Kakuzu thought of someone he had once spent several months trying to find, without success.
Back then, focused on making money, Kakuzu would occasionally consider robbing wealthy people who didn't have much protection.
It was one of his ways of earning money.
But he was an honest sort. Usually, once he'd been paid, he let his targets go.
So whenever he came across a wealthy person with little protection, he'd try to make a bit of extra cash.
Seven or eight years ago, someone had caught Kakuzu's attention.
None other than Teacher Dalong, the famous author who was rapidly rising to prominence in the Shinobi World!
That guy was loaded!
Kakuzu had learned of him through the Underground Black Market.
A lot of the shinobi in the Black Market had their eyes on Teacher Dalong.
His several works had earned him at least a billion ryo!
When Kakuzu heard the news, he was instantly energized!
This was a Big Fat Sheep!
One job would make him as much as ten years of hard work.
So Kakuzu had gone to great lengths to track down Teacher Dalong.
But in the end, he never found him.
Hyuga Shin hadn't used his real appearance at all. At first, he'd sent clones to collect his royalties from publishers in various countries.
As soon as he got the money, he'd escaped using a Space Scroll he'd prepared in advance.
Later, he opened bank accounts in several countries, and his royalties went straight into them. He showed his face even less often after that.
He hadn't left behind a single trace. No shinobi could track him down.
Eventually, the whole matter had come to nothing.
Three years ago, Teacher Dalong announced his retirement from writing, leaving his readers lamenting the news.
"Boss, you're not the famous novelist Teacher Dalong, are you?"
Once Kakuzu put the pieces together, he came to a startling conclusion.
"Ah, haha—you found me!" Hyuga Shin blushed and scratched his head with his right hand, looking a little awkward.
Sasori and Hidan had noticed that their boss didn't seem keen to talk about it, so they hadn't given it another thought. They hadn't expected Kakuzu to keep pressing.
They'd been pretty surprised to hear Hyuga Shin had made such a fortune writing novels.
They had no idea novel writing paid so well!
Even Sasori was a little tempted. He planned to give it a try sometime, since being a puppeteer cost a fortune.
But when they heard that Hyuga Shin was Teacher Dalong, they were curious too. They didn't understand why Kakuzu looked so shocked.
Of course, they could tell their boss was a little embarrassed.
"Big Brother Kakuzu, what's so strange about the boss being Teacher Dalong? Why do you look so shocked?"
Hidan asked, unable to hide his curiosity.
Sasori waited quietly for Kakuzu's answer, too.
He had a feeling Kakuzu had discovered one of the boss's secrets.
"Go play somewhere else, you little runt. What would you know? You'll find out someday." Kakuzu could see Hyuga Shin was embarrassed, so he didn't call him out in front of everyone.
He'd read Teacher Dalong's works himself. After all, they'd made so much money that he'd wanted to try writing, too.
But for a while, they'd nearly led Kakuzu—the man who worshipped money—astray.
Fortunately, his devotion to making money had been strong enough to bring him to his senses after he'd spent hundreds of thousands of ryo in a short time!
Otherwise, he might have lost a kidney.
That pain had been buried in his heart for years. He loved making money, and he'd never wasted so much before.
Kakuzu wouldn't say anything, which only made Hidan and Sasori more curious. They both decided they'd have to read their boss's works when they got the chance.
"All right, now that we've eaten, let's talk business."
Hyuga Shin quickly regained his composure. His embarrassment didn't last long.
At the mention of business, Kakuzu and the other two immediately perked up, waiting quietly for Hyuga Shin to speak.
Hyuga Shin pressed one hand against the floor. Sealing symbols spread rapidly across the room, locking it down.
Better to be cautious. Hyuga Shin was meticulous in everything he did.
"My research has made good progress. It's not perfect yet, but after running through the possibilities, I think we can give it a try."
"Finding a safe place to carry out the method for clearing the Will of the Six Paths will take some doing, so I won't discuss that for now. We'll try it once we find a suitable location."
"For now, we'll test the method for sealing and protecting your spiritual will."
"I've already refined the method quite a bit. It shouldn't cause any problems."
"Kakuzu, Sasori, which of you wants to go first?"
Hyuga Shin told the three of them about his progress, then asked Kakuzu and Sasori what they thought.
"I'll do it. Sasori's still young and doesn't have enough experience." As the senior member of the organization, Kakuzu volunteered without hesitation.
"Good. You'll be the one to try it, then. But don't worry. With me here, nothing will go wrong!"
Hyuga Shin was pleased by Kakuzu's sense of responsibility.
He took eight scrolls from his ring, each one prepared in advance and inscribed with the Method of Sealing.
Then he explained how to guide the sealing method to Kakuzu and the others.
It wasn't very difficult, and Kakuzu picked it up quickly.
Hyuga Shin had spent so much time refining it that the results were quite good.
After trying it several times without making a mistake, Kakuzu immediately spread the eight scrolls around himself in a circle, then knelt at the center.
"Seal!" Kakuzu shouted as he performed the guiding technique.
In an instant, every character on the Sealing Scrolls surrounding him seemed to come alive, crawling toward his body.
One by one, the sealing characters reached Kakuzu's forehead and sank inside.
Within Kakuzu's soul space, the sealing symbols spread across it, guided by his pure Chakra.
They gradually joined together, forming a vast, web-like seal that covered his soul space.
The seal also sent out chain-like symbols that embedded themselves into the soul form of his consciousness inside the space.
As soon as the seal was complete, his entire soul space grew more stable.
A few minutes later, the technique was finished.
Kakuzu seemed perfectly fine.
Hyuga Shin knew it had worked!
Without waiting for Kakuzu to report back, he immediately sent his divine sense into Kakuzu's soul space.
The moment it made contact, before it could even enter fully, the sealing symbols inside Kakuzu's soul space stirred.
Like thick pythons, they surged toward Hyuga Shin's divine sense to overwhelm it.
Thanks to the seal's success, Kakuzu noticed something was wrong at once. But he guessed Hyuga Shin was testing it, so he wasn't too worried.
Hyuga Shin's test showed that the method worked well overall.
It could effectively protect the soul space, detect an invading consciousness, and block it.
Without making a serious effort, remotely invading the space would be nearly impossible. This effectively eliminated the risk of the Sage of Six Paths controlling them again.
Only now did the future of the Spark Organization have a real chance of being passed on.
Without a way to protect their consciousness from being corrupted, all their ideals were like flowers seen in a mirror, or the moon reflected in water—beautiful, but impossible to grasp.
After Hyuga Shin finished testing the seal, Kakuzu immediately described what the process had felt like, sharing his experience with Sasori and Hidan.
Since everything had gone smoothly, Hyuga Shin didn't waste time. He took out a few spare Sealing Scrolls and handed them to Sasori and Hidan.
They'd mostly learned how to perform the technique. With Kakuzu's experience and Hyuga Shin watching over them, there wasn't much to worry about.
They practiced the guiding method, and once they had it down, they began building a firewall around their own spiritual wills.
Everything went smoothly, with no unusual problems. The firewall plan had been a complete success!
Hyuga Shin then taught Kakuzu and Sasori how to make Sealing Scrolls, suggesting they could focus on one or two steps if the process proved too difficult.
The only thing that mattered was making sure there were no mistakes.
Once the organization had more members, they could divide up the work and produce them in quantity. That way, the Spark Organization could continue even without Hyuga Shin's involvement.
Hidan didn't get one. His system was different, and he wouldn't be able to learn the technique anyway.
At last, they'd made some real progress. Recruiting members for the organization would also have to be put on the agenda once they'd set up the Small Space Barrier and could deal with the Will of the Six Paths on their own.
A single spark can start a prairie fire!
Before you continue