At the same time, two thugs—one tall and one short—arrived at Tazuna's house. They broke down the door and walked inside without a care.
"Are you Tazuna's daughter? Sorry, but you're coming with us."
The two thugs approached with ill intent; they were clearly there to take a hostage.
With a scream, Inari, who had been making something in his room, ran out.
"Mom!"
Seeing the two villains about to harm his mother, he couldn't help but shout. His mother, who was already trembling with fear and unable to move, also screamed at her son.
"Don't come out! Run!"
"What's this? A brat? Let's take him too."
But it was too late; Inari had been spotted. The two thugs discussed whether to take them both.
"One hostage is enough."
"Then, hehehe, should we kill him?"
Accompanied by the thugs' evil laughter, Inari's legs went weak with fear, and he huddled behind the door.
"Wait! If you touch that child, I'll bite my tongue and kill myself!"
With his mother's suicide threat, the thugs spared Inari. Inari crouched on the floor, weeping bitterly, unable to bear the sight of his mother being taken away.
"Mom, I'm sorry, I'm so sorry. It's because I'm too weak that I can't protect you. They are strong, and I'm just weak. I don't want to die, I'm so scared..."
Inari recalled the last time he watched his father die like this. He hated it and didn't want it to happen again.
Weak tears flowed continuously as he loathed his own frailty.
"The weak have their own way of fighting. While the weak have no resistance against the strength the strong excel in, they can defeat the strong in other ways!"
At that moment, Kano's words surfaced from his memory.
"Can I... can I kill the strong too?" Inari stood up. "Father... Kano-san..."
Then, he returned to his room... On the bridge, in the contest of speed between Haku and Sasuke, Haku was slightly inferior.
"Haku actually lost in speed?"
Zabuza's voice echoed through the mist, making it impossible to determine his location. Although he remarked on Haku losing in speed, his tone didn't sound worried at all about Haku losing the fight.
"Underestimating us will give you a headache. Don't let his looks fool you; Sasuke is our Konoha's number one rookie, Kano is the smartest in the village, and Naruto is..."
Naruto looked forward to how Kakashi-sensei would praise him.
"...the most resilient cannon fodder!"
"Kakashi-sensei, how could you say that about me!"
Naruto protested to Kakashi with some dissatisfaction—all three of him: the original and two Shadow Clones.
"Oh? It seems you care a lot about your brats. I wonder if you'd be sad if one of them suddenly died?"
Immediately after, a powerful killing intent surged toward Naruto. For a moment, he was so terrified he couldn't even move.
"Naruto, look out!"
Even Kano noticed that Zabuza's target this time was Naruto, but Naruto hadn't even reacted. Fortunately, Kakashi nearby reacted and instantly pierced Zabuza.
Something's wrong!
It's a Water Clone!
In the next instant, silently, Kano's head was severed.
Naruto and Kakashi quickly looked over. At that moment, Naruto's eyes lost their luster, and violent Chakra was about to explode!
Then, they saw Kano's "corpse" turn into smoke and disappear.
"Ninja Art: Shadow Binding Technique!"
A middle-aged man among the crowd of workers had his hands in a seal; his shadow extended and restrained Zabuza.
"Trying to dive the backline, are we? Did you never consider the backline might have survival gear? Hehehe."
"You! How can you be there!"
"If you're allowed to use Water Clones to trick people, I'm allowed to use Shadow Clones to trick people too."
Kano giggled and dispelled the Transformation Jutsu. The surrounding workers had no idea when Kano had snuck in among them.
"Kano-chan! You're okay!"
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