When Money Isn't Good Enough (Kakuzu Story)

Chapter 2

The room was completely empty.

Not just in the sense of people; from the way things were scattered around and there were marks on the floor, it was clear things had been moved—and moved in a hurry. Making his way through the building, Kakuzu found similar situations in all the rooms; all void of people, and void of a lot of other things you'd expect as well. Draws were open, bookshelves tipped over where it was clear people had grabbed everything they could as fast as was possible. They had wanted to get out of there; and get out of there fast, and had grabbed everything they needed. It had been a slapdash exit, Kakuzu could say that, at least...but it was still an exit. And he had no idea where this guy had gone, or why exactly he had left in the first place. Was something going on in the village? Did he have rivals, or someone had found out what he was doing and trying to take him down and he'd gotten out while he still could? Or was there something else...something that Kakuzu liked the least...

Had it been because of him?

It was possible. If somehow the guy had gotten wind of Kakuzu wanted to collect his bounty, he could have decided to leave. But why take everything like he'd done? It wouldn't have been that serious that he would have had to completely take everything with him. And how had he found out in such a short amount of time? He hadn't exactly been in the village long. The only person he had spoken to was...but then it hit him. It would have been easy enough for the subordinate. He came running up to him to tell him the situation, because that way he would know what Kakuzu was going to do. Then all he had to do was run back to the guy and tell him Kakuzu was after him for his bounty—then he had just enough time to take what he needed and get out. No doubt the subordinate had taken his leave as well, and Kakuzu was left with nothing.

But clenching his fists, Kakuzu glared at the space in front of him, determined not to let this guy get away. He had gone to the effort of trying to get this guy's bounty, and he was not about to let him just leave like that. Pausing for a moment, he cleared his mind of his anger in order to think things through properly. This guy clearly had quite a few people working for him—there was no way he could have taken that amount of stuff with him on his own. But as he had all that stuff and a large amount of people carrying it, it meant he wouldn't be able to go far. Therefore he still had to be in the area, even only until he managed to group things together more carefully, considering from the looks of things everything had been done in a rushed state. But Kakuzu couldn't think of anywhere he would go. He wouldn't stay in the village—there was nowhere to hide.

If that was the case, however, he had to do a little more research.

Immediately leaving the building, Kakuzu headed straight down into the village, scanning the shops in the streets until he found the one he wanted, quickly darting inside. The shopkeeper turned to him and asked what he wanted, and Kakuzu quickly asked if they had maps of the nearby area around the village; ones that could show any of the old buildings in the area that were built years ago. The shopkeeper replied that they didn't really hold many maps that showed the village as it was years ago—it used to be a lot bigger, extending further towards the river, before a whole chunk of it got destroyed in a fire. Rolling his eyes at that fact, Kakuzu dismissed the shopkeeper, and swiftly turning, headed back out in the street.

Looking around, he contemplated what to do. With what he'd now learnt, it meant that there might be more buildings further into the forest, just missing the fire but no longer included in the village, lost and forgotten. But there was no time to just head out and explore; he needed to be quick, otherwise this guy could have sorted everything out and headed off once more, disappearing completely this time. He needed a better idea of where he was supposed to go—when his gaze landed on some of the elders of the village, and he began to formulate a plan. They had to have been alive when the fire had happened; either that, or they'd heard from their parents what had happened. Either way, they could know if anything had been left behind after the fire, and so swiftly he went over, casually sidling up and asking questions.

Luckily enough, they had the information he needed. The old village hall that had dealt with all the goings on in the village had been untouched by the fire, as it had been separate from the buildings even then, but as all the buildings disappeared in the fire, it became isolated completely, and they had decided to move the hall to the heart of the village that still remained. Though the old hall had still existed, it was left behind to face the elements—that was all that was left of the old village. So getting a few directions as to where it was, Kakuzu then exited the village as fast as possible, heading directly to where this place was. This time the guy wasn't getting away; not only did he really want this bounty, but he was pissed. All this time and effort for one idiot? It was barely worth doing; only somehow, even if the bounty wasn't too high, Kakuzu no longer cared. He just wanted this guy dead—and so he continued on.

It took him a few minutes to get to the building, but eventually, as it appeared on the horizon, he quickly slowed his pace and darted into the trees. Making his way forward a lot more carefully now, Kakuzu went from tree to tree, looking over the building for a couple of seconds as he assessed the structure of the whole thing, before moving in. This time he wasn't about to wait as long as he had last time, and so rushing up to the doors, he hardened his leg and slammed his foot into the doors, causing them to collapse in on themselves and crumble on the floor. Speeding in through the dust the commotion had caused, Kakuzu jumped up to a ledge to get a better view of the place and have the best viewpoint for attacking them all. He wouldn't let anyone get the better of him now—not after all they'd done.

But once again...there was no one to attack.

As the dust cleared, Kakuzu alighted softly on the floor, gazing round at the empty room. The same signs were there; the scratch marks on the floor, the disturbed places around the room and a few things left behind. But no people; nothing that actually revealed what they had been doing, where they had gone or what they were carrying with them. All trace of them had vanished, like dust in the wind. Kakuzu didn't know what to do. His mind was throwing so many thoughts at him that he wasn't able to take words and form sentences. He wasn't able to form coherent thoughts, either. He was torn between several options, but knowing there was nothing he could do—for now. There would be nowhere else relatively close by that they could hide in; so they would just keep going. It would become a chase, and Kakuzu couldn't risk being drawn into it.

He didn't have a clue which direction they had even gone in! Not to mention

Hidan was still back at the village. He still had to head to the hideout and report on the mission. Everything he thought he could do in this village and crumbled into nothing—and suddenly it all came back to him. Including his anger. Hardening his hands, he slammed a fist into the floor with a cry of unadulterated anger.

But it didn't change a thing.

Something strange was going on here.