Chương 64: Two Billion Jenny

Although Neon had promised the day before that she would not give up halfway, shamelessness was a child's privilege. Aren needed something to lure her with. If Neon had been a boy, things would have been simpler. A disobedient boy could be smacked once and would probably listen. But with a soft, adorable little girl like Neon, he genuinely could not bring himself to use that method. After thinking for a while, he decided to try recreating snacks and toys from his previous life.

The result was unexpectedly effective. While Aren lay on the lounge chair with a faint smile and watched Neon train, Light Nostrade arrived in the backyard with a grave expression. Seeing Aren training Neon, Light behaved wisely. He stood to the side and did not step forward without permission.

"Nostrade, come here." Ever since Aren had opened Bart's aura nodes, Light had become careful about when he approached. It was not that he did not want to build a closer relationship. He simply understood that Aren disliked being disturbed. In the past, Light had not dared to send Bart away often because he feared hostile forces might attack while Bart was gone. The old Nostrade manpower had been useless in a real fight. If someone truly came knocking, the family would be finished. Now things were different.

After absorbing part of the Fanobi Family, the quality of Nostrade's people had risen by more than one level. More importantly, Aren was staying here. With him in the villa, Light no longer feared other families attacking. In fact, he almost wished someone would. Judging from Light's face, Aren guessed that the family's expansion had run into an obstacle even Bart could not solve.

'Could this be the so-called interlude from the prophecy?'

"Mr. Aren," Light said with a bow, "this time I may need to trouble you personally." Support the creativity of authors by visiting the original site for this novel and more. There were only a few reasons Light would beg him directly. More likely, several of them had appeared at once. Light's explanation confirmed Aren's guess.

"The Fanobi Family you and your companions destroyed left behind an illegitimate son. He was placed inside one of Fanobi's subordinate forces years ago."

"That son recently inherited part of the family's secret assets. Somehow, he used the money to hire a mercenary squad made entirely of Nen users. They are now attacking us for revenge."

"Bart faced them and was heavily injured in a single exchange. If not for his experience escaping dangerous situations, he might not have returned alive."

"With Nostrade's current strength, we cannot resist them. I had no choice but to disturb your rest and ask for your help." Light bowed deeply. So this might be the family interlude after all.

"Two billion." Aren spoke suddenly.

"Two billion Jenny. You may pay me after the Nostrade Family receives their assets." His tone left no room for bargaining. If Light wanted him to act personally, it would not be free. The payment for Nostrade handling daily matters had already been given when Aren opened Bart's aura nodes. Now that Light wanted Aren himself to move, Aren used the Zoldyck Family's approximate price range as a reference and named a fee. Light did not haggle.

"No problem. Thank you for acting personally, Mr. Aren. I am also grateful that you allow us to settle the payment after we receive the enemy's property." Strictly speaking, Aren was already giving him a discount. Unlike the Zoldycks, Aren would not merely kill a leader. He would also crush the enemy's armed forces completely, the same way he had handled Fanobi. Charging only two billion Jenny was already a favorable price, given how comfortably Light had served him.

Allowing payment afterward made the favor even clearer. Aren waved a hand.

"Enough. Just remember it." Then a three-pronged kunai appeared in his hand. Aura gathered and flashed across his palm. Black markings formed along the white wrapping around the handle. When the mark was complete, he handed the kunai to Light.

"Tomorrow, have someone take this to that man's base. If they cannot enter, throw it as close to the base as possible."

"After that, send me a text. Understood?" This was the new ability Aren had developed recently. Flying Thunder God Technique. The main reason he had created it was Machi. He did not say it aloud, but he was still worried about her safety outside. To reach her in time if something happened, he had begun developing this ability as soon as the Troupe separated. In Naruto, the Flying Thunder God Technique was an S-rank space-time ninjutsu created by the Second Hokage, Tobirama Senju.

It allowed the user to teleport instantly to a formula placed on a target. The mark could remain for a long time. It could be used for attack, evasion, escape, ambushes, shortening distances, and moving targets. It did not even require hand signs when activated. In short, it was terrifyingly versatile. Aren already had The Hand for short-range movement and attack, but The Hand could not give him long-distance travel. To fill that gap, the first thing he thought of was Flying Thunder God.

The Nen ability he developed used a similar principle and effect. He needed to carve his Nen formula onto a medium in advance, then teleport to that formula. Luckily, he had liked buying merchandise in his previous life, so object creation could reproduce the three-pronged kunai directly. Otherwise, he would have had to ask Nostrade to commission a custom weapon. Technically, the medium could be almost anything. But Minato Namikaze's three-pronged kunai looked too good to ignore.