147. The Akatsuki Have Been Targeted

Somewhere in the Land of Rain, at the Dawn Organization’s base, Yahiko, Nagato, and Konan stood shoulder to shoulder beneath a cliff, gazing up at the curtain of rain outside.

The Dawn Organization was a rising new power that had rapidly emerged within the Land of Rain during the Third Great Ninja War.

It had been founded to mediate between the great nations during their wars. Rather than relying on force or authority, it sought to create peace with the fewest possible casualties through communication and negotiation.

Its members were all naïve idealists.

Since its founding, under the leadership of Yahiko, Dawn had traveled throughout the Land of Rain, negotiating and mediating disputes while spreading its ideals and continually recruiting new members.

By now, Dawn had grown to thirty people.

Then, quite suddenly, the world outside changed.

The Great Ninja War, which had originally been expected to continue for several years, ended in a manner no one could have anticipated.

A man named Kisame Hoshigaki had single-handedly breached the Hidden Leaf, forced the Fire Shadow to surrender, and sign a treaty acknowledging defeat. Even the other great ninja villages had been intimidated by Kisame’s strength. They no longer dared act recklessly and instead came forward one after another to advocate peace.

Under the deterrence of this new demigod of the shinobi world, peace arrived unexpectedly.

But it was peace among the great nations.

In a small country like the Land of Rain, the death of its leader, Salamander Hanzo, had plunged the entire Hidden Rain Village into even greater chaos.

As the leader of Dawn, Yahiko had always regarded Hanzo as both his goal and his example. He hoped that one day he might become as powerful as Hanzo, so that he would possess enough strength to build a bridge toward the hope of world peace.

But now, Hanzo was dead.

“I never imagined that even a demigod could fall. What kind of existence could possibly have killed Salamander Hanzo?”

Yahiko stared at the dense curtain of rain and murmured to himself.

“I heard that Kisame Hoshigaki is only fourteen years old, almost the same age as us, yet he has already become the Water Shadow of the Hidden Mist Village. During this war, he killed nearly five thousand Leaf ninja and destroyed most of the village’s buildings. He inflicted unprecedented suffering on the arrogant Leaf, forcing it to surrender.”

Konan recited, one by one, the intelligence she had gathered about Kisame. She could not help feeling intensely curious about this new demigod of the shinobi world whom she had never met.

“It’s hard to imagine that someone our age could be that strong. I always thought Nagato was a peerless genius, but it seems there will always be someone greater.”

Yahiko sighed in amazement and looked toward Nagato.

“I’d like to see Kisame Hoshigaki with my own eyes, too. I wonder what he looks like.”

Nagato spoke softly, an incredulous expression appearing in his Rinnegan.

He had been born with eyes identical to those possessed by the legendary Sage of Six Paths, and as a descendant of the Uzumaki clan, he possessed an enormous quantity of chakra.

Under Jiraiya’s tutelage, Nagato had mastered all six chakra natures by the age of ten and could use nearly every mainstream ninjutsu.

Jiraiya had once said that Nagato was the greatest genius he had ever seen, the prophesied child destined to change the world. No one his age could hope to keep up with him.

Faced with his teacher’s praise, Nagato had always been shy and modest. Yet he had gradually come to realize that he truly was the unparalleled genius Jiraiya believed him to be.

It was only today, after hearing the name Kisame Hoshigaki, that Nagato discovered for the first time that there was someone in this world even more formidable than he was.

“Yahiko, Nagato, what should we do next?”

Konan turned to her two companions.

Hearing this, Nagato felt a rare surge of competitiveness and proposed, “Let’s unify the Hidden Rain Village and put an end to the war in the Land of Rain. If Kisame Hoshigaki can do it, then so can we!”

Under Dawn’s long-standing ideals of advocating peace and rejecting violence, Nagato had deliberately restrained his abilities and had never had the opportunity to fight with all his strength.

If he revealed the true power of his Rinnegan, Yahiko and Konan would certainly be astonished.

However, the moment Nagato finished speaking, Yahiko shook his head and rejected the suggestion.

“Nagato, have you forgotten why we founded Dawn? Kisame Hoshigaki killed far too many people and destroyed the entire Hidden Leaf. His methods were too cruel and too radical. Even if he brought about so-called peace through force for the time being, in the long run, he has only planted more seeds of hatred.”

Yahiko frowned, clearly disapproving of Kisame’s actions.

“I was wrong.” Nagato’s expression changed as he realized that he had said the wrong thing.

Seeing this, Yahiko gave him a sunny smile, stepped forward, and placed a hand on his shoulder. Then he said solemnly, “Nagato, we must restrain our use of force. We should communicate with other factions through peaceful negotiations whenever possible and bring an end to this country’s war that way. Only then can we bring true peace to the Hidden Rain Village—and even to the entire shinobi world.”

“Understood!”

Nagato nodded firmly.

“Yahiko, Nagato and I will always support your ideals.”

Konan stepped forward as well and gazed at Yahiko.

Yahiko was naïve, upright, and kind. His character was much like that of the God of Shinobi, Hashirama Senju, and he possessed tremendous personal charisma. That was why he had become the leader of Dawn.

The only problem was that Yahiko did not possess power comparable to Hashirama Senju’s.

That was Dawn’s greatest hidden danger.

At that moment, the three of them were filled with optimism and confidence about the future. What they did not know was that—

the Hidden Rain Village was about to become deeply unsettled.

Somewhere along the border of the Land of Rain.

Whoosh.

A ninja wearing a black cloak embroidered with red clouds was fleeing wildly through the downpour, pursued by enemies.

He was a member of Dawn. The red clouds on his uniform symbolized the blood rain that had fallen over the Hidden Rain Village during the war.

His pursuer was not a Hidden Rain ninja, but a boy of around eight wearing an animal mask.

Suddenly, the Dawn member spun around and hurled several kunai bound with explosive tags. They shot straight toward the boy.

Boom! Boom!

A series of violent explosions sent dazzling flames into the air, only for the heavy rain to extinguish them in an instant, creating a thick cloud of white steam.

Did it work?

The Dawn member stopped, gasping violently as he recovered his strength, then stared nervously into the steam.

When the mist cleared, he saw a row of massive wooden pillars curving up from the ground to form an arched barrier that had withstood the explosive force of the tags.

The barrier opened, and the boy stepped out unharmed.

“You’ve got to be kidding me…”

The Dawn member’s face filled with terror. After barely catching his breath, he turned and ran.

But this time, his luck had run out.

Whizz! Whizz! Whizz!

Several sharp cries came from behind him. A number of wooden vines had shot from the boy’s palms. Under his control, they wrapped around the Dawn member’s legs and tripped him.

The boy then approached his captive calmly, formed a series of hand seals, and created a wooden prison that trapped him inside.

This boy was Yamato, the character from the original story.

People often joked that the First Hokage’s Wood Style had conquered the world, while Yamato’s Wood Style merely handled landscaping. In truth, although Yamato could not compare with Hashirama Senju, he was still a genuine genius.

Gu Ting

As a child, he had been used as one of Orochimaru’s test subjects and implanted with Hashirama’s cells.

The fifty-nine children experimented on alongside Yamato had all died one after another, unable to withstand the power of Hashirama’s cells. Orochimaru had eventually deemed Yamato a failure and abandoned him.

Yet through an intense will to survive, Yamato stubbornly lived on. He was later discovered by Danzo and joined the Root organization founded by him.

Within Root, Yamato was highly valued by Danzo and received personal instruction from him. He graduated from the Ninja Academy at the age of six and became a chunin that same year.

He was a genius on the same level as Kakashi.

At present, however, Yamato was known neither as Yamato nor as Tenzō. His codename was A.

After he captured the Dawn member—

“Excellent work, A.”

Danzo and Orochimaru emerged from the curtain of rain in black raincoats.

They were Root operatives under Danzo and followers of Orochimaru—more than fifty people in all. Even the weakest among them possessed the strength of an elite chunin.

Several days earlier, these people had defected from the Hidden Leaf and traveled west into the Land of Rain.

The Land of Rain lay between the great nations of Fire, Wind, and Earth. As a strategic buffer zone between the major powers, it had always been a territory that no one truly governed.

It was a place where all kinds of people gathered, with complicated terrain as well. Now that Hanzo had died, the Land of Rain had descended into even greater disorder, making it the perfect place to hide.

Danzo and Orochimaru had come here not only to avoid the Leaf’s pursuit, but also to rebuild their power in the Land of Rain so that they could rise again one day.

At that moment, Danzo’s subordinates began interrogating and torturing their captive from Dawn.

“Dawn? How interesting.”

After listening to the interrogation, Orochimaru’s eyes flickered with surprise.

“I never expected that, in a place like the Land of Rain, so steeped in war and slaughter, there would be an organization filled with such innocent ideals.”

When he learned that its leaders were Yahiko, Konan, and Nagato, his entire body trembled. He suddenly realized that the three of them were the students Jiraiya had taken in years ago.

Several years earlier, during the Second Great Ninja War, the three legendary ninja of the Leaf had encountered three orphans in the Land of Rain.

At the time, Orochimaru had proposed killing them to spare the children further suffering and help them escape from this world. Jiraiya, however, had opposed him on the spot, declaring that he would remain behind to care for them and atone for the wrongs the Leaf had committed during the war.

Several months ago, during the Third Great Ninja War, Jiraiya had received word that the three orphans he had once taken in had died amid the turmoil in the Land of Rain. He had grieved for them for a long time.

Now it appeared that the report of their deaths had been false.

What a coincidence.

At the thought, Orochimaru developed a keen interest in Yahiko, Konan, Nagato, and the Dawn Organization they had created.

Beside him, Danzo’s eyes gleamed as he said in a low voice, “This Dawn Organization will make excellent cover. We can conceal our identities behind it and use its name to take control of the entire Land of Rain, turning the Hidden Rain Village into our base.”

“I agree. I was thinking the same thing.”

Orochimaru nodded.

However, he had a deeper objective as well.

Over the years, Orochimaru had conducted numerous experiments on himself in the spirit of rigorous and self-sacrificing research. He had nearly ruined his own body.

That was why he had secretly learned an S-rank forbidden technique: the Living Corpse Reincarnation.

It was a ninjutsu that allowed him to transfer his consciousness into another person’s body and thereby obtain eternal life.

The time was nearly right. This opportunity would allow him to evaluate Jiraiya’s three students.

Orochimaru’s plan was to choose the most suitable one among them as a vessel for his consciousness.

Yahiko, Konan, Nagato… I hope you won’t disappoint me.

He reflected on this silently, then extended his long tongue and licked his lips, as though he could hardly wait to savor some exquisite delicacy.

“Let’s go.”

At Danzo’s command, the group set off, forcing their captive from Dawn to lead them toward the organization’s base.

Danzo glanced back in the direction from which they had come.

Hiruzen, just you wait. One day, I, Danzo Shimura, will return to the Leaf and reclaim what should have belonged to me from the beginning.

He swore this silently to himself.

And then there was Kisame Hoshigaki.

That teenage brat had slapped him repeatedly in front of so many people and gouged out his Sharingan, subjecting him to the greatest humiliation of his life.

This grudge would end only with death.

At the thought, Danzo’s gaze became colder than ice. Until he avenged himself on Kisame, he would never consider himself a man.

But—

neither Danzo nor Orochimaru could have imagined that—

the moment they had departed, Kisame, disguised as Madara Uchiha, appeared nearby.

Kisame was surprised as well.

He had only recently infiltrated the Land of Rain when he sensed the chakra of Danzo and the others. He followed them from behind and discovered that their destination was the same as his: Dawn.

What a coincidence.

With Kisame’s abilities, locating Dawn within the Land of Rain would not have been difficult.

Since he could simply hitch a ride with Danzo and the others, however, it would save him some time.

With that thought, Kisame followed them without making a sound.

He planned to use these people as villains while presenting himself as Dawn’s savior. That would make it easier for him to approach Nagato and the Rinnegan.

At the same time, in another part of the Land of Rain—

Beneath the downpour, a figure slowly approached from the distance.

Strangely, the rain did not wet his clothes. Every drop passed straight through him.

Uchiha Obito had arrived.

After reaching the appointed location, Obito waited for a while. Zetsu then emerged from the ground and said, “I’ve found the location of Dawn’s base.”

“Then let’s go.”

Obito spoke indifferently and placed a hand on Zetsu’s shoulder. As the power of his right eye, Kamui, activated, the two of them entered a spatial vortex and vanished.

Some time later, at Dawn’s base—

“Who are you?”

Yahiko, Nagato, and Konan led the members of Dawn as they watched the unexpected visitors before them warily.

The newcomers outnumbered them. They all wore raincoats, hoods, and masks, making them appear extremely mysterious.

They did not look like ninja from the Hidden Rain Village.

“Don’t you remember me?”

Orochimaru stepped out from the crowd, removed his hood, spread his arms, and offered Yahiko, Nagato, and Konan a kindly smile.