Astonishing Intelligence

Chentian, who had seemingly left, silently formed hand seals in front of him. A flash of lightning appeared in his right hand.

The next instant, Lightning Cutter's already incredible speed combined with Chentian's nearly maxed-out Body Flicker Technique. By the time the young man reacted, Chentian's right hand had already pierced his chest.

The young man was, after all, the person in charge of a bounty exchange. Even Chentian could not accurately gauge his strength.

To be safe, he had chosen this method.

Perhaps some would think Chentian's sneak attack was dishonorable, that his victory lacked glory.

If Chentian heard that, he would definitely spit in their faces. Had they ever seen a ninja charge head-on like a warrior?

Ninjas were assassins, a profession akin to killers. Chentian saw nothing wrong with this.

To be thorough, he did not hesitate in the slightest. Another Lightning Cutter formed in his free left hand and viciously stabbed into the man's neck.

He had always kept the saying "villains die from talking too much" firmly in mind.

"Bang!"

The young man's eyes widened, filled with disbelief.

How dare he kill me? The bounty exchange has endured for a thousand years—how powerful must the hidden forces behind it be!

Even when the Kage of the Five Great Ninja Villages were targeted by bounty exchanges, they never attacked them. Why does this man dare to do such a thing?

Sadly, he would never get the answer. His vision went black, and he completely lost consciousness.

Watching the young man die before her eyes, the young girl beside him immediately began trembling. She did not dare utter a single word.

Giving her a glance, Chentian walked straight into the bounty exchange's back room and stored all the documents inside in his storage space.

He did not mind killing people, but he had not yet become someone who killed without batting an eye.

She was merely an ordinary girl without even a trace of chakra. Letting her go did not matter.

After Chentian left, the trembling girl hurriedly got to her feet and began digging into the ground where she had been standing.

Even when spots of blood appeared on her delicate hands, she did not stop.

After digging a pit more than fifty centimeters deep, a red scroll appeared within it.

The scroll was not large, about the size of a rolled-up sheet of A4 paper.

After taking out the scroll, the girl seemed to relax and was no longer as flustered as before.

"Chentian, I'll remember that hundred-million bounty!"

Looking in the direction Chentian had gone, the girl murmured. The next moment, the scroll opened, and amid a cloud of smoke, the girl vanished.

If Chentian had heard her words, he would have been greatly shocked. He had maintained a perfect-level Transformation Jutsu the entire time!

Even among Kage-level experts, few could see through his disguise. How had such an ordinary girl seen through it?

Unfortunately, Chentian knew nothing of this.

After leaving the bounty exchange, Chentian immediately headed for the next town.

Once there, he casually rented a room and went inside to examine the documents he had seized earlier.

From these documents, he learned who had placed each bounty.

After flipping through several dozen pages, Chentian found his own file. As he read the words written on it, the killing intent in his eyes was almost impossible to conceal.

"Shimura Danzo, so it really was you!"

His file clearly stated: Konoha ninja Chentian, six years old, bounty of one hundred million, bounty issuer Shimura Danzo.

After saving Kakashi and Nohara Rin, he had already applied to Minato for early graduation. He was now an official genin.

That was why his file listed him as a Konoha genin.

After reading his own file, Chentian silently sentenced Danzo to death.

Konoha's scapegoat king? With Minato still alive, what use is a scapegoat king like you to Konoha?

Setting aside his own matter, he continued examining the documents in his hands, but the more he read, the more alarmed he became.

The information recorded in these documents was simply too comprehensive. They contained nearly all the secrets of the Five Great Ninja Villages.

How many jonin each village had, how strong they were, and how many forces they had secretly cultivated.

Chentian knew little about the other villages, but he knew Konoha fairly well. This information was completely accurate!

If it had also included the matter of Nohara Rin becoming the Three-Tails' jinchuriki, Chentian would have suspected that the bounty exchange was one of Black Zetsu's forces.

Even so, it was terrifying enough.

He carefully put the documents away, planning to give them to Minato upon returning to the village so that he could be prepared.

As for himself, he stroked his chin and pondered.

"No wonder Kakuzu and Hidan, both Kage-level in the original story, obediently completed bounties instead of simply robbing the bounty exchanges. So there was a reason for it!"

The documents contained no information about the bounty exchange itself, so Chentian did not know how powerful it truly was. Still, it was surely no small force.

Now that he had offended the bounty exchange, Chentian became more cautious.

After resting for a day, Chentian set off for the next town. This time, unlike before, he already had information on Tsunade.

After Chentian left Konoha, Minato and Orochimaru had not been idle. One technological invention after another emerged from Orochimaru's laboratory.

With Konoha's ninjas helping to farm, the village's funds had become almost inexhaustible, so large amounts were invested into the laboratory.

In Orochimaru's hands, the money became generators, electric lights, computers, and other items, greatly improving the quality of life for Konoha's people.

Once the news spread, some nobles of the Land of Fire stopped living in the capital and flocked to Konoha to settle down.

Following Chentian's suggestion, Minato started a real estate business. Seeing money flood in like sheets of paper, he could barely breathe.

As a result, Konoha not only did not spend money but made a considerable profit, leaving Minato grinning from ear to ear.

Seeing all this, Hiruzen Sarutobi was so sour his teeth nearly fell out. Why had he never had this much money when he was in office?

Because of money, he had often been led around by the nose by the daimyo. Unlike Minato, he could stand firm and completely ignore the daimyo.

With money, things naturally became different. Minato mobilized every ninja to build a new Konoha, not even sparing the Anbu.

Materials such as reinforced concrete were shipped out of Orochimaru's laboratory and turned into building after building by the ninjas.

The former two-story Hokage Building, once the tallest structure, no longer ranked among them. Towering buildings rose one after another.

Ninjas possessed astonishing labor capacity. Every morning when Konoha's residents woke up, they would find that the village had undergone major changes once again.

Besides all this, the most important news was that Uzumaki Kushina, the Fourth Hokage's wife and the Nine-Tails' jinchuriki, was pregnant!

The future savior, the unquestionable protagonist, was about to be born!

At this point, three of Konoha's future Twelve were already born, while the other nine were still being conceived.