The Bounty Exchange

The Bounty Exchange beneath the Land of Sea.

After finishing the count, the person in charge of the Bounty Exchange handed over the reward and said, "Mr. Shinji, here's your bounty. Please take it."

Shinji was the identity Hyuuga Nen was currently using. He was a wandering samurai who had chosen to work for the Bounty Exchange in pursuit of the power of ninjutsu.

Hyuuga Nen had been in the Land of Sea for more than half a year. He had originally set out from the Land of Hot Water, reached a dock on the border of the Land of Water, then transferred to the Land of Sea, south of the Land of Water.

The Land of Sea was made up of islands, and its fishing industry was well developed, so many people made their living fishing. Its economy wasn't especially prosperous, but neither could it be called poor.

Only after arriving in the Land of Sea did Hyuuga Nen discover that there were even more wandering samurai and bounty hunters here than he had imagined.

The Land of Sea had no hidden village, so it was the first destination for many wandering samurai and bounty hunters.

Most missions in the Land of Sea had once been entrusted to the Land of Water. But after the Land of Water implemented the Bloody Mist Policy, it became occupied with internal strife, and its mission completion rate plummeted.

Unable to complete the Land of Sea's missions, the Land of Water left the extra work to the samurai and ninja wandering the Land of Sea.

The Bounty Exchanges in the Land of Sea received many more missions. Over time, this attracted even more samurai and ninja.

Many of the samurai here were defectors from the Land of Iron. These veterans made excellent role models for Hyuuga Nen. He learned from them and fabricated a similar identity for himself. There were plenty of people like that at the Bounty Exchanges in the Land of Sea, so no one doubted who he claimed to be.

Watching samurai and ninja come and go from the Bounty Exchange, Hyuuga Nen sometimes felt as if it wasn't real, as though this were where their dreams began.

After spending some time at the Bounty Exchange, Hyuuga Nen had also learned a little about the forces behind it.

Missions that couldn't be carried out openly were entrusted to underground Bounty Exchanges by the hidden villages of the great nations, as well as by the daimyō and officials of various countries. These included assassinating enemy ninja and eliminating political rivals who threatened them.

Even small hidden villages took part when they wanted to gather intelligence, though they rarely posted missions themselves.

Beyond that, influential and wealthy local families also provided funding to the Bounty Exchanges. Their contributions were both a form of investment and a kind of protection money.

Because so many wandering samurai and bounty hunters lived in the Land of Sea, they had gradually formed a loose alliance and gained some influence within the Bounty Exchanges.

For all these reasons, the forces behind the Bounty Exchanges were extremely complicated, and different branches could have very different organizational structures.

For various reasons, the countries took a tacitly tolerant approach toward the Bounty Exchanges, allowing them to exist.

In the Land of Sea, each Bounty Exchange usually served several cities. Some were set up in hidden places, such as restrooms. These kinds of exchanges dealt exclusively in assassination missions.

Other Bounty Exchanges were more like mercenary associations, accepting all kinds of missions. To some extent, they even took over some of the functions of hidden villages.

All Bounty Exchanges shared intelligence. Even if someone accepted a mission at one branch, they could turn it in at another.

However, even the second type of Bounty Exchange rarely accepted jobs from ordinary people. After all, the Bounty Exchanges had no way of regulating or restraining the behavior of samurai and ninja.

Some wandering samurai and bounty hunters were ruthless. If they discovered that a client was defenseless and knew their identity, they might complete the mission and then turn around and kill the client for an extra bounty.

Hyuuga Nen was currently active mainly at the second type of Bounty Exchange. After all, it suited his needs better.

Since coming to the Bounty Exchange, Hyuuga Nen hadn't taken many missions. Most were to track down missing-nin or suppress bandits.

He was currently devoting most of his training to Taijutsu and Sealing Technique. His research into Sealing Technique required only some supporting materials, so he didn't need much money from bounties and took missions whenever the opportunity arose.

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

Hyuuga Nen took the bounty from the person in charge, checked the amount, and nodded before preparing to leave.

"Mr. Shinji, aren't you going to pick out some ninjutsu this time?" The person in charge called after him.

Hyuuga Nen sighed at that and turned around, deliberately addressing the man in an impatient tone.

"Do you have any decent ninjutsu this time? Don't try to fob me off with E- and D-rank techniques. I want C-rank or higher, at the very least."

The person in charge gave an awkward laugh at Hyuuga Nen's words, then took out a catalog and placed it on the table in front of him.

"Mr. Shinji, have a look. You might find something you like."

"Are you really that eager to get my bounty back?" Hyuuga Nen remarked, but he still opened the catalog and began browsing.

After all, Hyuuga Nen was playing the part of a samurai who longed for ninjutsu, so even though he was impatient, he still looked through the list.

Hyuuga Nen had already picked out quite a few techniques before, but they were all so mediocre that they were no help to him.

During previous missions, Hyuuga Nen had secretly activated his Byakugan and discovered that it could copy other people's ninjutsu. By observing their hand seals and the flow of chakra inside their bodies, he could copy most of their techniques.

It was only after making this discovery that Hyuuga Nen understood where most of the ninjutsu his father had given him had come from: he had stolen them from others.

But the Hyuga Clan didn't use much ninjutsu, so the titles of Copy Ninja went to Kakashi and the Uchiha Clan.

Hyuuga Nen casually picked a technique and handed over part of his bounty to the person in charge. He deliberately told him, "Don't recommend anything to me unless it's C-rank or higher. This kind of trash ninjutsu isn't even as good as the sword in my hand."

After a moment, Hyuuga Nen added, "Has there been any new information from the Shinobi World lately?"

At that, the person in charge smiled happily and brought out a catalog of recent reports.

"Mr. Shinji, there's some new information, but nothing major has happened. If you want to see it, you know how this works." He made a familiar gesture as he spoke.

Although Hyuuga Nen found the man's attitude exasperating, he still paid and read through the information.

After finishing, Hyuuga Nen concluded that the Shinobi World had been fairly peaceful lately. The last major event had happened two years earlier, when Konoha and Kumogakure were negotiating an alliance and a member of the Hyuga Clan had killed the Kumogakure envoy.

When he had first read this report, Hyuuga Nen realized there were plenty of gaps in the Bounty Exchange's investigation. They didn't know what had really happened.

Still, Hyuuga Nen had learned a great deal about the Shinobi World through the Bounty Exchange's intelligence network. Putting those reports together, he had gained a fairly good understanding of what was happening throughout the Shinobi World.

After finishing up, Hyuuga Nen turned to leave the Bounty Exchange. He saw a tall man carrying a corpse over his shoulder and walking toward him.