"Ho ho ho—so the target is actually Amegakure?!"
In the dim cavern, the Gedō Mazō (Demonic Statue of the Outer Path) thrust its grotesque hands up from the earth. On its massive fingers, multicolored phantoms stood in a ring.
The one who'd just spoken was Orochimaru's projection. He eyed the Deva Path with interest.
"Pain, you don't plan on running?"
Thanks to Naruto's earlier influence, even though he'd still been defeated by Itachi, he hadn't thought about betraying the organization.
Before the Deva Path could reply, Sasori's phantom said coldly,
"They're just a bunch of freaks with odd shapes—what makes you think we'd run? Not everyone's a coward like you."
Kakuzu's projection rumbled, "Namikaze Menma's bounty is two hundred million ryō. His corpse belongs to me."
Kisame bared his fangs. "Don't get careless. That Menma punk is strong—he killed our village's Fourth Mizukage."
Itachi's eyes flickered; he said nothing.
The Deva Path turned to Orochimaru, his voice like ice. "Orochimaru, do you have intel on those people?"
Orochimaru let out a hoarse laugh, licking his lips. "But of course. I've crossed blades with them—almost got taken out, too."
That made every Akatsuki member's face tighten.
"Orochimaru, even you almost got killed?" Kisame glanced over in surprise.
They were all S-class missing-nin who knew one another's reputations. Orochimaru was infamously hard to kill—even Pain had no clear answer for snuffing out that slippery serpent.
Orochimaru's eyes glowed feverishly as he recalled Trafalgar Law's ability—
the power to slice a human body without causing injury. It was the ultimate lab instrument of his dreams.
With that ability in his hands, every one of his experiments would progress by leaps and bounds.
After listening to Orochimaru's account, the Akatsuki fell silent and wary, eyes drifting to the Deva Path.
"Tch. A bunch of muscleheads—one of me is enough to wipe them all…" Hidan's phantom groused.
The Deva Path ignored him and issued a frigid order.
…
"So that's your so-called Amegakure?"
Crocodile halted, scowling at the "village" ahead.
Village was generous—it looked more like a city: black was the theme, bristling with spires and odd structures, thick pipes exposed everywhere, and a statue of the King of Hell at the center.
With the ceaseless drizzle, the place felt all the darker and gloomier.
"Rain that never stops. Annoying…" Crocodile drew on his cigar, pressed his right hand to the ground, and growled,
"Erosion Cycle!!!"
A Logia-scale, large-area ability erupted.
From his palm, the earth turned to sand at a pace visible to the naked eye; water withered to nothing in a heartbeat.
Trees, walls—everything—crumbled into yellow sand in moments.
The boundary surged outward, turning Amegakure's outskirts into a sea of sand—a catastrophic sand tsunami.
"As expected of Lord Crocodile…" The pirate ranks watched with honest awe.
Naruto only crooked a smile. "Crocodile, your natural enemy's here. Careful you don't get bitten to death by a shark."
Crocodile blinked.
"My… natural enemy?"
Before he could parse Naruto's tease, his face changed as he looked toward a row of tall towers.
There, a blue-skinned figure with gills and fangs—cloaked in a black robe patterned with crimson clouds—vomited forth a raging flood:
"Suiton: Daibakufu no Jutsu (Water Release: Great Waterfall Technique)!!"
In water-rich Amegakure, the torrent he exhaled became a natural disaster.
Wave after wave, easily ten meters high.
The flow swallowed the towers; Kisame strode atop the roiling surface, continuing to spew water. [014709320飞卢053531161]
The violent surge rolled forward, soaking the spreading sand and sweeping it up—then hurled the slurry down on Crocodile like the sky was collapsing.
"Damn…" Crocodile's face went slate-green. He retreated without a second thought.
He hated water more than anything.
And the "fish-man" before him could conjure a tsunami from thin air.
"Jinbe!!!" Crocodile snapped, glaring, "You fish-folk sure get everywhere."
Jinbe was a bit baffled himself, staring blankly at Kisame.
"…Is this guy Fish-Man race too?"
Blue skin like his, fanged, with gills…
"He really is Fish-Man…" Jinbe's eyes lit up. He stepped past Crocodile, plunged into the flood, and called out to Kisame:
"Hey! You're of the Shark Tribe, right? I'm of the Whale Shark Tribe. We're both Fish-Man—let's talk this out!"
Kisame froze, staring dumbly.
"Who even are you?"
He remembered undergoing an experiment as a child—that's how he'd gained shark traits.
Could this guy be the same?
"I'm Jinbe…" Jinbe said, delighted. "I'm from Fish-Man Island, ten thousand meters beneath the sea. I now serve Naruto-dono. We're the same people, you and I!"
Kisame looked past Jinbe at the bizarre "fish-folk" behind him.
Six legs, four arms—fins everywhere. A menagerie of freaks that made his scalp prickle just to look at.
"Bastards…" Kisame's face turned purple.
"I'm not some Fish-Man! Shut up—both of you!"
How did he get kicked out of the human race just like that!?
Seething, Kisame flashed through hand seals and slammed his palm onto the water.
"Suiton: Senjikizame (Water Release: One Thousand Feeding Sharks)!"
Cerulean water congealed, birthing rank upon rank of fanged, vicious sharks that lunged for Jinbe.
Jinbe swept his arms wide, seized the water with a low shout,
"Suishin: Gunshō no Same (Water Heart: School of Sharks)!"
The flung water gathered—right before Kisame's bulging eyes—into thousands upon thousands of sharks of its own.
"See? We're true compatriots!"
Jinbe beamed at Kisame, convinced he'd found kin in Naruto's homeland.
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