Freelancer in the Ninja World

At the current stage, Akatsuki's top priority is to accumulate a massive amount of money. Only then can they swiftly move into the next phase—capturing Tailed Beasts to forge a Tailed Beast weapon and making related preparations.

Konan's argument was irrefutable from Kakuzu's standpoint, yet deep down he kept protesting to himself:

"No, this won't do! No matter what, I can't keep partnering with Uzumaki Senshi."

"Sure, I enjoy making money as much as the next person, but that guy values money over his own life!"

"If I stay teamed up with him, even if I don't die on a mission, I'll probably keel over from exhaustion on the job!"

"I have to figure out a way to switch partners. Orochimaru, my old partner, was definitely much better by comparison."

At that thought, Kakuzu glanced at Orochimaru, his former teammate. Orochimaru had his issues, but next to Senshi he seemed downright preferable—at least Orochimaru didn't operate like a perpetual-motion mission machine, churning out back-to-back assignments day and night.

Noticing Kakuzu's look, Orochimaru immediately started to admire the scenery, pretending not to see the plea for help. He took in the surroundings with apparent detachment, sneering inwardly:

"Heh. The more funds the organization amasses, the more R&D expenses flow my way.

At this stage, Akatsuki is mostly stockpiling resources. One of our biggest expenses is my experimental research."

"Plus, I've already hired Uzumaki Senshi to assist me long-term. You're barking up the wrong tree, Kakuzu."

Kakuzu couldn't read Orochimaru's mind, but from his expression alone it was obvious Orochimaru had zero interest in teaming up again. Kakuzu found himself missing the good old days with Orochimaru—the "Immortal Duo" at least sounded better than this "Overworked Duo."

Seeing Kakuzu's woebegone face, Konan felt a little sorry for him. He'd long been the organization's most tireless workhorse, but now he was hollow-eyed and battered. Of course, if even Kakuzu—who possessed the Earth Grudge Fear technique—couldn't keep pace with Senshi, then pairing Senshi with someone else made no sense at all. Moreover, Kakuzu had serious name recognition for missions, and combining him with Senshi was absolutely a "strong + strong" partnership. Whether it was picking jobs or carrying them out, everything went smoothly.

But after observing Kakuzu, who looked as limp as a wilted plant, Konan finally spoke:

"You and Senshi will remain a two-man cell. However, Pain will adjust the mission system in the village to put limits on Senshi."

When Konan finished, Pain also spoke:

"Though you two caused some minor problems for the Amegakure, it doesn't affect the bigger picture. From now on, the village's mission system will be changed. Lower-level tasks won't go to the black market. The village will specifically assign such jobs to its own ninja who aren't getting any work."

"As for you two, when you pick up missions here in the village, you don't have to hold back. You're free to complete them as you wish."

Realizing the extent of Senshi's "enthusiasm," Pain had no intention of suppressing him—he was simply rebalancing the village's mission system. That way, the middle- and lower-tier ninja would have jobs and the village could remain stable, while Senshi could still operate at full capacity. Mid- and lower-level ninja form the backbone of a hidden village; if they collapse, so does the village itself. Since the Amegakure would serve as Akatsuki's base for a long time, Pain couldn't let it fall apart. But he also wanted Senshi and Kakuzu to keep up their stellar performance and make even more money.

Kakuzu: "???"

Pain's pronouncement stunned Kakuzu. He was actually revising the village's mission framework to give Senshi even more room to operate—practically encouraging him to go all out. Kakuzu was basically forced to keep pace with a ramped-up Senshi. How was that fair?

Senshi, however, was displeased.

"I don't agree! Cutting me off from all low-difficulty tasks is impossible. I can cut down on them, but not cut them out entirely."

Because of his Mercenary System, Senshi's power spike was fueled by completing missions nonstop, even sending Wood Clones on easy jobs. If the system restricted how many missions he could do, his growth would slow—utterly unacceptable.

Pain's face showed no reaction as he calmly replied:

"No need to rush. I have a different assignment for you."

"Recently, the Ame has been aggressively taking on all sorts of ninja tasks, which has affected neighboring villages. Because of that—and the matter of Karin—Kusagakure is extremely unhappy with us."

"I plan to hire you to handle this issue. You can deal with it however you see fit, as long as no Kusa ninja ends up causing trouble for us. I'll classify it as an S-rank mission and pay one million ryō."

Pain clearly knew how to handle Senshi's personality: if there wasn't a "commission" element, Senshi might flatly ignore the instructions. But attach a price, and he had proven to be not just reliable, but dangerously efficient. With a perfect mission success rate and no apparent gimmicks, the results were guaranteed.

On hearing that, Senshi perked up:

"Wow, an assignment just fell right in my lap while I'm standing in the Amegakure tower? Looks like it might even have deeper potential…"

Recalling what he knew about Kusagakure, which specialized in learning and adapting other villages' jutsu, Senshi had a few ideas.

He cleared his throat and proposed:

"I see three possible ways to solve this:

1. The worst option: wipe out every Kusa ninja who tries to cause trouble. But that's not beneficial to the village or the organization—no long-term gains, and it might provoke ongoing retaliation.

2. A better option: capture them alive and bring them in as an 'outer circle' to Akatsuki. Our group lacks not just core members but also enough capable affiliates.

3. The best scenario: we subjugate Kusagakure itself—bring it fully under our control."

At that, he turned to Pain, waiting for a decision.

Pain: "???"

He was briefly at a loss. Ordinarily, the standard approach was to kill any hostile ninja. Since when was capturing them for recruitment or outright taking over their village a possibility?

"Why would I want to conquer Kusagakure? Don't you see how many weak ninja in the Amegakure are already a heavy burden? Why add more?"

His words were blunt but made sense: Kusagakure's ninja might be worthless, just more freeloaders. If Pain had no intention of managing day-to-day village operations, why bother bringing in another batch of "low-level shinobi" as a burden? If the village's normal function didn't matter, even the weaker Ame ninja were arguably superfluous.