Chapter 158: Beginning to Change
Seeing this, Kakashi slowly lowered the kunai pointed at Zabuza. He fully understood now—the Momochi Zabuza before him was no longer an enemy that needed to be dealt with first.
He had become a victim of Gato's scheming, a "tool" that had lost its usefulness and was about to be disposed of by his employer.
"What 'Demon of the Mist'? In my eyes, you're nothing but a clown playing with swords!"
Gato and his gang of thugs, completely oblivious to their own mortality, continued mocking the fallen Zabuza with incredibly crude language, their grating laughter echoing across the bridge.
"Kakashi," Zabuza's voice carried an unprecedented calm, "I apologize. Our battle ends here. I no longer have any reason to kill that old man." He actively declared a ceasefire.
Gato smugly stepped forward a few paces and quickly spotted Haku lying motionless nearby.
"Oh? Is this little brat already dead?" Gato kicked Haku's unresponsive body with the tip of his shoe, his tone flippant. "Hmph, how dare he lay hands on me... Hmph!"
He raised his bandage-wrapped hand—the very injury Haku had given him during their earlier encounter. After speaking, he vindictively kicked Haku's body again hard.
Watching Haku's "corpse" being treated so roughly, Zabuza's surface remained that same expressionless, cold appearance, but his clenched fists had turned white at the knuckles, every muscle in his body tensed to its limit.
He stood on the precipice of complete emotional breakdown, the thread of his sanity ready to snap at any moment.
Naruto knew that now he only needed one final push to make Zabuza fully understand that he could never truly see Haku as just an insignificant "tool."
He gently freed himself from Satsuki's support, giving her a reassuring "don't worry" look, then stepped forward and spoke in a calm voice.
"His body is being treated like that... aren't you going to do something about it, Zabuza?"
"...Haku is dead." Zabuza's voice was desperately trying to convince himself. "As a tool, he has completely lost any value. How he's treated... doesn't matter anymore."
"How pitiful he truly is then..." Naruto's tone carried just the right touch of regret. "You know, right up until his final moment, all he was thinking about, all he risked his life to protect... was only you."
These words struck precisely into the deepest, softest part of Zabuza's heart—a place even he refused to acknowledge!
The lower half of Zabuza's face, tightly wrapped in bandages, began trembling uncontrollably. His teeth clenched so hard they made grinding sounds. The cold shell he had forcibly constructed was cracking at a visible rate.
Kakashi watched Naruto's seemingly inflammatory behavior with confusion, but out of trust in Naruto, and given the current need to stay alert to Gato and his subordinates as the primary threat, he didn't intervene—only observed the changing situation more vigilantly.
"Don't you feel anything at all in your heart?" Naruto's voice slowly cut through Zabuza's hard facade. "You know... he gave his life for you without complaint or regret, thinking of you right until the very end."
"He was a formidable opponent... he fought with everything he had to take me down, all because it was part of your dream..."
"Shut up... kid." Zabuza's voice squeezed through gritted teeth.
"His dream... was your dream..." Naruto continued as if he hadn't heard, using words to pound against his mental defenses. "He loved you so much, admired you so deeply... yet in the end he could only die like a disposable tool... what a cruel, pitiful life."
"I told you to stop talking!!"
Zabuza suddenly erupted in a near-breakdown roar, forcibly interrupting Naruto's words. His heart could no longer bear this enormous pain and guilt.
Finally, scalding tears broke through all restraints. The "Demon" who had never shown weakness before anyone now wept uncontrollably, tears mixing with the blood on his face as they dripped onto the bridge surface.
"I know... I know it all! Haku... Haku was just a complete and utter good person! An idiot!"
How could he possibly not care? Haku's "death" had already shattered his heart into a million pieces. He just hadn't realized it himself—through all those days and nights spent together with Haku, he had become unable to give up those feelings, unable to see Haku as merely a tool anymore.
A "true ninja"? At this moment, Zabuza finally understood completely—ninja are people too, people with flesh and blood who feel pain and cry, fundamentally unable to become emotionless killing tools.
"Hey hey... you guys are really not taking me seriously at all, are you?" Gato, who had been left aside, laughed impatiently and wickedly, interrupting this heavy atmosphere. "Whatever, wasting my time and money on you dying people isn't worth it. Attack! Kill them all!"
At his command, the gang of thugs who had been eager to act immediately brandished various weapons with ill intent, shouting as they closed in.
I must... do something for Haku at the end...
Zabuza's heart was absolutely certain. His tear-blurred vision locked dead onto Gato, who had desecrated Haku's "corpse."
Good... it seems he's recognized what's in his own heart.
Naruto watched Zabuza's reaction and knew the time was right. Now it was time for another "himself" to make his entrance.
Zabuza flexed his one remaining functional arm, his eyes burning with the will to fight to the death, preparing to charge at Gato and his ragtag army for one final battle—just then!
"ROAR!!!!"
A violent hurricane suddenly whipped up across the bridge without warning! The powerful wind pressure even made the small-framed Gato stumble and nearly fall! Satsuki's expression changed dramatically, unsure what this sudden development meant. Her first instinct was to firmly protect the seemingly weak Naruto behind her.
Kakashi also immediately entered a state of high alert again, his Sharingan rapidly scanning the surroundings. A hurricane of this scale... absolutely couldn't be a natural phenomenon!
"Who is it?!" Gato shouted in alarm and suspicion, his subordinates also looking around in panic.
Just then, clear footsteps came from the other end of the bridge. It sounded like two people's footsteps.
Under everyone's suspicious gazes, two figures penetrated through the not-yet-completely-settled wind pressure and slowly approached.
The leader wore a bizarre fox mask and was draped in a black robe, while following behind him was a man in black robes radiating danger—Kakuzu.
The fox-masked Menma stopped walking, his gaze sweeping across the entire scene before finally settling on Gato. His voice came through the mask, clearly echoing in everyone's ears.
"This boring farce can end now."
"Sorry, but I can't let these two die here..."
His tone suddenly became incredibly cold. "The one who truly deserves to die—is you, Gato."
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