After some commotion, dusk fell.
Ren did not return to the Konoha Camp immediately after finishing his experiment; instead, he left in another direction.
It was another half-hour journey, and by the time he reached his destination, it was completely dark.
"Finally here."
Looking at the familiar small town, Ren leaped down from the tree trunk, pulled out a mask from his person, put it on his face, and slowly walked into it.
Lixia Town, the last time he came was to exchange money; although his destination this time was also there, his objective was different.
It was still the familiar toilet, the familiar switch.
As the wall descended, it revealed a dark corridor.
After he entered, the wall behind him automatically closed. Ren paid no mind and slowly walked forward, soon exiting the long corridor and entering the main hall.
"Welcome..."
It was still the familiar thin man. Noticing the figure appearing at the entrance, he subconsciously greeted, but when he saw the mask on Ren's face, he first froze, then quickly regained his composure and said softly.
"Long time no see, Your Excellency."
Ren walked to the counter, sat down, and chuckled.
"Oh, you still remember me, Your Excellency has a good memory."
His last visit here was over two months ago, and they had only met once, yet the other party still remembered him.
"Heh heh, Your Excellency flatters me."
The other party shrugged, gazed at Ren's mask, and nodded.
"Then this time, what kind of assistance do you require?"
Their exchange office's business was not limited to bounties; employment, assassination, auctions, and so on were all their developing businesses. Seeing that the other party did not intend to take out a storage scroll, it was most likely not for exchanging bounties.
"I want to post a bounty mission."
Ren looked at the other party and smiled.
"Collect a large number of experts with Jonin strength, they must be captured alive."
"Hmm?"
As soon as Ren finished speaking, surprise appeared in the other party's eyes, then he frowned slightly and spoke.
"Captured alive?"
If it were corpses of experts, their exchange office would not be lacking, but if it were live captures, the difficulty factor would increase exponentially.
"Yes."
Ren did not intend to waste time and said directly.
"Ten million ryo per person, as long as they are alive, even if crippled, it doesn't matter. I'll take as many as you can bring, of course, before the mission deadline."
Upon hearing this, the other party's eyes immediately lit up.
If that were the case, the difficulty would indeed be significantly reduced. After all, they were just intermediaries; the Bounty Hunters were the ones doing the work. Whether they could catch the target and get the huge bounty was their business.
Once that was clear, the rest of the matter went much smoother.
Ren paid some handling fees and then left, his mood instantly improving.
If he had to collect them slowly himself, who knew how long it would take? Anyway, he had money now, so why not spend it? Next, he just had to wait for people to deliver the sacrifices to his door.
In fact, compared to those Jonin, Ren preferred the White Zetsu cultivated with Hashirama cells.
Although he roughly knew their location, given the current situation, it was better not to alert them for now and wait for a suitable opportunity.
When Ren returned to the Konoha Camp, he happened to run into Tsunade and Jiraiya, who had also just returned. Both of them had some dust on their bodies, and their armor had some dents.
Although they looked a bit disheveled, in Ren's perception, both of their Chakra remained strong, and they were not injured.
The two also noticed Ren. Tsunade took a step forward and shouted unhappily.
"Brat, why are you standing so far away? Come here and help me."
"Yes!"
Ren quickly hurried closer. Tsunade raised her hand and hooked Ren's neck, then leaned her body against him.
Ren instantly felt a weight on his back and turned his head to see his teacher leaning against him, yawning lazily, a hint of fatigue in her eyes.
"Let's go, let's go back and rest early, I'm so sleepy."
"Oh."
Ren responded and then supported her as they walked towards the Konoha Camp. Jiraiya, seeing this, immediately came over and said with a playful smile.
"Tsunade, I can also help you back to rest. Ren, you can go back first, it's time for little kids to sleep."
"Tch!"
The master and disciple both turned their heads and rolled their eyes at him, then continued walking forward, completely ignoring him.
"You two..."
Jiraiya stood in place, gave the two a resentful look, then turned and walked away, muttering.
"These two guys."
However, from the slight upward curve of his lips, it could be seen that his mood was much better than at noon.
Meanwhile, after Ren helped Tsunade back to her tent, she immediately flopped onto the bed, without even removing her armor. She took the cup of water Ren handed her and gulped it down in two sips, seemingly truly exhausted.
"Teacher, just how many did you two kill?"
Ren took the cup and placed it aside, looking at her, who was almost asleep hugging the quilt, and couldn't help but palm his face.
He couldn't imagine how long they had fought to make someone so tired.
"Two or three hundred, didn't really count."
At this point, Tsunade's eyes were completely closed. She was completely covered by the quilt, and her sleepy voice came from within.
..."
With just one sentence, Ren could imagine the scene. Poor Iwagakure Shinobi...
Ren turned and walked out of the tent, only to see a figure appearing ahead, walking into the distance. His eyes immediately lit up, and he quickly chased after him.
"Ryu, wait for me!"
Upon hearing this address, Ryufeng's face immediately darkened. Needless to say, throughout Konoha, or rather, the entire Ninja World, the only person who called him that was Ren.
"What do you want?"
Ryufeng stopped, looked at Ren who had caught up, and said unhappily.
"Weren't you with Yūsuke Uncle at the border defense? Why are you suddenly back?"
"To deliver a report."
Ryufeng had no intention of hiding it and spoke.
"This afternoon, Lord Jiraiya and Lady Tsunade suddenly appeared on the front lines and launched an attack on the Iwagakure defense line. Coupled with the cooperation of the border defense forces, they killed over seven hundred Iwagakure Shinobi and captured about a hundred.
In this battle, we achieved a great victory."
..."
Ren turned to glance at the tent he had just exited, his mouth twitching slightly.
Good heavens, so the two of them alone killed nearly half the people. No wonder they were so tired.
"If there's nothing else, I'll head back first."
Ryufeng finished speaking, then turned and walked out of the Konoha Camp. He still needed to return to the front line early to report to his father, and he dared not delay.
"Wait."
"Hmm?"
Ryufeng turned around in confusion, only to see Ren chasing after him.
Before he could even ask, Ren took the initiative to explain.
"I'm going too. I haven't fought in almost a week, my body's practically rusting."
"Alright!"
Ryufeng didn't suspect anything and readily agreed.
In his opinion, Ren had rested enough. Going to the front line to fight for a while and getting back into shape wouldn't be bad.
Ren's idea, however, was that the Iwagakure guys had good physiques. While the war hadn't ended yet, he should quickly get some more sacrifices. Otherwise, after the war ended, there wouldn't be such a good opportunity.