"One scroll is worth five million."
"Two scrolls, ten million."
"One, two, three, four, five, up the mountain to chase the tiger..."
"Damn!"
"I got it wrong, got it wrong..."
Natsume muttered to himself as he gleefully stuffed the silver scattered all over the floor into the scrolls.
Uncle Ryu and the others watched from a distance, clicking their tongues in amazement.
It was the first time they'd seen their Young Clan Head this excited!
They were almost starting to wonder if the Young Clan Head had gone crazy with joy.
"Wow! I didn't know the Young Clan Head was such a money-grubber!"
Gin joked cheerfully as he stuffed Gold Coins into his pockets.
"Damn it! This isn't greed!"
"This is following my heart!"
"You have to follow your heart. Get it?"
"You lot don't know the cost of rice, oil, salt, and firewood until you're the one running the household!"
Natsume turned around and chided them with a laugh.
His hands didn't slow down for a moment as he stuffed the money away.
Before long,
he had packed all the cash in the vault into his scrolls.
It filled a full twenty-five Space Scrolls.
While he was at it, Natsume also handled all the cash, drawing in the scent of money and exchanging it all for Gold Coins.
[ Ding! Congratulations, you have obtained 117,000,000 Value Points ]
[ Would you like to recharge 117,000,000 Value Points and exchange them for 11,700 Gold Coins? ]
[ Recharge successful! Congratulations, you have received 11,700 Gold Coins ]
[ Current balance: 14,640 Gold Coins ]
Looking at his balance of Gold Coins, which had suddenly surged past five digits,
Natsume was even more thrilled, feeling as if he were floating among the clouds!
Now this was what it meant to get rich!
His system had another advantage, too.
After exchanging cash for the corresponding Value Points, it didn't take the money away.
He could still bring the cash back to his shinobi village and use it as usual.
It was the best of both worlds!
Of course, there were pros and cons.
The system was generous when it came to exchanges, but strict about its requirements.
Natsume had once tried using the same money to farm Value Points over and over.
Unfortunately, the system wouldn't fall for that trick.
It only recognized [cash Natsume had obtained for the first time and could fully control] as eligible for exchange into Value Points, which could then be recharged into Gold Coins.
Other things, such as valuable jewelry, luxury goods, weapons, and tools...
couldn't be exchanged for Value Points.
Otherwise,
the night he defected, Konoha would have lost more than just its vault.
So,
apart from the more than one hundred million in cash that could be directly exchanged for Value Points,
the rest of the jewelry, luxury goods, and other valuables worth hundreds of millions
couldn't be put to use directly.
That wasn't a big problem, though.
He could use this Shipping Company to sell the valuables bit by bit and turn them all into cash.
It might take a while, but at least it would be stable and reliable.
All in all,
today's haul was rich enough to make him delirious with joy.
He never expected that a mere Gato Company would have a richer vault than Iwagakure, one of the Five Great Shinobi Villages!
That was an eye-opener!
But when he thought about it, it made sense.
The Five Great Shinobi Villages might have powerful forces,
but each village had, at most, a few tens of thousands of people—not even as many as a small town.
A large multinational corporation like this one could also have tens of thousands of employees.
It was no surprise that its economic scale rivaled that of a small town.
Of course, if running such a huge company didn't require so much capital, the cash reserves here would probably have been several times greater!
But now,
it all belonged to him.
Gato was dead,
yet he'd still given Natsume such a huge Shipping Company and so much treasure.
Natsume almost felt bad about it.
Forget it. He'd be magnanimous and stop desecrating Gato's corpse from now on.
After putting away the scrolls, Natsume and the others left the company's headquarters, laden with loot.
He left the company in Uncle Ryu's hands to reorganize.
Later, he would send a few capable clan members to assist Uncle Ryu.
Given Uncle Ryu's abilities,
he should be able to clear away the company's problems and reorganize the whole operation in half a month at most.
Within a month, he could get the shipping routes running again and bring the village a genuine, sustainable source of income!
Sure enough, there was nothing more comfortable than lying at home and counting money.
After leaving the Gato Company,
Natsume, Tsukihime, and Gin returned to Nichiyo's group.
Zabuza and Haku were still tied up where they'd been left, making no attempt to escape.
Perhaps they'd run out of strength, or perhaps they'd accepted their fate.
Zabuza looked up as Natsume and the others returned, beaming with triumph.
He immediately understood what had happened.
"That Gato fellow is dead, isn't he?"
"Of course. A bully like him would only cause endless harm if left alive. I sent him to the afterlife."
Natsume nodded without denying it.
"What a joke!"
Zabuza sighed.
A merchant of immense wealth, and a notorious tyrant,
had ended up losing his life because he'd been too stingy to pay a little more for the mission and hadn't hired enough help.
And what about Zabuza?
He'd launched a reckless attack on such a formidable brat over a measly three million ryo in commission money.
This kid was probably worth an S-rank bounty at the very least, wasn't he?
He supposed he hadn't lost unfairly.
"All right."
"Nichiyo, you guys wait over there. I'll have a private chat with this 'Mist Demon.'"
"Young Clan Head, he's dangerous..."
Nichiyo hesitated, looking worried.
After all, Natsume carried the hopes of their entire clan's revival.
If anything happened to him, the consequences would be unthinkable!
"What? Do you think this guy could be a match for me? That he could threaten me?"
"I could tie both his hands and feet behind his back, and he still couldn't beat me!"
Natsume rolled his eyes at them, exasperated.
The dismissive remark made the Demon's face darken.
He nearly jumped up and tried to beat the kid senseless.
Unfortunately, his instincts told him that he really wasn't a match for him.
Nichiyo and the others exchanged glances.
They didn't insist.
They knew how strong their Young Clan Head was. Forget one battered Demon with both hands tied up—even ten Demons at full strength wouldn't stand a chance against him...
Soon, they moved farther away,
leaving Natsume alone with Zabuza.
"What exactly do you want?"
Zabuza asked through gritted teeth.
In his mind, Natsume had already destroyed the Gato Company and gotten rich.
He probably wasn't interested in Zabuza's meager savings anymore.
All that awaited him was likely death.
It was a pity he hadn't accomplished his lifelong ambition.
And he'd dragged Haku down with him!
"How much have you saved up altogether?"
Natsume's question left Zabuza stunned.
"Thirteen million, eight hundred thousand ryo..."
"Tsk, tsk, tsk. For a rogue shinobi, you're quite the saver! No wonder you're still wearing clothes this tattered..."
Natsume clicked his tongue.
In his eyes, anyone who could save money was a tough character!
He wasn't quite on the level of Kakuzu, the "great saver," but Zabuza was impressive in his own right.
"Take all the money."
"You can kill me, too."
"If you can, spare him. He's still young..."
Zabuza lowered his head, fists clenched, and made his request in a low voice.
It was his final wish.
But Natsume didn't execute him.
Instead, he flicked a finger, sending out a blade of chakra that sliced through the rope binding Zabuza and freed him.
Then he asked with a grin,
"Why are you trying so hard to act tough? It's embarrassing..."
"Tell me, you've scrimped and saved for years to amass all that money."
"It was so you could gather men and prepare for another coup, then retake Kirigakure, wasn't it?"
Zabuza was startled. He stared blankly at his freed hands.
He couldn't figure out what the kid was up to.
"You...!"
"An attack on Kirigakure, one of the Five Great Shinobi Villages—that mission would have to be at least S-rank, right?"
"Would shinobi from the other great villages dare accept a mission like that?"
"Besides, how many shinobi do you think thirteen million ryo could hire?"
"Five jonin? Ten?"
"How could you stage a coup with that little strength? How could you bring down Kirigakure?"
"At this rate, you could save your whole life and still not have enough!"
Natsume's taunts sent Zabuza into a rage. His eyes widened, bloodshot and veined.
The kid could insult him all he liked.
But he couldn't insult Zabuza's ambition, or his ideals!
Even Zabuza knew that, on his own, he'd never be able to purge the corruption from his village...
"You bastard, you're asking to die!"
Natsume waved a hand with a smile and continued to tempt him:
"Don't get angry yet!"
"I'm not going to take your payment for nothing."
"How about this? Give me your thirteen million ryo, and I'll carve my way through the Land of Water and level Kirigakure!"
"How about it?"
Hearing that, the anger in Zabuza's heart instantly vanished, and he jolted in shock.
He couldn't help staring blankly.
"You—you'll help me fight my way back to Kirigakure?"
"That's right!"
"What? Don't I look strong enough?"
"Or do you want to test me yourself?"
Natsume bared his teeth, grinning like a demon from the abyss.
Before you continue