Chapter 1: The Bridge of Red Ice
Even half the way to Tazuna's home Sakura could still hear the characteristic sound of a kunai carving the wood at an even higher position than before as Sasuke and Naruto fought each other to the utmost in the forest. Kakashi carefully walked by her side, cautious not to put too much pressure on his leg.
"Uhm... Sensei?" Sakura asked in a sudden need to break the silence that was accompanying the two of them to the bridgebuilder's famliy.
Kakashi slowly turned his head in an almost bored manner as if he would not approve of her effort to start a conversation.
"Yes, Sakura?"
"Well... I wondered..." She looked to the ground as he faced her but quickly found the courage to look up to Kakashi's face again. "...I wondered if you could teach me some tricks while the boys are doing their training."
Sakura searched her Sensei's face for the smallest sign of approval but found nothing more than his usual unenthusiastic expression.
"I could see why you'd want that, Sakura." he replied after a few nearly unbearable seconds of silently glaring at each other.
"Really!?", she shouted out with excitement. "That... does mean you're doing it, right? Special training, I mean."
Kakashi turned around and started walking down the road again, while Sakura hurried to keep up with his pace.
"You have less techniques than Sasuke or even Naruto and neither an amazing amount of Chakra or physical prowess that would allow you to compensate for that. I don't want you to feel inferior just because you are less..." Kakashi slowed down his walking for just about a second as he searched for the right words."...less 'special' than the other two."
"...Right."
Sakura tried to hide the bitter look on her face by looking at her feet but also realised the truth in Kakashi's words. She suffered from her powerlessness ever since they fought Zabuza by the river and even before that; during Kakashi's bell test when she saw Sasuke dying right in front of her, unable to change the things that happened. Because she couldn't compete with the combat abilities of any of her teammates, Sakura concluded, she would always become a danger to missions in the future. And even worse: She would become a burden for Sasuke, something he would he have to get rid of, if he ever wanted to reach his goals.
"But today you showed them." said Kakashi with a little more warmth in his voice, what caused her to look up and stare at him for a few seconds until she realized that she wasn't moving and on top of that still waiting for a answer to her question.
He already seemed to anticipate her thoughts, as he slowly added: "When we're back at the house i'll show you a technique that should suit you very well. It only needs a very small amount of Chakra so I should be able to teach it to you even in my current state."
Although his words were neither especially friendly nor especially impolite Sakura felt that Kakashi meant every sentence. Words of a man that cared about her and her friends. A man that would help her to overcome her own weaknesses and become a good kunoichi.
XXXXX
At Tazuna's home Inari walked up to them as they approached. The bridgebuilder's grandson kept his serious face and frowned at them as if he were disgusted just by their looks.
"You were training, right?" The small boy asked them bluntly and without awaiting any replies he spat at them: "You should realise that it's hopeless. Neither of you has the strength to stand up against Gato and his men. You should just leave and let us be..."
Kakashi and Sakura looked at each other in slight confusion. Inari had been rude and impolite ever since they first arrived in the Country of the Waves but never criticized them directly. Kakashi however didn't seem to bother much with the sudden change in Inari's behaviour, casually observing the child walking back at the front door with an angry stomping.
"My, my..." He sighed, as Inari disappeared in the small building.
As he didn't seem eager to add anything, Sakura turned her head in the direction of the ocean, speaking to herself even though Kakashi was right next to her.
"I wonder what made him this way. He seemed to be a much nicer boy on the pictures Tsunami had of him. Mostly he seems to have something against Naruto. Well... I can kind of understand why, but he probably hates him for other reasons than I do."
"We'll find out sooner or later. Let's find a place to talk, while I teach you how to use the technique I had in mind for you."
"Just talk? No seals? No Chakra-exercises or sparring?"
"Not yet. Well then..." Kakashi cleared his throat in a meaningful manner "As I said, it requires minimum chakra but good self-control and analysis of your opponent. We'll save the seals for later as I'll be asking you an important question first: What do you remember about Genjutsu?"
Leaning on his crook he steared towards the canopy in front of the bridgebuilder's home.
Again trying to keep up with her Sensei, Sakura quickly came up with the answer she learned by hard for her graduation from the Ninja-academy.
"Genjutsu are aimed at confusing the opponent's mind with illusions. They alter the Chakra-current in one's brain to create false imagery and deceptive sensory input. You can break a Genjutsu by intercepting your own Chakra-current or knocking out the Genjutsu's creator."
Kakashi gave her a slightly amused look during her lecture which he was sure was copied exactly from the Ninja-academy's manual.
Nothing less to be expected from the most studious graduate this year.
"Well then..." He sat down on the wooden planks of the veranda and crossed his legs. „Are you able to use any? Genjutsu, that is."
"N-no, not really", Sakura admitted to him. „I have only learned how to identify and dispel them but not how to use them myself."
"That's fine. The technique I had in mind isn't exactly hard to learn as it pretty much lets your opponent do the work for you. It awakens one's inner fear by using the illusion of someone who is close to them as a trigger. Therefore the opponent's own mind turns against them and controls a vision of fear to shock them. Easy, isn't it?"
"Was that the one you used on me, when you told us to get those bells from you?"
"Yes, it's called the hell-viewing technique. To use it, it's important to know how your opponent thinks. It is also helpful if you have a weakness in mind that you could exploit, as it allows you to adapt the triggering illusion and make it more convincing. Ideally you should also make eye-contact with your target."
Kakashi threw back his head and took a deep breath.
"You're going to learn this by trying to trap me with that technique. As you know next to nothing about me, it'll be a good challenge for you."
"But...", Sakura objected. "I don't even know how to do this."
"I already taught you the basic concept. You should be able to figure out by yourself how to manipulate your Chakra so that it will disturb the enemy's senses. As a tip to you: Try to focus your Chakra in your eyes, then making eye-contact with me to apply the illusion by altering my Chakra with your own. The seals are the snake and the rat." In an attempt to provider her with some confidence he nodded at her and added: "Dont expect this to work at the first time. Is everything clear?"
"Yeah, I think so...", Sakura mumbled half-heartedly.
"Well then: start!" Kakashi looked up to her as she was now standing in front of her, staring directly into his eyes. Sakura closed her eyes, focussing on her knowledge of Kakashi. What could he possibly feel regret for? What could torture him internally? What would scare a person like him? As she went back in time in her mind, she stumbled upon a clue. Thoroughly she weaved the seals, as she created a fake image of herself being slaughtered by Zabuza's blade in front of Kakashi. She then stared into his eyes, projecting forth the impression of her own death towards her Sensei.
"Genjutsu: Hell-viewing technique!"
XXXXX
Naruto gasped for air. A few metres away from him Sasuke hit the ground after beating his previous marking by about twelve centimetres and was now leading by five centimetres. Drenched with sweat and their faces covered in dirt, they stared at each other in competition, not willing to give up until they finally reached the treetop.
"Hah, nice try! But I'll be at the top in no time!" Naruto snorted and spat on the ground. "Deal with it, Sasuke: This time you aint gonna beat me!" With a big grin in his face and pointing towards his chest Naruto turned around only to face a cold look of determination.
"Dream on, kid.", Sasuke replied harshly, readying himself for another attempt to run up the tree trunk, while Naruto just quickly nodded without losing his grin and did the same.
"Here I go!", they yelled simultaneously.
XXXXX
"Hey, you two really took your time with the training. Dinner is already prepared and you should hurry to come inside... After you got a bath, that is." Sakura greeted the two of them in a sursprisingly friendly manner, even though her face was chalk-white and she looked thoroughly shaken. Sasuke followed her instructions right away, ignoring her presence and heading straight for the front door of the wooden house that was partially built on stakes. Naruto however stayed for a second and looked at her with an exhausted but happy grin.
"You know, Sakura-chan? I wanted to thank you for giving me advice and..."
"Just hurry up and get inside already! You smell!", she interrupted his clumsy attempt at making conversation and sighed internally.
He is really getting obnoxious from time to time.
Naruto lowered his head and nodded, now seemingly weary and beaten. Sakura followed him with an adequate distance trying to focus on the meal that was awaiting them.
XXXXX
Over Tazuna's excited shouting during the meal, that Tsunami had prepared for them, Kakashi observed the three of them sitting at the table. After the fifth bowl, Sasuke and Naruto still demanded more, earning surprise from Tazuna and Tsunami and digust from Inari and Sakura.
Latter looked at her bowl in dismissal, forcing herself to have one tiny bit of rice after another. Her complexion was still dunn with a greyish tone and a slight shivering when she used her chopstick, caused the rice she prepared for herself instead of the soup, to spread over table in front of her. She finally put them away and reached for the water as her stomach cramped and she spew out her meal. Suddenly everyone in the small room was staring at her, again with mixed reactions.
"Is something wrong, Sakura?", Naruto tried to sound friendly. "What is it?"
Kakashi waited for an answer, but the embarassed look on the girls face and the clenched fists on her lap were enough for him to tell that she would not explain the situation.
"We did some training and I used a Genjutsu on her several times. I countered her illusions to give her the impression of a real battle but I guess I overdid it with the last one.", he answered Naruto, crossing his arms in front of his chest. "Well, it can't be helped at the moment."
Tears ran down Sakura's face, but then she jumped up and ran towards the exit, leaving the others behind and slamming the house's front door shut as she left to get some air.
She took a deep breath of the salty and somewhat refreshing breze that comforted her nose and helped her forget the embarassement and pain of this day, on the outside. Quickly glancing at her hand, she heard a rattling behind her as someone pushed aside the door and set foot on the planks outside.
Sakura turned around, expecting the calm and yet frigid face of Sasuke but was bitterly disappointed with a worried-looking Naruto.
"Leave me alone already... please." She channeled her disappointment into these words, keeping this nuisance at bay with her outstretched arm.
"Sakura..."
"Shut it, please! I can't stand your talk right now, got it?" She sighed deeply and then continued shouting at Naruto: "Don't come here, acting all friendly, pandering me just for your buddy-complex. Go inside and eat up but don't bother me with your useless advice, ok?"
As Naruto's worried expression turned into frustration, Sakura could feel herself becoming more lightly, relieving herself from the pressure she built up. Even though she yelled on for about a minute, Naruto didn't move at all and just soaked up all her anger and resesntment. Ffter she was finished, she simply turned away from him, inhaling the fresh air from the sea trying her hardest to overlook him. It wasn't for long that she heard the sound of his footsteps again, this time closing the door behind him.
As she watched the waves from her outlook, Kakashi asked Tazuna about the torn-out part of the family picture in the living room. She could hear them talking for a while but then entered the building again and headed straight for her futon.
At least I can get some sleep
XXXXX
"Good morning..." Still drowsy from a night filled with turning around and hiding her face in the pillow Sakura stumbled into the living room, quickly glancing around and then sitting down by the table. Inari, the black-haired boy was left to her, just finishing his breakfast whereas Sasuke was sitting on the other side of the table, his elbows resting on the tabletop, while he observed the room with a look over his intertwined hands. Kakashi was leaning in the backside of the room, flipping through the pages of an issue of Flirting Paradise he already finished when they reached the Country of Waves.
"Morning, Sakura." He looked up from his book, analyzing her body posture as well as her facial expression and then going back to his reading.
"Morning." Sasuke repeated after his Sensei and then shoved aside his plate. "I'll be going for a walk..."
"Are you going to look for Naruto?", Kakashi asked without looking up from his book. "He didn't return for breakfast, so maybe he got into trouble."
"Would be just like him, but yeah, I'll probably have a look around the forest." Sasuke tried to leave through the front door as Sakura quickly swallowed the Dorome, emptied her cup of tea and got up as well.
"I think it's my fault he hasn't returned yet. So I'll be accompanying you.", she claimed with an expression that would tolerate no objections.
Sasuke quickly glanced at her, but then turned around, shrugged and took his leave.
"Whatever."
They stepped outside the house and started walking down the road that led to the forest. Sasuke, maintaining a constant impression of his own superiority, treaded in front of Sakura. Both his cold attitude and the coastal breeze made Sakura shiver, but she kept a small distance between them trying not to get in Sasuke's way.
Eventually he made a short stop to look up to the sky. There the predominant light blue faded into a greyish tone and several clouds were beginning to darken the limp image of the sun.
"Why am I even doing this?", Sasuke mumbled in complete disregard of the fact that Sakura was still just about a metre behind him.
"He's our teammate even though he's an idiot.", she declared in a carefree manner. "We have to look after him."
"Yeah right." Sasuke shook his head. "As if I were the one who yelled at him, because I couldn't complete Kakashi's training."
"That's not... I mean, I didn't..."
"You'll just make a fool out of yourself, if you continue this. To be completely honest, you might as well go home." He went on, burying his hands in his pockets, forcing Sakura to accelerate her steps to close the distance between them.
"I was not upset, because I failed the training or something. In fact, I did pretty well... It just demanded a lot from me. That was all" She stepped in front of Sasuke, staring directly into his eyes as if she tried to melt his mask-like face with her words. "I'm giving my best not to disappoint any of you and become definitely better!"
"Tze..." Sasuke turned his head away from her. "Now you're sounding like that dreamer. Becoming stronger... I don't get it." He stared at her for a while after he said that, until he finally added: "Come on! I want to know what this blockhead's up to."
As he made his way around Sakura the clouds finally reached the coast and as soon as she decided to go on as well, the first raindrops started to fall, quickly adding up to a downpour.
Now in a hurry to not get soaked, both of them ran down the main road in silence, most of the time not even looking at each other. But when the forest finally came into view they where already thoroughly wet.
XXXXX
"Hey you idiot, wake up!" A kick, that could hardly be described as soft, took Naruto's breath.
"What is it? I was sleeping so well..." He blinked and rubbed his eyes. As he looked up, he could identify an angry Sakura right in front of him.
"Sensei Kakashi was worried sick about you, because you never showed up for breakfast. That's why he sent us to look for you", she snarled and gave him another kick to the chest.
Sure doesn't sound like Kakashi, if you ask me...
But instead he replied: "I was just doing some training last night and fell asleep at about sunrise. By the way, have you seen a cute girl with black her in a pink Yukata? I remember talking to her just before I came here to rest."
Straightening his back, he sat upright pushed against the tree and got himself an overview over the situation. Sakura stood over him still with her angered expression, whereas Sasuke was sitting on the grass with his legs crossed and head resting on his left palm. Around them there was the constant noise of raindrops colliding with the leafs of the trees around them. The air was filled with the smell of the freshly watered ground and on the verge of the sky the sun was already breaking through the clouds. It was going to become a warm, but misty day as the rain started evaporating in the warm radiance, creating an almost solid curtain of fog.
"She said, I would become a great ninja, but that I should probably run for now, I think... It's a bit unclear."
"You probably dreamt it. I don't think that some random cute girl would identify you as a ninja and on top of that predict that you'd become a great one.", Sakura said, throwing back her long, pink hair back as if she had to demonstrate her own cuteness.
"Sounds rather unlikely, yeah." Sasuke nodded.
"Geez, why are in such bad mood?" Crossing his arms behind his head, Naruto looked up to the sky. "Uhm, by the way...?"
"What is it?" Sakura asked impatiently, tapping her foot on the ground.
"Did you bring any food, by chance? Im staaarving!"
Sakura got set for another kick. "Are you honestly telling me, you're oversleeping breakfast and when we come to look for you you're asking for food...!?"
"Ah, no, no! Of course not!" Naruto was hastily bowing down for an excuse. "I'd never do something like that, Sakura-chan!"
Sasuke gave him an icy look. "We should hurry to get back to Kakashi." He gave off his usual composed and perfectly controlled imagery of a serious ninja.
"But... weren't you the one who wanted to go in the first place?", Sakura foolishly interposed, causing Sasuke to give her an even more intimidating look.
"Yeah, well I don't mind going back at all.", Naruto declared with a big grin which earned him threatening glares from both Sakura and Sasuke.
"Shut up!", they hissed at him in consonance.
With a deep sigh Naruto stood up and made a few steps into the direction in which he remembered to be the edge of the woods.
"Fine, I'm going anyways. You see... Wait!"
A sudden cracking from wood being cut aside with a sharp blade came into his ears and he listened carefully. After some time he could identify the voices of two men heading in their general direction.
"Are you sure they went this way? The old man could have lied to us."
"With his daughter's life on the line? I don't think so. Come on! They've got to be somewhere around here!"
"What should we do!?", Sakura panicked only to get cut off by Sasuke.
"Be quiet! We have the advantage right now, so don't give us away by screaming like a child."
He was at her side in a flash, gagging her with his left hand, while he fetched a shuriken from the pocket on his right side.
Naruto squeezed himself against a tree, monitoring the mist.
"I can't see them yet... Man, why do I have to do this before I had breakfast?", he moaned as he followed Sasuke's action and drew forth a kunai on his own.
"What do you suggest Sasuke?", Sakura asked, as she freed herself from the hand that was keeping her mouth shut. "Ambush and capture them? They seem to be searching for us." She kept her voice to a mere whisper, carefully taking shelter behind a near tree.
Sasuke nodded. "If we can capture them, they might provide us some answers. In any way it's better than letting them pass by. Two shouldn't be that big of a threat to us."
"I can see them! Look!"
Two middle-aged men wearing katanas on their sides stepped out of the mist. The one in the front seemed to be the younger one, having grey hair, a juvenile face with tattooes around his eyes, wearing a grey jacket and a black headband. The man walking in his footsteps was taller and wore no top. Instead his upper body was covered in scars and tattooes that reached from his shoulder to his chest and were depicting a wave in motion. In addition to his spiky hair, he wore an eyepatch and a cruel smile.
The two of them were more or less hacking and slashing their way through the forest in not very elegant way, leaving cut branches and leaves on the ground.
"Are you ready? I take the one with the jacket.", Naruto hissed at them. "On my mark..."
Sasuke's look turned bitter as Naruto gave him instructions, but he readied himself and nodded. Sakura was instead watching Naruto and Sasuke taking preparations, having trouble to keep herself calm.
Come on! You've got to fight them!
She fumbled around in her pocket until she got hold of a kunai and two shuriken, while she took a deep breath...
"Go!"
Naruto's cry let her snap out of her state of inaction.
She jumped out of her hiding-place alongside Sasuke and Naruto, who were already charging at the two samurai, as she was still getting ready to throw her weapons at them. Just before he reached his target, multiple shadow clones appeared at Naruto's side, surrounding the grey-haired swordsman.
Sasuke used the trees to propel himself through the air, hurling his shuriken as he passed the head of his opponent, aiming for his unprotected neck.
Surprised by the ambush and Sasuke's sheer speed, the man in the back was only in the position to deflect the shuriken with the hilt of his katana, before they reached his face, but was instantly knocked to the ground by Sasuke's kick that followed his ranged attack and was aimed at the man's chest.
Naruto's foe didn't seem to be troubled by the shadow clones around and calmly started slashing through them with an elegant, swift strike to his right and then using the breach in Naruto's ring of clones to make his escape. Just as he took a few steps towards the undergrowth, Sakura hurled her kunai and her shuriken simultaneously, starting to form the seals for her Genjutsu to keep the man from escaping.
Trying to anticipate and dodge her next attack the samurai tumbled to the side, using a nearby brush as cover. In the splitsecond they maintained their eyecontact, he fell into her illusion.
Suddenly the man started to tremble; Naruto, who was making steps towards him, slowly backed off, fixating Sakura with a surprised look. She simply nodded at him, now approaching the weeping and crying man by herself. As soon as she reached him, his face turned into a mask of horror and disgust and he raised his arms in a frantic attempt to defend himself from her, falling on his back.
"S-stay away from me!", he shrieked, crawling backwards, until Sasuke, who had overwhelmed the shirtless guy and tied him to a nearby log, stopped him. Sasuke knocked him out with a simple strike to his forehead and shook his head, as the man's pupils rolled backwards and he sunk into a state of dreamless darkness.
"Phew, that was horrifying!", Naruto commented, pointing towards the unconscious swordman. "I knew you could be fearsome, but that was a bit too much. What exactly did you make him see?"
"I don't know..." Sakura shook her head. If anything she could feel pity for that man.
"Well whatever it was, he's better of this way.", Sasuke meant. "We still have one for questioning, even if he looks like a moron to me."
He made some steps towards the fighter, that was still tied up, and gave them angry glares as he regained his bearing.
"Set me free and I'll tell you, what you want, ok? I've got better things to do than to waste my time with you."
The man with the eyepatch spat on the ground.
"Is that so?" An intimidatingly cruel smile played around Sasuke's lips. "Well, we'll see about that, won't we? For the start you could start answering our questions. Else we'd seriously have to consider whether we should let you two live."
"Come on, don't give me that crap... You kids don't have what it takes to kill someone."
"We are Shinobi. That's the definition of our job – killing. If you think I'd hesitate to slit either of your throats, you are even more stupid than you look." Sasuke nodded at Naruto, who picked up a kunai and knelt down besides their hostage. Carefully and slowly he cut the skin at the man's neck only enough to release a small drop of blood.
"I'd do what he says, we don't want to waste our time as well. So if you stay closed up like this, we'd have to dispose of you. Understood?" he added to conclude his demonstration.
After his eyes darted around between the three of them, the thug reluctantly shrugged and sighed:
"What do you wanna know?"
"At first: Who are you and who hired you?" Sakura stepped up to him, staring into his eyes with the coldest expression she could possibly produce. Sasuke certainly was the best of them concerning interrogation skills. He was neither as dramatic as Naruto who tended to lose his cool rather quickly nor as hesitant as Sakura. Sasuke quickly gazed towards the latter, sending her a nod of confirmation.
"I'm Waraji and my partner's name is Zori." the man replied in annoyance. "We are mercenaries hired by the Gato Company."
"Go on, or this'll be over much faster than you'd like. Why the fuck are you here? What do you want from us?" Naruto didn't even bother to contain himself and gave Waraji a hit to the face that mad him lose his balance and fall down. He grunted, turned his head and spat at Naruto in return.
"You brat! Piss off!"
Naruto raised his fist again, but was held back by Sasuke who pushed himself into the front, whispering something into Naruto's ear after which he – not without shaking his fist at the tied-up Waraji – backed off and left the field to Sasuke.
"What he meant to ask was: What are your orders right now? You can answer that, can't you, Waraji?" His voice was the exact opposite of merciful or friendly and it was the mere threat in his cold tone that was forcing Waraji to answer him.
"They sent us to capture some children that were accompanying the ninja called Kakashi Hatake, who was hired by Tazuna the bridgebuilder as well as his family. The people around his house told us that you were heading for the woods. That's all."
"You wanted to get us three all by yourself before returning to Tazuna's house to abduct his family" Sasuke raised a brow. "Doesn't seem like a sound plan to me..."
"No, we had a third guy, whom we told to deal with the child and his mother... Geta was his name."
Naruto suddenly jumped up again.
"You fucking..."
"Naruto!" he was scolded by Sasuke. "That's all we need to know. We should hurry – maybe we can protect the boy and his mother. And if not, I suspect at least Sensei Kakashi to be in grave danger."
"If Gato decided to strike, everyone is!" Naruto pointed almost accusingly towards him.
"Let's go! We can take care of these two later."
"No." Sasuke replied calmly. "We strip them of their weapons and tie them up here, so they won't cause harm to anyone."
"That's right." Sakura agreed and started pulling out a rope out of her pocket, using it to bind the two samurai together to a nearby log after she took their swords and two small dagger in the case of Zori. Waraji just shook his head and didn't even resist the shackles. As they left, he raised his gaze towards them. When Naruto looked back for a second he spotted a mad spark in the eyes of the swordsman.
He definitely won't forget this.
XXXXX
When the house came into sight, Naruto already knew that something had gone wrong: No one appeared to be present, when they arrived, even though Tsunami was usually doing the laundry or cleaning the house at that time.
They entered the small path that led to the front door and spotted that it had been bashed in by force. The frame showed signs of a sharp blade and the door itself lied on the ground marked by even more strikes of what appeared to be a katana as Sakura concluded, when they searched the scenery for clues.
"Wow, this guy must be pretty strong if he just easily kicked this door in..." Naruto peered into the inside of the small house. The main corridor's walls were marked by even more cuts and slashes, shards of broken pottery scattered on the floor.
"Damn it," Sakura added. "there are no footprints. We have no idea where he went with the boy and his mother. Should we search for more clues or directly go to the bridge? Afterall Sasuke already suspected that Gato decided to strike."
"I think I heard something in the kitchen... Wait a second." Naruto wandered down the destroyed hallway, leaving Sakura and Sasuke, who was leaning in the shattered doorframe, obversing his surroundings, alone.
After a short while, it seemed as if he finally could degrade himself to answer her question.
"We should go together. Even if we have to wait for Naruto. It's still possible we just run into a trap, when we rush to the bridge headlessly." With those words he turned his back and went into the house himself. Sakura sighed and followed him.
Why do I always have to be the one, who's dragged around?
Naruto pushed the door to the kitchen open, from where he thought to hear a strange rattling. At first glance, the whole room was relatively untouched: The emptied plates from breakfast were still on the table and everything looked intact. Just when he was about to turn around and leave, something charged at him from under the table. Quickly Naruto raised his arms and dodged the attack easily by rolling forwards underneath the small boy whom he identified as Inari wielding a simple knife. When he jumped up and turned around, Inari was already charging at him a second time.
"Stop!" Naruto yelled. "What the heck are you doing!? I'm on your side!"
Inari's eyes widened, when he recognized the blonde ninja and he sunk to his knees.
"You... You fucking idiots!" the boy screamed out, tears filling his dark eyes. "He took mum with him because you weren't here!" He dropped the blunt knife and instead used his fists to punish Naruto, who was barely guarding the puny blows from the boy's fists.
"Hey…Listen! You have to tell us where he took her, or else we can't do anything."
"It's no use! She's already dead by now... and You... I... I couldn't protect her!" The trembling in his voice grew stronger and he suddenly bursted into tears.
"Nobody blames you for that. But you've got to tell us, ok?" Naruto tried to sound friendly and comforting as he endured Inari's gradually weakening hits.
"And what are you gonna do? It's not as if you could bring her back."
"If he took her hostage he probably won't kill her. So if he mentioned something, maybe it could help us."
Inari slowly started to calm down and swallowed his tears. His reddened eyes stared angrily at Naruto and he hesitated in his answer.
"He said... he'd work for Gato and that he'd... need a hostage to force Tazuna into giving up the bridge."
"Anything else?"
The boy reluctantly shook his head.
"Well then... I'm going to rescue your mom and stop this Gato guy! It's a promise!"
Naruto grinned at Inari. "You know... If I'm going to become Hokage, I can't allow people like Gato to just do what they want, right?"
He petted Inari on the head maintaining his big smile. "You should go to the village and stay there for a bit, while we take care of those guys."
With that, he turned around and left the boy alone. Inari was clenching his fists as Naruto stepped outside the kitchen, his whole body was still shaking but he found confidence in those words.
Outside the house he met up with Sasuke and Sakura who searched the other rooms but didn't find anything.
As he repeated what Inari said him, Sakura nodded eagerly.
"We have to get to the bridge. Gato and his men have probably already showed up there and Kakashi's there alone. If we hurry, we'll be there in about thirty minutes."
Nobody seemed to have something to object, in fact Naruto was obviously itching to get there. He looked at them with an unsettling look in his eyes.
"Let's go!"