Snatching Kakuzu's Spoils of Victory, Adding Points, Feeling Blissful

"Clang!"

The sound of metal striking metal rang out sharply. The two ninja figures collided and instantly separated, only to adjust their stances and clash once more.

Of the two combatants, one wore the black-cloaked, red-cloud uniform of the Akatsuki organization.

The other was the target of the Akatsuki's current bounty—a formidable rogue ninja.

Hidden behind a massive boulder in the distance, a pair of pale green eyes watched the duel intently. It was Kakuzu, lurking and observing the battle.

After watching for a while, Kakuzu realized that his partner and the bounty target were locked in a stalemate, neither able to gain the upper hand.

This simply wouldn't do!

Standing idly by while an ally was in trouble was the style of the Nationalist army.

But for Kakuzu, whenever an ally was in trouble, he felt compelled to intervene!

"Whoosh!"

Without further hesitation, Kakuzu decided to join the fray.

A mask-sewn Earth Grudge Fear monster suddenly flew up from behind him. As his partner and the bounty target became entangled in close-quarters combat once again, Kakuzu decisively unleashed a wide-range Fire Style jutsu to provide fire support.

"Fire Style: Searing Migraine!"

It is worth noting that in the world of Naruto, most Fire Style jutsus are merciful "deterrent" skills, with very few records of them actually killing anyone.

But this "Fire Style: Searing Migraine" was the exception.

As Kakuzu poured his chakra out frantically, the Earth Grudge Fear mask monster tilted its head back and spewed a torrential sea of flames.

In an instant, the sky was filled with orange-red fire, engulfing the two ninjas who had been locked in fierce combat just a short distance away, burning them into charred husks!

Confirming that both were well and truly dead, Kakuzu ended his Fire Style with a sense of lingering dissatisfaction, commanding the Earth Grudge Fear mask to stop its output and pulling it back behind him.

He shook his head, muttering without a shred of guilt: "Stupid fool! As a partner in a two-man team, you have absolutely no synergy. You couldn't even predict when I was going to use a jutsu to dodge in time."

Despite his words, the smile on Kakuzu's face was harder to suppress than an AK-47's recoil.

After all, the bounty target was worth ten million ryo, and his unlucky partner was worth twenty million.

With almost no effort at all, he had easily earned thirty million ryo in bounties.

He was winning so hard it was ridiculous!

According to the rules of the Akatsuki, killing teammates was strictly forbidden, but accidental deaths during a mission were unavoidable.

However, these minor details didn't matter now. The priority was to get the corpses of the bounty target and his unfortunate partner to the black market exchange office to collect the money.

Yet, just as Kakuzu prepared to move, the five hearts within his body suddenly shuddered in unison, and a strong sense of crisis washed over him.

The giant boulder that had served as his hiding spot moments ago seemed to come alive, hurtling toward him with the force of a gale.

If that had hit him head-on, even Obito wouldn't have been able to save him.

Facing the sudden attack, Kakuzu reacted with lightning speed, showing no panic.

He slammed one palm against the ground, his body dropping low, and narrowly dodged the incoming boulder.

At the same time, his pale green eyes glared fiercely in the direction the rock had been thrown, searching for the culprit.

However, Kakuzu found no sign of an enemy, and instead, a strong sense of foreboding welled up in his heart.

"Damn it!"

He cursed under his breath and spun around, only to discover that not far behind him, the corpses of his unlucky partner and the bounty target had vanished!

At the edge of his vision, a black-haired youth wearing traditional Konoha armor was carrying both bodies, his Body Flicker technique pushed to the limit as he sprinted away.

The youth looked to be in his early twenties. His standard-issue Konoha combat suit was neat but quite worn, with several patched-up holes visible.

If one were to call him a Konoha ninja, his attire certainly fit, but a Konoha ninja with such skills shouldn't be living in such poverty.

In Kakuzu's eyes, this black-haired brat who looked like a Konoha ninja was completely ignorant of the gravity of his actions.

He dared to lay a hand on his spoils!

However, this guy wasn't truly ignorant; he had a name—Uchiha Genba.

The Uchiha were indeed a great clan in Konoha, but that had little to do with Genba.

For one, he was just an unremarkable commoner descendant of the Uchiha clan with no ninja talent whatsoever.

For another, he had long since defected from Konoha and was now just a rogue ninja scraping by.

The smile that Kakuzu had found so hard to suppress was now plastered across Genba's face.

Genba was grinning from ear to ear, his heart practically blooming with joy.

During this period, he had made a fortune by repeatedly "fleecing" Kakuzu.

As long as he could successfully shake off Kakuzu's pursuit this time, he would make another massive profit.

It felt like winning twice over!

Genba ran with increasing vigor, while Kakuzu behind him was practically exploding with rage!

Consumed by fury, Kakuzu pushed his Body Flicker technique to the limit. As he gave frantic chase, he shrieked at the top of his lungs: "Damn it! It's you again, you little brat! Put down my thirty million ryo! Or I'll rip your heart out!!"

If it were just some worthless corpse being snatched, Kakuzu wouldn't have bothered to care.

But what Uchiha Genba had swiped this time was a bounty worth a full thirty million ryo!

That was Kakuzu's hard-earned cash!

Uchiha Genba could steal anything else, but he couldn't touch his money!

Facing Kakuzu's threats, Uchiha Genba didn't even pay him any mind.

Kakuzu wanted to dig out his heart?

He'd have to catch him first!

After a period of diligent cultivation (diligent point-allocating), Uchiha Genba had absolute confidence in his speed.

If he didn't have a few tricks up his sleeve, he would have crashed and burned long ago when he snatched food from the tiger's mouth—right out of Kakuzu's hands.

At this moment, Uchiha Genba was sprinting with all his might, while Kakuzu behind him was running as if his life depended on it, yet he still couldn't catch up.

Forget catching up; the distance between Kakuzu and Uchiha Genba was actually widening bit by bit.

Realizing this all-too-familiar fact, Kakuzu was so furious that his five hearts felt as if they were twitching in pain simultaneously.

If nothing went wrong, his thirty million ryo was about to be snatched away by that shameless brat Uchiha Genba once again!

Thinking of this, Kakuzu felt so depressed he could spit blood.

While he continued his relentless, unwilling pursuit, he couldn't help but curse under his breath: "Damn it, is there no end to this? Three times! This is already the third time this month!!"

In the past, whenever he realized he couldn't catch Uchiha Genba no matter what, Kakuzu would choose to quit while he was ahead and cut his losses.

However, the situation was different this time; he had fallen into a state of "the more I think about it, the angrier I get; the more I retreat, the more I feel cheated."

Right now, the only obsession in his mind was to catch Uchiha Genba no matter what, rip that brat's heart out, and hack him into pieces.

He would recover his lost bounty from Uchiha Genba with interest.

It was just a pity that achieving this wish was by no means an easy task.

Even though Kakuzu had sprinted with all his might, he still couldn't close the gap between them, falling further and further behind instead.

Kakuzu knew full well that continuing to chase like this was a complete waste of effort, but he simply couldn't swallow this bitter pill.

"This shameless little brat, can't he hunt his own targets when he takes bounty missions? He only targets his peers!"

"And if this kid would just steal openly, that would be one thing, but he always resorts to sneak attacks and dirty tricks! Damn it!!"

Cursing aside, Kakuzu was calculating rapidly in his mind.

After these few encounters, he had figured out quite a bit about Uchiha Genba's background, and he felt he had a decent chance of punishing this detestable brat.

Uchiha Genba, sprinting ahead, was completely unaware that Kakuzu had gathered a significant amount of intelligence on him and was planning to deal with him.

However, that didn't stop Uchiha Genba from continuing his run in a carefree manner.

After all, he was different from other ninjas.

It wasn't that he wasn't "serious," but rather that he didn't need to rely on talent, dojutsu, tattoos, or any of those messy bloodline limits like other ninjas.

For Uchiha Genba, as long as he put in the effort and sweat, his strength would constantly improve!

For ordinary ninjas, hiding one's own intelligence was probably the first lesson learned after becoming a ninja.

After all, if a ninja's abilities were completely mastered by an opponent, it was easy to be countered with targeted measures.

Just like Hidan, one of the Immortal Duo; after his secrets were figured out by Nara Shikamaru, wasn't he trapped and killed in the forest?

But Uchiha Genba didn't worry about any of that.

As long as his pace of improving his strength was fast enough, the speed at which his intelligence leaked would never catch up to the speed at which he grew stronger.

The outside world's perception of him would always remain in the past tense, rather than the ever-strengthening present tense.

For instance, right now, he was stretching his legs and running with all his might.

Sigh, if Guy and Lee, that master and apprentice, saw this, they might even be moved to tears and praise him, saying: "This is what a run full of youthful vitality looks like!"

After sprinting for a while longer, Uchiha Genba glanced back and saw that Kakuzu in the distance had been left behind, becoming a tiny black dot that was almost about to disappear from his field of vision.

A smug smile couldn't help but appear on his face.

As the saying goes, all martial arts under heaven can be broken, except for speed!

The fact that he had decisively allocated a large number of attribute points into speed back then was definitely an incredibly wise decision.

According to the intelligence Uchiha Genba had gathered, the two bounty targets he had intercepted this time—one was worth ten million ryo, and the other was a staggering twenty million.

As long as he delivered these two corpses to the black market exchange to complete the mission, he could happily allocate more points and level up again!