[Random Cursed Spirit Experience Card]— Use imdiately.
[Special-Grade Cursed Spirit: Kūnī] (Experience Card)
Description: A curse born from humanity's fear and awe of "thunder and lightning."
Innate Technique: Electromagnetic Manipulation
Domain: Celestial Wrath Prison (Unable to Deploy)
Fusion Ti: Ten minutes
Usage: 1/1
...
The card depicted a cold-eyed deer-girl.
The girl had a delicate, refined face, long jet-black hair, and silvery-white eyelashes and eyebrows. She wore deep blue armor on her upper body, and two enormous trident-like tree-branch antlers sprouted from her head, faint arcs of electricity dancing around them.
Shinji carefully tucked the card away close to his body.
Although he didn't know why, the domain was marked as undeployable.
Judging by just the illustration, this Special-Grade Cursed Spirit: Kūnī was clearly no weakling. It had to be far stronger than the weakest special-grade cursed spirit he had previously eliminated.
Just think about it—this was a cursed spirit born from humans' fear of lightning. The very thought was terrifying.
Fortunately, he only had an experience card and wouldn't have to face such a high-level cursed spirit in person.
This Cursed Spirit Experience Card would undoubtedly beco one of his trump cards for the present—and likely for a long ti to co.
Thinking this, Shinji felt both reassured and satisfied, but a twinge of anxiety quickly crept in.
Soon, a flood of cursed spirits would begin to appear across the ninja world, causing widespread chaos.
He wasn't too worried that the early-stage cursed spirits could overturn the entire ninja world—after all, the major villages were no pushovers. Even ordinary special-grade cursed spirits wouldn't stand a chance against those powerful ninja.
What concerned him more was that, over ti, even more terrifying cursed spirits would eventually erge.
As long as humanity still harbored fear, hatred, and other negative emotions, cursed spirits would continue to manifest.
So the question arose: what do people fear most in this world?
Perhaps… ninja!
Or maybe chakra itself!
The cursed spirits born from such fears would be enough to send chills down anyone's spine.
On top of that, humans also feared the Tailed Beasts, dreaded war…
And that moon—once its true nature was widely known, what kind of horrors might it give birth to?
Shinji didn't want to be a savior, but as long as he survived in this world, he could never remain indifferent. He had to choose a side.
Because of his identity, because he could grow stronger by eliminating cursed spirits, he would inevitably side with humanity.
The only thing left, then, was to continue pursuing that goal.
In this light, he realized—he was truly the one with the grandest vision.
...
Not long after.
Rain Village, the tall tower.
When Konan and Kakuzu returned, Kakuzu wore a stern expression and left imdiately.
Having had three of his hearts destroyed, he was now extrely insecure, and urgently needed to find a few new hearts to restore himself to peak condition.
Konan, of course, had no interest in coddling him—she wasn't his grandmother. Age aside, what did it matter?
Successfully bringing Kakuzu back alive ant her mission was accomplished.
As for the rest, she needed to report to Nagato before making any further decisions.
Alone, she entered the room where Nagato sat. He was emaciated, gaunt, and seated in a specialized wheelchair, his back covered with black rods—each one seemingly telling a tale of tragic pasts.
"I'm back."
Nagato nodded slightly and rasped, "You returned so quickly… Have you investigated everything? And Kakuzu?"
"Rumors about the 'man-eating monsters' seem to be true, but their strength wasn't as overwhelming as the rumors suggested. On the contrary, the few we encountered were all easily defeated. Also, it can be confird that these rumors have nothing to do with the Tailed Beasts."
Konan took a breath and her expression grew serious. "What I'm about to tell you is the real outco of this operation…"
A few minutes later, Konan finished recounting the events.
Nagato appeared thoughtful, even slightly surprised. "So… you were worried that Kakuzu might insist on staying and be unable to handle it, so you returned early."
Seeing Konan nod, he couldn't help but ask, "That guy wielding the executioner blade—is he really that powerful? I rember the current master of that blade is supposedly soone called 'Zabuza,' a rogue from Kirigakure…"
Konan answered firmly. "We've previously collected intelligence on Zabuza and considered him as a candidate for organizational assessnt, but ultimately passed. Zabuza's strength and character simply don't et our current recruitnt standards."
"So, the one you and Kakuzu encountered may very well have killed Zabuza and seized the decapitation blade from him."
"That's the only possibility."
"Destroying three of Kakuzu's hearts and walking away unscathed in front of the two of you… Do you think he's worth recruiting?"
"Not sure yet. But the abilities he displayed were unusual and strange, so it's worth observing him further."
"Then this task is yours—gather all possible intelligence on him. When the ti is right, you'll lead others to assess him together."
"Understood. But what about Kakuzu…"
"Don't worry about that. If he has objections, he can co see . Akatsuki is not a place for anyone to act on whims."
Though Kakuzu had joined Akatsuki at Nagato's personal invitation as the Pain of the Deva Path and had even been entrusted with the organization's finances, there was one point Nagato couldn't overlook: every ninja paired with Kakuzu on missions had been killed by him.
Akatsuki's developnt was already slow, and recruiting new mbers was difficult.
But with Kakuzu, every ti a new recruit was brought in by him and Konan, he would eventually kill them.
Anyone would find that unbearable.
Nagato had suspected several tis that Kakuzu was being insubordinate due to arrogance. This ti was an opportunity to remind him of the lingering fear from that day.
Konan didn't oppose Nagato's decision. Ti was sufficient, and the outco uncertain—better to investigate first.
After reporting her work, she closed her eyes and focused on recalling details.
Sheets of white paper fell from her body, quickly coming together to form a lifelike paper figure.
It could only be Shinji Akagi!
Using her mory to "3D print" Shinji, Konan circled the paper figure three tis.
Finally, she recalled certain features worth exploiting—one being the strange necklace around his neck.
She had a nagging feeling that she had seen the symbol sowhere before…
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