Author's Notes:
Sorry for the longer than intended wait for this update. You see, a popup crossed my path and I was forced to write around it, but the popup just kept popping back up! Terribly frustrating, though I suppose it's in its nature.
On another note, I went back to chapter 7 and changed a little bit of Ino that had irked me for some time. When they learn their chakra natures I'd originally had Ino as Water, but now it's Earth while everyone else remains the same; nothing too major. It was really just poor planning on my part when deciding her (Shikamaru too, though his Fire nature had a little more thought to it than Ino's Water did) chakra nature. Water seemed the easy road for me to take at the time and I've since come to realize Earth gives me room for some development. Honestly, her chakra nature always could have been…washed away.
Finally…I always knew Obito was Tobi. I know we're still waiting for pieces to the Tobi puzzle, but I'll admit the manga has had me hooked these past weeks – months, really. And last but not least…Bleach 511. That's all I'm going to say. Bleach 511. The end of a legend.
IIII
Working Class Hero
IIII
Sleep came easy to Naruto – who had been sharing a bedroom with both his lazier of teammates and sensei; Ino had been lucky enough to snag the small bedroom; small, but hers alone – just like waking up eventually had. Perhaps it was due to the draining time they had spent in-between Konoha and their destination, or maybe it had been the revelations made on his own part. It had not been as emotionally taxing as becoming a ninja, dealing with a traitor to the village and learning of the Kyuubi, but it had been tough.
He felt sharper, somehow, sturdier even. Bent but unbroken – the Unbroken Uzumaki has a nice ring to it, he thought as he dressed for the day, remembering specifically that his forehead protector was to be kept out of sight.
With a sharp nod he had left his comfortable shelter with their client, ready to face the crisp, morning air and whatever kami saw fit to throw at him. He eventually found himself recalling the words of his sensei as he dutifully followed behind Tazuna and another man they had picked up during their walk to the bridge.
"In my current condition there is not much I can teach you all," he had said to them, and while they had known it was coming, it still stung a little like hearing you were good, but just not good enough. "With that said, the best option we have for now is making sure we keep our client and his family protected at all times. Now, I believe we have already covered tree-walking…"
And Asuma had been right, as they had already covered tree-climbing a few weeks before the mission, but they had not all mastered water-walking beforehand and the skill could only help in the area that they were. Naruto had informed his sensei of his mastery, still leaving a clone behind to participate in the drill and exercise with his team as he left to guard the bridge-builder.
At the moment he was the only one truly capable of defending their client to the best of his abilities. Asuma had been positive and as upbeat as a freshly-crippled person could be when the early-morning warm-ups had begun and it had been refreshing to know their team leader had not suddenly lost hope overnight.
"Don't you worry, because I've got something good prepared for Momo-chan…"
Naruto had originally thought Asuma too serious upon first training with him, and any relation to the old man only found in their name and – once upon a time – looks, but it had changed and the change was still growing. His sensei was not the old man, but he held the same warmth their Hokage did and Naruto was damn sure he could sell a blind man glasses.
With enough time I bet he could convince Iwa-scum to get those rocks out of their –
His thoughts were interrupted when a door sprung open and a middle-aged woman stepped forward, a smile so false it could be spotted miles away. At least, for Naruto it could.
"I'm very sorry, Tazuna-san, but Reno-kun will be unable to join you today. Please forgive him for any oaths broken and do not think too harshly – he is still young."
She gave a half-hearted bow then the door was quickly closed before a reply could be made and Naruto noticed, with a frown, a red-haired teenager peeking at them from behind parted curtains before they too snapped shut.
"Well," said Tazuna with false cheer, "it looks like we're going to be a man down today."
Three more stops of similar nature were made, yet the group had not gained another member. One of the women answering the door had given Tazuna the dirtiest look Naruto ever witnessed – and he had seen some nasty ones aimed his particular way – before slamming it shut without a word. Another had tearfully told them like it was, offering them each a breakfast roll and politely asking them to leave before their presences drew unwanted criticism and attention.
They were terrified.
They never said Gatou's name, but it might as well have been painted in blood along the sides of their houses for all to see.
Naruto sourly tossed the roll to the only person – Giichi, his name was – traveling with him and Tazuna. "How are you going to finish this bridge with nobody helping, old man?" he demanded.
Tazuna didn't look back as he kept walking, nor did he falter when answering. "I'll keep working till my hands are bloody, feet are blistered and the bridge is done," he said with no hesitation.
Naruto felt a grin spreading on his face as he strode forward and slapped the man on his broad back. "You know I can number anywhere from one to a thousand, yeah? Now, I don't happen to know much about building bridges, but I can carry stuff as good as the next guy!"
Tazuna squinted at him from behind weather-worn glasses. "What's your price, kid?" He shook his head and kept walking, no longer looking at Naruto. "You don't need to do this and I would rather have your thoughts focused where they're best suited."
The unspoken 'killing people' hung in the air.
Naruto shrugged as he fingered a small hole marring his otherwise perfect jacket; he would need to have a tailor – or Ino, who was quite skilled with a needle – look at it. "We'll be here until that bridge is safe and sound, so the faster it gets done the better for us, right? Unless, of course, you plan on paying us by the hour…" At the builder's incredulous look Naruto plowed forward, "and anyhow, the clones I create will have little effect on my duty to protect you – if anything I'll make them patrol the area whether you use them to help with manual labor or not."
The scratching of a beard – eerily similar to the lone Sarutobi in Wave – answered him. "I suppose you could do some carrying and mixing, as long as you stay out of the way and follow instructions," he said offhandedly. "Save us some time by picking up lunch, too," he added, mumbling to himself. "Sound good, kid?"
"Sure does, old man!"
IIII
Naruto should have known helping in the construction of a bridge – if his work could even be called that – was not going to be exciting stuff. His mind simply did not want to…believe it.
Not only was there only so much work he and his clones could help with, but he was quite literally left with his feet dangling over the side of the bridge, bored out of his mind watching the occasional cargo ship pass by.
I wouldn't mind a nice spar with Zabuza or his handler right about now; or a nice hot bowl of miso-ramen with some pork on the side, maybe even some…
Naruto would have elaborated further but a stray rock caught him right in the face. The ballsy clone looking back at him did not quell under his ferocious glare, nor did it explode like he had been hoping for. Wrong type of clone, he thought bitterly.
"I've been calling you for a while now," it said with a carefree shrug. "Boss wanted you to go pick up lunch – apparently didn't trust any of us with the food."
Naruto accepted the words with a slow shake of the head. "He does know you're all me, right?"
The clone shrugged again. "Maybe he didn't want one of us to pop on a stray corner while carrying his lunch? How am I supposed to know, my creator isn't that smart after all."
Naruto backhanded his mouthy clone and waved a farewell to Tazuna in one smooth motion as he made his way back towards the heart of the city.
Walking through the streets he was a little surprised he hadn't noticed just how bad the area looked. It made the nastier parts of Konoha – the parts conveniently left out of the brochures – seem like the kinds of places you planned a trip to when compared with the sights before him. He was a ninja in the service of Konoha, and knew he would probably see and do some shady things in his time, but just seeing little kids begging for mere scraps of food brought up memories too painful to think about.
Memories of the earlier days, when going to bed after eating what was left of rationed down instant ramen was the norm, pulled at him.
It tugged at his heart and he wished he could do more, but duty called in the name of gathering lunch for those tasked with building hope. The only consolation he allowed himself was the fact that the vendors did not despise the little ones asking for food and he actually spotted a few caving to the younger children here and there. Although not everyone in the market was as generous
It was honestly surprising just how bustling and crowded the place was with such obvious poverty, even while a rather robust man chanted over and over, seemingly completely oblivious to his surroundings, "Anything you need you can find it at the market!"
He no longer wished Momochi Zabuza dead for what he had done, but for the name it was done in, yet still did the fleeting jealousy he felt at hungry children being fed – when he had never experienced that type of kindness – disgust him more than the growing hatred he felt for the one responsible for it all. Logically – imagine that! – he knew being jealous at those lucky enough to succeed where he had failed was idiotic, but still, old wounds dug deep.
It was sort of like the way everything Sasuke did seemed to annoy him. Kami help him if Sasuke ever managed to unlock the mighty sharingan and make his ninja career that much easier and prolific.
The bastard will probably even manage to unlock a higher level of it – maybe he'll even start spewing fire right from his eyes!
Naruto snorted; like that would ever happen…
Entering their current base of operations – Tazuna's house – he had no words of encouragement for his teammates eating at the table or his sensei idly skimming through a book. He briefly noticed Inari was not at the table but thought little of it. Maybe the moody little boy was out for a walk.
He cleared his throat awkwardly. "Pops sent me back to grab lunch," he admitted to Tsunami.
She nodded and went about filling a few containers with leftovers from the lunch of those present before stopping short as she was about to make another. "How many?" she asked quietly with her back to him.
Naruto coughed in confusion, glancing at his teammates only to receive shrugs. "I'm sorry?"
"How many people showed up today?" she elaborated, hand still frozen.
He thought about it for a moment and the number lodged on the tip of his tongue did not sound like the right one, yet it was. "Including me and the old man, only four others are there."
Her shoulders sagged and a soft sigh escaped her as she went about bagging the meals for him. "I do this every time," she muttered and Naruto frowned, confused. When she turned and handed them to him there was a sad smile tugging at her lips. "The pay isn't much, so we try and feed some of the workers, too, when we can," she admitted with a swish of navy hair. "Some worked just for that meal what with the prices of food, but now that isn't even worth it to some – the risk is too high, they say."
Naruto felt his frown deepening and nodded, testing the weight of the bag in his hand as he tested the weight of her words in his head. It would have been hard not to notice the nearly dozen bento-boxes inside of the bag.
"Eh?" He frowned and scratched at his head. "This is more than enough."
"I know." She sighed that defeated sigh again and paused in the cleaning she had returned to. "Would you believe me if I said there was once over fifty people working on that bridge?" She shook her head and spoke without waiting for an answer. "When my father traveled to Konoha for help he left Giichi – his second-in-command for all intents and purposes – at the reigns. Second day my father was gone he lost several more workers without explanation and now it looks like he may end up having to complete it on his own. We should consider ourselves lucky the bridge wasn't torn down while he was away."
"Alright then," he heard himself muttering. "You're sure we don't need –"
She had turned and there was a real smile on her face – a sad, knowing smile; the kind Ayame used to give him when the glares would become just too much for a little boy to shoulder. "Do whatever you like with those extra boxes. If I could, I would feed them all, but this is the world we live in and we have to do our best with the tools provided. My father is building a bridge and I'm making lunch."
She patted him on the head then – not patronizingly or unkindly, but fondly – and went back to cleaning. Naruto left with a nod of understanding.
When he later found himself passing out the meals to Tazuna and the few still working on the bridge, he finished quickly and made a hasty getaway back the path he had come leaving only a mumbled reply in answer.
With four extra lunches, he went about doing what he had yearned for as a child and still did somewhat: someone that cared enough about him to sacrifice anything they could offer – food, kind words, time, anything.
The old man had done so for him, shelving important paperwork just to spend some time with another lost, lonely orphan. The Ichiraku family had also done the same for him, likely even losing potential customers when he was spotted.
In a way, it was odd.
Guilt probably had the old man making time for him in his busy schedule and guilt had him eating – though he really did love their food as well as company – at the Ichiraku's stand whenever the opportunity presented itself.
Given the circumstances he had to be discreet about what he'd done, as he knew shouting "Free food!" in the middle of a starving city was not the best route to go for several reasons. One: he did not need attention be it positive or negative, which was the main reason behind his hair falling free with no headband to identify him as a ninja of Konoha. Two: he did not want to hurt starving children desperate enough to attack him thinking they could best him and he did not want to see those given food fall prey to those not lucky enough. Lastly…he didn't think he had the heart to create such hope in so many just to replace it with crushing disappointment moments later.
The lunches were quite stuffed and though he knew a hungry child could easily put all the offered food away, he made sure to spread the wealth between a few smaller packs milling about: a group of three with the same honey-colored hair and the eldest no older than ten, a pair of red-haired girls that barely reached his chin and finally a worn looking mother, dragging her little girl from stall to stall.
When he finally sat down in a woodsy clearing not too far off the beaten path, he had a genuine smile on his face for what felt the like the first time in far too long.
Pulling the top of his still-warm lunch, he unsheathed a pair of chopsticks and gathered up some of the sticky rice before devouring it with gusto. He knew it wouldn't be too long and ate patiently, waiting for the snap or a twig or rustle of grass to alert him.
His wait was not very long.
"You can come out now," he said around a piece of steamed fish.
Inari greeted him not long after, his face puckered and pinched as he fought hard against the waterworks to come. Naruto was all too familiar with the look Inari wore.
"Come on," he called, beckoning him closer with the wooden utensils, "there's enough for the both of us – your mom sure is a generous cook."
Inari stumbled forwards his movement hindered by the landscape as well as his trembling form. When he finally shuffled onto the wooden log alongside Naruto, the proverbial dam broke and a sob tore its way from his throat.
Naruto sighed around another morsel of fish and gingerly reached out to pat the boy on his shoulder. "I use the cry all the time, too," he admitted, putting the lunch down.
"Re…really?" the boy whimpered.
"Sure did. Wanna know what made me stop?" At Inari's nod, Naruto gave him a sardonic grin. "Nobody cared if I cried."
"What about your –"
"Orphan," Naruto cut across swiftly, before adding, "and resident village pariah."
"How come you –"
"That's for another time," Naruto interrupted again, smiling at the pout Inari wore. "Here," he said, picking up the forgotten lunch and handing it to Inari with another pair of chopsticks, "eat."
"Thank you," he murmured before tucking in.
Naruto laced his fingers together and leaned back. "I'm not very liked in Konoha and there doesn't seem to be anything capable of changing this." He was surprised by the pain the truthful words brought him. "So for a while all I did was cry and cry, until I realized that would change nothing, too. And then I joined the academy and hoped by becoming a really powerful ninja that would protect the village against anything they would love me, and you know what happened?"
"No."
Of course he doesn't know, Naruto thought. "For a while nothing changed for the better," he admitted. "The same people that looked at me with cold, unforgiving eyes now looked at me mockingly, praying for my failure and downfall – like it was all one, big joke to them. You know what I did?" He did not wait for an answer. "I began to hate them all – the villagers, the ninja, all of them – except for the Hokage who always treated me fairly, and one day, when he asked me how I felt, I told him so – I told him I wanted to become Hokage and make them see how wrong they were, make them pay. You know what he said to me?" At his shake, Naruto continued on, "He said, 'I will not fault you for your reasons and I will not stop you in your quest to become Hokage, but I will do my very best to help change your ideals.' You know what happened next?"
Inari nodded, placing the chopsticks and empty boxed-lunch on the ground. "You cried."
"I cried like a baby," said Naruto shamelessly. "He looked so sad, but he wouldn't try and deny me my dream. I decided then and there I wouldn't be a Hokage that was feared, I would be a Hokage just like him or I wouldn't be a Hokage at all." Naruto stood and turned to Inari. "The reason you cry – you've lost someone important to you." It wasn't a question. "Just think, 'would he want me to cry all the time – would he want me to be scared?'"
"No," said Inari quietly.
Naruto's face morphed into a grin, eyes nearly squeezed shut. "We have to make those people important to us proud, whether they're dead or alive."
"I will!" said Inari with conviction, standing so he was nearly level with Naruto and practically daring Naruto to doubt his claim.
He clapped him on the shoulder. "I believe you, Inari, now you just have to believe in my team and your grandfather."
"I will!" he repeated, nodding fiercely, before adding quietly. "And…thank you for telling me this."
Struck by an odd sense of deja vu, Naruto knew just what he had to do next, and it had been a long time coming.
Abandon your fear, he thought. Move forward and never stop – you'll die if you hesitate.
IIII
That night, together with his team, gathered around a warm campfire, Naruto told them all a scary story – my life story.
It was a riveting tale with no shortage of blood, filled with village betrayal and capital punishment that spoke of sacrifice and hope. At the centerfold was a monster fox bent on destroying the village and a ragtag group of salamanders tasked with making sure a jailor turned wannabe Hokage didn't die before his time had come and theirs had passed by.
Naruto couldn't have made it up if he tried.
"This is so troublesome I'm not even going to begin explaining just how troublesome it is," Shikamaru grumbled, "but this does give me a few good ideas."
Their sensei flicked what was left of his cancer-stick into the dying fire and cast them all a grin, "About time we did some team strategizing! Whatta ya got, Shika?"
IIII
Author's Notes:
Yes, the Kyuubi and Salamander reveal just happened to the team. We'll go a little more into that later, but the revelation is more important plot and mission-wise, rather then emotionally and such – don't worry, no one despises Naruto for being the Kyuubi's jailor. That being said, the entire reveal and strategizing hinted at plays an important part in the ending of this mission which is why – for the sake of the story – I chose not to have the conversation happen "on screen." I have the blueprint laid out and I'm a little giddy at the reactions to come when I get around to posting those scenes, to be honest.
Also, I know I've kinda given Sasuke some shit in a few chapters, but I am not bashing him and these are just Naruto's thoughts. Remember, while he is a ninja, he is still just a boy entering his teens jealous of another boy. However, while most children find themselves wishing they had a toy someone else had, Naruto finds that he is envying the village's love and overall support Sasuke was given where he received it from only a select few.
I am not bashing Sasuke – I quite like him and the Uchiha as a whole (Tobi's my boy!) and understand why he is an evil dick now – but while I mentioned liking my stories with grit, I also do my best to keep them as realistic as possible, whether that be by not bashing characters in idiotic ways (Sasuke suddenly wants Naruto's spot on the team and it takes Naruto giving Sasuke a ridiculous beat-down in front of half the village who are calling for the last Uchiha to defeat the Kyuubi-brat for him to walk away), not making someone OP (at least until the Akatsuki rolls around and being OP means surviving).
Now I'm just ranting about bashing…I mean, honestly, people put there will be character bashing in their story summaries? Srsly?
Let me stop now. Also, unless some crazy idea pops into my head, next chapter will likely introduce Haku to Naruto and the gang.
Again, my bad on another long chapter wait. I'll try and get the next one out before 2013 – also, who shall be the 777th review?!
Till next time, folks!