All Resisters Will Be Eliminated

Reality tore apart Haku's final illusion in the crudest, most undisguised way possible.

The chakra flow within the Demonic Mirroring Ice Crystals instantly descended into catastrophic disorder.

"Crack... crack..."

Web-like fractures spread across the surfaces of the ice mirrors. Once Haku's proud masterpiece, the perfect embodiment of his will and power, they now looked like discarded glass, fragile beyond measure.

All color had long drained from his face beneath the mask. Shock, humiliation, and the bewilderment of being stabbed in the back utterly destroyed his will to gather chakra.

The ice crystals melted away, turning into vapor and returning to the surrounding mist.

Naruto calmly watched Haku collapse to his knees without pursuing him. He merely stated a fact that had already occurred.

"Now, you've seen what real 'sand' looks like."

"Do you still want to use it to build a ship?"

Those words were like a red-hot iron nail driven into Haku's soul.

"Crash—"

The final ice mirror shattered in response.

The confrontation on the bridge came to an abrupt halt. Kakashi and Zabuza stopped fighting at the same time and looked toward the clearing where the chakra had dissipated.

Sasuke had recovered slightly and unsteadily rose to his feet, just in time to witness the scene.

Haku, the powerful enemy who had driven him to despair, hung his head in silence like a student who had made a mistake.

Before him stood Naruto, his hands clasped behind his back.

"Haku!" Zabuza's furious roar tore through the mist. "You..."

"Lord Zabuza."

Haku interrupted him. He did not look back. Instead, he slowly turned toward Zabuza and dropped to one knee in a posture he had never assumed before.

It was not a tool kneeling before its master.

It was an admonition born of sorrow, awakening, and resolve.

"We... took the wrong path."

His voice was quiet, yet Mū was incomparably clear.

Zabuza's mind went blank. Then he remembered the first time he had met Haku on the road, shortly after defecting from Kirigakure.

They had traveled together, and Haku had held out snowflakes condensed through Ice Release as he told him:

"Lord Zabuza's dream is my dream."

At that very moment, the dense fog that had troubled everyone seemed to have completed its purpose and began to dissipate rapidly.

Sunlight pierced through the clouds once more, illuminating the entire bridge.

It also illuminated the dense mass of figures at the other end of the bridge.

Gato, a short man with a fleshy face, stood at the front. Behind him were hundreds of thugs and ronin wielding machetes, spears, and iron clubs. Their faces carried a mixture of greed, cruelty, and stupidity.

They had surrounded every ninja on the bridge.

"Hahahaha!" Gato let out a shrill laugh and smugly pointed his cane at Zabuza. "Demon Zabuza? What an expensive piece of trash! I spent so much money on you, and you couldn't even deal with a few Konoha brats!"

Zabuza's body stiffened.

He looked at the smug Gato, then at Haku kneeling on the ground and admitting that they had "taken the wrong path."

For the first time, the heart filled with ambition and hatred felt a cold emptiness and the fury of being utterly betrayed.

"Momochi Zabuza, you've outlived your usefulness." Gato spat. "I was planning to let you fight each other to the bitter end, then come clean up the mess. But it seems you can't even handle that much."

"But it doesn't matter." He waved his cane. "The outcome is the same anyway. Chop them all into mince, including that old bridge builder! This bridge, and this country, belong to me, Gato!"

The mob let out excited roars and tightened their grips on their weapons.

In their eyes, these legendary ninja were nothing more than trapped beasts.

Zabuza sank into immense humiliation. He had spent his life using others and treating human hearts as tools, yet he had never expected that he himself would ultimately become an expensive tool, discarded once it had been used up.

At that moment, Haku stood.

He did not look at the mob. Instead, he stepped in front of Zabuza.

"Lord Zabuza, that Konoha boy told me that loyalty is wood, and it can build a ship to sail far away. But contracts built on profit are sand, scattered by a single gust of wind."

In his own words, he repeated the theory that had completely overturned everything he believed.

"Our dream is to build an order of our own in this rotten world. That is our 'ship.'"

"Serving someone like Gato is merely using sand to patch holes in the ship. We were wrong from the very beginning."

His voice was utterly steady. The coldness of a weapon remained, but its core had changed.

"What I am loyal to is your dream, not this mistaken method."

"So please, believe in my choice this once."

Zabuza breathed heavily as he stared at Haku's back. This was the tool he had picked up from the snow, his sharpest blade. Yet now, that blade had developed a will of its own.

It enraged him, but he could not refute it. He could not ignore the glaring reality before him.

He looked toward Naruto in the distance.

The blond boy had merely stood there quietly from beginning to end, as though the encirclement by hundreds of men and this life-or-death betrayal were nothing but a drama he had anticipated.

Everything was under control.

Sasuke clenched his fists. If it had merely been a gap in strength, he could still have found a direction to pursue. But Naruto's methods had already gone far beyond his understanding.

How was he supposed to learn the ability to defeat an enemy without fighting, using only words, and even pull that enemy into his own camp?

As he looked at Naruto's figure, a sense of longing rose within him unconsciously. If I could possess the same kind of will, then revenge—killing Itachi Uchiha—would only be a matter of time.

"Am I... admiring him?" Sasuke suddenly shuddered.

"Impossible. He's only a tool that can help me get revenge."

While everyone on the bridge was lost in their own internal struggles, Naruto took a step forward.

Naruto passed Kakashi, passed Zabuza and Haku, and alone faced the hundreds of armed thugs.

When Gato saw him, he laughed even more wildly.

"Oh? Another brat who isn't afraid of dying? Do you want to be the first one chopped to pieces?"

Naruto did not look at him.

His gaze swept over those twisted faces driven by money and desire.

Then, in an emotionless, matter-of-fact tone, he pronounced their sentence.

"In the name of Konoha Hidden Village, all illegal armed forces within the Land of Waves will be forcibly purged."

"Drop your weapons, clasp your hands over your heads, and kneel on the ground. You will receive basic treatment in accordance with humanitarian principles."

His voice paused. Not a trace of mercy existed in those blue eyes.

"All resisters will be regarded as hostile combatants."

"They will be eliminated."