Wildlife conservation organization

"This quarter's mission quotas are all here."

Deep inside a tower in the Land of Rain.

Pain stood at the head of the conference table, his Rinnegan sweeping indifferently over everyone.

Several sets of mission documents lay spread across the table.

War contracts, assassination contracts, bounty targets, and special orders from underground factions in various countries had been sorted into two simple categories.

One made money.

The other created wars.

"Complete them within the allotted time."

"As for how you divide them up, I won't interfere."

Pain closed the last scroll.

"Dismissed."

The moment he finished speaking, Deidara was the first to stand.

"Finally over, hmm."

Hidan hoisted his bloodstained Triple-Bladed Scythe onto his shoulder, still complaining about how boring the meeting had been.

Sasori remained concealed inside Hiruko, its heavy metal tail blade dragging across the floor.

Kakuzu put away the mission list, already calculating the actual profit each contract would bring.

The spacious conference room soon emptied out.

Outside the door, Kakuzu stopped the artistic duo.

"War missions or bounty missions?"

Pain only cared about results.

How they divided up the work was up to them.

Deidara clasped his hands behind his head and turned to Sasori.

"Master Sasori, what do you think?"

Hiruko paused briefly before Sasori's muffled, raspy voice emerged.

"Whatever."

"War missions it is, then."

Deidara grinned.

"Making money is too much trouble. Explosions are far more artistic, hmm."

Kakuzu nodded and handed the war contracts to the two of them, keeping several bounty lists for himself.

That suited him perfectly.

Living people could lie.

The bounties on corpses couldn't.

"Hey!"

Hidan, standing beside them, finally couldn't take it anymore.

"Aren't you forgetting something?"

All three looked at him.

Hidan pointed at himself.

"I haven't said a single word this whole time!"

"What gives you the right to divide up the missions without me?"

Kakuzu glanced at him.

"It's all the same anyway."

"Killing people, making money-what difference does it make which one you do?"

A vein throbbed on Hidan's forehead.

"Of course there's a difference!"

"Fighting is fighting, and sacrifices are sacrifices! This is a matter of faith in Lord Jashin!"

Kakuzu tucked a bounty list into his clothes.

"If you have a problem, take it to the leader."

Hidan opened his mouth.

Go talk to Pain?

Those utterly emotionless Rinnegan flashed through his mind, and the anger on his face froze.

If he actually took this to Pain, he would probably be slammed into a wall by Shinra Tensei before anything else.

Hidan shouldered his scythe and turned away furiously.

"Fine, let's go!"

"But this time, you'd better leave a few more alive for me."

"I'm going to sacrifice every last one of them to Lord Jashin!"

Kakuzu didn't answer. He followed him.

All he cared about was how much the targets would be worth once they were dead.

As for what Hidan did with the corpses, he could do as he pleased, so long as he didn't damage the heads needed to collect the bounties.

The two teams soon left the tower.

Deidara and Sasori headed for the western war zone.

Kakuzu and Hidan set off for the border of the Land of Fire, where several heads carried decent prices.

On the other side of the corridor, Kisame carried Samehada on his shoulder and glanced at Uchiha Itachi, who had stopped beside a window.

"Mr. Itachi."

"What's on your mind?"

Itachi turned his gaze away from the curtain of rain.

"Kisame, have you ever heard of a technique that lets you train in your sleep?"

Kisame paused.

"Training in your sleep?"

He bared a mouthful of sharp teeth, as though he had just heard some ridiculous joke.

"How could a technique like that exist?"

"If you told me eating could count as training, I might believe you."

Samehada had quite an appetite.

As long as it could devour chakra, it really did grow stronger.

But sleeping?

Lie down, close your eyes, and wake up stronger?

Then the strongest beings in the Shinobi World wouldn't be the Five Kage, but hibernating bears.

Itachi fell silent for a moment.

"True."

Several days earlier, he had received a report from Konoha.

It mentioned that Sasuke had recently been undergoing a special form of training called "Dream Training."

The informant had described it in highly mysterious terms.

Tempering the mind in dreams.

Sensing danger while blindfolded.

Predicting attacks without relying on the Sharingan.

Even the Nine-Tails Jinchuriki had supposedly grown much stronger after this so-called Dream Training.

Itachi had initially wondered whether it was some kind of Mind Technique.

Now that he thought about it, he had probably let such absurd intelligence cloud his judgment simply because it had been too long since he had seen Sasuke.

Even ordinary training required time and steady effort.

How could anyone suddenly become stronger after a single night's sleep?

"It seems our informants in Konoha need to be purged."

Itachi spoke flatly.

Kisame tilted his head.

"He sent you false intelligence?"

"Unverified rumors."

"We certainly can't keep someone like that around."

Kisame chuckled and asked no further questions.

The two soon disappeared at the end of the corridor.

At the top of the tower.

Pain stood before the curtain of rain, looking down at the village below, shrouded in dark clouds all year round.

The members of the Akatsuki left one after another.

Figures in Akatsuki cloaks slipped into the rain and soon vanished.

"It's almost time."

Konan stood beside him.

She knew what Pain meant.

Over the years, the Akatsuki had continually accepted war and assassination contracts.

Money was secondary.

What mattered more was its reputation, intelligence, and network of operational channels throughout the Shinobi World.

Once they had built up enough, they could set their true plan in motion.

Collect every tailed beast.

Create an ultimate weapon powerful enough to make the entire Shinobi World tremble.

Only when every nation personally experienced pain it could not resist would they understand how precious peace was.

"Our preparations are nearly complete."

Konan spoke softly.

Countless sheets of paper gathered and scattered around her, becoming soaked by the rain.

Her gaze pierced the curtain of rain, as though she could already see that world without war.

The world Yahiko had once hoped for.

Pain held out his hand, letting rain fall into his palm.

"Pain will make people understand one another."

"This time, the world must change."

Konan nodded.

"Yes."

Neither spoke again.

The Land of Rain's ceaseless rain spilled over the edges of the tower.

After an unknown stretch of time, the ring on Pain's hand suddenly vibrated.

A series of urgent, erratic chakra pulses came from within it.

This was no ordinary communication.

It was a distress signal.

Pain lowered his eyes, sensing the source of that chakra.

The signal came from the border of the Land of Fire.

Only two people had headed in that direction.

"This is..."

Konan had noticed the anomaly as well.

Pain slowly raised his head, a flicker of emotion appearing in his Rinnegan for the first time.

"A distress signal from Hidan and Kakuzu."