Chapter 212: The Truth Behind the Akatsuki

Chapter 212: Chapter 212: The Truth Behind the Akatsuki

When Shisui learned that Uchiha Ryota had attacked Hyuga Hizashi, he was startled.

In the eyes of outsiders, although both were prestigious ninja clans of Konoha, whether in terms of influence or reputation, the Uchiha Clan undoubtedly stood above the Hyuga Clan.

But Shisui alone understood that with Hyuga Kagami among their ranks, the Hyuga Clan’s true strength actually surpassed that of the Uchiha.

Because of that, he didn’t even dare imagine what the consequences would be if Uchiha Ryota really killed the Hyuga Clan Head’s younger brother.

The moment he saw Hyuga Kagami, Shisui repeatedly apologized and asked for his forgiveness.

Hyuga Kagami merely waved his hand.

"It was my oversight. Uchiha Ryota already had an extreme personality to begin with. After being pushed like this, it honestly wouldn’t be surprising no matter what kind of crazy thing he did."

Even among the Uchiha Clan, who were already prone to going to extremes, Uchiha Ryota belonged to the particularly radical sort.

With his older brother Hideki having been attacked and his fate still unknown, it was actually perfectly understandable for him to do something insane under those circumstances.

Shisui looked somewhat dejected.

He had originally already given up on the plan to attack Uchiha Ryota.

Because he had thought that perhaps sacrificing just one Uchiha Hideki would be enough to save the entire Uchiha Clan and allow the Uchiha and the village to reconcile once more.

But things had not gone as he hoped.

Uchiha Ryota’s madness had not only ruined the harmonious atmosphere between the clan and the village that Shisui had worked so hard to create, but had also nearly caused the Uchiha Clan to provoke a prestigious clan like the Hyuga.

As a result, Shisui had no choice but to restart the plan and continue eliminating the extremists who were detrimental to the clan.

Having made up his mind, Shisui asked, "Senpai, when are we going to make our move against Ryota?"

Hyuga Kagami glanced at Shisui and smiled.

"I thought you’d hesitate for a while longer!"

Shisui couldn’t help but smile bitterly. "The plan has already progressed this far. How could we abandon the whole thing just because of Ryota?"

Hyuga Kagami stopped teasing him. After pondering for a moment, he said, "First, investigate Uchiha Ryota’s movements. Find a suitable opportunity, and we’ll make our move together. We’ll finish it quickly!"

......

Konoha’s Maximum-Security Prison Facility.

Knock, knock...

The sound of knocking interrupted Danzo’s thoughts.

He frowned. "Come in."

Soon, a Root ninja entered the office carrying a document and reported, "Lord Danzo, this is a summary of all the intelligence we’ve obtained from the interrogations so far."

Danzo reached out and took the document while asking, "Have you managed to extract the location of Kamigami’s headquarters?"

The Root ninja shook his head.

"So far, we haven’t extracted any useful information regarding Kamigami. Every person we’ve interrogated knows absolutely nothing about the origins of Kamigami’s members."

Bang!

Danzo slammed the document he had just received heavily onto the desk and snapped, "They know nothing? Then what exactly is this document you brought me? Are you trying to brush me off with this garbage?"

The Root ninja hurriedly replied, "Lord Danzo, this is intelligence concerning the Akatsuki."

"Akatsuki..."

The moment he heard the word "Akatsuki," Danzo’s gaze immediately turned cold.

He picked up the document from the desk, but after reading only a short while, his expression turned livid.

"Orochimaru, Uchiha Shinichi, Hiruko... All these damned rogue ninja from the village actually joined the Akatsuki! Just what is this Akatsuki trying to do?!"

Looking at the familiar names listed one after another in the document, Danzo was absolutely furious!

Unlike Hyuga Kagami, who always wore a mask and cloak while even eliminating his own scent, leaving virtually no openings when it came to concealing his identity, the members of the Akatsuki operated very differently.

Almost all of them openly showed their true faces while carrying out missions, acting without the slightest restraint.

Thus, after Konoha swept through the vast majority of black markets throughout the Land of Fire and captured large numbers of black-market members and bounty ninja, the subsequent interrogations quickly exposed information about Akatsuki members who had previously operated within the Land of Fire—Orochimaru, Uchiha Shinichi, Hiruko, and others.

Whenever Hyuga Kagami operated under the identity of "Yama" or "Kawa," he made use of Konoha’s intelligence network. Moreover, during his missions, he spent most of his time flying in Tenseigan Chakra Mode and avoided contact with anyone unrelated along the way.

Therefore, although Hyuga Kagami had completed numerous bounty missions under the identity of "Yama," the people he had actually come into contact with were either bounty targets who were already dead or the handful of black-market bosses who had received him.

The Akatsuki members were different.

Most of them traveled on foot, and without access to the ready-made intelligence network of a major ninja village, they had to interact with large numbers of people from the black market for everything from food and lodging to gathering intelligence.

Thus, when Konoha suddenly swept up the black-market network in one fell swoop, it became almost inevitable that information about them would leak out.

Putting down the document, Danzo thought to himself, "It seems those previous rumors were all true!"

Before this, rumors had circulated through the black market that Orochimaru and Uchiha Shinichi had joined a bounty-ninja organization.

But Konoha’s higher-ups, including Danzo, had never believed those rumors.

In the eyes of the Third Hokage, Danzo, and the others, a ninja of Orochimaru’s caliber would never join some mere bounty-ninja organization.

As for Uchiha Shinichi, Konoha’s higher-ups had long since concluded that he had joined Kumogakure. Because of that, they had even suspected that the rumors had been deliberately spread through the black market by Kumogakure.

But now that Konoha had mobilized its full strength, the Akatsuki’s true strength and composition were gradually being exposed.

The thought that so many powerful Konoha rogue ninja were hiding within the Akatsuki left Danzo with a faint sense of unease.

Rogue ninja like Orochimaru, one of the Legendary Sannin, and Uchiha Shinichi, who had awakened the Mangekyo Sharingan, were enough to give Danzo a massive headache even individually.

So at this moment, he suddenly felt that the threat the Akatsuki posed to the village might actually be even greater than Kamigami’s.

After remaining silent for a long time, Danzo suddenly asked, "There’s no information about the Akatsuki’s leader?"

The Root ninja standing at his side hurriedly replied, "The Akatsuki’s leader is extremely mysterious and seems to have never shown himself to the outside world. No matter how much we interrogate or entice them, the captured black-market members and bounty ninja haven’t been able to provide any useful information."

Danzo ordered in a tone that brooked no argument,

"Continue the interrogations. I want to know everything there is to know about the Akatsuki!"

"Yes!"

The Root ninja wiped the fine beads of sweat from his forehead and carefully withdrew from Danzo’s office.

Danzo picked up the document containing the intelligence on the Akatsuki once more and muttered to himself,

"Akatsuki... Kamigami... Just what exactly are they trying to do?"

Suddenly, another Root ninja entered the office and reported,

"Lord Danzo, we just extracted a new piece of intelligence. Kamigami and the Akatsuki appear to be enemies. There was once an intense clash between the two organizations!"