Mui stepped up to Elder Guima and smmed his palm down.
Buzz—
Two interseg bck sealing patterns instantly appeared on Elder Guima’s body. From that moment onward, all of Kusagakure’s top brass—including Vilge Chief Chiya—were under Mui’s trol.
“What do we do ?”
Having subdued Elder Guima, Mui turned his head to ask Uzumaki Senshi. Together, the two of them had moved with astonishing speed, using Fire Release: Heavenly Prison to seal every one of Kusa’s higher-ups. Now Kusagakure was effectively in Mui’s hands—or rather, in Senshi’s hands as well.
Senshi mulled it over and then said to Mui:
“, keep a close eye on these Kusa elders.
I’ve already agreed to our partnership—o worry. You must know my reputation in the Ame’s bck market.”
“Tomorrow I’ll lead the team back to the Amegakure; in the meantime, you handle what’s left here in Kusa.”
Mui nodded slightly. He did trust both Senshi’s reputation and his power, and for now, there was simply er partner avaible to him.
Once he finished speaking with Mui, Senshi returo the Kusagakure inn for the night. Nothing else happened until m.
…
Early the day, Senshi took Karin with him to kno Kakuzu’s door.
Swish—
To Senshi’s surprise, Kakuzu slid the door open just as he was about to knock. pared to all that non-stop mission work in the past, this assig—subjugating Kusagakure—had been far more leisurely for Kakuzu. Yesterday, after signing the relevant agreements with Kusa’s leaders, he had returo his room at the inn to rest. Ever since partnering with Senshi, he’d seldom had a prht’s sleep, so it was a rare treat to get one.
Seeing Kakuzu, Senshi greeted him with a grin:
“M, Kaku. Everything’s sorted here in Kusa. Now we’ll head bae to hand iask, thearted on the one.”
Hearing that st line about a “” mission, Kakuzu felt like it was overkill; his pleasant mood from sleeping in evaporated instantly.
Soon enough, the three reached Kusagakure’s gates. Unlike when they arrived, this time the higher-ups were all there to see them off—Chief Chiya, Elder Guima, Elder Guihou, and so on. None of them came by choice, of course; it was clearly Mui’s idea. While Kakuzu hadn’t actually participated in st night’s operation, he k least the basics of what those leaders had gohrough.
Karin, oher hand, was a bit taken aback—she’d fallen asleep after dark and was unaware of the te-night events. Seeing all these formerly high-and-mighty bigwigs now sending them off, she assumed that after Kusa became a vassal to the Ame, these lofty figures had bowed their heads.
Right before leaving Kusagakure, Senshi spoke up to Mui:
“You e with me back to the Ame so you meet with their upper ma.”
…
Amegakure tower, inside a room equipped with life-support systems: this was where Nagato and Konan’s real bodies were. After a brief versation, Konan asked:
“Do you think Senshi’s pn will succeed?”
Nagato nodded:
“He’s got a good pn, and he’s capable of carrying it out. If he and Kakuzu fail, I’ll send the Six Paths of Pain to ha.”
“As we gather Tailed Beasts and make our Tailed Beast on, it’s iable we’ll stand against the five great nations. Rallying a number of mid-level or small vilges to our side, aing promising shinobi from among them to train as our elites—that’s an excellent idea.”
Though Nagato had faith in Senshi and Kakuzu, he didn’t yet believe they’d already succeeded in subjugating Kusa. At that moment, Nagato’s expression ged slightly. Notig this, Konan asked:
“What’s wrong?”
Nagato’s face showed fusion:
“They’re back.”
He was monit the entire Amegakure, so naturally he spotted Uzumaki Senshi’s group of four swaggering through the downpour. Konan wondered:
“Back so soon? Did they fail ive up? They haven’t evehree days in Kusa—how could they have subjugated it so quickly? Realistically, just scouting out the situation should’ve taken at least two or three days.”
Nagato couldn’t answer for sure, but after a moment’s thought he replied:
“Judging by their demeanor, it doesn’t look like they failed ave up. They’re almost at the tower. We’ll see for ourselves in a moment.”
At that point, Senshi, Kakuzu, and Karin were heading for Akatsuki’s base withiower. Mui, ing as Kusagakure’s emissary, wasn’t brought up to the anization’s quarters; Senshi had him wait in an inn somewhere in Amegakure.
Plenty of people were at Akatsuki’s base. All were surprised to see Senshi and Kakuzu back so soon. They khe pair had left not long ago for the mission—who would’ve guessed they’d return so quickly?
As Senshi and Kakuzu headed to see Pain, the other members gathered iower’s pza, curious as to why they were back.
Standing near Uchiha Itachi was Kisame—pale-skinned, shark-like. With a g Senshi and Karin, Kisame asked:
“Hey, Itachi-san, how e Kakuzu and that new kid are back so soon? I thought their mission was to subjugate Kusagakure. Is capturing aire shinobi vilge these days really so easy?”
Kisame’s face was full of puzzlement. Itachi shook his head, also clueless about how the pair could have returned so abruptly. Orochimaru, Sasori, asu were there as well, all eyeing them with curiosity.
The three soon arrived before Pain himself, who looked at Senshi impassively:
“Did you run into trouble?”
Senshi paused momentarily, then answered offhandedly:
“Trouble? Nah. What trouble could we possibly have? Taking doce like Kusa is no big deal.”
Pain, Konan, Orochimaru, Sasori, Kisame, asu all turo stare at Senshi, astonished. Even going out on a short camping trip would’ve taken lohan that, so if Senshi wasn’t lying, the mission’s speed was insane.
Pain fixed Senshi with a level gaze:
“Expin how the missio.”
Senshi summarized suctly:
“Kakuzu and I entered Kusagakure, then…”
He reted their operation in Kusa step by step. When finished, he retrieved the tract that Kakuzu and the Kusa higher-ups had signed, pulling it from his spatial ste. Most in Akatsuki already knew Senshi had some kind of Space-Time ninjutsu, so no one was especially stuo see him produents from nowhere.
By the time Pain heard the entire missio, he was ined to believe the subjugation was indeed successful. And seeing the actual signed agreement only solidified that certainty—Senshi and Kakuzu had truly pleted their mission. Pain’s face remained expressionless, but behind that, Nagato, trolling him from the life-support chamber, was extremely shaken.
Sure, Kusa was only a medium-to-small shinobi vilge, but it couldn’t be subdued that easily. For Senshi to do it in a swift, overwhelming manner was impressive even by Nagato’s standards.
Others in Akatsuki were also shocked. Orochimaru narrowed his serpentine eyes and scrutinized Senshi with renewed i, privately mulling:
“This guy must have deeper power than he’s shown. Also, he was so successful partly thanks to some unknown intelligework. In his at, there wasn’t even any info-gathering step—he seemed to know everything about Kusa already. That’s how he and Kakuzu could finish so decisively in uwo days.”
Orochimaru had already been eyeing Senshi as a potential “perfect vessel” ever sinessing his uny Lightning Release abilities. Now Orochimaru was also intrigued by Senshi’s apparent intel work—somehow extremely effit and unfathomable. His private iigations found no trace of an actual work. That only made Senshi’s sources more mysterious.
Itachi, for his part, grew even more wary of Senshi. Akatsuki was posed of formidable missing-nin, but even among them, Senshi stood out. At first, Zetsu felt the same shock as everyone else. Then suspi dawned on him—it all seemed too smooth.
He said aloud:
“Isn’t it possible that Mui and Kusa’s leaders teamed up to pull a tri you? They realized they couldn’t beat Senshi and Kakuzu, so they faked surrender in collusion with Mui. For all we know, they might already be off seeking help from Konoha or some other fa.”
Givesu’s notorious ing—he even double-crossed Madara in the end—his ination to suspect trickery was no surprise. Interpreting others’ as with a schemer’s mi, he naturally sidered that Kusa might be simply pretending to yield.
Bleam
