Chapter 72 - The Massacre At Tazuna's House.
Yuna's group was currently walking back to Tazuna's house with a rather awkward atmosphere, which wasn't surprising considering they tried to kill each other a few moments ago. Sasuke would probably be making a fuss, but he hasn't woken up yet. Zabuza, Haku, Anko, and Kakashi looked rather indifferent, but it was obvious that all four of them were ready for battle at any moment. Yuna, however, had a satisfied smile on her face. She got what she wanted after all.
'Hehe, that went rather well~'
[I understand why you want the ice user, but what about the sword guy?]
'He will be rather useful in the future. Right now, I will let him stay here and protect Tazuna in case someone gets some funny ideas. I will recall him when it is time to announce the reestablishment of the Uzumaki clan. Before the clan has gotten a proper foothold in Konoha we need some strong people as a deterrent.'
[I see. He seems to be rather persistent in following his contracts, which means the chances of betrayal are rather low as well.]
'Correct.'
After a few more minutes of walking the group reached Tazuna's house and as soon as they could see it, everyone, except for Yuna, completely froze up. The scene in front of them looked like a complete massacre, but instead of blood and gore, all kinds of suspicious liquids were splashed everywhere. From oil to glue, if it could be used in a prank, Naruto had built it into his seals.
Men in skimpy outfits were spread all over the ground, entirely unmoving. Every single one of them had a ridiculous haircut and hair color.
And worst of all? Not a single one of them seemed to be even wounded, yet their eyes were completely empty.
Kakashi shuddered in terror when he saw what happened here.
'My god. What has Naruto done to these poor people? It looks like every single one of them has lost their will to live. I thought it was abnormal that Yuna could kill so many people without being bothered by it in the slightest, but Naruto is even worse. He crushed their minds.'
Although Anko had similar throughs, her reaction was rather different.
"Haha, damn! Look at this! He is acting all sweet and innocent yet does something like this. Maybe I should recruit him for the T&I department?"
Yuna only rolled her eyes at that.
"Just a bunch of harmless pranks. They might flinch at the sight of cake in the future, but aside from that, they will be fine."
Anko could only chuckle a little when some people did indeed flinch when they heard Yuna say "cake".
When they got even closer to the house, they could see that there was still a fight going on. Sakura was fighting two thugs who attacked her with reckless abandon. Naruto was standing on the sidelines and was cheering for Sakura.
"Haha, don't forget that if you two don't take this seriously I toss you back into my trap array."
…or not.
The eyes of the two thugs became red and they were almost frothing at the mouth while their attack grew even more ferocious.
"YOU IDIOT, STOP GOADING TH… WOAH!"
Sakura hastily lifted the kunai she was holding and blocked an attack aimed at her neck and then jumped back to evade the follow-up attacks.
"Haha, you better pay attention to your opponents or you will be in trouble."
Kakashi's face twitched a little when he saw the scene in front of him but didn't say anything about it. Although Naruto seemed to be playing around, he was ready to intervene at any time. When Sakura was about to be cut just now, Kakashi could feel the chakra in the surroundings stir a little, so there were probably some seals around here as well. This might actually be a good lesson for Sakura who never fought anyone that is after her life before.
It took another 2 minutes for Sakura to defeat her opponents. No matter how weak a shinobi she is, the differences between someone who can use chakra and someone who can't is simply too huge a gap for a common thug to overcome.
Despite that, Sakura was still lying on the ground while breathing heavily after her victory. She couldn't help but be a little happy about her triumph. It might not matter whether she won or not if you consider the mission, but she was still happy about the first real battle she won.
Naruto smiled towards the incoming group and greeted them after they got closer.
"Welcome back, everyone."
Naruto gave a short glance at Zabuza and Haku and then continued speaking.
"Seems like your plan went well, nee-san."
"Haha, of course!"
Sakura was also about to greet the approaching group, but she froze up after seeing Zabuza.
"Don't worry, Sakura-chan. Zabuza is on our side now."
"HAA…?!"
Sakura, naturally, still couldn't understand the situation. She eyed the group again and this time she noticed that Kakashi was carrying the unconscious Sasuke. She was just about to speak when Kakashi interrupted her.
"We are back, Naruto, Sakura. No need to worry about Sasuke, Sakura. He just spent all his chakra and is exhausted."
For some reason, Kakashi's instincts were suddenly screaming at him to get away from here. He glanced at Zabuza, but he didn't look like he was about to make a move. Naruto's next question, however, made Kakashi understand the situation immediately.
"Nee-san, what is with all the blood? And there seems to be a rather big hole in your clothes as well."
Kakashi's eyes widened when he heard that question and when he realized that he is currently very close to the core, the best-defended place of the sealing array, his face became deathly white. An image of the thugs they just passed flashed through his mind, but this time all of them had his face.
'I need to defuse the situation before Yuna can say anything wrong.'
"Naruto, that…"
"Oh, that is from when Kakashi used his signature jutsu and pierced his whole hand through my stomach."
Naruto's eyes gained a dangerous glint when they zeroed in on Kakashi.
"Oh? Is that so?"
Kakashi could feel the surrounding chakra fluctuate. His instincts were telling him that an attack was coming, the problem was that it was apparently coming from everywhere at once. Cold sweat was flowing down his back like a river. To his surprise, however, Yuna defused the situation.
"Haha, calm down Naruto. It was just a little scratch. No need to make a big deal out of it."
Although Naruto was still glaring at Kakashi, he nodded his head and Kakashi could feel the surrounding chakra calm down again. He took a deep breath to get rid of the tension in his body.
'I wasn't expecting Yuna to stop this. I got the feeling that she is usually the one to…'
*SPLAT*
The moment he completely relaxed, the inevitable happened. As soon as the cake hit, Naruto stared at Yuna with expectant eyes.
Yuna used her left hand to support the right one, which was currently holding her chin. The typical "thinker" pose.
"Well executed. The timing was perfect and the chakra fluctuation was barely noticeable. All in all, an excellent performance."
"HAHA, YES! I FINALLY DID IT!!!"
Anko and Haku both chuckled when they saw Kakashi getting hit by a cake. Anko, simply because she found pranks like that funny, and Haku because she was hit by a cake as well and didn't really understand the meaning of it. Now, that she wasn't on the receiving end, however, it was rather amusing to watch.
'Is this some kind of family tradition?'
Zabuza, meanwhile, could feel regret bubbling up inside of him.
'What have I gotten myself into? Yuna is already bad enough, but the little brother doesn't appear to be completely sane either. Should I just leg it before I get entangled too deep? No! I can't do that. I consider myself a professional mercenary. I don't just quit when things get ugly.'
"Yup, good job, Naruto. Now, that you have my approval, you can start learning the next level of seals. I actually have the book with me so you can start practicing right away."
'I need to get out of here…'
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