Nothing was more important than sleep, but Kakuzu was indeed a threat that required preparation.
Akaba thought for a moment and created Multiple Shadow Clones.
Truthfully, he wasn't particularly tired—his Physical Strength, Spirit Points, and Vitality were all at peak levels. Missing a day or two of sleep wasn't a big deal—it was just laziness kicking in after staying up all night.
The Shadow Clone suffered.
Because it had to not only keep watch but also endure watching the original sleeping comfortably inside the bedroom.
As for doing extra tasks? Did he look like the kind of diligent clone who would bother with that?
They endured until afternoon.
Suddenly, a pitch-black tendril slithered through the window crack, followed by a click as the window popped open. Then Kakuzu leaped inside from outside.
There sat "Akaba."
"So you've finally come."
"If I can get the money alone, there's no need to cooperate with others."
Kakuzu gave a slight smirk.
Earlier, when he went out, it hadn't been to investigate the market—he'd already seen enough and didn't need further observation.
His real purpose had been to assess the strength of other rogue ninja in Chaochuan Town, along with the distribution of Konoha and Sunagakure forces nearby, to determine what extent of battle wouldn't draw their heavy attention.
After circling around, he confirmed one thing:
Among all the rogue ninja in Chaochuan, the strongest was this "Mist-nin" before him.
"In that case... there's no choice but to be enemies."
The Shadow Clone sighed softly, then quickly formed hand seals.
[Hiding in Mist Technique]!
"Silent Killing Jutsu? Heh, if that's all you've got, you really are disappointing."
Kakuzu sneered coldly. His tendrils exploded outward, attacking in all directions.
Earth Grudge Fear was naturally unafraid of assassination techniques.
"Of course not."
Akaba's voice came from within the mist.
The Hiding in Mist Technique was only to keep Kakuzu from seeing his eyes—he had already awakened the instant Kakuzu came through the window.
Kakuzu braced himself, and Earth Grudge Fear's tendrils wildly lashed about.
Yet...
There was nothing. The opponent seemed to have made no move at all.
Just as he felt puzzled, suddenly two or three figures appeared beside him. Earth Grudge Fear immediately attacked, but the figures did not retreat—they pressed forward relentlessly.
He fought while retreating cautiously, and suddenly, blades rained down—slash after slash. Though Earth Grudge Fear's tendrils were powerful, they were severed by an invisible force.
After one exchange, there was already a sword wound on his body.
What kind of technique was this?
Kakuzu's heart pounded with alarm. He knew much about Mist-nin fighting styles. Normally, they relied on [Hiding in Mist Technique], combined with [Silent Killing Jutsu], swordsmanship, and sometimes Water Release Ninjutsu to achieve deadly strikes.
But this person was different.
It seemed he used some sort of clone technique—exchanging injuries with clones to injure him.
Although these attacks weren't yet seriously threatening, this mutual-damage style was extremely annoying. More importantly, Kakuzu couldn't even locate the enemy's real body.
How could he fight like this?
While deep in thought, two masked clones emerged from his own body.
Before the clones could act, they were instantly restrained by some unknown jutsu.
What specific technique? Even Kakuzu himself couldn't answer because he had never encountered such a ninjutsu before.
This was too strange!
"I know your secret technique — [Earth Grudge Fear]. It was once a forbidden art of Taki village, later stolen by someone named Kakuzu, and since then it's been lost. Looks like you are that very Kakuzu who once fought against the First Hokage."
He didn't reveal himself, because facing someone like Kakuzu, showing himself would give the opponent a chance to strike back. Although he still had the power of his right eye as a last resort, revealing it too soon would allow the enemy to gauge his true strength.
"Hmph, I never thought there'd still be someone who remembers me."
Kakuzu denied outwardly but felt some regret internally.
His initial instincts had been correct — this opponent was seriously dangerous and might actually be capable of killing him.
Akaba chuckled softly before threatening, "I've heard [Earth Grudge Fear] can absorb others' powers and turn them into clones like these. But it seems the masks are crucial. Break one —"
"If you dare destroy my masks, I'll go all-out. Even if I can't kill you, drawing attention from Konoha or Sunagakure will ruin your business."
Kakuzu immediately countered with his own threat.
"You're welcome to try whether I can kill you or not."
The moment he finished speaking,
Kakuzu suddenly sensed chakra forming around him and was instantly trapped inside a water prison.
So that's the trick — the clones get immobilized like this...
Before he could fully think, a blade silently pierced through the prison and rested at his throat while a kunai pointed directly at his heart. A similar situation occurred simultaneously at the masked clone's location.
Kakuzu knew he could escape from Akaba alone, but between his two masked clones and his original body, this would cost him three hearts.
Though war brought frequent opportunities to acquire new hearts, these three abilities fit him perfectly. Unless absolutely necessary, he had no intention of replacing them.
Of course, Kakuzu hadn't severed ties yet, mainly because Akaba didn't seem determined enough to kill him.
"Trading with the great nations requires powerful partners and subordinates. You, someone who once fought the First Hokage, needs no introduction in terms of strength. And you've already seen what I can do."
Akaba deactivated the ability of his left eye and dissipated the surrounding mist.
He sat calmly on a chair, completely at ease.
"While I don't recognize your name, your strength is undeniable. You barely qualify for collaboration."
Kakuzu retracted his [Earth Grudge Fear] masks and sat down on a nearby chair as well.
Akaba was driven by greed.
Ideally, he'd prefer taking everything for himself, but since he couldn't eliminate Akaba right now, cooperation was the only option.
After all, not many countries across the Ninja World were as lawless as the Land of River, and even fewer could serve as ideal bases for distributing manga. Going solo would be nearly impossible.
"So moving forward, let's discuss profit distribution."
Akaba ignored Kakuzu's stubborn remarks.
Those details didn't really matter. What mattered was that Kakuzu had agreed to cooperate — and genuinely feared his power.
With this, his plan succeeded.
The two bickered endlessly over the money until they finally settled on a four-way split — Akaba and Kakuzu each receiving four shares.
However, Akaba made a profit selling the manga to Kakuzu, then profited again when Kakuzu resold them. Although they split the earnings four ways, Akaba actually earned far more than Kakuzu.
After finishing the discussion about dividing the money, Kakuzu jumped out the window and left.
He didn't understand Akaba's techniques at all. Whether it was those clones or the later water prisons and blades, they gave him an extremely eerie feeling.
Worse still, back then the fog had been too thick to see anything clearly. He could only rely on feedback from Earth Grudge Fear to determine that those were real bodies, not illusions or shadow clones.
In ninja battles, Intelligence Reports are extremely important.
In this fight, the enemy knew about Earth Grudge Fear, yet Kakuzu knew absolutely nothing about Akaba — naturally putting him at a disadvantage until the very end.
Even if he unleashed his full power at that moment, he couldn't be certain whether Akaba could instantly kill all five of his masks with that technique. If the opponent really possessed such strength, he'd have been finished.
Until he figured out Akaba's true capabilities, Kakuzu dared not attack again.
After he left, Akaba let out a long sigh of relief.
This was the first time he had used the Mangekyo Sharingan in battle since acquiring it, and the results were impressive — even someone like Kakuzu could be taken down — or even wiped out — with ease.
However,
he was well aware this technique had its limits.
Just like the powerful illusions of the Sakuma clan, which are known for manipulating perception, when enemies reached a certain level of strength, even if he "killed" them within the illusion, the effect wouldn't perfectly translate into reality.
Zuo's ability was no different.
Once illusions became tangible, they became vulnerable to being analyzed and countered.
Kakuzu's crushing defeat this time was largely related to insufficient Intelligence Reports and interference from the Hiding in Mist Technique.
At the same time, Akaba hadn't fully developed the most perfect application of Materializing Illusions into Reality either. He was still experimenting. For now, combining it with Mist Jutsu yielded pretty good results.
However, this time in order to avoid exposing the Genjutsu, he first used spiritual energy and chakra to create an illusion in the Genjutsu Space where Kakuzu was surrounded and attacked, then transformed it into reality using chakra — thus consuming quite a lot of chakra.
Otherwise, if he had let Kakuzu fall into a Genjutsu first, then used his Sharingan to transform the illusion into reality, both the consumption level and technique variations would have been much better than now.
Akaba rubbed his eyes. After resting for a long time, the soreness finally disappeared.
He confirmed his Sharingan indeed had fewer side effects compared to an ordinary Mangekyo Sharingan, which was most likely related to his possessing both Uchiha Bloodline and Uzamaki Bloodline ability simultaneously.
Fortunately, cooperation had been established.
Their agreement made Kakuzu another leader on this side in the Land of River, effectively becoming their boss.
Kakuzu's earning capability was trustworthy. Leaving the underground forces in the Land of River under his management while Akaba supervised Kakuzu himself meant he could save a lot of effort.
Of course, Kakuzu wouldn't run things directly himself — he'd form two rival groups and have them compete, slowly taking over the market.
Taking the time to go downstairs for dinner, Akaba quickly informed Leader Chao briefly, just to make sure none of them got caught off guard and wiped out by Kakuzu for pissing him off.
Only after handling all this did Akaba finally have time to properly explore present-day Chaochuan Town.
This place had changed drastically, mainly due to the arrival of Wandering Samurai drawn here by the popularity of manga and national-level endorsement.
Elsewhere, it would be unusual to see someone like Akaba carrying a daisho at his waist, but here you'd run into several within just a few steps. Some even carried three blades at once, just like Zoro from the manga.
Near the riverbank, they'd even built a small dock, where newly constructed pirate ships were currently moored.
In every way, One Piece was shaping the town's development.
After walking around, however, what interested Akaba most was something else entirely—Chaochuan Town already had knockoff manga merchandise appearing.
It was a blacksmith's shop whose business had previously been fairly mediocre, but ever since he started copying the weapon designs from Zoro and Dracule Mihawk, his business had become wildly successful overnight.
Akaba silently observed this without any intention of stopping or pursuing copyright issues—after all, once he took over the underground gangs in Chaochuan Town, those protection fees could easily be collected later anyway. That wasn't a big problem.
Still, this was enough evidence to show that One Piece indeed held tremendous influence here.
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