Chapter 100: The Hokage's Spreading Method and Undercurrents (Patreon)

The sky was clear and bright. Trees along the road stretched their branches and leaves, and sunlight like scattered gold filtered through the gaps to dapple the ground below, outlining a silhouette.

Looking up, it turned out a Kakashi had sprouted from the tree. He leaned against the trunk, holding a copy of Make-Out Paradise so worn it had practically developed a patina. But the treasured book he normally couldn't put down — today, he couldn't read a single word of it.

The reason was simple: he'd fallen into another crisis of purpose.

Just yesterday, he'd been fired. The Third Hokage had stripped him of his ANBU post. Now, aside from still holding a Jonin rank, he was basically half-unemployed.

Who am I? Where do I go from here?

A life filled with ANBU missions for years had suddenly opened up a gap, and the sudden idleness left Kakashi deeply anxious.

Just then, a hand reached silently from behind, about to touch his back.

Kakashi's instincts flared instantly. His left hand snapped up to deflect the incoming hand, while his right swept to his waist — a kunai already in his grip.

"What? Oh, it's just you."

Seeing it was Genshin, the sharpness in Kakashi's eyes dulled back into his usual dead-fish stare. He spun the kunai neatly between his fingers before tucking it back into his ninja tool pouch.

"Looks like now that your Sharingan doesn't drain Chakra constantly, you've gotten stronger, Senior Kakashi."

Genshin plopped himself down on a branch without ceremony, tilting his head to size Kakashi up. Through his Hamon Sensing, Kakashi's Chakra reserves had grown by roughly half. Even though a seal now let Kakashi open and close his Sharingan freely, he still kept his Forehead Protector over his left eye — whether that was habit or him playing coy to spring a surprise on someone later, Genshin couldn't say.

"Well, that's true," Kakashi said offhandedly.

Like I'd tell you my nights have gotten a lot more energetic lately.

"Speaking of which, your face looks a little flatter than usual. Which girl slugged you this time?" Kakashi asked, needling him. Based on years of novel-reading experience, a womanizer like Genshin, tangled up with multiple girls, was bound to end up with his head mounted over the village gate sooner or later.

"Ahem, I just tripped and fell while walking, that's all!"

Right — thanks for that whopper, courtesy of Genshin, still putting on a brave face.

Whether or not Kakashi believed him, Genshin himself certainly did.

Glancing at Kakashi's outfit — the usual grey-black ANBU uniform swapped for a standard green Konoha flak jacket — Genshin pretty much figured out what had happened.

"Lose your job, Senior?"

Genshin found the look strangely nostalgic. Kakashi finally matched the image he remembered — like swapping an ANBU-exclusive skin for the classic default one.

Kakashi shifted smoothly into a handstand, his feet sticking firm to the branch, as though standing on his head might help clear his thoughts. "Pretty much. Lord Hokage decided I wasn't cut out for ANBU anymore," Kakashi replied, yesterday's scene rising unbidden in his mind.

"You've worked hard. Thank you for your years of service in ANBU. As of this moment, you're relieved of your ANBU duties. Take up the role of a mentoring Jonin and go raise the next generation. Someone with a gentle heart shouldn't be trapped in the dark forever."

That was word for word what Lord Hokage had told him yesterday — and just like that, he'd been let go. Freed, one might say — free of charge, in every sense.

Gentle? Me, with my hands stained by the blood of my own comrades?

Behind his mask, Kakashi's face twisted into a self-deprecating smile. "Lord Hokage's got me playing mentor now, watching over some kids," he said flatly.

A mentoring Jonin?

Honestly, Genshin was tempted — tempted to shove a few of his own students under Kakashi's wing for some prestige by association.

As everyone knew, the Hokage title tended to pass down through bloodlines and master-disciple ties.

For instance, the First Hokage's younger brother became the Second; the Second's student became the Third; the Third's grand-disciple became the Fourth — and the pattern held for the Fifth, Sixth, and Seventh besides. Now that Kakashi was, on paper, the only living student of the Fourth Hokage, if word of that got out, who knew how many people would claw their way over each other to become his disciple.

As for Kiba of the Inuzuka clan claiming his dream was to become Hokage — pfft, Genshin couldn't hold a straight face for even half a second. In the original timeline, that unlucky kid had already lost the moment he got assigned to his genin team, hadn't he?

"So what about you? Planning to take Lord Hokage's advice and pick up a disciple?"

"Depends. If a team catches my eye, I'll take them on."

Oh right, right — you'd only be satisfied with a team made up of a genius, a dead-last, and an ordinary kid, with the dead-last crushing on the ordinary one, wouldn't you?

Genshin eyed Kakashi narrowly.

The funny thing was, there really were several teams like that among the Hokages' own disciples — the world was one giant boomerang, it seemed.

"Oh right, almost forgot about this." Genshin pulled out a scroll, opened it, and summoned another scroll from within.

Kakashi flipped himself upright and sat on the branch too, watching curiously, not sure what Genshin was up to.

Genshin picked up the second scroll, summoned a third from it, then a fourth from the third, and kept nesting them like matryoshka dolls, several times over.

Poof!

When the smoke from the final summon cleared, what it revealed was — Make-Out Paradise, Volume 12.

Kakashi's eyes nearly bugged out of his head. So this was what it was all about — you sly little rascal, you closet pervert!

"Ahem!" Genshin cleared his throat a few times to cover his embarrassment. "Well, there are kids in the house, and they're at just the age for rummaging through everything. Better to keep material like this well hidden."

In truth, Genshin was even more afraid of Tsunade finding it — her skull-cracking punches were no joke.

Genshin handed the book to Kakashi, then held his palm out, waving it in front of him.

"What?" Kakashi asked, eyeing him warily.

"Oh, don't play dumb, you know exactly what I want." Genshin waggled his eyebrows. "Come on, come on — is there a next volume?"

In an age that already had household appliances, entertainment options were still pitifully scarce thanks to years of endless warfare. Aside from his daily training, following novel updates was about the only way Genshin had to kill time. His age made it awkward to buy this kind of book himself, so he'd taken to mooching copies off Kakashi instead.

"Nope." The one eye Kakashi had visible practically rolled to the back of his head. "If you've got the nerve, go pester Lord Jiraiya for updates yourself. What you're holding is already the latest volume — I've barely even read it a couple times."

With that, Kakashi carefully tucked the book he'd been holding into his pouch and opened the Volume 12 Genshin had returned, and started reading.

Uh... Genshin fell silent.

Pester Jiraiya for updates? He'd have to actually track down that wandering sage first!

Jiraiya had a habit of drifting off the grid across the Shinobi World, only surfacing for a few days each year to take Naruto out of the village for a few months of training before vanishing again.

Still, as one of the Phantom Sages, Jiraiya's information network really was formidable — nothing stirred in the Shinobi World without him knowing.

Take, for instance, the fact that Akatsuki's membership seemed to have grown once more...

Within Hidden Rain Village, inside the underground Rain Cave that Nagato had renovated.

The Demonic Statue of the Outer Path sat motionless at the center, its massive body withered and brown, nine closed eyes arrayed across its head, its surface a mass of deep wrinkles.

A faint glow rippled one by one across the statue's ten massive fingers, and eight silhouettes formed from the Astral Projection Technique appeared in sequence, each standing atop a separate finger.

"Heh heh... another new face, I see."

Orochimaru's icy voice was the first to speak up, his gaze lingering with interest on the tall figure standing atop one of the fingers.

Thanks to a certain someone, his lifelong rival Uchiha Rong had never joined Akatsuki, so Orochimaru's resolve remained unbroken for now — his mind still fixed on how to get his hands on Nagato's ring-patterned eyes.

"Hello, I'm Kisame Hoshigaki," the honest-looking man greeted politely.

"Kisame... You used to work under that Watermelon Mountain guy, didn't you? So you're here too?" Juzo Biwa recognized his former colleague and greeted him in turn.

"Is everyone accounted for? Then let's begin the meeting." A cold voice rang out, an overwhelming pressure of Chakra crashing down with it, cutting short the reminiscing.

It was Pain's Deva Path who had spoken.

"The purpose of this meeting concerns Akatsuki's personnel matters." Pain skipped the preamble and got straight to the point.

"Kakuzu, you're saying your partner Yuanzhong has been killed again?"

"Less 'killed by the enemy' and more 'killed by one of our own,' wouldn't you say~~~" Zetsu stirred the pot as naturally as breathing, then recounted the death of Kakuzu's partner.

"Well, he was the one dawdling — all he had to do was dodge my Ninjutsu," Kakuzu said stiffly, not seeing anything wrong with what he'd done.

"Obviously on purpose," Sasori concluded in a low voice, still wearing the short, squat form of Hiruko.

"Kakuzu... you don't get along with your partners very well, do you." Orochimaru's rasping voice cut in, his serpentine eyes fixed coldly on Kakuzu.

"So what?" Kakuzu couldn't be bothered to explain.

"You wanted him dead from the start, didn't you?" "So what?"

"No... that's perfectly normal." Something seemed to cross Orochimaru's mind, and he ended the exchange with an oddly pleased tone.

"Akatsuki operates in pairs. For now, Orochimaru and Sasori are partnered. Kisame, you'll pair with Juzo — convenient, since you already know each other." Nagato issued the order directly, then turned to Kakuzu. "As for your partner slot, Kakuzu, it stays open for now. Does anyone have a recommendation?"

Orochimaru let out a low chuckle. "Heh heh... there's someone I could recommend, but I'd need Zetsu's help tracking him down."

"Who?" "The renowned physician Shennong — also the ruler of the Land of Sky. Shennong."

Deva Path glanced at Zetsu, who nodded slightly.

"The organization can help locate him, but you must have other conditions too, don't you, Orochimaru?" Nagato knew this snake's nature well — he never lifted a finger without something to gain.

Orochimaru chuckled softly. "As expected of our leader. I do have one condition — when you find him, if Shennong refuses to join, I want one of his techniques before he dies."

"Fine," Deva Path said with a nod.

"As the new member, I have a recommendation of my own." Kisame spoke up suddenly. "Raiga Kurosuki, from my own village. He defected not too long ago too."

"Very well. Zetsu, you'll locate both of them. Orochimaru, Sasori, you two handle recruiting Shennong. Kisame, Juzo, you're in charge of bringing in Raiga Kurosuki." Having given the orders, Deva Path added one more thing:

"Remember, avoid engaging shinobi from the Five Great Nations whenever possible. If it comes to a fight, clean up thoroughly afterward. We still need a few more years before the plan begins."

"Well then... meeting adjourned." Pain released the Astral Projection Technique, bringing the efficient meeting to a close.