The Third Kazekage had been turned into a human puppet by Sasori of the Red Sand. The Fourth Kazekage had been assassinated by Orochimaru with Kabuto and Kimimaro. And now the Fifth Kazekage had been snatched away by the Akatsuki.
Sunagakure really was the poster child for bad luck. Aside from the First and Second Kazekage, every one after them seemed to meet a worse end than the last.
If Gaara had not been absurdly tough, and if Chiyo hadn't used that forbidden jutsu, he probably would have been dead for good.
But that also said something else. Sunagakure had truly fallen. It was weak to the point of being painful. An entire great village, yet it could not produce a single powerhouse capable of standing up to people on Sasori and Deidara's level.
Of course, the Akatsuki's members really were monsters. The weakest of them started at elite jonin level, and freaks like Hidan, with his immortality and that twisted god-cult curse, could turn the tables even on Kage-class fighters if you went in blind. Even Yugito Nii, a perfect host from Kumogakure, had still been taken down.
That alone showed how ridiculous the Akatsuki really were.
Looking across the entire ninja world, aside from Konoha, not a single hidden village could honestly say it could face the Akatsuki alone.
And that was before counting Nagato, the super-Kage monster wielding the Rinnegan. In all the world, the only one who could probably match him now was Akira.
Or Naruto, someday, after truly mastering the Nine-Tails' power.
The only reason Konoha could still sit steady and face the Akatsuki head-on was because it had Akira as its pillar. At the very least, as long as he stood there, the village itself would remain safe.
Tsunade looked at Akira's back and said, "We still don't have the full report, but judging by the Akatsuki's usual pattern, it should've been a two-man team."
"The first intel also said two people were spotted, but beyond that, I honestly don't know the exact situation yet."
Then, halfway through saying that, Tsunade suddenly remembered why Akira had come in the first place: to report on the Kiei mission.
"Oh, right. You already turned in that S-rank mission, didn't you? What exactly happened?"
Akira kept looking out the window, his tone so even it sounded like he was telling a story.
"The Oni Clan really did still have survivors clinging on, but by the time I got there, they'd already turned into a pile of bones. Looks like they sacrificed their whole clan to activate some kind of twisted barrier."
"Those lunatics were trying to create a super-warrior capable of full spirit transformation, but they never managed it. In the end, that last survivor went all in and offered himself to the Reaper, trying to force the transformation through."
"All those villages they slaughtered beforehand were just part of gathering shinobi souls as fuel. You've got to hand it to them, that clan was rotten clear to the core."
"The last one, a guy named Kiei, was very strong. He'd already gone beyond the level of an ordinary Kage. But in the end, I still put him down."
After hearing that, Tsunade drew in a sharp breath. She instantly understood just how nasty the enemy Akira had faced must have been.
In some ways, even more dangerous than the Akatsuki's rogue nin. That was something beyond Kage level, and once fully spirit-transformed, it could ignore physical attacks and resist illusion jutsu. It was practically broken.
On top of that, Kiei had drawn on the Reaper's power at the end. That put him far beyond what Dan Kato had ever been.
Even Akira's absurdly overpowering genjutsu had done nothing to him. That alone was enough to imagine just how terrifying Kiei had become in that state. Under those conditions, even someone like Itachi Uchiha with the Mangekyo Sharingan might have gone down.
Tsunade nodded, her expression grave. "If even you say he was strong, then he must really have been far beyond Kage level."
Akira turned and gave her a faint smile. "Though it was also my first time cutting loose with Sage Arts at full power in a real fight. I have to admit, it felt pretty good."
Tsunade blinked, then stared at him in surprise. "He actually pushed you into using Sage Arts? Then yeah, he really did have something."
After all, when Akira had suppressed the rampaging Three-Tails, or even when he fought Orochimaru, he had never gone that far.
That said enough about just how hard Kiei had pushed him.
Thankfully, Akira had wiped that threat out. If that thing had ever reached completion, it would have become a catastrophic danger for Konoha.
And on top of that, the Oni Clan had originally been wiped out by the Uchiha after being commissioned by Konoha. The grudge there ran deep.
If those people had come back for revenge, if several thousand undead plus a super-Kage monstrosity had hit Konoha in a surprise attack, the consequences would have been unimaginable.
If not for Akira standing there like a living wall, the village could have been in for a disaster this time.
In truth, Tsunade was overthinking it because she cared too much. If Akira had not interfered, the Oni Clan's final sacrifice would still have failed.
It was Akira's appearance that had put enormous pressure on Kiei, driving him into a corner and forcing him to push his strength beyond its limits. That was what had created that short-lived super-Kage monster in the first place.
After Akira finished giving the full details of the mission, Tsunade suddenly shot him an annoyed look.
"You really are trouble. I don't even know how I'm supposed to scold you anymore."
Akira didn't hide anything. He came clean about having to remove Kurenai's and Anko's clothes to treat them. There was no reason to keep something like that secret. Better to be upfront.
Tsunade wasn't the jealous type anyway. She knew Akira too well. She knew he wasn't the kind of sleaze who'd take advantage of women in a crisis, so naturally, she didn't blame him.
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