Inside the two-meter tall and wide safe, it was filled with treasures.
There were stacks of ten-thousand yen bills, neatly arranged gold bars, bulging bags full of gems, as well as jewelry and land deeds casually placed in compartments…
Having lived two lifetimes, Izayoi had never seen so much money before.
"So this is what it means to be a top-tier tycoon?" Izayoi sighed. "If Kado didn't lie to me, this is only one of his treasure stashes. Just how rich is this guy?"
"Whatever, it's all mine now, heh heh…"
Izayoi took out a storage scroll he had long prepared and packed all the cash, gold bars, gems, jewelry, and land deeds into it.
Unfortunately, the safe was too large, and the storage scroll wasn't one of those large or extra-large types, so it couldn't hold the entire safe.
Fortunately, Izayoi had anticipated this and bought two storage scrolls in advance.
After packing away all the treasures, Izayoi returned from the basement to the surface, then formed a hand seal with one hand and created a shadow clone with a massive amount of chakra.
Izayoi spoke to the clone: "I'll leave the rest to you. No problem, right?"
"That's a pointless question. Can't I trust myself?"
The shadow clone raised his hand and used gravity to lift Kado, then left the Land of Waves with him.
After watching the shadow clone depart, Izayoi and another shadow clone took Momochi Zabuza and Haku and flew out of the Land of Waves.
Once back in the Ninja Continent, Izayoi and the clone each brought Zabuza and Haku and teleported to the nearest black market.
With his Tenseigan able to observe the entire Land of Fire, Izayoi naturally knew where the black markets were located.
After all, aside from Konoha's Anbu and Root, only black market folks lived underground.
As for Black Zetsu and White Zetsu's clones, Izayoi had tried looking for them with his Tenseigan, but couldn't find a trace.
Most likely, it was the effect of their Mayfly Technique merging with the earth and flora.
Although Black and White Zetsu weren't strong in battle, they had three god-tier techniques: Spore Technique, Impersonation Technique, and Mayfly Technique.
These three could be considered the ultimate versions of the Clone Technique, Body Flicker Technique, and Invisibility Technique.
Thanks to these three god-tier techniques, even Ōtsutsuki Hagoromo and Hamura didn't discover their "third brother."
In less than half a day, Izayoi and his shadow clone arrived outside the nearest black market — which was disguised as a public toilet.
Letting the clone stay outside to watch over Zabuza and Haku, Izayoi entered the black market alone.
"Welcome, customer. Please follow me."
As soon as Izayoi entered through the special passage, a middle-aged man in a black suit led him into a private room.
Anyone wearing a mask clearly didn't want their identity revealed.
People who didn't want to be known were either pretentious fakes, somewhat famous shinobi, or well-known figures in the ninja world.
They'd determine which one based on the person's requests.
Then they'd decide how to treat them.
Izayoi, of course, didn't know what the middle-aged man was thinking. This was also his first time at a black market.
The Tenseigan could see far and through objects, but didn't have eavesdropping capabilities. The black market didn't post any rules either, so Izayoi naturally didn't know how things worked here.
Seeing the man say nothing and just lead him into a private room, Izayoi figured this was just the norm.
"What can I help you with, customer?"
After showing Izayoi in and politely seating him, the middle-aged man asked enthusiastically, rubbing his hands together.
"Do you have pen and paper? I want to buy some materials," Izayoi said.
"Yes, yes…"
The man's eyes lit up, sensing a big transaction, and quickly fetched a pen and paper for Izayoi.
Izayoi picked up the pen and wrote down the list of materials he had memorized—ones used to craft human puppets and chakra cores.
Then he asked the man, "Can you get these materials?"
"Please wait a moment, customer. Let me take a look."
The man took the paper, read it carefully, and said something that made Izayoi take notice: "These are puppet materials from Sunagakure. Though some are slightly different, we can get most of them."
"What's your price?" Izayoi asked.
The man held up three fingers and said, "Thirty percent above market price."
In other words, buying these from them would cost 30% more than the market price.
"Alright, prepare thirty sets for me. How long will it take?" Izayoi nodded, not even asking what the market price was. Otherwise, he'd be exposed as a rookie.
Izayoi didn't want to get ripped off like a gullible fish next time.
"Customer, you can come back in three days to pick them up," the man said, rubbing his hands and smiling awkwardly. "But I'll need a small deposit first. Not much, just 200,000 ryo."
200,000 ryo — the reward of a B-rank mission.
"No problem. I'll be back in three days."
Izayoi reached out from his wide sleeve and placed twenty 10,000 ryo bills on the table, then turned and left.
The middle-aged man immediately mobilized black market resources to get Izayoi those materials.
And in less than a day, this information was passed through special means into someone's mind.
"We've found that mysterious person."
White Zetsu grinned. "Just like you guessed, Black Zetsu — he chose to buy human puppet materials from the black market."
"You can find puppet materials yourself, but it takes a lot of time. Right now, the only quick options are Sunagakure and the black market. It's perfectly reasonable that he chose the latter."
Black Zetsu spoke in a low voice: "Tell 'Lord Madara' immediately. We need to eliminate this threat quickly."
Soon after, Uchiha Obito and Black and White Zetsu met with Pain on the rooftop of a steel structure.
"We've found the mysterious man. Will you take action yourself?"
"Is your injury not healed yet?" Pain asked probingly.
"Not yet. That's not something that can be healed with time. You know as well as I do—he's someone capable of ending the chaos of the world," said Obito.
If Nagato had met the real Uchiha Madara, that sentence alone would have exposed Obito as a fake.
After all, the real Madara, the Demon of the Shinobi World, would never explain himself to a junior.
Even blind, he'd still face all nine Tailed Beasts with arrogance.
Seeing that Obito was still being so secretive and unwilling to act, Pain replied coolly, "Then I'll handle it. You support from the shadows."
"Fine. But I want to bring someone."
"Uchiha Itachi?"
"That's right. His eye technique is very useful — might work wonders."
"Alright. When will we move?"
"Right now."
With just a few brief words, Pain's Six Paths and Obito sprang into action, swift and decisive.
Izayoi didn't witness any of this. If he had, he would've clicked his tongue in disbelief.
The two bosses of the Akatsuki — one in the light and one in the dark — joining forces, plus the undefeated filial son as support.
This was truly the strongest trio in the ninja world.
Using a lineup like this to fight him? That's just too much!