Naruto's words made Gato tremble with fear.
Submitting to a shinobi's force and being compelled to fund shinobi was, at most, a humiliation to him.
But the other party wanted to hold the positions of both shinobi village leader and Daimyo at the same time. That clearly broke the rules that had stood for decades.
After all, the Daimyo of the Five Great Nations essentially cooperated with the shinobi villages, but the two sides still had a hierarchical relationship, and the Five Great Shinobi Villages nominally obeyed the Daimyo's arrangements.
If he truly submitted to Uzushio Village, he himself would be feared by the Daimyo and become a thorn in his side.
But if he resisted the Leader of Uzushio now, he probably would not live to see the next sunrise.
While Gato was lost in thought, the battle in the distance gradually reached its conclusion. Although Zabuza and Haku fought Kisame with all their might, such a vast disparity in strength could not be overcome through sheer desperation.
After the Kubikiribōchō shattered into two pieces, Samehada greedily absorbed Zabuza's blood and Chakra.
Although Haku's Ice Release somewhat countered Water Release, Kisame's Water Release was, in a sense, more aptly called Sea Style.
Seeing this, Naruto leaped into the pooled water and secretly manipulated the current to save the two of them.
Then he used the Body Flicker Technique to appear before Kisame and punched him in the abdomen. The wind-nature Chakra accompanying the blow sent Kisame flying more than ten meters before he crashed into a concrete wall.
Kisame climbed out of the concrete wall and frowned at Naruto in the distance.
The punch itself had not seriously injured him, but the Chakra on the other man felt familiar, as though he had encountered it on the Fourth Mizukage.