Land of Fire, Western Bounty Exchange.
Kakuzu took a money chest from the exchange's manager, opened it for a careful look, then weighed it in his hands.
"We've worked together for years, and you're still this cautious," the manager said with a wry shake of his head, gray-white high-collared coat rustling.
"When it comes to money, I'm always like this. Money is the only reliable thing in life. It never lets you down," Kakuzu replied, voice low beneath his black high collar.
"Suit yourself. I've got a lucrative contract—are you free?"
"If you are, with your strength and completion rate, we won't need anyone else."
"If the pay is rich enough, I'm interested."
"It's very rich. Thirty million ryō to kill one jōnin—and take back an item."
Kakuzu's tongue clicked; he looked intrigued. "What jōnin is worth that much?"
In the original, Chiriku's bounty was thirty million ryō; Asuma's was thirty-five.
By rank and résumé alone, Kokugetsu wasn't worth thirty million. But because of the Byakugan and a personal grudge, the grand elder had raised the price.
"Konoha jōnin Kageyama Kokugetsu. Thirteen. ANBU squad captain. Possesses the Hyuga clan's Byakugan.
"Specializes in stealth and assassination, reconnaissance, and taijutsu; very fast; solid ninjutsu; and summons a flying eagle."
"A Konoha prodigy, huh? I do enjoy erasing Konoha prodigies," Kakuzu said, surprised and amused. "The item is the Byakugan, right?"
"That's right."
"Heh. Ugly persecution. Don't give this one to anyone else—I'll take it."
"Here are the mission parameters and target intel."
"Got it."
Kakuzu accepted the scroll, hefted the heavy chest, and strode off.
…
Two afternoons later in the southwest of the Land of Fire, in a wild peach grove.
Kokugetsu fished by a stream. On the low table beside him sat chilled wine, soft drinks, snacks, and freshly washed wild peaches.
Crunch. Juice spattered as he bit down on a peach—sweet and tart. He lifted a tall glass for a sip; the cool, clean wine flowed across his tongue. Life was easy.
"Hm?"
Sensing a disturbance from his Elephant-Shift clone, Kokugetsu shifted his consciousness.
A hundred li from the grove, in a mountain forest, the clone had split from his subordinates only moments before—then an ambush.
A torrent of flame poured from above like a flood, a raging, searing wave setting everything alight. The area was so wide that an average jōnin could hardly dodge in time.
Having the Byakugan didn't mean you could never be ambushed; you couldn't keep it active every moment.
The clone clapped his hands; the jutsu snapped into being. Earth thrust up beneath his feet, a column ramming him past the falling fire.
"Not bad for a Konoha prodigy. You've got some tricks."
Kakuzu flashed from cover. The wind-mask on his back gaped and spat a string of compressed wind bullets.
The clone stomped the rising pillar, body launching into the air to slip the volley.
Summoning Technique!
Without even weaving signs, the clone pressed his right hand to the air. Black formulae rippled outward…
With a puff, a magnificent golden eagle burst forth. The clone swung onto its back and soared.
"That casting speed… no wonder!"
Lightning Release: False Darkness!
Kakuzu's face darkened. The lightning-mask spewed blinding light; it gathered into a telescoping lance and stabbed skyward.
With Byakugan open, the clone read the strike from below and banked the eagle aside, easily slipping the blow.
"Damn. He got away. This is trouble."
Kakuzu stared up, scowling. There went his perfect record at the exchange.
Back in the peach grove by the stream—
"Kakuzu?"
Kokugetsu considered. "No personal grudge. He's a bounty man…
"So the old Hyuga fossils really did plan to borrow a knife."
"Heh. Since the money's been spent, how could he return empty-handed?
"Let me show you the famed Murong of Gusu move—returning one's own way upon oneself."
He rose from the lounge chair. His eyes shifted—black eyes and Byakugan—and the chair, rod, and all trappings vanished, replaced by his ANBU mask.
Mask on, a black-red spatial vortex unfurled. Kokugetsu stepped in—and stepped out a hundred li away, onto the golden eagle's crown.
He dispelled the Elephant-Shift clone, turned the eagle back, and with keen sight soon picked out Kakuzu bounding through the woods.
He ignored Kakuzu for the moment and swept the area with Byakugan…
In about three minutes he found a Hyuga shinobi.
Ten seconds later, Kokugetsu dropped into the path of a branch-house ninja.
"Does your Hyuga clan know the crime for secretly surveilling ANBU directly under the Hokage?
"And the crime for colluding with bounty-nin to murder ANBU?"
Hyuga Seigawa skidded to a halt, face blanching—then quickly schooled it.
"I don't know what you're talking about. I'm on a clan assignment. Pure coincidence."
"Heh. I hope ANBU interrogation leaves you just as tight-lipped," Kokugetsu said coldly.
"If you lay hands on a fellow Konoha shinobi of the Hyuga, without evidence—you know the consequences?" Seigawa said, shaken but forcing calm.
"Ha. Once I take you in, I'll have evidence."
Kokugetsu vanished.
"Don't underestimate me. I'm a Hyuga jōnin!"
Rotation!
As the grand elder's chief confidant, Seigawa had been granted the method. Spinning, he blasted chakra from every tenketsu, a whirling shield roaring with wind.
"Interesting. Let's test its rating."
Kokugetsu's voice flitted around him as the boy split into afterimages, crisscrossing too fast to track.
Then all the afterimages winked out. Kokugetsu leapt high and dropped a plain, full-power flying kick.
The spinning shield didn't fling him off; his foot punched a gaping hole through it.
Crack!
Boom—
The kick caught Seigawa on the shoulder. Bone shattered. He flew like he'd been hit by a truck, knocking down several trees before he stopped in a cloud of dust.
"Ugh—! Cough, cough—"
Flat on his back, Seigawa spat blood and hacked, all fight gone.
"Tsk. So much for the Hyuga's 'absolute defense,'" Kokugetsu said, flashing to his side, looking down.
"N-no… impossible. How is your taijutsu this monstrous?" Seigawa gasped, face a mask of blood and disbelief.
"Monstrous?
"It's just the beginning."
At the shameless line, Seigawa coughed more blood. Infuriating.
But Kokugetsu wasn't bluffing. It really was only a beginning. Compared to kicking apart Six-Tomoe Rinnegan, smashing Eternal Mangekyō Susanoo, batting aside a Tailed Beast Bomb from Nine-Tails Kurama Mode Ōtsutsuki Isshiki—he was a long way off.
"Tsk. Thin skin."
Seigawa tried to speak. Kokugetsu tapped his temple with a light toe. The world went black, and he dropped into baby-sweet sleep.
Kokugetsu tossed Hyuga Seigawa into Daikokuten, then winged off in Kakuzu's direction.
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