Late April.

The country of tea, canyon.

There are steep and dangerous mountain walls on both sides, forming a natural barrier.

On the road to the canyon, a fight broke out between two groups of people.

They hold kunai and can use ninjutsu, so they can know that both sides of the battle are ninjas.

The leader of one party is none other than Mushio, who is a member of Shiraishi's organization. According to Shiraishi's request, they collect intelligence in the ninja world while looking for talents to absorb.

The identity of bounty hunters is undoubtedly very suitable for the five of them.

While collecting intelligence and talents, they can also increase their own extra income, expand the reputation of the five of them, let more employers find them, entrust them to perform tasks, and gain access to more secrets.

This time it was a task entrusted by a businessman from the Kingdom of Tea, requiring the five of them to clean up an illegal ninja organization in the Kingdom of Tea.

This ninja organization comes from outside the Kingdom of Tea. It is not affiliated with the five major countries, nor the other small ninja villages. It became a ninja by coincidence, that is, a wandering ninja without a ninja village.

They relied on robbing passing business travelers for food, which led to the merchants of the Kingdom of Tea offering rewards on the underground black market to eliminate this wandering ninja organization and restore the stability of the trade routes in the Kingdom of Tea.

To be honest, this kind of task is not too difficult for the five of them.

The average strength of the five of them is above Chuunin.

Not only were they endowed with strong physical fitness, strong perception, self-healing and other abilities, but under Shiraishi's arrangement, they also practiced their own unique secret techniques.

The strength of their five-man team required at least three jounin to defeat them, but they were unable to kill them.

As for the ninja strength of the wandering ninja organization, the strength units are mainly genin. The strength of the leader is mostly chuunin level. The jounin level is very rare among the huge base of wandering ninjas.

"This, what is this!?"

The ninja in green clothes and brown hair used his arms to hold the neck of a wandering ninja from behind, and fierce sparks suddenly appeared on his arms.

To be more precise, the entire arm turned into flames.

The homeless man's throat was immediately burned to char, and he fell to the ground without breathing.

Immediately afterwards, a wandering ninja stabbed his back with a ninja sword from behind. It felt like it had been struck into the air, and the area where it was stabbed turned into a flame without substance.

The wandering ninja was immediately covered in fire and let out a terrifying scream.

Finally, he returned to his original appearance, with a calm expression on the brown-haired ninja's face.

This kind of battle can be said to be very child's play.

"Fire Man, your ninjutsu is still as cruel as ever."

The ninja in purple clothes came over and smiled.

"There is no way, each of us has been given a systematic ninjutsu."

Appearing from the shadow of the stone, a man wearing yellow clothes and black hair appeared to be very satisfied with the abilities he had acquired.

Fire man's ninjutsu is a secret technique derived from the changes in the properties of fire chakra.

His is a secret technique derived from the change of Yin-type chakra properties. He can freely sneak in the shadows and is the most defenseless assassin in the team.

The others also took care of their assigned enemies.

"The mission is now over. At our rate, we will soon be famous in the underground black market."

"That way, it will become much easier to absorb talents."

The mission of annihilating wandering ninjas entrusted by the merchants of the Kingdom of Tea was completed, which meant that their team had added another achievement in the black market.

If this accumulation continues, within a few years it will become famous in the underground black market, and it will be able to attract more resources and talents.

"No matter what kind of guy you face, just be careful."

The leader, Bug Man, came to the corpses of these wandering ninjas and searched for things on the corpses as usual.

Sometimes, these wandering ninjas would bring some interesting things with them. Although Chong Man had never encountered such a situation before, he only regarded it as a way to increase his personal treasury.

Anyway, these wandering ninjas are dead, and all their wealth belongs to them.

This is a fulfilling task.

"oh?"

The insect man raised his eyebrows and found a scroll on the corpse of a wandering ninja.

This wandering ninja insect boy remembers that he is the leader of this wandering ninja organization.

Judging from the texture of the scroll, it is very cheap, but it is sealed using magic. Is there any secret hidden in it?

"What's inside?"

"I don't know. I can't rule out that it's a trap."

The insect man pondered for a moment, even if it was a trap, he still had to open it to see what was inside.

However, preventive measures must also be taken.

After unlocking the spell above, the insect man immediately jumped back to prevent any trap spells in the scroll.

But there was nothing on the scroll, only scrawled writing on it, and the content was probably that they planned to use a certain 'secret' to sell it for a large sum of money.

The five insect men were puzzled as to what the 'secret' these wandering ninjas were talking about could be used to sell it for a large sum of money.

Judging from the writing, they have found the right buyer and today is the day to trade.

Unfortunately, the five of them were ambushed in advance, so this transaction may not be possible.

"Boss, do you want to see this so-called 'secret'?"

"Let's stop by and take a look. It doesn't seem to be that far from here. After all, we will need to recruit a lot of people in the future, and even the smallest mosquito legs are still meat."

Insect Man’s view was also shared by the four of them.

Although the salary of the organization is very good, since it has only been established for a few years, money is needed in many places.

Only with money can we recruit talents.

The talents specified above are not just ninjas, but talents in all aspects.

Craftsmen, research, education, medicine, etc.

They need to complete the initial accumulation in this area as soon as possible and stabilize the basic framework of the organization before they can develop rapidly.

Even mosquito legs must be scavenged.

◎

In the cave, the road was extremely bumpy and humid, and the air was filled with a dirty smell.

This is the smell of poverty and death.

The five insect men are very familiar with this smell. In the past and now in the Rain Country, this smell can be seen everywhere.

This is the lair of the wandering ninjas, and their 'secret' that they want to trade with unknown buyers is also here. The scroll says that this 'secret' is of great importance and can be sold for a very good price.

In this regard, the five insect men are of course very interested in coming here to hunt for treasures.

I just hope that this secret will not disappoint them too much.

Because it was too dark inside the cave, the fire man picked up a wooden stick and started burning it as a torch for lighting.

There are a lot of food waste and leftovers in the cave. It can be imagined that these wandering ninjas must be living in a very miserable and poor life.

"Here?"

After dismantling all the traps on the road, the five insect men came to a closed wooden door.

There is a sealed iron lock on it, and the top of the lock is rusty.

An unspeakable stench and rotten smell came from inside.

This is the only place in the lair that can be used to hide 'secrets'.

From the perception of the five of them, they didn't know what the 'secret' inside was, but there were still many living people behind the door.

The quantity is eight.

In the room inside, there are eight living people.

Locked inside, couldn't they be the companions and captives of those wandering ninjas?

Or was he a passerby who was attacked and captured by those wandering ninjas?

The insect man was a little troubled, but he broke the lock on the door and opened the door.

The light of the fire shone in, and there was also light in the room inside. It was very weak and flickering. The power supply was not very good, but it was enough for the five insect men to see clearly the conditions of these people.

He was as skinny as a stick and looked like he had been abused for a long time.

There are men, women, old and young, just like members of a big family.

Their lips were chapped and their faces were bleak. The wandering ninjas gave them the minimum amount of food and water.

They were all burdened with heavy shackles and handcuffs.

The insect man looked around at these eight people, and finally his eyes settled on a child who was only a few years old.
To be continued...