Chapter 407: Strengthening the Shinobi Sect
Fire Dragon Dance was a Fire Release ninjutsu Mugetsu refined from Fire Release: Fire Dragon Flame Bullet. It could be considered an upgraded Fire Dragon Flame Bullet.
Its range, power, and flexibility were enhanced across the board. Aside from the heavy chakra consumption and the brutal requirements to use it properly, it had almost no real drawbacks.
The high temperature flames Mugetsu expelled devoured the combination ninjutsu Kakuzu had launched at a terrifying speed.
The moment that heat wave surged forward, Kakuzu's pupils tightened.
He had thought Mugetsu's earlier Fire Release was already strong enough.
He had not expected Mugetsu was still holding back and had not used his full strength until now.
Kakuzu immediately tried to pull his Earth Grudge Fear heart back.
But the flames were too fast.
Before it could return to his body, the heart was reduced to black ash in Mugetsu's fire.
Kakuzu clutched his chest, pain twisting his face.
That single exchange had cost him two lives at once.
But Fire Dragon Dance was not finished.
Under Mugetsu's control, the scorching sea of fire split into six fire dragons. They coiled around Kakuzu and his remaining hearts, attacking from different directions.
Even though Kakuzu had recalled all his hearts at the very start, facing that kind of offense, only the Lightning Release heart managed to return to his body.
The Water Release heart was torn apart by the fire dragons.
Kakuzu's main body was struck as well.
His Earth Release heart could not withstand such an assault and was burned to pieces.
In the blink of an eye, the Kakuzu who had once carried five lives was reduced to a single remaining life.
The entire battle flipped on its head.
"So incredible, as expected of Uncle Sosuke!" Yahiko shouted, delighted.
Even from a distance, he could feel the terrifying temperature. This was the strongest Fire Release ninjutsu he had ever seen.
"Is Teacher Sosuke really that strong?" The ninja who recognized Kakuzu was stunned.
Kakuzu was a legend of the black market. Yet he had been nearly killed in an instant by one Fire Release.
The man was so shocked he even felt Mugetsu might be stronger than Hanzo. He did not believe Hanzo could instantly kill Kakuzu with Water Release.
"Can Hanzo really be on the same level as Teacher Sosuke?" Ikechou felt sure now that he had underestimated Mugetsu.
His imagination could not keep up with Mugetsu's power.
In his mind, the symbol of strength had always been Hanzo.
But from this moment on, Ikechou declared there was a new candidate for the strongest.
The strength Mugetsu displayed was so overwhelming that some of them felt it was unreal.
A few even pinched their own arms. The small sting confirmed it was not an illusion.
It was not that their mental endurance was weak.
It was that everything felt so good it was like a dream.
They had given nothing, yet just by following along, they received careful guidance from a powerhouse like Mugetsu.
From Mugetsu's perspective, the ninja who followed him had made risky choices.
But for rogue ninja, danger was ordinary, and if they wanted to advance, danger was unavoidable.
So to them, traveling through the Land of Rain with Mugetsu truly was dreamlike.
They learned skills.
They lived more like real shinobi.
It filled both body and spirit.
Mugetsu looked at the fallen Kakuzu and walked toward him at a measured pace.
Kakuzu lay motionless, but Mugetsu knew he was not dead.
Kakuzu still had one final heart left.
If someone did not understand Earth Grudge Fear, seeing Kakuzu in that condition would make them assume he was finished.
But Mugetsu was different.
He had appraisal, transformation, and knowledge of the original plot.
"Are you still planning to keep playing dead?" Mugetsu asked lightly as he approached.
Kakuzu felt his heart tighten, but he still did not move. He believed Mugetsu might be bluffing.
After all, most people who saw Earth Grudge Fear died. There was no reason Mugetsu should know his secrets.
"Do you think I am bluffing?" Mugetsu continued. "With only one heart left, what can you even do?"
Fine beads of sweat formed on Kakuzu's forehead.
It felt like Mugetsu had looked straight through him.
Kakuzu could no longer keep his composure. He stared up at Mugetsu, bewildered.
He was sure he had never met Mugetsu, never fought him, never crossed paths with him.
So why did Mugetsu know?
"Why do you know my information?" Kakuzu stopped pretending. He rose to his feet and glared at Mugetsu.
At this point, Kakuzu was no longer flustered.
The worst outcome was death.
Did he want to die?
Of course not. He had not made enough money yet.
Was he afraid of death?
Of course not. If he feared death, he never would have tried to assassinate Senju Hashirama.
To Kakuzu, dying in battle as a shinobi was not a terrible ending.
It was certainly better than being betrayed by comrades and dying in a prison cell.
"He is not dead?" The other ninja were shocked by Kakuzu's vitality.
Mugetsu's earlier flames had scorched most of the area.
Yet Kakuzu still stood after enduring that kind of attack.
To them, it was absurd.
"This is ancient wisdom," Mugetsu said with a mystical smile.
He could not speak of plot knowledge, appraisal, or transformation, so he chose to be vague.
"Is it that so called sage art inheritance?" Kakuzu pressed.
He was curious what that inheritance really was. It sounded mysterious enough to justify the massive bounty.
"You can think of it that way," Mugetsu replied, guiding Kakuzu toward his own conclusion.
The answer was vague, but it was still an answer.
Kakuzu steadied himself again, taking a fighting stance.
Even if the outcome was decided, he would not lie down and wait.
He would fight until the last moment.
Kakuzu quickly unraveled the stitches at his wrists. Black threads surged within his body, controlling two fists that shot toward Mugetsu like missiles.
It looked simple, almost plain.
But the power was deadly. An ordinary jonin could be pierced clean through.
After using Fire Dragon Dance, Mugetsu exited Flame Breathing Chakra Mode and switched to Rock Breathing, the style he used most often in daily life.
Under Rock Breathing's reinforcement, his strength rose and his skin hardened. The flying fists struck and were deflected with ease.
Whoosh!
Mugetsu flickered and appeared at Kakuzu's side.
Kakuzu instantly raised black threads to defend.
Bang!
Mugetsu's heavy power shattered the defense outright.
Kakuzu was thrown back like a broken kite and slammed hard into the ground.
Mugetsu's taijutsu was so sharp that Kakuzu did not even get the chance to launch Lightning Release.
He felt like a punching bag, unable to fight back, forced to endure Mugetsu's relentless strikes.
Kakuzu's consciousness began to blur.
"Dying to a strong opponent like this is not a bad end," he thought as he collapsed again.
Mugetsu's strength was immense.
In Kakuzu's long career, he had only met one opponent stronger than Mugetsu.
That was the God of Shinobi, Senju Hashirama.
Looking back, Kakuzu found his younger self ridiculous.
He had made every mental preparation to assassinate Hashirama, only to be gravely wounded without even understanding how.
Then he returned to the village in disgrace and was imprisoned and harshly punished.
Back then, he was not mature enough. He only thought they were despicable.
Now he understood.
There was no special reason.
It was just reality. This was the shinobi world.
He was too strong and had too many merits. The higher ups feared their positions would be threatened, so they sent him to die.
Their mouths spoke of the village and its will.
Their hearts were filled only with personal interest.
"I am Kakuzu," he said, using his last strength to speak his name.
He was worse off than he had been after fighting Hashirama, and he did not even have the strength to stand.
Kakuzu waited for the finishing blow.
It never came.
He opened his eyes.
Mugetsu stood beside him, quietly watching.
Mugetsu was weighing the pros and cons.
What he was doing would bring an unprecedented change to the Land of Rain.
He wanted that change to be for the better, but keeping it that way required strength.
Yahiko and the other two were not enough.
Nagato could not yet use the Rinnegan freely.
Mugetsu could not remain in the Land of Rain forever.
Strengthening the Shinobi Sect was necessary.
If he started this and then left without caring, he would become the kind of person he once disliked.
Kakuzu's strength was unquestionable.
A so called Little Third is still a Third.
If they found a way to deal with Salamander poison mist, Kakuzu could even fight Hanzo.
Mugetsu thought for a moment, then placed his hand on Kakuzu's chest.
Kakuzu assumed Mugetsu was finally going to kill him.
Nothing happened.
Thirty seconds later, intricate sealing formulas appeared on Kakuzu's chest.
"Why are you not killing me?" Kakuzu asked, confused. "What are you planning?"
"If you are putting something in my body to threaten me into working for you, then you are underestimating me."
Kakuzu had pride.
He would rather die than live like that.
"Your imagination is quite impressive," Mugetsu said, extending a hand toward him.
He had only placed a seal that interfered with chakra flow.
With it, Kakuzu would find it extremely difficult to gather chakra, which meant he could not use ninjutsu.
Mugetsu planned to travel through the Land of Rain with Kakuzu.
If Kakuzu accepted it and sincerely joined the Shinobi Sect, then things would be easy.
If not, Mugetsu would let him die painlessly.
Mugetsu disliked threats the most because they invited accidents.
If the method was broken, or if the opponent decided to go down fighting, things could become messy.
Kakuzu stared at him, still puzzled.
He could not understand what Mugetsu wanted.
"How about joining us?" Mugetsu invited. "After we finish our journey through the Land of Rain, I will establish the Shinobi Sect."
"The Shinobi Sect?" Kakuzu sounded as if he had heard a joke. "You mean the one where a shinobi's duty is to protect peace?"
In truth, Kakuzu had not known about the Shinobi Sect before.
It was history from thousands of years ago.
He learned about it while investigating Mugetsu, which was why he called Mugetsu naive.
To Kakuzu, the kind of shinobi Mugetsu described only existed in fantasies.
Real shinobi prioritized profit.
Protecting the peace of the entire shinobi world was laughable.
Even protecting your own village and country required calculating profit.
"Not just that," Mugetsu said, still smiling. "But you can understand it that way for now."
He was borrowing prestige. He could not possibly recreate the Six Paths Sage's Shinobi Sect exactly.
That Shinobi Sect had failed in the end.
So how could Mugetsu build the same thing and expect it to succeed?
"In the shinobi world, only profit is eternal," Kakuzu dismissed. "You will never succeed."
"How do you know that without trying?" Mugetsu's relaxed smile did not change.
"Can a single drop of water extinguish a patch of fire?" Kakuzu replied. "Some things are obviously impossible without even trying."
"Why not?"
Mugetsu entered Water Breathing Chakra Mode.
He compressed a massive amount of Water Release chakra into a single drop, then fired it toward the still burning flames.
That one drop extinguished all of them.
Kakuzu fell silent.
That level of control was beyond what he could easily comprehend.
"Teacher Sosuke, you should not waste any more effort," Ikechou said after thinking it over, stepping forward. "A bounty hunter like him, someone who only cares about profit, cannot become a true shinobi."
Kakuzu glanced at Ikechou indifferently.
"A shinobi at your level is not even worth my time," he said. "No one puts a bounty on a weakling like you."
Kakuzu was over seventy. If he fell for such a simple provocation, he would have lived those years for nothing.
"You, and all of you," Kakuzu continued, voice merciless, "if you stay by his side, you will die sooner or later with his naivety."
If Kakuzu had not misjudged Mugetsu's strength, and if he had not had his habit of ignoring people without bounties, he absolutely would have caused casualties in this group.
And Kakuzu did not believe his death would make Mugetsu's bounty vanish.
On the contrary, Mugetsu's bounty would rise, and by a large amount.
At that point, it would not only be individual bounty hunters.
Entire shinobi factions might target Mugetsu's so called sage art inheritance.
"That is just your fantasy," Ikechou shot back. "Reality is that Teacher Sosuke is moving toward success. The ones who fail are you and those who think like you."
"Everyone understands danger. Teacher Sosuke warned us long ago."
"Avoiding danger is instinct," Ikechou continued. "But there are things that can surpass instinct."
"So naivety is contagious," Kakuzu scoffed.
Yet strange thoughts began stirring inside him.
This group was not what he expected.
Even after someone recognized him, they did not run.
Kakuzu could also tell that these rogue ninja did not know how strong Mugetsu truly was.
They had looked just as shocked when Mugetsu unleashed that Fire Release.
So what gave them the courage?
They were weak, yet they did not flee.
They even dared to attack him.
"What are you talking so arrogantly for?" Yahiko stepped in, joining the argument. "Since you are so sure we will fail, then come and see if we fail."
"Let us complete the journey through the Land of Rain together," Mugetsu said at last.
"By then, whether you join us or decide you still want to trade me for a bounty will be entirely up to your own will."
"However, I will not remove the sealing technique on you during the journey," Mugetsu added. "For everyone's safety."
A trace of hesitation flashed across Kakuzu's face.
"I would like to see what other tricks you have besides naivety," he said after a moment, agreeing.
Because refusing or agreeing only changed whether he died sooner or later.
His naive self had already died long ago.
On the day he returned to his village gravely wounded.
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