In the hemispherical room stood a colossal three-dimensional structure resembling a luxuriant branching tree. On each branch, there was a sphere.
Inside each sphere floated a human brain, suspended in green nutrient fluid.
Next to this tree-like apparatus, a Mi-Go was performing a meticulous surgery. Its numerous claw-like limbs operated surgical tools with precision, carefully slicing open the skull of a child lying on the operating table. With a few deft cuts, it severed the nerves and extracted the brain.
At that moment, Hidan burst into the room.
His sudden appearance immediately caught the Mi-Go's attention. For a brief moment, their gazes locked.
Though he had received orders from the King in Yellow to hunt down the Mi-Go and had some understanding of these creatures, seeing one in person left him in awe.
Its entire body was pink and resembled a crustacean, with numerous crab-like clawed limbs and a pair of massive membranous wings on its back. Most striking was its elliptical head, which lacked facial features but was instead adorned with writhing tendrils.
"Looks like there's a lot of brain matter here!"
A fanatical grin spread across his face as he slammed his right foot onto the ground and charged at the Mi-Go, wielding his blood-stained scythe.
The Mi-Go, sensing the imminent danger, quickly returned the human brain it had just extracted back into the open skull.
By then, Hidan was already in front of it, leaping and swinging his scythe at its head.
However, to his surprise, the razor-sharp scythe failed to penetrate the Mi-Go's head. Instead, it was blocked by a web of green viscous filaments covering its surface.
He recalled some information about the Mi-Go stored in his mind, including details about this green mucus web—a biological armor that could not be easily breached.
After two more fruitless strikes, Hidan abandoned his attacks.
"If I can't kill you with my blade... Then I'll sacrifice you!"
Jumping back to his original position, he slammed his scythe into the metallic ground and pulled out a yellow symbol with one hand.
"Great King in Yellow, your devotee calls for your descent!"
As his voice echoed, a black shadowy tentacle slowly rose above his head.
The black tentacle undulated, its surface rippling like dense folds of skin. Its tip, armed with a blade and suction cups, radiated an aura of death and desecration.
Yet, despite the emergence of this dangerous black tentacle, the Mi-Go did not flee. Instead, it tilted its elliptical head toward the tentacle and began walking toward it, moving deliberately with its lowest pair of clawed limbs.
The closer the Mi-Go approached the black tentacle, the more violently the tendrils on its elliptical head trembled.
Suddenly, the Mi-Go stopped, bowing before the massive black tentacle in a posture resembling worship. In a buzzing voice, it began to speak in human language:
"Great Hastur! The Unspeakable One! The Lord of Interstellar Spaces!"
Witnessing this, Hidan finally understood—the Mi-Go was also a follower of the same eldritch god he worshipped!
"Whoa! You're also a follower of the Great Hastur?!"
"How lucky! So am I!"
"Then you won't mind being sacrificed to our god, will you? It's the highest honor, after all!"
[Sacrifice] or [Follower]?
[Sacrifice] √
The black tentacle swiftly descended, with the suction cup at its tip enveloping the Mi-Go's head. The circular blades surrounding the suction cup began slicing through the biological armor's green mucous threads.
In mere seconds, the tentacle's powerful cutting force broke through the armor. Interestingly, the defense offered by Kakuzu's Earth Spear technique had proven even more resilient than the Mi-Go's biological armor.
From the soft elliptical head, green cerebrospinal fluid was slowly extracted. As the brain fluid was continuously drawn out, the Mi-Go's body convulsed violently.
But the black tentacle wasn't finished. Dozens of smaller tentacles sprouted from it, extending toward the massive spheres in the apparatus that housed human brains.
These brains, extracted by the Mi-Go during its surgeries, remained alive and conscious. Now, they too were treated as sacrifices by the black tentacle.
The smaller tentacles easily pierced the glass and attached their suction cups directly to the brain surfaces. The cerebral cortexes visibly shriveled at an alarming rate.
With dozens of tentacles now harvesting from the brains, the entire room became a treasure trove of dread value.
"Hahahaha!"
"Revel in this, O Great God!"
"All of this is for You!"
In the central control room at the summit of the fortress-stronghold, one of Hyde's three female knights lounged in the chair at the console, her legs crossed casually.
Suddenly, an alarm blared from the console.
Rachel quickly lowered her legs and leaned forward to investigate, immediately identifying the issue.
"Impossible!"
"There's a problem in the power room?"
Since Hyde struck a deal with the mysterious beings called Mi-Go, the power room had been under their management. The fortress derived its energy from children placed inside spheres, which somehow harnessed their unique life force.
Moreover, the near-guard puppet knights of the fortress were controlled using the children's brainwaves.
However, this power source had a flaw: only children could provide this energy. As the children grew older inside the spheres, they eventually lost their utility as energy sources.
Additionally, prolonged confinement rendered their brains and bodies unusable outside the spheres, leading to rapid death and a complete loss of value.
The Mi-Go had introduced a solution—transferring the children's brains into external cultivation chambers. This process not only ensured a continuous power supply and control over puppet soldiers but also prevented the children's bodies from maturing and losing their usefulness.
The Mi-Go had also offered numerous unprecedented technological advances.
While Rachel was unaware of the full details of the deal between Hyde and these creatures, Hyde had once assured her that their interests aligned.
But now, with the power room in jeopardy, Rachel couldn't help but suspect otherwise.
"I'd better notify Hyde-sama immediately."
"Once the utopia is established, this will become our true homeland—a place where we can roam freely!"
---
High above, Hyde was delivering a rousing speech to the gathered masses. Richard's communicator suddenly emitted a burst of static noise.
Richard raised his wrist and brought the device to his ear.
"Quick, inform Hyde-sama! Something's gone wrong in the power room!"
"Rachel, what's happened?"
"I'm not sure—maybe those creatures have rebelled!"
Richard, already aware of the creatures Rachel was referring to, lowered the communicator and turned his gaze toward Hyde, who continued his speech.
Just as Richard prepared to leap up and warn Hyde, a massive explosion erupted in the distance.
Hyde spun around to face the source of the blast.
It came from his fortress—his stronghold.
---
"Fire Style: Searing Migraine!"
"Wind Style: Pressure Damage!"
Kakuzu strolled leisurely through the corridors of the fortress. Puppet knights wielding long-handled hammers repeatedly attacked him, but all were repelled by various ninjutsu fired from the four black figures behind him.
The fireballs launched by Searing Migraine struck the puppet knights' armor, and the massive flames quickly engulfed it, consuming the interior of the armor.
From within the flames, the puppet knights let out a low, pained groan.
Pressure Damage sent wind spheres that created miniature vortex storms upon striking the puppet knights. As the storms exploded, the armor shattered into fragments.
"Even though you're undying puppets, once the integrity of your armor is severely damaged, you won't be able to move."
"Armor with no soul, yet when burned by fire, it still seems to feel pain. How bizarre."
Through the battle, Kakuzu had already identified the puppet knights' weakness. However, he was unaware that these puppet knights were actually controlled by the consciousness of children.
Though the children didn't feel pain from the puppet knights' bodies, the biological instinct to fear fire was hard to suppress.
As he rounded a corner in the corridor, he found another dozen puppet knights blocking his path.
"How annoying."
Kakuzu wasn't one to shy away from trouble, especially if it involved earning money.
But defeating these puppet knights neither helped him train his ninjutsu nor brought him any satisfaction, let alone a reward. That was why he found it such a hassle.
Just as Kakuzu prepared to dispatch all these puppet knights in one go, they suddenly all collapsed to the ground, paralyzed.
He stepped forward to investigate and discovered that, in an instant, these puppet knights seemed to have lost control, reverting into lifeless, reddish-brown armor.
"It must be that guy doing something again. Didn't expect that brat to actually be useful for once."
With no puppet knights in his way, he quickly found his partner.
In a hemispherical engine room, Hidan was sitting on the corpse-like shell of Mi-Go, propping himself up with his bloodstained triple-bladed scythe. He looked as though he was resting.
Seeing Kakuzu enter, he lowered the scythe he had just raised.
"This place is pretty big. Surprised you found me so quickly."
Kakuzu didn't respond, though it wasn't as if he had found the place purely by luck.
In fact, the rings Pain distributed to every member of the Akatsuki contained a unique signal transmitter.
Not only could this signal receiver pick up communication via Pain's chakra, but by learning the proper hand seals, one ring could also locate the position of another.
The rings used by the Akatsuki were actually paired rings capable of sensing each other's location.
The locating ring was the male ring, while the counterpart was the "female ring."
This was also why Pain insisted on forming two-person teams. Furthermore, if a ring-bearer died, the next member would use the same ring, provided it could be retrieved.
Pain distributed rings to each member of the Akatsuki, entrusting the hand seals and the male ring to the member in each duo who was more loyal to the organization.
This way, if the other member suddenly defected, the one holding the male ring could detect it in time.
It was a very clever system—not only effective at preventing betrayal but also avoiding making new members feel overly monitored. At the same time, it granted loyal members a sense of elevated privilege.
However, there was one exception: Orochimaru.
The ring of Sasori failed to detect the Sannin's whereabouts. Ultimately, it was through a spy that he had 'planted' near Orochimaru that they tracked him down.
This was likely because, four years earlier, during Orochimaru's interaction with the other two members of the Sannin, Sasori had detected him.
The Snake Sannin must have realized there was something on him enabling Sasori to track his position. With his intellect and abilities, he quickly deduced that the problem lay with the ring and neutralized its tracking function.
Instead of discarding the ring after leaving the Akatsuki, he kept it with him to study the signal transmitter embedded in it.
Since he didn't return the Sky ring, Pain gave Deidara the Blue-Green ring.
Both rings, however, could still be detected by Sasori's Sphere ring.
Based on Kakuzu's years of experience in Akatsuki, apart from the rings belonging to Pain, Konan, and Zetsu, the remaining male rings were Sasori's Sphere, his own North, and Jūzō's South.
After Jūzō's death, Pain refrained from assigning the South ring to Itachi, even limiting the Uchiha's activities.
This indicated that Pain didn't trust Itachi at all, believing his loyalty was no greater than that of a newly recruited member.
To Kakuzu, this was quite an intriguing piece of gossip.
---
Kakuzu approached the corpse of Mi-Go beneath Hidan and silently observed it for a moment.
He had already seen Mi-Go's image in a bounty manual, so the sight didn't shock him too much now that he was prepared.
Regaining focus, he raised his head and asked Hidan, "How do we transport this thing?"
"I've already called Fu. It'll be here soon—just wait a bit."
"Okay."
Unlike the carefree Hidan, Kakuzu wasn't one to sit idly. Instead, he began examining the surrounding environment.
Although he couldn't discern the purpose of the massive device in the center, Kakuzu knew it was undoubtedly high-tech far beyond anything found in the ninja world.
He hadn't expected such advanced technology to exist in this world. If he could take it back, it might fetch a hefty price.
As he mused over how much the enemy's high-tech equipment could be worth, Hidan casually rested inside the enemy's base. Suddenly, the sound of running footsteps came from the entrance.
"You two sure seem relaxed in Hyde-sama's fortress."
They turned toward the door to see a red-eyed female knight with blonde hair and purple armor.
"Who's this?" Hidan asked.
"Obviously someone from this fortress," Kakuzu replied, slowly turning toward the female knight. "But I didn't expect to find a living person here. I thought this place was full of hollow puppets."
The female knight swept her arm dramatically, her cape billowing behind her with a heroic air.
"Don't lump me in with those useless scraps. I'm Rachel, one of Hyde-sama's three knights."
Hidan, sitting atop Mi-Go's corpse, hopped down and waved dismissively. "I'll leave this woman to you. I'll start hauling the Mi-Go's corpse upstairs."
"But finish the fight quickly. If you're not done by the time Fu gets here, I'll leave you behind in this world."
Kakuzu glanced at Hidan's departing back and scoffed coldly.
"Don't worry."
"It won't take long."