Konoha: The thirty-year-old Uchiha lacks motivation.

Chapter 980 Prison Money: I'm Licensed to Do This

"What do we do? What do we do? Another suspicious person is approaching the target."

"What do you think? Should we report this to Lord Madara?"

"I don't think it's necessary. It's just an ordinary curly-haired guy. If he dares to interfere with the adults' plans, just drag him away and use him as fertilizer."

Just as the group was immersed in the joy of their reunion, several White Zetsu who had been following Nagato and monitoring the Rinnegan peeked out from a distance and whispered in a voice only they could hear, "Wait, why does that curly-haired guy look a bit...curly!"

One of the White Zetsu, who had briefly worked as a kitchen helper at the Jue Wei Restaurant, didn't join the conversation. Instead, he tilted his head as if recalling something, his puzzled expression turning to shock after a moment. "How...why would he come to a place like this?"

It rubbed its eyes hard, and after confirming that the curly-haired man who had angrily taken Yahiko's head in the distance was indeed the ruthless person who had consumed a hundred pounds of white sugar in one sitting, its tone was full of terror, "You know him?"

The other White Zetsu who hadn't yet done part-time work in Konoha turned around curiously, their eyes full of questions. But White Zetsu, who recognized Uchiha Gin, didn't bother explaining. He slapped his companion responsible for relaying messages and urged him repeatedly, "Hurry back and report to Lord Madara! His cousin, who's obsessed with candy, is here!"

"Yahiko, you've struck it rich!"

"It's all thanks to San San's excellent teaching... excellent teaching..."

Yahiko, who had been tormented by Uchiha Gin for half a day, looked furious but dared not speak out. He forced a smile and let Gin do whatever he wanted. "Gin, please, if this keeps up, I'll go bald."

Only after catching a glimpse of a large group of familiar faces leaving the sweatshop behind him, did he whisper to Uchiha Gin in order to maintain the dignity of the organization's boss, "Bald? Bald is good, that's how you become stronger."

But Uchiha Gin showed no sign of stopping; instead, he kneaded even more vigorously. After all, such an opportunity to suppress the Great God of Conquest might not come even once in a day of dueling.

"Sir, please release Yahiko."

Nagato, who was clutching a small hand, looked at Yahiko's bitter face and mustered up her courage to step forward and stop Uchiha Gin from continuing his evil deeds. That soft, sweet voice...

Uchiha Gin turned his head to look at the long red-haired "girl" whose eyes were hidden by thick bangs. He raised an eyebrow slightly, and a mocking look appeared in his eyes. He had misunderstood; it was just a little girl named Nanami.

"Who are you?"

"Gin San-san, this is Nagato, a partner we met after you left."

Taking advantage of the break, Yahiko tidied his messy hair and introduced his human companion to him with a smile, "I see, I am Uchiha Gin. Thank you for taking care of this idiot, Yahiko."

With a look of sudden realization, Uchiha Gin smiled and nodded at Nagato. "Ah? Well... I didn't do anything special for him. It's all what I should do."

Hearing Uchiha Gin speak in such a misunderstandingable tone as if he were an old father, Nagato, whose face was slightly flushed, was first startled, then rubbed his small hands together and replied in a barely audible voice.

"Yahiko, you've really struck gold."

Looking at Nagato, who was acting like a submissive wife, Uchiha Gin nudged the carefree Yahiko with a strange expression. "Of course, Nagato is my good partner. He even washes my underwear for me."

"Thump!"

"Hey, what are you doing?"

"Idiot! Wash that stuff yourself from now on!"

With a frosty expression, Konan slowly withdrew the spiked club she had pulled out from somewhere, glancing dangerously at Yahiko, who was clutching his head and groaning.

"Boss! Everyone in the smelting workshop has been rescued... Hanzo, you old dog!"

At this moment, Kyusuke and the others who had been evacuated from the sweatshop also arrived. Seeing Hanzo standing alone not far away, they immediately drew their weapons, took a few steps back, and, quite disloyally, shielded Yahiko in front of them.

"You've disrupted my factory's normal operations time and time again, and now you're even resorting to insults?"

Hanzo, still lost in his daydreams about a blissful future, immediately showed displeasure on his otherwise robust face when Kyusuke called him "old dog" to his face. "I've already said that I won't pursue the matter further because of the divine doctor. But if you come to my factory to cause trouble again, don't blame me for being ruthless."

Everything must be based on reason. Although Hanzo destroyed the environment and enslaved laborers, he used all the money earned from the factory to build Amegakure. He didn't waste a single penny.

"Impossible! You wantonly destroy the environment and maliciously enslave the villagers. We, the Dawn Organization, must act on behalf of Heaven!"

Hanzo's words had already given Uchiha Gin ample face, but the hot-blooded Yahiko wasn't buying it. He immediately stood up and indignantly retorted, "Destroy the environment? What law or regulation in the Land of Rain explicitly forbids destroying the environment?"

"Well..."

Yahiko was taken aback upon hearing this, as it seemed that the Land of Rain indeed did not have any relevant laws or regulations.

"As for malicious enslavement? Since they can't pay taxes, can't we just make them work as compensation?"

Hanzo crossed his arms, looking at the clueless Yahiko with disdain. "Who can afford such a heavy tax?"

"Amegakure doesn't support idlers. If you don't want to be held hostage by other countries again, go and get some work done!"

"You treat human life like dirt!"

Thinking of the innocent people who were thrown into the sewage pipes to fend for themselves, Yahiko angrily retorted, "Treating human life like dirt? You're slandering my character!"

Hanzo answered the previous questions with a clear conscience, but when it came to matters concerning human lives, he visibly paused, and his voice became more angry. "I admit that it was indeed inappropriate to make them work overtime for 36 consecutive hours, but these were necessary sacrifices made to meet the orders, and I would give them some rewards afterward as appropriate."

"A reward? Your so-called reward is just throwing them into the sewage pipes and letting snakes and rats eat them?"

Yahiko sneered, his eyes glaring unflinchingly at Hanzo's attempt to explain. Had the Dawn Organization's secret base not been built in a sewage pipe, they would never have discovered the dark and bloody under Hanzo's tyranny.

"Impossible! I've handed over all the factory matters to Shenda, and I've also distributed his quarterly bonuses on time."

Hanzo saw no trace of lies in Yahiko's sincere eyes, which made him reflect on himself. Could it be that kid, Shinta?

Because he had to manage the entire Amegakure village, Hanzo spent most of his time dealing with the surrounding major powers. He never focused his work on a small sweatshop. Except for the occasional monthly financial accounting, he entrusted the management to his trusted confidant, Shinta. Otherwise, how could Yahiko and his few half-grown boys have managed to escape unscathed from the factory time and time again?

"You really don't know what's going on in the factory?"

Yahiko, too, found no trace of acting in Hanzo's tone, and a puzzled look immediately appeared in his eyes.

After carefully recalling his liberation journey over the past year, he realized that he had rarely encountered Hanzo himself in the process of infiltrating the factory. Most of the time, he had been outwitting and outmaneuvering the cruel overseer, Sanshoku Jinta. Could there really be some misunderstanding in the middle?

Just as both sides were speculating about the information gap, the Salamander God, Tatsuya, leading a large group of Rain Ninja, arrived late, saying, "Lord Hanzo, you must avenge me!"

Upon seeing Hanzo confronting Yahiko and the others, his expression visibly froze for a moment. Then, his eyes darted around, and he knelt down before his superior, tears streaming down his face. "Kintatsu, I need an explanation."

In just one minute, Hanzo had almost figured out the whole story. He looked down at the showy Shinta with a blank expression and asked in a cold voice, "It's my incompetence that I failed to protect the factory and allowed these guys to take advantage of the situation."

Shen Da sensed the anger in Hanzo's tone and immediately began banging his head against the ground repeatedly, trying to confuse the situation.

"You know that's not what I'm asking."

Hanzo coldly watched Shinta's completely uninhibited performance, then grabbed him and pulled him in front of him. The foul stench emanating from his mouth, sealed by the mask for many years, nearly suffocated the other man. "Ugh~ Han...Lord Hanzo, I don't know what you're talking about?"

After forcibly swallowing the acid that rushed to his throat, Shinta pretended to be stupid with his eyes darting around. "Still being stubborn? Then don't blame me for being ruthless."

His behavior instantly plunged Hanzo's heart into despair. Factory production was a minor matter; his reputation was the bigger issue. If this Shinta really used his name to commit evil deeds and harm ordinary people of his country, how could Hanzo ever stand in the Land of Rain again?

"Hehe~ This is my work ID. I'm the expert at interrogation!"

Seeing that Hanzo was about to publicly execute Kami, Uchiha Gin, who had been watching the spectacle for a while, finally couldn't hold back any longer. He stepped forward, pulled out an old-looking ID, and scanned it in front of Hanzo. Licensed and on duty—that's what you call professional!

"You...who are you?"

Although it was just a fleeting glimpse, Hanzo still noticed the bright, large characters on the yellowed document, with the words "Uchiha" being particularly eye-catching. "For such a minor character, one look is enough to reveal even the color of his underwear."

Retrieving his top-tier interrogation certificate—a mandatory exam for prison personnel during the Warring States period—Gin Uchiha smiled and took the trembling Shinta from the stunned Hanzo's hands. A chilling crimson glint flashed in his half-closed, dead-fish eyes. "You're an Uchiha?"

Hanzo's pupils dilated in shock. He never expected that the mysterious medical ninja who had performed the poison sac removal surgery on him was actually a member of the Uchiha clan, known for their cold-bloodedness. "Hmm..."

Almost simultaneously, Nagato, sensing the power of the Uchiha Silver Eye, felt a sudden, inexplicable tremor in his eyes. This unprecedented strangeness made him instinctively cover his eyes, his body swaying slightly. "Nagato, what's wrong? Were you injured just now?"

Upon noticing this, Yahiko rushed forward to support the swaying Nagato, his face full of concern. "I'm fine, just my eyes are a little sore, probably from using up too much chakra."

Lying in Yahiko's warm embrace, Nagato's delicate face flushed slightly. She reached out and rubbed her inexplicably sore eyes, then leaned "weakly" on Yahiko's shoulder. "Don't push yourself like this anymore. I'll take care of everything."

Nagato's superb acting skills successfully fooled the naive Yahiko. Seeing his companion's pale face, he immediately put his arm around Nagato's shoulder, nodded solemnly, and promised, "Yes, I understand, Yahiko."

"Tsk tsk tsk~"

Xiao Nan, who witnessed all of this, clicked her tongue and revealed a strange, doting smile, her eyes full of blessings.

On the other side, Uchiha Gin in his three-tomoe form did not exaggerate at all. With a simple glare, he defeated Shinta, an elite Jonin. "Tell me the most shameful thing you've ever done."

Looking at the gloomy, short-haired man with a blank expression, Uchiha Gin cut straight to the point, "I spied on the village's women's bathhouse yesterday."

"Uh... I'll talk about this last."

Upon hearing Shinta's revelation, Uchiha Gin and Hanzo's eyes twitched violently. Although they were eager to know what happened next, the factory issue was more important at the moment, so they had to postpone their spying. "I sneaked to stay overnight at the widow's house at the village entrance the night before last."

"To elaborate... oh no, this matter comes later too!"

'

'

"I was blinded by greed; in order to embezzle the quarterly bonuses from Lord Hanzo, I disposed of all the incapable workers through environmentally friendly processes..."

Finally, after Shinta exposed a series of lifestyle problems, it was time for him to reveal the many evil deeds he had committed in the factory. Sure enough, Shinta, relying on the power given to him by Hanzo, abused his power for personal gain in the factory and disregarded human life. In order to obtain compensation from the village, he even deliberately included workers who were thrown into the sewage pipes on the list of dead on the job. He profited from both sides of the same person. In just one year, he embezzled nearly one billion. If it weren't for the Dawn Organization's frequent guerrilla attacks, this number would have been even greater.

"Pah! Scumbag!"

"This kind of person should be sent to the furnace workshop to pour molten iron for the rest of his life!"

The surrounding Rain Ninja and Yahiko gritted their teeth upon hearing of Kamita's actions, wishing they could drown this Rain Village scoundrel with their spit. "The night before last, it was dry and hot, and I couldn't sleep because I was so hard, so I sneaked out the back door..."

'

"Thump!"

Unable to bear it any longer, Hanzo knocked out Shinta, who was revealing his evil deeds of raiding the widow at night. Uchiha Gin, who was preparing to watch the drama unfold, was very disappointed and stuffed his popcorn back into his bag. Can't I even listen to this paid part?

"Gentlemen, it was my oversight. I cannot shirk my responsibility for condoning such a parasite as Shenda."

Withdrawing his lecherous gaze from the unconscious Shinta, Hanzo spoke softly to Yahiko and the others with a complex expression. Yahiko shook his head upon hearing this. He, like Hanzo, despised Shinta's evil deeds, but that didn't mean he approved of Hanzo. "One thing at a time. Shinta may be despicable, but don't you feel any remorse for establishing this sweatshop?"

Pointing to the roaring sewage pipes not far away, Yahiko continued his tirade with a resolute expression, "Heroes of Amegakure, look at what you've done!?"

Looking at Yahiko, who was radiating an inexplicable glow, Hanzo seemed to see himself many years ago when he had just debuted. Back then, he was just as passionate, just as righteous, and just as sincere.

But under the harsh realities of life, he has become the kind of person he once despised the most.

"Young man, these are all necessary sacrifices made for our ideals."

"If it's for the sake of ideals, I'd rather sacrifice myself."