Fake! It Was All Fake!...

The Land of Waves, at Tazuna's home.

A loud crash rang out inside the house!

The woman doing housework flinched slightly.

She was Inari's mother, a virtuous widow.

"You're Tazuna's daughter, aren't you, you old man's girl?..."

Before Inari's mother could recover, a brazen voice came from the doorway.

She turned around. Two strange men were blocking the entrance, grinning sinisterly.

"Y-you... who are you?..."

Her voice was tense, her expression uneasy.

The woman gripped the mop in her hands and stared at the two uninvited guests, trembling with fear.

"Who are we? Heh heh..."

One of them sneered and stepped forward, casually swinging his sword.

In the blink of an eye, the handle of the mop in the woman's hands was sliced in two.

"Ah?..."

The woman cried out in alarm, but at that very moment, a blade was pressed against her pale neck!

Its edge gleamed coldly, razor-sharp.

"Who am I?"

The man sneered, licking his crimson lips.

"I doubt your father Tazuna is unaware of who he's offended lately, or what sort of person he shouldn't have crossed, right?..."

"You... you were sent by Gato!..."

Fear filled the woman's eyes.

Though she was a housewife, she understood at once.

"Exactly. Come with us. I'm sure that old geezer Tazuna will be here soon to join you. Heh heh heh..."

The other man chimed in mockingly.

But just then,

a loud crash suddenly came from behind the kitchen door.

It sounded as if someone had knocked something over.

"Someone else here?"

The other man was a ninja, after all.

He might have been a lousy one, but he was more than capable of dealing with unarmed ordinary people.

He rushed into the kitchen, and only a few seconds later, dragged Inari out from where she was hiding behind it.

Seeing Inari trembling, the man paused, then seemed to think of something.

"I think I remember now. This little brat was adopted by Tazuna's son."

"Since he's not their real child, we might as well kill him and avoid any trouble later..."

After doing so many despicable things, a person grew numb to them.

What they feared now wasn't being killed by a ninja stronger than themselves.

On the contrary, they were more afraid that when they were past their prime, they'd be hunted down by some survivor they'd spared in their youth.

Seeing this, the woman suddenly shouted at the top of her lungs, heedless of her own life.

"If you so much as touch a hair on Inari's head, I'll bite my tongue off right now!..."

Her voice rang out firmly, her expression utterly resolute.

The two men exchanged a glance. They lowered the blades pointed at Inari for the moment, unsure what to do.

The knife gleamed coldly, and his mother was in pain and despair.

The glimmer of hope Inari had glimpsed in Naruto during these past few days was slowly fading away.

"It's fake. It's all fake. What effort can change your fate? What struggle?"

"Naruto, you lied to me!"

"The son of a fisherman like me could never fight against fate!"

"To hell with fate. I can't even beat one of Gato's men right now, let alone save my own mother..."

"Effort? What use is effort!"

"If I hand over the fish I struggled to catch, will they let my mother go?"

"If I work hard to build the Land of Waves, will my dead father come back to life?..."

"It's fake. It's all fake!..."

His heart roared like a raging river, churning up wave after wave.

Naruto's image in his mind slowly faded.

The sunlight dimmed, as if dark clouds were pressing down over the city, ready to crush it.

After a long silence,

the man holding the woman hostage noticed how much she cared about Inari. His eyes shifted, and he spoke.

"Since you care so much about this boy named Inari, we'll take him with us too."

"Then, when that old geezer Tazuna shows up, your whole family can be together. Heh heh heh..."

At those words, the woman trembled.

"No! No, no!... You can't take Inari! If you do, I'll bite my tongue off!..."

Seeing the woman about to use the same threat again, the other man glanced at his accomplice and tried to talk him out of it.

"Anyway, the boy isn't her real child. Why don't we just let it go?..."

He didn't want to invite trouble.

After all, this was a crucial part of Gato's plan. They couldn't afford any mishaps.

But the accomplice holding the woman hostage replied,

"Heh... You believe this woman's lies?"

"What?..."

"Heh. A cunning rabbit has three burrows. If I were someone going up against Lord Gato, I'd also claim in public that my son wasn't really mine."

"After all, if I died one day, I'd still have a child to carry on my line, wouldn't I?..."

At that, the other man suddenly understood.

"Soga! So that's it!..."

"And you still dare threaten us?"

"Go! Break that brat's legs. Teach this woman a lesson and make her behave!..."

"Please, don't!..."

With her weakness held against her, the woman cried out in despair.

But the man restraining her leaned even closer and spoke in a twisted, hushed voice.

"Heh heh heh, madam, be quiet. You wouldn't want us to do something really nasty to your son, would you?..."

At that, the woman sank into utter despair.

She knew she couldn't threaten them again.

After all, a broken leg was far better than losing his life.

The man held his blade and sneered as he drew closer, step by step.

But Inari stared blankly at the blade in the man's hand, his eyes empty.

He seemed to have lost his soul, giving up completely on the idea of running away.

The blade rose high, then slashed toward Inari's legs.

It cut through the air with a terrifying whoosh, like a demon's shriek.

Seeing this, the woman closed her eyes in despair, tears streaming down her face.

But at that critical moment,

a glint of cold light flashed past.

Then,

a figure suddenly appeared in the middle of the room!

He was short, but very handsome.

Holding a ninja sword, he stood quietly without saying a word, as if he had been in the house all along and nothing had changed.

It was Sasuke, back from training!

"Y-you... are you human or a ghost?!..."

The man who had just raised his blade above his head stumbled backward in fright.

Then he calmed down, exchanged a glance with his accomplice, and narrowed his eyes, about to attack Sasuke together by surprise.

Sasuke hadn't even looked at their expressions, yet he seemed to know what they were thinking.

He slowly turned sideways, pointed at his own neck, then pointed at the two men.

What did he mean?...

At the sight, the two men almost simultaneously reached for their own necks.

But then their vision tilted, as if their heads had lolled to the side.

What had they seen?

Two headless bodies stood motionless, blood gushing from their necks.

Why did the clothes on those bodies look so familiar?

The two men murmured, their awareness slowly fading. Then darkness swallowed their vision, and they fell into an eternal sleep.