Outside the changing room, Rinjin and Sakumo leaned against the wall, waiting boredly.
Just then, the pleasant, crisp, rhythmic sound of high heels touching the ground came from the other end of the corridor.
Before long, Konan, cool as a narcissus, walked up to the two men with an unmistakable "stay away" attitude.
"You two, the leader doesn't want to see you! As for future missions, I'll have someone notify you. For now, you need to secretly infiltrate Hidden Rain's exchange office and stand by!"
After speaking, Konan turned and left without any hesitation.
Watching her retreating figure, Sakumo nudged Rinjin beside him and said in a lowered voice:
"Rinjin, don't you feel like this girl's attitude suddenly changed?!"
Hearing this, Rinjin squinted at Konan's back and nodded with a cold smile.
"Two possibilities! First, the Akatsuki organization has already figured out our forged identities and is treating us as peripheral personnel! Second, this girl got embarrassed and is planning to transfer us far away~"
Hearing this, Sakumo scoffed.
She was the second-in-command of an illegal organization, a female demon who killed without blinking - would she really get embarrassed?
Disdain aside, as a rookie undercover agent, Sakumo still had to listen to Rinjin on some matters.
"So what do we do now?"
"What can we do? Go back to the village!" Rinjin said matter-of-factly. "Being a sleeper agent is inherently a job about biding time. The longer you wait, the more trustworthy you become."
With that, Rinjin headed toward the base exit first.
Looking at the drizzle that had started falling outside the base at some point, Rinjin shook his head with a mocking smile and pulled out a bamboo hat to cover his head.
"Heh~ Rain Tiger at Will Technique - wonder who they're guarding against all day?"
An organization like Akatsuki that was manipulated from start to finish wasn't worth the effort to gain their trust.
Just wait - when they had nowhere left to retreat, they'd naturally think of him and Sakumo as combat assets.
If he gained Nagato's trust, first he'd have to deal with all sorts of complicated missions. When things went wrong, he'd have to charge ahead. Even if he completed missions, he wouldn't gain any benefits. Most importantly, trust could easily collapse.
On the contrary, if he joined from the start with a suspicious background... not being trusted was inevitable.
That left Nagato with only a few choices: keep them at a distance, kill them, or monitor them closely.
But Nagato, that young man with his head full of "carrying rice up countless flights of stairs," had no time to monitor him. Killing them was even more unrealistic - even giving him a handicap, Nagato might not be able to beat him.
So, external assignment became inevitable. Once he and Sakumo left Takigakure, fooling Nagato and the others would be ridiculously easy!
Thinking of this, Rinjin patted his own shoulder with satisfaction and sincerely sighed: "As expected of me~"
...
Time passed, and after crossing the Land of Grass, Rinjin and Sakumo finally returned to Hidden Rain Village on the morning of the third day.
At the village gate, two young men sat up straight, seriously and carefully registering people entering the village.
Standing in the queue, Rinjin pointed at these two guys and joked to Sakumo:
"Dog-bro, looks like we've been fired from the village for chronic absenteeism~"
Hearing this, Sakumo rolled his eyes irritably. "It's all your fault! Now I have to go interview at the village hall again!"
"Still doing gate duty?"
"Isn't that obvious? What else can these old bones do?!"
"Then let's do it together! Competitive employment! Squeeze out these two little brats who haven't even grown their hair yet!"
Faced with Rinjin's outrageous statement, Sakumo helplessly rubbed his temples and nodded with a bitter smile.
While Rinjin and Sakumo were queuing up, to the east of the village, on Wakkanai Bridge, three steel fortresses slowly traveled.
Soon, the people queuing at the gate were attracted by the trembling ground and turned to look toward Wakkanai Bridge. Instantly, various exclamations and discussions arose.
"Holy shit, what are those steel monsters?"
"Don't know, aren't you from Hidden Rain Village?"
"No, I'm here on business."
"I know! My second aunt's brother's neighbor's dog's girlfriend's owner's uncle works at the research institute! He said this thing is called a bus!"
For a moment, everyone looked at this well-connected villager with new respect.
Just then, Rinjin mixed in with the crowd and asked: "Brother, what exactly is this bus used for?"
Hearing this, the well-connected guy's mouth curved into a mysterious smile. "Well... saying too much would be village secrets. I can only tell you this thing can carry a super lot of people at once!"
"Oh~" The crowd immediately responded with sounds of understanding.
In the crowd, Rinjin looked speechlessly at the approaching buses, his molars aching.
The village's development was becoming increasingly incomprehensible In a few years, these bastards would probably develop airplanes and tanks! How did the art style suddenly become so harmonious
The buses stopped, and a group of people with Uchiha clan crests on their clothes filed out, looking at the crowd at Hidden Rain's gate with slight wariness.
Standing at the very front of the Uchiha clansmen was Uchiha Kagami.
Kagami's authoritative gaze swept over the people at the gate. Just as he was about to say something, his brow instantly furrowed.
Then, this old comrade strode into the crowd and grabbed the guilty-looking Rinjin and Sakumo who were trying to slip away.
Looking at the two men wearing matching sheepish grins, a vein instantly bulged on Kagami's forehead.
The great White Fang of Konoha, the great Daimyo of the Land of Rain - these two shameless old farts only knew how to wander around aimlessly, never sharing his burdens.
He must have overused his Mangekyō Sharingan back then and gone blind to get on their pirate ship!
On the other side, Sakumo hunched his head, already prepared to get scolded.
However, Rinjin didn't have the habit of stretching his neck out for execution - his eyes spun rapidly.
"Kagami, listen to my sophistry... ah, damn... listen to my explanation!"
Hearing this, Kagami actually released Rinjin, crossed his arms, and watched the show. "Go ahead and make excuses~"
"Here's what happened - Dog-bro and I discovered a very powerful terrorist organization called Moon... damn... called Akatsuki! This organization might cause immeasurable damage to our village in the future! So Dog-bro and I went to test the depths of this Akatsuki organization."
Just as Kagami was about to speak, a loud female voice rang out from inside the village.
"So what did you find out?"
Turning around, Tsunade, Riie, and others walked out of the village.
Just as Rinjin was about to say something, the honest Sakumo beside him suddenly spoke up:
"I can testify! My brother Rinjin absolutely did not flirt with a woman named Konan! And he absolutely did not spend over 500,000 ryō on this woman!"
Instantly, the air fell into dead silence.
Kagami immediately lost interest in questioning Rinjin, retreating to the side with a barely perceptible feminine chuckle at the corner of his mouth.
And Rinjin's good brother Sakumo returned to his original honest appearance, reducing his presence to the minimum.
As for Fugaku in the distance, unable to tell if he was excited or worried, he covered his wife's eyes with his hand while his own eyes widened like saucers.
_______________________________
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