Chapter 43: Decision and difficult mission

When we left the Village Shisui began explaining the details of the mission "According to the fifth Hokage, trackers that we sent to keep an eye on them found out that the 7 clans are still gathered together; similar to when they left and they are heading west. The higher-ups believe that their destination is the land of rain"

"The land of rain? Why would they go there? Was their helper a member of the village hidden in the rain?" Asked Itachi.

"No, I don't think the village hidden in the rain will attempt to provoke Konoha in this way when they just had a civil war and the previous chief Hanzo died, as for them accepting these clans to strengthen themselves, this possibility was also rejected because of the hatred they have for Konoha because of the third great ninja war making their land a battleground "Said Shisui with a sigh.

Itachi frowned at the mention of war but asked an important question "Then how are those clans so sure nothing will happen to them?"

"That's what we are here to find out" Replied Shisui seriously.

'Hmm, I wonder how Nagato is reacting to Obito inviting people from Konoha.' I thought

-Flashback to 5 days ago-

After Tobi left Konoha he sent a signal to Pain to contact him and so in a hidden location on the land of rain, the leader of the Akatsuki 'Pain' used his Astral projection Jutsu to have a private discussion with Tobi about his recent actions.

This Jutsu allows the members of the Akatsuki to send out "thought waves" converted into chakra. These thought waves are then picked up by Pain, acting as a kind of control tower. This technique amplifies the thought waves and broadcasts them to a specific location through illusionary bodies.

While Pain is relaying the members' thoughts, they can have conversations and use varying techniques.

If someone were to look inside this hidden room, they would be scared at the two shadowy figures facing each other. One of them that appeared to have light purple eyes with black circles inside, or as very few people in this world knew their true name 'Rinnegan' was questioning another figure wearing a mask with a single Sharingan shining from it.

"Tobi, why are you using the emergency signal to contact me?" Asked Pain in a cold distorted voice, this is currently Nagato with his god complex in full effect from all the BS Jiraya showered him about being the chosen child.

Tobi ignored his tone and answered "I was forced to act quickly because of some changes in the situation, well first let me explain to you what happened recently in Konoha..." and so he began explaining everything that happened, from the new Hokage to the fall of Danzo to the 7 clans he tricked to desert Konoha.

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

Pain's expression kept flickering especially when he heard how weakened Konoha was currently.

"Of course those clans are merely tools in the end and will be used as cannon fodder to destroy Konoha, and get the nine tails to further our plans before I get rid of them, after all, what better way to destroy Konoha than with its own people".

Pain's eyes ignited with hatred "Indeed, the nine tails is important for our plans, you acted well, do you need the assistance of the Akatsuki?"

In this timeline, Nagato (Pain) was still young and can deal with the pressure from using the Rinnegan so if he truly participates, the results would be scary.

Tobi thought about it for a moment and said " I do but if we blatantly attack Konoha now, even when we win, it will only make us the target of all the other villages which will put a huge pressure on us, so we either attack all the villages together and take them by surprise starting a full-blown out war or we use people from Konoha itself to attack it and at best use two of our members to act as hired mercenaries like usual".

Unknown to Tobi, Nagato thought about it and trusting in his power and 'fate', was about to choose the first option but a blue-haired woman that was sitting beside his real body stopped him from acting recklessly "Nagato, don't be rash, I still don't trust this man, we better be careful since I feel that his hatred for Konoha is driving his actions more than helping achieve the goal of the organization. Since we have the option of taking down Konoha and take the nine tails without endangering the organization, take it" She was Konan.

Nagato hesitated a little before he nodded at her "Okay" then his attention returned to the body of Pain and the same cold voice sounded again.

"We will go with the second option, I will order Kakuzu and Kisame to accompany you along with Orochimaru, and this should be enough to deal with the weakened Konoha along with the minions you gathered".

"Good, I asked the clans to build a temporary base on the land of rain near the border with the land of fire, make some preparations for their arrival and ask Orochimaru and the other two to prepare for the upcoming fight before I meet up with them and try to get the other hidden villages involved" said Tobi with his eye shining in a crimson light for the slaughter he's about to cause.

'Just wait, you will be erased soon' Thought Tobi as his hatred burned stronger and stronger...

-Back to the present time-

It didn't take long before we quickly started catching up to the seven clans and we started finding more and more traces of their path.

It's impossible to hide your traces when you are traveling in such a huge group especially when not all of your members are ninjas.

After 4 hours of traveling, I finally caught the scent of a huge number of people ahead of us so I signaled for Itachi and Shisui to stop.

I smelled the air a little bit before I focused on my hearing and said "I can sense a huge gathering of people around 3km from us and few stationary human smells scattered in a huge range around them probably sentries, the sun is almost setting so they are probably going to camp here before they go on with their journey".

"Um, good job, we should be more careful from here on out to not be detected" Shisui said as both he and Itachi activated their Sharingans to help them detect people just in case I miss something.

As for me, I did something else which surprised them, I put my ear on the ground and closed my eyes, my face was focused like never before feeling for any movements under the ground ' As I guessed, Zetsu is keeping an eye on them and he's moving all over the place with his clones, Tch, this mission is already hard, and now it's becoming even harder to finish it without exposing Shisui's ability'.

"What are you doing?" Asked Itachi curiously.

"Someone is moving under the ground and he's observing the camp, we need to be extra careful" I said seriously.

"Okay" They both narrowed their eyes at this unknown enemy and nodded.

A hard mission is turning out to be an impossible mission...