Chapter 48: Akatsuki's Employment Contract
The final roar seemed to exhaust all the strength of his life.
The three Genin were terrified, tears welling up in their eyes, but under their teacher's gaze, they gritted their teeth and turned, stumbling as they ran wildly in the opposite direction.
The silver-haired Jonin turned around, facing the members of the Akatsuki all by himself.
He knew he couldn't hold them back for even a second. But he still took a combat stance.
"Eyes full of resolve."
Yahiko looked at the man who drew his blade despite knowing he would die; the playfulness in his eyes faded slightly, replaced by a look that intertwined pity for the weak with indifference.
"In this Hell, naivety is a capital offense, but courage is even more precious."
The silver-haired Jonin gave a tragic laugh: "Thanks for the compliment."
The next moment, he charged forward with a roar.
Swoosh.
An orange light flashed by.
The silver-haired Jonin's charge froze in place as a thin line of blood appeared at his throat. Yahiko's figure appeared behind him, the Kunai in his hand without a trace of blood.
No pain—this was the final mercy granted to such a person.
Thud.
The corpse fell to the ground.
"Aren't you going to chase those brats?" Kakuzu stepped forward, the Earth Grudge Fear tentacles behind him already skillfully burrowing into the chests of several Anbu members to harvest fresh hearts. "Even if they are Genin, it will be troublesome if intelligence is leaked."
"No need."
Yahiko retracted the blood-stained Kunai into his sleeve, looking at the messy footprints that had long since disappeared at the end of his vision.
"Fear is the best medium for transmission. Let them take this fear back; that is also part of the plan."
Deva Path Pain stepped forward and lifted the silver-haired Jonin's corpse with one hand.
The Rinnegan of the Deva Path flickered slightly. "This is a man who understood the way of survival in the human world. As material for the 'Human Path,' he couldn't be more suitable."
Kakuzu had finished replacing his hearts by now. Four new Mask Monster reformed behind his back; though their quality wasn't as good as before, they were barely sufficient.
"A good harvest."
Yahiko turned around, his black robe with red clouds fluttering loudly in the wind.
"Let's go. We've been out for so long, it's time to go back and take a look."
He placed his hands on the shoulders of Kakuzu and the Animal Path.
Hum—
The three figures vanished into thin air instantly.
Leaving behind only the messy canyon, the Deva Path waiting to be summoned back, and several corpses gradually turning cold.
In the Rain Shadow Tower at the center of Amegakure, on the right wall of the sub-top floor of the high platform, hung a Kunai with a Flying Thunder God Mark.
Swoosh—
Yahiko's trio appeared here out of thin air.
Outside, the continuous dreary rain remained; rainwater tapped against the glass curtain wall, making a fine, dense sound. Compared to the miserable wind and rain outside, the inside of the tower was warm and dry, filled with a faint scent of paper and ink.
"Welcome back."
Konan was already waiting there. She still wore the Akatsuki black robe with red clouds, with a paper flower pinned in her short purple hair, her expression as cold as ice and snow. Only at the moment she saw Yahiko was unharmed did a nearly imperceptible soft light ripple slightly in the depths of her eyes.
"Who is this?"
Konan's gaze moved past Yahiko and landed on the man behind him, who was covered in the scent of blood and had a sinister look in his eyes.
"Kakuzu, the heirloom of Takigakure, a living history book of Ninjas."
Yahiko casually took off his soaked outer robe and threw it onto a nearby coat rack.
"From today on, he is the financial manager of the Akatsuki, codename 'North'."
"A woman?"
In his view, other than being good-looking, this woman didn't have much Chakra fluctuation of a powerful person.
Yahiko ignored Kakuzu's provocation, simply taking out a ring engraved with the character for 'North' from the room's desk and flicking it with his finger.
Ding.
The ring traced a parabola in the air and was caught steadily by Kakuzu.
"Konan, take our new colleague for a tour."
Yahiko walked to the floor-to-ceiling window, overlooking the newborn steel jungle beneath his feet, and waved his hand behind his back at the two of them. "As a core member newly joined to the Akatsuki, take him to understand our organization's culture."
"Understood."
Konan nodded slightly and turned toward a heavy iron door deep in the hallway. "Follow me."
Kakuzu toyed with the ring in his hand, a playful, cold sneer curling at the corner of his mouth.
If they wanted to sign some blood contract or even place a curse mark, then these brats were too naive. As a user of Earth Grudge Fear, his body structure was already non-human; any curse mark would be useless scrap paper to him.
"I hope your induction ceremony isn't too boring."
Kakuzu followed without any defenses, striding into that pitch-black iron door.
Bang!
The heavy iron door slammed shut behind him with a dull echo, as if isolating two different worlds.
There were no lights in the secret room, only walls covered densely with white slips of paper, appearing exceptionally eerie in the dim light.
"What, am I supposed to sign an employment contract in a place like this?"
Kakuzu crossed his arms, looking completely indifferent.
"No contract is needed."
Konan turned around, her pale orange pupils devoid of any emotion.
Hum—
Behind her, a Stand phantom resembling a sketch mannequin from a manga artist's pen slowly emerged. It wore a gentleman's top hat and held a massive quill pen in its hand.
Stand—Heavens Door.
Kakuzu instinctively sensed something was wrong. This feeling didn't come from the pressure of Chakra, but a shudder originating from the depths of his Soul, like the instinct of being targeted by some predator.
Konan didn't make a move; Heavens Door behind her used its fingertip to lightly touch Kakuzu's cheek, which was full of stitch lines.
Rustle—
A hair-raising scene occurred.
Kakuzu's face, and even the skin of his entire upper body, actually flipped open layer by layer like the pages of a book!
He subconsciously tried to mobilize the Earth Grudge Fear tentacles within his body.
But not just the Earth Grudge Fear—even his fingers, eyelids, and even a single toe could not move.
His entire body seemed to betray his brain at this moment, turning completely into a mere decoration.
"Don't bother struggling. Before 'Heavens Door,' any defense is redundant."
"This... what is this!!!"
Kakuzu's consciousness was still roaring frantically, but he couldn't make a sound. He watched in horror as his body turned into an open book, recording everything about his ninety years of life.
[Name: Kakuzu]
[Personality: Extremely greedy, money-oriented, naturally suspicious, ignores faith and honor.]
[Experience: Once attempted to assassinate the First Hokage (fled after throwing a Kunai from eight hundred miles away), betrayed by his Village and stole the secret technique...]
"I see, the Shuriken from eight hundred miles away."
Konan quickly browsed through these words, a very faint sneer curling at her lips. "What a brilliant resume."
Konan grasped the quill pen handed over by Heavens Door, and the tip of the pen danced across that book-like skin.
She forcibly wrote two iron laws onto Kakuzu's face:
1. Regard Yahiko as the only God and absolutely obey the orders of the Akatsuki.
2. Never be able to betray the Akatsuki.
After writing these, Konan thought for a moment and added a final sentence at the end:
3. Forget the process of this 'reading,' and believe that you joined after careful consideration, won over by ideals.
"Snap."
The pages closed.
Kakuzu's rolled-back skin instantly returned to its original state, without even a single wrinkle left behind.
Read 30+ Advanced Chapters at P@ Tre On
FictionTimeo