Deep within the core tower of the Land of Rain, where it is perpetually shrouded in rain and icy silence.
Inside a massive, sealed altar chamber entirely constructed of cold, gray-black steel.
The bronze pipes all around emitted a low, monotonous rumble under the relentless pounding of the rain.
Deva Path Pain his hands tucked into the long sleeves of his black trench coat with red clouds.
Beneath that head of short, bright orange hair were numerous jet-black conductive receivers.
Those deep, mysterious purple Rinnegan, symbolizing the miracles of the Six Paths.
In the dim, flickering candlelight, it exuded an absolute indifference and majesty, as if looking down upon all living beings.
Konan, wearing a trench coat, stood quietly half a step to his side.
Countless pale, delicate sheets of paper swirled and danced silently around her shoulders.
" Kakuzu and Hidan's Chakra reactions... are rapidly approaching the tower."
Konan slightly turned her head, her clear, cold voice echoing in the empty steel hall:
"Based on the timeline, the 700 million tael bounty for the assassination attempt posted at the Underground Exchange in the Land of Fire should have been settled by now."
Pain's expression was indifferent, and his tone was completely flat:
"Seven hundred million taels of silver is enough to organize the establishment of three large underground arms factories on the border between the Land of Rivers and the Land of Rain."
"The plan to capture the Tailed Beast requires massive logistical support; money, though a mundane thing, is indispensable."
In Pain's understanding...
Hidan, a fanatical believer with an immortal body, Chakra, who is proficient in all five elemental chakras and has lived for nearly a hundred Kakuzu.
This " Immortal Duo " is an absolute killing machine that is virtually impossible to break through in the entire Shinobi World.
Even if a mere descendant of the Senju who had just returned to the village possessed some strange and unorthodox methods, there was absolutely no way he could survive the combined attack of these two.
However.
Before Pain could even look away...
"Clang--!"
The steel gate was violently and staggeredly pushed open!
A pungent, foul odor of muddy water and blood rushed in.
A figure, almost unrecognizable, tumbled and crawled into the center of the hall!
Konan's expression changed drastically, and the piece of paper beside her instantly transformed into Senbon sharp longbows!
But when she saw the figure on the ground clearly...
This determined Akatsuki, nicknamed "Angel," froze completely in place!
Kneeling prostrate on the cold, steel floor was Kakuzu!
The once perfectly fitting black cloak with red cloud patterns had long since been torn into tattered strips.
His entire body was wrapped in rough, broken black threads of Earth Grudge Fear, and his face was ashen and ashen, like a century-old rotting corpse just dug out of the ground!
He was panting heavily, his chest sunken and shrunken, clearly only a broken heart was barely keeping him alive.
And behind him.
A huge animal hide sack stained with black blood and mud was casually tossed on the ground.
The sack opening was loosened.
Hidan's silver-haired head, which was crookedly sewn together with black thread and hung askew around his neck, was revealed!
And a bag of scattered, broken hand and foot parts!
"What... what's going on?!"
Konan couldn't help but take a half step back, and for the first time, an undisguised shock appeared in her usually cool eyes:
"Did you encounter Jiraiya? Or were you ambushed by a large number of Konoha's Anbu?!"
"A large number of Anbu?"
Kakuzu was lying on the ground, trembled violently.
On his old face, covered with scars and stitches, two streams of tears, filled with extreme grief and indignation, rolled down uncontrollably once again:
"Just one fucking person!!"
Kakuzu was hoarse, emitting a mournful wail that sounded like a bellows being pulled:
"That monster named Senju Kenya... he's not a ninja at all!!"
"It's not a living person! It's an ancient, ferocious god disguised in human skin!!"
Like pouring beans from a bamboo tube, Kakuzu recounted the terrifying battle on the mountain path in its entirety:
"Hidan and Hidan set up an ambush on the side road based on the intelligence, thinking we had it in the bag."
"As a result... Hidan charged forward with his sword and, with all his might, slashed the kid's neck!"
Kakuzu raised a trembling finger and pointed at Hidan's crooked head on the ground:
"That kid didn't even have a white mark left on his skin! Hidan's bloodthirsty Triple-Bladed Scythe, which could cut through iron like mud, was instantly shattered into dozens of pieces of scrap metal by his neck!!"
Hidan, with his large head on the ground, also started spitting and screaming in agreement:
"It's true, Chief!! That guy is a complete freak!!"
"I stabbed the Lord Jashin's ritual black spear into his eye, and his eyelids, harder than diamonds, bent my spear into a hook!!"
"Then he casually swung a punch... and my immortal body was instantly torn to shreds by that one punch!!"
Hidan's face was contorted with grief; his usual arrogant and domineering demeanor was now replaced by utter terror at the sight of pure violence.
Konan's cherry lips parted slightly upon hearing this, her beautiful eyes filled with disbelief.
Can a human body shatter the legendary scythe?
Eyelid rupture, hardened ritual black spear?
A single straight punch instantly disintegrated the immortal body into pieces?!
Every single word of this is a blatant violation of Chakra theory and the common sense and rules of the Shinobi World!
However, what followed was even more devastating, plunging the entire hall into absolute freezing temperatures.
Kakuzu shakily pulled out half a shriveled, moldy, and mud-covered rice ball from his tattered bosom.
Clutching it tightly in his hand, he was so grief-stricken and indignant that he almost vomited blood on the spot again.
"What's even worse is... that guy doesn't follow any rules at all!"
Kakuzu screamed in a tearful voice:
"He blew up all four of my hearts with a single finger! He's using my very core to extort money from me from all sides!"
"He not only stole all the reserves from the Underground Exchange's central vault!"
"He plundered all of my 150 million taels of private savings that I had painstakingly accumulated over the past hundred years... leaving me not even a penny of five thousand taels!!"
"Finally... he threw these two rotten rice balls at me as travel expenses!"
Kakuzu raised his head, his eyes filled with despair and humiliation at being ruthlessly enslaved by capitalists:
"He told me to go back to the Akatsuki and keep working hard to make money... He said he'd come back to our organization for a 'surprise inspection' and rob us again in a year!!"
"Chief... all my life savings... have gone down the drain!!"
Kakuzu lay on the ground, crying his heart out.
Inside the entire empty, towering steel hall.
Dead silence.
Absolute, chilling silence.
Konan stood there, stunned, staring at the cursing Hidan head on the ground, then at Kakuzu, the organization's treasurer, who was wailing and clutching a moldy rice ball.
She felt as if her brain had completely stopped functioning.
What kind of intelligence is this?!
They went to assassinate a target, but not only did they fail to get the money, they also crippled their core combat force.
Even the organization's financial manager was treated like a long-term investment and released back to work for them?!
On the high platform.
Deva Path Pain maintained his arrogant posture, with his hands tucked into his long sleeves.
But those purple Rinnegan, which were originally calm and still, symbolizing the divine rule over all things.
In the dim candlelight.
Deep within his eyes, the layers of black circular ripples were now violently and frantically twisting and trembling!
Pain attempted to understand this absurd war report, which had reached as far as outer space, from a theological perspective.
But his logic circuit, which claims him to be a god.
At this moment, the two sets of bandit logics, "one punch to dismantle the immortal body" and "reverse extortion to send him back to work," were completely burned into a smoking mess!
A long, deathly silence enveloped the entire tower.
Pain remained silent.
I've completely fallen into an unprecedented state of isolation and paralysis.
In that instant, the entire sealed room was so quiet that even the air seemed to freeze.
In the dark, damp corner of the hall, a giant green pitcher plant slowly sprouted from the ground.