{Yamagishi Pub, Miyazaki Town}

{8:34 PM, 2nd July 13 Yrs ANB}

{3rd Person POV}

...

[Kakuzu Lv 105]

Ren stared at the glimmering red name as a cloaked man walked through the door. The hushed whispers all stopped as everyone simply froze for a moment, and the red clouds on the clock fluttered. The whole oppressive atmosphere lasted for a total of 5 minutes while the cloaked man went through his business.

Kakuzu walked out of the basement as quietly as he came, he had gotten used to the oppressive atmosphere that blankets the room whenever he walked into a black market. Whenever he starts working around a specific bounty station, he clears up bounties in that area, because of his speed and strength, he gains this kind of reputation sooner or later.

After collecting a new bingo book, Kakuzu walked out of the bounty station. Ren breathed a sigh of relief as he memorized Kakuzu's chakra signature. After a couple of seconds, hushed whispers broke out throughout the room giving Ren some much-needed context.

"...Shit he was here, why didn't you tell me before-"

"...It's not like you had anything to worry about-"

"...Yeah, he goes after only targets whose bounties are in the millions-"

"Why would he waste time on your broke ass-"

"Is that why there are almost no bounties left in the surrounding area?"

"You heard that rumor, They are saying he's part of that group..."

"Shh, are you an idiot-"

...

The whispers continued but they slowly got off topic after the reprimand. At least Ren got a small idea of what was going on, still, he never expected to see an S-ranked shinobi this soon.

'Other than running away from him by using Body Flicker and Air Gliding, I don't think I would have any other chance against him,' Ren thought as he sighed, the pressure on him increased slightly. Operating outside Konoha was a lot more dangerous than doing missions with Sensei.

He had no backup and if anything went wrong he wouldn't have a redo. Suppressing the negative thoughts somewhat, he waited for a bit before he too walked out of the room.

Since he had 2 other shadow clones running around, his chakra reserves would only appear as that of a high chunin even to experienced sensors, that's why even Hanzou who should be a sensor recommended him to Jonin's team.

'Plus with the Chakra Suppression technique that I got for my first bounty, I can practically vanish from anyone's senses if I want.' Ren thought he took a bit of solace in that fact.

The bar was filled with life as people got drunk in groups, he looked around at the counter and nodded to Hanzou before he walked out of the pub.

Ram

Ren held the handseal for a moment making sure to keep his senses locked on the target as he jumped on top of a rooftop and waited.

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'I don't know the exact differences in levels calculated by the blocks, Haku was level 49 and he was a chunin, while Zabuza at level 83 was a Jonin.' Ren waited, he had memorized the chakra signature of Sora Uesugi in the black market.

Ren made sure Kakuzu was not around, at least he wasn't within 350m of his position. 'If he's a sensor as well then I might be in trouble.' Ren thought as he got ready to move.

The shop he had to hit was also around the corner so he could deal with two things at the same time. He jumped from one rooftop to another before he found a good vantage point. He held the Tiger seal to maintain peak efficiency as he collected his chakra.

Tiger

'Fire Release: Great Fireball Jutsu'

Ren blew a massive fireball and aimed it at the front door of the shop. He pulled out a couple dozen kunai wrapped with explosive tags and threw them into the shop through the blown-up door.

'This should satisfy the mission parameters, I need to show my face at one of these 3 attacks. I'll do it when a famous bounty hunter is not around.' Ren thought as he retreated back to his initial spot in front of the Pub.

Since Miyazaki Town was quite small it didn't have shinobi defending it. A few samurai ran towards the fire with their glowing swords, but they simply blew past Ren's hiding spot as Ren suppressed his chakra by using {Chakra Suppression}. His leftover chunin-level reserves shrunk to the academy student level.

The series of explosions resulted in the whole town going through a commotion as everyone ran away from the commercial district. Ren focused on the missing nin named Sora whose chakra signature he had marked, Sora ran straight out of the town from Yamagishi Pub.

Ren mirrored his path from the rooftop as he sneaked around. He left his shadow clones behind to act as recon in case he was followed as he chased Sora Uesugi out of the town.

'He's slower than me alright.' Ren thought relieved. '...And I can sense that Kakuzu was not targeting Sora,' Ren double-checked to make sure that Kakuzu was not following them before he pulled out his sword from his inventory and rushed at Sora.

To give him some credit, Sora quickly realized that he was being targeted. He tried to accelerate away but he quickly realized that he couldn't increase the distance between him and Ren, so he quickly made some hand seals as he fired a Fireball at Ren.

'Body Flicker Jutsu'

'Air Gliding'

Ren quickly used his trusted combo to change his direction quickly in mid-air, he dodged the attack and curved around the path of the Jutsu as he closed down the distance. Sora wasn't ready for this quick turn around and he could only bring his kunai forward to try and stop Ren's downward swing.

Unfortunately for Sora, he didn't realize the danger he was in until it was too late. Ren's wind chakra-laced sword sliced through his kunai without hindrance and went through his chest and heart in a split second. Ren stared as Sora's eyes widened in disbelief before he quickly collapsed on the ground.

~Thud~

Ren watched as the missing-nin died moments after, his red name faded away and a moment later Ren threw Sora's body into his inventory. With a possible S-rank bounty hunter nearby he rushed toward the next town that was marked on his mission scroll.

All this commotion was noted as a White Zetsu Clone's yellow eyes kept track of Ren's every movement.

'He's surprisingly good for a recent graduate, and he's an orphan as well... where did he throw the body to, that could be a useful skill.' Black Zetsu thought as he looked at the back of fleeing Ren in interest.

He was tasked with following Ren in his original body since Ren was the reason behind the current war that was on the horizon, his task was simply to get a sample of his chakra to create further chaos by borrowing Ren's identity.

Zetsu's grin turned into a frown as he thought about Kakuzu's latest partner whose bounty he had just collected moments ago. The bounty hunter was going through more candidates than they could provide and maybe if Ren grew a little bit stronger, then maybe he could be a good enough substitute to occupy the bounty hunter for a little bit.

'After his body has been sufficiently used up. Kakuzu won't mind because by using 'Ren's' identity his bounty would only increase. That all depends on what Konoha's decision was though, they have concealed their intentions a little close to their chest right now.' Zetsu thought he tried to get some info on Ren's deflection but other than the bingo book entry that Konoha had put forward there was no other news.

'Why would they even instruct or pin the blame on Ren for killing the Ichibi Jinchuriki, were Suna and Orochimaru's plan to invade Konoha exposed.' Zetsu thought.

There was a problem with his intelligence as he was completely unable to predict all of this. Everything snowballed in the last couple of days.

'Would Konoha abandon him as they did with the Hyuga clan...' Zetsu's grin widened, if that was the case then he could keep an eye on him. However, the plan to copy his chakra had to be abandoned for now. Ren's too strong for his clones

'The Akatsuki was an organization that was started by 3 orphans, after all, I'm sure Konan wouldn't mind sheltering another...'

...