Whoosh… Whoosh… Whoosh…

Accompanied by the sound of breaking wind, three figures appeared in the messy forest. ​​

The three of them were dressed in Konoha shinobi gear, and the leader of the team, carried a mud pot on his back, wearing sunglasses, and looked very calm.

The two accompanying him were two teenagers, a boy, and a girl of about fourteen or fifteen years old.

After taking a casual look around the forest, the young man with short brown hair dark-colored eyes with markings under his eyes carrying a long sword on his back muttered with a disbelief look, "This… did a war broke out here?"

The young girl with a Konoha Forehead protector and straight purple hair that reached down to her waist, and warm brown eyes, coupled with a shade of red lipstick on her lips, nodded as she was also shocked by the sight before her.

What lied before three shinobi was the forest that looked as if it was a battleground for a war not long ago. With just a casual glance, one can easily find the traces of all ninjutsu of all five chakra natures.

Even the size and range of the battlefield appeared as if the battlefield was a site of a small-scale war involving several Jonins in the battles.

The Jonin captain of the team said with a solemn voice, "Yugao-Chan, Hayate-Kun, search around the parameter and see if you can find any useful clues!"

"Yes, captain!"

With the captain's order, both Uzuki Yugao and Gekko Hayate immediately dispersed.

After a while, Uzuki Yugao landed on a big tree while in search of any possible clues.

"Huh… this is!" – looking at the corpse of a snake lying on the ground near a burning tree, Yugao muttered in surprise.

After checking the snake corpse, her face immediately changed, "This is a snake from Orochimaru, could it be that Orochimaru was also involved in this battle!?"

With that conclusion, Yugao sealed the corpse in a storage scroll and continued to look around.

After the three reunited, the captain asked, "So, did anyone find anything?"

Yugao nodded and brought out the snake's corpse and explained, "Captain, I found this, from what I can guess, this should have been used by Orochimaru, that means we can conclude that Orochimaru too was part of what happened here!"

Picking up the snake's corpse, Captain frowned slightly, "The news received from the black-market bounty officer states that what happened here is the result of a feud between two bounty-nin organizations, so how could Orochimaru be involved?"

"Cough-cough…" – after recovering from his coughs, Hayate said with an unpleasant expression, "If two bounty-nin organizations had a feud that could affect such a large scale battlefield, then the total number of people involved should be well over a few hundred!

The captain nodded, agreeing to Hayate's guess.

After all, ordinary bounty ninjas are only at the level of a genin or a chunin, just three or four bounty ninjas can't affect such a large battlefield. Therefore, the most reasonable analysis points towards the involvement of more than a hundred bounty-nin here.

At this time, the captain states, "There is also no smell of blood in the air, this shows that the winning side not only strictly cleaned-up the battlefield but also made the corresponding disguise to mask their presence here, but what need did they have to do this? What are they trying to hide?"

Yugao asked, "Captain, what should we do now?"

After thinking a little, the Jonin captain replied, "The movement of bounty-nin is quite strange but there is also the involvement of S-Class missing-nin Orochimaru, the matter can't be taken casually, it would be prudent to report the situation to Hokage-Sama as soon as possible, and then decide on the further course of action as per his orders!"

…

Inside a dark cave in the land of Rain.

Under the call of The Magic Lantern Body Technique, the spiritual projections of all the Akatsuki members that were part of the capturing mission of Suijin appeared at the top of the fingertips of the Gedo Statue.

Pain looked at the four members and questioned in a deep voice, "Why was the mission failed?"

Uchiha Shinichi stretched out his hands helplessly, "You can't blame us for what happened if you want a reason, then blame Orochimaru!"

Biwa Juzu also nodded gently, "Orochimaru betrayed the organization, while we were still surrounding the target in a siege, he suddenly attacked Shinichi, wanting to seize Shinichi's Mangekyou Sharingan, which disrupted the entire round up."

At this time Sasori added with a cold snort, "I said earlier that he shouldn't be recruited, all he would do is steal the information and try to take advantage of us!"

The Pain was silent upon hearing this.

He naturally knew that the purpose of Orochimaru joining the Akatsuki wasn't pure, but Pain thought that his strength would be enough to deter Orochimaru and keep the snake in check, and therefore, 'It was better to keep these types nearby rather than let them run around on loose.' However, it seems that Pain underestimated Orochimaru's greed and the fact that Orochimaru would dare to betray so soon.

After a little contemplation, Pain questioned, "Is the identity of the other party confirmed?"

This time it was Kakazu who hasn't spoken anything from start, "The other party claimed to be 'Suijin,' part of an organization known as 'Amatsukami' and the mysterious ninja named 'Yama' is their leader, other than these we only know that he only uses Water Style and taijutsu for combat, what he looks like, other affiliations, age, and everything else is a total mystery.

One thing to note is that there was a symbol of Water Chakra Nature around the chest part of his cloak, which was different from that of 'Yama' as described by Hiruko and Shinno."

"Amatsukami…" – Pain chewed these few words with a gloomy expression.

'Amatsukami' refers to a 'Category of Gods,' which is something unacceptable, Pain firmly believes that only he with the Rinnegan is the Shinobi capable of bringing peace to this Shinobi world, this is his responsibility. He must fulfill Yahiko's dream!

While Pain was mulling over the matter, Shinichi folded his hands and said with an exaggerated smile, "Heh, that 'Suijin' isn't easy I tell you, look at how the three teams involved on the mission ended up with such an embarrassing result against just one guy, one of us ended up dead in friendly fire, one rebelled, while the two of us couldn't suppress him, it was a shameful defeat…" – Shinichi was obviously very happy by the defeat of the Akatsuki Organization at the hands of Amatsukami.

The members of Akatsuki are all rogue-nin with extraordinary combat power, therefore, they don't even put any of the five great Shinobi Villages in their eyes.

In this small mission, the organization dispatched six of its members, of which five had the extraordinary combat power of close to or higher than the level of the Kage of the great Villages.

And even with such an absolute advantage of six to one, not only did their mission of catching the target alive failed, but they ended up two members down, this is the biggest defeat Akatsuki suffered since Pain came into power.

Withdrawing his thoughts, Pain asked indifferently, "What is Suijin's strength level!?"

Kakuzu said, "I hate to say it but he was very strong, although he only used Water Style and basic taijutsu along with some use of tools, taijutsu alone surpassed the level of a Jonin, but the most exaggerated was his proficiency in Water Style, what's worrisome is that he appeared inexperienced in Water Style at the start and gradually improved during the combat, if he is allowed to grow, I wouldn't be surprised if he even surpassed Konoha's Nidaime Hokage in Water Style!"

After Kakuzu finished talking, everyone looked towards Sasori, after all, among the various people, only Kakuzu and Sasori were the ones who basically fought against Suijin.

Sasori hummed lightly, "The next time I meet him, he will die!" and turned away his face, refused to speak any further.

Sasori was very embarrassed about what happened this time, not only did he let the other party escape but also damaged his defensive puppet with those explosive charms, and this all happened when he was assured of his victory, this routine reminded him of the time when he lost the Kazekage puppet to that damn Hyuga Kuroto, and this greatly frustrated him!

Pain nodded and after a bit of thinking he ordered, "Sasori, Kakazu, you both will temporarily form a team."

Kakazu and Sasori glanced at each other and finally nodded in acquiescence to Pain's arrangement.

Akatsuki operates in a team of two members, and since both Kakazu and Sasori have lost their team members, so it is reasonable for them to form a team together.

With this out of the way, Pain ordered, "Next, everyone will make sure to keep interrogating about any intel on 'Yama,' 'Suijin,' and 'Amatsukami,' we have close to no information about the enemy and that is unacceptable, so apart from all your missions, keep searching for all the information you can find about their organization, we need to know everything about them, the location of their base, number of members in their organization, their objective, identities, from smallest to biggest, anything and everything,. Also, no one will take reckless actions if they encounter any of the members of the 'Amatsukami'!"

"Yes!"

At this time Sasori added, "I suspect that Orochimaru might have something to do with 'Amatsukami, the timing of his rebellion was too coincidental!"

After a little consideration, Pain spoke, "The task of chasing and eliminating Orochimaru would be left to Sasori and Kakazu!"

Sasori nodded, "Heh, It will be done!"

After finally taking a look at the several members of the Akatsuki, he spoke, "Disperse!"

After deactivating the Magic lantern Body Technique, Pain's consciousness appeared back on the tallest tower on the Rain Village.

Sitting on the top of the tower in a light drizzle and looking into the distance, Pain had a thoughtful look.

The sudden appearance of the Amatsukami gave him a bad premonition, but he still firmly believed that his strength was enough to put down the five great powers and control everything.

While he was thinking, a spiraling whirl appeared behind him, out of which came the masked man. This person was none other than the mastermind behind the Kyuubi's rebellion and many other problems that Konoha has been facing for a while now, the one who claims to be Uchiha Madara.

Pain didn't look back or reacted to the arrival of 'Uchiha Madara' and just stated lightly, "The mission failed!"

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