Chapter 21: Pain, Hope, and Healing

Greetings Everyone, I'm back.

My attention has been divided between this and my Phoenix Wright fic, so I apologize for not updating last week but I will probably update every other week from now on. Don't worry though it doesn't mean I will put less effort into this fic.

As you all know we are approaching the climax of the Wave Arc, I hope that I have done alright by your standards so far. I hope you will also continue to enjoy the fic from here on out.

For those of you who knew that Chinami Miyanagi was the Japanese name of Dahlia Hawthorne from Phoenix Wright: Trials and Tribulations, have a cookie. I hope you like what I plan to do with this character, and that's all I'll say for now.

Now let's see what Teams 8 and 7 are up to.

On the road back to Konoha

Team 8 had completed their mission and were now headed home, and if they were very honest they were glad it was over. Kurenai was sad that her students had someone like Chinami Miyanagi as their target for their first C Rank Mission. The genin were still slightly in shock, ninja or not, nothing could prepare them for what they saw.

Team 8 had dispatched most of the bandits with ease. As one of the few that were still conscious started to run, the bandit leader decided to show herself.

She was a rather petite, young woman of about 19. She had bright red hair that fell past her shoulders and she had two braids on the top of her head. She seemed to have a certain elegance about her but for some reason Akamaru and Shino's insects were terrified of her.

"Miyanagi-sama help!" the retreating bandit said as she ran to her boss.

"Suki-chan, I'll protect you, don't worry," Miyanagi told her subordinate. As the one called Suki made her way over to Miyanagi, Miyanagi put her hand on the woman's exposed shoulder in what appeared to be a comforting gesture. It wasn't even five seconds before Suki collapsed and her hair turned white.

"Miyanagi-sama?" Suki asked, as if unable to believe what was happening.

"Suki-chan, you said I could count on you but it seems that wasn't true," Miyanagi said with an almost demonic smile, seemingly enjoying her subordinate's pain.

"Miyanagi-sama please, I can't see," Suki cried.

"Have you learned your lesson?" Miyanagi asked.

"I won't let you down again Miyanagi-sama, please help me," Suki pleaded.

"I know you won't. Now I'll make everything better," Miyanagi said as she pulled out a knife and slit Suki's throat.

Throughout this Team 8 was in shock, neither Kurenai nor her students could believe that someone could treat their subordinates that way, especially not when said subordinate came to them for help.

Hinata in particular could barely contain her rage. Perhaps it was her kind nature or perhaps it was the fact that she was from a Clan that prided itself on their visual prowess, but Hinata felt genuine hatred for the first time in her life and it was all directed at Chinami Miyanagi. In response to this new feeling she activated her Byakugan and got into a Jyuken stance.

"In case you haven't figured it out Hyuga, I have a kekkei genkai too. I can poison someone with just one touch, and since your clan relies almost solely on taijutsu I'm the worst opponent you could ever face," Miyanagi gloated.

She's right, if only there was a way to fight her without touching her directly, Hinata thought. As if responding to her thoughts dark matter collected around Hinata's forearms and shins, forming into gauntlets and greaves. As soon as the gauntlets and greaves formed Mu claws sprang forth from all four.

This is exactly what I needed, Hinata thought as she charged towards the shocked Miyanagi.

Miyanagi recovered but it was of no use. Kekkei genkai or not Miyanagi had no formal training which was why she was just a bandit leader and not a missing-nin. And with the Mu claws increasing Hinata's speed and power, the battle was over quickly.

As soon as Miyanagi was knocked unconscious and Team 8 had made sure that she could not touch anything or anyone directly they took her and her surviving subordinates to their client. They grabbed Suki's corpse to give the poor girl a proper burial, something Hinata was adamant about doing.

"Sensei how could anyone do that to someone who trusted them?" Hinata asked, shaking everyone from that awful memory.

"There are those kinds of people out there Hinata, those who see others as pawns to use or to sacrifice as the situation calls for it," Kurenai explained as best she could. She then told the young kunoichi," I'm proud of you Hinata, as soon as Miyanagi poisoned that poor woman I wanted to do the same thing. When she explained her power I thought that we would have to let her get away, but you found a way to fight her."

"What about your scythe Sensei?" Hinata asked.

"I left Graceful Dahlia at home, this mission was for the three of you not for me," Kurenai explained. She continued, "I think I will be bringing it with me from now on though, let me tell you."

"Speaking of home, can we pick up the pace? What you did was cool Hinata but I want to go home and pretend I never heard of that Miyanagi woman," Kiba said. It wasn't surprising that he would feel that way, the Inuzuka Clan valued loyalty above almost all else.

"I concur," Shino added. This was to be expected too. It is difficult for an Aburame to forge bonds with others, so to see someone treat bonds as though they were worthless hit Shino rather hard.

"I know what you mean," Hinata said.

Twelve years old and they've already had a successful mission they wish they could forget, I'm sorry kids, Kurenai thought as Team 8 continued toward Konoha.

Back in Wave

Thanks to Naruto's advice Team 7 had completed the tree climbing exercise in record time, allowing them to train in various other ways when they weren't on guard duty. Although Team 7 was still a relatively new genin cell, Kakashi believe that by this point he understood what their strengths and weaknesses were.

Kakashi recommended that Sakura work on increasing her stamina and her chakra reserves, but he wouldn't stop her from any extra training she might want to do. Having a Sharingan eye himself, Kakashi took it upon himself to help Sasuke master his eyes.

Naruto was a different story; as much as Kakashi wanted to help the boy, he honestly had no idea how to do it. Naruto was pioneering three elemental releases so there was nothing Kakashi could do in regards to that. The silver-haired jonin was considering teaching the boy a few ninjutsu but Naruto had told his sensei that he had knowledge of every jutsu Kakashi knew since the bell test. He had been practicing them in secret but he admitted that he had only mastered five of Kakashi's jutsu at most. After apologizing for invading his Sensei's privacy, which Kakashi had insisted was unnecessary since they were technically enemies, or at least opponents, at the time, Naruto promised he would not use Kakashi's original jutsu without permission. Kakashi was ready to just let Naruto do his own thing, but then Naruto asked a question.

"Kakashi-sensei, you've fought ninja from different nations, what is the best strategy to use when fighting those from Kiri?"

"First I want you to explain how you don't know if you already probed my memories," Kakashi said, confused.

"I can see certain things: when I pass through someone I usually have some idea of what I want to see, and that is whatever I think would be helpful; info on their past, their jutsu repertoire, things of that nature. If I tried to look at everything I would probably go insane," Naruto explained.

Makes sense I suppose, Kakashi thought. The jonin continued and said, "I do know a few things about fighting Kiri ninja." I came up with various ways to fight them after what they did to Rin, after what I did to Rin, Kakashi added silently.

"Can you teach me?" Naruto asked.

"What you need to remember Naruto, is that every ninja is unique. Two ninja can be from the same village and use the same style but that doesn't mean that they fight the same way," Kakashi explained.

I respectfully disagree Sensei, Naruto thought as an image of Gai and Lee flashed through his mind.

"That being said there are some things I can teach you about Kiri ninja," Kakashi said as he proceeded to teach Naruto what he thought would help the young genin.

After a week had passed things seemed to be looking up for Team 7, all three had made great strides: Sakura's stamina had improved; Sasuke's Sharingan had matured slightly; and Naruto had managed to assimilate the anti-Kiri ninja strategy that Kakashi had shown him.

Deciding that his students needed a break from training Kakashi had all of them present for guard duty. Guarding Tazuna at work wasn't exactly exciting for the genin, none of Gatō's thugs had shown up and Zabuza would not be back for another week. Tazuna was about to call it quits for the day when another man came up to him.

"Tazuna, I don't think that I will be coming back to work," the man said.

"Is something wrong Giichi?" Tazuna asked.

"I've stayed this long because we've been friends for years, but I have a family to think about," the man now known as Giichi said.

"So what, you're just giving up on Wave?" Tazuna asked.

"Tazuna I respect what you're trying to do but we can't beat Gatō. Even if the bridge is completed that won't get rid of Gatō, he could just destroy it and we'll be right back where we started," Giichi said.

"Giichi don't you understand, we aren't just building a bridge we're trying to bring hope back to this Country," Tazuna said. Tazuna then said, "If you want to leave then fine, get out of my sight."

On their way back to his house, Tazuna turned to Team 7 and said, "I'm sorry you had to see that."

"It's not your fault Tazuna-san," Sakura told him.

"I don't know what I'm going to do now, I was barely getting by and now I might not have enough people to finish the bridge," Tazuna lamented.

"I'm sure Giichi will be back," Sakura said trying to be optimistic.

"I hope so, but I still need more people to get done on schedule," Tazuna told her.

"Well, they don't know anything about building bridges or construction in general, but I can probably get you as many people as you need," Naruto told Tazuna.

"I'm skeptical that you could, but intrigued that you may," Tazuna said.

"Kage bunshin no Jutsu," Naruto said making a few clones to convince Tazuna.

"Oh yeah, you can do that," Tazuna said remembering the Naruto's fight with Zabuza's clones.

Back at Tazuna's house everyone was just finishing up dinner. As Tsunami was clearing the table, Sakura decided to ask a question, "Who's that in the picture, I noticed you were looking at it all throughout dinner Inari?"

Not that you mean to pry or anything, right Sakura? Naruto thought.

"That's this Country's hero, Kaiza, he's no longer with us," Tazuna answered.

After those words left his grandfather's mouth, Inari ran upstairs. After that Tsunami turned to her father and started to scold him, "Tou-san, you know better than to talk about Kaiza in front of Inari like that."

"I'm sorry, I shouldn't have asked," Sakura said.

"Well, it's out there now so I might as well tell you," Tazuna started. "Kaiza was a travelling fisherman who came to Wave looking for new opportunities. Some kids were picking on Inari and they pushed him of a dock. Inari couldn't swim at the time and if Kaiza hadn't come along he probably would have drowned. Since Inari's father died years ago Kaiza stepped into the role and even married Tsunami. Once during a particularly bad storm, when a dam door accidentally opened he managed to swim through the strong current of water to close it. It was that act that made him a hero in this land," Tazuna told the Konoha ninja.

"What happened to him?" Sakura asked.

"When Gatō tried to take over the Land of Waves, Kaiza tried to stop him. But Gatō decided to use Kaiza to scare anyone who hoped to stand against him. He had his thugs cut off Kaiza's arms and then execute him in public," Tazuna told them.

"They cut off his arms!" Sakura exclaimed.

"Yes, Kaiza would always say, 'If something is truly important to you… even it's heart-breaking, even if it's sorrowful… you keep on trying and trying, even if you lose your life, you keep on protecting it with these two arms! …Then, even if you die, you leave behind the proof that you are a man… forever…' Gatō had his thugs cut of his arms to mock him, or at least that's what I believe. That day hope died in this land and Inari was never the same. He became distant and depressed," Tazuna explained.

I suppose I can't blame him for that, and it may just be because I never knew my own parents but I think it's an insult to Kaiza's memory to give up like he has, Naruto thought. Then he asked, "Tazuna-san could you tell me where Kaiza's grave is?"

"I could take you there myself, we hid it because we were afraid Gatō would send his thugs to desecrate it," Tazuna told him. "Why do you want to go?" Tazuna asked.

"I want to pay my respects to a hero," Naruto told him.

"Here we are kid," Tazuna told Naruto, as the two arrived at an unmarked grave deep in the woods.

"Thank you Tazuna-san," Naruto said as he went over to the grave and knelled down.

Kaiza-san, I want you to know that you won't have to worry about Wave Country much longer, even if I have to kill him, I will get rid of Gatō. I don't know how often Inari visits you but I'll show him that you were right and that there still are heroes out there. I should know after all, my parents were considered heroes too. So as the child of heroes to a hero, I promise I'll stop Gatō for Inari, for Wave, and for you, Naruto prayed silently.

Tazuna thought it was just the lack of light, but he could have sworn he saw Kaiza's spirit and two others. One was a fairly tall, fair-skinned man with bright, blue eyes and spiky, blond hair wearing a standard Konoha-nin uniform with two bands each on both of his sleeves, a leaf green flak jacket, blue forehead protector, and blue sandals. What stood out the most about this man was his short-sleeved long white haori, which was decorated by orange flames-like motifs on the edges, with the kanji for "Yondaime" written vertically down the back.

The other spirit was a woman with a slender, but feminine build, fair skin, violet eyes, fiery red hair with strands that framed both sides of her face and a black clip that parts her hair to the left, to keep it out of her eyes. She wore an outfit consisting of a high-collared, sleeveless, slate blue blouse under a long, tan, loose-fitting dress. She also wore a dark blue wristband on her left wrist and shinobi sandals that have ranged from black to lavender.

Tazuna saw the two male spirits shake hands, over what he could only guess. It was during this that Tazuna was shaken from his thoughts.

"Tazuna-san, I think we should go, it's too dangerous to for you to be out and about at night," Naruto said.

"Huh, oh right," Tazuna said as he looked at Naruto and looked back to see the spirits had gone.

"What's wrong?" Naruto asked.

"Oh nothing, I think I just need new glasses," Tazuna said as he turned to leave. He wasn't sure why but the sight of those three spirits gave him more hope than he had dared to feel in years. Were those other two spirits this boy's parents? Maybe it's a sign, a sign that Wave is being entrusted to a new hero, Tazuna thought. With that the two headed back to Tazuna's house with new conviction.

And done. Sorry it took so long, I had a few things to deal with last week. Anyway I hope you like this chapter, I'm pretty proud of the ending.

For those of you who have played Bayonetta, yes I did base Hinata's ability on the weapon "Durga." We'll have to go into the drawbacks in a later chapter.

Anyway, read and review and I'll see you next time.