Chapter 150: Strength That Doesn't Match Wealth
"Why work so hard? It's useless! No matter how desperately you train, you'll never be able to defeat Gato's subordinates!"
At the dining table, Tazuna's grandson, the little boy named Inari, suddenly shouted excitedly at Naruto, Satsuki, and Sakura who looked tired from training. His small face was filled with despair and grief that didn't match his age.
After saying these discouraging words, he whirled around with tears streaming from his eyes, ran to his room without looking back, and slammed the door shut with a "bang."
Seeing this sudden scene, both Sakura and Satsuki showed confused and uncomprehending expressions. They didn't understand why this child would say such dispiriting words.
Tsunami's face showed apology and worry as she quickly got up to go comfort her son. After a while, Tazuna let out a heavy sigh, then explained the reason to everyone in a hoarse voice.
The story's outline was similar to what Naruto remembered. The root cause of this child who seemed world-weary and sad all day lay with his brave but unfortunate stepfather—Kaiza.
Kaiza, a man once hailed as a hero in the Land of Waves. Honestly, when watching the original story, Naruto had felt that this man's heart and resolve were in some ways very similar to his father Namikaze Minato... sunny, upright, willing to stand up for protecting others.
But unfortunately, unlike in reality, although Kaiza possessed a hero's resolve and character, he didn't have the matching powerful strength to change reality.
Later, when Gato tried to completely control the Land of Waves through capital and violence, Kaiza resolutely stood up, attempting to organize resistance against Gato's group's oppression.
However, this resistance ultimately failed. Kaiza was captured by Gato's subordinates, and to make an example and completely crush the Land of Waves people's will to resist, Gato cruelly ordered Kaiza's public execution in front of many villagers...
At this point, Tazuna's voice choked up and tears couldn't help but slide from the corners of his eyes. It was clear he had very deep feelings for this son-in-law, and this grief was still deeply etched in his heart.
Although Inari acted like a tragic protagonist all day, even discouraging others who were working hard—behavior that was indeed annoying—Naruto could understand him.
In Inari's young heart, his stepfather Kaiza was the most capable, bravest hero in the world, the most reliable existence.
This image was probably equivalent to how the children of Konoha Village saw the Hokage—someone who seemed capable of solving all problems.
Yet this hero who he regarded as faith and pillar was easily destroyed and trampled by evil forces in front of so many people... This collapse of faith and enormous trauma was enough to make a child completely lose confidence in "effort" and "resistance," falling into the abyss of despair.
But Naruto couldn't help wanting to complain internally—why did people in this world, especially ordinary civilians, always lack basic understanding of the true strength differences between ninja?
Gato was clearly one of the world's top tycoons, wealthy enough to rival nations, yet the so-called "subordinates" he kept were almost entirely trash like wandering samurai and thugs who only bullied the weak and feared the strong.
The only capable fighter, Momochi Zabuza, was someone he'd hired temporarily from outside with heavy payment.
It could be said that to completely topple this kind of guy who only had wealth without matching force to protect it, any of the five great ninja villages need only send out one standard Jonin squad to solve it perfectly. At most it would be A-rank mission difficulty and pricing.
Maybe it was because when the creator first conceived the Naruto world, he hadn't thought that deeply... A purely evil villain like Gato who was rich but heartless was probably the most standard "bad guy" form he could think of at the time.
But anyway, Gato's time was almost up. One of the world's richest people, huh... Kakuzu should have many "common topics" about "money" to chat with Gato about.
Naruto somewhat maliciously imagined that scene.
After a while, Tsunami, who had finished comforting her son, returned to the living room with an apologetic smile and began silently preparing dinner for everyone.
Perhaps because the earlier story had made the atmosphere too heavy, during dinner, Tazuna deliberately used a light tone to ease the mood: "Ah, how happy this is. It's been so long since it was this lively, eating with so many people."
However, the dining table remained silent with no one responding. Everyone finished dinner in this somewhat oppressive quiet.
During rest time, after everyone had gone to sleep, Naruto quietly came alone to the forest clearing where they had trained during the day.
He first formed seals to create a shadow clone. This clone immediately used Transformation Technique, taking on Menma's appearance, then put on the fox mask that could block perception.
After preparations were complete, the clone activated Flying Thunder God Technique, instantly disappearing to head for the Ember organization base far away in the Land of Hot Water.
Naruto's main body began high-intensity solo training. He focused on practicing complex sealing techniques and controlling Adamantine Sealing Chains. He planned to train until his body felt tired before sleeping.
The night forest air was cool, but continuous movement kept him from feeling cold. After once again exerting himself to use Adamantine Sealing Chains until his chakra was severely depleted and he was gasping for breath, intense fatigue struck. Naruto felt his eyelids growing heavier, so he lay down on the soft grass, looked up at the starry sky, and soon fell into deep sleep.
Fortunately, sleeping wouldn't directly cause shadow clones to disappear. When ninja use Shadow Clone Technique, they distribute their chakra evenly among all clones and the main body at once.
This distributed chakra acts like a "battery" to maintain the clone's existence and activity. As long as this chakra isn't depleted or the clone doesn't suffer fatal attacks, the clone won't disappear. Sleep is a physiological behavior for both main body and clones, not a chakra-consuming attack.
Sleep can even help recover chakra, so unless the main body suffers severe injury causing chakra circulation disruption, normal sleep won't affect the already-distributed chakra output used to maintain clones.
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Early the next morning, when dawn was just breaking and Naruto was still sleeping, he was awakened by a gentle, warm voice.
"Sleeping in a place like this will make you catch cold."
Naruto drowsily sat up and rubbed his eyes, indeed seeing the person he had expected.
It was a "girl" with beautiful long black hair, wearing a proper, elegant kimono, with delicate features and gentle mannerisms... if Naruto didn't know his true gender.
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