This time, the theft was of ocular power.
Yōichi instantly felt his eyes swell, and without entangling with Hachidai and Tetsuhito, he directly sidestepped and left, followed by Kakashi.
Not far from leaving, Yōichi uncontrollably activated his Sharingan, and then the tomoe in his eyes began to spin rapidly. The two tomoe gradually approached each other, and a third black tomoe emerged within the blood-red pupils.
Casually stealing ocular power, Yōichi's Sharingan directly evolved into a three-tomoe.
With the advancement of his Sharingan, his chakra also significantly increased.
According to the research of Tobirama, the Sharingan is a unique chakra in the Uchiha's brain. This chakra stimulates changes in the eye structure, creating the Sharingan.
Thus, each time the Sharingan evolves, the Uchiha's chakra can be enhanced. From activating the Sharingan to the three-tomoe, the Uchiha's chakra can increase three times. Apart from the Senju clan, no other ninja clan dares to claim they have more chakra than the Uchiha.
"Captain, are you alright?"
Seeing Yōichi constantly holding his head, Kakashi asked with a bit of concern.
"I'm fine, feeling quite good!"
Yōichi turned his head and smiled at Kakashi, saying, "Let's go, I didn't expect to encounter such good fortune before leaving the village."
Three tomoe?
Kakashi was stunned after seeing Yōichi's eyes, wondering how his strength had increased just by walking and talking with others.
Even Kakashi couldn't help but feel envious at that moment.
On the other side, Tetsuhito covered his eyes with his hands after Yōichi left. He suddenly felt an unbearable soreness in his eyes, as if he had been staring at the sun for too long.
"Tetsuhito, what's wrong?"
"It's nothing, Hachidai-senpai, just a bit of eye soreness."
Tetsuhito rubbed his eyes and said. Now, let alone using the Sharingan, even opening his eyes to see was difficult for him.
"A bit of eye soreness? You were fine just now, how could your eyes suddenly become sore for no reason?"
The other Uchiha, Inabi, was somewhat skeptical, saying, "Senpai, could it be that kid Yōichi just now..."
"Stop guessing wildly, Inabi. It just happened right before our eyes."
Hachidai shook his head, although he felt Yōichi was a troublemaker and too aggressive, possibly dragging the entire Uchiha clan down, Tetsuhito's eye soreness couldn't possibly be related to Yōichi.
If they kept fussing over it, not to mention the Second Elder, even the clan head would think they were making a big deal out of nothing!
"I just find him very suspicious, and just now, Hachidai-senpai, you saw it too, that kid was so arrogant he even wanted to become the clan head, huh, thinking the clan head position is so easy to take? It must be the Second Elder giving him some dreamlike promise, making that kid delusional."
Inabi said mockingly, he was a few years older than Yōichi, but his treatment in the clan wasn't as good as Yōichi's. Now, he was just a new member of the police force, following patrols or performing some simple tasks.
"Tetsuhito, Inabi, go back first, I'll go see the clan head."
Hachidai suddenly said, he felt that the matter mentioned by Yōichi should be told to the clan head, to be cautious of the Second Elder; in his view, Yōichi's bold words about the clan head were likely due to some promise from the Second Elder.
Moreover, the Second Elder has been quite active recently, being in the same clan territory, Hachidai couldn't possibly not notice, and this matter should also make the clan head wary.
---
"Captain, you're in business too?"
After leaving the village with Yōichi, Kakashi arrived at a pharmaceutical factory. He thought they were there to steal some secrets; never did he imagine that this factory belonged to the captain, who directly started discussing business upon entering.
"Can't help but do business, the expenses are too high, and tasks like plundering nobles are rare, once the money runs out, we always have to find a way to earn it."
Yōichi shook his head, saying that Gates consumes at least two to three hundred thousand ryō daily. Unless he selects a lucky noble every three months for a raid, he simply couldn't afford to feed the Land's Bear.
But if he really did that, it would surely provoke the fear of other nobles and the Daimyo, further pushing the five great ninja villages to encircle and suppress them, prematurely experiencing the feelings of Madara.
Currently, Yōichi has not yet become the Fifth Hokage, so he decided to let those Daimyo enjoy themselves a bit longer.
"Kakashi, wait for me a moment, after handling the affairs here, we'll go to the underground exchange."
Kakashi nodded, not in a hurry, instead, he started to explore the pharmaceutical factory, planning to take a look around.
Purchasing this place cost over eight million ryō, the factory wasn't large, just three production lines, which were just enough for the three types of medicines that could be used. As long as the herbs were massively purchased later, they could produce at full capacity.
Yōichi also brought out a large portion of his family's money this time, aside from the food expenses left for Gates, the rest was invested in the pharmaceutical factory.
Besides purchasing herbs, advertising was also necessary.
Yōichi meticulously instructed his clan cousin three or four times about advertising, also reminding him to secretly arrange for Tsunade to take promotional photos, making sure she didn't know one of the boxes contained Viagra.
Now, the health care product industry is still a blank slate, just waiting for Yōichi to step in and make money; in the ninja world, the best medical ninjutsu belongs to medical ninja, who are busy saving comrades on the battlefield and have no time to develop health care products.
So, Yōichi seized the opportunity first.
After giving thorough instructions, Yōichi and Kakashi left the pharmaceutical factory. He could see that the Wise Second Elder also valued this place quite a bit, even arranging for the clan's ninja to guard it, so he felt relatively assured.
After handling the pharmaceutical factory affairs, Yōichi and Kakashi also planned to do bounty tasks. The reason he enticed Kakashi to the underground exchange was also due to a lack of funds.
"Captain, where are we going now?"
Yōichi looked around and then said, "To the underground exchange in Chikuzen County, last time I dealt with the person in charge there. But Kakashi, before we go, it's best to use a Transformation Jutsu. If your chakra isn't enough, always eat soldier pills, or just change your appearance, your hair is quite noticeable."
"I got it, Captain."
Kakashi touched his white hair, feeling like the captain had looked at his hair several times.
Then, after nearly a day of travel, they arrived at the underground exchange in Chikuzen County.
Seeing Yōichi's familiar attire, the exchange manager said, "You've come? Spent all the money you earned before? But why did you bring a kid along?"
"This is my assistant, and since when do you judge by appearance? His strength is much stronger than those trash under you, killing everyone here wouldn't be a problem."
Yōichi snorted coldly, then impatiently said, "Enough talk, what profitable bounties are there recently?"
(End of Chapter)
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"Recently, there indeed is a task, but it requires quite a long time, at least twenty days to start. I don't know if you have the time."
The manager of the underground exchange in Chikuzen County continued, "We've cooperated a few times, and I know you're strong, so I'm telling you about this profitable task. Recently, you're the only one who meets the requirements. What do you think, want to consider it?"
"It's a bodyguard task, and the client is not short of money. If you can defeat three of their bodyguards, it's six million for twenty days; defeat five, and it's twelve million."
After thinking for a moment, Yōichi shook his head and said, "Twelve million is considered a lot? Isn't that less than a Jōnin from the five great ninja villages is worth? Do you have any better tasks?"
"That's all, and the price isn't calculated like that. A Jōnin's corpse is very valuable. A bounty for a Jōnin without requesting the body is around five million."
The manager of the underground exchange shook his head, explaining the scarcity of personnel recently and that the client didn't want any mediocrity. His two recommended bounty hunters were rejected, leaving no choice but to persuade Yōichi.
"Fine, I'll take it. Tell me who the client is and how to contact them."
After some thought, Yōichi accepted. He didn't inquire about other bounties, assuming the man would offer him cheap C or B rank missions if he refused this one.
Earning little money for troublesome tasks wasn't appealing.
"Take this, go to the capital of the River Country, one block street, and look for a person named Inoue Sansui. He will take you to meet the client."
After finishing, the manager smiled and added, "If you do well on this task, you might not need to worry about money in the future. If the client is happy, they might hire you long-term."
"Hmph!"
Yōichi took the commission letter and left with Kakashi.
Once they were far from the underground exchange, Kakashi couldn't help asking, "Captain, a twelve million bounty sounds tough. That's at least twelve S-rank missions."
"It's different, Kakashi. You can't compare the village's missions to the tasks from the underground exchange. And one million is the lower limit for S-rank missions, not all S-rank missions are one million."
Yōichi explained, if every S-rank mission was one million, then thirty-five million could hire thirty-five Jōnin teams. Not to mention other villages, even the Temple of Fire couldn't survive without a single cockroach if the mission wasn't clean.
"Twelve million indicates the client anticipates ninja assassins, likely even a Jōnin. Thus, they might have hired not just us but at least five teams, and the employer also has their own guards."
Kakashi nodded, then quickly realized that still implied a difficult task.
Before Kakashi could inquire further, Yōichi continued, "Based on the pay, handling a Jōnin is enough. If there's more, I suggest we immediately retreat. It's not worth risking our lives for money."
"Of course, if you want to train, that's fine. But when I give the retreat order, you must obey!"
Kakashi nodded, "I understand, Captain."
After some time, they arrived at the River Country's capital and found the contact as instructed by the underground exchange. Then, they were led to the River Country's Daimyo's residence.
Kakashi whispered, "It really is the Daimyo's residence. But Captain, isn't it odd? Even for a small country's Daimyo, who would dare assassinate him? Why does the River Country's Daimyo hire so many guards?"
"The Daimyo isn't a fool. If he's hiring so many, he must feel threatened. As for where the threat comes from, only he knows!"
Upon entering the Daimyo's residence, they were led to a spacious garden where a dignified person in a high hat, looking like the Daimyo's steward, approached them, followed by a group of samurai.
"You two are the ones who accepted the commission, right? You've been informed of the rules. I need to see your strength first."
After the official of the River Country's Daimyo's residence inquired, he gestured to the samurai behind him. After five stepped forward, the official asked, "Do you want to challenge three or five?"
"Five, just me."
Yōichi stepped forward and flexed his wrists. If it was just samurai, they were much easier to deal with than ninja.
Samurai attack methods are too simplistic, believing that by honing themselves, they can reach the pinnacle. Thus, their approach to combat is one-dimensional, limited to swordsmanship.
In contrast, ninja are different. Chakra was meant to connect people's spirits, but ninjutsu was born from the necessity to kill!
---
"Captain, I've confirmed that there are a total of one hundred and twenty guards inside the River Country's Daimyo's residence, including five elite samurai from the Iron Country. The rest also include several dozen samurai who can use chakra. However, it seems there have been quite a few more people in the Daimyo's residence these past few days, some dressed like they're from the Wind Country."
Yamanaka Ryōsuke reported the intelligence he had gathered. Having the ability to explore others' minds and invade their spirits, gathering intelligence within the Daimyo's residence was easy.
"Can we confirm if they're from Sunagakure?"
"We can't. They're wearing bandanas, and although they don't have ninja uniforms, their presence in the River Country's Daimyo's residence at this time suggests Sunagakure's involvement."
Hearing Ryōsuke's words, he closed his eyes to think.
The others didn't dare interrupt. Several team members had teamed up with Sakumo before and greatly respected his leadership.
"Find out where those from the Wind Country are staying and deal with them first. Ryōsuke, clarify the details about the new arrivals at the Daimyo's residence but don't reveal your ninjutsu."
Sakumo spoke, then looked around at everyone, "This time, under no circumstances can we expose our information, or the mission fails outright."
Even if they successfully kill the River Country's Daimyo, exposing their identities would still mean failure.
If the entire ninja world knew that Leaf ninja killed the River Country's Daimyo, the impact on the Leaf would be unpredictable. Even if the enemy suspects, they must not leave evidence.
"Yes, Captain!"
Everyone responded in unison. Except for Ryōsuke, who received orders, the rest stayed at the base.
The more people deployed, the higher the risk of exposure.
Meanwhile, inside the River Country's Daimyo's residence, Yōichi and Kakashi passed the test. Due to Yōichi's overwhelming strength, he earned an additional two million reward, to be given after the mission's completion.
Moreover, his guard duty was deepened; initially tasked with patrolling the front mansion, his exceptional abilities led to his assignment at the Daimyo's castle keep.
(End of Chapter)
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