Chapter 17 : Tracking

"The atmosphere of the Ninja World always feels somewhat oppressive now."

Sunshade-covered Youta glanced at the sky. Although it was very sunny, a gloomy and heavy atmosphere lingered.

If he hadn't been to the world of One Piece, Youta might not have had this feeling. But now, he could sense that the Ninja World indeed had a kind of oppressive atmosphere, completely different from the joyous and even villains giving a sense of stupidity in the world of One Piece.

In simple terms, the Ninja World was permeated with a kind of old gloomy atmosphere.

However, this was naturally not something Youta should consider. Right now, he was only searching among the record scrolls left by his father for the locations of those black marketplaces.

In reality, ninjas, being a profession in darkness, were always connected to the black market in some way. Even ninjas from the major Hidden Villages would occasionally take on black market missions.

For example, if you killed ninjas from other Hidden Villages due to conflicts in missions, your own village wouldn't give you a reward, but if you threw their heads into the black market, you could basically make a profit.

This was the foundation of the black market's existence. Many things that the Five Great Hidden Villages were unwilling or unable to do were basically handed over to the black market.

"Why do they always choose to be next to the toilet in this place?" Youta covered his nose and said somewhat irritably.

Of course, this was actually to cover up the smell of corpses. Experienced ninjas knew this well. However, Youta still complained about the smell here.

Entering the hidden door and seeing the old man sitting at the counter, Youta casually tossed out a small bag. The bag's mouth slightly loosened, emitting a golden light from inside.

The old man, who had been idle until then, brightened up when he saw it, reached out, and grabbed the bag. He casually weighed it, revealing a satisfied smile on his face.

"Guest, I wonder if you're planning to launch a bounty on someone? Or perhaps gather some intelligence? Here, we..."

"I'm not posting a bounty, nor am I buying intelligence. I'm just here to purchase some ninjutsu," Youta said in a low voice.

"Purchasing ninjutsu?" The old man was slightly stunned for a moment but didn't think too much about it. "Well, you've come to the right place. Aside from some ninjutsu unique to certain villages and clans, we have quite a few common ninjutsu here. However, the price for these..."

"Price is not an issue. Just bring out your catalog of ninjutsu for me to see," Youta nodded directly, having plundered a large amount of gold from the Land of Iron. Youta was confident when he said this.

Converting this gold into ninja world currency would amount to several hundred million Ryo, even though they were just some B-rank ninjutsu. At most, it would be tens of millions in price.

It's worth noting that for S-rank missions involving national security, the reward started at only a few million Ryo. As for someone like Asama, the son of the Third Hokage, an elite Jonin who was almost considered a candidate for Hokage, his price in the black market was only 35 million Ryo. No one would think that a few common B-rank ninjutsu would be worth more than Asama's head, right?

"The guest is straightforward." The old man chuckled and took out a catalog, handing it to Youta. Youta opened it and saw that it was mostly some common B-rank elemental ninjutsu, with some A-rank ninjutsu mixed in. Behind these ninjutsu were their prices.

However, even A-rank ninjutsu are mostly impractical, like the technique of the Great Waterfall. Conversely, some practical and highly characteristic C-rank ninjutsu, such as the Mist Concealment Technique, are not recorded in this catalog.

Youta didn't care about this, he quickly sketched out the ninjutsu he could use, estimated the price to be around three million.

The most expensive one, Palm Sage Jutsu, sold for tens of millions.

"Well, when can I get these ninjutsu?" Youta handed the catalog back and asked.

"It only takes three days." The shopkeeper smiled and said, "In three days, the guest can come to pick them up."

Youta nodded after hearing this, put on his hood, turned around, and walked out. "Since that's the case, the gold just now is probably worth about one million, consider it a deposit."

"Okay, sir, please go ahead." The boss smiled. In fact, exchanging gold for currency is a common transaction in the black market. In one go, these gold probably gave the boss an additional income of about two hundred thousand, which is his personal income and doesn't need to be handed over to the boss of the black market. He was naturally quite happy about it.

However, as soon as Youta left, several guys who didn't look like good people followed him. The boss sighed softly, "The guest must be careful, I'm still waiting for the final payment."

The bosses in the black market usually don't have much strength, which is deliberately done by the owners of the black market to prevent these bosses from becoming too powerful and engaging in internal competition, ruining the reputation of the entire black market. So, even if he wanted to stop it, he wouldn't have enough power.

Therefore, there are very few cases of bosses in the black market killing their own customers because once exposed, the loss of reputation for the black market would far outweigh the money gained from those killings. But if you don't know how to restrain yourself, those rogue ninjas and bounty hunters are not good people.

Youta actually understood this in his heart, but he didn't care about it. After all, his current strength is absolutely not inferior to a jonin, and he is also a top jonin from a great ninja village like Konoha. With this strength, he can definitely rank in the top 20 among all bounty hunters, and it's not something ordinary rogue ninjas can handle.

Moreover, he is just a newbie rookie after all, pretending to be mature but doesn't understand those rules, so he might as well just rely on his strength to speak.

Just about three kilometers away from the black market, those bounty hunters following Youta couldn't help it anymore.

In fact, if it weren't for the rule that ninja battles are not allowed within a three-kilometer range of the black market, they would probably have started chasing after Youta as soon as he left.

On the one hand, money is tempting, and on the other hand, they saw Youta's appearance, just a teenager of about fifteen or sixteen years old. How strong can someone of this age be? At most, he's an elite chuunin.

After all, needing to buy ninjutsu definitely means he's not a genius from a ninja village or clan, and for ordinary geniuses, even if they have the talent of Kakashi Hatake or Minato Namikaze, if they haven't been trained by Konoha, at fifteen or sixteen years old, they would at most have the strength of a special jonin.