With the job taken, I didn't waste any time before setting off. The Land of Grass was still a good way off, and I had little to do other than get moving.
That was one of the most difficult things about being a roaming rogue shinobi — not having anything to really do, being lost in this vast world without a goal or a place to call home.
I understood why someone who stayed around here long enough would try to find something to cling to, because just moving from job to job, it was a hard life, boring beyond measure.
Kakuzu had likely not started out with the deep lust for money; he had likely been even more lost than I was, having been betrayed by his village and, in turn, punished them.
Yet, with revenge served, he had nothing to do, and so he found the black market. There he likely just started taking jobs for the money while trying to find a real purpose.
Yet, he likely failed. Maybe he tried different things over the decades but failed, getting hurt and betrayed time and time again, until the only thing he cared about was money — something that would never betray him.
Maybe that was why he ended up staying with the Akatsuki — because with them, he wasn't just alone.
It was almost impossible not to think about such pointless things as I traveled across the lands, rarely staying anywhere more than a day, always moving, always on the road.
At least I didn't have to camp everywhere; the people of this world had long gotten used to having to travel around on foot, which meant they had built small inns along the roads — just a place to take care of merchants and others who used the roads, and stops for the patrolling shinobi.
Though while I did mostly move along the roads, I was a bit faster than a merchant caravan, so I could move between towns in a day. Sometimes I would only reach a small village, but it all allowed me to skip the indignity of camping in the woods or at the side of the road.
Still, although I could move around at great speeds and traveled rather fast, I still took my sweet time. After all, I spent every night resting; the evening was spent having a meal, and often a bath in the morning.
Nothing like the usual travel pace set by most shinobi on a mission.
Personally, I liked to think it made me harder to track, but in the end, it was all about my comfort. A rogue shinobi I might be, but I would be damned if I started living like one.
It also helped that I wasn't really all that wanted. Only Kiri and the black market had a price on my head; the other villages hadn't really picked up on me yet, meaning I could travel openly past their checkpoints without issue.
This was one of the things I had picked up from my time in Konoha — shinobi were often lazy when given the chance and rarely took foolish risks, at least after Chūnin levels or just years of experience.
Why stop a random kunoichi who you knew nothing about? They would check the bingo book, and seeing nothing, they would ignore me.
Or even seeing someone — unless there was a priority wanted order from their own village — they wouldn't really care; at most, they would report their location back to Konoha.
Everyone just wanted to earn their pay and live another day. Those that had ambition were all either not the type to have guard and patrol missions like those or had long since died due to their foolishness.
There was a reason a large black market was able to survive in the shadows of the large villages, and it wasn't just those nobles who liked to hire rogue shinobi for less-than-legal jobs.
After just about a week, I had crossed the vast lands before me and finally arrived at the location from the mission details.
A dangerous rogue shinobi had taken control of this small village and was terrorizing the people who lived here, yet Grass had asked for her to save them, despite them being so much closer. Yeah, that wasn't suspicious at all.
More so, my Byakugan allowed me to find each and every little secret this village had to offer, and it really didn't look like it was described.
No peaceful village ruled by a ruthless evil missing-nin — nope, this sure seemed like all the other villages in Grass I had passed through.
All of them were on the more miserable side of things; each one lived a hard life. The last war had destroyed much. Their nation was beyond poor, and still, it had its own ninja village, which was just not something it could really afford.
This meant crushing taxes and crushing punishment for those who failed to pay — all despite the land clearly needing some gentle care to recover from the ninja battles that took place here, as multiple villages made war with one another, with Grass being the acceptable battlefield where none of their own interests were hurt.
Such was the fate of smaller nations; their suffering was often the greatest during wars, and yet, once the wars were over, those protected by great nations had it easy, as they had protection and help.
Grass, however, didn't have someone like the Land of Fire to bankroll their recovery, nor anyone who really cared about them — like Suna had for River. To them, River was a precious resource, something worth fighting over, so even during the war, it was spared the worst.
Konoha because they were meant to protect it, and Suna because they hoped against hope to claim it. But Grass?
Konoha wanted to punish them for their alliance with Iwa, and Iwa used them as tools — nothing worth caring about. Someone who would betray an alliance as easily as they had turned on Konoha wasn't an ally worth having.
And Suna? They were incensed that Grass had dared attack them, seeing it as the ultimate insult that a minor village dared attack them.
That all led to the Land of Grass of today — a horrible place to live, though one with plenty of potential, as the land was fertile and flat, perfect for farming, though it lacked the people needed to do it.
And the shinobi of Grass weren't helping, acting more like thugs than protectors.
Not someone who would open their pockets and spend their hard-earned savings to help the people out of the kindness of their heart. Even if there was really someone they couldn't deal with, they would no doubt be hiding, waiting to take advantage of the fight to take down both — getting rid of their enemy, looting their payment from the dead bounty hunter, and cashing in any bounty on the two of them.
So far, it had been a fifty-fifty on whether those it would be, but now that the village was in range of my Byakugan, I had my answer.
There wasn't one powerful shinobi living inside the village; there was a whole team of them, including three I would judge as Tokubetsu Jōnin, though in a small village like Grass, they probably counted as real Jōnin.
There were also some weaker signatures around the place, likely sentries to alert the main group of my arrival.
This clearly wasn't the case of them needing help — no, this was my first assumption. This was Grass, trying to claim the Shikotsumyaku Kekkei Genkai.
Well, in that case…
I approached the small village by the main road and was quickly spotted. Under my blindfold, I watched as one of the weaker shinobi ran off to report that I had appeared.
The Byakugan really was a cheat, often overlooked due to not being as potent in combat as the Sharingan, but at times like this, it was showing its worth.
I could see the traps as they prepared them, the ambush as they got into position — sneaking up on a Hyūga was nearly impossible, and ambushing one was equally so.
Indeed, it was almost too easy.
As I entered the village, the people were fearful, their faces sunken and their bodies thin and beaten. They didn't even dare look at me, looking away as if afraid to be punished; even the children were like that.
It made me somewhat angry.
Without slowing down, I walked right into the middle of the ambush, surrounded by my 'hidden' attackers. Stopping right in front of the largest building — the so-called home of my target.
Inside was what could only be described as a kid with a bomb; the place was rigged with explosive tags — not enough to kill a skilled Jōnin, but enough to force them to dodge, even wound them if they were unlucky.
I snorted and quickly weaved together a handful of hand signs. "Fire Style: Great Fire Annihilation!"
All around me, I could see the eyes of my would-be attackers widen at my sudden attack. I was, after all, supposed to be a taijutsu expert, so me opening with a powerful Fire Style ninjutsu was shocking — as was the fact that I clearly didn't follow the script they had prepared.
The chakra-enhanced flames swallowed the building in an instant; the person hiding inside had no chance to react. One moment he was there, trembling at the prospect of activating the tags, the next, fire consumed everything, the tags triggering under the flames, blowing him and the building up.
"I guess that mission is done. Easy money indeed," I said loudly — loud enough that those hiding around me could hear it. "Honestly, to think that Grass couldn't handle this one on their own — barely worthy of being called a shinobi village at all."
The silence that followed was thick with fear — and outrage.
I smiled beneath the blindfold.
Let them come.
(End of chapter)
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