After the remaining two members of the Hidden Cloud infiltration squad lost the ability to resist because of the sealing techniques on them and were captured one after another, Hinata, the victim, was also rescued safely and in time without the slightest injury.
This unexpected kidnapping incident came quickly and ended just as quickly.
In fact, by the time Hyuga Hiashi, as her father, learned that his daughter had been kidnapped yet again, the four Hidden Cloud intruders had already been secretly transported into the newly reborn Root organization under Naruto's arrangements, where Naruto's shadow clones were giving them a "warm welcome."
Because cameras had been set up in advance, the whole process of the four kidnapping Hinata had been clearly recorded as irrefutable evidence.
On top of that, Konoha had responded with such grand and rapid military support that it seemed as if the entire village had moved the moment one part was touched, almost as if they were protecting the Daimyo of the Land of Fire.
This caused the Hidden Cloud Village, and even the entire ninja world, to mistakenly believe that after Hinata's previous kidnapping incident, Konoha had quietly raised her security level, status, and importance to the same level as the Land of Fire's daimyo in order to prevent the coveted Byakugan bloodline from leaking out.
This sudden and obvious change caught the Hidden Cloud Village completely off guard. When they sent envoys to Konoha to demand their people back, they faced a Third Hokage who was somehow much tougher than before, like a wise and powerful lion that had fully awakened.
They no longer dared show the same overbearing arrogance they had used back then, when they threatened war and twisted logic to force Hizashi to die in Hiashi's place.
Because of the young master's family background, and because they feared the longer this dragged on, the more likely Konoha's interrogation department would extract confidential information from him, the envoys changed their attitude from the very beginning of negotiations and became unusually humble.
To redeem that troublemaking young master as quickly as possible, they even tried to secretly sign a contract with the Third Hokage and promise all kinds of benefits.
Of course, this was not because the young master's father, an elder who had originally wished his son would die in Konoha, suddenly remembered the bond of blood and began caring about the safety of his nominal only son so much that he would bring him back to the Hidden Cloud at any cost.
In his original plan, whether the young master successfully kidnapped Hinata and returned safely as a hero, or whether his own paper-thin strength caused him to be killed on the spot by Konoha ninjas during the kidnapping, Konoha would gain nothing from either outcome.
Who could have known that, completely unlike its previous habit of swallowing humiliation, Konoha would attach such importance to Hinata's safety this time?
Konoha had rapidly mobilized a large force, set up an ambush, and rescued Hinata before she could even be taken out of the village.
According to rough intelligence from spies hiding in Konoha, the Hidden Cloud mistakenly identified Naruto in his adult form as an elite jōnin serving in the Anbu.
That was because he had easily subdued the captain and Number Three one after another, a stunning performance that made him look like a terrifying existence capable of single-handedly crushing all four of them.
Strictly speaking, all four were captured one after another because Naruto had seized the advantage of surprise attacks and succeeded with one strike each time.
After all, even an old fox like Danzo had been fooled to death by him, let alone this group of four who each had their own schemes and were harmonious on the surface but scattered inside.
Because of all these unexpected changes, the young master neither returned safely as a hero nor silently died as his father had hoped. Instead, he was easily captured by Konoha and became a powerful bargaining chip that could be used to force the Hidden Cloud Village to yield.
After all, in the Hidden Cloud Village's eyes, the young master's life might truly be unimportant, even something that could be casually discarded.
But because he had lived in luxury within the Hidden Cloud and because of his father's honored position among the elders, he had intentionally or unintentionally come into contact with and remembered all kinds of confidential information.
That made the Hidden Cloud Village unable to ignore his safety.
They could gamble, of course. They could gamble that the young master's head was filled only with wine, women, and irrelevant nonsense. But what if he really remembered some classified information?
Even a single piece would be an intolerable loss for the Hidden Cloud Village, which had already failed its mission and fallen into an absolute disadvantage because Konoha held evidence against them.
As a result, less than three days after the news of the young master and the others being captured reached the Hidden Cloud Village, their envoys rushed thousands of miles to Konoha in a travel-worn state.
In addition, while signing a contract with the Third Hokage and promising all kinds of generous benefits they believed Konoha could not refuse, the Hidden Cloud envoys also played a small trick.
Because the initiative was currently in Konoha's hands, they feared that showing too much concern would make Konoha suspicious and cause them to reassess the young master's value.
Therefore, when signing the contract, the Hidden Cloud envoys did not specifically request only the young master's redemption. Instead, they made an outrageous demand to redeem all four captured members.
In this way, they could hide their true intention of redeeming the young master to the greatest possible extent. And after successfully redeeming the four, they could use the story as propaganda, loudly claiming that the higher-ups cared deeply about the village's ninjas.
This would create a friendly atmosphere within the village and increase their subordinates' trust in the leadership. It could be considered a helpless attempt to salvage their losses as much as possible.
But they had underestimated how much the current Hidden Leaf Village valued Hinata.
Or rather, they could not imagine how deep and frightening the revenge of a certain wife-protecting demon would become once his reverse scale was touched.
Under ordinary interrogation methods, breaking the mental defenses of a well-trained ninja usually took three to seven days at the shortest, and a month or even longer at the longest.
Before the target's mental defense completely collapsed and gave up resisting, even if the Yamanaka Clan used mental secret techniques to invade the target's consciousness and forcibly read memories, they would most likely obtain only scattered, disorganized fragments.
And because the target would instinctively resist during the forced reading, irreversible mental trauma and brain damage were almost unavoidable afterward.
Once the memory probe ended, the target had a high chance of becoming permanently brain-damaged or an idiot. In other words, there was only one chance to forcibly read memories. Whatever was obtained could not be repeated, and the method itself greatly violated basic ethics.
Unless absolutely necessary, it was a last resort that would never be used.
Precisely because they understood these inner workings, the Hidden Cloud envoys hurried to negotiate while believing that Konoha could not possibly have extracted any confidential intelligence from the four in such a short time. In their eyes, that possibility was as ridiculous and unrealistic as the sky collapsing.
Unfortunately, that conclusion was based on ordinary circumstances.
The current facts were different. After all four were captured, they were secretly moved into the newly reborn Root organization and handed over to Naruto's shadow clones for personal interrogation.
Less than half a day—less than eight hours, to be precise—passed before every one of them was driven to the edge of mental collapse while begging for mercy.
That included the young master, whose miserable state guaranteed even his own mother would not recognize him, and the captain, who had possessed the strongest will among the four. They completely submitted under Naruto's various torments, unable to live and unable to die.
After that, they obediently accepted the Yamanaka Clan's proper mental secret technique without the slightest struggle. As a result, both their conscious minds and even the deeper layers of their subconscious were thoroughly searched clean over the abundant period of more than three days.
After all, there was a time delay before the information about the four being captured reached the Hidden Cloud.
In other words, the reborn Root organization led by Naruto had already assigned specialists to record everything the four knew in painstaking detail.
After venting his rage and leaving a heavy psychological shadow on their fragile hearts during the torture, Naruto felt refreshed and no longer cared much whether the four lived or died. In his view, killing them directly after they lost their value would be too merciful.
Better to leave them alive, letting them spend the rest of their lives trapped in the fear of that hellish eight-hour "ultimate" experience, constantly tortured by a mental shadow that made life worse than death. That was the optimal choice.
On top of that, since he had overstepped his authority by mobilizing a large force without permission, Naruto, who knew when to stop, obediently gave the Third Hokage face and transferred full authority over the final handling of the four to him.
That meant using these four people, whose value had been completely hollowed out, to gain the generous ransom promised by the Hidden Cloud Village.
Their combat strength and usefulness would be greatly reduced for the rest of their lives, because those eight hours had already turned into lifelong nightmares.
At the same time, they could intimidate petty villains from all sides so no one would dare target Hinata lightly again, while also giving the Third Hokage an explanation. For Naruto, that was killing three birds with one stone. Why would he refuse?
As for what exactly happened during those eight hours of interrogation, aside from Naruto and the four Hidden Cloud members involved, several "lucky" people had accompanied him as guards and witnessed the entire process from the sidelines—such as Tenzo and Kakashi, whom Tenzo dragged into it.
After the interrogation ended and they walked out of the torture room, every one of them looked pale and weak.
Not only did they become even more afraid to look directly at Naruto, whenever others curiously asked what had happened during the process, those "lucky" people would suddenly seem to go insane.
Clutching their heads with both hands, they would scream, "I don't know! I don't know! I don't know anything!" and flee far away.
Others could only speculate from the bloodstains scattered throughout the interrogation room that Naruto's punishments must have been extremely vicious, yet no one could imagine which existing interrogation method could make all four people submit within eight hours.
For a long time afterward, it became another unsolved mystery in Konoha.
Because of this, the Hidden Cloud envoys pretended to be pained and reluctant while secretly rejoicing that Konoha was indeed foolish and easy to deceive. They believed Konoha had been blinded by immediate benefits and had given up the perfect chance to dig out Hidden Cloud secrets.
So they happily signed the contract, paid the ransom, and set off on the road home with the four. They never realized that what they had done was no different from being sold and then helping the seller count the money.
They had made a stupid deal that cost them both the wife and the soldiers without knowing it.
Moreover, Naruto, who never made losing trades and whose wife-protecting attribute had been pushed to the limit, was not going to simply torture the four once and release them without preparation.
Before handing the four over to the Third Hokage as bargaining chips with the Hidden Cloud Village, Naruto used the convenience of the various sealing techniques left behind by his mother to quickly find the most suitable forbidden seal for his plan.
Over the course of those three days, he personally branded it into the bodies of all four, one by one, without tiring.
From now on, no matter how far away they were from Naruto or how much stronger they became, as long as they developed even the slightest thought harmful to Konoha, Naruto would sense it instantly. And with just a flick of his finger, he could easily take all four of their lives.
Simply put, the four people the Hidden Cloud Village thought it had redeemed at great cost were, in those short three days, turned completely into Naruto's loyal informants. In other words, the Hidden Cloud Village had paid out of its own pocket to buy back four deeply hidden spies.
The Hidden Cloud envoys and Konoha's higher-ups exchanged false compliments and went back and forth through several rounds of empty negotiation.
In the end, Konoha finally "reluctantly gave in," allowing the satisfied envoys to redeem the four visibly haggard people and leave without daring to linger. During that time, the Third Hokage's orderly arrangements ensured secrecy among the villagers in an extremely timely manner.
Not only did the incident fail to affect the three-day Ninja Academy entrance exam, because Konoha displayed such powerful deterrence to the outside world during the incident, no further accidents occurred.
Following the three different sets of exam questions Naruto had prepared in advance, the exam proceeded smoothly until the last group of students completed their enrollment forms and it successfully came to an end.
From this moment onward, Naruto's leisurely life of spending every day wandering around with Hinata, eating ramen together today and visiting the night market together tomorrow, finally came to an end.
After all, starting from the day after the entrance exam officially ended, Naruto would have to obediently take Hinata and Sasuke to school under the supervision of the adults and begin a six-year student life.
It was also from this moment that the legend of the strongest "dead last" in the ninja world gradually began to take shape. In later generations, as time passed, a rigid rule quietly spread among those who did not know the truth.
When fighting a ninja from the Hidden Leaf Village, if you face a jōnin, you can still try to fight.
If you face a chūnin, then you should weigh your chances carefully.
But if the one standing before you is a blond dead last who has spent years stuck at the genin rank?
Do not carry any psychological burden. Relax.
Ah, calm down. That does not mean you already have a sure chance of victory.
It means your life and death are already in his hands. Any worry or struggle is just useless effort.
Do not believe it?
Then try provoking the Byakugan girl beside him. Truly, even a casual insult will do.
In return, you will experience the most extreme version of a real hell on earth. And with absolutely no danger to your life, it is definitely worth every coin.
Most of the village's problems had been more or less resolved.
Next, Naruto needed to prepare to leave the village and stir up some trouble. Or rather, while supervising Jiraiya so he would fulfill his flag, Naruto could also conveniently meet a certain little guy who shared the same pain as him.
Guess who it will be?