A hundred ways to split the loot and pass the buck

Jin Uchiha's mouth twitched.

After listening to Kazama Nara lay out his scheme, he could barely contain all the snark bubbling up inside him.

Well, damn!

You've learned every last trick in the arms dealer's handbook.

Keep your trump cards hidden and make a tidy profit on the side.

The Nara really are cunning bastards.

But that's just my kind of thing.

With that thought, he stopped wasting time and spoke up.

"Sounds good. I'm in."

"Let's get moving. Leave it too long and something might go wrong."

Both knew time was tight, so they stopped talking and got to work.

Taking the scroll Kazama Nara had given him, Jin gathered the bodies of the Hidden Mist ninja they had killed, while Kazama Nara went to skim off the contents of those two carts.

About three minutes later.

The two met up again. Kazama Nara lowered his voice, grinning like a fox that had stolen a chicken.

"I took a quick look."

"One cart of medicinal herbs, one cart of Explosive Tag."

"By my rough estimate, they're worth thirty million ryo altogether."

"I left the last cart alone. It's all Kunai, barely worth anything. Just right for handing over to the higher-ups."

"And don't worry."

"I didn't touch the seals on the carts when I checked. I used our Nara Household's secret technique."

"I guarantee nobody will spot anything fishy."

Jin sucked in a breath.

Hearing that, Jin Uchiha's heart gave a couple of hard thumps.

Well, damn.

No fucking wonder these are wartime supplies. Even the shipment handled by their little squad was this ridiculously lucrative.

No wonder those Americans in my past life kept stirring up trouble all over the world. War profiteering really is the fastest way to make money. Once you get on that ride, you can't get off.

Even here in the Shinobi World, where strength mattered more than ever, money and supplies were still hard currency.

Kazama Nara himself made Jin's eyelid twitch even harder.

Principles? He doesn't have any.

He seemed like an entirely different breed from the Nara Household portrayed in the Original Story.

But on second thought, perhaps that was nothing unusual.

The Original Story had painted everything far too cleanly. All that talk of the Will of Fire made it look like a fairy tale at first glance.

But what about in reality?

This was a deeply entrenched major lineage. How could they possibly be the innocent saints the story made them out to be?

Hiruzen Sarutobi and Shadow Hokage Danzo, whom people in his past life had talked about endlessly, had only had their facades stripped away because they stood right in the main plot, under everyone's magnifying glass.

As for lineages like the Ino–Shika–Cho, Aburame, and Inuzuka, they had appeared in the Original Story, but had never really been central to the plot.

It took no brains at all to figure it out.

Anyone capable of building a lineage couldn't possibly be some harmless, prayer-chanting saint.

And that went double for schemers like the Nara Household.

These lineages were just like the capitalists from his past life. No matter how much makeup they slapped on their faces, underneath they were all predators who devoured people without leaving so much as a bone.

Now this is more fucking like it.

The Uchiha?

Perhaps because they descended from Indra, they had been too powerful from the very beginning to bother with these underhanded schemes.

Before the Hidden Leaf was founded, back when each lineage claimed its own territory, the Uchiha had been able to hold vast tracts of land through sheer strength. Apart from the Senju, nobody had truly qualified as their rival.

Unfortunately, once the Hidden Leaf was founded, the lineages began banding together. Add in the Uchiha's vicious infighting, their inability to outscheme the others, and their outstanding geniuses being bewitched by the Hokage's faction.

If not for all that, a clan massacre?

What a fucking joke.

Once Jin Uchiha had thought it through, an old saying popped into his head.

My lord, times have changed.

His mouth twitched again. He drew a deep breath before speaking.

"Let's do this."

"We split the Explosive Tags fifty-fifty. You know the right channels for the herbs, so you sell them."

"Your Nara Household is in that business anyway. It'll be easier for you to move them."

"We can settle the money after the war."

Kazama Nara naturally had no objections.

He took out a fresh scroll, transferred half the Explosive Tags into it, and casually tossed it to Jin Uchiha.

Jin Uchiha didn't even check. He caught it and tucked it away.

He trusted Kazama Nara.

The Nara were too smart to antagonize him and his Sharingan over such a pittance.

A few minutes later, Shin Kudo woke up.

Jin Uchiha and Kazama Nara had just finished dividing the loot and came over right on cue.

As their resident strategist, Kazama Nara naturally took the lead in explaining things.

"Captain, we're sorry."

"We did drive off the Hidden Mist ninja, but Jin and I weren't strong enough. Even fighting for our lives, we only killed three and saved one cart."

"The three Hidden Mist bodies have all been sealed in a scroll."

"As for Itsuki Ishikawa... sigh."

"It's a long story."

"..."

Kazama Nara's voice brimmed with emotion.

Then he launched into his account. His talent for acting was no joke.

By the time he finished, he had both highlighted their achievements and firmly pinned the blame for the lost supplies on Itsuki Ishikawa.

It all boiled down to one thing: it was that dumb fuck's fault.

If he hadn't refused to listen and insisted he was invincible, none of this mess would have happened.

With the three of them working together, even if they couldn't kill those two Hidden Mist ninja, they could at least have scraped by and protected themselves.

But the idiot had neither the ability nor the sense to listen. He had charged straight out like a fool, only to be butchered like a piglet by the Hidden Mist ninja. Now he was barely clinging to life.

Even that was only because the two of them, their hearts brimming with the "Will of Fire," had fought desperately to drag him out of the pile of corpses while holding the remaining cart at all costs. Otherwise, the moron would have been stone-cold dead already.

No matter how you looked at it, that dumb fuck was the root of the problem.

Otherwise, if everyone had stayed together to guard the supplies, how the fuck could so much have gone wrong?

Jin Uchiha listened from the sidelines, utterly dumbfounded.

Goddamn. He really is a member of the Nara Household.

If he hadn't said it himself, I'd never have realized I was this selfless.

So I'm a successor to the "Will of Fire," too, huh?

Bam.

Shin Kudo, who had only just opened his eyes, slammed a fist into the tree trunk beside him.

"That useless bastard, Itsuki Ishikawa."

"I knew he was arrogant beyond belief, but I never imagined he'd have such a death wish."

"Did he forget our mission was to deliver supplies, not go around killing people?"

"I understand what happened now. Once we reach the Front Lines camp, I'll report every detail to Lord Miyamoto."

Yes, Shin Kudo really believed it.

Although he hadn't witnessed it himself and had only worked with them briefly, he knew Itsuki Ishikawa's temperament. The man really was capable of doing something like this.

More importantly, Itsuki Ishikawa wasn't dead.

Once he woke up and they brought him to camp, the ANBU had plenty of ways to pry the truth out of him. Jin Uchiha and Kazama Nara had no reason to make things up about something like this.

More crucially, since the supplies were already gone, somebody had to take the blame. Otherwise, all three of them would be in deep trouble with the higher-ups.

The village wouldn't care about the circumstances. They only looked at results.

But now things were different. With someone taking the blame, even if they earned no credit, at least they wouldn't be punished.

Itsuki Ishikawa?

Who cared whether he lived or died? All three men present disliked him.

To put it even more bluntly, they would actually be happier if he kicked the bucket.

Jin Uchiha and Kazama Nara were both genuinely shrewd, and Shin Kudo hadn't survived the previous war by being an idiot.

Precisely for that reason, if the three of them pulled together, their chances of surviving the battles ahead would improve considerably.

But throw Itsuki Ishikawa into the mix, and everything changed. That idiot who didn't know his own limits couldn't accomplish a single useful thing, but he was first-rate at dragging everyone down.

Sooner or later, he would get them all killed. Under those circumstances, who would still pity him?