Kisame Hoshigaki

Oto Uchiha came back carrying a head-Suikazan Fuguki's head, which was quite heavy.

A famous jonin like Fuguki had a black-market bounty of at least ten million, not to mention the intelligence on Kirigakure inside his brain. Sunagakure would certainly be happy to pay a hefty price for it.

They burned Fuguki's body on the spot, while Kakashi and Asuma handled preserving his head.

Zou Hyuga walked straight over to Samehada. Even among the Seven Ninja Swords, it was a highly unusual weapon: it was alive and had an innate ability to absorb chakra.

Right now, Samehada was trying to escape into the sea and become a happy little fish again.

Zou Hyuga grabbed Samehada by the tail. A suction force immediately emerged from it, devouring the chakra in his body.

Unbothered, Zou Hyuga raised Samehada and swung it a few times, casually slicing through several trees as thick as buckets.

Nice and heavy... reasonably sharp... not bad.

With that thought, Zou Hyuga hoisted Samehada onto his shoulder and returned to the site of their earlier battle.

Although Samehada felt good in his hands, he had no intention of keeping it. For one thing, he couldn't use a sword to perform Gentle Fist. For another, just like Fuguki's head, Samehada was worth a lot of money.

After passing through the dark forest, Zou Hyuga found Kakashi and Asuma staring at him.

What's wrong with you two?

Zou Hyuga kept those words to himself, but being stared at certainly felt uncomfortable.

"Zou, I think I owe you an apology..."

After hesitating for a moment, Asuma slowly said, "I may have misjudged you. You're an outstanding ninja! You would absolutely never abandon your comrades and run away..."

Beside him, Kakashi also looked as though he wanted to say something but couldn't quite get it out. His thoughts were much the same as Asuma's.

With this atmosphere, are they plotting something again?

Zou Hyuga glanced at Kakashi and Asuma and sighed inwardly.

"Kakashi, Asuma, according to our earlier agreement, Samehada belongs to me, and Fuguki's bounty gets split fifty-fifty. No objections, right?"

"Ah...!" Kakashi and Asuma froze for a moment, then nodded.

They weren't fools. They could both see who had contributed the most. Without Zou Hyuga sealing the enemy's chakra pathways with Gentle Fist, victory would have been difficult.

They had no objections to the division of the spoils, though it did add another layer to their view of Zou Hyuga.

Zou Hyuga might be a competent ninja and teammate, but he liked money even more, and was excessively enthusiastic about it.

As they spoke, Oto Uchiha returned with a bundle of loot, mostly money and ninja tools. She hadn't spared a thought for the plundered goods on the island.

Zou Hyuga looked at Oto Uchiha, who quickly spoke up.

"All the wealth the Mist Ninja plundered is in a cave in the island's cliffs. There are boats near the cave, too..."

Kakashi nodded. "Then let's take a boat back."

The ANBU squad immediately set off for the cave. It was a natural limestone cavern, filled mostly with bulky goods that were worth something but difficult to transport.

Faced with goods like these, even Zou Hyuga could only shake his head.

The little boat they found couldn't carry that much cargo.

Zou Hyuga could only adopt an air of compassion and announce that they would inform the town's officials of this location to compensate the residents for their losses.

Asuma and Kakashi merely rolled their eyes without saying anything.

Given enough time, though, they might awaken a variant of the Hyuga Clan's kekkei genkai: cataracts.

Seeing nothing more to squeeze out of the place, the ANBU squad boarded the little boat and prepared to return to land.

As for why they chose to take a boat instead of walking on water, the same old saying applied: even a mosquito had meat on it.

Out at sea.

Kakashi and Asuma watched the other two tallying their loot, their faces blank with speechless disbelief.

As they saw it, Zou Hyuga and the Uchiha even had to calculate the value of a single kunai, let alone everything else.

We're all ninja. Is this really necessary? We're at least chunin, after all.

To be fair, ninja earned a decent income. It was the sort of good job where one person's work could support an entire family.

Their money came mainly from two sources: mission pay and spoils, and death benefits.

Ahem, leaving death benefits aside for now, a chunin could easily earn a few hundred thousand a year, while a jonin could receive several hundred thousand ryo for a single mission.

Why quibble over every last bit? Aside from Zou and Oto, they couldn't think of any ninja this greedy.

They wouldn't be surprised if these two fell afoul of the Three Ninja Prohibitions the very next moment.

Zou Hyuga and Oto Uchiha had long since stopped caring what others thought. Even with Fuguki's head sitting beside them, they calmly counted their loot and money.

As ninja who had lived through a Shinobi World War, they were accustomed to seeing the dead, and had once been mocked for being cowardly.

But the grass on those people's graves had grown thick. Occasionally, they would visit the Heroes' Cemetery to pay their respects.

Those people were all heroes of Konoha. Sadly, most hadn't even left behind any belongings, only a name.

Their names were crammed together with everyone else's on the memorial stone, so tightly packed that they were difficult to make out.

They greatly admired those people's dedication to the village, even if they themselves didn't understand what the Will of Fire meant.

Admiration was one thing, of course, but the greatest casualties in the war had been genin who weren't adequately prepared.

For a time, Konoha had even had more chunin than genin. The two of them had gone to considerable lengths to avoid being promoted to chunin.

After finishing his count, Zou Hyuga smiled in relief. This mission had earned him at least half an A-rank's worth. Although the person behind that unit of measurement was sitting right beside him, it didn't stop him from using it.

With the spoils divided into four shares, Zou Hyuga handed Kakashi and Asuma theirs.

They might be rich enough not to need them, but he still had to offer.

Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!

Just then, several sharp water arrows suddenly shot toward them from the distant sea, casting rainbows in the sunlight.

Oto Uchiha instantly drew her sword, but when her eyes met Zou's, her swing slowed considerably.

"Sharingan, activate!"

Kakashi activated his Sharingan and formed hand seals, calling in a low voice, "Earth Release: Earth-Style Wall!"

An Earth-Style Wall took shape on the little boat in an instant. But out at sea, even an earth release master's technique couldn't accomplish much.

After weathering the initial attack, the ANBU squad moved onto the surface of the sea and tried to locate their attacker.

"The attacker is a hundred meters below the surface!"

With his Byakugan active, Zou Hyuga's expression darkened. "It's that Shark Face we ran into earlier. I clearly smashed the crown of his head. How is he still alive?"

"Perhaps you were careless..." Kakashi said.

Asuma nodded too. "Everyone slips up sometimes. That Shark Face looked like a small fry anyway. A chunin at most..."

Oto Uchiha gave Zou Hyuga a meaningful look. Knowing Zou's way of doing things, if he truly wanted someone dead, that person would have a hard time surviving.

Zou Hyuga's gaze wandered as he watched Kisame Hoshigaki beneath the sea.

He had noticed Kisame feigning death and deliberately refrained from finishing him off, instead pouring a large amount of natural chakra into him.

Miraculously, the man had survived. It seemed his body was anything but ordinary.

Perhaps, once he returned, he could write a report:

"Experimental Report on Shark Face and Natural Chakra."