"What do we do? That guy is about to come banging on the door!"
A battered ronin knelt pitifully at Gato's feet, clutching the man's calf and crying nonstop.
"Get off me, get off me — I'm working on it!"
Gato kicked the ungrateful man several times before shoving him away, then turned to ask his other underlings, "Have you managed to contact the Akatsuki Organization?!"
"No, boss."
The subordinate asked looked bewildered and shook his head. Ever since the final payment was settled last time, they had lost the channel to the Akatsuki Organization.
Gato's face darkened even more when he heard the reply; in a fit of venting he kicked the henchman who was still lying on the ground.
He had thought that after Tazuna's death no one would be able to threaten his rule in the Land of Waves again.
But within days he received a report: a big, black-faced, green-eyed man with half his face covered had stormed in and killed his men.
By himself he had torn out three outposts Gato had placed on the edge of the Land of Waves.
"Sigh, the situation is urgent. I don't care if I offend a daimyo over this — send someone to contact the Integration Movement right now. Tell them to send people immediately. I'm willing to pay double!"
When your life is at stake, money naturally becomes a lot less important.
That night, exhausted from killing and hiding in a cave to count his money, Kakuzu received a message delivered by a summoned beast.
It said a wealthy merchant named Gato wanted the Integration Movement to step in and go to the Land of Waves to deal with a black-faced man.
Normally a man who rarely smiled, Kakuzu couldn't help but laugh after reading the message.
Fine, fine — you want me to kill myself, is that it?
After the laugh, Kakuzu also gleaned some useful intel from the message.
If the other side was willing to pay so heavily for him, it meant the thing that had inflicted 35 million ryo worth of damage and left someone critically wounded wasn't around.
That meant...
This trip is pure profit!
With that thought, Kakuzu's already green eyes seemed to shoot green lasers and shone unusually bright in the dim cave.
But before going, he wanted to squeeze a little more benefit out of it.
Kakuzu took out paper and pen and began to write a reply.
The gist was that the Integration Movement would accept Gato's commission — provided Gato paid a deposit in advance.
...
Takeshi's leg had finally healed.
Hakuyun Sōken and Uchiha Inaho also examined his limbs with some surprise.
Especially Uchiha Inaho — seeing the right hand he had lived with for decades returned, there were faint tears glimmering in his eyes.
Wonderful — through the long, long night he had something to rely on again.
Unfortunately, due to Konoha's strict crackdown on vices, books like Steamy Paradise and Snow Maiden stories were no longer sold in regular bookstores; to buy them one had to use underground channels.
Heard that Hatake Kakashi had a steady black-market channel — he should ask him about it sometime.
What Uchiha Inaho didn't know was that the operator of that secret channel was none other than Jiraiya, who sat beside him with a leering grin.
"Yo, Fifth — heard you took an arrow to the knee?"
Jiraiya draped an arm around Takeshi's shoulders, his face full of mischief.
"Yeah, so?"
Takeshi brushed him off — Jiraiya, when the mood lightened, immediately turned into a completely unserious character.
"Oh? I heard at first your regeneration didn't do anything at all."
Although Jiraiya's expression was joking, he genuinely wanted to know the secret of Takeshi's wound.
At Jiraiya's mention, Takeshi's knee tingled with phantom pain again.
"It was like this at first. Later I summoned Katsuya-sama, and only then did the wound heal properly."
When Takeshi answered, Jiraiya nodded and looked thoughtful.
It seemed the problem was the enemy's weapon.
He just didn't know whether Hiruko had found the arrow that had gone through Takeshi's knee.
"Tch, aren't you the one best at tricking people with ice clones?"
Jiraiya stopped, and Uchiha Hikari started poking fun again.
You could tell she still hadn't gotten over being tricked last time.
"Please — Granny, facing an enemy of that level I didn't have the energy to set clones as bait. Rather than waste chakra on decoys, I focused everything on quickly eliminating the opponent."
Takeshi shot back when taunted.
"Hmph — in the end, you're still too weak, kid."
"Weak? Fine, next time there's a human-made opponent, I'll put you in."
"You put me in? So what, you think I'm scared of him or what?!"
"Say it, don't punch me!"
"You dare kick me? I'll break your knee right now!"
"Murdering the Hokage, huh!"
Danzo's face grew darker and darker.