"Salary?", Kakuzu's eyes went blank. To him, that was a very unfamiliar word.
Aoba followed up with another jab, "If I remember correctly, when you were in the Akatsuki, you had to turn in all your earnings, didn't you?"
"I… I only handed them to the deputy leader for safekeeping," Kakuzu muttered stubbornly.
"In that case, just think of it as handing them to me for safekeeping instead. At least I'll pay you a salary, won't I?"
"I understand," For the sake of his own life, Kakuzu agreed without hesitation. As a bounty ninja, he had no psychological burden about changing sides.
After all, he had joined Akatsuki in the first place just to save his own life.
"By the way, since you're the deputy leader's man, you should know our former leader's strength, right? Aren't you afraid he'll come after you later?", What Kakuzu feared most was that Deva Path Pain would come for him.
To him, facing Aoba or facing Pain was no different, both made him feel powerless, both meant he could only take the beating.
He couldn't tell the difference between their strength levels, but if he left Akatsuki quietly without saying a word, he'd definitely be branded a traitor, and die a miserable death.
Aoba saw what he was thinking, "Relax. I'll talk to your leader about this myself. You don't need to worry about him coming after you. Besides, who knows? Maybe before long, he might even join Konoha too."
"That's fine, then."
Kakuzu didn't care whether Pain would join Konoha; he only cared that Pain wouldn't come to cause him trouble.
Seeing that Kakuzu no longer had any objections, Aoba turned to Sasori.
"I have no objections."
Before he could even ask, Sasori had already learned to answer first.
Aoba was quite satisfied.
"Don't worry, since you've joined Konoha, we treat special talents with proper benefits."
"Sasori, do you want to see your parents?"
"What did you say?", Even Sasori's puppet face showed a very human-like expression of shock.
He thought he must have misheard.
Aoba continued, "As long as you can find your parents' bodies, I can let you see them again."
"R… really?"
Sasori's puppet body trembled slightly. The reason he'd pursued eternal art all along was, at its core, nothing more than wanting to feel the warmth of his parents' embrace once again.
"Of course it's true. I've mastered a forbidden technique, as long as I have part of the deceased's physical remains, I can summon their souls back from the Pure Land."
"As long as you make enough contributions to Konoha, I'll let you see your parents."
"I understand. I hope you'll keep your word."
Sasori looked at Aoba silently for a while, then nodded seriously. If before he had agreed out of helplessness, now he was truly willing.
"Mhm! You won't regret this choice."
Aoba smiled, then seemed to remember something and looked at Kakuzu again.
"Kakuzu, later on, I may need your cooperation for some research."
Kakuzu's expression stiffened, "You want to use me for human experiments?"
"Something like that. I just want to study the principles behind Earth Grudge Fear."
Earth Grudge Fear!
Aoba was very interested in that secret technique.
In his view, it was the lowest-cost method of achieving immortality in the entire ninja world.
It couldn't even be called a "cost," really.
Orochimaru's Living Corpse Reincarnation, though theoretically able to achieve immortality, required him to change bodies regularly to match his soul, or else his body and soul would collapse from rejection.
That was because the human body in the ninja world naturally resisted foreign cells or souls.
Cell transplantation between ninjas carried enormous risks, one small mistake could result in death.
But look at Kakuzu, who had mastered Earth Grudge Fear.
Forget transplanting a few cells, he literally implanted other people's hearts into his body, and he had no problems at all.
Aside from the ugly stitching and appearance, it was practically a side-effect-free immortality technique.
If his body started to fail, he could just replace a heart and rejuvenate all his organs, achieving continuous regeneration, practically infinite life.
The only issue was that he needed other people's hearts, which made it morally repugnant.
But without a doubt, it was a true path to eternal life.
After all, all the ninjas from Kakuzu's era were already buried long ago.
Even Onoki, just moving around made him throw out his back.
Yet Kakuzu, at ninety years old, was still full of energy.
"I could actually teach you how to train in Earth Grudge Fear," Kakuzu said.
Truthfully, if he could avoid being a lab specimen, he'd much prefer that.
"Not a bad idea," Aoba said pleasantly, "But it's not exactly easy to find another person who can successfully train in Earth Grudge Fear."
His face was all smiles.
Kakuzu knew he couldn't escape his fate and could only grit his teeth and agree.
"I understand."
———
Inside Takigakure, the villagers who had been hiding in the shelters finally came out.
They began post-battle cleanup: rescuing the wounded, assessing losses, imprisoning the enemies who had invaded Takigakure, repairing houses, and restoring farmland.
Of course, none of that had anything to do with Tsunade or Kurotsuchi.
The two of them stayed quietly in the residence Himiki had arranged for them, waiting for Aoba's return.
"Tsunade-sama… does Konoha have some kind of connection with Akatsuki?", Kurotsuchi hesitated for a long time before finally giving in to curiosity and asking the question she'd been holding back.
Tsunade raised an eyebrow, "Why do you ask?"
"Well…"
Kurotsuchi pursed her lips, "Because that Akatsuki member, Kakuzu, mentioned their deputy leader earlier…"
Tsunade didn't look surprised, Kakuzu's voice had been loud enough earlier that anyone could have heard.
Anyone who thought about it would realize there had to be some sort of connection.
"That matter counts as Konoha's classified information. I can't just tell outsiders."
"Alright."
Kurotsuchi pouted slightly. She wasn't a clueless little girl; she understood that some things weren't meant to be shared.
Tsunade, however, decided to tease her curiosity a bit before continuing, "But you're not exactly an outsider anymore, so I suppose it won't hurt to tell you."
"Really?"
Kurotsuchi's eyes brightened with curiosity again.
Tsunade explained, "There isn't much of a deep connection between Konoha and Akatsuki. It's just that their deputy leader left the organization a year ago and joined Konoha."
"That former deputy leader had already been half-separated from Akatsuki by then."
Konan, though she occasionally visited Amegakure, no longer involved herself in Akatsuki's affairs.
She had essentially withdrawn completely.
And out of guilt, she never leaked any of Akatsuki's information.
Most of what they knew came from Aoba reading Obito's soul.
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