Starting as the mastermind behind Naruto

Chapter 180 I don't even know how we lost this battle!

When the entire Akatsuki lineup was finalized, Uehara Naraku truly had no idea how to make this mission fail.

This lineup could potentially wipe out Konoha.

Itachi Uchiha, Kisame Hoshigaki, Sasori Akasuna, Deidara, Kakuzu, Hidan, Zabuza Momochi, Mangetsu Hozuki, Haku, Kimimaro Kaguya, Zetsu.

And Uehara Naraku and Nagato.

Oh, and there's also an extra character named Uchiha Sasuke.

After all, Itachi Uchiha was worried about leaving his younger brother alone in the Akatsuki organization.

This also brings countless troubles.

The members of Akatsuki were basically all unwilling to submit to each other. Those who came from Kirigakure knew Uehara Naraku's strength and basically followed him. In particular, the strongest members, Kisame Hoshigaki and Mangetsu Hozuki, were his closest confidants.

Deidara and Sasori of the Red Sand, and Kakuzu and Hidan—these two teams always end up arguing when they're together, constantly trying to teach each other a lesson.

Just as Deidara and Hidan were about to make their move, Uehara Naraku suddenly shouted, "Hey, hey, hey, seniors, come quick! The volcano has erupted!"

"What?"

Everyone looked at Uehara Naraku in surprise, and then looked in the direction he was looking. Where was there any volcanic eruption?

Deidara glared at Uehara Naraku with displeasure: "Where?! Hey, Uehara, you bastard, don't lie to people like that!"

"I didn't! Look carefully! Transform!"

Uehara Naraku suddenly snapped his fingers, unleashing his Pillar of Flames skill.

Just as everyone was wondering, a powerful burst of flames suddenly erupted from an area several kilometers in diameter in the distance!

The flames shot almost thousands of meters into the sky, even turning the blue sky red, and the scorching fire wave almost rushed towards us!

Even though everyone in Xiao was still some distance from the center of the flames, they could still feel the burning sensation in the air.

"..."

Everyone's jaws nearly dropped in shock!

No one present underestimated Uehara Naraku's strength, yet the fact that he casually unleashed a fire-style ninjutsu capable of destroying the world still instilled a sense of fear in everyone present.

The distance and range of the ninjutsu, as well as its extremely fast release speed, sent a chill down everyone's spine.

Is it possible to dodge this level of ninjutsu?

Of course, there's no escaping it.

No wonder Uehara Naraku was able to destroy Kusagakure so easily.

Even the most unruly Deidara and Hidan became much more subdued after witnessing Uehara Naraku's ninjutsu.

Uehara Naraku slowly turned around, looked at everyone present, and suddenly clasped his hands together, a slight smile playing on his lips. "I believe everyone will cooperate wholeheartedly for this mission, right?"

Everyone glanced at Uehara Naraku, then looked at the flames slowly falling from thousands of meters in the sky behind him, and subconsciously frowned.

Uchiha Itachi lowered his head, suppressing the shock in his heart. This level of fire-style ninjutsu was clearly beyond his comprehension.

No Uchiha clan member in history has ever had such a powerful Fire Release ninja!

A glint appeared in Uchiha Sasuke's eyes. He glanced at his brother and couldn't help but chuckle. Was his brother afraid?

Hmph, the Uchiha clan has Sharingan.

Given the opportunity, Sasuke Uchiha was confident that he could use his Sharingan to copy Naraku Uehara's ninjutsu. This was a powerful ninjutsu capable of destroying the world, a power that even Itachi Uchiha feared!

"You've gotten stronger again!"

Kisame Hoshigaki grinned.

He was already used to Uehara Naraku's power.

Uehara Naraku is skilled in even the most mysterious space-time techniques, so what's the simplest fire-style technique to him?

Nagato adjusted the straw hat on his forehead and smirked, "That Uehara kid has really improved a lot since then!"

"Hmph, Konan has truly taught a fine disciple!"

Sasori of the Red Sand snorted coldly. He actually hated this kind of large-scale ninjutsu the most, because such powerful ninjutsu was too much of a counter to a puppeteer like him.

"As her student, of course I can't let her down!"

Uehara Naraku flew down to Nagato's side and asked in a low voice, "How did I do? Were they scared?"

"..."

Nagato nodded silently.

Clearly, Uehara Naraku's skillful maneuver had a significant effect, and everyone present began to take his words seriously, making their journey to the Land of Grass much smoother.

The intelligence agent also delivered a report.

A Konoha ANBU ninja squad is active on the border between the Land of Rain and the Land of Grass, along with about five regular Konoha ninja squads, clearly indicating their wariness of Amegakure.

"Surround them, spare one alive, kill the rest."

Uehara Naraku's strategy was very simple and brutal.

With almost the entire Akatsuki organization mobilized, how could they not win?

The Akatsuki members were also very satisfied with Uehara Naraku's strategy.

After all, most Akatsuki members like to rely on their own strength and charge in headfirst, without worrying about the enemies they encounter, since they know they can't possibly defeat them anyway.

The canyon on the border of the Grass Country.

The members of Konoha's ANBU squad reunited, exchanging information and confirming that the Amegakure ninjas had not gathered in the Land of Grass.

"Hello, friends of Konoha, how are you?"

A voice suddenly reached the ears of the four ANBU members. They reacted quickly, each gripping their weapons and cautiously surveying their surroundings.

A ninja dressed in a black robe with auspicious cloud patterns appeared on a rock.

Because Itachi Uchiha and Kisame Hoshigaki had previously invaded Konoha, these Anbu members had received orders from the Hokage-ro to retreat immediately after encountering Akatsuki members who were gathering intelligence.

After all, a mercenary organization composed of S-rank rogue ninjas, each of its members is not something a single ANBU ninja can handle.

According to Tsunade's assessment of the rogue ninja's combat strength.

It would take at least three ANBU squads from Konoha to contend with them.

"A member of the Akatsuki?"

The leader of the secret service unit's expression changed, and he immediately assigned tasks: "Our fastest member, Toyokawa, will take the intelligence back. The rest of you, cover him. Everyone, concentrate your forces and retreat for now!"

However, the next moment the ANBU captain's face turned extremely ugly, because one by one, ninjas dressed in black robes with auspicious cloud patterns appeared around them.

At least ten members of the Akatsuki organization.

This includes Itachi Uchiha and Kisame Hoshigaki, who once invaded Konoha.

Now, forget about this Konoha squad escaping; they'd be lucky to even have a complete corpse, let alone enough heads to go around.

"Did I do a good job directing?"

Uehara Naraku turned and smiled at Nagato beside him. He used his Fate skill to calculate the movement direction of this Konoha Anbu team and successfully surrounded them.

Nagato nodded helplessly.

The Konoha Anbu squad charged towards the weakest point with a somewhat tragic air, believing that the two short guys, Kaguya Kimimaro and Haku, would be the easiest to deal with!

Kaguya Kimimaro slowly charged towards the advancing Anbu squad, bones emerging from his body: "Shikotsumyaku - Dance of the Tang Pine!"

The other members watched Kimimaro's performance as if it were a monkey show.

Five minutes later.

Kaguya Kimimaro, carrying a half-dead ANBU member, threw him in front of Uehara Naraku and said softly, "Uehara, this guy is the strongest; he should be their captain."

"Then I'll have to ask you to find out what's going on in his head."

Uehara Naraku shrugged and looked at Nagato beside him.

Nagato nodded, extended his palm, and slapped the Konoha ANBU captain on the head, whispering, "Human Path: Heart Layer Submersion Technique!"

After reviewing the intelligence, Nagato abruptly extracted the soul of the ANBU captain and whispered, "Konoha has dispatched a total of thirteen ANBU squads to the Land of Grass, scattered throughout various parts of the country. In addition, there are approximately three hundred ordinary ninja troops."

"Our task is simply to eliminate the shadows, right?"

"That's right."

Nagato nodded and said, "Perhaps even Onoki, the Two Scales, didn't think we could handle such a large ninja force, so he only entrusted us with eliminating the Konoha Anbu. Maybe it's because these Anbu have been attacking Iwagakure's reconnaissance ninjas!"

Uehara Naraku couldn't help but click his tongue in amazement: "Tsk, finding the remaining twelve ANBU squads in such a vast place as the Land of Grass won't be easy!"

Hidan walked over, carrying his scythe, and licked his lips: "Wouldn't killing all the Konoha ninja complete the mission?"

"I still believe that we should only get what we're paid for."

Kakuzu glanced at Hidan with disdain and said in a deep voice, "If we also help them kill all the Konoha ninja stationed in the Land of Grass for free, how will we do business in the future?"

Kakuzu snorted coldly and continued, "Hmph, if we're going to take care of killing the Konoha ninja entrenched in the Land of Grass, we'll have to get more money from Onoki!"

The word "add money" is used very well.

It's clear that Kakuzu is indeed a businessman.

Putting everything else aside, the calculations are quite accurate, addressing each issue separately.

"I agree with Kakuzu-senpai's opinion."

Uehara Naraku nodded slowly, then said softly, "I thought the Fifth Hokage of Konoha only sent a bunch of ANBU scouts, but I didn't expect her to send so many ninja units..."

Sasori tapped his ring and said in a deep voice, "Should we ask Konan if Onoki is willing to pay more? Otherwise, it'll be really boring on this journey if we're just looking for some Konoha ANBU!"

"yes!"

Deidara raised his head and glanced at the corpse on the ground: "This mission isn't worth all of our members' involvement. Sasori and I will take care of it!"

I thought it would be an epic difficulty level, but it turned out to be just a normal level mission. If I'm careful, I should be able to complete it in no time.

"It might not be that easy."

After clearing his throat a few times, Nagato added, "According to the intelligence I've received, the person in charge of directing the operation in the Land of Grass is Kakashi Hatake, the Copy Ninja from Konoha, and there's another important figure who can support him at any time."

Sasuke Uchiha frowned instinctively as he heard his teacher's name: "Kakashi Hatake?"

"An important person?"

Uehara Naraku shook his head and said, "It's probably Jiraiya, one of the Legendary Sannin of Konoha! I'll go ask Konan-sensei first and see if Iwagakure is willing to pay more."

Soon, news came from Xiao Nan.

Onoki offered to pay an extra sum of money to expel or kill all Konoha ninja within the Land of Grass.

If Iwagakure and Konoha were to clash head-on, the losses suffered by the Iwagakure ninja would certainly be significant, and it could even trigger a ninja world war. Using the Akatsuki would be a much cheaper option.

"What a pity..."

Kakuzu frowned, sighed, and said, "If we had a cooperative channel with the Land of Lightning, we could earn another commission by clearing out these Konoha ninja."

Naraku Uehara: "..."

The members of Xiao: "..."

Kakuzu is really obsessed with money!

You're charging two major ninja villages for one mission? Think you're so capable!

"Let's go! Let's go meet that copy ninja from Konoha!"

Uehara Naraku turned to look at Uchiha Sasuke and Uchiha Itachi, and chuckled, "Mr. Kakashi is an old friend of all of us here!"

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