Chapter 19 The Correct Way to Gather Intelligence

The rain showed no signs of letting up. Logan adjusted the hood of his cloak as he walked under the eaves of the street shops.

He had never been to Amegakure before, so he only has the impression from the original work. The bad weather and underdevelopment indeed made it an unfavorable place.

Few people walked on the streets in the rain, making it even more desolate. Logan turned onto another street and looked up. He could see Amegakure's mission center in the distance through the rain curtain.

Logan strolled leisurely, but his mind was always active, noting locations, comparing some buildings with the information on the map, and familiarizing himself with the surroundings.

These were all important in an unfamiliar environment. After all, in case of a conflict, whether to eliminate enemies or escape, it would be based on these factors.

Although Logan and Itachi weren't going to lurk in this area for long, they would definitely stay for about a week, which was quite ample time. To be honest, Logan wasn't keen on staying in Amegakure for too long. The frustrating rainy weather was one thing, and another was the imprudence of moving right under Akatsuki's nose.

After wandering around for a while, evening approached, and the rain finally became lighter. Logan then returned to the agreed rendezvous point. That was about it for today, as wandering around aimlessly any longer would make him too obvious.

"Senpai."

Itachi arrived on time, and only greeted with one word. After nodding to each other, they went to the rented inn together.

In the room, Logan took off the raincoat he had been wearing all day, stretched his arms, and asked Itachi: "How did it go? Any news?"

Itachi, who also took off his cloak, shook his head with a slight frown, "There isn't any valuable information."

After spending the day visiting several taverns and gambling dens, although he heard plenty, the information was too chaotic to distinguish, especially regarding Akatsuki.

Logan wasn't surprised by this. He had received training in this area before becoming an ANBU, and his career as a Ninja was much longer than Itachi's, so he had more patience for this.

Of course, there is another crucial point: The information about Akatsuki... Is there anyone in this world who knows Akatsuki better than him? As long as Logan is willing, he can write several scrolls of Akatsuki's activities in a matter of minutes, so Logan's mindset is completely different from Itachi's.

"Senpai, should we try a different approach?" Itachi looked at Logan, with restlessness hidden in his dark eyes.

'I didn't expect that the calm Itachi would sometimes feel frustrated when there was no progress. Well, he is still young and hadn't really grown up yet after all.' Logan sighed in his heart, and said, "It's fine like this. Let's see it for two more days."

Since the team leader, Logan had spoken, Itachi could only nod. During the sparring the night before entering the Land of Rain, Logan had gained a slight advantage, which made Itachi acknowledge the strength of this leader.

The process of gathering intelligence was inevitably boring. Two days passed, and Logan had roughly figured out the situation in Amegakure, while Itachi's progress was minimal, almost nonexistent. After completing his part of the work, Logan joined Itachi's ineffective eavesdropping team.

Only after they started working together did Logan realize why Itachi had only gathered a few scattered pieces of information in three days. Every time he returned, he had a sullen expression, as if he would go out and beat up an Amegakure's Ninja at any moment to extract information.

Logan realized that Itachi's approach was wrong. He was just sitting in the corner like a piece of wood. It was no wonder those Ninjas wouldn't let their guard down around him.

'Pretending to be cool is great, but how can you get any useful information that way?'

This reminded Logan of the original work in which Jiraiya traveled around and collected intelligence for Konoha, 'Maybe only a bastard like Jiraiya, who could get along with anyone, can do this kind of thing. If Orochimaru is the one doing so... well, the tone would definitely shift from being light-hearted ecchi to bloody and violent.

The same is true when it comes to Itachi at this time. Although this is not mentioned in the original work, Yu Xiaobai estimates that Itachi will definitely take violent measures after the initial setback.

Now that Logan understood Itachi's wrong approach, Logan immediately decided to demonstrate to his junior what the correct standard and norms of teaching were.

"Oy, someone, bring me a few hostesses!" Logan slapped the table excitedly, and shouted with great momentum.

"Senpai…"

The corner of Itachi's mouth twitched and he stopped talking.

"Just kidding." Logan said jokingly, with a smile on his face that made Itachi have an inexplicable urge to hit him, "I noticed you've been frowning a lot these past few days, so I thought I'd crack a joke to lighten the mood."

"Alright, alright." Itachi said, taking a sip of water to calm his nerves.

In fact, there is nothing wrong with Yu Logan's behavior of calling the bartender just now. After all, in the original story, Jiraiya also collected a lot of important information while enjoying himself.

However, there wasn't just one way to do it, and this approach was relatively high-profile, not quite in line with Logan's intentions. Plus, not everyone had the strength of the Sannin.

In addition to listening, there is also talking. As long as you were a bit sociable, you could easily strike up conversations with the locals.

Although Logan wasn't an expert, he is definitely much more skilled than Itachi, especially with his psychological age being much older and his experience in modern society. He had a whole set of social skills that left Itachi stunned. Itachi didn't expect that they could do it like this.

Another two days passed, and Logan and Itachi focused on showing up at night when there was a lot of people coming in and out, so it was impossible not to gather any information.

And although Akatsuki was currently keeping a low profile, they are still the de facto rulers of Amegakure.

As the saying goes, there were no walls that were completely airtight.

On the fifth night, with the moon hidden and the wind howling, Logan and Itachi decided to loosen up a bit and then cooperated to capture an Amegakure's Ninja in an unknown corner.

After Itachi interrogated him vigorously, putting into practice the knowledge he had gained from books and venting his frustrations from the previous days, information about Akatsuki became clear to them.

Of course, it is actually only for Itachi. logan was already familiar with Akatsuki, not to mention the information they obtained is only from an Amegakure's Ninja who was barely a Chunin.

"Akatsuki has replaced Hanzo as the leader of Amegakure." After 'disposing' the Amegakure's Ninja without anyone noticing, Itachi returned to the hotel room and frowned. Logan also had to put on a slightly serious expression.

That Amegakure's Ninja didn't know much, as he was just a peripheral member of Akatsuki. All he knew was that the organization's recent goal was to amass wealth in large quantities, and the rewards he received for completing missions would have to be handed over to their superiors every now and then. Apart from that, he didn't even know what their superiors looked like.

Amassing wealthis what every organization must do, as financial power was the foundation of their operations. Although this alone wasn't enough to allow them gain any insights, however, the fact that the leader of Amegakure has changed is considered a big discovery, which is enough to make them go back and report it.

They had been away from the village for quite some time now, and considering the journey back and forth, it would mean that it's already the tenth day when they return, so Logan proposed the idea of returning to the village.

"Their core members are very mysterious. Several Amegakure's Ninja I asked in the past few days couldn't explain clearly, and there are also some information brokers. They shouldn't lie after taking the money." Logan said thoughtfully, 'The Akatsuki organization doesn't seem that simple."

Itachi lowered his head and thought for a while, then raised his head, his calm and indifferent face carrying the ignorance and fearlessness of a genius as he said, "In that case, how about we capture one of their core members for interrogation?"