Outside the village where the target was located, Kakuzu waited in a patch of woods until he was nearly exhausted. Only then did Xuan Yu finally show up.
The moment he saw Xuan Yu, a nameless fury flared in Kakuzu's chest. He demanded coldly, "Kid, where the hell have you been? Did you seriously not get to the mission site right away?!"
Xuan Yu shot Kakuzu a sidelong glance, looking completely unconcerned. "Kakuzi, you need proof before you start talking. Quit slandering me. You know how fast I am. I got to the mission site ages ago and checked things out."
Kakuzu wasn't that easy to fool. He pressed him coldly, "So what did you find out?"
Xuan Yu waved a hand. "Hey, don't worry about what I found out. Just tell me how we're going to proceed."
"Hmph!" Kakuzu snorted. He already knew Xuan Yu hadn't come early to scout for information.
But he couldn't be bothered to keep arguing. He'd already come up with a plan.
Kakuzu lowered his voice. "There's a lavish estate in the village. It's the target's gang headquarters. You attack from the front and draw their attention while I sneak into the estate and take out the target. Then we get out fast."
He paused, then added, "Or I can attack from the front while you sneak into the estate and take out the target."
Xuan Yu patted Kakuzu on the shoulder and said with a grin, "Kakuzi, I'll attack from the front. A small fry like this isn't worth my taking the time to kill personally."
Kakuzu almost wanted to punch him for that, but managed to hold back. He took a deep breath, turned, and set off.
This time, Xuan Yu didn't pull any funny business. He sauntered into the village and headed straight for the estate where the target was staying, swaggering as he went.
As soon as Xuan Yu and Kakuzu began their operation, two figures watched them silently from the woods nearby.
One wore an Akatsuki cloak; the other had glasses and a short ponytail.
They were none other than Orochimaru and his assistant, Kabuto Yakushi.
Kabuto watched Xuan Yu for a long while, then said quietly to Lord Orochimaru, "Uchiha Genba seems completely ordinary so far. Just as our intelligence indicated, he hasn't even awakened the Sharingan, the Uchiha Clan's signature Kekkei Genkai."
His meaning was clear.
He was eighteen and still hadn't awakened his eyes. Xuan Yu's prospects were practically nonexistent.
"Heh." Orochimaru gave a sinister chuckle. "He's not as simple as he seems. When Xuan Yu first joined the Akatsuki, he sparred with me. From what I've learned, he's a vessel with great potential."
"As for the Sharingan, that's no problem. I can get a pair of Three-Tomoe Sharingan from another source and transplant them into him whenever I want."
Kabuto exclaimed sincerely, "Lord Orochimaru, you're brilliant!"
While Orochimaru and Kabuto were talking, Xuan Yu had already engaged the rogue ninja hired by the target, along with a large group of gang members under his command.
Orochimaru and Kabuto both saw a crowd of mercenaries and gang thugs swarm around Xuan Yu in just a few seconds.
Surrounded by that rabble, Xuan Yu didn't panic at all. He simply swung his fists and fought them all at once.
Seeing Xuan Yu trade blows with a bunch of nobodies as if they were evenly matched, Kabuto couldn't help questioning him again. "Lord Orochimaru, is Uchiha Genba deliberately hiding his strength? With his abilities, he shouldn't be struggling against this crowd of nobodies."
Orochimaru had been rather puzzled at first, too. But a moment later, a glint flashed through his strange, slit-pupiled eyes, as though he'd thought of a possibility.
"That guy isn't Uchiha Genba—or at least, he isn't the real Xuan Yu. He must be using some kind of clone technique!"
As one of Leaf Village's legendary Sannin and a pioneer of shinobi science, Orochimaru had an exceptionally sharp eye.
After watching briefly, he determined that the figure fighting the mercenaries and gang members wasn't Xuan Yu's real body, but some kind of clone he had created.
Even so, despite his keen eye, Orochimaru couldn't tell what kind of clone Xuan Yu had used.
"A clone?" Kabuto was so startled that he lost his composure.
Although Kabuto would eventually grow into someone whose accomplishments rivaled Orochimaru's, he was still in the process of developing at this point.
"Clap! Clap! Clap!"
Just then, applause rang out from the woods behind Orochimaru and Kabuto.
They spun around and saw that the one clapping was none other than Xuan Yu himself.
It turned out Orochimaru's judgment had been exactly right.
Before coming to meet Kakuzu this time, Xuan Yu had already split his Chakra in a ratio of three to seven.
The figure fighting in the distance was a Chakra Clone with thirty percent of his strength. The one who had appeared here was Xuan Yu's real body.
Xuan Yu had been keeping in contact through a large number of Ninja Cats.
The Ninja Cats had originally served as the Uchiha Clan's intelligence network. On top of that, Xuan Yu had grown very close to them, so he could constantly get intelligence support from the Ninja Cat Clan.
Orochimaru and his student had only just shown up nearby when Xuan Yu immediately received the news from the Ninja Cat Clan.
Once he learned the two were there, he'd been interested enough to come over and eavesdrop on their conversation.
Though Orochimaru and Kabuto were skilled in many ways, neither of them was a sensor ninja. As a result, they hadn't noticed Xuan Yu's real body hiding nearby.
Orochimaru's golden, slit-pupiled eyes studied Xuan Yu from head to toe. With a hint of approval, he said, "That's an excellent clone technique. It can almost rival the Wood Style Clone of Hashirama Senju, the God of Shinobi."
Xuan Yu waved a hand with a smile. "You flatter me, Snake Bro. How could Hashirama's Wood Style Clone compare with my Chakra Clone?"
Orochimaru: (O_O)???
Kabuto Yakushi: (O_O)???
So that was what Xuan Yu meant by "you flatter me."
Apparently, in his eyes, the Wood Style Clone of Hashirama Senju, the God of Shinobi, wasn't even in the same league as his own "Chakra Clone"—it couldn't hold a candle to it.
To be fair, Xuan Yu wasn't entirely wrong.
He could make his Chakra Clone nearly half as strong as his real body.
There didn't seem to be any evidence that Hashirama Senju's Wood Style Clone could carry half of Hashirama's true strength.
What's more, Xuan Yu could pull off even more extreme tricks.
He could pour 99.9 percent of his Chakra into his Chakra Clone while hiding his real body in the rear, then send the clone—with nearly all his strength—to fight a powerful enemy to the death.
No matter what, Hashirama's Wood Style Clone definitely couldn't pull off that kind of trick.
Xuan Yu wasn't planning to waste time making small talk with Orochimaru, either.
Figuring the timing was about right, he waved at Orochimaru and said, "Snake Bro, look out for me when you've got missions in the future. I've got business to take care of."
Before he'd finished speaking, he vanished from in front of Orochimaru and Kabuto, darting toward the target's location.
Xuan Yu planned to take the target to the Empty District Bounty Exchange and turn him in.
After completing this job, he'd earn an extra 1.5 percent commission on future missions he turned in at the Empty District Bounty Exchange.
Watching the direction Xuan Yu had gone, Orochimaru chuckled thoughtfully. "A mission, huh... Heh. Maybe I really should give that guy a mission and see what he can do."
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