On the sea bridge swallowed by fog, several black-clad men lay sprawled in every direction.
"Y You're Moton?"
At Tazuna's startled question, the man kneeling and begging instantly shuddered, lowering his head even further as if he didn't dare meet his gaze.
Kakashi saw the tell at once. These people were probably acquaintances of Tazuna's from the Land of Waves. He flicked a look at the three of them, signaling not to act rashly.
To be precise, it was a warning aimed mostly at Konome Taketori: don't casually slaughter civilians.
Naruto and Sasuke obediently sheathed their weapons. Konome, meanwhile, was still studying the strange fog beneath the bridge, and had no time to care about some ordinary man pleading for his life.
The changes in the Land of Waves had already caused the thing she cared about most, Ice Release, to vanish. As for Moton and Raiga, she couldn't care less.
If an enemy jumped out, she'd crush them.
Why bother with anything beyond that?
If this were a game, she'd already be hammering Enter to skip the dialogue.
Moton didn't answer Tazuna's question, but his identity was already obvious.
Finally seeing a familiar face made relief flare in Tazuna's chest, but the more he stared at Moton's silence, and at the enemy's black cloak on his back, the more the meaning sank in.
"Moton, why are you with these missing-nin? You surrendered to Gatō?"
"I didn't!"
The kneeling man looked as if someone had stomped on his tail. He snapped his head up and roared at Tazuna.
Only then did everyone see his face clearly.
Black bruises around his eyes, blood streaking from his nose. He looked young, maybe in his twenties.
"You didn't?" Naruto scoffed, even his thick skull refusing to buy it. He pointed at Moton's standard-issue black outfit, face full of disdain. "Then why are you wearing their clothes?"
Sasuke's blade slid a fraction from its sheath. If Moton made even a tiny move, he would be cut down on the spot.
Sensing the danger, Moton's lips trembled. He was afraid, but he still forced out an excuse.
"Boss Raiga locked Gatō in a coffin. The Land of Waves has already been taken over by the Kurosuki gang. I joined Kurosuki, that's all. I didn't surrender to Gatō!"
"You…"
Tazuna choked on his own anger.
The Bridge of Heroes had connected the Land of Waves to the outside world. It brought prosperity, yes, but it also drew in plenty of vultures.
When ninja came, Zabuza dealt with them.
But ordinary pirates and bandits were a different kind of headache.
To protect the Land of Waves from raiders, his son-in-law Kaiza rebuilt the self-defense force that once resisted Gatō.
Moton had been one of its members.
A defender of the country.
And now that defender had chosen betrayal.
Naruto and Sasuke looked at him with pure contempt.
When outsiders invade, you don't bend the knee. And this was worse than bending the knee. He'd helped the invaders and tried to kill the man who went to seek help.
People like that were more disgusting than the enemy.
"We should just kill him," Naruto muttered.
"Agreed," Sasuke said flatly.
Stay around red, you get stained red. Stay around ink, you get stained black.
After spending too long with Konome, Naruto and Sasuke had both been influenced, whether they realized it or not.
Moton's face turned crimson, anger boiling past fear.
"You don't understand! Even that powerful Water Release shinobi was scared off by Boss Raiga!" he shouted, blood hot in his head. "You have no idea how strong he is! If he rules the Land of Waves, we'll never have to fear people like Gatō again!"
"That's right!"
"The hero shinobi ran away, so of course we need a stronger shinobi to protect the country!"
The men kneeling beside him, who had been silent until now, began murmuring their agreement.
They'd clearly been brainwashed by this twisted logic. Worse, they truly believed it.
Tazuna stared at them. He couldn't name them right away, but they looked familiar. They were self-defense force too.
And when he thought of Kaiza, whose fate was unknown, rage surged even higher.
With the group backing him up, Moton grew bolder. His battered, ugly face even twisted into a smug smile.
"Hero?" he spat. "What hero runs away and leaves everyone to die? These Konoha ninja will finish the mission and leave too. When trouble comes later, won't we still be the ones bleeding for it?"
"Now Boss Raiga, the invincible one, is willing to rule the Land of Waves. No one will bully us again. Isn't that a good thing?"
As he kept talking, he actually started trying to persuade Tazuna.
And the most terrifying part was that Kakashi could see the logic.
From the Land of Waves' perspective, this place sat between the Lands of Water and Fire, a natural transport hub. Merchants and cargo ships would pass constantly.
Economic growth would follow.
And so would parasites like Gatō.
The Land of Waves had no ninja of its own. If danger came, it had little way to respond.
Once their mission ended, Kakashi and the others would return to the village. They couldn't stay here forever.
Zabuza, the one they once relied on, had disappeared.
If Kurosuki Raiga ruled the Land of Waves, it really would provide a kind of protection.
"I can't. My family is still…"
"That's easy!" Moton cut him off with a laugh.
"You're a famous bridge master. This bridge, whether it needs widening, rebuilding, or routine maintenance, can't function without you. If you convince Brother Kaiza not to oppose Boss Raiga, using that relationship to release a few people is nothing."
"T That…"
Under Moton's relentless pressure, hesitation appeared in Tazuna's eyes.
Gatō was no longer the threat. If Raiga truly could release Tsunami and the others, and protect the Land of Waves the way Zabuza once did, then that was far more convenient than spending hundreds of thousands of ryō to beg Konoha for help.
Zabuza and Konoha ninja were mercenaries in the purest sense. They moved by mission contracts.
But if Raiga seized the Land of Waves, he would become its ruler. Protecting what he owned should, in theory, make him more committed than an outsider.
The more Tazuna thought, the more Moton's words started to sound reasonable.
Naruto and Sasuke exchanged a glance, both seeing the worry in the other's eyes.
If Tazuna, the client, stopped resisting, what happened to their mission?
Sasuke's worry went even deeper.
He still hadn't gotten his hands on that Mist sword. If they went home like this, wasn't the whole trip pointless?
But they didn't know how to stop Tazuna, and they didn't know what to say.
Because in this case, there was no clean solution.
This nation had no army.
No shinobi capable of standing alone.
It relied on ordinary people forming a self-defense force. They didn't even need a Gatō. A handful of mid-level or even low-level rogue ninja could shatter that force overnight.
The Land of Waves had lived in fragile peace before only because it was too small and too poor. Aside from Gatō, who used it to move narcotics and saw its value, no one else cared about this miserable little place.
But now they had Tazuna's bridge.
Five years of growth.
The Land of Waves was starting to look like a port that could rival those in the Land of Fire. People's lives and the economy had both risen sharply.
It had outgrown its own weak defenses.
Strong economy, weak military.
That only multiplied the chances that predators would come.
Team 7 couldn't permanently station here. They couldn't fix this for Tazuna. For them, it was practically unsolvable.
Whatever Tazuna chose would be from the Land of Waves' perspective.
They had no right to interfere, and no right to stop him.
Time passed, second by second.
The fog thinned slightly. A pale light seeped through the sky.
The bridge that had been full of shouts and screams fell into dead silence.
Moton kept whispering, coaxing, leading Tazuna by the nose.
Tazuna's face twisted in struggle, clearly swaying.
Kakashi, Naruto, and Sasuke stood there helpless, anxious but without an answer.
After studying the strange fog below for a while, Konome finally snapped back to reality and saw the scene in front of her.
What… happened?
She frowned, baffled, like a player who'd skipped too much dialogue and then realized they missed a key item.
She listened to Moton's persuasion for a moment and finally understood what was going on.
So that was it.
Naruto, the one who was supposed to be unbeatable with his Talk No Jutsu, was getting out-talked by a random civilian.
Konome was surprised, and a little helpless.
They were hired shinobi. If the client wanted to cancel the mission, there was nothing they could do.
And if Kurosuki Raiga really could protect the Land of Waves, maybe that wasn't even a bad outcome.
Most importantly, Konome had never cared much about whether this mission succeeded.
She came here for one reason: Haku's Ice Release.
Now the Land of Waves mission had nothing to do with Haku.
If Tazuna wanted to keep going, she'd beat Raiga to his knees.
If he didn't, she wouldn't force him.
Either way, it was a choice.
"Uncle, Brother Kaiza just can't get it through his head," Moton continued softly, voice full of calculated warmth. "You've been out in the world for years. You've seen things. Don't be stubborn."
"Boss Kurosuki said it. As long as you join Kurosuki, talented people can learn chakra extraction. The strong can even become officers and learn powerful jutsu."
"Then the Land of Waves will have its own shinobi. Why would we need outsiders to protect us?"
"Look at that Zabuza guy. Totally unreliable. The enemy hasn't even arrived and he ran first. If we had our own shinobi, would this happen?"
Tazuna's expression was complicated. The country's future, the bridge, shinobi, the words churned in his head.
Finally, under Moton's eager gaze, he nodded.
"All right. Maybe you're right."
"Ha, see? You understand reason," Moton beamed instantly. Even his swollen, bruised right eye cracked into a thin slit.
Tazuna sighed and turned to face Konome and the others.
The wrinkles on his face seemed to deepen in an instant, as if he'd aged ten years on the spot.
He didn't need to say anything. His choice was written all over him.
"Tazuna…"
Naruto tried one last time.
"Naruto," Kakashi cut him off.
Kakashi glanced at Konome. Konome shook her head too.
Naruto could only clamp his mouth shut.
"I'm sorry," Tazuna said, guilt heavy on his face. "I dragged you all out here for nothing."
Back in the Land of Fire, he'd knelt and begged them to save the Land of Waves.
Now he was choosing the enemy's side.
He didn't even know how to face them.
After a moment, he dug into his bundle and pulled out two thick stacks of banknotes. He shoved them into Naruto's arms, voice full of apology.
"This is the remainder for the mission. It's not enough, I know. But it's all I can give. The rest belongs to everyone back home. I can't decide it alone. I'm truly sorry."
"You'd better be sure," Konome said, her voice cold as steel. "Kurosuki Raiga isn't a good man. He might not spare you or your family. If you regret it later, it'll be too late."
"Yeah," Naruto and Sasuke chimed in. "What if they kill you?"
"They won't." Tazuna shook his head, pride creeping into his tone.
"The Land of Waves' value is in this bridge. And the internal load-bearing structure was designed by me alone. Without me, no one can handle long-term maintenance."
"Even if they only want me as leverage, they won't kill Kaiza and the others easily."
Naive.
Shinobi weren't like Gatō, greedy merchants who only cared about profit.
They didn't play by those rules.
Konome thought it, but didn't say it aloud.
A kind warning couldn't save someone determined to walk into a pit.
Tazuna had chosen. All she could do was respect it.
Sasuke looked depressed too. He really wanted to see that legendary Mist blade.
"All right, Konoha ninja." Moton's face brightened now that Tazuna had decided. He turned and began shooing them away. "From here on out, this is an internal matter for the Land of Waves. We won't trouble you further."
As if afraid Konome and the others might stubbornly interfere, he deliberately emphasized "internal matter," turning Kurosuki Raiga's occupation into "domestic politics."
Konome didn't react to his tone.
She simply stared at Moton deeply.
At first, none of them had taken this ordinary man seriously.
Yet with a few sentences, the Land of Waves mission had been driven into failure.
Since the completion of her Eight Gates reversal technique, power kept flooding into her veins. Pride had grown with it.
Deep down, she had started to stop seeing ordinary people as her equals.
Moton's existence rang a bell in her mind like a warning.
Even Kaguya Ōtsutsuki could be sealed away with one moment of carelessness.
Konome might be on the verge of stepping into the realm beyond Kage, fearless against anyone, but the shinobi world was filled with sealing arts and secret techniques.
If she let pride rot her judgment, she would pay for it one day.
This time it was a loss so small it wasn't even a sesame seed, yet it taught her something priceless.
In that sense, she'd profited.
"You keep guarding the bridge. I'll take Uncle to Boss Raiga," Moton ordered.
"Yes!"
The Kurosuki men on the ground picked up their weapons and hurried to block off the bridge.
Moton supported Tazuna's injured arm and led him into the fog.
Before long, they vanished.
Only two corpses remained on the Bridge of Heroes.
Naruto stood there clutching the two stacks of money, lost and at a complete loss.
"Kakashi-sensei… what do we do?"
Kakashi could only click his tongue helplessly.
"Whether a mission succeeds doesn't just depend on a team's strength. It also depends on the ability to deal with complicated situations, and a tiny, crucial bit of luck."
"Because Zabuza protected them for years, the people of the Land of Waves never developed the courage to protect their own country."
"What looks absurd now is just a problem that used to be hidden, finally surfacing."
"If they don't have the will to defend themselves, no one can save them. When they recover the courage to resist, maybe our help will matter."
"Idiotic," Sasuke said coldly as he slid his blade back into its sheath.
Everyone nodded, grim agreement shared in silence, and they began walking back along the bridge toward the Land of Fire.
Team 7's first high-level mission was officially a failure.
Thud. Thud. Thud.
The retreating footsteps grew fainter and fainter.
Beneath the Bridge of Heroes, that unnaturally dense fog clung to the stone of the bridge pier, and refused to disperse.
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