"In short, everything is in place. Now we only need to make sure every gear turns along its designated track. And of course, if any obstacle crops up—well, you know what to do."
Hinata glanced up at the sky, which was already paling toward dawn, and stood. With planning this thorough and complete, the calculations for the Land of Waves were all locked in. All that remained was to let the main storyline run its course. The operation would formally kick off the moment Kakashi's party departed.
"Rest easy on that front. We don't eat Akatsuki's bread for nothing."
Arms folded, Kakuzu nodded. Any plan required the combination of intellect and force to execute. Hinata had supplied the full intellectual framework; combined with the muscle of the two Akatsuki pairs gathered here, there was nobody in the Land of Waves capable of stopping them.
"Good. Oh—Kisame. I need a favor."
Hinata turned to Kisame, her pale eyes narrowing slightly. "I need to bring back some seafood. Otherwise I won't have a plausible excuse."
"Oh~ No problem. A few minutes is all it'll take."
Kisame nodded with easy confidence, strode over to the shore, and slipped beneath the waves. In under six minutes, water exploded upward in a brief splash and the tall shark-faced missing-nin reappeared onshore, his right hand carrying a wire-mesh net bag stuffed with sea cucumbers, scallops, and other prized seafloor delicacies. Only Kisame, with his unmatched affinity for water, could have harvested that much in so short a time.
"This is perfect. Now I have my excuse... though using something like this as a pretext does make my skin crawl a little."
Taking the net bag from Kisame, Hinata muttered in faint distaste. This was her cover story for having been out all night. Without it, if Kakashi got suspicious... well, she couldn't exactly justify putting the future Sixth Hokage into the ground right here in Wave Country.
"Suigintou, at least you still have some companions around you. I know I'm not really in a position to say this, but cherish them a little. All it takes is one unexpected twist, and even wanting to see them again may no longer be possible. Hold still."
Kisame smiled mildly, then raised his right hand with index and middle fingers pressed together. At his chakra's prompting, a clean scoop of seawater obediently leapt up from the ocean's surface, hung briefly over Hinata's head, and burst evenly, dousing the pale-eyed girl from head to toe.
"Hey—? What was that for?"
Hinata flexed her shoulders in annoyance, clearly not appreciating the sensation. Kisame lowered his hand and nodded.
"If you're going to use the 'out catching seafood' cover, your body needs to smell a little like the sea. Get back and take a hot bath soon, or you'll catch cold."
"Tch—! Wouldn't have pegged you for the thoughtful type."
Kisame's attention to detail had Hinata raising an eyebrow instinctively. She realized she'd underestimated this most unassuming of all Akatsuki members. Rugged features aside, Kisame's intellect and combat strength both placed him firmly in the upper tier of the organization. Apparently his emotional intelligence ranked right up there too.
"I'm just good at lying, that's all. Suigintou will get there in time."
Kisame shouldered Samehada and walked off to join the other Akatsuki members preparing for their respective tasks. "Until next time, Suigintou."
"Ah—I'll do as you've said. I'll use Lord Jashin's divine power to bring those warriors to heel. Either way, if the flock grows, Lord Jashin will be pleased."
Hidan waved with carefree flourish, his scythe slung over his shoulder. Beside him, Kakuzu nodded as well. "The blockade work will be complete on schedule. I look forward to seeing what you do with this country."
Hefting the net bag in her hand, Hinata turned to Itachi with a pointedly mischievous look, her tone teasing. "Well? No parting words from you, Itachi?"
"If that foolish little brother of mine happens to catch your eye, perhaps he could serve as a passable plaything for you. He is, after all, the only Uchiha left besides me. I imagine he has some collector's value."
There was no mistaking the ice and indifference in Itachi's words—as if he were gifting a puppy he no longer wanted. But every shinobi here was a hardened veteran, and none of them were going to take a statement like that at face value.
"Geez, Itachi, for such a quiet type, you really do look out for that brother of yours. Makes sense. If your brother could latch onto Suigintou, the Uchiha Clan's revival would be looking pretty promising."
"Fitting, from the clan renowned for their eyes. An opportunity like this is a once-in-a-generation thing. If it actually pans out, your little brother would inherit a substantial share of Suigintou's fortune."
As Hidan and Kakuzu walked off, their teasing voices drifting back, Hinata's lips curled in a quiet smirk.
Itachi really was just like the original work: an outwardly cold, inwardly warm older brother. He'd clearly sensed that the Third's promise was no longer enough to guarantee Sasuke's safety. Now that Hinata was fully allied with Akatsuki, and operating right next to Sasuke, if Itachi reported this up the chain to the Third, the faster outcome would be Hinata going after Sasuke. And based on what Itachi had observed so far, Sasuke would have no defense against an attack from Hinata.
So what Itachi had really said, in code, was: take Sasuke into your camp, not out of it.
Of course, that was also because Hinata and Akatsuki hadn't yet done anything directly damaging Konoha's interests. If they had, there was no telling what lengths this "Itachi-god"—the walking cheat code of the original work—would go to.
In the end, they were all just pitiable people tangled up in the chains of their own affections, unable to break free.
The shackles of emotion were like thorny collars. Once fastened, they could only be tolerated at an exact distance. Too far or too close, and the barbs cut flesh.
Sasuke and Itachi were like two field mice tethered to opposite ends of such a collar, running in opposite directions. Every bit of strain and struggle each of them put into it only made the wounds on both sides worse.
Dripping wet, Hinata soon made her way back to Tazuna's house. When she pushed open the door, Tazuna's daughter-in-law was just sweeping the floor. She took one look at Hinata's state and startled, dropping the broom to rush over.
"What happened? Lady Hyūga, look at you!"
"None of your business—! Take these and get them cleaned up, then use them to feed that idiot upstairs who passed out!"
Irritably shoving the net bag of seafood into the woman's hands, Hinata strode toward the bathroom. In any case, the salt smell on her clothes wouldn't air out anytime soon; as cover, it was more than enough.
"Ah—Lady Hyūga, please, just a moment—!"
Scrambling to catch the seafood Hinata had shoved at her, Tazuna's daughter-in-law suddenly seemed to remember something and called out in alarm, trying to stop her. But Hinata had already slid open the bathroom door—and even she drew up short with a frown.
Kakashi was sitting in the bathtub in an exquisitely awkward posture, cold sweat beading on his face as he stared at Hinata walking in. There was no mistaking it: the white-haired Jōnin was, after all, a man—and a fastidious adult man at that. Taking a bath first thing in the morning was hardly surprising.
"Um..."
Wearing his usual mask, Kakashi appeared to have just reached out for the body wash when he'd clearly not anticipated Hinata yanking the door open on him.
Hm... under anime-logic conventions, this was the kind of scene that would normally count as a classic fan-service moment, right?
Stroking her chin in uncertain contemplation for half a second, Hinata briskly activated her Byakugan and methodically scanned Kakashi up and down. Look, since she'd triggered the fan-service scene herself, this was a rare chance to "collect CG"—might as well take a thorough look first.
"I'm so sorry, I didn't manage to stop Lady Hyūga in time..."
Tazuna's daughter-in-law poked her head through the doorway in a panic—and when she saw the Jōnin in the tub, even this obviously-a-woman long-black-haired widow also froze in place, her gaze sliding irresistibly onto Kakashi's rather sculpted chest and abdominals. The expression on her face was pretty much what you'd see on a male pervert laying eyes on a naked beauty.
Hm. So long as a shinobi was the genuine article and didn't run off training any weird niche jutsu, they generally ended up with enviable physiques. On a kunoichi, that generally meant the double-S of generous chest, narrow waist, and round hips—the flat-chested kunoichi like Sakura or Ino were actually the exceptions. Applied to male shinobi, it produced eight-pack abs and bodybuilder-grade muscle definition. Kakashi was no exception.
"I see. So Kakashi-sensei is the type who looks deceptively slim with clothes on. Couldn't tell from the outside. And his body hair really does match his hair color, just as expected."
Hinata kept her Byakugan activated and continued scanning Kakashi up and down with unshakable composure. Her tone carried absolutely no flicker of emotion—which was, frankly, entirely in-character. For her, this was no different than appraising a reference model in a bodybuilding training manual. Nothing special worth paying particular attention to.
"Ah... ahaha..."
Kakashi was, without question, completely frozen in place. Hinata's running commentary with absolutely no sense of decency—that in particular had turned the Jōnin's face the color of a thermometer dropped into a fire. In plain view, his skin went from flushed to a burning, blazing red.
"Ah—! I'm terribly sorry—!"
Tazuna's daughter-in-law, who had also been staring for a considerable stretch by now, finally snapped out of it. She hurriedly covered her face with both hands and turned away. Hinata, meanwhile, smoothly raised her arm and jabbed a finger at Kakashi in the tub.
"Kakashi—! As a Konoha Jōnin, how can you be so shameless?! Exposing yourself in the nude, in front of an unmarried minor and a widow, for this long?! Use Body Flicker and get out of our sight this instant! You closet flasher!!"
"This—I'm sorry—!"
Grinding the apology out through clenched teeth, Kakashi—his entire body now the color of a cooked lobster—hastily brought his right hand up into the Body Flicker seal and vanished from the bathroom. Presumably he'd fled, bare-bottomed, back to his own room.
"Hmph. The shamelessness."
With zero pressure whatsoever, Hinata delivered her verdict on Kakashi's behavior, briskly stripped off her sodden clothes, and glanced sidelong at Tazuna's daughter-in-law, whose face was still flushed with bashful color.
"You—! Come scrub my back for me. I was soaking out in the ocean for hours—I feel grimy all over!"