"I'm coming in."
Kenji had barely finished knocking on the wooden door before he opened it and walked straight into the Hokage's office. Minato's "Come in" was still hanging in the air when he looked up to see Kenji already stepping over the threshold.
He sighed.
"You're still the same as ever."
"Oh? Looks like I interrupted you two lovebirds?"
There wasn't even a hint of apology in his tone. He had already sensed the situation in the room from outside and knew Kushina was helping Minato and the puppet deal with paperwork.
Ever since Rin married Kakashi, she had left ANBU to better take care of her family and transferred to Konoha Hospital as a medical-nin. She had previously served as Minato's assistant, helping him handle complicated administrative work before the puppet replaced her. After she left, Kushina volunteered to take over the role, doing the duties Rin used to manage.
However, she soon discovered there was far less work than she expected. The new assistant puppet handled most of the workload.
The puppet was designed specifically for administrative support. Its memory seals allowed it to instantly categorize documents, while small chakra-driven mechanisms inside its arms enabled it to write, stamp approvals, and copy reports at remarkable speed. It could also scan scrolls using sensory seals, detect missing signatures, and automatically place documents into different trays depending on urgency, department, or required authorization.
When Minato finished reviewing a report, the puppet would immediately record the Hokage seal, archive the document into labeled storage scrolls, and prepare the next batch of paperwork without needing instructions.
Because of this, Kushina's role became mostly supervisory.
So she assisted the puppet by sorting the finished documents, tying them into bundles, labeling outgoing scrolls for different departments, and occasionally double-checking village reports before they were sent out.
Sometimes she also helped by refilling ink containers, replacing worn sealing tags, and organizing the stacks of incoming mission reports that arrived throughout the day.
Even so, the puppet's efficiency meant the Hokage office was far quieter and more organized than before.
"Uh... no," Minato said awkwardly, scratching the back of his head.
"Kenji!" Kushina glared at him with her hands on her hips. "If you knock, you're supposed to wait for a response!"
"But I didn't knock," Kenji said, spreading his hands with an innocent expression.
"Uh..." Kushina choked on her words, clearly about to launch into a rant.
"Alright," Minato quickly interjected, smoothing things over before his wife could build up steam. He turned to Kenji with more focus. "How did it go? Did you catch him?"
His eyes landed on the thing Kenji was carrying, and his expression shifted to uncertainty.
"Is that... the Akatsuki member from the intelligence report?"
The object looked weird. A human head was connected to half an arm, with pitch-black tentacles entwining the two together. In the center of the mass of writhing tendrils was a swollen black lump.
Kushina took one look at it and immediately got goosebumps. She instinctively stepped behind Minato, using him as a shield between herself and the grotesque thing.
"That's disgusting," she muttered.
"Yeah," Kenji agreed. "I meet Kakuzu. He is a missing-nin from Taki and one of the Akatsuki's core members."
He placed the sealed remains on the floor.
"Don't be fooled by the fact that he's just a head right now. He's still alive. I just sealed him so he couldn't pull any tricks."
"What?" Minato crouched down immediately. As his fingertip approached the mass, he sensed a faint yet stubborn fluctuation of chakra. The lump of flesh among the tentacles was indeed beating rhythmically.
"What kind of ability is this?" he asked, fascinated and disturbed in equal measure.
"It's the Earth Grudge Fear." Kenji said. "He's extremely strong. He's mastered all five chakra nature transformations and has tremendous combat experience. In pure taijutsu, I'm nowhere near his level."
"Five nature transformations?" Kushina poked her head out from behind Minato. "Like the Third Hokage?"
"Even more extreme than him," Kenji said, shaking his head.
He crossed his arms and leaned against the wall.
"The Third Hokage is renowned as The Professor because he's proficient in techniques from all five elemental natures. But Kakuzu trained each nature transformation to an absolute extreme. He doesn't know many jutsu, but the ones he does know have ridiculous power. When I fought him, the force of his Wind Release techniques was comparable to a miniature Tailed Beast Ball."
Minato's expression grew more serious as he processed that information.
"And because of the Earth Grudge Fear," Kenji continued, "he has lived for a very long time."
He crouched down and poked the spot where Kakuzu's heart was beating with his finger.
"How long?" Minato asked.
"He has been alive for nearly a hundred years. He once fought the First Hokage." Kenji looked up at Minato. "I don't know how he managed to survive a battle with him, but he should be from the same era."
Kushina's eyes went wide. "A hundred years? Are you serious?"
"Yes," Kenji confirmed. He pointed at Kakuzu's beating heart and continued his explanation.
"The Earth Grudge Fear lets him steal an enemy's heart. Not only can he use the stolen hearts to perform ninjutsu of the corresponding elemental nature, but he can also keep living by replacing his own heart with the ones he takes. What's even more unbelievable is that he can possess five hearts at the same time, one for each chakra nature. As long as even one heart remains intact, he won't die. That's why he's still alive in this state right now. The guy is basically a human-shaped monster."
Minato stood up slowly. His expression had turned grim.
"Someone who fought the First Hokage... who has mastered five chakra nature transformations... a Kage-level ninja with five hearts..." He looked at Kenji. "And on top of that there's that 'Madara' who could distort space and phase through attacks."
He shook his head slightly.
"If the Akatsuki has all ninjas at this level, they could easily wipe out an entire nation. This is way worse than I thought."
"Don't forget the guy who stopped me while you were fighting 'Madara' during Kushina's delivery," Kenji reminded him.
"Yeah..." Minato felt a headache coming on just thinking about it.
When Kushina had been giving birth and the masked man had attacked, there had been another Akatsuki member holding Kenji back. That ninja had possessed a terrifying ability to manipulate gravitational forces, pushing and pulling with enough power to reshape the battlefield.
Three confirmed Akatsuki members, and all three were monster-level threats. The organization's power was starting to look apocalyptic.
Minato turned to Kushina.
"Please go call Inoichi and Ibiki. Since Kenji managed to capture a member of the Akatsuki, we need to extract information from Kakuzu as quickly as possible. This takes top priority."
"Got it!" Kushina responded immediately. She was out the door in a flash.
The office fell into brief silence after she left.
Minato stared down at Kakuzu's remains.
"I wonder how strong the Akatsuki's leader is," he murmured. "Even Crow couldn't safely send more intelligence back to Konoha. The last time, he risked exposure just to pass along the information that the Akatsuki were planning to collect the tailed beasts."
Crow was Itachi's codename in Konoha's intelligence network. To prevent his identity from being exposed, even Konoha's Intelligence Division only knew him by that alias. The fewer people who knew Itachi was spying for the village, the safer he would be.
Some time ago, Itachi had transmitted intelligence through a coded message system. But the information had been limited, constrained by the risks of discovery. It had only mentioned that the Akatsuki were planning to collect the tailed beasts, and that the organization's members typically wore black cloaks patterned with red clouds and carried distinctive rings.
That intelligence had ultimately led to discovering Kakuzu's movements, which prompted Kenji to go intercept and capture him.
"The leader has to be stronger than Kakuzu," Kenji said. "You don't command someone like that unless you can back it up with power. Kakuzu isn't the type to follow orders from someone weaker than himself."
Before Minato could respond, the office door opened.
Inoichi and Ibiki walked in.
"Hokage-sama, we heard you were looking for us?" Inoichi said, greeting Minato with a respectful nod.
He had just finished the greeting when his gaze was drawn down to Kakuzu lying on the floor. As the head of Konoha's Intelligence Division, he often investigated information from living minds. Sometimes he even extracted information from the heads of the recently dead, accessing their final memories before they faded.
But a head this bizarre was something he had never seen before.
"Hokage-sama," Ibiki said in greeting. As the captain of Konoha's Torture and Interrogation Force, he had witnessed horrors that would haunt most people for a lifetime.
But even he paused when he saw Kakuzu's remains.
Minato gestured toward Kakuzu's sealed form.
"Inoichi, Ibiki, this is one of the core members of the Akatsuki that Kenji captured. I need you to extract as much information about the organization as possible, as quickly as you can. This matter has the highest priority. Use whatever methods necessary."
"Well..." Inoichi glanced at Kakuzu uncertainly. "If it's only a head, the information we can obtain using the Yamanaka techniques might be incomplete. The brain is intact but the chakra network is severely disrupted, which could affect..."
His expression suddenly changed.
"This person is still alive! There's an active chakra response coming from him!"
His eyes went to the pulsing mass in the center of the tentacles.
"That's right," Kenji confirmed. "The enemy's ability is unusual. He's still alive as long as that heart keeps beating."
He pointed at the pulsing organ.
"That beating mass is his heart. As long as it isn't destroyed, he'll keep living. Be careful during the interrogation. Don't damage it, or he'll die. And if he dies, we lose our chance at getting detailed intelligence about the Akatsuki."