"When are you going to give that third heart you promised ?"
After finishing the discussion about the cooperation between their two villages, Kakuzu could no longer hold back his question.
Though he now had dual kekkei genkai that he could use, he still only had two hearts.
In a world as dangerous as the shinobi world, that simply wasn't enough.
In the past, he had been a bounty hunter, wandering from place to place. His movents were unpredictable, and his strength was more than sufficient to keep him safe.
But now, he was the financial administrator of Agakure—no, of the entire Land of Rain.
Over the past few years, his bounty on the Bounty Station had only grown higher.
Kakuzu had begun to sense danger creeping ever closer. He had no choice but to take his own safety more seriously.
"Co with ," Kagetsu said calmly, leading Kakuzu and his companion to the Technology Developnt Departnt.
In a laboratory that belonged solely to him, Kagetsu pointed to a row of shelves in the corner of the room.
On the shelves sat several transparent jars, each filled with a faintly green-tinted liquid.
Floating within the liquid, one by one, were hearts—each of them twitching gently, as if they were still alive under the watchful eyes of any observer.
For a mont, Kakuzu was at a loss for words.
"These are... kekkei genkai hearts?" he asked stiffly, turning his head to look at Kagetsu.
There were at least dozens of them, all lined up in perfect rows.
Kakuzu couldn't speak for others, but for him, the sight struck a powerful chord—one of awe, and deep greed.
This was the equivalent of dozens of lives.
Ever since Kakuzu's Earth Grudge Fear had been tampered with by Kagetsu without permission, its appetite had beco extrely picky.
It was like soone who had once tasted the most exquisite delicacy and could no longer stomach ordinary food—flat-out refusing to consu anything else.
It was a stubbornness that completely disregarded the life and death of its host.
At this point, Kakuzu wasn't even sure if Earth Grudge Fear had developed a rudintary self-awareness.
If it weren't for the fact that Kagetsu had never set any strict limits on heart replacents—and even kindly provided him with new hearts whenever he lost one—Kakuzu would've walked away a long ti ago.
The only condition Kagetsu had was that he protect their "money-making machine," Konan.
That was Kagetsu's sore spot, and Kakuzu had no choice but to comply.
Now, the reason he was still running errands for Agakure… was a feeling he couldn't even explain himself.
After all, all he was supposed to do was protect Konan. Managing money, overseeing village finances—those weren't part of the original deal.
Although, he had to admit—he did co here for the money at first.
"There are labels," Kagetsu gestured for Kakuzu to step forward and make his pick.
Kakuzu stood in front of the cabinet, eyes scanning the jars from top to bottom.
Each jar had a label indicating the heart's elental affinity.
The two hearts already beating in his chest pounded harder at the sight, and his breathing grew heavier.
Aside from his existing Steel Release and Lava Release kekkei genkai hearts, Kakuzu spotted several more hearts with rare elental properties.
Blaze Release heart.
Explosion Release heart.
Lava Release heart.
Wood Release heart. ɴᴇᴡ ɴᴏᴠᴇʟ ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀs ᴀʀᴇ ᴘᴜʙʟɪsʜᴇᴅ ᴏɴ novelꞁire
And not just one—multiple hearts were arranged neatly on the shelves.
In the end, Kakuzu's eyes locked onto a jar labeled Wood Release Heart. Inside, the heart within it trembled faintly. His green eyes burned with desire.
"You can even create sothing like this?" Kakuzu turned around, pointing at the heart with surprise as he looked at Kagetsu.
He had heard that Wood Release had reappeared among the shinobi of Konoha, but a heart was a heart—and a Kekkei Genkai was a Kekkei Genkai.
Could it be… these Wood Release hearts were dug out from dead shinobi who had awakened this ability?
Had any Wood Release users from Konoha died recently?
His thoughts were a ss.
He hadn't expected to see sothing like this here.
He even suspected that Kagetsu had placed the heart there on purpose, just to let him see it.
After all, who could resist the allure of the Wood Release Kekkei Genkai?
Especially soone like him—who once attempted to assassinate the First Hokage and personally witnessed the man's overwhelming strength.
To soone like Kakuzu, who had an obsession with collecting hearts, this heart was like a priceless treasure to a devoted collector.
Take it.
I must take it.
A voice began echoing louder and louder in his mind, chanting like a hypnotic mantra.
The dam of reason within him began to crumble under the pressure.
"Strictly speaking, I didn't create it," Kagetsu glanced at him and replied calmly. "I only made so improvents to preserve it."
"You didn't make it?" Kakuzu raised a brow, sensing a certain… freedom in that statent.
"It's a product of Lady Tsunade's cloning experints," Kagetsu explained softly, as if he hadn't noticed the flicker of madness that had briefly passed through Kakuzu's expression.
"These are a few Wood Release hearts that were flawed but never destroyed."
"To be precise, it's a heart with a Yang attribute," Kagetsu explained calmly.
"It only gained the power of Wood Release after I modified it later. But don't expect it to have the sa strength as the First Hokage's."
"Compared to the Wood Release itself, its true value lies in enhancing the body's physical constitution and self-healing ability. It can also amplify the user's chakra reserves."
"Overall, it's a powerful supportive-type Kekkei Genkai heart."
"I'll take it!" Kakuzu declared without hesitation.
"Do you even have money?" Kagetsu asked, glancing at Kakuzu's serious face, then shifting his gaze to Nagato, who looked a little uneasy.
"Agakure is Agakure. I'm ," Kakuzu replied righteously.
"I've always kept public funds and personal accounts strictly separate. Agakure might be close to bankruptcy, but what does that have to do with ?"
Kagetsu raised an eyebrow, but said nothing.
Inside Kakuzu's body, his Earth Grudge Fear threads also seed to sense the presence of a new Kekkei Genkai heart.
Fueled by his excitent, they began to stir restlessly.
"Actually, Kakuzu-san is okay. Agakure borrowed quite a bit of money from him too..." Nagato said awkwardly, scratching his head as he glanced at Kagetsu.
"I have no objections," Kagetsu replied. "All the hearts on display here are available for sale."
After all, he originally modified these Kekkei Genkai hearts with the intention of making use of discarded resources.
Showing them to Kakuzu was no different from a rchant laying out goods for a buyer to choose from.
Dark, black tendrils—like veins—shot out from under Kakuzu's cracked skin, writhing and twisting in midair.
They wove together into a sharp, spear-like point that pierced straight through the body of the jar.
Inside, the chaotic black threads unraveled, spreading out to surround the trembling heart that lay within.
In just a few short breaths, Kakuzu had connected the new heart with his body.
The threads recoiled and retracted back into him.
As the new Kekkei Genkai heart settled into place, sothing began to squirm beneath the fabric of Kakuzu's cloak, as if a lump had ford on his back—rising, then slowly sinking back down.
From his open palm, a small sapling sprouted—slender and fragile.
Kakuzu's eyes glimred faintly. He could already feel it—his body was undergoing so kind of transformation.
Every part of him was getting stronger.
Most of all, his chakra reserves.
The Wood Release heart was slowly but surely becoming the new core of his chakra.
****
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