You Are Greedier Than an ADC

The three pairs of eyes locked onto Kawata Genji at once. The flickering campfire illuminated his pale face, leaving his panic and guilt completely exposed.

Orochimaru stood a short distance behind them, his golden slit-pupils sweeping over the group. Having just cleared up the confusion for the three of them, he had resumed his posture as a bystander. He intended to watch this young yet interesting deduction play out quietly tonight.

Facing the gaze of the three, Kawata's lips trembled and cold sweat kept rolling down his forehead. Finally unable to withstand the psychological pressure, he spoke in a broken manner.

"I... I really didn't know the other party's identity!"

"I started trading with them last October. The person trading with me wore a mask the entire time, but their offer was ridiculously high. They had me collect Green Velvet Grass powder over the long term and regularly notified me to trade near the border in the Land of Fire, with a different location every time."

"I was just doing it for the money, I have no idea which faction the other party belongs to!"

Asuma frowned. "If it was just a normal transaction, why did the other party try to intercept and kill you?"

"That's right. You're just a middleman. Since the other party wanted to acquire medicinal herbs, there was simply no reason to kill you." Kurenai also nodded slightly, her eyes full of confusion.

This was also the most contradictory point in the whole affair. The other party concealed their identity, made high-priced acquisitions, and maintained a low profile throughout, clearly intending to receive the goods securely. Yet tonight, they had deployed Death Soldiers to intercept and assassinate him with ruthless methods, completely intent on silencing him.

Kawata Genji wore an expression that was close to crying, shaking his head incessantly. "I really don't know! I delivered on time every time and never made a mistake. I can't figure out why they want to kill me either! You..."

"How many times have you traded? Was the quantity the same every time?"

Kawata Genji was still anxiously defending himself with an innocent look when Tsukimi's voice suddenly cut in. Hearing it, Kawata Genji spoke out instinctively. "We've traded five times, the quantity was the same every time."

Only after answering did Kawata Genji react. Raising his head, he saw Tsukimi looking at him with a half-smile.

"You really never made a mistake, Mr. Kawata?"

The tone was exceptionally calm, yet it struck right at Kawata Genji's heart, making his whole body shake and all the color drain from his face.

Kurenai saw the clue and asked Tsukimi, "What is it? Is there a problem with what Mr. Kawata said?"

Tsukimi chuckled, turned to look at Kurenai, and asked a question.

"We analyzed just now that the other party is doing this for living experiments. So Kurenai, if you were the person behind the scenes, under what circumstances would you take action to kill the middleman for the sake of a living experiment?"

Hearing this, both Kurenai and Asuma fell into deep thought. Two minutes later, the two of them looked at each other and spoke at the same time.

"There are only two possibilities!"

"There are three possibilities!"

"Eh? Are there three possibilities?" Asuma scratched his head, having only managed to think of two after pondering for a long time.

Ignoring Asuma, the dim-witted one, Tsukimi raised his chin, signaling Kurenai to voice her thoughts.

"If I were the mastermind, under the premise that everything serves a living experiment, either funds would run out and transactions could no longer continue, or the experiment would be ending and, to keep the secret, all knowledgeable people would be directly eliminated."

"Yes, yes, yes. That's what I thought. Either the other party ran out of money, or the experiment is over and they no longer need the Green Velvet Grass powder, so the middleman is no longer worth keeping around."

Asuma nodded repeatedly upon hearing this, indicating that he had thought the exact same thing.

Kurenai ignored him and continued with the third possibility, glancing at Kawata Genji as she spoke. "There is another possibility, which is that someone tampered with the transaction. In that case, regardless of whether there is a risk of information leakage, it is impossible to let him live!"

"If the Wind, Earth, and Lightning Great Nations are behind the scenes, then the funding issue can be ruled out. As for whether the experiment is over..."

At this point, Tsukimi turned to look at Orochimaru behind him. "Teacher, judging by your assessment, is this amount of herbal powder enough to support the other party's living experiments until they conclude?"

"Heh heh, living experiments are no simple matter. The time required often spans several years. What do you think?"

Orochimaru's hoarse voice drifted into the ears of the three along with the night wind.

"Then the possibility of the experiment concluding can be ruled out. Now only one possibility remains," Asuma said.

"It seems your hands aren't clean, Mr. Kawata!"

Tsukimi's voice was unhurried as he slowly laid bare the trickery within. "Either you secretly withheld some, or you passed off inferior goods as quality ones, or even turned traitor and bit the hand that feeds you, right?!"

As his words fell, the mountain hollow went quiet for a moment. Asuma and Kurenai's eyes lit up, the previous contradictions and oddities finally connecting together at this moment.

No wonder!

No wonder a simple herbal transaction had forcibly turned into the current situation.

Having his deepest secrets pierced open, Kawata Genji completely broke down. No longer able to pretend, he slumped onto the ground with a dejected expression.

After a long silence, he finally gritted his teeth and spat out the whole truth.

"It's... it's because I was too greedy..."

"Their offer was simply too high, so every time we traded the Green Velvet Grass powder, I would quietly hold back a portion. I originally thought that after accumulating enough, I would turn around and sell it back to them."

"Even... even using the excuse that the quantity was limited and hard to acquire, I wanted to manipulate the other party, reduce the transaction volume, and take the opportunity to drive up the price!"

"I figured that since the other party was buying in bulk and offered a price three times higher than the market rate, they wouldn't mind. Besides, even if they noticed, they couldn't do anything to me..."

At this point, Kawata Genji was filled with fear and regret.

"I kept clinging to wishful thinking, and I started doing it from the second transaction."

"Wait, what makes you think they couldn't do anything to you?"

Asuma interrupted Kawata Genji and asked with a puzzled expression.

"Because I checked. The people trading with me were all ordinary people with no ninja present, so I assumed they were just an underground merchant guild in the Land of Fire."

Kurenai immediately followed up with a question. "How did you confirm that?"

Seeing that matters had reached this point, Kawata Genji no longer hid anything, spilling everything like beans pouring out of a bamboo tube and answering whatever was asked.

"I once saved two rogue ninja and later took them in, and I even acquired ninjutsu for them on the black market at a high price. During the second transaction, I brought one along to verify on the spot."

Kurenai looked at Tsukimi and said in a deep voice, "It seems the other party is very cautious, even using ordinary people to show their face during transactions."

"Then why didn't you bring those two rogue ninja bodyguards this time?" Asuma continued his cross-examination.

"I did bring them! I was feeling somewhat uneasy during that period, so for safety's sake, I left one to watch the house and brought one ninja—Kaz—along when I went out." Hearing this, Kawata Genji's voice suddenly pitched up a notch.

"Everything was peaceful all the way until I reached Konoha, so I left Kaz behind outside to act in secret and investigate the situation. As for myself, I issued an escort mission before setting out, using both approaches at once."

"Because I was afraid that being too high-profile would expose me, I only issued a C-Rank Mission." The further he went, the lower Kawata Genji's voice became.

"I only blame myself for underestimating them. All the way along this road, I never caught sight of Kaz, not even a secret signal left behind. I knew right then that he was already gone."

"So the closer you got to the Land of Rivers, the more panicked you became?"

At this point, the truth finally surfaced.

This confrontation, which had stirred up the secret lines of the Great Nations, was triggered solely by a merchant's greed.

Hearing all this, Asuma felt it was somewhat absurd, and for a moment he didn't even know whether he should be angry. Kawata Genji's greed was the very thing that had attracted a squad of Chunin to intercept and assassinate them.

Kurenai was also somewhat amused and exasperated. The doubts in her heart completely dissipated, leaving only overflowing helplessness.

Orochimaru, who had been observing the whole thing from the side, narrowed his snake-like pupils slightly, a meaningful smile rising at the corner of his mouth.

Human greed, selfishness, and ignorance were as interesting and pathetic as ever.

Tsukimi looked at Kawata Genji, who was trembling before him with a look of utter regret, not a shred of sympathy in his gaze.

With a greed like yours, why aren't you out there playing carry?!

"Now, there's one last question."

Paying no more attention to Kawata Genji, Tsukimi looked at Kurenai and Asuma, raising a single finger. "Things have progressed to this point, and this has completely exceeded the scope of a C-Rank Mission. Are we still going to continue or not?"