William ran a hand nervously through his hair. "Think it has anything to do with Arthur?"
"I doubt it," Alex answered. "He's still sealed away."
"Then it has to be Obito," Alice chimed in.
It was the only logical explanation left on the board. Obito was still out there, operating in the shadows of the Rain Village, and he was the only Akatsuki member possessing a space-time ninjutsu that could bypass physical barriers.
"I hate Kamui!" Margaret said, pulling at her hair in frustration. She then dropped back onto the couch cushions with a sigh. "It's too broken!"
The room fell into a grim silence as they processed the nightmare of fighting Obito Uchiha so soon.
"If that's the case," Alex pondered aloud, "I think it'd be a good idea to help the Akatsuki."
"What?!" they all said at once as their heads snapped toward him.
"I mean, help by exposing Madara to them. Think about the canonical lore. Nagato thinks he's bringing peace through pain, and Obito thinks he's fulfilling Madara's grand design. If we step in, lay out the truth of the Eye of the Moon Plan, and expose how Madara manipulated Rin's death, Obito and Nagato will have a massive change of heart."
"That'd mean the Akatsuki would collapse from the inside," Alice understood.
"What about Black Zetsu?" William asked.
It was a crucial variable. Black Zetsu neither answered to Obito nor truly served Madara; the parasitic creature belonged exclusively to Kaguya Otsutsuki.
"He'll probably try to run and hide, of course," Alex answered with a shrug. "Once Obito turns, Zetsu loses his primary pawn. And with Madara still dead, Zetsu has no play. He'll retreat into the earth to wait another few centuries unless we take him out too."
Alex's idea was highly plausible. It bypassed the need for a war and struck directly at the psychological foundations of their enemies. But an idea was just a concept; now lay the execution.
A few moments were spent first discussing how the original story of Shippuden went.
Like they all remembered, the Akatsuki invaded the Hidden Sand Village, successfully capturing Gaara and his Tailed Beast. Meanwhile, Sasuke went on to betray Orochimaru by absorbing him and forming a team known as Hebi.
The Akatsuki's aggression escalated after Itachi's and Jiraiya's deaths, eventually leading to an assault on the Hidden Leaf Village. This attack happened while Naruto was away, training under the Toads. A day after Itachi's demise, Sasuke uncovered the truth behind the Uchiha Massacre, a revelation that led him to join the Akatsuki with his newly formed Team Taka.
Later, the Fourth Shinobi War began with Obito Uchiha's declaration, a conflict that concluded when Naruto reached the age of seventeen. Following the war, Kakashi Hatake was appointed as the Sixth Hokage. Two years after this appointment, Toneri Otsutsuki attempted to destroy the world by manipulating the Moon. However, Naruto, at the age of nineteen, defeated Toneri, allowing Boruto to begin.
Knowing all this allowed them to form a concrete plan.
Since Jasper was now officially Sasori's partner in the Akatsuki, replacing Deidara, all they had to do was ambush Sasori in the field.
If they captured or disabled him, they could leverage Jasper to infiltrate the Akatsuki headquarters in the Rain Village. Once inside, the group could then talk directly to Pain. And if they could meet Pain, they could force a meeting with Obito.
"Think we should bring Naruto?" William asked.
"That's a terrible idea, Male-Karin," Margaret said, shooting him a deadpan glare.
William scowled, clearly disliking the nickname. He had spent months shadowing Naruto and ensuring the boy's safety, much like Karin did for Sasuke in the original lore. But he still hated the comparison.
"Why not?!" he protested.
Alice explained it was because of how dangerous it was to bring a Jinchūriki right into the heart of the Akatsuki.
Even if Jada and Minato could theoretically teleport him out should something go wrong, the village elders would never allow such a situation. Tsunade would lock him in a vault before she approved that mission.
"But we need talk-no-jutsu!" William tried to argue.
"Tell ya what," Alex compromised. "How about we let things play out like before: allow Team 7 to go on the mission to save Gaara before the Akatsuki try and extract the One-Tail. We use that canon event to intercept them."
"There's a flaw in the plan," Alice reminded them. "Deidara's dead. So who's to say Pain will actually send Sasori and Jasper to the Sand to capture Gaara?"
"They will," Alex confidently countered.
"How do you know?" Margaret asked.
"Root members intercepted a coded message from Jasper yesterday. It explicitly said that he and Sasori are headed to the Sand Village borders to initiate the Kazekage retrieval."
Alice's eyes flared with sudden anger. "You waited until now to tell us that?!"
"Sorry," he chuckled, unfazed by her outburst. "Figured I'd ease us into the strategy session first before dropping any orders."
Alice did not like hearing that. The remnants of Danzo's Root division were operating under Alex's partial guidance now, and she hated the compartmentalized way he hoarded intelligence.
Despite the friction, the meeting concluded with everyone agreeing to the deployment strategy.
They would send an augmented Team 7 to help Gaara. Such a roster would consist of Kakashi, Sakura, Naruto, Alice, William, and Margaret. More than enough to handle two Akatsuki members.
Alex would have joined, but he was too busy with his Root assignments. One of those assignments involved coordinating sensory teams to try and locate the borders of Arthur's hidden empire.
Another involved trying to find Jiraiya.
Should anything go wrong in the desert, Jada would know instantly through her marks and teleport to their side as the ultimate cavalry. All the group had to do now was navigate the village bureaucracy and let the elders know they needed to be sent out on this specific mission.
That part would be hard on them, as requesting a deployment involving the Akatsuki required massive clearance.
Before everyone stood up to leave the apartment, Alex took out his Flying raijin paper and held it up. "Jada, do you mind coming here for a moment?"
Exactly one minute later, the air in the center of the living room rippled with a flash of red light as Jada teleported right into the room.
"Jada!" Margaret screamed. She then sprinted across the rug and quickly hugged her friend, nearly knocking her over.
The tight embrace made Jada feel a warmth she hadn't experienced in a long time. It made her feel special, and she softly expressed how long it had been since they had all been in the same room together.
Truly, this had been the first time in months since they'd last seen her in person.
After Margaret let go, stepping back with a wide grin, Alice approached her. She looked Jada up and down, noting the refined muscle tone, and complimented how much she's grown.
Jada, however, stayed humble. "You all look pretty good yourselves." Then she turned her attention to Alex. "What seems to be the problem?"
"Did you hear everything we discussed?" he asked.
"For the most part, yeah… I'm sorry about what happened to Fū. I should have paid more attention to her."
"Don't worry about it," he assured her. "We'll get her back. But I called you here because I think I can help you on your search for Kabuto."
The others in the room exchanged baffled looks.
Alice narrowed her eyes. How did Alex know what Jada was doing in secret?
"I had an informant say that they spotted you at a civilian inn near the borders, looking for a boy with glasses and white hair," Alex smoothly explained.
It hadn't taken long for Alex to piece together the clues from the Root spy network. A lone Uchiha asking questions about a specific medical ninja was a glaring red flag on the intelligence board.
Jada looked away, feeling a tad ashamed for not telling anyone in the group about her solitary mission. She had wanted to handle the burden of Orochimaru's legacy herself.
"Hey now," Alex assured her, recognizing the guilt on her face. "It's good that you're looking for him. We all know what he's trying to do. If Kabuto manages to perfect the Edo Tensei and resurrect the dead, the Fourth Shinobi War's gonna happen whether Obito has the Tailed Beasts or not."
"But how can you help her?" William asked.
"Easy," Alex said with a confident smirk on his face. "I sent Sai out a few weeks ago to scout the ruins of the Sound Village in hopes of finding Suigetsu. Turns out, he found a clue that could lead us straight to Kabuto instead."
"Really?!" Jada said, her interest now piqued.
"Yeah," Alex nodded. "Figured I'd let you know, so long as we form a two-man cell to go track him down."
Jada considered this for a moment. Partnering with Alex didn't seem like a bad idea. He was, after all, the one who managed to do what no one in this room could: seal Arthur.
"I'll go too," Alice declared.
Jada looked at her, appreciating the protective instinct, but she shook her head. Instead, Jada agreed to form the team of two without anyone else needing to risk themselves.
"Are ya sure?" Alice asked her, clearly displeased with the decision.
"Yes," Jada said. "There's a big chance that if we find him now, we can get him to change sides."
Margaret blinked. "How the heck are ya gonna do that without Izan—wait, did you unlock that too?!"
"No, I haven't unlocked Izanami. But I'm sure we can show him how he can change without blinding me."
William and Margaret exchanged a tad confused look. Breaking Kabuto's twisted psychology without the ultimate Uchiha genjutsu seemed impossible. Not even Naruto could reason with him.
Alex then explained, "Kabuto only changed his allegiance in the canon because he was trapped in a perpetual loop—an elaborate genjutsu, so to speak, that forced him to accept his true identity and his past."
"Your point?" Margaret said.
"He's really just a man with an identity crisis. Guy doesn't know who he is without Orochimaru or Danzo pulling his strings." Alex then looked at Jada. "So long as we can replicate the psychological conditions of that genjutsu and simply show Kabuto his wrongs with hard evidence, we would have a much bigger chance at converting him organically."
It was a dangerous strategy that required breaking into the mind of a genius and rewiring his trauma. But it was exactly the kind of outside-the-box thinking those from earth excelled at.
It didn't take long for the group to agree on this finalized plan.
Team 7 would march to the desert to confront the Akatsuki and save the Kazekage. Meanwhile, Alex and Jada would try to intercept the snake's apprentice before he could raise an army of the dead.