Accumulating Chakra in Secret and Planning Bounties in the Underground Black Market

Faint, ghostly green moss clung to the sewer walls, struggling for life as it emitted a weak, sickly glow. The air was thick with the stench of rotting rat carcasses mixed with excrement.

"Shhh—"

The incredibly faint sound of friction was perfectly masked by the "drip-drop" of a leaking pipe.

In the darkness, a flash of poisoned cold light struck like a viper's fangs, aiming straight for Baishi's nape. There was no leakage of killing intent, and the angle of the blade was cunning and vicious; this was undoubtedly a veteran who had spent years licking blood in the black market.

Baishi did not turn back.

The moment that cold light was a mere half-inch from his skin, the sewage beneath his feet suddenly erupted in a ripple. Lightning Release chakra flooded his leg muscles in a thousandth of a second; the extreme explosive power brought on by cellular activation allowed him to shift three feet forward in a posture that defied the laws of physics.

The blade missed, slicing through only a few strands of black hair.

The eyes of the attacker, hidden beneath a tattered hood, widened in an instant. Before he could change his move, a cold hand reached out from the darkness, gripping his wrist like an iron vice.

"Crack!"

The muffled sound of shattering bone echoed through the cramped pipe. The attacker opened his mouth in agony, but before his scream could escape his throat, Baishi's left hand had formed a blade with his fingers, slashing fiercely against the cartilage of his larynx.

Weak blue arcs of electricity danced at his fingertips, instantly paralyzing the man's vocal cords and central nervous system. The attacker slumped into the sewage like a pile of mud, his body convulsing, his eyes bulging from extreme terror.

Baishi looked down at him from above, his eyes devoid of anger, holding only the coldness one might show a laboratory mouse.

He crouched down, his movements practiced as he pulled back the man's hood. By the faint light of the moss, a face covered in scars was revealed. There was no Konoha forehead protector, nor was there a Root curse mark.

"A black market hyena." Baishi whispered, casually tossing the bounty notice for "Kakutani" onto the man's face. "Who told you to lie in wait for me here?"

The hyena's mouth hung open; with his vocal cords destroyed by Lightning Release, he could only emit a wheezing, airy sound as he shook his head frantically.

Baishi didn't waste words. He pressed his right hand directly onto the hyena's chest, and Lightning Release chakra seeped into the man's heart meridian bit by bit. The heart muscle began to spasm violently under the stimulation of the current; this pain far exceeded any torture device.

The hyena's features twisted completely, tears and snot mixing with the sewage as they flowed into his mouth. Trembling, he reached out his remaining left hand and used a blood-stained finger to draw a crooked pattern on the mossy stone slab.

A single eye entwined by tree roots.

"Root."

Baishi looked at the pattern, the arc of his mouth widening until it finally settled into a sneer of extreme mockery.

His guess was correct. That bounty notice regarding the Deputy Minister of the Finance Department, "Kakutani," was nothing more than a carefully laid piece of bait.

Shimura Danzo, that old dog, was not only keeping him under Grade A surveillance within the village but had also cast a massive net in the black market outside. This bounty notice had been intentionally spread to low-level intelligence peddlers just to fish out those who were desperate for resources and harbored ulterior motives against the Konoha high command.

If Baishi had been blinded by greed earlier and had put on a mask to intercept Kakutani, what would have awaited him was certainly not a Chakra Crystal, but a massive array of Explosive Tags and sealing barriers set by Root elites.

"Using black market hyenas as the final layer of screening on the perimeter. If I die at the hands of a hyena, it means I'm just trash; if I kill the hyena and keep moving forward, I'll walk straight into a dead end."

Baishi stood up, stepped casually on the hyena's throat with his right foot, and slowly applied pressure.

"Crack."

The cervical spine snapped completely. The hyena's convulsions ceased, and dark red blood slowly bled out into the filthy water of the sewer.

Baishi felt no psychological burden. In this massive farm, abandoning moral constraints was his primary rule for survival. Any so-called compassion had died completely the first time his chest was pierced by the Nine-Tails' claws during a simulation.

He crouched down and searched the hyena's still-warm corpse with practiced efficiency. A few low-quality shuriken, a small bag of Soldier Pills, and a black notebook with sweat-soaked, curled edges.

Baishi opened the notebook. It was a genuine black market bounty register, densely recording various prey currently active on the borders of the Land of Fire.

He needed a high-purity Chakra Crystal to initiate the second "Life Script Simulator." Since the Kakutani lead was dead, he had to scout for another sufficiently fat target.

Under the dim light, Baishi's fingers moved quickly across the rough pages.

"Sunagakure rogue ninja, skilled in Wind Release, bounty 800,000 ryo... No, Wind Release counters Lightning Release; the cost of the kill is too high."

"Kirigakure ronin, bounty 500,000 ryo... Too poor, can't squeeze out much chakra."

He needed a target who was strong enough, had a generous bounty, and preferably used Lightning Release. That way, he could not only obtain a crystal but also plunder the opponent's Lightning Release ninjutsu scrolls to further perfect his own max-level Lightning Release system.

The cold wind from the sewer ventilation shaft blew in, causing Baishi's soaked hem to flap loudly. He leaned against the icy wall, searching page by page; his extreme patience made him look like a god of death lurking in the shadows, selecting his prey.

Finally, his finger stopped at the third-to-last page of the register.

It was a slightly blurry portrait. The man in the picture wore a tattered Cloud Hidden Village forehead protector, had a piercing scar across his left eye, and a fierce gaze.

[Target: Raija (Codename)]

[Identity: Cloud Hidden Village Grade A Rogue Ninja]

[Bounty: 1,200,000 ryo]

[Characteristics: Proficient in Lightning Release ninja-taijutsu, naturally cruel. Recently active in the 'Howling Canyon' on the northwest border of the Land of Fire, suspected of carrying a large quantity of Lightning Release Chakra Crystals stolen from Cloud Hidden Village.]

Baishi's gaze locked onto the words "Lightning Release Chakra Crystal."

Perfect.

Raija's strength was likely between an elite Chunin and a Special Jonin. Although he would be troublesome, Baishi possessed the absolute suppression of max-level Lightning Release. Since they both used the same element, he was confident he could execute him within ten moves.

Moreover, Howling Canyon was located at the border between the Land of Fire and the Land of Earth; the terrain was complex and perpetually shrouded in thick fog, making it difficult for Root's claws to reach that far.

Baishi tucked the black notebook into his clothes and took out the pure white faceless mask from his waterproof bag.

He dipped his finger into the blood on the hyena's corpse and casually drew a blood-red lightning pattern over the right eye of the white mask.

The cold mask snapped onto his face, concealing all his expressions and revealing only a pair of bottomless black eyes. From this moment on, he was no longer "Owl," the submissive, low-level cannon fodder of the Konoha ANBU, but a god of death about to harvest lives.

Baishi formed hand seals rapidly, chakra surging within his body.

"Lightning Release: Micro-Activation."

A faint layer of blue electric arcs flickered across his body. Like a ghost merging into the darkness, he sped along another branch of the sewer, racing toward the outskirts of the village.

Two hours later.

The northwestern border of the Land of Fire, on the outskirts of the Howling Canyon.

Gale winds tore through the crevices of the canyon, emitting shrill, mournful sounds like the wailing of ghosts. Thick white fog compressed visibility to less than ten meters.

Baishi crouched on the branch of a dead giant tree, his cold eyes looking down at a hidden camp below.

A bonfire burned in the center of the camp, its light flickering in the mist. Three rogue ninjas sat around the fire, tearing into roasted meat. At the entrance of a cave in the deepest part of the camp, a burly figure sat cross-legged, violent Lightning Release chakra flashing around him from time to time.

It was Raija.

Baishi did not rush to act. Like a lifeless stone, he suppressed all his presence, quietly observing the target's hand-seal habits, defensive blind spots, and any potential traps in the vicinity.

Suddenly, Baishi's Lightning Release Sensory Field captured a trace of an extremely faint, abnormal fluctuation.

It was not Raija's chakra, nor did it belong to the three rogue ninjas.

It was an extremely concealed chakra, carrying the sharp, cutting sensation of the Wind Release, approaching from the other side of the canyon at an incredible speed!

The pupils beneath Baishi's mask constricted sharply.

He whipped the Black Notebook from his chest pocket and flipped to the back of Raija's bounty notice. There, in tiny print, was an appended piece of intelligence: [This target recently attacked a Konoha border supply line and has been placed on the Konoha high command's elimination list.]

An extremely dangerous name flashed through Baishi's mind in an instant.

Konoha high command, elimination list, rapidly approaching Wind Release chakra.

He turned his head abruptly, peering through the dense fog toward the direction from which the chakra was coming. A Three-Pronged Kunai engraved with a peculiar jutsu formula tore through the white mist without a sound and pinned itself precisely into the boulder at the cave entrance.

The next second, a golden flash illuminated the entire canyon.