I Punch the Tailed Beast Ball

”When the time comes, you two follow the plan. I’m going ahead to hunt down a few high-bounty targets.” After arriving in the Land of Hot Water, Kakuzu said this to Jūzō Biwa and Musashi.

Even though they were all official members of Akatsuki, someone had to take the lead when operating as a team, and for this mission, Kakuzu was designated as the squad leader.

Musashi thought Pain must’ve lost his mind making Kakuzu the leader. He figured he’d do a better job himself. After all, Kakuzu was guaranteed to blatantly slack off just to make some extra cash on the side.

While Kakuzu was an experienced and powerful veteran of the ninja world, his love for money was no less legendary.

Sure enough, they had barely set foot in the Land of Hot Water, and Kakuzu was already shirking responsibilities, tossing the workload to them so he could go bounty hunting.

Still, Musashi figured this wasn’t the worst-case scenario. His biggest worry had been Kakuzu trying to rope him into his bounty escapades under the guise of combat.

At least Kakuzu was going alone this time.

Had Kakuzu actually dragged him along, Musashi, with his pride as a swordsman, would’ve likely ended up joining the slacker brigade anyway.

He wasn’t in Akatsuki to make the organization great again, he was there to grow stronger. That was always his top priority.

Jūzō, on the other hand, frowned. Coming from Kirigakure, he took missions seriously. Kakuzu’s laziness before the mission even began didn’t sit well with him.

”At least wait until the mission’s underway before running off,” Jūzō said.

Kakuzu glanced at him blandly. Unlike with Raiga, he actually found Musashi somewhat agreeable, mainly because Musashi would help him earn bounties for free.

A strong, unpaid laborer like Musashi? A goldmine. Naturally, Kakuzu didn’t mind him.

By extension, he found Jūzō tolerable as well, so he didn’t bother getting angry. He simply said,

”The Land of Hot Water is weak. You two can handle any emergencies, and don’t forget, we have support members nearby.”

His meaning was clear, he was slacking off, no matter what, even the Sage of Six Paths couldn’t stop him.

Jūzō instinctively looked at Musashi. As proud as he was as an assassin, he had to admit he couldn’t beat Kakuzu one-on-one.

But if Musashi, who was stronger than him, joined forces with him, Kakuzu would definitely be outmatched.

Musashi scratched his head and said, ”Eh, not a big deal. We can try handling it ourselves. If it goes south, we can just call Kakuzu-senpai back.”

Jūzō was a bit speechless. Missions aren’t something you can just shrug off. Didn’t Musashi know that in the Five Great Nations, this kind of attitude would get a ninja condemned to suicide?

Then again... Musashi was a samurai. And Jūzō himself was no longer part of a Hidden Village. So... never mind.

Contaminated by Musashi’s devil-may-care attitude, Jūzō nodded in reluctant agreement with Kakuzu’s absentee approach.

Seeing both of them agree, Kakuzu gave a nod and left. Clearly, he hadn’t misjudged them, flexible and easy to work with.

That left just Jūzō and Musashi to continue the mission.

Their support team had already moved in ahead of them, they would follow a bit later.

On the road, maybe because Kakuzu wasn’t there, Jūzō started venting about Akatsuki’s recent plans.

”Setting up Hidden Villages in nations without one, trying to control weak villages, is this what a proper ninja organization should be doing?” Jūzō complained.

He wouldn’t be surprised if the Five Great Nations came knocking on their door someday. Akatsuki was clearly aiming for something big.

Ordinary rogue groups usually just focused on money, or at most taking on battle commissions to get rich.

But Akatsuki? They were going after villages and even entire countries. Who would believe there wasn’t some sinister conspiracy behind it?

”I don’t quite get it. I’m just a swordsman, I don’t understand you ninjas,” Musashi scratched his head.

He still saw ninjas as simply strong warriors, like elite swordsmen.

Jūzō, ...

”In short, what we’re doing is dangerous,” Jūzō added.

”If it gets dangerous, we bail. No need to die for Akatsuki,” Musashi replied matter-of-factly.

Jūzō looked at Musashi with a strange expression. ”Aren’t you samurai supposed to be all about loyalty? What gives?”

He didn’t finish the sentence, but they were close enough friends.

Musashi’s face turned serious. ”Samurai should be loyal to their lord, yes. But I never considered Pain my lord. My true master is my old man.”

Jūzō was stunned. There really was a cultural gap between samurai and ninja.

For Jūzō, doing missions was simply a ninja’s duty. Even if Akatsuki assigned him something suicidal, he wouldn’t refuse.

If he died on a mission, so be it. That was a ninja’s fate.

Better to die on the battlefield than anywhere else.

Still, he was curious about Musashi’s father.

Apparently, because Jūzō often trained with him, Musashi had shared details with him he hadn’t told the others.

He said his father had been an incredibly powerful samurai, someone who once tore through Amegakure with just a sword and his fists, even killing Hanzō the Salamander.

”But wasn’t Hanzō killed by Pain? Isn’t Akatsuki in control of Amegakure now?” Jūzō asked.

Musashi shook his head. ”No, Pain just cleaned up the leftovers. He was at the scene, but whether he could’ve beaten Hanzō... I’m not sure.

I saw it with my own eyes, my old man killed Hanzō, though he took a lot of damage doing it and got poisoned. Then some masked man showed up and ambushed him. My father sent me away and stayed behind to fight him, even though he was exhausted.”

Musashi didn’t say what happened after, but Jūzō could guess, he didn’t survive.

Musashi’s obsession with strength and constant drive to improve probably came from a desire to avenge that loss.

It made sense that he didn’t care much about Akatsuki’s goals, especially if the masked man was somehow connected to them.

What Jūzō didn’t understand was why Pain would recruit traitors like them, and even someone like Musashi, who might be an enemy.

Did Pain really think he was so strong he didn’t have to worry about betrayal?

Jūzō couldn’t wrap his head around it and decided not to bother. If it came to a fight, he’d just help Musashi kill the guy.

Akatsuki’s plan in the Land of Hot Water was basically the same as in the Land of Fields.

The main issue was that the local Hidden Village had grown weak, because their Daimyō had stopped funding them.

Technically, the Daimyō and the Hidden Villages had a contractual, not hierarchical, relationship. While it looked like the Daimyō had more power, they were actually on fairly equal footing.

Fire Daimyōs, for example, joined in the Hokage selection process, but it was the Hidden Leaf elders who really called the shots.

Still, the Daimyō held the purse strings, so they were given a bit of face.

Put simply, the Daimyō paid the bills, and the ninja did the work.

But the Hot Water Daimyō was a man with a visionary mindset.

During the Ninja Wars, their village had been useless. Whether they had a ninja village or not, the big nations still fought on their land.

So he figured, why bother funding a village that couldn’t protect them?

He slashed the budget drastically, keeping the village barely alive just in case of minor threats, but no more.

Ironically, this didn’t harm the country. In fact, their economy thrived.

Why? Because to the north was the tiny, harmless Moon Country, and beyond that the powerful but uninterested Lightning Country.

To the south was the Fire Country, in the same category.

Westward lay the weak Field Country, and to the east, the endless ocean.

So even though their ninja village declined, Hot Water had no real threats, and its natural hot springs turned it into a tourist hotspot.

Unlike Field Country’s greedy Daimyō, Hot Water’s simply thought ninjas were a bad investment.

So Akatsuki followed the same playbook as before, start by manipulating the ministers.

They gathered dirt, blackmailed them, then used their influence to insert themselves into the local village.

With the power of Musashi and Jūzō, they easily took control.

Since strength ruled the ninja world, and they had backing from government ministers, no major resistance occurred, just some internal grumbling.

But the locals resented the Daimyō even more.

After all, they had bled on the battlefield only to come home and find their funding cut.

Losing to a major Hidden Village? That was understandable.

Winning would’ve been a miracle.

To expand, Akatsuki needed money, and they didn’t plan to spend their entire savings on reviving a dying village.

So they duplicated Light Ninja Village’s approach and started squeezing funds out of the Daimyō.

Pain staged a military exercise on the Hot Water border with over 2,000 ninjas, calling it a 3,000-strong force.

The Hot Water Daimyō panicked. His weak neighbor was suddenly flexing.

He saw this border drill for what it was, a threat.

His village had only 200 or so combat-ready ninjas.

Even if the enemy had just 2,000, he’d be outnumbered ten-to-one.

He had no choice but to approve increased funding for the ninja village.

Though it hurt, he couldn’t risk being overrun, especially when even the poor Field Country had built such a large force.

In truth, the Field Country could never afford this. The miracle was courtesy of Nagato and his crew, who had access to countless rare jutsu and secret techniques.

Of course, this wasn’t without consequences, it caused social instability.

Previously, powerful jutsu were hoarded by clans. Now, orphaned or rootless ninjas could study high-level techniques freely.

But Nagato welcomed chaos. All he cared about was progress.

With the new funds, Musashi and Jūzō replicated Light Village’s strategy, building a massive jutsu library, advertising it to attract recruits.

And it worked, fast.

In just a few months, the village recovered and even surpassed its former peak, reaching 2,000 ninja.