The group traveled for half a day and arrived at a fishing village on the coast of the Land of Fire, taking a boat from here to the Land of Waves.
Along the way, Yamato highly praised Naruto and Sakura, commending their timely reactions.
But to Jokichi, he gave a reprimand.
"Since you possessed martial force far exceeding the opponent, why didn't you capture them alive?" Yamato said. "If we could capture them alive, we could get a lot of information. In ninja missions, information is very important."
"I am very sorry." Jokichi admitted his mistake with a sincere attitude.
Because he had watched the anime, he knew the identity of the attackers and their purpose, so he didn't hold back.
But he forgot that the others didn't know, and he couldn't tell them, leading to many issues being unable to be judged and countermeasures unable to be prepared in advance.
"It's fine, just pay attention next time." Yamato nodded slightly.
Although experiencing life-and-death actual combat training resulted in combat experience not inferior to a Jonin, mission experience could not be gained through training.
He believed Jokichi would be much better after experiencing this mission.
At this time, fog suddenly rolled in over the sea.
It was extremely thick, and one could only see hazy objects a few meters away.
The boat sailed for a while, and the boatman suddenly turned off the engine.
"Hmm?"
Yamato looked at the boatman in confusion.
"We can see the great bridge of the Land of Waves up ahead," the boatman said very seriously. "We can't be discovered by those guys, or it will be terrible."
"Terrible?"
Naruto looked at the boatman's serious expression, blinking, not having reacted yet.
Isn't it just a group of gangs and bandits?
Is there a need to be so cautious?
Yamato and Sakura fell into deep thought.
While Tazuna's eyes darted around, and then he even turned his head away, not daring to look at them.
Only Jokichi simply lay down on the boat.
He already knew all these things and had no intention of hearing them a second time.
"Mr. Tazuna." Yamato looked at Tazuna with a smile. "You better tell us the truth, otherwise, this mission ends once we escort you ashore."
"How can you do that!" Tazuna panicked a bit. "Isn't the mission to protect me until the bridge is built? You are breaching the contract!"
"It is you who breached the contract first, Mr. Tazuna."
Yamato's face turned stern, saying seriously, "A C-rank mission does not encounter ninjas. But two ninjas have already appeared and attacked us. At the time, I wasn't sure if their target was you or us, so I didn't raise any objections. But now... ordinary gangs and bandits wouldn't make people this terrified. Mr. Tazuna, you falsified the mission details, didn't you!"
"This, this..."
"Alright, I will tell you everything!"
Tazuna sighed and slowly told the truth.
The Land of Waves is a small island country located on the sea, isolated from the world, and therefore has no ninja village.
Three years ago, Gato, the boss of a world-renowned shipping company, set his sights on this country. He monopolized maritime transport, completely controlling the country by grasping its economic lifeline, to the point where even the Daimyo couldn't resist.
To change the fate of the country, Tazuna and the citizens decided to build a bridge to other countries.
But Gato was a world-famous billionaire on the surface, while secretly controlling gangs, raising a large number of samurai and rogue ninjas, doing nothing but shady deeds.
Tazuna building the bridge touched upon Gato's interests, so he wouldn't let Tazuna finish building the bridge smoothly.
After narrating the cause of the matter, he deliberately put on an open-minded act, stating that even if they abandoned the mission, he wouldn't blame them if he was killed. At most, his daughter and grandson would cry all day, hate Konoha ninjas for the rest of their lives, and live in loneliness forever.
Yamato, Naruto, and Sakura listened, speechless.
However—
"That's how it is. Do you want to abandon the mission and return to Konoha, or continue?" Yamato asked, looking at the three members of Team 7.
"Do you even need to ask?" Naruto clenched his fists, saying with full motivation, "Of course we continue!"
Sakura also nodded in agreement.
Unlike in the anime, they didn't want to do a high-level mission because low-level missions were boring; they wanted to do high-level missions to become stronger.
Now, the mission changing from C-rank to B-rank perfectly suited their desires.
Although Sakura still had some worries in her heart, thinking about how the gap between her and Sasuke was growing wider and wider, making it hard to have any entanglements, and that they would ultimately become strangers, she firmed her resolve.
Seeing the two agree, Yamato turned his gaze to Jokichi.
"I have no objections, but..." Jokichi smiled and looked at Tazuna. "Old man, since you've falsified the mission details anyway, how about we just change the actual mission to assassinating Gato?"
"Eh!"
Jokichi's suggestion startled everyone.
"Jokichi, why do you want to do that?" Naruto asked in confusion.
"Do you even need to ask?" Jokichi smiled coldly. "That Gato is scum. Who knows how many people will be harmed if he stays alive in this world. Just regarding the old man's situation, even if we protect him until the bridge is built, can you be sure he won't find a way to destroy the bridge?"
"This..."
Everyone hesitated.
Naruto and Sakura were young and hadn't seen Gato, so they didn't know if things would develop like that.
However, Yamato, who had witnessed the darkness of the human heart, and Tazuna, who was familiar with Gato's style of doing things, were very clear that this was highly likely to happen.
Therefore, Yamato set his sights on Tazuna, waiting to see what he would say.
Tazuna was a bit hesitant.
He knew what Jokichi said was highly likely to happen, but as a normal person's baseline, he felt resistant to killing.
Moreover, would just killing Gato be enough?
Tazuna recalled the current state of the Land of Waves and firmly refused.
"No need. Just protecting me until the bridge is finished is enough."
People can't rely on others forever. What the Land of Waves needed wasn't to kill Gato, but courage.
Without the courage to protect what was important to them, killing one Gato would only lead to another Gato appearing.
The bridge he wanted to build wasn't just to break Gato's maritime transport monopoly, but to ignite the citizens' courage to resist.
Furthermore, was assassinating Gato really as easy as it sounded?
With so many guards around him, assassinating him would be harder than protecting himself!
To change the fate of the country, Tazuna had no choice but to trick Konoha, which already made him feel guilty. To ask them to risk an assassination...
It would be fine if they succeeded, but if they failed, he might truly never forgive himself for the rest of his life.
"What a pity!" Jokichi shrugged and said no more.
He was just making a suggestion earlier. If Tazuna had agreed, he would go kill Gato right now, settling it once and for all.
However, since Tazuna was guarding his own baseline and kindness in his heart, he wouldn't trample on it.
Killing someone isn't as easy as saying it; these words carry an incredibly heavy weight.
Even ninjas who are told from childhood that they will kill and train for it will hesitate in their hearts the first time they strike.
Even Jokichi, who was used to blood and pain, wasn't as calm as he seemed on the surface when he killed the Demon Brothers earlier.
The weight of killing is only understood by those who have personally experienced it.
Seeing everyone make their decision, Yamato nodded. "Since that's the case, let's work together to protect Mr. Tazuna until the bridge is finished!"
"I am extremely grateful!"
...
The boat continued sailing, and soon, the outline of a large bridge appeared in the thick fog.
Everyone looked up at this unfinished bridge, feeling a sense of respect for Tazuna's profession.
"Following this bridge forward will lead us to the Land of Waves," the boatman said while rowing.
Not long after the words fell, the boat passed through an underpass and entered the territory of the Land of Waves.
Like a city on the water, there were low wooden houses all around.
The group went ashore at a pier.
And then hurried towards Tazuna's home.
This was just a city on the border of the Land of Waves, and there was still a distance to go to Tazuna's house.