Chapter 205: Let the Akatsuki Save This Rotten World!
"Missing-nin."
"Missing-nin?"
Pain stared into Uchiha Tatsuhata's eyes. "You think those traitors can prove useful? A bunch of garbage hiding here and there, fleeing everywhere—you actually expect them to help consume Konoha's strength?"
He felt Uchiha Tatsuhata was completely indulging in flights of fancy.
So-called missing-nin, in his view, were merely scum from the various villages. He couldn't expect these dregs to play any role at all.
Uchiha Tatsuhata's voice remained calm. "Indeed, individual missing-nin facing village manhunts can only hide and flee. But this doesn't mean these missing-nin are useless. The fact they've escaped from ninja village pursuits time and again proves they all possess some capability. Moreover, among missing-nin, there are indeed several formidable individuals."
Pain quietly watched Uchiha Tatsuhata.
He admitted the other's argument possessed some validity.
"So you already have targets in mind?"
"That's right."
"Who are they?"
"Currently, the candidates I've selected number three: Konoha's missing-nin, one of the Three Legendary Sannin—Orochimaru; Sunagakure's missing-nin, Sasori of the Red Sand; and Takigakure's missing-nin, Kakuzu, currently earning money on the underground black market."
Uchiha Tatsuhata swiftly reported three names.
He'd done his homework thoroughly before coming to find Pain.
The One-Tail sealing failure, including replica Uchiha Madara, had resulted in all his replicas being buried. This significantly diminished his strength. Of course, it didn't mean he'd been knocked back to square one—he'd mastered the techniques copied through Toyoakitsushihime.
Naturally, since he himself didn't possess Magnet Release Kekkei Genkai, techniques like Sand jutsu couldn't be deployed. But other techniques posed no problems whatsoever.
However—
By this point, he'd also realized Toyoakitsushihime's correct development path lay in accumulating replicas. The more powerful individuals' chakra he copied, the more replicas he accumulated—one person became an entire army.
Otherwise, even if he copied a thousand techniques, how many could he personally use in battle?
Moreover, numerous Kekkei Genkai abilities he couldn't utilize himself. Only replicas could use them freely.
Thus—
After consulting with Black Zetsu, he'd devised this method.
Recruiting missing-nin offered two benefits. First, as he'd said—utilizing these missing-nin's power to wear down Konoha and the five great ninja villages' strength. Second, during this process, he could copy these experts' chakra, accumulating a new batch of replicas.
Anyway, currently speaking, rapidly collecting the nine great Tailed Beasts to advance the Moon's Eye Plan had become very difficult. The five great ninja villages—or more precisely, Konoha's strength—proved unexpectedly powerful. Executing the Moon's Eye Plan was destined to require arduous struggle against Konoha.
So, better to have more patience, slow the pace.
"Orochimaru..."
Pain muttered this name—the only one he knew something about. Together with Teacher Jiraiya as fellow Sannin, he was one of Konoha's top ninja.
As for the other two, he seemed to have heard of Sasori of the Red Sand's name. As for Kakuzu—he'd never heard of him at all.
He paid attention to matters outside Amegakure but wasn't particularly invested. Since Yahiko's death, he'd wandered lost like a stray lamb. Killing Hanzo to avenge Yahiko, making Pain become Amegakure's leader—this was the limit of what he could accomplish.
After that, he'd stagnated in place, knowing neither advance nor retreat.
Until Uchiha Tatsuhata brought the Moon's Eye Plan, letting him see a direction to advance, see what future he should head toward without Yahiko—a beautiful future with all his comrades enjoying happiness together.
"With your and my abilities, do we truly still need to seek these missing-nin as helpers?"
Pain looked at Uchiha Tatsuhata. "Among my Rinnegan's Six Paths avatars, the Deva Path proves strongest. Last time's failure stemmed precisely from my Deva Path avatar not deploying."
"I don't doubt your capability."
Uchiha Tatsuhata met Pain's gaze. "But, Pain, don't forget—sealing the One-Tail nearly dragged both you and me down completely. Didn't we also say then we'd seek helpers to complete Tailed Beast sealing?"
Pain immediately fell silent, recalling his words during that time of exhaustion.
He'd indeed said such things.
"If we have no helpers and rely solely on us two to seal Tailed Beasts, once we encounter enemies, the same situation will occur again. We'll never be able to fight at full strength. Ultimately, we'll likely fail at the moment of success again."
Uchiha Tatsuhata spoke with sincere intent.
This wasn't rhetoric prepared to persuade Pain but his genuine thoughts.
He truly didn't want to experience the same failure a second time. Therefore, they had to find sufficiently numerous and sufficiently capable helpers to help advance the Moon's Eye Plan.
Pain again sank into silence.
This was an extremely realistic problem.
Without more helpers to jointly activate Phantom Dragon Nine Consuming Seals, each Tailed Beast sealing would require extremely lengthy time. Once the sealing time stretched out, variables easily emerged.
Last time proved exactly so.
Just when they were two to three hours from completing the seal, Konoha ninja came knocking. Ultimately, they were beaten until all previous efforts were wasted, each suffering considerable losses.
He'd been somewhat convinced, his heart inclining this way.
However—
He still needed to solicit Konan's opinion.
"Konan, what do you think?"
Pain looked toward Konan, who'd remained silent throughout.
Konan raised her head, glancing at Uchiha Tatsuhata, then looking at Pain. She said softly, "I think we can try. Having people who can help will always make things somewhat easier."
From the moment Uchiha Tatsuhata proposed this method, she'd been contemplating and weighing pros and cons, thinking from various angles as much as possible. She'd found no problems with this approach.
After hearing Konan's answer, Pain remained silent for a moment before slowly speaking. "In that case... let the Akatsuki save this rotten world!"
He made his decision.
Agreeing to this problem-solving method Uchiha Tatsuhata proposed, and preparing to recruit and gather these missing-nin under Akatsuki's name.
This also represented a way for him to remember Yahiko.
He wanted the organization Yahiko had personally established to save this world!
Konan froze.
Akatsuki... she hadn't heard this name in so long. Various complex thoughts involuntarily arose in her heart, indescribable melancholy lingering within.
Uchiha Tatsuhata knew everything about Nagato and the others, also understanding what the name Akatsuki represented. However, his mask concealed all expression changes. He also controlled his emotions, speaking with a tone and attitude of complete ignorance.
"Akatsuki? If I'm not mistaken, this was the organization you established before entering Amegakure, correct?"
Pain slowly nodded. "That's right. In the past, Akatsuki brought dawn to the Land of Rain. But... this world's essence has already rotted through. Merely bringing dawn to the Land of Rain cannot change anything."
"Therefore, this time let Akatsuki bring dawn to the entire world!"
He stared at Uchiha Tatsuhata, saying, "Since you say we should recruit missing-nin to help, then let's do this under Akatsuki's name, absorbing these missing-nin into Akatsuki."
"No problem."
Uchiha Tatsuhata agreed.
He didn't care about such things. Whether utilizing Akatsuki's old shell or creating a new shell made no difference.
As long as Pain didn't get confused and think about absorbing the missing-nin into Amegakure itself. Persuading those missing-nin to join an organization without a fixed base remained somewhat possible. But persuading them to join a specific ninja village—that was virtually impossible.
Moreover—
How long this Amegakure territory could continue being managed remained an unknown variable.
"How do you plan to recruit these missing-nin to help?"
Konan stared at Uchiha Tatsuhata, asking, "For missing-nin like Orochimaru, I don't think they'll be so easily persuaded to join us. The Moon's Eye Plan doesn't hold tremendous appeal for everyone."
"Naturally I know this. If the Moon's Eye Plan could gain everyone's support, we wouldn't need to struggle against Konoha, against the five great ninja villages."
Uchiha Tatsuhata spoke eloquently. "However, persuading these missing-nin to join—well, join Akatsuki—isn't that difficult. Summarized, it comes down to three words: threats and incentives. For instance, Kakuzu loves money greatly—we can directly buy him with money. Orochimaru is extraordinarily obsessed with forbidden techniques. Sasori of the Red Sand has mastered technology for making corpses into puppets, collecting corpses everywhere..."
"Money and corpses aren't difficult to obtain. But where will you get forbidden techniques?"
Konan interrupted Uchiha Tatsuhata's grand discourse.
Uchiha Tatsuhata didn't mind, answering, "We don't have them—that's fine. But we're enemies with the five great ninja villages. We won't lack opportunities to obtain those forbidden techniques stored away."
So basically, robbery?
Will this work?
Konan looked at Uchiha Tatsuhata with some doubt. "According to what you're saying, they actually have no need to join Akatsuki, right? They can rob or steal whatever they want themselves. They have absolutely no need to join our Akatsuki."
"So the method I'm talking about involves both threats and incentives. What I mentioned just now all falls under incentives. Beyond that, we also need threats. We must use our fists to make them understand that joining Akatsuki is their only path to survival. Either join or die. I believe they'll make reasonable judgments."
Uchiha Tatsuhata looked at Pain, staring at those pale purple Rinnegan. He said in a deep voice, "And with your power, you're sufficient to control their life and death!"
"Sounds problem-free."
Pain slowly nodded. This set of threatening-and-incentivizing methods sounded highly feasible. Someone else might not pull it off because fellows like Orochimaru weren't pushovers.
But his Rinnegan precisely possessed the power to accomplish such things. He asked directly, "Since you've selected Orochimaru and two others, you've presumably also grasped their current locations?"
After all, threatening and incentivizing required first finding people.
Missing-nin had no fixed dwellings, wandering everywhere. If they couldn't even find people, couldn't meet face-to-face, then threatening and incentivizing became impossible to implement.
"No need to worry about this."
Uchiha Tatsuhata snapped his fingers. The venus flytrap-like, yin-yang-faced Zetsu silently appeared in everyone's field of vision. He extended his finger pointing at Zetsu, saying, "Zetsu is the ninja world's most excellent scout. He'll bring us all the intelligence we need. Kakuzu's position is already in hand. He's currently investigating Orochimaru and Sasori of the Red Sand's whereabouts."
"However, I feel you needn't be too hasty, Pain. We have sufficient time to advance the Moon's Eye Plan."
Finally—
He also advised Pain to have more patience.
"You don't need to tell me such things. Before I replenish my avatars completely, I don't plan to leave Amegakure. Rather, what about you? What do you plan to do next?"
"Let me make this clear first—these three missing-nin are my prey. The work of rebuilding Akatsuki can only be done by me."
Pain's gaze sharpened.
Akatsuki was personally established by Yahiko. Now, only he and Konan could rebuild the essentially disbanded Akatsuki. This was a right he absolutely wouldn't yield to outsiders.
Uchiha Tatsuhata waved his hand. "I never intended to compete with you for these things. Pain, you're Akatsuki's legitimate leader. What I need to do next is very simple—copy more powerful individuals' chakra. I plan to first tour the various small ninja villages, then afterward go to Iwagakure, Sunagakure, Kirigakure..."
"Sounds like you'll travel many roads."
"That's right. Too bad I couldn't create Fourth Hokage's replica. Otherwise, things would be much easier and more convenient."
Uchiha Tatsuhata sighed with some regret.
The journey ahead was destined to be arduous. To grow stronger, he needed to constantly travel throughout the ninja world.
"Alright, everything that needed saying has been said. It's also time for me to take my leave. I'll help you watch for suitable corpses. If I encounter any, I'll have Zetsu send them to you."
Uchiha Tatsuhata prepared to depart.
However—
Pain extended his hand, stopping him. "Wait. Don't rush to leave. I'll make you a ninja tool for long-distance communication. This way, no matter how far you run, when needed, we can directly contact each other."
"Konan, help me retrieve those rings."
"Hm?"
Uchiha Tatsuhata froze, saying in surprise, "Such convenient ninja tools exist?"
Pain shook his head but also nodded, saying, "The key isn't the ninja tool. The ninja tool is merely a signal transmitting and receiving device. At its root, this is actually the Rinnegan's power. I researched this special technique in the past, just never had occasion to use it."
"The Rinnegan's power truly proves mysterious and unfathomable!"
Uchiha Tatsuhata exclaimed from the heart.
Even though he possessed knowledge about the Rinnegan taught by its true master, Uchiha Madara—he didn't know whether Uchiha Madara had held something back or whether Nagato had developed abilities even the original possessor Uchiha Madara hadn't mastered. In any case, he truly didn't know the Rinnegan possessed this long-distance communication ability.
As they spoke—
The departed Konan returned. In her hands, she held a box. Inside the box lay rings of identical style bearing different characters.
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