Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh!
Four figures burst out of the forest and reached the foot of the reef. Judging by their positions, they seemed to have surrounded Yechen.
The Lightning Ball from earlier had indirectly killed several people, something Yechen could clearly detect with his senses.
The four who emerged had been lucky. They had been some distance from the center of the lightning storm, which was how they had escaped death.
Surrounded, Yechen calmly sized them up.
Their clothes and forehead protectors told him they were not ninjas from a hidden village. Even if they once had been, they no longer were.
The reason?
It was obvious. Each of their forehead protectors bore a slash-the mark of a rogue ninja in the Shinobi World.
Aside from the Akatsuki that would emerge later, the only organization capable of harboring so many rogue ninjas was the black market.
The black market was a peculiar presence in the Shinobi World. Not only did it have outposts in every country, but it also had its own mission system.
However, its missions differed from those issued by the major ninja villages. They came in all varieties, and most involved shady dealings.
Still, the fact that it existed meant it served a purpose.
For instance, anything the major ninja villages dared not do openly would be posted as a bounty mission on the black market.
It was precisely the tacit approval of those major villages that allowed the black market to exist.
In the Shinobi World, the five great hidden villages were the ones moving the pieces. All other forces were little more than paper tigers.
The black market was no exception.
Back to the matter at hand, the unusual nature of black market missions was precisely what drew most of the Shinobi World's rogue ninjas