Seeing that her abnormality seemed to have been noticed, Uchiha Hikari responded with a quick reply before hurriedly turning her head away, no longer meeting Furina's gaze.
But if she hadn't done that, it might have been fine. The moment she did, it only drew Furina's attention even more, making her keep peeking over, trying to figure out what was going on.
And Uchiha Hikari clearly wasn't the type who was good at lying. Even though she tried her best to hide it, a faint blush still unconsciously appeared on her face, and these unusual signs were naturally caught by Furina's eyes.
"Mind your own business!"
Before Furina could tease her a couple more times, Uchiha Hikari shook off Furina and quickly ran toward Shion, who was waiting for them, leaving Furina alone in the wind, completely disheveled.
"Hey, wait for me! I won't say anything anymore, okay?"
...
Three months later
Amegakure was still as perpetually rainy as ever, but not far from it, many ninjas of various demeanors arrived in pairs, some arrogant, some sinister.
The only thing they had in common was that they all wore black cloaks with red clouds, clearly members of the same organization, and their identity was obvious: they were the Akatsuki organization that had recently become infamous throughout the ninja world. (Though it wasn't exactly a good reputation.)
Ever since the daimyo of the Land of Iron was assassinated and killed by "members of the Akatsuki," under the strong demands of the daimyos of the major nations, combined with some of their own recent actions,
with all these layers of buffs stacked on top, the pressure on each Akatsuki member inevitably increased significantly. Reckless bounty hunters seeking the massive rewards came one after another.
Although these threats were nothing to them with their overwhelming strength—each of them was a lawless madman with little respect for daimyos, and some even found a bit of interest in killing such noble figures—
the key problem was that after so much time had passed, they had already figured out that the "Akatsuki" who assassinated the daimyo of the Land of Iron was someone else impersonating them.
That person had their fun, and then dumped the entire mess onto the real Akatsuki to take the blame. Anyone would feel pissed off about that, let alone this group of naturally rebellious people.
Under such circumstances, it was naturally difficult for this bunch to get along peacefully. After all, aside from the apparent leader of the Akatsuki, Pain, who possessed the same eyes as the Sage of the Six Paths, they wouldn't submit to anyone else.
And arguments were, of course, inevitable.
"Hah, seriously, it's all your fault for causing so much trouble lately. Way more people are coming to die than before. I'm happy to send them to meet Lord Jashin, but even as Lord Jashin's faithful follower, I get tired too, you bastards."
As he spoke, Hidan swept his gaze across everyone present. Although what Hidan said was true, every person his eyes landed on glared back without showing any weakness.
In a place like the Akatsuki, they could do anything, but the one thing they could never do was appear weak—none of the people here were pushovers.
"Heh, I already discussed the matter of hunting kekkei genkai users with the Leader before the operation, and he agreed. If you think there's something wrong with the Leader's decision, go talk to him. What's the point of yelling at us here? Don't tell me you're scared, huh? What do you think, Shinnō?"
Sure enough, before Hidan's voice even faded, a sarcastic voice came from the side, full of mockery.