"Hello," A man in his early twenties with mousy brown hair and a bit of stubble suddenly sat next to Ren in the cafeteria of the border base and cheerfully greeted him. "I am Keigo. I will be escorting you to the detection seals. One of them is faulty for sure, but I dunno 'bout the rest."
He stretched his hand that held his chopsticks toward Ren's place but stopped when Ren caught his wrist and gave him an unamused look.
"Come on, man." Keigo pouted like a kid, trying to give Ren a puppy dog gaze, "Just a bite?"
Ren had to admit, disturbingly enough, that it was working a bit. But he quickly shook himself, "Get your own."
"Fine." Keigo whined before standing up, "I'll be right back." He huffily walked toward the counter where they distributed the food.
Ren just watched his back with a bewildered look, thinking, 'What the fuck just happened?' as his introverted nature tried to come to terms with Keigo's extrovert behavior.
It didn't take long for Keigo to return with a plate of food of his own and despite people seated at many different tables waving at him to join them, he sat down opposite Ren once again, a friendly grin on his face as he dug in.
With a frown, Ren spoke, "You seem familiar. I seem to recognize you from somewhere." It was really bugging him too.
"No idea. As far as I know, this is the first time we are meeting, buddy." Keigo casually shrugged and Ren nodded. Yes, he was sure he would remember somebody so annoyingly outgoing. "Then again, I am very handsome," Keigo grasped his chin and posed a bit with a smirk etched on his face, "maybe a female friend of yours has a poster of me in her bedroom? Wink, wink, nudge, nudge?" He wiggled his eyebrows.
Ren laughed. He could see why so many people here seemed to like him. It was funny because Keigo was definitely not handsome. He was not ugly but he had a long way to go to be a pretty boy. He kinda reminded Ren of a more muscular Shaggy. The only thing the man lacked was Scooby Doo.
As he thought that, Ren's mind suddenly clicked. He remembered having similar thoughts in the past. "The Bingo Book." He said with realization, "You have a C-rank bounty from Iwa. The Earthbender Keigo."
Keigo's good mood suddenly seemed to be ruined and his shoulders slumped. "Ugh. Don't remind me. I really messed up and my parents were very angry at me for getting it. I prefer to ignore that it ever happened." He scowled, glaring at his food.
Contrary to the popular belief in his past life, bounties were not fun. Ninjas didn't want them. In stories in his previous worlds, people used them as some sort of level system. The higher the bounty, the more powerful the character. And they made the characters happy about getting more bounty as it raised their value... or something.
That's not how it worked in the real world. For a ninja, having a bounty meant two things. Either they were in the field so long and they were so effective that their work was noticed... or they fucked up.
Ninjas were supposed to be unnoticed during their more unsavory jobs. Having a bounty meant being a criminal in the country of origin of said bounty.
Not many people talked about this. But ninjas were criminals. Their profession demanded it from them. Assassination, kidnapping, sabotage, spying, prostitution, threats, massacres... all ninja villages did these things to an extent.
If you get a mission to blow up a bridge in another country and you are noticed, you won't be congratulated for a job well done.
The less said about massacring a civilian village in another country because a rich merchant paid your village enough money for it.
Oh, the villages tried to show a friendly face to the rest of the world to attract customers. But when it came to these unsavory well-paid missions, the Kage's mindset usually was along the lines, 'If we don't do it and take the money, another village certainly will. So, if it happens anyway, we might as well be the ones paid for it.'
Naruto truly did not understand the things Hokage did. The missions he signed on to get money for the village.
So, if a person had a bounty on their head, they were either somebody a Kage or a noble wanted dead for some reason, or they did something naughty enough in another country, making them put a price on their head.
The latter was far more common.
And with having a bounty, came problems.
Kakashi can't vacation in the Earth Country because he would have six squads of Iwa hunter ninjas after his ass the second he is spotted over there.
Having a bounty meant having bounty hunters, rogue ninjas, and even ninjas from other villages after your head. And in this world, people like Kakuzu exist.
Having a bounty was most definitely not a joyous occasion. It made some low-end ninja tremble in fear for their lives.
The system wouldn't exist if it wasn't a good enough deterrent.
"Alright, Shaggy." Ren jested, "I get it. No talking about the drinks at the bar we could afford if we cashed in your head."
That made the gloom around Keigo subside a bit and his lips twitched into the beginnings of a smile, "Shaggy?" He raised his eyebrow at Ren.
But Ren just nonchalantly shrugged and pointed at him with his chopsticks, "You look like Shaggy."
"Oh?" Keigo scrunched his forehead in thought probably wondering who the hell was Shaggy. Not that he would be figuring that out anytime soon. Ren thought the man would ask but then he just grinned again in an uncaring manner and exclaimed, "I like it."
"You heard that, boys? Call me Shaggy from now on!" Keigo stood up and shouted to the rest of the room, getting back jeers and cheers as people raised their glasses in acknowledgment while Ren stared in dumbstruck silence at the spectacle.
"Does that mean we can't call you Dumbass anymore?" Somebody from the crowd shouted and the room erupted into abrupt laughter that only stopped a moment later when the commander of the base showed up.
"Shut up, you idiots! You are heard all the way to Iwa!" The commander shouted, huffing and puffing in anger as he turned toward Keigo with a stern gaze, murder in his eyes.
"Opsie?" Keigo sheepishly chuckled.
Honestly, watching Keigo get a stern scolding for 'almost enticing a rebellion due to his sheer stupidity' was the highlight of Ren's day.
He had barely known Keigo for an hour but he had to say, he liked the guy.