Inside a dilapidated public restroom near the border of the Land of Hot Water, the air was damp, dim, and filled with an extremely pungent odor. No matter how urgent one's need for a restroom, they would choose to relieve themselves in a small grove rather than in a place like this.
But Kakuzu ignored the foul air. After entering the restroom, he looked at the moss-covered brick wall, extending a hand to gently press a specific spot.
Click... creak...
An almost imperceptible sound broke the silence, and the entire wall silently slid inwards, revealing a staircase just wide enough for one person to pass.
Kakuzu remained expressionless, stepping onto the stone stairs and descending, his figure gradually swallowed by the darkness.
This was a transit point for death.
The Exchange Office.
"Mr. Kakuzu, please follow me."
A man with a hideous scar on his face approached, his demeanor very respectful. However, upon seeing Kakuzu, he couldn't help but freeze for a moment. This man usually carried corpses in, a sight that was always incredibly impactful. This time, how was it...
But he didn't say anything more, simply assuming Kakuzu had been too heavy-handed, making the corpses too gruesome to display, so he had sealed them in a scroll.
As Kakuzu and the man went deeper, they entered a spacious room, the air carrying a chilling coldness.
What greeted their eyes was a wall resembling a honeycomb, extending into the shadows until it disappeared from sight. It was densely packed with uniformly sized, drawer-like metal compartments, each labeled with a blurred numerical code.
This was the "shelf" the Exchange Office used to store its "goods."
"Please." The scarred man turned to Kakuzu, extending his hand, motioning for him to take out the corpses.
Watching the scarred man pull out only one compartment, a cold, unidentifiable snort escaped from beneath Kakuzu's mask. He unstrapped the specially made, large-capacity sealing scroll from his back, unrolled it flat on the ground, and formed a hand seal.
Boom!!
After a burst of white smoke, dozens of corpses of various forms appeared out of thin air, like dumped garbage, piling up into a small mountain that reeked of blood and death. A few bodies rolled like rocks from the top of the piled corpses, thudding unsettlingly at the scarred man's feet.
The quantity was simply too much.
Thick, warm, dark red blood spread out, and the potent smell of blood and putrid decay instantly overwhelmed the original scent of the Exchange Office.
"Hiss!"
The scarred man couldn't help but gasp, but the inhaled scent of blood made his lips twitch. His nerves, typically calm from long-term handling of corpses, were shattered at this moment by the sheer scale and gruesomeness of the mountain of bodies before him. He had been in this business for over a decade, and had seen all sorts of corpse delivery methods: carried, dragged, hidden... But to "dump" an entire mountain of corpses like this, all at once, was simply unprecedented.
"Are all these guys with bounties on them?"
The scarred man blurted out, but quickly reacted, his face slightly changing as he hastily explained: "My apologies, Mr. Kakuzu, I'm not questioning your credibility, it's just the sheer number..."
"They all are," Kakuzu said calmly, unconcerned by his lapse. "Some with low bounties, I just couldn't fit them, so I didn't bring them."
As he spoke, his tone subtly carried a hint of regret and vexation.
"As expected of Mr. Kakuzu," the scarred man wiped away a bead of cold sweat, forcing out a dry compliment.
"I didn't kill them." Kakuzu didn't take credit for the 'Shadow's' work, his tone complex. "If I had, the bodies would either be whole or reduced to ash."
Hearing this, the scarred man looked at the dismembered limbs and heads of the corpses, and the lingering fear and despair on their faces, and swallowed hard. While chilled to the bone, he was also somewhat curious: who was responsible? Did this "immortal," who always acted alone, now have companions?
The scarred man pulled out the black market's bounty ledger, matching the identities and bounties of the corpses one by one, crossing out the names as if on a death register.
"One hundred thirty-four million ryo."
After a long time, carefully calculating several times, the scarred man finally trembled as he reported the total bounty. He cautiously took out a leather briefcase and respectfully pushed it toward Kakuzu.
Looking at the several large boxes of cash and notes before him, Kakuzu's breathing became heavy.
As one of the top bounty ninjas, Kakuzu commanded unparalleled prestige in the black market. Whenever he completed a bounty mission, the exchange office would advance the bounty to save him time.
But Kakuzu still openly opened the boxes on the spot. His dark green pupils brightened even further from the verdant cash, and he extended a hand, beginning to count the notes one by one.
Swish! Swish!
The subtle rustling of the money in the deathly silence was like a peculiar, reverent chanting. He ignored everyone else, his movements incredibly skilled and fluid, his concentration unwavering—a state of profound mastery unreachable by ordinary people.
Seeing this, the scarred man was somewhat helpless, forcing a wry smile: "Mr. Kakuzu, you're an old customer by now. You don't need to count them out in front of me every time, do you?"
"No," Kakuzu said, counting the money without lifting his head, his voice muffled through his mask. "In this world, only money can be trusted."
As an immortal ninja, he walked from the very beginning of a long history, dating back even to the initial establishment of the ninja villages in various countries.
Once an elite of Takigakure, he was entrusted with the mission to assassinate the First Hokage, Hashirama Senju, but was defeated by the Wood Style. Even though he escaped back to the village in a humiliating, life-threatening situation, what awaited him was the stigma of a failed mission and severe punishment. For Kakuzu, who had once risked his life for the village, this was undoubtedly an exceptionally cruel and ruthless betrayal and abandonment.
Filled with intense hatred, Kakuzu broke out of prison and defected from the village. He stole the forbidden jutsu regarded as a treasure by Takigakure, and also took the hearts of all the high-ranking officials of Takigakure.
Thus, after experiencing betrayal by all and ruthless abandonment, having wandered the shinobi world alone for decades, he finally understood one truth:
Only money would not betray him, and he would not betray money. Money was his true friend; everything else was utter nonsense.
This was the creed Kakuzu had always lived by since becoming a bounty ninja.
Just like that, amidst the rustling of money, Kakuzu finished counting all the cash in the box.
However, after counting for the first time, Kakuzu slightly frowned. Then, under the helpless gaze of the scarred man, he actually started counting for a second time.
He went back and forth, counting three times, before finally pulling a banknote from the box and saying: "There's an extra hundred ryo. Count it properly next time before you give it to me." His tone was flat, yet it carried an extremely cold, unyielding harshness that brooked no argument.
"My apologies, Mr. Kakuzu."
Though helpless internally, the scarred man still apologized with proper deference. This man truly treated money as his faith, enjoying the process of earning and counting it, rather than the intrinsic value of the money itself. After all, with the bounties Kakuzu had tirelessly earned over decades, he could have long since retired and lived a rich, fulfilling life, without needing to live such a dangerous existence.
But Kakuzu didn't do that. Besides passion and faith, there was no other reason one could think of.
However...
"Mr. Kakuzu," the scarred man turned to look at the long axe on the scroll. "May I ask what that is?"
"Something the Third Tsuchikage, Onoki, has a bounty on," Kakuzu glanced at the so-called Kusanagi Sword. "I'll temporarily leave it with you. Onoki will come to retrieve it later."
"Understood, Mr. Kakuzu." The scarred man nodded, not asking further questions.
While the other four Kage were tight-lipped about the underground black market and bounty ninjas, Onoki had secretly established a stable trading relationship with the black market. He often hired bounty ninjas from the black market to handle matters that were inconvenient for Iwagakure to deal with.
Although, as one of the Five Kage, hiring mostly rogue ninjas as bounty hunters might seem to diminish the Tsuchikage's prestige, the shrewd Onoki clearly didn't care. However, not just anyone could accept the missions he issued. Therefore, a bounty ninja hired by Onoki was essentially tagged as being recognized by a Kage, proving both their credibility and strength, which would cause their hiring price in the black market to surge. Naturally, they would receive more favor from wealthy merchants and nobles, and the missions and bounties they could accept would also naturally increase. So far, bounty ninjas who had cooperated with the Tsuchikage all reported a very pleasant collaboration, with no issues of "the big shop bullying the customer."
"Please take care, Mr. Kakuzu. Welcome back next time."
The scarred man smiled and bowed to Kakuzu's departing back, showing respect for this bounty hunter who had a strong affinity with money.
However, looking at Kakuzu's black cloak with red clouds, and recalling the other person he mentioned, then linking it to the Third Tsuchikage's bounty mission...
"It seems the shinobi world is about to change again," the scarred man's eyes slightly lowered, he sighed in his heart.
Click-clack.
A secret door behind the overgrown public restroom rose, and Kakuzu emerged, carrying two large leather briefcases. He looked at the sun that had already risen in the distance. Although it was morning, the outside temperature was still bone-chillingly cold.
Kakuzu subconsciously tightened his grip on the briefcases, feeling the weighty presence of the money. The coldness seemed to dissipate a bit, and both his body and heart involuntarily warmed up.
"Indeed, in this cold world full of falsehoods, only money can make me feel warm," he mused, squinting his eyes.
He hoped that the Akatsuki organization he had just joined would consist of people who also had an affinity for money.
Thinking this, Kakuzu looked at the figure standing in the distance and said in a flat tone, "Let's go, President."
The man addressed as "President" gave a wry smile, taking off his exaggerated diamond-shaped sunglasses and saying helplessly, "Mr. Kakuzu, please don't tease me anymore. I'm just scurrying around like a mole rat now."
This person was, of course, Oyakata En, one of the only two remaining members of the Chinoike clan, who owned the Karma Real Estate Company business. He had also joined the Akatsuki organization, leveraging his Ketsuryūgan bloodline limit and his longbow named Sacred Vanishing Arrow.