"Seriously! I'm about to lose it!"
Hidan shouted as he slung the triple-bladed scythe back over his shoulder.
"You count money every single time! And not once has a bounty ever been short! Kakuzu, you're deliberately wasting time! I'm reporting you to the boss for slacking off!"
"Money is the most important thing."
Kakuzu calmly placed a counted stack of bills back into the chest, then unhurriedly pulled out another bundle.
"And you're in no position to accuse me of wasting time. Compared to your bizarre prayer rituals, my counting is far more efficient."
His tone never changed.
He picked up the next stack and continued counting with meticulous precision.
"Damn it! Those are the rules of the Jashin faith!"
Hidan snapped, his anger flashing before instantly turning into fanatic zeal.
"That ritual was personally commanded by Lord Jashin!"
His gaze swept across the bounty hall.
"Speaking of Lord Jashin… any of you interested in joining the Jashin religion?"
"You can kill people freely if you join, you know!"
The exchange manager was speechless.
Compared to this nonstop lunatic, he vastly preferred dealing with Kakuzu.
Everyone else in the hall was focused on Kakuzu counting money—
except Naruto, who was eyeing Hidan with clear interest.
"If you're bored, go get the intel from that guy outside,"
Kakuzu said as he finished counting the third bundle.
Each stack was one hundred thousand ryō—no matter how fast he went, it would still take time.
"Oh?"
Hidan's grin twisted.
"You want me to collect intel? What if I accidentally offer him up to Lord Jashin?"
"Do whatever you want,"
Kakuzu replied without looking up.
"Just make sure you get the information first."
"Hahaha! Like I'd forget something that important!"
Hidan turned and pushed open the door.
Before leaving, he glanced maliciously at the bounty hunters staring at Kakuzu—
then froze when his eyes met Naruto's.
Naruto was also looking at him.
That gaze felt… strange.
Naruto smiled faintly, said a few words to the exchange manager, then walked back into his private room.
"I swear I've seen eyes like that somewhere before…"
Hidan frowned, scratching his head.
By the time the door closed behind Naruto, he still couldn't remember.
Shrugging it off, he hoisted his blood-red scythe and stepped outside.
After all, he had a sacrifice waiting for Lord Jashin.
Clang.
The door shut.
Outside, Hidan immediately spotted "Kirisame" standing in the shadows beneath a building wall.
His eyes lit up as he strolled toward him, gripping the emblem on his chest while his left hand slid down the scythe's handle.
"Yo~ buddy! How about joining the Jashin religion with me?"
"The Jashin religion?"
"Kirisame" frowned.
"Where's Kakuzu-sama?"
"Ah~ he told me to come get the intel first,"
Hidan grinned.
"Hurry up and hand it over. Kakuzu's getting impatient."
"I see…"
Without suspicion, "Kirisame" pulled a scroll from his cloak and offered it.
"This is the intelligence Lady Konan ordered me to gather."
"Excellent."
Hidan released his emblem—
SMACK!
He seized Kirisame's wrist, eyes blazing with madness.
"Come embrace Lord Jashin with me!"
His scythe swung instantly—
the crimson blade hooking toward Kirisame's lower back like a harvesting hook.
Kirisame's eyes widened in shock.
He barely had time to open his mouth before the blade pierced his body.
Hidan's face lit up.
"The ritual's about to—hm?"
BANG!
The body suddenly turned into a wooden log.
Hidan stared, stunned, then looked to the side—
Kirisame was standing more than ten meters away, completely unharmed.
"M-my lord! What is the meaning of this?!"
Kirisame cried in terror.
"I demand to see Kakuzu-sama!"
"So you won't surrender quietly…"
Hidan raised his scythe horizontally.
"How troublesome. Rejecting my kindness like this will make Lord Jashin very unhappy!"
Thirty Minutes Later
Kakuzu stepped out of the exchange carrying the money chest.
"How much longer are you going to lie there?"
"Don't rush me! The ritual's almost done!"
Not far from the steps, Hidan's scythe lay discarded.
He himself was pinned to the ground by a black spear through his chest.
Beneath him was a blood-red ritual circle nearly two meters wide.
"Kirisame" lay just outside the circle, motionless.
Another minute passed.
PFFT!
Hidan yanked the spear from his chest and sat up.
"Oww~ that hurt."
He pushed himself to his feet, brushed off the dust, and tossed a scroll to Kakuzu.
Kakuzu caught it, glanced inside, then turned away.
"Report to the leader first. After that, we'll carry out the mission we just accepted."
Hidan grabbed his scythe and followed.
"What about that corpse? Might be worth something at the exchange!"
"You're truly incompatible with money,"
Kakuzu replied flatly.
"There's no bounty on him."
"Heh~ rare to see a body even you don't want."
Walking beside Kakuzu, Hidan eyed the money chest.
"That mission isn't simple, is it? First time I've seen someone hand over ten million ryō as an advance."
Kakuzu didn't answer.
"Hey! At least tell me what the mission is!"
Hidan complained.
"If not that, then where are we going next?"
Kakuzu stopped.
"To the Land of Wind. We're capturing a puppet master named Mukade."
Land of Snow
High above the clouds, a silver, shuttle-shaped airship hovered silently.
Inside, Naruto sat on a sofa—
but his consciousness was within the Mirror World, watching Kakuzu's and Hidan's memories alongside the other Tailed Beasts.
At the bounty exchange, Naruto had first copied Kakuzu's puppet body in the main hall.
Then, in the private room, he left behind a Shadow Clone while his real body transformed into "Kirisame."
When handing over the scroll, he copied Hidan's puppet as well.
During the fight, Naruto used a smoke bomb to swap in the real Kirisame's corpse,
then used Kabuto's Dead Soul Technique to manipulate the body and finish the act.
While Naruto focused on Hidan's memories,
the four Tailed Beasts were watching Kakuzu's.
Because within those memories, they saw something shocking—
Takigakure once sent Kakuzu to assassinate the First Hokage, Hashirama Senju.
Naruto's interest in Hidan ran even deeper.
He discovered that Hidan was, paradoxically, an atheist—
the "Jashin" he worshipped had always been himself.
Most importantly—
The experimental process behind Hidan's immortality,
and the structure of his curse rituals…
Were disturbingly similar to Edo Tensei.
A different path.
A different logic.
But undeniably—
Another form of successful resurrection.
Author's Note:
This chapter was originally meant to be included yesterday as part of a ten-thousand-word update, but time didn't allow it.
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