Chapter 73: Kado's Defeat

Another agonizing day had passed. Bad news fluttered in like snowflakes from all corners, burying the entire office.

Kado sat in his beloved executive chair. This finely crafted seat, a product of the Ryuzokai, had witnessed his most triumphant moments and absorbed the sweat of his careful deliberations. Yet now, the fruit it bore was nothing but bitterness.

He could not comprehend how it had come to this. Since that woman, Mei Terumi, left, not a single piece of good news had arrived. On the not-so-broad land of the Land of Waves, war spread like a plague, mercilessly consuming every inch of ground. Those once-corrupt noble families, seduced by Kado’s wealth, had all lost their voices. Back when Kado brandished his money, the nobles flocked to him, eager to bask in his favor. This spacious office had been built to accommodate them comfortably, so their dignity would not be slighted.

But now, when Kado needed them most, when he desperately required their support, they were nowhere to be found. They hadn’t even bothered to make excuses—they simply vanished, evaporating into thin air.

Kado could not fathom how the situation had descended into such chaos. In a single night, flames of war were everywhere. He could no longer distinguish between friend and foe, ally and enemy.

Amidst this chaos, a steel-clad army descended like a tempest, unstoppable, striking straight into the heart of Kado’s stronghold. It was an elite force composed of steam-powered quadrupedal robots—machines far more advanced than anything Kado had seen from the Ryuzokai’s most cutting-edge models in the Land of Fields. These iron giants, immense and indestructible, could draw all enemy fire, shield the soldiers below from harm, and unleash their onboard weapons to eliminate any hidden threats Kado had left behind.

Power and technology fused in perfect harmony.

The fortress that housed Kado Shipping Company’s headquarters had once been the supreme symbol of authority in the Land of Waves—far more formidable and imposing than the local lord’s castle keep. Its high walls were built from rock quarried overseas and reinforced with thick iron plating, forming literal walls of copper and steel.

Yet under the iron tread of the steam-powered robots, these high walls crumbled like sandcastles. The machines advanced inexorably, each step making the ground tremble, as if even the heavens dimmed before their might.

“No, this can’t be! It’s all a lie!”

Kado, once a mighty overlord, now faced a catastrophe he could not escape, his heart swelling with a terror and despair he had never known.

He refused to believe his downfall had come so swiftly.

“My fortress is impregnable! How could those traitors and outsiders have breached my defenses so easily?”

“No, I can’t just sit here and wait for death! My life of luxury isn’t over—I cannot let it end here!”

With that, Kado lunged for the receiver, screaming hoarsely, “Counterattack! Fight back! Pick up your weapons and push them back! I paid for you, bought all those weapons for this very moment!”

Kado raved maniacally, clinging to the last shreds of his crumbling authority with desperate commands. He was well aware that his hired thugs had long since scattered, and that the mercenaries and ronin he’d paid for were no match for the enemy. Yet he refused to accept the truth.

“Wait—I still have those Mist ninja that Mei Terumi left behind!”

He barked, “Send the Mist ninja out! If they can assassinate the enemy leader, I can still turn this around!”

But—

“Fang Over Fang!”

A sharp cry, and Kiba Inuzuka ordered his ninja hounds to attack, slamming a Mist ninja into the ground. The brutal impact snuffed out the man’s life instantly; he was nothing more than a bag of shattered bones and flesh, his final scream wrung from him as he perished.

“Gentle Fist!”

With a resounding thud, Hiashi Hyuga sent another would-be assassin flying. The rest of the Mist ninja, for reasons unknown, showed no fear at Hiashi’s presence—instead, they seemed invigorated.

“There’s another Hyuga over there! Take him down! Snatch his Byakugan! We’ll be the next Ao!”

They surged forward, inspired by Ao’s legendary feat of stealing a Byakugan from a Hyuga. In their eyes, the Hyuga were nothing to fear.

But—“Rotation!”

A hemisphere of blue chakra erupted, flinging all the Mist ninja back and snuffing out their lives in an instant. Perhaps only in that final moment did they understand why Ao’s accomplishment—tearing a Byakugan from a Hyuga’s socket—had become a tale celebrated for years.

Elsewhere, Shiki Aburame was also beset by Mist ninja. He lifted the tiny lid on the jar at his waist, releasing a swarm of kikaichu beetles.

“Giant Bug—Devour!”

The sound was grisly and relentless, and the Mist ninja vanished in a crimson haze, their forms erased in an instant.

Having dispatched the enemies before him, Shiki Aburame commanded his giant kikaichu beetles to press the attack. These beetles, a special breed cultivated by the Aburame clan, could rapidly drain their life force to grow to enormous size. Once enlarged, their lifespan was brief, so Shiki made sure to use them to maximum effect.

Moreover, he had bred these kikaichu with special traits.

With two thunderous blasts, the last wall collapsed. As the giant beetles reached the end of their lives, they ruptured on Shiki’s command, spilling the volatile, flammable liquid stored inside them.

Now, nothing physical stood between the main force and Kado.

Kado’s subordinates were dead or had fled, and the number of those captured or surrendering was beyond counting. Not a single Mist ninja left by Mei Terumi remained.

“How can this be? After ruling for so many years, how could it all end like this?”

When Naruto found Kado, he was muttering to himself in the wrecked office, his voice tinged with bitterness and regret.

“Kado, you’ve lost,” Naruto declared, pronouncing the final verdict.

The swagger and arrogance that once defined Kado had vanished, leaving only dejection and despair. His eyes were vacant, lifeless, his body trembling under the crushing weight of failure.

“You win. I surrender,” Kado finally admitted, a trace of self-mockery in his tone.

“I should have known—there are no eternal victors in the game of power. Perhaps I should never have taken a seat at this table.”

“If you never gamble, you can never lose. At least you understood that much,” Naruto said, waving for those behind him to cuff Kado and take him away.

The ones who bound Kado’s hands were villagers from the fishing settlement, people who had suffered grievously under his rule. To place the cuffs on him and take him captive held deep meaning for them.

Naruto did not see these people as soldiers; in his eyes, they were still far from being true warriors.