I looked up from the stack of papers strewn over the desk only to see the two nervous-looking man waiting for my response.

A few days had passed since I got transported into this world. The time that was spent getting used to this body, chakra and the new world around me. It all felt like a bizarre dream that I would wake up and forget even having, but that never happened.

In the end, I decided to stop being concerned about what I couldn’t control and to shift my focus to what I could instead. And saving the world that I had to live in from its end was damn good motivator to force myself into action.

Currently I was inside an office building that was used to manage Kakuzu’s wealth that he collected from completing bounties. Those two, alongside other less important personnel, were assigned to manage that money. Basically, they were Kakuzu’s, and now my, henchmen.

Their existence was a welcome sight, as now I had a convenient tool to go through all the bothersome processes that I simply didn’t want to waste my time on. Especially since it could be accomplished by just throwing money at it. Considering that not many of my current problems could be solved this way, I was glad I could delegate boring and time-consuming tasks to others.

And thinking about the useful subordinates, I wanted more than the hired mercenaries. The group of people that I could trust to not stab me in the back. Which was a problem considering the time restraints. I had to find a solution.

I should get Zangei out of the prison as well. I had faint memories of him from my previous life, and my impression of him as a character was of someone trustworthy. An idea that was further reinforced by memories of Kakuzu’s interactions with him. As long as I paid him well, he could be trusted with managing some operations for me and taking any secret intel to the grave.

Of course, more would be needed to create a stable footing. I had an idea of how to get one useful and loyal subordinate at least. But that would be for after the fated battle between the brothers. I couldn’t take chances with Itachi.

The main problem and the future worry was an obvious one. A disaster that was called Uchiha Madara. His reincarnation would bring threat on whole another level. Though there was an option to stand back and leave it to two protagonists of the story to deal with them… but taking that chance came with too much risk.

To save this world from eternal sleep, two obvious directions came into the mind. First was to reduce the factors that snowballed the danger level into a disaster. And second was to simply get strong enough to deal with the players left on the board.

No matter how strong I got, I wouldn’t come close to the level of Madara’s power. At least with any conventional methods. As of right now, even Obito was too overwhelming of an opponent. And that was without the rinnegan or the second mangekyu.

Before I went and tried to steer the events into favor however, I had to restore my power.

The two hearts I had lost were a bigger deal than I first thought. They weren’t just any hearts. They were hearts of former Akatsuki members that died by Kakuzu’s hands. And as expected of the shinobi that were scouted by Akatsuki, they weren’t some ordinary bunch. They were powerful individuals with rarely seen talents. For that reason, they provided powerful hearts for the Earth Grudge Fear jutsu.

Now with the two hearts gone, not only was the total chakra volume I possessed considerably reduced, but since I had lost easy access to the two of the five elemental affinities, my arsenal became limited as well.

While getting powerful enough hearts would come with their fair share of trouble, it was a clear path to power. And I had few ideas as to where to get those hearts.

As for the first major problem that I had to deal with, was Kabuto Yakushi. The person that would foolishly use Edo Tensei to bring back Madara. While no Kabuto wouldn’t mean that chance of Madara’s resurrection would be null, it would complicate that happening. Especially since I recalled Obito having no desire in meeting his old mentor. So, to avoid a major headache, I needed Kabuto gone.

“What have you gathered?”

It was quite the detailed report that they had written. The assignment that I gave them wasn’t only about Kabuto, but about monitoring suspicious events taking place in the shinobi world. Fortunately, I had some money to spare and enough underground connections to hire some capable shinobi.

After all, I needed to be informed in case something out of place happened. Me surviving was already something that had potential to snowball out of control and cause some undesirable changes. I couldn’t have my most crucial advantage becoming redundant now, could I?

Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

The two provided a quick rundown of the events that might be connected to what I was looking for. While there wasn’t enough time for them to gather anything concrete, they hadn’t stayed idle.

“Multiple disappearance cases?” I raised my eyebrow.

“Yes. Something strange is going on. Instances of unusual disappearances involving civilians as well as shinobi have been taking place across the Land of Fire and the Land of Lightning.” Ginji, the person that managed my wealth gathered from the various bounties, answered. “While kidnappings commonly happen time to time, the concentration they’re taking place is suspicious.”

“You don’t think it’s doing of the same group, do you?” I asked.

“No, I don’t think that’s possible.” Ginji shook his head. “An organization operating within range of that size? Even if it was possible, it would be simply a waste of resources and manpower.”

I nodded in agreement. What Ginji said made sense. I knew Kabuto alone wouldn’t go through this much trouble for this. He needed sacrifices and samples to amass the undead army, but there was no time for him to collect enough materials if he rushed like this. There was no need for it either. Unless Kage themselves, or shinobi comparable to their level went after him, he would have no trouble escaping. And even if that happened, it wasn’t going to be easy to catch him either. This meant that more than one force was involved in this.

Strangely, most of the cases dated back no further than a few months in time. It raised a question of who was behind it.

“Any suspects?”

“Yes, actually. Some of the disappearances have been traced back to two different sources. We aren’t sure how large their part is, but they’re arrogant enough to leave traces. That, or they’re just bad at cleaning up their mess.”

“I doubt you could trace back to Kabuto that easily. But that doesn’t mean we should ignore the potential threats. So, who are they?”

“The first one appears to be a cult of some sorts. They’re probably using the kidnapped as sacrifices. As for the second one, we have a scientist gone mad. What use he would have for those people isn’t a mystery either. Both have bounty on their head. We have yet to discover the scientist’s whereabouts, but we have located one of the branches of the cultist. If you wish, we can send men to capture them.”

“Good. Keep an eye on them, but don’s waste unnecessary manpower. Our priority doesn’t change – we will locate and eliminate Kabuto Yakushi.”

Ginji nodded and turned to leave after I dismissed him. But he hesitated before he left the room.

“Erm, boss?”

I raised an eyebrow in question. “What is it, Ginji.”

“Don’t take this in a wrong way sir, but does Kabuto really warrant this level of expenditure?”

“You don't seem to be convinced about the assignment. Do you doubt my judgement?”

Ginji shook his head in response. “Maybe I’m simply ignorant of the world that S-rank shinobi live in. But I can’t imagine how someone that was just a messenger for Sasori, could come by with such power.”

It seemed this had been bothering him for some time. It didn’t help that Kabuto’s circumstances were indeed far from being normal.

Well, I didn’t mind the questions. Kakuzu had a particular business-like relationship with his subordinates, and I didn’t plan to change that. It helped with keeping the target clear and saved me from some bothersome misunderstandings.

Ginji left after a short conversation.

I had already given him and others a general overview of the situation but kept things vague. Thinking about it, there was no harm in trusting him a little. Even if he betrayed me, which I doubted he was ignorant enough to do so, there wasn’t much he could do.

His reaction to the threat of the Edo Tensei was amusing, but it did seem to motivate him quite a bit to hunt the target down. For a thug, he seemed to be a capable person.

I found it all amusing, huh? Despite the fate of the world being at stake, somehow, I wasn’t anxious. My mind was only thinking about how to make the most out of the situation. How to profit from the crisis.

I sighed at my own reaction. It was jarring how easily I had taken up the Kakuzu persona. I didn’t consider myself a sentimental person, yet my thoughts were colder and more calculative from the influence of Kakuzu’s memories. Not a comfortable thought. Yet I couldn’t deny how necessary such a mindset was in this line of work.

There wasn’t much information about Kabuto in the report, but I wasn’t particularly concerned with that.

Even if I knew his whereabouts, it wasn’t like I was going to rush at him blind. He probably had couple of strong reincarnated shinobi at his disposal already. I wasn’t going to take the risk of confronting him when I wasn’t even at full power. The investigation could take some more time.

Just in case, I skimmed over the report documents but there wasn’t anything important that Genji hadn’t already mentioned. Still, I got a clearer picture of what was going on. Not enough information to make instant use of, but that would soon change.

Recalling the Akatsuki meeting that took place not too long ago, I knew that time for some pretty serious changes were already approaching by themselves. One of the topics discussed in the meeting was Sasuke Uchiha and his feat of killing Orochimaru. Deidara was quite eager to chase him down and was the one to take on the assignment. It didn’t end well for him. The fight concluded with a bang, Deidara’s body exploding to pieces while Sasuke managed to teleport away.

Not long afterwards, I received a signal from Pain.

Another meeting was scheduled today. We had the four tails to extract from the jinchuriki that Kisame had captured - Roshi.