With Yamashima's corpse sealed away, Ryan vanished into the wind as a flash of violet light.
Since exchange halls weren't located in the same place as underground branches, he didn't return to the bar in Yuba Town. After a bit of effort, he located the nearest Exchange Hall—the place where bounty hunters collected their pay.
Standing before the massive water tower rising in the middle of nowhere, Ryan paused, slightly stunned. The multi-story structure took up a considerable amount of land, and for a moment, he thought he might've come to the wrong place. If it weren't for the faint, obscure mark beside the entrance, he would've assumed this was some kind of water supply facility.
(In the original Naruto story, Konoha's team visited five exchange halls during their pursuit of Kakuzu and Hidan. While one was hidden inside a public toilet, others—especially in the anime—were located in various kinds of buildings. So, clearly, the exterior design of exchange halls varied greatly.)
Approaching the tower's heavy iron door, Ryan placed his right hand on its surface and infused a trace of chakra.
This was the standard protocol for bounty claimants. Once chakra was transmitted through the door, those inside would be alerted via a mechanism. After all, knocking might be mistaken for a lost traveler seeking shelter or a cup of water—something the operators of these secret places wouldn't even bother responding to.
Clunk-click.
The door creaked open moments later, revealing a burly man who looked like he could snap bones barehanded.
"Come in."
Though the man was clearly surprised to see a teenager, he didn't comment. After a brief pause, he gestured for Ryan to enter.
Ryan stepped into the dim, silent interior of the exchange hall. The air carried a faint stench of decay—noticeable but not overwhelming. Certainly not as revolting as Hidan once described in the original series. It was tolerable… barely.
At the end of a long, winding hallway lay a large open room. Rows of long metal drawers lined the walls—body storage freezers. Ryan recognized them immediately. Several workers were busy moving corpses around, though where they were going, he didn't know.
As they walked deeper inside, the burly man asked in a low voice, "Whose corpse did you bring to claim the bounty?"
His tone was professional, though his eyes still flicked toward Ryan with curiosity. A bounty hunter this young was a rare sight.
"Iwagakure's rogue jōnin, Yamashima Kaze," Ryan replied casually, his voice emotionless. This place had an oppressive air—much like a hospital morgue—and knowing the drawers on the walls were filled with corpses sent chills down even his spine.
The man's eyes widened in disbelief. He quickly pulled out a bounty catalog and began flipping through it. "Please present the target's body for verification," he said.
Ryan nodded, then withdrew his storage scroll and unrolled it on the floor. Forming a quick hand seal, he summoned Yamashima's body.
The man examined the corpse carefully, checking for identifiers. After a moment, he nodded and signaled two staff members to carry the body to one of the freezers. Another worker arrived, holding a sealed box.
"This is your reward—two million ryō. Please verify the amount."
To say the ninja world was chaotic would be an understatement. Organizations like the underground network operated openly in cities across the land. Political assassinations, bandit raids, corpse-strewn highways—these things were almost normal. Taking a short trip and seeing a few dead bodies along the road? Completely routine.
Ryan stashed the reward into a separate storage scroll meant for valuables and left the exchange hall without looking back. This kind of place reeked of bad luck—the longer you stayed, the more it clung to you.
After he left, the burly staffer quickly filed a report:
"Target Yamashima Kaze confirmed deceased. Estimated cause of death suggests highly advanced chakra beast jutsu. Bounty collected by an unidentified teenage hunter—no visible injuries."
He sent this intel by messenger hawk to the nearby city of Yuba Town. As an exchange hall, this place also functioned as an information hub for the underground world. Tracking the movements and capabilities of bounty hunters was standard practice.
It was only a matter of time before Ryan's name—or rather, his moniker "Peacock King"—began circulating. A teenager capable of cleanly killing a rogue jōnin without injury? That was a prodigy no village could afford to ignore.
Unaware of the growing buzz around him, Ryan took some time to return the stolen ninjutsu scroll to Hoshigakure. When he arrived, the Third Star Shadow and even Summer Star were left absolutely speechless.
He'd been gone less than a day.
And came back with a scroll filled with A-rank jutsu.
It was known that most jōnin didn't carry their best techniques around, and even after killing several of them, one might not get a single B-rank scroll. But Ryan had returned with an arsenal.
The scroll was especially valuable because many of the techniques were Earth Release—one of the most common chakra types among Hoshigakure's shinobi. With this alone, their village's overall strength could rise dramatically in just a few short years.
The Third Star Shadow was so thrilled he half-jokingly declared Ryan a lucky charm for the entire village.
When Ryan returned to Yuba Town, the sun was already beginning to set. But now that money wasn't a problem, he treated himself to a lavish dinner and checked into one of the town's finest inns.
That night, in the warm waters of a private hot spring, Ryan floated on the surface with only a pair of shorts on, eyes half-closed and posture relaxed. He let the heat seep into his muscles, enjoying a rare moment of true peace.
The next morning, as the first light spilled gently across the sky, Ryan was already awake. He hadn't gotten much sleep—just two or three hours at most—but that was enough.
Now, he was working on something crucial: mastering Wind Release nature transformation. Of his three chakra affinities, it was the only one he hadn't fully developed.
To be honest, Ryan was tempted by powerful eye techniques and kekkei genkai. The Uchiha clan hadn't been wiped out yet, and the idea of sneaking into Konoha to snatch a few Sharingan—or Uchiha corpses for study—was certainly alluring.
But this was Konoha, not some backwater outpost.
Could he just stroll in?
Absolutely not.
The village had an elite Barrier Team maintaining a powerful perimeter seal. Without a space-time jutsu to slip through, there was no way to infiltrate unnoticed.
Could Ryan break through the barrier with brute force?
Maybe… if he went all out.
But doing so would immediately trigger alarms. Jōnin and elite shinobi would swarm the breach. Hell, even the Third Hokage might personally appear. Even with flight via the Peacock Sage Art, if he were caught in a barrier like the Four Violet Flames Formation… he'd be finished.
Ryan wasn't ready to fight a Kage.
Not yet.
Worse, if Konoha traced his actions back to Hoshigakure, his entire village would be in danger. Ryan wasn't naïve enough to believe Konoha was a righteous sanctuary of peace. If they saw a threat, they'd eliminate it. If that meant wiping out Hoshigakure?
So be it.