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

More than ten minutes later, the convoy got back on the road, but was soon forced to stop again.

On the road ahead, the palanquin carrying a nobleman from the Land of Fire had been split in two, with blood flowing out from the crack. In front of and behind the palanquin lay the dead ninja guards.

Their faces showed shock, clearly indicating they were very surprised by their companion's death.

What frightened the caravan members even more was that the assassin who had attacked the nobles of the Land of Fire had not left. Instead, he sat on a tree trunk, holding a large, chipped sword, and kept a close eye on the caravan.

Black hair, jagged shark teeth, and a decapitation sword in his hand.

This reminded Naruto of Zabuza Momochi, but Zabuza should have been accompanied by a boy named Haku, and he shouldn't be wearing the Akatsuki's signature Fire Cloud Robe.

At this moment, Minato Namikaze reminded him, "Naruto, the opponent is Juzo Biwa, one of the Seven Ninja Swordsmen of the Mist."

Reminded by Minato Namikaze, Naruto then remembered the other party's identity: a Jonin from Kirigakure who had narrowly escaped from Might Guy's feet.

I can't believe my luck is so bad. I just randomly accepted a guard mission and ran into a member of Akatsuki.

While he was thinking, Juzo Biwa disappeared from his spot. The Executioner's Blade locked onto Naruto, who had come out to watch the commotion. After Naruto dodged it, the carriage was also cut in half.

Naruto's eyes flashed, and he drew his katana from his waist, the blade imbued with wind-style chakra.

Immediately afterwards, a slash of Kamaitachi energy was unleashed, heading straight for Juzo Biwa. Juzo Biwa's expression changed slightly. After catching the Kamaitachi energy, he dodged to the side.

"I never expected that someone as strong as you would accept a mission to protect nobles."

Naruto was completely bewildered, looking at Juzo Biwa with confusion. Was the other party not here because of his Jinchuriki status, but really just passing by on a bounty mission?

After a moment's thought, Naruto shook his head and said, "I'm traveling, and I'm just protecting the convoy along the way."

Upon hearing this, Juzo Biwa scratched his head and said apologetically, "It seems I misunderstood. I thought you had accepted a mission to protect nobles, or that you were trying to steal my bounty."

After saying this, Pipa Juzo cut off the nobleman's head and prepared to leave the place.

Just then, Pipa Juzo turned around and said, "By the way, since you're so strong, are you interested in joining my organization? Our organization has great benefits, it would be a shame not to join."

Naruto shook his head again: "I'm sorry, I don't have any plans to join any organization at the moment."

That's a real shame.

After saying this, Juzo Biwa truly left. He wasn't sure about Naruto's strength, nor did he want to antagonize such a powerful figure. All he wanted was to complete the mission.

Watching Juzo Biwa leave, Naruto considered taking action. Juzo Biwa was a powerful elite Jonin, and dealing with him would take a lot of time. It wouldn't be good if the White Zetsu recording the scene found out.

The caravan continued on its journey. This time, not only the caravan owner, but also the samurai and passengers looked at Naruto in a completely different way, and their tone of voice when communicating with Naruto was full of flattery.

If it weren't for Naruto, a powerful figure, they would probably have been killed just now.

Naruto wasn't interested in these people's flattery. He went to the sealed space and looked at Minato Namikaze: "Fourth Hokage, it seems that even ninjas can't protect the nobles of the Land of Fire. What can ninjas protect anyway?"

Chapter 81 S-Rank Rogue Ninja

Naruto addresses Minato Namikaze as the Fourth Hokage.

Among them, "Fourth Hokage" represents Minato's identity as the Fourth Hokage, while the "adult" in the following titles is more for mockery.

After all, it's unacceptable for someone with the mind of an adult to call a stranger "father," especially since in his value system, the debt of raising someone is greater than the debt of giving birth to them.

Minato Namikaze ignored Naruto's sarcasm, frowned, and pondered the meaning behind Naruto's words.

Judging from his tone, Naruto seems to be very dissatisfied with the existing system of ninjas in the ninja village, rather than simply hating the Third Hokage and the villagers of Konoha who brought him an unhappy childhood.

Naruto glanced at Minato Namikaze, then, without further suspense, said directly:

"Fourth Hokage, you seem to have misunderstood what I meant. What I meant was that while the Will of Fire in the village is admirable, it cannot cover the entire Land of Fire, not even the Uchiha and Uzumaki clans."

Upon hearing this, Minato Namikaze's expression changed repeatedly.

Naruto's words seemed full of loopholes, but he couldn't refute them. As a former Hokage, he understood that the Will of Fire couldn't cover the Uchiha clan, nor could it cover the children who grew up in Root.

After successfully causing trouble for Minato Namikaze, Naruto walked towards Kurama with a smile.

Compared to Minato, who tried to instill the Will of Fire into him, he preferred to be with Kurama, at least Kurama was his friend whom he spent every day with.

……

Meanwhile, Juzo Biwa arrived at the nearest underground black market and found the person in charge.

After verifying the identity of the body, the black market manager nodded in satisfaction and handed over the pre-prepared cash to Juzo Biwa.

Even as the regional head, no one dared to provoke Hiwa Juzo, who dared to assassinate nobles.

After quickly counting the cash, Pipa Juzo waved to the person in charge, who immediately understood and brought over the list of bounty missions.

Upon receiving the list, Juzo Biwa immediately noticed the names of the current Five Kage.

The bounties offered by the Five Kage are naturally quite generous; killing any one of them would earn hundreds of millions of ryo. However, the difficulty of completing the task is also considerable. Not only must one infiltrate a heavily guarded ninja village, but one must also challenge the most elite combat power in the ninja world.

After casually flipping through a dozen pages, Pipa Juzo still couldn't find a suitable bounty mission.

Either their strength is too great for the former Seven Ninja Swordsmen to handle, or the price is too low and it's a waste of time. He's not like Kakuzu, the workaholic of the organization; he's either on a mission or on his way to the next one.

If it weren't for the organization's requirement to regularly hand over money, he wouldn't bother taking on black market missions at all.

Soon, Juzo Biwa found Itachi Uchiha's bounty and asked the person in charge with some curiosity, "How can a thirteen-year-old brat get a bounty of tens of millions?"

The person in charge glanced at the introduction above and then explained, "Itachi's bounty was issued by Konoha Village for the crime of massacring his clan. He is a rogue ninja with a rank of S."

“S-rank rogue ninja…”

Pipa Juzo frowned, then continued to flip through the bounty list.

Just then, Juzo Biwa felt his fingers getting hot, so he quickly left the underground black market and found a secluded spot. He then looked at the ring on his right hand.

"The organization is having another meeting. Has someone new joined?"

Despite his doubts, Pipa Juzo formed hand seals and used the Illusionary Body Technique to send his spirit body to the Land of Rain, a thousand miles away.

After opening his eyes again, Pipa Juzo found himself in a dark cave.

Inside the cave stood a hundred-meter-tall Gedo Mazo, and he was standing on the Gedo Mazo's finger, with phantom images of the organization's members' chakra in front of him.

As time went on, members of the Akatsuki organization entered the scene one after another.

They are Pain, the leader of the Akatsuki organization, Konan, the angel, Kakuzu, who assassinated the First Hokage and escaped unscathed, Sasori, the puppeteer of the Sand Village, Orochimaru, the cold-blooded king, and the unidentified creatures Black and White Zetsu.

After everyone had arrived, Tendo said expressionlessly, "There are two things to discuss at today's meeting: first, to investigate the cause of death of Kakuzu's teammate; and second, to welcome the new member, Uchiha Itachi."

Upon hearing the words "new member," the Akatsuki members all looked at Itachi Uchiha.

They had all heard of Itachi Uchiha's name to some extent, and they knew that Itachi had chosen to become a rogue ninja because he killed his clan, but they did not have much respect for such a dangerous individual.

To put it bluntly, every ninja who can join the Akatsuki organization is a dangerous S-rank rogue ninja.

If you don't have at least a dozen lives on your hands, you'll only be looked down upon by your comrades.

Itachi Uchiha also glanced at the Akatsuki members present. Apart from Pain and Konan, whose identities he was unsure of, he had seen the rest of the members on the Anbu's roster of rogue ninjas.

These people were all vicious rogue ninjas, including Orochimaru, who had defected and was once one of the Legendary Sannin.

Upon discovering this, Itachi Uchiha's assessment of the Akatsuki organization's danger level rose to another level. With its current combat power, this organization possessed the ability to overthrow any ninja village.

After exchanging a glance, Orochimaru said in a hoarse voice, "Itachi-kun, it's been a long time. We really are destined to meet. How about we team up in the future? I'm getting a little tired of the guys around me."

"Orochimaru, if you're looking for death, just say so..."

Before Orochimaru could finish speaking, Sasori of the Red Sand spoke coldly beside him.

Orochimaru smiled dismissively, unconcerned about Sasori's threat. According to Akatsuki's rules, members are forbidden from killing each other unless one side is significantly weaker.

Itachi Uchiha ignored Orochimaru's invitation, as he was more concerned about Pain and Konan in the distance.

What kind of abilities did they possess to transform Obito, who caused the Nine-Tails' rampage, into Tobi, a new member of the Akatsuki?

Soon, Itachi Uchiha got the answer. He saw Pain's eyes, which were the Rinnegan, one of the three great dojutsu alongside the Sharingan and Byakugan, the eyes of the legendary Sage of Six Paths.

Only someone with such eyes could lead such a group of unruly rogue ninjas.

Pain didn't miss the shock on Itachi's face. Anyone who saw those eyes of salvation would be momentarily confused, something he was already used to.

After the Akatsuki members quieted down, Pain said to Zetsu, "Stop arguing, let's see if Kakuzu intentionally killed his comrade."

After saying that, Pain began to use the Rinnegan's abilities to play White Zetsu's memories.

In the scene, Kakuzu's teammates are entangled with the enemy, but Kakuzu completely disregards their safety and directly uses Fire Release: Head Strike to engulf the enemy and his teammates, leaving only charred corpses in the place.

Seeing this, Kakuzu said expressionlessly, "You all saw it. I reminded him to dodge the fire jutsu, but he didn't dodge in time. You can't blame me. I also died once while carrying out this mission."

Chapter 82 He's a good person

Emerging from the dark and damp cave, Itachi Uchiha gained a basic understanding of the Akatsuki organization.

This is a very loosely organized group. Apart from completing tasks regularly, not betraying the organization, and not killing each other, there are no other strict rules.

Everyone in the organization is working towards the goal of world peace, but the truth is that everyone has their own ulterior motives.

Even after the Akatsuki's treatment of Kakuzu, the rule against suicide and killing became more flexible.

In reality, Kakuzu killed his teammate, and it was most likely intentional. However, as long as the victim is dead, the Akatsuki organization will not hold the winner accountable; they will only issue a verbal reprimand.

It can be said that this is an organization that has evolved the law of the jungle to its extreme, but it was established in the name of achieving peace in the ninja world.

After sighing inwardly, Itachi Uchiha thought of his new teammates and asked Obito beside him, "What do you know about Juzo Biwa? What kind of person was he? Why did he defect?"

Obito stopped and slowly said, "The reason why Juzo Biwa defected is probably because he was a good person born in the Blood Mist Village."

"A good person from the Blood Mist Village?" Itachi's eyes showed surprise.

The Village of Blood Mist refers to the cruel graduation system of Kirigakure. Unlike other ninja villages, students in Kirigakure's ninja academy must kill their rivals in order to graduate. It is surprising that good people can appear in such a village.

But if he was a good person, why would he choose to betray Kirigakure and become a rogue ninja who joined Akatsuki?

Seemingly guessing Obito's thoughts, Obito turned to look at Itachi and said, "Good people can't change the Blood Mist policy, so Juzo Biwa can only change himself. You should have the same feeling."

After saying that, Obito walked out of the cave and disappeared into the rainy night.

……

At the same time, in Amegakure, the Land of Rain.

Pain stood atop a tower in Amegakure, bathing in the cold rain while looking down at the steel forest below and the hazy lights in the distance.

The sound of raindrops falling on the iron plate made Xiao Nan frown; she seemed to hear the land weeping.

Noticing footsteps behind him, Pain turned to Konan with her short blue hair: "Is there another problem with the village's finances? The bounty money earned by the organization won't be delivered until next month."