Chapter 247: Land of Waves Arc End
The guards surrounding Gatō's residence looked impressive at first glance.
There were dozens of armed men patrolling the perimeter, swords hanging from their waists as they watched every approach to the strange suspended building.
But after observing them for a short while, Naruto understood the truth.
These were not samurai like those from the Land of Iron.
They could not use chakra.
Their swordsmanship amounted to little more than basic training.
At best, they were armed thugs who relied on numbers to intimidate ordinary people.
Naruto remained concealed on a distant branch.
After confirming the situation, he formed a hand seal.
"Transformation Technique."
Poof!
Smoke covered his body.
When it cleared, Uzumaki Naruto was gone.
In his place stood Zabuza Momochi.
The muscular build.
The bandages covering the lower half of his face.
The crooked Hidden Mist forehead protector.
Naruto had reproduced his appearance almost perfectly.
"Asuramaru."
He lowered his presence and focused on the building ahead.
"I'll be relying on you."
Asuramaru immediately extended his Perception through the compound.
His response carried a trace of impatience.
"You're being far too cautious."
Naruto slipped down from the branch.
"These people are ordinary humans."
Asuramaru continued.
"Even beside Gatō, I can only sense two people with roughly Genin level strength."
"Do you really need this much preparation?"
Naruto entered the shadows beneath the building.
"It's better than becoming careless."
Asuramaru could not argue with that.
"Fine. Keep going."
With Asuramaru guiding him, Naruto slipped past every patrol route.
He avoided the guards.
Crossed narrow corridors.
Passed through the interior of the suspended structure without drawing attention.
Before long, he reached the room where Gatō was staying.
Two samurai guarded the door.
Naruto did not bother sneaking past them.
He raised one hand.
The broken section of Kubikiribōchō appeared from his Independent Space.
The two guards barely had time to notice the movement.
Naruto stepped forward.
Slash!
The broken sword swept across both their necks.
Two heads fell.
Neither man had even seen his attacker clearly.
Naruto caught the weapon before it struck the floor and moved to the door.
Bang!
He kicked it open.
Inside the room, a short middle aged man jolted awake.
Gatō.
His grey hair was cut into a bowl shape, and a thin moustache sat beneath his nose.
The noise outside had clearly frightened him.
He hurriedly switched on the light and reached for his sunglasses.
Then he saw the figure standing in the doorway.
"Zabuza?"
The fear in Gatō's face quickly faded.
He adjusted his glasses and gave a nervous laugh.
"So you came back."
He climbed out of bed.
"Looks like you failed too."
Gatō tried to regain his usual arrogance.
"Well, no matter. If you couldn't kill that bridge builder this time, there's always another chance."
Naruto raised the broken Kubikiribōchō.
Gatō's smile froze.
"What are you"
Slash!
The sword passed cleanly through his neck.
His head struck the floor.
Naruto looked down at the corpse without emotion.
For Gatō, death had come as easily as crushing an insect.
Inside him, Asuramaru spoke.
"Target eliminated."
"What now?"
Naruto flicked the blood from the broken sword.
"There are still plenty of people outside who helped him terrorize this country."
His eyes became colder.
"I'm not letting them walk away."
Naruto left the room.
Then the killing began.
The men under Gatō had spent years abusing the people of the Land of Waves.
Extortion.
Violence.
Smuggling.
Threats.
Murder.
Now the man they believed to be Zabuza moved through their stronghold.
One guard rounded a corner.
The broken Kubikiribōchō flashed.
He fell.
Another group rushed toward the disturbance.
Naruto disappeared among them.
Steel cut through the darkness.
By the time the last body struck the floor, the corridor had fallen silent again.
Naruto moved through the residence from the inside outward.
Anyone who stood in his path was cut down.
The guards had no chance against a Shinobi with Naruto's speed.
Before long, Gatō's entire force inside the compound had been wiped out.
Naruto stepped into the night.
He did not look back.
A moment after his figure disappeared, something moved among the corpses.
A blood soaked hand rose.
One of the fallen guards pushed himself upright.
His face was ghostly pale.
There was a terrible wound on the left side of his chest.
Naruto's attack should have killed him.
But the man had been born with his heart on the right side.
That rare accident of anatomy had saved his life.
He pressed one hand over the wound and looked around at the bodies surrounding him.
Fear filled his eyes.
"Zabuza..."
His voice trembled.
"He actually betrayed Gatō..."
The survivor struggled to his feet.
"If my heart had been on the normal side, I'd be dead too."
He did not remain there.
Clutching his wound, he staggered away as quickly as he could.
Naruto had noticed him.
And had deliberately left him alive.
Someone needed to tell the story.
Zabuza Momochi had entered Gatō's residence.
Zabuza had killed Gatō.
Zabuza had slaughtered his men.
The weapon used was even the broken Kubikiribōchō.
So what did any of this have to do with Uzumaki Naruto?
Absolutely nothing.
Satisfied, Naruto returned toward Tazuna's home.
A Shadow Clone sat on the porch, maintaining his alibi.
The moment the clone noticed the original approaching, it stood.
"I'm going to train somewhere else for a while."
The clone walked off.
Naruto slipped into its place without drawing attention.
A seamless exchange.
He turned and entered the house.
Kakashi was already awake.
Naruto smiled.
"Kakashi sensei."
"How are you feeling?"
"Any discomfort?"
Kakashi looked toward him.
For a moment, his visible eye narrowed.
There was a faint scent of blood on Naruto.
Fresh blood.
Kakashi said nothing.
His expression returned to normal almost immediately.
"I've been lying down too long."
He reached for the familiar orange book beside him.
"Come outside with me."
Naruto nodded.
The two stepped onto the porch.
Kakashi leaned back against the wooden wall and opened Icha Icha Paradise as though nothing had happened.
Naruto sat nearby.
He raised his head and looked toward the night sky.
Neither spoke.
Kakashi read.
Naruto watched the stars.
And the faint scent of blood slowly disappeared into the night air.
In the days that followed, life became strangely peaceful.
Team 7 continued training.
They accompanied Tazuna to the bridge every day.
Construction progressed steadily.
No more Shinobi appeared.
No assassins attacked.
No thugs tried to stop the workers.
Then news spread across the Land of Waves.
Gatō was dead.
He had been found inside his own residence along with many of his armed men.
According to the surviving witness, the attacker had been none other than Zabuza Momochi.
When Kakashi heard the news, he looked at Naruto.
Sasuke did the same.
Naruto merely continued what he was doing.
Neither of them asked.
They had already guessed enough.
And neither intended to expose him.
Without Gatō, the stranglehold around the Land of Waves began to loosen.
The bridge construction continued without interruption.
Days became weeks.
One month later, the bridge was complete.
Team 7 prepared to return to Konoha.
Tazuna and the people of the Land of Waves gathered to see them off.
Naruto stood with Kakashi, Sasuke, and Sakura at the far end of the newly completed bridge.
Tazuna watched their departing figures.
Then he smiled.
"We still haven't named the bridge."
The people around him looked over.
Tazuna stroked his chin.
"I think I've got one."
He looked toward the blond boy walking away in the distance.
"How about the Great Naruto Bridge?"
Several people repeated the name.
Tazuna's smile widened.
"They brought hope back to this country."
He looked over the enormous bridge stretching across the sea.
"So I hope that someday, the name of this bridge will be known throughout the world."
Team 7 returned to Konoha.
Before long, Naruto found himself performing D Rank missions again.
The contrast was almost painful.
After fighting Zabuza and dealing with Gatō, carrying boxes and helping villagers with minor chores felt incredibly dull.
Kakashi, however, had something more important to do.
He went alone to the Hokage Building.
Inside the Hokage's office, Hiruzen Sarutobi listened carefully as Kakashi reported everything that had happened in the Land of Waves.
Naruto's Flying Thunder God.
His unusual transformation.
The horn.
The markings.
The strange black sword.
The sudden increase in strength.
His ability to store and retrieve objects without using ordinary sealing scrolls.
Hiruzen's expression gradually became serious.
One particular memory surfaced in his mind.
The ancient sword shaped pendant.
The object that had been sealed into Naruto alongside the Nine Tails on the night of his birth.
The relic associated with the legendary deity once worshiped by the Uzumaki Clan.
Hiruzen narrowed his eyes.
Could Naruto truly have gained that deity's recognition?
If so, the implications were enormous.
He could not ignore it.
But he also could not approach the subject recklessly.
He would need to find an opportunity to ask Naruto carefully.
After all, Hiruzen no longer viewed the boy as merely an unusually talented Genin.
Naruto had already become one of Konoha's greatest hopes for the future.
Nothing could be allowed to happen to him.
Elsewhere in the village, Naruto continued taking advantage of the Shadow Clone Technique.
A clone accompanied Sasuke, Sakura, and Kakashi during routine missions.
Naruto's original body trained.
Day after day.
By now, his Rasengan had become stable.
Inside a secluded forest training ground, Naruto scattered several three pronged kunai through the air.
They embedded themselves in trees, rocks, and the ground.
Naruto vanished.
Flash.
He appeared beside the first kunai.
Flash.
Then the second.
Flash.
Then the third.
Golden hair flickered from one marked position to another.
His control of Flying Thunder God had improved dramatically.
Naruto appeared beside a massive old tree.
His right hand rose.
Chakra gathered in his palm.
It rotated.
Compressed.
Stabilized.
An azure sphere formed.
Rasengan.
Naruto drove it into the trunk.
Boom!
The spiralling chakra tore into the wood.
A tree thick enough that a grown man could barely wrap his arms around it snapped apart.
The upper half crashed through the surrounding branches.
Dust and fragments of bark filled the air.
Naruto walked out through the haze.
His breathing remained steady.
Compared with the boy who had graduated from the Ninja Academy, his strength had risen tremendously.
His Flying Thunder God had become increasingly proficient.
His chakra reserves were immense.
And with the chakra of the Nine Tails available to him, the sheer amount of power inside his body had already reached the threshold expected of a Kage level Shinobi.
But raw power was not the same as combat strength.
Naruto was still young.
His experience against truly dangerous opponents was limited.
His collection of techniques remained uneven.
And he had only begun learning how to use everything together in real combat.
For now, his actual fighting ability remained around the Jonin level.
Even so, it was a very different Jonin level from before.
Inside Naruto, Asuramaru was already thinking several steps ahead.
Sasuke.
The mission required Naruto to defeat Sasuke, and the stronger Sasuke became before that happened, the greater the eventual reward.
The time to hand Sasuke a sword was approaching.
Asuramaru had already chosen the opportunity.
The Chunin Exams.
More specifically, when Orochimaru made his move.
That would be the perfect moment.
Night eventually fell.
After finishing his training and eating ramen, Naruto returned home.
Light shone through the window.
Naruto slowed.
Someone was inside again.
He already had a good idea who it was.
Naruto opened the door.
Hiruzen Sarutobi sat on the wooden chair, waiting patiently.
The Third Hokage looked toward him with a warm smile.
"Naruto."
"You haven't eaten yet, have you?"
Naruto stepped inside.
"I already had ramen."
He closed the door behind him.
Then he looked at Hiruzen curiously.
"Did something happen today, Grandpa Third?"
Hiruzen's smile remained gentle.
"There are a few things I want to ask you."
....
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