"Enough!"
Finally, Pain, annoyed by the bickering between Sasori and Deidara, spoke coldly and put an end to their quarrel.
"If you want to prove your art so badly, then show it through action, not words."
The artistic duo snorted and fell silent.
Uchiha Itachi kept his head down, his thoughts unreadable. Beside him, Kisame kept observing him, then grinned.
"Leader, since you called us all here, I assume you have a mission ready?"
"Of course."
Pain nodded to Kisame.
Although he knew Kisame had close ties with the mysterious Uchiha Madara, as the most honest and hardworking member of the organization, Pain still had a favorable impression of him.
"I will teach you a sealing technique called 'Phantom Dragons Nine Consuming Seals.' It can also be activated remotely through a projection, but the sealing order must go from One-Tails down to Ten-Tail."
"Oh?"
Kisame chuckled. "If it's in order… then when it comes to Five-Tails, we'll have to go up against the so-called new 'God of the Ninja World,' huh?"
That "God of the Ninja World" was the new title the shinobi world had given Yami.
However, Yami himself was not fond of the title. No one wanted to live in someone else's shadow and be known as the 'Second Coming' of someone else.
Another person dissatisfied with the title was Pain.
Without knowing true pain, how could one become a god?
He was worth attention, but only Pain was truly Kami.
Still, without concrete proof, Pain wasn't going to make bold claims. He simply continued in a deep voice.
"Konoha is indeed the strongest of the Five Great Nations. For safety's sake, we will leave it for last."
"But when sealing the Six-Tails, Seven-Tails, and Eight-Tails, we'll need everyone's full presence, and the process will take longer."
"When the time comes, all members will move together to bring down the king."
Itachi's heart sank. Orochimaru, on the other hand, smiled darkly.
"Another Konoha Crush? Sounds good to me."
Pain ignored Orochimaru and continued assigning tasks.
"It will take about two months for the Three-Tails to resurrect. We can wait while completing our missions."
"Deidara, Sasori, One-Tail Shukaku is yours."
"Kakuzu, Hidan, Two-Tails is your responsibility."
"Itachi, Kisame, return to the base first. Once One-Tail is captured, head to the Land of Water to retrieve the Three-Tails."
Pain didn't assign anything to Orochimaru. At present, he had no partner, and his main role was not combat but his bizarre techniques.
With that, the illusion projection vanished, and the Akatsuki members scattered across the shinobi world began to move.
---
Konoha.
After a night's rest, Sasuke sought out Yami again, asking Izumi to help him test his resistance to Tsukuyomi.
The result wasn't good. Even though he had mentally prepared, he fell into the illusion just by making eye contact.
Though he wasn't injured and withstood the attack with his strong willpower, in truth, Itachi had simply exhausted the eye power used for light probing, essentially letting him off the hook.
This was unacceptable to Sasuke.
He had trained to the brink of death countless times just to defeat Uchiha Itachi in a fair battle and avenge his parents and clan.
"Yami-sensei… is Tsukuyomi really an unbreakable dōjutsu?"
Whenever something troubled him, Sasuke instinctively turned to Yami. No matter the issue, his teacher was always right.
After hearing Sasuke's question, Yami looked at him with a hint of pity.
Silly boy. If just Tsukuyomi is giving you a hard time, wait until you see Susanoo. You'll collapse on the spot.
Well, we'll take this step by step.
"Sasuke, you know what genjutsu is, right?"
Sasuke answered without hesitation. "Using various means to disrupt the flow of chakra in the opponent's body, creating illusions and attacking the brain's nerves. That's genjutsu."
"Correct. So the method to break Tsukuyomi is the same as any other genjutsu."
Yami nodded and raised two fingers.
"Either avoid giving Uchiha Itachi the chance to activate Tsukuyomi—like me—or disrupt your own chakra flow to break the illusion."
Sasuke's cold expression fell apart.
If he could do that, why would he even ask Yami for help? He would've already fought Itachi to the death.
Yami said nothing. He placed his hand on Sasuke's neck. Sasuke felt a burning sensation at the contact point. When Yami removed his hand, Sasuke used a kunai to see the reflection—there were now three black magatama marks on his neck.
"This is a Curse Seal. It passively absorbs natural energy. Once activated, it merges with your chakra—essentially a degraded version of Sage Mode."
Sasuke was pleasantly surprised. As a Ryūchi Cave contract holder, he knew a bit about natural energy and Sage Mode. He had tried to train in it but had no talent in that area and had given up.
Now, Yami had given him a "plug-in" to disrupt his chakra and break Tsukuyomi.
He couldn't wait to go test the power of the Curse Seal.
But Yami held him back.
Soon, Naruto and Kakashi were summoned as well.
This lineup was impressive. Along with Guy, Shisui, and Yami's family, these three were among Konoha's top combatants.
Three Kage-levels—more than enough to wipe out a minor village.
Yami's task for them this time wasn't destruction, but it wasn't far off either.
"Kakashi, you know about Takumi Village, right?"
Kakashi narrowed his eyes. "The Artisan Ninja Village… the one known for producing high-quality tools, right?"
"Exactly."
Yami tossed him an intelligence scroll.
"Konoha's ninja tools haven't been updated in years. The prices are sky-high. We spend a huge budget every year buying from Artisan Ninja Village."
"Why let others profit from us? We might as well handle it ourselves."
"Your mission is to capture the four leaders of Artisan Ninja Village and their top ninja tool developers and bring them back."
"Oh, and if they try to revive someone, let Naruto assist."
The three were stunned.
Resurrection?
Are small ninja villages really doing stuff like that now?
(To be continued.)