Akatsuki's monthly meeting

Kakuzu's proposal was quickly rejected.

Uzumaki Shixia continued looking over the mission sheet in his hand as he spoke without lifting his head.

"No, I believe that would be a desecration of life!"

"And besides, Mr. Kakuzu, don't you think we've gained a great deal over this past month?"

"Whether it's the payment from our missions or improvements in our ninjutsu, these are things most ninja dream of!"

Kakuzu immediately replied, "What I dream of is getting at least one day off a week!"

Uzumaki Shixia burst out laughing. "Ahahaha! Mr. Kakuzu, you completely agree with my philosophy too? That's wonderful!"

Hearing this, Kakuzu nearly stood up to attack him. Which of Uzumaki Shixia's ears had heard him agreeing with that philosophy?

Of course, Uzumaki Shixia had heard no such thing. He was simply forcing Kakuzu into an agreement.

Taking Kakuzu along on missions let him accomplish twice as much with half the effort.

And since Kakuzu couldn't beat him, he could naturally force him to agree.

While Sixia was thinking about this, Karin, who had been playfully tussling with him moments earlier, had unknowingly fallen asleep against his shoulder.

After a moment's hesitation, Sixia gathered his delicate little tagalong into his arms.

They were out in the wilderness, after all. It would be quite a nuisance if Karin got sick.

As the month drew to a close, another rather important event arrived.

Amegakure, the Tower.

This was one of Akatsuki's important bases.

Akatsuki's monthly meetings were usually held here.

Throughout Amegakure, a steady drizzle fell all year round.

This was actually a form of sensory ninjutsu. If any dangerous individuals entered Amegakure, Nagato would know.

The members of Akatsuki arrived one after another at their usual meeting place.

This time, however, they saw Pain instead of Nagato.

Nagato's physical condition had been growing steadily worse.

This forced him to stay behind the scenes and continue leading Akatsuki by controlling Pain.

When Orochimaru saw Pain, intense curiosity flashed through his eyes.

He had never lost interest in the Rinnegan.

It was simply too difficult to seize the Rinnegan, so he temporarily suppressed his greed.

Not far from Orochimaru, Uchiha Itachi remained expressionless, his eyes as calm as ever.

Sasori was even more expressionless than Uchiha Itachi. After all, Sasori's actual body was a puppet.

Naturally, his expressions could hardly be livelier than Uchiha Itachi's.

After arriving, Zetsu glanced around before turning his gaze to Konan and asking a question.

"Where's Nagato?"

Whenever they had come here before, they had always seen Nagato sitting in his wheelchair.

This time, however, Nagato had not appeared.

The others were also curious about Nagato's whereabouts, so they turned to look when Zetsu asked.

Konan swept an indifferent gaze over them and spoke in an utterly calm voice.

"Nagato needs to train for a while. For a long time to come, he'll continue leading Akatsuki through him."

With that, she turned her gaze to the body of her former companion, Yahiko.

Her voice grew even calmer. "From now on, you may call him Pain."

Hearing this, everyone turned their attention to Pain.

Pain's bodies looked lifelike, but they were studded with Black Chakra Rods.

Nagato was controlling Pain through the Rinnegan and those chakra rods.

At that moment, Pain spoke.

His voice was utterly cold.

"You need not concern yourselves with such trivial matters. Everything in Akatsuki will continue as before."

"Our mission remains to amass vast sums of money, then capture the tailed beasts and create a Tailed Beast Weapon!"

"The shinobi world needs pain. It needs to grow through pain!"

The voice coming from Pain was completely unfamiliar, unlike Nagato's.

His manner of speaking, however, was unmistakably Nagato's.

Things like making the world know pain from this moment onward.

But it was hard to say how many members of the current Akatsuki truly agreed with that philosophy.

"Where's Kakuzu?"

"And why hasn't that newcomer who's paired with him shown up either?"

After Pain finished speaking, Zetsu looked around and asked curiously.

Zetsu's eyes might have been small, but his eyesight was undoubtedly excellent.

Upon arriving, he had first noticed that Nagato was absent and the Six Paths of Pain were here instead.

Now he had noticed that neither Kakuzu nor the organization's newest recruit had arrived.

When the other Akatsuki members heard Zetsu's second question, many of them developed rather strange expressions.

Kakuzu's two-man team had always been known as the Death Duo.

Kakuzu had gotten more than one teammate killed during missions.

If the newcomer partnered with Kakuzu still hadn't arrived, he was probably dead.

At first, this hadn't occurred to Zetsu.

A moment later, he realized it.

An eerie smile spread across his strange black-and-white face.

Just then, three figures finally appeared in the distance.

They were the duo of Uzumaki Shixia and Kakuzu, the last team to arrive.

The adorable little Karin walked beside Uzumaki Shixia.

As for Kakuzu, he trailed at the very back, dragging his exhausted body along.

Seeing that everyone else was already here, Uzumaki Shixia spoke apologetically.

"Sorry, sorry!"

"Sorry for the wait, everyone!"

"I completed a few missions along the way here, so I ended up running late."

Seeing Uzumaki Shixia's radiant smile, quite a few Akatsuki members looked surprised.

Many of them hadn't expected Uzumaki Shixia to still be alive after spending a month on Kakuzu's team.

Calling Kakuzu's team the Death Duo was no joke.

Over a long stretch of time, he really had gotten quite a few teammates killed.

At that moment, everyone in Akatsuki revised their opinion of Uzumaki Shixia upward!

He had spent nearly a month working with Kakuzu and had somehow emerged completely unscathed.

This newcomer had some real ability!

Nagato hadn't expected much from Uzumaki Shixia at first.

This ninja had far too many demands. Among all the members of Akatsuki,

Uzumaki Shixia alone had negotiated numerous conditions with him when joining.

He hadn't expected that, a month later, Uzumaki Shixia would not only still be alive but would also have contributed so much to the organization.

It seemed Uzumaki Shixia also deeply hated this world and couldn't wait to make it know pain!

Konan's impression of the newcomer, Uzumaki Shixia, wasn't particularly bad.

His personality was very much like Yahiko's in his younger days.

But while Uzumaki Shixia was lively and cheerful like Yahiko, he was also far too frivolous.

Thinking back on all the reports she had heard about Uzumaki Shixia over the past month,

Konan couldn't help developing a strange expression on her cool, beautiful face.

Unlike the others, Orochimaru remained perfectly composed.

He thought to himself, As if that fellow would die so easily.

His mastery of Lightning Release has already reached an unbelievable level.

I even had to use Triple Rashomon just to barely block the ninjutsu he unleashed that day.

Orochimaru didn't know that the current Uzumaki Shixia could no longer play so nicely with him.

If they fought again now, Uzumaki Shixia might simply run him through with Hell Stab: One-Finger Nukite.

Sasori had little opinion of Uzumaki Shixia.

He merely felt that, since Uzumaki Shixia had survived this long,

he could remain Kakuzu's partner for a good while yet.

Elsewhere, Kisame Hoshigaki didn't dwell on it privately. Instead, he asked Itachi directly.

"Itachi-san, what do you think of that newcomer?"

Uchiha Itachi fell silent for a moment before answering.

"The ninja named Uzumaki Shixia is very powerful."

"According to the intelligence I've gathered, he easily destroyed two of Kakuzu's Earth Grudge Fear Mask Creatures."

"And on the night he joined the organization, he demonstrated an incredible talent for Lightning Release."

"His control over Lightning Release is comparable to that of the tailed beasts, which are themselves masses of chakra."

Based on the information he had gathered, Itachi offered a relatively objective assessment of Uzumaki Shixia.

But since Uzumaki Shixia had never fought at full strength,

even Uchiha Itachi didn't know exactly how powerful he was.

Hearing this, Kisame Hoshigaki couldn't help smiling.

"In that case, I'm rather looking forward to sparring with the newcomer and strengthening our friendship."

Kisame Hoshigaki had clearly never experienced the power of Hell Stab: One-Finger Nukite.

Once he suffered at the hands of that ninjutsu, he would stop entertaining such thoughts.

Uchiha Itachi had just shared his assessment of Uzumaki Shixia's strength, but he had said nothing about his opinion of the man himself.

His position was rather special: he was an undercover agent Konoha had planted within Akatsuki.

And his opinion of Uzumaki Shixia was that this was yet another dangerous individual!

Uchiha Itachi remained expressionless as he began considering a few things.

Uzumaki Shixia seems to have been frequenting the Amegakure Black Market lately.

And he's completed a huge number of black-market missions in an extremely short time.

With such a capable ninja joining Akatsuki, the organization has undoubtedly become even more dangerous!

I'll need to keep a discreet eye on this ninja and gather information about him for a while.

Of course, Uchiha Itachi had no way of knowing that there was absolutely no need to give himself extra work.

Uzumaki Shixia's goal had always been perfectly clear: to grind until he was invincible.

As for trivial matters like destroying a ninja village or provoking a war across the shinobi world, Uzumaki Shixia wouldn't do those things.

Just then, Kakuzu, who had fallen far behind, dragged his exhausted body into the meeting hall.

Once Kakuzu arrived, every Akatsuki member turned to look at him.

To their horror, they discovered that Kakuzu had undergone an enormous transformation!

Thick dark circles ringed Kakuzu's eyes, and he looked utterly listless and drained.