Chapter Seventy-Five: Unexpected [Increased by over 3000 words]

  I transformed into "Whirlwind Whistler" at the same time as I teleported, appearing in front of White and the others.

  This is my hope and also my original goal, unfortunately, reality always doesn't meet one's expectations.

  The basis of this ninjutsu is the blood crystals I gave to Shirabe and Kimimaro, which resonate with those on my own body, allowing me to instantly move to a target location.

  Because this ninjutsu is still based on the data from that scroll, it's a technique I've only just started developing and is still in its experimental stages, so there are many areas that have yet to be perfected.

  The uncertainty of using this jutsu is very high and it will also cause damage to my body.

  After all, there was only one successful case in the past, and it still belongs to the theoretical ninja technique. Now I can only do this much!

  It seems I still need more information to perfect this jutsu.

  According to my previous estimate, I should have appeared in front of either Bai or Junmalu, after all they are the closest Blood Crystal holders to me. But now, where am I exactly?

  The surrounding trees are mostly conifers, which is a tree species that belongs to the temperate or frigid zone. After all, I think I shouldn't be so unlucky as to come to a death forest with a climate as chaotic as the Wooden Night.

  And as I looked around, the ground was dark humus soil.

  The terrain with yellow soil as the main feature has a distinct difference from the Fire Country or the vicinity of Konohagakure.

  Using an incomplete ninja technique, I'm really childish! I think he must have been scared. Jiuxi. I mock my own rare naive behavior.

  I really hope you'd show more of the behavior that kids should have, but do you not have a better choice for your own body?! Jiuyue's anger erupts. You're not incapable of instant movement, and evasion techniques are also possible! Otherwise, transformation technique would work too, but using this ninjutsu, which is barely 10% complete, what are you trying to do?!

  I just saw him still having a bit of doubt about me, if he really used Instant Body or Substitution Jutsu, there would definitely be chakra leakage, after all, the seal on my body is still there, and that person is an abnormal level analyst, only this ninjutsu can I not reveal any hint of chakra aura! But in fact, it's just a whim, in simpler terms, it's just a sudden urge to play.

  If you were to ask me about the four-generation Flying Thunder God technique and its specifics, I'd think you just wanted to develop a similar ninjutsu for yourself. But based on my description of the Flying Thunder God technique and the seal, as well as that scroll's brief record, you're actually able to perform an effect similar to the technique in such a short amount of time... This is indeed astonishing... Collect your expression, I'm not praising you! Kurenai retorted somewhat irritably.

  I was saying, can't you wait until the ninjutsu is perfected a bit more before trying it out? Otherwise, how would it end up like this! You haven't been seriously injured for a while, so you're not used to it, right? Kurenai's nagging expression really ruins his image.

  Things are always not as expected. I forced a faint smile, wanting to comfort Jiuyue.

  Don't comfort me! Ninth month scolded loudly.

  New ninja techniques always require experimentation. I argued hard. Success is always born with failure.

  You're just trying to show off this time, I have no idea what you're thinking! Jiu Yue quickly retorted.

  Hehehe. Besides smiling foolishly, I don't know what else to do either.

  Whatever, forget it. You don't even know where you are right now, so why not try to figure that out first? How far are you from Konoha anyway? I recall that school is going to start in less than a month, and all your tools are still in Konoha. Those tools may not be important to Kurenai, but if mentioning them can speed up Sasuke's return to Konoha and stop him from causing more trouble outside, then Kurenai doesn't mind bringing up the existence of some "insignificant people".

  They! I'm indeed concerned about them and care about their current situation, but somehow, I always feel like there's a part of me that has detached from my original standpoint, observing myself with irony... Is this an illusion?

  "Cough it up, cough it out." I suddenly couldn't help but let out a loud cough.

  "As expected! The completion degree is too low." I calmly looked at the palm of the hand that had just covered my mouth, with a faint red streak on it.

  This spatially-related ninjutsu is indeed one that can easily cause internal injuries if you're not careful.

  I really don't know how the Fourth Hokage was able to make this jutsu a standard ability in battle. It seems I'm still missing a big key point, but that's also a research topic to start after returning to Konoha.

  I looked around and observed the surrounding environment, with a forest on one side and a village of small town scale on the other.

  I walked directly towards the forest in a daze.

  I would feel more at ease in the forest.

  I didn't go deep inside, but instead chose a spot on the outskirts of the forest that looked quite comfortable and sat down leaning against the tree trunk.

  I'm vomiting blood, possibly because the probability of pulmonary hemorrhage is relatively high, so I'd better not move around randomly for now, which is also more beneficial for my physical recovery.

  I'm very suspicious, because I let you get this unusual recovery power, is it the main reason why you treat your body like this? Jiǔ Yuè always felt that his strong recovery power was related to being able to "act recklessly" and ignore his physical strength.

  How could that be? You're overthinking, Kugutsu. It has nothing to do with you. Although I'm also trying my best to correct my values now, my attitude towards my own body is related to "him". Even if I know it's not the right way, the imprint carved deep into my soul isn't that easy to erase.

  Forget it, I'll enter deep sleep for a while. After I'm fully asleep, your body's healing power can increase some more. Once your body is completely healed, I'll wake up.

  No, I'd rather be hurt for a little while longer! I don't want to go into deep sleep again in September! Even if it's usually not often that September talks to me normally, but I know he's awake, and being asleep is completely different!

  No! This injury could have been completely avoided, you asked for it. Next time when this kind of situation happens again, think twice! Hehe. Jiuyue left behind a string of sly laughter and disappeared like that.

  How despicable! You're truly worthy of being a fox spirit... completely grasping my current weakness...

  Next time if such a situation arises... I'll think more about it, I'm not very confident in my own behavior either.

  I can clearly feel a decrease in the pain inside me, although it still hurts, but indeed better than before.

  I won't thank Jiǔ Yuè because doing so would be an insult to him.

  There's no need for us to say thank you, this kind of verbal gratitude is too vague.

  Currently, given the internal state of my body, I'm afraid I won't be able to rush while taking care of my physical condition.

  So now the only thing I should do is to reduce unnecessary physical activity and recover my bodily functions as soon as possible, which is the most important thing.

  I quietly sat under the tree, adjusting my breathing to put myself into a state close to suspended animation, which was also the least likely to worsen my injuries. The rest would be left to my abnormal recovery ability as a Nine-Tails Jinchuriki.

  This is also the fastest way for me to recover my physical function to its best state. According to my estimation of my body, maintaining a pseudo-death state for two or three days should allow me to recover to a state where I can continuously use Instant Body Technique. In that case, returning to Konoha should be quick, and probably not long after returning to Konoha, Tsurugi will also wake up around that time.

  Return to the wooden leaf, and let the body recover to its best state, hoping to reach the most efficient balance point.

  When I opened my eyes again, it was already evening.

  Unfortunately, I don't know which night it was. Even if I tried to estimate from the degree of hunger, for someone who has almost made eating a habit rather than an instinct, this is a bit difficult.

  I stood up and felt my limbs and internal organs.

  Not bad, it should be at a high level of 50%, which can maintain the basic training consumption, so the physical problem is temporarily solved.

  What should be done now is to confirm the current location.

  If you don't know where you started from, then you can't move forward towards your destination.

  I slowly walked towards the only place where people were gathering nearby.

  In order to avoid drawing attention to myself, I transformed into a relatively ordinary-looking black-haired and black-eyed child.

  Well, this town is much larger than I initially thought, so it's possible that there might be a branch of that organization.

  In that case, if everything goes smoothly, I should be able to return to Konoha much faster than I initially thought.

  I've been searching this town for half a day, and it seems the most prominent ninja clan here is the Iwagakure, so it looks like my current location should be within the sphere of influence close to the Earth Country!

  That's roughly northwest of Konoha.

  Apart from the regular ninja divisions, I also saw my destination - the Underground Company, a clandestine organization mainly composed of rogue ninjas, village-less ninjas and other unlicensed ninjas, or those who for some reason do not wish to reveal their true origins.

  This was also where I made the most money back then, with no ID and no killing experience. Of course, it was also the most dangerous way.

  The services they provide are mostly on the dark side, such as assassination, murder, massacre and so on. For tasks of this type, as long as they are A-level or above, the success rate is quite high. Because for tasks related to human life, underground companies first collect money and then list the targets. Once someone brings proof of killing the target to any branch of the underground company, they can get paid. However, the service personnel of the underground company do not care who actually killed the person or whose corpse it is, they only recognize the person who brings the proof to the service personnel.

  There are many people who specialize in this kind of dark eating, they don't have enough strength or intelligence to hunt down their targets, but they win by sheer numbers, swarming them.

  Of course, those who are more well-known or notorious will not be touched.

  Wanting to spend money is also a matter of having a life to live, isn't it!

  However! There are still many careless hunters who die at the entrance of the underground company before they can even get excited about receiving their bounty.

  No one would sympathize with them, whether they were novice hunters who died of overexertion or those who were beaten to death and never got up again.

  It's ironic and hypocritical for us.

  As for other types of tasks, escorting and guarding depend on whether there are people who want to take them.

  However, other types of tasks have a high proportion of being blackmailed or being killed by the employer, and it is possible to be killed by the employer or to kill the employer.

  The only advantage here is that it doesn't require identification like a regular ninja mission.

  In the underground world, only the most realistic thing is looked at, money.

  I also came here during that time, but the targets I killed were mostly not of high level. After all, those with high bounties are not easy to find, and at that time what I needed most was not the experience of fighting against strong people after releasing all my restrictions, but rather to engage in slaughter with objects that were still roughly on my level even after being sealed away.

  I remember that year, I monopolized almost half of the Jonin-level rogue ninjas. Occasionally, when they were not far away and there was reliable information, I would also take on lone Jounin rogue ninjas. At that time, I wasn't picky at all; after all, they were just practice tools.

  It's not the time for me to recall my past now, I should think more about the pros and cons between regular and irregular things.

  A formal ninja mission requires identification, a deposit, and for B-rank or higher missions, relevant documents. Additionally, to get into the branch office in Konoha, you have to log in and confirm completion of the mission. It's safe but troublesome, and there will be more trouble later on because "Kurenai" doesn't have an ID. Now I don't have time to wait for a temporary fake document, and "Rasengan" can't leave any records outside. Unless I go kill someone and take their ID to complete the mission... But thinking about the details of handling it afterwards is also annoying. That kind of thing, once was already enough for me. Of course, there are other methods, but they're even more troublesome. If that's really what I have to do, I'd rather be late for school.

  But going to the irregular ones, no proof documents are required. They want a deposit just like the regular ones, but the deposit is more than half. For non-life-threatening tasks, they only help you "introduce" a ninja and then don't care about it afterwards.

  Anyway, they've collected the agency fees, whether we're being scammed or not is none of their business. Of course, there are some with better reputations, but their charges are also frighteningly expensive. If you have money, it's not meant to be spent recklessly like this.

  The commission of the hired person can be paid in advance or after completion, and it is up to the parties involved to decide. Neither party will interfere with each other's identity, but there is a possibility of being cheated. I don't mind such things, but that was when I had no time limit. Now I don't have extra time to waste!

  The level of ninjas employed by underground companies is extremely uneven, especially those nameless ones with a huge gap between good and bad.

  If the ninja I hired has a personal vendetta with another ninja, I might get dragged into it. After all, among the irregulars, there are occasionally rogue ninjas who come to switch sides or make some extra money, as for what they're making - be it commission or something else... I'm not quite sure

  What a hassle!

  I stood in front of a service counter at an underground company thinking about my task positioning.

  The reason I didn't choose a regular ninja was simply that this place happened to be closer to where I was at the time.

  Although there is a big difference in the amount of regular and irregular charges, the basic positioning of their tasks is roughly the same.

  This is just an ordinary escort mission, there shouldn't be any possible enemies...

  That year, I killed people without anyone seeing me, and I never slipped up. Only the relatives and friends of my targets knew that the killer was a bounty hunter with the codename "Dumb Moon". Even if they knew that much, at the time I had black hair and eyes, and wore a mask! Compared to now, it's not just a difference of one or two points... If someone could still recognize me, then... That would definitely not be human!

  In addition, the time limit is quite rushed. For a normal Genin-level ninja, it's almost impossible to complete this journey in such a short period of time, so the possibility of it being a D-rank mission is low. Plus, for an ordinary person, the trip from here to Konoha takes about two months.

  Ninjas are naturally faster, but with me, who has "the strength of a chicken", the speed will be dragged down...

  I don't want to be a six-year-old kid who can keep up with mid-to-high-level ninjas, that's too conspicuous, and... it would be exhausting!

  So to sum it up, my task should be around C to B level, and there's basically no risk of losing my life. However, considering all aspects, plus the fact that I still have a lot of money in my Hunter's Guild account, which I won't be able to use for a while after returning to Maple Leaf, I might as well splurge this time!

  "Excuse me......" Since the counter was too high, I stood on a chair to talk to the service staff.

  "Hey kid, are you lost? This isn't a place for kids to play! Leave quickly!" The underground company's staff saw a child of over six years old appear in this kind of place and rarely had a kind heart to advise him to leave this dangerous place.

  "I was going to say..."

  "Alright, little friend, stop causing trouble here, be careful or bad people will catch you! It's already very late, if you don't go home now, your dad and mom will worry!"

  That service staff treated me with an attitude of dealing with a kid, although it's very obvious, can't you just let me finish my sentence?!

  I quickly finished speaking this sentence, "I'm here to hand out tasks."

  "Little friend, if your family's cat or dog is lost, please ask your parents to post a mission! And it should be at the regular Ninja department, we don't accept this kind of mission here! Little friend, you must have come in by mistake, hurry up and leave!" The staff member was certain that I had lost my pet and might have heard about ninjas from my parents, so I thought to ask for help finding it, then "accidentally" found a place like this.

  I slapped myself in the face with one palm, completely covering my expression.

  The quality of service personnel in the underground company is still less than two years, how can it be so different? The location of the underground company, is it simple enough to let an ordinary six-year-old "accidentally" find it?

  In a place like this, there are four types of people who cannot be casually touched: the elderly, the disabled, women and children. Those who dare to come in mostly have abilities above a certain level, or else they wouldn't dare to come, would they?

  The person in charge here is out of his mind, actually letting such a rookie stand at the service counter, isn't he afraid of something going wrong?

  If this person treats me with this attitude again, I think my mood won't be very good.

  Especially, I extremely dislike it when someone doesn't listen to what I have to say and then arbitrarily makes a conclusion about my opinion, just like now!

  "I say, I have a task to issue, don't you ask about the situation clearly?" My tone became even more gentle, this was my last inquiry to this person.

  "So! Kid, get out of here quickly! This isn't a place you can stay. If you don't leave, I'll have to throw you out. What's with the tears? You can cry outside!" The service staff's kindness came and went quickly. Originally, his face was still somewhat decent, but now it's twisted in a scowl. Looking at him, he seems like he's about to grab my collar."

  It seems that believing "this thing" can understand human language is really too much for me to ask, this is my fault, but if you want to take action......!

  I peeked out from between my palms, revealing my left eye, staring at the service staff who had already stretched out his hand and was only half a meter away from me.

  The Eye of the Devouring Spirit is activated.

  A strange, evil red light flashed before the eyes of the service staff member, and immediately, this service staff member who was either a lower or middle ninja fainted, directly crashing onto the table, and due to their weight, they overturned the entire table, also falling to the ground with a loud crash. However, except for a small portion of people quietly taking a glance before quickly turning back around, no one came over to ask what had happened, let alone anyone coming to seek justice.

  This is a domain governed by the dark law, where only "money" and "power" are seen.

  Don't underestimate anyone, and don't let yourself be underestimated by anyone. That's the first rule of survival in a dark world!

  I watched with a cold eye as this service staff fell from the chair to the ground, without any fluctuation in my heart, anyway no one died, it didn't matter.

  Lucky for him, if I didn't kill him now, it would have affected my journey back to Konoha.

  As for whether he will wake up or not, and if he wakes up with a headache, loses his memory or becomes an idiot, it all depends on his luck.

  I'm not usually this agitated, it seems I haven't been alone for too long and my heart has weakened. Either I shouldn't have killed or I should have killed to the end, like that and fainted, it's not the normal manifestation of "my" personality.

  Suddenly I felt someone rapidly approaching from behind on the right. Just as I was ready to attack, his voice stopped me in time, "Excuse me, are you here for a mission?"

  It seems that some staff have a good attitude. I looked up in the direction of the sound, "Yes, I have a task to send, please help me with all the procedures."

  I just saw that the staff member completely ignored the fainted staff member and directly asked me to go to another counter to handle the procedures.

  It seems like this service staff is quite professional and has some experience.

  In such a situation, everyone knows that the fainted service staff must have been secretly attacked, it's just not very certain who did it.

  But his breathing is still there, which means the person who made the sneak attack didn't intend to kill him. And that service staff was facing me last, so the main reason for making that service staff faint must be related to me in at least 80% of the cases, whether I did it or not. As long as my matter is handled properly, no one should take any action against that fainted service staff again.

  This is one of the unwritten rules in the underground company, and it can't be seen that the service personnel who came also know this underground rule.

  I ignored the service staff who I had confused earlier and turned to the one in front of me, saying: "I want to release an escort mission. I'll tell you my restrictions, then you tell me the mission's level and commission, can you?"

  "Yes, sir, I'm ready."

  "I want to find someone to take me back to the vicinity of Konoha, with a time limit. The sooner the better, but no more than three weeks at most. There is no limit on the number of people, but my speed issue needs to be addressed. Strength is also not limited. Then, the sooner we depart the better. That's about it!"

  "Let me get this straight, a time-limited escort mission, the route is from the Earth Country border to Konoha, requires the ability to handle the client's walking pace, combat strength is unlimited, the faster the better, is that right?"

  "Alright."

  "Also, I have another question to ask, sir. Have you had any enemies in the past? Will we encounter any ninja attacks on our way?"

  "No, I'm certain." My connections to the ninja are mostly from when I was a hunter and killed them, but most of them were rogue ninjas. Rogue ninjas shouldn't have any emotional ties that would lead them to seek revenge against me, and besides, my appearance has changed completely since then - both faces are altered by transformation techniques.

  "Is that so! Does sir have a budget constraint?"

  "One million, as long as you get me to Konoha on time. One million, I can pay the full amount upfront. If it's faster than I expected, I'll even add more."

  "One million! That's almost an A-level task reward!" The service personnel looked at me in surprise as I took out stacks of cash from my package, their eyes wide with amazement. They had seen tasks worth over a million before, but it was the first time they saw the actual cash appear right in front of them.

  At that moment, countless greedy eyes, either openly or secretly, gazed at me... the money in my hand!

  It's actually quite foolish to reveal one's wealth in a place like this.

  However, when a piece of meat is placed in front of a starving dog, the dog will immediately eat it; and with two such dogs, they will fight each other, the winner taking away the meat, three or four also, only the winner can take it away. But when there are many dogs, surprisingly, no dog will dare to approach the meat immediately, because no one is sure that they won't be the next piece of meat, unless that dog has enough strength to intimidate others...