"Kazama-sensei, are you kidding me? Bringing these two dangerous individuals with us?"

Sasuke stared at Zabuza with vigilance, "This guy... just a few hours ago, he was trying to chop off our heads."

Naruto, on the other hand, was carefree, grinning as he leaned in: "With Kazama-sensei here, what are you afraid of, Sasuke! Besides, they're hurt so badly, they definitely can't beat us."

Hearing this, Kazama patted the back of Sasuke's head: "Alright, having vigilance is a good thing, but trust others once in a while. Don't live life so tiringly."

"Hmph! Don't expect me to lift a finger if anything happens." Sasuke let out a cold hmph and turned his head away.

...

On the other side of the bridge, the villagers of the Land of Waves began to bustle about after the celebration.

Inari strapped the crossbow to his back and stood at a high vantage point to direct them.

"Everyone, collect all the weapons left behind by those bastards! Don't leave a single one behind!"

The villagers responded one after another.

Some went to pick up the fine steel longswords dropped by the wandering samurai, while others joined forces to drag those heavy meteor hammers together.

These weapons were nothing to Ninja, but to the unarmed civilians of the Land of Waves who had always been at the mercy of others, they were a huge fortune. With these real weapons, if any punks or ruffians ever wanted to occupy the Land of Waves in the future, they would have the power to fight back.

Immediately after, several strong fishermen walked up to Gato's headless corpse.

The leader spat heavily onto Gato's body.

"It's this Vampire that caused us not even to have food to eat!"

"Go feed the fish!"

Two strong men each grabbed one of Gato's legs and swung with force, tossing the corpse out over the bridge's railing.

The people nearby weren't idle either; they raised a foot and kicked Gato's head down as well.

After doing all this, most of the grievances that the crowd had held in for many years were finally vented.

Tazuna squeezed out from the crowd with tears streaming down his old face.

He jogged all the way to Kazama, and because he was too excited, he stumbled and almost fell flat on his face.

Seeing this, Naruto was quick-witted and grabbed Tazuna's arm: "Bridge-building old man, be careful."

"Mr. Kazama! Naruto! Sasuke! Sakura!"

Tazuna was so excited he was incoherent: "Thank you! Thank you so much! The Land of Waves is saved, and the bridge is saved too!"

He wiped the tears and snot from his face, turned to face the villagers behind him, and raised his right hand high.

"Fellow villagers! Being able to build this bridge relies entirely on the desperate protection of the Konoha Shinobi!"

"I've decided! To forever remember this kindness, starting today, this bridge is officially named Kazama Bridge!"

As soon as these words were spoken, the villagers burst into rounds of applause.

"Right! Call it Kazama Bridge!"

"This name is good! Resounding!"

"The Konoha Ninja are the great benefactors of the Land of Waves!"

Even Inari joined in the commotion, clapping and cheering.

Naruto crossed his hands behind his head, smiling so broadly his eyes disappeared: "Mister, actually calling it Naruto Bridge... we can still discuss it!"

Sakura slapped the back of Naruto's head: "Stop being so conceited over there!"

Kazama stood in place, listening to the louder and louder cries of "Kazama Bridge" around him, black lines appearing on his forehead.

Named after his own name? This was purely courting death.

Hanging his own name on a bridge in another country, wasn't this purely swaggering around like a live target? In the future, whenever someone didn't like him and passed through the Land of Waves, wouldn't they spit a couple of times on the bridge? Or simply blow the bridge up with a few Explosive Tags?

Where would he, Kazama, put his face?

Kazama waved his hands repeatedly, loudly interrupting everyone's cheers.

"Stop! Absolutely not! Uncle Tazuna, I appreciate everyone's good intentions. This name won't do, absolutely not."

Tazuna looked puzzled: "Why? Mr. Kazama."

Kazama walked forward a couple of steps, his gaze sweeping across those civilians of the Land of Waves.

"Being able to save this bridge relies not only on me and the Konoha Shinobi."

He reached out and pointed at Inari, then pointed at the villagers who had blocked the head of the bridge just moments ago.

"Think about it yourselves, when Gato wanted to run just now, who blocked his retreat?"

"It was you people of the Land of Waves."

"Facing the threat of hundreds of Explosive Tags, you didn't take a single step back. This kind of backbone, no one else can give it to you."

"If a country relies entirely on outsiders to save it, sooner or later it will have the next Gato riding on its neck to shit."

Kazama looked around, raising his volume: "Today, everyone picked up weapons yourselves and took back control of the Land of Waves."

"This bridge was built brick by brick, and even more, it was protected with everyone's lives. It represents the backbone of everyone in the Land of Waves."

Kazama turned his head and looked at Tazuna.

"So, don't call it Kazama Bridge anymore."

"If you ask me, calling it People's Bridge is pretty good."

As his voice fell, the bridge fell into a silence lasting over a dozen seconds.

Zabuza sat on the ground, listening to Kazama's remarks, only feeling that this guy's head was broken.

In his eyes, civilians were mere grass, numbers that could be sacrificed at any time.

He had never heard of any powerfully skilled Ninja who would push the credit onto a group of ordinary people who didn't even have Chakra.

"This guy... what kind of freak is he anyway." Zabuza muttered softly.

Haku looked at Kazama's back and softly chimed in: "Lord Zabuza, maybe following him, we can see a different scenery."

It was unknown who took the lead in shouting out in the crowd.

"People's Bridge!"

Immediately after, the entire bridge boiled over with excitement.

"Right! The bridge we built ourselves!"

"People's Bridge! This name has strength!"

Sasuke looked at Kazama, who was surrounded by the crowd, and let out a cold hmph: "This guy really has a way of buying people's hearts."

Naruto jumped up and down with excitement: "Kazama-sensei is so cool! People's Bridge sounds even more imposing than Naruto Bridge!"