Hand in the shadows

Nagato was using the King of Hell to rebuild the majority of the Pains for the third time, while observing from his hiding spot, using Yahiko's body as a beacon, the devastated surroundings of many buildings in Amegakure.

He had no idea how, but apparently, the Seimeikage learned of his plan to kidnap his children as hostages and use them to control him in less than half a day. So much for his intention to force him to return the Gedo Mazo as well as deliver the Seven-Tails' jinchuriki.

And perhaps the Black Zetsu...

His lightning release was strange; he couldn't absorb lightning like other jutsus, and it seemed to be aware of all the abilities of each Pain, constantly preventing him from grabbing it and ripping its soul from its body to examine its memories.

Every time he blinked, a rain of punches to the chest and repeated kicks to the groin would end up shattering his puppets, and he had to summon them to throw them into the King of Hell to repair them.

He wasn't even using ninjutsu against him at any point; he blinked with great speed, barely managing to follow its trajectory with the shared Rinnegan and then physically venting against all of them.

He even seemed impatient while repairing the Pains without interrupting him!

Well, not that he could blame him; apparently, the normal reaction of a father when he knows that someone is conspiring against his children is not exactly positive.

The part he didn't understand was where Konan was.

The fight and destruction had been more than enough to reveal the enemy attack; the only reason he could think of why she wasn't by his side would be...

Enel didn't come alone.

Maybe he brought the Seven-Tails' jinchuriki, and Konan was busy with her?

No matter, he was confident that he could handle the jinchuriki on his own.

In another part of Amegakure...

Konan was lying on the ground, trembling and crying, her head swollen like a pig after receiving a beating from the mothers of Nagato's "targets."

Ameyuri, Pakura, and Anko were not at all happy with the situation!

Fortunately for her, there were two reasons why they didn't kill her... yet.

The first was that she provided them with the source of information on how they knew about their babies, as theoretically, no one besides the Kages and their assistants from the Suna-Kumo-Seimei alliance should know.

This kind of leak was quite serious, and naturally, providing information helped her survive. It helped that she was entirely sincere when she said that she didn't want this to happen. She conveyed her feelings through her eyes, her now swollen and bruised eyes...

The second reason, on the other hand...

—So, should we let her go? —Anko looked reluctantly at the blue-haired woman who had been helpless since inhaling the special poison she prepared for the occasion, not only depriving her of chakra control but also paralyzing her for the most part.

—From her story, she seems more like a victim of her own circumstances, trapped following an idiot who thinks he's a God... —Pakura rubbed her sore knuckles from the repeated impacts.

—My instinct tells me that she was really reluctant to do something like this; you heard the conversation she had with that orange-haired guy —Ameyuri, who provided sixty percent of the pain and more in the crunching of Konan's bones, but also proposed letting her go, surprising the other two women— Why do you think we found her vomiting like a schoolgirl?

Yes, Enel's three wives had awakened a new superpower that made them owners of a unique and legendary ultraperception that transcended the mysteries of the world: the instinct of a mother!

If there had been even the tiniest bit of malice in Konan's attitude or if she had lied to them about everything that happened, there wouldn't even be ashes left of her by now.

So they settled for a good spanking without going further.

—Alright —Anko also felt that Konan shouldn't be that kind of person— I think she got the message; what do we do with her then? We can't just leave her here, not after she told us who the source was —Anko picked up a scroll with a very recognizable seal for her.

—Let her sleep until I finish everything —Ameyuri suggested as she executed her plan and struck Konan's neck, rendering her unconscious without much effort— Where she goes when our stallion finishes everything is her business; I just hope she doesn't make us regret this.

—Why do you keep calling our husband that? —Pakura sighed at Ameyuri's way of expressing herself— Aren't you ashamed?

—I know what I want and how I want it! —Ameyuri looked at her with a righteous expression, raising an eyebrow and showing a sharp smile— And I didn't hear you denying it...

Pakura: ...

For once, Anko acted as the mature one in the trio of three and pulled out the den den mushi to transmit to Enel what they had learned from the blue-haired woman.

Bururu, burururu, kachak!

—Is everything okay? —even before she could say a greeting, she heard Enel's voice with a concerned expression, and the three felt warmth in their hearts.

—We took care of everything without a problem, but we found something interesting —Anko ignored the sound of bones and flesh being hit from the other side of the snail— We discovered who leaked the information about our children to Akatsuki, undoubtedly to target us indirectly without us being able to relate it.

—You mean there's a third party behind all this? —Enel's voice seemed surprised at the revelation, but not for that reason did the background sounds stop.

—Yes, someone we encountered in the past —Anko continued— I thought maybe he turned the page at this point after so much time; damn, I would have even forgotten about him if it weren't for what we found. But it seems he's simply been waiting silently for the moment to deal his worst blow —she looked at the symbol on the scroll of information.

—You're going to have to be a bit more concise, dear —Enel said, seeing that Anko was beating around the bush— There are a lot of people who could fit that description.

And it seemed that Ameyuri also wanted to get to the point, so she snatched the den den mushi from Anko and directly released the identity of the culprit.

—The patriarch of the Nara clan, Shikaku Nara!

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Notice that the next chapter will be released in a week due to a small problem, you already know.