Chapter 46: Meeting the Raikage and Deal

Chapter 46: Meeting the Raikage and Deal

________ POV Narration ________

From the moment Ken started following the Anbu at a slower pace, one of the members ran ahead and informed the Raikage of the situation directly.

The Raikage was a rather tall man, standing at 2,05 meters, or 6.73 ft. A dark-skinned man with an extremely muscular and well-defined build, with only one large scar visible on his chest.

He had long white hair that flowed down his back, coupled with a trimmed white beard.

He wore a pair of black sandals dark blue sweatpants, along with a single-strap white shinobi jacket with no other clothing underneath and a black forehead protector that he wore like a bandana.

He didn't really bother diversifying his wardrobe.

A didn't quite know what to expect when hearing that he was receiving a surprise guest with more information regarding the ongoing issue they were facing with disappearing villagers.

The identity of the guest was actually the interesting part for him.

'The Red Dot...'

A had tried to contact him plenty of times, only to be ignored or refused by Ken time and time again.

The Raikage thankfully didn't have anything else important to do, but even if he had, he would've scrapped all plans.

Recruiting Ken was far more important to the Raikage than anything else.

A was even willing to make him, an outsider, the Anbu Captain, even give him a position in the council as long as he was willing to join the Cloud Village.

The Raikage really couldn't care less if others in the council were against that choice, he knew better than anyone how much a powerful shinobi could benefit their village.

'Even if he's here on different matters, I'll try to steer the subject in that direction eventually...'

Just as the Raikage was having these thoughts, the door to his office opened up, and the masked assassin walked in alone, the Anbu that had guided him remaining outside.

"Lord Raikage... A pleasure to finally meet someone of your stature..." Ken spoke as he tilted his head and raised a hand, aiming to shake the Kage's own.

A simply smiled when seeing that gesture. He hadn't expected Ken to be that polite towards him, at least not after recent reports regarding his actions, but it was a welcomed surprise.

"I should be saying that, Red Dot! I've been trying to reach you for quite some time now..." The Raikage accepted the handshake, his large fingers wrapping around Ken's entire hand.

Ken couldn't help but be a bit impressed when feeling the strength of the Raikage's grip, he rarely met people physically stronger than him after all...

"Apologies for being a bit harder to get in contact with. You must understand that I normally refrain from interacting much with any of the hidden villages..." Ken smiled a bit under his mask as he spoke, retracting his hand in the process.

"I did notice that... But what changed now?" A narrowed his eyes a bit as he asked the most important question of their meeting...

'What made the Red Dot, a notoriously neutral figure, get in touch with me?'

"Well, now I have already started an independent organization in the Land of Iron, so I don't just act for myself, but I represent an entity..." Ken simply shrugged as he used his organization as a sort of shield.

The Raikage was immediately surprised to hear that Ken had gone a 'different route'.

He, and all of the other Kage, had been just waiting for the Red Dot to join a village or a Land by himself at that point.

But it seemed his ambitions were a bit larger than they had all expected... A could respect that.

But it wasn't like the organization could be ignored as something insignificant either.

Ken already proved to be able to wipe out a smaller Hidden Village just by himself, any organization that he joined, let alone created, would be put on the map as a significant threat to the authority of the other 5 Hidden Villages...

"An organization huh... That raises quite a few more questions... What are your intentions? Will they clash with the already existing forces in the Elemental Nations?" Even though A could respect a man's ambition, that didn't mean he wouldn't care more about the interests of his village.

The appearance of a 6th power to contend with the 5 great villages was not good news, no matter the angle one looked at it. After all, they only had so many resources to fight over...

"My group will be mainly a brotherhood of assassins and bounty hunters... We don't plan to get involved with the hidden villages needlessly, and we especially don't want to join your wars..."

Ken was quick to lessen A's worries, assuring him that the organization would be acting much like the Blind Assassin when it came to involvement with the Shinobi World.

"... I'll take your word on it for now. Don't make me regret this." A said as he crossed his arms and gave Ken a rather hostile look.

"Don't worry... Today's matters are a bit more concerning, however..." Ken was quick to change the subject slowly walking over to the Raikage's desk and leaning on it.

"Concerning? I guess you can call it that. I did learn quite a bit from this small interaction already..." The Raikage slowly walked over and sat down on his chair.

"What we talked about till now will feel trivial real soon, I assure you of that..." Ken smiled deviously under his mask as he then quickly started retelling the tale of the Cult of Jashin, at least what he was able to find.

A cult of madmen worshipping some strange god that they claimed granted them powers. They seemed to be masterful users of JuJutsu and their experiments had gone so far as to grant a few of them immortality...

He made sure to keep the fact that the Dark Brotherhood was contracted by villagers to hunt them down out of the picture. Making it look like it was less of a priority for Ken and his organization to get rid of the cult.

The Blind Assassin talked about encountering and killing an entire branch of that cult somewhere in the Land of Hot Water while out on a journey. He told him how they had been kidnapping others and using them as sacrifices.

"I was asking about the Cult... As I'd like to offer the services of my organization to the Land of Lightning.

Even though we are still a small organization, we still have around 40 capable men that you can hire... All are Chunin level and above."

A immediately raised an eyebrow when hearing that. It wasn't often that a new organization started off with that many powerful shinobi after all...

"... Normally you'd have to go through the Daimy if you wanted to get hired by the Land of Lightning... A hidden village normally doesn't hire the services of other organizations for such matters."

The Raikage didn't seem to be all that willing at first, which was what Ken had expected anyway.

"That I understand, your village is full of capable and able-bodied shinobi, you normally wouldn't need to hire outsiders for such a job...

However the situation is a bit different, we know how to fight this cult the best, so hiring us might lead to fewer casualties on your end as well..."

The Blind Swordsman was quick to start attempting to convince A that hiring the Dark Brotherhood was truly his best option.

Unfortunately, the Raikage wasn't looking all that impressed.

"You did already give us plenty of useful information in combating this cult, I doubt our casualties will be that major..." A rubbed his chin a bit looking thoughtful for a second before suddenly smiling as if he had just gotten an idea.

"Say, our village would certainly be willing to hire you... Just you." A's smile seemed to become wider and wider by the second, as excitement gripped at his mind.

'This is a good chance... Get him to see what cooperating with us feels like... Asking him to join us later will come much easier...'

Even if Ken was now the leader of his own organization, that didn't mean he wasn't recruitable anymore in A's eyes.

After all, the organization Ken had created was still new, so it could just as easily be disbanded or swallowed up by the Cloud Village...

"... My direct services don't come cheap. Even if we're on friendly terms." Ken crossed his arms and pretended to sigh in disappointment.

'Such a shame... It seems that my organization will have to not spend any resources to get rid of the Cult after all...'

The Blind Swordsman had been aiming to receive such a proposal since the beginning.

After all, he was well aware that the Raikage would never hire his organization, especially since it had plenty of unknown shinobi.

A simply couldn't trust them, as the Dark Brotherhood didn't have much renown tied to its name.

But Ken felt that simply providing his personal assistance directly was a bit inelegant. It also made it harder to negotiate a good price. Hence, the Blind Assassin steered the conversation in such a way.

Maybe a better diplomat would have seen through Ken's scheme if they had enough knowledge of his character... But A was neither the greatest of diplomats nor did he truly know Ken.

"Hah! I'd be willing to spare no expenses if it means hiring the best in the business! With the two of us there, there's really no need for any other shinobi anyway." The Raikage had taken the bait in his mouth instantly, chewing and swallowing without any hesitation.

"Hmm... Well, if that's the case then I'll go easy on you... 500,000,000 Ry, and we'll see this through to the end, together."

A's smile seemed to become a bit strained when hearing that. 500 million Ry... It wasn't a small sum, not by any means.

The regular bounty for an S-rank Shinobi was in the 20-50 million range, depending on their strength and the severity of their crimes.

Ken's entire bounty-hunting trip had barely made him around 200 million Ry, and he had only stolen around 600 million from the Grass village, which was rather poor in comparison to the Land of Lighting...

'But 500 million is not a small sum, even for the Land of Lightning... He'll likely talk me down a lot from this position, so it's good that I started high...'

However, the world, and the Raikage himself, had different plans.

"Hmmm... Fine! 500 million it is." To Ken's immense shock, A agreed almost instantly after a bit of consideration...

The Raikage even smiled as he extended his hand, hoping to shake Ken's hand and close the deal verbally first.

His logic for this rather sudden decision?

'Well, I wouldn't sell my services for anything less than 500 million!'

Ken was technically a person at the level of a Kage, now A actually had the opportunity to judge his skills personally.

There was also the fact that A wanted to get in Ken's good graces and get him to join the Cloud Village. Entering a heated debate and negotiating prices with him like a shrewd merchant wasn't going to help him reach that goal.

"That's... Well then. I'm glad we could come to an agreement."

Ken instantly shook the Raikage's hand, not wasting any time, fearing that the man would reconsider his decision.

And so the two of them shook hands and sealed the deal, with Ken managing to double the reserves of his organization in a single move.

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Hope you liked the chapter! Took me a bit to write since I had a relatively busy day ;)

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