Stepping out of the hospital, Kakashi started down the path when a tug from one of his kunai drew his attention.
'This is the kunai I gave Sai,' Kakashi thought.
A shadow clone poofed into existence to his right and walked ahead as he vanished.
Appearing and snatching up his kunai from the ground, Kakashi looked up to see two members of the Akatsuki in front of him. The Fire Temple behind them was partly destroyed, and a monk he recognized as Chiriku stood nearby.
Seeing the arrival of the man in front of them, Kakuzu tensed, remembering the words of warning from that man. "Hidan, we need to retreat."
"What?! Don't be ridiculous! Why leave after the effort we took to come here for that guy's bounty?" Hidan huffed in annoyance, pointing his three-bladed scythe at Chiriku.
"You fool, don't you realize what kind of position we're in? Think about it: what have they been doing while fighting you? How did they know about my hidden hearts?" Kakuzu urged his moron of a partner to recognize the situation they were in. "And besides that, the man across from us is the Sixth Hokage, Kakashi Hatake."
Kakashi ignored the two in front of him for the most part, speaking up to Kuro.
"Report."
Sai bowed slightly, looking battle-worn, his sleeves and forearms burned by Fire Release; his teammates were a little worse for wear, but mostly chakra-exhausted.
"The one known as Kakuzu, I was able to destroy the water mask on his back while he was busy fighting the head monk, Chiriku. And with his help, we were able to destroy the mask under that one, the lightning mask. Now, as you can see, the two creatures standing behind him are the last two masks. The rest of the squad have been annoying that other one with long-range ninjutsu."
Kakashi nodded, looking back at the two and watching Kakuzu tense when their eyes met.
"You two have a lot of nerve."
Hidan turned with a sharp jerk, face scrunched up in annoyance. Having been bombarded with all kinds of ninjutsu since they got here, he was pissed, and the man in front of him would be a good outlet for his rage. He rushed forward with a manic cackle, leaping up and pulling his scythe back to swing it down onto Kakashi's head.
Kakashi held out a hand to stop everyone from interfering, watching the crazed man swing down at him with a bored expression. His hand snapped up, stopping the scythe dead in its tracks by catching the top blade between his thumb and four fingers.
"What?!" Hidan shouted in shock.
Behind him, Kakuzu was already preparing a combination ninjutsu. Kakashi looked past Hidan, watching both masks charge a massive wind-and-fire blast.
"Wind Style: Pressure Damage! Fire Style: Searing Migraine!"
Kakashi casually tossed Hidan and his scythe into the path of the ninjutsu, then tapped the earth in front of him with his right sandaled foot, a reinforced quartz wall erupting just in time to block the roaring flames.
In a flash, Kakashi disappeared from the temple grounds, instantly appearing directly behind the fleeing Akatsuki duo. Kakuzu sprinted through the forest, Hidan slung over his shoulder, completely unaware of the danger they were in before it was too late.
A crackling spear of purple lightning manifested in Kakashi's hand. With brutal precision, he thrust the spear forward, impaling Hidan first before driving the dense lightning blade deep into the right side of Kakuzu's torso.
Kakuzu gasped as the current locked his body in place. Grasping the spear firmly, Kakashi ruthlessly dragged the purple spear downward through Kakuzu's flesh, cutting straight through where the remaining two elemental masks had fused back into his body. The high-voltage energy shredded both hearts instantly, leaving the ancient bounty hunter completely neutralized.
"Kakuzu!" Hidan shouted as his partner fell face-first into the ground mid-leap, standing with burn marks from the earlier combination jutsu all along his back and neck.
"You bastard! How!"
Kakashi gestured to the scythe in the man's hand.
Hidan looked down, and that was his undoing. Kakashi appeared in front of him and removed his head from his neck, catching the head in his left hand once it came back down.
"You're not very smart, are you?"
Kakashi asked rhetorically, rolling his eyes when the man screamed at him with increasingly crazy threats of violence.
"You know, I have become rather… knowledgeable in a certain area recently. I wonder what secrets I can uncover with you."
Kakashi covered Hidan's mouth with a seal before sealing his body and looking at Kakuzu with a blank stare.
"I'm aware that you're alive. I didn't aim for your main heart. Get up."
For a long moment, the clearing remained dead silent, the only sound being the wind rustling through the canopy. Then, with a ragged, heavy wheeze, the form of the ancient bounty hunter shifted in the dirt. Kakuzu slowly pushed himself up onto his hands and knees, his remaining main heart beating erratically behind his ribs as dark, thread-like stitches writhed around his heavily damaged side to knit the flesh back together.
He looked up at Kakashi, his crimson-and-green eyes filled with raw caution and grudging respect. He had survived a fight with the First Hokage and decades of global conflict, but he knew when he was completely outmatched.
"What do you want, Hokage?" Kakuzu growled, his voice grating and weak, but completely practical. "Someone of your caliber doesn't leave an Akatsuki member breathing out of mercy."
Kakashi tucked the scroll containing Hidan safely back into his tactical pouch, his gaze completely steady. "Mercy has nothing to do with it. You're a man who understands how the world works, Kakuzu. You care about survival, and you care about profit. Right now, I'm prepared to offer you both; under the right conditions, what do you say?"
"How much?" Kakuzu got up, curious about any deal that offers him more money.
"I am one of the richest men in the Land of Fire, Kakuzu," Kakashi replied, his tone conversational but entirely serious. "In fact, the only people who have more money than me at the moment would be three of the five elemental nations' daimyo. Money is not an issue for me, which means it won't be an issue for you."
Kakuzu's eyes narrowed slightly as he calculated. For a man who'd spent his entire century-long life chasing black-market bounty boards, standing across from someone with more liquidity than an entire country was a completely different game.
"What's the catch?" Kakuzu asked, his voice returning to its steady, business-like rumble. "A man with that kind of wealth doesn't just hand it out for something as simple as standard bodyguard work, and we both know with your strength, that's not what you need from me."
"I need a middleman for the black market," Kakashi said, a calm smile on his face. "You've been deeply entrenched in those circles for decades. Shady individuals, illegal trade routes, and illicit deals- I want them subtly monitored, and I want Konoha's influence expanded into those shadows without leaving a Leaf Village paper trail."
Kakuzu didn't break eye contact, his mind rapidly processing the tactical and financial implications.
"You get your funding, completely unrestricted, and your treasury will never be empty again," Kakashi continued, leaning back slightly. "In exchange, I get someone who knows the underworld inside and out, along with a constant stream of intelligence. I know you value money over everything else, Kakuzu. As long as the coin keeps flowing, you will be entirely loyal to it."
A tense silence filled the clearing as Kakuzu weighed the offer. It was a massive paradigm shift. He wouldn't just be hunting small-time bounties anymore; he would be managing an entire network with the bottomless financial backing of the Hokage himself.
"The terms are acceptable," Kakuzu finally rumbled, his voice low and steady. "As long as your wealth is real, my loyalty remains with money."
Kakashi nodded, reaching into his pocket and tossing the scroll at Kakuzu. This scroll was originally going to be sent to the R&D department, but Kakashi had enough money to swim in it, and he earns it faster than he could spend it.
"Inside that scroll are two briefcases filled with 20 million ryo each. I was going to use this to fund a new researcher in my R&D for the week."
Kakuzu's hand stilled after catching the scroll.
"You're saying you planned on funding this one researcher with 40 million ryo every week?"
"Exactly," Kakashi replied, his tone as casual as if he were discussing the weather. "Forty million a week is just a drop in the bucket for my projects. As I said, money is not an issue."
Kakuzu stared at him, his sharp eyes scanning every line of Kakashi's face, searching for a twitch, a shift in breathing, or any tell of a bluff. Over his long life, Kakuzu had dealt with every kind of liar and swindler in the underbelly of society. He prided himself on knowing exactly when a man was faking his wealth.
But as he looked at Kakashi, he saw absolutely nothing. The man was telling the absolute truth. Kakashi genuinely had so much wealth that throwing forty million ryo a week at a single researcher didn't even make him blink.
A dark, rare smirk broke out beneath Kakuzu's mask. He reached up to his shoulders, unclasping the heavy Akatsuki cloak that marked his allegiance to Pain's organization. Shrugging the garment off, he gripped the thick fabric and ruthlessly ripped the red clouds apart, shredding the symbol of his former group. He tossed the ruined remnants of the cloak onto the forest floor, stepping directly over them.
"Consider the Akatsuki contract void," Kakuzu rumbled, giving a firm, definitive nod. "And now that I'm newly employed, let me fill you in on some information."
- Chapter End -
Hope you enjoyed the chapter.