Senshi uood that Pain’s philosophy was to cultivate ae route.” Essentially, Akatsuki’s core was formed of high-caliber S-rank missing-nin from the major vilges. But Senshi rephrased his own viewpoint and prese:

  “Lord Pain, you’re missing an angle here.

  Akatsuki’s goal is to capture Tailed Beasts and craft them into a on. The five great shinobi vilges each have one, whereas the smaller vilges do not. As the five major powers expand, they put tremendous pressure on the smaller vilges, uting their survival and growth.”

  “If that’s the case, why not subjugate or ally with these smaller vilges, banding together against the big five? Are we seriously pnning to pit only our meager handful of embers against the five great nations?”

  Hearing that, Pain fell momentarily silent. He had never sidered such a strategy. But “the enemy of my enemy is my friend.” From that ahere were indeed plenty of potential allies for Akatsuki and the Amegakure among smaller shinobi vilges.

  At present, Akatsuki’s recruiting strategy was to seek out elite S-rank missing-nin—Kakuzu, Sasori, Orochimaru, Kisame, Uchiha Itachi, and Zabuza before he left, among others. Each possessed remarkable abilities, yet for one reason or another had bee unwele in their home vilges. Aside from these core elites, Akatsuki had only a small handful of low-level outside members, and even that number arse.

  inally, Nagato’s (Pain’s) pn was io keep following the elite path—bringing in powerful missing-nin from various vilges. Yet Senshi’s words were perfectly valid: the smaller vilges had no pete with the five major ones, and thus iably harbrudges against them. Subjugating or allying with some smaller vilges to resist the great powers was a realisti.

  While Pain mulled this over, Senshi too was inwardly critig Akatsuki’s structure:

  “Because the anization’s embers are all top-tier missing-nin, on paper it looks impressive—everyone is S-rank. But, iy, there aren’t that many of them; you t them on two hands.”

  “As soon as a slightly challenging mission es up, it’s typically the same small group being dispatched. If we’re short on personnel, Nagato himself ends up trolling the Six Paths of Pain to capture people.”

  “This reveals two big problems: First, the top-level fighting force is ie. Sed, there’s zero system in pce for developialent.”

  Nagato was aware, in part, of these weaknesses. But until now, if his subordinates could do the job, they did; if not, he’d deploy Pain. However, Senshi’s suggestion opened a new line of thinking: by using this approach, Akatsuki could rally more strength and achieve their goals faster.

  Pain was still weighing the pros and s when Senshi spoke again:

  “Right now, the Amegakure isn’t short on work requests. More ts than ever are io ission shinobi. Thanks to Kakuzu and me, I expect even more will e iure.

  I’ve heard that some employers who live far from here have started visiting specifically because of rowiation in the bck market. As that reputation tio spread, the number of new ts will only rise.”

  “If we subjugate or ally with Kusagakure, there’s a lot to be gained. We harhe Kusa ninja’s capacity for learning and researg jutsu to work for us. Not to mention, we’d bring ira revenue. And if we expand our pool of mid- and low-level ninja, some might develop into remarkable talents. We could assign them moderately difficult missions, leaving only top-priority work to our embers.

  In short, there’s so much more we do in this dire, all of which would be the anization’s future.”

  Hearing him out, many Akatsuki members around the high tower stared at Senshi in astonishment. Until now, they only knew him as a “mission lunatic.” But it turned out he also had a certain knack for pnning and strategy. For a fleeting moment, some wondered if Senshi might serve as a “tacti” for Akatsuki—akin to how the Nara funed in the Konoha. Then, almost immediately, they dismissed the idea: given a choice between staying at base to advise oing out on missions, Senshi would surely rush out to do more jobs.

  Exging looks, Pain and Konan silently admitted that Senshi had a solid point. He himself felt someleased. Of course, Senshi was a time-traveler in disguise—his broader perspective came from a lifetime of different knowledge. The notion was essentially “f alliao front a on enemy,” and the smaller vilges, squeezed by the big five, could be potential allies or vassals.

  Finally, Pain reached his decisiouro Senshi and spoke in a serious tone:

  “Ygestion is good. I’ll adopt yhest-level pn—subjugate Kusagakure.”

  Hearing this, Senshi’s eyes lit up. He rubbed his hands together, then turo Pain:

  “Gotta raise my fee!”

  Pain: “???”

  Senshi shrugged, looking sheepish but speaking bluntly:

  “Different tasks e at different prices.

  If you wao deliver a more prehensive ‘service,’ I need extra pensation. After all, if you want the horse to run, you gotta feed it, right?”

  fronted with such a weirdo, Pain could only promise or else assign the mission to someone else. But none of the other members were ideal for this job, and if it succeeded, Akatsuki stood to gain a lot. So, after some deliberation, Paied:

  “Fien million ryō for you and Kakuzu t Kusa under our trol.”

  Senshi shook his head:

  “Lord Pain, Kusagakure’s situation is plicated.”

  “Ihe vilge, there are two rival fas, ‘Kusa no Jitsu’ (Grass Fruit) and ‘Kusa no Hana’ (Grass Flower). They’re locked in intense in-fighting and are extremely xenophobic, so they won’t be easy to handle.”

  “Plus, their ninja specialize in studying and adopting jutsu from other pces; you might see teiques fre, mid-sized, and minor vilges alike. And rumor says there are powerful ninja tools, perhaps even relics from the Sage of Six Paths, in Kusagakure.”

  Senshi was still expanding on the difficulty of the task when Pain cut him off:

  “I get it. Just get to the point.”

  Senshi grinned, rubbing his fiogether:

  “To put it simply, seizing Kusagakure costs more. I only ask you raise it to Master Chiriku’s level.”

  The mention of “Master Chiriku’s level” had Pain and the others reflexively twitg. From spending so much time with Kakuzu, Senshi had clearly picked up some bad habits—like g bounty postings as references for a person’s “value.” This was rude, but in a merary’s eyes, so it went.

  Pain g Kakuzu, who was more familiar with bounty listings:

  “What’s Chiriku’s bounty?”

  Kakuzu answered without hesitation:

  “Thirty-six million ryō.”

  He was a walking pendium of bck-market data, especially on big bounties. Before Senshi joined, Kakuzu had spent most of his days plotting how to elimihese high-bounty targets. Now that he was drowning in work under Senshi, he just wanted some respite.

  Hearing the number, Pain wondered if they should try to take out Chiriku now, just to offset the huge expense.

  Bleam