"He wears a black mask, has green eyes, can shoot black threads out of his body, and has five hearts."
"Kakuzu?"
A trace of confusion crossed Orochimaru's cool, impassive face.
"Didn't that guy run away after we beat him down to one heart?"
"Yes, he's exactly who we're looking for."
"Do you want to study that secret technique of his?"
"If you're interested, you can ask him about it, but I want to work with him."
"Work with him?"
Orochimaru's tiny snake-like pupils filled with enormous confusion.
"He's a bounty hunter who loves money more than anything. We can win him over."
"How do you plan to do that?"
"First, beat him down to his last life."
"What the hell does that have to do with him being greedy?"
"If he loves money, he must value his life. Earning money and never getting to spend it would be eternal agony!"
"You have a point..."
When Xuanhui next saw Minato and Fugaku, they had already graduated from the Ninja Academy.
He didn't know their current jōnin instructor, but once Jiraiya returned, he would take Minato as his student.
As expected, Minato and Kushina were already spending every day glued to each other.
It stung Fugaku, but after watching them for so long, he had resigned himself to it.
Now that Xuanhui was here, he finally had some company!
Fugaku was about to run over to Xuanhui, only to stop at his first words.
"Fugaku, how come you still haven't found a girlfriend?"
Fugaku stopped in his tracks, his expression immediately darkening.
"Dating at our age is wrong! I'm an upstanding young man of Konoha. How could I do something like that?"
Kushina blushed a little when she heard that.
"Minato and I haven't gotten that far yet..."
Fugaku pointed at