At the Akatsuki Base, Nagato sat in a stone chair before the Demonic Statue of the Outer Path, scrolling through his phone.
"Nagato!"
Obito appeared using Intangibility and went straight to Nagato.
Nagato glanced up at Obito, then continued scrolling through his phone as he asked casually,
"You're back. Finished your business?"
"Yes. I brought back some good news and some bad news."
Nagato raised an eyebrow at that.
"Weren't you off dealing with your own affairs? Never mind. Let's hear the bad news first. After all, Akatsuki's plans have been going fairly smoothly so far."
"Uchiha Itachi is dead. His younger brother took his body away, too."
"Oh?"
That news made Nagato take his eyes off his phone for a moment.
"He's dead? So in the showdown between the Uchiha brothers, the older brother lost to the younger one."
"Yes. Sasuke Uchiha is very strong. He's awakened the Mangekyō Sharingan, too."
"That still doesn't seem right. How long had Uchiha Itachi had those eyes, compared to his brother? By all rights, he shouldn't have lost."
As he spoke, something suddenly occurred to Nagato.
"Oh, right. With that sickly body of his, Uchiha Itachi probably wouldn't have lived much longer even if his brother hadn't killed him.
Tsk. What a shame. Akatsuki has lost another powerful member."
"It doesn't matter. He hardly did any work anyway. Besides, I brought back some good news as well."
"So, what's the good news?"
Obito said rather smugly,
"I found the Three-Tails."
"The Three-Tails!"
Nagato's voice rose a notch.
Although he had never met Rin, he had heard Yahiko and Konan mention this fellow student of their teacher. She was skilled at Flying Thunder God and Rasengan, and she was also the Three-Tails Jinchūriki.
Her favorite pastime was hunting down Obito Uchiha.
Yet despite