Hidan stood in thorough ill humor atop the sea off the Land of Waves, his triple-bladed scythe slung over his shoulder. It was obvious he was waiting for someone, and when two figures finally emerged from the thick fog rolling across the water, the silver-haired zealot snapped out in irritation:
"Oi oi oi~ The two of you are way too slow!"
"Can't be helped. Itachi-san and I were in the middle of a mission in the Land of Grass when the order came through from the Leader telling us to come here and back you up. Even running flat out, a trip like that takes a while. We can't fly around like Deidara."
The speaker was Kisame. The towering Mist defector breathed in the surrounding mist with visible pleasure; as a son of Kirigakure, he clearly relished this damp coastal climate.
"So what's the situation? There shouldn't be any enemy out here who'd need reinforcements of our caliber."
One hand tucked inside his collar, Itachi's red Sharingan was as unmoved as ever. After receiving Kakuzu's request for assistance, Pain had deliberated briefly before issuing a crisp order dispatching Itachi and Kisame to the Land of Waves to help seal off the country's borders. From Akatsuki's perspective, the Land of Waves was the ideal site for a figure factory, and Hinata's proposal—a ring of artificial reefs completely choking off all sea lanes—was the most elegant solution on the table.
"Tch. Ask Kakuzu about that. He's been handling the reef construction the past few days. Going by the schedule, the southern and northern stretches are already done."
Hidan shrugged and took point, leading the way. After a stretch of travel that brought them ashore, the two Akatsuki pairs finally rendezvoused properly. Once Kakuzu had walked them through the full plan in detail, even Kisame raised an eyebrow in surprise.
"That's genuinely impressive. Looks like humanity really does come with built-in division of labor. Some people really are just born with a talent for ruling."
Stroking his chin, Kisame gave a decisive nod. "Alright! I'll summon some reef sharks into the shallow-water zones to handle the blockade on that end. Shouldn't take long."
"Take this map of the reef chain. Make sure you leave at least three clear passages for vessels to slip through. The point is to seal the country off, sure, but we still need our own escape routes."
Kakuzu nodded and pulled a reef distribution chart from his sleeve, passing it over. Like a trap field laid across the seabed, these reefs had a certain pattern and clustering logic to them. But as a shinobi who never failed to leave himself an escape route, Kakuzu had threaded several hidden safe channels through the reef network, reserved for when the need arose. Naturally, those routes would only be known to Akatsuki members.
"Heh, so with this done, the Land of Waves is basically Akatsuki's for the taking."
Laughing, Kisame took the reef map and glanced over at Itachi. "Well then, Itachi-san, I'll be right back. Go find somewhere to rest in the meantime."
But just then, the ground at their feet stirred. Zetsu's signature pitcher-plant-shaped head slowly emerged from beneath the earth, and Black Zetsu's oily voice rose with it.
"No. Itachi has something else to do."
"Hah? Why do you always have to pop up out of nowhere like that? Itachi can't even use Summoning Technique—what do you need him for?"
Hidan scowled at the newly surfaced Zetsu, lips twisted in irritation. He clearly couldn't stand this aloe-headed creature.
"It's a new task for us~ The Leader has given additional orders. Since we're going through the trouble of bringing the Land of Waves under control, we might as well do it properly. In other words, we need Itachi to use genjutsu on the daimyō of the Land of Waves—plant a suggestion that he should be especially friendly toward Akatsuki."
White Zetsu's giggling tone had Kisame glancing over with slight surprise. For those who knew of "Uchiha Madara's" existence, it was clear this follow-up order had come from that man. Controlling the country's transport infrastructure was already enough, but if genjutsu was layered onto the daimyō himself, the arrangement would be truly airtight.
"Understood. It won't take long."
Itachi nodded slightly. This task could only be carried out by a genjutsu specialist—and as it happened, Itachi, wielder of the Mangekyō Sharingan, was the most suitable candidate available.
"Get to work, then. Per Suigintou's instructions, the formal occupation of the Land of Waves begins the moment she leaves."
"Divine Sandstorm—!!"
In the middle of the forest, a panting Naruto strained to channel the chakra within him. The chakra wrapping both his arms was rapidly converted by the Sacred Fist Gauntlets into two tangible hurricanes, shrieking as they began to rotate. But just as the chakra output was about to peak, a sudden, horrifying pulse surged up from his lower abdomen. Naruto flinched on reflex; the output in both arms was thrown off in an instant, and the two spinning cyclones he'd nearly shaped shattered into nothing.
The loose wind blades scattered outward like shards of broken glass. Naruto's cheeks were sliced as if by invisible razors, opening a dozen small red cuts. Blood trickled down from the corners of his mouth, taut with pain.
"Damn it..."
His legs gave out and he toppled backward onto the ground. The fresh cuts peppering his clothes and his face laid bare just how many times he'd practiced—and failed. The Divine Sandstorm consumed chakra at an enormous rate, and it demanded a burst of chakra output so concentrated it exceeded the limits of Naruto's own control. In other words, it outpaced the Four Symbols Seal's ability to convert the Nine-Tails' chakra into usable form. Every time he attempted it, the technique would instantly drain his own chakra dry, and would also force the Nine-Tails' chakra to leak out of the Four Symbols Seal faster than the seal could refine it.
After the incident where he'd lost control of that borrowed chakra, Naruto had grown extremely sensitive to—and averse to—the Nine-Tails' chakra. His body would almost instinctively pull back on his own chakra output, which meant Divine Sandstorm would sputter out the moment it formed. The failures were all but guaranteed.
Of course, if Naruto's control were just a little better, he could shrink the Divine Sandstorm's radius and force, reducing the chakra draw to a level that wouldn't require pulling on the Nine-Tails' reserves at all. But chakra control had always been Naruto's weakest area. Even after the Reduction Fruit training had boosted it substantially, an ultimate-tier technique like Divine Sandstorm still demanded more finesse than he could muster.
In exchange for those many flaws, there was one single virtue, and it was...
Divine Sandstorm's raw destructive power was horrifying.
Facing the area in front of Naruto, one could see that the patch of forest looked as though a hurricane had ripped through it. Thick tree trunks were covered in jagged, deep gouges, as if slashed repeatedly by invisible blades. Even the ground and the boulders beneath the trees bore the same kind of damage—and this damage was obviously not limited to surface cuts. The stone around those wounds showed signs of what looked like wind-weathering, as though once-solid rock had been reduced to a hollow shell barely held together by fused sand.
That chaotic, raging Wind-natured chakra hadn't merely sliced their surfaces—it had traveled along the wounds to wreak pulverizing destruction inside them. This was the most terrifying aspect of Wind-natured chakra.
And this was precisely why Wind was considered the most precious of the five chakra natures, and also the most lethal at close to mid range.
One could easily imagine: a fully-formed Divine Sandstorm would attack like a grinding mill, hitting the enemy from every angle at once. Anything caught within its radius would be pulverized into dust finer than the eye could see.
"I'm back..."
Naruto pushed open the door to the house with his head hanging low, his voice limp. Everyone inside turned to look, and when they saw the state he was in—his clothes caked with blood and dirt, his body covered in fresh wounds—Sasuke, who had been about to toss off some sarcastic barb, closed his mouth on reflex. Even he could see that Naruto had genuinely given it everything he had.
"Are you alright?! Let me get the medicine kit!"
Tazuna's daughter-in-law watched the wobbling blond boy with a pained look. Even she, an outsider, had been moved by the sheer stubbornness of Naruto's effort. At the end of the day, anyone who worked that hard deserved respect.
"No... please, just some food... I'm a little... hungry..."
Forcing out a weak smile, Naruto tried to say something more—but his vision darkened and his whole body swayed, then began to collapse toward the floor. The dual exhaustion of mind and body had finally overwhelmed him.
As Naruto was about to hit the ground, Kakashi flickered across the room and caught him. The silver-haired Jōnin pressed two fingers to Naruto's pulse, let out a quiet breath of relief, and nodded.
"He's fine. Just over-exertion. He's passed out."
"Hmph... a dead-last is a dead-last. Pushing himself this hard, and he still can't master the ultimate technique?"
Sasuke's voice was cold on the surface. But for all the contempt in his words, the tone beneath carried something else entirely.
"Looks like that girls' outfit he's wearing is going to have to stay on him for a while longer. Enough. Take him to the bedroom and let him rest. Tomorrow it'll be his turn for the photo shoot."
Hinata shook her head and moved toward the door, ready to head out. Kakashi's brow furrowed slightly.
"At this hour? Where are you off to?"
"None of your business. I'm just going to practice Orochinagi a bit. You, the designated house-sitter, don't need to worry about it."
Hinata tightened the Sacred Fist Gauntlets on her arms; she clearly had no intention of lingering to explain, and vanished into the night before anyone could argue. Looking back once at the still-unconscious Naruto, Sasuke's expression flickered with an odd, internal struggle—but to everyone's mild surprise, he didn't go after her.
"Mm? What's the matter, Sasuke? Aren't you going to review your own ultimate technique?"
Kakashi tilted his head slightly, tone lightly probing. The dark-haired boy shook his head. For once, his voice carried an uncharacteristic awkwardness.
"No... I'll wait here for a bit. Don't overthink it. I'm just waiting for a thunderstorm—better conditions for practicing Ame no Habakiri."
"Heh~ Fair enough."
Kakashi smiled faintly and gave a small nod. "That one really does take some waiting."
"Tch—! That smile of yours is absolutely disgusting, Kakashi~"