Principal and interest

Jiraiya clenched the note in his hand, his face so dark it seemed like water could be squeezed out, and his voice was broken by the morning breeze.

"Sasuke has defected."

Naruto put his left hand back in his pocket and casually leaned half of his body against the broken stone pillar.

The morning breeze ruffled his golden stubble, and his face showed no trace of the anxiety of his companion's departure.

He glanced at the note, his tone as indifferent as if he were talking about a stray dog on the street. "Oh, it ran away."

Aren't you in a hurry?

Jiraiya's brows furrowed deeply. "That's your teammate!"

Naruto's playful smile returned, his golden eyes reflecting the rising sun, exuding the composure of a hunter surveying the entire situation. "What's the rush? That kid has something I left on him. No matter where he runs, I can find him anytime."

He paused, straightened up, and said, "I'll conduct a thorough investigation and uncover all the taxes you've evaded."

The thought lingered in my mind for a moment before turning into a cold declaration, "If he stays obediently in Hidden Leaf, how can I rightfully confront the gates of Otogakure? Orochimaru owes me, and I'm going to go to his house myself and collect it back with interest."

No sooner had he finished speaking than the ground thirty paces to his left churned violently.

Before the purple smoke left behind by Orochimaru's escape had completely dissipated, a figure was violently forced out of the ground and slammed into a pile of rubble.

That was Kabuto Yakushi, who was supposed to evacuate with Orochimaru.

The remnants of Naruto's Yang Release left at the point of conflict triggered a backlash, Orochimaru, in the final moments of his retreat, did not hesitate to use him as a sacrificial pawn to cover the retreat.

Behind the crumbling walls of the ruins, several remaining members of the Hidden Sound clan who had been lying in wait appeared simultaneously, their formations Kunai, forming a defensive blockade.

He coughed violently amidst the rubble, and a spiderweb-like crack appeared in his round-framed glasses.

Instead of wasting time complaining about being abandoned, he swallowed three Soldier Pills in large gulps.

His pale face quickly flushed with a sickly red. He crossed his hands, and a dark blue Chakra Scalpel rapidly took shape along the edge of his palms. The blade vibrated at a high frequency, slicing through the air with a piercing shriek.

He knew very well that this was a desperate situation.

The only way to break the deadlock is through Tsunade.

"Lady Tsunade, Lord Orochimaru has been holding back for the past three days, preventing you from drawing blood."

Dou's sprinting steps were unpredictable and his voice was like a venomous snake flicking its tongue, "These hands of yours have saved so many people, but when they actually touch blood, can they still hold on?"

Dou moved with incredible speed, closing the distance to within ten steps. Suddenly, the scalpel in his left hand reversed direction and slashed open his right wrist artery with unparalleled precision.

The blood did not splatter, but was forcibly drawn away by his unparalleled Chakra control, turning into a thick crimson blood mist that swept towards Tsunade's face and clothes like a fan.

A fishy, sweet smell of rust assaulted my nostrils.

The world as Tsunade saw it was shrouded in a shocking crimson.

More than a decade ago, the gushing, viscous blood when my broken chest cavity was pierced perfectly overlapped with the scene before my eyes.

Her breath caught in her throat, her knees buckled, and her body staggered backward uncontrollably.

With fingers spread wide and knuckles deeply embedded, he could not grasp anything substantial.

The emerald green Strength of a Hundred Seal that had just appeared on his forehead went out abruptly, like a candle flickering in the wind.

"Lady Tsunade!"

Shizune cried out in alarm and, without hesitation, spread her arms and lunged forward, trying to shield herself from the spray of blood mist.

But this was exactly what Dou wanted.

Using the blind spot where Shizune's body obscured his view, Kabuto moved with ghostly speed, cutting in like a phantom.

The high-frequency vibrating scalpel was aimed directly at Tsunade's unsuspecting carotid artery, only fifteen centimeters away from her skin.

"The legend will end today, thanks to me."

Dou's lips even curled into a victorious smile.

A black ninja boot suddenly and unexpectedly cut in from a blind spot in the pocket's field of vision.

There was no initial momentum, nor any warning of Chakra release; it relied entirely on the pure violence unleashed by the human skeleton and muscle groups.

Naruto, who was in a weakened state during the Gate of Limit phase, had a 20% slower kicking speed than at his peak.

But for Kabuto, the difference is zero—like a tiger with two fangs pulled out, he can still easily crush a rabbit's head.

"Bang--!"

The sole of the boot slammed into Dou's left cheekbone like a heavy hammer.

The sickening cracking sound of bones breaking echoed through the ruins, the force penetrating the entire skull structure from the outside in.

Dou's round-framed glasses shattered into powder, the left half of his face collapsed eerily to the right, and he tumbled four times in mid-air before crashing into half of a wall and being buried under the rubble.

The blue light from the scalpel went out completely.

Naruto retracted his right leg, firmly blocking Tsunade's path.

The soles of the boots ground mercilessly against the scattered mirrors on the ground, producing a harsh scraping sound.

"Who do you think you are, daring to touch the people my Uzumaki Clan is taking away?"

He looked down at the ruins, his voice low and undisguisedly savage, "The woman I've reserved, only I can bully her."

Despite the falling rubble, Dou, standing beneath the crumbling wall, was still alive.

A pale green healing light emanated from his right hand, which he pressed against his face, forcefully pushing the sunken facial bones back into place little by little.

He spat out a mouthful of blood mixed with broken teeth, and with a backhand, drew a short sword engraved with Yin-type sealing patterns. "Naruto-kun... during the weakened period after the Gate of Limit, your current output is at most only 70% of your peak..."

He smiled, like a finely calculating machine. "Next time we meet, I'll bring something specifically designed to counter the Uzumaki Sage Body."

The remaining Hidden Sound members, pulled along by Kabuto, moved simultaneously, forcing Naruto towards the area with the heaviest bloodstains, attempting to keep the stench of blood on the ground stimulating Tsunade's senses.

Naruto had no intention of forcibly opening the Eight Gates.

He moved through the swordplay and countered attacks using only basic Taijutsu, deliberately creating a half-inch blind spot in his defense with every step he took.

Greed flashed in his eyes, and he swiftly slashed the opening with his short knife.

The moment the blade touched his skin, Naruto's Yang Release Chakra surged back up along the wound like a raging shark smelling blood.

The extremely yang and vigorous qi and blood instantly burned through the Chakra circuits at the edge of the palm, causing the sealing short sword to emit a puff of smoke and fall from the hand.

Naruto grabbed Kabuto's wrist like an iron clamp and pulled him close with his arm.

"You don't understand the script, right? Then I'll give you a few questions to answer, and you'll understand."

Naruto leaned close to his ear, his voice like a devil's whisper, "Don't worry, it's just handwritten questions, oral questions, and fill-in-the-blank questions. If you don't understand, I'll teach you. Does your boss give you a work injury warning? Trying to test me with your life? Villains talk too much; their only fate is to have their arms cut off first."

As soon as he finished speaking, Naruto twisted his hands sharply in the opposite direction.

"Snap!"

Dou's right arm snapped backward at an angle that completely defied human biomechanics, with the broken bone piercing through the flesh and exposed to the air.

Kabuto's face contorted in pain as he stumbled backward, still uttering information. "Yang Release... requires contact to trigger... ranged attack..."

Naruto was too lazy to listen anymore.

He took three steps forward.

Even with a 20% reduction, the pure life force, like that of an ancient ferocious beast, still crashed down from the sky like a tidal wave.

As Kabuto continued to Hand Seals to set his own bones, his fingers twitched violently a few times. Finally, his brain nerves reached their limit, his eyes rolled back, and he collapsed to the ground, completely dead.

Upon seeing this, the remaining Hidden Sound could barely hold their weapons and turned to disappear into the depths of the forest.

"You lecherous sage, this piece of trash might still be useful."

Naruto turned to Jiraiya beside him, "Tie him up and take him away. Go back to Hidden Leaf and hand him over to the Torture Division. Let Ibiki open all the Coordinates of Orochimaru's hideouts from his brain."

The surroundings quieted down, and the wind dispersed the lingering stench of blood.

Shizune collapsed to the ground, covering her mouth, her eyes red as she looked at Tsunade behind her.