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Kagaya, of course, was unaware that Pain had sent Itachi to assist him—or rather, Pain had not yet notified him.
At this moment, Kagaya was carrying Zabuza over his shoulder. After running a certain distance and confirming that Kakashi and his team would not pursue, Kagaya set Zabuza down on the ground.
"Hey, stop pretending to be dead. Get up on your own if you can move."
A few kunai, none of which had hit vital points, could not possibly have killed Zabuza.
Zabuza opened his eyes and let out a dissatisfied grunt. "To be saved by you... how irritating."
Kagaya rolled his eyes. "Just make sure you put in a good effort during the upcoming plan to invade Konoha. Also, I wanted to ask: do you still intend to carry out the mission Gato gave you?"
Using his hands to push himself up, Zabuza sat upright.
"What, are you going to stop me?"
Kagaya shrugged. "That's not it. I don't have the time or inclination to stop you. I just want to remind you: that Kakashi is no small fry. Next time you face him, remember to be cautious."
Zabuza nodded impatiently. "I know."
After saying that, Zabuza looked at Kagaya strangely.
"Speaking of which, why didn't you kill that Kakashi just now? In his condition, with your abilities, killing him should have been simple."
Kagaya countered, "Whose mission is this, anyway?"
This was a mission Zabuza had taken from Gato, not Kagaya's. Kagaya's only responsibility was to rescue Zabuza. While Kagaya certainly had the ability to kill Kakashi, what would be the reason? Kagaya wasn't a maniacal killer.
Zabuza gave a helpless smirk. "Fair point."
Kagaya took a couple of steps back. "I'll be heading back now. Remember what I said: don't underestimate that Kakashi."
"That Kakashi is indeed strong. If... if I split the reward with you, would you work with me on this?"
"No interest. I'd rather devote my time to training."
"Hah? Training? You're already this strong. Do you still need to train?"
"What do you think?"
"Well, now I understand why a kid like you is so powerful at such a young age."
With that, the conversation ended. Kagaya then left with Karin and Haku.
After returning to the inn, Kagaya secured a room for Karin before retreating to his own room to continue studying the Flying Thunder God Technique.
Looking at the ordinary kunai in his hand, Kagaya smiled slightly.
A thought suddenly occurred to him. Once mastered, the Flying Thunder God Technique allowed the user to leave a special seal—a formula—anywhere, enabling instantaneous teleportation to that location.
The peculiar thing was that the form of this Flying Thunder God seal, or mark, differed from person to person. Much like the abilities of the Mangekyō Sharingan, each individual developed a unique mark.
From what he could recall, the Fourth Hokage's Flying Thunder God mark was the words "Sword of Shinobi's Love" (忍愛之剣), while the Second Hokage's was some kind of pattern, though Kagaya couldn't remember the exact design.
But that wasn't the main point. The main point was that Kagaya was very curious: what would his own Flying Thunder God mark look like if he mastered the technique?
Would it be a script-based one like the Fourth's, or a patterned one like the Second's?
Kagaya was deeply curious.
However, looking at the utterly ordinary, unremarkable kunai in his hand, Kagaya couldn't help but sigh.
"Provided, of course, I can actually learn it."
Then there was the "Summoning: Multiple Explosive Tags" technique. Due to the technique's excessively large explosion radius, Kagaya had decided not to touch it at all until he had mastered the Flying Thunder God.
After all, what if he accidentally succeeded in practicing it and activated it? Kagaya had no confidence in escaping the blast radius in time. Failing to escape would be literal suicide.
Thus, Kagaya was currently focusing all his energy on the Flying Thunder God.
For the next several days, Kagaya holed up in his room practicing the Flying Thunder God, living a fairly satisfactory routine. It would have been even better if a certain someone hadn't kept sneaking into his room in the middle of the night.
Dragging a dejected-looking Karin behind him, Kagaya threw her out the door, closed it, returned to his bed, and tried to go back to sleep.
One hour later.
"Damn it! Can't you let a person sleep?!"
Following an angry roar, Karin was once again ejected from the room.
Two hours later.
"What exactly are you trying to do? Let me sleep properly!"
"I... I want to sleep with you, Kagaya."
"So what's in your head? Isn't sleeping alone better? You can roll around freely on the bed, all by yourself, comfortable and cozy. Wouldn't two people be terribly cramped? Can't you be a bit smarter? Gah!"
"Oh... oh, right. What you're saying makes sense, Kagaya."
"Good. Glad you understand."
Karin was thrown out once more.
Even though Karin verbally claimed to "understand," she remained incorrigible. For several days in a row, Kagaya woke up with dark circles under his eyes.
A few more days passed. Kagaya continued his quiet practice during this time. However, during these days, Zabuza launched another attack on Kakashi's group. Kagaya went to observe that battle as well and had Haku join in, furthering Sasuke's evolution of the Sharingan.
In the end, Zabuza was once again defeated by Kakashi. But just like the last time, Kagaya intervened and rescued Zabuza.
This time, Zabuza seemed to have learned his lesson. He voluntarily gave up the mission and ceased his attacks on Kakashi and the others.
Of course, this didn't matter much to Kagaya. As long as Zabuza remained alive, that was sufficient. Currently, Kagaya was most concerned with two things. The first was his progress in mastering the Flying Thunder God.
The second was...
"Itachi and Kisame, huh..."
A few days prior, Kagaya had received a message from Pain informing him that for his Konoha invasion plan, the Akatsuki organization would send Itachi and Kisame to support him.
This choice... was somewhat within Kagaya's expectations. Though originally, Kagaya had thought Pain might send Deidara, as Deidara was a master of destruction. Sending him would ensure that, regardless of the final outcome, a few of Deidara's explosions would undoubtedly leave Konoha severely damaged.
The fact that Pain didn't send Deidara suggested that Pain still didn't want to overly expose Akatsuki's terrifying capabilities.
Sending Itachi, on the other hand, would lead the world to focus more on the event of "a rogue ninja returning to attack his own village," downplaying the organization behind Kagaya and the others.
Moreover, sending Itachi was also likely intended to force a complete and irrevocable break between Itachi and Konoha.
This style... reeked of Obito. It was very similar to Obito's later manipulations of Sasuke in the original story: having Sasuke, clad in the Akatsuki robe, capture the Eight-Tails, thereby angering Kumogakure and pressuring Konoha, while simultaneously severing any possible connection between Sasuke and the Cloud Village.
Later, he had Sasuke go to the Five Kage Summit to find Danzō. Sasuke originally intended to identify Danzō and leave, waiting for him outside to avoid unnecessary conflict with the other four Kage. But following Obito's direction, a White Zetsu loudly shouted, exposing Sasuge and forcing him to act within the Summit grounds, causing his relations with the Five Kage to deteriorate drastically.
This was Obito's method: step by step, pushing Sasuke to the opposing side of the entire shinobi world. If not for Naruot in the end, Sasuke would have truly been an enemy of the world.
Wasn't this method of having Itachi assist him in invading Konoha very similar?
"Hmph, Obito... I still have the accounts of Daisuke and Suzuki to settle with you. After I deal with Danzō, I think it will be time for us to have a reckoning."