Several days later, as Gekko Chizan once again set foot in the Land of Lightning, a wave of emotion rose in his heart.
"Chōmei, do you remember the first time we came here?"
"Of course I do. You were the one who made that big idiot from Kumogakure drown in debt. I'm really curious—has that guy paid off everything by now?"
Gekko Chizan burst out laughing when he heard that.
Back then, to get revenge on A, he had borrowed quite a lot of money using A's name.
That was also one of the reasons Kumogakure was the first to withdraw from the Third Shinobi World War. After fighting a war, not only did they lose their own Raikage—
They also inexplicably ended up owing several hundred million ryō in debt, to the point where Kumogakure could barely afford to eat.
"And that's not even all. You abducted their jinchūriki, and you even took away an Island Turtle."
"Tsk tsk, I really feel despair for Kumogakure."
Chōmei teased him while munching on bugs. In all these years, he truly hadn't seen any village more miserable than Kumogakure.
Their combat power was gone, their money was gone—tsk tsk, a real tragedy.
"Heh heh heh. That bastard broke my finger back then—I was already being lenient."
"But this time, Kumogakure is going to have to bleed a bit more."
"Who told them to love collecting decent ninjutsu everywhere?"
Gekko Chizan's goal in coming to Kumogakure this time was only one thing—no, to be precise, one technique.
The Heavenly Transfer Technique!
A long-distance teleportation ninjutsu! Besides transporting objects, it could also transport people. However, because its principle involved sending the target through high-speed movement to instantly reach a designated location, the extreme speed would cause violent friction with the air and generate massive overload. Ordinary human bodies couldn't withstand such rapid transfer and would be torn apart and die.
Therefore, this technique could only be used to transport objects.
But what Gekko Chizan wanted was precisely object transportation.
An intelligence network needed fast transmission speed, and the Heavenly Transfer Technique was the most suitable!
On top of that, Gekko Chizan had his own plans. Heavenly Transfer, Heavenly Transfer—if it couldn't be used every day, what kind of Heavenly Transfer Technique would it be?
He intended to cultivate a group of shinobi specialized in using the Heavenly Transfer Technique. When the time came, relying on this technique, he could absolutely achieve real-time intelligence delivery.
"Tsk tsk, so Chizan, you're really milking Kumogakure for all it's worth, huh?"
"Kumogakure offending you really is..."
As his partner, Chōmei could naturally sense what Gekko Chizan was thinking.
After learning Gekko Chizan's plan, Chōmei couldn't help but hold a silent moment of mourning for Kumogakure.
"Tch, stop messing around. I'm not harming them."
"This kind of useful technique, if they don't use it properly, that's just wasteful."
"If they won't use it, can't I use it instead?"
Kumogakure was built along the mountains, with all kinds of buildings embedded into the cliffs.
Gekko Chizan activated Transparent Release and strolled leisurely toward Kumogakure.
He didn't want to waste a single moment. As soon as he arrived in Kumogakure, he began searching everywhere—first get the Heavenly Transfer Technique, and if he could get anything else, he'd take it all.
Since he was already here, taking too little was simply impossible.
For this reason, Gekko Chizan made a series of plans.
First, find the Heavenly Transfer Technique. Then look for other forbidden techniques. After that, the Six Paths tools. Money and the like would come last.
To make things easier for himself, Gekko Chizan maintained Transparent Release mode all the way until nightfall.
After all, night was more convenient for action.
...
As night descended, the time belonging to Gekko Chizan arrived.
"Multi Shadow Clone Technique..."
Since he was searching for things, the more people, the better.
Fifty clones, plus the original body—fifty Gekko Chizan clones all activated Transparent Release, then began a frenzied search throughout every corner of Kumogakure.
As for Gekko Chizan himself, he headed straight toward the Raikage's office.
The most dangerous place was often where the greatest rewards lay, so it was better for his original body to go personally.
"Chōmei, help me observe the surroundings."
"Observe what? It's the middle of the night—just sneak in."
"Chōmei... that's going too far. You're already slacking off."
"I'm confident in you, hmph. Besides, how many coordinates did you leave outside Kumogakure anyway?"
Gekko Chizan let out a mischievous chuckle.
Because Chōmei was telling the truth—just to be safe, he had left coordinates in every direction around Kumogakure, all for the sake of making a quick escape.
When he arrived outside the Raikage Building, several figures were still standing guard. As he got closer, he could even hear their voices.
Looking more closely, Gekko Chizan realized he had underestimated it—there were actually two small squads standing guard.
Each squad had three people; within his field of vision, there were six shinobi total.
"Ah, Raikage-sama is really hardworking—even more hardworking than the Third-sama."
"Isn't that so? But how exactly did Raikage-sama rack up that pile of debt? It still hasn't been paid off."
"No idea. I think someone set him up. Haven't a lot of people said it was a scheme from the daimyō's side?"
"Impossible. The daimyō's mansion has great relations with us!"
Gekko Chizan immediately stopped his actions. These days, was there anything more interesting than gossip?
He found a comfortable position, leaned against the wall, and just listened to the people in front of him chatting.
"Ah, several hundred million in debt. Raikage-sama goes on missions during the day, and when he comes back, he still has to handle office work. When Dodai-sama wanted to use the village's funds, he was even rejected. What a good Raikage-sama."
"That's true. Raikage-sama really is great. But even if we used the village's money, it still wouldn't be enough, right?"
"Don't forget—the disappearance of the Island Turtle and the Two-Tails. How many people did we dispatch for that? Add to that the previous wartime consumption, and our village's savings have hit rock bottom. If it weren't for support from the daimyō's mansion, we probably wouldn't even have enough for daily living expenses."
Hearing this, Gekko Chizan almost laughed out loud.
Was it really that miserable?
Even though Kumogakure had lost the war, lost the Island Turtle and the Two-Tails, and the Raikage was drowning in debt, it shouldn't be this bad, right?
After all, Konoha had been besieged by four villages, and wasn't it still doing just fine now?
"Hmph, isn't it because the two surrounding hidden villages are such bastards?"
"Yugakure is one thing—after all, their village has always been poor, so they can only take missions outside."
"But what's Takigakure playing at? Lately I've heard that the outskirts of our Land of Lightning are full of Takigakure shinobi taking missions. They're openly carving up our country's money!"
Good grief—this was something else.
Yahiko was impressive. He had actually arranged Takigakure's business all the way into the Land of Lightning???
Nice! This move deeply satisfied Gekko Chizan!
If that was the case, then Kumogakure being miserable finally had a clear explanation. The total number of missions was already limited, and now a portion was suddenly being taken by another hidden village. It would be strange if life was still good.
But who could they blame? Kumogakure was the village that started the war. And what was the result? They were the first to withdraw—and they withdrew in utter defeat. Tsk tsk, they had lost the people's trust.
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Pls Drop some Power Stones
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