Linto remembered this orange.
Sasuke gave it to Momo to eat on the boat. The girl didn't want to eat it. She even drew a smiley face on it with a pen and treasured it as a gift.
At that time, Sasuke even scoffed and said she was childish.
He didn't expect Momo to still have it...
Sasuke's eyes turned red. He pulled out a kunai, strode over, and with all his strength, chopped down on the chains of the cage.
Clang—
A crisp sound echoed.
Awakening a group of prisoners in the cage.
Usually, people complain when they are woken up in their sleep, but in this room, Linto couldn't hear a sound. Everyone seemed to have their voices cut off, squatting down, lowering their heads, with their eyes closed or staring at their toes.
Like well-trained animals.
Linto couldn't imagine what kind of inhumane torture would turn people into this.
"Sasuke... brother..."
Momo raised her head, her young face full of confusion.
She couldn't believe her eyes.
Momo had imagined the scene before her so many times that when it actually happened, she thought it was an illusion.
"Star Platinum"
Linto summoned his Stand.
Star Platinum brutally tore open the cage. Linto reached out and took Momo out of the cage.
She was very light, as light as a feather.
After rescuing Momo, Linto thought the other people locked in the cages would cry for help and beg to be rescued as well.
However, there was only silence.
No one dared to look over.
They were afraid.
Afraid of the punishment for escaping.
Only being in the cage could give them some slight, false sense of security.
Linto asked Momo in his arms, "Where's your mother?"
Momo raised her hand and pointed in one direction, trembling.
"Mom... they took her away..."
Aerosmith took off and scouted a room in the direction Momo pointed. There were six or seven people gathered in the room.
Women in the Hokage world have children early. Momo's mother was only twenty-six or twenty-seven years old, possessing both the liveliness of a young girl and the gentleness of a young woman. Her appearance and figure were both outstanding.
She was taken away by a group of men. What would they do?
It was obvious.
Linto carried Momo to the door of the room, handed her to Sasuke, and instructed, "Cover her eyes."
Sasuke did as he was told.
Linto grabbed the door handle and opened the door quite naturally.
Inside the room were six men. Momo's mother was lying on the desk.
Completely naked.
The top of her head was bald, covered in scabs. It looked like it had been pulled out handful by handful, causing large areas of skin to fall off and bleed.
A short man was on top of her, blood dripping from her lower body.
Her eyes were staring straight at the ceiling...
Her pupils were dilated and out of focus.
Momo's mother was dead.
Hearing the sound of the door opening, the six men in the room looked over. Seeing Linto's unfamiliar face, the man on top of Momo's mother pulled up his pants.
"Who are you? Who let you in!"
Linto didn't answer his question. He said to Sasuke, "Wait outside for a while. I'll take care of it soon."
His tone was calm as he walked into the room.
He closed the door.
Locked it.
"Hey! Kid!"
The six men pulled out the kunai and ninja swords from their waists.
They were Kirigakure ninjas, responsible for assisting the Seven Ninja Swordsmen in managing the factory. Tonight was just like any other night, finding some fun to relieve the boredom.
A man with a goatee stroked his mustache and said sinisterly, "Kid, I don't care who you are. You saw something you shouldn't have seen. Surrender now, and I might spare you—"
Boom!
The goatee man's head exploded like a balloon.
The bald neck sprayed blood upwards, sticking to the ceiling and dripping down.
The remaining five people stood there, their minds blank.
What happened?
As the five men's thoughts flashed, there was another boom. A tall, thin man flew up into the air, his chest collapsing, spewing organs and blood from his mouth. He was dead before he even hit the ground.
Another one died!
"Bastard!"
A bald ninja raised his sword and charged.
"Ora!"
Star Platinum threw its fist for the third time, hitting the man's sword. The ninja sword broke on the spot and bounced back, cutting the bald ninja's throat.
Another ninja took the opportunity to jump onto the roof, trying to attack from behind.
Linto grabbed his arm. The Wave Breathing Technique activated. With overwhelming strength, he swung the man around and slammed him into the ground. There was a cracking sound of a spine breaking. He stopped moving.
Screams echoed in the room, but soon the screams grew weaker and weaker.
Linto walked to the last short man.
He was sitting on the ground, having lost the courage to continue fighting. Seeing Linto walking towards him step by step, he immediately prostrated himself:
"Sir! We're just a bunch of people ordered to work hard. Please, spare me... I swear, I'll defect from Kirigakure and never come back... Please..."
He kowtowed again and again, his forehead bleeding.
The short man was the weakest of the six, so he was "the last one," to the point that he was assaulting a corpse when Linto came in.
Linto looked down at the short man and spoke his first words since entering the room:
"Was she still alive when it was your turn?"
"She..."
The short man was speechless.
He didn't know which answer would keep him alive and which would kill him.
Blood dripped from his forehead. The short man chose to tell the truth: "I... I don't remember. I smoked 'the stuff,' from the Land of Waves, it's very pure. My head isn't very clear..."
"I see."
Linto nodded slightly and extended a finger to touch the man's forehead.
The power of the Wave transferred through his fingertip. The wound on the short man's forehead healed quickly. He smiled with relief, but soon he felt a burst of heat.
His brain was boiling!
"Ah—"
The short man screamed, and a thick, hot, yellowish-red liquid flowed from his eyes, nose, mouth, and ears.
Thud.
The corpse fell to the ground.
Separated by a door, Sasuke listened to the screams and impacts inside the room, silently waiting outside.
He believed that Linto was invincible.
This trust came from one crushing victory after another.
The closed door reopened, and a strong smell of blood wafted out.
Standing in front of the door, Linto blocked the two children's view. He was holding Momo's mother's body in his arms. Her naked body was covered by a curtain, revealing only a pale, bloodless face.
Momo's sad crying echoed in the factory.
Sasuke put his arm around her shoulder.
The Fourth Mizukage's way of making money was through human trafficking.
Men were sold to work.
Women were used as breeding machines.
Children were selected for their talent and trained as ninjas and assassins from a young age.
People are always a more reliable store of value than gold.
Sasuke stared blankly at the people in the cages.
Momo was rescued, but her mother died.
Sasuke felt a fire burning in his heart.
If he just left like this, he would be suffocated with frustration.
But if he didn't leave, what could he do?
Report it to the authorities?
This was led by Kirigakure itself. Reporting it to the authorities would be like walking into a trap.
The sense of being trapped with no way out surrounded Sasuke.
The last time he had similar feelings was during the Uchiha massacre, when Sasuke saw his parents killed by Itachi and Uchiha Itachi smirked as he walked towards him.
How was it resolved back then?
A hand landed on Sasuke's head.
That's right.
Sasuke remembered.
When he was most helpless and desperate, Linto appeared and pulled Sasuke out of the abyss of fear.
"What should we do?" Sasuke asked.
He guessed the answer in his heart.
"Open the cages and smash this damn place up."
Sasuke asked, "What if they're afraid to come out?"
Linto said, "We only save those who still have courage."
Sasuke asked again, "What if the Seven Ninja Swordsmen come looking for us?"
"If they really come..."
Linto looked down at the woman's pale face in his arms and said softly:
"Then kill them all."