Shinichi's anger at this time was obviously not fake and because Kuroto allowed him to attack the masked-man as much as he wants, therefore Shinichi didn't restrain himself and directly shot towards the masked-man.

Whoosh… ​​

Shinichi's figure immediately flashed to the side of the masked-man and waved his short sword upside down to cut the masked-man into two parts.

Unfortunately for him, the sword directly phased through the masked man's body as if there was only an elusive image present before Shinichi and nothing more.

Even though Shinichi has already awakened the Mangekyou Sharingan, he still couldn't see through the masked man's ability; so, the failure of attack greatly dissatisfied him.

The masked-man who just casually stood with his hands at the back of his head; didn't even bother about Shinichi attacking him and just asked flatly. "Are you still obsessed with this False World!?"

"Tch…" – clicking his tongue in annoyance, Shinichi calmed himself as he understood that no matter how much he attacks the other party, unless and until; the other person materializes himself into this space; it wouldn't make any difference as all his attacks would just phase through Masked-man's body!

"Hooh! So, you do know how to calm down, that's a surprise? Well, since I don't have to waste time restraining you, how about you now consider my offer to join me? Join the organization I am part of, and I will help you create a world where you wouldn't have any regrets!" – stated the masked-man.

Shinichi just snorted coldly without dropping his guard, "And, why should I trust you?"

"You should have been to Naka Shrine after awakening the Mangekyou Sharingan!" After a pause, the masked-man continued, "With the Mangekyou Sharingan, you should have read the Stone Tablet left to the Uchiha Clan by the Sage of the Six Path, and you should have understood what is the message on the tablet, and that's exactly my goal!"

Shinichi was silent when he heard the masked man's words, as he has indeed read the text on the Stone Tablet, at least up to the point that his Mangekyou Sharingan allowed.

But whether he agrees with the masked man's ideology or not, that's not very hard for him to figure out.

Shinichi's ability implies 'Protection' and 'Retrospect', these are the true reflection of his inner thoughts.

Different from the masked-man who want to escape from the reality of someone's death by enveloping the whole world in an infinite genjutsu to unite with the person he loved the most, Shinichi desires to go back into the past or better yet, change the reality of Uchiha Kurumi's death and then protect or guard her alive self.

As for the fake world of genjutsu?

Shinichi has no interest in it!

After all, there is always a difference between reality and illusion!

Although Shinichi has promised Kuroto to join the Akatsuki as a spy, now that the matter is important and the masked-man has again invited him, he really couldn't open up his mouth and was frozen in his spot; because no words came to him.

The masked-man seems to have sensed Shinichi's hesitation, so he said while extending his hand, "No need to rush, think about it clearly, and come to the Land of Rain…"

"Why are you so sure that I will come?" – Shinichi couldn't help but ask in confusion.

"Heh… that's a good question… but its answer is incredibly simple… I know you will come to me is because I understand you… while no one else does, besides, you don't seem to have many options, isn't that right?"

Leaving this sentence, the Masked-man disappeared into the spiraling void.

In the masked man's eye, Uchiha Shinichi, who has defected from Konoha doesn't have any place to seek asylum, the Kumogakure might have taken the chance to step over Konoha using this opportunity, but in the Shinobi world, no village would ever trust a defected shinobi, much less a defected shinobi of other Village.

Therefore, Akatsuki is Shinichi's only option… and Uchiha Shinichi will definitely come to the Land of Rain, whether to join the Akatsuki or with the hope of killing the Masked-Man, whichever be his choice, his destination will definitely be the Land of Rain!

Only patience is needed, and he would eventually be drawn into the Akatsuki.

After coming out of the cave and appearing on Zetsu's side who stood far away from the cave, the Masked-man ordered lightly, "Bring that woman's body!"

Zetsu nodded and sunk into the ground.

'Uchiha Shinichi… I know you will come… because you are just like me!"

…

After leaving a shadow clone at his home, Kuroto disguised himself as 'Yama' and secretly left the Village.

He already had a good knowledge of the Black Market thanks to Orochimaru and Anbu, so finding the location of one of its units in the Land of Fire wasn't that big of a deal.

This branch was hidden under the cover of an Izakaya.

After confirming the identity of the in-charge and the secret password to get access by torturing out a small bounty hunter, Kuroto arrived at the location and was brought to a dark-room.

All the four walls of the dark-room had the lists of various rewards, the rewards were both old and new, some were even yellowed out because of the long time that they remained here.

Soon his eyes landed on the newly published list of four bounties, and these four belonged to none other than the Anbu Team-11.

Among the four members, Shisui's reward was the highest, with a skyrocketing value of 50 Million Ryo, and this reward was pasted under a special section that signifies the danger level of the target.

Then there was Kuroto's personal bounty which amounted to 30 Million Ryo, followed by Kakashi's which was 25 Million Ryo, and finally, Guy's bounty that was still 20 Million Ryo.

Looking at such an increase in Shisui's bounty, Kuroto helplessly muttered under his breath, "Che, Kumo is really very annoying!"

Undoubtedly, these new bounties are issued by Kumogakure.

The reason for such a stark increase in Shisui's bounty is his Mangekyou Sharingan. Shinichi's defection clearly highlighted the true power of the Mangekyou Sharingan, so even though, 50 Million Ryo is not a very high amount, it isn't a small amount either, and with this Shisui's awakening, the Mangekyou Sharingan is now a piece of common knowledge among all powers.

And Kuroto's bounty also increased from 20 Million Ryo to 30 Million Ryo, this is probably because Yugito Nii passed back the news about him defeating Uchiha Shinichi, so his danger level increased, but since Kumo can't accurately judge the process of the battle and only vaguely understand that Hyuga Kuroto repelled Uchiha Shinichi, who seem to be using the Susanoo; so, they only increased the amount by 10 Million Ryo.

The increase in Kakashi's bounty is also reasonable as he is the captain of the Team-11, but Guy seems to have been completely ignored by Kumo, so his bounty stayed 20 Million Ryo, too bad for them to ignore him.

The in-charge noticed that Kuroto was looking at the bounties of Team-11, and said to him from the side, "If you bring the heads of these four, we can make the immediate payment with only 10% commission!"

Most of the Bounty Ninjas are unwilling to meet their employers in person, after all, the employer could be anyone, even the likes of great Shinobi Villages, so both sides would want to avoid direct contact, therefore, the Black Market also acts as a mediator between the two parties, and only charges some commission fee for the mediation work.

Kuroto coldly snorted when he heard that, "I don't have any intention of involving myself with the five great Shinobi Villages, as of yet. Are there any other high-paying bounties that are uninvolved with the Five Great Shinobi Villages!?"

The in-charge wasn't surprised by this question, after all, the Five Great Shinobi Villages are not something that anyone can provoke, this is the most basic sense among all the shinobi, whether it be a rogue-nin, wandering-nin, missing-nin, bounty-nin, or the shinobi of other small nations.

Therefore, he nodded without much of a surprise and took out a small book from the side of his pocket and handed it to Kuroto with a cold smile, "These targets don't have any involvement with the Five Great Powers, you can check out each of them slowly by taking your time!"

The reason why the in-charge was being amiable towards Kuroto?

It's obvious, he was able to feel the great pressure radiating from the other side, so the in-charge understood that the person wearing the black and white mask and the Golden Printed Black Cloak is definitely not any ordinary Shinobi, so it's best to not offend the other party!

Kuroto only nodded in appreciation after flipping through the notebook, he tore a few pages that he selected as his targets.

The goals Kuroto choose were either defected-nin that cause too much trouble or some bandit-nin that only harms one side, therefore, there shouldn't be any follow-up trouble after killing these targets.

With Kuroto's current strength, coupled with the Konoha's intelligence support that he has access to courtesy to his Anbu identity, Kuroto was able to eliminate many groups of rogue-nin, as well as some bandits who were plundering the resources from the ordinary people.

Regardless of the bounties offered by these targets, Kuroto was able to earn about 25 Million Ryo, just by robbing these groups, plus the bounty, even with the amount deducted as the commission, he still collected a sum of 70 Million Ryo.

And because his task completion rate was both very fast and efficient, so the alias of his Disguise, i.e., Yama also began to spread in the underground world and Black-market circle.

…

At one of the branches of the Black-market Circle, Kakuzu, who was wearing the iconic Akatsuki High Collar Black Cloak with Red Clouds printed over it, threw a corpse on the desk of the Boss of this Black-market Branch.

After comparing the identity of the person that this corpse belonged to with the person in the bounty poster, the in-charge stored the corps in cold storage and said with a smile, "Kakuzu-Sama, the reward for the bounty will soon be delivered to you!"

As one of the top bounty hunters, Kakuzu has unparalleled prestige in the Black-Market Circle. The in-charge will always make sure to process the payment as early as possible to save Kakuzu-Sama's precious time.

Kakuzu nodded to the in-charge while looking towards the reward list to choose the next target, however as soon as he saw the wanted lists, he was surprised to find that the latest edition of the Bingo Book was much thinner than the previous one, so he asked in confusion, "What's the matter, is the business not going very smoothly?"

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