Just as Sora appeared to be leaving, he silently formed hand seals in front of him, a flicker of lightning gathering in his right hand.
In the very next instant, the speed of Chidori—already blistering fast—combined with Sora's nearly maxed-out Body Flicker Technique. By the time the young man reacted, Sora's right hand had already pierced his chest.
The man was, after all, the one in charge of a bounty exchange station. Sora couldn't estimate his strength accurately.
That's why he chose to play it safe with a deadly strike.
Some might say Sora's ambush wasn't very honorable.
But if he heard that, he'd definitely scoff in their faces. Since when do ninjas fight like knights or warriors in fair combat?
Ninjas were assassins—killers operating from the shadows. Sora didn't think there was anything wrong with fighting like one.
Not wasting a second, he drove another Chidori into the man's throat with his left hand.
He never forgot the golden rule—villains die because they talk too much.
Boom!
The young man's eyes widened in disbelief.
How could he dare kill me? The bounty exchange had survived for generations. The hidden power behind it was unimaginable!
Even the Kage of the Five Great Villages never retaliated when the exchange posted bounties on them. So why would this guy dare?
But he would never get the answer. His vision went black, and his life slipped away.
The girl standing nearby trembled uncontrollably. She didn't dare make a sound.
Sora glanced at her briefly, then walked into the backroom of the bounty station and stored all the documents into his personal space.
Though not averse to killing, he wasn't a bloodthirsty maniac.
This girl was just an ordinary civilian with no chakra—there was no need to hurt her.
Once Sora left, the trembling girl quickly stood up. In the spot where she had been standing, she began digging into the floor.
Even as her delicate hands bled, she didn't stop.
After digging over fifty centimeters deep, she unearthed a red scroll.
The scroll wasn't large—about the size of a rolled-up sheet of A4 paper.
Holding the scroll, she finally relaxed, her panic subsiding.
"Sora... a hundred-million bounty... I'll remember you."
Gazing in the direction he had gone, she muttered to herself. In the next second, she unfurled the scroll. A puff of smoke enveloped her—and she vanished.
If Sora had heard her words, he would've been shocked—because he had maintained a perfected-level Transformation Jutsu the entire time!
Even among Kage-level ninjas, few could see through it. So how did a seemingly ordinary girl see through his disguise?
Unfortunately, Sora knew nothing of this.
After leaving the exchange station, he immediately made his way to the next town.
Upon arriving, he casually rented a room and began sifting through the documents he had collected.
Among the files, he discovered the names of those who had issued each bounty.
After flipping through dozens of pages, he finally came upon his own record. The killing intent in his eyes became nearly impossible to conceal.
"Danzo Shimura. I knew it was you."
The file read: "Sora, Konoha ninja. Age: 6. Bounty: 100 million. Issued by: Danzo Shimura."
After rescuing Kakashi and Rin, Sora had applied for early graduation and was officially a Genin now.
That was why the record listed him as a Konoha Genin.
Reading this, Sora silently sentenced Danzo to death in his heart.
The scapegoat king of Konoha? With Minato still alive, what use is there for someone like you?
Having dealt with his own case, Sora continued reading through the other documents—and the more he read, the more unsettled he became.
The files were astonishingly comprehensive. They contained secrets from all Five Great Villages.
How many Jōnin each village had, their respective strengths, the number of secret units under their command—everything.
Sora couldn't vouch for the other villages, but he knew Konoha well enough to confirm the accuracy of these documents—they were spot-on.
The only thing missing was the fact that Rin had become the Three-Tails' jinchūriki. If that had been included, he'd have suspected the exchange was under Black Zetsu's control.
Even without that, the intel was terrifying.
He carefully stored the documents away, intending to hand them over to Minato when he returned—just in case.
As for himself, he rubbed his chin and thought hard.
"No wonder even Kage-level ninjas like Kakuzu and Hidan strictly followed the bounty system instead of just looting the place. There's definitely a reason for that."
There was no intel on the exchange's own power in the documents, so Sora had no idea how strong they truly were. But judging from everything else, they weren't weak.
Now that he had crossed them, Sora knew he needed to be more cautious moving forward.
…
After resting for a day, Sora set out for the next town. This time was different—he now had intel on Tsunade's whereabouts.
While Sora had been away from Konoha, Minato and Orochimaru hadn't been idle. One by one, technological inventions had started emerging from Orochimaru's lab.
With Konoha's ninja helping to cultivate land, the village's funds had become so abundant they could barely spend them all—so a massive chunk was funneled straight into research.
Under Orochimaru's hands, those funds were transformed into generators, electric lights, computers, and other inventions that dramatically improved the villagers' quality of life.
Once news spread, some nobles of the Land of Fire even abandoned the capital and sought to settle in Konoha instead.
Thanks to Sora's earlier suggestion, Minato had started a real estate business. Now that silver coins were raining down like paper, he could barely breathe from the wealth.
As a result, not only had Konoha avoided spending money—they were actually turning massive profits. Minato was overjoyed.
Watching all this unfold, Hiruzen Sarutobi could barely stop his teeth from grinding in envy. Why hadn't there been this much money when he was Hokage?
Because of the financial struggles during his term, he'd been led around by the Daimyō's leash. Not like Minato, who now completely ignored the Fire Daimyō.
With all this wealth, things were changing fast. Minato deployed every available ninja—including ANBU—to begin construction on a new Konoha.
Steel and concrete flowed from Orochimaru's lab, and in the hands of the ninjas, they were quickly turned into rows of towering buildings.
The former tallest structure—the Hokage's two-story office—no longer even made the list. Skyscrapers now dotted the village.
The ninja workforce was ridiculously efficient. Every morning, residents would wake up to find Konoha had transformed yet again.
And most importantly—Fourth Hokage's wife, the Nine-Tails' jinchūriki, Kushina Uzumaki, was pregnant!
The future savior, the rightful protagonist, was about to be born!
At this point, three of the Konoha Twelve had already been born, with nine more on the way.