Hearing Ōnoki speak like that, Jörmungandr's eyes flashed with anger. This was really pushing his luck.
Just as he was about to speak, Aizen stopped him and replied to Ōnoki, "Old sir, you've gone a bit too far. We've been giving you a lot of face, and we hope you'll show us some respect. Otherwise, we'll have no choice but to demonstrate our abilities to you."
Ōnoki's slightly angry words, realizing that his words had caused Aizen to misunderstand. He quickly explained, "You two have misunderstood. I didn't take your things for nothing. I believe you know that the bounty missions you received were issued by Iwagakure, and the bounties were also paid by Iwagakure."
"So what I'm suggesting is that since you've completed our mission, hand over the objective to us, and we'll pay you directly. This will save you a trip to the black market. What do you think?"
Ōnoki's explanation dispelled Jörmungandr's anger and made Aizen nod in agreement.
"No problem, the old gentleman handled it much better than we did; we underestimated him."
After saying that, Aizen gestured for Jörmungandr to take out the scroll containing Iwahato's corpse. He then held it in his hand and said to Ōnoki, "Old man, what you want is in my hands. So, our reward..."
Before Aizen could finish speaking, Ōnoki knew what he was going to say next. He immediately took out a scroll from his clothes, then broke the Sealing Jutsu on the scroll and took out its contents.
With a loud "bang," a puff of white smoke dissipated, and two black briefcases appeared in Ōnoki's hands. He then opened the briefcases and showed their contents to Aizen.
"There are forty million taels of silver here, five million more than Iwahato's bounty of thirty-five million. The extra is yours; consider it a token of friendship between Iwagakure and you."
After saying that, he closed the briefcase and casually tossed it in front of Aizen and the others, as if it were four thousand taels instead of forty million taels.
Ōnoki's frankness in handing over 40 million taels of silver and his extravagant act of paying first and then taking delivery of the goods surprised Aizen. He hadn't expected Ōnoki to carry so much silver with him and to be so casual about it.
However, despite Ōnoki's apparent candor, he couldn't help but secretly call him an "old fox."
"Since you're so sincere, Tsuchikage, we can't be stingy." With that, he tossed the scroll containing the corpse to Ōnoki and continued, "Because the corpse's death was rather unsightly, we won't show it to you directly, sir. But please trust our sincerity; we won't do anything shady."
Meanwhile, Ōnoki, who was praised by Aizen, secretly cursed Aizen as a "little fox."
Because he realized from Aizen's final reminder that his methods had been discovered, he could only quietly dispel the Light-Weight Rock Technique that Aizen had placed on the two suitcases.
His previous series of candid actions were all to conceal the Light-Weight Rock Technique he used on the briefcase at the end. Originally, he wanted to tease Aizen and the other two and regain some face for Iwagakure after their defeat.
Now look what happened; he not only failed to save face before, but he also lost face himself.
That's right, Aizen's words weren't really meant to express admiration, but rather a reminder after he discovered that Ōnoki had used some tricks on the briefcase containing the silver.
The underlying message is: I've discovered your tactics; you'd better stop now, or you'll lose face.
At the same time, Aizen admired Ōnoki's shamelessness, and couldn't help but sigh, "As expected of someone who governs a powerful ninja village, his skin is thick enough to make him laugh even when he's scheming against others."
"Alright, now that our transaction is over, would you be interested in taking on some more missions?" Ōnoki, holding the scroll, asked Aizen and the others.
He suddenly realized that since Aizen and his group were powerful bounty hunters, it would be perfect to assign them any challenging missions that Iwagakure might have.
Furthermore, Aizen and his group were mercenaries, so even if they died Iwagakure wouldn't care.
As for the rewards offered, they were a drop in the Iwagakure. Despite Iwagakure's seemingly desolate and harsh environment, it was rich in mineral resources, generating huge income from selling minerals. This was the reason why Iwagakure was able to send tens of thousands of ninjas to besiege the Third Kumogakure during the Third Shinobi World War.
"Since the Tsuchikage thinks so highly of our strength, we will certainly give Tsuchikage face. However, we will carefully select suitable missions to accept. After all, we must be extremely cautious about missions that can give Iwagakure, one of the Five Great Nations, a headache."
Aizen did not refuse Ōnoki's mission request, but they needed to choose carefully and not delay their own development time in order to complete the Iwagakure mission.
"Don't worry, with your abilities, you'll definitely be able to complete the task we've given you."
"How may we contact you?"
"To avoid any misunderstandings between us, I hope that Tsuchikage will post the quests you want us to complete directly on the black market, marked with a sun symbol. That way, when we search for quests on the black market, we can accept them as soon as we see this mark and then set off to complete them."
"We'll obtain the reward for completed missions directly from the black market. This way, it won't cause any trouble for either of us. Of course, if a mission posted by the Tsuchikage isn't accepted within five days, it means we've Tsuchikage it, so we hope you'll consider it carefully when posting missions."
Aizen was worried that leaving any means of communication might bring unknown risks to his main body, so he placed the transactions directly on the black market. This way, they had options while also ensuring the safety of his main body.
Ōnoki was somewhat surprised by this method. He had indeed intended to locate Aizen and the others through contact, but he hadn't expected Aizen to discover his plan. Aizen was indeed very meticulous.
Although Ōnoki thought this to himself, he nonchalantly said, "That's fine too. After all, it's you who will complete the mission, so it's all up to your wishes."
"As long as you can accept it, we at Iwagakure have no problem with it."
Aizen nodded after hearing this. "Alright, then we'll do it my way."
Ōnoki could be confident, but they couldn't. They had to proceed with caution while still concealing their true forms.
However, he could sense that their hiding time was almost over, and their true strength was about to advance even further.
"Now that the transaction is complete and all other matters have been agreed upon, we'll be leaving."
"No problem, I've already instructed the Iwagakure members that you won't be disturbed on your journey out of the Land of Earth."
After receiving Ōnoki's reply, Aizen and Jörmungandr left.