In the face of Kakuzu's question, the Black-market boss explained with a happy smile, "You should have heard about this Kakuzu-Sama, a shinobi named 'Yama' has recently appeared in the Black-Market Circle, and he has been taking many tasks… I heard that his task completion efficiency is amazing."

When Kakuzu heard the name 'Yama' he was a little confused and asked doubtfully, "Yama!?" ​​

Black-Market boss nodded and said, "Yes, rumors have been floating that he is not only very efficient but also very powerful, in just a few months, he was able to complete many difficult tasks!"

"Humph! You don't say…" – hearing the admirable words, Kakuzu coldly snorted.

All the other Bounty Hunter-nin colleagues are enemies for Kakuzu, and a good bounty hunter is even a bigger enemy for him.

It should be known that the missions assigned to the Black Market are not endless.

Whatever may be the mission about, once it's been completed, the origin of that mission would become vacant, although the vacancy in power would be occupied by others, sooner or later. It would still take time for that to happen, and this period could be anything, maybe a few months to even a few years, but there's no guarantee…

Therefore, the number of tasks appearing in Black-market is always limited, unlike the ones in Great Shinobi Villages.

And if a bounty ninja completes so many tasks in a short span of time, the others would naturally not have much work to do.

Therefore, Kakuzu was very annoyed by the sudden appearance of a tough competitor.

The Black-Market Boss also noticed that Kakuzu didn't seem to want to talk about this 'Yama' too much, so he shut himself up on his own and did not mention 'Yama' anymore.

While the Black-Market Boss was quiet, Kakuzu held the Bingo Book in his hand and kept flipping through its pages with a thinking expression.

Looking at the list of tasks completed by this 'Yama' character, even Kakuzu felt that he was a little too efficient or fast in completing the tasks.

Take himself as an example, if his target is a certain rebel group, and if they aren't some idiots; it would generally take him one to two months to find the target.

It might even take more if he is unlucky or if the target is too cautious and doesn't leave any trail behind.

But with speed, this 'Yama' character is completing tasks shows that he is not only very powerful but also has extraordinary intelligence collecting capabilities, or maybe a highly efficient intelligence network spread throughout the Elemental Nations.

Thinking of this, Kakuzu reached a conclusion, 'There must be a very large organization standing behind him…!'

Putting this matter aside for now, Kakuzu turned towards the Black-Market Boss, who seems to be cleaning some Sake-cups, and asked again, "Is there any result on the matter that I asked you to pay attention to?"

The Black-market Boss shook his head and said with an apologetic tone, "We have been inquiring about the information you have mentioned, Kakuzu-Sama, but up to now we have not had any luck in getting any results about it…"

Kakuzu nodded in understanding and urged calmly, "Continue to inquire!"

In fact, Kakuzu himself doesn't understand why the leader of the organization, who is so powerful as a God suddenly wants to search for a person related to Konoha Village.

Moreover, the description of the target that he is looking for is also very vague. With such little information, it is very difficult to find the people even with his experience, therefore, although he inquired about this person in the Black-market Circle, Kakuzu doesn't have much hope for it to succeed!

…

On Kuroto's End.

Currently, Kuroto was sitting on a cliff, wearing the 'Yama' disguise and eating some rice balls along with counting his recent income.

Beside him lied the corpse of a rogue-nin who specifically kidnapped the Concubines of Wealthy Merchants in exchange for ransom.

'Even such low-class Chunin have so much money hidden in their pockets; how do they earn it? Is the business of kidnapping Concubines so good that people like him can make a good amount out of it?' – thought Kuroto while chewing on a piece of the rice ball.

Initially, he thought that it was just a small task of killing him, but while Kuroto tortured the guy by cutting his fingers, this chunin offered to redeem his life with the money he had. Kuroto obviously pretended to agree and after following the guy he found the spot where the money was hidden, but Kuroto was still surprised that he had more than 10 Million hidden there.

This is the task amount of up to 10 S-Class Mission in Konoha Village, and such a chunin, who didn't even have access to the S-Class missions has already collected it!

After pondering a little he understood that the Wealthy Merchants and politicians generally have strong security, even if they don't, they would be willing to pay to the great Shinobi Villages and seek help.

But this matter is different altogether when it involves Concubine.

For the sake of their reputation, they would rather pay the ransom than endanger the life of their abducted Concubines, so even though this rogue-nin only has the strength of a Chunin, but after repeatedly succeeding, he has saved quite a lot of wealth in the past years.

'Hehehe, well too bad for him, because it all belongs to me now!' – thought Kuroto with a grin.

As for the reason why Kuroto has been able to repeatedly complete so many tasks in such a short time?

It is indeed thanks to his strength but that's still not the primary reason.

The main reason is that he has access to Konoha's intelligence network with his Anbu identity, therefore Kuroto can easily find his targets.

The other reason is his unparalleled flying speed in the Tenseigan Chakra Mode, so traveling large distances doesn't take very long for Kuroto.

If not for these two reasons, no matter how strong Kuroto has been, his efficiency would have been either same as Kakuzu or probably a little better than him.

However, considering the number of tasks available in the Black Market is always limited unlike the case with the Village, once simple missions that are unrelated to the Five Great Powers are completed by him, Kuroto would need to find another source to make money.

And this rogue-nin gave Kuroto a very good inspiration, kidnapping the Concubines, wives, and children of Wealthy merchants or the Merchants themselves to ask for Ransom is also a good method to acquire Millions of Ryo.

And, it's not very strange to find some wealthy merchants that are as rich as some small countries in the Shinobi World. So, it should be fine to threaten a few of them to obtain funds for his experiments.

Puff…

While Kuroto was mulling over these issues, white smoke suddenly appeared on the side.

When the white smoke cleared, an Orange Cat appeared out of it.

As soon as it saw him, the Orange Cat stretched its front paw towards Kuroto and said, "Meow, One thousand Ryo!"

Kuroto was immediately annoyed by the demand and unwillingly handed over a thousand Ryo.

After Kuroto gave the money that the cat asked for, it passed over a scroll to Kuroto's hand.

This Orange cat is not just any ordinary cat but a ninja cat named 'Kasai', and also the summon cat of Uchiha Shinichi. In order to safely receive messages from Shinichi, Kuroto also signed a contract with it.

However, the problem is that this cat loves money and every time it will pass a scroll, it will ask for a thousand yen, Kuroto can't help but want to complain to Shinichi for choosing such a greedy ninja cat.

In annoyance, he opened the small scroll passed to him to look at the few lines Shinichi wrote on it.

"That bastard actually said that he is The Uchiha Madara, he really thinks that I am some idiot that would believe his bullshit!

I knew it from the start, this bastard doesn't speak even a single line of truth… everything is just his-…"

Skipping through Shinichi's ranting, Kuroto directly read the last line of the message that was the real intelligence, "Akatsuki is trying it's best to find a mysterious ninja that is somehow related to Konoha but they aren't having much luck at it, I gotta ask this, isn't that person you if I didn't guess wrong?"

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Read up to Chapter - 284 on P.a.t.r.e.o.n. : p-atreon.com/Milta_translations