After Ren disappeared, silence hung inside the room full of Akatsuki members. They awkwardly shuffled a bit away from Pein, who exuded a furious and murderous aura, his expression twisted into a very unusual snarl while his eyes roamed the room in the vain hope that Ren was just hiding somewhere nearby.

Everybody was tense, and even Itachi acted more stiff than usual. Tobi was still quietly seething, glaring at the spot from where Ren teleported away, his mind too preoccupied with anger to notice how many Akatsuki members, not in the know, were giving him suspicious looks.

They had never seen the ‘real’ Tobi. To them, he was at best a good comedic relief and a childish idiot who was barely strong enough to be a member.

But clearly, they did not have a full picture.

If what the infiltrator said was true, then Tobi was a much bigger fish than he portrayed himself as. Kakuzu, Deidara, and Sasori subtly shared a glance with each other, noticing that Kisame, Itachi, and Zetsu did not react very surprised to these new revelations.

Something fishy was going on, and they were evidently not in on it. They did not like that. Not at all. Lack of key intel usually preceded death in their world.

As for Hidan… nobody expected him to know anything.

Sasori, for just a small moment, gave the Jashin priest, still in pieces in a bloody corner of the room, a suspicious look, wondering if he could be like Tobi, just pretending to be an idiot. But he quickly discarded that thought and shook his head.

No. That was absurd.

While everybody in the room was experiencing their own difficulties and small doubts, Konan stood rooted in her place, her eyes still slightly widened in disbelief, while the fingers of her right hand were gently touching her lips.

She was horrified. She was elated. She was ashamed.

She was embarrassed that she let the enemy so close to her. She was embarrassed that her mind blanked out when he kissed her.

And she was embarrassed that she had… enjoyed it.

Closing her eyes, a crease formed on her brows, and she let out a frustrated sound. Sage, she enjoyed it.

Taking a deep breath, Konan let the tension in her shoulders slowly seep away as she calmed down and regained her usual cool. It didn’t matter. She…

She needed a change of underwear.

Inwardly cringing at that thought, Konan grumpily rebuked herself in her mind, ‘Not the time. Stop thinking about it.’

But it was harder than she let on.

Outwardly, her face morphed into her usual ice-cold facade as she opened her eyes and glanced over the scum working for her friend. It was usually her job to watch over them and observe for any irregularity in their behavior.

Trusting S-rank criminals was foolish. They worked with the premise that their ’employees’ would eventually betray them for one reason or another. The only question was how much use they could make of them before that happened, and they would need to be disposed of.

And right now, Konan had to frown as she noticed all the subtle signs of distress and doubt in their body language.

Some of them, like Itachi and Kakuzu, definitely noticed her momentary lapse and gave her a weird, subtle look. Her cheeks slightly pinked, and she cursed in her mind.

… Yeah, this was a mess. One visit and their entire organization of S-rank criminals was in a complete disarray. They were not openly showing it, but Konan could see the signs. She felt the beginnings of a headache creeping on her. This was going to take a lot of time and effort to fix.

Despite herself, she had to admit she felt a bit impressed.

But she chased that thought away as quickly as it appeared. Giving an enemy any sort of credit was bad. The next time they met, she was going to suffocate him to death with her paper… somehow.

If only for all the additional work he gave her.

“Pein…” Tobi’s deep voice resounded in the room, pulling Pein out of his anger and making him stop in his tracks for a second.

Konan recognized it as him pulling his focus from the other five puppet bodies that were now scouring Amegakure… just as her paper clones were doing, looking for the bomb and the infiltrator.

Pein’s eyes narrowed as they landed on the masked ninja, “Tobi.” He paused for a moment, letting the weight of the silence settle over the room before he gravely continued. “We have many things to talk about.”

For a moment, Konan tensed, Tobi’s body language betraying how close he was to attacking Pein, but then the man relaxed again. “… Indeed.” He unhappily nodded. “We do.”

With that, Tobi left in the same swirly portal as the fake Tobi did, making even Konan have some doubts about the fake Tobi’s identity. Even if she knew they were unfounded.

With a small, tired sigh that broke the illusion of his ‘Godliness’ more than any other overt gesture ever could, Pein turned toward the rest of the Akatsuki with his lips set in a frown.

“I want all of you to look for the identity of our uninvited guest. We are going to put everything else on hold for now.” Pein said, and Konan couldn’t help but feel that this was a mistake. She had no idea why, but it was what her intuition told her, and the feeling persisted.

For example, why didn’t their attacker just run her through with a kunai when her mind blanked in the first place?

She hated to admit it, but she was completely vulnerable at that moment. He could have slit her throat and she wouldn’t have realized it until it was over.

Yet, she was still here. Breathing. And feeling embarrassed.

No. She doubted the fake Tobi wanted to cause any ‘physical’ damage to them. He had several opportunities for that. Opportunities he did not take.

But she had no proof, so she held her mouth shut. Sharing her doubts now would just add to the chaos of the situation. She decided to tell Nagato later, when they were alone.

“Sasori, Kakuzu, Zetsu, use your contacts and spy networks to find the infiltrator.” Pein looked at them as he started giving orders. “Itachi, Kisame, and Hidan, stay ready and inside of Amegakure in case he appears here again and needs to be repelled.”

Konan noticed a very small twitch of Uchiha’s fingers, and her eyes narrowed at him. From what she knew of the kinslayer, that twitch showcased his discontent with the order to stay put.

But why would he be unhappy?

“Deidara,” Pein looked at the last man in the room. “You are going to help us look for the supposed bomb and defuse it when it is found.” He flatly said, and the blonde bomber reluctantly nodded, not at all happy with his assignment.

Konan honestly doubted there was a bomb… and she had to resist a strong urge to rub the bridge of her nose. This was foolish of her. She had too positive an impression of their enemy.

That had to change.

No. She inwardly shook her head and decided not to listen to her instincts in this case. It was safer to assume that there was a bomb hidden somewhere.

“You have your orders. Dismissed.” Pein said, and after a moment, the room cleared, leaving only him and Konan in there alone.

“What do you think?” Pein asked when he was sure nobody else was nearby, causing Konan to break her icy facade and give him a wry smile.

“I think we need to investigate the fake Tobi’s words.” She said as she sat down on a nearby chair, her shoulders slumping. “I will look into this… Tobito Uchiha, I guess.”

“Yes. Madara. If he isn’t who he says he is…” Pein trailed off, the barest hint of doubt sneaking into his tone.

And Konan silently nodded in understanding. It would mean they worked based on a flawed assumption this whole time. Because if he was lying about his identity, what else was he lying about?

It didn’t portray a good picture.

Konan just didn’t know what to think about all this.

“Be careful. I don’t think Tobi would appreciate us sticking our noses into this.” Pein said with a chuckle as he sat down on his own chair, and Konan had to hide how creeped out she was at that gesture.

Seeing Yahiko’s body do that and be so… alive, when she knew he was dead, her heart was slightly breaking every time.

But for Nagato, this was a way to honor his friend. He wanted to achieve Yahiko’s goal with his body.

Konan let herself show a small wince, most likely making Nagato misunderstand its origin, before she shook her head and stood up, deciding she needed some alone time for a bit.

“… I know.” She mumbled before turning and walking toward the door, intending to start on her investigative work.

She was going to figure out if Tobito Uchiha was a real person. And find out if he had a brother.

She was… curious.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep