"Kaguya! Someone is fighting up ahead, and one of them has a ton of chakra, even more than you! Even more than Pain-sama!" Karin gasped as we got close to our destination.
"More chakra than Pain?" Kakuzu couldn't help but ask, looking over at Karin, clearly not believing her words.
And who could blame him? Pain wasn't the leader of the Akatsuki for no reason. It wasn't because he founded it, no. It was simply because he was stronger than everyone else.
And not by a small amount.
Among the missing-nin collected to be members, none were scared of fighting someone stronger than them, and while they weren't easy to find in the first place, they were also not all that scary to one another.
Once you reached the peak, the gap between people might still exist, but it wasn't big.
The Hokage might be stronger than the Kazekage, but that didn't mean Rasa couldn't fight Hiruzen, nor did it mean he had no chance to win.
There might be a gap, but it wasn't very big, something that could indeed be overcome by skill and ability.
Pain was, however, far stronger than anyone else, to the point that no one dared to challenge him.
While none bought into him being a God, none could deny that he had godlike powers.
So to hear someone had more chakra than him, something that often indicated strength, was indeed shocking.
"Those should be Kakashi Hatake and Momochi Zabuza," I said, watching the battle take place thanks to the long range offered by my Byakugan.
"Kakashi Hatake," Kakuzu said as he snapped open his well-worn Bingo Book, quickly finding the right page.
"A-ranked, elite Jōnin, son of Sakumo Hatake, bounty, 10 million, plus another 8 for the Sharingan eye, total bounty of 18 million," he quickly summarized.
Eighteen million Ryō wasn't a lot, but it also wasn't a small amount at all. It was slightly disappointing, but that was mostly because the only people who really wanted him dead were Suna, and they didn't have a lot of money.
Which was why the eye alone was worth nearly as much as him, since both Kumo and Iwa wanted that.
Now, if his father had still been alive, the price might have been a lot higher, or if Minato had still been Hokage, since then he would have had an impressive background. But with both of them dead, his value just wasn't all that high.
He quickly leafed through the pages and found the next. "Zabuza, the Demon of the Hidden Mist, bounty, 15 million. He is the current wielder of Kubikiribōchō, 25 million for its return, total price, 40. Now that isn't bad at all. All in all, 58 million, not a bad day."
Karin was also looking through her own Bingo Book, having long since been influenced by Kakuzu into caring about such things. "Why is Zabuza worth 5 million more? He doesn't seem to be any more impressive than Kakashi from Konoha."
"Amateur." Kakuzu snorted. "It's because Zabuza is wanted for trying to kill the Mizukage. That is a crime, so as a criminal wanted by his own village, his bounty is higher than the random price on a random elite Jōnin," Kakuzu explained.
His tone wasn't kind at all, yet he still explained himself, which showed that even he, big bad legendary bounty hunter, still couldn't resist falling for Karin's charm.
Karin nodded along to his explanation. "I see, that does make sense, but neither of them seems to be the one I'm sensing," she said, looking toward me for clarification.
Even Kakuzu looked over. After all, he knew well enough that while Karin could use her Mind's Eye to sense chakra, I could directly see what was happening.
"From what I know, Zabuza is hired to kill some bridge builder by Gatō," I started to explain.
"Gatō! The guy we are looking for?" Karin interrupted.
"Yes," I nodded. "Kakashi, on the other hand, is hired by the bridge builder to protect him, which is why they are currently fighting. As for the others you are sensing, that is their teams. One of them, the Chūnin who feels cold, belongs to Zabuza, and the others are Kakashi's Genin students."
"Genin?" Karin asked, a little surprised.
"How can that be? Of those on Kakashi's side, one is clearly also a Chūnin going by his chakra, and the other has a crazy amount, more than I have ever seen," Karin said, not able to believe me.
She was right, and she was wrong. After all, the chakra amount didn't really translate perfectly to strength; it was a good indicator, but not an absolute rule.
And while from what I could see, Sasuke was clearly a solid Chūnin in strength, maybe even reaching the level of an elite Chūnin, his rank should indeed still be Genin.
But as for Naruto... she wasn't wrong.
Even I couldn't help but be impressed by the sheer volume of Naruto's chakra, which seemed nearly endless. In terms of raw chakra alone, he was indeed on par with a Bijū.
Which indeed made perfect sense, since he was the host of one. In particular, the strongest of them all, the Nine-Tailed Kitsune, Kurama. The Kyūbi no Yōko.
His own power was, of course, nothing compared to the complete power of a Bijū, but as a sensor, what Karin sensed was Naruto's chakra mixing with the Kyūbi's, which made it seem huge.
"He is the Nine-Tails Jinchūriki," I said, my voice flat and devoid of emotion.
Both Karin and Kakuzu froze at my words.
The Nine-Tails Jinchūriki.
The most powerful Jinchūriki in the world, the one who held the strongest of the Tailed Beasts. The one who was said to be able to destroy mountains with a single roar and level villages with a single swing of his tail.
"The Nine-Tails Jinchūriki? I didn't think we would encounter him on this little mission," Kakuzu said with a gleam in his eyes.
"Don't get any ideas. The time isn't right just yet, and if we start with him, we will have to keep him locked up until we get the other eight. Plus, it will alert Konoha, who will stop at nothing to find him," I warned him.
I understood his thoughts. The Akatsuki's ultimate goal was to collect them all, and even my own goal was to get their chakra back, but kidnapping Naruto now just wasn't going to work.
For a multitude of reasons.
The plan for capturing them required a lot of preparation, and the Kyūbi, being the strongest, required even more. Not to mention that doing this would instantly make us the target of Konoha's full wrath.
Not a problem in the long term, but in the short term? We would have to deal with the Sannin, Danzō's ROOT, and even the Daimyō's forces. So, it was a pain that we had to avoid.
"Understood," Kakuzu said, though he was clearly disappointed.
As for Karin, she looked at the battle with a new sense of awe. "So that's why he has so much chakra," she whispered, her eyes wide with wonder.
She had never seen a Jinchūriki before, and the idea of someone having that much power was both terrifying and fascinating.
"Indeed," I said, as I continued to watch the battle.
Zabuza had created a thick mist, and he was now fighting Kakashi, while Haku was fighting Sasuke and Naruto.
Though the fight went nothing like the one I faintly remembered from the anime, which was likely because Sasuke was clearly far stronger than he would have been if I hadn't saved that Uchiha woman back then.
"That also means we can't claim Kakashi's bounty, or the Jinchūriki might not make it home alive," I told Kakuzu the bad news.
"Damn it," Kakuzu cursed. "That's a lot of money we're leaving on the table."
"True enough, but that kid following Zabuza is worth far more than both Jōnin combined," I said with a smile.
"A kid? How can he be worth more than two A-ranked targets?" Kakuzu asked, a little confused.
"He has a unique Kekkei Genkai, Ice Release. He might very well be the last male heir of the clan and its Kekkei Genkai. You should realize what kind of value someone like him has."
"Yuki clan," Kakuzu said, understanding what I meant instantly.
"Indeed, such a person would be worth at least a hundred million!" Kakuzu said greedily.
"That's the starting bid," I shot him a smile.
"What do you mean?" he asked, clearly interested.
"You should know that Kiri is in the middle of unrest, with the Mizukage on one side, and a group of bloodline survivors wanting to overthrow him. If they do win, they would gladly pay double that for him," I explained.
While the rebellion hadn't won yet, they were going to do so in the next six months or so, and once they did, yeah, they would desperately need someone like Haku to join them, which would help restore what was lost and strengthen their claim and legitimacy.
I could have explained all of that, but it wasn't needed, as Kakuzu instantly understood.
"Double, you say?" he asked, a greedy look in his eyes.
"At least," I said. "Plus, the rebel faction might also want Zabuza alive, and if we sell them as a pair, the price would easily be 250, if not 300 million."
I could see Kakuzu's mind racing as he calculated the numbers, the potential profit overshadowing the immediate bounties.
He was a man who lived for money, and the prospect of such a huge sum was too tempting to resist.
"Alright," he said after a long moment of silence. "We'll go after the kid and Zabuza. But what about Kakashi and the Jinchūriki? We can't just let them walk away."
I understood his concern. Them seeing us would indeed be a slight problem, as both Kakuzu and I were famous, and seeing us together would reveal a few things that shouldn't be revealed.
"It's fine. It's impossible to hide everything. Our goal here is money; let Pain worry about everything else," I finally said, pushing away the potential problems.
He agreed, though I could tell he was still not entirely happy about letting Kakashi and the Nine-Tails Jinchūriki go.
But he also knew that the reward for capturing Haku and Zabuza was too great to pass up.
So we set out, moving through the forest with a speed that left no trace, the Byakugan guiding our path unerringly toward the bridge shrouded in unnaturally thick mist.
As we drew closer, the mist swallowed us up, and while Karin could still sense her way through it, it was annoying since the chakra in it interfered with her Mind's Eye just as much as it did my Byakugan.
It was truly annoying.
"Karin, clear up this mist for us. Let's end this fight before either of our targets gets hurt," I said, getting a bit annoyed at this mist ninjutsu.
"Right!" she nodded, as she made a few hand signs. "Wind Style: Great Breakthrough!"
(End of chapter)
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