Chapter 91: The Shadows of Dawn

"By the way, Naruto-kun, the reason I came to see you this time is not merely to speak with you about that performance."

Orochimaru lowered his head slightly and spoke to Naruto in a deep, rasping voice.

"Recently, something happened that even I could not ignore. A number of extremely dangerous people came looking for me."

As he said this, Orochimaru narrowed his eyes a little, as if recalling their faces.

"They exuded an aura that even I found unsettling. These people came from a mysterious organization called the Akatsuki, and they formally invited me to join them."

Orochimaru paused, then went on.

"This Akatsuki acts in a profoundly secretive manner. As far as I know, every one of its members is an S-rank missing-nin from the shinobi world. None of them are ordinary; each possesses remarkable abilities, each has a specialty of his own, and their fighting spirit and endurance are nothing short of astonishing."

"Some can overthrow a small country single-handedly. Some possess such enormous chakra reserves that they are practically tailed beasts in human form. And a few of them are simply impossible to kill, possessing something close to immortality."

Orochimaru's expression grew even more grave as he said slowly,

"Would I, Orochimaru, allow myself to be so easily swayed by others? Of course I refused their invitation. Yet the Akatsuki envoys did not back down because of my refusal. They naturally radiated a calm confidence and arrogance, declaring that even without my assistance, they would still achieve their objective."

"What exactly that objective is remains unknown. However, as you know, I, Orochimaru, have built up my power in the shinobi world for many years, and the entire Ryuzo Society possesses a vast and intricate intelligence network."

"Through that intelligence, I discovered that this Akatsuki organization has been frantically collecting all manner of forbidden techniques. Those ninjutsu sealed away in every corner, filled with danger and taboo, they seem intent on taking them all into their grasp. In addition, they have also gathered many extraordinarily powerful sealing techniques."

"Moreover, they have been amassing funds on a tremendous scale, to the point that it is staggering. These actions have made even someone like me, who has weathered countless storms, feel a trace of unease. This organization is absolutely no trivial matter. Its existence may very well bring about an unprecedented storm in the shinobi world."

At this, a suspicion rose in Naruto's mind.

"A huge number of powerful sealing techniques?" Naruto thought aloud slowly. "Powerful sealing techniques are used either to seal dangerous evils, or to extract the tailed beasts from jinchuriki. Could they be after the tailed beasts?"

Orochimaru slightly furrowed his brow. In his narrow eyes, a glimmer of contemplation flickered as he slowly offered his guess.

"Quite possibly. Judging from the Akatsuki's conduct, they keep talking about peace in the shinobi world, so their purpose may very well be related to the tailed beasts and the jinchuriki."

"Back then, Uchiha Madara strongly opposed dispersing the tailed beasts and hoped to gather them all together to intimidate the nations. Perhaps this Akatsuki is the same, wanting to use the tailed beasts to cow the countries and thereby achieve the peace they envision."

Having said that, Orochimaru paused slightly, his gaze turning even sharper.

"Then, Naruto-kun, you must be extremely careful. The you of now are already tightly bound to the fate of countless people, and no mishap can be allowed. As the vessel of a tailed beast, a jinchuriki's destiny is inseparable from that of the beast inside them. Naturally, you have also become a possible target for the Akatsuki. After all, if they wish to obtain the power of the tailed beasts, they must move against the jinchuriki and break the beasts' seals."

Naruto listened quietly to Orochimaru's analysis, a flash of keen light passing through his blue eyes. Just thinking that such a mysterious, powerful, and lawless organization might be setting its sights on him made a chill rise in his heart.

And yet Naruto was not swallowed by that apprehension. On the contrary, he felt intensely excited. He had never feared any challenge. They wanted to steal Kurama?

Then let them come! I was already planning to wipe out all those unstable elements and restore peace to the shinobi world!

After Orochimaru left, Naruto watched his back and could not shake the feeling that something was off. Orochimaru had acted as though this was the first time he had ever heard the name Akatsuki, yet everything in his words suggested that he was actually quite familiar with the organization.

He certainly did not look like someone who had only just learned of it through intelligence reports. Rather, he seemed to have known about Akatsuki long ago, only to be surprised now that it had become what it was, as though he were looking at a sapling that had grown crooked.

For the moment, Naruto set that doubt aside and made his schedule even tighter. In addition to practicing the Flying Thunder God Technique, he began paying extraordinary attention to historical records concerning the tailed beasts and the jinchuriki, especially ancient shinobi history that pointed directly to the birth of the tailed beasts.

Naruto wanted to know what purpose those people had in gathering the tailed beasts. He could not shake the feeling that collecting so many tailed beasts merely for strategic deterrence was far too simple.

Kurama was utterly unreliable. Its mind was filled only with eating and sleeping, and it cared nothing for intelligence about the other tailed beasts.

He devoured every scrap of information about the ancient Ninja Sect and the tailed beasts with voracious eagerness, paying special attention to the many events in history involving the Sage of Six Paths and the Ninja Sect he founded.

From these precious records, he tried to unravel the likely patterns of Akatsuki's actions. Naruto carefully analyzed the intelligence on each tailed beast, thinking through how he would respond in the same circumstances, while also searching for possible weaknesses in Akatsuki's operations against tailed beasts and jinchuriki.

Perhaps, in the course of gathering the tailed beasts, Akatsuki would grow overconfident and overlook certain details. Or perhaps their methods for dealing with jinchuriki followed some fixed pattern. These were all points Naruto paid close attention to as he studied the materials.

He always believed that as long as he absorbed this knowledge like a sponge and prepared as fully as possible, then no matter how formidable the enemy or how complicated the situation of the future might be, he would certainly be able to meet it calmly.

Know yourself and know your enemy, and you will win every battle. That too was one of Naruto's principles as a retired soldier.

At the same time, Naruto had not forgotten his teachers, Kakashi and Jiraiya, especially Jiraiya.

Although his mother had told him to keep away from Jiraiya, Jiraiya was an excellent ninja who had experienced countless battles and possessed abundant knowledge.

A wandering shinobi like Jiraiya seemed to carry within his head a vast treasury of ninja lore, and information about all kinds of loose-knit ninja organizations was undoubtedly a valuable fortune within that treasury.

That day, Naruto caught Jiraiya again outside the women's bathhouse. Ignoring Jiraiya's ugly expression, Naruto said, "Jiraiya-sensei, have you ever heard of an organization called the Akatsuki?"

Jiraiya's face changed very strangely. "You... where did you hear that name?"

That expression... just as I thought, Jiraiya knows about Akatsuki!