Before washing in the Waterfall of Truth, the Nine-Tails Chakra could draw out the deep-seated malice in a person's heart.
For the current Naruto, his twenty-odd years of experience from his past life kept him from being deeply affected. Coupled with the fact that the Nine-Tails absorbed some of the malice, the absorption of the chakra was much purer than before.
Naruto could feel power surging endlessly through all the cells in his body, and faint red chakra emerged around him, raising the temperature of the air by a notch.
Without any hesitation, Naruto dug his toes into the ground and charged fiercely at Haku. Moving like thunder, he threw a heavy punch aimed straight at shattering Haku's mask!
At the same time, Sakura drew a Fuma shuriken, spun around, and hurled it—aimed straight at Zabuza's "corpse"!
Everything happened in the flash of a spark!
Kakashi instinctively tried to stop them, but he was heavily depleted and his body wouldn't obey for a moment, leaving Sasuke to support him.
Haku's heart sank, and he immediately hoisted Zabuza and dodged to the side.
"Boom!" Naruto's thunderous strike generated a sonic boom in the air. Flexing his muscles, he forcibly adjusted his body mid-air, quickly wrapped his legs in chakra, and kicked the missed Fuma shuriken straight toward Haku!
"Damn it, I almost got my leg sawed off by those blades," Naruto sneered, his body's momentum carrying him forward toward a tree trunk. Pushing off with his foot, he catapulted back toward Haku, red chakra wings sprouting from his back to make his propulsion even faster.
Although he maintained his basic sanity, Naruto's fighting style had turned fiercely aggressive, giving off an unrelenting, do-or-die aura.
Haku kicked the central grip of the Fuma shuriken, deflected it, and threw flying needles straight at Naruto's vital points.
Naruto easily deflected all the silver needles with his Nine-Tails Chakra and sent Haku and Zabuza flying with a headbutt, while Sakura had already sprinted around to Haku's rear.
Haku tumbled a few times and flew into a rage.
"How dare you attack Zabuza-san's beautiful body!" His mask cracked, his hair flew in disarray, and his initial cool and detached composure vanished completely.
Naruto stood before him and said with a mocking grin, "Little chick, you finally showed your true colors."
*The Overbearing Little Crossdresser Falls for the CEO*, nice.
Haku began forming hand seals with one hand, looking intent on reuniting Naruto and his loved ones right on the spot.
Right at that moment, an unexpected crisis erupted!
A massive horde of masked ninjas clad in silver armor poured out like a school of fish, charging straight toward Tazuna. Sasuke was shocked, and instinctively threw all the Explosive Tag shuriken from his pouch while shouting at the top of his lungs, "Naruto, let's fall back!"
He felt like a babysitter on the battlefield, protecting Tazuna one second and Kakashi the next.
He had sacrificed way too much for this team...
"Gato, you son of a bitch!" Naruto cursed. He couldn't keep chasing Haku now, or the enemy would steal the objective, Tazuna would die, and they'd all be laughing as the game over screen flashed.
"Boom!! Boom!!" At that moment, the traps Sakura had set up in advance began to trigger continuously, inflicting heavy casualties on the enemy. Blood and chunks of flesh flew everywhere amidst billowing black smoke and utter chaos.
The trio regrouped: Naruto carried Kakashi on his back, Sasuke carried Tazuna who was practically scared out of his wits, and Sakura threw her remaining lethal ninja tools at Haku to prevent him from forming an ice shield.
However, Haku's secret jutsu required enemies to be within his range. Naruto and Sakura both agreed that the original Naruto must have had rocks in his head; otherwise, continuously bombarding Haku with Explosive Tags from the outside would have been more than enough to give him a hard time.
"Whoosh! Whoosh!" The five of them fled through the chaos. Before leaving for good, Naruto deliberately summoned a shadow clone and started heading toward Konoha.
Damn it, playing the numbers game, are we?
I'm running straight back to Konoha for reinforcements and bringing an entire squad back—let's see how you fight then!
Sakura gave Naruto's clever move a thumbs-up.
...
Hurrying along, the group finally escaped the enemy's encirclement. The trio quickly asked for the address of Tazuna's home while debating whether they should relocate to a safer hiding spot first.
In the original story, Gato's mercenaries ran straight to Tazuna's house to take his family hostage.
If Naruto hadn't overslept, Tazuna's daughter and grandson might have met a grim fate.
"Not moving away in the original story was done to portray the grandson's growth—that's a character arc consideration. But if we don't move now, we're just absolute morons."
Having regained his sobriety, Naruto firmly declared that they had to move; otherwise, he'd let them experience what the innately evil Nine-Tails Demon Fox was all about.
"True, what does Kishimoto know about Naruto anyway," Sakura nodded. Meanwhile, their conversation was overheard by Sasuke and Tazuna.
The two of them looked utterly baffled.
Sasuke coughed and chimed in, "We really can't stay where we are, and besides, we shouldn't go near the bridge right now either."
"Right!" Naruto slapped his forehead. "Old man, just honestly stay with us for two weeks. Once the Konoha reinforcements arrive, we'll figure out our next move."
Sakura facepalmed. Konoha reinforcements, my foot!
Could you take this seriously for once?
Tazuna said with great emotional agitation, "No! Construction on the bridge cannot stop under any circumstances. It's our Land of Waves' only hope..."
As he spoke, his eyes welled with tears.
"Smack!" Naruto gave the back of his head a slap and said impatiently, "Can you look at the big picture? It's not like we're telling you not to build it; we're just saying you should halt construction for a while."
"Besides, stopping work will also lull Gato into a false sense of security, so he won't go making trouble for your workers. Understand?"
"I'll write the suspension notice," Sakura said, feeling some pity for Tazuna while thinking Naruto acted like a bandit. "I used to write promotional posts all the time, the wording won't be a problem."
Naruto narrowed his eyes slightly. "I thought you were a streamer, but after all this time, you're a civil servant?"
"Public institution," Sakura replied coolly.
"Hey, tell me," Naruto said with an evil grin, "does the man by your side feel a special sense of achievement conquering you, seeing how you're both a speedrunner and a public servant..."
In Naruto's view, the Sakura before him still possessed strong personal charm, and in his past life, he definitely would have wanted to be friends with a girl like this.
Not to mention she was a tender young lass from Sichuan—everyone knew the Land of Abundance raised wonderful people...
Ahem, excluding certain pests.
Sakura: "Get lost."
Naruto: "You got it."
The group sped back to Tazuna's house, and Sakura stepped forward to explain the situation to Tazuna's family.
Of course Tazuna agreed to move—after all, if he hadn't, Naruto would have helped him agree.
"I am not moving!" Inari, Tazuna's grandson, let out a loud roar and sprinted upstairs.
Tazuna's daughter looked at them apologetically and asked cautiously, "Can we move in a few days? Inari needs some time to mentally prepare, and besides, this gentleman needs care too," she pointed to Kakashi on Sasuke's back.
"We're moving right now," Naruto said expressionlessly. "Ma'am, we cannot gamble on Gato's kindness. Besides, we already ran into two waves of attacks on our way here. If they track us down later, it'll all be too late."
With that, he strode upstairs and turned back to smile at Tazuna's daughter:
"Don't worry, I won't beat him up."
A brat being attached to his home was understandable.