"It's finally over." Jin sighed and sat on the ground.
He had suffered a huge loss in this battle.
Mainly because the chakra he had accumulated for so many years was now less than one-fifth remaining.
It could be said he lost everything down to his grandma's house.
Moreover, he also understood the gap between himself and a Jonin. The opponent's battle was interlinked, with various tactics. One wrong step, and without a powerful ability to turn the tables, it meant death.
This method of fighting was something Jin couldn't do for the time being.
This was something honed bit by bit through experience.
Experience was something the Goldfinger couldn't deduce.
It was very frustrating.
"Why did we see Iwa-nin here?"
Kushina didn't understand.
"They probably infiltrated to do something."
Jin looked at the Jonin ahead, who was charred black all over and standing there motionless.
He went up to search him to see if there was anything useful.
"Wait, Teacher Jiraiya said not to touch corpses casually."
Minato reminded him.
"Don't worry." Jin waved his hand. "Like this, he couldn't have hidden any explosive tags, nor did he have time to set traps."
He still valued his little life very much.
If he wasn't sure there was no danger, he would definitely have sent a Shadow Clone to scout the path first.
He slashed at Chūdō's body a few times with his sword. Except for a few red-hot ninja tools, he didn't find anything useful.
However.
"This guy should be the culprit you wanted to defeat, Kushina."
Jin used his sword to flip open the ninja tools. Once they cooled down, they could still be used.
Although he was a bit disdainful of these tools.
"What?" Kushina ran over, looking Chūdō up and down.
"It was them?"
The village they passed by when coming to the outpost, where humans and animals were exterminated.
Only a little girl survived.
Just for this, the three almost fell out.
Even now, Kushina was a bit resentful towards Jin.
Minato didn't speak from the side, lowering his head to ponder the details.
"But where are the things they took?"
Kushina looked puzzled. When Jin searched, he said the village's wealth had been taken.
Kushina didn't search that girl at all, and Minato didn't have the idea of searching corpses either.
But it didn't look like they had any wealth on them.
"For that, you'll have to ask the village head here."
Wealth wouldn't grow legs and run.
Jin smiled, but there was no smile in his scarlet Sharingan.
He was an advocate of fairness.
As long as someone screwed him over, whether they were a ninja or an ordinary person, they had to pay the price.
Even if it was the Hokage... he would talk about it when he could beat him.
Inside the Village Head's house.
The village head sat up in bed, looking at the hazy light coming through the window. He knew dawn was coming.
He hadn't slept well all night.
He walked to the table and poured a cup of tea. Just as he brought the cup to his lips...
"Still in the mood to drink tea?"
A voice suddenly came.
Pfft!
He sprayed all the tea out of his mouth.
He hurriedly lit the oil lamp.
Illuminating the three extra people in the room.
Jin stood at the door with his arms crossed, watching him. Kushina hung upside down from the roof beam. Minato stood by the window, blocking his retreat.
"What business do the three Lord Ninjas have so late at night?"
The village head forced a smile.
But looking at the expressionless faces of the three ninjas, he couldn't smile anymore.
It looked like they came with bad intentions.
"Three Lords, if you want money, our village isn't rich, but we will do our best to collect it for you."
The village head said in panic.
The trembling in his eyes looked exactly like a civilian forced by ninjas to hand over money.
"Still pretending?"
Jin sneered.
Even Kushina was moved by his act, but Minato and Uchiha Jin remained unmoved.
Kushina dared to believe anyone as long as they were pitiful enough.
Minato wouldn't be careless on major matters.
"You were the one who leaked our whereabouts to the Iwa-nin, right?"
Jin questioned directly without any disguise.
"Lord, I'm wronged! I don't know anything."
The village head knelt on the ground, crying bitterly, kowtowing with bang bang sounds, looking as innocent as could be.
"What Iwa-nin? I haven't even seen them."
The village head wailed.
Jin walked up to the village head and squatted down, speaking slowly.
"From the beginning, I found it strange. Being in such a critical location, why have you always existed?"
"It's because..."
"Don't use those words to fob me off."
Jin interrupted the village head.
"Ninjas won't care about your life or death. You should understand this principle."
In the wars of the ninja world, the ones who suffered the most damage were always civilians. This was a crime ninjas couldn't erase.
In the Warring States Period, the sparse number of ninjas shared half the death rate with civilians. One could know what civilians were in the eyes of ninjas.
This tone hadn't changed even now.
Ninja battles didn't care about civilian lives.
"And for a village to survive here, ninjas must have demands for this place. You can't provide ninjutsu or money, so there is only intelligence."
"Among the Five Great Ninja Villages, Konoha is the best to its own people. So generally, Konoha won't drive away or exterminate the villagers of the Land of Fire, giving you a foundation to stay."
"On this basis, how could Takigakure, Kusagakure, or even Iwagakure let you off?"
On such a critical route, other ninja villages naturally had no reason to let them stay.
Whoever occupied this place would have the advantage of the first move. Although they might not be able to withstand Konoha's counterattack, it was better than giving it to others.
"There is only one way to make them let you off."
Jin's face darkened.
"Leaking intelligence on Konoha ninjas."
"Your enthusiasm was to contact ninjas to know more intelligence, then sell it to people from other ninja villages."
"The so-called rogue ninjas you mentioned were actually because you weren't satisfied with the other party's bid. You used attracting Konoha investigations as a threat to force the other party to pay a high price."
With Jin's explanation, Kushina also figured out the details.
"The main reason those Iwa-nin attacked that village was because they didn't bring enough money, so they went to loot the other nearby villages!"
"After they had enough money, you handed our whereabouts to the Iwa-nin immediately."
Minato added from behind.
As for what other information they traded, it wasn't something the three could speculate.
This village directly sold intelligence on Konoha ninjas with clearly marked prices.
At the same time, to collect money, they harmed several nearby villages.
Under Jin's analysis, the village head resigned himself to fate.
"We just want to live! What's wrong with that!" The village head roared loudly.
"This is our home. Why can you ninjas destroy it unscrupulously? If you can destroy our home, why can't we use you to exchange for our survival?"
Jin couldn't refute these words. As for moving the village, it was impossible.
The Daimyo's Mansion had issued a law called the Land Guardian Act. Civilians must guard the land given by the Land of Fire.
They were not allowed to leave privately.
This regulation had some relation to when the ninja villages were just established. Jin estimated it was initially to restrict ninjas, but unfortunately, it didn't restrict them.
In the end, it restricted the chance for all civilians on the battlefield to survive.
"Then you shouldn't have let the Iwa-nin harm other villages." Kushina glared angrily.
The tragic state of that village still gave her nightmares.
"We just wanted to live." The village head lowered his head, repeating only this sentence.
At least for those villages that died at the hands of ninjas, he still felt guilt in his heart.
"Unfortunately, you can't live anymore."
Jin shook his head and sighed. Although he wanted to take revenge, to some extent, these people were forced into it.
He wouldn't bicker with a group of dead people.
"What do you mean?"
The village head looked up, his face full of ferocity, his eyes bloodshot.
"Do you really think betraying Konoha comes without a price?"
Jin shook his head and sighed.
He glanced at the gloomy-faced Minato and Kushina. They also understood what the ending of this village would be.
"Spare the others! If there's anything, come at me!"
The village head hurriedly tried to grab Jin in front of him, but Jin kicked him in the face, slamming him against the wall.
"You can't bear it."
Jin shook his head, opened the door, and looked outside.
"By this time, they should have arrived."
Before they came to the village, they had asked Minato to send the message back using the Reverse Summoning method.
The sun revealed its forehead from the mountainside.
A ray of light illuminated the forest on the edge of the village.
Ninjas wearing green flak jackets stood on the branches, overlooking the entire village.
A woman with markings on her face, squatting on a black wolf-dog, licked her black fingernails.
Tsume Inuzuka.
"Leave no one alive!"
"Kill!"
The massacre began.
Konoha's New Outpost.
In a hidden jungle.
Jin was inside the mission tent, taking out scrolls one by one.
"Jin, what are you doing?" Minato looked puzzled from the side.
"Exchanging for merit, of course."
Jin pushed these scrolls to the recording personnel. The personnel looked a bit dumbfounded at these scrolls. There weren't many, but they were all newly created ninjutsu.
But this was a frontline outpost, not the village's Ninjutsu Research Lab.
How could he exchange for merit here?
"Can't I exchange them?"
Jin asked the staff curiously.
"You can, but these need to be sent back to the village first for evaluation."
The staff member forced a smile. He had seen plenty of bloody heads exchanged for merit, but this was the first time he saw someone exchanging ninjutsu. The key was that the village allowed it.
It was ridiculous.
Minato watched dumbfounded from the side. He was envious looking at so many ninjutsu.
"These are all useless. If you want to learn, I have a catalog. You can choose whatever you want."
Jin said nonchalantly.
In fact, these ninjutsu were ones he didn't use. He planned to exchange them for merit and then exchange for stuff.
At the same time, he wanted to see if he could be transferred to the rear as a researcher and secure the position of a ninjutsu research genius.
It could be said to kill three birds with one stone.
Of course, transferring back to the rear might be a bit difficult.
"How is Kushina?"
"She hasn't recovered from that day yet. Even though the appointment for Chunin came down, she's not in the mood."
Jin sighed.
That night indeed had too big an impact on Kushina.
At the same time, because they killed a Jonin...
They were also gloriously promoted to Chunin.