Chapter 70: Voluntary Request for Battle
Not long after Kisame left, a pitcher plant sprouted from the ground—it was White Zetsu's main body returning.
"I've got new intel. Ahahaha, it's quite lively here."
White Zetsu looked around at everyone, though he actually already knew what had happened in the base. He was just playing dumb.
"Just say what it is."
Obito's mood wasn't great, and seeing White Zetsu's feigned ignorance made it even worse.
"I've found traces of Konan."
As soon as he spoke, several pairs of eyes turned toward White Zetsu.
"Where is she?"
"Still within the Land of Rain. It seems she's been getting help from some family there, which is why she's been able to hide for so long. She's also been wary of me from the start, never staying in one place for long."
Konan had once been a core member of the Akatsuki, so she knew the organization's personnel well and understood just how strong White Zetsu's reconnaissance abilities were.
"Can you lock onto her location?"
"No. Several of my clones have already been killed. Now I can only follow her from a distance, and I might lose her at any moment."
Hearing White Zetsu's report, Obito fell silent.
"I'll go track her down."
Deidara suddenly spoke up, volunteering to participate in capturing Konan.
"You're not good at genjutsu. It's better if..."
Obito clearly felt Deidara wasn't reliable—not in terms of strength, but he was afraid Deidara would blow Konan to bits.
"It'll be fine if I go with him."
Deidara pointed at Sasuke, who was wrapped in bandages from head to toe. Sasuke was taken aback.
"..."
Sasuke remained silent. If it had been anyone else, they would have said they were injured and couldn't go.
"Sasuke is being sustained by medicine and can't fight for now."
Obito still didn't agree to let Deidara go after Konan.
"That's not a problem."
Su Xiao spoke, and a glass bottle slid out from his sleeve. He tossed it to Sasuke, who caught it. Inside the bottle were over a dozen pills.
Su Xiao understood Deidara's intent. The reason this guy was volunteering was to repay Obito for saving him back at the Rock Village incident.
Deidara was indeed a rogue ninja, but that didn't mean he was ungrateful. He had already been thinking of leaving the Akatsuki, but he owed Obito a favor. Now, he intended to repay it.
"In that case..."
Obito rested his elbows on the stone table, his hands crossed, deep in thought.
Undoubtedly, Obito would have loved to go after Konan himself, but he couldn't easily leave the Land of Fire right now. The reason was simple: the other four great ninja villages had sent representatives, and these representatives were gathered in Konoha to discuss the unification of the ninja forces.
At this critical juncture, the Fourth Great Ninja War could break out at any moment. Moreover, there was a significant secret beneath the Akatsuki base.
What lay beneath the Akatsuki base was crucial to whether Obito could defeat the Allied Shinobi Forces—or rather, whether he could hold them off.
In truth, from the very beginning, Obito never intended to kill all the ninjas to win the war. He didn't seek victory in war; he sought to complete his plan.
War was just a part of his plan. Only by doing this could he gather all the ninjas together and realize his goal.
Due to Rose's invasion, Obito wouldn't leave the Akatsuki base anytime soon. Under these circumstances, sending the Deidara + Sasuke combo to capture Konan was indeed a good choice.
Within the Akatsuki, Deidara had the highest mobility. He could fly, and his combat prowess was unquestionable.
Sasuke's combat ability was also formidable, though his injuries hadn't fully healed, and he hadn't yet transplanted Itachi's Mangekyo Sharingan, causing his eyesight to severely decline.
At this point, Sasuke's vision was so bad that he couldn't recognize relatives beyond ten meters, couldn't tell men from women at fifteen meters, and couldn't distinguish humans from animals at twenty meters.
Fortunately, he hadn't gone completely blind. The overuse of his dojutsu had been somewhat restored by the effects of the original Hashirama cells, at least enough to use Susanoo and Amaterasu, and genjutsu was no problem.
With the Deidara + Sasuke combo, as long as there were no internal conflicts, they could capture Konan alive without issue.
But even so, Obito still wasn't entirely at ease. Just then, another White Zetsu rose from the ground. This one had its right half pitch black—it was Black Zetsu.
"I'll go with them."
Black Zetsu's voice was as hoarse as ever. He hadn't shown himself in a long time.
"Then set off as soon as possible."
Black Zetsu's involvement put Obito much more at ease. Compared to White Zetsu, although Black Zetsu was somewhat unpredictable, he was clearly more reliable.
And indeed, that was the case. Black Zetsu, this millennia-old schemer, was quite dependable before revealing his fangs.
The reason the usually low-key Black Zetsu had shown up was because the Rinnegan was involved, and he knew that Obito couldn't leave the Land of Fire right now.
Soon, Deidara, Sasuke, and Black-and-White Zetsu left the base together. With this lineup, Konan's chances of escaping were slim.
Throughout it all, Obito never asked Su Xiao to go after Konan. It wasn't because Obito suspected Su Xiao, but because Su Xiao's left arm was still in a sling, clearly marking him as injured.
Of course, after Karin's "all-purpose tonic," Su Xiao's injuries had healed by seventy percent. Aside from the arm injury, which couldn't be treated, the rest of his wounds would recover in a few days of rest. That was the power of having 80 points of true stamina.
Compared to Konan's whereabouts, Su Xiao was more interested in getting information about the outsider from White Zetsu.
Who knew what kind of creature this outsider was? Human? Insect? Void race?
Forget what species it was, Su Xiao wanted to know how it had jumped from the Land of Earth to the Land of Water in just three hours.
That's right, the latest intel Su Xiao got from White Zetsu was that the outsider had appeared in the Land of Earth, but three hours later, it showed up in the Land of Water.
Keep in mind, traveling from the Land of Earth to the Land of Water meant crossing the entire map of the Naruto world, passing through the Land of Grass, Land of Fire, Land of Whirlpools, Land of Bears, and Land of Iron—five countries of varying sizes.
Not only that, but the route also included vast stretches of ocean. How had the outsider managed that in just three hours? Teleportation? The distance was far too great.
This made Su Xiao wonder if the outsider's strength wasn't that great, but it was as slippery as an eel, with extremely high mobility.
Come to think of it, the so-called outsider was likely a contractor from another paradise who had infiltrated a derivative world of Reincarnation Paradise.
Such an infiltration must have a purpose. What kind of contractor would another paradise send?
A powerful contractor? Unlikely. It wasn't probable that another paradise would send an extremely strong contractor into the Naruto world. Doing so would likely come at a significant cost.
Based on past experience, the targets Su Xiao had to hunt were always strong, but that strength had limits. For example, Su Xiao was currently at the third rank, and his enemy might be at the top of the third rank, but not the fourth.
If both sides had similar attributes, a contractor was no match for a hunter. Contractors were more suited for PvE, working in teams against plot creatures, while hunters excelled at PvP, fighting other contractors. Of course, this also meant that in one-on-one battles with plot characters, hunters had an advantage.
Whether hunter or contractor, these were just different terms. True strength depended on individual ability.
There were exceptions among contractors, like solo contractors who were also strong in one-on-one combat, such as Rose.
An outsider was a spy. Spies naturally needed strong stealth and high mobility.
This made Su Xiao realize that if he wanted to eliminate this outsider, the difficulty would be finding it and understanding its abilities in order to track it.