Kakashi's Sharingan had yet to close, its scarlet pupil reflecting the direction in which the hunter-nin had vanished.
"That so-called hunter-nin precisely struck Zabuza's neck with Senbon—an area that would not kill him immediately, but could induce a state of suspended death. He went to the trouble of carrying away the heavy body instead of destroying it on the spot."
Naruto's voice was calm.
"And Kirigakure's hunter-nin corps, to ensure nothing goes wrong, would prioritize destroying the target's brain and heart to prevent any possibility of intelligence leakage."
His words precisely struck the faint, hazy doubt that had just arisen in Kakashi's mind.
Kakashi slowly lowered his forehead protector, covering his Sharingan. He looked at Naruto. This student always used the simplest words to dissect the most complex situations.
"You mean Zabuza isn't dead. That hunter-nin was his companion?"
"That's right." Naruto turned around, his blue eyes utterly still. "That means we'll be facing two enemies from now on, not one. And one of them specializes in long-range ambushes with Senbon."
That was the information Naruto had gathered.
When the masked ninja had appeared, Naruto's senses, tempered a thousand times over by psychic power, had caught something more fundamental than chakra.
It was a pure, unreserved "loyalty."
A will that could offer up everything without hesitation in order to protect someone.
In the bloody universe of Warhammer, such a quality was the foundation for forging the strongest warriors, the material Imperium commissars desired most.
For the first time, Naruto felt a trace of interest in someone from this world.
Night fell over Tazuna's home.
Under the dim yellow light, Sakura used tweezers to hold an alcohol-soaked cotton ball, carefully cleaning the torn, mangled wound on Naruto's shoulder. It looked horrifying just to look at.
Every time she wiped it, her fingertips could not help trembling.
Naruto, however, sat like a stone statue, bare from the waist up, allowing alcohol and medicine to eat at his wound without even twitching a brow. It was as if the body being treated was merely an object that happened to belong to him.
Sasuke leaned against the opposite wall, arms folded across his chest, his black eyes fixed firmly on Naruto.
In his mind, he replayed the battle from earlier over and over from the perspective recorded by his Sharingan.
Naruto crashing into the Water Clone like a cannonball.
The sound of the Kubikiribōchō slicing through flesh.
That fleeting opening in the attack, forcibly torn open.
That was not self-sacrifice for a companion.
Sasuke understood very well that it had been an utterly cold tactical trade.
Naruto had traded part of his own body for a chance at victory.
A shoulder injury in exchange for an opening that guaranteed a hundred-percent hit on the target—the optimal solution.
Before such a pure objective, even his obsession with revenge seemed insignificant. That realization sent a chill up his spine, yet it also ignited an even more violent flame within him.
He had to become stronger, strong enough that he would no longer be a piece on someone else's board.
"All done." Sakura finally finished bandaging him and let out a long breath, her forehead covered in fine sweat.
Naruto moved his shoulder, his joints making faint sounds, as though he were testing the performance of a new part.
"Thanks for your hard work." He put on his clothes, his tone flat.
In the living room, Kakashi gathered everyone together.
"You've all heard Naruto's analysis." He broke the silence. "Zabuza is very likely still alive, and he has another helper now. The next battle will be more dangerous than today's."
He looked around at his students.
"So, starting tomorrow, we'll begin emergency training. The goal is to help you make better use of chakra and improve your strength in a short time."
It was a standard, prudent plan of guidance from a Jonin.
"Sensei, I have a plan."
Naruto walked to the window and looked out at the village shrouded in night and poverty. It was lifeless, without even the faintest trace of living breath.
Kakashi's words were interrupted, and he froze for a moment.
"Naruto?"
"We train. We get stronger. Then what?" Naruto did not turn around. "We defeat Zabuza, complete the mission, and leave. What about this country?"
His voice was not loud, but it silenced everyone present.
"Gato will hire the next 'Zabuza,' or ten, or a hundred wandering samurai inferior to Zabuza. The result will be the same."
Naruto slowly turned around, his gaze passing over Kakashi, Sasuke, and Sakura before finally settling on the trembling Tazuna.
"The root of the problem is that this country has lost both the ability and the will to resist."
"Therefore, during this time, I will forge the civilians here into a militia capable of protecting themselves, as much as possible."
Those words were like a deep-water bomb thrown into a tranquil lake.
"Y-you... what did you say?" Tazuna's lips trembled, and he could hardly believe his ears. "A militia? You want people like us, armed with hammers and fishing nets, to fight ninja and samurai? Are you joking? That's impossible!"
"That's beyond the scope of the mission, Naruto." Kakashi's expression turned serious as well. "Our mission is to protect the client until the bridge is completed. Training civilians, that..."
"A people incapable of defending themselves do not deserve peace."
Naruto cut him off coldly.
"Waiting for charity from others is the most foolish and unreliable thing in the universe. Konoha cannot protect this place forever, nor can we stay here forever."
His words carried an iron-like authority that did not belong to someone his age. It was the tone forged only by giving subordinates orders certain to lead to death on countless battlefields piled high with corpses.
"I will give them weapons. I will give them the will to fight. Only when they take up blades themselves and understand how to defend their homeland with blood will this country begin to receive true salvation."
"This is the only permanent solution."
Kakashi looked at Naruto, and for an instant, he seemed to see a distant figure.
That figure had once carried out his own "correctness" with the same unquestionable attitude.
Tazuna collapsed onto the floor. Naruto's words had frightened him with their coldness and cruelty, yet beneath that cruelty, there seemed to be a trace of... hope?
Sasuke lowered his head. No one saw that his body was trembling slightly.
Not from fear.
From excitement.
Forging unarmed civilians into an army?
That mad, domineering, yet incomparably efficient way of thinking made him tremble as never before.
This was true strength.
Not merely ninjutsu or power, but a force of will capable of changing the balance of the world.
"I object." Kakashi finally spoke. He had to fulfill his responsibility as the team's leader and teacher. "This is too dangerous. It will provoke Gato and make him take more extreme measures. And the civilian casualties..."
"There are always casualties in war." Naruto's reply held no emotion. "Using the smallest sacrifice to secure the greatest victory is a commander's duty. I will calculate the cost."
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