The young craftsmen's fervor was like a blazing fire, scorching Clan Chief Ancient Iron's wavering heart. Wrinkles piled across his aged face, every furrow filled with struggle. At last, he gathered all his strength and asked his final question.
"If... we go with you, will the people of the Land of Water see us as traitors?"
The question instantly cooled every boiling emotion.
Traitors.
It was a word heavy enough to crush anyone.
Zabuza looked at them, and a sneer suddenly appeared on his face.
That laugh carried a trace of the lofty detachment he had unconsciously imitated from Naruto Uzumaki.
"Traitors?"
He raised his voice, drowning out every sound from the forge.
"Who has the right to define you?"
"Genji?" Zabuza bared his white teeth in a grin. "That old bastard won't live through this month. We've already written his obituary in advance."
"My leader, Naruto Uzumaki. What he defines is Order."
He said not another word. Turning around, he placed a scroll atop the anvil.
It was not a blueprint, but a contact location and a token.
"When you've made up your minds, contact me."
Zabuza gave the conflicted craftsmen one final glance, then left without looking back, Kubikiribōchō in hand.
"Remember, the wheels of time won't stop for anyone."
Three days later.
The bloody decrees across the Land of Water had completely collapsed under the iron-fisted intervention of Naruto's Shadow Clone legion.
Kirigakure's extermination order had become a joke. Not only had it failed to intimidate anyone, it had instead spread the name "Chainsaw Demon" through every village and fishing port.
In some isolated, remote mountain villages, fear and reverence gave rise to new faiths.
The villagers voluntarily carved crude wooden totems of Naruto's scarlet figure wielding a Chainsword and erected them at their village entrances,