Naruto furrowed his brow, realizing things weren't that simple, then silently retreated behind the building.
As everyone knew, the old men and women in movies and TV dramas were never simple.
And those who dared to infiltrate the enemy's headquarters directly surely had a few tricks up their sleeves, just like Naruto.
The old man wrapped his fist in thick clothing, gathered his strength, and threw a punch at the guard near the entrance!
"Thud!" The guard collapsed limply, and the old woman immediately grabbed him by the back of the neck and dragged him into the shadows.
The old man and woman soon dealt with a second guard the same way, without making much noise throughout the entire process.
These old veterans really have some skills, Naruto thought.
But soon, several more patrolmen emerged from the grain warehouse. Sensing that something was wrong, they began looking around. The old woman got nervous and made some noise, and the two of them were quickly located by the enemy.
"Who's there?" the man in the middle shouted.
Oh? This is interesting. What will you do next?
Naruto felt a little disappointed that he had neither sunflower seeds nor popcorn with him. He couldn't enjoy the show to the fullest.
The old man and woman were now in dire straits. How would they break out? Let's wait and see.
All right, the old man wrapped his clothes tightly around his fist again and punched an enemy in the chest! The enemy doubled over in pain. It seemed the old man still had plenty of fight left in him. Next, he was going to take on several people at once.
The old woman picked up stones from the ground and began providing long-range cover for the old man. The two worked together beautifully... No, this was bad! The old man had been struck by a club! The old man had fallen! The referee was beginning the count. One, two, three...
Wait, something was wrong. The old man and woman didn't seem to have any backup plan!
Naruto hurriedly stopped his mental commentary, made a great leap to land in front of the enemies, and slapped one of them across the face, knocking him down.
The remaining few abruptly turned to look at Naruto, their eyes wide.
Naruto awkwardly scratched his head. To ease the awkwardness, he chose to help each of them "lose their memories" with a heavy punch.
"Are you all right?" Naruto helped the old man to the side, then pulled a kunai from his ninja pouch and indicated that the old woman could use it to protect herself.
"Were you two also here to raid the grain warehouse?" Naruto asked in a low voice.
The old man caught his breath for a moment, then nodded. "If we don't raid the grain warehouse, our fellow workers will all starve to death."
"Gato forbids the shops from selling food to the workers unless they give up building the bridge and join the settlement."
"Some people refused to compromise, so their relatives blocked their doors and wouldn't let them leave."
"Several households have already starved to death."
Naruto felt his breathing hitch.
Is this the real Land of Waves?
Naruto asked in a low voice, "Who else is raiding the grain warehouse besides you two?"
The old woman said hurriedly, "Just us. Everyone else is either being watched or no longer has the strength to walk."
"I see." Naruto nodded, then asked, "Can you tell Gato's mercenaries apart from the people of the Land of Waves?"
The old woman quickly said, "I've lived here for many years. I should be able to help you tell them apart."
"Good."
Naruto first found the old man a place to stay and indicated that he should hide there. He then set up several small traps nearby and handed the old man the wires connected to their triggers.
Naruto had no intention of leaving just yet.
"Ma'am, stay close from now on. You point them out, and I'll take them down. All right?"
"All right, all right."
The two began retracing their route toward the dormitory area.
Rustle, rustle, rustle...
The gravel road had been trampled beneath Naruto's feet, each step pounding like thunder.
The settlement, surveillance district.
The captain, whose chest was tattooed with a coiling dragon, sat grandly on a soft sofa. While picking his teeth with a small knife, he ordered his men to bring him the roasted fish.
The captain took a bite. "Bah! This tastes like crap!"
"Don't be angry, Captain. You know the situation in the Land of Waves. There's almost no seasoning, and the fish is tough and awful."
"Forget the meat. The women here are what really kill the mood!" another shirtless, burly man shouted.
"Didn't we take in a batch of new relatives yesterday? One of the girls looked pretty good to me, so I had her come to my room tonight for some fun. But guess what? Once she took off her clothes, she was as skinny as a monkey. Her entire upper body was just ribs!"
"That's what dead poor people are like. Ah, forget it. Have a drink."
Several cups clinked together, and an atmosphere of merriment filled the room.
"Bang!!"
Suddenly, the door was kicked open with brute force, sending in a fierce gust of wind.
A blond, bearded boy walked in, sweeping the room with his scarlet eyes. His whiskers swayed constantly, giving him an almost lifelike appearance.
"They're all Gato's men?" the boy asked the old woman behind him.
"Yes! Everyone in this room is!"
"Got it."
The captain abruptly stood up. The malice radiating from Naruto made his hair stand on end, and he stammered, "Y-you're that new recruit from tonight, aren't you? What are you doing?"
"Nothing much. You were all having such a good time, so I thought I'd interrupt for a moment."
With that, Naruto leaped in front of the group and smashed all their kneecaps from behind! Their legs snapped together like broken puppets with their strings cut!
The captain nearly passed out from the pain. So this is what you meant by interrupting?!
Naruto didn't ignore the men scrambling away like mad. Instead, he walked to the table and stuffed the list of relatives into his pocket.
The old woman asked cautiously, "Are you really going to leave these people here?"
"They don't deserve to die yet. Let them suffer for a few hours first."
"Next room."
Before long, heart-wrenching screams rang out from the rooms of different guards. Naruto engaged in friendly communication with Gato's trusted men, all of whom said they regretted not meeting him sooner and eagerly offered their kneecaps to the boss.
"This is the last person, right?" Naruto asked the old woman while holding up the guard.
The old woman said shakily, "I think so. Anyway, you've dealt with all the guards on the road and all the guards who came back from fighting the fire."
"Mm. Looks like our infiltration was a success." Naruto nodded.
The old woman stared at him. "Huh?"
"Taking out all the enemies isn't a perfect infiltration? All right, ma'am. Take a few bags of grain and leave with the old man first. I'll keep the rest here for now."
After the old man and woman left, Naruto took a deep breath and began allowing the Nine-Tails Chakra to slowly seep out.
Red, translucent Chakra spread from Naruto's body. He focused his mind and controlled the Chakra's shape, gradually turning it into a giant hand.
During this process, Naruto could vaguely sense the Nine-Tails Chakra growing increasingly close to him. His control over the Chakra also became more and more practiced, as if a progress bar were slowly moving toward one hundred percent.
Soon, he grabbed several bags of grain and began throwing them toward the outer wall.
The moment Naruto found the grain, one of his Shadow Clones climbed over the outer wall and found Sakura and Sasuke, telling them to wait at the designated location.
This couldn't be moved in just one or two trips. The three-person team had originally planned to carry everything away in batches, while also preventing the guards from noticing that the amounts didn't add up... Oh, the guards were all gone, so there was no problem.
Naruto threw all the grain outside, then climbed over the wall himself.
Sakura and Sasuke had been waiting for a long time. Not only that, Naruto also saw Pakkun licking the meat off his paw nearby.
Pakkun said, "Yo, Naruto, you came at just the right time. Kakashi told me to hurry and call you all back."
"There's new information."
Before you continue