A week passed before Sasuke was well enough to travel, or so he let the others believe. The last thing he wanted right now was to go out there and face their pity. Let them frolic outside, basking in the glory of victory. He would stay here and wrestle with the unbearable truths that the Battle of the Bridge had revealed to him.
He'd finally awakened his Sharingan. His Uchiha birthright. The Bloodline Limit that had made his clan the greatest in the world. And he'd turned out to be unworthy of it.
It was said that ninja experienced a brief spike of power when they finally awakened a new ability. Yet even with that, he'd been defeated, no, crushed by the first serious challenger he'd ever faced.
Sasuke knew why. It wasn't that his Sharingan hadn't been up to the task of seeing through Haku's attack patterns. As Haku toyed with him, showing off his ability to casually injure Sasuke over and over and over again, his movements had become clearer, not exactly slower but easier to track, as if his eyes knew in advance where to look. But then his body couldn't keep up.
He wasn't fast enough, or agile enough, or skilled enough to wield the information the Sharingan was giving him as a weapon. He was pathetic, so weak that the Sharingan became a sword too heavy for him to lift. All it did was drain his chakra, and barely keep him alive long enough for Naruto to save him.
And Naruto… even lamenting his own weakness was preferable to having to think about Naruto.
-o-
Too much had happened, and Naruto didn't know how he was supposed to behave. Kakashi-sensei, as a member of the older generation, had already known about the Demon Fox, and didn't seem to hold its accidental unleashing against him. In fact, he seemed to be avoiding the subject altogether, as well as the equally thorny issue of Naruto's unsanctioned actions. Naruto would have been worried, but he knew how it felt to be rejected by an authority figure ostensibly responsible for his well-being, and this wasn't it. Whatever was going on with Kakashi-sensei, it wasn't Naruto's problem, at least for now.
On the other hand, Sakura had completely freaked out once the adrenaline wore off, and getting that response from a friend (he was learning to use the word now) turned out to hurt a lot more than it did from strangers. But she adjusted with admirable speed, perhaps because she'd been the one to break him free of the Demon Fox's hold. A monster was always less scary when you'd already beaten it once.
Well, maybe not always. Naruto had technically got the best of Zabuza, and the missing-nin was no less terrifying. Naruto had always known, as a vague cached thought, that jōnin were "strong". But it was only during that battle that he came to appreciate what that meant. Zabuza could not be fought on equal terms. If Naruto tried, there would simply be no fight. If he relied on tricks instead, Zabuza was strong enough to break through all of them with sheer brute force. And on top of that, Zabuza had his own repertoire of powerful ninjutsu. If he'd decided to use his water clones from the start, or the Geyser Blade instead of the Water Bullet, Naruto's own abilities simply wouldn't have mattered.
Could Naruto reach those stellar heights someday? No, he had to reach them. The world was still out to get him, and every enemy was a potential Zabuza, ready to crush him with a single blow. Beating the world, turning it into a place where someone like him could live, was going to take all the power he could get and more.
Meanwhile, one small part of that world, blissfully ignorant of demon foxes and power levels, was treating him the same way as the rest of the team—as a great hero who had risked his life to save their country. It felt good, in an unfamiliar and disorienting kind of way. The experience of large numbers of people expressing positive feelings towards him was completely alien to Naruto, and had him regularly checking for genjutsu.
The mood in Wave as a whole was changing. After initial disbelief that Gatō was really gone, there was general jubilation. A parasite rather than a ruler, Gatō had been smart enough to leave much of the Wave bureaucracy intact, albeit with overseers (now fled or dead) to make sure his ruinously high taxes were collected on time. Now, that bureaucracy was able to make use of the money Tazuna's supporters had originally gathered for mercenary hire, and start rebuilding the country's infrastructure and economy. Though Wave's rebirth would be slow and by no means easy, there was already a sense of hope blooming among the people.
The bridge, the keystone of this rebirth, would not be ready to take daily traffic for months yet. Even so, the hastily-thrown-together provisional government had made the decision to hold the dedication ceremony today, in the evening, before the group responsible for its salvation set out on their journey home tomorrow.
In the meantime, everyone was free to spend their last day as they would. For Naruto, this meant a walk to a certain clearing, and along the route of his first date with Haku. It still didn't make sense to him that Haku had turned out to be a boy, or that even now that he knew, his feelings didn't seem to have changed. Trying to figure out that part of him felt like looking into a black hole—apparently, love was simply too weird for any of the analytical tools at his disposal. The one thing he knew was that he hoped to see Haku again one day.
That and the fact that nobody else must ever know. If he himself could barely understand what it all meant, how could he expect anyone else to do so? The best he could hope for from his friends, he suspected, would be endless and insensitive teasing. But somehow... that was OK too. It would be a secret for just the two of them.
-o-
Sasuke was lying in bed as before, reflecting on the tragic fall of the Last Uchiha, when he heard a knock on the door.
"Hey, Sasuke, can I come in?"
"Inari? Yeah."
As a guest in the boy's home, Sasuke couldn't exactly tell him to go away, much as he wasn't looking to hearing again about how Naruto, Kakashi-sensei and even Sakura had saved the day while the Academy's top graduate was busy lying in a pool of his own blood.
But Inari's gaze was inexplicably lacking in either pity or contempt.
"Sasuke, I wanted to say... I'm sorry for what I said back then. You were right about everything."
Those were the last words Sasuke had expected to hear. He had to briefly flick his Sharingan on to make sure it wasn't a Transformed Naruto playing a prank. (Why had such a glorious ability awakened so late?)
"Yeah?" he asked warily.
"Yeah," Inari said. "There are real heroes, and you're one of them, and I'm really glad I was wrong about you."
Sasuke didn't say anything for a bit.
"Were you?" he suddenly asked.
Inari gave him a look of incomprehension.
"I didn't do anything," Sasuke told him. "Even with these eyes, all I could do was get beaten up like a loser until somebody else bailed me out. If you want a hero, go look elsewhere."
But Inari didn't seem swayed by Sasuke's cold statement of fact. If anything, he seemed more confident.
"Weren't you the one who told me not to look down on people who were trying to do the right thing, even if they failed?"
Sasuke was at a loss for words, and not just because he'd been out-argued by a pre-schooler.
"You told me that if I was too weak, I should man up and train until I got stronger," Inari went on. "And that's what I'm going to do. I'm going to get stronger until I'm a hero like you. And then the next time somebody threatens my country, I'll be strong enough to protect everyone."
"Man up and train, huh?" Sasuke echoed.
"That's what you'd do, right, Sasuke?"
A few minutes after Inari left, Sasuke sighed, got up, and headed out to the woods.
-o-
June 31st. Sunny.
Dear Diary,
Sasuke's finally up! I just saw him leave the house! I've been worried about him all week—his injuries must have been so much worse than I thought if he hasn't even been able to leave his room. I bet he fought that Haku like a lion.
Haku was weird. I swear he and Naruto had a "romantic moment" before he left. Only... he is a boy, right? And that sort of thing doesn't happen in real life, only in books and movies. And even if it did, Naruto doesn't swing that way. He's been asking me out for as long as I can remember. He'd better not think I'm boyish. I think I should hit him a few times just to be sure.
Did I mention I saved everyone's lives last week? All right, maybe I did, but it's worth saying again! Kakashi-sensei used his Sharingan, and he was all like, "You're the only one who can do this, Sakura", and I was like, "Leave it to me!" And then I snapped Naruto out of his weird demonic possession thing and everyone was like, "Wow, Sakura, you're the best. We're sorry we ever doubted you". OK, so maybe those weren't their exact words. But Kakashi-sensei said I did a great job guarding the client! He didn't say that to anyone else!
Anyway, tonight's the night of the big dedication ceremony. There's going to be dancing, and fireworks and stuff, and it's going to make the perfect first date for me and Sasuke. He hasn't said yes yet, but I just know he will! After all, I saved his life. That means we're meant to be together, right?
-o-
"And then the west wing is going to extend over here, and we can have guest rooms over there, and a conservatory there..."
Tazuna was waving his arms and pointing to seemingly random features of the landscape near the family home, while Tsunami was looking on in bemusement.
"But Dad, what are we going to do with all that extra space?"
"You'll need it when you've got your husband, and lots of children running around all over the place," Tazuna explained matter-of-factly. "And then I'll certainly want some room to myself without them getting under my feet."
"Husband?" Tsunami queried. "Even if I was going to remarry, I don't have my eye on anyone right now."
"What, you mean you're not done seducing that ninja fellow yet?" Tazuna gasped. "Well, hurry up, girl, before he buggers off!"
Tsunami blushed. "Dad! We're not like that."
Tazuna wagged his finger admonishingly. "You're missing a golden chance there, Tsunami. Men like him don't come along every day. But anyway, I was thinking we could have a courtyard branching off there..."
-o-
It was early evening, still light, and what looked like the entire population of the Country of the Wave had gathered in front of the platform erected by the near end of the bridge. A suggestions box stood nearby, labelled "Ideas for Bridge Names".
"...and now, it is time for the speech from Team Seven, without whom this bridge would not exist right now. Captain Hatake, would you please grace us with a few words?" the official in charge of the ceremony asked.
Kakashi stalled for time with a humble bow while trying to suppress his panic. No one had warned him he would have to make a speech in front of an entire country. Or at all. Ever. Big emotional inspirational speeches were what he kept Gai around for.
"Um... yes, well, of course, that is..."
"Kakashi-sensei, would you mind if I said something?"
"Go ahead, Naruto!" Kakashi stepped back from the podium with the speed of a trap disarming specialist who'd just cut the wrong wire.
Naruto took centre stage and surveyed the crowd. He'd been preparing for this. And even though the only people present to whom it might matter already knew, and none of the rest had ever seen the mask he was about to set aside, it still felt like coming out at long last.
"People of the Country of the Wave! My name is Uzumaki Naruto, and I would like to say a few words about courage. When I came to Wave, I'd heard a lot about its beauty, its culture, its once and future wealth. But I had not heard about its courage. The courage of the bridge-builders who risked their lives as they worked day after day. The courage of everyone who gathered the goods for reopening trade with the outside world, giving up everything they had for a brighter future. The courage of Tazuna and those who helped him take his journey, even knowing that discovery would bring a tyrant's rage down on them. And, just as importantly, the courage of you, the people, who lived for years under Gatō's oppression, in unimaginable poverty and suffering, without ever giving up hope.
"I know suffering. I know how tempting it is to give in, to stop trying to live and instead just try to survive. And I salute the great courage you showed in continuing to live, and hope, day after day.
"Your courage is what inspired me and my fellow ninja to fight the way we did. It kept us going, no matter what Gatō tried to throw at us. And it's inspired me to dream in a way I'd never dreamt before. I'm going to become the Hokage, the champion and protector of the Village Hidden in the Leaves, and I'm going to be the greatest Hokage in history! I will live up to the standard of courage you've displayed, and I will not be beaten by even the strongest enemy, just as you refused to be beaten by Gatō."
The applause was uproarious.
-o-
As Team Seven walked down to the site of the main festivities, watching the first Gatō effigies being lit up in the distance, Sakura leaned over towards Naruto. "Laying it on a bit thick back there, weren't you?"
Naruto shrugged. "It's what they needed to hear. Tazuna's bridge is going to give them back their prosperity, but they also need to regain their pride." He noticed that his register had shot up once again from excitement, but, just this once, he didn't try to restrain it.
"So, Hokage, you say?" Kakashi-sensei asked. "Does that mean you've decided to work hard to make everyone in the village acknowledge you?"
"Acknowledge me? Screw that!" Naruto laughed. "They've long since forfeited the right to have me care about their opinions. No, I'm going to become a Hokage the likes of which the world has never known. I'm going to protect them, and save their lives, over and over again. The innocent will feel only healthy gratitude... but the guilty will live every moment of their lives knowing that they owe all they have to the man they hated and tried to break.
"That," he told them, "is how Uzumaki Naruto does revenge."
And Team Seven walked down towards the sounds of singing and dancing, leaving the Bridge of Courage behind them.
