Shimura Danzo's near-maniacal conviction sent a quiet, involuntary chill down the spines of the two men behind him.
Yamanaka Fu and Aburame Torune had followed Danzo through too many shadowed corridors to mistake ambition for sanity. This wasn't simply ruthlessness anymore - it was the kind of decision that, once spoken aloud, narrowed the world into a single, irreversible path. And now that Danzo had stepped onto it, they understood with bitter clarity that there would be no turning back.
They were his subordinates. That fact alone was a cage.
Fu forced his voice to stay steady. "Even if we're going to work with the Akatsuki… how are we supposed to find them?"
He didn't need to say the rest. Everyone in the shinobi world knew what it meant to search for an organization that lived inside rumor and fear - an entity that surfaced only to spill blood, then vanished again into darkness as if it had never existed.
Danzo didn't flinch. His tone was flat, cold enough to extinguish doubt through sheer certainty. "Relax. I have my own channels."
He paused just long enough for the name to carry weight.
"Don't forget… Orochimaru used to serve under me."
Fu and Torune's expressions tightened, as if the air itself had sharpened. That one sentence implied an entire history of deals, blackmail, and quiet poison - proof that Danzo's hand had been in places it was never meant to be.
"This time, he's cooperating with Konoha," Danzo continued, unmoved. "And through him, I've learned quite a few things." His visible eye narrowed slightly. "The last time he acquired the biological information needed for Edo Tensei… the bargaining chip was intelligence I exchanged with him."
Fu's stomach sank.
So it wasn't sudden. Danzo hadn't arrived here by impulse. He had been planning. Waiting. Laying the pieces long before anyone else realized a board even existed.
"Orochimaru didn't give me the Akatsuki's exact location," Danzo said, almost as if mocking the very idea. "After he defected from them, those bases were likely abandoned and replaced anyway."
Then he added, in the same unhurried tone - calm enough to be terrifying - "But he did tell me how to contact their members."
Fu blinked. Torune's gaze sharpened.
"And it's not far from here."
Both men reacted at once. "Inside the Land of Fire?!"
Danzo gave a small nod. "It's merely a place used to exchange information. You've heard the name."
His voice dropped, as if he were speaking a taboo.
"The Underground Bounty Station."
Fu and Torune had, indeed, heard of it.
A shadow-market wrapped in secrecy, old enough that no one remembered when it started - only that it never stopped. A place where information was sold as casually as food, where missions were commissioned without a village's seal, and where the most common requests were not escorts or retrievals, but assassinations.
It was said the Underground Bounty Station had existed for ages, woven into the shinobi world like a hidden vein. Yet no matter how many searched, no one could ever trace it to the true hand behind it.
Torune spoke quietly, more to himself than anyone else. "I see… that really is the most likely place to cross paths with them."
Danzo didn't waste another breath. "Move."
"Yes."
Not long after, the three of them concealed their presence beneath heavy cloaks - oversized hoods swallowing their faces, fabric draping low enough to erase identity. They moved with the ease of men accustomed to being unseen, following Orochimaru's information toward one of the Bounty Station's outposts.
The entrance was absurd in its simplicity.
A toilet.
More precisely, a hidden passage concealed within it - an unremarkable space designed to repel attention, because no one looked too closely at something so mundane. Without knowledge of the mechanism, no one would ever find it.
But Danzo already knew.
He triggered the hidden switch with practiced precision, and the false panel yielded without resistance. In moments, the three of them slipped into the underground facility as if swallowed by the earth itself.
Inside, the air changed. It smelled faintly of metal and old stone, with a low, constant hush - like a place that had learned to keep secrets by never raising its voice.
A bearded, middle-aged man looked them over and approached, eyes calculating. "New faces, huh? Don't think I've seen you before."
His gaze lingered on their cloaks. "Who referred you?"
Danzo lowered his voice and answered with a single name.
"Orochimaru."
Recognition flashed through the man's expression. He nodded immediately, as if a door had opened inside his mind.
"I see." He stepped aside. "Come in."
They were led into a private room, sealed away from the main corridors. The atmosphere was clinical - controlled. The kind of place where conversations were meant to leave no echoes.
The bearded man folded his hands. "What do you want from the Underground Bounty Station? Intelligence… or a commission?"
"Intelligence," Danzo replied without hesitation.
"Oh?" The man's brow lifted. "About what?"
Danzo's voice didn't change. "I want the Akatsuki's contact method."
The man's face shifted instantly.
A fraction of hesitation. A flicker of caution.
"This…" he began.
Danzo's tone sharpened, just slightly. "What? The all-knowing Underground Bounty Station has something it doesn't know?"
The bearded man recovered quickly, letting out a short laugh that didn't quite reach his eyes. "Not that. It's just that Akatsuki information isn't ordinary. If you want it… the price won't be small."
"How much?" Danzo asked.
"Thirty million ryo."
Fu and Torune's breath caught.
Thirty million - for a single piece of information.
That was the kind of money earned through dozens of A-rank missions. It wasn't a fee - it was a wall meant to discourage anyone who wasn't serious, anyone who didn't have the backing of a nation.
Danzo didn't blink.
He had spent decades in Konoha's shadows, and shadows were profitable. The wealth he had accumulated was beyond what most people could imagine, because it was built on transactions that never appeared in records.
Without ceremony, he slapped down a banknote - thirty million ryo, just like that.
The bearded man's eyes flickered again, this time with something close to awe.
So the old man wasn't just bold.
He was dangerous.
"Ahem. Very well." The man cleared his throat, regaining his composure. "This is the sealed scroll containing our confidential information on the Akatsuki."
He turned to the wall behind him and tapped a concealed mechanism. A hidden device clicked softly, and moments later a scroll slid out from an internal transfer system, delivered neatly into his hand. He passed it to Danzo.
Danzo opened it on the spot and read.
The contents were… shallow. Basic outlines. Minimal substance. More confirmation of what people suspected than anything truly valuable.
Even the Underground Bounty Station couldn't see everything. Some darkness was too deep.
Danzo's brow furrowed, irritation sharpening the lines of his face. "Thirty million ryo for this?"
The man smiled calmly. "Of course not."
He leaned in slightly, as if sharing a more meaningful secret. "Let me guess. You're not really here for descriptions. You want to meet Akatsuki members directly."
Danzo didn't deny it. "Correct."
"Then you're in luck." The man's voice dropped. "Two Akatsuki members are currently here, handing off the results of a job. I can arrange a meeting."
He let the words settle.
"That," he finished, "is what the thirty million is truly worth."
Danzo's interest sharpened. He hadn't expected it to happen this quickly - didn't trust luck enough to rely on it - yet here it was, placed in front of him like a blade offered by an enemy.
He nodded once. "Lead the way."
"Right."
The bearded man stepped out first, guiding them into another sealed room. He spoke briefly with a different handler - another man with the same controlled expression, the same careful eyes. That man assessed Danzo's group in silence, then nodded and disappeared into yet another room.
After a short while, the two handlers returned.
"They agreed to see you," one said, smiling faintly. "But I'll warn you - Akatsuki members aren't normal people. If you anger them and they kill you inside, the Underground Bounty Station will not intervene."
Danzo let out a cold snort. "Doesn't matter."
The door to the next room opened.
Danzo entered first, Fu and Torune following like shadows.
Inside sat two men wearing long black cloaks embroidered with red clouds - the unmistakable uniform described in Jiraiya and Orochimaru's intelligence reports.
One of them looked grim, his face partially covered by a mask. Only his eyes were visible - eyes that carried the hard, lifeless stare of something that had stopped viewing people as human. A slashed forehead protector marked him as a missing-nin from Takigakure.
The other appeared younger, with slicked-back hair and a strange necklace resting against his throat. Behind him was strapped a blood-red triple-bladed scythe, its shape violent even at rest. His own slashed forehead protector belonged to Yugakure.
Kakuzu and Hidan.
They had just completed a contracted assassination, delivered the head to the Underground Bounty Station, and collected their payment. When told someone wanted an audience with Akatsuki, Kakuzu had agreed for a simple reason:
Even showing up was worth money.
Kakuzu's gaze narrowed as he studied Danzo's trio. He could feel it - something sharp beneath their stillness. These weren't ordinary clients.
Hidan, by contrast, looked bored. He actually picked at his ear, as if this were all an interruption to something more interesting.
Kakuzu spoke, voice low and heavy. "You wanted to see the Akatsuki. Why?"
Danzo sat across from them with measured calm, neither deferential nor arrogant, as if the room belonged to no one. Fu and Torune stood behind him, silent and alert.
"I want to borrow the Akatsuki's power," Danzo said, "to do something big."
Kakuzu let out a cold laugh. "Something big like what?"
"Kill someone for me."
Kakuzu's stare hardened. "Who?"
Danzo's answer landed like a thrown knife.
"The Godaime Mizukage of Kirigakure - Chiba."
The room changed instantly.
Kakuzu's expression shifted, the calculation in his eyes interrupted by something rarer: surprise.
Even Hidan stopped picking at his ear. His brows drew together as he finally looked at Danzo with interest.
Chiba's name carried weight across the entire shinobi world - too much weight to ignore. Even among the Akatsuki, even for someone as simple-minded as Hidan, it was impossible not to have heard of him.
And of course it was.
Years ago, it had been Chiba who exposed the Akatsuki's secrets, who helped unite the Five Great Nations into the Dawn Alliance - forcing the Akatsuki into tighter corners, turning their plans into constant struggle. Every member of the Akatsuki knew that name.
And hated it.
Kakuzu's lips curled. "That man… really is worth killing."
Then his voice turned sharper, greed cutting through his tone like wire. "But someone at that level? His head is worth a fortune. Are you sure you can pay?"
Danzo's response was immediate. "Name your price."
Kakuzu tapped a finger against his cloak, as if considering the taste of the numbers. "I just killed an elite jonin from Konoha. That only brought in thirty-five million ryo."
He leaned forward slightly.
"But what you're asking for now is a Kage. One of the Five Great Nations' leaders - and the most feared, most powerful figure in the shinobi world right now. There are almost none like him."
His eyes gleamed.
"At least one billion ryo. Only then will we even consider it."
Fu and Torune felt the number like a blow.
One billion.
That was not a mission fee. That was the kind of sum that made villages hesitate, that made nations calculate what they'd lose if they tried.
Danzo simply nodded. "Fine."
Kakuzu's eyes widened before he could stop it.
He recovered quickly, but the crack had already shown. One billion ryo - accepted like it was pocket change?
Who was this man?
Kakuzu's mind raced. The whole shinobi world knew what had happened recently: Mizukage Chiba had taken Konoha, installed Tsunade as the Godaime Hokage, and held true authority from the shadows.
If anyone wanted Chiba dead - wanted Konoha back - it was obvious.
Sarutobi Hiruzen.
Kakuzu's voice sharpened with suspicion. "Are you Sarutobi Hiruzen?"
Danzo didn't give him the satisfaction of a clear answer. "And if I am? And if I'm not?"
Kakuzu sneered. "Who you are doesn't matter to me." His eyes narrowed. "But if you're not him, why should I believe you can produce one billion ryo?"
Danzo reached into his cloak and produced a thick stack of banknotes, placing them down with deliberate calm. "Two hundred million ryo. The remainder will be paid after Chiba is dead."
Kakuzu stared.
Two hundred million - just like that.
The absurdity of it made something inside him twist. A moment ago, he'd killed an elite jonin for thirty-five million ryo… and now he was watching two hundred million appear as casually as a breath.
He almost laughed at how ridiculous the world could be.
Still, money was money.
Kakuzu reached out.
But Danzo pulled the stack back.
"You questioned whether I could pay," Danzo said coolly. "I've proven I can."
His visible eye fixed on Kakuzu, unwavering. "Now tell me - why should I believe you can kill that man?"
Kakuzu's mouth tightened, then he let out a short, humorless laugh. "Fair."
"And what would convince you?"
"Prove your strength."
Kakuzu rose.
In an instant, an oppressive chakra surged outward, thick enough to make the air feel heavier. The shadows along the walls seemed to tremble. The shift was so sudden it felt like someone had pulled a blade free in a silent room.
"Jiongu," he said, and the technique detonated into motion - Jiongu ("Earth Grudge Fear").
From his back, four grotesque, masked entities erupted with guttural roars, cords and dark tendrils writhing like living stitches. Each mask radiated a different elemental pressure, their presence crowding the room until it felt too small to contain them.
They fanned out in an instant - Kakuzu and his masks forming a tightening ring around Danzo, with Fu and Torune trapped behind him.
Kakuzu's voice dropped into a calm threat. "If I wanted to kill you right now… you'd already be dead."
Danzo didn't flinch.
He studied the masks the way a man studies blades on a rack - evaluating utility, danger, cost. Then he nodded once. "You do have strength."
But his tone didn't soften.
"Even so," Danzo continued, "that doesn't guarantee you can kill that man."
Kakuzu's eyes narrowed. "No one can guarantee one hundred percent that they'll kill him."
His voice hardened. "If you want an absolutely flawless choice, go find someone else."
Danzo went silent for a moment.
It wasn't hesitation. It was calculation - cold, methodical, like moving pieces across a board where lives were just numbers. Finally, he spoke.
"I'll pay the two hundred million," Danzo said. "But I have a condition."
Kakuzu didn't move. "Speak."
"Even if you can't kill him," Danzo said, "you must at least drive him out - or lure him out of Konoha. If you can do that, you won't get the full remainder… but I will still pay an additional three hundred million."
Kakuzu's gaze flickered. He weighed it quickly, then nodded. "Fair."
A pause.
"But if you go back on your word?" Kakuzu's voice sharpened. "I can't fully trust you either."
Danzo's expression remained unchanged. "Then what do you want?"
"One drop of your blood."
Danzo's brow barely moved. "That's all?"
Kakuzu nodded. "That's all."
Danzo raised his hand slightly and exhaled, chakra cutting the air like an invisible blade.
Fūton ("Wind Release") - a razor-thin burst that sliced his fingertip with surgical precision.
A single drop of blood formed and fell.
Hidan grinned, delighted, swinging his blood-red scythe up with casual accuracy to catch it. He brought the blade close and, without a shred of hesitation, licked the edge - taking the blood into himself as if savoring it.
Fu and Torune both frowned, instinctively repulsed.
Danzo's gaze narrowed. He didn't understand the ritual - but he understood enough to recognize the kind of abnormality that didn't belong to ordinary shinobi.
Kakuzu watched Hidan complete the first half of his process, then nodded once, satisfied. "Good. Then the deal is made."
He took the two hundred million.
"When it's done," Kakuzu said, "we meet here again for the rest."
Danzo stood. "Agreed."
He turned to leave, Fu and Torune moving with him.
Then Danzo stopped.
It was subtle - just a pause, like something small had caught in his mind. He glanced back over his shoulder at Kakuzu and Hidan.
"You said you just killed an elite jonin from Konoha," Danzo said, voice even. "Worth thirty-five million ryo."
"What was his name?"
Kakuzu's mouth curled. "Normally that's confidential."
He tilted his head, eyes gleaming with a hint of cruel amusement. "But since you just handed me two hundred million… I'll make an exception."
He let the moment stretch, watching for any reaction.
"His name was…"
"Konoha's Sarutobi Asuma."
Kakuzu said it partly to test him - to see if the man in front of him would crack, if grief would betray identity, if it would confirm the suspicion that he might truly be Sarutobi Hiruzen.
Danzo did pause, just a fraction.
A tiny break in rhythm.
Then he nodded once, face unreadable, and walked out without another word.
Kakuzu frowned.
Either this man wasn't Hiruzen… or he was terrifyingly capable of burying emotion.
In the silence that followed, Kakuzu looked down at the stacks of money, and a bright, hungry light surfaced in his eyes.
"The Mizukage of Kirigakure…"
"Chiba."
His voice lowered, almost reverent - not with respect, but with the thrill of the hunt.
"Perfect."
"I've wanted to see you for a long time."
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