Naruto immediately realized that among the Five Great Nations, Kirigakure had the most Kekkei Genkai.
From that perspective, Naruto's situation now was much the same.
Naruto didn't explain. That was probably for the best. There were actually quite a few ways to absorb chakra in the Ninja World, such as the Rinnegan and his 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 asking. As a rogue ninja from the Land of Water, he naturally knew about the tragic fate of those with Kekkei Genkai there. He couldn't help feeling some sympathy. Those who hadn't defected had basically all been killed. Naruto couldn't be bothered to explain.
The absorption was very quick. Haku had lost ninety-five percent of his chakra, though he could still recover it by molding more.
"Are you from the Land of Water?" Seeing that Naruto didn't seem intent on killing them, Zabuza couldn't help asking.
"[A note from the author: remember our website, Taiwan Novel Network—so thoughtful, so convenient! ]"
"Don't ask about things that aren't your business. The Land of Water has recovered. The current Mizukage is the Fifth Mizukage, Mei Terumi, and she possesses two Kekkei Genkai." Seeing how cooperative they'd been, Naruto offered them that bit of information.
"What do you mean?" Zabuza didn't understand. He couldn't figure out why Naruto was telling them this. Weren't they enemies?
Naruto didn't want to waste his breath. He vanished on the spot.
The two stared at the place where Naruto had disappeared, stunned. He'd come all the way there in the middle of the night just to absorb some of their chakra.
They couldn't make sense of his actions.
"Lord Zabuza, what did he mean by that?" Haku, who had recovered a little, asked in confusion.
"Could he really be from the Land of Water?" Zabuza couldn't figure out what was going on either.
"Maybe. Or perhaps his parents were from the Land of Water and fled to Konoha." Haku thought it over and offered an explanation.
The two began imagining all sorts of things about Naruto's background.
Meanwhile, Naruto appeared by the sea.
He crouched down and touched the water with his right hand. The surface slowly began to freeze.
"So this is Ice Release. As for its power... it feels a bit weak." Naruto wasn't satisfied as he looked at the ice below. Without Hand Seals, relying on chakra alone produced very little power.
In his mind, the ability should have been at least on par with Admiral Aokiji from One Piece.
"Forget it. I'll have my Shadow Clones keep researching it." Having achieved his goal, Naruto vanished in an instant and silently returned to his room. Not a single person noticed him.
The next day, the three of them met in the forest again and began practicing their respective techniques.
As usual, Naruto made a large number of Shadow Clones to train. Kakashi watched from the shadows, but he couldn't understand Naruto's training method.
He could only tell that it was dangerous. Naruto's Shadow Clones kept exploding and disappearing.
Naruto was researching the chakra inside his body.
Hinata continued practicing Taijutsu. With Naruto's guidance, her Taijutsu had grown even stronger. The Hyuga Clan also had an unimaginable talent for Taijutsu, since their bodies could release chakra through the tenketsu all over their bodies.
That gave them plenty of room to experiment. The pity was that Hinata's chakra was too weak.
Chakra dispersed as soon as it left her body. Naruto's chakra, on the other hand, could form a giant hand. In the original story, their ancestor even had a technique called Eight Trigrams Vacuum Palm, which sent chakra outward to attack. Its power was tremendous.
Take the Rasengan, for example. Naruto couldn't throw it without learning Senjutsu. After he learned Senjutsu, the chakra in his body underwent a qualitative change, allowing him to throw the Rasengan by using Senjutsu Chakra. The same principle applied here: chakra that had already undergone a qualitative change could be thrown without dispersing.
The three of them spent half a month training, and all three grew considerably stronger. During that time, now that he'd accomplished his goal, Naruto behaved himself. He did nothing but train, eat, and sleep.
After hearing Naruto's news about the Land of Water, Zabuza and Haku didn't tell Gato anything. They simply left.
Once the bridge was finished, Gato brought people to destroy it.
Naruto and the others looked at the samurai he'd brought with utter disdain.
Naruto didn't like drawing attention to himself, so Sasuke stepped in and took them all out.
After the bridge was completed, the people of the Land of Waves seemed transformed. With hope, people could feel reborn. That night, the whole country came out to hold a bonfire party.
It was called a country, but it was really just a small island. The entire population was smaller than that of Konoha.
The old drunkard was especially grateful to Naruto. He'd followed them the whole way, so he knew Naruto had been the one to decide they should continue the mission.
To thank Naruto Uzumaki, they named the bridge Naruto Bridge.
Naruto couldn't help feeling that things had returned to how they were in the original story. But this time, things had turned out much better. At least Zabuza and Haku were both still alive.
Naruto hadn't set out specifically to save them, but he had his own reasons. If helping someone didn't conflict with his interests, he might as well do it. He could treat it as fulfilling the dream he'd had when he first read this part of the story!
To thank Naruto and the others, the villagers gathered all the money they had. It had originally been a C-rank mission, but the appearance of ninja had changed it to a B-rank mission.
This time, Naruto didn't make the decision. Instead, he looked at Kakashi.
Kakashi accepted the money the villagers had brought. With that, the mission was successfully completed.
At Root, a bespectacled researcher hurried toward Danzo, carrying something and looking excited.
In the dark underground chamber, Danzo sat in a shadowy chair, his expression hidden. Just then, a researcher in a white coat rushed in, brimming with excitement.
"Lord Danzo."
"Do you have the results?" Danzo asked.
"Lord Danzo, we've made a major discovery."
"We found that Uzumaki Cells, like Hashirama Cells, are highly invasive. When injected into another animal, they overwhelm it, and the cells eventually turn it into a red fox."
"Based on..." The researcher pushed his glasses up and launched into a long explanation of the technical details, going on and on.
Danzo's face twitched, but there was nothing he could do. He knew how these lunatics were.
"Don't waste time. I want the results." Seeing that the researcher was about to go on forever, Danzo interrupted him.
"My lord, what kind of results do you want?" After spending the last few days researching Naruto Uzumaki's cells without sleep, his mind was foggy. For a moment, he didn't understand what Danzo meant.
"Can they increase my chakra reserves?" Danzo prompted him.
"Right, right. You're absolutely right, my lord." Danzo's reminder brought the researcher back to the original purpose.
"Lord Danzo, the cells are as invasive as Hashirama Cells." The researcher pushed his glasses up out of habit.