Chapter 302: I’m Terrifyingly Strong
Passing through the Land of Rain, Yoru felt an itch in his heart.
He felt himself to be terrifyingly strong and really wanted Yuka to witness his rhythm and Kakuzu that were approaching mastery.
Unfortunately, the person by his side was Nara Baika, so he endured it, not wanting to expose himself in front of Nara Baika.
After entering the Land of Earth, Nara Baika found an underground exchange.
In an abandoned sheep pen in the plateau mountainous terrain, the ground was covered in sheep dung balls.
The two changed their outfits and entered the sheep pen.
After knocking on the wall with a special method, a large chunk of soil fell from the wall, revealing a cave.
Entering the cave, Yoru saw a basement similar to the underground exchange in the Land of Fire.
A long counter divided the basement into a front area and a back area.
At each of the four corners of the front area stood a guard.
The counter clerk was a middle-aged man who, at a rough glance, had considerable strength—not a special jonin, but a jonin.
Nara Baika said, “We’re here to collect the reward.”
Yoru unwrapped the bandages from the corpse, revealing Tada’s body.
The person in charge inspected the corpse and then took out a manual for careful comparison.
He even flipped the corpse’s wrist, checking the knife scar on the back of the corpse’s hand.
The underground exchange was very strong; they even knew about the knife scar on the back of Tada’s hand.
Yoru thought to himself, perhaps it was nobles from the Land of Wind who sent the information to the underground exchange.
How interesting—one village and one country weren’t as harmonious as they appeared on the surface.
When a ninja village got angry, they would assassinate nobles.
When nobles got angry, they would put bounties on ninjas.
Both sides maintained surface-level cooperation while secretly thinking the other was going too far.
The person in charge said, “Not bad, it’s indeed the Sand Ninja jonin Tada, a powerful puppet master. Reward of 16 million ryo—I’ll get your bounty for you.”
He took out a money box from under the counter and said, “Here’s 5 million ryo. Next, you’ll need to go to two more places to get the remaining money.”
Nara Baika asked, “Why not just give me all the bounty directly?”
The person in charge said, “Bounty ninja have robbed underground exchanges before. To avoid similar incidents, no single underground exchange keeps too much money.
So, a bit of extra effort—go to two more places.”
The current underground exchanges were quite cautious; twenty-odd years later, Kakuzu took all of Gesshūki’s bounties in one go.
The two left the underground exchange.
Nara Baika waved at the air in front of her: “Smells like sheep dung, really unpleasant.”
She opened a small slip of paper and said, “The next location is a certain town in the Land of Waterfalls; the one after that is Kyoto of the Land of Grass.
16 million ryo—a huge sum. Let’s make the trip.”
Yoru said, “Let’s find an inn to rest first. We’ve traveled so far; I’m tired.”
Nara Baika leaned in: “Which position’s technique do you still want to know?”
“Front and back, I’ve completely mastered. I don’t know if there’s any special Kakuzu for the side?”
They had tried many positions along the way and gained much knowledge, but Yoru consciously used the contraceptive ninjutsu scroll.
He didn’t want Nara Baika to get pregnant, fearing she might notice something.
In a certain counter in a town in the Land of Waterfalls, they got the second money box.
Yoru said to Nara Baika, “The underground exchange has so many underlings; they have people everywhere.
For the last money box in the Land of Grass, I’ll go ahead and lie in wait to see who drops it off.”
Among the tents in Kyoto of the Land of Grass, Yoru arrived early at the location indicated on the paper slip.
Hm?
He saw a child place a money box under a piece of sheepskin.
After the child left, Yoru followed.
Taking advantage of no one noticing, he grabbed the child and took him into an empty tent.
Using genjutsu to control the child who had no chakra, he obtained a piece of information.
A young man had given the child 50 ryo to place the box under a certain piece of sheepskin.
The child had happily agreed.
As for information on that young man, the child didn’t know.
After releasing the genjutsu on the child, Yoru left empty-handed.
Nara Baika got the final money box and said:
“Fox, no need to dwell on the underground exchange’s intelligence.
The underground exchange is an organization established by the daimyo of various countries, originally intended to use money to deal with rogue ninja who offended them.
But this organization has grown increasingly massive, and now the major ninja villages are also using it.
The details of the underground exchange aren’t important; as long as it can be used for our Konoha, that’s fine.”
The related missions for the underground exchange were led by Nara Shikaku; if they said the details weren’t important, then they weren’t.
—
The full moon was like a silver plate.
This trip from Konoha had gone through the Land of Rivers, Land of Wind, Land of Rain, Land of Waterfalls, Land of Grass, and back to the Land of Fire.
He had been rushing under this moonlight.
On the full moon night, in a certain town in the Land of Fire, Nara Baika breathlessly dismounted from the fox, collapsing softly to the side.
Her eyes dazed as she stared into the fox’s eyes:
“After returning to the village, you’ll be stationed at the Anbu Base, and our chances to meet will be few.
I’ve taught you all my final techniques; I have no regrets left.”
Yoru put his arm around Nara Baika’s shoulders and said:
“If I have no missions, I’ll come find you too.
Think again—is there any little technique you haven’t told me?
If you can’t think of any now, think slowly later. I’ll come discuss the secrets of Kakuzu and frequency with you from time to time.”
Nara Baika blushed: “My experience isn’t that extensive either; it’s just from personal experience, so I know about the Kakuzu!”
“We’re ninjas—ninjas who could die any day without warning. I don’t have those ridiculous noble ideas about chastity; no need to say more.”
After returning to Konoha Village, Nara Baika and Yoru went to turn in the mission.
In the Hokage’s Office, Nara Shikaku said to the Third Hokage:
“Hokage, this time Baika and the fox made a circuit, opening up the channel to use underground exchange bounties on enemy village ninjas.
Assassination and bounties can be mixed in.
After Anbu kills a few according to the assassination manual, switch to the underground exchange.
This way, our assassinations become even more covert; other ninja villages will have a hard time guarding against it.”
Hiruzen Sarutobi asked, “What if other ninja villages also use underground exchanges for bounties?”
Nara Shikaku said, “The Land of Fire is the wealthiest among the five great nations.
The Land of Fire’s several vassal countries—the Land of Rivers, Land of Grass, Land of Hot Water, and Land of Whirlpools—have also contributed much wealth.
Remuneration for normal ninja missions isn’t much; that’s to motivate ninjas to complete missions properly without chasing luxury.
But Konoha Village’s fiscal surplus is very high.
If other ninja villages use underground exchanges, we can completely outbid them with money; we have the advantage.】
I’ve calculated it; our fiscal surplus has no problem at all.”
Yoru was stunned; so the village high-ranking officials knew that normal Konoha ninjas were poor.
The village was very wealthy, but normal Konoha ninjas were very poor—to motivate normal ninjas to complete missions properly?
As expected of Nara Shikaku; you’ve arranged everything crystal clear.
Was this Konoha’s half-starve-the-people weaken-the-people policy?
Can’t let ninjas eat too well; if they eat too well, they won’t go complete missions.
After leaving the Hokage’s Office, Yoru found an excuse to go check out Root.
He wondered if Root’s new recruits missed him.
