"Kakuzu?"
"Kid?"
The three exchanged looks and immediately grew wary.
But they were in a hot spring, stark naked. It was hardly a sight anyone wanted to see.
Orochimaru covered himself with snakes, Kakuzu used black threads, and Xuanhui simply gave himself a holy-light censor.
"Are you two planning to fight? That would be against the rules, wouldn't it?"
Kakuzu was referring to Yugakure's rules: no ninja or missing-nin from any nation could fight in the hot springs.
Anyone who destroyed the finest hot spring destination in the Shinobi World would have a bounty placed on them by the business tycoons.
"Of course we know that. You're the one who startled us!"
Kakuzu lowered his head to look at the kid.
Last time, he had only given him a cursory glance, and it had cost him dearly.
Underestimating this kid had been the worst mistake of that kind he had ever made!
To think that two years ago, he had still been a brat secretly copying his ninjutsu.
Now he could already take on the Kazekage single-handedly!
And the man beside him was Orochimaru, one of the Konoha Sannin!
Their combined bounties are almost as much as the reward for my assassination mission against the First back then!
Having lived this long, he could still tell when to run and when to stay.
His immediate priority was to keep the two calm, then find an opportunity to escape.
Even if he had to forfeit the payment for this mission, he absolutely could not fall into their hands!
"Since none of us is going to fight, why don't we sit down and have a proper talk?"
"Sure!"
Xuanhui wrapped himself in a bath towel and slipped back into the hot spring.
Seeing what Xuanhui had done, Orochimaru followed him into the