Here's Chapter four.
Once again, I do not own Naruto.
Naruto grunted as yet another wave caused the surface beneath his feet to buck and shift.
What had looked, from the beach, to be a calm and placid stretch of ocean was proving to be a bit more chaotic now that he was in the middle of it. The fact that it was pitch black outside probably didn't help, but Naruto had figured a dozen or so fishing boats spreading word of twelve year olds walking on water would soon have Wave Island getting a lot more visitors from Konoha than he'd hoped for.
Thus, his current situation.
Naruto braced himself as he felt the ocean once more roiling beneath him. After the worst of it passed, he concentrated heavily on his chakra, and took a few more hesitant steps.
He doubted the island was any more than three-quarters of a mile off the coast –close enough that he could count individual trees from the shore – but if things kept as they were, he'd be lucky to get there by day-break.
Naruto chuckled a bit to himself, wondering if his chakra would even hold out that long, or if he'd end up swimming before this was all over.
Either way, he thought, grinning a bit despite his already looming exhaustion. I'll certainly have mastered water-walking by the end of this.
. . . . .
Kakashi sighed, staring down at his soon-to-be genin team from a spot hidden in the trees. Normally, he would have spent the obligatory three hours of what he had always secretly called 'Obito time' either relaxing at home, or enjoying one of the many fine beverages served in Konoha's fantastic watering holes. Today, however, he thought it best that he observe his little chibi-shinobi as they met as a team for the second time.
To make sure they didn't kill each other.
He stifled a groan as screams once again filled the clearing beneath him, peeking over his Icha Icha to make sure things hadn't escalated to physical violence.
The team he was currently saddled with (and make no mistake, he was saddled with it. The council had made it clear that he would be passing the Uchiha) was, if anything, even more dysfunctional than previously planned. Kakashi's new third student, Ami – one of the many orphans of the Kyuubi attack, and an over-all average student in the academy – wasn't really interested in dealing with the personality quirks of either of her teammates. During team orientation she had snorted at both of her fellow genin when they had stated their dreams for the future (not without reason he would have to admit), and then, after they had glared at her, continued to lambast them; pointing out all of what she perceived to be their character flaws.
While doing so, she also continually referred to Sasuke as 'duck butt'. Something which took all his years of training as a Shinobi not to snort at.
He barely managed to get them settled down long enough to hear where his test would be taking place, and even then, was forced to give up his awesome exit in lieu of ushering them all away from one another before punches were thrown.
He'd admit that her ability to get under the Uchiha's skin – she had the boy white-knuckled and nearly spitting blood back on the school roof – was impressive, and pretty hilarious, but it really wasn't going to make Kakashi's life any easier.
"You take that back, Ami-baka! Sasuke's going to be the greatest shinobi this village has ever seen!"
Kakashi winced as the Haruno girl's voice echoed across training ground seven. She had quite a pair of lungs on her.
"You know Pinky, if you really want to fuck duck-butt over there so much, you should just ask him. If his balls have dropped yet, he might even say yes."
Kakashi chuckled a bit at the blush which exploded across both Sakura's and, oddly enough, Sasuke's faces. Orphans always did grow up a bit faster, he supposed.
At that, he was forced to think once again on a subject he had been trying very hard to keep his mind away from. The reason Ami was here in the first place.
Naruto.
He closed his eyes briefly, pushing back the swelling guilt. He knew full well that he had done nothing for his sensei's son. The son of a man who had been like a second father to him.
At first, he was simply too busy to really give any consideration towards interacting with the boy. Things after the Kyuubi's attack had been, hectic, after all. And after things had calmed down… well, there never really seemed to be a right time to become a part of the boy's life; especially since he couldn't explain to him why he was interested in the first place.
He'd finally decided to meet Naruto about a year into his time at the academy. He figured he could simply 'happen' upon the boy when he was at one of the training fields, and then, as any good jonin of Konoha should, pass along a few pointers. After that, their relationship could proceed normally, perhaps him eventually becoming something of a big brother to the blonde. That plan ended when he had taken a peek at the boy's test scores.
It pained him now to admit that he had been… disappointed. He couldn't understand how the son of two of the greatest shinobi Konoha had ever seen, one a Hokage no less, could be so… mundane. Less than mundane even. The boy had been as near to failing as someone could without being kicked out. The very dead last of his class.
He hadn't exactly decided not to meet the boy after that, but, it had made it… easier… to put off.
So easy in fact, that he had done so for another five years.
He had eventually helped justify his absence by becoming determined to be the boy's Jonin sensei. He'd even failed seven separate genin teams before this just to make certain of it – not that any of them really had what it took anyway – and made it a requirement to the council that, if he was to be forced to teach Sasuke, Naruto would also be on his team.
An effort which was looking to have been entirely pointless.
Groaning as he watched Sakura make a desperate leap at Ami to begin clawing at her hair, he closed his book and got ready to make a flashy entrance. Three genin were required for each team, after all. It wouldn't do to lose one so early.
. . . . .
This… wasn't entirely what I expected.
It was still in the earliest hours of the morning, and Naruto was crouched alone and silent on the roof of what seemed like some kind of warehouse or repair shop. Laying out below him was Wave's only real village.
He had dismissed all of his clones before attempting his difficult journey across the ocean, even the persistent one he'd held onto since Konoha (and boy was that a headache. Keeping a clone active for over a week wasn't something he thought he'd try again anytime soon), so there was no one else to share in the sight currently in front of him.
He'd obviously never been to Wave before, but all the reports he'd read from shinobi passing through the area painted it as a, not particularly prosperous, but overall pleasant and happy community.
Not… This.
A palpable air of fear and depression shrouded the small village. Garbage and debris lay piled up untended in corners or on the side of buildings, while the buildings themselves were pockmarked by peeling paint and broken shutters. The reason for this neglect was easily understood once the villagers themselves exited their homes, and began to complete their morning chores.
Naruto watched as they moved together in small groups, deeply eyeing every shadow and routinely glancing up and down the large road leading to and from the village; obviously afraid to be alone. Noticing a small group of women speaking in hushed but hurried whispers as they collected water from the town well, Naruto decided to sate his burgeoning curiosity.
With nary a hand seal or puff of smoke, the boy disappeared, and a small ground squirrel was in his place. A ground squirrel which was entirely ignored as it speedily made its way down the warehouse wall, and over to its goal.
"-know how Tsunami is?" was the first thing he heard as he came close. The speaker was a woman in her early thirties. Her clothes looked as if they might have been moderately expensive when new, but were now nearly wore through with use and constant washing. Naruto quickly noticed the others were dressed more or less similarly.
"About as well as any of us would be…" a younger woman responded, her eyes briefly losing their panicked look, and filling with sadness. "We managed to pack up most of the important things, and got her and little Inari off to her father's place. He lives up further in the hills, so we're hoping Gato's men don't know about it." Her hands gripped the bucket tightly for a moment. "Tsunami clung to Kana-san for dear life the whole time, and Inari had to be forced to walk. Neither one said a thing."
All were silent for a moment. The only sound the gush of water as it was poured into skins, or wooden tubs.
"This has to end…" One of the older women finally said. "What little money we had saved away is already gone, and now Gato's men are demanding the very food from our mouths. My husband and I both thought Kaiza would be able to change things… but now…"
All of the women slowly bowed their heads, as if in reluctant agreement.
After a few moments, the youngest there slowly raised her head. "maybe-"
Whatever the woman was about to say was quickly silenced as a loud crash echoed through the village. Every woman there quickly spun about, bodies stiffening, to stare at what had caused it. Naruto himself had to dash around the well to get a view. None of the women even twitched as the small rodent dashed between their feet.
When he made it around, his eyes were easily able to take in the spectacle which had frozen Wave village solid.
A man lay moaning in the splinters of what had once, assumedly, been his own front door. Even from this distance Naruto could see he had been brutally beaten. His eyes were both already beginning to swell. The skin around them, and across his entire face, beginning to yellow and darken. By the way he lay – curled onto one side and carefully holding at his chest – Naruto felt sure he also had a number of internal injuries.
He was interrupted from his observation of the man by a high-pitched scream which rang out from behind the ruined door, followed after by a young woman being dragged into the street by two rough-looking men wearing swords. Both men seemed to be chuckling as they pulled the woman through the wreckage. Large smiles painted on their faces.
At the sight of the teenaged girl – tears falling down her face as she struggled futilely with her attackers – a bolt of electricity seemed to race through the villagers, each of them jerking in place, their fingers tightening on whatever was in hand. For a moment, Naruto was sure that they were going to confront the two men. Going to stop this criminal act in its tracks. He was disappointed not a second later as their grips slackened, and they each began to turn their heads to the ground. Eyes brimming with fear, grief, and a soul devouring look of guilt. As if they knew what happened here today would follow them for the rest of their lives, but could still not get up the courage to move.
"Oi!" One of the men shouted out to the village at large, his grin only widening as he saw villagers twitch at the sound. "It seems some of you didn't get Gato-sama's message the other day. We thought after the little example we made of that bastard, Kaiza, you would stop with all your childish misbehavior." He stomped painfully on the man still lying in the street, ignoring both the moans coming from beneath his foot, and the loudening screams from the woman in his arms. "Raizen-san here thought he could get away with not paying his debts. Normally this would be grounds for execution, but you're in luck. The kind and generous Gato-sama has only instructed us to take his daughter, so that she might pay them in his place."
The man in the road seemed to regain a bit of strength at this, reaching up to tug uselessly at the thug's pant leg. A swift kick to the face put paid any plans the man might have had.
The thug in charge, a slightly smaller man with beady eyes and a rough beard, then passed the girl entirely over to his comrade, squatting down to pat the broken father on his head.
"Don't worry, Raizen-san. You'll see your little girl again." That sick smile once again appeared on the thug's face, replacing a look of false pity. "Although it may take a bit of time. After all, there's the addition to the interest for non-payment, plus the cost of us coming all the way out here to transport her to where she'll be working. Oh, and let's not forget the cost of her… training…"
The expressions of both men suddenly turned lustful, and the shrieks of the woman more high-pitched as the one holding her dug his finger deeper into her flesh.
After that, the lead thug stood up, and they both began to slowly leave the village – dragging a now hoarse girl along with them.
No one in the village moved. Eyes fixed utterly on the ground below them, they tried desperately to ignore the desperate cries of the girl slowly fading away, and the whimpered moans of the man right in front of them.
Eventually, a couple of the village women rushed over to give the now-unconscious man aid, while most others hurriedly got back to their tasks.
In their haste, no one noticed a very determined looking ground squirrel running quickly towards the village exit.
. . . . .
The thugs had stopped for an early lunch. After starting a fire and tying up the now much more passive girl – her screams long having turned to silent and resigned tears – they began relax while they cooked up a bit of meat taken from the village before they left.
Unbeknownst to them, silently watching from a near-by tree, a young boy was going through a moral crisis.
You knew it would come to this. A voice, reminding him strangely of the annoying clone whispered through his head.
I could just knock them unconscious, he argued weakly against himself. And then take the girl back to her father before they woke up.
And simply leave them to continue committing these acts wherever they may wander? You heard them talking between each other while they traveled. Bragging about their vile exploits, telling joyful stories of rape, murder, and exploitation. Perhaps a bit of it was exaggerated in an attempt to further frighten the girl, but that may as well count as another sin stacked against them.
Naruto halted his inner monologue briefly, to stare at the men below him. They were laughing riotously around the fire. Currently telling the girl – who had long since rolled over to show her back to them – about how Gato usually let his boys have at least a little taste of whatever product they brought in. He felt bile fill his throat at how genuinely happy it seemed to make them to terrorize the teenager.
If I do this, what separates me from being a shinobi? What separates me from people just like them? People who casually murder without thought of consequence?
The voice seemed silent for a moment, as though digesting the question.
What separates us from shinobi, it finally said, is that they would not raise a hand to save this girl unless paid to do so. And as for the bandits, well, this whole conversation has been about the consequences of our actions. Now we have to choose. Will we sacrifice the wellbeing of innocents, by letting these monsters live? Or will we sacrifice a piece of ourselves, by forcing them to die?
Naruto tightly clenched the kunai in his hand, feeling the truth of those words fill him. If he were to leave these men here unconscious, they would eventually awaken. And after awakening, each action they took, every life they ended, would, in some small way, have been caused by him. For not taking action at this very moment.
We both knew this path wouldn't be easy. We both knew that there would be hard choices to be made. This is simply the first.
Naruto slowly closed his eyes.
. . . . .
Aiko curled in on herself further, trying desperately to ignore what the two men were saying.
When Gato first came to wave, it seemed a boon. A rich man interested in investing in the local village, interested in turning the tiny island of Wave into a major hub of commerce. Many men, her father included, had rushed at the chance to become part of that hub.
Gato had offered low interest loans, saying his intention was to bulk up the economy by adding more business. Her father had used such a loan to purchase two hardy freight ships, intending to send them out to ports in lightning country to purchase large amounts of the country's unique medicinal herbs. He expected trading such things to fire country would end up with him making a tidy profit.
What he did not expect were both of his ships being taken by pirates only days after leaving the Lightning country ports. By pirates later found to have been funded by Gato.
This happened to all too many of the men in the village. Gato would supply the money, and even bring in what he called 'dependable sailors' from outside Wave in order to work the ships, then show up shortly after to take both the ships, and the navigation charts their captains used, for himself.
Still with the large debt hanging over their owners, of course. A debt which was enforced by those same sailors Gato had so thoroughly recommended.
And now to 'pay off' that debt, she was about to be sent to one of the many brothels the little pervert owned. Probably the first of many of the village women who would suffer the same fate.
"Oi! You respond when we ask you something, you little whore!"
She quickly found herself jerked back around, staring into the smaller man's face. His foul breath washed over her as he took a grip on her chin.
"Were we not interesting enough for you, princess?" He asked, in a saccharine coated voice. "No? Or, maybe you were just getting too caught up in all the stories we were telling, eh? Did you go and get yourself all excited? Maybe want the fun to start a little early?"
She couldn't help the tears which continued to fall from her eyes as she stayed silent. Clenching her teeth together to stop herself from crying out. She saw how much they enjoyed it when she'd began begging them to let her go, and, at the very least, she wouldn't give them that pleasure again.
"Aw, looks to me like she does. What do you think, Kurou?" He turned to look at the second man, who was currently nodding stupidly, a gleam in his eyes.
"Well," he said, turning back to her, and reaching a hand towards his belt "I'm certainly not one to disappoint a la-"
It happened faster than her eyes could follow. She didn't see anything until something impacted the smaller man's head, throwing him to the side. Her eyes briefly followed his decent, only faintly aware of the blood splattering on her cheek. The body hadn't even hit the ground before a shockingly loud cracking sound echoed across the clearing.
She turned her head back around, to see the larger of the two men falling as well, his head twisted almost entirely around. She didn't notice the boy until the second body had hit the ground, he was perched on the bigger man's back almost riding the body to the earth below.
In the seconds after the death of the two men, when her mind was attempting to cling onto things which made sense amongst the chaos, all she could think of was that she didn't remember babysitting him before. Which was odd, since she'd looked after everyone in the village around his age at one time or another.
Then he began to walk towards her, and she felt paralyzed by fear.
This boy was not from the village. Not from the Island at all. His brown hair and green eyes wouldn't have passed as too uncommon amongst their community, but no one on Wave Island could have ever walked like the boy did.
It was like when the man had been struck by what she could see now was a kunai. She saw the end result of every step, but it felt like she missed a thousand movements in between. As if he could disappear at any second.
"Are you hurt anywhere?" he asked, making her jump. After a few moments, when she realized she was simply staring at the boy, she began to shake her head back and forth.
"Good," he replied in a soft voice "now I'm going to cut these ropes off of you, so stay still, okay?"
She didn't respond so much as simply freeze solid, watching as the boy took another kunai out of a pouch hidden in his pants.
"A-are you a shinobi?" she found herself asking. Only to quickly berate herself for doing so when she felt the boy go suddenly still.
"No…" he finally answered, his voice low, and strangely sad. "No, I'm not."
He finally finished cutting through the ropes, and she felt herself unconsciously moving to rub at her wrists. She could have kicked herself for what blurted out of her mouth next.
"Then what are you?"
The boy stilled again, before giving her a thumbs up, and what was obviously a fake smile. Guilt and, something else echoing in his eyes.
"I guess I'm a hero."
Then, before she could blink, he had grabbed the two bodies, and all three of them disappeared.