Mastermind of the Akatsuki

It had been several days since returning to Amegakure.

After arranging for Kakuzu and Hidan to be in the same team, Byakuya leaned back on the sofa in his office to take a brief rest while recalling the process of visiting the Cult of the Evil God with Hidan over the past few days.

The Cult of the Evil God was a cult organization active within the Land of Hot Water, known for its penchant for killing and sacrifices.

Initially, when he found the headquarters of the Cult of the Evil God, Byakuya was very interested, hoping to discover a powerful hidden organization in the ninja world.

However, upon truly arriving at the cult's headquarters, Byakuya realized just how weak the organization was.

Apart from the monster that was Hidan, the so-called leader of the cult was at most an elite jōnin, not even certain to defeat Kakashi from Konoha next door.

When they met Hidan, the leader of the cult's expression changed drastically, his eyes filled with fear.

Under the intimidation and temptation of Kakuzu and others, the cult leader joined Hidan to perform the rituals of the Cult of the Evil God, successfully contacting the evil god of the cult.

What Byakuya hadn't expected was that the evil god of the cult truly existed.

However, the strength of this so-called evil god was not formidable; its chakra amount was even less than that of the Two-Tails. Had the evil god not existed in an alternate space, they might have actually wanted to spar with it and engage in a hunt.

Seeing the evil god actively avoiding battle seemed to stimulate Hidan.

After eliminating the other members of the cult's headquarters, Hidan chose to join the Akatsuki organization, gaining his self-healing ability.

Bringing back his wandering thoughts, Byakuya opened his eyes again and began to handle the intelligence work for the Akatsuki.

The trip to the Cult of the Evil God had consumed almost half a month of his time, and it was time to deal with the mountain of accumulated intelligence.

The first piece of intelligence indicated that Kumogakure had hurriedly withdrawn from the Land of Hot Water.

It seemed that due to the emergence of troublesome rogue ninjas within the Land of Lightning, they seized the opportunity while the Fourth Raikage and Killer B were away to steal important secret techniques from Kumogakure.

Upon seeing this intelligence, Byakuya narrowed his eyes.

The secret techniques of Kumogakure were generally related to physical skills, but it was unclear whether the rogue ninja behind this was Orochimaru or another ninja.

At that moment, Byakuya seemed to recall something and looked towards the direction of the Land of Fire.

He only remembered one person who had seized the secret techniques of Kumogakure, that being the remnant of the Land of the Sky, Shinnō, who wandered between various countries.

This individual had previously attacked Konoha during the Second Shinobi World War, ultimately being eradicated by the Hokage and the Sannin.

Shinnō's reappearance coincided with Sasuke's defection period.

At that time, Shinnō was extremely powerful; not only had he created the Zero-Tails based on Konoha's secret techniques, but he also utilized the Body Revival Technique to train the Eight Gates to an extremely profound level.

Given Kumogakure's grand actions, it wouldn't be to deal with Shinnō, would it?

Considering Shinnō's hatred for Konoha and his expertise in medical ninjutsu, Byakuya quietly noted down this piece of information. He intended to send his subordinates out to recover Shinnō.

The second piece of intelligence was related to Iwagakure (Hidden Stone Village).

After successfully infiltrating Iwagakure, Kabuto had been gathering intelligence about the inner workings of the village for Danzo, sending a copy to Danzo while also keeping one for himself.

During the war between the Cloud Hidden and Konoha, Iwagakure had considered intervening in the war, but ultimately abandoned the plan to ambush Konoha.

Firstly, the previous invasion plans against the Land of Grass and Konoha had been thwarted by Minato, making the chances of success for another ambush even slimmer.

Secondly, there were tensions between the Third Tsuchikage Onoki and the Jinchuriki.

The Jinchuriki of Iwagakure were all very powerful, possessing strength on par with the Five Kage, but they were all lone wolves who greatly disliked Onoki's style of governance.

Onoki had never considered handing over the position of Tsuchikage to either of the Jinchuriki.

In this situation, the strength of Iwagakure could not coalesce, let alone take the initiative to attack Konoha

However, upon hearing about the actions of the Akatsuki organization, Onoki took the initiative to send someone to Amegakure to establish friendly relations.

Onoki wanted to use the Akatsuki to create chaos in the surrounding smaller countries, seizing the opportunity to gradually bring these countries into his sphere of influence and slowly erode the alliance system of Konoha.

Regarding the message sent by Onoki, Byakuya did not rashly intervene; he planned to pass it on to Yahiko.

Yahiko had matured into the leader of Amegakure and so, many matters should be left to him to handle. There was no concept of good or evil between ninja villages; everything was done for mutual benefit.

Even their teacher, Jiraiya, understood this, and Yahiko should be well aware of it too.

After all, if one really believed in allies, the fate of the Uzumaki Village was the best example. Rather than relying on allies for protection, it was better to make preparations in advance.

After reviewing the intelligence related to Iwagakure, Byakuya looked at the remaining intelligence from other ninja villages.

Sunagakure, located in the Land of Wind, remained as calm as ever. In this era, where oil resources had yet to be fully developed, there wouldn't be much interest from other ninja villages in the Land of Wind.

However, recently, with the passing of the previous Jinchuriki, Sunagakure had elected a new Jinchuriki.

This time, the Jinchuriki was none other than the youngest son of the Fourth Kazekage, Rasa—Gaara.

There wasn't much intelligence coming from Kirigakure either, but the current Mizukage should be Obito, whose education level could be likened to that of an elementary school graduate.

Whether he governed Kirigakure seriously or engaged in foolishness, the damage to the village would be about the same.

In addition, there were some scattered pieces of intelligence regarding various legends in the ninja world, like tales of a gambling "fat sheep."

After reviewing these, Byakuya turned to the main event, the intelligence from Konoha. A thick stack was entirely dedicated to Konoha, reflecting the degree of his concern for the village.

This was unavoidable.

Setting aside the information about the departure of the Sannin and the internal conflicts among the ninja clans, Konoha was the strongest ninja village in the ninja world, capable of dominating the entire world with the strength of just one village during its peak.

Even at its weakest, it could still hold its own against two opponents.

The Uchiha, Senju, and Hyuga clans also resided within Konoha, not to mention the recently born but yet-to-mature Ashura and Indra reincarnations.

Soon, Byakuya found the latest intelligence about Konoha.

Konoha had neglected Jiraiya during the victory celebration and suppressed both the Hyuga and Uchiha clans. Shortly after the celebration ended, the last of the Sannin, Jiraiya, quietly left the Leaf Village.

Seeing this news, Byakuya was somewhat surprised but also expected it.

With Orochimaru already having defected, Jiraiya, as his close friend, would definitely go out to look for Orochimaru. This was the essence of Konoha—what they called "bonds."

The dilemma was that he had recently made contact with Orochimaru.

If Jiraiya were to see them meet on that day, it would not bode well; the relationship between Konoha and Amegakure was still in a honeymoon phase, and they could not afford to enter into a hostile state just yet.