In a cave somewhere in the Shinobi World, the newly formed Akatsuki had finished assembling.
The Akatsuki members wore black cloaks patterned with red clouds and nail polish on their fingers.
Aside from Orochimaru and Kakuzu, all the other Akatsuki members were present.
However, their leader was not Pain's Deva Path, created from Yahiko's corpse as in the original story, but Nagato himself, bearing the Rinnegan. Beside him stood Konan, who had made a few changes to her appearance.
As far as the outside world knew, Nagato's Akatsuki had been driven out of the Land of Rain after a failed bid to seize power and had become the largest organization of rogue ninja.
Yahiko, meanwhile, had betrayed Nagato and Xiao Lan to become Hanzo of the Salamander's right-hand man. His betrayal was why Hanzo of the Salamander had defeated Akatsuki so easily.
Of course, that was merely what the outside world knew.
Akatsuki's true purpose was to serve as Amegakure's covert arm, handling matters that Yahiko could not conveniently deal with himself.
By now, Akatsuki had gathered Sasori, the genius Puppeteer and rogue ninja from Sunagakure; Juzo Biwa, wielder of Kubikiribōchō and one of Kirigakure's Seven Ninja Swordsmen of the Mist; and Kisame Hoshigaki, wielder of Samehada and another of Kirigakure's Seven Ninja Swordsmen of the Mist.
There were also Zetsu, who claimed to be a survivor of Kusagakure, and Tobi, Akatsuki's Intern.
"Colleagues, today, let us welcome a new member: Uchiha Itachi, who single-handedly wiped out the entire Uchiha Clan."
As Nagato finished speaking, a young man dressed in a Konoha ANBU uniform walked into the cave. He wore a Konoha Forehead Protector with a slash across it. Beneath it was a pair of blood-red eyes-the legendary Sharingan.
To Akatsuki's members, however, those eyes were nothing special. After all,