The Tomie Kawakami split body saw Orochimaru.
At the same time, Orochimaru saw her as well, and a flicker of surprise crossed his face.
What a stunning appearance.
Even Tsunade would lose by half a step in comparison.
Whether it was the Tomie Kawakami split body, the Mihawk split body, or the Hancock split body, they had all started out relying on the Transformation Technique.
But now things were different.
What they used was no longer just a simple transformation.
By using the Mangekyo Sharingan ability Absolute Control, they could adjust their height, bone structure, and facial features, then layer a modified Transformation Technique on top of that.
Only then could they deceive chunin and jonin.
Orochimaru said nothing.
He simply hurried off, which startled the split body.
For a moment, she had thought he might attack.
"At this point in time, Itachi Uchiha has already defected and joined the Akatsuki. Orochimaru isn't wearing the Akatsuki robe, though. Don't tell me he's already left the organization? And he's in such a hurry too… Could he be getting hunted down?"
The Tomie Kawakami split body immediately felt that something was wrong and set off at once.
Before long, she ran into Sasori of the Red Sand.
"Hey. Have you seen Orochimaru?"
Sasori completely ignored the Tomie Kawakami split body's beauty.
Then again, that made sense.
He was someone who had turned himself into a puppet.
Why would a person like that care about women?
"I just saw him," the split body replied. "He went that way."
Sasori's expression remained flat.
"Which direction?"
The Tomie Kawakami split body did not answer immediately.
Instead, a sudden thought occurred to her.
This was actually a perfect chance to test her own strength.
Why run?
Even if one of her died, there were still countless others.
There was no point fighting someone as slippery and hard to kill as Orochimaru.
But Sasori?
He might be worth testing herself against.
Sasori released the Third Kazekage puppet and used it to carry himself into the air.
From that elevated position, he quickly determined Orochimaru's direction and flew off without sparing the Tomie Kawakami split body another glance.
She stood there, dumbfounded.
The people in the Akatsuki could not really be called good, but they could not simply be called evil either.
Take Sasori, for example.
He had no grudge with the Third Kazekage, yet he had still turned him into a human puppet.
"Whatever. If trouble doesn't come looking for me, I won't go looking for it either. There'll be plenty of chances to test my strength later."
The Tomie Kawakami split body headed toward a nearby town.
She had no money, but there were plenty of ways to get some.
And if all else failed, she could always do what the Hancock split body did—activate Desire of Beauty, and plenty of fools would rush to pay for everything.
The Tomie Kawakami split body successfully avoided battle.
What she did not know was that the Hancock split body had already encountered someone from the Akatsuki.
"Wicked woman Hancock, your head is mine."
Kakuzu looked delighted.
Not because of the Hancock split body's beauty, but because of money.
He had lived for more than eighty years and had seen countless beautiful women.
None of them could compare to the one before him.
But to Kakuzu, beauty meant nothing.
Money was the only thing that mattered.
The Hancock split body had already been put under a bounty.
Ten million.
The bounty had been posted jointly by multiple people.
Some ninja had fallen under the effect of Desire of Beauty and spent all day mooning over Hancock like mindless dogs.
Their friends and families could not bear to watch it anymore, so they banded together and posted a bounty on the black market.
Some nobles had also placed a bounty, offering five million if she was brought before them alive.
That amount was already considered high.
If not for the ten-million bounty for killing her, Kakuzu might have chosen the other one instead.
Which meant that even without this encounter, it was only a matter of time before the Hancock split body crossed paths with someone like Kakuzu, who loved money more than anything.
And it would not just be her.
As the fame of the other split bodies grew, they would inevitably run into Kakuzu or some other member of the Akatsuki eventually.
"You bastard! We won't let you hurt Lady Hancock!"
"That's right! If you want to touch Lady Hancock, you'll have to get through us first!"
"You're dead! Trying to kill Lady Hancock is unforgivable!"
The Hancock split body had not even spoken yet, but the dozen or so ninja around her had already leaped forward to defend her.
Some of the more hot-blooded ones had already thrown shuriken at Kakuzu.
These were all wandering ninja and shinobi from small villages.
Their strength was not particularly impressive.
At best, they were around the level of Konoha's chunin, with none of them reaching jonin.
A few might barely count as special jonin.
The Hancock split body knew full well that they were no match for Kakuzu.
Unless their numbers increased fiftyfold, they would never be enough.
"Earth Release: Earth Spear."
Kakuzu hardened his skin, turning both his offense and defense terrifying.
With a casual wave, he deflected the shuriken and charged straight at Hancock.
"Some of these people have bounties too. I might as well kill them all and make a little extra."
Kakuzu was obsessed with earning money.
As for what he even planned to do with it, no one knew.
The Hancock split body watched as her so-called protectors clashed with Kakuzu.
Against opponents who had at most one or two B-rank ninjutsu and could only be called second-rate, Kakuzu beat them down with little more than fists and kicks.
He did not even need ninjutsu.
"Ten million is practically in my pocket. This is almost too easy."
Kakuzu was in an excellent mood.
Normally, the higher the bounty, the harder the target.
But this time, it felt effortless.
Whoosh!
A fireball shot toward Kakuzu, while several more shuriken flew in from different directions.
Kakuzu evaded them easily and looked at the ninja he had already knocked down, only to see them struggling back to their feet.
His expression turned puzzled.
"Are you people really willing to throw your lives away for a woman you barely even know?"
Kakuzu had not killed them yet.
Originally, he had planned to.
But then he remembered that the bounty carried one more condition—he was supposed to spare the people around the wicked woman Hancock as much as possible and leave them alive if he could.
Which made sense.
After all, the bounty had been posted by the relatives and friends of the people Hancock had enchanted.
The Hancock split body looked at Kakuzu with obvious disdain.
Only a man like him could resist Tomie's abilities.
And even then, that did not mean he was immune to everything.
These men had already become her puppets.
Not only would they die for her—
If she ordered them to kill themselves, most of them would only hesitate for a moment before obeying.
"Shadow Clone Technique."
At last, the Hancock split body made her move.
She had no intention of letting all her admirers die and then facing Kakuzu one-on-one.
"Get back. Don't let yourselves get caught in it."
She shouted sharply.
These people were useful tools, after all.
And since none of them were truly good people, she felt absolutely no guilt in using them.
To them, Hancock's words were divine commands.
They immediately scrambled out of the way as the shadow clone charged straight at Kakuzu.
A person's mental strength did not necessarily need to be high to resist Desire of Beauty.
But their willpower had to be firm.
Mental strength and willpower were related, but they were not the same thing.
Danger!
The moment Kakuzu saw the shadow clone, an inexplicable sense of dread rose in his heart.
His hands flashed through seals at top speed.
"No… something's wrong."
The instant he sensed the horrifying density of Fire Release chakra inside that shadow clone, he stopped mid-cast.
He abandoned the Wind Release technique he had been about to use and switched immediately.
"Earth Release: Earth-Style Wall!"
A massive wall of earth shot up in front of him.
And in the very next instant, the shadow clone exploded.
A deafening blast tore through the air, loud enough to be heard from a full kilometer away.
The self-destruction of a shadow clone was not as powerful as the self-destruction of a true split body.
Even so, the force was still terrifying.
The earth wall was blasted apart, left cracked and ruined.
Kakuzu himself was sent flying.
He had not even had time to say anything before another shadow clone lunged at him.
Kakuzu's face changed dramatically.
The Hancock split body did not hesitate for even a second.
She turned and fled at once.
Those two shadow clones had already consumed nearly two-thirds of Kakuzu's chakra.
If he did not run now, then he would only be waiting to die.