"Are you sure your intel is solid?"
Inside a massive stone-built tomb, Takeshi pinched his nose and whispered to Kakuzu beside him.
"Are you doubting my intel?"
Casting Takeshi a sidelong glare, Kakuzu extended his tendrils, probing for possible traps within the tomb.
Seeing Kakuzu's movements, Takeshi raised an eyebrow. "Pretty skilled at this, huh."
This trip to the Land of Water had made Takeshi clearly realize what kind of all-rounder Kakuzu truly was.
Interrogation, robbery, smuggling, grave robbing—whether a shinobi should or shouldn't know it, Kakuzu had mastered it all.
No wonder this guy could make so much money.
"All clear."
Ignoring Takeshi, Kakuzu destroyed all the mechanisms with his tendrils before speaking, signaling Takeshi that it was safe to proceed.
"You go. You've got Earth Spear—won't blow you to bits."
Takeshi stood in place, pointing at the stone coffin ahead.
This kid sure spoke bluntly.
But considering there might be valuables inside Seimei's coffin, Kakuzu still walked over with a dark expression.
When Kakuzu opened the coffin lid and no supernatural corpse-rising occurred, Takeshi finally felt at ease, stepping only on the stones Kakuzu had stepped on to reach the coffin.
Kakuzu's face was sour.
Not because of any strong smell, but because inside the coffin there was nothing but a mummified corpse covered in strange ninja tools—and nothing else.
"Didn't you say Seimei's coffin might be filled with valuable grave goods?"
Kakuzu looked at Takeshi with dissatisfaction.
Takeshi only shrugged at Kakuzu's question. "Didn't I say, might be."
With that, he reached out and picked up a longsword lying beside the mummy's hand.
After swinging it around a couple of times and failing to figure out its secrets, he casually tossed it to Kakuzu.
"Anyway, just hold onto it. Who knows, we might need it later."
Following the principle of "since we're here anyway," Kakuzu stripped all the ninja tools off the corpse, then opened the other coffins one by one.
His luck wasn't bad—by the third coffin, he fished out a single coin.
With that coin, Kakuzu could at least claim the trip wasn't a total waste.
Though his expression was still foul.
So, that very night, the foreign currency vault of the Artisans Village burst into a roaring blaze.
By the time the craftsmen ninja had fought desperately to put out the fire, it was already dawn the next day.
The shinobi in charge of assessing the loss, after carefully examining the scene, felt like the sky was collapsing.
Generations of accumulated wealth—cash, checks, gold, silver—everything had vanished.
The bodies of the ninja squad guarding the vault were also found in a corner.
Without a moment's hesitation, the officer, after ordering the site to be secured, rushed into the village chief's office.
At that moment, the chief was holding a bowl of rice, with a small plate of pickles in front of him, his face full of worry.
"Ah!"
After hearing his subordinate's report, the village chief roared, slamming the rice bowl upside-down onto the desk.
"Who? Who dared attack our Artisans Village?! Don't they know even the Five Great Nations have to come here to purchase our ninja tools?!"
"Chief, the urgent thing now is to investigate the attacker's identity and recover our property! You know, part of that money is the Five Great Villages' advance payment—we rely on it to buy raw materials!"
The officer was drenched in sweat.
If only the advance payment had been stolen, they could have dipped into other funds to buy materials. But in reality, the entire vault had been cleaned out—Artisans Village didn't have a single coin left to procure supplies.
Reminded of this, the village chief realized just how grave the situation was.
"Investigate! Send every elite ninja we have—find out exactly what happened!"
Flaking on the Five Great Villages was no small matter—handled poorly, it could spark an international dispute.
Soon, the village's upper echelon gathered in the chief's office.
After hearing the report, one of them offered a different opinion.
"Chief, our Artisans Village is not known for combat in the shinobi world. For the other side to act so boldly, their strength must be considerable. Instead of sending our own people to die in vain, why not report this to the Five Great Nations and have them send people to investigate with us?"
"If things go poorly, it will be the Five Great Nations' shinobi who failed, and we can refuse to fulfill the orders."
This viewpoint quickly gained widespread agreement.
Yes—if the advance payment from the Five Great Nations had been stolen, let their ninja investigate.
If they couldn't recover it, that was their own incompetence, and had nothing to do with the Artisans Village.
The proposal was approved, and soon the Five Great Nations received a request for aid from the Artisans Village.
"Pathetic. The Artisans Village has fallen so far it has to beg the Five Great Nations for help. If Seimei-sama were still alive to see this, he'd be heartbroken."
In a humble home, Hōki had gathered a few like-minded companions, speaking gloomily about the village's current plight.
...
"The village is really going downhill," Suiko agreed with Hōki's words.
...
Leaning against the doorframe, Kujaku gazed toward Seimei's tomb, already guessing Hōki's purpose in summoning her today.
"Three people aren't enough to start anything. There's a brat who could be recruited, though his personality is pretty rotten."
"You mean Ryūgan? That kid may be called the genius of the Artisans Village, but how old is he, really?"
Suiko immediately guessed who Kujaku meant, his face showing disdain.
"Who are you calling a brat, big guy?"
A boy who didn't look very old suddenly appeared behind Suiko, pressing a kunai to his back.
...
"Enough, Ryūgan. From now on, we're comrades with the same ideals. Put away your kunai."
Hōki's cold voice cut in, stopping Ryūgan's actions.
"The top priority now is to get the ultimate ninja tool from Seimei-sama's tomb, then find the One-Tail in Sunagakure and resurrect Seimei-sama!"
The four of them were plotting eagerly, but they had no idea that the two vicious criminals not only robbed the village's money, but also looted Seimei's grave.
Worse yet, their infiltration skills were clearly inferior to Kakuzu and Takeshi's.
The moment they entered the tomb, they saw Seimei's coffin tossed carelessly to the ground, with other coffin lids scattered nearby.
Realizing something was very wrong, they rushed to Seimei's coffin, only to find—sure enough—that inside was nothing but a stripped-clean mummy, with no sign of the ultimate ninja tool.
"This is bad."
The four exchanged glances, voiced the same thought, and turned to leave.
But they were spotted by the tomb's guardian ninja, who had rushed over upon hearing noise.
"Hōki? What are you doing?!"
The arriving craftsmen ninja instantly recognized Hōki and the others—who had made no effort to disguise themselves—and also noticed the coffin lids on the ground.
"Report to the chief! Hōki and the others have opened Seimei-sama's coffin!"
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Pls Drop some Power Stones
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