After leaving the Land of Rain and entering the Land of Fire, the weather became noticeably clearer. Basking in the warm sunlight, Byakuya couldn't help but reflect on how much more suitable the Land of Fire was for human habitation compared to the Land of Rain. It was not only better for farming, but the air lacked that damp, moldy smell.
With such rich natural conditions, it was no wonder that Konoha always managed to fight three against one in every ninja world war. Konoha might be weak at times, but its land and population allowed it to lose many times and still slowly recover during peaceful periods through commerce.
In contrast, the other major ninja villages all had significant geographical disadvantages. Their only noteworthy advantage was being easy to defend and hard to attack. As for the small country's ninja villages, they had even more fatal flaws.
The Land of Rain was a battleground in all four wars, with a climate unsuitable for production. The Land of Grass was a prison, the Land of Iron was the samurai country, and the Lands of Rivers and Hot Water were mere buffer zones, half-subservient to Konoha.
When Hashirama Senju unified the Land of Fire, he almost occupied the most fertile areas of the ninja world, leaving behind regions with high governance costs. Byakuya suspected that the reason Hashirama didn't conquer the entire ninja world was not just to avoid retaliation from the other four great ninja villages and to maintain a balance of power, but also due to the unique nature of the ninja profession.
Ninjas were essentially mercenaries, and ninja villages were mercenary organizations. While some low-level commissions could sustain the livelihood of genin, they were insufficient for chunin and jonin. If peace were truly maintained, how would ninjas earn a living? Would they rely on the stipends from the daimyo?
Suppressing his thoughts, Byakuya continued on his journey, visiting towns and villages along the way as a traveler, inquiring about the lives of ordinary people in the ninja world.
Witnessing this, Hanzo fell into deep confusion. Byakuya's outings were not to recruit new members, so why was he conversing with these commoners?
Although commoners were the patrons of ninjas, and ninjas relied on these commissions for their livelihood, ninjas and commoners were fundamentally two different classes. Even a ninja who had yet to graduate from the academy could single-handedly take on several adults. A qualified chunin could easily kill dozens of commoners. The disparity in strength was almost in another dimension. Only samurai using chakra could pose a threat to ninjas.
Byakuya couldn't be bothered to explain his intentions to Hanzo. After asking a few questions of the villagers, he continued on his way to the black market. The conversations with the villagers were fruitful, but not significantly so.
Although the ninja world had nobles and daimyo as nominal rulers, the existence of chakra meant that the productivity of the ninja world's lower classes was consistently good. Moreover, the vast strength disparity between ninjas and commoners made it very difficult to use commoners against ninja villages and daimyos. It might only be possible if chakra training techniques were popularized, turning everyone into a ninja.
However, under the current circumstances, this was impossible. Though ninjas seemed common, they were actually extremely rare; perhaps only one in a hundred people could become a ninja. Most people with the potential to become ninjas lived around ninja villages.
Frankly speaking, the time when ordinary people in the ninja world were most powerful was when they were turned into White Zetsu under the Infinite Tsukuyomi. Unless there was a special method to forcibly enhance people's strength, Byakuya concluded that the curse mark might be the only option. However, the success rate of the curse mark was not much higher than that of Wood Release experiments, with a very high mortality rate.
From the western part of the Land of Fire, Byakuya dawdled all the way to the eastern part. It took him half a month to track down Kakuzu's exact whereabouts, but even then, he was a step too late—Kakuzu was not in the black market.
Byakuya directly asked the black market boss, "Where did Kakuzu go?"
The black market boss hesitated, reluctant to reveal Kakuzu's whereabouts, as Kakuzu's reputation in the major black markets was too well-known. However, after Hanzo lifted him by his collar, the boss obediently replied, "Two hours ago, Lord Kakuzu accepted a commission and left."
Byakuya frowned, impatiently asking, "What commission did Kakuzu accept?"
The black market boss quickly produced the bounty list and handed it to Byakuya. Flipping through it casually, Byakuya saw that the first few pages listed Hashirama Senju and Tobirama Senju, with bounties starting at ten million. Some pages had been torn out, likely by Kakuzu.
After inquiring about the remaining targets from the black market boss, Byakuya and Hanzo left, heading in the direction indicated by the boss. Watching their departing backs, the black market boss sighed in relief but began to worry for Kakuzu. He wondered if these two ninjas were seeking revenge against Kakuzu.
Though Kakuzu was notorious in the ninja world, he had a good reputation in the black market. Besides the targets on the bounty list, he rarely killed innocents. Crucially, every time Kakuzu completed a mission, the black market could take a cut. Losing Kakuzu would mean losing a significant source of income.
After half an hour of traveling through the forest, Byakuya suddenly stopped. He sensed several powerful chakras ahead, at least Jonin-level in strength. Among them was an extremely mixed chakra, which was undoubtedly Kakuzu. Only Kakuzu could possess such a complex chakra, given that he was a ninja with five lives, his strength infinitely close to Kage-level.
Signaling Hanzo to stop, Byakuya and Hanzo suppressed their chakra presence and crept forward. Soon, they saw two groups of ninjas in a standoff. More accurately, it was the bounty hunter Kakuzu facing a group of Uchiha ninjas with fan-patterned uniforms and glowing red eyes. Among these Uchiha, some had one tomoe, some had two, and there were even those with three tomoe Sharingan.
"Kakuzu and the Uchiha in a fight—this should be interesting."
Seeing this, Hanzo became intrigued. After following Byakuya for so many days, he finally got to witness a ninja battle instead of boring investigations. Byakuya also became interested.
There was a saying in the ninja world: in one-on-one combat, the Uchiha are invincible. However, Kakuzu, with his five lives, was equivalent to five Jonin. Byakuya wondered if this group of Uchiha could stand up to Kakuzu. Perhaps Kakuzu might even gain an Uchiha heart.
At that moment, Byakuya noticed a short-statured Uchiha among the crowd, who had activated his three-tomoe Sharingan. It's rare for an Uchiha of that age to awaken the three-tomoe Sharingan, and almost every one of them was a well-known ninja. At this point in time, besides Obito, there was only one other person.
Thinking of this, Byakuya turned to Hanzo and said, "Hanzo-senpai, which side do you think has a higher chance of winning? How about we make a bet?"
Hanzo, always up for a challenge, smirked and responded, "Okay, I'll take you up on that. Who do you think will win?"
Byakuya glanced at the Uchiha group, then at Kakuzu, and said, "I'll bet on Kakuzu. His experience and multiple lives give him a significant advantage."
Hanzo rubbed his chin thoughtfully. "Fair enough. I'll bet on the Uchiha then. They might surprise us with their Sharingan abilities."
With their bets placed, Byakuya and Hanzo settled in to watch the unfolding battle, both eager to see how the fight would progress and who would come out on top.n