"Mr. Gusion, I'll never forget your kindness. If you ever need something done—as long as it doesn't harm my village—I'll risk my life for you."
Jūzō spoke solemnly, then took his leave.
After a brief discussion, he decided to return to the village and continue to shine for the Hidden Mist.
Even if he had to assume a new identity, he could reunite with old friends and family—that temptation was too great.
After Jūzō left, Gusion contacted Zabuza to inform him of the matter. Zabuza readily agreed.
After all, Jūzō was his predecessor with the Executioner's Blade. They'd have plenty to talk about. With the Fourth Mizukage dead, many problems would resolve themselves. Among the Seven Swordsmen, there wasn't much internal strife.
Not only Jūzō—Zabuza also planned to spread word to recall other former rogue members of the Seven Swordsmen, consolidating the Mist's power.
…
As Gusion boarded a ship and settled into a cabin, pulling out a bed he'd bought from a sailor-uniformed girl to rest, the ground outside the Hidden Mist village—beneath broken trees—began to gently churn.
A moment later, a figure emerged: Zetsu of the Akatsuki.
"Calamity's combat power really is something else. He nearly destroyed the entire Hidden Mist by himself."
White Zetsu sighed. Because the Calamity's sensory abilities were strong, they hadn't dared get too close. But even from beyond the fog, they'd witnessed most of the battle.
"But he killed Yagura. Nagato's going to be angry."
Black Zetsu smiled strangely. Outwardly, they stood with Nagato, but in truth, they were aligned with Obito—since killing Yagura matched Obito's will.
Of course, Black Zetsu's true allegiance had always been to Kaguya.
"Looks like the tailed beast collection plan will be delayed. But that's fine. Our organization has lost a lot of strength—we need time to replenish."
White Zetsu said.
"Lost strength? Jūzō's probably unusable now. He's too weak. I think Kisame seriously injured him earlier—who knows if he'll even survive."
"Jūzō doesn't matter. Calamity is strong enough to capture any tailed beast under the Nine-Tails. We should go persuade Nagato. Now isn't the time to fall out with him."
"What about Orochimaru? He defied orders repeatedly and didn't deploy with Calamity."
"It's fine. Calamity himself—Orochimaru's partner—hasn't complained. As long as their pair completes the mission, it's acceptable."
After a short exchange, Zetsu turned as the air in one direction rippled. A figure with a spiral mask appeared.
"How is it?"
Obito asked.
"The Mizukage is dead. Don't worry—our secret won't be exposed."
Both Zetsu voices answered in unison, smiling.
Obito quietly exhaled. He'd considered personally eliminating the Mizukage. If Yagura ever met Nagato face-to-face, the truth that he wasn't the real Uchiha Madara could easily be exposed.
The problem was, while his space-time ninjutsu let him run wild across the shinobi world, leaving others helpless—even Nagato's Rinnegan couldn't pin him down—he lacked a decisive finishing move on offense.
Put simply, others couldn't kill him, but he didn't have a good way to deal with a perfect jinchuriki like the Mizukage.
So he wanted Nagato to send the organization to remove this potential threat. Delaying the tailed beast collection by a few years was acceptable.
He'd expected the local force might be insufficient and had planned to lurk nearby to ambush Yagura if things deadlocked. But he arrived a bit late—the battle was already over.
"Calamity, huh…"
Obito muttered the name. "Seems like a troublesome one."
"Isn't he a high-quality pawn?"
Zetsu asked, puzzled.
Obito frowned beneath the mask. "I feel something's off. Tell me the battle details again."
Moments later, after listening to Zetsu's account, Obito frowned even deeper. "It's like he did something inside the Mist. This guy isn't very obedient."
Zetsu also realized something was wrong. The Mizukage's death benefited Obito, but Obito hadn't communicated any such orders to Akatsuki members—Nagato had demanded they capture the jinchuriki alive.
In other words, Calamity wasn't following orders or the organizational plan.
"Go sound out Konoha."
Obito decided.
"You're moving on Konoha now?"
Zetsu asked.
"No. I'm going to take back my other eye."
Obito said. He felt many things were slipping beyond his control. To raise his combat power and handle key matters personally, he had to reclaim his Sharingan.
Only when the two eyes were reunited could the Sharingan wield its full power.
With long-range Kamui, he could pull targets directly into his pocket dimension. The disorientation from space transfer would render most people unconscious or seriously off-balance, letting him capture them at will.
And since spatial rending is absolute, he could also use Kamui to kill. With offense and defense combined, he would be invincible.
…
"Sir, we've arrived. Did you sleep well last night?"
The ferry captain knocked on Gusion's door, rousing him from bed.
He stepped onto the deck, stretched, and took a deep breath of fresh air under the morning sun, feeling invigorated.
Sensing the pulse from the Akatsuki ring on his hand, Gusion tossed the captain a wad of cash, then flashed to shore using Shunpo. In a secluded forest, he cast the Magic Lantern Body Technique to attend a remote meeting.
Within a dim cavern, figures appeared on the fingers of the Demonic Statue of the Outer Path. But compared to the last meeting, there were fewer people.
Gusion glanced around and saw that, besides Jūzō and his partner's spot, the positions for Kakuzu and Sasori were also empty.
"Kakuzu, report."
Pain seemed unsurprised that Jūzō's team was missing—he clearly knew those two lacked the strength and were at risk. But he was puzzled that Sasori and Kakuzu's team had also suffered losses.
After all, Kakuzu and Sasori were both strong overall, and Suna was Sasori's home turf. As the pinnacle of puppet masters, how could he have stumbled there?
"A bunch of new shinobi popped up in the Sand from who-knows-where. Strong ones. We had an accident while capturing the One-Tail."
Kakuzu felt no sadness over his partner's death. In fact, he sounded mocking. "Sasori got talked to death."
Everyone was stunned. Even Pain's Rinnegan seemed to blink. He stared at Kakuzu. "Talked to death?"
Only Gusion struggled to keep a straight face. This was probably the work of other Explorers. Sasori, with his shaky resolve, had likely fallen to an emotional play—finished by his grandmother in the end.
"Exactly. He kept prattling on about 'eternal art' with that deadpan look, but when he saw his granny he couldn't even walk straight. My battlefield wasn't far—I saw it clearly. He never went all out."
Kakuzu curled his lip. "How can little Chiyo's puppet arts compare to Sasori's? Yet she fought him to a standstill. He deserved to die."
Gusion's expression turned odd. Calling Granny Chiyo "little Chiyo," huh. Then again, fair enough—Kakuzu was more than ten years older than Chiyo. In his youth, she would've been a little girl to him.
"Sasori is dead, huh. What a pity."
Orochimaru licked his lips. He said "pity," but the smile on his face showed no sorrow.
"Bound by emotion…"
Pain pondered briefly. He neither praised nor belittled. Without commenting further on Sasori, he turned to Gusion's side. "What happened with Jūzō's team? Calamity, you should have reached the battlefield, right?"
"Don't look at me like that. I've fought across two major battlefields in a few days—first in Cloud against the Two-Tails and Eight-Tails jinchuriki and the Fourth Raikage, then to the Mist to fight an entire village by myself."
Gusion shrugged. "You can't expect me to solo the entire shinobi world, can you?"
His meaning was clear: he was only one man and couldn't save Jūzō's team.
At that moment, another projection filled an empty spot—Zetsu had arrived, just in time to hear Gusion's remark.
Pain turned his Rinnegan toward Zetsu, inviting a report.
"Calamity's right. The battlefield was brutal. Jūzō barely survived against Hoshigaki Kisame—then was heavily injured."
Zetsu gave Gusion a subtle look that made him frown slightly.
"Injured? Where is Jūzō?"
Pain asked Gusion.
"Dead. I pulled him out as we retreated, but a shuriken hit the back of his neck. When I saw he couldn't be saved, I left him."
Gusion replied casually. He couldn't care less whether the excuse was full of holes—he was more valuable than Jūzō.
Sure enough, Pain pondered a moment and didn't press Jūzō's matter. But that didn't mean he wouldn't pursue other issues. "Calamity, why did you kill the Three-Tails jinchuriki?"
Gusion now acted like a seasoned rogue, looking at Pain with helpless exasperation. "Please. I don't have the Rinnegan to bulldoze the Mist. Think about who I was facing."
He began counting on his fingers. "At the time, I was up against the perfect jinchuriki, Yagura, who was also the Fourth Mizukage; the dual-bloodline shinobi, Mei Terumi, who's Kage-level; the 'tailless tailed beast' Hoshigaki Kisame; oh, and some guy named Black Tech with some skill—you might've heard of him. On top of these powerhouses, the Mist's jonin and ANBU were all throwing jutsu at me…"
He paused. "Pain, you think I could hold back under those circumstances?"
Pain faltered. He felt he had no grounds to question Gusion. The man had a point—it was unreasonable to expect a top operative to spare a life at the brink of life and death.
In truth, a frontal assault on the Mist had never been the original plan. Their prior contingency for capturing jinchuriki was to avoid direct clashes with the great villages—preferably staging ambushes when a jinchuriki was traveling.
As for a head-on push—that was only something he himself could pull off while controlling the Six Paths of Pain.
Calamity had already performed admirably. If nothing else, Akatsuki's reputation had skyrocketed—within a day, news of his assault on the Mist had shocked the entire shinobi world.
Now every great nation knew of an Akatsuki member who could, by himself, severely cripple a great village—slaying the Mist's Mizukage and multiple top fighters while fighting them all at once.
With the tailed beast collection plan paused due to Yagura's death and Sasori's failure, Akatsuki would have to return to mercenary work for a while.
Gusion's performance would undoubtedly ignite the nations' hiring impulse.
As for the Mist assault, they could always pin it on a non-existent client—they'd been operating as mercenaries all along, after all.