Mud and rain mixed together, cold against Ringo Ameyuri's cheek. She gave up struggling. The electric glow of Thunder Blade: Kiba had already faded, lying quietly beside her. She stared fixedly at Zabuza's bandage-wrapped face.
"I can work for you, provide intelligence on Genji, even support you from within when you make your move." She enunciated every word, each one carrying the coldness of a transaction. "But I absolutely cannot be captured. If word reaches Genji, my little brother is as good as dead."
After saying that, she seemed to regret it somewhat and asked another question.
"Can the Bloody Mist Village truly come to an end?"
Zabuza did not answer. Gripping the handle of Kubikiribōchō, he looked toward the figure approaching unhurriedly from the prison.
Receiving no response, Ringo Ameyuri's voice became more urgent. "Can the children of our village have a normal, complete childhood too, like the children in other villages?"
Naruto came to a stop before her. There was barely any blood on his combat uniform, as though he had merely gone for a stroll. He glanced at Ringo Ameyuri lying in the mud, then nodded calmly.
"Yes."
On the way back to the abandoned shipyard, the rain began to ease, but the air remained damp and cold.
The atmosphere within the group was strange. Naruto walked at the front, with Sasuke beside him. Behind them, several Root shinobi were "escorting" five newcomers—the defiant Kaguya Brothers, a Platform Release girl who kept her head lowered and trembled all over, and the Ketsuryūgan siblings, who remained wary as startled birds.
Sasuke's gaze swept over those "newcomers," then shifted to Naruto's calm profile. In the end, he could not hold it in any longer. "Why didn't you bring everyone out? Those people were oppressed too, and they can