Bounty Exchange

Land of Sea, underground Bounty Exchange.

After counting the money, the person in charge of the exchange handed over the bounty and said, "Mr. Shinji, here is your reward. Please keep it safe."

Shinji is the identity currently used by Hyuuga Nen. He is now a wandering samurai who has chosen to sell his services to the Bounty Exchange in pursuit of the power of ninjutsu.

Hyuuga Nen has been in the Land of Sea for over half a year. He originally set out from the Land of Hot Water, reached the docks at the border of the Land of Water, and then transferred to the Land of Sea, which lies to the south of the Land of Water.

The Land of Sea is a nation composed of an archipelago. With a well-developed fishing industry, many people here make their living by fishing. While the economy of the Land of Sea cannot be considered prosperous, it is not exactly poor either.

Only after arriving in the Land of Sea did Hyuuga Nen realize that there were far more wandering samurai and bounty ninjas here than he had previously imagined.

The Land of Sea has not established a hidden village, making it a primary destination for many wandering samurai and bounty ninjas.

In the past, most mission requests in the Land of Sea were delegated to the Land of Water. However, ever since the Land of Water implemented its "Bloody Mist" policy, it has been preoccupied with internal strife, causing the mission completion rate to drop significantly.

Since the Land of Water could no longer fulfill the missions of the Land of Sea, the surplus tasks naturally fell to the samurai and ninjas wandering within the country.

The number of missions accepted by the Bounty Exchange in the Land of Sea increased substantially, and over time, it attracted even more samurai and ninjas.

There are many defecting samurai from the Land of Iron here, and these predecessors served as excellent role models for Hyuuga Nen. Following their example, he fabricated a similar identity for himself. Since there are many such people at the Bounty Exchange in the Land of Sea, Hyuuga Nen's identity did not arouse anyone's suspicion.

Watching the samurai and ninjas coming and going in the exchange, Hyuuga Nen sometimes even felt a sense of unreality, as if this were the place where their dreams began.

After spending some time at the exchange, Hyuuga Nen gained a certain understanding of the forces behind it.

For tasks that are inconvenient to conduct openly, the hidden villages of the great nations, as well as the daimyo and officials of various countries, all turn to the underground Bounty Exchange for handling—such as assassinating enemy ninjas or eliminating political rivals who have framed them.

Even small hidden villages participate in this to collect the intelligence they desire, though they generally issue fewer missions.

Beyond this, powerful and wealthy local families provide financial support to the exchange, which serves as both a form of investment and a payment of protection money.

In the Land of Sea, due to the large number of wandering samurai and bounty ninjas, they have vaguely formed a loose alliance, which also holds a certain amount of influence within the exchange.

Given all these circumstances, the forces behind the Bounty Exchange are extremely complex, which is why different exchanges may present different organizational structures.

For various reasons, all nations have adopted a tacit attitude toward the Bounty Exchange, tolerating its existence.

In the Land of Sea, one exchange usually covers several cities. Some are built in hidden locations, such as in restrooms; such exchanges handle only pure assassination missions.

Other exchanges function more like mercenary associations, accepting a wide variety of tasks and, to a certain extent, even replacing some of the roles of a hidden village.

All exchanges share their intelligence; even if a mission is accepted at one, it can be turned in at another.

However, even the second type of exchange rarely accepts commissions from ordinary people, as the exchange does not regulate or constrain the behavior of samurai and ninjas.

Some wandering samurai and bounty ninjas are ruthless; if they discover that the client lacks the ability to protect themselves, they might turn around and eliminate the client after completing the mission to claim an extra bounty.

Hyuuga Nen currently operates primarily within the second type of exchange, as this kind better suits his requirements.

Since arriving at the exchange, Hyuuga Nen has not accepted many missions, focusing mainly on tracking down rogue ninjas and suppressing bandits.

Hyuuga Nen currently directs his training energy toward taijutsu and sealing techniques. Researching sealing techniques only requires some auxiliary materials, so his demand for bounties is not high, and he accepts missions as they come.

In his first month in the Land of Sea, Hyuuga Nen had already begun the second stage of training for the Cell Activation Forbidden Technique.

Hyuuga Nen took the bounty from the person in charge of the exchange, verified the amount, nodded to the man, and prepared to leave.

"Mr. Shinji, are you not planning to pick out some ninjutsu this time?" the person in charge called out to him.

Hearing this, Hyuuga Nen sighed inwardly. He turned his head and spoke to the man in a deliberately impatient tone:

"Are there any better ninjutsu this time? Don't try to fob me off with E-rank and D-rank techniques again; I want at least C-rank or higher."

Hearing Hyuuga Nen's words, the man gave an awkward laugh and placed a roster directly on the table in front of him.

"Mr. Shinji, you can take a look. Perhaps there is something here that catches your eye."

"Are you that desperate to get the bounty back from my hands?" Hyuuga Nen remarked, though he still opened the roster to look through it.

After all, Hyuuga Nen is currently playing the role of a samurai hungry for ninjutsu, so even if he was impatient, he still began to browse.

Hyuuga Nen had already selected quite a few ninjutsu before, but they were truly mediocre and of no help to him.

During previous missions, Hyuuga Nen had secretly activated his Byakugan and discovered that it had the ability to copy others' ninjutsu. By observing their hand seals and the flow of chakra within their bodies, he could replicate most of their techniques.

It was through this discovery that Hyuuga Nen realized how his father had obtained the vast majority of the ninjutsu he had given him—they were all stolen from others.

However, the Hyuga Clan does not often use ninjutsu, so the title of "Copy Ninja" fell to Kakashi and the Uchiha Clan.

Hyuuga Nen picked a random ninjutsu, handed a portion of the bounty to the man, and said deliberately: "In the future, if there are no C-rank ninjutsu, don't bother recommending them to me. This kind of trash ninjutsu isn't even worth the sword in my hand."

After a moment's thought, Hyuuga Nen asked the man: "Is there any new intelligence in the ninja world lately?"

Hearing this, the man wore a pleased smile and brought out another catalog of intelligence.

"Mr. Shinji, there is new intelligence, but nothing major has happened. If you want to see it, well, you know how it is." He finished with a universal gesture.

Although Hyuuga Nen was speechless at the man's attitude, he still paid the money to read the intelligence.

After finishing the report, Hyuuga Nen confirmed that the ninja world had been relatively peaceful lately. The last major event had occurred two years ago, when the Hyuga Clan killed an envoy from Kumogakure during negotiations for an alliance between Konoha and Kumogakure.

When he first saw this report, Hyuuga Nen knew that the Bounty Exchange's investigation still had many gaps; they did not know the true situation.

Nevertheless, Hyuuga Nen still obtained a great deal of information about the ninja world through the exchange's intelligence system. By synthesizing these pieces of information, he had a solid understanding of what was happening in the ninja world.

Having finished these tasks, Hyuuga Nen turned around, ready to leave the exchange, when he saw a tall man carrying a corpse, walking in his direction.