Amegakure, Akatsuki's Secret Base.
Today, Pain was not standing in his usual spot watching the rain.
Instead, he stayed in his room, thinking of countermeasures.
Countermeasures against Takumi.
He had repeatedly dispatched organization members to deal with Takumi.
But each time ended in miserable failure, and each time, new abilities of Takumi's were revealed.
It was as if Takumi was an endless gift box, always able to surprise them.
Kakuzu, who had enhanced his strength, couldn't win.
Itachi, who also mastered the Complete Body Susano'o, couldn't win either.
Now, he really couldn't think of anyone else in the organization who could be sent.
"Have they achieved anything lately?"
Pain suddenly spoke.
"No."
Konan, who had been silently standing behind him, shook her head. "Sasori is working on his next puppet. After his previous one was shattered by Takumi, he hopes to make a more durable puppet to protect his real body."
"Deidara is still studying explosions, but that guy can't be relied upon."
Konan thought for a moment and continued. "Kakuzu is still wandering around looking for powerful hearts, but it seems he's not having much luck."
"Hidan's cursed techniques don't work on Takumi, so there's no improvement there either."
"Kisame and Itachi haven't left the base recently."
She reported the members' recent activities, then fell silent.
After listening to her report, Pain also had a headache.
So much time had passed, yet there was still no progress whatsoever.
Takumi, that thorn in his side, was rapidly revealing new things, while they seemed to be standing still.
This situation depressed Pain.
And at the same time, made him doubt.
Relying only on these people, could he complete his plan?
If he couldn't even overcome the obstacle that was Takumi, could the plan be implemented smoothly?
At this moment, Pain was plunged into deep doubt.
Konan remained silent, her eyes distant.
She was thinking about one person.
That person was exactly the one Pain desperately wanted to eliminate: Takumi.
However, unlike Pain, Konan found herself having special feelings for Takumi.
This situation had arisen ever since she received those things that felt like memories.
It was very strange.
Although she had no recollection of these memories,
Yet this memory gradually became deeply ingrained in her mind.
She had already forgotten the faces of her Akatsuki comrades from when Yahiko was alive.
But she couldn't forget this false memory.
Why was that?
She asked herself, but found no answer.
'Perhaps I should go see him. Maybe then I'll find the answer.'
Thinking it over, she strengthened her resolve.
"Recently, some suspicious characters have appeared near the village. I'll go deal with them."
Konan found a casual excuse, then scattered into pieces of paper and flew away.
"Yeah."
Pain didn't mind her coming or going.
Konan was the only person in his mind who would never betray him, so he didn't pay much attention to what she did.
Because Konan wouldn't do anything to harm him.
Although it was an excuse, it was true that suspicious characters had appeared.
But Konan didn't go to deal with them herself; instead, she sent a paper clone.
From what she could tell, those guys were just a bunch of low-level Shinobi. A paper clone would be more than enough to handle them.
Her real body flew towards Konoha.
She wanted to follow her heart, see Takumi herself, and find the answer within.
Relying on her ability to fly,
She traveled rapidly from the Land of Rain to the Land of Fire, arriving at Konoha.
Having become paper, she drifted into Konoha with the wind, unnoticed by anyone.
She quietly infiltrated Takumi's room, sticking to the ceiling, waiting for Takumi's return.
'Nagato has been controlled by that man calling himself Uchiha Madara. The current Akatsuki has completely lost our original will.'
'This is definitely not the Akatsuki Yahiko wanted.'
'Perhaps you can set everything back on the right path?'
'At least, I hope you can make Nagato wake up again, make him remember what we once pursued.'
Konan held high hopes for Takumi, who had repeatedly thwarted the Akatsuki.
Although she spared no effort in helping Nagato, deep down, she had come to doubt the purpose of the current Akatsuki.
At this point, the Akatsuki had strayed from their original path.
'If Yahiko were still alive, he definitely wouldn't want to see the Akatsuki like this.'
She thought silently to herself.
But just as her thoughts were wandering, she suddenly saw a figure climb in through the window.
Then, without even cleaning up the traces of her entry, the figure directly crawled under the bed, holding her breath.
Konan was startled.
She recognized the person's identity: Onoki's granddaughter, Kurotsuchi.
Young, with considerable strength, and a user of the Lava Release Kekkei Genkai.
Although not as powerful as Onoki's Dust Release, she was still not to be underestimated.
But it seemed she had the same goal as Konan.
However, Konan just wanted to take a look. The other party seemed to want more than just a look.
Kurotsuchi, with the help of spies, had silently infiltrated Konoha.
"So easy!"
She rejoiced, hiding under the bed, eagerly waiting for Takumi to arrive.
At this moment, Takumi had already returned to the village.
But he needed to report the mission's outcome first.
He went straight to the Hokage's Office.
"Good work."
Hiruzen said with a smile first.
Then he noticed that Yugito, who should have been following behind Takumi, was gone.
His expression immediately turned serious. "Did something go wrong with the mission? Did Kumogakure's people come?"
The only reason he could think of for Yugito's departure was this.
Fortunately, Takumi was unharmed.
He comforted himself inwardly, but his face was very serious.
"No."
Takumi shook his head. "I let her go."
"Let her go?"
Hiruzen was stunned. "Why?"
"Hokage-sama, even you find it hard to believe. What do you think the Raikage and his people will think?"
Takumi smiled. "After being captured by the enemy, returning safely just a few days later... I think anyone would be suspicious, right?"
Hiruzen nodded, seeming to understand Takumi's plan. "You want to cause internal conflict among them?"
"That's right, that's one intention."
Takumi nodded. "But more than that, I didn't want to kill Nii Yugito."
"What do you mean by that?"
Hiruzen felt he might be falling behind Takumi's thinking.
"Hokage-sama, although Konoha still produces talented people, compared to the past, our village has weakened significantly."
Takumi said seriously. "If at this time we actively kill Kumogakure's Jinchuriki, given the Fourth Raikage's temper, he might very well ignore everything and declare war on us."
"And the Tsuchikage, who loves to profit from war, definitely wouldn't just stand by and do nothing."
"At that point, it might escalate into a war sweeping the entire Shinobi World."
"If it really comes to that, how many people in Konoha would die?"
Takumi's words made Hiruzen think deeply.
"You're right, Takumi-kun."
Hiruzen slowly nodded, then sighed with admiration. "You really think things through. I was being too simplistic."
"Not at all. It's thanks to your excellent guidance, Hokage-sama."
Takumi immediately humbly said.
"Hahaha, with you here, Konoha's future is assured."
Hiruzen looked at Takumi happily, liking him more and more with each glance.
Not only was he powerful, but his thinking was also very meticulous.
Most importantly, he was very loyal to him.
That was the most crucial thing.
"This mission was successfully completed, and you deserve recognition."
Having finished discussing Yugito, Hiruzen began rewarding their contributions.
"Because one of the Seven Ninja Swordsmen appeared as an enemy, this mission counts as an S-Rank."
"However, we can't give much money. The village's funds are limited, and the client's payment wasn't high either."
With that, he looked apologetically at Takumi, hoping he wouldn't mind.
Takumi didn't mind at all.
He didn't need money right now.
If he wanted, he could easily take a few S-Rank missions. For him, these missions weren't particularly difficult.
As long as he didn't run into a few of those abnormal missions in the Shinobi World.
Although Takumi didn't care about the S-Rank mission record,
For Neji and the others, this was an incredibly rare achievement.
As Genin, the missions they could normally access were at most C-Rank. Even B-Rank required their supervising Jonin's guidance.
Unexpectedly, they had stumbled into completing an S-Rank mission.
And most importantly, they barely did anything.
The main enemy, Raiga, was directly dealt with by Takumi.
They only handled the remaining lowlifes.
The whole process was easy and comfortable, perfectly carried the whole way.
"Great!"
Naruto jumped for joy. He didn't care about money, although he didn't have much.
But he cared a lot about mission ranks.
In his view, the rank of missions completed was also a form of recognition of one's strength.
The more high-rank missions completed, the more it represented a Shinobi's real strength.
The best part was, he had this mission record, but Sasuke didn't!
That was what made him happiest.
Now he could go show off in front of Sasuke again!