While treating Yahiko's injuries, Konan also informed him and Nagato about the battle proposal Yuji had made earlier. Yahiko did not accept it. He still intended to bear the pressure from the Hidden Rain Village and continue working toward liberating this region through his own methods.
Konan said nothing to that. But after everything that had happened, and given the genuine help that had been provided without any demand in return, all three of them felt somewhat reluctant to simply force Yuji to leave.
However, he made a deliberate point of emphasizing that Yuji was free to leave Akatsuki at any time. Akatsuki would repay his kindness in the future, but regarding any formal cooperation, the possibility remained nonexistent.
At the same time, Yahiko expressed his hope that the more Yuji tried to help them, the less he would resort to underhanded approaches, so that their organization would not be deceived by false appearances and intentions.
He felt that the more Yuji tried to build a relationship through assistance, the more it suggested he wanted something from them. But the debt of gratitude was real, and Yahiko would not deny that.
Even so, Yahiko's attitude remained one of careful distance.
Yuji's thoughts were focused on Nagato and Konan rather than Yahiko for the time being. As long as he could use this opportunity to remain within Akatsuki's orbit and accumulate a large volume of experience points, that was sufficient.
As his strength increased, gaining experience had become progressively more difficult. Being part of Akatsuki at least allowed him to accumulate experience at a reasonable pace.
As for auxiliary experience points, since he was not participating directly in the fighting, his only path to those was through eliminating plot characters. Salamander Hanzo and Obito in particular should both yield a considerable return when the time came.
His status within the group was somewhat peculiar. He was not exactly a member but occupied a position resembling that of an outer affiliate. As time passed, everyone's attitude toward him gradually shifted.
Even Nagato and Konan came to regard him with genuine respect. The first reason was that they sensed he was considerably older and extraordinarily powerful. The second reason was the more they observed his contributions to treating the wounded and keeping Akatsuki's fighters operational, the more undeniable his assistance became.
For the time being, however, Yuji did not interfere with Akatsuki's actions or internal decisions. On one hand, Yahiko was genuinely stubborn and would not be easily moved. On the other hand, White Zetsu lurking nearby in secret meant that acting rashly would be dangerous. Now was not the time. He only needed to observe and wait.
Although his medical skills allowed Akatsuki to fight the Hidden Rain Village in considerably better condition on the battlefield, Yahiko's ideology meant the organization continued to sustain casualties that could have been avoided with a different approach.
The fighting and survival conditions remained extremely harsh throughout. Nevertheless, his experience points continued growing steadily and meaningfully.
None of these hardships broke Akatsuki's morale. With their extraordinary willpower and unwavering determination, they fought the Hidden Rain Village to a sustained stalemate. As their campaigns continued throughout the Land of Rain, suppressing internal rebellions and protecting the civilian population, their reputation among the people of the Land of Rain began rising steadily.
The common people revered them. They were regarded as heroes and saviors, a new power capable of finally bringing genuine change to the Land of Rain.
This kind of expectation rising from the very lowest stratum of the nation posed a genuine and growing threat to the Hidden Rain Village's authority, reaching a level that Salamander Hanzo could no longer take lightly.
Because given the current trajectory, if left unchecked, Akatsuki's influence would only continue to expand. Eventually, perhaps all of the Land of Rain's ordinary citizens would no longer acknowledge the Hidden Rain Village as their authority, and would instead look to Akatsuki to govern the country.
At that point, although the Hidden Rain Village would remain the nominal ruler of the Land of Rain on the surface, it would effectively be standing on the opposite side of its own nation's people. This was an outcome Hanzo found absolutely unacceptable.
Meanwhile, on the broader battlefield of the ninja world.
As the war entered its final and most intense phase, the fighting forces of all four great ninja villages had been worn down to very small numbers.
Konoha had adopted a method of pairing veterans with young fighters, forming small squads and deploying them across all front lines. Their missions were almost entirely conducted in vanguard squad format.
Gathering any significant concentration of troops had become impossible. The grand scale of large-scale warfare had transformed entirely.
With the fighting dispersed into small unit engagements, there was no way to recreate the spectacle of the war's earlier phases.
The Hidden Mist Village and the Hidden Cloud Village were in similar conditions. The Hidden Mist Village's military strength was simply no match for Konoha or the Hidden Cloud Village at their peaks. The Hidden Cloud Village, having been besieged by several allied forces in the war's early stages, had suffered devastating losses to its fighting base and had now completely exhausted its reserves.
The only village still retaining a meaningful degree of military strength was the Hidden Stone Village. And the reason the Hidden Stone Village still had something to work with was not because their military power had fundamentally surpassed Konoha or the Hidden Cloud Village. It was simply because they had been the first to enter into cooperation with the Hidden Sand Village and had received pharmaceutical support for nearly a full year before the others.
The Hidden Stone Village's casualty rate had been brought under effective control as a result. The Third Tsuchikage Onoki also recognized that the curtain was about to fall on this Great Ninja War.
Whether he could change the course of the ninja world and make the Hidden Stone Village its biggest winner depended entirely on this crucial final push. Therefore, he deliberately mobilized all of the Hidden Stone Village's remaining forces, a force of over a thousand men, to cross through the Land of Grass and the Land of Fire and launch one final decisive offensive.
Furthermore, after receiving certain intelligence, he understood that the Battle of Kannabi Bridge, which symbolized the end of the Third Great Ninja War, was approaching. And Akatsuki and the Hidden Rain Village would also be facing their own great decisive confrontation before long.
One day, Yuji, wearing a black Akatsuki robe, returned to the Land of Wind.
Within Akatsuki, his status was free and his movements were unrestricted. Therefore, every few months he would secretly return to the Sand Village.
In front of Chiyo and the others, he briefly showed his face, signaling that he was still present and had not actually left the village. The reason he had given for his absence was that he was going into seclusion to conduct classified research. The senior officials were unaware of his actual activities.
He did not need to concern himself with village affairs and various ongoing projects during this period. It had to be said that Shimizu had proven to be a genuinely reliable administrator.
Every project he had arranged for the senior officials at that final meeting before his departure was progressing smoothly and producing results. Strengthening military equipment, cultivating talent, and stockpiling sufficient resources in preparation for the coming war against the Land of Rain were all advancing well. Rasa, Sasori, and Shimizu had all performed admirably.
His solo infiltration into the Land of Rain had also served the purpose of gathering direct intelligence on the Hidden Rain Village. Akatsuki had been in constant conflict with the Hidden Rain Village for years.
Although the organization had never intended to overthrow it outright, the ongoing war had necessitated continuous intelligence gathering about the Hidden Rain Village's internal operations. This information, gathered from within Akatsuki itself, gave him a firsthand advantage that the Sand Village's intelligence ninjas operating from the outside simply could not replicate.
At the same time, that intelligence was being quietly relayed back to the Sand Village. He was effectively using Akatsuki's own intelligence network rather than relying solely on Sand Village operatives to understand the Land of Rain's internal situation.
He moved across the desert at speed, glancing back briefly with a cold smile forming in his mind.
On several of his previous returns to the Sand Village, White Zetsu had been secretly following him. He had deliberately shaken the tail each time. After several fruitless attempts at tracking him, White Zetsu appeared to have given up the effort.
"The next period of time is extremely important for the village."
"Nagato and Konan's convictions were clearly shaken by what I said to them. Although I did not directly participate in their decision-making or their warfare, I accurately predicted the heavy cost Yahiko's stubborn tactical approach would extract each time, and I consistently offered more advantageous alternatives in the moment."
"Although the bond between the three of them is unshakeable, it is clear that both Nagato and Konan have come to trust my analysis and judgment."
"Next, it is time to show them reality directly."
"Starting with myself as the example."
"People throughout the ninja world, everywhere without exception, operate on self-interest and calculation. That is the very foundation of this world. They choose not to cooperate with outside forces."