The morning of the second day after the battle ended.
Hidden Rock Camp.
With a blank expression, Ayane unsealed the scroll, taking out twelve ninja corpses in Konoha Anbu uniforms.
According to the price previously agreed with Hidden Rock Village, the bounty for the head of a Root Ninja was five million ryo.
There were a total of twelve corpses here, so Kitsuchi promptly paid sixty million ryo to Ayane.
The corpses were relatively intact, and Hidden Rock's autopsy team should be able to extract quite a bit of information about Konoha from them.
Of course, Ayane didn't care about that; given Root's usual tricks, even if it's just a body, the enemy wouldn't gain much from it.
For Ayane, the sixty million ryo bounty was the real benefit she valued.
"Would you mind collaborating again, Miss Hyuga Ayane? The reward won't disappoint you."
Kitsuchi asked, with a strong willingness to hire.
To pay money to eliminate the threat of Konoha Root was a very worthwhile deal for Hidden Rock.
"No, I have other matters to attend to. Let's end this cooperation here. We'll talk if there's an opportunity in the future."
Although Hidden Rock offered an enticing price, her intelligence had already been acquired by Konoha, making it hard to gain the upper hand in future battles.
Besides, she had also been injured in this battle, with her body feeling sore and weak. That guy with thick eyebrows had difficult-to-defend Taijutsu, severely injuring her hand bones, forcing her to rest for a while.
Fighting with Konoha Ninja was really exhausting.
"What a pity."
Hearing Ayane's refusal, Kitsuchi didn't insist, hoping for collaboration in the future instead.
"By the way, consider this a friendly tip. If you ever encounter a Konoha ninja in a green tight suit, be cautious of his Taijutsu."
Before leaving, Ayane offered Kitsuchi this piece of advice.
"Green tight suit… Konoha Ninja?"
Kitsuchi touched his chin, speculating who this Konoha Ninja could be.
Among the many Konoha Elite Jonin he was familiar with, there didn't seem to be anyone fitting the description of a ninja in a green tight suit.
Who was Ayane referring to?
A newly appointed Jonin of Konoha?
"I'll be careful."
Ayane's words shouldn't be taken lightly; there had to be a reason behind this warning.
"That's all for now; we'll meet again when there's a chance."
With these parting words, Ayane turned and straightforwardly headed out of the Hidden Rock Camp.
Watching Ayane leave, Kitsuchi stood pondering the warning she left behind.
"Kitsuchi, should we send someone to follow her?"
Explosion Style Ninja Gari approached Kitsuchi and asked softly.
"No need, there will be plenty of opportunities to work with her in the future. To unnecessarily provoke a powerful ninja over an uncertain Byakugan isn't wise."
Kitsuchi shook his head and continued in a steady tone:
"Moreover, in this line of work on the underground black market, integrity is paramount. Only with integrity can Hidden Rock establish itself in the underground market and attract bounty hunters. If we were to break this agreement first, we'd lose the trust of the entire underground black market."
After all, cultivating excellent ninjas expends far too many resources.
Rather than that, it's more efficient to use available funds in the underground black market and hire bounty hunters skilled in warfare activities. For the current Hidden Rock, this is quite a necessary tactic.
After all, paying a reward of tens of millions of ryo isn't a concern for Hidden Rock Village; it can be easily managed and is indeed considered a 'low' reward.
However, cultivating an exceptional Elite Ninja from scratch, with all the various resources involved, would cost far more than just tens of millions of ryo.
"Unfortunately, we can't get in touch with Uchiha Ruri. Even after placing a recruitment notice on the underground black market, there was no response from her, indicating she's not interested in working with us."
Just as Ayane said, Uchiha Ruri wouldn't react to the actions of Hidden Rock.
Perhaps she's not interested, or maybe she simply doesn't want a reward reaching into the tens or even hundreds of millions of ryo—Kitsuchi didn't know.
However, Kitsuchi believed the former was more likely; no one could remain indifferent to such a huge bounty, especially a renegade ninja without a fixed place to live.
◎
"How is Danzo's injury?"
The intense battle with Hidden Rock was to buy time for Danzo's Root, to prevent Hidden Rock ninjas from joining forces with Hyuga Ayane.
The entire process was within their calculations, but the result was unexpected for Jiraiya.
Deploying so many Root elites, even sending his disciple Minato to support Danzo, was meant to deal with the dangerous and troublesome renegade ninja Hyuga Ayane.
Yet their operation ended in utter failure.
To Jiraiya, it was simply inconceivable.
More than half of the Root personnel sent out were lost, and the small portion that returned was heavily injured, with significant wounds.
Root Leader Danzo himself was critically injured and comatose, still not having regained consciousness.
Basins of clean water were continuously brought into Danzo's tent, and when they were taken out, the water was stained red with blood.