Old Eight's face tightened with a painful grimace — it was exactly what he had feared most.
Truth be told, the Underground Exchange was never short of money; otherwise, they wouldn't spend such vast sums buying up "valuable" corpses in the first place.
But just as Shinji had pointed out, their greatest strength was also their biggest weakness.
Once you possessed enough wealth, money itself became nothing more than numbers. There were far too many things in this world that gold alone could not buy.
Take the corpse Shinji had brought them earlier, for example. No matter how much they offered, it meant nothing if Shinji chose not to sell it — or worse, simply destroyed it. They would have no recourse at all.
"Let's talk then. What exactly do you want?" Old Eight asked, backing down a step.
"I want the Boar God Token lost by the Seal Fang Clan of the Beast Country," Shinji stated bluntly.
"I don't need to know where it is or who currently holds it. If you want that corpse, you will bring the token to me."
"Also, I know you secretly collect all kinds of cursed artifacts. There must be plenty you have no use for, or ones with terrible side effects. I'll accept those as payment. Hmm — let's say five cursed items per job. That hardly sounds expensive, does it?"
"Now go report it to your superiors. I know you don't have the authority to decide this yourself. And don't make me wait too long, or I'll just take my business elsewhere. With your network, you must already know about my friendly relationship with Hidden Mist Village, right?"
Old Eight tried several times to interject, only to be cut off each time — until Shinji finished speaking and left him no room to reply at all.
The old man fell silent, wishing he had one of his signature braised meat flatbreads right there just to calm his nerves.
But Shinji was right — this was far beyond his authority, and he could not make such a decision alone. With a helpless sigh, he apologized and went deeper inside to contact those in charge.
The negotiations did not seem to be going smoothly. A full hour passed and Old Eight still had not returned, making Shinji wonder if the man had simply run off with the corpse.
Just as he was about to go check for himself, Old Eight finally emerged looking completely drained.
"We can get our hands on the Boar God Token you want, but it will cost a great deal. The corpse you brought is not enough to cover the price — you will need to add more to the bargain. Of course, if you agree to accept money or other goods instead, we will give you our absolute highest offer."
"As for the terms of cooperation you proposed — we can agree in principle. But we cannot give you five artifacts per job. According to our information, even your agreement with Hidden Mist Village only grants you one or two items at most, and those are for the most dangerous S-rank missions. To show our sincerity, we can follow that exact same standard. Does that work for you?"
For once, Shinji was genuinely surprised. He realized he had underestimated these people more than he thought.
That they could track down the Boar God Token was to be expected — but that they even knew the details of his private deals with Mei Terumi was nothing short of astonishing.
It meant they had informants deep within Hidden Mist's Council of Elders.
After all, only a handful of people knew the terms of their arrangement — Mizukage Mei Terumi herself, and those stuffy old men on the council.
It had taken her a great deal of pressure just to push the agreement through in the first place.
Shinji couldn't help recalling details from his past life about just how powerful the Exchange's intelligence network truly was.
These mysterious people had even gotten wind of Pain's planned attack on Konoha long before it happened! They were also the only ones outside the Akatsuki who knew Hidan's greatest secret — his immortality.
At that time, everyone who had witnessed Hidan's ability had been killed, save for his own organization members. It was completely absurd!
Many suspected there was a mole within Akatsuki selling information to the Exchange — and Kakuzu was always the prime suspect.
He dealt with them more than anyone else, was obsessed with money, knew almost everything about the group, and his partner just happened to be Hidan…
Looking at it that way, it had to be him!
But Shinji didn't care about other people's secrets or where their intel came from.
The more connections and power they had, the easier it would be for him to get what he wanted. A true win‑win situation.
That did not mean he was going to back down, however. If you didn't stand firm, others would only see you as weak.
"I'm sure your information also tells you who the woman traveling with me is," Shinji said coldly.
"The Boar God Token is worth nothing in itself. I only want it because I promised to help her recover it — that is the only reason I am willing to trade with you at all."
"If you think you can take advantage of me and drive up the price, then we can call this off right here. I don't need that item badly enough to beg for it. Return my corpse now, or don't blame me for getting angry."
Old Eight's expression changed instantly, and he forced a smile.
"Calm down, please! In business, everyone names their highest price first, then negotiates down. If we can't agree on terms, we can still remain friends — everything is open for discussion!"
"I don't have time for games. Yes or no — give me a straight answer."
Old Eight looked pained. "I swear it's not a trick. We know perfectly well that token has little real value. But getting it is far from easy. If it were simple, we would have agreed already."
He wasn't entirely lying — but it wasn't that difficult for them either.
Acting helpless and making it sound impossible was just part of their negotiation strategy, meant to make Shinji lower his demands.
Shinji saw right through it and refused to fall for such cheap tricks. His stance remained unchanged.
And of course, the answer was yes. If they truly couldn't do it, Old Eight would have spoken differently long ago.
Still, Shinji gave them a little face — agreeing to leave Uxas's corpse in their care for the time being. He had no fear they would try to cheat him.
In fact, he hoped they would try to rob him. It would give him the perfect excuse to teach them exactly who was the stronger of the two.
After another round of exaggerated moaning and groaning from Old Eight, they moved on to finalizing their cooperation terms. Shinji found it all very tedious.
In the end, they reached an agreement:
- Each mission would pay at least one cursed artifact, with more added depending on difficulty.
- Monetary rewards would still be paid in full as well.
- Additionally, Shinji could sell any cursed spirit corpses he recovered afterward — and Special Grade corpses could even be exchanged directly for more cursed items.
Shinji wondered just what research they were conducting that made them willing to spend so much for these materials.
Either way — getting paid twice for every job? That was too good to pass up. Shinji smiled and agreed to the deal.
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