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

……

A few hours later, the mission request that Obito had prepared in advance appeared at the Hokage Building.

The Third Hokage glanced at the contents of the commission and immediately frowned. The S-rank mission was indeed of a high level, and the reward was extremely generous, amounting to tens of millions of taels.

But why offer such a generous reward for merely eliminating a group of wandering ninja from the Land of Waves?

If there is no real danger, he plans to send Asma on this mission so that he can get to know a big shot like Kado, which will help Asma climb the ranks in the future.

Although he knew that his youngest son lacked ambition and was far less capable than his father had been back then.

However, if the Sarutobi clan does not have a capable ninja, it will decline sooner or later. At the very least, it needs to have a high-ranking member who can act as an assistant to maintain the future of the Sarutobi clan.

He didn't aspire to be Hokage, but only to assist him; this was the Third Hokage's expectation of his successor.

Just as the Third Hokage was hesitating about whether to send his son on the mission, Danzo pushed open the office door, glanced at the request issued by Gato, and immediately frowned.

Just half an hour ago, his subordinates in Root received a message that the ninjas of the Land of Whirlpools had attacked the Land of Waves.

The message corresponded perfectly to the request in front of him, making him think of a conspiracy—no, a conspiracy against Konoha.

When other ninja villages learned of the Land of Whirlpools' attack on the Land of Waves, they would only assume it was Konoha's doing, and that Konoha would gain no benefit from it.

After a moment's hesitation, Danzo spoke directly: "Hiruzen, this is a conspiracy by the leader of Uzushio Village against Konoha. The attackers are those rogue ninjas. If the attack on the Land of Waves is exposed, Konoha will be the one to be condemned."

Then, Danzo revealed his guess.

"How did you know the attackers were ninjas from Uzushio Village?"

The Third Hokage was very satisfied with the current Wind-Fire-Uzumaki system, but said with considerable dissatisfaction, "Moreover, if this is a play orchestrated by Uzumaki Village itself, why would they do this? They could have quietly annexed the Land of Waves."

Upon hearing this, Danzo frowned immediately: "Hiruzen, do you and Jiraiya know the identity of the leader of Uzushio Village? Your actions are too biased towards the Land of Whirlpools. Could it be that the leader of Uzushio Village is a rogue ninja of the village?"

Was it Orochimaru, or some other ninja who betrayed the village? Or was the Land of Whirlpools established at the behest of Sarutobi?

Danzo quickly ruled out the first and third guesses in his mind. Orochimaru had been in contact with him all along, and it was impossible for him not to be involved in the annexation of the Land of Waves. Sarutobi would have even less courage to establish the Land of Whirlpools.

After eliminating all incorrect options, the remaining option, no matter how impossible, is the correct choice.

The leader of Uzushio Village is an unknown rogue ninja in the village, and in recent years, the only ninja in the village with the opportunity and talent is the rogue Nine-Tails Jinchuriki!

Chapter 136 Kisame Hoshigaki

"Hiruzen, the leader of Uzushio Village must be the Nine-Tails Jinchuriki."

Seeing the Third Hokage's hesitant expression, Danzo already knew the answer.

Knowing he could no longer hide it from Danzo, the Third Hokage had no choice but to admit it:

"That's right, the leader of Uzushio Village was Naruto. After leaving the village, he led Shisui and his Uchiha gang to rebuild the Land of Whirlpools and established Uzushio Village."

"Leave? More like defection. You're still defending that rogue ninja. He's already set up his own faction and even has designs on the Land of Waves. If the Land of Whirlpools is really annexed, your plan to win over the surrounding small countries through the Chunin Exams will probably fall through."

Danzo's words were sharp, showing no respect whatsoever to the Third Hokage.

After all, whether it was injuring the guards who defected from Konoha or leading the Uchiha remnants to establish a country overseas, the Nine-Tails Jinchuriki's actions were no different from Orochimaru's, and it was not unreasonable to give him an S-rank wanted poster for a rogue ninja.

"This is just a stopgap measure."

The Third Hokage also lost his temper and retorted sharply, "Do you want Naruto to become a wanted rogue ninja? This will only make him a laughingstock for other ninja villages, and if we don't completely break ties, Naruto might still be able to return. Uzushiogakure will still be a force under Konoha's control."

Danzo snorted coldly, but he didn't have any good ideas.

Even before the Nine-Tails Jinchuriki defected, he had tried to stop him. At that time, he was powerless against Naruto and could only let Naruto leave.

But that didn't stop him from embarrassing the Third Hokage, because it was the Third Hokage's fault in the first place.

After pondering for a moment, Danzo slowly asked, "In that case, who do you plan to send to complete this mission? Why not just annex the Land of Waves? Gato's assets aren't clean anyway."

The Third Hokage did not refute Danzo, but instead fell into deep thought, considering the feasibility of the matter.

……

The land of rain.

Nagato, sitting in a wheelchair, is taking care of the Six Paths of Pain. Although the Six Paths of Pain are puppets, they are essentially corpses that have absorbed the power of the Rinnegan and need to be frozen to prevent them from rotting.

With years of experience, Nagato had long since mastered the art of maintaining the Six Paths of Pain.

After applying another layer of preservative, Nagato carefully placed Tendo into a special glass jar, gazing at Tendo's face as he fell into memories.

Of all the Pain, Deva Path is undoubtedly the most unique.

It was made from Yahiko's corpse, inheriting Yahiko's body and ideals, and is also the embodiment of his ideal god.

It can be said that with this Heavenly Dao in place, he is a god who is high above and looks down on all living beings, rather than the weak and easily bullied Nagato who cannot be protected by anyone.

At this moment, after removing the mask of Pain, he became the sentimental Nagato.

Sitting in his wheelchair, listening to the rain outside, he imagined a better future while also worrying about the Akatsuki's plans.

In Akatsuki's three-step plan, whether it was monopolizing small-scale wars, using the suspicions of the five great nations to collect the tailed beasts, or the final plan to revive the Ten-Tails, each step had an extremely high probability of failure.

Pain's enemies were not only the Five Great Nations, but also the mysterious Uchiha Madara within the organization.

The other party was the first ninja to join Akatsuki after the first Akatsuki was wiped out, and is also one of the suspects responsible for the destruction of the first Akatsuki.

Otherwise, with Hanzo's forces, at least a few of them could have survived, instead of just him and Konan being left.

At this moment, Xiao Nan used the Paper Release technique to arrive beside the former.

Upon noticing the familiar footsteps, Nagato instantly switched to Pain's personality, asking in a low voice, "Konan, has something happened to the village, or to Akatsuki?"

Konan glanced at the emaciated Nagato, then at the frozen Tendou, and sighed softly in her heart.

"It's an organizational matter. Someone on the black market has placed a request with Akatsuki, saying that the Land of Waves has been attacked by ninjas from Uzushio Village and Akatsuki needs their help to repel the invaders?"

"Uzushio Village invades the Land of Waves?"

Nagato frowned: "I remember the Land of Waves is an island nation, where the standard of living is even lower than that of Amegakure. Why would Uzushio Village attack there for no reason? Just to fish in the sea?"

"The person who issued the commission is the wealthy tycoon Kado, probably because he has too much money and has been targeted."

"No wonder they were targeted by Whirlpool Village, it turns out it was that heartless merchant Kado..."

Nagato knew something about Kado's shipping company. It was a company that started with smuggling and illegal drugs, and occasionally also engaged in human trafficking and piracy. Otherwise, it would not have become one of the world's richest companies.

Hearing Nagato's disdainful tone, Konan frowned and said, "Why don't we give up this commission? Kado is not a good person. We don't need to provoke Uzushio Village. After all, it's your clan's village."

Nagato shook his head and said to Konan:

"No, I don't intend to give up this commission. The village needs this money, and the organization must also find out the true situation of Wochao Village."

"Don't forget that our original intention in establishing the Akatsuki organization was to use the Ten-Tails as a deterrent to prevent wars between ninja villages. Pain's vision was not so narrow, and he didn't have any so-called clansmen."

"However, there are indeed many suspicious points. How did Gato manage to escape the attack of Uzushio Village, and why did he specifically target our Akatsuki organization? These questions must be investigated thoroughly."

……

Not long after, Itachi Uchiha and Kisame Hoshigaki, who were active in the Land of Fire, received a mission to be assigned to them.

After learning the details of the mission, Kisame didn't have many thoughts, but Itachi Uchiha frowned and fell into deep thought.

The client is the wealthy Gato, and the goal is to repel the ninjas attacking the Land of Waves. That's all fine.

But the fact that it was specifically mentioned that the attackers were from Uzushio Village is very intriguing. Gato is not a ninja, so how did he know that the attackers were from Uzushio Village, and how did he manage to escape the attack from Uzushio Village?

Moreover, most of the ninjas in Uzushio Village were Uchiha, the clansmen who had parted ways with him.

How to meet his people who survived the massacre was the biggest problem he faced.

But a mission is a mission, and he couldn't refuse. If he were expelled from Akatsuki because of it, all his efforts would be in vain.

Kisame, carrying the Samehada sword, was getting impatient: "Hey, how much longer are you going to take? I can't wait to get to the Land of Waves and have a big battle with those Uzushio Village ninjas."

Itachi Uchiha glanced at Kisame, then silently led the way.

When they first met, the two even had a fight, which ended in a draw.

At the time, he believed that Kisame was an impulsive and belligerent person.

However, after spending time together on several missions, he gained a certain understanding of Kisame. If Juzo Biwa was a good person, then Kisame was a pure ninja.

Kisame is a man of few words and no empathy during missions.

He will not hesitate to kill anyone who affects the mission, including ordinary people, but he will never kill indiscriminately if it does not affect the mission. He is a near-perfect ninja.

In terms of strength, Kisame is flawless. He is a powerful Jonin who is proficient in Water Release and Taijutsu, and he is not weak even in the talent-rich Akatsuki organization.

Teaming up with someone like that would naturally be a good thing, but the premise is that they must always be loyal to the same organization. However, he is just a spy infiltrating the Akatsuki organization, and sooner or later he will turn against the Akatsuki organization.

Distracted thoughts vanished with the wind, and Itachi Uchiha quickened his pace, speeding through the forest.

The two moved extremely fast, arriving at the coast of the Land of Fire in less than half a day. Across the sea lay the Land of Waves, a barren and desolate island.

It was still night, and there were no fishing boats on the sea, but the seawater clearly could not be an obstacle for the Jonin.

However, after sensing the chakra fluctuations ahead, the two stopped and looked at the vortex that had suddenly appeared in front of them, and the masked man Obito who walked out of it.

After glancing at Itachi and Kisame for a few moments, Obito approached and said, "Oh my, I didn't expect to run into two seniors here. What kind of mission have you received? May I participate?"

Chapter 137 Dazner

Upon hearing this voice, Itachi Uchiha subconsciously frowned.

The masked man is actually appearing as Tobi this time, but aren't he and Kisame both ninjas personally recruited by the other party? Is this really necessary? Or is it simply to give the enemy the wrong information?

In fact, Obito was also in a state of confusion at this time.

He clearly sent someone to notify the Hokage Building, so why did Itachi Uchiha and Kisame arrive to provide support? Konoha shouldn't have remained silent when it comes to Uzushiogakure and the remnants of the Uchiha clan.

Even if Jiraiya and Uzushio Village secretly reached an agreement, Danzo could not remain indifferent.

If he couldn't sow discord between Konoha and Uzushiogakure, all his efforts these past few days would have been in vain. After finding the right opportunity, Obito subtly inquired about the mission details and its origin from Kisame.

Kisame glanced at Obito, choosing to keep the mission details a secret.

This left Obito somewhat helpless. He valued Kisame's loyalty, but this loyalty was a bit too much.

Soon, White Zetsu and Zetsu arrived at the scene. After hearing the whole story, Obito's expression under his mask became extremely complex.

He didn't use genjutsu to control Gato, but Gato actually went against his will and sought outside help on the black market. However, this is not a bad thing. The more ninjas who accept the commission, the more people will know about the existence of Uzushio Village.

At that time, the existence of Uzushio Village will make the world more chaotic, and his goal will be achieved in a roundabout way.