Mission Accomplished-Let's Celebrate

Koizumi Sakame stayed on guard, watching for the masked woman who might appear anywhere around him. Chakra gathered beneath his feet, ready to flee with the Body Flicker Technique at any moment.

But after a long wait, the masked woman did not reappear. Only then did Koizumi Sakame breathe a sigh of relief and hurry toward the other squads.

Naruto had been hiding nearby the whole time, waiting patiently like a venomous snake. After all, his opponent was a Jonin, while Naruto himself had only barely reached the level of an Elite Chunin.

He had killed two Elite Chunin in an instant earlier because he had set up a Flying Thunder God ambush in advance. That let him strike from nowhere, and the enemy had known nothing about his Immortal-Binding Rope.

As an experienced Jonin, Koizumi Sakame had surely thought of a way to evade or even counter him by now. At the very least, Naruto would be in for a hard fight.

That was not what Naruto wanted.

Given his current strength, he preferred to make full use of the Immortal-Binding Rope's power: appear from nowhere and kill in one strike!

Koizumi Sakame had been running for ten minutes, but his unease had not faded. Years of combat instinct told him the masked woman was still nearby, waiting for an opening.

So he decided to lure her into attacking.

Poof!

A Shadow Clone appeared and stopped to pretend it was resting, while his real body hid nearby, ready to kill the masked woman the moment she struck.

Two minutes later, sure enough, the masked woman crept up on Koizumi Sakame's Shadow Clone and lashed at it with the Black-and-Gold Rope in her hand.

Poof!

The Shadow Clone vanished in a cloud of smoke. Koizumi Sakame's face twisted into a savage grin. He had already finished forming his Hand Seals, and he roared:

"Wind Release: Hurricane!"

A whirlwind formed between his palms and rapidly swelled as it spun, reaching the masked woman in the blink of an eye.

The woman cried out and tried to escape, but the whirlwind tore her to pieces.

Yet there was no spray of flesh and blood. The masked woman turned into a puff of white smoke and disappeared.

"A Shadow Clone?" Koizumi Sakame exclaimed. He instinctively moved to flee with the Body Flicker Technique, but it was too late.

At some point, the real masked woman had quietly slipped behind him. The Black-and-Gold Rope shot toward him like a venomous snake.

Koizumi Sakame reacted far faster than the two Elite Chunin. He immediately leaped upward with the Body Flicker Technique, but the Immortal-Binding Rope was a Divine Power. It lengthened rapidly and still caught his right foot.

The Immortal-Binding Rope pressed its advantage, winding upward the moment it caught his foot. In less than a second, it had wrapped him from head to toe.

Koizumi Sakame screamed in terror and rage. But he could no longer draw on his Chakra, and the strength was rapidly draining from his body. Like a trapped wild boar, he struggled in vain against the hunter's snare.

Koizumi Sakame fell into despair. He was a Jonin who had survived countless brushes with death. At last, he had the chance to witness Konoha's destruction with his own eyes, only to die halfway there at the hands of an unknown foe.

"Are you... a Konoha Ninja?" Koizumi Sakame asked with the last of his strength.

"Heh. I'm Konoha's enemy," Naruto said with a sneer.

A last glimmer of hope appeared in Koizumi Sakame's eyes. Desperate to live, he no longer cared about leaking secrets and blurted out:

"Then you have to let me go! I'm going to carry out a devastating plan against Konoha. If you're Konoha's enemy, we can go together."

"I'd like to see Konoha destroyed too, but I'd rather get points from killing you!"

Naruto had no intention of listening to him ramble on. He decisively drove a Kunai into the man's neck.

"Ding-dong! Congratulations, host. You have killed one Jonin and two Elite Chunin, earning 120 points."

"Haha! This Divine Power really is incredible. It's perfect for ambushes."

Naruto wanted to keep hunting the Sunagakure Shinobi who had infiltrated the area, but then he thought better of it. If he killed too many, Sunagakure might suspect its operation had been exposed and pull out of the Konoha Crush Plan. That was not what he wanted.

The Konoha Crush Plan had to go ahead. He wanted to see the Third Hokage die, along with many others in Konoha.

So Naruto returned to the Land of Waves and left his 120 points unspent for the time being.

Meanwhile, Yuki Haku returned to their hiding place after buying food and gathering Medicinal Herbs, only to find Zabuza's headless corpse.

Tears streamed down his face. After his miserable childhood, Zabuza had been the light of his life and his only reason to keep living.

Now that hope had shattered, and the light had gone out. He felt like a walking corpse, his mind blank, with no idea how to go on.

Just then, Gato arrived with his men. He had come to urge Zabuza to deal with the bridge in the Land of Waves as soon as possible, but instead he found Zabuza's corpse and a devastated Yuki Haku.

Gato burst into curses. "And he dared call himself the Demon? Are all Kirigakure Ninja idiots?"

Haku seemed barely conscious. He did not react to Gato's insults. He stumbled toward the exit carrying Zabuza's corpse, but two of Gato's bodyguards blocked his way.

Haku had a temper of his own. He immediately flung several ice Senbon, wounding both bodyguards and knocking them to the ground. Then he carried the corpse out in a daze. No one knew where he went.

Gato could only curse for a while longer before ordering his men, "Recruit as many Rogue Ninja as you can. The more, the better. This time, I'll bury them under sheer numbers! I'll show everyone what happens when they cross Gato."

For a while after that, Naruto trained in the Land of Waves without interruption.

On the third day, Gato recruited more than a hundred Rogue Ninja, including Chunin and Genin. They gathered on a nearby island, ready to advance on the bridge.

Naruto had sensed it all long ago. His real body slipped close to the Rogue Ninja, still disguised as the masked woman with red hair, and began slaughtering them at will.

"Multiple Shadow Clone Technique!"

As soon as the words left his mouth, a hundred Shadow Clones surrounded the Rogue Ninja. Each held a Black-and-Gold Rope and swung it like a tiger tearing through a flock of sheep.

The Immortal-Binding Ropes carried a powerful Sealing force. Any Ninja they touched was immediately bound, unable to use Chakra, while even their physical strength was rapidly sealed away.

The Rogue Ninja were stunned. They had never encountered a weapon with such a Divine Power, and before they understood what was happening, they were bound by the Immortal-Binding Ropes one after another.

Naruto's hundred Shadow Clones held Immortal-Binding Ropes in their left hands and Kunai in their right. The moment a rope bound an enemy, a Kunai plunged into their neck without hesitation.

In the blink of an eye, the entire gathering ground had become a hellish slaughterhouse.

"Ding-dong! Congratulations, host. You have killed Rogue Ninja and earned a total of 178 points. You now have 300 points!"

"My current abilities are enough, and I haven't decided what ability I want next. I'll save the points and exchange them for something when I need it."

Naruto considered it for a moment.

Watching from the sidelines, the wealthy merchant Gato was so frightened he wet himself. He tried to flee, but Naruto's real body caught him with the Immortal-Binding Rope and held him firmly in place.

"Submit, or die?"

Naruto's cold voice sounded in his ear.

Over the next few days, Naruto continued using the Shadow Clone Technique to train in Wind Release Ninjutsu. Ten days later, the bridge was finally complete, and Team 7 breathed a sigh of relief.

Kakashi was puzzled. Why had Zabuza never come back to assassinate them? Had he abandoned the mission and left, or had some danger driven him away?

But he would never have guessed that Zabuza, whom he had failed to kill, had died at the hands of Naruto, the kid beside him.

The sky was clear and sunny that day. Team Kakashi said goodbye to the old drunkard and set off for Konoha.

Team 7 had gained a little from their mission to the Land of Waves. Unlike in the original story, Sasuke had not awakened his Sharingan. Naruto's gains, however, were enormous—though no one else knew it.

He now possessed two incredible Divine Powers and had Gato as a source of ready cash.

Most importantly, he now had the means and resources to slip out of Konoha whenever he wished and stir up trouble throughout the Shinobi World.