No matter the place, people with a certain degree of strength—or even people who merely believed they had a certain degree of strength—always liked to snatch things, regardless of whom those things belonged to.
Especially when there were rumors about certain things that could grant anyone any wish, then those things had to be snatched even more. For example, certain first-class cups mixed with blood, or certain large, high-quality glass marbles painted with stars.
Right now, there was a group of people who had been very creepily plotting to stuff a number of bizarre old spirits back into an even older Poké Ball, and they had even formulated a detailed and thorough plan for it.
Moreover, the inside of this Poké Ball they had prepared definitely did not have the luxurious basic facilities of an ordinary Poké Ball. Did the tailed beasts want to live comfortably? Heh. Was Nagato the kind of person who cared about user experience?
However, while the plan was beautiful, there was one stumbling block in the process of carrying it out that they simply could not kick aside no matter what.
Yagoromo's intention to "deal with" all the tailed beasts conflicted completely with Akatsuki's world "nuclear peace" plan. Or rather, the former was doing this precisely to create that conflict.
The Seven-Tails' death was the result of this conflict, but the other side still had not fully understood this situation.
But in truth, Nagato and the others could not really be blamed for failing to wrap their heads around it. After all, they believed their plan was completely sealed off. Little did they know that someone else had a rough impression of that plan.
Yagoromo's line of action was so simple that it could not be any simpler. As long as Akatsuki was unhappy, his whole person would be happy. Only after completely destroying this plan would he deliver the final strike.
In a certain sense, Black Zetsu and Kaguya could both be considered innocent bystanders caught in the crossfire.
Judging by Yagoromo's personality, was he narrow-minded? Absolutely not. But whether the other party persisted in its "malice" to the very end or suddenly repented halfway through would not affect his judgment.
A crime was a crime. It would not be erased by later remorse, nor would it be reduced in the slightest by desperate attempts at compensation. Even a max-level Talk no Jutsu would not shake Yagoromo one bit.
At present, Akatsuki still had not completely figured out what exactly had happened to the Seven-Tails. Tailed beasts were strong not only because of their enormous chakra reserves, but more importantly because they could not be "killed" no matter how one killed them.
Tailed beasts would "die and revive." That was common sense and a law of this world. However, the matter of the Seven-Tails seemed to have surpassed that common sense… If one jumped outside this world's framework, then the current situation was naturally not difficult to understand. The tailed beast had simply died, that was all.
But even if Nagato called himself a god, in the end, he was still someone inside this sandbox… Therefore, in order to understand and accept the fact that the Seven-Tails was already dead, they still needed to do a certain amount of mental preparation.
In any case, relying on guesses and intuition alone, Nagato could tell that Akatsuki's plan had now suffered fundamental interference and destabilization, and this destabilization would continue. Thus, Akatsuki currently had two choices.
First, cleanly, efficiently, swiftly, accurately, and ruthlessly kill Yagoromo. That would count as solving the problem once and for all, and afterward, the entire world would be quiet.
But accomplishing that was not easy. From the process of Pain fighting Yagoromo, one could see exactly what level the latter's strength could reach.
Even with a precise battle plan and Akatsuki moving out collectively, just imagining all ten of them getting swept together into that technique called "Raien Jūkoku"…
The scene would be so beautiful one simply would not dare look.
There was a risk that his underlings would be wiped out in one fell swoop, and under extreme circumstances, the probability was not low. Therefore, Nagato could not take such a risk.
Moreover, once the plan was exposed, Akatsuki's enemy would not be only Yagoromo. They truly were making an enemy of the entire world, so preserving their strength was quite important.
Then the remaining second, slightly inferior option was to collect all the tailed beasts before Yagoromo did. In the end, what Nagato wanted to do was nothing more than the Infinite Tsukuyomi. Killing Yagoromo was not the goal, but rather a process and method. If that process could be bypassed, then taking a detour was fine. After all, once the Infinite Tsukuyomi began, even White Yaksha would not be able to escape.
The missing Seven-Tails was an important link Akatsuki had not anticipated in its plan. The method of making up for this loss was indeed extremely difficult. However, the most important matter right now was not the Seven-Tails, but preventing the loss of any other tailed beasts.
No matter what, Nagato would not give up his plan. Therefore, Akatsuki's movements accelerated and were brought forward. Or rather, they were preparing to begin their attempt.
The problem was that if Nagato would not give up his plan, Yagoromo was even less likely to give up his own actions.
This was a contradictory spiral.
A rather unsolvable one.
...
Nagato worried until his hair turned white, Black Zetsu cried until he fainted in the restroom, while Yagoromo's side proceeded step by step.
After the new batch of shinobi graduated, the Third Hokage had always paid close attention to these children who had just become genin. After all, in his view, these immature shinobi were Konoha's future. One day, they would shoulder and carry on the "Will of Fire" that the Hokage had always upheld.
During this period, the Third Hokage would even personally take on the work of assigning low-level missions to the newly formed shinobi teams. Even if he had to repeatedly explain D-rank or even below-D-rank missions to the new shinobi, Lord Hokage never grew tired of it. In fact, he even enjoyed it.
Because he felt that doing so held enough meaning.
However, the Hokage's attitude also depended on the person. Toward certain shinobi, he was kind and amiable, while toward certain other shinobi… he would not display an overly friendly attitude.
"All the new genin teams have been assembled for more than three weeks already. Why are you only now coming to accept your first mission?"
To be honest, the Hokage did not want to understand Yagoromo's routine at all. In short, all he needed to understand was that this person always played differently from ordinary shinobi.
By this point, the new teams should already have completed their initial familiarization and generally finished three to five low-level missions. Yet Yagoromo had only now arrived late… Although the children in his team did not need any familiarization or coordination with one another, what this showed was not such a practical issue. More importantly, it showed Student Yagoromo's attitude problem.
Missions were very sacred "play," all right? How could he treat them so casually?
"During this period, my team was undergoing internal adjustments. Now that the adjustments are complete, our Team…"
At this point, Yagoromo got stuck.
"What team number are we again?" he turned back and asked his "subordinates."
Mirai rolled her eyes and ignored him… As a brand-new rookie, she had long since been unable to hold back her desire to begin shinobi activities, but Yagoromo had kept dragging things out. This made her a little sulky.
"It is Team Six, Lord Yagoromo," Haku answered for him, preventing the Hokage's face from continuing to darken.
"Team Six? Mm, that's a very good number."
The Hokage held his forehead. What was good about it?
Facts later proved that this number really was very good. For a period afterward, Team Six's performance would continuously amaze people. Thus, whenever shinobi from the same village saw this team, they would cry out in great surprise:
"It's Team Si—Six, Six!"
So much so that later in Konoha, a derivative custom appeared. Under certain circumstances, when some salted-fish extras saw a shocking scene, they would always shout "666," leaving those who did not understand the origin completely confused.
Thus, "666" could be considered a special custom.
"Then, Lord Hokage, enough idle talk. Are there any suitable missions? Preferably a slightly higher-level, long-term mission," Yagoromo asked.
The Hokage nodded. He also understood that for Yagoromo's team, missions that were too low-level were already meaningless.
"There actually is a dispatch mission to another hidden village."
"However…"
The Hokage glanced at Yagoromo before continuing, "It is not very suitable for you to go."
In truth, there was no need to even look at which village the dispatch mission was for. Directly saying that Yagoromo was unsuitable was enough. This was not an exceptional problem, but a general one, because White Yaksha had caused incidents in almost every village. As for the remaining villages, he had caused major incidents there.
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