You spy, I spy~

'Who stands to benefit the most from all this?'

'...the Sage of Six paths? But why use such a convoluted way to killing the shinobi then? Why frame Konoha shinobi for killing the Kumo ninjas?'

'If he wanted to damage the business in some way, wouldn't it have been easier to just kill the people that were a part of it and not the shinobi?'

'What are you planning old man?'

'Was this attack to prevent something in the future? Or was it to control the future and send it into a different direction than what was already being predicted?'

'Will the reason become clearer once they interfere in the aftermath?'

'But what would they gain from this? Doesn't it just sour ties between Kumo and Konoha? What would someone else gain from this?'

'Do they want to sour ties? But for what purpose? Do they want to just charge money from us for using the road? Has this island done it? But didn't Sakura already say she says they pay for it?'

'The skill level of the attackers is clearly not at the simple level of banditry. Perhaps it was someone like Gato from the original show that paid someone else to attack the shinobi? Maybe someone like Zabuza? But would a rouge ninja take the time to divert attention like this? Or was this also the request of the employer?'

'Would the shinobi who killed everyone here still be around? Or would they have left by running on the sea and leaving on a boat they anchored somewhere else nearby?'

Teleporting to the top of the island, Megumi began scanning the shores first, away from the main ports and towards the least populated areas to see if he could spot any suspiciously dressed people or anyone acting suspicious in general.

'Hmm….fisherman….fisherman….oh? Ninja? No…he just belongs to the patrol group….fisherman….fisherman….oh…?'

Spotting a person dressed generally like any other fisherman along with a bamboo hat covering his head and face Megumi's eyes fixated on him.

The man was pushing his boat off of the shore, using a long bamboo stick to ride the drift of the early waves pushing it inland.

What stuck out to Megumi was not the man itself, but the random unmoving baby that was on board the boat, carelessly placed on the deck in front of the cabin door on one of its ends.

It reminded him of the history of a character Jiraya had met during his travels around the world while looking for the prophesied child who would bring peace to the world.

It was the person who would later go on to become the most technically advanced path of the six paths of the Rinnegan. The Asura Path.

'Hmmm....Rura. I'm gonna follow someone from up top. I think the Akatsuki is involved in this, it's the guy who'll later become the Asura path. But I won't do anything just yet though.'

'Do you need to leave in a hurry?'

'Well…I could spare a little time since he's just using a boat on the sea. Why?'

'Make sure there are no other suspicious people that you can make a note of for Tsunade-sensei to later investigate, and then begin following that man. Is he already dead? Does he have the Rinnegan? If so also make sure the other five paths of the Rinnegan are not around you.'

'Alright, I'll do that. And no. The man looks alive without any Rinnegan in his eyes. I think he hasn't been turned into a path yet.'

'Ok.'

'By the way Rura. Should I leave a note on the scene for anyone else that arrives from the other docks to check the scene out and investigate it?'

'Yeah, please do that, just leave a note for them to not directly interfere with the scene since ninja from Konoha will be there soon.'

'Alright.'

Quickly writing up a note in a large font on a scroll and teleporting it a little away from the bodies on both the sides of the scene and pinning it on trees to make them clearly visible, Megumi scanned the island a few more times as he watched a few people from the other docks trace back the path to the west side dock to report the delay in the deliveries for today, as they happened to stumble upon the dead bodies of the disguised Kumo Shinobi and the scrolls with the warnings that Megumi had pinned to the trees and the walls.

Teleporting back on top of the 'fisherman', Megumi began to walk in the sky in sync with the boat in silence as he recovered the chakra he had just spent on teleporting around so many times.

'Before you do anything dangerous, make sure you bring me there!'

'Yes I will! Don't worry.'

'Alright. It's a promise, then.'

...

"Is it done?" a mature and deep feminine voice questioned in monotone.

"Yes, he transmitted his chakra through the rod."

".....do you think….it is right…? Following the toads…..and that old man? Nagato?"

".....I don't want to…not after Yahiko sacrificed himself for us….but it's not like we have any other choice. And something that leads us to peace the fastest has to be the right way, right?"

".....I see…then I'll do it for the dream you and Yahiko had, for all of us."

"Have the deals we made with Sunagakure proceeding well?"

"Yes. They've agreed. Tobi and the old man made sure that Rasa agreed to the deal."

"Then make sure you've got all the explosive tags we'll be selling to them ready."

"Alright…are you sure this will work Nagato?"

"You know this is the right thing to do Konan, and we're only benefiting everyone by trapping Rasa with this."

"But aren't we depending on something that we don't even know if it is going to happen?"

"I don't blame you for not being able to believe the old man's and the toads protections, but hasn't he always been right till now? If you doubt him I'm sure you can wait a few more weeks to see if Iwagakure also tries to take part in the deal."

"Alright…."

....

'Why would the Akatsuki get involved in such a thing? And why isn't he wearing the proper Akatsuki attire?'

'What do they get from souring relations between two of the great shinobi nations? Do they want to stop trade between the two due to this incident? Or perhaps stop the mixing of shinobi that had been happening under the guise of trade? Like we trained them for stores?'

'Do they want to hurt Konoha or just Kumo? If they want to hurt Konoha then are they going to attack the Kiri ninjas next as well?'

'What would a person seeing the future do if he can understand what products the Haruno store was releasing soon?'

'Perhaps by killing ninjas, they could instill fear into the shinobi and use that fear into stopping the shinobi from working for the stores? But they could easily see that all messaging systems could be replaced by the new devices that the store releases, so how would this be an attack on the store?'

'What is it that will exactly happen in the future because of the release of the internet that has made the sage of six paths or the toads take this action?'

The man slowly went inside the small cabin that had been built on the deck of the small boat, which allowed Megumi to teleport and sit right on top of the cabin roof with his infinity turned on so that his movements wouldn't make any sudden noises.

'Where is this boat going to sail to anyway? Land of Fire or the Land of Hot Water?'

'Is he going to travel from there on foot?'

'I need a better way to spy on people….I can't do that using open source software and it'd be hard to compete in the market with a product of my own….and I don't wan to have to spy over the entire human population, all I need are means to be able to pick out a single person or location and spy on it.'

Megumi looked into the distance as he watched the sky reflected over the blue ocean, its waves undulating, birds flying over, crossing the vast seas in flocks when an idea suddenly struck him.

'Satellite imagery?'

'Would it be possible?'

'I mean, there wouldn't be a bandwidth and internet connection problem….not even sending a satellite into orbit would be a problem with my teleportation techniques. The problem would only be in developing an imaging technique precise and clear enough to be able to actually take pictures and videos of what ever the telescope is pointed at…..'

'Wasn't Amegakure supposed to be technologically advanced? What happened to that country in this world? Is it still going to be technologically advanced? Or are they just going to use puppets like the guy below me on the ship?'

'...Why is the old man working towards defaming the Haruno stores using the Akatsuki anyway? Does Amegakure have a competing product they want to launch that they think will be in direct competition with ours? Even then, why kill random shinobi who have nothing to do directly with the store? Shouldn't he have infiltrated Konoha using Obito and then paste explosive tags all over the store? Not that it'd do anything with Annebelle there…ah…perhaps the old man can see that doing that would've only brought disaster over themselves?'

'But then, why attack random shinobi?'

'Rura? Why haven't we done your Kekkei genkai unsealing ceremony yet? Do you want something bad to happen before you do that?'

'What? No! I'm just busy! I'll do it later. Don't disturb me now unless you've got nothing else to do. Focus on your mission, you might find some valuable information if you figure something out.'

'Yeah…as if I'll figure out anything while sitting on a boat in the middle of the sea….'

'Didn't Hashirama-sama teach you his modified sage mode? Why don't you train it? I'm sure you aren't an expert in using it, given how little chakra you have and how easily Tsunade-sensei beats you each time you guys spar.'

'I haven't even used my teleportation techniques in any spars, even with you guys.'

'You don't use them because you know we will dodge you easily since we know how it works, making using it only a waste of chakra for you. Go do something else and don't disturb me now. I'm busy.'

Sakura stopped talking, leaving Megumi to focus only on the empty seas with the birds flying around in the distance.

'Maybe I can plan out how to build the satellite now?'

'No…I'd need proper equipment and be able to figure out how precise the lenses that are created in this world actually are.'

'Maybe I can replace the lens with my telescope jutsu in a seal..? No…not possible because nature chakra jutsus can't be done using seals. Then…maybe I turn the satellite into a spirit like Caroline and Annebelle? No, then their maintenance would become harder, and a spirit satellite although sounds fun would become irritating very soon when it might want to move from it's orbit…..'

'Would a space element clone be possible to make and then modify to replace the lens?'

'Probably, but it wouldn't be very controllable….I'll keep it as my last option.'

'*sigh**yawn*.....I'll think about this later….'

Expanding his senses outward while in his Universal Sage Mode, Megumi began to probe and peer the body of the Ninja under him.

'The baby is a puppet…..I knew that….but it is a surprise that most of his entire body also is one…..he's like the preliminary version of what Sasori was….a fitting person for the Asura path….perhaps this was where Sasori got his ideas from?'

'Oh? What's this under his lower lip? Is it a chakra rod? The thing that Nagato uses to communicate with his puppets? But isn't he a human still? Didn't Konan have this too? Is it something that lets them contact each other?'

'Perhaps Amegakure wants to sell something that uses chakra rods for communication as well? But wouldn't Nagato need to facilitate the entire communication grid himself then? I doubt that'd work well for him, and I doubt anyone would trust it after seeing that they could actually inspect the book's entire code. Tough, they probably wouldn't fully trust the book until they can inspect the chakra seals.'

'It sounds too flimsy a reason to kill four shinobi a few months in advance…..there has got to be more to it…..perhaps they would like to offer a different deal, and they want Kumogakure to not think about Konoha in a comfortable manner?'

'Maybe they want Kumogakure's attitude to remain neutral towards Konoha for some reason?'

'This is all so confusing….I need a better way to spy on my enemies….after all, if they can spy on my future I should be allowed to spy on their present….'

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Thank you for reading!

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