"That wasn't brainwashing! That man, Lord Orochimaru, understood me! What do any of you know?" Kimimaro roared, but he had already used up everything he had.
Even his final strike failed in the end.
A narrow victory.
In the end, Gaara and Kimimaro's battle concluded with Kimimaro dying from the onset of his Kekkei Genkai Disease. Gaara had only won because his luck was good.
Even so, no one would look down on Gaara.
For his age, his performance had already been astonishing. Especially since he had not borrowed power from his Tailed Beast, he could already be considered one of the best among his peers.
After all, Gaara had not expected his opponent, shouting about bonds, understanding, and love, to actually break through two hundred meters of earth and appear right in front of him. Was that reasonable?
Was this still a villain?
"Orochimaru is as good at deceiving people as ever."
Jiraiya sighed.
He had known since they were children that Orochimaru seemed to have always had a talent for manipulating hearts. Now, watching a young man give up everything because Orochimaru had bewitched him, including his own life, Jiraiya could not help but sigh.
But with that boy's circumstances, if he had not met Orochimaru, how long could he have survived in this chaotic world, inside Kirigakure?
This damned world.
"Was Itachi like that back then too?"
Uchiha Sasuke thought of how Uchiha Itachi had been with him earlier. It seemed to be the same. Fighting until the final moment, until the oil burned out and the lamp ran dry.
The last attack he had wanted to unleash had failed too, hadn't it?
"That brat from Sunagakure didn't do too badly."
Tsunade watched Gaara's performance. He had gone to save people under the orders of her, the Fifth Hokage. As expected of me, my eye for talent is still excellent.
Gaara's current strength was already quite impressive. He had surpassed an ordinary Elite Jonin and was in a state similar to Hatake Kakashi, only a hair away from Kage Level.
Otherwise, he would not have lasted until the end.
Although it seemed like his final victory came down to luck, without enough strength, luck alone would have been useless.
Kimimaro's strength was far beyond what an ordinary Jonin could compare with.
The battle between the two of them could be called evenly matched, two worthy opponents meeting head-on.
Strongest Spear versus Strongest Shield. Looking at it now, the Strongest Shield was still a little more powerful. The Strongest Spear had shattered outright.
After all, it was still bone from a human body. Even if it had been strengthened with a Kekkei Genkai, it could not withstand being used like that.
But before they could dwell on it for long, the screen that had already gone dark lit up once again.
The first thing that appeared before their eyes was a high-level meeting inside Sunagakure.
At the meeting, Sunagakure's higher-ups were issuing orders based on the intelligence Jiraiya had provided. They were preparing defenses against the organization known as the Akatsuki Organization, placing heavy troops at the entrances and exits of Sunagakure to prevent a surprise attack from the Akatsuki Organization.
The Gaara at the meeting was clearly much more mature than before, already close to young adulthood. With red hair and the Kazekage Uniform on, he looked remarkably handsome.
At that moment, everyone suddenly remembered Kaede Kitahara's earlier jab about Gaara's appearance. He had said that after reaching middle age, Gaara gave up the Salon hairstyle and chose a tame Flat Iron Perm instead, proving his sense of style had declined.
Now that they looked at it, that really was true. His taste had fallen by a lot.
Right now, he looked like a handsome young man. As for the future version, he could only be described as an average-looking middle-aged man.
Was it because he had gotten older and no longer had enough hair volume to support that kind of hairstyle?
How tragic for a middle-aged man.
Meanwhile, after walking out right after giving his summary, Sunagakure's Jonin Yura was praised by the people around him. He was saying, "No matter how you put it, I've served as an officer for four years. Of course I'll think things through and make the right judgment on what benefits the village."
Then it was as if he suddenly remembered something. His expression turned extremely wrong.
Deep inside his mind, a seal shattered in an instant. He remembered that he was Sasori's spy.
Seeing this, everyone was a little dumbfounded. So spies could be planted like this?
The spy who had been planted did not even know he was a spy. Normally, he went about his life without knowing anything. Then, at the critical moment, the seal in his mind would be released, and he would learn that he had been a spy all along.
"This feels exactly like something Orochimaru would do. No wonder he has so many informants inside the village, hidden so deeply that it's impossible to guard against them in normal times."
Tsunade murmured to herself. At this moment, she finally understood why Konoha could never fully eliminate Orochimaru's spies. Many of those people simply did not know they were spies. Some of them might have even participated in operations to capture spies, all while not knowing that they themselves were compromised too.
Only when they were needed would the seal in their minds be undone, allowing them to understand their mission and transform into spies.
That was why, no matter how many they caught, they could never catch them all.
So there had been a reason like this behind it.
Everyone felt as though their eyes had been opened.
At this moment, the scene shifted. It had already moved to a desert, where two figures in Black Cloaks with Red Clouds were walking through the sand.
Everyone's nerves tightened, because they already knew exactly what that outfit represented.
It was the mark of the Akatsuki Organization's members.
Previously, they had been dispatched to capture the Nine-Tails, and the ones who had personally acted were Uchiha Itachi and Hoshigaki Kisame.
Now, this was clearly another pair.
It was also a pair they had not seen before.
"I see. Looks like we've got the advantage compared to Orochimaru and the others, even if they seem like traitors who leaked our intel," Deidara said.
"Can't be helped. After using the jutsu, even I don't know what'll happen. By the way, are you sure you'll be fine with just that bag?" Sasori asked. "Our opponent can use Jinchuriki power."
At this moment, everyone noticed that Deidara had a ring on his hand. Written on the ring was the character for "blue." Quite a few people remembered that Uchiha Itachi and Hoshigaki Kisame had each worn a ring as well.
"It seems like wearing rings is some kind of Akatsuki Organization custom. But if that's the case, why didn't the Masked Man have one on his hand? Are they from different factions? Or does he have some kind of different status?"
Namikaze Minato thought of the earlier video where he had fought the Masked Man, and a certain guess faintly formed in his heart.
"All of my Ninjutsu is art, and I brought my trump cards too," Deidara said, utterly unconcerned. "The opponent is the One-Tail, after all."
As he spoke, he pulled open the zipper of the bag at his waist and reached one hand inside. To everyone's shock, there was actually a mouth in his palm, and it began eating the clay inside.
When the two reached the checkpoint, they discovered that Yura, who had just been loudly declaring that everyone needed to guard against the Akatsuki Organization, had already killed every Sunagakure Shinobi guarding the place, including the Anbu experts. He was waiting for them there.
"Good work, Yura. Do you remember me?"
At that moment, Sasori spoke.
"Yes, Lord Sasori."
Yura knelt and answered.
"Sasori? Is that Sasori of the Red Sand?"
Hatake Kakashi narrowed his eyes. There were not many people in this world called Sasori who were also connected to Sunagakure. The other party's identity was practically obvious.
Back then, Sasori of the Red Sand's reputation in Sunagakure had been almost comparable to Hatake Kakashi's fame in Konoha.
Both possessed prestige ordinary people could hardly imagine.
Judging by age, it was possible that he could have become the Fifth Kazekage.
Only later, he had suddenly disappeared without a trace, as if he had vanished from the world. At the time, no one knew what had happened. They had assumed he had met with some misfortune.
Only now did they know. So he had joined the Akatsuki Organization?
No wonder there had been no news about him afterward.
Then who was the other one?
Only a bit of his face had been shown, so they could not recognize him at all. From his Forehead Protector, they could only tell that he seemed to be a Missing-nin from Iwagakure in the Land of Earth.
"One from Sunagakure, one from Iwagakure. This Akatsuki Organization really does know how to recruit traitors and outcasts."
Tsunade curled her lip and spoke coldly.
She thought of the previous pair of members. One was Konoha's S-Rank Missing-nin, Uchiha Itachi, and the other was Kirigakure's S-Rank Missing-nin, Hoshigaki Kisame.
That already made four. The only one left was Kumogakure in the Land of Lightning, where no trace of a Missing-nin had been found yet.
But according to her guess, there had to be someone from Kumogakure in the Land of Lightning among the other members as well. After all, the organization already had Missing-nin from so many villages. Even Takigakure had a monster like Kakuzu among them. Aside from him, there was also Hidan, the leader of an evil cult.
There was no reason they would ultimately pass up recruiting a traitor from Kumogakure too.
Most likely, she simply had not seen Kumogakure's Missing-nin yet.
But if this kind of method had been used on Sunagakure, then it could also be used on Konoha. She had to be careful.
The two of them walked step by step toward the inside of Sunagakure. In this natural barrier that should have allowed only a very small number of people to pass, dead Sunagakure Shinobi were scattered everywhere. The two entered directly.
Immediately afterward, Deidara used clay to create a white bird, preparing to attack Sunagakure from above.
"What do you think, big brother Sasori? How's my artistic design today?" Deidara asked as he removed his bamboo hat.
"Don't make me wait too long, Deidara," Sasori said.
"Deidara, huh?"
Jiraiya silently memorized the name. Since they already knew the other party was a ninja who had defected from Iwagakure in the Land of Earth, once they drew his appearance and paired it with the name they now knew, it would not be hard to figure out this guy's exact background.
In the footage, Deidara rode the Clay Bird and flew above Sunagakure.
"One-Tail Shukaku of the Sand, Gaara of the Sand Waterfall. I wonder what kind of person he is."
At this moment, a cold smile appeared on Deidara's face. He began observing Sunagakure and prepared to make his move.
His actions also caught Gaara's attention inside the Kazekage's office.