Starting with rogue ninjas, building the insect kingdom.

Chapter 481 Xiao Organizes a Gathering

The Land of Rain, Dawn City.

Although the city wasn't exactly deserted, it was still quite empty. Sometimes, there were more people on patrol than pedestrians on the main streets.

In the dark basement, the Outer Path Golem stood, and all the important members of the Akatsuki organization gathered.

The Onoki father and son sat in the corner, reviewing the details of their previous defeat and how they could defeat Hyuga Kagami.

However, what they said lacked any scrutiny; at best, they were merely trying to decipher Hyuga Mirror's newly developed techniques, only making themselves a laughingstock.

To the east is Uchiha Itachi. He is alone and has no partner for the time being. He is not on the same side as anyone else, so few people in the organization pay attention to him.

To his left was Nagatomo and Kisame Hoshigaki's group. Both of them were very quiet, standing there silently, as if waiting for the meeting to begin.

On their opposite side were the newly joined Raikage duo: the Fourth Raikage and Yugito, who had just become the Eight-Tails Jinchuriki.

Standing in the central position are Pain, controlled by Nagato, and Konan, the angel.

Actually, there was another projection in the corner, but the signal was not good at the moment, and it was intermittent.

As for Zabuza Momochi, he is currently too weak and is still a candidate member, so he is not qualified to participate in such a meeting.

"You have all suffered repeated defeats. The One-Tailed Beast has died twice, the Two-Tailed Beast is lost, the Three-Tailed Beast is dead, and the Six-Tailed Beast has been tamed..."

"Wait a minute, I don't think this is my fault. Hyuga Kagami's strength is formidable, as everyone has witnessed, and I don't think there's any point in us having this meeting right now."

The Fourth Raikage sneered, "Oh, old man, do you still think you're the Third Tsuchikage? The Land of Earth is gone now."

"Hey, what do you mean?" Onoki roared, slamming his hand on the stool.

"I didn't mean anything by it."

"Hehe, how interesting!" The shadow in the projection chuckled, while the other members simply stood there watching the show.

"Enough, I said enough!" Payne's voice wasn't loud, but it was enough to make his anger clear.

Everyone immediately shut their mouths, but they were still very unconvinced, especially now that the Fourth Raikage was increasingly feeling that this mysterious organization was like a game of make-believe.

Just then, Payne turned to Konan and said, "Konan, tell me about the problems you've been facing lately, and I'll give you your opinions."

Xiao Nan straightened her clothes, and with a wave of her hand, stacks of papers turned into documents, which she distributed. She then addressed the crowd, saying, "Besides the setbacks in collecting the tailed beasts, there is an even more serious problem: our country is on the verge of collapse."

"At the beginning of last year, Dawn City had a total population of 50,000, but now only 23,000 remain. One-third of these people are elderly, over 45 years old, and have little ability to work. The birth rate has plummeted, and young people no longer exist."

"I predict that if this continues, our country will cease to exist in no more than three years, leaving only an empty city."

"Hehe, hehehehe!" Onoki looked at the report and almost burst out laughing.

As the former leader of a village, his management skills are naturally excellent, and he can spot the problems at a glance.

The Land of Rain has been closed off from the world for many years, with no source of commerce and virtually no external economic resources. They rely entirely on collecting fungi in the mountains behind the city or farming outside the city.

Oh, and there's that fishpond that Kakuzu invested in back then. But because of that great battle, they could only harvest a small part of it. Actually, it was just a small fishpond that broke off from the side of the big fishpond due to the change in terrain.

"That's it? Resource-poor, population-poor, and poorly managed. It would be a miracle if it could actually develop," Lei Ying Ai chuckled and complained from the side.

Xiao Nan stood aside, her face pale and looking quite guilty, because she had discovered that ever since Chang Xin had given up his responsibilities, the Dawn City she had taken over had been declining.

She believed she had learned quite well, but she was unaware of how poor her management skills were. She even repeatedly asked Changxin to manage the country on her behalf.

However, Nagatomo refused, citing his need to learn ninjutsu.

"Gentlemen, this is not the time for jokes; we are running out of funds."

"What can we do if we don't have enough? Then we'll just rob them, rob other small countries." Lei Ying threw the documents on the ground. He had already realized that this country was finished and couldn't make any money at all.

The only way to generate funds now is to rob other small countries.

"Then take a look, where are the small countries?" Onoki sneered from the side.

The atmosphere in the room became awkward. Although there were fewer than ten people present, they all had their own agendas, and the atmosphere was tense and disunited.

"Hahahaha, hahahahaha!" Black Zetsu suddenly burst into laughter, as if he had gone mad.

"Shouldn't we be discussing how to obtain power? How to capture the Tailed Beasts? But what are you doing here today, discussing irrelevant things?"

"Hahaha! I really don't know what you guys are thinking. Have you even thought about revenge?"

"Nagato, what happened to your ideals? You promised to bring fear to the world and bring peace!"

Black Zetsu's mouth never stopped. After berating Nagato, he turned his head to the other side and said, "Onoki and you guys, always acting like big shots. When you encounter a real master, you get beaten like dogs, and you still have the nerve to laugh at others? I ask you, what do you have?!"

At this moment, Lei Ying Ai suddenly laughed.

"What are you laughing at? What's so funny?" Black Zetsu immediately turned to him. "You're the worst one here. We replaced your arms with new ones, otherwise you'd still be crippled."

Upon hearing that her Raikage had been insulted, Yugito couldn't stand it and stepped forward. Just as she was about to take action, a black rod suddenly pierced her leg, rendering her unable to move.

"That's enough, all of you stop."

Payne suddenly shouted, his Rinnegan wide open, its purple glow staring directly at them.

"This time I'll take action myself. Where are Black Zetsu, the Four-Tails, and the Five-Tails?"

"Within the Land of Earth," Black Zetsu replied. "The Four-Tails Son Goku is active in the northern volcanic region, and the Five-Tails Kokuo roams the southern grasslands. Both are wild tailed beasts that have only recently been resurrected, and currently no one is assisting them."

"It's better without a Jinchūriki, saving the trouble of separation." After saying that, his main body began to move.

Immediately afterwards, the realms of animals, asuras, hell, heaven, humans, and hungry ghosts flashed and disappeared into the night.

Xiao Nan initially wanted to stay, but after thinking for a moment, she decided to go and see what was going on, so she spread her wings and flew away.