I founded the "Bragging Cult" in Naruto.

Chapter 268 Patience Makes a Good Hunter, Otherwise a Dead Hunter

"I didn't expect Konoha to be so lenient. The intelligence was leaked, yet they still let him go out to carry out the mission, without even changing his code name."

"Hehe, I've heard that Sakamoto Tatsuma has a grudge against Hatake Sakumo. Sakamoto Tatsuma was almost killed by Hatake Sakumo before."

"Sakumo Hatake is the head of Konoha's Anbu. Could it be that he disagrees with Tatsuma Sakamoto changing his codename?"

"It's possible. Sakamoto Tatsuma is only fourteen or fifteen years old, yet he has already shown such great strength. Perhaps in two years, Hatake Sakumo's position as head of the ANBU will be in jeopardy."

"But Sakamoto Tatsuma is Tsunade's disciple. Even if Hatake Sakumo is stupid, he wouldn't openly target him, right?"

"You don't even look at the kinds of missions that Hatake Sakumo has been carrying out these past few years. The fact that he's still alive is a testament to his near-death experience. Think about it, if the Second Mizukage had asked you to carry out such missions back then, would you still serve him?"

Oh, no, it wasn't a mission with a near-death experience. You coward, you ran away as soon as you heard there was danger, hahaha~

Inside the dark, damp, and somewhat smelly gold exchange hideout, a group of rogue ninjas were discussing the latest intelligence. This was one of the few places where rogue ninjas could socialize.

The exchange office has locations throughout the five major and minor countries. Not only can you exchange currencies from various countries, but it also issues a large number of bounty missions, some targeting active ninjas and others targeting rogue ninjas.

The rogue ninja brothers I chatted with today might become my source of money in the early hours of the morning.

The recent bounty of Sakumo Hatake and his two companions, which has been increased by a total of 50 million taels, is undoubtedly the focus of discussion. After all, it is rare to see such a large sum of money being spent on bounty updates in a decade.

Of the three, the one with the highest popularity is naturally Tatsuma, who has the largest amount of follow-up investment. After all, compared to Sakumo Hatake, who is almost invincible, Tatsuma's bounty seems to still have a chance of being obtained.

Tatsuma's age is too deceptive; no one believes he can be that strong. Even the God of Shinobi wasn't as famous as Tatsuma in his youth.

As for the information disclosed by the Land of Lightning? A fourteen-year-old ninja was able to fight the Raikage A, successfully escape, and even inflict some injuries on A?

Few people believed these claims. Of the information disclosed by the Land of Lightning, only two points were of great interest: first, Sakamoto Tatsuma and Namikaze Minato, codenamed Yasha and Mokuto, were suspected of possessing the Flying Thunder God technique.

Secondly, Sakamoto Tatsuma possesses extremely profound sealing techniques, even capable of threatening the sealing of the Tailed Beast Jinchuriki.

Given Tatsuma's status, he had every opportunity to master these two things. The first reason is that Tatsuma's earliest nickname was Tobirama, the exact origin of which is now unknown. All that is known is that it was a nickname he had at the beginning of the war.

For several years, Konoha not only failed to clarify the matter, but even confirmed it, including moving into the Senju clan's territory and becoming the heir to the legacy of the Second Hokage, Tobirama. These were not secrets within Konoha.

With such a background, it's not impossible that Tatsuma was able to learn and master the Flying Thunder God Technique of the Second Hokage, Tobirama Senju.

Moreover, according to the information disclosed by the Land of Lightning, the three of them had no other way to escape from that situation except for the Flying Thunder God Technique.

As for the second point, the same logic applies. Tobirama Senju's successor, Tsunade, one of the three legendary Sannin of Konoha, still lives within the Senju clan's territory. Everyone knows that there is a master of sealing techniques within the Senju clan's territory.

Unlike Kushina, the fact that Mito Uzumaki was the Nine-Tails Jinchuriki was not a top secret, or even a secret. After all, she was the first Jinchuriki of a Tailed Beast, and the other four villages and the Land of Waterfall followed suit.

With Mito Uzumaki around, it's entirely possible that Tatsuma could learn advanced sealing techniques.

Although it is somewhat bizarre that Tatsuma, at such a young age, possesses the skill to threaten the sealing of other Jinchuriki, this is something that anyone who wants to harm Tatsuma must be wary of.

Inside this exchange shop, they even created a personal strength model of Tatsuma after analyzing his intelligence, based on information disclosed by the Land of Lightning and war reports from the Second Shinobi World War.

According to this model, Tatsuma is almost a ninja without any weaknesses, proficient in taijutsu, ninja tool throwing, wide-range destructive ninjutsu, and powerful single-target ninjutsu.

In addition, she also possesses the same summoning beast as Tsunade, as well as medical skills that are not much weaker. This is based on the war report of the Second Shinobi World War and the latest issue of a medical journal.

Furthermore, his sealing techniques were verified by the Land of Lightning, and he also demonstrated exceptional war command skills. Apart from lacking outstanding genjutsu skills, Tatsuma was a perfect ninja.

As for his mastery of illusion techniques, no one dared to say that this was Tatsuma's weakness. After all, just because Tatsuma hadn't demonstrated it didn't mean he couldn't. Even if he wasn't good at using illusion techniques, after so many years of fighting on the battlefield and in the ANBU, his mastery of resisting illusion techniques must be quite high.

In recent days, they have been waiting for various forces to disclose more information about Chenma, and at the same time, they are waiting for some hotheads to challenge Chenma after he appears, so that they can find Chenma's weaknesses.

"Crunch~"

Just then, the secret door of the exchange opened, and a tall man shrouded in a black robe walked in. He went straight to the counter and asked the person inside:

"Any interesting bounties offered lately?"

His arrival silenced the chatter inside the exchange, and everyone looked at him with serious, even fearful, eyes.

However, the person behind the counter remained calm. He flipped through the wanted list in his hand and said in a relaxed tone, "Mr. Kakuzu, it's been a long time."

"You've been on some missions in other countries, so it seems your internal communication isn't very smooth."

Kakuzu's voice was also very calm. The person behind the counter did not refute him, and stopped flipping through the booklet. Instead, they pushed the booklet towards Kakuzu and asked, "How about this one?"

"The bounty is too low, 3,743,671 taels. Who went bankrupt to offer this reward?"

Kakuzu shook his head. The person behind the counter knew Kakuzu wouldn't actually let him answer the question, and simply said, "Then what about this?"

On the next page, the portrait above is of a very young boy. Upon seeing this age, Kakuzu instinctively wanted to refuse. After all, how many years has such a young child been a ninja? How much bounty could he possibly have?

But before he could refuse, his green eyes caught sight of the string of numbers at the bottom, and he couldn't help but ask, "Thirty million taels, are you serious?"

"Da~"

Just as the person behind the counter was about to confirm, some sounds suddenly came from the shelf behind the counter. A letter appeared on the shelf, and the clerk, without having time to answer Kakuzu, hurriedly opened the letter.

Watching the clerk read the letter, Kakuzu said again, dissatisfied, "Thirty million taels, is that the bounty for this child?"

"no."

The teller denied it, and Kakuzu was a little disappointed. Looking at the string of numbers, he thought there might have been an extra zero. Just as he was about to ask the teller to recommend another one, he heard the teller say:

"The amount is now thirty-seven million taels."

As he spoke, he raised his voice, making sure everyone in the exchange could easily hear him: "Latest bounty: Sakamoto Tatsuma, 37 million taels, excluding information already disclosed..."

He risked his life to annihilate two pursuing ninja teams from Kirigakure, killing two rogue ninjas whom Kirigakure needed to recruit. As a Kirigakure patron, an additional seven million ryo has been added to the bounty.

Everyone in the exchange knew that there were no "village patriots" at all; they were just people added to the list by Kirigakure themselves, but they wouldn't say it.

The five major powers have intentionally regulated the value of their currencies. The exchange rates of the currencies of the five major powers are very similar and stable. Apart from the different issuers, they can be directly exchanged in terms of value, so there is no need for precise conversion.

Upon hearing the clerk's words, Kakuzu's two green eyes began to light up. He slammed one hand on the wanted list and exclaimed, "Thirty-seven million, right? Me..."

"Da~"

Before he could finish speaking, another letter arrived. Kakuzu quickly shut up and then stared intently at the teller. Although he knew the chances were slim, he hoped it would be another additional reward for the child.

The clerk opened the letter, glanced at it, and quickly said, "Latest bounty: Sakamoto Tatsuma, 45 million taels, excluding previous information."

He risked his life to participate in the Konoha's operation to eliminate 87 Iwagakure ninja, and was a key figure in the operation. Therefore, he has relatives and friends who were among the eliminated Iwagakure ninja, and an additional 8 million ryo is offered as a reward.

In addition, the bounty hunter also provided an extra piece of information: during the Second Shinobi World War, Sakamoto Tatsuma acknowledged his lineage as a descendant of Senju Tobirama in the Land of Iron.

"The Thousand Hands Clan."

Kakuzu's gaze darkened. He hadn't been active in the Land of Fire for the past few years, so he was somewhat unfamiliar with the information about the new ninjas there. However, when he heard about the Senju clan, he instinctively felt some resistance.

While he remained silent, the others, stimulated by the successive increases in bounties, forgot about Kakuzu's existence and began to discuss among themselves.

Kakuzu listened to the information revealed in these people's words, and heard the information about this child named Sakamoto Tatsuma. He went from being surprised at first, to being incredulous, and then to thinking that it was all nonsense.

"The Senju clan, sealing techniques, the Flying Thunder God Technique, a new type of medical ninjutsu? Ha! Why not mention that he mastered the First Hokage's Wood Release power?"

Kakuzu couldn't stand it anymore and directly mocked him, but he found that these people not only didn't wake up, but even looked at him with an extremely strange look.

The teller also hinted, "Mr. Kakuzu, what they are saying is information disclosed by the bounty hunter. The exchange has also verified it. There may be discrepancies, but it's impossible for it to be entirely a rumor."

Although he held back his words, Kakuzu was aware of the Gold Exchange's intelligence capabilities. If this information had been reviewed and released by the Gold Exchange, it was most likely confirmed.

His face was gloomy. He felt as if he had been completely out of touch with the ninja world during the years he was away from the Land of Fire. When did such a monstrous existence appear?

Seeing his silence, the clerk asked, "Mr. Kakuzu, you said earlier that you wanted to take on Sakamoto Tatsuma's bounty mission?"

Kakuzu's eyes darted around, and he raised his hand from the wanted list on the counter, saying, "I was going to take it, but I didn't expect this kid to be a descendant of Tobirama Senju."

"I once fought the First Hokage, and now, years later, I'm going to bully his brother's descendant? Wouldn't that make me a laughingstock?"

Kakuzu isn't stupid. At such a young age, to receive such a large bounty, he wouldn't risk his life without sufficient intelligence. He'd rather let others try it first.

If he's strong enough, he can continue observing and gathering intelligence; if he's not strong enough, he'll be killed by someone else. In that case, if it wasn't Kakuzu who killed Sakamoto Tatsuma, it would have been Kakuzu himself. As for now...

Let the sword fly a little longer.

(End of this chapter)