Jiraiya heard Zabuza's question and turned his head, staring directly at the Kirigakure rogue ninja before him with curiosity in his eyes. "Before I answer you, I'd like to ask you something, Momochi Zabuza. Why are you so determined to follow Naruto?"
"Is it simply for slaughter, or to find a patron who can provide you with money?"
At that, the eyes exposed above Zabuza's bandages narrowed slightly. His gaze seemed to drift toward a distant, bloody past, and his cold eyes rarely dimmed for a moment.
He was silent for several seconds before speaking with a cold snort. "Slaughter? Hmph... In Kirigakure, where I grew up—the place known as the Bloody Mist Village—it was more than ten times crueler than your Konoha."
"In my time, graduating and becoming a ninja required passing a terrifying trial."
"You had to kill the companions you studied with, ate with, and spent every day alongside. Only those whose hands were stained with their friends' blood could survive and become genin."
"That Kirigakure was nothing less than hell!" Though Zabuza's gaze remained calm, his tone was extremely cold. "I once thought that killing the Mizukage who made those rules and changing Kirigakure would be enough."
"But Lord Naruto told me that even if one Kage was replaced, as long as this twisted ninja system remained, as long as the nations continued their endless conflicts, things like this would sooner or later happen again in another form. If the foundation is rotten, no matter how you build upon it, it's useless."
At that point, Zabuza's eyes regained their earlier sharpness. "So I chose to follow Lord Naruto's ideals: unite the entire ninja world, shatter everything old, and create a brand-new order where children no longer have to be forced to slaughter one another just to