Naruto: I, the villain template, was hailed as a savior.

Chapter 160 Kakuzu: Several hundred million ryo? Do you know what several hundred million ryo means?

Bang! !

The moment that tall figure landed, the resulting gust of wind made the surrounding trees seem as if they had been swept by a giant hand.

From above, the blue-haired Takishinobu saw a visible ripple spread across the emerald water formed by dense trees, sweeping towards him from afar.

"What is that?" Blue-haired Takishinobi asked, his brow furrowing as he gripped the kunai in his hand.

As the smoke and dust completely dissipated, the tall figure that gradually appeared made the Takigakure ninjas stare wide-eyed.

The guy who suddenly appeared was clearly different from a normal human being, the most obvious difference being his exaggeratedly muscular physique.

His height is estimated to be close to 2.5 meters, and his back is slightly hunched as if hiding a short camel hump, but that is actually the muscle in his neck. Standing there, he can firmly block their view of Kakuzu.

His muscles were an unnatural iron gray, and at first glance, he looked like a black wall.

Those eyes were not the usual color and shape of ordinary people, but a strange scarlet red, and also resembled the vertical pupils of a snake.

The words "Upper Moon" and "Riku" were engraved in his left and right pupils, respectively, and just looking into his eyes made the Takigakure ninjas feel extremely uneasy.

"Who are you?"

The blue-haired Takigakure ninja narrowed his eyes slightly, raised the kunai in his hand towards him, and said in a deep voice, "The guy you're protecting behind you right now is an S-rank rogue ninja from our Takigakure."

"Move aside now, and I can pretend nothing happened, but if you insist on blocking my way..."

From that face, which seemed to be covered with a hard substance like scales, he could vaguely make out the cold and stern features of a middle-aged man.

It felt strange and oppressive, completely unlike anything human.

Even after he spoke, the burly figure remained motionless, standing there silently.

Just standing there staring at them with his scarlet vertical pupils, his monstrous and savage aura, like a predator in the jungle gazing at its prey, was enough to send chills down the spines of the Takigakure ninjas.

In the shadows behind the imposing figure of "Night," Yun Chuan, who had crouched down, watched Kakuzu sitting helplessly on the ground with his back against a large tree, and a look of great interest flashed in his eyes.

Although he was on the verge of death, the fact that he could survive such injuries shows that he has a strong will to live.

An ordinary ninja would have been killed on the spot.

"These must be the black line tentacles, right?"

After asking Kakuzu if he wanted to become his department head, Yun Chuan didn't rush to ask Kakuzu for his answer.

Somewhat rudely, Yun Chuan reached out and poked Kakuzu's head, offering a polite yet curious smile. "Mr. Kakuzu, do you even have a brain anymore?"

Kakuzu's entire body had no flesh or blood; it seemed that apart from his skin, there were only black tentacles filling his body.

If I remember correctly, Kakuzu would only truly die when all five of his hearts were destroyed.

Doesn't that mean it doesn't matter if your brain is destroyed?

Or, as Yun Chuan said, Kakuzu actually has no brain anymore, and those black lines not only function as internal organs, but also as the human brain.

What a marvelous creation.

They can no longer be called human.

However, the once lively black tentacles are now withered, spread out on the cold ground like seaweed, with only the ends twitching weakly, clearly no longer capable of moving.

"..."

When the brat beside him asked if he was brainless, Kakuzu's already dark face turned even darker.

He tilted his head, his eerie green eyes scanning the seemingly unsuspecting brat beside him, and said in a hoarse voice, "Kid, you... came for my bounty...?"

He spoke haltingly, his voice trembling with extreme weakness.

The fire-attribute masked monster was also destroyed by the Takigakure ninja, and now he only has a wind-attribute and an earth-attribute heart.

If both hearts are destroyed, then it will be the end for this immortal being.

The other party made a move before he could be killed by Takigakure, and deliberately had that monstrous-looking guy block him and himself. It was obviously only to hide their identity in exchange for the bounty.

However, although he was not afraid of death, he would never submit to being slaughtered; even if he were to die, he would drag a few valuables down with him...

"Bounty money? Are you worth that much?"

Yun Chuan's voice interrupted Kakuzu's thoughts, and when he came back to his senses, he couldn't help but be stunned.

At some point, Yun Chuan found himself holding a small booklet, which he casually flipped through.

Upon recognizing the booklet, Kakuzu's dark green pupils contracted.

That was clearly the bounty book he had kept in his arms, recording each item one by one.

As a result, before he even realized it, it inexplicably ended up in that brat's hands.

"Eighty million taels, Mr. Kakuzu, your life is indeed very valuable."

Yun Chuan was also somewhat surprised by the price offered by Takigakure Village; 80 million ryo was roughly equivalent to two and a half Asuma.

However, considering that Kakuzu was also one of the root causes of Takigakure's decline, this number is no longer surprising.

"Although it's a lot, I only recently made over a billion taels, so I'm not short of money right now. This time it's not for the bounty."

Yun Chuan smiled and looked up at Kakuzu, saying, "As I said, I wish to formally invite you to join us and become the Minister of Finance."

"laugh."

Kakuzu chuckled as if he'd heard a bad joke, looking at Yun Chuan with the eyes of someone looking at an idiot, and said, "A billion taels? There's a limit to how much you can boast, kid. Do you think a billion taels is easy to earn?"

"As expected, you young people have no idea how valuable money is, and you have no concept of money at all."

Looking at Kakuzu's senior-like demeanor, Yun Chuan nodded in agreement, but felt a little amused.

This guy clearly didn't even listen to the invitation that followed.

To Kakuzu, his words probably meant, "However, I've made over a billion taels of silver, I'm not short of money."

"Don't even mention billions, do you know what one hundred million taels means? It couldn't be contained even in several money boxes!"

Kakuzu's eyes were somewhat unfocused, yet he continued to mutter to himself, "He still dares to say he made over a billion taels? Doesn't he fear his tongue will twist from his mouth when he talks big..."

boom!

The sudden noise interrupted Kakuzu's words, and he subconsciously lowered his head, which had been gradually rising.

Yun Chuan placed a scroll on the ground, which popped up with a puff of white smoke. As the smoke gradually dissipated, a tightly sealed box appeared in front of Kakuzu.

"Are you talking about this kind of box?"

Meeting Kakuzu's stunned gaze, Yun Chuan smiled and patted the box, making a dull, solid "thump-thump" sound, and said, "Guess how much money can fit in here? I have dozens more of these boxes."

And as Yun Chuan unleashed a scroll from behind Ye, sending up white smoke,

Almost without hesitation, the blue-haired Takigakure, who was standing on the tree confronting Yoru, raised his hand and threw out an explosive tag kunai.

He aimed at Night's head, or rather, at Night's eyes.

After all, that seemingly incredibly strong and robust body only has this one vulnerable spot.

The back of the eye socket is directly connected to the brain's nerves, so if the shot is accurate, it's not impossible to finish the job in one shot.

Then, the kunai, which had been gathering its strength for a long time, tore through the air and shot towards the eyes of the night with a sharp whistling sound.

Blue-haired Takishinobu's timing was perfect; he struck without warning, and a strange sound suddenly came from behind him.

To the unsuspecting blue-haired Takigakure, it was likely that Kakuzu wanted to escape, and faced with this unexpected situation, the big guy was very likely to lose his composure.

The other Takigakure ninja thought the same thing. Almost all of them had seen the bloody scene of kunai piercing the brain, exploding, and blood splattering everywhere, but the dazzling sparks that followed froze their surprised faces.

Night's gaze did indeed shift slightly backward, but even without looking, he could smell the explosive tags. He raised two thick fingers and gently pinched the kunai.

Snap! Bang!

The kunai was crushed by the fingers, the crisp sound echoing in everyone's ears. Immediately afterward, the explosive tag detonated, and the smoke and dust obscured their vision.

Once the smoke and dust had completely dissipated, Ye lowered the unharmed arm that had been blocking his way, revealing once more his pair of savage, scarlet vertical pupils.

"Be quicker, and..." Yun Chuan's slightly gentle voice came from behind, "Don't linger too long in the fight."

"Yes."

The next moment, under the watchful eyes of the Takigakure ninjas, he suddenly took a step back, his muscles surging and compressing like water.

This is not a sign of impending escape, but rather the prelude to a wild beast's attack.

boom!

The ground beneath his feet was shattered by the force he unleashed, creating a spiderweb-like crack. The recoil carried several Takigakure ninjas from under the tree in the distance into the air.

The Taki ninja, who had been thrown back by the blast, looked completely bewildered and helpless. Before he could even react, two arms thicker than their thighs reached out to grab him.

In mid-air, five muscular fingers spread out, and a palm covered in blue veins pressed against their faces, pinching the heads of two of them.

Bang! Bang!

A column of blood, crimson mixed with a few white streaks, shot up and pooled into a filthy pool on the gray, dirty ground.

As the pupils of the Takigakure ninjas in the tree contracted instantly, two twisted heads, each still bearing a section of a cervical vertebra, flew up, slicing through the air with two incredibly violent and ferocious shrieks.

"Mr. Kakuzu," Yun Chuan said with a smile, staring at Kakuzu without even looking up, "let's continue our conversation somewhere where there are no outsiders."

With that, he put the box back into the scroll.

"you……"

Kakuzu's gaze shifted from the empty ground to that gentle yet undeniably youthful face, and he asked, puzzled, "How did you manage to get so much money?"

With his keen sense of money, he could naturally smell the familiar "money scent," and with his sharp eyesight and experience, he could also tell how much money the box could hold.

One hundred million taels, in cash.

If what this kid says is true, and he really has more than a dozen of these boxes, then he truly does have over a billion dollars.

How did a kid manage to get so much money?

"To survive in this world, you need power and connections. That's the advantage of having power and connections." Yun Chuan put the scroll into his pocket, looked at Kakuzu with a smile, and said, "Want to learn? Join us, and I'll teach you how to make money."

"...Boring, do you think I'd believe you?" Kakuzu looked away with difficulty, whether from his injuries or from reluctance and attraction, it was hard to tell.

But he still held his head high and said firmly, "There's no need to talk about me joining; I have no interest in any organization."

In this hypocritical world, there is only betrayal between people, no one is trustworthy, and only money can bring him warmth.

"No rush, Mr. Kakuzu." Yun Chuan held Kakuzu in his arm with one hand and said indifferently, "You'll change your mind, so let's save you first."

"Hmph." Kakuzu let out a weak snort. "Don't think that I'll join you out of gratitude. It's useless."

"The only time you can be taken as cute and tsundere when you're stubborn is until you're an adult." Yun Chuan's smile remained unchanged. "It's really not cute for a seventy or eighty-year-old guy to say something like that."

That brat has such a foul mouth!

Kakuzu, who was being held between his waists, already had a dark expression, but upon hearing this, he was so angry that his vision blurred.

His already hazy consciousness was completely overwhelmed, and he closed his eyes with resentment and helplessness.

"Don't worry, I'll heal you. After all, I'm quite interested too."

Yun Chuan gave Kakuzu a meaningful look, then looked up at the dust cloud in the distance and used the [Bloodborne] ability to say, "It's time to go. There's always another day."

Bang! !

In the distance, Ye raised his hand and blasted a Taki ninja into a bloody pulp. He paused for a moment when he received Yun Chuan's message.

At that very moment, a blinding light suddenly shone right under his eyes.

Clearly, the guys who had just died had teamed up to stick several explosive tags onto his abdomen in one go. Before they died, they ignited the tags, and the intense heat aura instantly expanded.

Bang! Bang bang!!

Several explosions landed on Ye's body at close range without any restraint.

His feet, which were firmly planted on the ground, were shaken off the ground by two fingers' width, and a large amount of bluish-black blood flowed from his abdomen, which had been subjected to multiple explosions.

In the blind spot behind the night, several Takigakure ninja, including the blue-haired Takigakure ninja, appeared simultaneously, water condensing in their hands to form sharp water blades.

Water Release·Water Fang Blade!

The transformation of water-style chakra elevates water's originally almost non-existent lethality to a level that is not its own.

However, when several water blades struck Ye's body, they actually sparked with metallic clashes, like cold fireworks being ignited.

Each cut was powerful and sharp enough to slice through hard rock, but it only managed to leave a few centimeters deep incision on his body. Any deeper cuts were blocked by hard, bulging muscles, and the force of the muscles and bones caused his wrists to ache.

The person who felt it most deeply and was also the one who penetrated it the most was the blue-haired Takigakure, who was most proficient in chakra transformation.

puff!

He slashed and cut deep along the side of the neck, cutting through the skin and flesh that was as hard as steel inch by inch, before finally severing the dense nerves in the neck.

But just as it was about to reach the throat, a hand pressed down on the blade. The palm and flesh penetrated deep into the blade, yet it unleashed absolute power, stopping the water flow and the blade's advance.

"call!"

Heavy, foul-smelling breath hit his face. Blue-haired Taki Shinobu looked up and met those vertical pupils head-on, which were filled with suppressed violence and killing intent.

"You outnumber me this time, but..." Night's mutated voice uttered syllables like the sound of a saw rubbing against bone, and he said coldly, "We'll see each other again soon."

Under the horrified gaze of the Takigakure ninja, the blasted and torn flesh split into long, wriggling tentacles like mycelium, and in an instant, they were completely healed!

At the same time, Ye suddenly raised his thigh and delivered a knee strike.

Click!

Even though he instinctively reached out to block, the ear-piercing sound of his hand bones cracking rang out.

Blood spurted from the blue-haired Takishinobu's mouth and nose, and he lost consciousness as everything went black.

The last thing he saw before losing consciousness was the cracked and collapsed ground and the dust that rose up, and in the distance, Kakuzu being led by another person.

(End of this chapter)