If You Won't Reject Me, I'll Gladly Call You Father!

Across from him, Kakuzu stared at the towering Susanoo, cold sweat pouring down his back.

So this was the power that had rivaled Hashirama Senju?

Lord Madara, I apologize for offending you before.

Lord Hashirama, thank you for sparing my life.

--

Like hell! I'm Kakuzu, the Shinobi World's greatest bounty hunter, its greatest assassin...

And some brat from the Uchiha Clan...

Actually made me...

Damn it!

Kakuzu was ashamed of his moment of weakness!

"I'm not made of clay either, Kagami Uchiha!"

Kakuzu roared and activated the wind and fire Earth Grudge Fear masks behind him.

"Lightning Release: False Darkness!" The lightning mask fired several sharp bolts straight at the Susanoo.

Then came:

"Fire Release: Searing Migraine!"

The fire mask spewed a vast sheet of flame that raced forward the moment it hit the ground.

"Wind Release: Pressure Damage!"

The wind mask spat out a dense, compressed mass of swirling air that merged with the flames ahead.

Wind fed the fire. A massive Ninjutsu combining Wind Release and Fire Release erupted, its power multiplied several times over. Flames swallowed nearly every tree nearby.

The inferno rushed straight toward Kagami Uchiha...

Kagami watched the flames approach and gave a disdainful smile.

The Susanoo spread its hands. Two Chakra swords formed in its palms, then it brought its arms together as Chakra surged along the blades, gathering power.

The next instant, both swords slashed sideways. Two broad waves of force tore across the ground, carving deep furrows through earth and stone. Rocks and broken timber flew aside as the slashes slammed into Kakuzu's combined wind-and-fire Ninjutsu.

BOOM—!!

The raging wind and sweeping flames split apart the instant they met the purple slashes. The torrent collapsed, scattering fire in every direction. Wind shattered beneath the blades, and scorching shockwaves hurled stones outward.

The slashes kept going, straight for Kakuzu.

His pupils shrank. Black threads of Earth Grudge Fear surged out, and three masks rushed in front of him.

The fire mask spat flames, the wind mask raised a storm, and the lightning mask fired several bolts of False Darkness. Kakuzu himself raised a thick wall of earth. He unleashed everything at once, piling layer upon layer of defense before him.

Against the Susanoo's slashes, it was all paper-thin.

The earth wall burst apart. Storm and fire were cut in two. The masks exploded into fragments, and countless black threads scattered like severed strings.

The slashes sent Kakuzu flying. He crashed into the forest behind him, snapping more than a dozen trees before finally stopping.

A long gouge trailed behind him. Great swaths of his Earth Grudge Fear threads were torn, and dark red fluid kept spilling from his mouth.

He propped up his battered body and barely managed to lift his head. Looking at the purple giant standing in the night, he felt despair for the first time in his long life.

Was this the end...?

Scenes from decades of wandering and bloodshed surged uncontrollably through his mind.

Takigakure's betrayal. The brutal trial in which he had seized Earth Grudge Fear. Years upon years of hunting, fleeing, and scraping by.

And that battle long ago—the suffocating helplessness he had felt facing Hashirama Senju.

Perhaps I should have died back then.

For all these years, he had stolen hearts to prolong his life, fighting desperately to escape his fate.

Yet in the end, fate had still brought him down at the hands of a Konoha Ninja.

Kakuzu slowly let the hand supporting him fall. His ragged threads stopped struggling.

So be it. Perhaps ending this way wasn't so bad.

This world... Like hell!

--

The dust gradually settled.

The four members of the Shadow Guard stood rooted in place, shaken to their cores as they watched the purple Susanoo slowly fade.

So this was the Hokage's power...

As the Susanoo's Chakra dissipated, Kagami Uchiha came back into view.

Calm-eyed, he looked toward Kakuzu, who lay collapsed a short distance away, and walked over. Broken wood and dust crunched beneath his feet. To Kakuzu, every step seemed to land on his heart.

Kagami stopped before him and lowered his head slightly. His voice rang clearly in Kakuzu's ears:

"Kakuzu, are you really giving up?"

"Oh? You're not going to kill me?"

"Whether I kill you depends entirely on my whim!"

Looking at Kakuzu, Kagami felt a flicker of interest.

Kakuzu had come to assassinate him. It hardly needed asking: he wanted to cash in the bounty on Kagami's head.

But who wanted him dead?

Kagami thought it over. Hmm... Danzo had already submitted, so Konoha couldn't have arranged it.

Kumogakure had just signed a peace treaty with Konoha. They'd be delighted if I lived a few more years.

Sunagakure was busy researching those technologies. They probably had no time to bother with me.

As for Kirigakure, the newly appointed Third Mizukage had barely settled into his seat and still had to deal with the village's bloodline clans. He was even less likely.

That left...

Ōnoki!

If the Danzo of the original story was rotten to the core, Ōnoki wasn't much better.

That old bastard often hired Akatsuki to do his dirty work in the original story.

And no one held a deeper grudge against Konoha than he did. After all, Madara Uchiha had bullied him when he was young...

Hmph. His reckoning would come.

Putting the thought aside, Kagami spoke evenly to Kakuzu on the ground:

"I can spare you. But from now on, you're forbidden from attacking Konoha Ninja, and you'll work for me."

Kakuzu sneered. "Brat, I admit I underestimated you. But if you think you can humiliate me, I spit on that! Kill me however you like. If Lord Kakuzu makes a sound, I lose!"

"What if I paid you a salary?"

"W-what?"

"You'd pay me a salary?"

Kakuzu stared at him in disbelief.

"That's right. How much do you make working yourself to the bone as a bounty hunter every day?"

"At least ten, maybe twenty million ryo a year."

Kakuzu counted on his fingers with difficulty.

"Hah." Kagami scoffed, looking thoroughly unimpressed.

"That's all you earn in a year? Why risk your life for it?"

"Work for me, and you'll get twenty million ryo a year. You'll answer only to me. All outside expenses will be reimbursed, and you'll get six types of insurance and two benefit funds." Kagami pulled out a scroll and tossed it in front of him.

Inside was the congratulatory gift the Daimyo had given him earlier.

"That's your first year's salary. I'm paying you in advance as a show of good faith."

"???" Kakuzu stared at the scroll on the ground, then looked up at Kagami in disbelief.

Despite his severe injuries, Kakuzu sprang upright and dropped to one knee, his expression respectful.

"Lord Kagami, I have wandered half my life, regretting only that I never met a worthy master. Meeting you today, Lord Hokage, is like rain falling on parched seedlings."

"If you'll have me, I'd gladly call you my fa—"

Kagami hurriedly cut him off. That would never do...

He stared hard at Kakuzu's face, studying it closely, then let out a breath of relief...

Damn... That was close...

Kagami waved a hand and spoke faster. "Enough. See to your injuries first. I'll contact you later!"

"From now on, you're an unofficial Konoha operative."

With that, he walked back to the Shadow Guard and called for them to continue.

The group did not linger. They passed through the lingering smoke in the forest and resumed their journey home.

Kakuzu watched their retreating figures, his eyes gradually growing wet.

Lord Hokage... What a good man!

Then his gaze turned cold, and the face of the Bounty Station clerk surfaced in his mind.

Hmph! I suffered badly on this trip and lost so much. Your heart will cover the damages!

--

Night deepened. A crescent moon hung above the treetops.

None of the Shadow Guard asked why Kagami had spared Kakuzu. Each kept his questions to himself.

The road ahead was long. Where Konoha went from here was for the Hokage to decide!