You Gotta Pay More

The door of the izakaya was pulled open from the outside, and the burly Kitsuchi stood to one side.

Ōnoki floated in from the doorway, looking down at the environment inside the room with a sweeping glance; it was just a very ordinary tavern.

Catching sight of Rasa and his companion, he felt slightly displeased and said with a cold face, "You must be the Third Kazekage's disciple, Rasa, right? You're just as annoying in person as you are in your photo.

Where is your teacher? Has he not arrived yet?"

King against king, pawn against pawn. The letter had specifically named Ōnoki for the negotiations, leading him to subconsciously assume that the representative of Sunagakure would be the Third Kazekage.

Rasa rose with a smile and said calmly, "Didn't the letter make it clear?

My teacher was shaken in spirit after encountering an assassination attempt, so for this negotiation, I am serving as the representative for Sunagakure."

An insult! This was absolutely an insult to him.

Among the five great villages, excluding Kirigakure where the leadership changed quite rapidly and the current leader was the Fourth, the leaders of the other four great villages were only at the Third generation.

Sending a disciple to meet him—if this wasn't an insult, what was? Did his Iwagakure not have the power to hang Sunagakure up and beat it?

Ōnoki let out a cold snort, and a massive surge of chakra fluctuated outward, heavy as a mountain and vast as a sea. It was full of aggression, far from as simple as it appeared.

Pakura felt as if she were facing a great enemy, cold sweat breaking out on her forehead. She subconsciously wanted to use Scorch Release, but Ōnoki's pressure made it psychologically impossible for her to endure.

Such a short, elderly man actually possessed more chakra than Roshi, a jinchuriki, and his aggression was even stronger. Truly, one should not judge a book by its cover.

It wasn't fear, just a bit of trepidation.

Rasa remained calm and composed, fiddling with the tea set on the table. He poured a cup of refreshing black tea, handed it to Pakura, and said softly, "Would you like some black tea?"

This must be the peak of Ōnoki's life. As expected, being able to use an unreasonable Kekkei Tōta like Dust Release meant he must possess a sea-like reservoir of chakra.

Seeing Rasa unmoved, Ōnoki completely put away his inner contempt. Just from this ability to remain fearless in the face of danger and resist his pressure, he knew—

This red-head might be lacking in status, but his strength was definitely not inflated. He was qualified to sit at the same table and call the shots with him.

Ōnoki suddenly asked, "My Dust Release possesses the strongest offensive power in the Shinobi World, capable of decomposing the vast majority of objects into nothingness.

Furthermore, it requires no hand seals. Are you not afraid that I might suddenly erupt and trade your lives for Roshi's?"

Pakura's throat moved slightly; she had heard of the offensive power of Dust Release, and it was true that it required no hand seals.

Most jonin could not survive a single move from Ōnoki before being reduced to dust.

"You are welcome to try and see whether your Dust Release is faster, or my Magnet Release is."

Rasa raised his head, his gaze burning as he locked eyes with Ōnoki.

There exists an interaction force between atoms, whether it be different atoms sharing the same electron or the transfer of electrons between atoms...

This interaction force is known as a chemical bond.

Ōnoki's Dust Release was by no means decomposing objects into nothingness—that would violate the law of conservation of energy. It was simply decomposing objects into atomic form; the atoms were just too small to be observed.

The general method of realization was to dismantle the chemical bonds between atoms. Once his own ability advanced to a certain level, he should be able to do the same.

Even now, there was no need to fear Ōnoki. While it was true that Dust Release required no hand seals, in the original story, it still took a second or two for Ōnoki to manifest the cube, and there was a certain lag in damage after it formed.

Two mid-laners facing off: Rasa's network latency was 10ms, while Ōnoki's was 2000ms. Even if he were the peak Faker, he would only be destined to be outplayed.

The two stared at each other for a long time. Even Pakura and Kitsuchi felt the clash of momentum between them and were breaking into a cold sweat, thinking the negotiations were about to collapse.

Suddenly, Ōnoki withdrew his aura, floated over to the chair on the other side of the table, and sat down. He placed his hands on the table, looking like an ordinary old man.

As if nothing had happened, Ōnoki said lightly, "Not bad, you have guts. The Kazekage has a good disciple.

Where is the person I want?"

"You haven't necessarily brought what I want yet."

Rasa subconsciously recited a line from the rooftop scene in Infernal Affairs, couldn't help but chuckle, and then said, "Roshi is in an inn within the city.

I won't be releasing him until I receive the compensation for my teacher's mental distress."

No matter what, he had to maintain the initiative in the negotiations.

Ōnoki was not annoyed; he knew he didn't hold the initiative right now. He tapped his fingers on the table, signaling Kitsuchi to bring the items forward.

Kitsuchi, a man built like an iron tower, immediately stepped forward and placed a dozen storage scrolls he had been carrying on his back onto the table.

"Count them. My time is limited, and I don't want to waste any more of it on you.

The ransom you wanted is all in here. Consider the storage scrolls a gift."

Ōnoki said impatiently. The thought that Sunagakure had such an outstanding young man made him feel that his own village was disappointing; aside from the jinchuriki, there wasn't a single person who could fight.

Rasa channeled his chakra into the scrolls, counting the supplies inside one by one and comparing them against the list.

At the same time, he carefully checked the supplies for any issues. To prevent Iwagakure from playing tricks, the supplies Rasa had requested were mostly items like kunai, shuriken, explosive tags, and special metals.

He hadn't requested many Military Ration Pills or medical supplies, as it was too easy to tamper with those without being easily detected.

One could only say that Rasa was a small-minded person, dark-hearted to the extreme, subconsciously accustomed to viewing his enemies' intentions from the worst possible perspective.

After a thorough check, there were no major issues. Some of the weapons showed wear and tear—likely second-hand goods discarded by Iwagakure—but they were still usable. The Sunagakure ninja were so poor they were practically selling their own pants; they couldn't afford to be picky.

Rasa remained silent, waving his arm to push the storage scrolls on the table toward Ōnoki.

"What is this?"

Ōnoki furrowed his brows, his large nose twitching slightly as he said with dissatisfaction, "Everything you asked for is inside, not a single item discounted. What is the meaning of pushing it back at me?"

"The supplies listed on the manifest do indeed match up," Rasa said, leaning forward with his hands pressed against the tabletop, his eyes narrowing. "But the situation has changed by a tiny bit since before. Just yesterday, right here, I met with representatives from Kumogakure. They are willing to pay the same price to purchase the Four-Tails Jinchuriki from us. So, if you want to take Roshi, this isn't enough. You have to pay more."

Thinking about this, Rasa felt quite displeased. Damn it, those bastards from Kumogakure only wanted to offer such a pittance to buy a Jinchuriki. Did they look down on a Tailed Beast that much?

"Are you playing me?" Ōnoki shot up into the air, his hair bristling with rage and his large nose twitching violently. As his peak Kage-level aura erupted, Pakura felt as if she were standing on the edge of an abyss. It was the feeling of a lone boat tossing in a storm at sea, facing waves dozens of meters high—that was the level of pressure she was under.