Escape From Konoha

"Don't let him get away!"

"Follow up!"

A figure was running quickly in the woods, followed by a large group of Sunagakure ninjas, chasing the figure in front of them.

Countless kunai and shurikens flew from behind, mixed with detonating charms, and immediately detonated in the forest.

The impact force generated immediately made the person who escaped unable to bear the impact force, and rolled his body on the ground.

"I didn't expect that the pursuit would reach this point. It's like a cowhide plaster."

Even the undead who have been able to run rampant in the underground black market for many years feel extremely tired when faced with the Sunagakure ninjas who hunt them day and night.

Kakuzu knew very well the reason why he ended up in this situation.

It was because of his favorite thing, money.

On the battlefield where Sunagakure and Amegakure fought, he took advantage of Chiyo, Sunagakure's senior adviser, not paying attention, and snatched the body of Amegakure's former leader, Sanshouyu Hanzo, from her.

This corpse worth hundreds of millions was the fundamental reason why he was constantly being chased by Sunagakure ninjas these days.

Sunagakure had already lost on the battlefield in the Land of Rain, and had no choice but to sign an armistice agreement with Konoha not long ago. It can be said that they launched the third ninja war, but did not get the rich results they wanted.

If even Hanzo's body had to be taken away by a mere bounty hunter in the underground black market, he would really get nothing.

For this reason, Sunagakure did not dare to fight Konoha anymore, but Kakuzu, as a lonely man, also took away their Sunagakure's important and only important trophy, and would never give it up no matter what.

So a large number of elite ninjas were immediately dispatched to chase Kakuzu into a terrible situation with no way to the sky and no way to the earth.

Even if Sunagakure loses on the frontal battlefield and loses to Konoha by a narrow margin, it does not mean that Sunagakure's majesty can only be violated by bounty hunters.

Kakuzu no longer remembers how long the pursuit lasted, but it should have been at least half a month... no, maybe as long as a month.

All the tricks he had were used up. After killing dozens of Sunagakure ninjas who were chasing him, including many powerful jounin, his information was basically leaked.

In order to deal with him, Sunagakure sent out ninjas with considerable strength. They were overwhelmed by long-range, close combat, perception, defense, and various physical techniques, ninjutsu, and illusion techniques.

Not only that, he originally had five hearts, but now he only has two hearts left.

The body now possesses an earth-attribute heart and another fire-attribute heart.

As an S-class renegade nin who defected from Takigakure Village decades ago, when he left the village, the only valuable thing he took away was this forbidden technique called "Earth Resentment Yu".

By capturing someone else's heart and keeping it in his own body, he can extend his lifespan, and he can also master new chakra attribute changes through the captured heart.

Therefore, in his heyday, he was proficient in the five types of chakra nature changing ninjutsu: fire escape, earth escape, water escape, thunder escape, and wind escape.

It is also equivalent to having five hearts. As long as the five hearts are not destroyed at the same time, there will be no death.

He has already entered the inhuman realm.

A large number of black tentacles were released where the arms of the body were separated, and the mouth and back were also occupied by black tentacles.

Under the constant pursuit of Sunagakure ninjas, he had to activate his strongest form, which also meant that if this form was also defeated, there would be nothing he could do.

There were many Sunagakure ninjas chasing them, hundreds of them, and the leader was a very young female ninja.

Kakuzu remembered her name, or more specifically, the bounty on the young kunoichi's head.

Sand Hidden Blood Successor Limit Burning Escape Ninja - Ye Cang.

The underground black market has a bounty of up to 45 million taels.

Although she is not as good as the Sannin of Konoha and the recently famous Yellow Flash, among the younger generation of ninjas in the ninja world, there are definitely not many ninjas who can surely defeat her.

Even if they meet alone, Kakuzu can't guarantee that he can kill the opponent without injury. It is very likely that he will have to lose one or two hearts to win.

After all, the power of the Burning Release is too terrifying. Even if it passes by without touching, the water in the human body will be drained out in an instant. Even the medical ninja will not be able to catch up with the treatment, and the enemy will turn into a mummy and die.

Kakuzu is also very afraid of this kind of killing ninjutsu, which can be called a one-hit kill.

What's more, there were nearly a hundred Sunagakure ninjas following behind her. Judging from the aura of these Sunagakure ninjas and the skills they displayed, they were all powerful ninjas at least at the chunin level.

With only two hearts left, it is absolutely impossible for him to be the opponent of these Sunagakure ninjas, and it is even more impossible when his own information has been leaked.

Kakuzu stood up from the ground and did not tangle with these Sunagakure ninjas. Instead, he used the black giant monster fused with a fire attribute heart to intercept the Sunagakure ninjas that were quickly chasing behind him.

The black giant monster's face was covered with a red mask, and then his mouth opened. The inside of the dark mouth was immediately occupied by fiery red light, causing the surrounding air to heat up rapidly.

"Fire Escape·Tou Ke Ku!"

Like overwhelming waves rising from the sea, the sea of ​​​​fire spread instantly, and wherever it passed, trees and the ground were all evaporated by the high-temperature flames.

The air became extremely dry and hot, making people's faces turn red.

"Water Escape·Water Formation Wall!"

Among the hundreds of people in the team, the few Sunagakure ninjas immediately performed water release ninjutsu at the same time, spraying water from their mouths, and erecting a huge water wall in front of the team to intercept this extremely powerful fire release ninjutsu. .

White steam covered the area. The black giant monster with a red mask immediately cracked its neck and spewed out fire bombs instead of a sea of ​​fire.

The power of the fire bomb was far lower than the impact of the sea of ​​fire, but it was superior in speed, attacking the sand hidden ninja through the air.

The rainy forest was suddenly covered with noisy explosions, and the flashes of explosions came one after another, making the pursuing Sunagakure ninjas panic for a while.

But soon they stabilized their position, and a strange clicking sound sounded. Under the control of chakra silk, more than a dozen puppets flew in the sky, swung the spears or blades in their hands, and pointed at the red masked monster. Slash without mercy.

The red masked monster moves flexibly, but a dozen puppets block everything from the front, back, left, right, and above. The red masked monster, which has no ability to escape from the ground, can only be attacked by a dozen puppets.

boom!

The red mask monster hit the tree and broke the tree.

He continued to spew fire bombs from his mouth, one after another, trying to use indiscriminate attacks to stop the sand hidden ninja from moving forward.

However, under the leadership of the Burning Release ninja Ye Cang, arranging for a few puppet masters and a few ninjas who can use Water Release Ninjutsu to stay, it was enough to contain this red masked monster with ferocious attack power.

According to the intelligence, the opponent's ability to use the five evasion techniques is indeed outstanding, but a single attribute is nothing to be afraid of.

Especially under the premise of losing three attribute mask monsters, a mask monster that can only fire escape is not a worry at all as long as it is suppressed with a ninjutsu of the opposite chakra nature.

Sending someone to restrain the red masked monster, Ye Cang took the rest of the sand hidden ninjas and continued to pursue Kakutsu.

In any case, Hanzo's body, which was supposed to be their Sand Hidden trophy, had to be recovered.

This is also the dignity of Sunagakure. It cannot be trampled by a ninja in the underground black market. It is necessary to let this kind of bounty ninja, who does not know the heights of the world, know what the power of the five major ninjas is.

Boom boom boom!

Boom boom boom!

The flying kunais were all wrapped with detonating talismans.

From the angle of using the Earth Dungeon hardening technique, I felt waves of pain in my body.

Kunai poses no threat to him, but the kunai falling like raindrops, and the detonating talisman, a ninja tool with very strong explosive power, are extremely lethal.

The black tentacles were blown away one by one, and even though the body had been hardened in all aspects, it still couldn't stop the continuous bombardment of detonating symbols.

Rolling on the ground, without crying out in pain, got up, and ran away expressionlessly.

There was fear in my heart and a little panic.

Unexpectedly, I, who had been in the underground black market for decades, would end up in such a predicament.

The perceptual ninja behind him keeps locking on himself, even if he wants to confuse his vision with avatars and avatars, he will be found out in the first place.

There is also a way to escape, that is, handing over Hanzo's body can divert the attention of the Sunagakure ninjas. In this way, his chance of escape will be greatly increased.

Which is more important, life or money?

As long as people with mature intelligence understand this problem, how should they make a decision in the end.

Kakuzu is not a mentally handicapped ninja, so he naturally understands this question, and in a general sense, how to choose the correct answer.

However, the answer to this general meaning is not Kakudo's own pursuit.

Correct...does it have to be right?

From Kakuzu's point of view, this world is filled with two kinds of things——

One is the sweet taste of happiness when making money, and the other is the bitterness of misfortune when being betrayed.

The bitterness of encountering betrayal is a memory from a long time ago.

I am so numb that I can no longer recall what my original motivation was.

But as long as I knew that the taste was bitter, I decided not to touch it again.

This bitter birth can be avoided by not trusting anyone anymore.

Therefore, money gave him a second meaning in life.

That is the sweet taste of happiness.

And this sweet taste of happiness is the only way to connect him with this cold world.

Let yourself still understand the fact that you are still alive in this world.

Therefore, giving up Hanzo's body is not equivalent to giving up money, but is equivalent to giving up yourself.

Giving up the value of one's own existence in this world.

Money is life, money is the meaning of living.

Because I understand the bitterness of being betrayed, I don’t want to be betrayed by anyone again.

Money did not betray him, and he certainly had no reason to betray it.

Neither be betrayed by money nor betray money.

If you put down your money, what will you have left?

What remains is emptiness, guilt, confusion, and true death.

When a person dies, it is the moment when faith collapses.

As long as the money does not fall, he will not die.

If you die with money, it is also a kind of sweet happiness.

What he holds in his hands is not money, but the faith and courage that make him strong enough to live in this hellish real world.

The sound of sharp blades cutting through the air kept coming to my ears, and then the detonating talisman emitted light and exploded next to me.

My body hurt as I rushed forward, but my speed had slowed down.

The footsteps of the Sunagakure ninja behind him can already be heard, getting closer and closer, and will soon catch up with him, snatching away his life and his faith.

Kakuzu doesn't want to repent for having killed so many people.

If your own righteousness of making money hinders others, then in the eyes of others, you are an evil that must be eradicated.

Life is not happiness, and death is not worth lamenting.

Kill today and be killed tomorrow.

When you decide to take the path of ninja, you must be prepared to die and be killed in revenge.

It's a pity that in the end, I couldn't exchange this corpse worth hundreds of millions of taels... Compared with death, the moment when Kakuzu's consciousness was almost interrupted, this incident was more regrettable.

Lying in a sea of ​​money and dying, it would be better if you could end your life by such an illusion.

…

The explosion caused a storm in the center of the forest, and there were craters everywhere. Ye Cang led the Sunagakure ninjas to surround them, trying to recover all the enemy's corpses and Hanzo's corpses.

When I walked forward to take a look, the crater created by the explosion was still there, but the enemies who were supposed to die in the crater disappeared from the crater, as if they had never existed.

The sensing ninja responsible for locking the target looked stunned, and the chakra response...disappeared?

Where did that body go?

Is it possible that the dead can still escape on their own?

The Sunagakure ninjas surrounding the pothole also looked at each other.

"Yakura Jonin, what should I do next?"

"Look around, maybe it's hidden somewhere."

Ye Cang frowned, then waved his hand and ordered.

"yes."

The Sunagakure ninjas spread out and started searching.

◎

The head popped up from the earth, and then the whole body emerged from the earth, leaving the person with only breath behind him lying on the ground.

The native man who was responsible for the reconnaissance and infiltration work among the Xuan Yuans took a deep breath.

"Bringing people out from those Sunagakure ninjas, the secret was almost exposed."

The native man looked at Kakuzu lying on the ground. He was already dying. He could still breathe his last breath under such circumstances. It was really a powerful vitality.

An ordinary ninja would have been killed on the spot.

But when he saw Angle's body covered with tentacles, he felt relieved.

This is the powerful power gained by giving up the human body.

The tenacious vitality is not like that of human beings.

The tentacles on Kakuzu's body were wilted, like algae spread on the cold ground, in a state of being scrapped and unusable.

Kakuzu raised his head with difficulty, his green pupils barely able to see clearly what was in front of him.

Including Tu Nan, who is proficient in earth escape and infiltration, the other four people are all his old acquaintances.

They are secret agents affiliated with the Demon Country's military and a five-person group of Xuan Yuzhong who have emerged in the underground black market in recent years.

The leader is none other than the insect man who uses the secret technique of exploding insects.

Seeing Kakuzu in such a miserable state, the insect man had a teasing smile on his face.

"Mr. Kakuzu, you are really embarrassed this time."

"Are you the one with the low bounty of 500,000 taels?"

"No, my salary has increased to ten million taels now."

The insect man corrected Kakuzu's words.

"Really...are you here for my bounty...?"

Kakuzu spoke intermittently, his body was extremely weak.

The fire attribute mask monster was destroyed by Sunagakure, and now he only has the last heart left. Once this heart is destroyed, it will be his time to die as an undead person.

He has a very high bounty on the underground black market. Although he maintains a secret financial cooperation relationship with the Kingdom of Ghosts, he has fallen to this point and the other party brought him out. The purpose is self-evident.

"The bounty of eighty-five million taels is indeed very tempting, but we are following the leader's order and are here to formally invite you to join us this time."

The insect man put away his smile and said this to his opponent seriously.

"boring……"

"Is money so worth all you have to do? Even if you pay for it with your life?"

"What do brats like you know?"

"Is it a kid?"

An immortal weirdo who has lived from the Warring States Period to this day is indeed qualified to say this.

"Money is like life to me...hell...it also depends on money."

"What an incredible amount of confidence."

"It goes without saying that I am not interested in any organization."

Being in contact with others will inevitably lead to betrayal, and betrayal will remind him of unpleasant past events.

In this world where only money will not betray him, only money can be trusted.

"That being said, it is also our leader's intention to save you."

"Hmph... don't think that I will be grateful to you in this way."

"If I needed your gratitude, I wouldn't have saved you... Moreover, the old man's arrogance is not cute at all. Mr. Kakuzu is already past that age."

The bastard! Kakuzu's green eyes burst out with murderous intent.

If it's not that he can't move now, he must be cut into pieces.

No, think about it carefully, this is too cheap for him, let's wait until his worth rises a bit before killing him.

After all, the other party's bounty is only 10 million taels, and there is still a lot of room for appreciation.

It would be too cheap to kill him now.

Thinking like this, Kakuzu felt that he was getting more and more tired, and his eyelids were so thick that he was about to close them. In the end, he was unable to resist his will to fall asleep and closed his eyes tiredly.

◎

When Kakuzu regained consciousness, there was some noise in his ears.

Someone is walking around me.

But the strange thing is that when he regained consciousness, he couldn't open his eyes and clearly see who was walking around him.

"What an amazing body!"

The man's curious exclamation sounded in his ears.

You can still smell the cold, cold smell of disinfectant around you.

The bed board where the skin on the back was in contact was also very cold, making it clear to Jiaodu that he was lying on the operating table and being studied by others.

The unknown man next to him was acting recklessly with his body, sometimes stroking it, sometimes pinching it. Occasionally, he could hear the sound of a scalpel cutting something, and then he would cut something warm. Inject it.

It should be performing some kind of medical ninjutsu on his seriously injured body.

"Aren't you alright?"

Another voice came in, this voice was very familiar, it was the guy named Chong Man who was worth 500,000 taels.

"Hurry up, because it's the first time I've come across such an interesting body structure, and it's even weirder than that kind of Bai Jue, so I couldn't help it for a while."

"He is a man, leader."

Insect man reminded.

"Of course I know this kind of thing, I'm just interested in this guy's body."

Although Jiao is very clear about the extent to which the other party is interested in his body, but I still have to say that this is a research weirdo.

But for medical ninjas, his incomparably weird body is indeed a rare material for experimental subjects.

Drowsily, Kakuzu fell asleep again.

I don't know how much time passed before Kakuzu opened his eyes.

He found that what was lying under him was not a cold operating table, but a soft bed.

The air outside is a bit cold. After all, it is January, and the temperature of the air will naturally drop.

But because today is a rare sunny day, the bright sunshine will dispel the coldness in the air to some extent.

My body has recovered, but my head is very dizzy. This is because I have been lying in bed for a long time, and I am not very used to my current weak state.

But out of danger, this point can be sensed by oneself.

It’s really ridiculous that he was saved by someone. This is the only thought in Kakuzu's heart.

I don't know whether he is laughing at the person who saved him or laughing at himself for being saved.

Or, both of these are extremely ridiculous things to him.

Abandoning everything, he continues to cause massacres and tragedies in the ninja world. He only has money as a pillar in his heart and has no qualifications to enjoy the kindness of others.

Likewise, I have no extra kindness to give to others.

Fighting alone, failing, and then dying quietly and being forgotten by the world is a fate that should have been defined.

He then touched his chest. The scroll that sealed Hanzo's body was still in his clothes and had not been taken away. Kakuzu immediately felt relieved.

"It seems that you are recovering well, Mr. Kakuzu."

Someone opened the door to the ward, and a white-haired insect man walked in from the outside and smiled at the corner.

"I didn't expect you would actually do such unnecessary and loss-making things."

"How can we say it's a loss? We invited Mr. Kakuzu to join us sincerely. Because of the urgent shortage of manpower, we want to recruit strong ninjas like Mr. Kakuzu."

"Are you really all right? I'm a defecting ninja."

Defectoring a ninja means betraying your village in the past. No matter what the reason is, this is a stain that will be criticized.

Therefore, it is common sense in the ninja world that defecting ninjas cannot be trusted.

Even if he became a bounty hunter, the trust and honor he received was only because of his belief in money and the so-called alliance of interests.

Trusting a defecting ninja on an emotional level is a ridiculous move in itself.

"Forty-five years ago, Mr. Kakuzu was probably an outstanding Jonin in Takigakure Village. He followed the orders of the village's senior officials and went to Konoha to assassinate the First Hokage."

Kakuzu narrowed his eyes, and then pretended to be relaxed and said: "Your intelligence network is indeed very powerful, but it is nothing more than that. As long as you collect carefully, you can dig out something from Takigakure Village."

The insect man smiled slightly and continued: "Later, the assassination mission failed. Mr. Kakuzu, who returned to the village, was accused of failure by the senior officials of Takigakure Village because he failed to complete the mission, and he was sentenced to prison for a heavy punishment. danger of death."

Assassinations are often accompanied by many failures.

If the assassination fails, heavy punishment will be given to the ninjas in the village. For loyal ninjas who are ready to give up their lives to fight for the village, it would be too inhumane and cruel, and it will easily make the ninjas in the village hate and dissatisfied. .

Therefore, based on the intelligence summary, those who failed in the assassination mission would be severely punished and almost died in prison. It was most likely that they were involved in a power struggle among the senior officials of Takigakure Village and would be unfairly punished. treat.

After all, assassinating the First Hokage... anyone with a normal mind should know that it is an impossible task.

If the assassination is successful, the strongest ninja village now should not be Konoha, but Takigakure.

In fact, Takigakure Village, which was once powerful for a while, has long since declined, and there is not even a decently powerful ninja.

Therefore, in that situation, killing the senior officials who treated him unfairly, and then taking away the village's forbidden technique 'Earth Resentment Yu', was the only path Kakuzu could choose.

After that, Kakuzu embarked on the road of defection.

I began to admire money that would not betray me, and took money as my belief. For decades, I lived a long and boring life of making money.

"What does this mean? I said, you are just a bunch of brats who don't understand anything. In this world, only money can be trusted."

Therefore, if you don't trust humans, you can avoid being betrayed by others.

Rather than changing to another way of life, it is better to say that he is escaping and closing his heart.

Kakuzu got off the bed and walked out of the room.

"The reward for saving me this time, I will pay you a hundred times my own bounty."

My bounty is 85 million taels, a hundred times that is 8.5 billion taels.

Paying this part of the reward means that there is basically nothing left of the rewards I have earned from working as a bounty hunter for decades.

But compared to losing the money full of happiness and sweetness, being in debt is undoubtedly a more disgusting thing for him.

Including the fact that the mysterious existence behind Zong Man throws an olive branch at him and wants to establish the trust that only a companion can have with him, it is also full of disgust.

There is no so-called trust in this world.

Among human beings, there is only betrayal and being betrayed, only killing and being killed.

There is no such thing as redemption in such a dirty world.

Money is the last warmth in his life.

Trust... is too luxurious.

"That's a pity, but I'm sure we'll see each other again soon."

The worm man said so.

Kakuzu raised his eyebrows and sneered: "I admit that I was careless when I was chased by Sunagakure this time. But when I exchange Hanzo's body for money, I will hibernate for a while. Don't worry, in a place like this, I Will not come a second time."

An experienced hunter will not fail twice in the same place.

This is the confidence Kakuzu possesses.

He walked away without any hesitation.

The worm man scratched his head.

In fact, he really wanted to say that the ninja who stared at Hanzo's corpse was not only the sand ninja, but also a guy who was more terrifying than the sand ninja.