[For beginners, the prerequisite for making explosive tags is that you must have a sample.]
[This is where Kakuzu comes into play.]
[Kakuzu is the one responsible for making money, paying wages, and giving bonuses in the Akatsuki organization. The base of the Akatsuki, Hidden Rain Village, is involved in training ninjas.]
[On one side, there's the organization's expenses, and on the other, maintaining the ninja system in Hidden Rain, which means there is quite a bit of money flowing through Kakuzu's hands.]
[Therefore, Hidden Rain should have the production line for explosive tags.]
[So, it's perfectly reasonable for Konan to use Kakuzu's wages to buy expensive explosive tags for research.]
[Or, Konan could have spent a few days at Hidden Rain's explosive tag production center as a worker, learning the process—this would also make a lot of sense. (laughs)]
[As people from Hidden Rain, every penny they have is closely related to Kakuzu. They are the ultimate workers.]
In the Hokage's office.
Watching the grotesque scene of money being counted on the light screen, Sarutobi Hiruzen's expression gradually became strange.
"Hiruzen, what's wrong?"
Uchiha Kagami, noticing Hiruzen's expression, asked.
"It's nothing, just thinking that no matter the time and place, Kakuzu seems to always have a hard-working life."
Indeed.
In the Akatsuki of the Third Hokage's era, to put it nicely, he was the financial supervisor.
To put it bluntly, he was just a worker.
And in this timeline, in Konoha, Kakuzu was always out of the village, working as a bounty hunter, returning to the village only once a month.
He'd show up in the morning, meet with Senju Tobirama to discuss some matters, and in the afternoon, he'd rush off again, continuing his money-making business.
He was so busy that even when the village resurrected the First Hokage, Kakuzu didn't notice.
"I wonder if Kakuzu, when he sees the First Hokage, will remember the fear he felt when he was controlled by Wood Release during the assassination attempt on the First Hokage back then."
[After talking about the 600 billion explosive tag materials and production process, let's look at the explosion effects of these tags.]
[When these explosive tags explode, it's not just simple white smoke, but they explode with flames.]
[This means that when injecting chakra, it must have some Fire Release chakra mixed in.]
[But Konan's chakra nature doesn't even have Fire Release.]
[Now we have to talk about Nagato.]
[As the wielder of the Rinnegan, Nagato is a member of the Uzumaki clan.]
"Wait, Nagato is from the Uzumaki clan?"
In two different time periods, both Mito and Kushina asked the same question.
However, compared to Mito's confusion, Kushina was a bit more excited.
As is well known, in the time of the Third Hokage, the Uzumaki clan had been wiped out, and the few remaining members scattered across the ninja world probably numbered less than ten.
Excluding Kushina, on the Konoha side, besides Naruto, the only other member of the Uzumaki clan was Karin.
Now that she knew Nagato might be from the Uzumaki clan, Kushina immediately had other thoughts.
"Nagato never told me he was from the Uzumaki clan."
Jiraiya was somewhat stunned.
He had spent three years with Nagato and the other two of the "Akatsuki" trio.
In all that time, he hadn't realized Nagato was from the Uzumaki clan. It was definitely something he should have noticed.
"No, wait. Just having red hair isn't enough to prove Nagato is from the Uzumaki clan, right? Also, if Nagato is from the Uzumaki clan, why would he have the Rinnegan?"
It had to be said, Jiraiya raised a very good question.
Hair color certainly wasn't enough to prove someone was from the Uzumaki clan, after all, there were quite a few people with red hair in the ninja world.
And the appearance of the Rinnegan made him instinctively rule out Nagato being from the Uzumaki clan.
Since the Uzumaki clan had never had a kekkei genkai, let alone the Rinnegan, one of the three great dojutsu.
"Wait, the screen says Nagato is the wielder of the Rinnegan, not the possessor?"
Upon hearing this, everyone looked at the screen with expressions of horror.
To wield something means it might not be yours, but it's in your hands.
To possess something means it is yours and in your hands.
The two meanings are similar, but they are not the same.
Jiraiya: "If Nagato was really from the Uzumaki clan, he wouldn't have the Rinnegan. But now the Rinnegan is in Nagato's possession. Guess who the owner of these eyes is?"
Orochimaru: "Do we really need to guess?"
Everyone: "Hmm, we really don't need to guess."
Naruto: ???
Everyone present, except for one person, wasn't foolish. They could easily guess who the owner of the Rinnegan was by combining the information they already knew.
"Sigh~ If that's true, then everything Nagato experienced was arranged by someone else?"
"That's really tragic, don't you think?"
"Jiraiya, are you going to tell Nagato about this?"
Jiraiya thought for a moment and finally shook his head, saying: "It's not urgent right now. Let's wait until we finish Nagato's review."
[As the Rinnegan's holder, a member of the Uzumaki clan, Fire Style is natural for him, and his chakra amount is enormous. It wouldn't be strange to give his sister-in-law a bit of Fire nature chakra for the seals, right?]
[This could also explain why Nagato is still as thin as a monkey.]
[Most likely, it's because Konan is squeezing him dry.]
[Next, let's widen our thoughts. After Kakuzu's death, Konan became the financial leader.]
[She had indeed said she was preparing for Obito's betrayal, so what reason does she have not to use the organization's assets to buy expensive explosive tags and add them to the 600 billion?]
[Maybe a lot of those explosive tags were bought with Kakuzu's secret stash, getting the top-tier ones worth thousands of ryo.]
[Lastly, how much does Kakuzu have to earn to cover the cost of the explosive tags for Konan?]
[Considering that in Konoha, a bowl of Ichiraku ramen costs less than 100 ryo, and Konan, according to online fans, sells them for at least 300 ryo each.]
[Now we can use the bounty world's currency calculation—Asuma's bounty is worth 35 million ryo.]
[To match that, Kakuzu would have to kill over 500,000 Asuma-level targets to earn enough for the explosive tags.]
[The bodies of the killed Asuma targets, if lined up, could wrap around the Ninja World. (laughs)]
"No, Light Screen, are you being polite? What do you mean I'm a calculation unit in the bounty world?"
Hearing his name mentioned again by the Light Screen, Asuma was initially a bit excited.
But as soon as he saw that he was listed as a calculation unit, he started to complain unhappily.
"Asuma."
Kakashi, who was nearby, patted Asuma's shoulder and comforted him, "Don't be upset, you know? Others want to be a calculation unit but can't even do that! Hahaha!"
"Kakashi, as a chakra measurement unit, what right do you have to laugh at me?"
"Uh…"
Asuma didn't say it, but Kakashi had completely forgotten that he was still a chakra measurement unit.
"How about I give you my bounty unit? That way, you'll be the only one in the ninja world with two calculation units."
Upon hearing this, Kakashi immediately swapped places with his old father, Sakumo, then covered his ears with both hands and said to Asuma, "What? Asuma, what are you saying? I can't hear you!"
*********
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