"So this… is what it feels like… to become the Kage of a village?"
"The harvest… was great…"
"I do not want to… make use of it… next time."
After haltingly reciting these few improper last words, Jiraiya closed both eyes, his body went limp, and his entire person turned the ashen gray of someone who had burned out.
With a thud, he collapsed inside the room that had originally been Hanzo's residence and had now been converted into the office of the Akatsuki leader.
"Kashin Koji!? Kashin Koji!? Someone! Hurry and send Kashin Koji to Lady Karin for treatment! Kashin Koji, he—he burned out again!"
A young girl's cry came from outside the office.
But it did not shake Jiraiya's intention to lie on the ground and play dead in the slightest.
Along with a burst of quick and messy footsteps, several young shinobi responsible for transporting documents pushed open the door and entered.
With practiced ease, they lifted the ashen-gray Jiraiya and rushed off toward the medical department established under Karin Uzumaki's leadership.
As Nagato and Yahiko, who had just finished inspecting Amegakure, watched Jiraiya being carried away, somewhat awkward expressions appeared on both their faces at the same time.
"Are we… relying on Jiraiya-sensei's help a little too much, Nagato?"
Yahiko turned his head and asked Nagato, who was using a miniature Shinra Tensei to repel the water droplets in his hair.
He sounded a little guilty.
"There is no helping it. We suddenly took over something as large as Amegakure. With only our knowledge, it is impossible to handle everything thoroughly…"
Nagato sighed and spoke with helplessness across his face as well.
"Since we do not plan to destroy Amegakure and replace it with the Akatsuki name, we have to find a way to make the people here recognize us more. For that goal, we can only trouble the well-informed Jiraiya-sensei for the time being."
"Then, should we agree to Jiraiya-sensei's proposal and allow that kind of izakaya with pretty ladies accompanying drinks to open in Amegakure?"
Yahiko recalled the heartfelt emotion Jiraiya had expressed the previous few times after recovering at Karin Uzumaki's place and asked Nagato uncertainly.
"Although Jiraiya-sensei would be very happy, can that kind of thing really gather staff and formally open within a few days?"
Nagato expressed doubt.
"That is true… Sigh. Once we resolve Hanzo's threat and Amegakure gets on the right track, I will personally accompany Jiraiya-sensei to drink at that kind of establishment for a whole week. That should compensate him somewhat for everything he has done during this period…"
Yahiko looked as if he had made some great decision.
With a firm gaze and an expression full of sacrifice, he spoke to Nagato.
"Are you not afraid Konan will find out you went to a place like that, Yahiko?" Nagato asked faintly.
"Crap! There is still Konan! Then we can only make things hard for Jiraiya-sensei and let me bear the bad reputation…"
"What exactly needs you to bear a bad reputation, Yahiko?"
A burst of rain-soaked paper drifted into the room.
In the blink of an eye, it transformed into Konan's tall and beautiful figure.
Facing Konan, with whom he had already basically pledged his life, Yahiko swiftly entered the state of pretending to be dumb and changing the subject.
Only Nagato looked at the letter in Konan's hand, frowned, and asked in confusion, "Konan, what is that? Did you not go inspect the condition of the ice coffin sealing Hanzo?"
"As for the ice coffin, there are already very obvious signs of melting. It seems the seal has begun to loosen. Hanzo breaking out from inside should happen within the next few days."
Konan first reported the main purpose of her outing.
Then she handed the letter, part of which had already been soaked by rainwater, to Nagato and said softly, "I found this distress letter on the way back, on a messenger pigeon that had been injured by something. Judging from the signature, this seems to be a distress letter sent by the shrine maiden of the Land of Demons to Konoha, Iwagakure, and Sunagakure…"
As she spoke, Konan took the injured messenger pigeon out from her sleeve and carefully began treating the bird with soaked feathers and a broken wing.
Nagato, meanwhile, relied on the outstanding vision of his Rinnegan and began trying to read the wet distress letter.
The contents of the letter were not long.
According to Nagato's guesses, it described the Land of Demons being attacked by a group of immortal stone soldiers. The Land of Demons' army had been beaten back again and again. The leader of the immortal soldiers, Moryo, even declared that after conquering the Land of Demons, he would spread war across the entire shinobi world.
The shrine maiden of the Land of Demons had no choice but to ask the shinobi villages closest to the Land of Demons for help, hoping to receive their assistance.
Listening to Nagato's analysis of the intelligence from the distress letter, Yahiko and Konan exchanged glances.
They both saw surprise and astonishment in each other's eyes.
They knew about the Land of Demons.
Geographically, it was a neighbor's neighbor of the Land of Rain, a medium-sized country with fairly good climate and environment.
Although there was no corresponding shinobi village within the country, the shrine maiden who led the Land of Demons possessed extremely powerful sealing techniques.
Combined with the shrine maiden's consistent neutrality and excellent reputation among the daimyo of various nations, the Land of Demons had been able to maintain its independence and peace between several great powers.
But now, when the Third Shinobi World War had officially ended and all five great shinobi villages were licking their wounds, a group of immortal soldiers had suddenly appeared in this small country that kept itself aloof from worldly affairs.
And their leader even wanted to burn the flames of war across the entire world again?
Just hearing it made it sound like a situation very suitable for the Akatsuki, whose action principle was stopping war from rising again in the shinobi world, to solve.
But the problem was that at this very moment, the Akatsuki and their new base, Amegakure, were facing the threat of Hanzo of the Salamander, who was about to unseal.
If they could not deal with Hanzo, an enemy who was extremely hostile toward the Akatsuki, Nagato did not dare abandon their Akatsuki comrades and go deal with Moryo, who wanted to stir up war again.
"Judging from the geographical position, this messenger pigeon should have been flying toward the Land of Earth to request aid…"
Nagato pulled out a shinobi world map from Amegakure's collection, identified the position of the Land of Demons relative to the Land of Rain, then frowned slightly and muttered to himself.
"If we received this distress letter that should have been sent to the Land of Earth but do not act, would the other two nations send people?"
"The Land of Fire probably will not."
Yahiko gave a negative answer.
"On Konoha's side, one of the Sannin, Orochimaru, only just defected. Right after that, Root shinobi left on their own and came to attack us. The Fourth Hokage is probably already exhausted from rectifying internal issues. How would he have the leisure to care about the Land of Demons?"
"Then the Land of Wind is probably hopeless too."
Nagato recalled the intelligence he had seen among Hanzo's confidential collection and shook his head as well.
"The sudden disappearance of the Third Kazekage itself was the fuse that ignited the Third Shinobi World War. Hanzo's collected intelligence also said Sunagakure has not produced any young elite jonin in recent years. As for what is happening in the Land of Demons, Sunagakure, whose strength has severely declined, should not have any spare strength to handle it…"
"Does that not mean that even though they clearly sent distress letters to the outside world, they might not be able to wait for a single rescuer?"
Yahiko supported his cheek with one hand and spoke with a rather pessimistic expression.
"They have already been forced to send distress letters to other nations at the same time. If we leave them alone, the Land of Demons might be conquered or destroyed by that Moryo."
"But we do not have any spare strength to care about this matter either…"
Nagato sighed.
He wanted to persuade his friend to give up this unrealistic idea of rushing to aid the Land of Demons.
"If Hanzo's matter is not resolved… Hanzo… Eh, Hanzo?"
Nagato's voice gradually grew smaller.
A thoughtful expression also appeared on his face.
"Nagato?"
Yahiko knew at a glance that this was the expression his friend wore when he had thought of an idea.
He hurriedly leaned over and asked anxiously, "Do you have a plan?"
"I am thinking. Since the shrine maiden of the Land of Demons has already been driven to desperately seek help from anyone available, even sending a distress letter to the Land of Earth, which is separated from the Land of Demons by an enormous distance…"
Nagato paused.
His expression gradually became serious.
"Then can we transfer this aid request to Kirigakure and ask whether they have the time and energy to do it?"
"Even if Kirigakure does not have extra experts to send, Rei Kaguya himself should be somewhat interested in this so-called immortal Moryo and his army, right?"
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