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After watching for half a minute, just as the onlookers were starting to speculate about something rather strange about the relationship between Zabuza and Kakuzu, Kakuzu finally moved. He walked step by step to the counter and, with a thud, threw the corpse directly onto the table.

Blood that hadn't completely congealed was scattered all over the table. The staff seemed quite familiar with the transaction process with Kakuzu, quickly finding the bounty notice and then taking out a large stack of silver notes to pay the bill.

From the moment Kakuzu entered until he left with a large wad of silver notes, he remained quietly seated, much to the disappointment of some of the more gossipy types.

Before everything could return to normal, Zed suddenly stood up and walked straight toward the door. Although there was no evidence that Zed was going to find Kakuzu who had left, everyone who saw this scene assumed that Zed was going there.

After pushing open the door, Jie exploded into a cloud of smoke with a thud and disappeared into the shadows.

In the shadows, a very clear path appeared in Jie's eyes; it was the aura left by Kakuzu's shadow.

No one can escape their shadow; you are doomed!

As Kakuzu fled into the distance, it felt as if a huge stone was pressing down on his heart. His sixth sense kept foreshadowing the impending danger, but no matter how many reconnaissance ninjutsu he used, he could not find where the threat was hiding. The surrounding chakra was perfectly normal, with no sign of an ambush.

This feeling is somewhat similar to that of Kakuzu when he attempted to assassinate Hashirama Senju many years ago, but the pressure from the surrounding environment was much greater back then.

"I think you should know the specific details of the Blood Kill Bounty."

A chilling voice rang in Kakuzu's ear, and at the same time, his shadow began to twist unnaturally.

Boom! A cloud of white smoke exploded on the spot, and Kakuzu used the Substitution Jutsu to leave the spot in an instant by forming hand seals.

However, no one can escape their own shadow. Even though Kakuzu had left his original spot, his own shadow still managed to stab him hard. This time, Kakuzu was prepared and quickly used the Earth Grudge Fear technique to stitch up the wound.

Jie looked at the falling log in front of him, and tossed the shuriken in his hand. The ninjas in this world fought quite flashy and were much better to watch than the many ninjas he had encountered in the Clock Tower.

"Hidan! Cut him down!" Kakuzu shouted, pointing at Zai.

Suddenly, a figure darted out from the surrounding trees, wielding a massive scythe that swung down towards Jie's head. "Aha! For the Evil God!"

The guy who suddenly appeared was just like Kakuzu, wearing a black trench coat embroidered with red clouds, and around his neck, besides a deliberately damaged headband, he also had a dangling necklace.

Faced with the slash, Zed immediately swapped positions with a shadow clone he had left nearby, easily dodging Hidan's attack.

Fire Release: Fire Hardship!

Kakuzu formed hand seals, and a burst of flame spewed from the mouth of the masked monster formed from the Earth Grudge behind him, turning into a sea of ​​fire upon hitting the ground.

Shadow Technique! Double-Edged Sword!

A spinning shuriken fell from above Kakuzu's head, and the scattered shadow wind blades tore through the trees, the earth, and the sea of ​​fire. As a formal member of Akatsuki, Kakuzu was no pushover, and he used a Body Flicker Technique to escape directly from the shuriken's path.

Jie followed closely, transforming into a phantom and rushing towards Kakuzu, who was suspended in mid-air. At the same time, the shadow behind Kakuzu moved again, locking Kakuzu's hands with its hands and pulling his feet with its feet, directly restricting his movements.

"How dare you disregard the faithful followers of the evil god! I will surely kill you!"

Hidan suddenly appeared between Kakuzu and Zai, the blade of his scythe reflecting the falling sunlight as he slashed diagonally down in front of him.

The floating monster braked suddenly, and the scythe slashed down from the tip of his nose.

In the next instant, three shadows separated from Jie's body and directly surrounded Hidan.

Shadow Slash - Flurry!

Four sleeve blades slashed through Hidan's body, and the cut flesh, unable to be pulled to the ground by gravity in time, turned into even smaller blood clots in mid-air.

Bang, the horn that crashed to the ground broke free from the shadow's restraints, and looking at the silver slash lines in the air, felt a surge of relief.

Fortunately, Hidan volunteered to act as a meat shield; otherwise, with so many attacks falling on him, Kakuzu wasn't sure if his five hearts could have survived until the attacks ended.

A few seconds later, the fragments, cut into pieces, fell to the ground. The fragments, now in dozens of pieces, could not even be pieced together to form complete organs.

"What the hell are you! You don't even bleed?! Kakuzu, are you an idiot?! Get him!"

Hidan's foul language came from a relatively large piece of his mouth. He hated enemies like Zed the most. Zed didn't even have a drop of blood, and his abilities were directly crippled by 80% or 90%. What was the point of fighting him?

Jie looked at the palm-sized mouth that was still chattering incessantly and felt a bit of a headache. He hated encountering enemies with such high immortality. Against such enemies, he could only use the Instant Shadow Killing Array to kill them, but that would consume a large portion of his reserve energy.

In addition, there was a monster with five hearts standing nearby. To be honest, it wasn't very strong, but judging from our last encounter, its escape skills were really good.

Jie was unsure whether it was worthwhile to expend so much effort to kill these two guys for a piece of information that couldn't be confirmed yet.

After thinking for a while, Jie finally decided to give up and disappeared from Kakuzu's sight with a bang. There were other options besides force to steal information.

Watching the enemy suddenly depart, Kakuzu instantly pulled out dozens of Earth Grudge Threads from his body and hastily tied Hidan together, not caring whether his mouth was connected to his buttocks or not, since he didn't do it on purpose.

After being tied up, Kakuzu and Hidan sank into the ground together.

The other party is after that Blood Kill Bounty, and might have some connection with the Sand Ninja. We must tell the leader this. If there are such people in the Sand Ninja, the next plan may need to be revised.

"Hey, hey, hey, are those two holes on your face for ventilation? I can't grow a second one of those!" Hidan, still on the ground, continued to harass Kakuzu.

With a headache from the noise, Kakuzu had no choice but to fling his hand, and Jigen-gyu pulled the toothpick that had been deliberately dropped into the ground along with it.

After the two had gone far away, Jie reappeared in the trees, looked up at the sun hanging in the sky, and slowly retreated into the tree trunks. He wanted to stay there for a while to see if anyone would come.

As for Kakuzu and Hidan...

There is always shadow under the sun, and as long as the shadow exists, no one can escape the pursuit of the Shadow Cult.

Chapter 248 Hyuga Neji: Why don't samurai go and assassinate?

While Zed waited in place for possible hidden scouts, Shen and the caravan had already been on their way for some time.

The infrastructure in the Naruto world is very poor, perhaps because most natural environments cannot hinder ninjas, so there is no need to improve infrastructure.

As for ordinary villagers, in this world, the vast majority of villagers will not leave the country of their birth, nor will they stray far from the towns near their hometown, so roads are not important at all.

The road Shen was currently on was just a dirt road, a "major road" worn out by countless caravans. The road avoided dense forests, high mountains, and wide rivers, so it was easy to travel. Its only drawback was that it was too long.

The carriage moved forward slowly, and Shen sat upright on the frame. The swaying carriage did not affect his balance at all, and Shen's attention was not on the carriage or the surrounding situation at all.

The information Zed shared in the Ouroboros symbol was enough to raise Shen's alarm. There were no Ouroboros base stations in this world, so although the local area network formed by the two Ouroboros symbols could still communicate, the delay was unacceptably long. It took almost a day to receive the message on the same planet. But still, something was better than nothing.

The data indicated that the estimated level of both Kakuzu and Hidan was intermediate-level professionals, with the words "tough" added after them.

This is definitely not Zed in Versailles. Don't be fooled by Zed's easy victory against two opponents; there are prerequisites for it.

Kakuzu's five hearts and the rapid repair effect of the Earth Grudge Fear make him a killer of the same level. Any being of the same level will inevitably be at a disadvantage when facing Kakuzu due to the diversity of his abilities and his natural disadvantage of fighting outnumbered. Zei easily defeated Kakuzu simply because his strength had already overwhelmed him.

As for Hidan, Zed didn't gather much information about his abilities, but his super immortality and the anticipated ability to be activated through the enemy's blood were extremely dangerous. Of course, in front of Zed, who could turn his entire body into shadow, Hidan was no match for a Jonin who knew some ninjutsu. However, if Hidan were to face Shen, his potential threat would still be considerable.

The Soul Blade can be immune to most attacks through the array formed by the ultimate skill - Soul Protection, but this immunity has an upper limit and gaps, and cannot guarantee absolute safety.

In addition, based on the population and opponents he had encountered so far, Jie made a cautious estimate with a large margin of error. In his estimate, there were probably quite a few high-level professionals in this world. After all, while mid-level professionals weren't everywhere, they weren't hard to find either.

"How much longer until we reach Konoha?" After carefully studying the information, Shen jumped up from the carriage, flashed to the caravan owner's side, and asked him.

The boss glanced at the map in his hand. "We've covered the distance that usually takes six days in three days. However, the vegetation is growing too vigorously, so our pace may slow down. We expect it will take at least another week."

A week?! Shen looked up in the direction of Konoha. He found this timeframe hard to accept. Zed's actions were too fast, putting a lot of pressure on him. Both of them had indeed always prioritized the mission, but the internal competition was also considerable.

Don't forget, Zed killed his own master, Shen's father, Master Kumo.

Come to think of it, Zed really fits the "teleportation culture" of this world, the culture of killing one's master.

Obito Uchiha killed his master, Minato Namikaze.

Orochimaru killed his master, Hiruzen Sarutobi.

Nagato killed his own master, Jiraiya.

Wait a minute... how come the people who made the move were all from Konoha? It seems that Jie might have had some kind of family relationship with Konoha five hundred years ago.

Of course, Shen didn't know any of this at the moment; he only knew that he had to speed up without breaking his promise.

Imitation of Taoist magic - travel a thousand miles in a divine manner!

Shen unleashed the power domain of his Soul Blade, using a ninjutsu adapted from Taoist magic to grant the entire convoy a speed boost. Instantly, propelled by the gentle breeze, the convoy's speed increased dramatically.

Meanwhile, due to the acceleration array, the dust kicked up by the convoy was blocked by the surrounding swirling wind, giving it a feeling of riding on clouds and mist at first glance, except that this mist was more like smog.

Whether it was gray smog or white clouds, the convoy, once accelerated, looked to outsiders in one word: not to be trifled with. This indirectly deterred the bandits and rogue ninjas, ensuring the convoy's safe journey for the rest of the time.

In just over three days, less than four days later, the convoy had crossed half of the Land of Fire and arrived at its final destination, the ninja village of Konoha.

Konoha's two gatekeepers, Kotetsu and Izumo, were guarding the gate as usual when they saw a commotion on the main road leading to the gate, as a convoy of cars rushed towards them at an unusual speed.

"Stop! This is Konoha territory!" Without saying a word, Gangzi Tie rushed forward, his hand seals already prepared, ready to use Earth Release to force the convoy to stop at any moment.

Izumo Shinzuki stood next to the warning device, ready to sound the alarm if Shin and his group made any attempt to break through the barrier.

Sizzle~

The driver hired by the boss lived up to his reputation as a veteran, managing to gradually slow down the horses that had been galloping along, and then bring them to a stop at a safe distance.

"Brother Gangzi Tie, it's me, the one transporting iron ingots." The boss got off the truck, looking like he knew Gangzi Tie very well.

Seeing his acquaintance, Gangzi Tetsu lowered his guard slightly, but he was not careless. He remembered that this person had just left Konoha not long ago, and judging from the distance between Konoha and the Land of Iron, he shouldn't have been here so soon.

"I ran into a little trouble and traveled all night, which caused a misunderstanding. I'm so sorry." The boss walked up to Gang Zitie and very skillfully stuffed a stack of white things into his hands.

Steel Iron rubbed his fingers against the mark on the banknote and dismounted from his fighting stance. "Who's here? Come and register."

"They're all familiar faces, and they all have travel permits. We've just hired a samurai to protect us, as you know the road isn't very safe," the shopkeeper said with a smile. Don't be fooled by how amiable Gangzitetsu is in front of the ninjas from his village; he's a man who controls the fate of many small caravans. If he says he won't issue a travel permit, he won't, and if he delays for ten days or half a month, the caravan can't do anything about it.

Shen also cooperated by walking over from the caravan and standing in front of Gangzi Tie.

Kotetsu looked Shin up and down. He didn't have any ninja village headbands, was wearing armor, and was carrying two swords. He was indeed dressed as a samurai.

"Please register your basic information: name, purpose of your visit, and how long you plan to stay," Gangzi Tie asked quickly, confirming whether Shen intended to stay in Konoha Village for an extended period.

"Shen, we're here to escort a caravan. Our departure time is uncertain," Shen said calmly.

Upon hearing the last part, Gangzi Tie immediately raised his head, looked at the boss, and gave him an expression that seemed to say, "How can your people not know the rules?"

The boss quickly put on a smiling face and then whispered a few words to Shen.

“Shen, a member of the caravan, is here to conduct market information analysis. The expected stay is one month.” Shen changed his tone under instruction.

Having received the money, Gangzitie cooperated by slightly altering the information he had just recorded before walking away from the middle of the road, waving to his teammates behind him as he went.

As he passed through the gate, Shen felt as if he were being scanned by everyone's gaze.

"What's wrong? Is there something wrong with this caravan?" The guard asked, looking at the genin from the Hyuga branch family in his team.

The genin shook his head. "No problem, it's just that I can't see through that samurai."

"If you can't see through it, you can't see through it. Don't worry about it too much. After all, you're just a samurai, and you're just a genin, and from the branch family." The captain said casually. In everyone's mind, the main Hyuga family was definitely stronger than the branch family. Even with the emergence of someone like Hyuga Neji, this mindset hadn't changed.

The genin lowered his head and remained silent. He had originally wanted to say that he couldn't even sense any meridians or chakra, but now he decided to refrain from doing so and avoid causing trouble.

After entering Konoha Village, the entire environment was indeed different. The roads had become asphalt roads, the surrounding buildings were much taller, and the shops and pedestrians on the road gave Shen a slight feeling of returning to a county town on Earth.

"Lord Shen, please take this pass first. This is the order for the goods. You can collect your payment at the hospital in Konoha. Also, we plan to rest here for a while longer. If you plan to go to the Land of Iron within half a month, please remember to look for me." The shopkeeper very politely took out all the items that had been agreed upon and settled the bill for Shen.