Three days later—
Kakashi and the others finally arrived at Sunset Town.
Rows of wooden houses stood neatly throughout the town, with a handful of villagers sitting outside their homes doing various kinds of handiwork.
Kakashi found one of the villagers and asked where the town chief was.
Unexpectedly, the villager told him that the chief hadn’t returned for three days.
“Do you know where he went?” Kakashi asked.
The chief of Sunset Town was their client, so they needed to speak with him to learn more about their mission targets.
The villager pointed toward a distant mountain.
“There.”
“What did the chief go there for? When will he be back?” Kakashi asked again.
But the villager refused to say anything more.
He simply returned to his work, seemingly afraid of something.
With no other choice, Kakashi turned toward Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura.
“Split up and gather information. We’ll meet back here in half an hour.”
After a moment’s thought, Kakashi added,
“Sakura, go with Naruto.”
He still wasn’t entirely comfortable letting Sakura operate alone.
“Yes!” ×3
The four separated and headed off in different directions.
None of them noticed that a group of people in a nearby alley was watching their every move.
Sakura obediently followed behind Naruto.
“Naruto-kun, where are we going to look for information?” she asked.
Naruto paused and pointed toward a bathhouse not far away.
“There.”
Sakura froze.
“Huh?!”
“Follow me.”
Without giving Sakura a chance to ask further questions, Naruto suddenly dashed toward the bathhouse.
Sakura’s face turned red.
After hesitating for a moment, she still hurried after him.
“Naruto-kun couldn’t possibly be planning to… No, no! We’re in the middle of a mission!”
“But what if he is? Naruto used to like me…”
“No, wait! Naruto already has Hinata! There’s no way he’d try anything with me!”
While her imagination was running wild, Sakura suddenly noticed Naruto turning into an alley behind the bathhouse.
“Naruto, the bathhouse is—”
Feeling both helpless and confused, Sakura quickened her pace and followed.
When she entered the alley, she found several men lying on the ground and groaning in pain while Naruto questioned them.
“Naruto-kun, who are they?” Sakura asked as she approached.
“I noticed someone watching us from the moment we entered the town. These guys are one of the groups following us,” Naruto explained.
“One of the groups? There are others? Could Kakashi-sensei and Sasuke be in danger?” Sakura asked worriedly.
“Relax. These guys are ordinary people. There’s no way they’re a match for Kakashi or Sasuke.”
Naruto then turned back toward the men.
“I’m only going to ask you one more time. If you still refuse to answer, then you won’t need to keep living.”
Sakura trembled and looked at Naruto fearfully.
Were they really going to kill someone already?
“Who are you, and why were you watching us?” Naruto asked one of the men.
“I don’t—”
A kunai flashed.
Blood traced an arc through the air.
The man died before he could finish his sentence.
“Ah!”
Sakura screamed at the sight of blood and instinctively covered her eyes with both hands.
But that very action gave one of the men Naruto had beaten down an opening.
He rolled over and sprang to his feet.
The man grabbed Sakura and clamped a hand around her throat.
“Kid, kill yourself right now, or I’ll strangle your girl to death!”
Naruto: “…”
Only an idiot would kill himself.
As long as he stayed alive, he still had a chance to save the hostage.
If he killed himself, the other guy might simply kill Sakura afterward and get a double kill.
The man was large and powerfully built.
With Sakura restrained, she couldn’t use ninjutsu or even move properly.
“Naruto…”
Sakura was almost in tears, terror filling her heart.
At the same time, she was afraid Naruto might genuinely kill himself for her sake.
Just as Sakura began worrying about him, something suddenly flashed past.
Blood sprayed beside her ear.
Sakura stood frozen.
Only after several moments did she recover enough to turn around.
The man who had been holding her hostage now lay dead, a shuriken buried through his skull.
Five minutes later, someone finally became frightened enough by the prospect of death to answer Naruto’s questions.
“We’re members of the Blood Gang on Sunset Mountain. Our boss found out that the town chief had hired ninja to deal with us, so he kidnapped the chief’s family and took them up the mountain. He threatened the old man into canceling the commission.” Follow the newest chapters on NovelPing.
“But that stubborn old bastard refused even if it meant dying. Three days ago, he came to our hideout and killed himself.”
“Our boss had no choice but to threaten the villagers into hiding the truth. Then he sent us to keep watch on you.”
“We were supposed to report everything you did and see whether you’d abandon the mission after failing to find the client.”
After obtaining the information he needed, Naruto casually killed the man as well.
Then he turned toward the wall and vomited several times.
He had never killed anyone before either.
After killing for the first time and seeing so many bloody corpses, even Naruto couldn’t avoid feeling sick.
When he finished throwing up, Naruto looked toward Sakura.
She seemed to have adapted somewhat to the situation.
Although she still looked frightened, she was no longer making foolish mistakes that exposed obvious openings.
“Naruto, are you okay?” Sakura asked worriedly.
“I’m fine.”
Naruto wiped the remnants of vomit from the corner of his mouth.
“Let’s go. We’ve got the information we needed.”
When they returned to the meeting point, Kakashi and Sasuke were already waiting.
Kakashi noticed the bloodstains on Naruto and Sakura’s slightly swollen eyes and frowned.
“You ran into people watching you too?”
“Yeah.”
Naruto nodded.
“We already got information about the town chief out of them.”
“The people following me talked too,” Sasuke added.
Kakashi nodded.
“Looks like we can skip most of the information exchange. Still, let’s compare the details just to be safe.”
Two minutes later, they confirmed that there were no discrepancies between what they had learned.
“The client may be dead, but the mission fee was already paid. We still need to complete the mission according to the original conditions.”
“To prevent any further complications, we’ll head up the mountain tonight!”
No sooner had Kakashi finished speaking than Naruto raised an objection.
“I think we should go now. Who knows if they have more people keeping watch on us?”
“If they manage to escape, our mission will be a failure.”
They wouldn’t have to refund the mission fee even if they failed because the client was already dead, but Naruto still wouldn’t feel right taking the money without completing the job.
Kakashi hesitated briefly before agreeing.
“All right. We’ll go now.”
Kakashi had originally suggested attacking at night because they were ninja and could make excellent use of the darkness to launch a surprise attack.
Going during the day meant they would have to confront the bandits head-on.
Fortunately, Team 7 was more than strong enough that a frontal assault wasn’t much of a concern.