"Sasuke, Naruto."
Shinji was at a loss. After all, no matter what, these two were children of fate—they should be able to hold their own… right?
If anyone really dared to go to Konoha and cause trouble for these two, even with a domain, they'd probably end up bloodied and beaten.
"Sasuke, Naruto… wait, didn't you call him Hidan, and he called you Shinji?"
Seeing that his opponent couldn't be easily fooled, Shinji didn't flinch and spoke casually, "Oh, those are our surnas. I'm Sushi… uh, Shinji Naruto, and he's at-Hidan… no, Hidan Sasuke."
Saibote carefully noted down the two nas, then let his gaze linger slightly on the snake sword in Shinji's hand.
"Next ti."
"Next ti, I'll personally reclaim what's mine."
"I'll co to Konoha and find you, Shinji Naruto and Hidan Sasuke."
With that, he dissolved into yellow sand, rging into the ground.
Then—click—the domain shattered.
Shinji raised his head and squinted at the sun.
"Damn it, got tricked by that guy."
Clearly, the domain expansion at the end was only a ans of self-preservation.
Either his remaining cursed energy wasn't enough to fully sustain the domain, or… his domain hadn't been fully constructed.
In simple terms, it was all for show—just ant to intimidate.
Shinji leaned toward the latter.
If it were just a matter of cursed energy, Saibote wouldn't have hesitated to use the domain to finish them off, considering the importance of the golden snake sword.
So the truth was probably that he had reached the threshold of domain expansion but hadn't perfected it yet.
The domain they were pulled into earlier was likely an incomplete one.
Not confident of victory, he retreated.
But perhaps next ti, he could wield a fully realized domain.
At that point, if Shinji still couldn't harness domain power, he'd have no choice but to take the hits.
"That won't do."
Shinji stowed the golden snake sword and stared at Hidan's headless body, thinking about how to squeeze every last drop of value from this.
He needed to find a way to quickly raise his bond points to a thousand!
"Hopefully Konoha can lend a hand and buy so ti. Ideally, it would be best to just take the guy out directly."
"Eh, wait a minute."
"Seems like Sunagakure has also been putting a bounty on this guy."
Shinji suddenly rembered why he had co here in the first place.
"Could the firsthand combat intel on that guy fetch a good price?"
"Eh, money isn't the point. I just want to make friends with Sunagakure."
Shinji instantly brightened.
If he sold all this crucial intel to Sunagakure, it would definitely be worth a small fortune for them!
After all, without the snake sword, the enemy's invincibility had sharply declined.
The biggest threat now was that unknown, potentially perfected domain.
Of course, that was none of Shinji's concern.
He was more than willing to have Sunagakure's full force go check the guy out for him!
"Damn it, Shinji!"
"Hm?"
"I've called you several tis. What've you been mumbling about?"
"Ah, you're still alive?"
"Hah! Even if I die, I'll drag you down with !"
"Uh… uh, right, anything else?" Shinji replied casually.
Hidan's face turned red with frustration as he finally blurted out, "You better help sew my head back on!"
"Eh, you should've said so earlier. How was I supposed to know what you wanted… hmm? Anything else?"
Hidan hesitated, then quietly added, "Make it look nice… otherwise I'll have to take it apart and redo it later."
"Damn! Why do you care about your image now of all tis?"
Shinji flipped him the middle finger but didn't rush to sew the head back on.
Instead, he pulled out the Greedy Eyeball, and only after confirming that no other cursed spirits were nearby did he pick up Hidan's head and begin stitching it with blood threads.
Though his sewing skills weren't great, Hidan's frequent dismbernts—by others or himself—ant the result, while rough, was far better than the first lopsided attempt.
Hidan wasn't entirely satisfied but knew better than to complain—otherwise next ti Shinji might sew his mouth to his butt.
"The guy ran off?"
"Yeah, ended up tricking at the end. Thought we were done for, but it turned out to be all show. He threw so threats and ran."
"Next ti we et, I'll slice him to pieces for sure."
Hidan's eyes were filled with rage, and he spat on the ground.
Shinji imdiately gave a thumbs-up. "Don't worry, I won't stop you."
"A wasted trip. Where to next?" Hidan asked, stretching his neck in irritation.
Shinji patted the golden snake sword in his arms and thought, This trip wasn't wasted at all—we ca out on top.
"Let's find the underground exchange in the Land of Wind. I'm sure the firsthand combat intel we brought will fetch a good price."
Although they planned to have Sunagakure trouble Saibote, if the two of them marched straight there to sell the intel, survival itself would be questionable, let alone making money.
This was why a middleman, like an exchange, was needed.
Even Sunagakure wouldn't risk a direct conflict with the power behind the exchange over a single piece of intel—not impossible, just not worth the cost.
Hidan had no objections. After cleaning up the scene, the two set out again.
…
Two days later, Sunagakure acquired a piece of highly valuable intel and presented it to the Kazekage, Rasa.
It detailed the abilities of the "Sand Spirit" Saibote (excluding his domain), as well as his weaknesses.
It even included several actionable plans, all seemingly highly feasible.
"Has the authenticity of this intel been verified?"
Rasa asked, putting the docunts down.
"It has been cross-checked with mission reports from Maki and others—completely consistent, even more detailed. So it is considered authentic."
"Hm? Considered authentic?"
"The main source is cautious and cunning. He released rumors through an underground exchange, luring our people over. He never appeared during the transaction. We tried staking out the area but found nothing. The paynt was likely collected via another underground exchange."
Rasa thought for a mont and decided to let it go.
Given the intel from Maki and others, the "Sand Spirit" Saibote was no minor threat.
That soone could obtain such detailed intel ant they had personally fought the enemy and survived.
In these turbulent tis, it wasn't worth angering a potentially powerful individual over a single report or so money.
Of course, that assus the intel wasn't a deception.
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