Ahem!
Inside a sealed secret chamber, a dark-skinned Kumogakure shinobi with dark blond hair and a sturdy build sat cross-legged on the floor, exhaustion written all over his face.
"Buyūmu, how is the seal?" the Third Raikage's voice came from the corner of the room.
"It's stabilized." Looking toward the Third Raikage, Buyūmu—an elite jōnin of Kumogakure and a clansman trusted by the Raikage—slowly rose to his feet.
The Third Raikage stepped forward and stopped in front of his confidant, his eyes carrying a trace of apology.
"You've worked hard."
"For the village, for you, any sacrifice is worth it." Even after having just gone through a tailed beast rampage, Buyūmu still forced himself upright and answered firmly.
The Third Raikage said nothing more. He simply placed a heavy hand on his subordinate's shoulder, his expression full of approval.
Buyūmu had once been considered a candidate for the jinchūriki plan, but the project had been halted back then. Too many attempts had failed, leading to tailed beast rampages, the deaths of jinchūriki, and severe losses for the village.
Because of that, Buyūmu had narrowly avoided becoming a jinchūriki.
But after Kizaru attacked the village last time, the Third Raikage had deeply realized that apart from himself, Kumogakure had far too few shinobi who could stand at the Kage level.
Because of that, he restarted the jinchūriki plan.
As a former candidate, Buyūmu had once again been chosen—this time to become the jinchūriki of the Two-Tails.
Only a week after becoming the Two-Tails' jinchūriki, Buyūmu suffered a tailed beast rampage that very morning. Fortunately, his own strength was considerable, and the disturbance had been discovered in time, so no major disaster occurred.
"For this operation, you should remain in the village," the Third Raikage said, sympathy evident in his tone.
"Raikage-sama, please take me—and the Benihisago—with you!" Buyūmu said firmly. From the day he became a jinchūriki, he had already prepared himself to be sacrificed if necessary.
The Third Raikage fell silent at those words.
The Benihisago was one of the Sage of Six Paths' treasured ninja tools. It had once been wielded by Kumogakure's rogue shinobi, Kinkaku, before later being recovered by the Third Raikage. It possessed an extremely powerful sealing ability and was the village's strongest method for suppressing a sealed tailed beast.
By proposing to bring the Benihisago to the front lines, Buyūmu was making his intentions clear.
He was prepared to offer up his life and treat himself as a one-use weapon of mass destruction.
After a long silence, the Third Raikage—feeling the crushing weight of this war—finally made his decision.
"You will become a hero of the village." Looking at Buyūmu with complicated emotions in his eyes, the Third Raikage spoke solemnly.
Buyūmu's lips curled upward at once, and he smiled brightly.
"At five in the afternoon, come with me. You'll depart with the vanguard."
"Yes, sir!" Buyūmu answered loudly, grinning.
"Get some rest."
With that, the Third Raikage turned and left the secret chamber.
Sitting in a chair with one leg crossed over the other, Kizaru casually handed a check to Kakuzu beside him.
Kakuzu, who was used to receiving cash at bounty exchange stations, frowned as he accepted the check worth five million ryō.
"No cash?" he asked bluntly.
"My, my... this is just a border outpost, you know." Kizaru replied with his usual laid-back smile.
Kakuzu gave a small nod, accepting the explanation, then carefully slipped the check into an inner pocket of his clothes.
"Today's patrols have been consolidated. From ten to midnight, you'll be in charge."
"Understood."
"Then I'll be counting on you, scary fellow-san." Kizaru looked at him with a smile as he spoke.
Take money, do the job. That was only natural.
"Don't worry," Kakuzu said in a deep voice. "Nothing will go wrong."
"That would be for the best."
Before Kizaru even finished speaking, Kakuzu had already turned and left the room.
Kizaru simply shook his head with a faint smile and turned his gaze toward the window.
How exciting.
Just as Kizaru had expected, at five in the afternoon, the Third Raikage departed from Kumogakure with a five-hundred-man vanguard, accompanied by Buyūmu, who had only recently become the Two-Tails' jinchūriki.
As for the village's main force, it would depart three hours later under the command of two of the Third Raikage's trusted aides.
The Land of Lightning and the Land of Fire did not directly border one another. If Kumogakure wished to invade the Land of Fire, they had to pass through the Land of Hot Water.
The Third Raikage had no objections to that route, and the Land of Hot Water had no means to object either.
Moving at high speed, the vanguard led by the Third Raikage took more than three hours to reach the border of the Land of Lightning.
Once there, the Third Raikage ordered his men to make brief adjustments and rest for half an hour before setting out again and crossing directly into the Land of Hot Water.
To conceal their movements, the vanguard avoided the towns and roads of the Land of Hot Water, choosing instead to move through forests and mountain paths.
The Land of Hot Water was not especially large, and in less than two hours, the entire vanguard successfully reached the border between the Land of Hot Water and the Land of Fire.
"Have five squads maintain watch within a three-kilometer radius. Everyone else rests," the Third Raikage ordered from within the dense forest.
"Yes!" A jōnin of the Yotsuki clan answered in a low voice before stepping away to relay the command.
While the Third Raikage's forces began their short rest, Kakuzu also started his first patrol.
After leaving Kizaru's stronghold and committing the patrol route to memory, Kakuzu made his way alone into the dark forest.
As the strongest and most notorious figure in the bounty hunter world, Kakuzu relied not only on overwhelming strength, but also on his professionalism.
If he took the money, he did the job.
That creed was something Kakuzu followed to the letter.
Suppressing his chakra and moving soundlessly through the trees, he gradually approached the border.
Then, as if sensing something, Kakuzu suddenly stopped atop a branch.
Shifting his body, he hid behind the trunk and looked toward his ten o'clock direction.
Three Kumogakure shinobi had entered his line of sight.
A glint of delight flickered in Kakuzu's eyes.
The chance to earn money had arrived.
Without the slightest hesitation, Kakuzu leapt down from the tree and slipped into the ground with Earth Release.
As he closed in on the three enemies, Kakuzu suddenly burst up from below and drove his hardened fist into one of them.
Caught completely off guard, the Kumogakure shinobi had no time to react before being sent flying by Kakuzu's blow, crashing heavily into a large tree.
After landing the first hit, Kakuzu did not stop.
He pulled back his right hand while his left shot out from the wrist, threads extending from within as his Earth Grudge Fear controlled it like a living weapon, sending it hurtling toward another enemy who was rushing in with a kunai.
Seeing such a bizarre ninjutsu for the first time, the Kumogakure shinobi's face twisted in shock. He quickly swung his kunai, trying to block the attack.
But Kakuzu's detached fist was unnaturally agile. It twisted in midair, slipped past the enemy's defense, and slammed hard into his abdomen.
The man's body folded into a crescent shape from the force of the impact. He coughed violently, lost all fighting strength, and collapsed to the ground.
Kakuzu had already held back. He needed at least one of them alive. Otherwise, that strike would have punched straight through the man's stomach.
Too weak.
A trace of disappointment flickered through Kakuzu's eyes.
Still, disappointment was one thing. Losing money was another.
Kakuzu would never let even a single ryō slip through his fingers.
Retracting his left hand, Kakuzu turned his gaze toward the last remaining enemy, who had already started fleeing, and immediately used the Body Flicker Technique to pursue him.
Appearing behind the man in an instant, Kakuzu struck once with a clean chop and knocked him unconscious on the spot.
"What a worthless bunch of trash."
Muttering coldly, Kakuzu used his threads to bind and control the captives, then returned to where the battle had started and began collecting his spoils.
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