After meeting with Danzo, White Dove returned to his own "headquarters."
The One Heart Chamber of Commerce building.
It was really just a fairly large building behind the department store.
It was built from a mixture of brick and wood. Though the exterior looked a little old, it was extremely sturdy.
At the same time, it was close to the street, making it very convenient to come and go.
"President!"
"Dove-dove!"
"Captain!"
All kinds of voices rang out when White Dove arrived.
Those who called him President were generally clan members older than him. Those who called him Captain were members of the Konoha Military Police Force. Finally, those who called him "Dove-dove" were his peers or younger clan members.
There were over a hundred clan members here. Aside from the dozen or so people in the department store out front, most of the rest were here.
Businesses like the publishing house and the transport company... were all based here.
The warehouse was piled high with supplies.
Just moving all those supplies required quite a few hands.
Building up such an enterprise had also taken White Dove a great deal of time and effort.
It was only in the early days, when he could use "novels" to make money, that he'd acquired the capital to get started. If he'd had to rely on completing missions to earn his initial capital, starting the One Heart Chamber of Commerce would have been completely impossible.
Besides, his One Heart Chamber of Commerce had deliberately steered clear of the industries run by the other major shinobi clans.
Take the Yamanaka Clan's flower shops, the Nara Clan's medicinal herbs, and the Akimichi Clan's barbecue... Those businesses were the foundations of their respective clans. Recklessly entering those fields would be like taking food out of their mouths. Of course they'd make trouble for him.
Of course, shinobi's business skills were completely different from their ninjutsu talents, so they could only get involved in ordinary industries like these.
Even someone like Jiraiya, who could write novels, was a rare exception among exceptions.
That was why White Dove could make money publishing novels without anyone giving him trouble.
Later, he'd even opened a "department store," a kind of business that had never existed before.
In terms of shinobi talent, White Dove might not measure up to the geniuses and monsters. Even the powerful techniques he came up with owed something to a transmigrator's imagination.
But when it came to business and knowledge, he could truly run circles around the entire Shinobi World.
After all, before transmigrating, he hadn't been some business tycoon, just a minor logistics supervisor. But he'd spent plenty of time surfing the internet and soaking up all kinds of information.
And in this world of shinobi, where people were incredibly powerful but information was incredibly limited, his knowledge was truly unmatched.
It was thanks to that advantage that he'd managed to establish the One Heart Chamber of Commerce.
Did people really think other shinobi didn't know they could make money by running a company?
It was precisely because they lacked business skills that they had to risk their lives completing missions to earn money!
After entering the building,
"White Dove, are you all right?"
Yashiro came over, looking worried.
He knew the ins and outs of the incident and was afraid things might get out of hand.
"I'm fine. But can you think of a way to get the son of our clan leader out of the village for a few days?"
White Dove reassured Yashiro first, then posed his question.
He wanted to get the White-Eyed Wolf out of the village temporarily!
This was to prevent things from going as they had in the original story, where Shisui escaped Danzo's scheme and handed one of his Mangekyo to him.
Even though he knew the real Shinobi World was different from the anime, the general trends weren't all that different. So, naturally, White Dove had to deal with this factor.
"...If the Anbu received word of suspicious Uchiha activity outside the village, they'd definitely send him along to deal with it!"
Yashiro offered a suggestion.
They just needed to create some suspicious Uchiha activity outside the village. The Anbu would naturally investigate, and since the man knew the Uchiha well and was an Anbu whom the Third trusted, he would certainly be involved.
"I see... Send someone to the Bounty Station right away and place a commission with a bounty hunter named 'Kakuzu.' Have him handle this mission!"
After giving it a little thought, White Dove made up his mind.
Yes, he planned to leave the matter to Kakuzu.
It would be extremely inconvenient for his own people to handle this mission. As shinobi officially affiliated with the village, they couldn't easily leave, and their people outside the village couldn't handle the job either.
So, "outsourcing" the mission was the best choice.
There was no one better to carry it out than Kakuzu, a member of the Akatsuki and a Kage Level powerhouse.
As for the possibility that he might accidentally kill the White-Eyed Wolf along the way?
Impossible!
Absolutely impossible!
A "protagonist" like him wouldn't meet his end so easily. And if it really did happen, White Dove would set off firecrackers to celebrate.
Even if it caused the future plot to change drastically, it would also eliminate the threat of the Uchiha massacre looming right around the corner.
So, he could accept either outcome.
You could say that having the advantage of knowing the future was already a kind of "cheat," though not as extreme as what other transmigrators got.
"Got it!"
Yashiro immediately went to make arrangements.
Though their registered shinobi couldn't easily leave the village, there was no problem with passing along messages.
And outside the village, the One Heart Chamber of Commerce had several outposts.
So the message quickly reached Tanzaku Town, and someone at the outpost immediately went to the Bounty Station to place the commission.
The Bounty Station!
It was an underground mission broker, but it had powerful backing. Otherwise, it could never have set up a mission network spanning the entire Shinobi World.
Unlike missions from the hidden villages, the Bounty Station's jobs had no restrictions. But the death rate was extremely high, and an ordinary shinobi couldn't make a name for themselves there.
Kakuzu was one of the most famous bounty hunters.
Clomp, clomp!
A tall figure wearing a face-covering mask, with green eyes and a black cloak covering his entire body, entered the Bounty Station.
"Turn these into cash."
The tall figure placed several heads on the counter.
The staff member had clearly seen scenes like this many times before. He wasn't frightened by the heads and instead began inspecting them carefully.
After a while,
"Mr. Kakuzu, here's your reward!"
Once the staff member had confirmed everything, he took out three million ryo in banknotes and placed them on the counter.
The largest denomination in the Shinobi World was ten thousand ryo. So, three million ryo might sound like a lot, but it was only three hundred bills—enough to hold in one hand.
After counting the bills one by one, Kakuzu was just about to leave when the Bounty Station staff member spoke up:
"Mr. Kakuzu, we have a commission specifically assigned to you. Would you be interested?"
A commission like this could only be accepted by the designated target. No one else could take it.
As a renowned bounty hunter at the Bounty Station, Kakuzu was often specifically assigned commissions, so this was nothing unusual.
He took the mission scroll, read its contents, and said,
"I'll take it!"
Then he turned and left the Bounty Station.
Only after he'd gone did the others inside dare to speak.
"That was terrifying. I thought I was going to die just now!"
"I heard that he used to attack targets with bounties right inside the Bounty Station. If the higher-ups hadn't stepped in to negotiate with him, he might have killed us too!"
"Then... I'll wait a few days before leaving the Bounty Station."
"Same here!"
Kakuzu hadn't been hunting nearby, because he'd been busy heading out to carry out a mission.
Five million ryo to keep an Uchiha jonin from returning to the village for a few days—how could he pass up a job like that?
Five million ryo!
That was a lot of money.
Just look at Asuma in the original story. His bounty was thirty-five million ryo.
He was an elite jonin, to say nothing of being the "Hokage's son." Without that status, there'd be plenty of people willing to take out an elite jonin for ten million ryo.
Now, he could earn five million ryo just by keeping an Uchiha jonin away for a few days. It was certainly a generous reward.
The key was that the client had provided the intel directly. That was the most important part.
Without intel, the mission would be incredibly difficult. But with it, completing the job would take hardly any effort. No wonder Kakuzu was willing to accept it.
Meanwhile!
The Hokage Building.
At that moment, Danzo stormed into the Hokage's office.
"Hiruzen, what are you hiding from me about Uchiha Shisui?"
He confronted him outright.
But his attitude and manner were just like a wife confronting her husband.
In any case, Sarutobi Hiruzen and Danzo were closer than a married couple, so it wasn't really wrong to put it that way.
Even the Anbu had made no attempt to stop Danzo from barging into the Hokage's office, which showed just how close they were.
(Anbu: We wouldn't dare say anything. We wouldn't dare ask about their relationship!)
"You can leave."
Sarutobi Hiruzen knew Danzo too well. One look at him told Hiruzen that Danzo must have found something out, so the first thing he did was send the Anbu nearby away.
The conversation that followed wasn't something he wanted them to hear.
Whoosh, whoosh!
From the corners, the windows, the rooftop... one Anbu after another slipped away.
Did people really think the Hokage worked alone with no one protecting him?
The truth was, a squad of Anbu was always guarding the Hokage. The Hokage Building itself had several squads of Anbu on security duty, so assassinating the leader of a hidden village wasn't something you could pull off on a whim.
Sasori's success had been entirely due to his identity. It wasn't because he was strong enough to assassinate the leader of a hidden village head-on.
Once the Anbu had withdrawn, Sarutobi Hiruzen finally began to speak.
Before you continue