Crack!
A crisp shattering sound rang out.
Two precious hearts were lost just like that, and the job still hadn’t been pleted. Kakuzu felt such heartache that he could scarcely breathe. He fixed Senshi with a cold, pierg stare.
However, Senshi didn’t pursue atack. He reined in his aura, shrugged, and spoke in an easygoing, teasing tone.
“Are we still going? We’re both in the bck-market business, just trying to make a living. There’s no need for us to risk our lives fighting over a ission fee. Why don’t we each take a step bad leave it at that? If you ever need my help iure, I’ll give you a 10% dist—friends’ rate.”
When Senshi finished, Kakuzu’s expression darkened. His emotions were all over the pce. He took a deep breath, trying to calm his seething ahen he gave Senshi one final frigid gnce before turning and leaving.
Recalling the se moments before—where Kakuzu had sughtered so many as though it were child’s py—Mizunai and the others still felt their hearts pounding. The caravan guards, as well as the various ninja Mizunai had spent so much time and money hiring, were only noing out of their daze, as if awakened from a nightmare.
“W-we’re still alive…like we were dragged back from the gates of Hell.”
“The ninja our boss hired is incredible! Those jutsu were practically blinding!”
“If not for him, we’d have been dead a long time ago!”
Their eyes brimmed with the relief of survivors, still clearly shaken by the fear Kakuzu had instilled. Yet at that very moment, Mizunai suddenly blew up. As the t, he was filled with rage.
“How could you let him get away?!”
He roared in ahroughout the battle, Senshi had held an overwhelming advantage, ering Kakuzu. If he’d put in just a bit more effort, he could’ve kept that monster from esg! Yet the man who had killed so many of his guards had simply walked away. Mizunai felt his blood pressure spike.
Upon hearing his outburst, Senshi merely raised a hand and mogly rubbed his ear.
“Lord Mizunai, you only hired me to rescue your subordinates. Whether to chase him or capture him was never part of the deal. Aren’t your men safe now—every st one of them? The job’s done, so about that 200,000 ryō ission…time to pay up, don’t you think?”
With that, Senshi stretched out a hand, palm fag upward, casually awaiting Mizunai’s respohe man’s face twisted with ahough he was seething inside, he couldn’t do anything but grit his teeth and hand over the money. Senshi’s strength clearly outmatched even Kakuzu’s, and Mizunai didn’t dare provoke him further.
The moment Senshi received the ission, a timely system prompt appeared:
[ission pleted!]
[Reward: 200 ission Points]
Snatg the system reward felt like a warm breeze sweeping across him, and Senshi’s face took on a tented smile. The t’s payment was sedary; the system’s additional reward was what really mattered. After colleg it, Senshi g his status s, new pns already f in his mind:
[Name: Uzumaki Sensh
[Gender: Male]
[Age: 18]
[ission Points: 721]
[Chakra Natures: Fire (D), Wind (B), Lightning (S), Water (C), Yang (D), Yin (D)]
[Chakra Capacity: SSS (your chakra reserves are moal—truly astonishing)]
[Physical Strength: SS (both strength and speed far surpass elite jōnin)]
{Talents}
[Heavenly Thunder: Greatly boosts affinity fhtning Release; higher ce to draw lightning-type rewards itery]
[Kekkei Genkai: None]
{Ninjutsu}
[Substitution Jutsu: B-level proficy]
[Lightning Release: Lightning Ball: C-level proficy]
[Lightning Release: Lightning e: D-level proficy]
[Lightning Release: Earth Slide: A-level proficy]
[Lightning Release: Elbow Bolt: S-level proficy]
[Lightning Release: Lariat (Lightning Plow Hot Knife): A-level proficy]
…
…
After reviewing his attributes, Senshi’s face lit up. He only needed 300 more points for his en-pull from the system. When he g Mizunai, he saw the man still staring gloomily at his fallen guards and ninja.
Reading Mizunai’s thoughts, Senshi smiled mischievously.
“If you really ’t let it go, just say so. I’ll bring him back for you to deal with however you like.”
Mizunai let out a cold snort.
“You’d really do that out of the goodness of your heart?”
Senshi rubbed his fiogether, letting out a sly chuckle.
“Four million ft fee. Of course, if you only want his head, I’ll do it for two million. Or if you’d like him alive—maybe you want to recruit him—I hand him over unharmed for six million.
Think of it as our ‘friends and family’ deal.”
Though Mizunai had half-expected such a thing, he still stared in shock at Senshi’s offer.
“Six million?! Are you messing with me?”
Senshi replied with plete seriousness:
“He wiped out so many of your people, and you just let him walk off. you stomach that? I sure couldn’t. Besides, six million is already the disted price. Someone who knows Kakuzu’s power would ask sixty million, at least.”
Mizunai let out an incredulous ugh. In all his life, he had never met someone so shameless.
“Aren’t you the one who let him walk away in the first pce? And with that price, I could hire three of Konoha’s top jōnin to ha! Why bother with you?!”
Senshi nearly rolled his eyes.
“Top jōnin? Right… Why not top chefs while you’re at it? You haggled over a few thousand ryō earlier. Please—you think that’ll get you far in Konoha? You’d be a third-css citizen at best.”
…
Meanwhile, several figures hidden among distant shrubs quietly watched the caravan. They wore white, animal-like masks and gray sleeveless fk jackets, each with a ninja bde on their back.
“Their prote is to. The pn has ged.”
“Lord Danzo’s orders: move to the backup pn.”
…
Thus, Mizunai’s voy resumed its journey. Iy, Mizunai had ari mind all along. His true goal wasn’t mere prote but to tact a secret anization within the Land of Fire. Mizunai was indeed a mert, yet what he dealt in were people: those with special abilities. He’d already made multiple transas with certain Konoha ninjas, who had promised him that ohis deal was done, he’d be granted citizenship in the Land of Fire.
As the caravan pressed on, Mizunai grew uneasy, stantly sing their surroundings.
“Something’s off… Acc treement, this should be the meeting point.”
He pulled out a map to double-check. Meanwhile, Senshi lou the front of Mizunai’s wagon, tinuing to pitch his services:
“You’re really not going to resider? I’m not just blowing smoke; I’m on par with Konoha’s elite jōnin, easily. And if you do want me, I’ll give you a ‘returning-er’ dist.”
Senshi was desperate to raise his strength. After all, the ninja world was far from peaceful—it was rife with dangers and armingly high birth rates. Though it seemed calm on the surface, a treacherous undercurrent lurked beh, with numerous forces waiting in the shadows. And in a few more years, there would even be an alien threat invading the shinobi world. Only by being powerful enough could he protect himself in this turbulent nd.
Ihe wagon, Mizunai tuned him out entirely, sneering to himself:
“Go on and gloat. You swindled me out of two huhousand a Kakuzu walk away. As if my money were that easy to take.”
Just as Mizunai was stewing over these thoughts, a group of Konoha ninja finally appeared in the distance.
