"I surrender!"
With a swish, Zabuza, covered in wounds, planted the great sword in his hand into the ground.
One arm hung limp at his side, while he raised the other high.
He dropped to one knee and surrendered of his own accord.
Nichiyo and the others froze for a moment.
They stopped attacking, then cautiously removed every weapon from Zabuza and bound his hands.
Once they were sure he posed no threat,
they waved to Natsume in the distance.
Natsume laid the unconscious Haku on the ground.
He casually followed up with a Character Binding Technique: Control, just in case Haku woke up and tried to run.
Then he headed over to Zabuza.
"Tsk, tsk. I thought you'd fight to the death."
"At the very least, I figured you'd take the chance to escape and come back for revenge."
"I didn't expect you to surrender so readily."
"Why?"
Natsume asked with a rueful smile.
Zabuza lowered his head. He glanced at the unconscious Haku in the distance but said nothing.
He'd struggled countless times just moments ago.
In the end, though, he'd chosen to surrender...
Meanwhile, Gin hurried over and began buttering Natsume up.
"Of course he's afraid of your strength, Young Clan Head!"
"The moment you showed up, you scared him witless!"
Natsume shot Gin a look and scolded him irritably.
"Enough. Quit flattering me."
"You four fought him for ages and still couldn't take him down."
"And I was even coaching you from the sidelines."
"What a disgrace!"
Nichiyo and the others lowered their heads, feeling rather ashamed.
"What should we do with these two? Kill them?" Tsukihime asked coldly, without a hint of mercy.
Zabuza immediately spoke up.
"I know you're not Konoha shinobi! You're the Uchiha remnants who fled the village, aren't you?"
"If so, I'm willing to pay for my life."
"Please, spare me!"
Zabuza gritted his teeth and begged.
For a tough guy like him, even asking for mercy was no small thing.
If not for his wish and for Haku, he probably wouldn't have so much as flinched even if someone cut his head off.
"Bah! How much money could you possibly have?"
"If you had money, would you keep taking these dangerous missions over and over?"
"And now you want to buy your life? Shameless!"
Natsume spat in contempt.
After seeing the treasuries of two hidden villages, his standards had clearly risen.
He naturally couldn't care less about Zabuza's meager assets.
Being mocked by a mere brat, Zabuza's face flushed with humiliation.
He could only shout, "Ten million ryo! Is that enough?"
Natsume's eyes lit up. He immediately said,
"Untie him!"
Good heavens, was Zabuza really that loaded?
He was a missing-nin, yet he'd managed to amass ten million ryo?
Had this guy been a mythical treasure-hoarding beast in his past life or something?
"Young Clan Head, are we really untying him?"
"I'm kidding."
"Keep him tied up. I still have a use for him."
"Oh, and bring that little one over too!"
"Next, Nichiyo, stay here and keep watch over the two of them!"
"If either one makes a move, kill them on the spot!"
"The rest of us are heading to the Gato Company headquarters. We'll come back for you later!"
Natsume quickly gave his orders.
Zabuza's ten million ryo was tempting,
but compared to the entire Gato Company, it was a mere drop in the bucket.
Natsume knew which prize mattered more.
If they were late and Gato got away, things would get troublesome again...
"Yes, sir!"
Nichiyo acknowledged the order, carried Haku over, and tied the two of them together.
Then he stood guard over them, doing his duty.
Natsume and the others immediately set off along the road toward the Gato Company headquarters.
The rest of the journey was uneventful.
Natsume and his three companions found the Gato Company headquarters with ease.
They stormed inside without trouble.
They wiped out the huge conglomerate just as easily.
And they put an end to the villain Gato's wicked life.
One thing worth mentioning was that when Natsume and the others fought their way inside and found the company president, Gato,
he was still in his office, enjoying a little "the secretary handles the work" fun.
He seemed to have completely forgotten about the threat posed by Natsume and his group.
Perhaps he had faith in the twenty or so useless assassins—or in the renowned Mist Demon.
In any case, he'd been thoroughly wicked,
but dying blissfully unaware at the Peak of Ultimate Bliss could still be considered a stroke of luck.
Of course, given the boundless sins he'd committed, he was sure to go to hell after he died.
And so,
after wiping out Gato and the other members of the group's leadership, along with a large number of inhuman, murderous samurai and assassins,
Natsume and the others left the rest of the company's employees alone.
After all, once they took over the Shipping Company,
they'd need those employees to keep things running for the time being.
Besides, most of the low-level employees had been exploited by Gato.
They'd been working themselves to the bone every day, grinding through a 996 schedule.
They barely had any time to do anything else, let alone commit crimes.
They were rather pitiful, too.
Of course, Natsume hadn't traveled all this way just to punish evil and free the exploited employees and people of the Land of Waves.
Making money! Making a fortune!
That was the real goal!
With Uncle Ryu, who had plenty of management experience, taking the lead,
they quickly calmed the company's hundreds of terrified employees.
Soon, with a company manager guiding them, Natsume and the others arrived at the underground vault where the Gato Group kept its funds.
The vault was huge, and its door had been specially locked.
Apparently, only Gato and a select few knew the combination.
Unfortunately, that sort of defense was useless against a powerful ninja.
Natsume drew his blade and swung.
The sturdy alloy lock was instantly cleaved in two by the Kunwu Blade.
The next moment,
the vault door swung open.
A dazzling burst of light suddenly poured out, making Natsume and the others blink.
As far as the eye could see,
cart after cart, pile after pile, countless gold and silver treasures glittered across the vault.
A conservative estimate put the cash alone at over a hundred million ryo.
Add in the priceless jewelry and diamonds, and the total was probably worth several hundred million ryo!
They'd struck it rich!
They'd struck it rich!
This time, they'd really struck it rich!
A super bountiful haul!
Looking at the whole vault and the countless ryo before him, Natsume grinned, overcome with joy.
His heart gave a hard thump.
Ah! So this was what a heart attack felt like!
Before you continue