Chapter 133: The Black Market

Chapter 133: Chapter 133: The Black Market

Uchiha Shinichi’s anger at this moment wasn’t an act.

Hyuga Kagami had given him permission to attack Obito, so with a furious roar, Shinichi lunged straight at him.

Whoosh—

His figure flashed past.

Clutching a kunai in his hand, Shinichi stared back with uncertainty written all over his face.

Even though he had already activated his Mangekyō Sharingan, he still couldn’t see through Obito’s ability. His attack just now had once again passed straight through Obito’s body, as though he’d struck nothing but empty air.

Obito didn’t seem to mind Shinichi attacking him at all. With his arms folded across his chest, he said calmly,

"Are you still clinging to this false world?"

Shinichi calmed down slightly.

He knew perfectly well that if he couldn’t see through Obito’s ability, then no matter how many times he attacked, it wouldn’t accomplish a thing.

"Join us," Obito said. "I’ll create a world for you where there are no regrets."

Shinichi snorted coldly.

"And why should I believe you?"

"You’ve been to the Naka Shrine, haven’t you?"

After a brief pause, Obito continued,

"With your Mangekyō Sharingan, you should be able to read the hidden contents of the stone tablet. What is written there... that is my goal."

Naturally, Shinichi had already read the contents of the stone tablet at the Naka Shrine.

But Shinichi had absolutely no interest in a world created by the Infinite Tsukuyomi.

The abilities of his Mangekyō Sharingan were "protection" and "reversal," and in a way, those abilities were a reflection of his truest desires.

Unlike Obito, who longed to escape from the real world, all Shinichi wanted was to "reverse" time back to the moment Yui died and "protect" her from ever being harmed.

As for some false world inside the Infinite Tsukuyomi?

He couldn’t care less.

Although he had already promised Hyuga Kagami that he would join the Akatsuki, now that the moment had actually arrived, he simply couldn’t bring himself to back down and submit to Obito.

And so, he stood there frozen in place.

Obito had already noticed Shinichi’s hesitation, so he said,

"Once you’ve made up your mind, come find me in the Land of Rain."

With that, Obito didn’t linger. He turned around and left the cave.

In his eyes, Uchiha Shinichi, having defected from Konoha, no longer had anywhere else to go.

As long as he was patient, sooner or later, Shinichi would inevitably be drawn into the Akatsuki.

After meeting up with Zetsu outside the cave, Obito gave him another order.

"Find Uchiha Yui’s body and bring it back."

Zetsu nodded.

...

After leaving a shadow clone behind at home, Hyuga Kagami assumed the identity of Yama and quietly slipped out of the village.

Because of his time in the ANBU, Kagami knew the locations of more than half of the black markets scattered throughout the Land of Fire.

Before long, he arrived at the black market closest to the village.

On the surface, this particular black market was disguised as an izakaya.

After exchanging a standard underworld code phrase with the owner of the black market, Hyuga Kagami was led into a private room.

The walls inside were plastered with all kinds of bounty notices.

Some appeared to have been posted only recently, with traces of glue still visible around the edges, while others had already yellowed with age, clearly having hung there for quite some time.

Before long, Kagami’s attention was drawn to four bounty notices placed side by side.

The targets on those four notices were none other than the four members of Konoha ANBU Team Eleven.

And judging from how fresh the paper looked, they had only just been posted.

Among them, Shisui carried the highest bounty—

50 million ryō!

The bounty notice even specifically mentioned that Shisui possessed the legendary Mangekyō Sharingan of the Uchiha Clan.

Next came Hyuga Kagami, whose bounty had risen to 30 million ryō.

Kakashi’s stood at 25 million ryō, while Guy’s remained unchanged at the previous 20 million ryō.

Kagami clicked his tongue.

"Tch. Those bastards from Kumogakure really will stoop to anything."

There was no doubt about it.

These newly issued bounties were undoubtedly Kumogakure’s handiwork.

Shisui ranked first because of his Mangekyō Sharingan.

After Uchiha Shinichi’s defection, the terrifying power of the Mangekyō Sharingan had been displayed for everyone to see firsthand. So although a bounty of fifty million ryō was outrageous, placing it on Shisui’s head could still be considered worth the price.

As for Kagami, his bounty had risen from 20 million to 30 million ryō, most likely because he had driven off Uchiha Shinichi.

However, Kumogakure didn’t know the exact details of that battle.

All they could vaguely determine was that Hyuga Kagami had apparently managed to repel Uchiha Shinichi even after Shinichi had activated his Susanoo.

And so, Kumogakure had added another ten million ryō to Kagami’s bounty, raising it from twenty million to thirty million ryō.

As the captain of Team Eleven, it was only reasonable that Kakashi’s bounty had gone up by another five million.

Guy, however...

It seemed Kumogakure had overlooked him yet again.

His bounty was still sitting at the same twenty million ryō as before.

Noticing that Kagami’s gaze had remained fixed on Team Eleven’s four bounty notices, the black market owner rubbed his hands together and gave him a sly grin.

"If you can bring back the heads of these four, we can cash out the bounties for you within three days. And we’ll only take a ten-percent commission!"

For the sake of their own safety, many bounty hunters were unwilling to meet their employers in person.

After all, many of those employers were major powers like Kumogakure.

That was where black markets came in—they acted as intermediaries between the two sides, taking a service fee for themselves in the process.

Kagami snorted coldly.

"I’m not interested in provoking any of the Five Great Shinobi Villages. Do you have any high-value targets that aren’t connected to them?"

The black market owner wasn’t surprised by Kagami’s request.

After all, you didn’t casually provoke the Five Great Shinobi Villages—that was basic common sense in the shinobi world.

He immediately pulled a small booklet from inside his clothes and handed it to Kagami with a smile.

"None of the targets in here have much to do with the Five Great Shinobi Villages. Take your time looking through them. There’s no rush."

Kagami flipped through the booklet, casually tearing out several pages containing the targets he’d selected.

Some were rogue shinobi who had committed all manner of atrocities.

Others were bandits who had terrorized entire regions.

In short, every target he chose was someone of relatively ordinary strength whose death wouldn’t bring any troublesome consequences afterward.

With Kagami’s current strength, combined with the intelligence support he could obtain through his ANBU identity, it took him only a few short months to wipe out three groups of rogue shinobi and four bands of mountain bandits that had seized territory and preyed upon the surrounding regions.

Putting the bounty rewards aside, Kagami had earned nearly 25 million ryō just from looting the rogue shinobi and bandits he’d eliminated.

Adding in the bounty money, even after deducting the commissions taken by the black markets, Kagami’s earnings over the past few months had reached an astonishing—

70 million ryō!

And as Kagami efficiently completed bounty after bounty, the name "Yama" thoroughly established itself throughout the entire black-market underworld.

...

At another black market.

Wearing the Akatsuki’s signature black cloak patterned with red clouds, Kakuzu tossed a corpse toward the black market owner.

The owner briefly compared the corpse with the portrait on the bounty notice before having the body placed in cold storage. He smiled.

"Lord Kakuzu, please wait a moment. Your bounty payment will be brought to you shortly."

As one of the foremost experts among bounty hunters, Kakuzu possessed unparalleled prestige throughout the black-market world.

Whenever he completed a bounty, the black market would even pay him the reward in advance, saving him the time it would normally take for the bounty to be processed and exchanged.

Once the money was in his hands, Kakuzu asked for the latest bounty list and began searching for his next target.

But the moment he received it, he noticed something strange.

The list was much thinner than usual.

Kakuzu frowned.

"What’s going on?"