Who are you calling a stable boy?!

"Okay."

-

A tall, masked figure entered an underground trading point in the Land of Earth.

He wore a black trench coat embroidered with red clouds and a headband from the Hidden Takigakure village. Upon closer inspection, a scratch on the headband revealed the man's identity as a rogue ninja.

"Check out."

As he said this, the man took a bundle out of his trench coat and placed it in front of the person in charge of the trading point.

The person in charge reached out and untied the bundle, revealing a human head inside.

"It is him, please wait a moment."

The person in charge skillfully put away the human head used as a token, and immediately turned around to call someone to collect the money, not daring to be negligent in the slightest.

After all, this Kakuzu in front of him is a very famous figure in the bounty hunter circle.

He is efficient and has a good reputation. Many of his orders are placed by employers who have sufficient financial resources, who will ask him to give priority to Kakuzu.

Soon, his men brought over a box full of rewards and respectfully handed it to Kakuzu.

He opened the box, counted the money to confirm the amount was correct, closed it, and instead of leaving immediately, looked up at the person in charge.

Have you got any good orders lately?

An ordinary bounty hunter wouldn't have the right to ask such a question.

But it was Kakuzu who spoke, and the person in charge was more than happy for him to say it.

Yes, yes, yes! Please wait a moment.

As he spoke, he took out a stack of pre-prepared bounty posters from the counter and presented them to Kakuzu with both hands.

"Okay."

Kakuzu sighed at the sheer weight of the stack.

The Third Shinobi World War is considered a great war that produced many outstanding talents.

During this Ninja World War, not only did powerful figures emerge frequently in various ninja villages, but even in the bounty hunter circle, many strange and formidable individuals sprang up like mushrooms after rain.

Some possess extremely rare bloodline limits, capable of breathing fire and spitting electricity, and can use all sorts of strange techniques with a wave of their arms.

Some resemble the warriors of the Land of Iron, clad in armor and wielding weapons. Their moves may appear ordinary, but they possess astonishing power.

Some are skilled at controlling ninja beasts, and some even possess secret techniques that allow them to transform into ninja beasts...

In short, there are a lot of them, and they come in many varieties.

During the war, he dealt with several such people, some easily, some troublesome, but without exception, the employers were willing to pay a high price for each of them.

After the war, many of these eccentric individuals seemed to have chosen to disappear without a trace.

But some still work as bounty hunters.

It is said that some of them were even successfully recruited into the Great Ninja Village based on their military achievements.

In short, in Kakuzu's eyes, about 80% of these strangely cunning colleagues are easy prey.

"Ok?"

Upon closer inspection of the stack of wanted posters, Kakuzu immediately picked up the top two.

They were both unfamiliar faces; he certainly hadn't seen these two people on the bounty poster at least a month ago.

Of course, more important than the angle is the reward amount marked below these two portraits.

The monster assassin Zheng Jing has a bounty of 25 million.

Aizen, the Glasses-wearing Shinigami, has a bounty of 20 million.

Kakuzu remembered very clearly that the Third Hokage's son only had a bounty of nearly 30 million.

He held a sheet in one hand, then looked at the brief information written below, which said that the two people were most likely not from ninja villages, but were inseparable.

Therefore, the bounty for this pair of partners has reached 45 million.

In Kakuzu's memory, there were very few targets without a background in a major ninja village whose bounty could reach over 40 million.

"They're the ones."

Kakuzu put away the two bounty posters.

He hadn't seen a deal worth tens of millions in a while, especially with two guys who most likely didn't have a background from a major ninja village. After thinking it over, he really had no reason not to take it.

Raising funds for an organization is no easy task, so how could he not seize such a good opportunity?

Chapter 175: Greetings are a sacred and inviolable act!

On the official road leading to the Land of Fire, a small cart pulled by a water buffalo was swaying and wobbling along.

"Hey Lao Lan, wanna have a bite?"

Lying in the cart with his legs crossed, Zheng Jing raised his gourd and asked Aizen, who was driving the cart.

"Want to rest?"

Aizen turned his head to the side and looked around.

"On the official road, you can pull over and stop at any time."

"What do I need to rest for? It's not like I'm the one rushing to catch the train."

Zheng Jing waved his hand.

Since the trip was supposed to be for relaxation and leisure, we should just take it easy and enjoy ourselves.

Neither he nor Lao Lan are the type of people who enjoy special forces-style tourism.

Following the map that Lao Lan had prepared beforehand, they set off from the Land of Fields where they had landed and decided to first visit the nearest Land of Fire.

Entry into the country wasn't difficult at all.

Although the Third World War had just ended and border checks in various countries were still strict, no matter how strict they were, they couldn't stop Zheng Jing and Aizen.

In comparison, Zheng Jing felt that the people who had come looking for them to die along the way were more troublesome.

Whether it was due to the chaos after the war or not, he and Lao Lan traveled for more than ten days from the Land of Fields to the border of the Land of Fire, and were robbed by four groups of bandits.

There were ragged refugees carrying wooden sticks and stones.

There were mountain bandits wielding swords and bows, and draped in furs.

There were even some rogue ninjas who looked rather disheveled.

When encountering refugees, Zheng Jing didn't need to lift a finger. He could simply shake his body and grow a few sizes larger, enough to frighten them into thinking they had encountered ninjas, causing them to kowtow and beg for mercy.

Zheng Jing naturally wouldn't make things difficult for them.

It took two days to help them build houses and cultivate a few acres of land, which created a small village.

It's truly remarkable how fertile the land of Tianzhi Kingdom is; it truly lives up to its name. Zheng Jing doesn't need to do much; just tending the land is enough to create a fertile field.

Of course, once the land is prepared, there must be seeds, right?

As the saying goes, "to see the Buddha through to the West," Zheng Jing went to the nearest city, took out some gold and silver jewelry that Henrietta had given him, and exchanged it for seeds and grain.

Then he was targeted.

A lone stranger, he could casually produce a pile of priceless gold and silver jewelry, yet he didn't use the currency of the Land of Fields to buy things.

A stupid and wicked person would immediately see this as a fat sheep.

Clearly, the city has no shortage of stupid and wicked people.

Zheng Jing would not leave such trouble to those displaced people.

So he took action in the city, killing several, crippling others, and then questioning the leader, only to find out that the stupid and wicked man was a high-ranking official in charge of commerce in the city.

So the question is, why can someone who is both stupid and wicked control the commerce of a city?

As a result, everyone related to them, from beginning to end, was pushed out by Zheng Jing, and even the city lord was almost killed by Zheng Jing with a single blow.

After this incident, while the number of bandits and rogue ninjas encountered on the road decreased, the number of bounty hunters coming to assassinate them suddenly increased.

Zheng Jing would kill anyone who attacked him without hesitation.

Of those who dared to confront him head-on, one or two were spared by Zheng Jing.

It wasn't until they entered the Land of Fire that the number of bounty hunters attacking them began to decrease significantly.

It has been almost three days since the last time a bounty hunter came to his death.

Kakuzu has been observing Zheng Jing and Aizen for almost three days now.

He witnessed firsthand the scene of his previous colleague being beaten to death by Zheng Jing with a single stick.

There's no rule among bounty hunters that if one of them takes a bounty, no one else can take one.

Kakuzu's idea at the time was to have that fellow demon hunter act as a vanguard to probe the background of the demon hunter and the bespectacled Grim Reaper, and see if these two targets also had some strange tricks up their sleeves.

That would be ideal if our colleagues actually managed to capture the heads of both targets.

That way, he can take the three heads back and exchange them for money.

Unfortunately, the unfortunate fellow traveler from three days ago was too weak. He hid for a long time, pretending to be a puddle on the ground to launch a sneak attack, but as soon as he revealed his murderous intent, his head was blocked by a stick.

It didn't even startle someone's oxcart.

He died too quickly; there was no way he could use it as a reference.

After all, Kakuzu thought to himself that he could also easily deal with that unfortunate colleague.

They followed each other for almost three more days. In Kakuzu's eyes, the two of them were full of flaws at all times, and every minute and every second seemed like the perfect opportunity to launch a surprise attack.

After much deliberation, Kakuzu finally decided not to wait any longer.

If we wait any longer, it will hinder his upcoming business.

With this thought in mind, Kakuzu, who was hiding in the woods on both sides of the official road, was about to make his move—

"Ugh."

—The sigh that reached his ears sent a chill down Kakuzu's spine.

He was like a cat with its fur standing on end, with dense black threads suddenly bursting out from his back and sweeping backward.

It was a chakra product created by the secretary; it was sharp and flexible, and ordinary escape techniques could not provide any protection against it.

However, not a single tactile sensation of Kakuzu being struck by the target came from the hundreds and thousands of black threads.

He didn't turn back; that's something only a novice would do.

At that moment, something seemed to be trying to break free from beneath Kakuzu's robes.

Wind escapes, suppresses harm!

A fierce gust of wind erupted, and the intense wind pressure uprooted the trees behind Kakuzu, sending a cloud of dust soaring into the sky.

"The reaction was pretty quick."

However, this time the sound came from in front of Kakuzu.

He looked up and met Zheng Jing's grinning face.

With a thud, Zheng Jing planted the golden cudgel upright on the ground and clasped his hands together in front of the silent Kakuzu.

"DOMO, the monster slayer DESU."

"?"

Even Kakuzu was momentarily bewildered.

He arrived late and had only seen the unlucky guy who chose to ambush and was then beaten to death on the spot by Zheng Jing.

"Namo San, have ninjas really declined to this state? They don't even know how to respond to a sacred greeting anymore... Oh..."

Zheng Jing closed his eyes and murmured something.

"now?"

Kakuzu frowned.

"Indeed, for ninjas on the battlefield, greetings are a sacred and inviolable act, as recorded in the Kojiki."

Kojiki?