Zabuza was an elite Jonin who had killed countless people; his killing intent alone was more than someone like Gato, a mere civilian, could endure.
Although Gato was extremely displeased with Zabuza, he didn't dare provoke him at this moment.
He was terrified that Zabuza might swing his Executioner's Blade and cut him in half.
It was only after Zabuza and Haku had left that Gato finally regained his composure.
The moment he snapped out of it, rage consumed him.
Seeing that Zabuza was no longer in sight, he immediately cursed aloud, "Damn it! What kind of useless Jonin is that? Acting all high and mighty! If you won't do the job, plenty of others will!"
Just as he finished cursing, Zabuza appeared before him once more.
His cold gaze pierced into Gato.
Terrified, Gato dropped to his knees again. "I-I wasn't talking about you! Please spare me!"
Zabuza rested the Executioner's Blade against Gato's neck.
The two samurai tried to intervene, but before they could draw their swords, Haku appeared out of nowhere and restrained their hands.
"If you don't want to die, don't act recklessly," Haku warned.
The two samurai wanted to save Gato, but they were entirely subdued by Haku.
As wandering ronin with limited skills, they couldn't even handle a low-ranking ninja, let alone someone like Haku, whose strength was already at the level of a Jonin.
"Half of the payment for this mission will go to me. If you don't pay up, I'll take it myself—and I can't guarantee you'll live through that," Zabuza said coldly.
His icy tone sent Gato into a panic. The man kowtowed repeatedly, begging for mercy.
"I'll pay! I'll pay immediately! Just please don't kill me!"
Having brought dozens of samurai with him, Gato was now left with only two, and even those two were useless.
It was only now that Gato fully grasped the vast gap in strength between samurai and ninja.
He finally understood how terrifying Zabuza was.
In the ninja world, even many samurai had been forced to abandon their way and become ninjas instead.
Zabuza had no interest in wasting more time on Gato. After issuing his threat, he and Haku left.
Only after confirming that Zabuza and Haku were truly gone did Gato collapse onto the ground, his entire body trembling.
"Damn it… I've lost so much," he muttered bitterly.
Even at a time like this, Gato, ever the businessman, couldn't help but focus on his financial losses.
After that encounter, Gato didn't send anyone else to disrupt the bridge construction.
After all, the construction team had Kakashi and his group protecting them.
Gato had already hired two elite Jonin to assassinate Tazuna, but they had failed. He knew Tazuna's hired ninjas were extraordinarily powerful, and it would be a waste of money to hire more ninjas for the job.
Once the bridge was completed, his shipping business would undoubtedly suffer greatly.
But what could Gato do?
All he could do was watch helplessly as the bridge neared completion.
Meanwhile, Yoruha spent his time learning sealing techniques from Kakashi.
Sealing techniques were far more difficult to master than other forms of ninjutsu. Kakashi had spent several days explaining the theoretical principles alone.
Yoruha studied diligently, but after several days, he had yet to begin practical training in sealing techniques.
In the forest.
After days of theory, Kakashi finally began teaching Yoruha how to perform sealing techniques.
The first technique was a seal capable of restraining Tailed Beasts: the Four Symbols Seal.
The Fourth Hokage had used a variation of this technique, the Eight Trigrams Seal, to seal the Nine-Tails into Naruto. The Eight Trigrams Seal was essentially two Four Symbols Seals combined, a further development of the original technique.
The Four Symbols Seal was a powerful sealing technique from the Uzumaki Clan.
Its strength far surpassed the techniques other ninja villages used to seal Tailed Beasts.
"It's much stronger—that's what Killer Bee said."
As long as Yoruha mastered the Four Symbols Seal and could suppress a Tailed Beast, he could use the seal to confine it within anyone's body—including his own.
Of course, Yoruha would never actually do such a thing.
Kakashi spent over an hour explaining the theory to Yoruha, and then, with an expectant look, asked, "Yoruha, did you understand it? Any ideas?"
Kakashi's hopefulness came from the fact that even he didn't fully understand the technique, let alone practice it.
Yoruha remained silent for a moment.
Just as Kakashi started to feel disappointed, Yoruha nodded.
"I'll give it a try."
Kakashi was stunned. "You understood it? Don't tell me you've already figured out how to do it?"
Yoruha didn't reply. Instead, he walked over to the side and began forming hand seals.
"Four Symbols Seal!"
With a "boom," Yoruha completed the seals and slammed his palm against a nearby tree.
Immediately, a sealing formula appeared on the tree beneath Yoruha's hand—a complex and intricate set of mysterious runes.
Crack.
A cracking sound echoed as the portion of the tree trunk covered by the seal suddenly vanished, leaving a gap in the wood.
Seeing his work, Yoruha's lips curved into a small smile.
"It worked."
He hadn't expected to succeed on his first try.
"Wow, this seal consumes so much chakra! Just sealing a piece of wood drained as much chakra as a C-rank jutsu. That's insane!"
Even though Yoruha had a significant chakra reserve, he couldn't help but marvel at the enormous consumption of this sealing technique.
"If sealing a piece of wood is like this, how much chakra would it take to seal the Nine-Tails?"
"No wonder the Uzumaki Clan members all had immense chakra reserves. Without that, it'd be impossible to sustain such enormous consumption."
Yoruha now fully understood how demanding sealing techniques were, not just in skill but in chakra requirements.
It was terrifying.
"No wonder so few people learn sealing techniques. Aside from their complexity, they probably also require incredibly high chakra reserves," he thought to himself.
His face, however, remained impassive.
Meanwhile, Kakashi, who was standing nearby, was completely stunned.
"You succeeded on your first try?!"
He couldn't believe it.
Kakashi knew Yoruha's talent for ninjutsu was exceptional, but during the past few days of teaching him sealing theory, he could tell Yoruha found it challenging.
He hadn't held much hope.
Sealing techniques were undeniably high-difficulty ninjutsu, and it was no surprise there were so few ninja in the world specializing in them.
Yet Yoruha not only grasped it, but succeeded on his very first attempt.
And this was the Four Symbols Seal, one of the most advanced sealing techniques.
Even in Konoha, only a handful of individuals had mastered it before—such as the First Hokage, the Second Hokage, Uzumaki Mito, Uzumaki Kushina, and Minato Namikaze.
Not even the Third Hokage, known as the "Professor of Ninjutsu," had learned it.
If the Third Hokage had known the Four Symbols Seal, Naruto's rampages as a child might have been prevented.
There was a time when Naruto lost control and rampaged, forcing the entire Konoha sealing squad to suppress him.
And even then, the Nine-Tails had not fully emerged, with no tails manifesting.
Had the Third Hokage known the Four Symbols Seal, he could have directly reinforced the Eight Trigrams Seal left by Minato.
Unfortunately, he didn't.
Of course, both the Third Hokage and Danzo had learned single-use sealing techniques. The Third mastered the Reaper Death Seal, while Danzo had learned the Reverse Four Symbols Seal.
Kakashi walked over, interrupting Yoruha's thoughts.
"You did it, Yoruha."
Yoruha snapped out of his reverie and said casually, "Ah, I guess I did. But this seal really drains a lot of chakra."
Kakashi was momentarily taken aback. "Oh? It consumes a lot of chakra?"
Yoruha nodded. "I only sealed a piece of wood, but it already used up as much chakra as a C-rank jutsu."
Kakashi chuckled. "Well, it is an Uzumaki Clan sealing technique. High chakra consumption is to be expected. The important thing is—you've mastered it."
"And such a difficult sealing technique, no less. This is a great start."
"Since you've learned the Four Symbols Seal, the Eight Trigrams Seal shouldn't be a problem for you."
After all, the Eight Trigrams Seal was simply an enhanced version of the Four Symbols Seal.
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