Grinding his teeth, Akio tore the letter to shreds and moved into action.
Since Ringo Ameyuri had reached out to him, it meant she'd probably succeeded in joining Akatsuki.
Although her letter annoyed him greatly, Akio wasn't the type to hold petty grudges. He'd still prepare the medicine she needed… though spitting into the ingredients a few times did cross his mind.
"No, wait saliva…" Akio paused, narrowing his eyes.
"Why do I get the feeling that I'm the one losing out here?"
He mulled it over for a moment, staring at the dozen or so small, brownish pills laid out before him. Then he reached into his space and pulled out a fat cat.
"Here, lick this a few times," Akio said, holding out one of the pills.
The cat sniffed the pill, its nose twitching then chomped.
"Hey! Can you eat like a normal cat? Aren't cats supposed to lick things first? Who just swallows it whole?"
Akio hurriedly snatched the pill away. If the fat cat actually swallowed it, it might overload from the energy.
"Meow!" the cat yowled in protest, clearly unhappy at being denied.
"Eat, eat, that's all you know how to do! What kind of cat weighs twenty jin?"
Two years had passed, and the once-sleek feline had become a rotund ball of fur…
After tossing the cat back into the space, Akio sighed.
"Forget it. Guess she's lucky today. Even if I mixed in some dust, she'd still be getting the better deal."
He waved his hand, and a small medicine bottle appeared. The pills floated in one by one before the bottle vanished along with Akio.
On a desolate mountain southwest of Konoha, Akio once again met Ringo Ameyuri.
"Yo!" he greeted her, copying the greeting he'd learned from Nagato.
The woman across from him smiled. One smile, and a hundred flowers… wilted.
Akio frowned slightly, noting her outfit, a black cloak. Only, it lacked the signature red clouds.
So, she's an outer member of Akatsuki? No red clouds yet? he guessed silently.
"Elder Uzumaki," Ringo smirked, "does age slow even you down?"
Akio ignored her jab. "You contacted me, so you've joined Akatsuki successfully?"
"Joined and not joined," she replied cryptically.
Akio blinked. "What's that supposed to mean?"
"The group I found does call itself Akatsuki, but it seems to be only a subsidiary organization. Its members are weak even the leader wasn't my match. But I did learn that their leader has a mysterious teacher… likely the one you're after."
Akio frowned. "Akatsuki expanding through master-apprentice relationships? Makes sense, I suppose, since this isn't the Akatsuki from the original timeline."
"What about the leader's name and purpose?"
"The leader's name is Yahiko. His goal is to take control of the Land of Rain"
"The leader's who?" Akio interrupted sharply.
"Oh? You know him? Then yes, Yahiko."
Akio exhaled deeply, a wry smile on his face. Of course he knew him, how could he not? Yahiko was one of the founders of Akatsuki.
"Orange hair, wants to bring peace to the Land of Rain?" he confirmed.
"Orange hair, yes," Ringo sneered. "As for 'peace' just a convenient excuse!"
Akio ignored her disdain.
"So Yahiko's still alive… I knew I hadn't found him back then. As for that teacher, it must have been Jiraiya. He probably stayed in the Land of Rain to train him. That's good."
Akio looked her over and shook his head. "You haven't truly joined them yet, have you?"
Ringo nodded. "If I did, I'd have trouble getting out. For now, I've only scouted the area. Joining seems easy, they accept anyone who claims to share their ideals."
Akio sighed inwardly. Did I really find a fake spy? Her IQ's not exactly working overtime.
She didn't even consider that there might be two organizations named Akatsuki…? he thought, then frowned.
"The real Akatsuki hasn't shown much activity lately, aside from that time they used the Six Paths of Pain. And after controlling the Mizukage for a while… could their current leader be trying to pull the same stunt Obito did in the original story? If that's the case, Yahiko's group…"
He pulled a bottle from his robe and tossed it to her.
"This medicine is for you, take one pill per month. If you stop cultivating, your lifespan will be similar to an ordinary human's. Once you successfully join the real Akatsuki, I'll give you the rest so you can continue training safely."
In the end, Akio didn't tell Ringo that she had joined the wrong Akatsuki.
Instead, he encouraged her to perform well within that faction and especially to protect the leader if he were ever in danger.
After all, Yahiko was Jiraiya's disciple too. Akio couldn't just stand by and let him die at Hanzō's hands again.
If Ringo could save his life this time… so much the better.
"I sent out a spy and ended up with a babysitter," Akio muttered, shaking his head. "Still, maybe Yahiko's group will become a turning point."
When he returned to his shop, Tsunade was there waiting for him, smiling like a fox.
"Great-Grandfather, what's this 'old place' you were headed to? Was your date fun?"
Akio thought of Ringo's face and scowled. "Blind, that's what I was to ever call that a date!"
Tsunade blinked, amused. "So, it was a woman who invited you out?"
"Out of my way!" Akio glared at her. "Don't you have anything better to do than come here and tease me?"
Tsunade's expression grew a bit more serious. "There's something I need your approval for. I want to teach the Yin Seal technique to Nohara Rin."
It was, after all, a sealing technique unique to the Uzumaki Clan. It had passed from Mito to Tsunade, but Rin was neither an Uzumaki nor a Senju.
Akio blinked. "That's fine. Just like the Slug Summoning it was passed to you, so it's yours to decide who learns it."
Tsunade nodded, unsurprised.
"There's also a second matter," she continued. "Sensei intends to choose the Fourth Hokage soon. It's clear he favors Minato. What about you?"
Akio smiled faintly. "So you're campaigning for Nawaki now, huh?"
Tsunade sighed. "Becoming Hokage has always been his dream."
Akio hesitated, then reached into his robes and drew out a sealing scroll.
He unsealed it, revealing an old dice cup.
Tsunade blinked and slowly took out an identical one from her sleeve.
"You still carry it with you, huh?" Akio said, nodding. "I made two of these when your grandfather pestered me to teach him gambling. One went to Hashirama, and I kept the other."
"I remember," Tsunade said softly. "I even beat you once, didn't I?"
"Yeah. The day Hashirama passed away."
Akio's eyes clouded over for a moment. After a long pause, he spoke again.
"Let's roll once more. If you win, I'll support Nawaki. If you lose, I'll back Minato."
It wasn't a fair deal, but Tsunade agreed without hesitation.
"Let heaven decide," she said.
---
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