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"Ah—isn't that obviously not allowed?"
"No matter what, this place was built by me. If I let it get robbed just like that, wouldn't I lose face?"
Hatake Kuroshi showed no intention of dodging, even standing still and tilting his head slightly, pointing a single finger at the incoming fist.
"How is that possible!?"
Kakuzu watched wide-eyed as the rapidly striking tentacle fist was forcefully stopped right in front of this person.
He couldn't help but exclaim in shock.
Although the tentacle still seemed to maintain its original force, the fist simply couldn't touch the person's body, as if an unbreakable barrier existed before him.
Even now, despite using his full strength, the fist remained completely motionless!
But there didn't seem to be any barrier around this person. How did he stop it?
Before Kakuzu could withdraw his hand, Hatake Kuroshi's gaze fell on the case beside him.
The case he hadn't put down from the beginning. It felt like something very important was inside.
A bright smile suddenly appeared on Hatake Kuroshi's face.
"But you said you had no money, do you really have no money~?"
As his cheerful voice rang out, the case in Kakuzu's hand suddenly flew up as if uncontrolled.
"Suction?!"
Kakuzu finally realized what felt wrong.
However, the moment he reacted, he was sent flying backward heavily, crashing into the sealed wall behind him.
Bang!
The sealed door behind Kakuzu was directly dented deeply; Kakuzu was almost entirely embedded into it.
This inexplicable feeling... the ability used by the youth before him was subtly similar to Pain's Shinra Tensei (Almighty Push).
Although not entirely identical, the feeling was very similar.
"Damn it... didn't expect Kirigakure to have someone like this."
Kakuzu's pupils constricted sharply. His combat experience far surpassed everyone here.
Even without fighting Hatake Kuroshi to the end, he clearly realized there was an absolute gap in strength between them.
Despite limitations of the location and both holding back, this guy's ease and bizarre strength definitely couldn't be faked.
The reason Kirigakure dared to open its gates wide, run a amusement park, and secretly operate a sanctuary... was likely related to this kid.
"Eh—isn't this a lot of money!"
Hatake Kuroshi sat in front of the cashier counter, opening the black case with a click.
The case was stuffed full; the moment it opened, several banknotes even scattered out.
Hatake Kuroshi roughly glanced at the denominations inside the case; there might be tens of millions of ryo in there.
No matter how numerous or valuable Akatsuki's missions were, this amount of money didn't seem like something obtainable from a single mission.
This money likely included funds Kakuzu earned along the way.
"Regardless, you really have a knack for accumulating wealth~"
It's a pity that after you die, all this money will be taken by Konan to buy explosive tags, burning it all to nothing in ten minutes.
Sigh, anyway, money is an external possession. Whether burned in ten minutes or falling directly into my hands, it makes no difference.
Hatake Kuroshi closed the case with a snap, propped his legs up on the cashier counter, rested his cheek on his hand, and looked at Kakuzu embedded directly into the wall.
"This money is enough to buy your own life~ If you come next time, I can even give you a 10% discount."
"But, you surely don't still want to continue fighting me, right?"
Although the smile on Hatake Kuroshi's face remained unchanged, the aura and temperature around him suddenly dropped several degrees.
Despite wearing an eye patch, one could clearly feel the change in this person's gaze.
"..."
Kakuzu usually scammed others out of their money; when had someone else ever scammed money from him? This was simply absurd.
But he was helpless. He couldn't possibly risk his life fighting this person over this money.
He, the treasurer, encountered such a problem. Fortunately, the others didn't know about this sum yet.
He would likely have to do missions himself later to pay it back. This whole affair was simply not worth the loss.
Hatake Kuroshi looked knowingly at Kakuzu's gloomy face and silent response, clapped his hands with a grin, and said to the ANBU members beside him.
"Alright, the customer has paid! Send him off properly~"
Inside the dim cave, several flickering afterimages stood within the Akatsuki base.
Demonic Statue Chains technique; simply put, Akatsuki members could convert their chakra into 'thought waves,' which Pain received and then projected as illusions onto fixed locations.
In short, a communication ninjutsu that didn't require revealing one's true body.
Zetsu emerged from underground. Akatsuki missions were carried out in pairs; one person was clearly missing beside Kakuzu.
"One person died. But rather than being killed by the enemy, it's more accurate to say he was killed by his own teammate."
"Who asked him to drag his feet?"
Kakuzu crossed his arms, glancing sideways disdainfully.
Zetsu projected the specific image. Simply put, both the enemy and his teammate were blasted to death by Kakuzu.
"Intentional."
"Deliberate."
Sasori and Orochimaru successively commented. Although the two disliked each other, they sounded quite similar when criticizing others.
"Should've just dodged."
Kakuzu maintained his matter-of-fact attitude. Having a weakling follow him was annoying enough; being hindered was worse than him acting alone.
Pain showed no intention of pursuing responsibility; anyway, the personalities of these missing-nin were all strange.
Being killed for not being strong enough was only natural.
However, until the next member joined, or until another person died, Kakuzu temporarily couldn't be assigned overly important missions.
"Akatsuki is about to enter the next phase: Tailed Beasts."
"Tailed Beasts are mainly held by the Five Great Nations, but several are missing."
"Just investigate during your missions."
Kakuzu spoke as if remembering something.
"The Fourth Mizukage, Yagura Karatachi, the Three-Tails Jinchuriki, is already dead."
"The Three-Tails should still be in the Land of Water, but who its successor is, is unknown."
Kirigakure's reforms happened too quickly, leaving people somewhat bewildered.
After the Fourth Mizukage's death, there seemed to be no news of anyone else becoming the Three-Tails Jinchuriki.
Pain nodded. It was natural for Kakuzu to go to Kirigakure; his sense for money was very keen.
That place had also been madly accumulating wealth recently, just targeting a different audience than Akatsuki.
They didn't interfere with each other, and for now, couldn't cause any harm to Akatsuki.
Pain's plan was to observe for now, see what the ultimate goal of Kirigakure's reformative actions was.
The Rinnegan's gaze swept across the surrounding people, finally landing on Juzo Biwa beside him, who was trying his best to minimize his presence.
"Juzo, you two are responsible for matters in the Land of Water."
"Aren't there any other missions?"
Juzo tried to dodge but couldn't escape this assignment, reluctantly acknowledging.
Itachi silently watched the unwilling Juzo Biwa with his Sharingan active.
He wasn't familiar with the Land of Water. After the Third Shinobi World War ended, Kirigakure basically made no major moves.
Besides occasionally sending out spies, they had almost no presence.
Separated by a vast ocean, even being called the Village of the Bloody Mist, they mostly just heard about it.
"You're familiar with that place, right?"
Pain gave Juzo Biwa no chance to refuse, quickly ending the Demonic Statue Chains technique.
Juzo Biwa and Itachi sat on opposite sides of the fire. As soon as they opened their eyes, Juzo Biwa's face fell.
"Really forcing people. I absolutely don't want to go back to that annoying place."
This feels like a new employer asking you to go back to your old employer to gather some intel, and the old employer is fully armed, ready to kill you at any moment.
Juzo Biwa felt his head buzz just thinking about it.
Early the next morning.
After passing through the dense forest, the border with the Land of Water was a chasm-like cliff, with rushing water below.
Juzo Biwa planted his large sword into the ground with a reverse grip, looking towards the forest opposite.
This location was still some distance from the Land of Water; the forest could completely block the view of Kirigakure.
Normally, no one would cross the border through this route.
Juzo Biwa glanced strangely at the forest. He vaguely remembered this place being covered in mist when he left before?
Why had even the mist mostly dissipated now?
After Yagura Karatachi died, did Kirigakure basically abandon his insane dense fog policy?
"Well? Have you been to the Land of Water before? This place is basically my hometown."
Juzo Biwa looked back at the silent Itachi. Quiet and taciturn; that was his deepest impression of the Uchiha.
"On missions, no."
Itachi replied honestly.
"Then on a picnic?"
Although said to lighten the mood, Itachi remained quite uncooperative and silent.
Juzo Biwa paused, then squeezed out a "Tch" through his teeth somewhat disdainfully.
"Forget it, you're really no fun. Anyway, the mission itself isn't difficult. Assassinate someone in the Land of Water Daimyo's family."
"The Land of Water heir produced too many offspring, leading to this situation."
"Kirigakure cannot directly interfere in the Daimyo's affairs, and the Daimyo cannot directly influence Kirigakure's affairs. These two are relative."
"So the Daimyo and the others can only turn to Akatsuki now. After finishing this, we still need to inquire about the Three-Tails."
Juzo Biwa briefly explained the entire mission situation to Itachi.
This mission wasn't difficult; they had done quite a few assassination jobs.
Excluding the Tailed Beast aspect, this was just a routine mission.
Itachi nodded thoughtfully.
"Kirigakure's previous rule was: if ninjas from other countries are found on their territory, immediately extract intel and dispose of them."
"But it seems things have changed now due to the reforms."
Juzo Biwa recalled those stubborn traditionalists who had always been in Kirigakure, shaking his head somewhat helplessly.
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