Kakuzu came down and sat into his rocking chair, he took into his hands two knitting needles and giddily thought.

What should I make? Socks? Nooo, those are bland! Hmmm, what about a pink scarf! Un! These sell well! ​​

His body was bouncing up and down in giddiness as Maro, the swordsman interrupted him.

"Kakuzu-dono, did your suiton heart perhaps discover who they sent after us?"

Kakuzu grumbled under his nose about time-wasting idiots of teammates but answered.

"No. It is lurking around Kiri but nothing ye-"

A knocking sound resounded through the room, making both of them tense.

"I will go and check." Maro politely told Kakuzu.

Kakuzu shrugged, slightly loosening his strands, in preparation for a fight. Sighing, he took one knitting needle into his hand as he sadly pondered about the futility of it all.

Suddenly he heard a buzzing sound but before he could warn Maro, he saw a sword enhanced with raiton piercing through the wall, decapitating the useless idiot!

Damn, he was not worth HIS money!

Kakuzu grumbled mentally as he stood up.

The door fell down, revealing a man in white kimono and a plain white ANBU-style mask holding a chokuto gleaming with raiton chakra. As the door stopped obstructing the way, a dense white mist rushed past the man, shrouding him in itself as it started filling the house.

Kakuzu didn't hesitate.

"Futon: Atsugai!"

The pressurized wind blew the entire front of the house away as it dispersed most of the mist in front of it for a whole kilometer.

Kakuzu groaned as he saw it! As the air hit the masked man, he changed into water! It was a water clone!

Kakuzu grumbled at the humiliation of having his hired sword killed off by a water clone. Maybe it was time to spen-, ahem, to spen-, uh, to... to invest! Yes, to invest some... money... into a proper fighter? Perish the thought... his money!

Kakuzu didn't have much time to ponder as he clicked his tongue. The mist war returning.

As he saw the density of the mist, he realized who he was fighting.

"Rei of Kiri... leave. You have no bounty. You are worthless." He impassively stated.

Shit, shit, shit! Why must my luck be so bad! If I am to be attacked at least make it someone who can shit gold! ... Kakuzu internally cried.

As he got no reaction from the mist, he frowned and with a resigned sigh.

'BOOM'

He jerked as he heard the explosion coming from the room with Karumi and their hostage. He would pull his hair if it helped! His money was running away! He pulled out his fire and wind mask from his back in anger.

"So be it."

The masks suddenly surged with an incredible amount of chakra as they did a combination Jutsu of Futon: Atsugai and Katon: Intelligent Hard Work. The world... burned.

...

A few moments after Kakuzu left the room with the son of Daimyo:

Karumi sighed as she watched 'her' body moan from 'pleasure'. Genjutsu it may be but it made her incredibly annoyed to keep it up. But this was her chance. She would never get so close to the son of Daimyo. If she showed her... good points to him and he got interested, she would be a winner.

Her expression slacked as she imagined the dreamy lifestyle of a noble concubine! But then she froze for a second before instantly weaving hand signs.

"You are good. But I am not the partner of Kakuzu for my incredible looks alone."

She smirked, seeing a female figure with neck-long bluish hair and plain white mask appear near the window, standing there without moving.

"Heh, genjutsu success." Karumi snorted, she put the woman under a nasty genjutsu of losing all five senses. Karumi boredly flung a kunai into the forehead area of the unmoving figure after she looked over the curves of the figure, giddily noting she was not losing!

She saw the kunai get stabbed up to the handle through the mask into the forehead of the figure.

"Why would they send someone so wea-" Karumi was saying while shaking her head when her eyes got wide as the figure started bloating...

'Boom'

Karumi managed to cover her face with her arms to prevent damage but her body was still flung into the wall behind her due to the explosion. It impacted the wall and slid down as Karumi ended on her ass.

She groaned and blinked a few times to get a clear view. It took her at most four seconds to get her mind back into the fighting condition but all she could do was gape as the moaning and writhing noble's body was pulled via chakra strings from the bed, dragging it through the newly-made hole in the wall the explosion caused. She just lost her hostage!

Shit, shit, shit! Kakuzu will kill me! No! He will whore me for money and then kill me! ... Karumi's mind was panicking. She lost 5 billion ticket! This was bad bad bad!

Poor Karumi was unaware that Kakuzu already knew as he let a few strands of his in the room, connected to his body.

She suddenly felt an incredible surge of chakra.

"Shit." Was the only thing her terrified mind could produce before... pain.

...

Rei and Konan watched from a nearby hill as the madman produced a combination of Katon and Futon Jutsu, creating a firestorm engulfing the entire area.

"Damn, that must have burned half of the forest!" Rei exclaimed as he sat on the groaning noble prick they were hired to save. The princeling was all dirty from mud and dust... not to say his sweat as Rei's strings dragged him a few kilometers on the ground in a few seconds. Only his protective layer of doton chakra made the civilian survive the ordeal.

"Yes, he certainly didn't pull punches." Konan nodded boredly.

"Well, let's go. No need to stick with him here. We have a delivery," Rei kicked the boy he was sitting on with his heel. "to finish."

"Yes, I will leave a few clones to play with the guy." Konan smiled and ten paper clones formed around them, rushing at Kakuzu as Rei and Konan turned around and walked away. Their mission half-accomplished.

...

Kakuzu growled. Sure, he killed Karumi but the bitch deserved it! He looked at the scorched newly-made clearing as his katon/futon completely burned the cottage to ash. He was about to rejoin the masks when he was forced to lean back as futon enhanced paper almost hit his shoulder!

His growl intensified.