Chapter 160: Transaction
"Demon... It's a demon!!"
Gato was completely terrified by the hellish slaughter that had occurred in an instant before his eyes. Absolute fear poured down from his head like ice water, instantly freezing his blood and thoughts.
His whole body trembled violently beyond control, his pants quickly soaked through—he had literally been scared into losing control of his bladder.
Survival instinct drove him to scramble and crawl, turning around and frantically fleeing toward the bridge entrance on all fours, making meaningless whimpers and wails.
However, a massive black shadow suddenly burst from the shadows at the bridge head! A giant claw covered in white fur and bulging with muscles mercilessly pinned the fleeing Gato to the bridge surface!
It was White Tiger, one of the Nine-Faced Beasts. It looked down at Gato struggling like a worm beneath its claw, emitting a low rumbling sound from its throat.
Behind White Tiger, eight other massive shadows of different forms but all radiating powerful chakra waves slowly emerged from mist or shadows, completely blocking the bridge's exit.
The Nine-Faced Beasts that Menma had positioned from the beginning had already cut off all of Gato's escape routes.
"Let me go! Bastard! Monster! Let go!"
Gato was at the peak of terror, hysterically crying and struggling, but for White Tiger, which possessed elite jonin-level strength, this struggle was as weak as an infant's—completely futile.
Menma and Kakuzu slowly walked over to Gato, who was pinned firmly to the ground by White Tiger. Seeing the fox mask and green-eyed man approaching, Gato shrieked: "Wait, wait! What... what do you want?! If you kill me... Gato Corporation won't let you go! They'll investigate to the end..."
Before Gato could finish his threat, Menma lifted his foot and kicked Gato hard in the face!
Thump!
A dull impact! Menma had pulled back most of his strength at the last moment, afraid of accidentally kicking the guy to death.
Even so, Gato was kicked until blood spurted from his nose, several teeth mixed with bloody foam flying from his mouth, causing him to let out pig-like screams of pain.
"Shh..."
Menma lowered his head. "Quiet down. Don't worry, I'm not the one who'll be 'pleasantly spending time' with you next."
He pointed to Kakuzu beside him, whose eyes were becoming increasingly dangerous.
"Our Ember organization's financial manager will have a good 'chat' with you about interrogation and asset transfer. In the precious remaining time of your life, try to maintain some dignity and don't make yourself too pathetic, okay?"
"I... I can give you all my money! All my assets! Everything! If you... if you want it... just take it all!"
Gato completely broke down, shouting through tears and snot: "You... spare my life... I'll give you everything..."
"Ah—no no no no no no no no no, that won't do."
Menma used a rapid series of negative syllables to mercilessly cut off Gato's pleas.
"If you were just an ordinary level of greedy scum, I might consider sparing your life..."
Menma's voice suddenly became ice-cold. "But you personally dragged the entire Land of Waves into hell, using capital and violence to crush countless people's lives... the sins you've committed have made even this current killing 'justified.'"
"So I absolutely won't let you go. Understand?"
With that said, Menma turned around decisively. He still had real recruitment work to complete.
Kakuzu eagerly took over the mud-like Gato from White Tiger's giant claw, roughly dragging him by one leg toward the other end of the bridge. What followed was the "wonderful" work that Menma had personally promised him, which he'd been anticipating for days.
"Heh heh heh heh... let's go, Mr. Gato."
Kakuzu's voice was filled with almost joyful anticipation, his eyes gleaming with greedy light for enormous wealth. "How exciting... one of the world's richest men. The leader really takes good care of me, don't you think? My boss is really a good person."
As he spoke, he unceremoniously dragged the limp Gato, preparing to head to Gato Corporation's main headquarters for a long and "thorough" financial interrogation session.
On the other side, Zabuza still stood rigid as a stone statue before Haku. The enormous hole in the boy's chest was painfully obvious, constantly reminding him of a cold fact—with such injuries, Haku was already dead...
This desperate thought echoed madly in his mind like a persistent parasite after Gato and his thugs were instantly eliminated, devouring his last bit of strength.
His originally chosen ending—fighting Gato to the death—had been completely disrupted by this sudden turn of events. Now he could only stand powerlessly before this boy who had lived alongside him day and night but was now silent and still, his eyes dim and his heart dead as ash.
Haku... I'm sorry... all this time, you were the one protecting me... and I... until the very end I couldn't do anything for you...
If it were possible... I really... would want to go to the same place as you...
Zabuza had a clear understanding of himself. He knew his hands were stained with blood, destined to fall into hell. But unlike him, Haku would surely go to heaven after death...
"What an incredibly rare sight."
Menma slowly walked to Zabuza's side, his voice carrying a hint of playful mockery. "The so-called 'Demon of the Mist,' Momochi Zabuza, famous throughout the ninja world for his Silent Killing technique, actually heartbroken over one person."
Zabuza slowly raised his head, looking at Menma with those hollow, lifeless eyes without any response, then silently returned his gaze to that pale face on the ground.
Seeing Zabuza's heart dead as ash, not even bothering to respond to his obviously provocative words, Menma wasn't displeased—instead, he was even more satisfied.
What he valued was precisely this deep feeling Zabuza had for Haku. This would guarantee that Zabuza absolutely couldn't refuse his upcoming proposal.
"This child... has the Ice Style bloodline limit, right? What a pity." Menma sighed with feigned regret, his gaze sweeping over Haku's body. "To possess such strength at this age, and to be so loyal to you... you really picked up a very useful 'tool'..."
"That's not true!!!"
Unexpectedly, the silent Zabuza suddenly raised his head, hoarsely interrupting Menma's words! In his emotional agitation, he even began coughing violently.
"Haku... is not a tool!!" Tears once again flowed uncontrollably from Zabuza's eyes, mixing with blood and dirt as they traced down his rigid cheeks. "I... I couldn't do it... in the end... I couldn't do anything for him... I couldn't even... I couldn't even..."
He choked up, unable to continue. Enormous grief and helplessness completely overwhelmed him. Menma spoke again.
"...Very good, Zabuza. Ninja cannot become tools—it seems you understand this point. So let's make a deal."
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