"So, let me get this straight. We are going to the Moon?" Kakuzu asked, not for the first time. "How do you plan on getting us there?" He was, to be frank, not pleased with my plan.
"I know a guy; he is an expert in explosions. I plan to put a lot of explosives in one spot and blow them all up with you standing on top. That should shoot you right up into the heavens," I answered with a roll of my eyes.
"The heavens maybe, but not the Moon," Kakuzu shot back.
"But maybe it will be enough to shut you up. And here I thought you hated how Karin always asks questions, yet as soon as she leaves us, you start doing it yourself." I sighed. "If you want to know how we are going, you will find out when we get there. All I can say for now is, it's a secret."
That clearly didn't sit well with him, but he was wise enough to not press me further.
Still, I understood why he was so doubtful. After all, the Moon was something ethereal, something you looked upon in the night sky, not something you touched.
And who could blame people for not considering that?
Who could go to the Moon?
Even just flying was a near-legendary skill, one mastered by only two people, publicly at least.
Only the Kazekage Rasa and Tsuchikage Ōnoki were able to fly.
Now, the Akatsuki did have quite a few members who could also fly, myself included, but even then, flying and flying to the Moon were two very different things.
As for space-time ninjutsu? That was rare beyond rare; after Minato died, none knew any such jutsu.
Obito was likely the only person other than myself who had any such ability, and he was still hiding deeply. Even within the Akatsuki itself, he was known only to very few.
So yes, I understood why Kakuzu was so doubtful, because I had basically told him I would take him to a place that was impossible to reach.
And I had also told him that we would be going there to fight people who apparently lived on the Moon.
The fact that he didn't just call me crazy outright was already a major sign of trust.
"Still, I'm surprised you didn't bring that little imp with you this time. You always drag her around everywhere," Kakuzu finally changed the topic.
I glanced at him, though I neither turned my head nor moved my eyes. It was more just a slight shift in focus.
The Byakugan did, after all, allow me to see everything around me, whether it was beside me, behind me, or even beneath me.
"That should tell you how seriously I'm taking this mission. Normally, I am confident that I can protect her from anything, but here? Let's just say reward and risk go hand in hand," I told him honestly.
After all, the Ōtsutsuki clan on the Moon was an unknown, and whenever going to fight someone unknown, taking risks was foolish.
"Ahh, yes, the dangers of those mysterious people who are secretly living on the Moon," Kakuzu scoffed, clearly still not believing that we would find anything, let alone be in a fight.
It wasn't hard to understand why he was so skeptical. After all, for a thousand years, no one had known about this clan, not outside of the Hyūga clan at least. Even the other three clans of my blood knew nothing of the ones hidden on the Moon.
Such was the secrecy surrounding them.
"I can't guarantee how much danger there will be. I know little of their current situation, but the unknown is the most dangerous," I said, tilting my head slightly toward the sky.
The Moon remained stubbornly outside the range of my Byakugan.
"As long as there is money to be made, I'm in," Kakuzu said, but with little conviction. It seemed that as long as I was paying him for this, he didn't care if it was a fool's errand or a truly dangerous mission.
Not that I was planning to pay him. He would be paid in what he could loot, though I didn't doubt that if he couldn't loot anything of value, he would demand payment from me.
He was entirely aware of how much money I had, and only because my Byakugan allowed me to track him constantly had he not already robbed me blind.
The greed in his gaze only grew day by day.
He was a skilled shinobi, that I couldn't deny, but he had his own problems that didn't make him the best partner.
Even after teaming up with me, he still found the time to get rid of a few other members of the Akatsuki.
No one important, not anyone reaching the rank of an S-ranked shinobi, but even without teaming up with them, he still couldn't resist cashing in on their bounties.
I was still angry that he killed the only other kunoichi besides Konan and me.
She wasn't impressive, just some rogue shinobi from Iwa, but still, she had a sense of humor that was rare from the usual blockheads of that place.
A shame she had to die because of Kakuzu's greed.
Now it was just me and Konan, not counting Karin.
Not that I truly had much to talk about with Konan. She was far too loyal to Nagato, a loyalty so deep that it was like a religion to her.
And while I was playing my part, it was hard to relate to her, and it would be even harder if she ever found out that I was lying.
...
We walked for a while in silence, the rain falling in a steady, monotonous rhythm, until we finally reached the Land of Fire.
While the rain didn't care about national borders, it quickly stopped once we left the Land of Rain, almost making one feel as if it did, rather than the truth.
The border itself had been drawn around the area where rain ended and started.
"Quite a few bounties inside the Land of Fire," Kakuzu said as he leafed through the Bingo Book, clearly hinting to me that he wanted to collect a few.
Kakuzu and his endless lust for money.
The worst was that he never used any of it.
"There are also plenty of reasons not to hunt any of them," I reminded him. "It will easily draw more attention toward us, and last time, Pain let it pass because we got that much money out of Gatō, but these bounties won't even come close."
Kakuzu clicked his tongue, but he knew I was right. "Still, some of them are in remote areas. No one will know," he grumbled.
"And I assume you will also split the money with me and Karin then?" I asked him.
"No way!" he shot back, fire in his voice. "It's one thing to split the money with that imp when she is here, but when she isn't? No way I'm splitting the money with her!"
"Then the answer is no," I shot back. "Not to mention that we are doing this whole thing behind Pain's back. If he knew we went to the Land of Fire when we were sent to the Land of Earth, we might be in trouble," I reminded him.
While our missions to the Land of Waves and the capital of Fire had been authorized by Pain, this trip to the Moon was not.
This was something we did on our own, and if we got caught, we would have to face the consequences.
But the reward was worth the risk.
"I don't see why we can't just do a few quick jobs. A quick in-and-out, grab the bounty, and be gone before anyone knows what happened," Kakuzu pressed, his greed overriding his sense of self-preservation.
"Because there is a chance it might reach him, or we might be sent to collect those bounties later. It's just not worth it, not when we already have a valuable target," I said, not even bothering to look at him as I kept walking.
He grumbled a bit more but didn't push the issue further. He knew I was right, as much as he hated to admit it. He might be a greedy bastard, but he wasn't a fool. He knew the risks, and he knew that the potential reward from this "Moon mission" was far greater than any bounty he could collect in the Land of Fire.
"As long as you are right," he said, reminding me of his doubts about my claim. Because no matter how great the potential reward might be, it would all equal nothing if there was no reward to be found.
"Yes, yes, now stop complaining," I told him.
For the next few days, we traveled in silence, the only sounds our footsteps and the occasional rustle of leaves in the wind. Kakuzu, for once, seemed to have run out of complaints, perhaps finally accepting that he was in for the ride, whether he liked it or not.
The world was a blur of green and brown as we moved through the Land of Fire, a land of peace and prosperity, a stark contrast to the harsh, unforgiving world of the shinobi.
It took us almost a week to reach our destination, not because it was particularly far away, but because it was uncomfortably close to Konoha.
One couldn't say the village wasn't founded on prime land. The ancient home of the Uchiha clan left nothing to be desired.
It had been the center of the world for a thousand years, so many things could be found around it.
Which included a secret known only to the Ōtsutsuki clan.
The portal leading to the Moon.
Given how close it was to Konoha, we had to be careful not to draw attention. There were plenty of patrols out here, and neither Kakuzu nor I were unknown people.
Thanks to Kakuzu, I already had a bounty large enough to bankrupt a smaller nation, so every shinobi worth the title knew who I was.
And I had no doubt that our run-in with Kakashi in Wave had also put us on the radar of Konoha.
So no, I didn't want to be found.
And thankfully, with the range of my Byakugan, it was all too easy to avoid their patrols and reach our destination.
"This is it?" Kakuzu asked as we stood before a small hidden cave, clearly not impressed.
(End of chapter)
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