Upto 30 Advanced Chapters @ patreon.com/aizenDuchiha0
~~
The gates of the Land of Fire bounty station creaked open as Kakuzu stepped inside, dragging the bloodied, limp body of a Mist-nin across the floor. The station was hidden beneath an unassuming ramen shop, its true operations buried below the scent of miso and boiling pork. The real business happened underground, where shinobi corpses were currency and old men in flak jackets sat behind reinforced counters, weighing the worth of human lives.
Kakuzu's cloak was torn, the edges charred from the Mist-nin's last-ditch jutsu. His broad frame moved with a tempered rage. His jaw tightened as he dropped the corpse with a heavy thud in front of the counter. Blood pooled under the body as the bounty clerk... a small, rat-faced man in armor two sizes too big... blinked and adjusted his spectacles.
"Name?" the clerk muttered, already reaching for a form.
"Koriji of the Hidden Mist. Elite Jonin-ranked, Class-A missing-nin. Forty-eight confirmed kills." Kakuzu folded his arms. "Dead, obviously."
The clerk scuttled around the counter, unrolling the scroll of confirmed bounties. He took out a pair of chakra-measuring calipers and crouched by the body, inspecting the face, the mist headband, the unique tooth-ring markings on Koriji's knuckles. After a long pause, he looked up, uneasy.
"Sir... the heart is missing."
Kakuzu's brow twitched.
Kakuzu growled, voice low and deadly. "Some absurd jutsu... boiled his own chakra and detonated it inside his lungs."
The clerk winced. "Y-yes, that... that would reduce the value. We require intact organs for full payout. That's regulation."
Kakuzu leaned forward. His stitched mouth curled into a scowl. He was already angry that he lost his water heart from the last ditch suicide jutsu from the mist-nin. "I dragged his steaming corpse across two provinces and you want to tell me his body is worth less because he was clever enough to blow himself up before I could rip it out?"
The clerk swallowed. "I... understand, sir. But per the client's decree and the bounty guild's enforcement terms, removal or destruction of high-demand organs... particularly the heart.. cuts the payout by half."
Silence stretched between them. The only sound was the faint humming from the chakra-sealing devices embedded in the ceiling.
Kakuzu's fists clenched slowly, veins pulsing with suppressed fury. He wanted to reach across the counter and rip the man's heart out just to make a point. But that would mean forfeiting the bounty... and worse, drawing attention from the guild. He breathed once through his nose.
"Fine," he muttered, fingers twitching. "Pay me the twenty."
The clerk moved fast, swiping his stamp and slapping a scroll pouch filled with ryo onto the counter.
Kakuzu snatched the pouch, already mentally calculating the loss. He had expected forty million for Koriji. Now, the water affinity was gone, and he was twenty million short. All because he couldn't find a strong enough water-style user lately. Weaklings. No one with decent chakra modulation.
Koriji had been his best lead. His mist-style jutsu was sophisticated, brutal in close quarters, but in the end he'd panicked... cooked his own chakra until his heart blew out of his chest like a ruptured pipe.
Kakuzu spat. He hated wasting good organs. Hated more that this meant downtime. Recalibration. A full chakra cycle without a water affinity would leave his balance exposed. The gap in elemental coverage could be fatal if exploited by the wrong technique. Still, there are not many who could threaten me even without my missing heart. But, he could feel the slowness in his blood. The roughness in his inner threads. It would take a day, maybe more, before his body fully adjusted to running four hearts instead of five.
"Any new listings?" Kakuzu asked flatly, his tone sharp.
The clerk fumbled for the scroll again, hands trembling. "Yes, sir. There's one notable posting. High reward. Very high profile. Seventy-five million. The target is Gennosuke Mugen... president of the Mugen Company."
Kakuzu's interest piqued. He raised an eyebrow.
"Corporatist? Merchant?"
"And arms dealer. Suspected to be selling chakra-infused weapons to rogue states. Operates from behind a legal front. He's got private shinobi security. Some strong ones."
"Any confirmed styles?"
"Unknown. Nothing concrete. The listing came from a private contractor. Confidential, but valid."
Kakuzu nodded slowly. That sounded better. Seventy-five million meant two things: risk and options. If he could get at least one decent heart... preferably a water... it would rebalance his element pool. And this merchant's security sounded like the kind of people who might put up a fight to protect their president.
He could feel his threads tightening, ready to hunt.
"Last known location?"
The clerk unrolled another scroll, tapping the map. "Spotted near the Mugen Company's freight checkpoint, between the Northern Fire border and the Tetsu no Kuni trade lines. He moves in caravans. Armed. But he doesn't travel often. You'll need to intercept fast."
"Good." Kakuzu turned. "Keep the corpse. Dispose of it however you like."
He walked out of the station, the heavy bounty suitcase thudding against his waist. Outside, the wind was dry, and the sun was beginning to lower. His stitched cloak flapped as he moved, already calculating routes.
But money soothed anger. And seventy-five million would soothe it just fine. More importantly, the bodyguards around Mugen might just be good enough to make up for Koriji's loss.
Kakuzu would take the bounty. And if someone was strong enough to be a challenge? He'd take their heart too.