Konan said with difficulty, "How's the situation in Konoha? What about our people?"
Sasori replied, "When I rescued you, Danzo's side hadn't broken in with too many people."
"They should have failed."
"Aside from you, everyone else is missing. I don't know where they went."
"We exited through the underground, so I don't know what happened after in the village. Let's head to the rendezvous point first."
Clatter! Clatter! Clatter!
With the creaking sound of machinery, Konan felt her body tilt.
Then, after a series of clank clank clank sounds, Konan clearly felt the oppressive feeling disappear.
Right after that, Konan's vision brightened, she had already been spat out by Sasori's Hiruko.
Konan struggled to slowly stand up from the ground.
"Cough! Cough!", She coughed twice, mouth full of bloody foam.
Konan's internal organs seemed to be injured, but the specifics were still unclear to her.
Sasori's true body shook the dirt off himself, then re-entered Hiruko again.
Konan stood still with a gloomy and uncertain expression.
Sasori said coolly, "Your injuries are not light, and they're all internal."
"You'll need some time to recover."
As a master of dissection, Sasori could assess the severity of Konan's injuries just by using chakra threads.
Konan let out a faint breath, feeling a dull pain even in her lungs, "Thank you, Sasori."
Sasori gave a snort, "Between Danzo and you, I know who's more important to the leader."
At this point, Sasori had been in the organization for a while and found it quite satisfactory.
No matter how rare the materials or poisons, they could get them.
For missions that couldn't be handled, Pain would personally step in. Sasori still felt a strong sense of belonging to the organization.
Konan exhaled, "Let's head to the rendezvous point first."
As she spoke, papers fluttered around, starting to form wings behind her.
But after a pained groan from Konan, the wings vanished entirely.
Hiruko slowly moved forward, then wrapped its tail around her, carrying Konan toward the rendezvous point.
"I'll take you there. You shouldn't be using chakra right now."
Konan's expression was gloomy. She had already detonated the explosive tags, but she still didn't know if she had met Uchiha Rengoku's conditions.
But first, she had to recover.
And she still had no idea how the others were doing.
If Sasori hadn't saved her, given that she had passed out from the explosion, she'd probably already have been captured.
Konan hadn't expected there would be a Jinchuriki that intercepted and broke into Konoha at this time.
Weren't they just supposed to come check out the situation?
Before long, the two arrived at the rendezvous point. Only Kakuzu was there waiting for them.
Kakuzu had taken a major loss this time. Not only had he gained nothing, but he had also lost three hearts. Now, he only had Water and Earth hearts left.
Jiraiya's support had arrived too fast, and he had already activated Sage Mode upon arriving.
Kakuzu had basically used everything he had just to barely escape.
"How are things on your side? How'd you get injured like that? Did you see the Jinchuriki?", Kakuzu looked strangely at Konan. It was the first time he'd seen her injured.
He had escaped underground and knew about the Tailed Beast Bomb bombardment. After all, the power of a Tailed Beast Bomb was immense.
Totally on a different level from a regular explosive tag.
But even Kakuzu didn't know which Jinchuriki had launched it.
Konan shook her head, face slightly pale, "My mission failed here. I hadn't even entered Root before I got hit by a Tailed Beast Bomb."
This operation's goal had originally been for Konan to probe Konoha's strength. Priority being the Nine-Tails, secondary being Danzo.
But after meeting Rengoku, Konan changed her target. Since Danzo was a clear target, but not something that could be taken down so easily.
The masked man's identity had become the most important issue, involving not just past grudges but also the future safety of their group and the possibility of realizing their dreams.
As long as Konan could fulfill Rengoku's request, she wouldn't have failed this mission in her mind.
But the masked man's situation was still a secret in the Akatsuki, so she said it had failed.
Kakuzu's tone was also very low, "The Nine-Tails Jinchuriki's information isn't even a secret in Konoha. You can find it easily there."
"Jiraiya's support came too fast and Sage Mode is really strong."
"But Konoha basically has no control over the Nine-Tails Jinchuriki."
"Konoha's going to have a headache moving forward," Kakuzu sounded a bit gloating by the end. After all, the biggest of the great ninja villages was currently at its weakest, and couldn't even control the Nine-Tails.
Once this information spread, the other villages would begin probing Konoha too.
"Looks like everyone's just waiting on me," As the Akatsuki's intel specialist, Zetsu slowly emerged from the ground.
Every time people saw Zetsu appear, they'd wonder just what kind of strange creature he really was.
Why was he so bizarre, like a pitcher plant?
"Where's everyone else?", Konan coughed twice and asked Zetsu.
Zetsu shook his head regretfully, then tossed Juzo's Fire Cloud robe onto the ground.
"Juzo has betrayed and left the organization."
Everyone's expressions changed upon hearing that.
"How could that be?", Since joining Akatsuki, Juzo had been quite professional, diligently working for the group every day.
He betrayed them just like that during this mission?
"Ah, it couldn't be helped. His old boss, Yagura, showed up."
'Yagura?'
'He's the Jinchuriki from Konoha?'
A flash of light crossed Konan's mind. She finally understood why the Tailed Beast Bomb didn't target the Third Hokage but hit her instead.
Because Yagura was one of the people Konan, Pain, and the masked man had enslaved.
In other words, Yagura had come for revenge.
This turn of events was a bit unexpected for Konan.
After all, Yagura didn't know that the masked man and Konan were actually in a cooperative relationship filled with mutual wariness.
"Kisame has already gone to pursue Juzo. Current status unknown."
Konan nodded slightly, 'Though Kisame is recruited by the masked man, he is still loyal. For a pursuit like this, unless he holds back, it wil take time, so it is normal he hasn't returned yet.'
After saying all this, Zetsu glanced at Kakuzu.
"Konoha hasn't hidden the Jinchuriki's identity at all. It's just a seven-year-old brat named Uzumaki Naruto."
"It's just that the people of Konoha can't control him. The Nine-Tails rampaged this time."
"The Uchiha clan didn't assault Konoha. The only one who left the clan compound was Uchiha Rengoku."
"He was the one who suppressed the rampaging Nine-Tails Jinchuriki."
Kakuzu snorted coldly. He had been forced to retreat earlier, so this was a bit of a blow to his pride.
Zetsu ignored Kakuzu's displeasure and continued, "Hiruzen recalled a large number of patrolling combat troops."
"There's about a thousand of them, and most might be members of the Sarutobi clan."
Upon hearing this, both Konan and Kakuzu looked surprised.
If Sasori weren't a puppet, he'd likely show the same expression.
After all, for a single ninja clan to have over a thousand combat-ready members was extremely shocking.
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