Naruto: Starting with Tsunade

Chapter 176: Sold out, and still counting the money for the seller.

The sun was shining brightly that day.

The wife of a wealthy man is happily selecting gold and silver jewelry in a jewelry store.

A loud bang startled her, causing her to turn pale and crouch down with her eyes closed. Before she could even react, it felt as if something had struck her neck, and she fainted.

When she woke up, her vision was blurry, as if something was entangled in it. She had never seen anything like this before and was immediately terrified, screaming incoherently.

"Ahhh—help!"

Aokiji imitated the voice of the number one tool: "Hehehehe, scream all you want, even if you scream your lungs out, no one will come to save you."

Upon hearing Aokiji's words, the young, wealthy woman shouted even louder.

Aokiji, pretending to be a bad guy, continued to be mischievous: "Come on, let Uncle give you a good pat on the back, then you won't be scared anymore."

At this moment, Kakuzu, disguised as tool number two, cursed in a deep voice: "Kameda, stop being so lecherous."

Aokiji scoffed in annoyance.

The two are inadvertently shifting the blame onto two people who are merely pawns in their scheme.

As for the two "tools," they were sent by Aokiji to inform the wealthy businessman's wife that she had been kidnapped, and to say that if he didn't want anything to happen to her, he should pay the ransom.

Under normal circumstances, in order to prevent the kidnappers from tearing up their tickets, those who are threatened will not report it, and even deliberately conceal it.

The wealthy old man initially tried to be clever, paying money to rescue his wife first, and then sending his secret henchmen to kill the two kidnappers who dared to kidnap his wife.

However, Aokiji anticipated his prediction and didn't show up the first time, infuriating the old man.

The old man was dumbfounded. How could this be different from what was agreed upon? He had laid a trap just to catch someone, but now he was just a complete fool.

After being left out in the cold for a day, the wealthy old man could only return to his mansion in a helpless rage.

At this moment, a servant brought him a cup of tea to calm him down.

The wealthy old man had no interest in tea. He picked up the teacup and angrily threw it on the ground, saying, "Get out! I'm not in the mood for tea right now."

"I think you'd better have some tea, sir."

The wealthy old man was startled. This voice was not that of his servant. By the time he realized what was happening, his servant's appearance had changed drastically.

Aokiji revealed his true form by using the face disguised as Tool Man Number One.

The wealthy old man was stunned for a moment, and just as he realized something and was about to speak, Qingzhi retorted first: "Damn it, you have Alzheimer's, you had surgery and your head has moved to your butt. With your net worth, is 6000 million taels a lot for me to kidnap your little wife? From beginning to end, have I asked you for a single extra tael? And you still dare to play tricks on me."

The wealthy old man was taken aback. How confident is he in extortion and kidnapping these days?

Judging from the other party's indignant expression, one would think they had suffered a great loss.

"Tomorrow at noon, I want you to prepare 120 million taels of silver, arrive at the Tongling Bridge, the transaction point, leave the money there, and then you can leave."

"Once I receive the money, I will release your wife. If you dare to resort to any tricks, you'd better prepare to collect your little darling's corpse."

The wealthy old merchant was taken aback: "Wait, wasn't it agreed that it would be 6000 million taels?"

"You broke your promise, now the price has gone up."

After saying that, Aokiji didn't give the other party a chance to refute him and used the Body Flicker Technique.

In the blink of an eye, the other person had vanished, infuriating the old man who then launched into a tirade of curses.

The next day, the wealthy old man dared not try to be clever again. He went alone, carrying large sums of money, to Tongling Bridge.

He left the money on the bridge, then returned to his mansion. After a while, the kidnappers, having received the money, released his young wife as agreed.

The wealthy old man was furious. Paying the ransom was a minor matter; the loss of face from being kidnapped and extorted was a major one. He couldn't swallow this insult and vowed to kill the kidnappers who had extorted him.

However, he was frustrated by the lack of clues and no matter how much he offered a reward, he still didn't know. At this moment, his little wife remembered something and gave him a few reminders.

Through the conversation, it can be learned at least that the kidnappers were a gang, with at least two members, one of whom was named Kameda.

The wealthy old man wasn't stupid. He knew that directly offering a reward might alert the kidnappers and even lead to a counterattack, possibly resulting in them kidnapping and extorting him again. So, he decided to secretly gather information about the two bastard kidnappers.

On the other side, Aokiji and others who got the ransom were grinning from ear to ear.

Aokiji casually picked up a stack of banknotes and distributed them to Tool Man No. 1 and Tool Man No. 2: "This kidnapping went smoothly. Here is 5 million taels. You two can split it equally, 2.5 million taels each."

An S-rank mission is worth about a million taels of silver. In other words, these two people, who were just tools, earned the bounty of 2.5 S-rank missions by doing a little work. This was something they would never have dared to dream of before.

After doing all that, Aokiji didn't forget to paint a rosy picture for the two of them: "If you two perform well, your future profit sharing will definitely be more than this."

Having seen so much money at once, Tool Man #1 and Tool Man #2 were immediately filled with fervor.

"I, Kameda, only today did I realize that making money is such an easy thing. Brother Ye Wang and Brother Ding Xiu are simply my saviors. There is no need to say anything more. I can never repay their great kindness."

Another person chimed in, "Me too."

Aokiji smiled and said, "There will be a time in the future when you will have to repay them properly."

Kakuzu, standing to the side, gave Aokiji a meaningful look, thinking to himself that this kid was really cunning.

Right now, he's probably plotting how to quietly expose these two people's identities to outsiders, waiting for their heads to increase in value, and then earning a huge bounty.

After the dividends were distributed, Aokiji took the initiative to discuss the matter of redistributing the dividends with Kakuzu.

Kakuzu narrowed his eyes slightly.

Afraid that he would misunderstand, Aokiji quickly explained, "Don't misunderstand, what I mean is that all the money we earn in the future will be included in the company's revenue as operating capital, while our personal income will be distributed through the company's shareholder dividends and employee compensation accounts."

Kakuzu: ? ? ?

"To put it simply, our income should not be distributed on a per-transaction basis, but rather on a monthly basis."

Aokiji briefly explained how the company operated, and then began to paint a rosy picture for Kakuzu: "From now on, I will serve as the general manager to formulate the organization's strategic direction, while you, Kakuzu-nii, will serve as the chief financial officer, specifically managing the company's financial operations."

After his explanation, Kakuzu was completely taken aback. As a ninja, he had never tried this way of making money before, and he immediately showed great interest: "Interesting."

All the viewers acquiesced, and Aokiji secretly delighted.

By sharing company profits, Kakuzu and Aokiji's interests can be tied together.

Once Kakuzu tastes the benefits brought by the company, wouldn't he wholeheartedly dedicate himself to the company's development and become its most loyal employee?

After all, protecting the interests of the company is protecting his own interests.

Because of the nature of the shares, even if Aokiji doesn't become the general manager or do anything else, he can probably still get a large sum of money every year just by virtue of his shareholder status.

Kakuzu, a working-class man, asked, "When do you plan to finish using these two tools?"

Aokiji said calmly, "No rush. Let's pull off a few more heists using the same method before revealing these two people's personal information."

"What a pathetic fellow," Kakuzu said with amusement. "You sold him out, and he's still losing money for you."

Aokiji shrugged: "Anyway, these two guys are just tools, so we should make the most of them."

After that, Aokiji repeated his tricks and staged several more kidnappings, making a fortune.

On this day, Kakuzu went to the underground black market and carried a corpse to the gold exchange.

A middle-aged man with a mustache saw the other man and laughed, "Brother Kakuzu hasn't been coming to collect his bounty much lately, has he?"

He and Kakuzu were old acquaintances.

Kakuzu succinctly hummed in agreement.

"Have you been having bad luck lately?" the middle-aged man with a mustache asked casually.

"No." Kakuzu shook his head: "I've made enough money, and I'm thinking about retiring."

retire?"

The middle-aged man was surprised that the money-grubbing man would say such a thing, but considering Kakuzu's career as a bounty hunter, it seemed to make sense.

Given Kakuzu's efficiency in completing missions, the enormous wealth he has accumulated over the years is enough for him to squander for several lifetimes.

From an outsider's perspective, it's normal for Kakuzu to give up being a bounty hunter.

If you really had money, who would choose such a threatening profession as a bounty hunter?

"That's truly a pity. Losing a talent like Brother Kakuzu is a loss for the entire underground black market." The middle-aged man with a mustache complimented, then said with a hint of regret, "I was originally planning to introduce a big order to Brother Kakuzu. If Brother Kakuzu were to handle it, he would definitely be able to complete it."

Kakuzu narrowed his eyes with interest: "Interesting..."

Seeing his interest, the middle-aged man with a mustache briefly revealed some information, which could be summarized as two people kidnapping wealthy people in the same country.

The circle of wealthy people in a country is only so big. In order to avoid being discovered, these wealthy people joined together and secretly sent someone to find the person in charge of the underground black market to secretly increase the huge bounty on the two kidnappers.

This information is not to be made public, in order to lull these two damned kidnappers into a false sense of security.

Only highly skilled bounty hunters like Kakuzu would be informed.

Kakuzu nodded in understanding, a look of great interest on his face.

The man with the two tufts of mustache asked, "Where is Brother Kakuzu going?"

Kakuzu said in a deep voice, "Let's try our luck. I've never encountered a bounty target with a bounty of over 100 million in all my years as a bounty hunter. It would be a good choice to end my bounty hunting career perfectly."

The middle-aged man with a mustache watched Kakuzu leave, saying, "Then I wish Brother Kakuzu good luck."

Upon returning, Kakuzu immediately relayed the matter to Aokiji, preparing to take action.

After receiving the message, Aokiji immediately arranged to meet the two "tools" (his assistants).

The two workers, seeing Aokiji call him out, were secretly pleased, thinking that they might make money again.

While the two were talking, Kakuzu had already walked up behind them, but this did not arouse much suspicion in them.

Seeing that Kakuzu was already proceeding according to plan, Aokiji said calmly, "Yes..."

As soon as he finished speaking, Kakuzu hardened his hands and pierced through the hearts of the two men with his palms raised like knives.

The two men whose hearts had been ripped out coughed up mouthfuls of blood, their bulging eyes resembling goldfish eyes: "Why...?"

Kakuzu's laughter was sinister: "Sorry, but the money we made this time came at the cost of your lives."

After saying that, he crushed the hearts of the two men with one hand, cleanly and swiftly killing them instantly.

(End of this chapter)