You are Uzumaki Naori, formerly a member of the mercenary organization Akatsuki, now the ‘great Sage’ of the Hidden Rain and of the ancient Shrike clan. After turning against that organization due to a difference in moral compasses – you had one and too many of the Akatsuki did not – you faced many strong enemies in the span of one extraordinary year. That year ended with you facing the awakened Ōtsutsuki Kaguya-hime alone, a duel in which a single misstep could cost your life and quite possibly the freedom of every single living person in the world.

Now, more than a decade after the end of the old Akatsuki largely at the edge of your blade, the top-level terrorist organization of the day is Kara. Divided into the ‘Inners’ off the organization proper and the ‘Outers’ who serve as their business associates, Kara has kept a far lower profile than Akatsuki ever intended to.

Your daughter Makoto has long been helping your village as it’s spearheaded the effort to deal with the Outers, dragging them out into the light for judgment, while your son Shiki almost seems like your favorite kind of ‘lucky idiot’. He played an outsized role in the defeat and capture of an Inner, the foul-tempered artificial woman named Delta, as well as securing the peaceful surrender of a former Inner going by the name Ōga. You should probably be teasing him more about the fact that he’s somehow managed to weasel his way into the good graces of the only two female members of Kara that you know of, but there will be plenty of time for that later. After all, it’s more important in your mind to finish cleaning up after your own generation’s messes while you’re still in your prime.

“Are there any other targets?” you press.

Kashin Koji, an enhanced clone of the legendary toad-sage Jiraiya, is apparently part of some kind of internal schism within the organization and therefore represents your best avenue for advancing against them. After besting him in a fight, he event seems to be cooperative.

“There are plenty of people who have been given advanced prosthetics,” Koji tells you. “If you wanted to go for some kind of ‘clean sweep’ you could target them. But aside from that… there are two. I’m not certain about them however.”

“Why not?” Fū asks.

“Because they were meant to be ‘decomissioned’ by Boro some time ago,” Koji clarifies with a slight frown. “I know I always suspected he could not do so the way Jigen intended.”

“… why not?” Sasori repeats.
>1/?