Naruto: Starting by Reading Minds in Naruto

Konan stood at the edge of a tower a hundred meters above Amegakure’s streets while rain drifted across the city in silver curtains. Her dark cloak carried red clouds, and a pale paper flower rested against her blue-violet hair. Below, pipes, roofs, and narrow towers disappeared into mist. 

Something disturbed the pattern. Her expression tightened. She turned from the ledge and entered the chamber behind her, where Nagato’s thin body rested among the black receivers that sustained his connection to the Six Paths. 

”Someone has entered the village,” Konan said. 

Nagato closed his eyes and extended his awareness through the rain. For a moment, nothing changed except the water striking metal outside. 

”A skilled intruder has learned to confuse the Rain Tiger at Will Technique,” he said. ”Perhaps the same enemy has returned with others who still understand nothing of pain. Find them.” 

Konan left a paper clone beside him and walked into the open air. Sheets unfolded from her back, assembled into wings, and carried her toward the command center. 

Across Amegakure, four of Pain’s bodies opened their Rinnegan at the same instant. They left their stations and began moving through separate districts. 

The alert reached ordinary units minutes later. ”Foreign shinobi have infiltrated the village,” Hayakawa’s superior announced. ”Assemble your teams, search your assigned sectors, and signal immediately if you encounter anyone suspicious.” 

Tonbo accepted the order with Hayakawa’s habitual nod. He had been practicing the dead man’s umbrella techniques and taijutsu patterns when the summons arrived. Had he been discovered? Tonbo doubted it. He had imitated Hayakawa thoroughly and gone unnoticed for so long. Unless Nagato or Konan confronted him directly, he still trusted the disguise. 

Then had someone found Togekei and the others? His student would not disobey him. After the earlier warning, he was far more suspicious of Danzō’s two operatives. 

Tonbo fastened Hayakawa’s equipment and sent three brief messages. His borrowed subordinates answered and converged upon their normal meeting point. 

The youngest was barely twelve, newly promoted and eager to impress. The other two possessed more caution but watched their captain for direction. Tonbo knew their names, training records, rivalries, and preferred meals. None knew that the man leading them had killed their teacher earlier. 

They crossed Amegakure at speed. Shinobi filled the roofs and elevated walkways; civilians reported unfamiliar faces and opened storage rooms for inspection. The response revealed a cohesion Tonbo had not expected. People did not merely fear God and Lady Angel. They believed the current rulers had ended years of internal violence, and they defended that stability willingly. 

A huge bird circled above the towers. Its eyes bore the same concentric pattern as the Rinnegan, and its gaze swept the streets below. Winged hounds bounded between roofs, sniffing through water and oil while their shared vision fed the Animal Path a growing map of the search. 

This was no routine patrol. Nagato had mobilized summons, bodies, village units, and civilians at once. 

Tonbo was ready to flee if he was discovered. He hoped Togekei could stay hidden; otherwise they would have to withdraw before finishing the mission. 

Beneath the village, small mice stepped onto Murakumo’s waiting scroll. 

”What did they find?” Iwao asked. 

Murakumo read the information on the scroll. ”The entire village is searching. Pain’s summons are in the streets. Either an invasion has begun, or the captain was discovered.” 

Togekei studied both men. They did not appear to be lying. Perhaps his teacher really had been discovered after obtaining important intelligence. 

”If Teacher was exposed, he may be unable to contact us,” Togekei said. 

”Then we should find him,” Murakumo replied. ”Any intelligence important enough to provoke this response must be recovered.” 

The argument sounded reasonable and served Root equally well. If Tonbo carried information about the Rinnegan, Murakumo wanted it delivered to Danzō before Amegakure killed him. 

Togekei shook his head. ”If he needs extraction, he knows how to reach us. Leaving without a message would expose four people instead of one. We wait.” 

He remembered years of Tonbo turning apparent emergencies into tests of judgment. A subordinate who rushed toward danger without understanding it merely created a second rescue problem. As a chūnin and former team captain, Togekei could no longer excuse that mistake as loyalty. 

Iwao and Murakumo exchanged a glance. Another possibility occurred to them: Root teams, using Tonbo’s discovery, might have triggered the search. 

Elsewhere, a kunai punched through the chest of a shinobi in an Amegakure rain cloak. 

Konan descended behind the collapsing body. Paper wings dissolved around her as she tore open the cloak and found an operative without identification. He wore no forehead protector and carried nothing but shinobi tools. His brain had already been destroyed to prevent interrogation. 

She recognized the method. Root had used disposable shinobi and erased identities when Danzō helped Hanzō turn against the original Akatsuki. The trap had ended with Yahiko’s death. Years had passed, but the contempt in Konan’s face remained immediate. 

Amegakure shinobi landed around her and bowed. 

”Lady Angel.” 

”This is one infiltrator,” Konan said. ”There are others. Search every district and let no suspicious person leave.” 

She rose into the rain before anyone answered. 

Tonbo arrived with Hayakawa’s team minutes later. The corpse had been left where nearby units could examine it, though almost every useful clue had been destroyed. 

One of his young subordinates looked upon it with open admiration. ”Lady Angel found him before he could harm anyone.” 

”As expected,” Tonbo said. ”God’s messenger protects Amegakure.” 

His borrowed voice carried the proper reverence. His senses told him more. The residual chakra, the method of suicide, and the circumstances of this mission left him in little doubt that the dead man had served Danzō. 

Danzō had placed another operation inside Tonbo’s mission and brought Nagato’s full attention down upon the village. 

Tonbo kept Hayakawa’s expression calm while disgust settled coldly beneath it. Root had not merely endangered his cover. It had transformed months of patient intelligence work into a search that could expose every Konoha shinobi in the country.