ALTERED CIRCUSTANCES
DISCLAIMER: I don't own Naruto or any of the characters used save those I made up. No profit is earned. This is just for fun.
CH. 21 Battle of the Bridge
Gato held his temper with an effort. He may have lost a powerful missing-nin, but he had access to more. The three before him may not have been of the same quality as Zabuza and his apprentice, who had apparently chosen to flee like a coward after his master's death, but they were still good enough for one genin squad and their sensei. The latest report indicated that they had been reinforced by one chunin from the Leaf village, but that did not seem to concern the group before him.
Looking over the three standing before him in his office with a critical eye, the businessman nodded decisively. The problem would be solved. Akiyama Haru was the jonin in nominal charge. A missing-nin from Iwa, he was a powerfully built man with a reputation for enjoying violence. He was assisted by two ex-chunin from Kumo; Manato and Gosuke. They were of similar temperament and had cruel streaks Gato approved of. All any of the three cared about was the money they'd be paid. The challenge of taking down the infamous Sharingan Kakashi only added to the appeal of the job.
Motivation like that, Gato could understand and work with. Zabuza and his cause and the boy's doe-eyed devotion to his sensei, had always seemed suspicious to the businessman. He set aside such thoughts for the moment and got focused on the matter at hand.
"The bridge will be completed within the month. I wish to eliminate the bridge builder and his Leaf ninja guards before that happens. Leave the bridge intact if you can."
He had originally planned to prevent the bridge from being built so he could maintain his monopoly on shipping, but he had realized that the bridge would create new opportunities for him. If he controlled it, he could charge whatever tolls he wished, increasing his revenue with little cost and effort on his part. The bridge would also take business away from other members of the shipping guild with whom he often competed.
With most of the work done, he could bring in a bridge builder and crew on his own terms and finish it without any risk of sabotage, something that might happen if Tazuna realized why his workers weren't being hindered as badly anymore. Best to eliminate them before they became a problem.
Akiyama acknowledged the mission and led his two subordinates out of the room. Gato turned to the last man in his office. Sasaki Yo had been a high ranking officer in the Wind Daimyo's army, until he had been discovered selling secrets to Gato so the man could gain the upper hand in business dealings with the Daimyo. Currently, he was charged with organizing the mercenaries Gato had hired into something resembling a disciplined fighting force.
"You know what needs to be done?" the businessman asked.
Sasaki nodded once and left to organize his men. Both jobs his mercenaries were undertaking would save him money and trouble. The three missing-nin were good, no doubt, but they were also expensive. If the opportunity arose, when the Leaf ninja had been dealt with, his men could finish the weakened Akiyama and his men. If Gato were lucky, the two groups would wipe each other out.
OOOOOOOOOO
Naruto stayed at the house that day to protect the bridge builder's daughter and grandson while the others went to the bridge. It had occurred to Kakashi to wonder why the family hadn't been targeted before, but he reasoned that it hadn't been necessary yet. With Zabuza and his apprentice gone and four Konoha shinobi guarding Tazuna, it might be necessary to threaten the woman and boy. Such an action might rile up the locals, and such risky tactics were probably not deemed necessary.
They had maintained a guard on the family regardless, but now it was more likely than ever that they would be used to control Tazuna. Naruto had shadow clones under henge all around the house to warn him should anyone approach.
He kept up his routine patrol, remaining as vigilant as ever, despite his precautions. Naruto didn't want anyone who might be watching to get suspicious. As it turned out, he was overthinking it. When the assault came, it was made by a small group of mercenaries.
They were reasonably skilled fighters, but they did not manage to disperse more than one of his shadow clones before they were overwhelmed. It didn't take too long to get answers out of the men, only requiring a few threats and a demonstration of one of his more destructive jutsu. The anger he felt over their actions translated to killing intent fairly easily, and while it was nothing compared to what Zabuza could produce, it was sufficient to loosen their tongues. Gato wanted the family as hostages, just as Kakashi had expected.
Another group was heading for the bridge to attack the rest of team 7 and Hiro. Naruto wasn't terribly worried, but after taking some precautions, he'd head over there. He went inside to have a brief talk with the bridge builder's daughter, then, he made some more shadow clones.
OOOOOOOOOO
The attack came without warning, and Hiro barely had time to shout before a hail of sharpened stones sped through the space the workers and team 7 had just occupied. Each had dropped face down on the bridge at his warning. The workers had reacted almost as quickly as the ninja, leading him to believe that similar attacks had been made on the worksite before.
Team 7 was on their feet again immediately, taking up defensive positions. Three unfamiliar shinobi stood at the landward end of the bridge. Even as he caught sight of them they were in motion, running flat out toward the workers and Leaf ninja.
"Protect the workers," Kakashi ordered the genin as he and Hiro raced forward to meet the attack. A jonin and two chunin, Hiro noted. He chose to engage the chunin on the end. Akiyama Haru, the jonin, Hiro recognized from a bingo book. The man had gone missing-nin after his brother had been executed by the Tsuchikage for failing in a mission. There had been only limited information about his strengths, weaknesses and techniques, but Kakashi didn't seem concerned.
The two chunin, he didn't recognize, but the marred plates on their headbands indicated hidden mist ninja which probably meant he could expect water style ninjutsu from them. He knew how to deal with that. Hiro chose the man on the left for his opponent. The man looked like a brawler type by the way he moved.
The enemy he chose drew a sword, and Hiro met him with the Kiba drawn. Hiro was competent with a blade, even though he didn't normally use one. His father had insisted on him knowing how to handle a variety of weapons, as the clan head detested specialization.
The initial clash proved they were not evenly matched. The missing-nin he faced was evidently a kenjutsu specialist, but Hiro was able to hold his own, partly because he could parry and strike at the same time, and partly because the lightning chakra he channeled through his blades made each clash painful for the other regardless of whether Hiro drew blood or not.
The enemy chunin began evading his blows rather than blocking them, he became more careful in his approach and more dangerous as Hiro didn't have the skill with a blade to properly exploit his advantage. His enemy was stronger, and Hiro was gradually forced to fall back.
Hiro could perform a holding action at best, pressing the man too hard for him to use any ninjutsu. He had two sealless jutsu himself, but he needed a second to focus.
He got the time he needed when almost 20 shadow clones hit the three enemies from behind. Two grabbed Hiro's opponent in an attempt to hold him still. That didn't end well for the clones, but it bought Hiro the chance to magnetize one of his swords. He used that to trap his opponent's blade long enough to plunge the other into his chest.
Releasing the jutsu and allowing the corpse to fall to the bridge, he turned to check on Kakashi. The other chunin level ninja had gone down under a pile of Narutos, but Kakashi was still fighting for his life against Akiyama who had shrugged off Naruto's clones without taking his attention from Kakashi.
Hiro noted that the enemy was not resorting to ninjutsu; at least, nothing overly destructive. Apparently, Gato wanted the bridge intact.
Another group of clones rushed the missing-nin from behind. Hiro could see each of them taking a deep breath. Kakashi, seeing what Akiyama could not, backed up and gave Naruto space. Each clone was struck and dispelled in rapid succession, each exhaling a single breath of something as it was struck. There were four clones left when the man suddenly wavered on his feet before falling face down and staring to snore.
"What was that?" Hiro asked, staring at the slumbering jonin.
"Something I picked up on my first C-rank," Naruto grinned. "I'll tell you about it later. Right now, we need to get this guy wrapped up and get ready to meet Gato."
"Probably won't be long when he finds out these guys failed," Kakashi noted, gesturing at the two dead ninja as he finished binding the sleeping one.
"Weren't you guarding my daughter and grandson?" Tazuna asked, eyeing Naruto angrily.
"They're safe," Naruto assured him. "Gato won't be looking for them at your house."
"Why not?" Hiro asked curiously.
Naruto just smirked. "Because he thinks he already has them."
OOOOOOOOOO
Gato received confirmation from his men that the woman and boy were safely locked up at his headquarters. With them in his control, the old bridge builder wouldn't think of crossing him. For the rest, the standard threats would suffice.
He'd have the bridge by nightfall whether or not the missing-nin he'd hired won or not. Sasake Yo would see to that. He gathered his personal bodyguard and headed for the bridge. The battle should be joined any time now, and he wanted to be there to finish off the winner.
His men formed up around him as they'd been trained. Sasake had drilled them in the proper way to protect their charge, and they'd learned fast or they hadn't lasted. Those serving on his personal guard were, arguably, the most intelligent and capable of the mercenaries at his disposal. That wasn't saying much, unfortunately.
He paused before leaving to check on his prisoners and make sure they were comfortable. He had visited the improvised cells to look in on them when they first arrived and found what he'd expected. The woman looked scared and kept her young son close to her. The boy just glared sullenly at him. Neither seemed likely to cause any serious trouble. He'd set the men that brought them in to guarding them. His second visit found their condition and mood unchanged. He told them he was off to see Tazuna and assured them they wouldn't be harmed, as long as the old man did exactly what he was told. Neither responded save to glare ineffectually at him.
Satisfied, he gave his guards their orders and set out for the bridge to settle matters with Tazuna one way or another. The old man was so stubborn, Gato recalled, that it might be necessary to hurt the woman of boy before he'd take his new situation seriously. Hopefully, he wouldn't be too stubborn. Gato had no moral objections to hurting his prisoners, but delays would cost him money, and that, he tended to take personally.
Once settled in his carriage for the ride to the bridge, he reviewed his strategies for dealing with Tazuna and whatever was left of his ninja bodyguards. He didn't believe he was overlooking anything, but it never hurt to be thorough. It wasn't a long trip, but by the time he'd arrived the fight was over. He was irritated to see his hired nin defeated and not so much as one dead Leaf ninja.
His bodyguards took up places at the landward end of the incomplete bridge, drawing weapons Gato approached, keeping behind the line they'd established, the rest of his troops at his back. He glared haughtily at the workers and the Leaf ninja. For the moment, he ignored the ninja and spoke to Tazuna.
"It's time you stopped resisting the inevitable, old man. Your daughter and grandson are my guests and will remain so until my conditions are met."
The old man glared at him, but couldn't hide his worry. "You work for me now," Gato continued. "The first thing you're going to do is dismiss these Leaf ninja. You won't need them anymore."
Tazuna glanced at one of the genin. The little fool was, for some reason, grinning broadly. Then he glanced over at Gato.
"Are you talking about the disguised shadow clones you let walk right by your guards and into the mansion where you keep all your stolen loot?"
"Shadow clones?" Gato blinked in confusion before remembering that he had heard of the technique. Solid clones that could think for themselves. And he knew the henge no jutsu well enough, having seen ninja in his employ use it. He'd been had. "Kill them all," he barked to his mercenaries.
Kakashi glanced at his students. "Time to use the jutsu I taught you."
All three genin, Kakashi and Hiro drew kunai while preparing the jutsu and hurled them at the oncoming mercenaries. Once in flight, each kunai multiplied by ten. The advance of the mercenaries was all but halted as they ran into a virtual wall of iron. The entire front rank, and several in the second went down. Some lay groaning and gasping; others would never move again.
Kakashi nodded in satisfaction as their advance stumbled to a halt. "Genin, protect the workers. Hiro. Let's finish this."
"Actually," a voice called from behind the surviving mercenaries. "We'll finish this."
Gato whirled to find a crowd of Wave citizens encircling his men. Inari and his mother were in the lead.
"We appreciate what you've done for us," Inari said, "but you don't live here. Protecting our homes is our responsibility." The crowd roared agreement and began to advance, armed with scavenged weapons, farming tools and make-shift clubs.
There were easily three times as many villagers as there were mercenaries. Though the mercenaries were trained fighters, they were, above all, mercenaries who saw that Gato's time ruling Wave was over.
Quite a few of them broke and ran; deciding to save themselves. The villagers, intent on capturing their boss, let them go. Gato's bodyguards stayed with him, but that small number and the others that stood firm, didn't last long against the determined mob.
Kakashi and the rest stayed back, as requested, but some of the workers took up tools and joined the attack. Naruto clenched his fists as he saw several villagers go down, but Hiro put a hand on his shoulder to stop him from intervening.
"I know how you feel, but Inari is right. This is their home, not ours. This is their battle to win or lose."
Naruto nodded, forcing himself to relax and not rush in to help. "They're not trained fighters. This is why we're here." He let his shoulders slump. "You're right, though. This is their home. I get it."
Hiro patted his little brother's shoulder reassuringly. "They're not doing too bad. I think Gato just got a rolling pin to the head." Naruto snickered at that. The fight was vicious but fairly short. Soon, Gato's thugs were all dead or unconscious. Gato himself was bruised and bloodied, but he was also alive and in custody.
When all of the prisoners were secure, Tazuna assumed leadership of the group, and together, they returned to Gato's home to finish up with his men. With the Leaf ninja tagging along, it didn't take long. Naruto's shadow clones had already done much of the work necessary to secure the mansion. Apparently, the actual guards had not expected their comrades to release the prisoners or for those prisoners to transform into ninja and attack them. Naruto had already located the vault where most of the island nation's stolen wealth was kept.
Unsurprisingly, Gato proved unwilling to open it. Hiro used a jutsu to magnetize the tumblers and move them easily into position. Returning the stolen goods to the people, and restoring the island nation's former peace and order would take a while, but the process was well underway by the time that the bridge was completed and the Leaf ninja were ready to go home.
Gato was still being held, awaiting trial while the former Daimyo's surviving son took his place in Wave and arranged things to his liking. The trial would be a tremendous spectacle for the people so they could see justice being done. That the outcome was a foregone conclusion didn't seem to disturb anyone.
There were still a lot to do, but things were getting better. The new trade arrangement with the land of Fire would help. The lies Tazuna had told had not been forgotten. A percentage of the tolls from the bridge would go to Konoha until the debt was paid in full, and goods produced in Konoha would always cross for a reduced price.
This would encourage trade and speed the revitalization of the economy. At least, that was the hope. Other deals were already being cut with merchants in neighboring countries. It would be a while, but the general feeling among the people was that Wave would recover and thrive again.
Team seven was unaware of most of the business dealings going on and had no real interest in such things. They had divided their group, leaving two to guard the bridge builder while the rest helped the newly formed Wave Militia to clean out the last of the mercenaries who had thought to take advantage of the chaos in the wake of Gato's defeat. A number of his mercenaries, who had run off during the initial confrontation, had stuck around to try to steal what they could. One or two even had dreams of setting themselves up as warlords of some sort. None of them lasted long against determined ninja.
This work was not without difficulty or loss, however. Naruto was extremely annoyed when he lost a coupon to Ichiraku's ramen during one such encounter. He handed the group of would-be bandits over to the militia somewhat the worse for wear.
On the day the bridge was officially opened, Team 7 and Hiro were on hand as honored guests. In the weeks that had passed since their arrival, the Leaf ninja had made many friends among the islanders, helping them capture bandits and organize the volunteers into a proper militia. In their honor, the bridge was christened The Great Friendship Bridge.
As the group headed for home; Naruto thought about the young man he'd met. It occurred to him that he himself had lots of precious people. He glanced at his brother and grinned. There were lots of people for him to protect, and if this mission had taught him anything, it was that people were at their best, were strongest, when protecting what was precious to them. Wave's people had proven that to him, and he promised himself that he would remember the lesson.