The village lay in ruins. Due to the ravages of war, the original inhabitants had either perished or fled long ago. What should have been a peaceful, secluded hamlet was now shrouded in a deathly silence.
Diarmuid sat atop a millstone at the village entrance, a cigarette dangling from his lips. He felt a fleeting pang of nostalgia for the specialty cigars he used to enjoy back in the world of One Piece.
Exhaling a slow plume of smoke, Diarmuid glanced back at Kakuzu, who was busy working.
About ten minutes prior, Diarmuid and Kakuzu had encountered a squad of Konoha shinobi here, likely a vanguard unit or scouts. They had been in the middle of a skirmish with a Hidden Cloud scouting party. That was until Kakuzu, the consummate opportunist, swooped in and wiped out both sides. Not a single soul had escaped.
As a man who valued currency above all else, Kakuzu was currently occupied with the grim task of "collecting" them.
"Hey, that guy's charred to a crisp. You still want him?" Diarmuid watched with a look of mild exasperation as Kakuzu hoisted the blackened corpse of a Kumogakure ninja from the ground.
"It doesn't matter. This client takes any kind of corpse, even if they're in pieces," Kakuzu replied calmly. With a swift hand seal, he sealed the body into a scroll.
"So, in your eyes, this 'Sasori of the Red Sand' is just a big spender with more money than sense?" Diarmuid asked, somewhat amused.
"No. He is an excellent client. I like clients like him," Kakuzu maintained his flat, detached tone.
"Hahaha... the two of you really are a match made in heaven," Diarmuid laughed heartily.
At that moment, a sharp gust of wind lunged toward the back of his head. Diarmuid turned with practiced ease, his hand snapping up to catch a flying kunai with pinpoint precision.
Before he could even speak, the Explosive Tag attached to the kunai detonated.
Kakuzu glanced at the rising smoke but offered no reaction, continuing his grisly harvest in silence.
Simultaneously, a bizarre figure slithered into view from the outskirts of the abandoned village. "Slithered" was the only way to describe it. The figure looked as though it were part of the ground, crawling forward on its belly. A black cloak draped over its frame, concealing most of its body and leaving only a head visible. No limbs could be seen. Its expression was stiff and frozen, with a mask covering the lower half of its face.
It didn't look like a living human.
In fact, it wasn't. It was a Human Puppet. The newcomer was indeed Sasori of the Red Sand, concealed within his favorite masterpiece, Hiruko.
"I despise people who speak ill of me behind my back, especially insignificant nobodies," Sasori's voice rasped from within Hiruko, sounding unnaturally aged.
"I think it would be in your best interest to apologize first. Otherwise, your luck is about to run out," Kakuzu said without looking up, sealing another corpse into a scroll.
"Me?" Sasori glanced at Kakuzu, sounding genuinely puzzled.
Before Kakuzu could elaborate, a figure stepped out from the dissipating smoke of the explosion. It was Diarmuid, looking completely unscathed, not even a speck of soot marred his clothes.
Walking out with a smirk, Diarmuid remarked, "Indeed. He means you. I also think you should listen to Kakuzu's advice..."
"Are all youngsters these days so arrogant?" Sasori said, his tone dripping with disdain.
In reality, Sasori wasn't that old himself, but he enjoyed maintaining a facade of seasoned maturity. Diarmuid, despite being well into his forties, looked remarkably young, which led Sasori to put on airs.
Diarmuid was used to this. Men of power often had their eccentricities. However, he had no intention of letting someone play their "personality" at his expense.
"Can I kill him?" Diarmuid asked, glancing toward Kakuzu.
Kakuzu looked up, hesitating for a moment. "Better not. Do me a favor here. If you kill him, who's going to pay for all these corpses I've gathered?"
The casual back-and-forth between the two only served to infuriate Sasori further.
Without a word, a metallic tail whipped out from the back of Hiruko. Like a scorpion's stinger, it lunged directly at Diarmuid. The strike was visible to the naked eye, the tip coated in a viscous purple venom. A mere scratch would be a death sentence.
Yet, just as the stinger was about to pierce Diarmuid, it came to a dead halt.
Inside Hiruko, Sasori's eyes widened in shock. It wasn't that he had stopped the attack; rather, an invisible force had blocked it. The tail could not penetrate an inch further.
It was the second stage of Armament Haki. Diarmuid didn't feel like explaining the mechanics to Sasori. People like him needed a solid thrashing to realize they weren't the center of the universe.
Raising his arm toward Hiruko, Diarmuid whispered, "Planetary Devastation..."
To be honest, using such a name in this world made Diarmuid feel a bit self-conscious. Who knew where Zetsu was hiding? If the name caused a misunderstanding, it could get messy.
Sasori was an experienced combatant. The moment Diarmuid raised his hand, he attempted to maneuver away from the direct line of sight. However, before he could move, a titanic force of gravity slammed down onto Hiruko. The puppet groaned under the pressure, its joints nearly snapping.
The next moment, a thick, abyssal darkness erupted from Diarmuid. It surged outward, surrounding Hiruko in an instant.
"What kind of jutsu is this?" Sasori asked, his voice betraying a hint of confusion. It felt like Earth Release, yet the dark aura was entirely alien to it.
He didn't seem panicked, not until the darkness began to entwine itself around Hiruko. Suddenly, the puppet burst open, and a handsome youth with short red hair leaped out from the wreckage.
Before his feet could even touch the ground, Sasori unleashed a hail of poisoned senbon toward Diarmuid. Simultaneously, he began weaving chakra threads in mid-air, preparing to summon a new puppet.
He never finished the movement. A heavy, unreasonable weight crashed down upon him, dragging him out of the air and pinning him face-first into the dirt. He couldn't move a muscle.
"This..." Sasori tried to speak.
Before he could finish, the earth beneath him surged. In the blink of an eye, the soil and stone wrapped around him, forming a sphere of rock radiating dark energy.
From a distance, Kakuzu watched the scene with a complex expression. He had fought Sasori before and acknowledged his strength. Perhaps Diarmuid had caught him off guard, but the sheer speed and decisiveness with which Sasori was suppressed was staggering.
Kakuzu realized then that Diarmuid's strength had already far surpassed his own. Just six months ago, the gap hadn't been this vast.
"Don't kill him! I've already come all the way to the Land of Rice Fields. I'm not leaving without my commission!" Kakuzu shouted.
Diarmuid turned to Kakuzu, a smirk playing on his lips. "Fine. For your sake, I'll give him a chance."
With those words, the oppressive aura vanished. The "Planetary Devastation" sphere crumbled, and Sasori's battered form fell to the ground.
"You bastard..." Sasori glared at Diarmuid, his pride stung.
The brief exchange had made one thing clear: the pressure he felt was real. Though he had been humiliated, Sasori had to admit this man was incredibly powerful. However, he wasn't ready to concede. I was caught off guard, he thought. With preparation, I wouldn't lose!
"If you say one more thing that annoys me, I'll send you to a reunion with your parents," Diarmuid said, his eyes turning cold and ruthless.
Sasori froze. Fury flared in his eyes, but he wasn't a fool. At this distance, the man could pin him down again before he could even twitch. This was not the time for a fight.
"Hmph!" Sasori let out a cold snort. Though it sounded petulant, he had the sense to stay quiet.
"Twelve corpses. All promising talents from Iwagakure and Konoha. Name your price," Kakuzu said, stepping up to Sasori.
Sasori felt the skin of his face, which he had already begun turning into a puppet, twitch. One of you beats me up, and the other immediately demands money. You two really are teammates!
Under the weight of Kakuzu's money-hungry gaze, Sasori eventually paid up. Kakuzu was satisfied; at least the trip hadn't been a waste.
"So, what do you think of my teammate?" Kakuzu asked, his mood significantly improved by the payment.
Sasori didn't want to answer, but he didn't want to seem weak either. He maintained his haughty air and replied, "Tigers and leopards walk alone; only cattle and sheep huddle in herds."
Seeing that neither Diarmuid nor Kakuzu responded to his jab, he felt a bit deflated. "I asked the two of you here today because I plan to intercept and kill a high-level expert from Konoha's Uchiha clan."
"Who?" Kakuzu asked, sounding visibly hesitant. As a veteran of the shinobi world, he knew exactly how dangerous the Uchiha were.
Diarmuid also looked at Sasori with curiosity. "Who is the target?"
"Uchiha Kagami," Sasori said after a brief silence.
"Uchiha Kagami?" Diarmuid was slightly surprised.
Kagami was the type of person who kept a low profile, but in reality, he was one of Konoha's hidden heavyweights. He belonged to the same era as Hiruzen and Danzo, as all three were students of the Second Hokage. Though Tobirama eventually chose Sarutobi as his successor, he had often remarked that Kagami was the only Uchiha he truly trusted.
Tobirama had been biased against the Uchiha from the start, but Kagami was the exception.
Sasori's reason for targeting an Uchiha was simple: the Kekkei Genkai. The Sharingan. Having refined his Human Puppet technique by processing the Third Kazekage, he had reached a level where he could utilize the victim's Kekkei Genkai.
The Third Kazekage provided Magnet Release. If he could take down Uchiha Kagami and turn him into a Human Puppet, it could become his new trump card. After all, the power of the Sharingan was legendary. Setting aside "cheaters" like Madara, even a standard Sharingan, without the Mangekyo, was enough to strike fear into the hearts of the shinobi world. One looked at the ground when fighting an Uchiha; a single glance into their eyes could mean life or death.
"No!" Kakuzu suddenly shook his head, his tone dead serious.
Sasori looked at him, surprised. "Do you have a history with him?"
"No. I'm saying that Uchiha Kagami is an elite of the clan, a student of the Second Hokage, and a close friend of the current Third Hokage. The 50,000 Ryo you paid earlier doesn't even come close to matching his status. We aren't lifting a finger unless..." Kakuzu said earnestly.
"Unless what?" Sasori asked, annoyed.
"Unless you pay more!" Kakuzu said without hesitation.
Sasori: "???"
Can you at least pretend to be a human being?
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