A Sage's Pursuit of Power

"You disagree?"

A look of disbelief flickered across Kisame's face. In some ways, he was rather naive, he assumed that every strong ninja would share his belief in death as the inevitable destiny of a ninja.

"Death is indeed everyone's endpoint. But I think calling it a ninja's fate is a bit much," Aoba replied. "After all, I believe that a living ninja is always more useful than a dead one."

"Heh, I see. So you want me to work for you? Sorry, Aoba Kamikawa, I admire your strength, but I won't work for you or for any of the Five Great Ninja Villages, for that matter."

"No, not for me. But for… never mind. Come with me."

As Aoba spoke, he unsealed the restraints and bindings holding Kisame, releasing him.

Kisame was stunned. For a moment, he instinctively considered attacking.

But he quickly dismissed the idea, this was a high-security Konoha facility, and even if he managed to escape, defeating Aoba himself was out of the question.

More importantly, he was curious about what Aoba wanted to show him.

Following Aoba out of the prison, Kisame was immediately struck by the sights before him.

When he was captured, he had been unconscious and taken directly to the detention center. He had never seen the current state of Konoha.

The last time he had visited Konoha was with Itachi, and even then, it had been vastly different from the village he remembered from earlier in his life.

Kisame had first come to Konoha during the joint Chūnin Exams, back when the village was comparable to Kirigakure.

It was slightly more prosperous than Kirigakure, but not by much.

When he visited with Itachi a few years ago, Konoha already showed signs of pulling far ahead of Kirigakure.

But now, the two villages were worlds apart.

Clean, orderly streets bustled with people, most of whom weren't even ninja. Yet they moved freely and happily, blending seamlessly with the ninja among them.

What struck Kisame most was the apparent lack of residential areas. Everywhere he looked, he saw shops and towering, unfamiliar buildings.

The sheer commercial prosperity of Konoha was beyond anything he could have imagined.

Kisame wasn't someone who held ninja supremacy ideals. His defection from Kirigakure had largely been due to the oppressive and grim conditions there.

In Kirigakure, both ninja and civilians suffered greatly. The entire village had felt hopeless.

Kisame had wanted to change that, but when he found himself powerless to do so, he defected.

Later, seeing that the rest of the ninja world wasn't any better, he joined the Akatsuki.

Although Kisame often seemed to play second fiddle to Itachi in the narrative, his actual status within the Akatsuki was higher. Nagato and Konan trusted Kisame more than they trusted Itachi.

Pairing him with Itachi was partly to monitor the Uchiha. However, Kisame had come to genuinely respect Itachi for his exceptional ninja skills, which led to his deferential "Itachi-san."

Kisame was also one of the few in the Akatsuki fully aware of the Moon's Eye Plan. He supported it because he believed the ninja world was beyond saving.

But now, what lay before him left him at a loss.

In many ways, Konoha had already realized his dreams.

At least on the surface, every citizen of Konoha seemed happy and content. The village was prosperous and stable, its people affluent and satisfied.

Wasn't this the very goal he had once dreamed of achieving?

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Currently on Chapter 317 - The Shinigami's Transformation