"What? You actually tried to eat Jiraiya-sensei's summoning beast?!"
Yahiko stared wide-eyed at Uchiha Yuan.
"Jiraiya-sensei calls himself the Toad Sage! He loves toads to death—literally!"
The four of them walked side-by-side along a dirt path weaving through a dense forest.
Yuan walked on Yahiko's left, while Konan and Nagato walked to his right.
Konan's lips curved faintly.
"If Jiraiya-sensei heard that, he'd be furious. Before he left, he warned us very seriously never to eat frogs again."
Before meeting Jiraiya, the three of them had roamed the Land of Rain, surviving by catching mice, frogs, anything edible.
Yuan's lips curled.
"Well, he was angry. But how could I help it? Gamabunta just looks… very delicious."
Yahiko scratched his head.
"Konan, didn't Jiraiya-sensei mention Gamabunta once?"
Nagato nodded softly.
"I think he said Gamabunta was a giant toad with a terrible temper."
"How giant?" Yahiko asked, eyes sparkling with curiosity.
Yuan answered calmly,
"Roughly the height of a seven or eight-story building. Like a mountain of living meat."
Yahiko let out a sharp gasp.
Konan shot Yuan a strange look.
"You really are bold… or is it just the Uchiha way?
Jiraiya-sensei said even he gets headaches when Gamabunta gets angry."
Yuan replied with a confident smile,
"Konan-neechan, we Uchiha fear nothing."
Konan paused, studying him.
"Little brat… do you know Uchiha Madara?"
"Konan!"
All four halted at once.
Yahiko's face changed instantly, and he cut her off sharply.
Nagato's visible eye peeked from beneath his hair, fixing onto Yuan with tense vigilance.
Recently, a man claiming to be Uchiha Madara had approached them—leaving a shadow over all three.
Yuan raised an eyebrow naturally.
"Madara? Why bring him up so suddenly?"
He could clearly sense their fear of that name.
At the same time, he felt a faint chakra signature beneath the ground—a murky, slithering presence.
It fluctuated ever so slightly.
Zetsu. He's been following them the whole time.
Nagato finally spoke,
"You're an Uchiha. Surely you know who Madara is."
Yuan pretended to think for a moment, then answered neutrally,
"In Konoha, Madara is practically a taboo. The clan rarely speaks of him.
What I know is simple—he tried to lead the Uchiha out of the village, the clan refused, and he was abandoned.
He fought the First Hokage and died in that battle. Hashirama-sama was badly wounded too—that's why he passed away so early."
It was a safe, standard answer—neither suspicious nor inaccurate.
With Zetsu listening, he couldn't afford to say anything strange.
Then Yuan shifted the topic, staring openly at Nagato's hair-hidden eyes.
"Nagato, your eyes… they're unusual. Is that some kind of special bloodline?"
Nagato didn't answer.
He simply turned and continued walking.
Yuan shrugged casually and followed.
Underground, Zetsu snickered.
How disappointing. This little Uchiha doesn't even recognize the Rinnegan. Madara will be furious.
Eventually the forest thinned, and the road opened into a clearing.
Yahiko stopped and turned to Yuan, smiling.
"Yuan… we should part ways here."
Yuan blinked in surprise.
"Why? What do you mean?"
Yahiko's expression hardened with determination.
"You warned us earlier… and you might be right. This meeting with Hanzo could very well be an ambush.
And since we only met by chance, this has nothing to do with you.
If this is a trap, we don't want to drag you down with us."
He exchanged a look with Konan and Nagato.
After a long moment of silence, Yuan exhaled.
"…Alright."
Then he straightened his back and said sincerely,
"Yahiko, may your meeting go smoothly."
Yahiko grinned, then vanished with a flicker of Body Flicker.
Nagato disappeared right behind him.
Konan stepped closer, her expression gentler than before.
"Brat… next time we meet, I'll cook for you myself."
Yuan laughed.
"I'll look forward to it—Konan-neechan's cooking."
A soft breeze swept by, and she too vanished.
Yuan watched the direction they left in, eyes dimming with a faint sigh.
Then a sharp gleam flashed in his gaze.
The chakra signature underground—Zetsu—was already racing after them.
The Land of Rain was known for its sudden storms.
Sunshine a moment ago, torrential downpour the next.
At the meeting place between Akatsuki and Hanzo, dark clouds smothered the sky.
Rain fell in sheets.
Yahiko, Nagato, and Konan arrived.
Scanning the surroundings, Yahiko murmured,
"Hanzo isn't here yet?"
Suddenly—
Stones around them shot upward and transformed into attacking Rain-nin.
Yahiko and Nagato reacted immediately, counterattacking—
But the ambush was just a distraction.
Their real target was Konan.
While Yahiko and Nagato were held back for a single heartbeat, Konan was seized by two Rain-nin and dragged away.
The attackers vanished instantly with Body Flicker.
"Konan!"
Yahiko and Nagato tried to chase—
But countless Rain-nin appeared atop the surrounding cliffs, blocking every escape route.
Yahiko's voice trembled with bitter realization.
"Nagato… we're surrounded.
It's a trap.
Hanzo has betrayed us."
Nagato scanned the cliffs—and then froze.
Beside the Rain-nin stood masked strangers… wearing Konoha forehead protectors.
The leader was a man with bandages covering his right eye.
Nagato's breath caught.
"Konoha shinobi?
Why are Konoha shinobi here?!"
The malice radiating from the bandaged man was suffocating.
Later, Nagato would learn the truth—
It wasn't Konoha as a whole.
It was Shimura Danzo,
the head of Konoha's Root division.
A man whose cruelty rivaled Hanzo's own.
And by the time Nagato learned his name…
Danzo's soul would already be ripped from his body by the King of Hell.
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