The reason Xuan Yu had been warned by the manager of the Empty District Black Market this time was that he'd been going a little too far lately.
During this period, Kakuzu had been traveling back and forth to Amegakure to report to Konan, and hadn't taken any jobs at the Black Market. Xuan Yu had no choice but to turn his "Exhaust the pond to catch all fish" approach toward the other mercenaries.
However, the other mercenaries at the Empty District Black Market weren't worth much. Most of their bounty targets were worth only a million ryo, or even less.
As a result, Xuan Yu had worked his tail off on several jobs and managed to scrape together a mere fifteen million ryo.
But he could worry about earning commissions later. For now, he needed to consider how to spend his points.
Before spending them, Xuan Yu opened the system panel to check his current stats.
[Name: Uchiha Genba] [Age: 18] Four Attributes: [Stamina 500: Your stamina can't even compare to one of Kakuzu's hearts, and he has five of them.] [Strength 3013: Your strength is absurdly high. If you arm-wrestled Kakuzu, you'd definitely beat him.] [Speed 4102: Your speed has reached the threshold of the Super Kage Level. The next time Kakuzu hunts you, he'll be left choking on your dust from far behind!] [Spirit 451: Spend some money and get yourself checked out at Leaf Hospital. The system suspects you might be suffering from mental fatigue.] Abilities: [Leaf Whirlwind Lv10: Your Leaf Whirlwind Taijutsu has gained a special effect: "Whirlwind Fierce Kick." Whirlwind Fierce Kick: When you use this move, you can kick up a powerful whirlwind capable of sending even Kakuzu flying!] [Three Body Technique Lv9: Your Transformation Technique, Substitution Technique, and Clone Technique have reached perfection.] [Body Flicker Technique Lv9: Under normal circumstances, Kakuzu can only smell your exhaust.]
After looking over the system panel, Xuan Yu couldn't decide whether he should spend his points.
He mulled it over.
My speed is already good enough. There's no need to dump another 1,500 points into it, right?
Still, there was nothing wrong with further strengthening his advantage. Speed had plenty of uses and could save his life in a dangerous situation.
Or he could improve his strength. The stronger he was, the greater the boost to his Taijutsu.
On the other hand, he could save the fifteen million ryo. If he came across some new secret ninjutsu, he could learn it at lightning speed.
After all, no matter what ninjutsu appeared in his learning progress, he could instantly raise it to Lv1.
To other people, that would look as if he'd learned a new ninjutsu at lightning speed through unbelievable effort and sweat.
But after thinking it over briefly, Xuan Yu decided to spend his points after all, focusing on strength and speed just as he had before.
As for stamina and spirit, he'd work on those once he had more money to spare.
Right now, he was so broke his teeth were chattering. How could he afford to spend points on stamina and spirit?
"Brother System, give me some points! Add 500 to strength and 1,000 to speed!"
As soon as Xuan Yu sent the thought, the Pay-to-Win System began allocating the points for him.
[Spent 5 million ryo. Your strength has increased from 3013 to 3513! Current balance: 10.0736 million ryo!] [Spent 10 million ryo. Your speed has increased from 4102 to 5102! Current balance: 73,600 ryo!]
The moment the point allocation was complete, Xuan Yu once again felt as if he were enveloped in a mysterious force.
Every part of his body was enhanced.
Xuan Yu could clearly feel his body becoming lighter and more agile. It even seemed as if everything around him had slowed down a little.
He knew the world around him hadn't really slowed down. His speed had increased, and that was why he initially experienced this strange illusion.
Once he'd had time to get used to his dramatically increased speed, his senses would naturally return to normal.
As his speed increased, so did his strength.
If things continued like this, it wouldn't be long before he could wrestle a Tailed Beast with nothing but his mortal body.
Then he could make Kisame Hoshigaki hand over the honor of being the "Tailed Beast without a Tail."
With the point allocation complete, Xuan Yu opened the system panel again to check his stats.
[Name: Uchiha Genba] [Age: 18] Four Attributes: [Stamina 500: Your stamina can't even compare to one of Kakuzu's hearts, and he has five of them.] [Strength 3513: Your strength is terrifying! In a contest of pure strength against Kakuzu, you'd have a clear advantage!] [Speed 5102: Your speed has crossed the threshold of the Super Kage Level. The next time Kakuzu hunts you, he'll be left choking on your dust from far behind!] [Spirit 451: Spend some money and get yourself checked out at Leaf Hospital. The system suspects you might be suffering from mental fatigue.] Abilities: [Leaf Whirlwind Lv10: Your Leaf Whirlwind Taijutsu has gained a special effect: "Whirlwind Fierce Kick." Whirlwind Fierce Kick: When you use this move, you can kick up a powerful whirlwind capable of blowing even Kakuzu away!] [Three Body Technique Lv9: Your Transformation Technique, Substitution Technique, and Clone Technique have reached perfection.] [Body Flicker Technique Lv9: Under normal circumstances, Kakuzu can only smell your exhaust.]
After looking over his stats, Xuan Yu thought that he needed to find a way to speed up his acquisition of commissions and ninjutsu.
He needed to find an opportunity to improve both his stamina and spirit.
He also needed to get his hands on some ninjutsu. Otherwise, his current fighting style was far too one-dimensional.
For one thing, he'd be in an awkward spot if he ran into a ninja who could fly.
After all, Leaf Whirlwind was a close-range Taijutsu technique, and its power dropped sharply at a distance.
If he ran into a ninja who could fly, his only option would be to hurl ninja tools at them with brute force. He'd have almost no other way to fight.
That clearly wasn't a reliable strategy. He had to learn a few ninjutsu.
As Xuan Yu was thinking about how to quickly earn commissions and get his hands on ninjutsu, a Ninja Cat's head suddenly poked out from a rooftop by the street. "Kid, that guy's shown up again. Looks like he's looking for you."
At that news, Xuan Yu couldn't help grinning.
The "guy" the Ninja Cat meant was none other than Xuan Yu's dear friend, close companion, and sworn brother—Kakuzi.
He hadn't been able to get any bounty targets from Kakuzu for the past few days, and that had left him so broke his teeth were chattering. How utterly miserable.
Now that Kakuzu had shown up, of course he had to hit him hard and keep up his campaign of Exhausting the pond to catch all fish.
"Lead the way! Put the Catnip Juice Drink on my tab!" Xuan Yu waved to the Ninja Cat without hesitation, signaling for it to show him the way.
These Ninja Cats held grudges. After one of their companions had been attacked by Kakuzu last time, they'd immediately united against him and done everything they could to help Xuan Yu target Kakuzu.
With the Ninja Cat guiding him, it didn't take long for Xuan Yu to find Kakuzu near the Empty District Black Market.
Xuan Yu had only just spotted Kakuzu when Kakuzu noticed him too.
This time, Kakuzu didn't attack right away. Instead, he said coldly, "Uchiha Genba, as a rogue ninja from Konoha, you'll have to face endless pursuit from the Leaf Assassination Force. Living in constant fear of being hunted must be miserable, don't you think?"
"I can recommend you for membership in the Akatsuki. Then you won't have to live with that constant anxiety anymore!"
Xuan Yu was a little puzzled. Why was Kakuzu suddenly inviting him to join the Akatsuki?
As soon as Kakuzu finished speaking, Xuan Yu rolled his eyes. "Do I look miserable to you? And what's this Akatsuki organization business? I'm not interested. Don't get in the way of me making money!"
Kakuzu: (O_O)???
Xuan Yu's response completely threw Kakuzu off.
Kakuzu had meant to emphasize that Xuan Yu was constantly being hunted by Konoha Ninja and was in a precarious situation.
In his view, joining the Akatsuki and taking advantage of the organization's protection was obviously the best choice under the circumstances.
But Xuan Yu was living an extremely comfortable life. Clearly, he didn't need any protection from the Akatsuki at all.
Fortunately, Kakuzu had done his homework before coming to recruit Xuan Yu.
Kakuzu immediately said, "The reason you can handle Konoha's pursuit right now is that the Konoha High Command hasn't taken you seriously yet. But as reports about you continue to make their way back to Konoha, the Konoha Ninja sent to deal with you will only get stronger."
"However, if you join the Akatsuki, you'll have the organization's protection and support. You'll also be able to get more missions and ninjutsu through the Akatsuki's channels. Aren't you going to give joining the Akatsuki some serious thought?"
Before you continue