"Teacher Kakashi, sorry for the trouble, but could you come too?"
Sakura placed several photographs on the table and gestured for everyone to look.
"These are photos I took at the gathering place this morning. Well, it's like this: Gato's followers return to the gathering place after promoting his message every day, and the gathering place regularly holds some... activities. Take a look."
The group looked over. Quite a few people had gathered in the open area, sitting in one circle after another.
There were not only mercenaries, but also fishermen, beggars, and children with disheveled hair. Strangely, all of them wore bright smiles.
"Huh? I feel like I'm watching a horror movie." Naruto felt goosebumps break out all over his body.
"Photos can't really convey anything. If you went there in person, you'd find it even more bizarre." Sakura's expression was somewhat grim.
Naruto thought for a moment before saying, "Why don't we go take a look? We've got nothing else to do anyway. Boss, are you coming too?"
Kakashi shook his head. "I haven't fully recovered yet, and someone needs to stay behind to guard Tazuna's family."
"Then the three of us will go and see what's going on."
The three-person team changed into gray-and-black outfits, abandoning their multicolored clothes. They also put on broad-brimmed straw hats.
Naruto: "Let's go."
It was nearly noon. The sun shone down on the streets of the Land of Waves, making the salty, damp air around them slightly drier.
The three of them were sweating lightly as they slowly made their way toward the gathering place.
As they drew near, Sakura signaled for them to turn into a small path around the corner. She had discovered this narrow trail while investigating, and hardly anyone would pay it any deliberate attention.
A while later, the three approached the fence around the gathering place. Through it, they could see circles of people sitting on the ground. By lightening their footsteps, they could faintly hear the sound of the crowd.
The circle of people closest to them was talking among themselves.
Naruto listened carefully. Some were recounting their hardships, some were sharing secrets they had kept hidden in their hearts, and some were describing things they had done that weighed on their consciences...
After they finished speaking, the host in the center guided their emotions down into a trough. Some people even began sobbing softly, and the entire group gradually sank into an emotional breakdown.
Naruto's expression stiffened.
Then a fisherman with red-rimmed eyes said, "When I was little, my father liked taking me to the nearby snack street to buy delicious octopus balls. I was young and didn't understand anything back then. My father never ate any, saying his teeth weren't good, but only after I grew up did I realize that he simply couldn't bear to eat them."
Another mercenary said, "When my family occasionally caught more fish than we needed, my mother would only eat the meat from the tail. When I asked why she didn't eat the meat from the belly, she always said she liked the tail meat. But thinking about it now, who doesn't know that fish belly tastes better?"
The host cleared his throat and said in a low voice, "Friends, although Mr. Gato has no intention of contending for power, he understands the suffering of the common people. Through this morning assembly, he has given us a chance to reflect. We must hold on to it firmly."
Sasuke could not help asking in a low voice, "What does 'friend' mean here?"
"It's Goryeo language. Translated, it means companion or friend." Sakura said solemnly, "It's not surprising. Things like the 'Unification Church' all originated in Goryeo."
Naruto had a toothache. "Does this count as cultural invasion?"
As they spoke, everyone in one circle had already begun crying together.
At this moment, the host in the center stood up and said, "Friends, everyone has now shared their little secrets, so we're all companions whose hearts are connected, right? Do you trust one another? Let's play a little game!"
As he spoke, he dragged over a chair and climbed onto it. "I'll stand on this chair, turn my back to everyone, and fall backward. I believe my friends will definitely catch me. This is my trust in my friends."
After saying that, he fell straight backward. The "friends" behind him caught him in time and kept the back of his head from hitting the ground.
The host said excitedly, "See? This is the trust between friends. You should try it too!"
Under his direction, everyone took turns falling into the arms of their "friends." Not a single person fell to the ground.
After the last person had fallen and been caught, the host was bursting with excitement. "See that? This is the power of 'friends'! Friends will never let your trust fall to the ground. Friends will always be one another's support!"
When he finished, everyone cheered, seemingly delighted to have found new companions.
Sasuke stared blankly at the scene, his mouth hanging wide open.
"Friends..." Sakura felt that she could never look at the word the same way again.
I should watch fewer Korean dramas in the future... Oh, I'm in the ninja world. Then it's fine.
She finally understood why Gato had as many mercenaries as there were cockroach eggs...
"What... exactly are they doing?" Sasuke stammered. His entire worldview had suffered a tremendous shock.
Naruto looked at Sasuke sympathetically. It was perfectly normal for people from the village to have never seen anything like this...
"They're brainwashing one another." Sakura's brows knitted tightly. "First, they share their secrets with each other to close the psychological distance. Then they stir up their emotions and strip away their rationality. Finally, they use games to establish a new sense of self. They don't even need ninjutsu to pull off these tricks."
"To sum it up in professional terms, this is a pyramid scheme."
Naruto hesitated for a moment before adding, "Um, actually, people in companies often do this too..."
It was just that company leaders would not call it a pyramid scheme. Instead, they used a gentler term:
Team building.
Sakura nodded as well. "When I was in college, students majoring in applied psychology did this. They called it psychological team training."
At this thought, Sasuke could not help asking, "I suddenly thought of something. Where exactly does the food distributed by the mercenaries come from?"
"It was probably voluntarily handed over by the people who had been brainwashed. That's called taking the wool from the sheep's back." Naruto thought for a moment before answering.
Sakura: "We can't let this continue. We need to find a time to take down this gathering place."
Naruto: "Exactly. If this continues, the entire Land of Waves will fall."
Naruto withdrew his contempt for Gato.
The three began discussing tactics.
Evening.
Naruto lowered the brim of his straw hat and approached the gathering place.
He took a rough look around. On average, a wave of mercenaries appeared around the gathering place every two hours. After handing over the day's "results" at the gathering place, they would change shifts.
The entire gathering place was like a self-operating machine, dedicated to gathering all the people of the Land of Waves into its grasp.
Naruto joined the rear of one of the groups and began moving toward the gathering place.
"Sorry, stop for a moment." The guard at the entrance brought the group to a halt. "We need to count the number of people in the group."
The gathering place judged how much influence it had currently exerted over the Land of Waves by counting the number of people.
The man at the very front, who looked like the captain, said proudly, "The Third Team successfully distributed all the food today, promoted Mr. Gato's ideals, and recruited nine new friends."
He pointed toward the rear. The guard signaled for the newly recruited friends to step out separately, while the others began entering one after another according to the roster.
Naruto immediately cried out inwardly that something was wrong.
So I've been exposed before even getting inside?
At that moment, the guard and the captain also noticed the problem. Why was there one extra friend in the group?
Before you continue