"Hey! Elder Lixing! Elder Xianglin! Here! I'm here!"
As Lixing flew over the Land of Iron, Afi, below, spotted Lixing and shouted from the ground.
Upon hearing Afi's cry, Lixing descended directly with the two of them.
"Afi, where is Deidara?"
"Elder Deidara is sleeping, I'm so bored here by myself! Elder Lixing, can you teach me that punch of yours, the one that made the lake disappear?"
"No, go to sleep yourself and rest for a night to prepare for sealing the tailed beast." Lixing had no time for Afi's nonsense. He was here to complete the follow-up work. Since Deidara was sleeping, he could also rest for a while.
Afterward, Lixing clapped his hands together, and a house emerged from the ground. He cast a barrier and, taking Xianglin and Yugito's hands, walked inside.
Seeing this, Afi wanted to go in too, but Xianglin punched him away. Really, what business does an outsider have in the private moments of a couple?
...
After a night passed, Afi stood outside the house and shouted, "Elder Lixing! Wake up! The leader has arrived!"
Lixing opened his eyes and found that it was only dawn. Truly, Nagato really liked waking up at this hour, as if symbolizing the breaking of the night.
Lixing put on his clothes, cast a barrier for the still-sleeping Xianglin and Yugito, and then walked out. He found that the Heavenly Path Pain and Konan's clones were already waiting.
The other Deidara had also woken up early and was working on his clay. The other members also arrived one by one. As expected, Kakuzu and Hidan were the last to arrive.
"Next, we will prepare to seal the Three-Tails. The last time we sealed the Four-Tails' Flower, it took twice as long. It seems we still have to seal them in order. Kakuzu, Hidan, you need to hurry."
Clearly, Heavenly Path Pain was already somewhat displeased with Kakuzu and Hidan. They hadn't captured a single tailed beast yet and spent their days killing people, setting fires, and selling corpses for money, wasting too much time.
"Didn't I say so! It's all your fault for insisting on capturing those people, otherwise, we wouldn't have even caught a single tailed beast." Hidan, hearing Heavenly Path Pain's complaint, shifted the blame to Kakuzu.
"Hmph! You fellow, when you kill people, you still perform those troublesome rituals. Besides, you seem to enjoy stabbing yourself! If anyone is wasting time, it's you who wastes more."
"I told you, that's a necessary ritual! It absolutely cannot be omitted! We will be punished by Lord Jashin."
Seeing them bickering endlessly, Heavenly Path Pain quickly stopped their argument.
"Both of you shut up! Tailed beasts come first. Starting now, we will seal the Three-Tails."
"Summoning Jutsu, Demonic Statue of the Outer Path!"
Heavenly Path Pain summoned the Demonic Statue of the Outer Path again. Then, everyone stood on their respective fingers. Deidara threw out a scroll, and a cloud of smoke appeared. A giant turtle appeared below the Demonic Statue, but this turtle was quite miserable, its shell about to fall apart.
"Fūinjutsu, Phantom Dragon Nine Sealing Fūinjutsu!"
Following the same steps as before, everyone formed hand seals together. Nine chakra dragons entered the Three-Tails' body and began to absorb its chakra.
...
Three days later, the tailed beast was successfully sealed. Kakuzu and Hidan, being dissatisfied with Heavenly Path Pain's scolding, canceled their clones without a word.
"It seems they're unhappy after being scolded by the leader, huh? The newcomers have already captured two tailed beasts. We should also continue to work hard! Mr. Itachi." Kisame said nonchalantly.
Heavenly Path Pain was very pleased with Kisame, an excellent employee, and proceeded to assign the next tasks.
"Good work. The next task, the Six-Tails, will be handled by Itachi and Kisame. We don't need to capture the Seven-Tails; it has been in my possession for a long time. As for the Eight-Tails and Nine-Tails, we'll discuss them after sealing the Seven-Tails."
At this moment, Zetsu's clone ran in quickly: "Big news! Big news! Orochimaru is dead! Sasuke Uchiha killed him. I remember Sasuke is Itachi's brother, right?"
Everyone who heard this news was shocked. That snake that couldn't be killed, was actually killed by a brat. As for Itachi, a slight smile appeared on his face upon hearing this news, but it was hidden by the collar of his Akatsuki robe, and no one saw it.
Upon learning this news, Lixing knew it was time for him to go and see Kabuto.
"Since Orochimaru is dead, I'll go and retrieve the rings. You all continue with your business."
Heavenly Path Pain remained silent for a moment, then nodded and said, "Alright, Lixing and Xianglin will go to Orochimaru's territory to retrieve the rings. Deidara and Afi will rest for a while. That's all, dismissed!"
"Wait, wait, there's still one more thing. Lixing and Xianglin have been declared wanted in the Land of Water. Also, the jinchuriki of the Two-Tails who is with Lixing, the Hidden Cloud Village in the Land of Lightning has also learned of this news and is now dispatching a large number of ANBU ninjas to hunt down the rogue ninja Yugito." Zetsu's clone spoke again, stopping Lixing and the others.
Heavenly Path Pain felt a bit awkward. The leader had just declared dismissal, and now Zetsu was bringing up another matter. Why couldn't he finish speaking at once? He now looked at Black and White Zetsu with some displeasure.
Lixing didn't seem to care about this. Being declared wanted was no big deal; no one could catch him and claim the reward anyway.
"Such things are trivial. I'm also declared wanted in the Land of Sake. I killed their Dog Emperor, which is to say, a country's Daimyo. If other major countries knew that ninjas assassinated a Daimyo, they might unite and declare war on us. You all need to be careful." Kuaishu Pavilion.
"Eh? Wasn't it the courtesan who killed the Daimyo? You killed him, could it be that you..." White Zetsu looked surprised, then thought of something.
"It's exactly what you're thinking. Cross-dressing. The 'Xiangyun Combination' declared wanted by the Land of Lightning is me and Xianglin. Otherwise, how do you think we managed to capture a jinchuriki so quickly in the militarily powerful Hidden Cloud Village?"
Hearing Lixing admit to cross-dressing, everyone was shocked again. This time, even the usually aloof Konan and Itachi glanced at Lixing twice. Indeed, Lixing was a bit abnormal.
"Lixing, you actually like this. I have to admit, your art is more abundant than mine, hmm!" Deidara, who never admitted defeat to anyone, finally felt admiration for someone today.
"Such things are irrelevant. Now that we have five out of nine tailed beasts, and most of them are in our possession, I don't mind starting a ninja war. Once all nine tailed beasts are gathered, our Akatsuki will bring true peace to the world. Lixing, go ahead and do your mission. If they want war, it's just an opportunity to make the world feel the pain in advance!"
Heavenly Path Pain never considered the consequences of a ninja war. All that mattered now was collecting the tailed beasts. Nagato, with his Rinnegan, had nothing to fear from the five great nations.
"Alright, I'll be leaving then. You all continue your conversation." Lixing was quite satisfied with this boss, at least he was willing to back his subordinates, which was worthy of a like.
After Lixing left, the others had nothing else to do and canceled their clones, leaving only Deidara and Afi at the scene.
"Elder Deidara, I remember the mission to kill Orochimaru was assigned to Elder Deidara, right? It was later snatched by Elder Lixing. Now Orochimaru has been killed by Itachi's brother, does that mean our Akatsuki organization is not as good as Itachi's brother?" Afi whispered provocatively in Deidara's ear. The formerly defeated Deidara, stimulated by Afi, became furious.
"Afi! Let's go, we're going to find Sasuke Uchiha, I'm going to kill him!"
"Do we need to inform Elder Lixing? What if Elder Deidara can't beat Sasuke Uchiha..."
"Hmm?" Deidara glared at Afi with murderous intent, scaring Afi into silence. He quickly followed Deidara, and the two of them left the Land of Iron.