Chapter 222: Ninja World Enemy (1432)

After successfully capturing Iwa no Ro, Li Ang and Sasori found a hidden cave to lie low temporarily.

They needed to contact the rest of the organization members via the Illusionary Body Technique, but the intermediary, Changmen, remained silent.

This made Li Ang silently wonder:

'Did Changmen screw up?'

The Hidden Cloud Village was extremely powerful, not only because it possessed two tailed beasts, but also due to its martial culture.

Just as Li Ang was mentally criticizing his own leader, the 【Qing】 ring on his left index finger suddenly pulsed.

It was Changmen—he had sent a gathering signal.

Upon receiving the message, Li Ang and Sasori immediately used the Illusionary Body Technique to enter Changmen's meeting.

But this time, the figures present were no longer nine.

The silhouettes representing Hidan, Itachi, and Kisame were absent from this meeting.

Before Li Ang could ask, Changmen spoke: "Hidan and Kisame are dead. Itachi defected."

This was an extremely heavy loss for the Akatsuki.

Had it not been for Li Ang's addition, this time only Changmen likely would have survived.

Though without him, the tailed beast capture plan wouldn't have started so early either.

The one who nearly got killed by ambush, Kakuzu, was clearly in a foul mood: "Even though Uchiha Itachi can't return to Konoha, he's still sending intelligence."

To the world, Uchiha Itachi was seen as a psychotic monster who murdered his father and mother and wiped out his entire clan—even Konoha believed this.

Therefore, his return to Konoha was obviously impossible, unless he was willing to go back and do dirty work for Danzo.

But while others might not know the reason, Li Ang did.

Uchiha Itachi did this mostly for his younger brother, and partly for Konoha.

He thought of Uchiha Sasuke still with Orochimaru, and his expression turned strange.

'I wonder if Orochimaru has tried transplanting Senju cells into Second Brother.'

As Li Ang's thoughts wandered, Changmen asked: "Ryū, Sasori, what's your situation?"

Sasori answered first: "Sunagakure set an ambush, but Sasori and I still successfully captured the One-Tail's jinchūriki."

"Good. That leaves five, eight, and nine tails."

Changmen nodded.

Hearing this, Li Ang was momentarily surprised.

He hadn't expected Changmen to capture the Two-Tails while directly confronting the Hidden Cloud Village.

'Did Changmen blow up the entire Hidden Cloud Village?'

If so, no one would be around this time to revive them with the Reincarnation Technique.

But each use of the Super God Devouring Technique drains Changmen's lifespan, so he can't keep using this nuclear-level attack indefinitely.

As Li Ang thought this, Changmen said: "Return to base immediately. We'll extract the tailed beasts as soon as possible."

"The Five Great Nations will likely take action soon."

With such a massive disturbance, it would be strange if the Five Great Nations reacted nothing at all.

Everyone understood this and immediately dispelled the Illusionary Body Technique, following Changmen's orders to leave the location.

…

Meanwhile, as the Akatsuki members gathered to extract the tailed beasts,

the outside world had erupted into chaos.

Half of the Hidden Cloud Village vanished; the Kazekage was captured in front of Suna ninja; the Hidden Waterfall Village nearly perished.

All of these were the Akatsuki's doing.

This led the Five Great Nations to convene their first Five Kage Summit.

Present were the Fifth Hokage, Tsunade; the Fourth Raikage, Lei Yingai; the Fifth Mizukage, Terumi Mei; the Third Tsuchikage, Ōnoki; and the acting Kazekage, Chiyo.

Each sat in their designated seat, expression was solemn.

In silence, Ōnoki spoke first: "Lei Yingai, is it true your village lost half its structure?"

"Hmph!"

Upon hearing this, Lei Yingai's already grim face darkened further.

He never imagined that possessing two tailed beasts would bring such catastrophic disaster upon his village.

The destruction inflicted on the Hidden Cloud Village was so severe that reconstruction would likely take years, if not more.

Damage to buildings was secondary; the main issue was the generational collapse of talent.

Recalling the madman with the circular eyes soaring into the sky, shouting "Let the world feel pain!" before obliterating half of the Hidden Cloud Village, Lei Yingai's heart ached uncontrollably.

After this incident, the Hidden Cloud Village might struggle to retain its status among the Five Great Villages.

But in this setting, he would not show weakness.

Thinking this, Lei Yingai spoke: "Konoha must compensate all the villages for their losses. If you had warned us earlier, this wouldn't have happened."

Starting with extortion—classic Hidden Cloud Village tradition.

Facing Lei Yingai's blackmail, Tsunade said without expression: "Without Konoha's intelligence, the Hidden Cloud Village wouldn't even have the Eight-Tails' jinchūriki left."

Though she said this, the Hokage was also helpless—none could have anticipated that Uchiha Itachi, after years of silence, would suddenly send word that all recent disturbances in the Ninja World were the Akatsuki's doing.

Beyond that, it was the members' unique abilities that allowed them to successfully ambush several Akatsuki members and cause casualties.

But who could have guessed their leader possessed such overwhelming power?

Tsunade was grateful he hadn't come to Konoha—otherwise, her village would have suffered this devastation.

'I must urgently notify Jiraiya to take Naruto and go into hiding.'

This thought flashed through her mind.

At that moment, Terumi Mei, standing to the side, played the peacemaker: "Oh dear, oh dear, you two shouldn't get so worked up. Currently the heaviest is to first deal with the Akatsuki organization, then reclaim each village's tailed beasts."

That's right, this big Lei Ting had successfully become the Mizukage.

As for the methods—

Having lived through the 'Village Hidden in the Blood Mist' era, Terumi Mei's methods were obviously not gentle in the slightest.

And her words successfully eased the atmosphere at the scene a little.

After a while, Tsunade asked Chiyo: "Grandmother Chiyo, what's the situation on your end?"

In this sudden Akatsuki assault operation, aside from the Hidden Cloud, it was the Hidden Sand that suffered the heavier losses.

"Ahem."

Hearing Tsunade's voice, Chiyo couldn't help but cough twice—clearly the injuries she'd sustained earlier hadn't fully healed yet: "The Akatsuki member who abducted the Kazekage, my lord, was my grandson Sasori, and another Akatsuki member wearing the 'Ao' 【Blue】】 ring."

"That Ao's strength is terrifying. He single-handedly held off all the Hidden Sand ninja lying in ambush."

At these words, the scene instantly fell dead silent.

At this point, Terumi Mei took the documents handed to her by the guard behind her and distributed them to the remaining four Kage.

"Akatsuki member Ryū, codename Ao, first recorded appearance was taking a commission in the Land of Iron."

The document contained a portrait of Li Ang.

Accompanying Terumi Mei's narration, Tsunade and the others began flipping through the documents in front of them.

"His abilities are suspected to be ninjutsu and taijutsu, as well as a type of Kekkei Genkai that has never appeared before."

Chiyo spoke up to add: "More than that. He also has an ability that wraps his entire body in a blue-red chakra. Besides that, his Wind Release is also terrifying, and he's contracted three enormous snake-type summoning beasts."

Hearing this, the other three Kage present all looked at Tsunade, which made her frown: "You suspect he has some connection to Konoha?"