At the end of December, the weather became even colder, and it felt like winter had fully arrived. Occasionally, small snowflakes would drift onto the road surface.
Most of the animals in the mountain forest also began to hibernate, with fewer traces of activity.
Standing atop a massive tree stump, Kisame peered into the distance with his beady eyes.
All the surrounding trees had been leveled by some sharp tool, revealing a desolate mountain landscape.
The wind blowing in from afar carried a biting coldness that most people could hardly withstand.
Kisame instinctively touched the hilt of the Shark Skin on his back, then jumped down from the stump and walked along a grassy path in a certain direction.
The cavernous, warmth-less cave was the meeting place.
It was also Kisame's destination for this journey.
Upon reflection, he realized it had been several months since he fled the village. Just dealing with the Hidden Mist's pursuit team had worn him out.
On top of that, there was a particularly annoying chatterbox he had to face, which worsened Kisame's mood.
That chatterbox was none other than White Zetsu.
Always coming by to chat and trying to recruit him into some mysterious organization, more persistently than the Hidden Mist pursuit team.
Given this, Kisame resolved to start engaging with the organization they spoke of.
After all, being invited and joining voluntarily are two entirely different concepts.
The former doesn't raise suspicion, while the latter's motives can easily be seen as ulterior.
Therefore, Kisame deduced that the organization was definitely short on manpower.
There was a severe lack of core members.
If they had gathered enough power, they wouldn't be so insistent and desperate for him to join.
White Zetsu's actions just proved this point perfectly.
Consistent with the assumptions made, Kisame thought, while looking at the dark, gloomy cavern entrance, that he would proceed according to the plan.
Entering the cave, he discovered that the space inside was vast.
Upon entering, Kisame found that two people had gotten there before him.
A tall, slender man with pale skin and black hair, possessing snake-like cold, narrow pupils, with purple demonic eye shadows beside them, had a snake crawling out from his sleeve, twirling around his finger.
Beside him stood a hunched figure with a face covered in a black cloth, exposing ugly eyebrows and forehead, emanating a fierce aura.
Both wore black coats adorned with a red cloud pattern, and rings with inscribed characters on their fingers, seemingly waiting for something.
Orochimaru.
Sasori of the Red Sand.
At the sight of these two, Kisame's body instinctively tensed, halting his forward steps.
The latter goes without saying, but the former is one of the Konoha Sannin, a figure famed far and wide.
In terms of reputation alone, the Sannin completely surpasses even the Seven-swords Ninja.
Moreover, from Orochimaru, he perceived a faint sense of danger, akin to being eyed by a sinister snake, making his body react with alertness naturally.
As mentioned in the intelligence, this was indeed a renegade ninja hub.
Not a moment could be taken lightly.
"Oh my, a newcomer? What a rare occurrence,"
Originally expecting a simple gathering, Orochimaru was surprised to see a stranger ninja arrive, eyebrows raised, followed by a soft chuckle that gave an unsettling feeling.
Upon hearing Orochimaru's remark, Sasori raised his head, looking at Kisame who arrived at the scene, and after a long glance he said:
"A member of the Seven-swords Ninja, huh? Seems like quite an interesting newcomer."
He then fell silent, lacking the desire for much conversation.
Recognizing the power, but in terms of appearance, he deemed the newcomer unfit to become his 'puppet.'
Too ugly.
Truly unsuitable to exist as part of his collection.
"That's the case, this is the new companion about to join us,"
The humanoid fusion of White Zetsu and Black Zetsu emerged from the ground, standing next to Kisame, addressing Orochimaru and Sasori.
Black Zetsu was the one speaking.
Then White Zetsu laughed, saying, "Though it took some effort, we managed to succeed."
"Is that so? I have no issues. After all, having new members is a beneficial thing. Sasori, what do you think?"
Orochimaru chuckled, turning his gaze to Sasori.
Sasori scoffed, stating, "You can decide these things yourselves. Anyway, the weak will soon get eliminated."
"Sasori, saying that might put pressure on Kisame. Well, Kisame, no need to worry too much. Members in the organization are quite friendly."
White Zetsu laughed carelessly.
Friendly? Kisame found White Zetsu's assessment speechless.
Here, all are famous S-rank renegade ninjas, and if that counts as friendly, it's certainly a ridiculous evaluation.
Just as Kisame was about to speak, not far from them, rainbow-colored ripples suddenly emerged, and these ripples grew more intense, forming humanoid shapes.
Three rainbow-shaded ripples appeared, with three other individuals joining in.
Unlike Orochimaru and Sasori, they did not physically arrive but used a projection-like technique to project a clone here.
The newly appeared three were two men and one woman.
Even though they were projections, Kisame could still roughly see the appearances of these three.