Ren could feel it. It took three weeks, but Deidara was finally at Amegakure.
It was about time. Any longer and Ren wouldn't be able to do the next part of his plan concerning the Akatsuki because the Chunin Exams would be starting in pretty much a week.
Hinata, Ino, Team Seven, they were all back from their C-rank missions, and if things went like they did in the canon, they would all be entered into the Exams.
Ren really wanted to get some intel on Akatsuki and their plans before that. But his immediate concern was the Invasion and his plan for killing Orochimaru.
Akatsuki was a problem, but there was a good chance Ren would have years before they became an issue. Orochimaru, however, was a problem right now.
Through Samui, he managed to get some info from the black market about various purchases and merchandise movements within the Land of Rice... and yeah. The invasion was definitely coming.
For somebody not expecting it, the info would be useless. But once Ren knew what he was looking for? It all checked out. The Otogakure was gearing up.
Fortunately, Deidara was just in time, and if his eavesdropping seal was any indication, the Akatsuki would have a meeting in like twenty minutes.
He hurriedly left his work at the Barrier Corps today on short notice because of that.
So, pushing his trepidation down, Ren walked toward his closet and opened it with a smooth and swift motion of his hand, and his eyes were instantly drawn to a certain outfit.
He nervously gulped. It was time to confront the boogeymen of this world.
At least, he had a plan this time.
...
Deidara entered the dark meeting room with a round table where the Akatsuki would have their biannual meeting to determine the future goals and actions of their organization.
Honestly, he could not bring himself to care. It wasn't as if he joined them fully voluntarily. It was hard to say no when the stone-faced Uchiha bastard held him at eye point after demonstrating how easily he could kill him.
Though Deidara had to admit, the benefits were very nice. He didn't regret joining. The only thing he wanted was to spread his art among the masses, and fortunately, the Akatsuki had many jobs where he could do that.
He should have been happy right now. The leader was going to announce the next stage, where he could showcase his art!
But Deidara only felt sullen and seething.
The only saving grace was that nobody knew about the humiliating beatdown he had suffered. But he couldn't leave it like that. He was going to find the bastard and shove his biggest explosive down his throat!
See how he likes it!
Preferably after he bombed Kumo to the ground.
Deidara's hands involuntarily balled into fists as he gritted his teeth while glaring into nowhere. He was going to make the bastard regret not killing him when he had the chance. He was going to destroy everything the man held dear in his life and-!
"Oi. You okay over there, blondie?" Kisame's voice suddenly interrupted Deidara's thoughts, making him realize that all the Akatsuki members were finally gathered in the room and the meeting was about to start.
"Leave him, Kisame. This is a common occurrence. He often spaces out when he thinks about the waste of time he calls his art." Sasori's dull, droning voice resounded through the room, and Deidara's eye twitched.
"Fuck you, Sasori-no-danna. Un. My art is-" He exclaimed, ready to give the art heathen a proper lesson.
"Ah, nobody cares!" But Hidan's aggravating voice interrupted him and Deidara glared at him as he had a sudden urge to throw one of his bombs at the immortal twerp.
Maybe it wouldn't kill him. But being in pieces was surely not very comfortable even for him.
"Oh! Oh! Are Deidara-senpai and Hidan-chan going to fight!?" A high-pitched, cheery voice tore through the tension in the room. "Tobi can be the referee!"
Deidara smirked when he saw Hidan scowl at being called -chan. The zealot was this close to jumping over the table when a threatening weight descended on everyone in the room, causing their attention to snap toward the person who was exuding it, their glorious, purple-eyed leader.
"If you are quite done acting like children, I'd like to start the meeting."
It was said in a calm and even voice, but nobody mistook the order for a suggestion. The room instantly descended into a silence, and Hidan gave Tobi one last glare before sullenly turning his attention toward the leader, and the weight stopped pressing on them.
"Konan." The leader turned toward the bitch who was in Deidara's opinion even more stone-faced and colder than the Uchiha. "Please distribute the necessary documents to our associates."
He barely finished the sentence, and papers started to fly toward each person seated behind the table.
"With the death of the three-tailed jinchuuriki, Sanbi is still not reformed, and the proper start of our plan will have to be postponed."
Deidara unhappily grunted at that. He and Sasori were already picked to deal with the one-tailed jinchuuriki because of their expertise and Sasori's knowledge of Sunagakure.
Deidara was excited about the opportunity to test his art against a jinchuuriki, so hearing that there was a delay did not fill him with happiness.
Stupid Konoha bastard who offed Yagura.
Maybe he should bomb Konoha, too?
Sigh. If only Sasori-no-danna wasn't such a spoilsport. No, Deidara, you can't throw a bomb at that noble. No, Deidara, you can't bomb the Daimyo. No, Deidara, you can't sneak an explosive into the Tsuchikage's breakfast.
He had no understanding of the true art!
"That makes sense." Kisame grunted. "Once we start gathering the jinchuuriki, we will be on everybody's radar, and the villages won't let us be."
The leader, Pain, nodded at the shark-wannabe swordsman, "It's unfortunate, but this also gives us more time to prepare. There might be a small opportunity for us in the immediate future, though." He looked at the documents in front of him before slowly looking at everyone in the room.
"Konoha is hosting the biggest Chunin Exams in a long time. Suna, Kumo, Kiri, they all intend to attend, and even Iwa has to send a proper representation to showcase their strength now that every other village has decided to compete."
"Oh!? Are we attacking Konoha?" Deidara happily exclaimed despite knowing the answer, enjoying the small frown the sentence brought to the Uchiha bastard.
"No." Pain deadpanned with a slight irritation in his voice. "Our sources state that Orochimaru is going to attack Konoha during the final part of the Exams." He glanced at Sasori, who nodded back. "With the majority of Kage most likely present, another Ninja War might be sparked." Pain said with a frown. "That can't be allowed to happen."
With Amegakure straight in the middle of the major ninja villages, the war would definitely affect them and force them to show their hand early.
Nobody wanted that.
Not many people knew, but Akatsuki was pretty much responsible for preventing any new large Ninja War from erupting this past decade.
"Are we going to stop Orochimaru, then?" Itachi flatly asked, but inwardly, he was full of joy. If he managed to get Akatsuki to attack Orochimaru, he might prevent the attack on Konoha altogether and maybe even ensure that the village's greatest traitor would finally die.
This was a golden opportuni-.
"No." Pein disagreed and just like that, Itachi's golden opportunity slid through his fingers and he could only impassively stare in front of himself, helplessness creeping inside of him.
"I am currently considering taking the risk and gathering one of Kumo and Iwa's jinchuuriki, since their protection will be at an all-time low with their Kages not present in their villages. We could also get the rogue six-tailed jinchuuriki and the five-tailed one in one fell swoop while everybody is busy with the Exams in Konoha."
"Yet, we will still need to wait years for the Sanbi to reappear." Itachi said, dearly hoping to persuade Pain away from this plan.
"Indeed." Pain admitted, "It's risky."
"There won't be an easier time to gather so many bijuu, hm." Deidara said, but deep down, he just wanted to bomb something already.
"It's cost-effective." Kakuzu grunted.
"As long as there are sacrifices for Jashin-sama, I don't care." Hidan spoke, but nobody bothered to pay attention to his opinion anyway.
"Hn." Itachi disgruntledly grunted, knowing that it was out of his hands at this point.
Pein nodded. "The alternative is attacking Konoha when Orochimaru's invasion starts, killing all the present Kage and crippling the hidden villages in the process."
"The chance that a war would start from such a clusterfuck is high." Kisame nodded, "And if it is going to happen anyway, then a preemptive strike is a smart move."
"But it will make us a target." Itachi tried to argue against it, feeling his cold heart jump into his throat as he heard that his colleagues considered attacking Konoha.
But not all was lost. This wasn't the first time the Akatsuki considered a drastic action, and yet, it never came to that. He still didn't like the direction of this discussion.
"You scared, Uchiha?" Hidan asked with a shit-eating smirk, but Itachi ignored him and kept his gaze firmly on Pain.
"Tobi does not care either way! Tobi is a good boy and will follow the lead!" Tobi exclaimed, but was likewise ignored by the majority of the present people.
"Maybe we could do the decapitating strike against the Kage and then gather the bijuu? If we are going to enter the world stage, we might as well do it with a bang." Zetsu said, and Pein pursed his lips in a pondering fashion as he looked at him.
"Y-" Pein was about to declare his decision when everybody in the room suddenly heard a loud crunching noise from above them and looked up.
There, lying on the ceiling with chakra, was a man wearing a dark blue coat with... red clouds made of paper duct-taped to the coat. He sported a classic ANBU-style mask, except it was spray-painted bright orange in an imitation of Tobi, but also had a fake mustache glued on it. Though whoever was using the glue missed the mark because the mustache was more around the area of the lips, rather than under where the nose should be.
In the ninja's hands was a half-empty bowl of popcorn, the source of the crunching noise, and he had his hand under the slightly lifted mask, about to munch on yet another popcorn, when he froze as everybody turned toward him.
"Er... Hi." The ninja awkwardly greeted them, trying hard to sound cheerful. "Very interesting conversation you are having. Don't mind Tobi. Feel free to continue."
With that, he ate the popcorn and gave the ninjas a shooing motion with his now free hand while sending another loud crunching sound through the room under the unamused gazes of several S-rank ninjas.