Naruto: Starting with Tsunade

Chapter 175 Making Money

After separating from Tsunade, Aokiji met with Kakuzu at the agreed time and place to discuss how to make money.

In a small room, the two sat down around a round table.

Kakuzu took out a small notebook filled with information about wealthy businessmen, and even thoughtfully attached their photos.

On the other hand, Aokiji's version was much simpler, so simple that nothing was written at all.

Kakuzu was naturally very dissatisfied with this, much like a worker who had been tricked by his boss, and said in a gruff voice: "You kid, you didn't slack off, did you? How come you didn't prepare anything?"

"Brother Kakuzu, I'm not happy with what you're saying," Aokiji vehemently denied, tapping his head. "I just memorized all the information."

Although he was indeed busy dating Tsunade for a while and didn't gather intelligence, he still worked diligently later on.

To prove his innocence, Aokiji presented all the information he had gathered.

Name: Akizuki Kozo.

Male, 65 years old.

……

……

He has been married twice in the past. The first time, his wife was an ordinary person, and the second time, she was a rich woman. The third time, his wife was a young girl who was only eighteen years old. Each time he got married, his ex-wife would coincidentally die of illness. I guess this person is not a good person. He is rich but bad, and he is a perfect person to do justice to God.

After hearing this, Kakuzu decided to believe that Aokiji was seriously gathering intelligence.

Aokiji raised his hand to vote: "I propose we start with this person."

"Can."

Kakuzu nodded slightly. To him, as long as there was money to go ahead, it didn't matter who went first or last: "What's the plan?"

"I plan to kidnap his wife and then blackmail the old man for money. To do that, I've investigated where his wife usually goes."

"What's wrong? Is it difficult to make a move against that wealthy businessman's bodyguard?"

Kakuzu felt that with his and Aokiji's combined strength, it shouldn't be difficult to make a move. He simply used his Sharingan to hypnotize the wealthy man, extract information, and then killed him and disposed of the body.

In Aokiji's words, since he was killing scum, he felt no guilt and even had a sense of moral superiority as someone who was doing justice for God.

Then, use a portion of the money to open an orphanage to help homeless children, and incidentally select qualified orphans to recruit into the organization. Why not?

"I don't recommend doing that. If the method of committing the crime is too simple, it's hard not to make connections."

Aokiji stroked his chin and said cautiously, "Besides that, we need to finish this job and then immediately move on to another location."

Kakuzu nodded in agreement, quite approving.

Aokiji continued, "It may be a bit troublesome, but we're in a high-risk profession, so we can't be too cautious."

"You're right." Kakuzu followed the advice: "Then what are we waiting for? Let's kidnap his wife and demand a ransom!"

"Calm down." Aokiji crossed his legs and waved his hand. "What's the rush?"

Kakuzu, clearly unsettled, remarked, "Time is money."

Aokiji laughed and said, "Capturing his wife is something we can do anytime with our capabilities. The key is to maximize profits while controlling the risks."

Upon hearing the term "profit maximization," Kakuzu immediately became interested: "Tell me how to maximize profits."

"Revenue - Costs = Profit, this statement is easy to understand, right? To obtain the maximum profit, there are only two ways: either increase revenue or reduce costs."

Kakuzu nodded and listened quietly; he really enjoyed this economics course.

"In my line of work, income is simply the money you get after completing a job. Costs are the time spent on the job, and of course, there are some equipment costs, but those are negligible. To reduce risk, we can't operate at ordinary times. In other words, we can't reduce the time cost. So, the only thing left is to figure out how to increase income."

Kakuzu, still clinging to his ninja mindset, said: "Increase revenue? You mean extort more?"

Aokiji shook his head in denial: "If we extort too much, it will exceed the other party's ability to pay. If they hesitate, we will be slower to collect the money, and the risk will be higher."

Kakuzu found this reasonable: "So what you mean is?"

"Fat the pigs before you eat them."

Kakuzu: ? ? ?

Aokiji chuckled, "Does Brother Kakuzu still work as a bounty hunter?"

Kakuzu was taken aback, not understanding why he was asking this.

Despite her confusion, she still replied, "I haven't done it since you last came."

Ever since discovering how lucrative the "acting on behalf of heaven" line of work is, Kakuzu has declared that anyone who becomes a bounty hunter is a fool, as the money comes in far too slowly.

Aokiji smiled and said, "Bounty hunter, don't stop, keep going."

Kakuzu looked puzzled.

Aokiji didn't reply immediately, instead asking another question: "Brother Kakuzu, when you were a bounty hunter, did you ever encounter situations where the bounty on a target changed while you were tracking them?"

Kakuzu pondered for a moment: "Such a thing has happened before."

"Have you ever considered capturing them first and then waiting for their value to appreciate?"

Kakuzu was taken aback. As an honest and simple man, he had never thought of such a thing. But then he thought it wouldn't work and said, "This kind of opportunity is rare and hard to come by. It's not that easy to increase one's value."

Aokiji smiled slightly: "It's true that honestly waiting for the bounty to increase is very luck-based, but how can we intervene artificially?"

Kakuzu was taken aback: "Human intervention?"

"If this bounty target were to kidnap and extort a wealthy man, how much do you think the bounty would increase in value?"

"You're a real genius, kid."

Kakuzu understood and couldn't help but laugh out loud. The more he looked at Aokiji, the more pleasing he became; he was too good at making money.

Aokiji laughed too: "They'll have to thank us for avenging him. Hehe..."

"How interesting." Kakuzu's thoughts wandered: "In this way, we can also use this identity to clear our names, right?"

Aokiji nodded: "But Brother Kakuzu, you should be careful. Given your status, it's inconvenient for you to frequently exchange for bounties. Otherwise, it will easily arouse suspicion."

Kakuzu narrowed his eyes slightly: "You mean you want me to use the identity of another bounty hunter?"

"That's right, but before we borrow this bounty hunter identity, to avoid unnecessary trouble later..." Aokiji made a throat-slitting gesture, his meaning was already very clear.

The black market is full of all sorts of bounty hunters, so Aokiji doesn't feel any psychological burden when he kills them.

Kakuzu basically understood Aokiji's thinking, but one thing was still unclear: "If that's the case, why not just let me give up my bounty hunter identity? Instead, why use the identities of other bounty hunters?"

Aokiji glanced at him: "With Kakuzu's strength, he should be considered a celebrity among bounty hunters in the black market."

"If we're talking about individual strength, I haven't encountered anyone stronger than myself yet." Kakuzu wasn't boasting; he was simply stating a fact.

Aokiji nodded in agreement; speaking of which, Kakuzu was quite an oddball.

His strength is considered quite formidable even among Kage-level characters, yet he condescended to become a bounty hunter.

Aokiji analyzed, "With your strength and reputation, if you suddenly retire, it's easy to appear like you're trying to cover up your actions. So, my suggestion is to gradually reduce the frequency of your missions and then slowly retire. That way, it won't seem abrupt."

"You're really being cautious."

Kakuzu greatly admired Aokiji's ability to consider all aspects, and working with someone like him would save a lot of trouble.

Furthermore, there was another aspect of Aokiji that he valued highly: Aokiji was a man of principle who never killed innocent people indiscriminately and even frequently used money to help those in need.

Although this may seem naive to Kakuzu, it actually highlights Aokiji's ability and principles.

After determining the general direction, Aokiji and Kakuzu got busy inside.

Their first task was to find a bounty hunter to kill, and through Kakuzu's network of connections, the two easily found a bounty hunter to kill.

This bounty hunter is of average skill, has a bad character, and doesn't have many friends, making him the most suitable target.

With the combined strength of Kakuzu and Aokiji, killing him would be a piece of cake.

After taking care of the bounty hunter, Aokiji and Kakuzu took the next step, finding a bounty target and easily defeating him.

Even without using secret techniques or bloodline limits, the two of them could easily deal with this bounty target.

"Damn it, he's too strong."

The defeated bounty target lay on the ground, his face filled with despair.

Kakuzu roughly grabbed his head, his green eyes radiating a chilling light: "I'm giving you two choices now. First, come with me, and you can live and make money. Second..."

Before Kakuzu could finish speaking, the bounty target immediately and eagerly agreed: "I choose one."

It goes without saying that the second option is death.

Everyone was quite satisfied, looking at this "tool person number 1".

They need people to impersonate them. If they kill them directly, the bodies will rot. So they keep them around for now, and when they need them, they deliberately reveal their identities, wait for them to become more valuable, and then choose to kill them.

Desperados like them have no choice but to obey Aokiji and Kakuzu's orders. Under coercion and enticement, they have no fear that the two will do anything to defect.

Kakuzu glanced at a man wearing a swirling, single-eyed orange mask.

Aokiji understood and stepped forward to use his Palm Healing Technique to treat the first tool.

The man, whose complexion had gradually returned to normal, swallowed hard and asked, "May I ask how you two are addressed?"

Kakuzu: Ding Xiu

Aokiji: Ye Wang

The two told the tool person number one the pseudonyms they had prepared beforehand.

A magnetic voice, altered from beneath the Aokiji mask, said, "We two want to get things done and need some manpower. A desperate outlaw like you would be perfect for us."

The first "tool" weakly asked, "May I ask what Lord Ding Xiu and Lord Ye need me to do?"

Aokiji uttered two words: "Kidnapping."

Tool Person Number One: ? ? ?

After that, Kakuzu and Aokiji found another tool, number two, and did the same thing.

With this, Aokiji and Kakuzu's preparations were basically complete, and they moved on to the most crucial practical stage.

(End of this chapter)