Chapter 372: The Unknown Other Side
Kakuzo's brain raced, trying to analyze the deeper meaning behind Kisame's abrupt question.
Attacking comrades? This seemed to be... that's right! When Hoshigaki Kisame was still in Kirigakure's ANBU, one of his most widely known "deeds" was unhesitatingly killing comrades who might be captured to ensure mission secrets didn't leak.
Could it be... Kisame wanted to find a sense of recognition here, from another "kindred spirit" who'd also attacked comrades?
Though his own actions were purely from perverted urges while Kisame's back then were more mission-oriented... perhaps motivations didn't matter—the essence of the behavior itself could resonate?
Kakuzo felt that in this situation, speaking honestly might better trigger the other's "understanding," or at least some level of resonance.
He tried making his voice sound calm, even carrying coldness. "...Killing comrades, does that need any special reason?"
Kisame's voice revealed no emotion. "...Why do you say that?"
Kakuzo spoke faster, attempting to connect his behavioral logic with the other's "rationalized" past. "Survival of the fittest, nothing more. Even with comrades, this concept and the act of killing them don't contradict each other in my view. What I did... compared to what you did during your ANBU period, probably doesn't even come close, right? Eliminating those 'comrades' without value, who'd even drag you down—isn't this precisely the philosophy you've always upheld? We just differ in methods, but the essence..."
He couldn't finish his words.
The playful expression on Kisame's face completely vanished, replaced by indifferent calm. "Mm, I understand." He cut off Kakuzo's words.
"Then, we can begin."
Kakuzo froze. "What? Begin wha—"
Kisame raised his hand and began forming seals. Massive chakra started surging violently around him. "A world without falsehood... doesn't need scum like you."
"Wh-what?! Wait!" Kakuzo's expression drastically changed. "I told you the truth! I, I can bring benefits! I'm useful! Senior, you also need—"
"Water Style: Great Exploding Water Colliding Wave!"
Kakuzo didn't even have time to fully extract the specially-made chakra threads hidden in his sleeves before his vision was swallowed by an overwhelming expanse of blue.
---
Kisame stepped across muddy ground, gaze sweeping over the chaotic battlefield. Soon, he found the target's lifeless, mangled corpse among a pile of broken tree trunks and sludge.
"Found it. Looks like Kakuzu won't need to throw a tantrum this time."
Although this operation's main purpose was "cleanup" rather than bounty collection, the organization's finance manager with an obsession for money—Kakuzu—his temperament was well known.
Any target carrying a bounty whose corpse or proof wasn't brought back for exchange could trigger his temper. Though Kisame wasn't afraid of him, he was too lazy to invite unnecessary nagging over such trivial matters.
Casually tossing Kakuzo's corpse onto Samehada's broad blade, Kisame turned back toward the rogue shinobi stronghold.
When he returned to the now-silent stronghold, internal cleanup work was nearing completion.
Most rogue shinobi had become cold corpses, lying scattered in pools of blood and battle traces. A few severely wounded or subdued individuals still clinging to life were restrained by ANBU shinobi, prepared to be taken back as prisoners—perhaps still holding some interrogation or utilization value.
An Uchiha ANBU shinobi wearing a fox mask quickly approached, reporting the situation.
"Captain, the base has been fully cleared, primary targets confirmed eliminated. Additionally..." His voice lowered somewhat. "We discovered the... whereabouts of the kidnapped villagers."
Kisame nodded slightly, signaling the other to lead the way.
Following the ANBU through the chaotic main hall, they entered a dark, narrow side passage. The air began filling with a smell of blood and... some sickeningly sweet, rotting complex odor.
At the passage's end was a stone chamber roughly excavated, with traces of crude barriers for reinforcement and sound isolation remaining at the entrance.
The moment he stepped into the stone chamber, even Kisame—accustomed to bloodshed—couldn't help his gaze freezing slightly.
This was a crude yet "professional" torture chamber. Torture implements of various kinds stained with deep brown marks hung on walls and scattered across the floor.
But the true impact came from the stone chamber's corner. There were no traces of careful handling, only the most savage "piling." Corpses in varying stages of decay—some with flesh still present but already blackened and bloated, others reduced to stark white bones—were indiscriminately heaped together, forming a nauseating mound.
Kisame silently observed this scene. He recalled the question he'd asked Kakuzo. Perhaps that question had been somewhat unnecessary after all.
"...This isn't within our mission scope."
Kisame's voice rang out in the silent stone chamber. "However, if Lord Menma saw these... he'd probably feel saddened."
He turned toward the ANBU shinobi beside him. "So, I'll have to trouble you. Give them proper burials. Find somewhere far from here, somewhere clean. Remember, don't bury them with that trash outside."
"Yes, Captain." The ANBU shinobi accepted the order without hesitation, immediately gesturing to summon several companions who began moving those remains long since departed from life.
Kisame didn't continue watching. He turned and left that suffocating stone chamber, returning to the relatively "fresher" ground surface. He sighed softly, even surprising himself.
Killing and combat—he didn't detest them, could even say they were part of his "way of survival."
However, witnessing such purely desire-satisfying, meaningless cruelty even carrying traces of "enjoyment," a nauseating discomfort spread through his heart.
He hated meaningless slaughter. But if swinging the butcher's blade could sever chains of falsehood, could establish a true, beautiful world without lies.
Even if that world required blood to build, Kisame willingly played the butcher's role. But maggot-like atrocities like these only made him feel... disgusted.
This was one of [Ember] organization's "routine missions." Due to Menma's overwhelming deterrent power, his core principle of "using absolute military force to intimidate great nations, forcing all parties to maintain a balance of terror, thereby preventing large-scale war outbreaks"—in actual execution... the effect was "good" to excess.
Aside from the recent "Konoha Crush" incident Orochimaru stirred up, the great nations bizarrely maintained a tense yet conflict-free "peace," with even heated diplomatic friction rarely occurring.
Thus, watching a group of top-tier powerhouses in the organization become somewhat "idle," Menma issued new directives—go "clean up" the true scum of this world.
But Menma's orders were very clear and carried strict standards—they couldn't wrongly accuse good people. Therefore before operations, thorough investigation was mandatory, carefully distinguishing targets—whether they were ordinary people forced onto crooked paths by survival pressures, or purely those who after gaining power felt themselves superior and acted wantonly.
If the former, only committing actions like robbing food to survive, the handling method was arrest, then sending them to... well, according to Menma's phrasing, undergo "mandatory labor reform"? Things like reclaiming wasteland, participating in infrastructure or material production, using labor to compensate for wrongs while creating value.
Only those whose hands were stained with innocent blood—this point required strict verification—or like Kakuzo, fundamentally pure evil who enjoyed inflicting cruelty, would require Kisame, Zabuza, or Deidara to personally make the trip for physical elimination.
An organization rumored in the shinobi world's dark side like a devil incarnate, yet its operational guidelines carried this kind of... "woman's kindness"?
Zabuza and Deidara were both quite surprised when first hearing such meticulous arrangements, but both executed them.
As for Kisame, he felt himself one who understood the truth—he knew that "Lord Menma's" identity beneath the mask was the Fourth Hokage who nearly sacrificed himself protecting Konoha. Some principles might already be carved into the soul.
When the Uchiha ANBU completed final cleanup work, properly burying the innocent remains on a distant hillside, the conclusion procedures activated.
Kisame led some members, carrying Kakuzo and potentially exchangeable bounty proofs from others, toward the nearest secret contact point or underground exchange office.
Next, following established procedures, they needed to deliver the exchanged bounty money, or—if target corpses were too mangled to identify—the organization would directly allocate funds, sent in the organization's name to villages once victimized by these rogue shinobi.
This step invariably made the organization's finance manager Kakuzu feel discomfort resembling myocardial infarction.
"We already eliminated the menace! Why must we give away rightfully earned bounty money... even the organization's money, to those weaklings?"
He couldn't comprehend this "extra expenditure" logic. Wasn't eliminating vermin the greatest act of kindness already? But ultimately Kakuzu only sighed a few extra times while mentally calculating losses, never truly disobeying this order.
For someone like Kisame who had no obsession with money itself, this procedure didn't matter.
Anyway, ever since the organization previously "dealt with" that merchant called Gato or whatever, and "took over" the vast majority of his assets, [Ember]'s controlled resources reached nation-rivaling wealth levels.
Just maintaining organizational operations and member expenses, this wealth could sustain hundreds of years. Moreover, the organization owned numerous legitimate enterprises continuously profiting. Kakuzu's worries seemed to Kisame more like overly stingy conditioned reflexes pained by any expenditure.
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