Chapter 124: The Six Great Sins of Shimura Danzō
At noon, Akiyama Makoto's room finally quieted down.
Anko, walking with a slight limp, tiptoed back to her room, only relaxing after seeing that Kurenai was still asleep. She didn't know how she was going to face her best friend after Kurenai found out what she'd done. Makoto's solution was that since many things were hard to explain, they should just "use their bodies to feel." But she couldn't very well use the same strategy on Kurenai.
Fortunately, Kurenai was still sleeping. It seemed she had really drunk too much yesterday.
"Anko, what time is it?"
Hearing Anko quiet down, Kurenai decided to play along. In any case, she had to leave the Kazematsuri Bathhouse first and go home to calm down for a while.
"It's noon, Kurenai. Well, first day of the New Year, want to go out for a drink?"
"Spare me—I just want to go home right now."
"Then let's grab a quick bite to eat, and I'll walk you home?"
Kurenai hesitated for a moment, then nodded. As Anko's best friend, it would be a bit heartless to refuse even that.
The two tidied themselves up and left the bathhouse. As they passed Makoto's room, Kurenai said with feigned casualness, "Is he... not in?"
"Haha, he's probably still resting." Anko tried her best to hide her embarrassment. "After all, after what happened this morning, he must have been quite frightened."
"Yes, quite frightened."
Kurenai deliberately emphasized the word "frightened." Who among them was the one who had really been frightened?
At Anko's urging, the two of them left.
And the "resting" Makoto was currently using his sensory jutsu to check on Kurenai's reaction. As he had expected, she had found out about him and Anko. It was basically impossible not to, given how thin the walls were.
So, how would she react? For now, she was pretending that nothing was wrong. But when she slowly saw how happy Anko was, her mindset would change. He was confident of that. After all, he, Anko, and Kurenai were three lonely people who couldn't scrape together a single family member. He had already experienced in his simulations just how lonely Anko was.
Of course, Asuma could have filled that void, but he wasn't about to give him that chance now.
This matter wasn't urgent. After solving the immediate, sudden trouble, he had to plan his next steps in Konoha. According to the simulation, Danzō would make a move on him in about a month. The timing might not be exact, but the fact that he would make a move was basically a certainty.
The current him was no longer afraid of a sneak attack from Danzō or Root. However, as long as Danzō did it, regardless of the outcome of the battle, the result would be a split between him and Konoha. And he didn't want to break with Konoha, at least not before the Chūnin Exams.
To ensure Danzō wouldn't have time to bother him, he had to make the first move and bother Danzō.
So, he picked up a brush and paper and began to write a story. This was what he was best at.
After nightfall, he left a Shadow Clone behind, and his main body used the Flying Thunder God Technique to leave Konoha. Following his memories from the simulation, he arrived outside a black market bounty station in the Land of Fire. He transformed into a burly, heavyset man and entered.
In the middle of the process, there were, of course, various methods of checking if he was "one of them." He was already well aware of all these, so the whole process went smoothly.
"You're a new face, Lord Ninja. What can I do for you today?"
A man with a scar on his face greeted him. He had seen through his Transformation Jutsu long ago, but it didn't matter. Was there anyone who came to the bounty station who wasn't trying to hide their information and secrets? As long as he didn't cause trouble, he would entertain these ninja even if they were disguised as wild beasts.
"I'm here to sell intelligence. Are you buying?"
"Of course. As long as the intelligence is valuable, there's no reason for us not to buy."
He nodded, took out the scroll he had written, and handed it directly to the owner.
"I'll give you one hour to copy it. After that, return the original to me. Understood?"
"Alright. Please wait a moment."
The owner, seeing that he didn't even ask about the price, didn't mention it either. He would just give him a lowball offer after he finished copying it. By then, he would have no way to refuse. He had more than one ninja stationed here and wasn't afraid of ordinary people causing trouble.
But when the owner went into the back room, opened the scroll, and saw the words written on it, cold sweat began to pour down his face.
This was intelligence about the "Darkness of Shinobi"!
It was rumored that that guy killed without blinking an eye and was one of the most terrifying people in the ninja world. Could he really accept this intel?
—Yes! Why wouldn't he!
His shop even had a bounty posted for the Hokage's son. No matter how famous Danzō was, he was still just a ninja under the Hokage. Besides, it wasn't like he would be proclaiming the intel himself. He would sell it to other interested parties. When Danzō came looking for revenge, he would be looking for them. What did it have to do with his bounty station?
And so, for the next hour, the shop owner wrote furiously, struggling to record all the information.
Finally, he finished recording "The Six Great Sins of Danzō" and respectfully rolled up the scroll and handed it back.
The so-called "Six Great Sins of Danzō" referred to:
Conducting human experiments.
Attempting to assassinate the Third Hokage.
Manipulating the Uchiha Massacre.
Suppressing the Hyūga Clan.
Forcing Sakumo Hatake to suicide.
Brainwashing and controlling the village's ninja.
He hadn't recorded the details, as he didn't know many of them himself. But he could write them as a story of half-truths, enough to get anyone who read it hooked.
The shop owner was clearly hooked. He no longer dared to underestimate him. To dare to sell Danzō's black material, the guy in front of him had to be either incredibly strong or have an incredibly powerful backer.
Makoto took the scroll back and tucked it into his robes. He had been monitoring the owner with his sensory ability the whole time. If he had tried to swap the scroll, he would have attacked immediately. Fortunately, although the bounty station's business was assassination, it still maintained a stable sense of order.
"I wonder how much our guest wants for this? I must say, although your intelligence is weighty, we don't yet know if it's true."
"You can choose to wait for us to confirm its authenticity and we'll give you a high price, or you can take 5 million Ryō and walk away right now."
He gave the man a slightly surprised look. "You're not afraid my intel is fake?"
"You must be joking, guest. Although we cannot confirm how high the authenticity of the information is, we can still generally confirm its value by combining it with what we already know."
"If we didn't even have that much insight, how could we possibly run a bounty station?"
He nodded. "Give me the 5 million Ryō. How you use the intel after this is your business."
"Right away. Please wait a moment."
The owner quickly returned with a stack of cash and handed it to him. He glanced at the thickness, saw that it was correct, and then turned and left without a word.
As he had expected, after he left, two ninja with Special Jōnin-level strength followed him from a distance, one of whom was a sensory type.
Faced with such trackers, he just smiled faintly, activated Water Style: Hidden Mist Jutsu, and then vanished.
After arriving in an unnoticed, wild area, he looked at the 5 million Ryō in his hand and couldn't help but feel a little emotional. Not long ago, he had extorted Sasuke for a few hundred thousand Ryō for a plot of land. Now, he had easily obtained ten times that amount.
As expected, to make real money, you had to leave Konoha and extort the big players... Of course, he had to continue writing. That would help him build his reputation, which he would need in the future when he went to the capital to ask the Daimyō for a noble title. Although he could also gain the Daimyō's recognition through strength, he had no desire to become the second coming of Danzō in others' eyes.
He sealed the money away, then activated the Flying Thunder God Technique and disappeared.
When he reappeared, he was near a bounty station on the border of the Land of Earth. Over the past few days, he had already set up Hiraishin marks in many places within the Land of Fire using the merchants' carriages, allowing him to travel so easily.
In one night, he sold this information a full six times, his route forming a perfect circle around the Land of Fire. The price was different each time. The lowest was 2 million Ryō, and the highest was 6 million in the Land of Lightning. In total, he had made 21 million Ryō from the six sales.
To be honest, the money was a bit low. After all, this was Danzō's black material, which could be used as a pretext to declare war on Konoha. But he was satisfied. He couldn't exactly show his face and manage these things himself; it was a one-time deal.
With that, he used the Flying Thunder God to return to Konoha and lay down comfortably in his bed.
He wondered if, in a few days, the entire ninja world would be thrown into chaos because of this.
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