Sixteen Years Old, The Fourth Generation of Mizukage

Nearly a month has passed since the meeting between the Water and Fire Shadows ended.

The Akatsuki organization, which became famous for its role as a guard at the Twin Shadows Conference, finally plans to end its stay in the Kingdom of Iron and embark on a journey back to the Kingdom of Rain.

"Wow, it feels like after just one month, my mastery of the shadow clone technique has surpassed 99% of the ninjas in the world..."

Under the moonlit night sky, Yahiko lay on the roof covered with a layer of falling snow. While counting the stars in the sky, he complained to his friend Nagato who was sitting next to him:

"Really, just expanding a small organization with dozens of people to about two hundred people has already made us so busy that we wish we could use the art of multiple shadow clones to work overtime all day long. I really don't know what those... How do the leaders of large-scale ninja villages manage and operate the village well..."

"Who says it isn't?"

Nagato, whose dark circles had become heavier recently, sighed, used chakra to grab a ball of crystal white snow from afar, looked at it and said in a daze:

"Just to provide the necessary food, clothing, housing and transportation for more than a hundred new companions has already forced us to use the remuneration we received from Kaguya Rei. When we think about it, we will build our own after returning to the Land of Rain. The expenses of strongholds and bases, various expenses necessary to maintain the normal operation of the organization, and the expenses of purchasing weapons and medicine for new members..."

"Even if we can take away all the one billion taels of remuneration from Kaguya Rei's black market account, without any income, it will probably only be enough to last for a few years, right?"

"That's why the major ninja villages continue to launch wars and strive to expand their sphere of influence to more countries..."

Yahiko sighed with great emotion, shook his head and said:

"Without enough tasks and commissions, Ninja Village cannot afford to raise so many ninjas. The consequence of not being able to raise enough elite ninjas is that its own military strength will decline, it will gradually lose the trust of the country, and then it will further be unable to make ends meet... …”

"Well, if we hadn't tried to run a large organization, I'm afraid we wouldn't be able to look at these things from the perspective of senior leaders of several major countries like we do now, right?"

"This may be one of Kaguya Rei's reasons for tempting us to attend the Double Shadow Conference..."

Nagato looked up at the bright stars, his eyes flashing with thought, "Anyone can do it just by shouting slogans for peace, but if we want to truly realize peace, we must see These objective reasons led to the outbreak of war, and try to find answers to solve it..."

"We must not only use non-violent means to temporarily bring peace to this war-torn troubled world, but also find ways to solve the triggers that trigger continuous wars... There are too many things we need to do, right?"

Yahiko whined and arranged himself into a "big" shape, slumped on the roof and didn't want to move, while Nagato stretched without being so pessimistic and took out Kaguya Rei from his arms. He stared at the token given to them and said thoughtfully:

"This is not necessarily something we need to complete ourselves... At least when it comes to solving the fuse of the war, I think Kaguya Rei doesn't mind providing us with some ideas and helping us. Make some attempts for him."

"Huh? Why do you say that?" Yahiko turned his head and assumed a posture of listening.

"Because that guy has never concealed his ambition to unify the ninja world."

Nagato recalled how Kaguya Rei was chatting with him about some experiences he had heard from people from the future, and expressed an attitude of being too lazy to comment on the path chosen by the other person. He said unhurriedly:

"Remember that he told us that the reason why he didn't want to continue fighting Konoha was not because he couldn't win, but because he couldn't guarantee the rule of the Fire Country after winning? Since he has thought about it after the war, How to rule the Land of Fire, then he should have thought about the various problems that will be faced after the unification of the ninja world, right?"

"Anyway, there is no conflict between us and him on the route for a while, so it shouldn't be a problem to borrow some ideas from him and then implement the feasibility of these ideas ourselves, right?"

Yahiko sat up from the eaves and thought seriously about Nagato's proposal.

To say that the people who have influenced himself and Nagato in terms of thought are none other than Jiraiya as a teacher, and Rei Kaguya, who maintains a very subtle relationship with himself and others.

As an old Konoha Masakoni who was born and raised in troubled times and received ninja education from childhood to adulthood, Jiraiya's thinking mode has a strong ninja color. Although his pursuit and yearning for peace cannot be denied, he has given Has there been any concrete plan for peace?

not at all.

But Kaguya Rei is different.

As a ninja born in Kirigakure Village, Kaguya Rei should have a more ninja-like way of thinking than Jiraiya, but unexpectedly he has many ideas that are not like ninjas, as well as some concepts that are too advanced for this era.

Yahiko couldn't understand how Kaguya Rei formed such a unique way of thinking in a closed and cold environment like Kirigakure, but this did not prevent him from learning from Kaguya Rei's confusing "nonsense" , listen to something that touches your heartstrings and makes you think seriously.

"Then, Nagato, aren't you worried that we will be too affected by Kaguya Rei's thoughts, and then slowly deviate from the neutral position and completely fall to his side?"

After the silence lasted for a while, Yahiko opened his mouth and asked Nagato this question that made him somewhat hesitant.

"We shouldn't deny those things that are right, Yahiko."

Nagato held his friend with his somewhat cold hands and said calmly:

"Jiraiya-sensei, who educated us, is from the Leaf Village in the Land of Fire. Because we agree with Jiraiya-sensei's thoughts, we established the Akatsuki based on his teachings, in order to be able to use means other than violence to build Working peacefully and continuously..."

"Similarly, although Rei Kaguya is from Kirigakure Village in the Land of Water, for those of us who were born in the Land of Rain, his identity is at least better than that of the Konoha ninja who once invaded the Land of Rain. ?If we can accept the teachings of Teacher Jiraiya, then we can also accept the correct and beneficial parts of Kaguya Rei's thoughts to make Akatsuki's ideas more perfect."

"Don't forget, although we have carefully and strictly selected the new members who join the organization, there must be a few spies specially sent by the Great Ninja Village to collect intelligence among them... But so what? As long as everyone can If they can work hard to realize Akatsuki's ideals and build peace, why should we care about their true identities?"

"...Tsk, really, is the Samsara Eye so powerful? Even when it comes to seeing things that don't actually exist, it's faster and more thorough than ordinary people like us..."

A self-deprecating smile appeared on Yahiko's face, and he teased his friend casually. Nagato smiled indifferently, pulled Yahiko up forcefully, and said to him with a smile:

"That may be the case, but you are not allowed to slack off without authorization because of this, and then return to me the work that should be done by you, Yahiko?"

"Who do you think I am? I am Yahiko, the leader of Akatsuki. This little blow is nothing..."

"Ah, Yahiko, Nagato, you are here." A few pieces of soft white paper floated from the wind, and a bust of Konan was transformed in front of Nagato and Yahiko, "Hurry up and come to the conference room. Come on, there is an emergency that requires you two to make a decision."

An emergency? Do you need two of you to make a decision?

Nagato and Yahiko looked at each other, immediately jumped down from the eaves, and rushed towards the conference room quickly. When they arrived at the conference room, Konan and Uzumaki Kaori were already waiting for them inside.

"What happened?" Yahiko asked straight to the point, "Is someone trying to kidnap the blood ninja who is imprisoned by us again, or are there other unknown ninja groups outside approaching us?"

"That's not what I'm here for..." Uzumaki Kaori raised his hand and played with his long red hair in embarrassment, "I was just interviewing the last batch of new members with Konan, and I'm going to follow their instructions. When I assigned them tasks based on what I was good at, I suddenly discovered that there was a very strange chakra in it..."

"Weird chakra? How strange?" Nagato frowned, and his body quickly entered a state of alert.

"That's right, that chakra is very similar to someone's chakra that I could often sense in the venue when the Hokage and Mizukage were meeting before."

Uzumaki Kaoren gestured with her hands in the air, and at the same time looked directly at Nagato, who was from the same clan as her, and whispered:

"Because I haven't been to the meeting site, I can't be sure who the chakra belongs to except Kaguya Rei... But Nagato, you have seen them. If you use Kagura's inner eye to sense it, , you should be able to recognize his specific identity, right?"

A certain... chakra that appeared in the venue during the double shadow meeting?

Yahiko and Nagato looked at each other and quickly made a simple mental elimination process.

The Third Hokage, Sarutobi Hiruzen and the Third Mizukage, two old men in their fifties and sixties, would obviously not do such an outrageous thing. Even if they wanted to do it themselves, there were many people in the village who would stand up and stop them from the embarrassing behavior of going undercover in a small family like the Akatsuki organization.

In the same way, it is impossible for Minato Namikaze, who has just been promoted to the Fourth Hokage, to be free enough to work part-time in the Akatsuki organization not long after he took office...

Then the only remaining candidates are Gotachibana Yagura, the Mizukage guard on Kirigakure's side, and Jiraiya, the Hokage guard on Konoha's side.

"Ying, it can't be you, right?"

With a complicated expression that he didn't know how to describe, Nagato opened the Kagura Mind Eye taught to him by Uzumaki Rin.

Then, a chakra that had the same feeling as Jiraiya suddenly appeared in Nagato's perception.

I really can’t finish the second update today, so I’ll update it at six o’clock tomorrow morning (feeling guilty)