Chapter 34 (Patreon)

“It appears I’ll have to subdue you first.”

Pain stared at Kakuzu without emotion.

“Then I’ll see for myself whether you truly are immortal.”

He raised one hand.

“Shinra Tensei.”

A terrifying repulsive force erupted once again.

The lightning racing toward Pain was scattered instantly, while Kakuzu’s extended right arm was hurled backward, preventing him from getting anywhere near his target.

Before Kakuzu could regain his footing, Pain pointed his hand directly at him.

Kakuzu’s vigilance immediately rose.

He retracted his right arm and swiftly formed a sequence of hand seals, reinforcing his body with Earth Release and hardening his skin.

“Banshō Ten’in.”

The instant Kakuzu completed his technique, his entire body was pulled uncontrollably toward Pain.

“What?!”

Despite his surprise, Kakuzu did not panic.

His vast combat experience allowed him to react immediately. Black threads surged from his body as he extended all four limbs and drove them into the ground, attempting to anchor himself in place.

However, the attractive force far exceeded his expectations.

The ordinary earth beneath him was nowhere near strong enough to prevent his body from being dragged forward.

The ground split apart as Kakuzu’s fingers carved deep trenches through it.

A wet sound followed.

The instant Kakuzu was pulled within reach, Pain produced a black chakra receiver and drove it through his heart without hesitation.

“Impossible!”

For the first time, true panic appeared in Kakuzu’s eyes.

The Earth Release technique he took such pride in had allowed him to remain unharmed even when pursued by several jōnin at once.

Yet it had failed to stop Pain’s attack for even a single instant.

Kakuzu’s body went limp.

All signs of life vanished from him, his face still frozen in disbelief.

Then, without warning, the arm hanging lifelessly at his side extended once again.

Black threads writhed beneath his skin as his hand shot toward Pain’s chest.

However, a strange pulse spread from the chakra receiver still lodged in Kakuzu’s body.

His chakra immediately became difficult to control.

Even the limbs he had reconstructed through his forbidden technique stopped responding properly.

“Have you still not understood the difference between us?”

Pain looked down at him coldly.

Another black chakra receiver appeared in his hand.

Before Kakuzu could speak, it pierced through the right side of his chest.

Several minutes later, Kakuzu obediently accepted the black cloak patterned with red clouds and the ring Pain handed to him.

Pain had originally intended to take Kakuzu directly back to the Akatsuki’s base.

However, after learning that Kakuzu had already accepted a highly lucrative contract and stood to earn a considerable bounty upon completing it, Pain chose not to interfere.

He allowed Kakuzu to finish the assignment first.

After Kakuzu departed, the ground beside Pain began to shift.

A strange humanoid figure emerged from beneath the earth. Half of its body was black, while the other half was white, and its head was enclosed within the leaves of a massive green flytrap.

Zetsu.

“The great nations never change,” Zetsu remarked. “The Third Shinobi World War has only just ended, yet Konoha and Kumogakure are already fighting again.”

“That is precisely why the Akatsuki must exist,” Pain replied.

His Rinnegan remained fixed on the direction Kakuzu had disappeared.

“We will gather the tailed beasts and turn them into weapons capable of threatening the entire shinobi world. Once every nation understands true pain, they will no longer dare to begin wars so carelessly.”

Pain turned toward Zetsu.

“Find the next candidate for recruitment.”

---

Konoha

After being reprimanded by Hiruzen, Danzō returned to Root’s underground headquarters with a gloomy expression.

He immediately summoned the subordinate responsible for monitoring Kushina.

When he learned that Kushina had left the village accompanied by only a small ANBU squad—and that the Uzumaki woman Kakashi had brought back some time ago was still inside Konoha—his spirits immediately lifted.

While Kushina had been present, Danzō had not dared to demand that the woman be handed over to him.

Now, however, Kushina had departed for the front lines.

Even if everything went smoothly, it would take her at least half a month to return.

That was more than enough time for Danzō to train the Uzumaki woman into an obedient tool.

The news that she also had a daughter made controlling her even easier.

Danzō had barely taken his seat before he stood up again.

He summoned several of his personal guards and left the base.

This time, he intended to handle the matter himself to ensure that nothing went wrong.

However, the moment he returned to the surface, Danzō noticed several ANBU concealed around Root’s entrance.

Being watched was not unusual.

ANBU operatives had already been assigned to observe Root some time ago.

What mattered was the manner in which they were conducting their surveillance.

Previously, the ANBU had remained in plain sight, openly recording everyone who entered and left Root’s headquarters.

It had been little more than a formality.

This time, however, every operative was hidden in the shadows.

This was genuine surveillance.

It meant their orders had changed.

And only one person possessed the authority to issue such orders to the ANBU.

The Hokage—Hiruzen Sarutobi.

Although Danzō was angered by the discovery, a faint and inexplicable sense of satisfaction also rose within him.

This version of Hiruzen finally resembled a Hokage.

A true Hokage should be willing to employ every method necessary to protect the village.

The weakness Hiruzen normally displayed was one of the reasons Danzō had always looked down on him.

Still, that small sense of approval would not cause Danzō to alter his plans.

After everything he had witnessed over the years, he had already lost all faith in Hiruzen.

Expecting such a weak-willed Hokage to restore Konoha to greatness was nothing more than a foolish dream.

Danzō would first turn the Uzumaki woman into his weapon.

Then he would use her power to crush Kumogakure’s army in a single decisive battle.

Once he returned to the village in triumph, he would show Hiruzen how a Hokage was truly meant to act.

The ANBU watching from the shadows saw Danzō leave Root and immediately prepared to report his movements.

Before any of them could act, however, their vision abruptly darkened.

One after another, they lost consciousness.

Tiny black insects, each no larger than a sesame seed, crawled across their necks.

“Move.”

Danzō knew he had little time.

ANBU squads contacted one another at fixed intervals.

Once the appointed time arrived and the monitoring team failed to send the agreed signal, the village would immediately realise that something had happened to them.

Danzō had not spared their lives because he feared being questioned by Hiruzen.

He simply believed that shinobi of their calibre would eventually become useful tools in his hands.

Killing them would be wasteful.

Training a shinobi to chūnin level or above required talent, time, and money. None of those resources could be replaced easily.

The puppets Orochimaru had created were certainly useful, but they were disposable weapons that had to be discarded after use.

They were suitable as a final trump card, but no organisation—regardless of how deep its resources ran—could afford to use them repeatedly.

Before long, Danzō and his guards arrived outside Kushina’s home.

However, they encountered their first obstacle before even entering the courtyard.

A barrier covered the entire property.

At first, Danzō believed he could dismantle it easily.

It was only after examining it more carefully that he realised the technique was far more troublesome than he had expected.

Danzō had studied nearly every fūinjutsu left behind by the Uzumaki clan.

That included the techniques once possessed by Mito Uzumaki, the wife of the First Hokage, as well as the sealing arts Kushina had brought to Konoha after the destruction of Uzushiogakure.

He could swear on his life that the barrier before him had never appeared in any scroll kept within Konoha.

The jinchūriki has concealed far more than I expected.

Danzō’s expression darkened.

She truly does not consider herself part of the village.

Since the barrier could not be dismantled through conventional means, he would simply overpower it.

No matter how sophisticated a technique might be, it still required chakra to function.

If they completely drained the chakra sustaining the barrier, even the most elaborate defensive formation would collapse.

Danzō turned toward one of his personal guards.

Aburame Tatsuma understood his intention from that single glance.

He immediately released a swarm of kikaichū from his body and directed them toward the barrier.

The insects attached themselves to its surface and began devouring the chakra that maintained it.

Barely a second later, a series of sharp cracking sounds erupted.

Every kikaichū touching the barrier suddenly burst apart and died without warning.

The transparent barrier, which had only become faintly visible when disturbed, gradually took on an orange-red hue.

Danzō’s eye narrowed.

“Tatsuma, what are you doing?”

“Lord Danzō, there is something wrong with this chakra!”

Tatsuma immediately dropped to one knee, fear entering his voice.

“The moment my insects absorbed it, they stopped obeying my commands.”

He stared at the dead kikaichū scattered across the ground.

“Then they were destroyed from within.”