SLASH
Kakuzu took his kunai and severed Genzō's head, then covered it with a black cloth.
Although Genzō's bounty was not as much as Itachi's, only 30 million ryō, to Kakuzu even 1000 ryō is precious, let alone 30 million.
Then Kakuzu took a glass tube filled with green liquid out of his sealing scroll.
Recently, Kakuzu had heard that Itachi Uchiha's bounty had increased by another 125 million; since then, Kakuzu had been after Itachi.
Fortunately, with the help of Black Zetsu, they were finally able to track him. Although Nagato had ordered him to capture Itachi alive if possible, you can't blame swords and jutsu for being impartial during a fight, right?
Kakuzu then went to Itachi's side, who was now lying on his stomach in a pool of blood. Kakuzu first checked for any kind of ambush; after confirming nothing unusual, he turned Itachi on his back and opened his closed eyes.
But the moment Kakuzu looked at the three-tomoe Sharingan, a bad feeling arose within him.
And it was indeed true. The next moment, Kakuzu's mind went blank.
Just then, a shadow fell on Kakuzu's back, but Kakuzu wasn't conscious to guard himself from any ambushes.
Itachi ( alive ) looked at the unconscious Kakuzu and smiled slightly. He thought of the plan he had been following, and it was indeed successful.
Previously, during his fight with Genzō, he deliberately hid his strength and used strength equal to an elite Jonin. Though Kakuzu and Genzō didn't find it strange, as that was monstrous considering Itachi's age.
Although Itachi was confident he could defeat both of them individually, fighting one vs two would definitely be a difficult job. Although Kakuzu said he wouldn't join the fight, who would trust a ninja in the Naruto world?
If Itachi showed overwhelming strength from the beginning, then Kakuzu would definitely join the battle.
During his fight with Genzō, Itachi was thinking of all the information he had of Kakuzu, whether it was from the anime or real life, and he indeed found that Kakuzu would kill his teammates and used them as baits before Hidan, the immortal, arrived and then sell his partner's bounty.
Kakuzu and Hidan even had a combination of attacks, with Hidan engaging the enemy in taijutsu and Kakuzu firing ninjutsu at both of them. The enemy wouldn't expect Kakuzu to kill his teammates and would be caught off guard, and as for Hidan? He would still be fine.
---
After Genzō's last attack, the one who went was Itachi's shadow clone, or a type of shadow clone. With the help of EX-LEVEL FŪINJUTSU, Itachi altered the structure of the shadow clone, reducing its combat ability to near zero but increasing its durability, and now, after getting hurt, it wouldn't disappear immediately.
Instead, it would get injured like a normal person, bleed and cry, and even after death it would last for an hour or two.
Itachi then used a transcription seal to seal S-level Genjutsu: Infinite Mirror, which he used on Shinnosuke, onto the eyes of the clone. As for the condition, when someone opens the eyelids, it would activate.
It was just a bet, as someone had once said ninjas are a battle of information. And even if the plan went wrong, Itachi could just battle Kakuzu again. It's not like he was losing anything other than chakra. And it was indeed successful.
While Itachi was thinking all this, one second had passed in the real world. The next second, four chains emerged from Itachi's back and pierced the four masks which he sensed in front of him.
PUCHI PUCHI PUCHI PUCHI
With the pain, Kakuzu finally broke free from the genjutsu. It's usually not that easy to get out, but now the pain of four hearts rupturing had woken Kakuzu up.
Kakuzu ignored the pain and was about to get ready, but found himself being wrapped up in chakra chains all over his body, and now he looked like a dumpling.
When Kakuzu tried to use chakra, he found that his chakra was sealed by the Adamantine Sealing Chains and he couldn't even mobilise a thread of chakra. He could also feel the loss of four hearts.
"How?"
Itachi didn't say anything to the sealed Kakuzu and took out Genzō's head and started checking for his memories. Other intelligence wasn't that important. What Itachi really wanted was to check whether Genzō's bloodline limit was acquired or innate.
If it's innate, then Itachi can't do anything about it, but if it's acquired, then maybe he can recreate Cement Style.
If the chances of creating a bloodline limit are one in a million, then learning it from a person is one in ten thousand, then learning it with memories of the user and the Sharingan is one in hundreds.
Though most Uchiha have no need to learn a new bloodline limit, as their own bloodline limit is the best in the world. To Itachi, he wanted to learn it first because of curiosity towards chakra and because he wanted to fuse all chakra natures to form a Bloodline Net. The fusion of water and earth chakra nature was just the first step.
One hour later, Itachi, with good luck and maybe protagonist aura, got lucky, and fortunately Genzō had an acquired bloodline limit. In the past hour, Itachi had copied all the chakra proportions, Cement Style's unique chakra nature transformation, its properties, and all the jutsu.
Although it would still take time, Itachi could guarantee that with his talent he would soon possess another bloodline limit.
---
After that, Itachi got up and loosened the chains which kept Kakuzu's mouth shut.
"You brat, a ninja would rather die than be humiliated."
Hearing this, Itachi nodded.
"So, I kill you ?"
Hearing this, Kakuzu's expression changed. If Itachi had asked this question a few hours ago, he would have said without hesitation that he would die, but now, after a few hours of thinking, his anger from heart loss and all the recklessness had calmed down.
Kakuzu remembered his good old days when he fought the legendary God of Shinobi, Wood Style user First Hokage Hashirama Senju.
Back then as well, he was tied like a dumpling by wooden vines, but after calming down, he understood that only by living could he make money, so he survived.
Then he was once again beaten like a dog by Pain; even then, Pain gave him an option to die or be recruited, and in the end, Kakuzu remembered the amount of money he had saved, which would be used by some bastard when it was discovered. So he once again survived.
Now it was the same situation, and after Kakuzu calmed down, he had decided to live once again.
Seeing Kakuzu's silence, Itachi nodded in satisfaction.
"Kakuzu, you are part of Akatsuki, right?
From now on, you would be my spy, and I would spare your life. You have to do at least three tasks for me in a year, and for the rest of the tasks I have, I would pay according to the market price.
You cannot speak about my abilities to anyone, and my connection to you or other future spies to anyone. If you agree, then nod your head once; if you disagree, then bite your tongue and die."
Hearing this, Kakuzu became silent. Although the terms Itachi gave weren't so bad, it was a bit disadvantageous for Kakuzu to work three times for free, but he came here to kill the other party, so you can't expect fairness.
Still, he worked under Nagato, and as a ninja, he must have some integrity.
Although he killed his two previous partners and even this partner, at the end of the day Kakuzu didn't recognize them as partners and only felt they were living money in front of him.
Nagato was still his boss.
Seeing Kakuzu's hesitation, Itachi formed a few hand seals, and with a bang, a big glass container of a 1×1×1 meter cube appeared in front of Itachi. The entire container was filled with liquid, and a heart was still beating inside it.
"This heart is made with pure Hashirama cells. Ordinary people can't handle cells of such high purity, but your Earth Grudge Fear can easily handle multiple different chakra natures inside you. I think you can handle it, and even if you can't, you can just throw it away before it's too late.
If you can handle it, I can't say anything about Wood Release, but your chakra would easily at least double, and you might gain high-level regeneration and life force.
There might be other unknown benefits as well. Kakuzu, I see your potential and the potential of Earth Grudge Fear. So tell me your decision."
Kakuzu stared at the beating heart, his body longing to merge with it immediately. Finally, Kakuzu swallowed his saliva and calmed his heart down.
"I agree."
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