I, Naruto Uzumaki, don't need your approval.

"This is Naruto's open scheme."

“We can’t follow his plan completely. The best solution right now is to unite the village’s ninja clans and attack the old man and Danzo. If necessary, we should also rely on the daimyo’s power. Do you still have those incriminating pieces of evidence against Danzo?”

“Mine has been destroyed, but Kakashi still has a backup…”

At this moment, Jiraiya seemed to realize something and said with a beaming smile, "Tsunade, you've agreed to return to the village and help deal with the old man and Danzo!"

"How about you become the Fifth Hokage? I'm not really suitable for this role."

Tsunade frowned: "I'm only returning to the village temporarily. I'll leave again once the situation stabilizes. Since you invited me back, you should naturally become the Hokage."

"Naruto is right. You always place your hopes on others. Before it was the Child of Prophecy, now it's me. When will you become a real man?"

"Don't let that brat Naruto look down on you!"

Jiraiya masked his embarrassment with a smile, but his gaze became much firmer as he slowly said, "I understand. I will not let you down, nor will I let down the expectations of others."

Chapter 182 Nagato's Imaginary Thoughts

After several hours of travel, Itachi Uchiha and the others arrived at the border of Kusagakure. Crossing this border marked by continuous rain would take them to the Land of Rain.

Just then, Itachi Uchiha and the others stopped in their tracks and looked at the two expressionless figures in front of them.

The Heavenly Path glanced at the Akatsuki members, finally settling on Uchiha Itachi, and asked in a low voice, "How is the mission to investigate Kusagakure going?"

Uchiha Itachi stepped forward and recounted in detail his experiences in Kusagakure.

Their seemingly simple mission unexpectedly led to an encounter with the leader of Uzushio Village and the three legendary Sannin of Konoha. They were even outmaneuvered by Kusagakure, so none of them looked too happy.

But after hearing the details of the mission, Tiandao nodded in satisfaction: "You've done a great job this time. It's time to move on to the next step of the plan: take control of Kusagakure."

Upon hearing this, Kakuzu and Hidan looked puzzled, while Itachi and Kisame exchanged a glance and suddenly realized something.

Their acceptance of the Kusagakure Village's commission was a pretense, and their investigation of Kusagakure Village was just a smokescreen. Their real purpose was to find a suitable excuse to control Kusagakure Village, and they themselves were unaware of the specific plan.

But isn't Akatsuki's plan to collect the Tailed Beasts? Wouldn't a rash attack on Kusagakure alert the surrounding ninja villages?

However, Itachi Uchiha, being a spy, was somewhat pleased. The more prominent the Akatsuki organization became, the more attention it would attract, and the safer the village would be.

A few hours later, Tendo led everyone to the Hidden Grass Village.

At this time, Kusagakure was in chaos. Most of the ninjas and residents were dealing with the buildings that Satoru had destroyed and were completely unaware of the arrival of the Akatsuki.

Soon, Tendou easily approached the Kusagakure Building and pushed open the conference room door.

Inside the meeting room, there was no discussion about the reconstruction of Kusagakure or how to deal with the Iwa ninja forces on the border. Instead, they were busy vying for power and trying to shift the blame for opening the Chest of Bliss onto someone else.

With the pro-war elders dead, the remaining pressure is basically concentrated on the leader of Kusagakure.

He glanced at the heated discussion among the Kusagakure Jonin, then stared blankly at the dark sky. He could no longer see the future of Kusagakure. Unless more medical tools like Karin came along, Kusagakure was destined to decline.

Just then, the door was pushed open, and several dark figures appeared in the conference room.

"Who are you people, daring to break into the Kusagakure Building!"

Some Jonin wanted to rebuke the intruders, but faced with the Rinnegan that rippled like waves, they swallowed their words and felt a surge of fear.

The Heavenly Dao, expressionless, looked at the group of Jonin, raised his palm, and whispered:

"Shinra Tensei!"

"..."

A few minutes later, the Grass Village Jonin collapsed to the ground, enjoying a sleep as deep as an infant.

Several Jonin were even so frightened that they fainted. They had never seen such a bizarre ability before and thought they had encountered a ghost.

Human Path casually grabbed a Jonin by the collar and forcibly extracted his memories using his Rinnegan abilities.

Soon, Pain finished processing his memories from the past few months, which included a girl named Karin Uzumaki, causing Nagato, who was manipulating Pain from behind the scenes, to clench his fist.

The same bloodline and similar fate brought back memories that had been buried for many years.

His mother was a member of the Uzumaki clan who fled to the Land of Rain. She only wanted to live a peaceful life, but Konoha ninja broke into their home, and his parents were killed while trying to protect him.

War is inherently cruel, and the murderers from back then had long since died at his hands.

But even now he can't get over it, can't forgive the murderer's actions, why would a ninja harm unarmed people.

Pain tossed the Jonin's body aside and did not kill the remaining Jonin.

His target was the entire Kusagakure village, not just slaughter. After leaving the Land of Whirlpools that day, he realized that the policy of isolation was unacceptable.

Although the people of the Rain Kingdom have gained peace, they still struggle on the edge of poverty and cannot enjoy the conveniences of the outside world.

However, once the border was opened, the Land of Rain would inevitably be infiltrated by spies, and the secret of the death of the demigod would also be exposed. So he set his sights on the Hidden Grass Village.

By exploiting the internal conflicts within Kusagakure, they turned Kusagakure into a puppet of Amegakure, with Kusagakure taking charge of foreign trade.

In this way, Amegakure only needs to trade with Kusagakure, greatly reducing the risk of infiltration. Even if the news of the demigod's death were leaked, Amegakure would not become the enemy of the ninja world.

At most, it would change the ninja world from five major ninja villages to seven major ninja villages.

Of course, the next step is to separate Amegakure and Akatsuki, and even stage a conflict between them, so that Akatsuki can continue its secret activities and secretly collect tailed beasts.

Naruto is right. Making the ninja world peaceful is not so simple; we have to take it slowly and not rush it.

At this moment, Konan appeared beside Pain: "Tendo, I found a special scroll in the secret room of Kusagakure. Would you like to go and take a look?"

Pain was somewhat surprised, but he followed anyway and found the secret room in Kusagakure where ninjutsu were stored.

The ninjutsu scrolls in the secret room were almost completely emptied, and even the warehouse storing precious metals was destroyed. Pain picked up the scroll with a grim expression. On it was a common sealing technique from the Uzumaki clan.

After casually breaking the seal, Pain saw a message from Menma.

The gist of it is that Uzumaki Menma had long anticipated that the Akatsuki would target Kusagakure, so he took away his ninjutsu and money beforehand, and also picked up his clansman, Uzumaki Karin.

However, Uzumaki Menma has always been friendly to his fellow clansmen, and he left Amegakure with its most precious treasures: land and people. Hopefully, Nagato won't be too grateful.

Seeing Pain deep in thought, Konan leaned over for a look and said, somewhat speechlessly, "Nagato, your clansmen are really interesting, making jokes like this."

Payne suddenly said, "This is no joke..."

Konan's expression changed slightly, and she quickly said, "Nagato, calm down. It's already quite good that we were able to take advantage of the chaos in Kusagakure. At least our plan has achieved some results."

Payne shook his head, a smile appearing on his stiff face: "Menma makes a lot of sense. What's truly valuable are people and land. Amegakure currently has enough land, but what it lacks is high-quality talent."

"Although Mianma and I are enemies, we are also competitors. He is reminding me that while the village is developing rapidly, we should not forget to cultivate talent, otherwise no matter how much money we have, we will not be able to hold on to it!"

Konan's lips twitched slightly. After meeting with Uzumaki Menma, had Nagato finally grown a brain?

Chapter 183 Naruto Kill

The resistance from Kusagakure was not intense. After taking control of all the high-ranking members, Kusagakure was forced to sign an alliance treaty.

According to the treaty, if either Akatsuki or Kusagakure is attacked, the other will be considered to have joined the war and assume the responsibility of fighting the enemy together.

After signing the treaty, Payne summoned the Akatsuki members in the vicinity and ordered them not to harass the residents at will.

Itachi Uchiha and Kisame nodded in agreement, but Kakuzu and Hidan showed their dissatisfaction, especially Hidan, whose reason for joining Akatsuki was to spread his teachings and kill people. Not letting him kill was more painful than killing him.

However, those with similar abilities to him dared not speak up casually, nor did he dare to complain easily.

Pain noticed the arrogance of the Akatsuki members and became increasingly aware of the importance of talent development. These rogue ninjas in the Akatsuki were good at fighting and killing, but they were far from capable of governing a village and guiding its development.

Otherwise, these rogue ninjas would not have been forced to leave the village and become members of the organization.

However, Pain himself didn't have much experience in how to utilize Kusagakure to develop Amegakure. He relied on Konan for the daily management of Amegakure, and he simply didn't have time to manage it himself.

After a moment of contemplation, Pain had the idea of ​​going to the Land of Waves again, but they were now enemies.

However, simply manipulating a puppet shouldn't be a big problem. Amegakure and Uzushiogakure's current enemies are the Five Great Ninja Villages, and there are no conflicts of interest at the moment.

Thinking of this, Pain said to Konan, "Konan, keep the Kusagakure leadership calm for now and don't let any of the Kusagakure ninja know about the alliance treaty between Kusagakure and Amegakure."

"Itachi and Kisame, you two go patrol the border to prevent Iwa ninja from entering the country."

"Kakuzu and Hidan are to clear out the wandering ninjas within the territory of Kusagakure. You are allowed to handle the spoils of war yourselves."

In a corner of Kusagakure, Obito and Kuro gazed in despair at the Akatsuki members in the distance.

After observing for a while, Black Zetsu said with a somewhat grim expression, "Obito, Nagato has gradually slipped out of our control. He is no longer keen on collecting the Tailed Beasts, but has instead developed the idea of ​​fighting for supremacy among the ninja villages."

"What exactly did he talk about with the leader of Wochao Village that day, and why did things change so drastically?"

Obito also had a dark expression. Although the Nine-Tails Jinchuriki was the leader of Uzushio Village, if Nagato joined forces with him, there was a good chance of taking down the leader of Uzushio Village. However, Nagato did not seem to have any such idea.

Once news of Akatsuki's occupation of Kusagakure leaks out, the Akatsuki will inevitably be taken seriously by the other ninja villages.

The collection of items for Project Eye of the Moon will become increasingly difficult.

After a moment of contemplation, Obito looked at Black Zetsu and slowly said, "Everything is under my control. Nagato wants to develop peacefully in the manner of a ninja village. Even if we agree, those rogue ninjas and the five great ninja villages will not agree."

"After realizing that his idea was naive, he will naturally abandon the unrealistic idea and restart the Tailed Beast Project."

Black Zetsu glanced at the confident Obito. All he was saying was that he himself had no other choice but to wait for the situation to change. However, as the youngest son of the Otsutsuki clan, he had no choice but to quietly wait for the right opportunity.

After all, although Indra had been reincarnated, he was still very young and could not be treated as a pawn.

……

After the shadow clones hidden in Kusagakure dissipated, Naruto processed all of the shadow clones' memories.

Whether it was Amegakure's attack on Kusagakure or Pain's methods of controlling Kusagakure, it was all within his expectations.

Rain Village, which is shrouded in rain all year round, needs a normal piece of land to expand.

Besides the Land of Fire, the only other extended object is the Land of Grass.

But how will Konoha and Iwagakure think when Amegakure, the site of three major battles, suddenly annexes the buffer zone between the Land of Fire and the Land of Earth?

After enduring hardship and biding his time, Hanzo the Salamander is back with a vengeance.

Therefore, the existence of Amegakure will inevitably arouse the fear of Konoha, Iwagakure, and Sunagakure. How to break the deadlock will test Nagato's personal strength. Hopefully, Akatsuki can hold on a little longer.

Pulling his wandering thoughts back, Naruto bought several skewers of candied hawthorns, handing one of them to Karin who was standing next to him.

Although Karin has refined chakra, her strength is still some distance from that of a genin. Therefore, these days they can only slow down and leisurely make their way to the Land of Whirlpools.

Naruto also wanted to experience the famous mountains and rivers and local customs of the Land of Fire during this time.

After all, once he goes back, he will have to face those troublesome jobs again. As an apprentice who hasn't even passed the genin exam, he really shouldn't be carrying such heavy pressure.

After conducting on-site investigations, Naruto discovered that the people in the major cities of the Land of Fire were actually doing quite well.