Freelancer in the Ninja World

Senshi understood that Pain's philosophy was to cultivate an "elite route." Essentially, Akatsuki's core was formed of high-caliber S-rank missing-nin from the major villages. But Senshi rephrased his own viewpoint and presented it:

"Lord Pain, you're missing an angle here.

Akatsuki's next goal is to capture Tailed Beasts and craft them into a weapon. The five great shinobi villages each have one, whereas the smaller villages do not. As the five major powers expand, they put tremendous pressure on the smaller villages, undercutting their survival and growth."

"If that's the case, why not subjugate or ally with these smaller villages, banding together against the big five? Are we seriously planning to pit only our meager handful of core members against the five great nations?"

Hearing that, Pain fell momentarily silent. He had never considered such a strategy. But "the enemy of my enemy is my friend." From that angle, there were indeed plenty of potential allies for Akatsuki and the Amegakure among smaller shinobi villages.

At present, Akatsuki's recruiting strategy was to seek out elite S-rank missing-nin—Kakuzu, Sasori, Orochimaru, Kisame, Uchiha Itachi, and Zabuza before he left, among others. Each possessed remarkable abilities, yet for one reason or another had become unwelcome in their home villages. Aside from these core elites, Akatsuki had only a small handful of low-level outside members, and even that number was sparse.

Originally, Nagato's (Pain's) plan was indeed to keep following the elite path—bringing in powerful missing-nin from various villages. Yet Senshi's words were perfectly valid: the smaller villages had no chance to compete with the five major ones, and thus inevitably harbored grudges against them. Subjugating or allying with some smaller villages to resist the great powers was a realistic plan.

While Pain mulled this over, Senshi too was inwardly criticizing Akatsuki's structure:

"Because the organization's core members are all top-tier missing-nin, on paper it looks impressive—everyone is S-rank. But, in reality, there aren't that many of them; you can count them on two hands."

"As soon as a slightly challenging mission comes up, it's typically the same small group being dispatched. If we're short on personnel, Nagato himself ends up controlling the Six Paths of Pain to capture people."

"This reveals two big problems: First, the top-level fighting force is inadequate. Second, there's zero system in place for developing new talent."

Nagato was aware, in part, of these weaknesses. But until now, if his subordinates could do the job, they did; if not, he'd deploy Pain. However, Senshi's suggestion opened a new line of thinking: by using this approach, Akatsuki could rally more strength and achieve their goals faster.

Pain was still weighing the pros and cons when Senshi spoke again:

"Right now, the Amegakure isn't short on work requests. More clients than ever are coming here to commission shinobi. Thanks to Kakuzu and me, I expect even more will come in the future.

I've heard that some employers who live far from here have started visiting specifically because of our growing reputation in the black market. As that reputation continues to spread, the number of new clients will only rise."

"If we subjugate or ally with Kusagakure, there's a lot to be gained. We can harness the Kusa ninja's capacity for learning and researching jutsu to work for us. Not to mention, we'd bring in extra revenue. And if we expand our pool of mid- and low-level ninja, some might develop into remarkable talents. We could assign them moderately difficult missions, leaving only top-priority work to our core members.

In short, there's so much more we can do in this direction, all of which would benefit the organization's future."

Hearing him out, many Akatsuki members around the high tower stared at Senshi in astonishment. Until now, they only knew him as a "mission lunatic." But it turned out he also had a certain knack for planning and strategy. For a fleeting moment, some wondered if Senshi might serve as a "tactician" for Akatsuki—akin to how the Nara Clan functioned in the Konoha. Then, almost immediately, they dismissed the idea: given a choice between staying at base to advise or going out on missions, Senshi would surely rush out to do more jobs.

Exchanging looks, Pain and Konan silently admitted that Senshi had a solid point. He himself felt somewhat pleased. Of course, Senshi was a time-traveler in disguise—his broader perspective came from a lifetime of different knowledge. The notion was essentially "forming alliances to confront a common enemy," and the smaller villages, squeezed by the big five, could be potential allies or vassals.

Finally, Pain reached his decision. He turned to Senshi and spoke in a serious tone:

"Your suggestion is good. I'll adopt your highest-level plan—subjugate Kusagakure."

Hearing this, Senshi's eyes lit up. He rubbed his hands together, then turned to Pain:

"Gotta raise my fee!"

Pain: "???"

Senshi shrugged, looking sheepish but speaking bluntly:

"Different tasks come at different prices.

If you want me to deliver a more comprehensive 'service,' I need extra compensation. After all, if you want the horse to run, you gotta feed it, right?"

Confronted with such a weirdo, Pain could only compromise or else assign the mission to someone else. But none of the other members were ideal for this job, and if it succeeded, Akatsuki stood to gain a lot. So, after some deliberation, Pain relented:

"Fine—ten million ryō for you and Kakuzu to bring Kusa under our control."

Senshi shook his head:

"Lord Pain, Kusagakure's situation is complicated."

"Inside the village, there are two rival factions, 'Kusa no Jitsu' (Grass Fruit) and 'Kusa no Hana' (Grass Flower). They're locked in intense in-fighting and are extremely xenophobic, so they won't be easy to handle."

"Plus, their ninja specialize in studying and adopting jutsu from other places; you might see techniques from large, mid-sized, and minor villages alike. And rumor says there are powerful ninja tools, perhaps even relics from the Sage of Six Paths, in Kusagakure."

Senshi was still expanding on the difficulty of the task when Pain cut him off:

"I get it. Just get to the point."

Senshi grinned, rubbing his fingers together:

"To put it simply, seizing Kusagakure costs more. I only ask you raise it to Master Chiriku's level."

The mention of "Master Chiriku's level" had Pain and the others reflexively twitching. From spending so much time with Kakuzu, Senshi had clearly picked up some bad habits—like citing bounty postings as references for a person's "value." This was rude, but in a mercenary's eyes, so it went.

Pain glanced at Kakuzu, who was more familiar with bounty listings:

"What's Chiriku's bounty?"

Kakuzu answered without hesitation:

"Thirty-six million ryō."

He was a walking compendium of black-market data, especially on big bounties. Before Senshi joined, Kakuzu had spent most of his days plotting how to eliminate these high-bounty targets. Now that he was drowning in work under Senshi, he just wanted some respite.

Hearing the number, Pain wondered if they should try to take out Chiriku now, just to offset the huge expense.

~~~

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