Raid on Gato's Lair

"Teacher Kakashi, could you come here for a moment?"

Sakura placed several photos on the table, gesturing for everyone to look.

"These are photos I took at the gathering place this morning. Yes, that's right. After Gato's followers finish their daily propaganda, they return to the gathering place, and the place regularly holds some... activities. You all take a look."

The few people looked, and many were gathered in an open space, forming circle after circle.

Inside these circles were not only mercenaries but also fishermen, beggars, and children with messy hair. Strangely, their faces were all beaming with brilliant smiles.

"Whoa, I feel like I'm watching a horror movie," Naruto said, his skin crawling.

"The photos don't really capture anything. It's even more bizarre when you're there in person," Sakura said, her expression looking a bit grim.

Naruto thought for a moment and said, "Why don't we go take a look? We're not busy anyway. Boss, you coming too?"

Kakashi shook his head. "I haven't fully recovered yet, and someone needs to stay and watch over Tazuna's family."

"Then the three of us will go and see what's going on."

The trio changed into dark gray outfits, abandoning their colorful clothes, and donned wide-brimmed hats.

Naruto said, "Let's go."

As noon approached, the sun shone on the streets of the Land of Waves, making the surrounding humid air slightly drier.

Sweating lightly, the three walked slowly towards the gathering place.

As they got closer, Sakura signaled them to take a small path at a corner. This was a narrow, winding path she had discovered during her reconnaissance, one that almost no one would pay attention to.

After a while, the three approached the fence of the gathering place. Through the fence, they could see circles of people sitting on the ground. As they tiptoed, they could faintly hear the sounds of the crowd.

The circle closest to the three was talking to each other.

Naruto listened carefully. They were either recounting their hardships, sharing secrets hidden in their hearts, or confessing to wrongdoings they had committed...

After they finished speaking, the person presiding in the center guided their emotions to a low point, and then some even began to sob softly, and everyone gradually descended into emotional breakdown.

Naruto's expression stiffened.

Then, a fisherman said with red eyes, "When I was little, my father used to take me to the snack streets around to buy delicious takoyaki. I was too young then and didn't understand anything. My father never ate any, saying he had bad teeth. But when I grew up, I realized he just couldn't bear to eat it himself."

Another mercenary said, "When my family caught too many fish occasionally when I was young, my mother only ate the meat from the tail. I asked her why she didn't eat the meat from the belly. She always said she liked the tail. Now that I think about it, who doesn't know that the belly meat is tastier?"

The host cleared his throat, his voice deep. "My friends, Mr. Gato, though he has no intention of vying for power, understands the suffering of the common people. Through this morning meeting, we have been given an opportunity to reflect. We must grasp it firmly."

Sasuke couldn't help but whisper, "What does 'qin gu' mean?"

"It's a Goryeo word that translates to companions, friends," Sakura said in a low voice. "It's not surprising, considering how even the 'Unification Church' originated from Goryeo."

Naruto felt a pang in his tooth. "Is this cultural invasion?"

As they were talking, the circle of people had broken down in tears.

At this moment, the host in the center stood up and said, "My friends, everyone has now shared their little secrets. We are companions with hearts connected, right? Do you trust each other? Let's play a little game!"

Saying that, he pulled over a chair, stood on it, and said, "I will stand on the chair and fall backward, facing away from you all. I believe my friends will catch me. This is my trust in my friends."

After speaking, he fell straight backward, and the 'friends' behind him promptly caught him, preventing his head from hitting the ground.

The host exclaimed excitedly, "See! This is the trust between friends. You all try it too!"

Under his command, everyone took turns falling into the embrace of their 'friends,' and not one of them fell to the ground.

After the last person fell and was caught, the host was extremely excited. "See, this is the power of 'qin gu'! Friends will never let your trust be in vain. Friends will always be each other's support!"

After speaking, everyone cheered, seemingly happy to have found new companions.

Sasuke stared blankly at the scene, his mouth agape.

"'Qin gu'..." Sakura felt that she could no longer look at the word directly.

I should watch fewer Korean dramas in the future... Oh, wait, I'm in the ninja world. Never mind.

She finally understood why Gato had so many mercenaries, like cockroach eggs...

"What... what are they doing?" Sasuke stammered, his worldview severely shaken.

Naruto looked at Sasuke sympathetically. It was normal for people in the village not to have seen such a scene...

"They're brainwashing each other," Sakura said, her eyebrows furrowed. "First, they share their secrets to shorten the psychological distance, then they stir up emotions to remove rationality, and finally, they use games to build a new self-perception. They don't even need to use ninjutsu for these tricks."

"To put it in professional terms, this is a pyramid scheme."

Naruto hesitated for a moment and added, "Uh, actually, people at the company often play these kinds of games too..."

It was just that the company leaders wouldn't call it a pyramid scheme. Instead, they would use a softer term:

Team building.

Sakura nodded. "When I was in college, people in the applied psychology department did this. They called it psychological team training."

Thinking of this, Sasuke suddenly asked, "I just thought of something. Where does the food distributed by the mercenaries actually come from?"

"I'm afraid it's voluntarily handed over by the deluded populace. This is called 'the wool comes from the sheep'," Naruto said after some thought.

Sakura said, "We can't let this continue. We need to find a time to take down this gathering place."

Naruto: "Indeed, if this continues, the entire Land of Waves will fall."

Naruto withdrew his contempt for Gato.

The three began to discuss tactics.

Evening.

Naruto pulled the brim of his straw hat lower and moved towards the gathering place.

He observed that a wave of mercenaries appeared around the gathering place roughly every two hours, and they would switch shifts after handing over the day's 'achievements' at the location.

The entire gathering place operated like a machine, dedicated to bringing all the people of the Land of Waves under its control.

Naruto joined the end of one of the teams and began moving towards the gathering place.

"Please stop," a guard at the entrance halted the team. "We need to count the number of people in the group."

The gathering place used these headcounts to gauge the current impact it had on the Land of Waves.

The person at the front, who appeared to be the captain, said proudly, "Team Three successfully distributed all the food today, promoted Mr. Gato's ideology, and developed 9 new retainers."

He pointed towards the rear, and the guard signaled for these newly developed retainers to step out separately, while the others began to enter according to the list.

Naruto's heart sank.

Did I get exposed before even getting inside?

At this moment, the guard and the captain also noticed the discrepancy. How was there an extra retainer in the team?