An Army of One

After a brief, suffocating silence, deafening laughter erupted across the bridge.

"HAHAHA! Did you hear that? Wipe us out?"

"Did this brat forget to take his medicine before leaving home? He wants to wipe out over a hundred of us by himself?"

"Hey, brat, did the circus give you those orange clothes? They sure stand out—makes it easier for us to aim!"

Standing at the front, Gato laughed until tears nearly rolled from his eyes. He pointed his cane at Naruto, his fat body trembling. "Brat, I admire your courage, I really do. After I chop you into eight pieces, I'll even put you back together so you can have a Quan corpse. Hahaha!"

Over a hundred thugs brandished their weapons and let out beastlike roars, like a filthy tide ready to drown everything on the bridge.

Zabuza tightened his grip on the Kubikiribōchō. Beside him, Haku's chakra had already begun to gather again.

Sasuke's Sharingan spun rapidly as his mind calculated every possible angle for a breakout. Kakashi merely shrugged lazily. He knew Naruto would make a move; he would not be needed.

Naruto stood at the very front without moving, then formed the simplest possible hand seal.

"Multiple Shadow Clone Technique."

Boom—!

There was no earthshaking explosion, only a dull blast.

The next second, the entire bridge was completely swallowed by countless clouds of white smoke.

When the smoke cleared, a vast crowd had appeared on the bridge. Over a thousand Narutos stood everywhere, from one end of the bridge to the other.

Gato's laughter came to an abrupt stop.

The thugs charging at the front instinctively halted as well.

"Wh... what the hell is this?"

"Th... this is some kind of genjutsu?" a rogue ninja said shakily.

The smoke had come quickly and dispersed just as fast. Once their vision cleared, the entire world fell silent.

There were no longer four Konoha ninja and two rogue ninja on the bridge.

There was an army.

Over a thousand identical Narutos stood in orange uniforms, expressionless. There were no shouts, no unnecessary movements. Over a thousand pairs of blue eyes stared ahead, cold and uniform, devoid of any human emotion.

They stood in groups of three and squads of five, silent like precision machines programmed with the optimal solution, forming an enormous, airtight formation that made everyone's scalp tingle.

The thugs at the front felt as though nails had pinned their feet to the ground. The wild grins on their faces froze into utter terror. Naruto stood before them, Naruto stood to their left, Naruto stood to their right, and when they looked back, even their retreat had been blocked by a wall made of Narutos.

"Th... this is..."

Kakashi's breathing stopped, and his dead-fish eyes slowly widened.

"What a monster. Never mind the effect of a formation like an army's—there are already over a thousand Shadow Clones. With such an enormous amount of chakra... Naruto has probably tamed the Nine-Tails already."

"I always thought saying my 'chakra wasn't much' was merely a relative understatement..." he muttered. "Now it seems I was being pretty honest."

Zabuza's body had stiffened like stone. As the "Demon of the Hidden Mist," he had killed countless people and witnessed all kinds of hellish scenes. Yet what lay before him had surpassed everything his experience had prepared him to understand.

Haku slowly walked to his side. The two looked at each other.

"Zabuza..." Haku hesitated.

"Haku, why are your hands shaking?" Zabuza looked at Haku's hand. "A ninja's hands are the one thing that should never tremble."

Haku gave a bitter smile. "I was only imagining what would have happened if I hadn't agreed to that child's proposal."

Zabuza was speechless for a long while, then let out a powerless sigh. "You'll see soon enough."

Naruto's original body slowly stepped out from the formation.

He did not even give an order to charge. He merely raised one hand and made a simple downward gesture.

"Clean up."

Boom!

Over a thousand Shadow Clones moved.

They acted in perfect unison, like an enormous precision war machine starting up in an instant.

A thug swung his katana. Before he could even make out a figure, three kunai struck from three different tricky angles, piercing the wrist holding his sword, his shoulder, and his knee at the same time. The instant he screamed and fell, another Shadow Clone stepped in and struck the back of his neck with a crisp hand chop, silencing him for good.

The entire process took less than two seconds.

"Wh... what kind of joke is this..." A thug trembled as the spear slipped from his hand and fell to the ground.

"M... monsters..."

The formation of Shadow Clones became a merciless meat grinder, instantly punching through the thugs' fragile ranks. Their coordination was too seamless to be human. Some blocked, some charged forward, and some finished off the fallen. Every movement was precisely calculated. Not a shred of chakra was wasted, nor was a single second.

Screams, wails, weapons clattering to the ground, and bones succumbing to Dan intertwined into a symphony of despair. But before long, the sounds rapidly faded and finally fell silent.

The entire process took less than three minutes.

When the final thug fell, the thousand-plus Shadow Clones vanished into white smoke with a pop.

On the bridge, aside from Team 7, Zabuza and Haku, and Gato, no one remained standing.

Pools of blood reflected a dazzling glare beneath the sunlight.

As Zabuza looked at the hellish scene before him, he finally abandoned every last trace of wishful thinking. He realized that what he had faced earlier was not a Konoha Genin at all.

It was a monster called "war," wearing the skin of a child.

He turned to Haku beside him, his voice dry, carrying the relief and bitterness of someone who had survived a disaster.

"Haku... you did the right thing."

Then he turned and forced a joke toward Kakashi. "Kakashi, are Konoha's Genin always this terrifyingly unreasonable?"

Kakashi spread his hands and shook his head. "This is an exception. I'm more confused than you are."

Zabuza slowly opened his mouth. "We really were trying to build a ship out of sand."

This admission of defeat represented the complete submission of the "Demon of the Hidden Mist."

Naruto's original body stepped through the sticky pool of blood, walking toward Gato, who had collapsed to the ground in terror, covered in his own filth.

His footsteps were light, but on the deathly silent bridge, they sounded like the tolling bells of death, each one pounding against Gato's heart.

"D... don't come any closer! I have money! Lots of money! I'll give it all to you! All of it!" Tears and snot streamed down Gato's face as he scrambled backward on his hands and feet, utterly pathetic.

Naruto stopped in front of him and slowly raised the kunai in his hand.

Just then, a tall figure suddenly flashed in front of him.

It was Zabuza.

He carried the massive Kubikiribōchō, lowered his head, and spoke in a tone that was almost pleading.

"Lord Naruto."

That form of address stunned both Kakashi and Sasuke.

"This maggot..." Zabuza's voice suppressed towering rage and humiliation. "Please leave him to me."

He raised his head. In those eyes belonging to the "Demon of the Hidden Mist," there was now only absolute Zetsu-like resolve.

"This is my, Momochi Zabuza's... pledge of allegiance for joining your plan."

He had willingly defined himself as part of Naruto's plan—a weapon that could be used.

Naruto looked at him, his blue eyes calm and unreadable.

After a moment, he nodded and stepped back, handing over the right of execution.

"Permission granted."

Zabuza did not hesitate again.

He raised the Kubikiribōchō that had accompanied him for half his life and swung it down viciously at Gato, who lay sprawled on the ground, with the cruelest and most Zetsu-like strike possible.

The flash of Dan's blade severed a filthy contract.

It also severed his past as the "Demon of the Hidden Mist"—Dan.

Zabuza turned around, planted his sword on the ground, and dropped to one knee before Naruto.

"Mission complete."