Chapter 38: No Gods in the Godless Town

Shiraki had no idea where the Exchange was located, but there had to be someone who did—the bandits and rogue ninja scattered all over the Land of Fire. In times of chaos, nothing attracted people more than gold and beautiful women. If a lone beauty appeared on the road, those rogue ninja would swarm like flies drawn to the scent of blood, eager to present themselves.

As for who should play the part of the beauty, Shiraki certainly wasn't volunteering. He glanced at White Zetsu and Tobi; if you can't bear to use your own mother as bait, you'll never catch the wolf.

"Is this seductive enough… Do I really have to walk like this?" Tobi was clearly enjoying the game, even transforming into a bikini model from a magazine and swaying his hips with a flushed face.

"That’s not necessary… Just a regular village woman will do," Shiraki replied, exasperated.

"Is that all…?" Tobi sounded disappointed, then changed into a young woman with a headscarf, carrying a small basket of mushrooms and shuffling along the country path.

Shiraki transformed into a child, clutching the photo album Ebisu had given him, trailing beside Tobi and poring over the pictures with tireless interest.

"I really don't get it. Why do these primitive humans like looking at this stuff? It's just a thin layer of skin. Does it really bring them pleasure?" Tobi shrugged.

"That’s called emotion! You wouldn't understand," Shiraki retorted, though as a two-lifetime bachelor, he was hardly an authority on feelings.

"I do understand emotion, actually—like how I love my little ones. I just don't get the physical part—"

"Stop! I’m not getting on that train!"

As the two of them bantered, several pairs of eyes had already appeared nearby. In these troubled times, the noses of bandits and rogue ninja were keener than wild dogs’.

Swish, swish… Two figures blocked their path, one in front and one behind. Luck was with them; the pair wore headbands from unknown villages—they were rogue ninja, more likely to know the Exchange’s location than common thieves or outlaws.

"Well, well, here they come. Want to experience a bit of emotion?" Tobi slowly began unbuttoning his shirt.

"This… so forward?" The rogue ninja were dumbfounded.

But when Tobi pulled his shirt open, instead of flawless white skin, a mass of twisted, gnarled white vines writhed beneath.

"A tree demon! Aaahhh!" The cocky expressions vanished instantly; their hair bristled with terror as they spun around to flee.

They knew full well that aside from bullying civilians, they couldn’t afford to provoke anyone else—especially something so monstrous.

Snap! A white vine shot from Tobi’s chest, wrapping precisely around one rogue ninja’s neck and dragging him backward.

"Come, let’s become one…" Tobi’s spiral-shaped body unfurled, pulling the ninja into his form.

The other rogue ninja blocking the path clearly had no sense of camaraderie—he abandoned his companion and ran without a second thought.

Crash! Shiraki didn’t even look up from his book, but the bloody chain-blade in his right hand was already loose.

"Virus Executioner—throw!"

Smack.

"Aaaaaah!" The immense force drove the executioner’s blade straight through the rogue ninja’s back, its jagged edge catching on his ribs.

Shiraki slowly wrapped the chain around his arm, dragging the screaming ninja inch by inch toward him.

He hardly needed to interrogate—the rogue ninja was so desperate to live, he would have spilled his own mother’s whereabouts if it would save his skin.

After all, the Exchange was such a loose organization that secrecy and loyalty were foreign concepts; the Five Great Nations mostly turned a blind eye, sometimes even funding it.

"Repeatable quest acquired: Kill 10 rogue ninja.

Reward: 100 gold coins."

"Ten coins per head? That’s worthless. I thought they’d at least fetch as much as wild monsters," Shiraki mused. He had no habit of leaving survivors.

Following the directions given by the rogue ninja, the two kept their disguises. Shiraki, like a beacon of justice in the ninja world, swept up every bandit and rogue ninja they encountered, both completing gold coin quests and practicing his chain-blade techniques.

At last, on the seventh day, they reached the Exchange in the Land of Fire.

Shiraki had always known the Exchange’s true owner was someone extraordinary—some even suspected the feudal lords of the Five Great Nations were involved—but he’d never imagined such brazenness.

This was not simply a mission hub; it had spawned an entire town—"Godless Town"—named for its utter depravity, a place so foul even the gods would not intervene. The dilapidated wooden buildings spoke of its long existence in the ninja world.

Countless missing-nin and criminals gathered here; it was their final refuge, perhaps why the Five Great Nations allowed it to persist. If you can’t rid the world of all garbage, the best solution is to give it a trash bin—better to contain it than have it scattered everywhere.

From the moment Shiraki set foot in Godless Town, he felt as if he’d left the world of ninja for that of pirates; the atmosphere changed abruptly. Everyone’s clothes were filthy and ragged, faces bore scars, and their features were twisted and menacing—almost no one had a full set of teeth.

It was clear that chaos and brawling were the town’s main themes.

"Hey, little one, Godless Town isn’t the place for you. If you want milk, you should go home to your mom, hahahaha…" A bald man at the entrance leaned casually against a tree, flashing a mouthful of yellowed, rotten teeth.

His teeth may have been rotten, but not a single one was missing—he must have been a formidable fighter.

"Are you provoking a Zu’an horse-hunter?" Shiraki shot him a contemptuous glance.

"The brat’s angry! Hahaha, Yuba, you’ve run into a tough one today!" cackled a horse-faced man nearby.

"Look at you, all serious—it’s almost charming. If we sold you to the brothels, plenty of people would pay good money to taste such a delicate flower," sneered the bald man called Yuba, licking his lips greedily.

He wore a Rain Village headband, but it was slashed—a mark of a rogue ninja.

"If you love money so much, why not sell your mother and make it last?" Shiraki, usually polite and refined, never swore. But if someone picked a fight, could a man from Zu’an let himself be insulted in another world?

"Hahahaha… Yuba’s met his match!" The crowd jeered.

"A kid pretending to be fierce—what a joke… Hahahaha!" Yuba grinned, unconcerned; insulting parents in Godless Town was as common as eating.

Without warning, Shiraki struck. His right fist, wrapped in iron chains, smashed toward Yuba’s rotten teeth.

With the five-element chakra inherited from Hashirama Senju, plus the Weapon Master’s "Charged Strike," his fist crackled with lightning, the surge of energy making his blow swift and brutal.

Boom!

Yuba, completely unprepared, took the iron fist square on the jaw and was launched three meters through the air.

All laughter stopped abruptly.

"Damn it, taken down by a gutter rat…" Yuba spat out two front teeth, thick with blood.

"Teeth can’t be laughed out, but they can be knocked out," Shiraki looked down at Yuba coldly.

"Tch. Kid, you owe me two gold ones."