The Sharingan Was Truly Beautiful

"No extra pay! You think a bunch of pig-fed thugs like you can kill Tazuna right under the noses of Konoha ninja?" Naruto, transformed into Haku, said with a sinister grin. "Wishful thinking."

The sound of blades being drawn rang out all around him as dozens of gleaming katanas pointed at Naruto.

"If you want to kill Tazuna, I have a good suggestion." Naruto, transformed into Haku, slowly approached Kado, then suddenly hurled several shuriken.

Naruto did not intend to kill Kado, so he threw the shuriken at a slightly off angle. Under Kado's terrified gaze, the two most skilled thugs rushed forward and blocked every shuriken for him.

Kado was still shaken. When he finally came to his senses, he discovered that Haku had already escaped.

"Chop that brat into pieces! I'll use the minced meat from his body to make fish bait!" Kado roared. "I'll use his flesh to go fishing!"

Over a hundred thugs rushed out, surrounding Kado's stronghold and searching inside and out for Haku's trail.

Naruto, transformed into Haku, ran all the way to the fish warehouse where Zabuza was imprisoned. He first untied the bandages covering Zabuza's face, then pretended to inspect his wounds while secretly staining the bandages with blood.

"How did you escape?" Zabuza was badly injured, but seeing that the visitor was Haku put him somewhat at ease.

"I'll get you out first." Haku untied the ropes around Zabuza and helped the heavily wounded man out of the fish warehouse.

They had only taken a few steps when a strange sound came from behind the warehouse, startling both Zabuza and Haku.

"You go first." Haku said reluctantly, "I'll stay behind and cover you. It may be Konoha's ninja—they might have noticed something was wrong."

"No." Zabuza said, "You're coming with me."

"Have you forgotten my promise?" Haku said. "Please treat me as a tool. When my life was at its darkest, you gave my life meaning. At a critical moment like this, use me as a tool."

Zabuza was overjoyed. Haku was merely a brat Zabuza had picked up off the streets. Seeing some value in him, Zabuza had kept him close, taught him ninjutsu, trained him, and honed his killing skills, all in hopes that he would prove useful at a crucial moment.

"Fine." Zabuza turned and left. After walking more than ten steps, he stopped. After hesitating for a while, he vanished into the forest.

The Haku who had let Zabuza go was actually Naruto in disguise. Naruto kept watching Zabuza's retreating back and thought, Zabuza, when Haku willingly stayed behind for you, did it hurt when you left him behind alone?

After Zabuza left, Naruto ran to the back of the fish warehouse. He had only set up a simple trap. Once someone came out of the warehouse, it would trigger the trap, causing kunai to shoot at the warehouse windows and create a disturbance.

Using the disturbance caused by a single trap, he had fooled Zabuza into believing pursuers were coming and made him return to Kado's stronghold first.

Naruto then carried the bloodstained bandages into the fish warehouse where Haku was imprisoned. He used the Transformation Technique again, this time taking on Sasuke's appearance.

After transforming into Sasuke, Naruto put on another act, portraying Sasuke as a cruel person who would even seek fame by killing Zabuza. He deceived Haku into despair, triggering the later battle between Haku and Sasuke and successfully causing Sasuke to awaken the Sharingan.

The simplest ninjutsu—the Transformation Technique! It was merely part of the graduation exam at Konoha Village's Ninja Academy, something nearly everyone knew. Yet in Naruto's hands, the Transformation Technique became a terrifying art of manipulating hearts and minds.

Through Naruto's planning, he not only successfully awakened Sasuke's Sharingan, but also shattered the relationship between Kado and Zabuza, causing the enemy camp to slaughter one another until it crumbled into nothing.

Returning to Naruto and Sasuke, Sasuke still could not understand Naruto's intentions. Naruto did not want to explain too much, so he said, "You'll understand tomorrow."

"What exactly is going on?" Sasuke felt deeply frustrated. He had been practicing against wooden posts in the forest when he inexplicably encountered Haku, was inexplicably attacked by Haku, and then the battle inexplicably ended.

Naruto leaned close to Sasuke and examined his Sharingan from nearby. They were a truly beautiful pair of eyes.

Because Naruto was standing too close, Sasuke actually blushed a little. He looked away and said, "What are you doing?"

"The Sharingan is truly beautiful." A bold thought surfaced in Naruto's mind. Before long, an uninvited guest would visit Konoha, and that guest desperately coveted the Sharingan. Perhaps this was an opportunity.

Sasuke's face reddened further. Naruto praising his eyes as beautiful vaguely sounded like a confession. Sasuke was a little bewildered and hurriedly backed away two steps, putting some distance between himself and Naruto.

"Hahaha." Naruto laughed to ease the awkwardness. "Let's head back."

On the way back, Naruto looked up at the full moon in the sky. He knew that somewhere in this ninja world, there was another person looking up at the moon as well. That person was Zetsu!

Zetsu was extremely weak and was not even particularly skilled in ninjutsu. Yet he was an expert at manipulating hearts and minds, a scourge who sowed discord. Such a weakling was nevertheless a great menace to the Ninja World, having toyed with countless powerful ninja in the palm of his hand.

Naruto gazed at the full moon, his heart stirring with anticipation. He sincerely hoped that his contest with Zetsu would arrive soon.

The next morning was bright and sunny. Naruto was in an excellent mood as he ate breakfast with everyone and waited for good news.

Kakashi had recovered for the most part and was finally able to get out of bed and eat with everyone. During the meal, Kakashi announced some bad news. "Listen up, everyone. Zabuza and Haku have escaped... From now on, stay vigilant until Tazuna leads the villagers in completing the bridge."

Just then, the door was violently thrown open, and Tazuna rushed in. "Kado is dead!"

"What?!" Kakashi, Sasuke, and Sakura were all shocked.

"How did he die?" Sasuke hurriedly asked.

"According to news from the town, it seems he was killed by the rogue ninja he hired." Tazuna said, "I don't know the exact reason, but that Zabuza and the boy not only killed Kado, they also wiped out Kado's entire group of thugs."

"Kado's stronghold is now covered in corpses. Blood has dyed the entire place red." Tazuna said. "Some passersby saw Zabuza killing people at the time. It was truly terrifying, like a vicious ghost from hell."

"Then what happened to Zabuza?" Kakashi asked.

"That, I don't know." Tazuna said. "After Zabuza killed Kado, he vanished. Do you think he might come after us for revenge?"

Sakura was so frightened that she could barely hold her spoon. This breakfast was anything but reassuring.

"Zabuza probably won't come." Naruto said leisurely as he ate breakfast. "We accepted Uncle Tazuna's mission and were responsible for protecting him. Zabuza accepted Kado's mission and had to kill Uncle Tazuna. That was why our mission overlapped with Zabuza's."

"Now that Kado, the one who issued the mission, is gone, the ninja under contract naturally will not continue carrying it out. For the time being, we have no connection with Zabuza."

Sakura sighed in relief after hearing that, and Kakashi also felt Naruto's reasoning made sense. Still, no one dared relax. They spent more than ten days on guard until Tazuna successfully led the villagers in building the bridge across the sea, while Zabuza never appeared.

Thus, the C-rank mission was completed, and Kakashi led the members of Team 7 back to Konoha.

As Team 7 made their return journey, Zabuza and Haku stood atop a hill, watching Kakashi's group from afar.