Chapter : 16 : New Information :
" Captain Yahiko , there is some news that you need to hear . "
Looking in front them three saw a young shinobi with black hair coming towards them .
" Kie , what's going on ? Are you alright? "
This person who was coming towards them was Kie , one of the original and first members to join the Akatsuki after it was formed .
He has good faith in Yahiko's vision .
In the original series he was presumably killed by Uchiha Obito along with other members of the Akatsuki who were coming to help Yahiko against Hanzo .
But for now none of these things have happened.
" Kie , what happened? I thought you were collecting information in the surrounding areas about the current status of the war . "
" Did something change? "
Konan, who was at the back of the group, came forward and asked .
" Yes ! I have found some new information that I think you should hear . "
Kie, who had reached the group of trio and heard her question, spoke up immediately .
" What is it ? Has the fighting in the hidden Grass village intensified again. "
This time it was Nagato who enquired .
They have especially given the task of monitoring the ongoing third great shinobi war to Kie .
His job was to go around the land of rain and outside the rain territory to collect information about the current status of the war .
At this moment it could be said every single party in the entire shinobi world was affected by the third great shinobi war .
And only the very neutral and unique parties like the land of iron under the leadership of the samurai class were not as much as affected by this conflict .
However, for the rest of the world even if they are far away from the major fighting centres they can feel the effects of the war in their daily life .
And that's why almost every powerful or less powerful forces in the world is keeping tabs on the updates of the war .
This includes the Akatsuki .
And while they do not have resources to maintain or create a highly advanced information network they are trying to do what they can .
That's why while doing everything they can to save the people of the rain they are also keeping tabs on the conflict so that they can predict any future danger in advance .
Afterall as one of the most affected villages any changes on the battlefield would directly affect the land of Rain which includes them .
" Yes ! there are multiple news I have confirmed this time and it's better if we talk about it in the meeting . "
Kie, who had got his breath after running for a long time, finally calmed down .
Looking at their companion's urgency the trio understood the importance of the matter .
And as such they gave orders for everyone within the organisation to come for a meeting .
Quickly in the centre house of the group all the important members of the organisation had arrived .
And only then did the meeting start .
" Thank you everyone for coming this quickly as today we are about to have a very important discussion . "
Yahiko, surrounded by Nagato and Konan, at first welcomed everyone in an energetic manner but kept a serious face to showcase the importance of the meeting .
" No need to thank us captain, we are all doing what we want to do . " - said a member with certainty .
Then one after another, the rest of the members of the group also showed their earnest support .
The group was not very big and only consisted of a very few members .
But all of them had eventually come together under Yahiko's vision and leadership trying to take a brand new path .
" Alright, as you know Kie has been doing some information gathering that would be helpful to us . "
" And today he has some very important news to deliver . "- with that Yahiko looked towards Kie .
With that everyone's attention turned towards the man in question .
Looking at this, Kie stood up and started to explain his findings .
" Everyone, as you would know, I was given the task to gather information about the situation in various parts of the land of rain and the ongoing third great shinobi war . "
Everyone nodded after hearing his words .
The Akatsuki organisation at this point is very open about their works and other things .
This was a special and important way brought out by Yahiko to build trust among the members of the organisation .
Obviously by doing this he was not being foolish .
It was a measure taken to build trust between people who come from various backgrounds and various circumstances and to hold them together in a team built for one purpose .
But that does not mean he would carelessly give every confidential information to everyone.
While he was genuinely a good person who believed in people's will and goodness he was not a fool .
So for example things like Nagato's special eyes and other secrets were kept tight only between the three of them .
Obviously the other members also noticed such unique eyes but after some initial questioning and seeing that the trio who usually were so open did not say anything they simply stopped asking.
It shows that the group had a great amount of mutual trust and confidence in each other .
" Currently the battle between the hidden leaf and hidden stone village in the land of grass is going in a full swing . "
" And from the latest reports it seems that the hidden stone village is pushing the frontline deeper within the land of grass territory . "
This news came as a shock to many in the room .
The tense war happening in the land of grass was no surprise to anyone .
After all thousands of shinobies are collected in a single front fighting each day then it is impossible not to notice it .
But what surprised them the most was the fact that the hidden stone actually managed to push the hidden leaf back so quickly .
It's only been around a year since the start of the conflict and the hidden stone was already making such progress .
That too against the hidden leaf village which is considered the strongest shinobi village .
" Are you serious ? "
" Is this news accurate? "
" We should double check. "
" Are we going to get affected? "
At this moment many members of the group obviously showed disbelief and even a hint of tension in their voice .
Their disbelief was understandable but their tension came from the fact that if the situation at the land of grass changed rapidly then they would be heavily impacted as well .
" Everyone please come down, we need to hear the entire situation first before jumping to conclusion . "
After some initial chaos the group finally calmed down under Yahiko's guidance as they started to listen to the report carefully .
" As I was saying .... "
And after a few minutes of listening they finally understood the full situation .
This recent change where the hidden stone managed to take the momentum against the hidden leaf was because of a sudden influx of new shinobis coming in their ranks .
So after gaining a definite numerical advantage they started to move forward and slowly pushed the Konohagakure forces back .
However this does not mean that they blitz through the area .
Instead it was a very hard fought battle .
While the hidden stone had superior numbers but in terms of individual strength, organisation efficiency and battlefield experience the hidden leaf had the advantage .
Each stronghold captured came at a cost to the hidden stone village with them losing at least 4 to 5 shinobis against one from the hidden leaf .
At the same time they simply could not surround the enemy which allowed the skilled commanders from the hidden leaf to effectively retreat from one position to another while putting up as much resistance as possible .
This meant despite losing ground the hidden leaf forces have manage to save their main body to take up another defensive position behind .
Also it seems the village level command of the hidden leaf was acting superior to its counterpart in hidden stone.
This allowed for better logistics and group management despite their numerical disadvantage .
So while the situation was tense in the hidden grass at this moment it was not enough to tell who would be the victor of the conflict imidiatly .
However even these changes have much impact on them and the people in the land of rain .
" Since the conflict has intensified , we can expect that more and more shinobies from the great nations would enter the territory of the land of Rain . "
" This means more and more people will suffer as our home becomes a bigger battleground . "
After this news was received the room became heavy with somber atmosphere .
This was a heavy realization that no matter what they were doing at the end of the day the suffering of their people will only intensify .
And this was the last thing that anyone of them wanted to see but were powerless to do anything .
After all no matter what they cannot stop the conflict between the great powers or effectively stopped them from using the land of rain as a buffer zone .
" Everyone, I think we should start by doing what we can . "
" While we cannot effect the situation happening on the war but we can do the things in our control . "
" We will work harder and eventually our works will pay of and create an impact . "
At this moment Yahiko broke deep tense and depressing atmosphere with his encouragement .
This brought the mood in the room somewhat back to optimism .
After saying that Yahiko looked towards Kie .
Understanding the meaning he continued speaking .
" Leader on this matter I have discovered something very important . "
" While I was searching near the border I saw a group of civilians trying to get out. "
This was not very surprising to the people in the room .
At this time many people who had lost hope would try to get out of this place .
And they have already seen so many scenes like that .
However the outcome of such desperate moves were not always good .
Many families and individuals would never reach their destination due to various reasons like the lack of food supplies , exhaustion , diseases and attacks from shinobis and rogue organisations .
This was a very tragic scenario and yet a harsh reality they lived in .
" The group consisted of a few families including young ones and since there was a chance of danger I decided to follow them from a distance so that I could help if required . "
" After 2 days of journey the group was joined by a few other groups going towards the same area so they decided to walk together . "
" At first I thought they were just trying to get out of the land of rain with no clear destination like many else . "
" But.... "
" I overheard the leaders of the group talking to each other saying that apparently they were going towards the land of Birds . "
Now this caught everyone's attention.
The land of birds is one of the minor non shinobi villages between the land of rain and the other great powers .
Since the start of this war they have been laying low to avoid any kind of attachment in the current crisis .
And since they did not have anything extraordinary the major villages also did not trouble them .
However not getting involved in the direct conflict does not mean they have been spared from the indirect consequences of this conflict .
While the land of bird was not strong and did not have much resources aur opportunities it was still better than living in the hell hole that the land of rain and grass had become .
So many people from these affected areas are moving towards the land of bird to find a safe heaven to live in .
And this created a logistical and various kinds of other challenges for the small nation as they are not capable of managing or keeping so many people .
" At first I thought that everything was actually normal. After all, it's not the first time this has happened . "
" However, it was then that I heard the leaders of the group saying something very important . "
" What is it ? " - Yahiko asked .
" They were talking about something like a camp happening in the land of birds where apprently they are actually providing support to the people coming to the land of birds with food , shelter and medical facilities. "
Hearing this everyone's attention became even more sharp as this was indeed a very important piece of news .
" Wait, are you talking about some kind of a relief program ? Who is operating that ? the local lords of the land of birds . "
This was the most basic explanation of the scenario .
After all, if anyone would have the authority and the capacity to do such things in that small place then the first people would be the local Lords of the area .
However the answer that came next shocked everyone in the room as Kie shook his head.
" No, according to what I learned it was actually being done by a private business organisation . "
"...."
( Author's Note : Hello guys I hope you all are doing well and before ending this chapter , I would like to say that I have already released my novel - ' As An Extra I Change The Plot To Get Rewards . ' along with my other works .
So I hope all of you can read it , collect it in your libraries and support it just like you have been supporting my other works .
So that's all I had to say today and I hope you enjoyed today's chapter .
Thank you for reading . )
To Be Continued .