"My lord! My lord! My lord...!"
After saying that, the leader turned and left, ignoring Kakuzu no matter how he called out. Who knew how much time passed? When Kakuzu, half-asleep, groggily opened his eyes again, he found a child sitting before him. In front of the child was a cushion, and on it rested a crystal ball.
The crystal ball swirled with multicolored energy before forming the leader's face, as if it were monitoring him from that perspective. Kakuzu was about to speak when he saw the boy press a finger to his lips, signaling for silence. Then the leader's voice reached his ears.
"You did well this time! But we still need to calm the Konoha ninjas down!"
"Thirty million, my lord. To be honest, simply slaughtering everyone in Kakuzu's village and stripping Kakuzu of his identity as a citizen of the Land of Waterfalls should be enough to wash our hands clean of this matter. I do not believe the Konoha ninjas would forcibly punish the Land of Waterfalls!"
"Kakuzu was too confident. Sending him in the first place was clearly meant to have Konoha kill him. I never expected him to shamelessly cling to life. Hmph! He even had the nerve to come back, and he exposed his identity too. He deserved to die!"
"Wise indeed, Leader!"
"No!"
The image vanished. Kakuzu let out a heart-rending roar, then glared at the boy before him. "This is all fake!"
The boy was Mingye, who had completely taken control of the body and chakra of the Eternal Mangekyō Sharingan through soul possession. Looking at Kakuzu's twisted expression, Mingye chuckled. "A small village cannot accommodate too many geniuses. In a tiny place like the Land of Waterfalls, one person in power is enough. You were a genius, and your