn't know the Fourth Mizukage was Isobu's jinchūriki?"
"I did know that. It's just that I'd only met the Fourth Mizukage once before. The next time I heard about him was when I met Uchiha Itachi recently. He mentioned that the Fourth Mizukage had joined the Akatsuki. Speaking of which, Itachi also gave me a crow with a Sharingan..."
Before Kakashi could finish, however, a powerful wave of dizziness struck him, and his figure vanished from the mental world.
Minato looked at the Nine-Tails, who checked what had happened.
"Outside interference. The connection broke."
But the last piece of information Kakashi had mentioned left both the Nine-Tails and Minato baffled for a moment.
The Fourth Mizukage had joined the Akatsuki?
How was that possible?
Minato frowned.
"Kakashi mentioned Itachi. If the information came from him, it's probably true.
Looking at it that way, he might have joined temporarily to find a way out. The Akatsuki should still be gathering fighting strength at this stage. Someone as powerful as the Fourth Mizukage might have been useful to them.
Then they lost control of the situation, and the Fourth Mizukage only escaped the Akatsuki with Shisui Uchiha's help?"
"That's impossible! The Akatsuki's goal was to collect the tailed beasts from the very beginning. Even if the Fourth Mizukage, as a jinchūriki, wanted to pretend to cooperate, why would Isobu agree to join them? You should know that extracting a tailed beast kills its jinchūriki. And under the Sharingan's dojutsu, they'd have no choice but to be controlled..."
"Then it actually makes sense if we look at it from another angle. As you said, Lord Kurama, the Three-Tails... Isobu probably wouldn't agree and might even resist. But both Obito and Pain, the Akatsuki leader you mentioned earlier,