Chapter 99: The Child Has Grown Up, Ah!
Just as Sasori of the Red Sand was lamenting that Uehara Naraka and Deidara were too young, Uehara Naraka was lamenting that Sasori was too old, his mind too inflexible.
Originally, hunting down Orochimaru was Sasori's mission. He never wanted anyone to interfere, not even his teammate Deidara.
As a result, Uehara briefly mentioned Sunagakure's problems, simply probing a little.
However, Sasori seemed to have really taken the bait.
Perhaps Sasori was worried his grandmother would provoke Akatsuki, so he proactively took on Sunagakure's trouble and agreed to Uehara pursuing Orochimaru alone.
Clearly, to him, Chiyo was undoubtedly more important than Orochimaru.
When his relative might be in danger, Sasori was clearly somewhat unsettled—worthy of being Akatsuki's first member to go easy on an enemy.
After all, Chiyo personally raised him and taught him puppetry. Even Sasori, publicly recognized as the strongest puppet master, always referred to his grandmother as the strongest puppet master.
Family affection, for Sasori, was indeed more important than anything.
"Maybe I can use Chiyo to win over Sasori."
Uehara Naraka rubbed his chin, then sighed again, "But it feels a bit like I'm trying to poach from my own teacher!"
"Forget it, first go hunt down Orochimaru. I must complete several quests from him, get something, and compensate for the losses!"
Just at this moment, the ring on Uehara's hand suddenly felt strange.
Based on this situation, it seemed Nagato wanted to contact him, requiring him to input chakra into the ring to respond.
However, after the chakra in the ring connected with Nagato's ring in Amegakure (Village Hidden in the Rain), the voice that came through was Konan's.
"Naraka."
Konan's first words were a reprimand, "When going out on missions, why don't you pay attention to avoiding danger? After you encountered Sunagakure's Fourth Kazekage, you should have immediately reported to us, instead of acting on your own."
Uehara Naraka patted his forehead and spoke to the ring on his finger, "Konan-sensei, I also didn't expect the Fourth Kazekage to be so weak."
Konan rather agreed, "The Kazekage is indeed very weak. Even that guy Sasori could kill the Third Kazekage, who was hailed as the strongest..."
After speaking, Konan added again, "But still, not to the point of being killed by you, right? Did you use up all your exploding tags?"
"...Still have many left."
Uehara Naraka's expression was somewhat subtle.
This feeling of him talking with Konan now, how come it sounded a bit like a parent calling their school-going child to ask if their living expenses were used up?
"Come back immediately."
Konan felt slightly relieved, but she still instructed gravely, "Orochimaru's problem can be left for Sasori to solve. It's too dangerous for you to be active in Sunagakure."
"Konan-sensei, I can solve it."
Uehara Naraka quickly assured, "Besides, if I encounter danger, I can also directly use the black rod to summon the Deva Path Pain..."
These words were just to comfort Konan.
According to Uehara Naraka's current strength, even if he encountered Uchiha Obito, he wouldn't need to summon the Deva Path Pain at all.
Alone, he could fight if he wanted, leave if he wanted.
The ninja world was vast; no one could stop a fleeing Uehara Naraka.
"No."
Konan interrupted him, not wanting him to continue taking risks, "You've been away too long this time. I'm still somewhat worried about you. That guy Orochimaru is not so easy to deal with."
Although Konan believed the Deva Path Pain could definitely defeat Orochimaru, according to the information she knew, Orochimaru had always been hiding his true strength.
One must know, back then when Konan heard Jiraiya praise Nagato for learning ninjutsu quickly, he had vaguely mentioned that Nagato's talent for learning ninjutsu was comparable to his friend Orochimaru.
Who knew if Orochimaru had any dangerous forbidden techniques?
"Hello hello hello... Konan-sensei..."
Uehara Naraka tapped his ring and said softly, "Can you hear me? Can you hear me? The signal here isn't very good..."
Konan said repeatedly, "I can hear you, speak..."
"Hello hello hello... Can you hear me? Teacher? Can you hear me?"
After Uehara Naraka repeated a few more times, he closed his mouth and quickly cut off the chakra supply to the ring.
This was Uehara's god-tier skill from another world.
The only problem was that Nagato might know the truth, but Uehara also had his own unique way of dealing with it: he could say he flew for too long and his chakra was depleted.
Anyway, it was just a harmless little trick.
After a while, the ring vibrated dully a few times, seemingly not receiving enough chakra, and finally stopped.
Within Amegakure.
Konan's expression wasn't too good. She clenched her fists, "Lost contact with Uehara. I'm a bit worried about him..."
"Cough cough cough..."
After coughing a few times, Nagato suppressed the smile on his face, shook his head, sighed, "Or maybe the child has grown up."
Konan didn't quite understand Nagato's meaning.
However, Nagato didn't explain much to her.
As the creator of the ring and the link for its chakra connection, how could Nagato not know if there was a problem with the ring?
"Alright, let's contact him again after some time!"
Nagato slowly lowered his head, desperately suppressing the smile on his face, and continued, "Anyway, Uehara can summon the Deva Path Pain. I will wait for his summons on my end."
After Konan left.
Nagato quietly input chakra into the ring. He spoke softly to the ring, "Uehara, if your chakra is depleted, find a safe place to rest."
"If your chakra isn't depleted, remember to tell your teacher after you return that it was your own chakra that was depleted this time, understand?"
"If you encounter any danger, immediately summon the Deva Path Pain. No need to be overly insistent on proving to us that your strength has increased."
"About you wanting to become a full Akatsuki member, I will find a way."
"Also, your teacher is always very worried about you being out there by yourself."
"If there's really no way to catch Orochimaru, return to the Land of Rain immediately. You still have many things to learn."
"I've also experienced your age; feeling somewhat rebellious and lost, wanting to prove to one's teachers that one has become very strong."
"But, Uehara, you must remember, your safety is the most important thing to us."
Land of Wind.
Uehara Naraka heard Nagato's words, feeling somewhat dumbfounded.
Did he just passively receive an adolescent-style educational talk?
This ring on his hand could actually leave one-way messages? It seemed like back when Hidan and Kakuzu were on missions, Nagato had ordered them through Pain before.
The chakra wasted inside should be Nagato's own.
Listening to Nagato's words, Uehara Naraka felt somewhat touched.
He previously had the idea of healing Nagato. After obtaining the Starcall skill, the possibility of extending Nagato's life or lessening the Rinnegan's burden basically already existed.
Now he had to hurry and obtain a Mystical Palm Technique scroll, or think of a way to explain the origin of Starcall from somewhere.
Seems like I can pass the buck to Orochimaru?
"Then let's first go deal with Orochimaru, then go back and help them govern Amegakure! Being a village head or something might not work, but being the village accountant should be no problem, right?"
Uehara Naraka quietly opened the Destiny panel, watching Orochimaru and Kabuto Yakushi's escape direction. Their destination should be a secret base.
"Let's go to the base and wait for them!"
Uehara Naraka's figure quietly disappeared into the air, his voice gradually fading over the sand dunes, "When Orochimaru and Kabuto Yakushi return home, they'll surely be very surprised to see me, right? Let's go search if there are any healing scrolls!"
(End of Chapter)
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