I Didn’t Choose the Shinobi Life, But I Did Monetize It

A month had passed since Ren first stepped beyond the walls of the Hidden Leaf, and the forests of the Land of Fire had long since lost their novelty. In that time, he had wiped out three full rogue shinobi camps and hunted down twelve individual missing-nin that met the bounty criteria laid out in his mission assignment. All of that amounted to five jonin-level points, the fastest point gain he'd seen in a long while.

But of course, all good things must come to an end.

Just yesterday, Ren's strength stat had crossed the long-awaited threshold of 70 points. That number had hovered tauntingly at 69 for nearly two month.

Now that his strength stat had officially crossed into the 70s, the system's reward output had changed. A-rank missions would no longer provide one jonin-level point by default. That benefit, apparently, was only granted while his strength was below 70.

He had no one to blame but himself for the timing.

And if that wasn't frustrating enough, the most recent mission, a rogue camp he had almost fully cleared the day before his strength breakthrough was robbed of its final reward due to one slippery survivor.

Ren glared down at the now-unconscious missing-nin lying at his feet. A C-rank nobody with a specialty in sensory suppression, the man had managed to escape during the initial attack and had somehow remained hidden for nearly two days. Ren only found him because the guy got cocky and tried to sneak out toward a nearby stream.

"Damn it, you just had to run away, didn't you?" Ren muttered, glaring at the unconscious man.

If this one had died with the rest of his squad during the initial camp raid, Ren would have completed the mission before hitting 70 strength. That one tiny detail, the man's inconvenient survival meant losing a full jonin-level point.

A single point that now required nine more completed A-rank missions.

He killed the man cleanly and without fanfare. No need to draw it out as Ren wasn't one of those protagonists who delivered emotional speeches before the final blow. He was a realist, and wasted time could mean the difference between reward and regret.

[Mission Progress: Rogue Camp Destroyed - 1/10] 

[Individual Rogues Eliminated - 3/10]

Ren looked at the notification and sighed. The system's mission-tracking was efficient, at least. Since the conditions of the mission were pre-approved and outlined clearly by Yoru, Ren didn't need to run back to the village to file paperwork after every successful kill or cleared camp. The system recognized his kills based on Yoru's parameters, and the tracking would update automatically upon completion.

It was the only reason Ren wasn't already halfway dead from exhaustion, if he had to sprint back and forth between the Hidden Leaf and these distant rogue camps just for mission credit, he might as well have taken up postal work.

Ren knelt next to the dead missing-nin and dragged a new scroll out of his bag. He labeled it quickly with a seal indicating the camp name and serial, then stored the body neatly inside. This particular scroll joined a dozen others already stacked neatly in his backpack, one for each camp and individual rogue taken down this month.

As he slung the bag back over his shoulder, he winced slightly.

'I'm going to need a second backpack soon. Or a summon that acts as a storage vault. Hmm, storage slug? That sounds horrifying.'

He shook the thought away and checked the horizon.

One month in the field had taught him a few critical lessons. First, rogue shinobi camps, while often dangerous, rarely overlapped with the active paths of solo missing-nin. It seemed most loners avoided the camps entirely, likely to dodge forced alliances, betrayal, or just petty territorial disputes. That meant Ren had to widen his search pattern significantly to track individual rogues.

It also meant increased travel time, slower accumulation of stats, and more strategic routing to hit as many targets as possible without burning out.

Still, he couldn't really complain. Despite losing one jonin-level point due to the late kill, his overall growth had been stellar. Even the system's data agreed. He had killed nearly fifty missing-nin in just thirty days. Not to mention his constantly improving technique and combat adaptability. The fights weren't always challenging, but they were consistent, and consistency bred excellence.

He ran a quick mental check of his current tracker:

Rogue Camps Cleared: 5

Individual Rogues Killed: 13

Jonin Points Gained: 5

His only regret beyond the missed point was the presence of certain rogue shinobi who had extremely annoying abilities. Like this last one, who specialized in stealth and sensory negation. It had taken Ren nearly two full days of methodical search just to track the guy down.

"These stealth types are the worst," Ren muttered as he glanced once more at the scroll in his pack. "Give me some freak with ten arms and a demon sword any day over some rat hiding under a bush for two days."

Still, with that last rogue dealt with, it was time for the next step in his routine: bounty collection.

The bodies weren't just trophies, they were worth cold hard cash.

And Ren was very much looking forward to that cash.

He had memorized the map and locations of the bounty centers provided to him by Yoru before leaving the village. Each center was marked at a strategic distance from both rogue camps and major shinobi outposts making it just far enough to avoid unwanted confrontations from either side.

It was a delicate balance. Despite being a meeting ground for killers, bounty centers operated under a kind of unspoken neutrality. Most rogue ninjas, while being lawless, respected the concept of the bounty network, if only because they wanted to collect bounties too. Starting a fight in or near a bounty center often meant becoming the next bounty or worse, getting blacklisted.

Still, trust was a fickle thing in the shinobi world, especially among criminals.

That's why the bounty centers were often located far from rogue-dense regions and heavily warded with seals, traps, and hired mercenary guards. Most centers also avoided building permanent structures and preferred mobile, tented operations that could vanish overnight if needed, unless of course they had the strength to keep the building, like the central bounty office which was the biggest one in the Land of Fire.

Ren's nearest bounty center was two days' travel from his current location, on the outskirts of the Land of Noodles. The country was small and mostly peaceful, which made it a perfect place to discreetly exchange corpses for ryo without drawing too much attention.

"Two days isn't so bad," Ren muttered as he adjusted his pack again. "I'll be rich by the end of it."

He took a long look around the clearing one last time, making sure he didn't leave any tracks or evidence behind. Not that he feared being tracked at this point, but it was just a natural way of operation.

With a nod to no one in particular, Ren turned eastward and began his trek to the bounty center.

As he ran, he began humming again.

Same song. Different battlefield.

~~~

Two full days passed in the blink of an eye. Ren, traveling at a consistent pace while conserving chakra, finally arrived at the location of the nearest bounty center.

And honestly, it was, underwhelming.

The so-called "bounty center" looked less like a neutral financial hub for the world's most dangerous freelance assassins and more like an abandoned field camp left over from a long-forgotten battle. Nestled between a sparse patch of forest and a bend in a dried-up riverbed, the entire setup was a ramshackle cluster of tents and wires, surrounded by barely-there perimeter seals.

The main tent, a sagging black thing torn at the edges and flapping wildly in the breeze stood at the center like the heart of a rotting animal carcass. What passed for a flap entrance hung off one side, limp and worn, doing very little to keep the outside world from looking in. Behind the main tent was a smaller one, slightly more intact, connected with ropes and seal tags. Ren could make out several chakra threads running from the small tent to the larger one, security triggers, no doubt, but they were basic and only functioned under manual activation.

'Looks like the kind of place you'd get scammed, stabbed, and robbed, probably in that order,' Ren thought as he stepped closer.

He paused outside the entrance, casually glancing toward the treeline.

Up in the branches were at least four chakra signatures. Hidden, yes, but only barely. These were the guards, likely mercs or low-level missing-nin paid to act as lookouts. Ren stared directly at one of them and raised his hand in a mock salute.

The watcher flinched. Ren smiled.

'No dangerous intent coming from the tent. Guards are mediocre. Seals are weak. Yup, feels safe enough,' he thought as he activated his spiritual energy scan, or what he liked to call Divine Sense, because honestly, if you're going to have a chakra radar, it might as well sound cool.

Satisfied that no traps were immediately going to reduce him to ash, Ren stepped inside.

The inside of the tent was as bad as the outside. The air smelled faintly of mold, unwashed bodies, and money, mostly the kind that hadn't been laundered in any sense of the word. What little light existed came from the sun shining through the holes in the roof, giving the place a patchwork of grimy sunlight and thick shadows.

There were three counters arranged in a rough U-shape, each staffed by a different person. On the far left sat a man with a face like a bulldog that had lost a bar fight. In the center was someone who looked like he hadn't slept in a decade, his eyes sunken, teeth yellowing, and one hand idly twitching. On the far right was a man who looked relatively normal. Clean shirt. Neatly combed hair. Fewer twitchy nerves.

Ren made a beeline to the third counter.

The man behind the desk gave Ren a look, not quite annoyed, not quite curious. Just that classic, dull stare of someone who'd seen far too much and cared far too little. Ren responded with a bright, casual smile.

"I'd like to exchange for bounties," he said cheerfully.

The man grunted, an all-purpose noise that meant Go ahead, I don't care, and Please don't stab me, all at once.

Without hesitation, Ren reached into his bag and began unloading.

One scroll.

Two scrolls.

Five scrolls.

Ten.

Eighteen scrolls in total, five for the rogue camps he'd wiped out and thirteen for the individual bounty heads he'd hunted. The stack covered nearly the entire surface of the counter.

The man's eyebrow twitched ever so slightly as he looked down at the pile. Clearly, this wasn't a typical delivery. But to his credit, he didn't ask any questions. Instead, he wordlessly opened the first scroll and began verifying the contents.

Ren crossed his arms and leaned on the counter, watching him work.

Since each scroll was meticulously labeled with camp name, shinobi name, bounty amount, and identification so there was very little manual work involved. The man only needed to check for forged bodies, stolen kills, and bounty validity.

Still, it took time. Twenty minutes passed in near silence, broken only by the occasional squelch of an unrolled scroll and the faint scribble of notes being made on a ledger.

Once all scrolls had been checked and verified, the man stood up and disappeared into the back tent, carrying the whole lot with him.

Ren didn't follow. He just waited.

And five minutes later, the man returned, dragging a black suitcase with reinforced corners. He dropped it on the desk with a thunk and popped the locks.

Inside was money.

Stacks upon stacks of tightly bound bills, high-grade currency, printed with official seals and the faint glow of legitimacy. The kind of cash that could pay for a mansion in Konoha's inner district or fund a personal war in a smaller country.

The man cleared his throat and began speaking, finally breaking the silence.

"Total bounty confirmed at 93.7 million ryo."

Ren's eyebrow twitched. That was higher than he expected. Must've been some bounty adjustments due to recent activity or village updates.

"The bounty center's fee," the man continued dryly, "is 20% 18.68 million. The Hidden Leaf Village's cut, also 20% 18.68 million. Which leaves your payout at 56.03 million ryo."

He reached down, preparing to count out the payment.

And stopped.

Because a toothpick was now embedded in the center of his hand.

The man froze. Slowly, he looked up to see Ren smiling pleasantly, head tilted just slightly.

"You better calculate that again," Ren said cheerfully. "Or your whole body might become numb."

The toothpick had hit a tenketsu point. Ren hadn't even moved visibly, just flicked it forward between two fingers mid-breath.

The man grunted and pulled it out, massaging his hand as he recalculated.

"Bounty center fee is 5% 4.7 million. Leaf village cut is 10% 9.4 million. Total payout: 79.6 million ryo."

He began carefully counting out the money, this time under the watchful gaze of Ren, who casually hummed a tune from a foreign cartoon no one in this world would ever recognize.

Once the full amount was placed neatly on the desk, Ren nodded. "Better."

He pulled the suitcase closer and checked the stacks.

Exactly 79.6 million. Not a ryo more. Not a ryo less.

He nodded again. "I heard you folks like to test new bounty hunters. Try to take advantage of the first-timers. I guess it's part of your whole 'cutthroat reputation' deal."

The man said nothing. He just stared.

Ren didn't leave immediately, though. Instead, he kept his hand on the suitcase and stared at the man, eyes expectant.

The man's lips thinned.

With a sound somewhere between a groan and a sigh, he reached under the counter, pulled open a drawer, and removed a modest pile of notes, exactly 18,000 ryo.

The payment for the storage scrolls Ren had submitted with the bodies, minus the usual discount. They didn't like paying for those, especially not when the scrolls could be reused and resold.

Ren took the cash happily and pocketed it.

"Pleasure doing business with you," he said with a grin as he turned and walked out.

The man watched him go, not saying a word. But as Ren pushed the tent flap open, he heard a faint mutter behind him.

"…weird kid."

Outside, Ren exhaled deeply, feeling the breeze hit his face as he adjusted the suitcase under one arm.

Seventy-nine point six million ryo richer.

One center down. Many more to go.

He smiled to himself as he stepped away from the bounty center and into the woods, already plotting his next move.

'Time to start hunting again. There's still a long way to go.'

~~~~~

{With this chapter we are finished with the basic introduction of this 1 year and how the bounty system works so I won't waste time on this in the upcoming chapters.}

{If you want, you can support me on pat-reon}

{ h t t p s : / / w w w . p a t r e o n . c o m / Z e e n o n }

{You know what else}

{200 Stones = Extra chapter}

{STONES!!!!}