25: Naruto: TWEEK — Chapter 25 – He,Counter resets every Monday.
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“This rule applies to the Byakugan Demon alone.”
“Anyone he is protecting — no one may accept a contract to assassinate that person.”
“Otherwise, whoever takes the job dies.”
“The one who posted the job dies too.”
“If the one who accepted the job doesn’t want to die, there is only one way out.”
“Go kill the client.”
“The client’s money gets split eighty-twenty.
Eighty to him.”
Zabuza’s voice carried a faint tremor.
The memory was not a pleasant one.
“He’s…
that overbearing?”
“Overbearing?”
“No.
Not overbearing.”
“He’s simply cruel.”
“Cruel to the extreme — that’s why the underworld calls him a demon.”
“Has no one ever gone after him?”
“Of course they have.”
“People tried as soon as he first made a name for himself.
As his reputation grew, there were even more.”
“But…”
“Everyone who went after him died.
Including the exchange houses that posted the contracts, he wiped them out entirely.”
“The forces behind those exchange houses refused to accept it and moved against him.
He annihilated them.”
“The people backing the exchange houses have been replaced three times over.”
“Every single time, he was the one who wiped them out.”
“The people running the exchange houses now don’t dare offend him.”
“In fact, if anyone puts a bounty on him, they’ll capture whoever posted it and hand them over to him personally.”
“Him — the Byakugan Demon.”
“The true king of the underworld.”
“So what do we do now?”
“What else can we do?”
“We follow the rules.
Otherwise the entire underworld hunts us down.”
“Kill Gato?”
“Yeah.”
“And fast.”
“If that idiot Gato sends more people after him, we get dragged into it too.”
Haku went quiet.
Haku couldn’t imagine what kind of person could make the entire underworld fear them like this.
“Let’s go.”
“Gato runs a smuggling operation, loaded with money.
We’re making out big this time.”
“Once we deal with Gato, we’ll never have to work in this business again.”
Hearing that, Haku’s heart filled with longing.
When the time came, find a beautiful place, and Haku and Zabuza-sama could…
“Yeah.”
“Zabuza-sama, walk faster.”
“Let’s go deal with Gato.”
“Haku, why are you so fired up today?”
“Because…
today is a good day.”
On the other side, after Zabuza withdrew, the three kids stared at Tiange.
They couldn’t hide the curiosity in their eyes no matter how hard they tried.
What exactly had their teacher done?
The way that bandaged man looked, he’d been genuinely afraid.
That part wasn’t too surprising.
As far as they knew, no one wasn’t afraid of their teacher.
But that rule.
What rule?
“Stop spacing out.
Let’s go.”
Tiange’s cool, detached voice cut through their wondering and snapped all three of them back to the present.
“Oh.”
“Right, right.
Let’s go.”
“Teacher!”
“That bandaged man really isn’t coming back?”
“No.”
“He doesn’t dare.”
“But whoever hired him will just hire someone else sooner or later, won’t they?”
“That won’t happen either.”
“Why not?”
“Because of the rule.”
“The person who hired him will be dead within 3 hours.
At his own hands.”
“What?”
“Gato is going to die?”
“Is that true?”
Tazuna lit up with sudden excitement, looking toward Tiange, desperately hoping for a definitive answer.
Tiange ignored Tazuna and walked straight ahead.
Tiange paid no attention, but that didn’t sit well with Sakura and the other two.
“What does it have to do with you?”
“Liar.”
“By the rules, we can drop this mission right now and head straight back to the village.”
“We could even kill you.
That’s not off the table.”
“Exactly.
This is at minimum an A-rank mission and you had the nerve to call it C-rank.”
“It’s a good thing it was our squad.
If another team had taken this job, they could’ve gotten killed because of you.”
“Forget him.
From here on out we’re just here to unwind.
After one month, whether his bridge is finished or not, we’re heading back.”
“But what if he refuses to sign the mission completion certificate?”
“Heh.”
“He dares?”
“If he really tries that, we kill him and use his hand to press the thumbprint ourselves.”
“Come on, Teacher’s already walked far ahead.”
Tazuna went pale.
Tazuna had gotten too worked up and forgotten that these people killed without a second thought.
The concealed truth about the mission was already out in the open.
These people had zero goodwill left toward Tazuna.
The plan to play pitiful and win sympathy was useless too, they simply didn’t bother.
Shaking their head, Tazuna fell in uneasily behind the group.
Tazuna didn’t know whether Gato was truly about to die and couldn’t afford to be careless.
These people were dangerous.
But following them was undeniably far safer.
Evening.
Inside Gato’s shipping company, blood covered the floor.
Beside them sat 5 full bags of cash, with bank cards holding who knew how much more on top of that.
Haku was stunned.
Haku had never seen this much money in one place.
“Za…
Zabuza-sama.”
“Yeah?”
“Do we really…
really not need to send some of this to that person?”
Haku was uneasy.
After hearing Zabuza’s account, Haku understood that the underworld ran on rules.
For instance, they were not supposed to kill a client.
Doing so would bring punishment from the exchange houses.
What that punishment was, nobody knew exactly, but regardless of how powerful someone was, no one had ever broken that rule.
Until that person appeared.
That person alone had become a new rule.
A rule that stood above all other rules.
Because of that person, Zabuza had killed a client and not only suffered no consequences, but would even receive certain other benefits.
Those benefits were no longer of use to Zabuza, though.
Zabuza had no intention of continuing in this line of work.
“No need.”
“What that person said, don’t take it upon yourself to change it.”
“He said no, so it’s no.”
“If we send something over anyway, we’ll only earn his contempt.”
“A…
alright.”
Even now, Haku still found it hard to believe.
All this money, truly theirs, Haku’s and Zabuza-sama’s?
“Haku, let’s go.”
“Where?”
“You like snow, don’t you?”
“We’ll find a place where it snows all year round and settle down there.”
“Really, Zabuza-sama?”
“Really.”
“That’s wonderful!”
Haku leaped forward and threw both arms around Zabuza, pressing into Zabuza’s chest again and again.
On the other side, after Sakura and the others finished dinner at Tazuna’s home, the three of them each set to their own training.
They were ostensibly here to relax, but they couldn’t afford to let up too much.
A full month with no training at all?
For three people this driven, that was simply impossible.
One quiet month later, the progress all three had made was substantial.
Sasuke’s Sharingan had independently activated two tomoe, and his development of Chidori had reached the threshold.
Sakura had mastered the Mystical Palm Technique, and her Chakra Enhanced Strength had grown sharper, each punch hitting harder than the last.
Naruto could already enter a three-tails state, though he couldn’t sustain it for long.
All three were thoroughly satisfied with what they had achieved.
➤ Next: Changes
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