Trapped with no way out, but Sunagakure—Junpei still looked up at the sky:
"…Moku Kairen, you are the favored son of heaven; one day… you might even become the God of Ninjas, but… my desert people will never submit to you."
"Remember… I am from Sunagakure—Junpei!"
As the words fell, the hard sands of the Land of Wind were whipped up by the wind and swallowed by a white haze.
A sand ninja whose whole body had been charred black by Fire Release shouted one last time in his remaining life:
"…Moku Kairen, I—Sunagakure Enten! Will be waiting for you in hell!"
The summoning-ninja of the ash hawk sent his summon back to the summoning world, then was surrounded by dozens of shadow clones, his chakra slowly ebbing away.
"Sunagakure—Kuranosuke!"
"Sunagakure—Kyohei!"
"Sunagakure—Chuushuu!"
The final sealing ninja raised a severed hand and pointed toward the sky.
They had come full of fighting spirit, but what remained was only Pakura, even she bound and gagged.
The clamor of heaven and earth faded; the bamboo grove was left with only the faint sound of burning.
Kairen flicked his palm and ordered the shadow clones, "Give them a proper burial."
The shadow clones moved to obey.
"Boss, hurry up, the Pakura feast is ready!"
Kairen heard the voice below and slowly flew down.
Among the shadow clones there was one paler than the others, with deep black circles under his eyes.
On his forehead protector a single character was written: ［色］.
Seeing that clone, Kairen knew this one had inherited his lecherous trait — his head filled with wild, unwholesome fantasies.
Kairen glanced behind him.
Pakura was laid out on a dining table, her body bound in ropes, a white cloth stuffed in her mouth, and around her were slices of fish and vegetables formed from Chakra.
They knew how to have fun — Pakura as a human platter.
The black-circle clone dragged Kairen over and pointed at Pakura: "The banquet has begun!"
"..."
Kairen looked at the black-circle clone.
"How did you get out here?"
His personality-derived clones were myriad and strange, but most were rather straightforward. When did such an oddball appear?
The black-circle clone replied, "After you developed Hundred Transformations, because of Hundred Transformations we can better express our own personality traits."
Hundred Transformations made Chakra transformations far more varied — simply put, it allowed the shadow clones to fully play out the personalities they were given.
"That's right!" A clone wearing the Akatsuki-styled cloak with fire-clouds slipped out of the crowd.
That had been the Tendo Pain personality trait he once drew.
The Pain clone pointed at Pakura: "Now… let her feel the pain of losing her virginity!"
"Such banal talk. A mere woman will only slow the speed at which we draw our swords!"
Hearing that voice, Kairen could tell without looking it was the Sasuke clone.
"Rubbish — reproduction is humanity's driving force. Pakura's big breasts will certainly make her a good milk provider later!"
"And the current policy is excellent: the more children you bear, the greater the reward!"
"True!"
All around, the shadow clones nodded, then suddenly froze, as if their intelligence had been lowered.
Kairen glanced back and saw the Sasuke clone's hair styled straight up toward the sky.
There was also an Uzumaki Naruto clone with six fox-like markings on his face.
Before there had been no opportunity to strike poses, but after Kairen developed Hundred Transformations, they'd all let themselves go.
Suddenly, one clone pointed and shouted,
"Why do your styles look different from ours? And we didn't see you during the battle just now!"
A clone who had seen their three scoffed: "Those three used all their Chakra to fashion those looks. During the fight they were just busy striking cool poses."
The Sasuke clone snorted, disdain showing in his brow: "Shadow clones have ranks. I'm a high-level clone; my style and taste naturally differ from yours."
"Damn you!"
"Loser!"
"You clown!"
A torrent of insults rained down from the clones, all pointing at the Sasuke clone and cursing.
"We're all made of Chakra — why should you three be special?"
"Because I am Sasuke. Whenever I'm in the mood, I—"
The clones weren't satisfied.
"No, I want to change too. I like explosions; I'll take Deidara's look."
With a puff of white smoke, the Kairen-version Deidara posed and shouted to the crowd,
"Art is an explosion!"
"I want to! I'm a straightforward person, I'll be Kisame!"
"I like Gundam. One day I'll build a Gundam; I'll be Sasori of the Red Sand!"
"But I like Konan — who should I become?"
A clone suggested, "Be Nagato! That body would surely love Konan deeply!"
"Makes sense — I'll be an impotent Nagato!"
…
In the blink of an eye, most of the Akatsuki lineup had gathered.
Kairen watched the self-indulgent shadow clones speechless. If all these weird ideas flooded his head, he'd become a multiple-personality lunatic.
The Deidara clone hurried to Kairen and rubbed his hands together:
"Original, exchange one Explosion Release for me — I want to start my artistic path."
"Later!"
Kairen had just exhausted himself and saved up 4,000 experience points; exchanging one Explosion Release would immediately cut his stash by half.
But Kairen suggested, "Why don't you keep the Fire Gun inside your mouth and just don't spit it out — can't that still explode?"
"Good idea!" The Deidara clone's eyes lit up.
After the Deidara clone, several Akatsuki-styled shadow clones crowded around Kairen.
"Original, exchange for some Water Release jutsu — I want to repair the dam."
"Original, change yourself into a human puppet! How about we make a Gundam?"
"Original, can you convert all experience points into money and give them to me to manage?"
"Original, I think we should found a religion! Those who believe in me will live forever!"
"Original…"
A noisy mass swarmed — the racket made Kairen's ears buzz. He snapped his fingers and in an instant silenced their clamoring.
Strange ideas had been poured into his head: some wanted to go home to see their mothers, some wanted to carry out explosive terror attacks, some wanted to run pyramid-scheme religions, others wanted to exhaust themselves on Konan…
Kairen lay pale against Pakura's chest, quietly feeling that softness.
"Umm umm umm…"
Pakura's eyes flashed with fury as she struggled hard, but a lecherous clone held her hands and feet down.
"Moku Kairen, you set fire to the mountain. Please come with us."
A solemn voice rang out, and a pair of handcuffs were snapped onto Kairen's wrists.
"Don't be ridiculous!" Kairen weakly lifted his head. It was a police-clone in a blue uniform.
Personalities come in thousands of varieties — positive and negative, righteous and wicked!
Not all of his clones could be filled with dangerous thoughts; there should be some upright clones.
The police clone pointed at Kairen: "Moku Kairen, behave yourself. You have committed murder, intimidation, sexual assault on a woman, arson…"
"Stop listing them, stop listing them!"
"So many crimes — now to court! You'll be executed immediately!"