The Land of Rain.
The Akatsuki base.
They were hard at work sealing two tailed beasts.
One took five days, so two would take ten.
This was no small undertaking for them.
Juzo Biwa stood watch at the entrance.
There was no helping it. With the work taking this long, someone had to handle security while the others worked.
But after spending several days planted at the entrance, he was bored.
Sitting here for ten days, Juzo Biwa had gone over the first half of his life several times.
"Ugh... time sure drags."
Juzo Biwa tipped his head back to look at the sun overhead, feeling groggy.
Suddenly,
a dark silhouette flashed through the corner of his vision.
Juzo Biwa narrowed his eyes and slowly looked toward a spot to his left.
There was no further movement.
Instead, Juzo Biwa smiled.
"Finally, a little entertainment."
Juzo Biwa picked up his sword and rose from the rock at the entrance.
Crack, crack-
Juzo Biwa loosened his stiff neck, then carried his sword toward where the silhouette had flashed past.
Behind a rock,
a masked boy crouched, listening to the faint sounds in the distance as his hand slowly reached for the hilt of the sword on his back.
From another angle,
the boy's cold black eyes came into view.
It was Kakashi.
He had been heading west, but along the way, he heard that Konoha and Iwagakure had gone to war.
Kakashi immediately decided to return to the village first.
While passing through the Land of Rain a few days earlier, he happened to see Hiruko and Pain returning with captured jinchūriki.
He heard one of them say, "I wonder if that Masked Man caught an Uchiha."
The name "Uchiha" immediately set Kakashi on edge. Obito back then, and Gua now-they