Dance of the Kitsune

Chapter 07: The Calm Before the Storm

Hayate, Naruto, Hinata and Shino dutifully followed Tazuna into town. He had requested all four of them come with him after hearing questions as to why the bridge was so important that he'd risk his life to complete it.

Looking around in various stages of shock, the genin watched as people in rags and tattered clothes walked past. One man even wandered by with a sign over him saying 'will do any job you want'. They also heard the sounds of children crying, people begging, and cries of 'stop, thief!!' from all around them.

The buildings were shoddy, the glass cracked, and the floors were simple wooden planks over the same dirt that lined the streets. It was a far cry from the rich part of town, near the docks, where Gato and his men worked.

Hayate kept his attention on guarding their client, and his stunned genin. He's seen places that looked worse than this before, however, that didn't make it any easier to stomach. Tazuna just looked around sadly as he headed to the grocery store.

As they turned to head inside, they saw a kid, no older than eight, curled up beside the door, sleeping. There was graffiti on the walls of every building, and this one even had another sign, 'don't piss here', beneath the one that said simply 'grocery'.

Walking inside, they were even more shocked to see how bare the shelves were. There were only 2 or three of each of the limited selection of items within the store, and most weren't even fresh. The team of ninjas silently followed Tazuna around, each feeling the depression from the town around them too heavily to even try and find something to talk about.

A few moments after leaving, Hinata felt a tug on the back of her coat. Turning around fearfully, she saw a young, scruffy-looking little girl, holding her cupped hands out hopefully. Hesitating a moment, Hinata reached into her supply pouch and handed over the two left-over rice balls from lunch she had planned to give to Naruto if he got hungry.

Seeing one of the biggest smiles she's ever seen, even compared to Naruto's, spread across the girl's face, before she turned and skipped off eating her treat, Hinata smiled shyly. She turned and quickly caught up with her team in time to hear Naruto ask, "What's with this town?"

"It's been like this ever since Gato moved in." Tazuna signed. "We've become a city of slackers, cowards, and fools! That's why the bridge we are building is so essential! It will be an emblem of courage. Maybe the people who've taken the path of least resistance will be willing to walk the road of courage and dignity again. If we can only complete it… I truly believe that our city and our people can be what they once were again!"

Hayate looked away and refused to comment. After so many years as a ninja, he knew anyone willing to give up once, are less likely to try again. Shino seemed as unconcerned as ever, but he too, believed it unlikely. Hinata and Naruto, however, seemed to believe as Tazuna did, and for that, Hayate would say nothing. Let them hope.


As Tazuna sat down with his family and the ninja of team 8 for dinner, he couldn't help but look around and smile. "Boy, this is real fun! I can't remember the last time I've shared a meal with so many people!"

Naruto just laughed playfully as he watched the last dishes being placed before them. "Me neither!"

He may not have noticed Hayate's flinch, but the rest of the table did. As they all dug in to eat, Naruto sang Tsunami's praises again, as he had done every meal since they got there. Every other meal had either her or Inari absent, one of the ninja absent, or Tazuna himself.

As everyone ate their share, the family spoke of things in town, and the ninja spoke of training. They had been requested by Hayate that morning to practice in the trees again, since they only had a few hours.

After eating, as they were all sitting around drinking tea and chatting, Naruto caught sight of a picture hanging on the wall. "Why's that picture torn? It looks like someone carefully pulled the piece off to not ruin the rest of the picture."

All three members of the little family flinched, drawing the ninja's attention. "It… was a picture of Inari's father." Tsunami sighed, turning to look out the window.

"…Once upon a time, if you will… our entire city called him a hero." Tazuna sighed.

Inari swiftly got up from the table and headed angrily for the stairs. "Inari! ...where are you going?" Tsunami cried. As the door to his room slammed shut behind him, she yelled, "Inari!" Getting no answer, she then rounded on Tazuna. "Father! I've told you time and again not to mention that in front of my son!" She nearly shrieked, before turning around and slamming into her own room.

"Is that what makes Inari act like that?" Naruto asked, showing enough tact to not call Inari names at this point. He was actually impressed with himself on that one.

"You needn't tell us if you don't wish, Tazuna-san, however, it may help us to better deal with the situation." Hayate calmly informed him.

Tazuna was silent for long enough that others thought he wouldn't say anything, before he sighed. "…The man in the picture was not Inari's birth father… but they were every bit as loving and close as any biological father and son could have been, if not more. Inari was such a happy, laughing child back then…" He began to shake with silent sobs. "…But Inari changed… after what happened to his father. Our people – and especially little Inari – were robbed of the very meaning of courage… because of what happened that day."

Tazuna took off his glasses and sighed. "Let me start at the beginning… and tell you about the man who our entire land called a champion and a hero. It was about three years ago… that Inari and the man first met.

"Here Poochie!!" a young Inari cried.

"Not anymore! Starting now, his name is Shooting Star… and he belongs to me!!" a pudgy boy laughed cruelly. The small white dog in his arms had a rather blank expression on its face.

Inari struggled against the two boys holding him from each side – clearly the pudgy one's lackeys. "He's not a Shooting Star!! That's my Poochie!! Give him back!! Poochie's my friend! You can't have him!"

The fat one decided he'd had enough. "Shut up--!!" He yelled, plotting in the silence that ensued. Smirking evilly, he tossed the little white dog into the water. It only had enough time for a confused sounding "woof!?" before landing in the water with a loud splash. The poor little dog fought with all it's might to stay above the water.

"Poochie--!!!" Inari screamed.

"It's what you get for not handing him over when I ordered." The fat one laughed. "Who cares about a dumb dog, anyway?" He turned to his lackeys with a smirk. "Hey!! Let Inari go!"

"You can't just drown my dog!" Inari shrieked.

"Well, if the puppy means so much to you… better go save him!!" the bully taunted.

Inari's eyes welled up with tears as he stared at his flailing dog.

"Well, what are you waiting for? Are you just gonna just let him die?!!" Laughing uproariously, the bullies started to point, whisper and plan.

Inari stood shaking at the edge of the docks. 'Of course not!!! Poochie's my best friend! But… but… I'm sorry, Poochie… I don't know how to swim…!"

"Hey!! If you own him, why aren't you diving in?" Fatso sneered. Rearing back, he kicked Inari hard in the back and sent him flying forwards to land in the water beside his dog.

One of the lackeys fidgeted nervously, while the other rounded on their leader. "This ain't right Akane. What if he can't swim?"

"H-HELP! HELP ME!" Inari screamed, desperately trying to stay above the water.

Akane grabbed his lackey and snorted, "Aw, just leave him!"

"B-but…" The lackey stammered.

"Or do you want to be the next one performing a little pet rescue?" Akane growled, turning and walking away, his two lackeys nervously following.

As Inari continued to fight to stay above the water, Poochie's struggles became less and less frantic, and far more controlled. As he turned and slowly started to dogpaddle to shore, Inari cried out, "P-P-P-Poochie--!?"

Inari started to cry as he grew too tired to keep paddling. As Poochie reached shore, and the bullies chased him anew, Inari lost the fight, and started to slip beneath the water. As his vision started to blacken, Inari slid quietly into unconsciousness.

When Inari next came too, it was to a man's voice asking, "Are you awake, son?" He sat up and turned to look at the man. He had a rope tied around his forehead and was roasting fish over a fire. "I really bet those punks who were picking on you have it good. Here, eat!"

The first thought Inari had as to who the man may be, was god. A moment later, he decided not. He was, after all, still alive. "Did you… rescue me, mister?!"

"You've had a pretty rough time of it, haven't you?!" The man laughed. "Even your dog let you down. Where I come from, dogs are loyal. You can count on them. But… Well, I guess, since you let him down first, we really shouldn't be too hard on him."

Inari slumped in his seat, gripping both ends of the stick impaled through the fish. "I was too scared to even move." Inari whimpered, catching the man's attention. "I wanted to rescue him… but… I guess I wasn't brave enough." He sobbed.

The man reached over and patted Inari on the head. "…Of course not… Any kid your age would have been terrified. But keep in mind, son… When you do become a man, you have to walk a road that won't leave you filled with regrets."

Inari looked up at the man in awe. "If something is precious to you… No matter how painful or how hard it seems, no matter what it may cost you, you have to hang in there… and protect it with all the strength you've got, even at the risk of your own life!"The man grinned, flexing his muscles playfully. Inari just gaped at him in awe."If you do that, then even if you die in the attempt, at least the world will be left with the proof that a man worth living had died! It'd be your legacy… Right?!" Inari nodded gleefully, breaking into a massive smile.

"His name was Kaiza. He was a fisherman who came here from abroad to seek his fortune. From that day forward, Inari's affection and admiration for Kaiza grew and grew. It probably had something to do with Inari's real father having died before the boy was old enough to remember him, but even so… that boy stuck to Kaiza like white on rice. They were always together, like any other father and son." Tazuna continued. Naruto and the others were listening raptly. "In no time at all, Kaiza was like one of the family. And he was just the kind of man this town needs more of!"

The door slammed open with enough force to almost bounce back in the frantic man's face after he threw it open. "Kaiza, the rain's so heavy; it's overflowed the riverbanks and forced open all of the locks!! At this rate, all of Sector D will be flooded!!"

"What?!!"Kaiza roared, leaping to his feet.

"Daddy!!" Inari yelped, springing up after him.

"Inari, go to the back and get the ropes!" Kaiza yelled.

"Okay!" Inari yelped.

---

"This is awful – the only way we could possibly get this lock closed is if we put a rope around the entire barrier and pull it, but…" One man commented fearfully.

Another man, frantic with worry cut in. "Impossible! How could we get a rope around it in the first place?! Anyone who goes into that torrent will be swept away and drowned!!"

A terrified young woman pitched in. "The longer we wait, the worse it will get… and Sector D is running out of time!"

"I'll go!" Kaiza called, heading towards the front.

"Kaiza!!" Most of the gathered people called out together in amazement. "It can't be done, man!!" Someone cried. "You'll be throwing your life away! Don't risk it!!" Another yelled.

"Daddy!!" Inari cried, terrified.

"Don't worry, Inari… Daddy can do anything!" Kaiza reassured him, patting him on the head. "Because he loves the city where his little boy lives!"

Inari watched with amazement as Kaiza grabbed the ropes and leapt into the torrent. "Kaiza!" Numerous people cried. Inari remembered Kaiza's speech from the first day they met as his father became a hero. "Go, Daddy--!!" Inari whooped.

"He's done it!!! The rope's in place!! Pull everyone! Pull!"

"That was when… people here started calling Kaiza a champion and a hero. With a father like that, Inari could hold his head up high." Tazuna smiled sadly. "…Until Gato came to town…"

The ninja all watched Tazuna raptly. "So… what happened?" Naruto nearly whispered.

Tazuna started to shake with the force of his silent sobs. "In front of the entire city… Gato had Kaiza put to death!"

"Everybody listen up! This man has committed acts of violence and terrorism against my company and our activities here." Gato cried out to the shocked and horrified villagers kept at bay by a chain fence. Kaiza was roped to a wooden cross by his shoulders, stomach and legs. His arms had been cut off, one eye was swollen shut, he was drooling blood, and was covered in cuts and bruises. "He's openly denounced our policies and tried to incite sabotage and resistance against us, and disrupted the order of this land. The penalty for all his crimes is death. The sentence will be carried out at once…" Here Gato began to smirk. "…To ensure that such an awful thing will never disturb any of us, ever again!"

"Daddy!!" Inari shrieked, catching his father's attention.

"Inari!" He croaked. He managed a crooked smile of pride for his son, and hoped that after he was gone, that Inari would still remember the important message he taught him.

"Now!" Gato cried, causing one of his samurai to unsheathe his sword and walk towards the bound man.

"DADDY!!!!" Inari wailed.

"Ever since then, Inari has changed… and Tsunami… and everyone in this city's changed, too." Tazuna sighed, looking away.

Naruto just looked deep in thought for a moment. "That's it!" Naruto mumbled, catching everyone's attention.

"What is?" Hayate questioned, confused.

"That's how I can help Inari. I can show him there are still heroes in this world! Hayate, please tell us we'll be training tomorrow!!"

Hayate grinned. "Yes. Tomorrow we work on water-walking."


Hayate languidly stripped off his jonin vest, and hung it on the same branch as his sword and other weapons. Next, he untied his hitai-ate and placed it on the tree as well. Grasping his shirt, he slipped it over his head and hung it on another branch as he kicked off his sandals. He contemplated stripping down to his boxers, but decided Hinata was still too shy, and would likely pass out rather than train.

Sooner or later, that girl was going to have to learn that there are too few kunoichi to make teams of only women, thus she'll need to accept the fact that seeing ninja naked, or nearly anyway, was a hazard on long-term missions. But for now, she had some time left, so he resigned himself to swimming in his pants.

Walking towards the lake calmly, he paused after he had waded in to his waist. Looking down at his reflection, he couldn't help but snort and shake his head. His long, scruffy brown hair fell around his too-pale face, the bags beneath his tired eyes plainly visible. His pale chest, not a hair to be seen, was marred by thin, pale scratches and old scars, and was thinner than it should be, and his arms had far less definition than any swordsman should have, let alone one of his caliber and age.

His sickness drained him slowly of his heath and strength from the day he was born with it. When he had been younger, he had learned at twice the pace of the other genin just to keep ahead of it. Everyone had always told him he didn't have what it took to be a ninja, that he'd die before making chuunin. Well, he proudly wore his chuunin vest with pride, as it was host to his tokubetsu jonin badge. He far surpassed what any relative of his had done for at least 3 generations. And he was proud of it.

Shaking his head again to clear out the morose thoughts, Hayate surged into the water for a brief swim until his students got there.


As Naruto, Hinata and Shino headed to the lake, where they could hear the sounds of splashing, they wondered what Hayate was up to. Walking into the clearing to find most of his clothes hung up on a tree while he swam caused for a few shocked reactions, especially from Hinata.

"Come on in!" Hayate called. "The best way to start is from inside the water. That, and you're likely to get wet anyways."

Hinata squeaked and stayed shaking in place, Shino hesitated, and Naruto shrugged, stripped quickly to his boxers, threw his gear and clothes onto a different branch and walked in until the water was up to his neck. "Come on in further Naruto. Shino, Hinata, there's nothing to be embarrassed about. We are a team, after all. At the very least, just remove your jackets."

Naruto swallowed shyly. "Um… Hayate-sensei?"

Shino slipped his coat onto another tree and hesitantly placed his sunglasses, weapons, and hitai-ate on top, leaving himself in a mesh shirt, and his black pants. He then started to make his way towards the water while Hinata continued to fidget.

"Yes Naruto?" Hayate questioned curiously, turning around to backstroke closer to his students.

"Erm… I can't… well… um… I don't know how to swim." Naruto stammered, embarrassed.

Hayate looked at him in surprise. "Well, I guess you and I can work on that while the other two try and learn water-walking. When you're done, then they, and I, can help you catch up."

Naruto shyly nodded. "Kay." Then he grinned and cried out, "Oy, Hinata! C'mon!"

Hinata squeaked, but shakily started to remove her jacket. Once it was off and hanging on a tree, along with her hitai-ate and weapons, Hinata was revealed to be wearing a black t-shirt over a black mesh top, and her black baggy pants. Swiftly darting into the water, and blushing beet red to the tips of her toes, Hinata shyly stammered out a, "Ready!"

Hayate nodded, and swam closer to Naruto so the blond could listen easier. He explained, once again how water-walking was done, then told them to practice. "If either of you need my help, just let me know. Right now, I've got to teach Naruto to swim."

Both genin nodded, and then headed further out to another side of the lake.

"Alright, now, first, I'm going to teach you how to tread water…" Hayate began.


After a quick lunch, it was a very happy Naruto that joined his teammates in learning to walk on water. He still wasn't very good at swimming, but he had learned it, now only practice would help. He had a feeling he'd be getting a lot of practice while practicing water-walking.

He wasn't wrong.

For the first hour, Hayate helped the other two to get the gist of it, before he swam over and began to help Naruto out, with Hinata shyly calling out pointers with her byakugan activated to see what he was doing wrong.

All in all, it was a very wet, very tired, and very happy team 8 that headed back to Tazuna's that night, a far closer team than when they'd left that morning. Dinner was a quiet affair, neither Tsunami nor Inari choosing to eat with them that night.

Remembering the promise he made about proving the existence of heroes, Naruto slipped out after the others were asleep, softly informing Hayate, who woke up to the sound of him leaving, that he just needed some fresh air for a bit. Not seeing a reason to question him, Hayate rolled over and went back to sleep.


A young girl sat picking plants and placing them into a basket in the incredibly early hours that morning. As she reached for another of the plant, a bird flew over and landed on her shoulder, twittering happily. The girl smiled happily herself, and turned to watch the bird fly off, gasping startled at seeing a blonde shinobi, maybe a few years younger than her, passed out beneath a tree beside the nearby lake. Birds were all over him, and he had a thin stream of drool dribbling down the side of his mouth closest to the ground.

Walking closer, she slowly started to reach down for him, scaring the birds away. She gently reached down for him, and gave him a gentle shake. "You'll catch your death of cold, sleeping on the ground, especially soaking wet!" She gasped once his eyes fluttered open with a soft exclamation of, "Wha…?"

She giggled, and sat back at Naruto sat up. "Who… are you--?" Naruto questioned, stunned.


"Hey! Hey! Have I picked enough of those herbs you wanted?" Naruto cheerfully questioned, bouncing carefully back to the beautiful girl who asked him to help. "Are these grasses and weeds really medicinal?"

"I'm sorry to have imposed on you." The girl shyly apologized.

"That's some job you took on, girl… Harvesting all that this early in the morning." Naruto grinned, squatting down across from her after placing his load into her basket with the rest.

"Look at who's talking!" she laughed, "What were you doing in the middle of nowhere at the crack of dawn?"

Naruto sat up straighter and proudly stated, "Training!!"

The girl looked at him startled for a moment, before asking, "Really? That headband you're wearing… are you some kind of ninja?"

Naruto sat up even straighter and smiled his foxy smile. "Yep! Why, do I look like one?" He asked hopefully.

"Wow – That's incredible!" She gasped.

Naruto laughed happily.

"What are you training for?" She asked curiously.

"To build up my strength." Naruto replied, grinning.

"But… but you look so strong and manly already!" She gasped out.

"Really? Well, not strong enough! I need to be a lot stronger than this!" He replied fiercely, blushing.

"But… why…?" She questioned softly.

"To become top dog in my hometown! All the people who used to treat me like dirt will have to say 'He's the number one ninja'! And right at the moment, I kind of have to prove a point… to a certain person I know." Naruto proclaimed proudly.

She just looked at him for a moment, before asking, "…Are you doing this for the sake of that person… or for your own satisfaction?"

"Wha…?" He murmured, tilting his head to the side in confusion.

She burst into giggles as he demanded to know what was so funny. "…Do you have… anyone special in your life?" She questioned.

Naruto looked at the girl in confusion as she spaced out for a moment, before she continued. "When people… are protecting something truly precious to them, they truly can become… as strong as they must be!"

Naruto looked at her wide-eyed for a moment, flashing back to Iruka-sensei and his fight with Mizuki, before he burst into a happy smile. "Yup! I know all about it!"

She smiled serenely, and stood up, grabbing her basket as she did. Naruto watched her turn and start to walk off, as she stated, "You will get stronger… I know we'll meet again."

"Right!" Naruto chirped happily.

"…So… you should know… I'm a boy." 'She' smirked, looking over 'her' shoulder at Naruto, before vanishing into the trees.

Naruto gaped after him, stunned. 'He's even prettier than Sakura!'


Waking up without Naruto in the entire house worried team 8 greatly. They quickly ate, Hinata grabbed some food for Naruto, and then they headed outside. After a bit of brainstorming, they headed towards the lake to see if Naruto was there. He was, and he was walking on the water, steadier than the other two could do yet.

"Only you, Naruto…" Hayate chuckled, as the team headed over to join the blonde.