Naruto: Starting with Tsunade

Chapter 169 Kakuzu expresses his desire to be an accountant

Tell me, what good ideas do you have?

"Kidnapping and ransom," Aokiji uttered.

Unexpectedly, yet logically, Kakuzu asked upon hearing this, "Who do you intend to kidnap this time?"

Since that last wave, Kakuzu has made a fortune, so much so that he's been considering switching careers and becoming a bandit—the money just comes too fast.

"The Daimyo of the Land of Fire".

Upon hearing the name, Kakuzu was stunned for a moment, his eerie pupils contracting in surprise, and for a moment he thought he was hallucinating.

"Don't be nervous, to be precise, he is the son of the daimyo of the Land of Fire."

Aokiji spoke in a nonchalant tone, as if he were casually chatting about how the weather was today.

Kakuzu calmed himself down, his chuckle tinged with surprise: "You little brat, you've got some nerve. Last time you dared to burn down the lord's castle, and this time you dared to kidnap the daimyo's son. I don't even want to think about what you'll do next."

Are you scared?

Kakuzu laughed it off, ignoring Aokiji's provocation: "Kidnapping a daimyo's son is a very risky business."

"That's why I had to use a transformation spell to change my appearance, and even use this picture to see you."

Aokiji urged, "Think it over carefully. If you can pull this off, the rewards will be immeasurable. They'll be measured in hundreds of millions."

Kakuzu is indeed greedy, but not to the point of being obsessed with money: "If you want to make money through kidnapping and extortion, kidnapping those rich businessmen would be safer."

"With just your Sharingan, you could steal all the money in the bank, then kill them to cover it up, and no one could find any evidence. Hmph..."

Aokiji nodded in agreement: "Indeed, but this time, besides making money, the main reason is some personal grudges."

"Personal grudge?"

Kakuzu's gaze revealed a keen interest.

To put it simply, I received a lot of care from the prison authorities while I was in jail.

"These flowers that live in a greenhouse, after they get out of prison, I plan to let them experience the harshness of the world for free, hmph..."

Revenge, is that it...?

Kakuzu murmured to himself, recalling long-forgotten memories; in this respect, he was quite similar to him.

"That sounds interesting, but the risk is still too high. If we fail, you and I will probably be hunted down endlessly."

Sometimes, refusing is not due to a lack of ability, but simply because the other party's offer is not high enough.

The price here doesn't just refer to money in a narrow sense, but in a broader sense, such as Aokiji wanting to eliminate his worries.

Aokiji paused for a moment, then changed the subject: "Did you spend the money we raised last time?"

"no."

Gold and silver jewelry as well as banknotes, Kakuzu considered them to be of equal value, so he wasn't in a hurry to cash them out.

"That's good……"

Kakuzu was puzzled by Aokiji's sudden sigh of relief: "What's wrong?"

I was in a hurry when I left last time and forgot one thing: I told Kakuzu to go and launder money.

Money laundering.

Aside from the gold, silver, valuables, antiques, and paintings that were confiscated during the raids, even banknotes have serial numbers. If they spent money recklessly, someone could easily trace their whereabouts and seize everything. Who knows?

Since Kakuzu asked, Aokiji told him about his concerns.

Upon hearing this, Kakuzu's pupils contracted.

He used to be a bounty hunter. Although it wasn't a respectable profession, at least the money he earned was relatively clean. He had never really thought about money laundering.

"You are quite meticulous."

Kakuzu isn't afraid of people coming to him, but if a constant stream of people come looking for him because of this, he'll probably be in trouble in the future. At the very least, he definitely won't be able to be a bounty hunter anymore, because he'll become the one being targeted for bounty...

"Do you need me to give you some advice?"

Qingzhi, knowing his preferences, helped him dispose of the stolen goods.

"explain."

"If you walk along the river often, you won't get your shoes wet. The best way to avoid getting your shoes wet is to reduce the number of times you walk along the river."

Kakuzu narrowed his eyes, his gaze seeming to ask him what he meant.

Aokiji smiled slightly: "Money can be gradually circulated and laundered through gambling. As for gold and silver jewelry, my suggestion is that we stockpile them, and then when we have accumulated a certain amount, we sell them all at once. From then on, we'll retire from gambling and never do it again, which is commonly known as 'laundering oneself and going ashore.' At this point, even if the daimyo wants to find us, it will be too late. Because we'll be out of business, it will be difficult for them to find any evidence against us."

"Even if you say that, it would still be a bit difficult for just the two of us." Kakuzu said this because he was clearly tempted, but he still had some concerns.

Aokiji raised his eyelids slightly and voiced the other's concern: "You mean, without revealing your full strength?"

Whether it's Kakuzu's Earth Grudge Fear, Aokiji's Ice Release, or the Sharingan, any one of them is extremely distinctive.

Kakuzu nodded slightly in affirmation.

Aokiji stroked his chin, pondering for a while.

If the two of them want to successfully kidnap the daimyo's son, they will have to use abilities they are not usually good at, which will greatly reduce their strength.

Kakuzu is alright, after all, his stats are there, and his ninjutsu is a ready-made technique obtained by taking his heart, so he doesn't have to worry about giving himself away.

But Aokiji was in a much worse situation.

Forget about Ice Release and Sharingan; he can't even use Fire Release, which he's good at.

His fire-style techniques are all inherited from his ancestors, and he would expose his weakness as soon as he used them.

Since this technique is unusable and that technique is not allowed, Aokiji can only use Water Release techniques.

It would be good if they could use half of their full strength.

Fortunately, he still has time to improve his Water Release ninjutsu. He's not stupid enough to seek revenge on the daimyo's son as soon as he's released; that would be too easy to make connections. It will take at least a few months.

However, it wouldn't be bad to take this opportunity to refine his Water Release skills. He was going to train Water Release anyway, and he's been trying to fuse Boil Release recently, so Water Release is something he absolutely needs to learn.

The Second Hokage's insights on Water Release training that I had previously obtained from my girlfriend came in handy.

With that in mind, Aokiji offered a suggestion: "Just find some help."

"The more people there are, the more problems are likely to arise," Kakuzu expressed his concern. "Aren't you afraid of betrayal?"

Aokiji replied with a smile, "That's why I'm changing my appearance."

Kakuzu chuckled twice: "Then from now on I will call you Hao Asakura."

Aokiji suggested with a smile, "Brother Kakuzu, why don't you change your name too?"

Kakuzu nodded, finding it quite reasonable, and changed his name.

Out of caution, Aokiji specifically asked, "This name doesn't belong to someone I know, does it?"

Jiao Bu asked, confused, "What's wrong?"

"Hey, better safe than sorry. What if they search our ninjas and happen to make some connection to this name? That would be troublesome!"

This is not an exaggeration on Aokiji's part. He often sees police officers in dramas who, through a series of coincidences, make a connection and eventually follow the clues to arrest criminal suspects.

Upon hearing this, Kakuzu immediately changed his name, feeling pleased. He enjoyed dealing with intelligent people: "Working with someone as prudent as you to make money will save me a lot of trouble."

The name he just used was from his first time as a bounty hunter, and since the kill fee was quite high, he remembered it well, so he just used it. Now that he thinks about it, it was a bit too hasty.

Aokiji continued, "Brother Kakuzu, how much money do you have in total right now?"

Why are you asking that?

Kakuzu immediately becomes alert at the mention of money; he has always been very concerned about money matters.

"I'm not stealing from you..." Aokiji shrugged speechlessly: "I've said it before, it's inevitable to use some low-level methods during the initial stage of capital accumulation, but when assets accumulate to a certain level, stability is the most important thing."

"In the early stages, we can seize a lot of money by kidnapping and extorting those wealthy businessmen, but if you walk by the river long enough, you're bound to get your shoes wet eventually, so it's necessary to go bankrupt and get out of the water."

"Stealing the throne of the Bear Kingdom is one move, starting a company is another. To do that, I need to know exactly how much money you have to facilitate future strategic planning."

Kakuzu thought it made a lot of sense, said "Wait a moment," left the room, and returned with an account book in his hand, which he handed to Aokiji.

Aokiji, with his legs crossed, took the book, glanced at it, and frowned. "Is this the only one, just this little book?"

"What's wrong?"

"There's only one number showing inflows and outflows; can this really be called an ledger?"

Aokiji slammed the account book on the table, looking utterly disappointed.

"Is there a problem?" Kakuzu had been a ninja all his life, greedy for money, but not good at this kind of thing.

This is not his fault, but the fault of the times.

Aokiji picked up the ledger, flipped through it, and cursed, "Not only are there no financial statements, income statements, and cash flow statements, but there aren't even general ledgers or subsidiary ledgers! How am I supposed to check the assets?"

Kakuzu was bombarded with insults, but he didn't get angry.

Although he didn't understand what balance sheets, cash flow statements, profit and loss statements, etc., were, it didn't stop him from sounding very sophisticated and high-class.

"What do you call the balance sheet you just mentioned, the cash flow statement?"

"You don't understand?" Aokiji was taken aback.

Kakuzu glanced at him, as if to say, "If he knew, would you even have the right to criticize me?"

Aokiji coughed a few times, as if he had taken things for granted.

"Fine, I'll just make it up myself." Aokiji sighed. Taking inventory of assets was a huge undertaking. Unfortunately, he seemed to be the only one in the world who knew how to do it.

Kakuzu's money is now also shared by Aokiji, so naturally he has to put in extra effort.

"Why make up this stuff?"

"Brother Kakuzu, you wouldn't want your hard-earned money to be secretly misappropriated, would you?"

Aokiji only replied with this one sentence, and Kakuzu immediately dared not utter a single word.

Although the time span is long, fortunately, Kakuzu's income and expenditure are very simple, so it is not too difficult to weave the story.

Kakuzu stared blankly at the densely written accounting entries in the notebook.

I can understand things like monetary assets, short-term loans, and long-term loans, but I don't understand things like bad debt provisions, deferred assets, and retained earnings.

Kakuzu was completely taken aback by this thing he'd never seen before; it seemed incredibly high-class.

"What kind of stuff are you writing?"

"Accounting entry, a method of accounting."

"Accounting?"

"It means unifying all the useful economic transactions of a company into economic information that is measured in monetary units, and providing information that reflects the company's financial status and operating results through a series of procedures such as bookkeeping, accounting, and reporting."

Aokiji recited a passage of accounting concepts.

Kakudo was stunned, his eyes lighting up.

Aokiji blinked: "Want to learn?"

(End of this chapter)