Sasuke's soul was still recovering, while Kakuzu, Gaara, and the others, who had just joined the Jashin Cult, had already arrived at the Capital of the Land of Wind.
Gaara and the others had to admit that their feelings toward Kakuzu were rather strange.
After all, Kakuzu had personally killed their teammate just a few days earlier. Now they had to carry out a mission together. It was certainly hard to adjust.
This left an obvious divide between Kakuzu and the team.
Of course, Kakuzu did not care.
His goal was simple: kill that damned Daimyo and collect his hundred-million-ryo bounty. His relationship with his teammates never even entered his calculations.
As for what consequences the Daimyo's death would bring, or what upheaval it would cause in the shinobi world, that was not his concern.
After all, he was no longer a lone wolf. He was an enforcer for the Jashin Cult. If the people of the Land of Wind had any grudges or grievances, they should take them up with the Jashin Cult.
With that mindset, Kakuzu felt thoroughly relaxed. He had already begun calculating how much his savings would total after he collected the hundred-million-ryo bounty.
To avoid exposing himself prematurely, Kakuzu used the Transformation Jutsu to take on Sasuke's appearance and arrived at the Capital of the Land of Wind with Gaara and the others.
The city lay within the Land of Wind, on the largest oasis in the entire desert.
More than half the Land of Wind's nobles lived here. Producing over seventy percent of the nation's grain, it was both a vital granary and the country's political center.
Yet only a tiny portion of that grain ever reached the Sand Shinobi forces.
Aside from the capital's own consumption, the most important reason was that the