Bright lights shine on the burgundy carpet, and the spacious room is filled with all kinds of luxurious furniture.
Kakuzu was wearing a loose Japanese kimono, sitting with his upper body lowered on the sofa in the living room, silently gnawing at the apple in his hand, his eyes full of gloom.
This is a special cell inside the Research Institute. Although no matter how you look at it, this place is far from a prison cell. It is almost the same as a presidential suite.
But Kakuzu, who fully understood his situation, was not fooled by the two hundred square meters of room in front of him, which was extremely comfortable to live in.
After all, the chakra that is not functioning properly in his body, the surrounding magnificent golden wall surfaces, and the silver-white metal walls revealed after the paint has peeled off, remind him almost all the time:
He has been under house arrest by Konoha, and he has been under house arrest for more than half a year. Currently, he doesn't know how long he will continue to be under house arrest, or whether he will be free one day.
Kakuzu once thought about resisting, but unfortunately this ghost place seemed to be in a barrier that targeted chakra, and he was not even half as strong.
What's more, whether it's Orochimaru and Beiliu who have been stationed nearby for a long time, or a man named Hinata Tamaki who has been here once and claimed to have some kind of friendly exchanges with him...
All of this made Kakuzu understand that resisting was tantamount to seeking death.
Kakuzu didn't know how Konoha would deal with a traitorous ninja like him from outside the village. Would he hand him over to Takigakure? To build the friendship between Konoha and Takigakure?
Although this guess seems reasonable, Kakuzu's intuition tells him that Lei Luo is not that boring. Perhaps in the eyes of that man, the Taki Ninja Village is probably equivalent to ants, an object destined to be eliminated, with no possibility of communication.
In the first month after arriving here, Kakuzu once thought to himself: The reason why Uchiha Madara wants to win over him is because of his strength, and the reason why Lei Luo has not killed him is probably because he also likes him.
Strength.
In other words, he still has the value of existence. After all, a shadow-level master is rare in the entire ninja world. Kakuzu believes that Lei Luo will not be able to help but use him.
But now, he was a little hesitant.
Click~
Taking another bite of the apple in his hand, feeling the fragrance and sweetness coming from his taste buds, Kakuzu only felt that his heart was getting heavier and heavier, and his mind was immersed in panic about the future. Because of this, he did not notice that in the living room
The door to the room opened at some point.
"Long time no see, Kakuzu."
It wasn't until the plain words reached his ears that Kakuzu realized that the soft sound just now was not the collision of his teeth chewing the apple, but the reverberating knocking sound of the key and the door lock interacting with each other.
He raised his head stiffly and looked two meters away. When he saw Lei Luo sitting on another sofa and Orochimaru standing behind Lei Luo, Kakuzu was silent for a moment, put down the apple, and said in a calm tone as much as possible.
:
"The Fourth Hokage, if I want to kill or behead him, can you give me a clear answer as soon as possible?"
The green eyes were filled with a strong sense of fatigue, vaguely accompanied by a little sadness. If combined with Kakuzu's deep voice, it would undoubtedly make people feel more sad than heartbroken.
In fact, Kakuzu's current situation can be regarded as a standard disaster. After all, he has no subjective thoughts of being in trouble with Konoha. All his actions are coerced by Uchiha Madara.
"Kakuzu, given that you have performed well in the past six months..."
Lei Luo did not answer Kakuzu's words, but said calmly with a businesslike attitude: "So I decided to give you a chance, a chance to regain your freedom and gain the friendship of Konoha."
Hearing the implication of Lei Luo's words, Kakuzu couldn't help but cheer up, but soon he felt a little confused and couldn't help but asked: "Free body? Don't I need to join Konoha?"
Hearing Kakuzu's question, this time it was Lei Luo's turn to be surprised. He didn't know what the other person was thinking, so he asked directly: "Join Konoha? Why do you have such an idea? You really want to
Join Konoha?"
Looking at the tangled face in Angle, Lei Luo wanted very much to open the head of the guy opposite him at this moment, so as to take a closer look at what wonderful ideas were inside.
What Lei Luo didn't know was that thanks to the large amount of information about him that Uchiha Madara handed over to Kakuzu, in addition to ability analysis, it also included personality analysis. Therefore, Kakuzu judged that he would probably be coerced by Lei Luo to join Konoha.
, contributing to various development and construction of Konoha.
For this reason, in the past six months, every time he thought about this matter, Kakudu's heart was filled with complex and tangled emotions. It can be said that he was doing ideological work for himself all the time:
Thoughts like "It's good to stay in Konoha", "It's good to have a serious job after traveling outside for so many years", "With my ability, I can also get ahead in Konoha", and so on, these thoughts are simply overwhelming.
enumerate.
But today, at this moment, when Jiaodu has completed self-hypnosis and is preparing to welcome a new life, Lei Luo's reaction was completely beyond his expectation, making him suddenly feel that he was a bit...ridiculous?
"No, no, I just think Konoha is a pretty good village."
"But if I think about it carefully, for a rebellious person like me, it would be better to be more free."
Kakuzu explained a little clumsily, as if he was afraid that Lei Luo would suddenly change his mind. But Lei Luo, seeing this situation, glanced at the other person with a half-smile, and said jokingly:
"So you know you are a traitor."
After saying that, noticing the slight change in Kakuzu's expression, Lei Luo shrugged nonchalantly and continued casually: "To be honest, I don't care whether you rebel or not, after all, I know a little bit about your affairs...
"
"First of all, it doesn't matter to me what the attitude of Taki Ninja Village is. That small village can only bow its head in front of Konoha."
"In other words, if I want, you can get rid of your identity as a traitor at any time and become a free bounty hunter who has established a friendly relationship with Konoha. This is not a problem at all."
"Secondly, your future development prospects depend not only on your choices at the moment, but also on your performance in the next period of time, so..."
Leaning back on the sofa, Lei Luo crossed his arms across his chest, raised his right hand casually, and made his request directly to Kakuzu, who was waiting intently:
"Are you willing to maintain a certain degree of contact with Konoha after leaving here, and accept Konoha's employment to do things for me and Konoha?"