Mission End

Naruto realized it immediately; among the Five Great Nations, Kirigakure possessed the highest number of Kekkei Genkai.

In that light, Naruto's current situation could also be considered one.

Naruto offered no explanation, which was fine by him. In truth, there were many abilities in the Ninja World capable of absorbing chakra, such as the Rinnegan or this current Dark Release. As long as he didn't mention the Six Thief Immortals, it didn't matter what others thought.

"How do you know Dark Release? Are you from the Land of Water, too?" Haku couldn't help but ask. As a rogue ninja from the Land of Water, Haku naturally understood the tragic fate of those with Kekkei Genkai there; he couldn't help but feel a sense of sympathy, as those who didn't defect were essentially all slaughtered. Naruto couldn't be bothered to explain.

The absorption speed was rapid; ninety-five percent of the chakra in Haku's body had been drained, though he could, of course, refine more to recover.

"Are you from the Land of Water?" Seeing that Naruto had no intention of killing them, Zabuza couldn't help but ask.

"Don't ask about things that don't concern you. The Land of Water has recovered; the current Mizukage is the Fifth Mizukage, Mei Terumi, who is a dual Kekkei Genkai wielder." Seeing how cooperative they were being, Naruto offered a hint.

"What do you mean by that?" Zabuza didn't quite understand, but he was confused as to why Naruto would tell them this—weren't they enemies?

Naruto didn't want to waste his breath and simply vanished.

Watching Naruto disappear, both of them were stunned. He had come in the middle of the night just to absorb their chakra?

They couldn't quite grasp Naruto's logic.

"Lord Zabuza, what did he mean by that?" Haku, having recovered slightly, asked in confusion.

"Could he really be from the Land of Water?" Zabuza didn't understand the situation either.

"It's possible, or perhaps his parents were from the Land of Water and fled to Konoha as refugees." After some thought, Haku offered an explanation.

The two of them began to speculate about Naruto's background.

Meanwhile, Naruto had appeared by the seaside.

Naruto crouched down and touched the seawater with his right hand, causing the surface to slowly freeze.

"So this is Ice Release. As for the power... it feels a bit weak." Looking at the ice below, Naruto was somewhat dissatisfied. Without the coordination of hand seals, relying purely on chakra resulted in very little power.

In his fantasies, this ability should have been at least on par with Admiral Aokiji from One Piece.

"Forget it, I'll let my Shadow Clones study it slowly." Since his goal had been achieved, Naruto's figure vanished instantly, returning to his room without a sound, undetected by anyone.

The next day, the three of them appeared in the forest again to begin practicing their respective ninjutsu.

Naruto continued to create many Shadow Clones to practice separately. Kakashi observed from the shadows, but he couldn't understand Naruto's training methods.

He only knew it was dangerous; every so often, a Shadow Clone would explode and vanish.

This was Naruto researching the chakra within his own body.

Hinata was still practicing taijutsu. With Naruto's guidance, her taijutsu had become much more powerful. At the same time, the Hyuga clan possessed unimaginable talent for taijutsu, as their bodies could emit chakra from every tenketsu in their system.

This allowed for a lot of operational space, but unfortunately, the quality of Hinata's chakra was too poor.

Her chakra dissipated the moment it left her body, unlike Naruto's, which could manifest into giant chakra hands. Furthermore, in the original story, their ancestors possessed a technique called the Eight Trigrams Vacuum Palm, which attacked externally with emitted chakra—a move of considerable power.

Take the Rasengan, for example: Naruto, who hadn't learned Sage Mode, couldn't throw it. Once he learned Sage Mode, the chakra within him underwent a qualitative change, allowing him to throw the Rasengan using senjutsu chakra. The same logic applied here; chakra that had undergone a qualitative change could be thrown and remain condensed without dissipating.

Half a month passed with all three of them in constant training, and their strength increased significantly. During this time, because his goal had been met, Naruto remained well-behaved, doing nothing but training, eating, and sleeping.

Zabuza and Haku, having heard Naruto's news and learning of the situation in the Land of Water, stopped dealing with Gato and simply left the area.

After the bridge was completed, Gato brought men to destroy it.

Seeing the samurai he brought, Naruto and the others looked on with disdain.

Naruto didn't like to show off, so in the end, Sasuke stepped in and took care of them all.

Once the bridge was finished, the spirit of everyone in the Land of Waves changed. When people have hope, they are reborn. That night, the entire nation held a bonfire party.

Though called a nation, it was essentially just a small island, and the total population of the island didn't even exceed that of Konoha.

Among them, the old drunkard was the most grateful to Naruto. Having followed them the whole way, he naturally knew that it was Naruto who had decided to continue the mission.

To thank Naruto Uzumaki, the bridge was named the Naruto Bridge.

This made Naruto sigh, feeling as though he had returned to the original plot, yet this time it was much better than the original—at least Zabuza and Haku hadn't died.

Naruto hadn't specifically intended to save them, but he had his own considerations. As long as it didn't conflict with his own interests, he would help where he could—consider it fulfilling a dream he had when he first watched this arc!

To thank them, the villagers pooled together all their money. It had originally been a C-rank mission, but because of the appearance of other ninjas, it had been upgraded to a B-rank mission.

This time, Naruto didn't make the decision, instead looking toward Kakashi.

Kakashi accepted the money from the villagers, and with that, the mission was successfully concluded.

At Root, a researcher wearing glasses held an object, rushing excitedly toward Danzo's location.

In the gloomy underground space, Danzo sat in a chair shrouded in darkness, his expression unreadable. At that moment, a researcher in a white lab coat ran in, brimming with excitement.

"Lord Danzo."

"Are there results?" Danzo asked.

"Lord Danzo, a major discovery."

"We found that the Uzumaki Cells, much like the Hashirama Cells, possess high corrosivity. When injected into other animals, the subject is forcibly consumed, and the cells eventually transform into a red fox."

"According to..." At this point, the researcher couldn't help but push up his glasses and began to lecture on professional knowledge, blah, blah, blah.

Danzo's face twitched, but there was nothing he could do; he was well aware of the habits these madmen possessed.

"Spare me the nonsense, I want results." Seeing that the other party was about to ramble on endlessly, Danzo cut him off directly.

"My lord, what kind of results are you looking for?" Having spent the last few days researching the cells of Naruto Uzumaki without sleep, his mind was a bit muddled, and for a moment, he couldn't recall what Danzo was referring to.

"Can you increase my chakra reserves?" Danzo prompted.

"Right, right, you are correct, my lord." After Danzo's reminder, the man finally remembered their original objective.

"Lord Danzo, the subject's cells are just like the Hashirama Cells—far too aggressive." The researcher habitually pushed up his glasses.