In Kirigakure, the moment Naruto left, Mei arrived at the scene.
Seeing Chojuro with an injured arm, her expression turned serious.
"Chojuro, what happened?"
"Mizukage-sama, my Ninja Sword was taken away by the person you are looking for!" Chojuro said nervously, "That person... I feel like I’ve seen him somewhere before!"
"You’ve seen him?"
"Yes, but I can’t remember where at the moment." Chojuro said urgently, "His name is definitely not Choji, but Uchi…"
"Wait! I remember now, Mizukage-sama!" Chojuro scratched his head, then suddenly looked up as if he had figured something out.
"Who?" Mei asked, her teeth clenched in frustration.
‘This person had used a fake name and identity, causing me to suffer a humiliating defeat. And what he had done to me...’ The thought of last night’s events made Mei’s expression darken.
‘It was too absurd, a major disgrace in my life.’
‘If word of that incident got out, I would undoubtedly become the laughingstock of the Shinobi World. I wouldn’t be able to show my face in public, let alone participate in future Five Kage Summits.’
"Who is it?!" She asked through gritted teeth.
"It's Uchiha... Yes, that Missing-nin from Konoha. I even received a notice from Konoha about him before. It’s definitely him… Uchiha Sasuke!"
"Uchiha Sasuke?" Mei was stunned for a moment.
‘Isn't that a brat from Konoha? I had been… by a kid who had just reached adulthood? Damn it!’
"Achoo! Achoo! Achoo!"
The sound of sneezing echoed through the forest by the lake, one after another. The person seemed a bit embarrassed and coughed lightly to cover it up.
"Sasuke, you’ve caught a cold." Suigetsu said gloatingly.
"Stop talking nonsense!" Sasuke replied coldly.
"Are you feeling unwell, Sasuke?" Karin asked, her expression full of concern, "How are your injuries? Should we change the bandages again?"
A month ago, Team Taka had suffered heavy losses in Kumogakure, and Sasuke had nearly lost his life there.
Thanks to the desperate efforts of the other three, Sasuke had managed to escape alive, but half of his abdomen had been nearly torn apart.
Even now, he relied on Jugo’s Senjutsu Chakra to regenerate his cells. With one kidney missing, Sasuke’s stamina was no longer as strong as before.
"No, I’m fine," Sasuke replied coldly.
After a moment of silence, perhaps feeling that his response had been too harsh, Sasuke glanced at Karin and added awkwardly, "My body is fine. It’s just that lately, I’ve been feeling something’s off. It’s like there’s something pressing down on me. I can’t explain it, but..."
"Is it a curse?" Karin, who was once the person in charge of Orochimaru's northern base, was knowledgeable and experienced, so she pointed out the crux of the problem almost directly.
"Pfft!" Suigetsu couldn’t help but laugh. Looking at Karin's serious expression, he said, "A curse? Karin, are you talking about some kind of folk tale?"
"Suigetsu, you damn idiot, shut up!” Karin snapped. She was not as gentle with Suigetsu as she was with Sasuke, so she punched him without hesitation.
"Are you trying to kill me?!" Suigetsu quickly dodged.
"You deserve it!" Karin snorted coldly.
The topic of curses was dropped, and Sasuke didn’t pay much attention to it either. He looked towards the lake not far away, and frowned slightly.
"That's enough, stop fooling around!"
"Our main goal now is to stay by this lake and find a way to confirm that Sanbi is here."
"Are we capturing it?" Suigetsu asked.
"No, we’ll wait for Zetsu’s report." Sasuke shook his head, "They should be preparing to capture Yonbi, Gobi and Rokubi by now."
"We’re cooperating with them, but we’re not their subordinates. Now the leader of Akatsuki is gone, and the rest are either dead or injured, the current Akatsuki organization is only being held together by a few people, like the one who calls himself Madara Uchiha. But he’s shown a lot of flaws."
"Such a defeated group isn’t worth paying too much attention to. We just need to maintain a neutral relationship with them and use their information for our own purposes."
With a bang, the smoke cleared, and a figure wearing a spiral mask, Uchiha Obito, walked out.
At this time, he was dragging a person behind him like a dead dog.
Suddenly, a white, spore-like object grew from the ground. Then, White Zetsu’s annoying face bloomed like a flower.
"How was it, did the capture of Yonbi go smoothly?"
"It's done, no big deal." Obito glanced back at Yonbi’s Jinchuriki, Roshi behind him and showed a relaxed smile.
"Is Gobi done yet?"
"The capture has been completed and it's on the way back." White Zetsu said with a grin.
"We’ve wasted too much time on Nagato. That guy is just a dying tiger." Obito said coldly.
"We still haven’t recovered Nagato’s Rinnegan. He looks like he’s on the verge of death, but somehow, he’s still hanging on." White Zetsu complained.
"The Land of Rain itself is an unlucky place. It’s only a matter of time." Obito said, "There was no need to keep fighting him before."
"He can’t leave the Land of Rain, and he can only die there."
"Rokubi’s capture is also in progress. Now it depends on Team Taka." White Zetsu changed the subject and a sinister smile appeared on his face.
"I saw that Uchiha Sasuke failed to capture Hachibi, and the four of them almost died in Kumogakure. Now they’ve gone to Kirigakure, but it seems like they’re not doing well there either."
"Let’s wait a little longer, Hachibi? Let's start by capturing Kyubi first." Obito changed his plan.
"Why?" White Zetsu looked at Obito in shock, wondering if he had gone mad, "We don’t have enough manpower, and Kyubi is obviously more difficult to deal with than the other Biju."
In the end, it all comes down to one sentence: Start with the easier targets and then move on to the more difficult ones.
"The Kyubi’s Jinchuriki seems to have stripped his Biju. We need to confirm this." Obito narrowed his eyes, "If this news is false, then we’ll bring the Jinchuriki back."
"If it's true, then we’ll have to spend time finding the Kyubi’s location. After all, all nine Biju must be gathered. Without Kyubi, all our previous efforts will be in vain."
"Okay." White Zetsu had nothing more to say, but he was still a little worried, "That Kyubi’s Jinchuriki… isn’t he your teacher’s child?"
Obito stopped walking but didn’t say anything.
"Ah, I didn’t mean it like that, you know."
"What I mean is…" White Zetsu quickly explained, "That person seems to have an unusually stubborn character and is difficult to deal with. If we really have to do this, we need to be careful."
"Who? Uzumaki Naruto?" Obito started walking again.
"Yeah, him." White Zetsu's expression suddenly became a little strange, "That guy is too alert. I couldn’t even plant a spore on him, let alone get close to him.”
"That person seems to have been active in both Kumogakure and Kirigakure. Maybe he has some kind of spatial tool on him."