Mo's Feelings

The sky was pitch-black, the moon hanging serenely overhead and casting a soft glow that lent the night a faint light.

"..." Sasuke looked at the devastation around him, lingering a little longer on the ruined tent. The ground was pitted everywhere, like the aftermath of a disaster where Explosive Tags had gone off.

The animals and insects nearby had long since scattered because of the earlier battle. It was so quiet now that he could hear his own heartbeat. Dawn would come in a few hours, and Konoha was still some distance away.

For some reason, Sasuke felt like a child abandoned by his parents, though he could find no proof of it. The thought made his shoulders tremble as a chill ran down his spine.

After hiding his forehead protector, Uzumaki Reikawa did his best to lead them farther and farther away from Sasuke. Since White Zetsu was following him, he could not let Sasuke from this time period be noticed.

If using Instantaneous Shift had not made him so easy to expose, Uzumaki Reikawa could have run even farther. Just as he felt the distance was enough, several Kunai suddenly struck the ground in front of him. A person wearing a white face mask and an orange spiral mask appeared before him.

The instant Obito saw Uzumaki Reikawa, he thought it was Nagato. Fortunately, White Zetsu had prepared him mentally beforehand. In his identity as Tobi, he chuckled at "Uchiha Gen." "Hey, hey, newbie intern, see that redhead? Want to give it a try and see if you can recruit him?"

"..." "Uchiha Gen" felt immensely conflicted. A clone causing trouble for another clone—this was truly absurd.

Just then, Uzumaki Reikawa's chakra was nearly depleted. Right before the two of them, he vanished with a pop.

Though he knew the reason, "Uchiha Gen" spread his hands and looked teasingly at Obito. "Senior intern, it seems White Zetsu followed the wrong one."

The original body stood where he was, receiving the information from that period. Seeing that Uzumaki Reikawa's skin was now available for use, Uchiha Gen felt deeply moved. Making money was really hard without special methods.

Just now, Uchiha Gen had visited the casinos in the Land of Rock using the same method he had used in the Land of Fire. Yet in only half a day, before he had even earned three million ryo, all the major casinos seemed to have reacted in a chain and began refusing entry to unfamiliar faces.

Seeing them act like this, Uchiha Gen gave up on the idea. The poorer a place was, the stingier it was. Things had already come to this, and thinking about the more than thirty-two million ryo he still lacked, that was truly a distant number.

After obtaining Tsunade's and Itachi's signatures, the system rewarded Uchiha Gen with two experience cards. Surprisingly, perhaps because there were two cards, he could choose for the other one to restore his sense of smell, touch, or pain. Of course, he could also choose taste again.

Uchiha Gen chose touch. Combined with Uzumaki Reikawa's skin, he was practically no different from a living person as long as he was not injured. The only problem was that it would last just one day.

This resulted in a strange person appearing on the streets. Whenever Uchiha Gen saw something, he wanted to touch this and poke that. As for that huge pile of shit, he would pass on that...

"Hmm..." Just as Uchiha Gen seemed distracted and about to walk past the pile, he checked that no one was around, abruptly stepped back, quickly pulled out an Explosive Tag, and tossed it onto it. After some adjustment, the tag's power would not be enough to injure anyone.

After tossing out the Explosive Tag, Uchiha Gen grew a little excited. Yet when it suddenly exploded, something happened that he had not expected: a passerby came out of his home and walked right past that spot...

For a moment, amid the passerby's furious roar and his body covered in... the sight was too beautiful. Uchiha Gen glanced over, wanting to hold back his laughter but finding it difficult. He sneaked away as quickly as he could, offering only a silent apology. Sorry.

After thinking it over, the best place to make full use of those two experience cards was undoubtedly a hot spring. Since he had no sense of smell, Uchiha Gen had no idea whether he stank or not. He looked fairly clean, though, and it was a good opportunity to wash up.

However, due to the location, the hot spring Uchiha Gen chose was artificially made. That was not a problem. A private room and a tip, and the owner happily sent a server to buy food.

Feeling the clear water flow over his fingertips, the sensation of being alive... Under the lights, Uchiha Gen's eyes flickered between brightness and shadow. Much of the hostility around him faded. Recalling what both he and his clones had done over the past few days, Uchiha Gen realized that his reverence for life seemed to be steadily weakening.

Even things that had once repulsed him no longer seemed like much when he thought about them now. Yes, Uchiha Gen had already decided to go to the Bounty Exchange and target people with particularly vile records. After all, if Uzumaki Reikawa never returned, he would be branded a rogue ninja.

Although few people listed at the Bounty Exchange were clean, he could still find some suitable targets if he chose carefully.

Because he had tipped generously, the person who came in to deliver Uchiha Gen's meal after a while was a rather pretty black-haired beauty. She wore clothing that covered only the essential parts, her skin milky white and her full red lips naturally parted. Picking up a strawberry, she slowly moved it past her chest, leaned forward slightly, and made as if to feed it to Uchiha Gen. The atmosphere was suggestive, and combined with the rising mist around them, it inspired a tempting urge to commit a crime.

"..."

Uchiha Gen remained expressionless. She was beautiful, and the atmosphere had been set wonderfully, but those were the only words he could use to describe her performance right now. He felt not a trace of any extra emotion... Though he was not the casual sort, either...

Despite all her hints, Uchiha Gen's gaze remained clear. He merely watched the beauty with pure appreciation and became a heartless eating machine. This left her somewhat frustrated. Had her charm declined?

After Uchiha Gen left, the owner was surprised to see that the beauty's clothes were still intact. "Tomomi, you actually failed?"

Tomomi looked defeated. Though Uchiha Gen was rather handsome and her type, recalling how he had looked at her as if she were a painting, remaining a heartless eating machine no matter how hard she tried, she suddenly stomped her foot in embarrassment and annoyance. "...That guy just can't do it!" With that, she returned to her room to sulk.

After leaving that haven of softness, Uchiha Gen put his mask back on and activated his Sharingan to observe the people around him. He quickly found the location of the underground Bounty Exchange.

The moment he entered the Bounty Exchange, the atmosphere became grim and murderous. Nearly everyone around him wore an expression that said, "I'm not someone to mess with, so stay the hell away from me."

When he reached the task reception area, the first thing he saw was Asuma's bounty notice in one of the upper rows. "..."

A little lower down was a bounty posted by Iwagakure for one of their Jonin, a man who had not wanted to go to war and had killed his comrades before fleeing. Just as Uchiha Gen was considering whether to accept the mission...

He suddenly saw a ninja with green eyes and half his face covered, carrying several heads over to turn in a mission.