At the current stage, Akatsuki’s top priority is to accumute a massive amount of money. Only then they swiftly move into the phase—capturing Tailed Beasts te a Tailed Beast on and makied preparations.

  Konan’s argument was irrefutable from Kakuzu’s standpoint, yet deep down he kept protesting to himself:

  “No, this won’t do! No matter what, I ’t keep partnering with Uzumaki Senshi.”

  “Sure, I enjoy making money as much as the person, but that guy values money over his own life!”

  “If I stay teamed up with him, even if I don’t die on a mission, I’ll probably keel over from exhaustion on the job!”

  “I have to figure out a way to switch partners. Orochimaru, my old partner, was definitely much better by parison.”

  At that thought, Kakuzu g Orochimaru, his former teammate. Orochimaru had his issues, but o Senshi he seemed dht preferable—at least Orochimaru didn’t operate like a perpetual-motion mission mae, ing out back-to-back assigs day and night.

  Notig Kakuzu’s look, Orochimaru immediately started to admire the sery, pretending not to see the plea for help. He took in the surroundings with appareat, sneering inwardly:

  “Heh. The more funds the anization amasses, the more R&D expenses flow my way.

  At this stage, Akatsuki is mostly stockpiling resources. One of gest expenses is my experimental research.”

  “Plus, I’ve already hired Uzumaki Senshi to assist me long-term. You’re barking up the wrong tree, Kakuzu.”

  Kakuzu couldn’t read Orochimaru’s mind, but from his expression alo was obvious Orochimaru had zero i in teaming up again. Kakuzu found himself missing the good old days with Orochimaru—the “Immortal Duo” at least sounded better than this “Overworked Duo.”

  Seeing Kakuzu’s woebegone face, Kona a little sorry for him. He’d lohe anization’s most tireless workhorse, but now he was hollow-eyed and battered. Of course, if even Kakuzu—who possessed the Earth Grudge Fear teique—couldn’t keep pace with Senshi, then pairing Senshi with someone else made no se all. Moreover, Kakuzu had serious name reition for missions, and bining him with Senshi was absolutely a “strong + strong” partnership. Whether it ig jobs or carrying them out, everythi smoothly.

  But after Kakuzu, who looked as limp as a wilted pnt, Konan finally spoke:

  “You and Senshi will remain a two-man cell. However, Pain will adjust the mission system in the vilge to put limits on Senshi.”

  When Konan finished, Pain also spoke:

  “Though you two caused some minor problems for the Amegakure, it doesn’t affect the bigger picture. From now on, the vilge’s mission system will be ged. Lower-level tasks won’t go to the bck market. The vilge will specifically assign such jobs to its own ninja who aren’t getting any work.”

  “As for you two, when you pick up missions here in the vilge, you don’t have to hold back. You’re free to plete them as you wish.”

  Realizing the extent of Senshi’s “enthusiasm,” Pain had no iion of suppressing him—he was simply rebang the vilge’s mission system. That way, the middle- and lower-tier ninja would have jobs and the vilge could remain stable, while Senshi could still operate at full capacity. Mid- and lower-level ninja form the bae of a hidden vilge; if they colpse, so does the vilge itself. Sihe Amegakure would serve as Akatsuki’s base for a long time, Pain couldn’t let it fall apart. But he also wanted Senshi and Kakuzu to keep up their stelr performand make even more money.

  Kakuzu: “???”

  Pain’s pronou stunned Kakuzu. He was actually revising the vilge’s mission framework to give Senshi even more room to operate—practically encing him to go all out. Kakuzu was basically forced to keep pace with a ramped-up Senshi. How was that fair?

  Senshi, however, was displeased.

  “I don’t agree! Cutting me off from all low-difficulty tasks is impossible. I cut down on them, but not cut them out entirely.”

  Because of his Merary System, Senshi’s power spike was fueled by pleting missions nonstop, even sending Wood es on easy jobs. If the system restricted how many missions he could do, his growth would slow—utterly uable.

  Pain’s face showed ion as he calmly replied:

  “o rush. I have a different assig for you.”

  “Retly, the Ame has been aggressively taking on all sorts of ninja tasks, which has affected neighb vilges. Because of that—and the matter of Karin—Kusagakure is extremely unhappy with us.”

  “I pn to hire you to hahis issue. You deal with it however you see fit, as long as no Kusa ninja ends up causing trouble for us. I’ll cssify it as an S-rank mission and pay one million ryō.”

  Pain clearly knew how to handle Senshi’s personality: if there wasn’t a “ission” element, Senshi might ftly ighe instrus. But attach a price, and he had proven to be not just reliable, but dangerously effit. With a perfect mission success rate and no apparent gimmicks, the results were guaranteed.

  On hearing that, Senshi perked up:

  “Wow, an assig just fell right in my p while I’m standing in the Amegakure tower? Looks like it might even have deeper potential…”

  Recalling what he knew about Kusagakure, which specialized in learning and adapting other vilges’ jutsu, Senshi had a few ideas.

  He cleared his throat and proposed:

  “I see three possible ways to solve this:

  1. The worst option: wipe out every Kusa ninja who tries to cause trouble. But that’s not beneficial to the vilge or the anization—no long-term gains, and it might provoke ongoialiation.

  2. A better option: capture them alive and bring them in as an ‘outer circle’ to Akatsuki. roup ot just embers but also enough capable affiliates.

  3. The best sario: we subjugate Kusagakure itself—bring it fully under our trol.”

  At that, he turo Pain, waiting for a decision.

  Pain: “???”

  He was briefly at a loss. Ordinarily, the standard approach was to kill any hostile ninja. Since when was capturing them for recruitment or ht taking over their vilge a possibility?

  “Why would I want to quer Kusagakure? Don’t you see how many weak ninja in the Amegakure are already a heavy burden? Why add more?”

  His words were blunt but made sense: Kusagakure’s ninja might be worthless, just more freeloaders. If Pain had no iion of managing day-to-day vilge operations, why bother bringing in another batch of “low-level shinobi” as a burden? If the vilge’s normal fun didn’t matter, even the weaker Ame ninja were arguably superfluous.