Akatsuki's Reprisal

After the tour was done and the enhancement complete, Shiki decided to give everyone a few directions on how things would be for them going forward.

"Technically speaking, all of you are still Konoha shinobi so you should not neglect your duties as one since, as Core Members, you have full access to our teleporters and can thus move around our territory quite easily." He started.

"Moving on to what each of you will be doing from now on. First there will be general training so that you can get used to your enhanced abilities and one of your senior members will handle that depending on who is free."

"After that, there will be specialized training to make sure you're all up to Mugetsu standards since, as Core Members, you have a strict standard to uphold and won't be going on missions until we're sure you can do so."

"With me so far?" Shiki asked.

"Yes!" Hinata and Hanabi responded.

"Yeah" Sasuke echoed.

"Yes." Kurenai followed.

"Good. Your specialized training will depend on your particular skills. Unfortunately, since the only one in Mugetsu that has both the Sharingan and practices the Gentle Fist style, a soul clone of mine will handle Hinata, Hanabi and Sasuke's training." Shiki informed.

"As for Kurenai-nee, other that yours truly, me, there is actually another genjutsu specialist so you'll be training with her. You even know each other so it will be a moving reunion." He added.

It was at this moment that Kurenai finally recalled a very important piece of information.

"Yakumo!" She suddenly exclaimed.

"Took you long enough." Shiki replied.

"Who's Yakumo?" Hinata asked.

"An unfortunate girl that I rescued when I made my Reaper identity separate itself from the village." Shiki explained.

"Yakumo has a very special and powerful kekkei genkai but it's difficult for her to control it which led to her being quarantined in a remote area of the village and kept under constant watch." Kurenai added.

"Yes, constant watch by trained Anbu and scientists studying her like they would alab rat but I'm not judging." Shiki mocked.

"T-That's . . ." Kurenai trailed off.

"I said I'm not judging besides, she had much better control now and I've solved some of her misunderstandings but you should still sit down for a talk with her." Shiki advised.

"I will Shiki and . . . Thank you." Kurenai said.

"No problem. You can go your own ways for now and this clone must go back to its assigned duties. If there's something for you, a notification will appear in your pads, dismissed." Shiki declared and so, everyone dispersed.

Meanwhile, the original Shiki kept working on his senjutsu while the Akatsuki was planning a counterattack on Mugetsu for their recent interference in the matter of Kirigakure. Soon, Mugetsu would face its first significant loss and Akatsuki would suffer a terrible price for it.

It was on a small country of no particular importance, one of many that Mugetsu had used to develop its resources.

The country prospered and the citizens were actually happy and even criminals flourished without getting into much beef with the officials or harming the civilian population that much.

All the infrastructure provided by Mugetsu led to this rapid expansion and modernized the country, making it similar or even more advanced than something like Boruto era Konoha.

But, everything was about to change. The Akatsuki, more specifically Pain, wanted to sent a message to Mugetsu and, for no particular reason other than the country being one of the few the Akatsuki knew to be under Mugetsu's control, it was picked for a strategic annihilation strike.

It was a sunny afternoon in the capital were the modernization and new infrastructure was most apparent, that Pain decided to start his assuals, bringing Konan along with him but keeping her behind, helping his main body while his controlled corpses did the dirty work.

The actual defensive forces provided to these small countries were a far cry from one of Mugetsu's more serious holdings.

In fact, officially, all the prosperity did not come from Mugetsu at all and, only due to its annoyingly effective information network did the Akatsuki know more about Mugetsu that Most of the World powers, aka all those not involved with it.

Even then, they

This would come as an unprovoked assault to a seemingly innocent country which would harm the Akatsuki's interest a fair bit once it got out but, on the other hand, an overt reprisal would also make it obvious that Mugetsu was more widespread than the world though.

In other words, the Akatsuki was sacrificing a bit of their professional reputation, in exchange for putting a stopper on Mugetsu since counter attacking would be a bad move on their part.

The difference was that the Akatsuki was planning on tossing all that professional reputation out of the window anyway once they started capturing jinchuriki, making the whole world their enemy so their losses were actually quite insignificant.

The six paths went to town of the small country like bona fide terrorist, just maximizing their destructive power, hitting hospitals, government buildings, the Daimyo's castle.

Tendo and Shurado which have more area of effect capabilities, along with Chikushodo's summons, spread terror through undiscriminate destruction while the more up close and personal paths hunted down key individuals and let others around feel terror as they brutally slaughtered their targets.

A few minutes after the destruction started, HQ got the message and some of the more hot headed members wanted to go immediately and show those fools what's what but Tsunade immediately took charge and settled them down.

"Going now will only hurt our organization even more." She declared.

"How!?" Guren questioned.

"Our dominion is not supposed to be overt, we can't have people knowing we have entire nations under control." Tsunade explained.

"The Akatsuki may have sniffed us out, even if they do not entirely know how widespread our dominion is but even they are not revealing this out of fear of the drastic reprisal that would earn them." She added.

"Let them have the country. It's sad but unfortunately it must be done." She finished.

"So we're supposed to just take it?" Chino asked.

The newest four members were also around for the discussion but, as newbies, they still lacked the clout to interfere.

Even Karin who has been around for quite a bit in spite of her young age knows to leave these things to the actual top executives.

"Of course not!" Tsunade immediately exclaimed.

"Hide in wait and watch for the enemy, as soon as they reach a remote enough area, make them pay for this attack." She commanded.

"Should we consult with Shiki?" Haku asked.

"No. He's constantly saying he's not training us to be dependent on him and all of his clones have a role to play so I'm not going to bother them since the situation is not that critical." Tsunade replied.

"Once he gets out, I'll talk with him and take responsibility for my decision today." She added.

"No need to go that far Tsuna-san. We agree with your decision so the burden lays with us as well." Guren interjected.

"Thank you Guren." Tsunade replied.

"As for the counter team, Guren, Chino and Anko will take care of it. The rest of you get back to your duties." She commanded.

"Yes ma'am!" Everyone responded and so, the designated three man team sortied out and hid in strategic positions across the country, waiting with rage as they watched the destruction Pain unleashed, all the while burning with the thirst for payback.

As all of this happened, Hinata balled up her small fists as she quietly swore to herself.

"One day, I'll be able support Shiki-san like them . . . NO! Even better that all of them, better than anyone else."

Back in the thick of things, two hours after the attack started, most of the country laid in ruins with all key cities and towns being utterly destroyed.

With this, the six paths of pain started retreating as Nagato discussed the event with Konan.

"It seems much like Madara predicted, Mugetsu did not show up to defend from our assault." nagato commented.

"Yes but we can expect a swift reprisal." Kona replied.

"All members have been warned to be ready. Now, we just need to wait for their move." Nagato said.

". . ." Konana seemed like she wanted to say something but remained quiet.

"What is it Konan?" Nagato asked.

"Was it worth it? Crushing a country full of innocents?" She asked.

"It was a necessity." Nagato replied.

"If that's the case, so be it." Konan accepted her childhood friend's words.

What neither of them expected however, was the swiftness of Mugetsu's reprisal and that Pain still had one battle to fight before they could retreat.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

P.a.t.r.e.o.n is officially up!

The link is: https://www.p.a.t.r.e.o.n.com/lusoba without the extra dots of course.

You'll get to read up to FOUR week ahead, a full month, but I'll still post here.

There's also my other novel Archon of DanMachi, do check it out!

I would greatly appreciate any support since this is going to be my breadwinner.