"Be more careful next time."
Kurama reluctantly agreed. He had already spoken with the other half of his being sealed within Minato, and his relationship with Naruto was fairly decent now. He didn't usually interfere with Naruto's chakra control, which was why the boy had been injured so easily. But with his help, a simple blade wound was nothing.
As red chakra enveloped him, the gash on Naruto's calf healed in an instant.
Seeing this, Hinata finally let out a breath of relief, her eyes filled with tears. She hurriedly apologized to Naruto, "I'm so sorry, Naruto. It's all my fault."
Naruto smiled and patted her shoulder. "It's okay, Hinata. Don't worry about it."
Seeing his last two henchmen defeated so easily and with no sign of his reinforcements, Gato yelled in a panic, "Kousuke, Yuma, get them!"
Confirming that Naruto was fine, Sasuke began walking toward Gato.
The two men exchanged a look, then shoved Gato directly toward Sasuke. They fell to their knees, begging, "Spare us! Please, let us live!"
Gato never expected to be betrayed by his own men. He stumbled and fell toward Sasuke. "You..."
Sasuke pulled a kunai from his pouch, preparing to finish Gato off.
Just then, a figure appeared in a flash beside Sasuke, grabbing Gato by the throat and knocking him unconscious.
"Sensei Shingo!" Sasuke stared in surprise at his teacher, who had appeared without him even noticing.
Minato smiled at him. "Gato can't die just yet. I'm taking him to deal with a few things. I'll be back later."
With that, he brushed past them, dragging Gato away.
"Lords, please spare us. We've been orphans since we were young, forced to wander. We only joined this gang to find something to eat."
Kousuke and Yuma threw their weapons aside, their heads hitting the ground like they were pounding garlic. Kousuke's face was a mask of fear, while tears streamed down Yuma's cheeks.
It was the first time Sasuke had ever encountered such a situation.
"Hmph. None of you are innocent," he said coldly.
Kousuke trembled as he spoke. "We just followed Gato to get by! We've never killed anyone!"
Yuma sobbed, "We've only been in this business for three months. Before this, we never had enough to eat."
"Please, have mercy and give us a chance to turn our lives around."
Naruto and Hinata walked over, equally new to this kind of predicament. Seeing Hinata, the two men acted as if they'd found their last hope, kowtowing frantically. "Don't kill us! Please, don't kill us!" Their foreheads were already bleeding from the impact.
Sasuke looked at Naruto and Hinata.
Naruto scratched his head. "Sasuke, maybe... we should give them a chance?"
Hinata was also hesitant.
Seeing their reactions, Sasuke waved his hand dismissively. "Get lost. And don't let me see you again."
Expressions of pure ecstasy spread across Kousuke and Yuma's faces. "Thank you, thank you!"
They scrambled away in a panic.
After running a good distance and seeing no one was following, the卑微 looks vanished from their faces.
Kousuke let out a long sigh of relief. "Good thing those three are just rookies."
Yuma wiped away his fake tears. "Their jonin leader wasn't here. Otherwise, we never would have fooled them."
Kousuke nodded. "Let's get out of here..."
Suddenly, a figure appeared beside them. It was Minato, smiling as if he had known what would happen all along. He shook his head, and with two swift slashes of his kunai, he slit their throats.
The two men clutched their necks as they collapsed to the ground.
Minato pulled out a list and saw that Kousuke and Yuma were wanted criminals. They were infamous for their cruel methods of torture, particularly their fondness for sealing people in barrels and boiling them alive. Though they appeared harmless, they were in fact exceptionally vicious.
Meanwhile, Naruto was tying up all the surviving henchmen while Hinata went to inform Tazuna and the others.
After learning the truth, everyone was stunned. It turned out Kousuke and Yuma had been with Gato for years, designing all sorts of cruel punishments to torment his enemies.
Naruto was filled with regret. "We never should have let them go!"
Hinata had gone to find Tazuna and the villagers alone. At first, no one believed that Gato had been defeated. He had run rampant in the Land of Waves for so long that their fear of him was bone-deep. It wasn't until they saw thick smoke billowing from Gato's corporate headquarters that they began to believe. The building was engulfed in flames.
Naruto and Sasuke were outside clearing the battlefield, piling the bodies together. It was Naruto's first time doing such a thing, and he was still getting used to it. Most of the dead were Sasuke's work. His swordsmanship was superb, and most of his kills were with a single strike. The few who were still alive were bound securely.
Neither Sasuke nor Naruto had any trace of a smile on their faces. The knowledge that they had let the two masterminds escape weighed heavily on them.
Tazuna arrived and was horrified by the scene. "Sasuke, Naruto, did you two really burn down Gato's headquarters?"
Naruto tried to pull himself together. As for the two who escaped, they would just have to find a way to catch them later. "Old man, what took you so long?"
Tazuna stared in disbelief at the corpses littering the ground. "This... was all your doing?"
Naruto rubbed his nose. Most of the dead had fallen to Sasuke's blade, but Sasuke was in no mood to think about that. He was still brooding over the escape of Kousuke and Yuma.
Tazuna searched around on the ground for a while. "Where's Gato?"
Naruto scratched his head. "Our sensei took him. I don't know where he went."
Tazuna's eyes filled with anxiety. For him and the villagers, they couldn't rest easy until they saw Gato's body.
"Didn't the men from the northwest warehouse come to help them?"
Sasuke was startled. "What are you talking about? He had more men in the northwest?"
Tazuna replied as if it were common knowledge. "Of course. He keeps over two hundred men stationed there year-round. They didn't come to help?"
Sasuke turned to Hinata. "Hinata, check the situation over there."
Hinata nodded and activated her Byakugan, her gaze sweeping toward the northwest. As her vision focused, she gasped in shock.
"Sasuke, there are two hundred men there, but..."
"They're all dead."
Both Sasuke and Naruto were stunned. They immediately broke into a run, heading in that direction. The warehouse was only a kilometer away, and they arrived in moments.
Sasuke saw that the men had all been killed with a single, fatal blow. He instantly knew it was his teacher's work. Naruto also recognized it as his father's handiwork.
A wave of annoyance washed over Sasuke. He had thought his plan was flawless. It was a good thing Sensei Shingo had intercepted those men; otherwise, Gato would have escaped long ago. Just then, Sasuke spotted Gato's corpse among the dead. His teacher must have brought him here to be executed.
Tazuna and the others arrived, and the first thing they saw was Gato's body.
"It's... it's Gato! Gato is dead!"
"It's really him!"
"Our country has a future!"
"Gato is dead!"
The news spread through the village like wildfire. Villagers surged forward to thank the three young ninja.
"Thank you..."
"Thank you for ridding the Land of Waves of this great evil..."
It was the first time any of them had experienced such a scene, and they were all a little overwhelmed.
Hinata's face turned beet red. "No, no, it was all Naruto and Sasuke. I didn't do much."
At that moment, Minato returned, carrying two bodies.
It was the escaped Kousuke and Yuma.