Chapter 95: Investigating the past.

Before fulfilling his job as a member of the Akatsuki organization, Toru decided it was time to look for more information about Konoha that would be helpful in his plans. Right now, he was on the back of Okaminaru, who was running at an overwhelming speed. The two were moving so fast that it was difficult to make out their silhouettes through the leaves of the trees.

'Well, I know where to start. Going to Konoha is out of the question, so I'll have to go to the villages that have made their peace treaties with my home village. If I kidnap some ninja soldiers, I can get some information out of them that will be of use to me. Who else would know about Konoha other than their own "friends"? This will give me the advantage over all the villages. Also, by the time I've finished the preparations, I'll need to find a way to defeat Pain, after all, if I betray them they're just going to want to kill me. So I'll kill them all before that happens.'

Staring straight ahead, with a lifeless expression on his face, Toru's eyes momentarily lit up with the light of death. At the same time, he noticed that Okaminaru's fur was changing as time passed. The tips of his ears were a dark brown color, as were the tips of his tail and the fur on the ankles of his paws.

This was a strange change that I could understand, since, some animals undergo some changes as they grow up, possibly that is the case with Okaminaru, who is moving from adolescence to adulthood.

"We'll have to get there fast before dawn, Okaminaru. I also have to find a way to infiltrate Iwagakure, so they won't notice someone from Akatsuki sneaking into the village without anyone's permission. If this village is still as I read it in the books, any Jounin should have useful military information about Konoha and its past. Then I'll be able to know one hundred percent what happened seven years ago..."

"But... Toru-dono, it's dangerous to enter enemy territory while alone. Besides, if I go with you they'll instantly realize that you're an intruder."

"I know, it's a pity I don't have the affinity to use Genjutsu, so I could have slept and kidnapped some people. Still, you have nothing to worry about, I'm sure this is going to turn out fine, I'm just going to look for some information, after all. The only one who could ruin everything would be the Tsuchikage, but now that I've learned that jutsu that you and Okamitsuki taught me, I'm sure I can take on a Kage, besides, using my eyes this will be even easier."

With his eyes glowing dangerously, squinting and looking at the vast amount of mountains rising from the ground, Toru already had a simple plan to enter the village.

-Hours later

Standing atop the tallest mountain in Iwagakure, his cloak with the strange red cloud design and his hat swayed to the rhythm of the wind. His eyes glowed brightly with the light of death, at the same time a small smile showed on his mouth.

"I'm up here, where everyone can see me. Yet no one has come out, they haven't even noticed I'm here. It's like my father's books said, they take so much pride in their impenetrable defense composed of mountains, they simply don't care who enters the village, after all, they know that intruders, once they enter they never come out again. Kukuku, in a way I understand how proud they feel, but I don't care about that anymore. I will bring some ninja alive, I will torture them until they release the last word about the past of Konoha and the other villages. The information will be my secret weapon in case the world turns against me, although I only plan to kill one old man, I don't plan to attack villages like a madman."

Taking a step forward, Toru launched himself off the mountain, now finding himself in free fall.

As he descended, he observed all the houses made of mountainous rock. The place, meaning the village, was gigantic, as big as Konohagakure. This somehow brought back some memories, but he quickly forgot this and clasped his hands together, completing a seal to perform ninjutsu.

As he did this, the air beneath his feet stiffened, forming a platform on which he landed. After that, he took another leap, using the invisible platforms to break his fall.

'Now, I should look for some Jounin who look a bit old. They're the ones who have the information I need.'

Hiding among the rocks, he watched every movement of the inhabitants of this place. For a moment he kept thinking that this village was too peaceful for the information he already had from Iwagakure. The little he knew, was that in this place there are always wars with other villages, so Toru thought that the Tsuchikage would be mobilizing some troops to participate in more wars, even so, his assumptions were wrong.

'There they are... they don't appear to be simple lairs. There are five of them in all, I'll knock them all out and kidnap two of them. I must be quick if I don't want to get caught'

Glancing at the five casually talking ninjas, his eyes glinted through his hat and he prepared to launch himself into the attack.

He stomped hard on the ground, cracking it in the process. After that, Toru disappeared as if his body had been swallowed by darkness, but this was not true, for he had only moved at such a high speed, that his body gave the illusion of having disappeared.

"Ohayō!"

Appearing in front of the five ninjas, Toru raised his arm and struck them all in the neck, knocking them out instantly. These fell to the ground without even being able to defend themselves, which made this boy look at them with an expressionless face, as he thought doing this was too easy. Not only was a second enough to knock them out, but also no one around seemed to notice what happened.

So, after this cheap show, Toru grabbed two of the older looking ninjas by the vest and dragged them away quietly as he looked for a place to summon Okaminaru. However, that he was able to enter this village was something that the Tsuchikage himself allowed, since, somewhere else....

-Tsuchikage's house-

In the tallest building in the entire village, inside the largest room, sat a man of short stature, red nose and rectangular eyebrows, seated in front of a desk filled with papers, large stacks of sheets of paper rising up to the ceiling.

This man sighed, for he was stubborn enough to sit there reading all those papers, but he also thought this was better, even though his hips and back ached.

"Tsuchikage-sama! A large amount of strange chakra entered the village!"

Slamming the door loudly, a Jounin from this village appeared. He looked worried, as well as having sweat on his forehead. However, the Tsuchikage slapped the desk with his palm and stood up, as he had already felt that strange chakra a few seconds ago.

Approaching the window, Ōnoki, better known as the Third Tsuchikage, frowned and touched his back in pain.

"Send a squad!"

***

With slow, relaxed steps, Toru shuffled the two ninja he kidnapped without any concern whatsoever. Looking up at the sky through the cloth strips of his hat, he nodded his head and a smile formed on his face.

"They found me too quickly."

Feeling dozens of murderous stares, he took a step forward and disappeared, reappearing a few meters ahead, now he was running at an abnormal speed, as dozens of ninjas from this village chased after him.

'Surprising, I thought they wouldn't have one of those things that detects intruders in the village. It looks like it's just like Konoha in that, but from what I see, they won't be able to catch me, so I'll hurry up and get out of here, I have nothing more to do in this place.'

Quickening his pace, Toru walked away from the place, quickly reaching the main exit of Iwagakure.

He immediately noticed that there were about ten ninjas waiting for him, so he threw the ninjas he had kidnapped into the sky and stepped on the ground heavily, causing a small crater to form in the ground. Then, he passed the barrier of ninjas easily hitting three of them with his fist.

"Kuchiyose no Jutsu!"

Clasping his hands together, a cloud of smoke appeared beside him, from which emerged a fearsome wolf of white fur with brown, whose eyes were crimson like blood.

"We're out of here, Okaminaru."

Climbing onto Okaminaru's back, Toru looked up, catching the two ninja he had kidnapped and tossed into the sky earlier. In fact, one of them woke up while he was climbing into the sky, but Toru put him back to sleep by punching him in the face.

Okaminaru watched this with a confused expression, but it wasn't time to ask questions, it was time to run for your life.

"Hold on, Toru-dono, I'll use chakra on my paws."

Saying this and increasing the speed, Okaminaru's paws left the ground broken due to the force he used in every movement. Toru, however, smiled slightly as they began to climb the mountain.

Making Okaminaru stop for a second at the top of that mountain, Toru looked up at the tallest building and the light in his eyes intensified.

At the same time, on that building, the Tsuchikage looked at the black cloak with the red cloud design embroidered on the fabric. Moreover, he could distinguish that strange gleam in the intruder's eyes, making his face look angry.

"That person...belongs to Akatsuki..."

As if he had heard the old man's words, Toru smiled and stretched out his arms. He looked at this village for the last time and some words came out of his mouth.

"See you, Tsuchikage-san."

After that, the intruder was able to escape easily, without killing anyone or causing havoc to the place. The appearance of this intruder was mysterious, from one moment to the next, without warning. That same day, a messenger bird was sent to Konoha, warning that Akatsuki has become active again and that they have someone strange with them, someone riding a large four meter tall wolf.

This information reached Konoha within two days, so they were quickly informed of the situation.

-One month and five days later-

Toru had already visited as many villages as he could in this short time he had. Thanks to Okaminaru, he could reach any village in a matter of days, obviously he had to give his friend some breaks, since he didn't have infinite chakra and it was depleting quite fast.

But that's not the important thing, right now, all the information he had managed to gather was being sorted inside his mind. But it was all confusing, since most of it was hearsay, or so all those people who died were saying.

"A coup d'état... the Kyūbi's attack... Uchiha and Asahi..."

Looking at the daggers in his hands, Toru frowned.

All the information he had managed to gather about the past of his home village, Konoha, was strange and confusing. It was all starting from the attack of the Kyūbi, who was said to be being controlled by a sharingan. After that, the strange things began, suspicions, the plan the Uchiha and Asahi had to take the village into their possession.

Yes, this was strange, but what confused Toru the most was knowing... that the Asahi are descendants of the Uchiha clan.

"Haa~ if this is true, then these eyes of mine might have an explanation. But there are still a lot of gaps to fill in this story, I didn't manage to discover much beyond that. Though I also manage to find out some interesting things about Itachi... and those things involve the higher ups in Konoha, but this still remains as if they were rumors. I could fill this story with the information I got thanks to Danzo's trap, but that doesn't mean that information is true. For the time being, my investigation is winding down and there's one last place I have to go..."

Standing up, putting away the daggers he was cleaning a few seconds ago, Toru looked off into the distance, where a set of three large mountains stood.

"I wonder what Itachi is coming to this place to do?"