Inside the mountain, seven projected figures appeared on the ten fingers of a colossal statue, half its massive body buried in the earth.
Though the collars of their red-cloud cloaks hid nearly half their faces, a single glance made one thing clear: aside from their leader Pain, Hidan, and a tailed creature whose gender was impossible to tell for now, every last one of them was a girl.
"Shut up, Hidan. Leader, we'll take this job for twenty million."
"Huh? Kakuzu, you really can't see past the money..."
Upon hearing that the urgent mission targeted Konoha Ninja, an exotic-looking girl with shark gills turned slightly to look at his partner.
But when he saw that his partner's gaze remained calm, with seemingly nothing to say, he smiled.
"Good. Since the mission has been accepted, this meeting is over."
Pain spoke quietly, and his projection disappeared first.
Once the boss left, the place grew lively again.
A cute, yellow-haired girl glanced unhappily at the spot where their leader had vanished. "What the heck? Blowing up a bridge is a real test of artistry, and he gave it to our weakest team?"
"Deidara, shut up. We're leaving."
An indeterminate lump crouched beside Deidara. Hating to be kept waiting, it said its piece before its projection vanished.
"Yare Yare, see you all around." The cute, yellow-haired Deidara raised both hands, and the mouths on his palms stuck their tongues out at everyone before he disappeared too.
"Kisame, let's go too."
Itachi, his hair tied in a ponytail and his eyes calm, turned to Kisame and spoke softly. Before his projection vanished, however, he gave Hidan and Kakuzu a long look.
"Hmph."
With all the other teams gone, only a speechless Hidan and an eager Kakuzu remained.
"Damn it, Kakuzu, this is all your