Chapter – 36: Deal (2 Chaps in 1)

Silver is back!

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[Rei POV]

"OH MY GOD!" were the only words I could say after reading it. Initially, I believed it would be something like Reizo found a treasure or something that the Nazo were after, but this…

Calming myself, I start to think about the implications of this information. the first is obvious, Konoha will be in deep sh*t if Kiri's plan is successful. The second and more hidden meaning is that the Nazo were never a missing-nin at all! They are still loyal to Kirigakure!

With other villages hiring Nazo for dirty work, Mizukage was able to gather many of the other villages' secrets without doing anything at all and people were even paying to give away their secrets!

"Well played, Mizukage!" I murmur.

From a certain point of view, Hoshiko's plan was brilliant. He first got Nazo to kidnap the children of two people he suspects. Then to make it look more genuine, he added Seishiro's son, and finally so that no one would suspect him, he added his own son to the list.

They already knew Konoha would interfere in Nazo's attempts to get ransom, so they included that into their plans too. First, they demanded money from Hoshiko himself, and when Konoha anbu was spotted, they used that as an excuse to kill Reizo.

Thing is, the more they want to perfect the plan, the more clues they will leave behind. And the same happened here too. Their so-called dragging attention away tricks was exactly what caused me to become suspicious.

One thing I couldn't figure out is, why didn't Hoshiko just leave Konoha? I mean their plan to sell faulty explosion tags was already complete, he should have even gotten his money, why did he still stay? He even went as far as to plan this whole kidnapping charade.

'Might be that their plan isn't complete yet?'

"Whatever they are planning is bound to fail anyway. Although I am curious, if I didn't come to this world, would all this still have happened? if it did, would Konoha still come out on top? because of whom?"

All I care about now is maximizing my profit. There are Four potential partners I can choose for making deals who can afford a high enough price. First is Hoshiko himself, second is the Nazo or in turn the Mizukage, third is, of course, the Hokage and finally, Danzo! Although Danzo would give anything to get some dirt on Hiruzen, it's too risky and I am sure there will be other occasions where I will have to make deals with him, so double-crossing him now for a small gain is not worth it. I am ruling out the Nazo too as currently, it is unknown if they are even alive or not. That leaves me the other two.

'So, Hiruzen or Hoshiko? Why don't I make a deal with both of them?' I grin, 'Although it will be a bit risky, the profits will be worth it! I am really sorry Reizo-san, I am way more greedy than you…'

I don't have much time as I don't know what backup plans Reizo has made which could make the information in my hands close to useless. In addition, once Hoshiko realizes one of the scrolls is missing, he will want to run.

I already know what I want from Hoshiko, but Hiruzen I am still debating internally on what to ask for. I already know asking to look at Scroll of Forbidden Seals is just a waste of time as he will never allow it. what else can Hiruzen give me that no one else can?

'Got it! There is something I need urgently…'

I immediately get started on it. First, I make three clones, disguise them and send them to three locations; two for extortion, and one carrying the origin space. None of them would make contact with the targets and wait for me to take control with the Dream control technique and I will make the deals myself.

** Hoshiko's house **

[Third person POV]

Inside a dark room, Hoshiko was currently pacing back and forth cursing someone.

"How long do they want, just to get some information from a god damm dead body? F*cking useless people!"

As he was in the midst of his monologue, he hears an eerie laugh.

"Hehehe, you surely are in an awful mood, Hoshiko-san!"

"Who's there?" he asks a bit frightened by the sudden intrusion. When he turns and looks carefully at the intruder, because it's dark, he could only see the vague outline of an Oni mask.

"It doesn't matter who I am, not to you at least. What truly matters is, what I know!" says the stranger.

"What do you know?" he asks with a bit of caution and a hint of dread. Dread that his secrets were already public.

"Oh, you have nothing to worry… for now! Only I know of your secrets and as of now no one else does, but if you don't give me what I want, it will be known to the whole Konoha in seconds!"

"WHAT?"

"Ya, I have a couple of ideas on it actually but the one I like the most is, how about I paint your secret on one of the Hokage heads up there?" he says pointing to the Hokage mountain, "People would surely notice it right away, no? And before you start planning on something funny like you did with poor Reizo, just know that this is just a clone and the moment this dissipates, your secret is out! so please don't contact Nazo for your own sake…"

"How did you…"

"Does it matter? Just pay me and I will shut up…"

"What do you want?"

"Money of course…"

"How much?"

"Half"

"Half? Half what?"

"Half of everything you have!"

"Are you kidding me?" Hoshiko is dumbstruck at the extravagant money he was being asked to give.

"The price of this information going out is your entire life, I am already giving you a 50% discount don't you think, Hoshiko-san? Even Kiri can't or rather won't protect you and your family if this information is made public…" the masked man says in a calm tone which irritates Hoshiko even further.

But the masked man is totally right, Kiri won't protect him once his identity as fraud is exposed. He knew the risk before he accepted the task, but greed is indeed a strong motivator, thinking of the huge money he can make, he readily agreed. But now he is paying the price for it.

'Only if that bast*rd Reizo hadn't…' Only he knows how many times he has cursed poor Reizo.

"Now, to important matters. After your famous 'deal' with Konoha for explosive tags, I can estimate that your net worth should be around a Billion Ryo! How about you donate 500 million to this poor soul so he can afford a decent meal tomorrow," says the masked man with a sarcastic smile.

"Five … hundred …" mumbles Hoshiko still unable to believe there came a day when he was being extorted such a humongous amount of money.

"Yes, and you have fifteen minutes to hand it over," says the masked man.

"Even if I agree to hand over the money, there is no way I can gather it in such a short amount of time," says Hoshiko shaking his head.

"Hoshiko-san, let's not play dumb shall we! How can a businessman like you not prepare a backup plan in case the kidnapping one fails? I guess you already have everything ready, and the moment I leave here, you will disappear. Just to remind you, I have kept a clone right in front of the Hokage office…" says the masked man, "And even if this is just a clone, I can still stop you long enough for the anbu to surround this place."

"Okay, okay, you win!" says Hoshiko with his hands raised, "But, what's the guarantee that you won't double-cross me after getting the money?"

"Hoshiko-san, do you think I am selling explosion tags like you to give guarantees? You have no other choice than to believe me when I say I will leave after getting MY money."

"Okay, give me ten minutes, I will get the money,"

** Hokage office **

A dozen anbus were surrounding a masked man who was leisurely looking around admiring the office without even a hint of worry

"Who are you? What do you want?" asks one of the anbus.

"You can call me Reizo and I wish to speak to the Hokage," says the masked man.

"Hokage is not someone you can meet just because you want to. Take off your mask and identify yourself first, then we will go and ask if Hokage-sama is willing to meet you."

"No need, just tell him the one in the Oni mask is here and he will surely meet me," says the masked man confidently.

The anbus all look towards one at the very back who should be the squad captain who just nods and rushes towards Hiruzen's office.

A few minutes later inside Hiruzen's office.

Looking at the masked man in front of him, Hiruzen controls his urge to rush in and pound this bas*ard to a bloody pulp for what he did to Tsunade.

"Hokage-sama, we meet at last," the masked man bows extravagantly.

"What do you want?"

"I see that you are still angry at me, understandable," nods the masked man and continues, "Nevertheless, this time I am here for an important matter, would it be possible to speak privately?"

"Oh, how important is this 'matter' exactly?"

"Lives of thousands of Konoha shinobi, you yourself can rate how important it is," says the masked man.

"Leave!" shouts Hiruzen, "Tell me what do you know?"

"Hokage-sama, you seem to have misunderstood something here. I am not a Konoha shinobi, I am not obligated to tell you anything. I am a bounty hunter, I chanced upon a piece of information that is of critical importance to Konoha, and I thought you would pay a satisfactory price for it. If I am wrong, I am leaving right now…"

Hiruzen thinks for a moment and then says, "If your information is really critical to Konoha like you said, I will give you a satisfactory price!"

"No no no, I don't want money. I want knowledge in exchange for knowledge!"

"Oh, an interesting bounty hunter you are!" says Hiruzen, "Let me tell you beforehand, S-Class and above information are out of bounds no matter how valuable your information is. But before all, tell me what the information you have is about and what you want in exchange for it."

"The recent kidnappings, you should have already noticed they are not really about the money, right?"

Hiruzen just nods waiting for the masked man to continue.

"A big conspiracy against Konoha was orchestrated by Kirigakure and some missing nins a couple of weeks ago in the Land of Tea. Fortunately or unfortunately, someone eavesdropped on them while they were finalizing things. As you might have guessed, yes, it's the Tokubetsu Jonin Yaguchi Reizo who was killed a few days ago! Now, normally his secret would have gone to the grave along with him, but by sheer coincidence, I was passing by and he told me everything about it and I have to say if Kiri's plan succeeds it will be a huge blow to Konoha!"

"Now for what I want, …"

"Before you continue, now that I know where to look, why do you think I will still pay you? I could have my anbu look into it?"

"Hahaha, you surely jest, right? If I didn't have that much leverage, do you think I would have come here? If you don't catch the culprit within the next fifteen minutes, you will never find him!"

"What?"

"Yes, your anbu would need ten minutes to surround the culprit's place. So, that leaves us with only five minutes to finish our deal! tik tok... tik tok..."