Hell Stab: Elementary One-Finger Nukite

"Actually, it's just me. He's here to take care of something else."

After saying that, Shirozumi looked at Kakuzu beside him. "Kakuzu, according to the intelligence, Takigakure's current village chief seems decent enough. Do you want to go negotiate with him?"

"Mm."

Kakuzu nodded sullenly, then seemed to recall something and complained, "That brat Deidara has been driving me crazy these past few days. I can't even make money properly."

Deidara had gone to Iwagakure and obtained the scrolls left behind by his predecessors, hoping to draw inspiration from them and improve his Explosive Clay.

Improvements had to be made step by step.

First, he needed to make the Explosive Clay derived from Earth Release no longer vulnerable to Lightning Release.

Then, he could think about how to deal damage to the Otsutsuki Clan, who could absorb ninjutsu.

And the only one in the Akatsuki Organization who used Lightning Release was Kakuzu, who possessed all five natures.

So, while managing Amegakure's economy every day, Kakuzu also had to find time to serve as Deidara's sparring partner.

And as Deidara came up with more and more ideas, the sessions grew increasingly frequent.

Kakuzu became so annoyed that he eventually gave Deidara an idea—add Explosive Tags to the Explosive Clay.

Explosive Tags dealt Fire Nature damage. As long as he added Explosive Tags, Lightning Release would no longer be able to counter it.

He could even leave out the Explosive Tags at first, making the opponent think Lightning Release countered Explosive Clay, then suddenly add them in for an unexpected strike.

—Kakuzu had originally not wanted to give Deidara that idea. Explosive Tags were expensive, after all. How much money would Deidara waste in a single day indulging in that explosive art of his?

But with Deidara pestering him like this, he couldn't properly develop Amegakure's economy either.

So Kakuzu recalled what Shirozumi had told him at the Akatsuki Organization's first meeting: keep his eyes on the long term and don't obsess over immediate gains.

If he could just fool Deidara for now and free up his time to make big money, the cost of a few Explosive Tags would be nothing.

But what happened instead?

Deidara insisted that low-grade Ninja Tools like Explosive Tags had no right to be mixed into his art. It was plagiarism, something no artist could tolerate.

Kakuzu's mentality completely collapsed.

Just then, Shirozumi invited him to the current battlefield between Iwagakure and Kumogakure—his hometown, Takigakure. Kakuzu agreed without a second thought.

—Leave Deidara here by himself for a while and let him figure it out on his own.

By the time he returned, Deidara surely wouldn't keep pestering him anymore.

Deidara couldn't possibly just sit around and do nothing during the days he was gone, could he?

That wasn't in his nature.

"Deidara's thinking about getting stronger, but what about you, Kakuzu? I heard Takigakure has something called Hero's Water. Drinking it shortens your lifespan but greatly increases your Chakra. Why don't you give it a try?

Since your lifespan depends on your hearts anyway, shortening it shouldn't matter, right?"

Shirozumi's words made Kakuzu pause.

"Could Takigakure's ancestors have founded the village by relying on these two things at the same time?"

Kakuzu sank into thought.

But he quickly dismissed the idea.

Earth Grudge Fear and Hero's Water did work well together, but that had nothing to do with founding a ninja village.

Those useless, incompetent higher-ups who had sent him to assassinate the First Hokage had never been qualified to wield either of those powers.

"Where did this little brat come from? Call out Ōnoki, someone who can actually make decisions!"

Raikage A, clad in Lightning Release Armor, appeared on the front line and roared at Kurotsuchi.

"I am the Tsuchikage, and the leader of the Land of Earth!

Invader Raikage, if you have something to say, say it to me! If not, then we'll keep fighting!"

Kurotsuchi did not yield in the slightest before Raikage A.

"Kakuzu, watch the waterfall."

Shirozumi's voice interrupted Kakuzu's thoughts.

"The waterfall?"

Kakuzu looked up at the massive waterfall at Takigakure's entrance.

—Takigakure was also located between great nations, yet it had not suffered the hardships of war because the village lay behind a huge waterfall.

When great nations went to war, they would only fight to the death outside the waterfall, just like now.

Kakuzu stared at the waterfall and suddenly noticed a faint disturbance.

Someone had come out from behind the waterfall?

With two major ninja villages at war, shouldn't Takigakure have sealed its gates tight and stationed people at its only entrance?

How did they dare come out?

Or perhaps...

Kakuzu suddenly struck, firing an Earth Grudge Fear tendril fist. The ninja who had just emerged from the waterfall was pierced clean through by the blow.

Kakuzu retracted his fist, dragging the ninja back in front of him along with it.

"A Cloud Ninja?"

Kakuzu kicked the already-dead ninja, revealing his forehead protector.

He was not from Takigakure, but a ninja from Kumogakure—one of the two villages currently at war!

He had also brought back a large sack that the ninja had been clutching tightly in his hand.

Kakuzu opened the sack. Inside was a blue-green-haired girl whose Chakra had been sealed and whose mouth had been gagged.

The girl had initially looked panicked and terrified, but the moment she saw Kakuzu, her eyes lit up. Her gagged mouth made muffled "mmph mmph" sounds.

Kakuzu's string of actions was extremely conspicuous during the temporary ceasefire, while the two Kage were trading barbs.

The Raikage's expression changed drastically when he saw the Cloud Ninja Kakuzu had killed and the target inside the sack.

As the fastest man in the Shinobi World, the Raikage used a Body Flicker to appear before Kakuzu in an instant, intending to snatch the girl away.

Kakuzu naturally could not react to such speed.

However...

The Raikage's arm, clad in Lightning Release Armor, was firmly caught by another hand and could not move forward an inch.

"You?!"

The Raikage looked up at Shirozumi. He had not expected that, after Minato Namikaze's death, there would still be someone in the Shinobi World capable of keeping up with his full speed.

"Raikage, why is Kumogakure always coveting other villages' Jinchuriki? Aren't you afraid someone might abduct yours too?"

Shirozumi's tone carried a faint mockery.

He had originally wondered why Kumogakure had declared war on Iwagakure, whether there was some deeper meaning behind it.

He had not expected it to be something as simple as "borrowing a path to destroy Guo."

They had tried to abduct the Nine-Tails Jinchuriki when they went to Konoha before, only to end up facilitating a moonlit embrace with a girl. And now they had come to abduct the Seven-Tails Jinchuriki.

When he used to read doujins, he often felt that the Raikage had been unfairly maligned.

The Raikage was clearly a brash man who had no interest in women, so how had he ended up being stereotyped as a doujin protagonist just because he was a dark-skinned, blond, muscular man?

Thinking about it now, it was not that the Raikage did not want to steal what belonged to others. He simply did not want women—he wanted Jinchuriki, and the bloodlines of other ninja villages.

Fū, the Seven-Tails Jinchuriki, blinked. By the lightning shining from the Raikage's arm, she made out Shirozumi's appearance and bearing, and her cheeks flushed red.

"Kid, I don't recognize you. You're not from Iwagakure?"

The Raikage spoke.

"He's a mercenary I hired."

Kurotsuchi answered the Raikage's question from behind.

"A mercenary? Heh, don't tell me—"

"You mean, 'You might get paid, but you won't live to spend it,' right? Can't you come up with a different line?"

"..."

"Raikage, do you know your father's Hell Stab: One-Finger Nukite?"

"Hmph, so you've heard of my father's great renown?"

"Do you know it or not?"

"No. But dealing with you doesn't require the One-Finger Nukite. The Two-Finger Nukite—"

"What about the College Nukite?"

"?"

"And the Vocational Nukite?"

"..."

"Don't tell me you don't even have Elementary School?"

"With such a low level of education, no wonder all you can think about is coming to Takigakure to snatch Jinchuriki. You haven't even realized this is a golden opportunity for Kumogakure's development."

Shirozumi released the Raikage's hand, and the Raikage took the opportunity to pull his arm back.

"What do you mean?"

The Raikage frowned and asked.

"When I first heard from the Tsuchikage that Kumogakure had declared war, I thought the Raikage intended to deliberately lose once—so that everyone would see that Iwagakure, which had been battered by the Third Raikage to the point of losing nearly all its talent, could, after just over a month of Reforms, inspire every ninja, unite the entire country, and ensure an endless supply of resources...

Kumogakure's defeat would not be due to a lack of strength, but because of logistics, morale, and the system.

Then you could take that opportunity to imitate the Tsuchikage's methods and implement a new system.

Even if you did not abolish the Daimyo of the Land of Lightning, you could at least establish a Constitutional Monarchy, transferring most of the power—especially control over resources—from the Daimyo to the ninja village and the Kage."

Shirozumi's words gave the Raikage much to think about.

This was indeed what the Raikage wanted to achieve. Yet he had never considered it from this angle before, only for his opponent to point it out now!

"Thank you for the reminder. But we will still be taking the Seven-Tails Jinchuriki back with us!"

The Raikage came back to his senses. After thanking Shirozumi, he attacked once more!