Chapter 99: Is It Not Common Knowledge That There Is a Black Market in the Ninja World?
Most people have experienced something like this at least once.
Like during evening self study at school, when the teacher suddenly steps out for a while and the entire classroom atmosphere changes in an instant.
Or like coming home as a kid and discovering your parents went on a business trip, leaving you alone for a few days, with the computer conveniently left unlocked.
Orochimaru did not usually place strict limits on Kenichi, but the feeling was still different. With his teacher gone, Kenichi could breathe easier. The lab felt like it belonged to him again.
Back in the familiar laboratory in the Land of Rice Fields, Kenichi leaned back in his chair and stretched until his joints popped.
"Ah… I really do get more inspiration when it is quiet."
After a short rest, he forced himself up. Work was work.
First priority in any lab was simple.
Cleaning.
He could not honestly claim he cleaned on schedule every day, and last time he had left in too much of a hurry. If he did not clean now, it would only get worse.
Waste disposal was also a serious matter. Some things needed to be incinerated. Some needed to be buried. But this world did not have any real concept of degrading and treating hazardous substances.
Sometimes, scavenging in the ninja world was not just risky, it was suicidal. Especially near Orochimaru's test sites, where the chances of stumbling onto something dangerous went up dramatically.
Of course, you could also find things like severed limbs, remains, and other unpleasant surprises.
After he finished reorganizing the workspace, Kenichi stared at the shelves and felt a headache coming on.
"If Sensei is not here, how am I supposed to buy materials?"
He had wanted to continue researching thermobaric weapons and solve the remaining problems while the momentum was fresh.
But now he realized something annoying.
He had used up every last bit of material for thermobaric bombs.
He did not even have enough raw supplies left to make a single batch of thermobaric explosive.
Fortunately, he had asked his teacher before about where to buy raw materials, so at least he was not completely blind.
And as everyone in the ninja world knew, missing nin were wanted by every village.
Under normal circumstances, rogue ninjas could not stroll into a major village and casually purchase supplies. So what did they do when they needed to buy things?
They went to places that existed specifically to supply people like them.
When Kenichi first heard Orochimaru mention it, he complained that it sounded like a black market.
After hearing the explanation, he realized it was worse than that.
The people who gathered there were usually missing nin or wandering shinobi. But bounty hunters also lingered in those places, watching for anyone who exposed their identity. The moment they confirmed a target, they would kill them and turn in the bounty to a village.
That was why even Orochimaru used face changing techniques when he went shopping, giving himself a completely different face.
It was not that Orochimaru, one of the Legendary Sannin, could not handle a few greedy fools.
He simply did not want the trouble.
His time was valuable. He would rather run more experiments than waste an afternoon swatting flies who were blinded by money.
Kenichi had never been there before, but he had heard enough.
So after finding a random unlucky person and swapping faces, Kenichi set off for a black market near the border of the Land of Rice Fields.
The place was not far from the Land of Fire.
From a distance, it looked like an ordinary small town.
Only when you walked deeper in did the truth show itself.
Broken weapons were piled in careless stacks. Ration pills and explosive tags were laid out like cheap snacks. Even close fitting ninja tools and armor were displayed, though most were damaged and looked like they had been stripped from shinobi who did not live long enough to complain.
Kenichi even saw a kind of business that was ancient, even in his previous life.
He lost interest after only one glance.
The vendors here mainly dealt in genin, with the occasional chunin mixed in. Jonin were almost never traded in a place like this.
For jonin, there were more specialized institutions.
A jonin, the backbone of a village, could become a commodity too, just with a higher price tag. It was a darker side of the world, one Naruto would probably never see up close.
"This is basically the dark web with sunlight," Kenichi muttered, clicking his tongue.
There were even stalls selling ninjutsu.
Most of them were just scrolls with a technique name written on the outside. Whether they were real or fake was anyone's guess. The only thing consistent about them was the price. They were cheap, suspiciously cheap.
Kenichi spotted an A rank technique, Earth Release: Swamp of the Underworld, listed for ten million ryo.
It sounded expensive at first.
Then you remembered A rank jutsu were locked down tightly by villages and almost impossible to obtain. Knowledge in this world was a monopoly.
Ten million was cheap enough to be frightening.
He also noticed some bizarre techniques that made him blink twice, like a Lightning Release Muscle Activation Technique and a Water Release Waterbed Technique. Just reading the names broadened his horizons in a very unpleasant way.
Kenichi had no interest in any of them.
Instead, his gaze paused on one particular scroll. It looked old and tattered, but the label caught his attention.
It was an Earth Release technique that could be transformed.
If it worked, it would be extremely practical. In his previous life, it could have ruined entire construction businesses. With a proper blueprint, you could reshape terrain to match the design and make building a house far easier.
Even so, Kenichi did not buy it.
Buying ninjutsu scrolls here was like buying antiques in a street market. Unless you had an unusually sharp eye, you would not find anything genuine.
And these vendors had plenty of tricks.
Orochimaru had told him about a common scam. A seller would hand you a scroll, and the moment you opened it, it would crumble to ash. Then they would accuse you of destroying it and demand compensation.
Kenichi had once asked what happened to the man who tried that on Orochimaru.
Orochimaru had smiled and calmly said the fool was "corrupted by the First Hokage's cells" and turned into a mindless monster.
Kenichi had no desire to invite that kind of trouble, so he ignored the stall advertising a "promising transformation" and went straight to a shop with a simple sign.
General Store.
The moment he stepped inside, someone greeted him.
"What would you like, sir?"
Behind the counter stood a young woman, and beside her was a young man. Both were attractive, both looked clean, and both looked far too composed for a place like this.
Kenichi took out a list of materials needed to make thermobaric bombs and placed it on the counter.
"I need these."
The woman read it. Her eyes moved quickly down the list, then she looked up and smiled wider, as if she had just found a very loyal customer.
"We have everything you want," she said smoothly. "How would you like to pay?"
She leaned forward slightly, voice sweet.
"We recommend Ryōgane Kashi."
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