Kamihara Hayato had never met someone like Ryosuke.
The conversation between him and Ryosuke had gone from, "This guy's a bit dangerous, be careful."
To, "Don't rush, give me a bit of time, I'll find you a few more targets."
And finally to, "Bro, Ryosuke, please take a break! If you don't rest, I'll need to rest! Seriously, there's no one left!"
Ryosuke pushed Kamihara Hayato aside and opened the cabinet behind him.
Completely empty.
"Nothing left?"
"Nothing at all."
In just half a month, centered around the city they were in, it was like a tornado had swept through, every B-rank or higher fugitive and rogue ninja had been caught and delivered to Kamihara Hayato.
"This is the last batch of commission payment."
Kamihara Hayato handed over a suitcase, "Why don't you take a break for now? When there's new business, I'll contact you first thing."
Ryosuke accepted the suitcase. Inside, it was filled with stacks of cash.
He picked out a thick stack from within, placed it on the table, and pushed it toward Kamihara Hayato.
Kamihara Hayato asked in confusion, "If it's about commission cuts, the clients have already sent me their shares."
Ryosuke shook his head and said, "This isn't a commission, it's overtime pay. Thanks for all the trouble these past days."
Over the last half month, Ryosuke's soul fragment collection efficiency had been extremely high, and that was largely thanks to Kamihara Hayato's help.
Kamihara Hayato looked at Ryosuke in astonishment.
He had worked with many bounty hunters. People in this line of work usually had unsavory pasts. As for Ryosuke's background, Kamihara Hayato had investigated at least a little.
Clan massacre.
Internal ambushes within the ninja village.
Forced to escape.
Kamihara Hayato originally thought Ryosuke had a vengeful, bitter personality, but unexpectedly, he was surprisingly gentle.
He stood up and seriously reached out his hand.
"Not at all, it's my job. A pleasure working with you."
Ryosuke shook his hand. "Pleasure working with you."
"Oh right, one more piece of intel… Not exactly intel, since it hasn't been confirmed yet, it's more of a friendly heads-up."
Kamihara Hayato's smile disappeared, "Konoha's Root Organization ninja have arrived in this city."
Sasuke's expression changed. He blurted out nervously, "Ko-Konoha… What does that have to do with us…"
A hand landed on his head. Ryosuke gently shook his head.
Kamihara Hayato was a professional information broker. After knowing each other for so long, it would actually be strange if he hadn't figured out their true identities by now.
Until now, since he hadn't brought it up, they all played along and pretended not to know. But now that Kamihara Hayato had raised it, continuing to play dumb would be disrespectful.
Root Organization's ninja might not be strong in direct combat, but under Danzo's pathological management, every single one was a master of infiltration and backstabbing.
To earn soul fragments, Ryosuke had been a little high-profile lately. The "big and small bounty hunter duo" had made a name for themselves across several nearby cities, so it made sense that Danzo's men had come.
"I understand. Thank you."
"No problem. Also..."
Kamihara Hayato pulled out two Konoha forehead protectors from a drawer.
"You two really don't want to operate as rogue ninja? Root ninja have already found their way here. Clients tend to prefer rogue ninja, your commissions and job offers will increase."
Being a rogue ninja was basically saying to everyone, "I'm being hunted by a village and still living well, come see how badass I am."
That naturally conveyed strength and earned client trust.
On the flip side, if a rogue ninja was killed by their village before payment was due, the client wouldn't have to pay, so it was lower-risk for them too.
Declaring oneself a rogue ninja was like offering a warranty, the more powerful the village on your forehead protector, the easier it was to land contracts.
Among them, rogue ninjas from Konoha were especially popular in the market.
Sasuke was a bit tempted.
Ryosuke waved it off, "No need. We're not ninja."
Kamihara Hayato shrugged and escorted them out of the office.
———
A proper rest couldn't go without a bath.
Ryosuke placed a towel on his head and leaned against the edge of the bath, enjoying the warm sensation of hot water flowing past his body.
Sasuke, bare-butt, sometimes dove underwater, sometimes floated on his back like a little chicken doing backstroke.
No matter how much pain and vengeance he carried, he was still just a seven-year-old child.
Ryosuke chuckled, wiped his face with the towel, and opened the system interface.
After days of nonstop hunting, Ryosuke had captured a total of fifty-three fugitives and rogue ninja, causing his soul fragments to skyrocket from 152 to 614.
That was an average of less than 10 soul fragments per fugitive, just goes to show the difference between people.
[Soul Fragments, 614]
That meant 61 draws.
Considering that he had already "padded" 55 pulls before getting the Ripple Breathing Technique last time, Ryosuke's intuition told him that this time he'd probably pull a five-star Stand.
Ryosuke didn't like random single pulls, he'd been saving up these past two weeks just for today's big pull.
He closed his eyes, took a deep breath, paused for half a second, then exhaled slowly.
'Start the draw!'
First ten pulls, nothing.
Second ten, nothing.
Third ten, nothing.
Ryosuke's mentality was much more stable than last time.
Fourth ten, nothing.
Fifth ten, nothing.
Final ten draws.
His intuition told him, 'It's coming!'
Ten stars fell from the sky. A blinding light burst forth.
["Ding ding ding ding ding!"]
Five consecutive chimes.
'Five-star!'
Ryosuke clenched his fists, his hard work hadn't been in vain. He stared at the fading light, and what appeared before him was…
A retro-styled, WWII-era propeller fighter plane.
The plane was only about the size of a laptop, with two machine guns mounted on the wings, a bomb hanging under its fuselage, and a thumb-sized pilot sitting inside the cockpit.
When Ryosuke locked eyes with the pilot, the tiny figure brought two fingers together and tapped his forehead in salute, a greeting to Ryosuke.
[Stand Name: Aerosmith]
[Five-Star]
[Original User: Narancia Ghirga]
[Ability, Long-range controlled Stand, equipped with twin machine guns, a bomb, and a CO₂ detection radar. Can use the radar to track sources of carbon dioxide, but its precision is low, the Stand user must judge manually]
[Current Level: Level 1]
[Note: Smith is the name of the pilot]
'It's actually this Stand…'
Since leaving Konoha, Ryosuke had made time to read the JoJo manga. Over the past two months, he'd read it back and forth many times and memorized most of the Stand abilities.
Aerosmith wasn't that powerful in terms of firepower, it couldn't compare to Star Platinum, but it could help make up for Ryosuke's weakness in mid-to-long range combat.
It could provide suppression and spacing support in battle, preventing Ryosuke from getting kited by enemies.
More than its combat ability, the real strength of Aerosmith, or rather, the reason it qualified as a five-star Stand, was its area reconnaissance capability.
Flying through the air, it could use its CO₂ detection radar to sense enemy locations.
In the original story, Narancia was very sharp, his strength was being able to seize sudden flashes of insight, but his weakness was a volatile temper and poor control, so he never fully unleashed Aerosmith's terrifying scouting ability.
With Ripple power, Ryosuke's control and focus far exceeded Narancia's. More importantly, normal people couldn't even see Stands.
After fighting Kakashi, Konoha now knew that only by pouring large amounts of chakra into the eyes could one see Stands.
That worked fine in direct combat.
But once it turned into a tug-of-war, street fight, or guerrilla battle, few ninja could afford to waste chakra long-term just to see something.
At that point, an invisible, airborne "eye" capable of scouting the battlefield was an absolutely terrifying intel advantage.
'Wanna… try it out?'
Ryosuke raised his right hand, angling it upward at 45 degrees, like an aircraft runway.
Whoosh!
Aerosmith took off into the air, flying out the window and rising into the sky.
'Activate reconnaissance mode.'
In an instant, Ryosuke saw, within a few hundred meters, dozens of red dots.
Each red dot represented one person.
Unrestricted positional tracking, within a world like the ninja world, where technology was still primitive, this was basically dimensional suppression.
And this wasn't even the limit.
He activated the breathing technique. Ryosuke's mind went into hyper-focus mode.
The scan radius began to shrink, but the recon image became clearer.
CO₂ was exhaled from people's mouths and noses, landing on nearby objects. The gas interacted with the environment, space, things, wind, changing shape and outlining the surrounding scene.
Within a 30-meter radius, every living creature that breathed had nowhere to hide, Ryosuke could see every movement clearly.
'It's basically like a long-range-bombing Byakugan.'
Ryosuke was very satisfied with Aerosmith, not only had it made up for his mid- and long-range combat weakness, it also addressed his blind spot in scouting and intelligence gathering.
'Come back.'
Aerosmith circled once in the sky and was just about to return, suddenly, Aerosmith detected someone lying on the bathhouse roof, peeking through a crack, spying on Ryosuke.
Ryosuke looked up, and locked eyes with a pair of pitch-black eyes.
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