Chapter 80: I Still Need an Accountant
"Who's this guy? He even dared to try assassinating you?" Tsunade asked curiously.
"Ah, you wouldn't know this, but this guy's no ordinary assassin. Back in the day, he even threw shuriken at your grandfather!" Jinghang teased with a smirk.
"Wait, what?! He went after my grandfather? Doesn't that make him, like, sixty or seventy years old?" Tsunade exclaimed in surprise.
"Oh, he's definitely up there. This is an old-timer, a true legend in the underground assassin world," Jinghang said, his gaze fixed on Kakuzu, who was currently dangling helplessly in the Leather Dumpling trap. Jinghang's mind was already racing, considering whether to recruit him.
After all, Hidan was already utterly loyal, and Sasori was behaving himself as the dutiful "heir of the Will of Wind." If Jinghang could bring Kakuzu into the fold, it might even disrupt the operations of the Akatsuki—if they'd even been formed yet. Hmm... come to think of it, the Akatsuki might not even exist at this point.
But unlike Sasori's psychological issues stemming from a lack of parental love, Hidan's religious fanaticism, or Orochimaru's obsession with science, Kakuzu's motivations for joining the Akatsuki were unique.
A former elite Jōnin of Takigakure, Kakuzu had been tasked with an impossible mission: assassinate the God of Shinobi, Hashirama Senju. The result was predictable—after being utterly crushed by Hashirama's legendary Wood Release, Kakuzu barely escaped with his life.
When he returned to his village, battered and broken, he didn't receive the warmth or gratitude he expected. Instead, Takigakure's higher-ups branded him a failure and sought to execute him in secret. This betrayal was like plunging his patriotic heart into an icy abyss, then stomping on it for good measure.
Enraged by their treachery, Kakuzu slaughtered the village's leaders and stole their forbidden technique, Earth Grudge Fear, becoming an S-rank missing-nin.
Over the decades, he outlived friends, family, and enemies alike. He witnessed the rise and fall of legends like Hashirama and Tobirama, endured the horrors of war, and saw the frailty and cruelty of human nature. These bitter experiences taught him that everything—people, ideals, loyalty—was fleeting and unreliable. Only power in his hands and money in his pockets were real and trustworthy. Thus, he dedicated his immense strength and near-immortality to the lucrative business of collecting bounties.
In the original manga, when Pain invited Kakuzu to join the Akatsuki, Kakuzu was unimpressed. He dismissed grandiose ideals like the Infinite Tsukuyomi or eternal peace, caring only about the smell of money. It wasn't until Pain pummeled him with the Shinra Tensei and promised him a salary that Kakuzu reluctantly donned the Akatsuki's red cloud cloak.