Chapter 290: The Entire Akatsuki Organization Mobilizes
"Hey, hey, hey, I say, are we really going to fight that guy named Uchiha Ikeizumi?"
"Everyone must have heard about it on our way here, right?"
"That guy overturned the entire Hidden Mist Village single-handedly and killed tens of thousands of people in the Land of Water."
"Is our Akatsuki some kind of benevolent organization?"
"When meeting a guy like that, instead of thinking about pulling him into our organization, why are we trying to kill him?"
"Most crucially, are we truly that monster's opponent?"
Hidan, who had not long joined Akatsuki, babbled incessantly along the way. He had joined Akatsuki to propagate the great Jashin and even to offer sacrifices to Jashin.
But how was it that just after joining this organization, he had to go and fight such a dangerous guy?
"Shut up!"
If possible, Kakuzu wanted to sew Hidan's mouth shut.
Although he had already accepted forming the Immortal Duo with Hidan, the Kakuzu of this moment had clearly not yet adapted to Hidan's wordiness.
For Kakuzu, he had been longing to execute this job for a very long time. Not only was the Land of Earth exceptionally generous, but the bounty regarding Uchiha Ikeizumi in the underground bounty stations was also soaring upward as if there were no upper limit.
Especially as the news of the Land of Water spread on a massive scale, basically all the nobles had funneled money into the underground bounty stations. In a short period of time, the bounty regarding Uchiha Ikeizumi directly soared to 1.7 billion!
That was a full 1.7 billion ryo!
Kakuzu swore that he had never seen so much money in his entire life. Furthermore, if he killed Uchiha Ikeizumi, he could collect three shares of money: a share of the Land of Earth's money, a share of the underground bounty stations' money, and a share of Utatane Koharu's coffin savings.
Just the money from the Land of Earth and the underground bounty stations combined amounted to a full two billion. If anyone dared to stop Kakuzu from killing Uchiha Ikeizumi now, Old Man Kakuzu would truly fly into a rage!
"If I turn him into a puppet, it should be exceptionally interesting, right?"
Sasori spoke up softly. His Puppet Jutsu was capable of retaining the Kekkei Genkai of a human puppet from when they were alive; it was precisely because of experimenting with human puppets that he had killed Sunagakure's Third Kazekage.
Yet even the Third Kazekage was not worth mentioning at all before Uchiha Ikeizumi.
If he could obtain Uchiha Ikeizumi's corpse, Sasori felt that he could completely elevate his Puppet Jutsu to an unimaginable level!
Never mind whether the one who was strong was actually Uchiha Ikeizumi or the Puppet Jutsu—just say whether it would be Sasori pulling the strings if Sasori truly turned Uchiha Ikeizumi into a human puppet.
"Do not be careless; this is highly likely to be a bitter battle!"
Konan softly exhorted this group of ninja world insurgent elements. She actually felt that there was genuinely no need for Akatsuki to fight to the death with Uchiha Ikeizumi. After all, wasn't everyone striving for the peace of the ninja world?
It was just that since Nagato had already decided on the matter, Konan would not oppose it either.
She was merely a bit worried about Nagato's body. After all, even if he was manipulating the Deva Path Pain, it was no small burden on Nagato's body. If they fought again, this burden would become even more severe!
Nagato was already half-paralyzed to begin with; if the battle was too intense and caused Nagato to accidentally draw his last breath, Konan would truly have nowhere to go to weep.
"I will strike!"
"No matter how powerful he is, it is not worth mentioning before a god!"
Nagato, manipulating Pain, spoke with confidence. To deal with Uchiha Ikeizumi, Nagato had even gathered all of the Six Paths completely. The only slight pity was that among the current Six Paths, there was not yet a loli Path—
"God?"
"The only true god is the great Jashin!"
Hidan, who had not long joined Akatsuki, argued strongly on grounds of logic. He did not think Pain was a god, considering Pain to be just a bit powerful at most.
"Message received from Tobi's side!"
"This road where we are lying in ambush is correct. Uchiha Ikeizumi will arrive at our location in approximately another half an hour!"
"However, the probability of a successful ambush is not high. According to the intelligence in our hands, Uchiha Ikeizumi's sensory ability is very strong, and there is a high probability that he will discover us, so prepare to fight together!"
Konan spoke up once more. For this battle, she actually still possessed a bit of certainty.
According to their plan within the organization, this ambush would first have Kakuzu, Sasori, and her, Konan, strike first. The objective was to obtain Uchiha Ikeizumi's blood and then hand his blood over to Hidan.
As long as Hidan was allowed to obtain Uchiha Ikeizumi's blood, Konan was confident that Uchiha Ikeizumi would absolutely die!
People die when they are killed—with the exception of Hidan and the exception of Kakuzu—but Uchiha Ikeizumi shouldn't be an exception to this as well, right?
"The paper bombs have all been buried!"
"When he passes through here, all one billion paper bombs will detonate simultaneously!"
"However, I still have a question: since our Akatsuki possesses so many paper bombs, why do we still have to work so hard to earn money?"
"Wouldn't it be better if we directly sold paper bombs?"
Kakuzu looked at Konan. In the past, he had only felt that Konan was a decorative vase—at most, this vase was a bit better looking and slightly powerful. But Konan casually pulling out one billion paper bombs could be considered a fierce eye-opener for Kakuzu.
To put it bluntly, one Shinobi World War would roughly use about one billion paper bombs, yet Konan had produced paper bombs capable of supporting a Shinobi World War with a single move. What kind of aggressively wealthy lady was this!
"No, my paper bombs possess only one-third the explosive volume of a normal paper bomb. Though said to be one billion paper bombs, in reality, they only have the explosive volume of just over three hundred million paper bombs."
"It is also because my paper bombs possess only one-third the explosive effect of a normal paper bomb that they cannot be sold on the market!"
Konan had clearly also secretly attempted to sell her own paper bombs before. However, seeing how well she knew the trade, it was likely truly just as she said, and barely anyone bought them.
Furthermore, Konan possessed a temperament that loved to make and save up some paper bombs whenever she had nothing to do. A mere one billion paper bombs was just a fraction of the paper bombs Konan had on hand!
"The volume of three hundred million paper bombs is also enough to use. Who knows, it might just blast him to death directly?"
Kakuzu's mindset was excellent. He had never fought such an affluent battle in his entire life and simply did not know how he could lose!
Moreover, these were one billion paper bombs. Even if the quality was a bit inferior, there were still three hundred million paper bombs even after a discount. If Kakuzu had possessed this many paper bombs back then, he felt that he might truly have been able to blast Senju Hashirama to death directly!
"He's here!"
Just as Pain and the others were speaking, a White Zetsu drilled out from the ground to deliver the intelligence.
In reality, there was no need for White Zetsu to perform this superfluous action. At the time Pain and the others lay in ambush here, a light drizzle had already begun falling gradually from the sky. This entire region had long since been blanketed and enveloped by Pain's Rain Tiger Freedom Jutsu.
"There is chakra in the rain—"
"Has Nagato, or rather Pain, walked out from the Land of Rain?"
"And looking at this state, he intends to kill me!"