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Land of Fire, a certain village, bounty exchange office.
A staff member yawned as he pushed open the half-closed door and glanced at the sky. It was still dim—dawn was at least an hour away.
Normally, he wouldn't have had to wake up this early. But over the past two months, a man wearing a white mask and a long black trench coat had been showing up at the exchange office at daybreak to claim his bounties.
Roughly estimating, this person had visited twelve times in two months—meaning he was practically completing missions every single day.
Most others worked in groups, or at least in pairs, but this one was a lone wolf.
People called him "White Mask" because of the white mask he always wore.
He didn't come during the night shift. Maybe he'll show up during the day.
Just as the staff member turned his head, a faint breeze brushed past him. He quickly turned back—and there it was, the white mask, right in front of him.
"Good morning, Mr. White Mask..."
White Mask didn't respond. Instead, he dropped the corpse he had been carrying onto the ground.
The staff member immediately turned on the lights and returned to his workstation, flipping through a file to compare the photos with the body.
While waiting, White Mask quickly scanned the mission board. The 50 million ryo bounty on Igawa Bu was enough to make anyone's eyes burn with greed.
But ever since his bounty had skyrocketed to 50 million, Igawa Bu had holed himself up in Kirigakure, never leaving the village again.
Disappointing.
"Alright, this is A-rank fugitive Satou Za..." After confirming the identity, the staff member handed White Mask a receipt.
For bounties exceeding 500,000 ryo, the head of the exchange office usually had to sign off. Without that signature, the staff member could only issue a receipt.
White Mask could either wait three hours for the signature or take the receipt and return in a day or two to another exchange office to collect the cash.
Based on past experience, the staff member knew White Mask always chose the receipt.
This time was no different.
"Will you not be taking on a new mission?" the staff member asked, noticing how White Mask had been staring at the mission board.
White Mask shook his head, took the receipt, and left without a word.
Never accept a new mission while still completing another. That was White Mask's rule.
The staff member sighed and began storing the corpse away.
White Mask is impressive—efficient, never sloppy with his missions.
But then again, ninjas always had to conceal their identities. Otherwise, they'd be easy targets for enemies.
Even though he had no idea what White Mask really looked like, he couldn't help but admire him.
---
After leaving the exchange office, White Mask sprinted away, carefully scanning his surroundings. Once he reached a desolate wilderness and confirmed no one was around, he finally removed his mask.
Midorima had been away from Kirigakure for two months now.
During this time, he had been gathering intel on the village while starting a new life in the Land of Fire.
Initially, he had assumed that after increasing Igawa Bu's bounty and specifying the reason, Kirigakure would use Ao's Byakugan to verify the claims. That should have thrown the village into chaos.
But what he never expected was that Igawa would kill Ao outright, pin the murder on him, and raise his own bounty to 25 million ryo.
This move had put Midorima in a dangerous position.
After all, to most people, Midorima was a nobody—a low-level medical-nin at best, weak as a rabbit.
A bounty of 25 million on someone like that? He might as well have been a walking treasure chest.
Midorima had to make it clear to everyone that in Naruto, there was only one "walking treasure chest."
So, every ninja who came for the 25 million ryo got a brutal beating.
But the problem was, the more he fought, the more people wanted him dead. Like flies buzzing around his ears, they never left him alone.
Eventually, Midorima had no choice but to disguise himself and ask Iwasaki Kazuichi to forge him a fake identity.
Not because he couldn't handle them—just because they were too damn annoying.
As for Kirigakure's affairs, there had been no news about Mei Terumi, Shimomura, or Zabuza. But there were also no reports of their deaths.
The only explanation was that Igawa hadn't made his move against them yet—but they probably weren't having an easy time either.
Thinking about Mei, Midorima felt a pang of guilt.
In the original story, with Ao's help, she had successfully ended Kirigakure's "Bloody Mist" era.
But now? Ao was dead. And the Mizukage under genjutsu had increased to three generations.
If the original difficulty was S-rank, now it was SS+.
Could Mei still pull it off? Midorima wasn't so sure.
With a bounty on his head and no massive power boost, returning now would be suicide. All he could do was hope Mei held on.
---
As for the Seven Ninja Swordsmen selection?
Well… that was just ridiculous.
After finally narrowing it down to 12 finalists, Igawa personally removed Midorima's name.
Given the current situation, neither Mei nor Zabuza would make the cut either. So the "top 12" instantly shrank to 9.
Naturally, those previously eliminated weren't happy—especially someone like Ameyuri Ringo, who had lost to Midorima purely due to bad luck.
Did she really deserve to lose to those other nine? Hell no.
Tensions escalated, and in a shocking move, Igawa abolished the entire selection process—only adding Kisame Hoshigaki to the group.
Though many were furious, the Fourth Mizukage approved the decision, forcibly silencing all opposition.
As for whether Igawa and Kisame had some under-the-table deal?
No one knew except them.
---
Midorima's life now followed a strict routine.
After healing Iwasaki Kazuichi's father, he unexpectedly gained a reputation among the Land of Fire's elite. Wealthy merchants would occasionally contact him through Iwasaki, requesting medical treatment.
At first, he refused.
Iwasaki had mentioned that these people usually worked with Tsunade.
Wouldn't this be stealing her clients?
But he later learned that Tsunade, despite her legendary skills, was notoriously unreliable. Sometimes she'd be in Tanzaku Quarter, sometimes she wouldn't.
Even if a request reached her, she wouldn't necessarily accept it unless she was short on funds.
So Midorima—skilled, unaffiliated with any major village, and actually available—became their go-to choice.
Over time, his reputation in these circles grew.
At the same time, depending on the location of his next wealthy client, Midorima would occasionally take on A-rank or S-rank missions.
The reason he didn't accept missions from the same exchange office consecutively was simple: these missions were rarely in the same area as his clients.
This time, for example, Midorima had been invited to another city.