Chapter 299: Underground Money Changer
After leaving the village, Nara Baika took out two sets of clothes and masks.
“We need to disguise ourselves as noble retainers of the Land of Fire, we can’t wear Konoha’s vests.”
While changing clothes, Nara Baika kept stealing glances at the fox, wondering who the fox really was, but unfortunately the fox moved too quickly and she saw nothing.
A certain town in the western part of the Land of Fire.
Nara Baika and Yoru, clad in the long robes commonly worn by servants in noble mansions, and wearing masks, entered an abandoned house on the outskirts of the town.
Nara Baika somehow obtained information that this house concealed an Underground Exchange.
The tattered cobwebs were extremely lifelike, as if no one had been there for a long time.
There was a thick layer of dust on the ground, and stepping on it stirred up a lot of it.
Upon reaching the staircase, Nara Baika headed towards the basement.
Entering the dark basement, Nara Baika tapped on the wall with a special rhythm.
A door in the basement opened, revealing light first.
The two entered that room.
A long counter separated the room, and behind the counter was an old man, with a wall full of refrigerated cabinets for storing corpses behind him.
In front of the counter, four guards stood at their respective corners.
Yoru observed the old man. The old man’s strength was not weak, at least at the level of a Special Jonin.
This person was considered a master among rogue ninjas.
As for the four guards, they were roughly at the Chunin level.
Nara Baika said, “I’m here to place a commission.”
The old man slightly opened his eyes, took out a booklet, and had Nara Baika register.
Nara Baika wrote down the name of a Sand Ninja Jonin on the booklet, with a bounty of 16 million Ryo.
She unsealed three boxes, which contained 16 million Ryo in cash.
The old man carefully examined the bundles of money and said, “Kiiroinu, a Sand Ninja Jonin. His previous bounty was 11 million Ryo. It seems his strength has grown.
However, is this your first time at the Underground Exchange?”
Nara Baika heard this and nodded, not knowing where she had gone wrong.
The old man said, “For bounty missions, you also need to pay a 20% handling fee, which is an additional 3.2 million Ryo.”
Nara Baika was stunned. She thought she had prepared enough and had accurately found the contact information for the Underground Exchange.
She didn’t expect the information to still not be detailed enough.
Nara Baika summoned another money box and counted out 3.2 million Ryo.
“Mr. Kinpao, my companion and I serve the nobles of the Land of Rivers, and we are also bounty hunters. Please show us the bounty manual.”
The old man named Kinpao was taken aback. It had been a long time since anyone had called him by name.
In a place like the Underground Exchange, names were not important; people only needed to know he was the person in charge.
Nara Baika deliberately called out Kinpao’s name. Being able to investigate his name was a display of her strength.
Kinpao said, “Here is the bounty manual.”
Nara Baika took a booklet and quickly browsed through it.
Yoru glanced at it from behind, wanting to know if he was on the bounty list.
Nara Baika said, “Why are there no bounties for nobles of the Land of Fire and Konoha ninja?”
Kinpao said, “This is the Land of Fire, so of course there are no nobles of the Land of Fire or Konoha ninja. If you want to know the bounty amount for Konoha ninja, you can go to other countries.”
This was one of the self-preservation methods of the Underground Exchange.
They did not do business related to the Land of Fire within the Land of Fire, and it was the same in other countries.
Yoru remembered that in the original story, Kakuzu had obtained the bounty for Jirobo at the Underground Exchange in the Land of Fire and had killed Sarutobi Asuma.
It seemed that after more than twenty years, Konoha had weakened considerably, and the Underground Exchange was no longer involved.
Nara Baika nodded, memorized a few names, and turned to leave.
Outside the exchange, the two walked away.
Nara Baika said, “Fox, we need to follow these people and see where they go and who they contact.
The Underground Exchange is somewhat mysterious; even the village doesn’t know who is behind them.
16 million Ryo is a huge sum, Kinpao couldn’t possibly keep it all himself, he might be giving it to his superior.”
Yoru said, “Following them is fine, but not with us.”
“Huh?” Nara Baika asked, “What do you mean?”
“I’ll follow them. I specialize in Earth Release, and it’s hard for them to detect me if I use Earth Release to track them. It would be different with you,” Yoru said.
“Be careful yourself, and don’t wander off before I come back.”
Nara Baika was very unhappy, but she understood that she was a Jonin, and the fox was also a Jonin, but her strength was far from the fox’s.
Nara Baika had heard the fox’s name several times from the Jonin squad.
The missions completed by the fox involved either Jinchuriki or Uchiha Madara.
In such missions, Nara Baika could at most contribute strategies and write collection reports after the mission. As for fighting, she didn’t have the strength for it.
This was the greatest sorrow of the Nara clan.
Even though they had countless tactics in their minds, without strength, all tactics were just talk; they had to wait for the cooperation of others.
“I will wait here.”
Seeing Nara Baika being so understanding, Yoru formed hand seals and used the Earth Style: Fish in Water Reflection Jutsu to infiltrate underground.
Once deep underground, he immediately switched to the Mayfly Technique and disappeared.
Nara Baika tried to track the fox’s movements, but the fox’s strength was too great, and he had vanished without a trace.
When she was investigating the Puppet Material Yellow Hardwood in the Land of Wind, she still felt like an important support in battle.
Now she didn’t even have a chance to intervene.
Yoru returned to the Underground Exchange.
Kinpao was still leaning on his chair, feigning sleep, and the four guards remained motionless.
None of them knew that beneath the surface of the ordinary counter, a face was facing the ground.
Scouting with the Mayfly Technique was too peculiar.
He blended perfectly with the wooden counter, as if he were part of it.
In the battle between Uchiha Itachi and Sasuke, neither of them noticed Zetsu beside them.
Several hours later, the door of a cold cabinet suddenly opened.
Yoru slightly tilted his head, revealing more of his head from under the counter.
Did he come back to life? How did the freezer open?
Kinpao crawled into the cold cabinet.
Yoru quickly sneaked closer to the cold cabinet, wanting to infiltrate it. The cold cabinet was made of iron, not organic matter, so he was unsuccessful.
He heard a muffled sound coming from inside the cold cabinet.
“Lord, someone has posted a new bounty…”
Yoru was astonished. This was actually a remote communication system?
It wasn’t a ninja’s technique, but some kind of new technology.
Kinpao was very cautious inside. Apart from reporting, he said nothing else.
Yoru didn’t know who the “Lord” he mentioned was.
On second thought, there were electric lights and electrical appliances in the ninja world. Perhaps there was a scientific genius in the ninja world who invented remote communication methods, which was not impossible.
After a few words, Kinpao left the cold cabinet and returned to sit behind the counter, leaning on his chair and feigning sleep.
Time passed to the latter half of the night. Kinpao and two guards left, leaving only two guards to watch the place.
It seemed the guards were rotating shifts to protect the area.
An hour after Kinpao left, Yoru began his move.
The eyes of the two guards suddenly widened, and they were shocked to find themselves unable to move.
Sealing Runes spread all over their bodies, locking their jaws. In their tense terror, they let out strange gurgling sounds from the depths of their throats.
Yoru pulled open the cold cabinet where Kinpao had lain and crawled inside.
As soon as he lay down, Yoru heard a beeping sound.
It was indeed some kind of strange technological equipment.
Yoru fumbled around, trying to activate the equipment.
Wait… this beeping sound, doesn’t it sound a bit like a timer on a bomb counting down?
As soon as he had this thought, the equipment activated its self-destruct program and exploded instantly.
After the explosion, Yoru stealthily escaped underground in a disheveled state.
In the latter half of the night, the fox instantly appeared, startling Nara Baika.
Not only was the fox’s Earth Release powerful, but his Body Flicker Technique was also so potent.
The fox instantly appeared behind her, and she only realized it afterward. This was a situation she had encountered when she was a Chunin and an elite Jonin appeared.
The fox’s hood was torn, as if he had been hit by a close-range explosion.
If his strength was so great, why would this happen?
Nara Baika glanced and said, “Encountered a cylindrical explosion? The explosion was so uniform? Did you encounter exploding tags plastered all over the cave walls in a cave?”
As expected of Nara Baika, her analysis was close to the truth.
“It was a cylindrical explosion,” Yoru said.
“Kinpao of the Underground Exchange hid the communication device in the cold cabinet.
After Kinpao left, I infiltrated the cold cabinet. The cold cabinet recognized that I was not Kinpao and exploded.
However, I also managed to retrieve some key components from inside the cold cabinet.”
Yoru took out a circuit board and handed it to Nara Baika.
The worldview of the ninja world was so chaotic, it even had circuit boards.
Nara Baika took the intricate circuit board and said,
“Genius ninja and bloodline ninja are all concentrated in the various ninja villages. No matter how much the Daimyo of various countries secretly cultivate rogue ninja or death warriors, they cannot compare to the great ninja villages.
Therefore, the Daimyo of various countries have made efforts in other aspects for a long time.
For example, the Electromagnetic Craftsman Guild of the Land of Lightning and the Power Craftsman Guild of the Land of Fire have developed many strange but exceptionally useful inventions.
If I’m not mistaken, this is a circuit board invented by the Electromagnetic Craftsman Guild of the Land of Lightning.”
Yoru was stunned. The names were the same as in his previous life?
Yoru said, “In other words, the Daimyo of various countries are behind the Underground Exchange?
The Daimyo of various countries have a need for bounty ninja. The Five Great Nations and the smaller countries all have Underground Exchanges.
The Underground Exchange in the Land of Fire does not post bounties for nobles and ninja of the Land of Fire. Other major countries should be similar.
This special organization is cautiously serving the Daimyo?”
Nara Baika nodded and said,
“When ninja carry out missions, they might destroy a village or a dam.
For nobles and civilians, weak ninja are man-made disasters, and powerful ninja are natural calamities.
The Daimyo harbor resentment but dare not express it openly.
They cannot deal with the ninja from the large villages, but they can deal with rogue ninja with money. This was also the original intention of the Underground Exchange.
I wonder if the Underground Exchange will become a colossus in the future.”
Yoru said, “Whether the Underground Exchange becomes a colossus depends on the strength of the bounty ninja.
If there were bounty ninja with Kage-level strength who were also greedy for money, all the Jonin of the ninja villages would tremble.”
He was talking about Kakuzu.
If the Underground Exchange could support three characters like Kakuzu, ninja leaving the villages would have to be extremely cautious.
Nara Baika said, “Fox, the investigation of the Underground Exchange ends here.
We have an opportunity to cooperate with the Underground Exchange.
What’s important now is to complete the bounty assassination as quickly as possible and exchange our money at the Underground Exchange.”
“Exchange our money?” Yoru said.
“You mean we spend 16 million Ryo to put a bounty on the Sand Ninja Jonin Kiiroinu, then kill Kiiroinu ourselves, and then exchange our own money?
The handling fee for the Underground Exchange is 20%, which is 3.2 million Ryo.
I worked hard to kill the person, and in the end, I spent an extra 3.2 million Ryo just to avoid equivalent retaliation from the Hidden Sand Village?”
“Yes, you understood correctly,” Nara Baika said.
“We’d better act fast. If Kiiroinu is killed by another bounty hunter, we won’t just lose 3.2 million Ryo, but 19.2 million Ryo.”
“Then we really need to hurry.”
Nara Baika and Yoru set off, heading towards the Land of Wind.
After entering the Land of Wind, Yoru summoned a scroll.
“Jonin Baika, please step aside. This is an Anbu secret.”
Nara Baika rolled her eyes at the fox and said,
“I am the first assistant to Jonin Squad Leader Lord Shikaku, and I know most of the village’s secrets.
What you’re taking out is a spy communication scroll transferred from Root to Anbu, isn’t it?”
Nara Baika knew about things that Anbu considered secret.
Yoru said, “I know you know, but please show some respect to Anbu. This is a secret that many spies risked their lives to protect.
This mission is special; even with my identity, I can only use this communication scroll once temporarily.
Please turn around, or walk further away.”
Nara Baika had no choice but to turn around.
Yoru opened the scroll, took out a medicine bottle, and smeared the blood from the bottle onto the scroll.
This was not Yoru’s blood; it was the blood of Gorilla.
Kiiroinu’s new assistant, Gorilla, was responsible for the liaison of the spy network.
After forming hand seals, Yoru used the blood sample from Gorilla to summon two ninja hawks.
These well-trained ninja hawks were a means for spies to quickly exchange information.
The ninja hawks flew away quickly.
One ninja hawk, upon reaching an oasis, spotted a hidden code within the oasis.
This ninja hawk began to circle at a distance from the oasis.
Inside the oasis, a Sand Ninja noticed the ninja hawk.
He was a Konoha spy lurking in the Hidden Sand Village.
Through the circling of the ninja hawk, he continuously collected codes. Up, down, left, and right represented different signals.
He then translated the codes into commands.
Several days later, the spy buried a scroll under a cactus, leaving a hidden mark that the ninja hawk could recognize.
Ninja hawks have extremely sharp eyesight, able to see a mouse’s eye on the ground from thousands of meters in the sky, so recognizing codes was not a problem. It picked up the small scroll.
Yoru obtained the scroll, which stated that Kiiroinu, a Sand Ninja Jonin, was on a mission in Kyoto of the Land of Wind and might return to the Hidden Sand Village soon.
Yoru and Nara Baika arrived outside Kyoto of the Land of Wind and lay in ambush for Kiiroinu.
Yoru gazed at Kyoto of the Land of Wind from afar.
It was a capital city filled with adobe buildings. Most adobe buildings were one or two stories high. The residences of nobles used wood and were built up to three or four stories.
After waiting for a few days, a hint of anxiety appeared in Nara Baika’s eyes.
If her plan caused the village to lose 19.2 million Ryo, it would be terrible.
Yoru noticed Nara Baika’s anxiety and said,
“The Daimyo of various countries are too wealthy, and the value of ninja heads has inflated severely.
How could a Sand Ninja Jonin be worth 16 million Ryo? He might not even earn that much in his lifetime.”
Nara Baika, however, said, “Kiiroinu, the Sand Ninja Jonin, is a renowned Puppet Master of the Hidden Sand Village and likely has the strength of an Elite Jonin.”
“Puppet Master? And an Elite Jonin?”
Yoru thought to himself, this is like choosing dishes from a menu, completely to my taste.
At night, Kiiroinu, with three Genin, completed his mission and left Kyoto of the Land of Wind.
Like Konoha Village, all major ninja villages require all Jonin to serve as assigned Jonin for the Ninja Academy, to help the village recover its vitality as soon as possible.
The temperature difference between day and night in the desert is very large.
The temperature was only four or five degrees. Kiiroinu reached out to feel the wind; it was a bit cold tonight.
