Witty Naruto Life

Chapter 17 Raid on Cardo's Lair
"Kakashi-sensei, please come here too,"

Sakura placed a few photos on the table and motioned for everyone to look at them.

"This is a photo I took at the gathering place this morning. Well, it's like this. Cardo's fans will return to the gathering place after their daily promotions, and the gathering place will also regularly hold some... activities. Take a look."

When they looked over, they saw that many people had gathered in the open space, forming circles one after another.

There are not only mercenaries here, but also fishermen, beggars, and children with messy hair. The strange thing is that they all have bright smiles on their faces.

"Huh, I feel like I'm watching a horror movie." Naruto felt goosebumps all over his body.

"The photos don't actually reveal anything. You'll find it even more eerie if you go to the scene." Sakura's expression looked a little ugly.

Naruto thought for a moment and said, "Why don't we go take a look? We have nothing to do anyway. Boss, are you coming too?"

Kakashi shook his head, "I'm not fully recovered yet, and the Daz family needs someone to watch over them."

"Then the three of us will go and see what's going on."

The trio changed into gray and black outfits, no longer colorful, and wore wide-brimmed hats.

Naruto: "Let's go."

……

Nearing noon, the sun shone on the streets of Wave Country, making the salty and humid air around it slightly dry.

The three of them were sweating as they slowly walked towards the gathering place.

As they were getting closer, Sakura gestured for them to take a small path around the corner. It was a narrow path she had discovered during her survey, and almost no one would pay attention to it.

A little later, the three of them approached the fence surrounding the gathering area. Through the fence, they could see circles of people sitting on the ground. Walking softly, they could faintly hear the voices of the crowd.

The group of people closest to the three people were talking to each other.

Naruto listened carefully. They were either telling about their hardships, or sharing their secrets, or talking about the bad things they had done...

After he finished speaking, the host brought the mood to a low point, and then some people began to sob softly, and everyone gradually fell into an emotional breakdown.

Naruto's expression was a little stiff.

One fisherman, his eyes red, said, "When I was little, my father loved taking me to the nearby snack street to buy delicious octopus balls. I was young and didn't know anything at the time, so he always refused to eat them, saying it was because of his bad teeth. But when I grew up, I realized he just couldn't bear to eat them."

Another mercenary said, "When I was little, my family would occasionally catch too much fish. My mother would only eat the tail. I asked her why she didn't eat the belly, and she always said she preferred the tail. Now think about it, who doesn't know that fish meat tastes better?"

The host cleared his throat and spoke in a deep voice, "My dear friend, although Mr. Cardo has no intention of competing, he understands the suffering of the people. This morning meeting gives us an opportunity to reflect, and we must seize it firmly."

Sasuke couldn't help but whisper, "What is a 'kinship'?"

"It's a Goryeo word, and it translates to partners and friends." Sakura said solemnly, "It's not surprising. Things like the 'Unification Church' originated in Goryeo."

Naruto felt a little toothache: "Is this considered cultural invasion?"

As they were talking, everyone in the circle burst into tears.

At this time, the host in the middle stood up and said, "Dear friends, now that everyone has shared their little secrets, we are now close friends. Do you trust each other? Let's play a little game!"

As he spoke, he pulled over a chair and stood on it. "I'll stand on the chair, turn my back to everyone, and fall backwards. I believe my friends will be able to catch me. This is my trust in you."

After saying this, he fell straight back, but his 'relatives' behind him supported him in time and prevented his head from hitting the ground.

The host excitedly said, "See! This is the trust between family and friends. Try it yourself!"

Under his command, everyone took turns falling into the arms of their "relatives", and no one fell to the ground.

After the last person fell and was caught, the host was very excited: "See? This is the power of 'relatives'. Relatives will not let your trust be in vain. Relatives will always support each other!" After that, everyone cheered, as if they were happy to have found new partners.

Sasuke stared at the scene blankly, his mouth wide open.

"My dear friend..." Sakura felt that she could no longer look at this word directly.

Watch less Korean dramas in the future...Oh, I'm in the ninja world, that's okay.

She finally understood why there were as many mercenaries in Cardo as cockroach eggs...

"What...are they doing?" Sasuke was somewhat incoherent, his three views being greatly impacted.

Naruto looked at Sasuke sympathetically. It was normal that the villagers had never seen such a scene before...

"They're brainwashing each other," Sakura frowned. "First, they share their secrets to close the psychological distance, then they mobilize their emotions and remove their rationality. Finally, they use games to build a new self-awareness. They don't even need ninjutsu to perform these tricks."

"To sum it up in a professional term, this is a pyramid scheme."

Naruto hesitated for a moment and added: "Well, actually, people in the company often play this trick..."

However, the company's leaders would not say it is a pyramid scheme, but would use a softer term:
Team building.

Sakura also nodded and said, "When I was in college, the applied psychology major did this. They called it psychological group training."

Thinking of this, Sasuke couldn't help but ask: "I suddenly thought of a question, where did the food distributed by the mercenaries come from?"

"I'm afraid it was the bewitched people who handed it over voluntarily. This is what they call the wool comes from the sheep." Naruto thought for a while and said.

Sakura: "We can't go on like this. Find a time to wipe out this gathering place."

Naruto: "Que Clan, if you continue like this, the entire Wave Country will fall."

Naruto retracted his disdain for Cardo.

The three began to discuss tactics.

……

evening.

Naruto lowered the edge of his hat and moved towards the gathering place.

He took a quick look and found that a wave of mercenaries would appear around the gathering place every two hours on average. They would go to the gathering place to hand over today's "performance" and then change shifts.

The entire gathering place is like an automatically operating machine, dedicated to gathering all the people of Wave Country under its own control.

Naruto followed the end of one of the groups and began moving towards the gathering place.

"Please stop for a moment," the guard at the door stopped the team, "We need to count the number of people in the team."

The gathering place determines the extent of the impact on the Land of Waves by counting the number of people.

The man at the front who looked like the captain proudly said, "Team Three successfully distributed all the food today, promoted Mr. Cardo's ideas, and gained nine new friends."

He pointed to the back, and the guard indicated that these newly developed relatives should step out separately, and the others began to enter in order according to the list.

Naruto suddenly thought to himself that something was wrong.

Is this the case of being exposed before even entering?

At this time, the guards and the captain also noticed Huadian. How come there was a new friend in the team?
(End of this chapter)