I never really accepted that 'measuring his capacity' or whatever was Itachi's motive for killing so many people. Because if that was the case, he would have just killed the people who had the sharingan, 'cause most people in the clan didn't have the potential for awakening it, thus were no challenge. But he killed everyone. An idiot with a gun can kill many defenseless people, so it wouldn't make sense if Itachi did the deed with measuring his strength in mind. Itachi isn't dumb.
I kinda like my theory. People with power want more power(as shown with Sasuke and Orochimaru and countless others), and the Uchiha clan was powerful. I just want to make it clear that I wasn't saying that Itachi isn't a bad guy, because, lets face it, he is(Akatsuki, anyone?). I just gave him a reason.
This chapter is late because I was away from my computer on the day I usually set aside for this sort of thing. Sorry for making you all wait.
For the Love of My Friends
Chapter Twenty-Six: The Beginning of the Isolation
by Foxie
Three days later, Team Seven was all done with the training exercise, although Kakashi advised them to keep up with it to increase their control and stamina. The jonin was surprised when Naruto had called his bluff and taught Sakura and Sasuke, and not only that, had been telling the truth when he said that he already knew how to scale trees with only his feet.
So when Naruto came up to him and said that they all knew the basics of tree climbing, he let them come with him to bridge, no questions asked. Kakashi owed Naruto that, for doubting him.
Wood, stone, plastic, nails. Everything that one needed to build a bridge was somewhat disorganized and placed randomly along the nearly completed bridge. Wood structures were created as a skeleton of the bridge and were later replaced by stone and cement, it being much sturdy than plain wood. Tazuna even had railings up on the sides of part of the completed bridge. He had some how gotten his hands on a crane to complete the heavier jobs. Noticing Naruto's suddenly gleaming eyes fixated on the massive metal contraptrion, Tazuna immediately said the age limit for using it was eighteen and over.
For a moment, it seemed like the blond had forgot he was twelve, but when he remembered, he immediately started ranting that he handled dangerous things everyday and he was a responsible ninja. His argument would have been more impressive if he hadn't tripped over a wire and fallen into the water below.
The others had a good laugh at his expense, although Tazuna took pity on him and gave him a towel to dry off, after he swam the distance back to the shore.
The bridge was coming along well, Tazuna was proud to say. Although the wood that Tazuna barely had enough money to buy hadn't showed up yet, they were almost half way done with the 'Bridge of Dreams'. Or 'of Courage'. They were still arguing over what to call it.
Personally, he wanted to call it the 'Super Cool Bridge Tazuna Made!', but the others wouldn't go for it. Even his daughter gave him that look of 'what, are you nuts?'.
"Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!" Naruto's voice rang out in the silent morning air. Several pops of displaced air announced the arrival of Naruto's crew.
When the blond had noticed Tazuna's rapidly diminishing crew on the first day, he had asked the older man why less and less people were showing up for work.
Tazuna had replied soberly, "It is because they fear for their lives and the lives of their families." he had smiled, and clapped his hands together. "But I have you guys! So I'm going to continue making this country's lifeline!" Naruto had only watched Tazuna laboring under the weight of the cement that five or six men should have been carrying with him for just a moment before he started up with his shadow clones.
The coming along of the bridge went much faster with twenty Narutos, one Tazuna, and a handful of villagers working. After day two, Sasuke and Sakura started to help out, both being stronger and faster than the villagers. Kakashi stayed on guard, good naturedly taking the jabs at his ego when Naruto told one of the workers that the jonin was 'too old' to work.
Sitting on top of one of the large metal crates on the bridge on the third day, Kakashi kept a closer eye on Naruto than on possible appearances of Gatou's hired force. Despite the genin's attempts to hide it, it was clear that his strength was wavering and he was quickly becoming sick.
Kakashi knew what was wrong. It was a phenomenon that no medic or doctor could fully explain called Repetitive Jutsu Sickness. When a ninja used a single jutsu over and over again, he was bound to get a bit of a shock to his metabolism from his inner coils, which naturally resisted being used the same ways several times. Some got sick, some passed out, while others just got hungry. It depended on the person, their resistance to diseases and what they were trying to do.
Two days at the bridge and already Naruto was suffering from it. Then again, he performed Kage Bunshin no Jutsu once in the morning, made them go away during the break times then resummoned them afterward, and refreshed the jutsu by making twice as many Narutos appear at the end of the work day so they could get the last minute things done quicker. Three breaks, once in the morning, once times two in the afternoon.. Kakashi mentally calculated. And then times that by two.. Oh, and add one for the batch he just made... Thirteen times he's made the shadow clones. He frowned, both surprised that Naruto didn't begin showing symptoms on the first day and worried that Naruto would pass out and end up dropping a two ton box on himself.
Even from a distance, the jonin could tell that Naruto wasn't getting sick as people normally thought consisted of being sick, like sneezing and coughing and other various flu like symptoms. He was actually getting sick in the way that he was so tired that he could sleep for days on end. And that, on this mission especially, was extremely dangerous for a ninja.
He hopped off of the crate. "Naruto..s." a little hesitatingly, he made the name plural. Twenty heads looked up. "Finish what you are doing, then come over here." The Narutos finished their duties quickly, handing off drills, powdered cement, and the works off to other workers. Quickly, and surprisingly silently, they surrounded them, identical looks of questioning confusion.
"Which one of you is the real Naruto?" Kakashi asked. He had lost the sight of the real one when the others had bustled around to finish their jobs. He really didn't expect them to know which Naruto was the real one, and decided he'd bop every other Naruto on the head until one said 'ow.' But it didn't come to that.
After a pause, the blond who had been handling a drill stepped forward. Looking innocent, Kakashi beckoned the unsuspecting boy toward him. "I have to tell you something. It's a secret." Naruto walked over, still looking faintly confused.
Kakashi bent down and whispered in Naruto's ear. "You know.. I think you should sleep." Naruto's eyes widened, but before he could pose a question, Kakashi had tapped a nerve in his neck, making him pass out. He caught his limp student before he got a mouthful of concrete. The boy was warm and hadn't exploded into smoke. So he was the real one..
"Hey! What the hell did you do that for!" the remaining kage bunshins yelled. A bit surprised that they were still there (as it took massive amounts of pure skill and practice to keep a jutsu up when unconscious), he addressed their questions carefully.
"He's getting sick. I can hold off RFS from doing too much damage if I can cut down his usage of kage bunshins." he expected blank stares but was once again surprised when they nodded seriously.
"I told him that he needed to take a break.." one of the kage bunshins to the left said, shaking his head. Another shot him a glare worthy of the Hyuugas.
"Why the hell would he listen to you if he wasn't listening to himself!" the second one snapped. The first one lost his sage like countenance and fired up his temper.
"So frigging what! We are supposed to be his voices of reason, dammit!" he snapped, pouting in a very Naruto like way.
"We are him, stupid!" another one yelled.
"You wanna fight about it?" the first one said, grabbing the third one's vest. The third one reflected the gesture.
"Yeah, bring it on, sissy boy!" he said with a feral grin.
"Fine! Let's take this outside!" the first one snapped.
"We're already outside!" a fourth one shouted, one of the seven trying to tug the two battling Narutos away from each other.
"Then we'll take it inside!" the third one said, pushing the others off of him and lunging at the first. In five seconds, half of Naruto's kage bunshins were poofed out of existence. The remaining ten looked at Kakashi sheepishly.
"What the.." Sakura silently mouthed the word she wanted to say. Sasuke turned, a smirk on his face.
"It seems like Naruto doesn't like himself." he said, finding that rather amusing. "Maybe he finally sees in himself what others see and don't like."
"Sasuke-kun.." Sakura said in a chastising voice. It was a wonder really, how she didn't jump in to insult Naruto as she would have before to impress Sasuke. It was only a small sign of her developing and more positive character. If she had seen the faint smile that Sasuke sent her way, she would have wondered why she had ever thought that insulting Naruto was the quickest way to the reserved Uchiha's heart.
"Or maybe he just likes picking fights.." Tazuna grumbled, although a faint twitch of the corner of his mouth gave away his amusement, both at the boy and the girl, and the many blonds hanging around.
Kakashi looked over the rest of the kage bunshins, as amused as the rest of them. "So.. How long will you guys last?" he asked, genuinely curious. If Naruto had been using the forbidden jonin jutsu even as half as long as Kakashi thought he had, then he'd know how long his clones lasted, and thus, they would know.
They looked at each other, then back at him. "Two hours, three maybe. Tops." the one in the middle said. "Us being around won't effect me.. I mean.. Naruto. We are independent of him." Kakashi expected that slip. The point of the jutsu was to confuse the enemy and make him confused about what enemy was his real enemy, but the reason why the jutsu was outlawed was because the clones and the ninja themselves rarely knew which one of them was the real them. Ninjas of more questionable character ended up having clones that were trying to assassinate themselves. It had gotten to be a real mess.
"But we are him." one said quietly, gently persuading. It was truly strange how one could see all the different aspects of a ninja's personality just by watching their clones.
"No, not really. Kinda like a.. imprint, you know? His conscience, his morals, his thoughts and feelings.." another murmured, arms crossed over his chest.
"There's two differences between the real Naruto and us." the first one said carefully. His eyes shifted to Sasuke and Sakura. "We don't have organs in our body and have no body temperature, and..." he looked at Kakashi meaningfully. Another clones finished his hanging sentence.
"You know what the other difference is." the one on the far left said.
Kakashi nodded seriously, giving them the order to continue their working and ignored the questioning glances that Sakura and Sasuke gave him. Such strangely intelligent clones. Which, of course, means that their creator is as intelligent. Most kage bunshins didn't know whether or not they were the real one, as the creator never really thought about the differences between a clone of shadow and a living human. Naruto, having the Kyuubi, would know whether or not he was the real thing because he'd feel the demon's presence if he was. He could stretch youki over to his fellow blonds, but he couldn't extend the Kyuubi himself. Being a soul, a gathering of controlled, self sustaining energy, naturally resisted any type of cloning.
But for his clones to know that there was more than one difference between the fake and the real Naruto.. either someone had pointed it out to him, or he was in a situation where he had figured it out on his own. Which made Kakashi realize something important.
Over the last couple of weeks with his students, he felt, up till then, as if he had gotten a grasp of their characters. He knew Sasuke tended to be moody and quiet, but being in a group opened his personality up, especially with Naruto hounding him and firing up his temper. He knew Sakura tended to get a little crazy around Sasuke, but had become more subdued after they faced their first real ninja, Tessai. Naruto hadn't changed much from the first moment that the jonin had met him, sooty faced and blood all over him in a classroom so long ago. Sasuke and Sakura both hated when it rained, the former probably having a bad memory connected to the rain, while Naruto liked it, stubbornly insisting that it smelled so much nicer after it rained. Sakura like western foods, Sasuke liked traditional foods, Naruto liked anything to do with ramen. Sasuke thought that the Elder Council were a bunch of old farts with more power than they knew what to do with(Sakura and Naruto agreed) and that more should be done about eliminating their (few) missing nins (Sakura agreed, but Naruto opposed, saying that some missing nins were just too strong and would end up eating at their village's ninja resources, which ended up hitting a personal note and made Sasuke pissed.) Sakura liked red and pink, Naruto liked orange and black, Sasuke liked blue and black.
Even with all of their similarities and differences, somewhere in Kakashi's mind, they all were assigned a part, one he had, until just then, believed described their personalities.
The Fool, the Prodigy, and the Fan girl. Obito, Kakashi, and Rin. Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura. It was a never ending circle, always coming back to his old team. But Naruto, who so enthusiastically said that his dream was to be acknowledged, wasn't Obito, who dreamed of beating Kakashi. Sakura, who loved Sasuke openly, wasn't Rin, who had loved Obito secretively. Sasuke, who wanted revenge, wasn't him, a guy desperately trying to cling on to the memories of the happier times of his tragic youth.
What he realized was that he just really didn't know them at all.
The sky was stormy, the air was muggy and heavy. The villagers of the border town between Fire Country and its neighbor were not in any better spirits. Their whole livestock had been lost to a flash flood. Only quick relief aid from the Hokage had kept their village alive.
"No, the trail is completely submerged." the village head said patiently for the fifth time. "It would not be good for your health if you continued." The man in front of him crossed his arms over his chest(What a hideous green it was), and seemed to think for a moment. The three children behind the green ninja shifted their feet.
Frowning, as the ninja in front of him demanded his undivided attention and he really needed to get back to helping his people, he said, "The water level will be down in a day.. you might get sick, but if you absolutely insist on continuing to Wave Country.." he waved a hand, gesturing his indifference to the subject.
"Then.." the other man said quietly. The village head cringed, resisting the urge to cover his ears, as it would be impolite. The other man's voice level rapidly increased. "Then my team and I shall help you repair your village! In one hour, it will be even better than it was before! Or my name isn't Maito Gai!" He struck a pose. One of the boys behind him(he could have sworn he and Gai were related) struck a pose as well.
"Yeah! If we can't finish it in an hour, I'll run around Konoha two hundred times!" the boy shouted, bringing what little attention that wasn't already fixed on their group to him.
"Oh no, not again.." the girl muttered. The boy with white eyes shook his head lightly.
"And if Lee can't do that, I'll run two hundred times around Konoha, on my hands!" Gai shouted, getting into the spirit of things. Lee looked at his teacher with tear filled eyes.
"Gai-sensei." he said adoringly. Gai fixed him with a similar look of pride.
"Lee." he said, grabbing the younger boy's hands. "I could not be any more prouder of you than if you were my own child!"
"Gai-sensei." Lee said, moved beyond words. His tears fell freely.
"Lee."
"Gai-sen-"
"If you say each others name again, I'm going to scream!" Tenten snapped. And thus a heart warming and frequent scene was broken, reminding them of their duty to help out the village. In the back of their minds, they hoped that the other genin team would hold on just a little bit longer.
Several hours later, Tazuna called it an early day after his last worker left. After the kage bunshins disappeared, no work was really getting done. Still cheerful, as there was only a twenty foot gap between his bridge and the other end(which he had built much earlier), he waved off their apologies. But he had a question he was dying to ask, and was too afraid that he'd jinx the good luck they had been having. He asked anyway.
"Why are you guys still here?" he asked, sitting next to Sakura on Kakashi, who wanted to do some bizarre form of push ups with only one finger. "Even after you knew that I lied about the mission."
"Abandoning a duty because it wasn't going exactly how I planned is not something I practice, nor an attitude I wish to pass on to my students." Kakashi said, attention not straying from his task. "It is not morally right and is a clear sign of a coward. This was something our previous Hokage taught me."
"That is the way of the shinobi, the true shinobi. Ninjas don't move for money alone." Sakura said, kicking her feet lightly. Kakashi smiled.
"Yes. A ninja is a tool, but a ninja is still human." Kakashi looked up at Sasuke, who was sitting there and watching them. "How's Naruto?" he asked, stopping his exercise. Tazuna and Sakura got off of him.
"Sleeping like a baby." Sasuke said dryly. "He'll probably be like that for a week."
"I don't think so. Maybe a day." Sakura said, smoothing out the wrinkles in her skirt. "Naruto and I talked a bit about his recovery rates while we were working on the bridge. It's fascinating."
"Recovery rate?" Tazuna asked, looking confused.
"Yeah. Naruto said it's kinda of like his own blood limit. Didn't you see him on the lake? It didn't take very long for him to heal." Sasuke nodded, agreeing with Sakura. He had been a bit closer to Naruto than she was. He had been relived, awed, and jealous. If only his sharingan would develop...
Of course, it already was. Sakura had seen, but had not recognized it for what it was, Naruto was too used to the sight to make any comments about it, and Kakashi had been a little preoccupied at the time. So Sasuke wallowed in his envy, not realizing that what he was jealous of was merely a side effect of a curse that no one would want inflicted upon them.
A blood limit? Kakashi thought. Is that what he's calling it? Pretty clever. Sakura went off into a lecture about blood lines and limits to Tazuna, who was interested in the subject.
Sasuke, for the most part, was silent, his elbows resting on his bent knees and his back to the wall. Deep in thought, he was only partially aware of the door sliding open next to him. His eyes shifted toward the new comer when the bridge builder called out his name.
"Inari!" the old man said with a warm smile. "Where have you been hiding?" Inari stared back at him, eyes blank and cold. Tazuna's enthusiasm dwindled under the boy's frosty stare.
"I don't understand you." the boy said in a carefully controlled voice. "Everyone has gotten it in their heads that going up against that man is suicidal.. but you still continue on. Are you just senile, or stupid?" Tsunami had walked in through the other door and gasped at her son. Tazuna looked down at his hands, his shoulders slumped. Sakura bit her lip. "You all.. are pathetic." he spat, turning to leave.
The door slammed shut right in front of him, before he had a chance to cross the threshold. He glared at Sasuke, who had one hand on the door, keeping it shut.
"So he speaks." Sasuke drawled, fixing the boy with a cold stare not unlike the one Inari had thrown at Tazuna.
"Get out of my way." Inari snapped. Truly, he was fearful of the dark ninja, so unlike his more light and bubbly team mates, but he didn't let it show on his face. "You're just hired help. This is my house. You have no right."
Sasuke's head tilted to the side, inviting the challenge. "Not entirely true.." he said in that same nonchalant, yet piercing tone. He had caught on to Inari's fear. His voice darkened, his hand twitched as if it longed for a blade. "I'm hired help.. who can kill you."
"Sasuke." Kakashi said sharply, the unmistakable command to let it go. Like the Uchiha he was, Sasuke ignored it.
"You throw your hateful barbs at your family. You try to make your coward nature seem less visible by getting off on their pain, their retreats. You act so big and macho because you can boss your family around. You are as much of a coward as Gatou is, who uses his hired guns to intimidate people, then has the gall to pretend that it was by his hand that this country is falling down on their knees and begging for mercy." Sasuke said, every negative word drawn out. He pointed to Tazuna. "You want to see courage? Look at your grandfather, whom you so hatefully detest, if one was to interpret your words literally. He is the one fighting Gatou, maybe not with weapons, but with his bridge. He is the only one who continues to stick by his dream for this country. He is not the one trying to foster off his own guilt and pain on to someone else. He isn't you. He isn't a stupid brat who assumes he knows everything about anything."
Inari seethed, his hands clenching into fists. Sasuke waved a hand at him, a gesture he himself vaguely remembered Itachi doing when he wished to be left alone. "You only have one family, if you're lucky, some grandparents and siblings. You may cry about the loss of your step father, but the loss of the rest of your family would only make that sorrow all the more stronger. So don't waste the time you have being a brat."
Pissed off and trying to suppress tears because he knew Sasuke's harsh words were true, he stormed out the other door. The eyes that followed his exit swung over to Sasuke.
Sasuke's head tilted down, his face hidden by his bangs and the shadows. Blunt nails dug in the palms of his hands, one fist on the door, the other by his leg. He was angry at Inari's blindness. If I could have just one more day with my family, he thought, I would appreciate every second of it. There would be no harsh words, there would be no hate, only the bonds of a family. You never really know what you have until it is taken from you.
An image of his family flashed in his mind. Itachi and his father always looked so stern, while his mother was more passive and open. She'd smile at him and wrap her arm around his shoulders, asking in that gentle voice of hers how his day was. His father would glance at him out of the corner of his eyes, as he often seemed to do. Itachi would turn, dark eyes and face so much like his father's, but a small smile that seemed almost unnatural on the normally impassive face, but was there because Itachi made an effort for him. An effort to be the brother that Sasuke wanted. To be the one that Sasuke wanted to overcome.
And was now the person that Sasuke had to kill, had to overcome..
Damn you, Itachi. Why? What did Father do that pissed you off? Was it because the clan was growing more isolated from the village? Was it because you believed us to be too weak? He closed his eyes, taking a deep, relaxing breath, then looked toward Tazuna and Tsunami.
"My apologies." he said in a subdued voice. He pushed himself up. Quiet for a moment while he reigned in his emotions, he slid open the door. "It pisses me off when I see someone with so much throwing it all away." Sasuke had no idea how ironic Naruto would have found his excuse for snapping at Inari. After all, the blond remembered a time where Sasuke threw everything he had made in Konoha away to go after Orochimaru and the power to defeat his brother.
Instead, no one felt that there was anything off with his statement, and let him leave unhindered. Kakashi fisted his hand, then reopened it, looking at his gloved palm. I'm almost back to normal, I'm ready for Zabuza. But.. are my students ready?
Not far from the village, a mist nin mediated quietly, waiting for his student to arrive. When the biting cold of the evening air once again made him want to shiver, he cursed. He hated Wave Country. Well, that really wasn't saving much. He hated nearly everything, but there was just something about stuff that was cold that bugged him.
Only one thing good had come from his experiences with cold, and that was Haku.
"Zabuza-san." the boy was nearly silent in his approach, something that Zabuza himself was proud of. Why, just a few years ago, he had been a little, sad eyed brat on the side of the road with a collar around his neck. Now he was a deadly ninja.
Just the image of Haku being collared like a common dog royally pissed him off. Such a waste of ability, a discarded item that Zabuza had picked up, polished off, and let loose on the world. After all, they did say 'One man's trash is another man's treasure'.
"We will attack in the morning." Zabuza said firmly. "You have three hours to find, capture, and isolate Kakashi's brats. After that, you will report to me. Then we will take on Kakashi and finish our mission."
"And Kakashi's position in the late morning?" Haku asked, not recalling any moment in time where they had the chance to learn the jonin's schedule. He, being the quietest and best at stealth, would have been sent out. Gatou must have not thought that he could trust Haku anymore. Such excellent observation shouldn't go unrewarded. Haku thought darkly, remembering how easily the businessman's bone had crunched together in his hand. It was all too clear that Gatou was using Zabuza and wasn't going to back up his side of the deal, and the mist devil seemed to know that. So Haku bowed his head in defeat. What his precious person wanted was what he was determined to make sure his precious person got.
"Those hired blades were good for something after all." Zabuza said in explanation for Haku's unasked question. He was surprised that the two samurai weren't caught by the skillful ninja from Konoha, but then again, the village was very poor. It was most likely that they paid someone from the village to give them information about Kakashi. "He will be guarding Tazuna at the bridge, as he has been doing for the last couple of days now."
Haku nodded mutely, already thinking of how to isolate the genins. The girl would be easy, the boy with dark hair a little harder, but who would be most difficult would be the boy with the fire jutsu. It was a well known fact that ice was easily defeated by fire. But the boy had shown no remarkable speed, except when his friend was in danger. Haku would be much quicker and would simply have to overwhelm the boy with his speed.
"Haku." Zabuza's voice stirred him out of his thoughts. His mentor looked very serious. "Remember what you must do if they escape." Haku bit his lip, for once thankful that his slightly uncomfortable mask hid his face, thus his emotion. He remembered all too well, the fate of what was to come of the escaped genin(s). Which only made him all that more determined to make sure that they didn't get free.
"Yes.. Zabuza-san."
The next morning, Naruto awoke, feeling as good as new. He refrained from tackling Sasuke awake, his much preferred way of saying good morning, choosing to instead look outside at the sun light that shyly peeked through the quickly approaching clouds. He stretched, then stood.
The air is heavy and it is not of coming rain. Naruto thought, tying his forehead protector around his head. It is heavy with knowledge of what is to come.
Yes. Kyuubi rumbled. Nature, she is an immortal being, untouched by time herself, wounded only by those too careless to take care of her. Naruto reached down, attaching his kunai and shuriken holders to their respective places.
Feeling tense and a little bit gloomy, the fox whispered a small request to Naruto to cheer them up. Naruto smiled, having nothing against doing it. He leaned out the window after opening it, grabbed a bucket from outside, made a quick detour to the bathroom...
"AHHH! NARUTO!"And thus the rest of the household was rudely woken up at the sound of Sasuke yelling. Tazuna, the only one awake enough to witness the event, watched as a soaked and thoroughly pissed off Sasuke chase a laughing Naruto outside, looking murderous.
Several crashes and random chaos later, Kakashi gave his team some errands to complete, in an attempt to give them a bit of a holiday off of working on the bridge. Naruto was to go buy some food for the next week, Sasuke was to get some fish from a local stream, and Sakura was to go search for some cooking herbs. Kakashi must have noticed Tsunami's struggles to not only feed her family, but also Team Seven.
"And you can get some ramen, but remember that not all of us are as big of fans of it like you are." Kakashi said, pushing Naruto along. Naruto scowled, pocketing the money that the jonin had shoved in his hand.
"Yeah yeah, whatever." the blond said, walking toward the nearest store in the heart of the village. The rebelling look on his face started to crumble, and eventually dropped at the sight of such poverty. People slept on the streets, women and children begged. All people alike stole from one another.
Instead of letting the sadness overwhelm him, Naruto only got more determined to see the building of the bridge through. He strode purposely into the store, noticing that they barely had anything in stock. He paid for what he came for, pretending not to notice he gave the store keeper more money than he was supposed to.
He saw something out of the corner of his eye, but when he turned to face it, it had disappeared. Huh.. Am I being followed? he questioned, then brightened. I'm important enough to be followed! YES! Naruto mentally cheered in his mind. I'm being stalked!
Since when has being followed been a good thing? Silly brat.
When he ran into a small, dirty looking girl, he broke up one of the loaves of bread that he bought and gave some to her and her four little brothers that slunk behind her. She took his hand and shook it, far too mature and tired for a six year old, then dragged him off to meet her mother. Naruto juggled the groceries with one hand, then tied the bags together and slung it over one shoulder gently when they came to a stop, promptly forgetting about his would be stalker.
"Mommy!" she said, her small hand nearly engulfed by Naruto's. "Mommy, I want you to meet our new friend, Naruto-kun!"
The woman behind the jewelry stand smiled tiredly at her daughter, then looked up at him. "Not from around here, are you, boy?" she said in the subtle Wave Country drawl. One of the little girl's brothers grabbed her doll from her frayed pocket and ran. The girl ran after him, half yelling, half laughing.
"How could you tell?" Naruto said, his normally loud voice subdued.
"You aren't hardly as skinny as the rest of us and you have a rather unusual appearance. We don't have very many blue eyed blonds in this here country." she said, with a bit of an impish grin on her face. "Don't get too many foreigners here. All in Wave Country have been here for at least three generations. People got no reason to move here, for there's no profit."
"Hmm." Naruto murmured, looking around. "A lot of people here do look alike."
"Yep." she said. "One way or another, most of us are related to one another, that's why we don't get too angry if one of our own does something bad. We're family.. but it's a dog eat dog world, you know. We gotta survive. Aw, come now. You shouldn't get that look on your face. The last thing we need is pity. It didn't used to be as bad."
Not being able to conceal his pity, Naruto asked, "How so?"
"Well, our men worked the coast, getting food resources from there, worked the north, getting lumber from there, and the such. Then Gatou came about, at first like an interested gentleman. Poked his head here and there. Funded a few things. Before we know it, he has us wrapped around his little finger. We can't survive without him. He has all of our boys working for him here and there, keeping them isolated from his little takeover of their country. Smart bastard, that he is. All that is left to oppose him are us women, our old and wounded men, and our children." She paused for a moment, making a rare sell with a girl a little better off than her. She bowed to her customer, then turned back to Naruto. "I really admire Tazuna. He's a genius, but he has a back problem. Yet he still labors on, day after day, trying to move our country onto a route that will lead to our well being, not to a dictatorship. But we cannot help him. It breaks my heart to watch him walk out to the bridge every day, knowing he'll encounter less and less of his crew and more and more enemies trying to steal his dream, his life, and his pride away from him."
Naruto was quiet for a moment, fiddling with his hands. He knew it, he knew that all, he really did. But it was so much more meaningful to hear someone else say it.
"But enough with that sad talk. My name is Hana." she bowed. "It is very nice to meet you, Naruto-san."
"Yes." Naruto said, for once in his life, bowing back. He cleared his throat wanting to change the subject. "So, what's with this stand?" Hana looked down, a smile of pride on her face.
"Well, some of the mothers, myself included, have formed a partnership. This stand sells what some of us make, or what some of us have that we do not wish to keep anymore." she said, gesturing to the various trinkets on the surface. Naruto shifted to the front of the stand, looking over the merchandise. Some items were very nice indeed.
"You.. interested in jewelry, Naruto-san?" Hana asked in a teasing voice. Naruto grinned at her good naturedly.
"Nah. I know girls who may be though." He had no intention of buying Sakura a present to capture her affections or anything stupid like that(been there, done that), but maybe he could buy something for her, then blackmail Sasuke into giving it to her. Ah, now wouldn't that be fun..
His eyes focused on something black near the back of the table. He picked it up, feeling smooth leather and something much harder underneath. "What's this?" he asked, curious. It was a bit heavy and as long as his wrist to his elbow.
"Oh, that!" Hana said, looking at it a bit closer. "Um.. actually, I don't know." Naruto stretched it out to its full length, then on a hunch, slid one hand through the opening on one end, watching as it came out the other.
"Was one of your lady friends a daughter or a descendant of a ninja?" Naruto asked, finally recognizing it for what it was. It was like the white and blue arm things that Sasuke wore, only better, as the leather and the metal inside of it(iron or steel? Naruto couldn't tell by feel alone) protected the arm, from the elbow down to the wrist. Hana shrugged. He experimented with the ties near the end, finding that one could slip a thin knife between the leather and skin and no one would know the difference.
"Hey, how much you think this would cost?" Hana named a price, only to have Naruto roll his eyes. "Come on!" Hesitatingly, she lowered it. Naruto rolled his eyes again. He could buy one small bowl of ramen for the price she asking. "Ugh. Fine, how about.." the price he threw out had her eyes widening, casually digging the exact amount from his lovely froggy wallet. Hana immediately put her hands up, not wanting to take so much money from him. He insisted, but he ended up walking away with not only the arm things he was eyeing, but also a few very nicely crafted necklaces. When Naruto complained he was not in the practice of wearing necklaces(Tsunade's cursed necklace and Hinata's mother's necklace being the only exceptions), Hana grinned and made a couple suggestions that made his face flame up and ears burn red.
Keh, like he had a girl he could woo..
Naruto left after Hana reminded him that his groceries would spoil if he stayed any longer, slipping his own purchases in his vest pockets. He waved goodbye to the children, who all looked very pleased with themselves, a look that Naruto recognized from his youth when he used to do pranking as his main source of entertainment.
Suddenly, he remembered being followed in the village square. It all came back to him when he saw a certain masked figure mingling in with the crowd. With every shift of the crowd, the boy seemed to move with it, yet stay absolutely still at the same time. Naruto ran after the figure, not sure if what he was following was genjutsu or a clone, but sure it was in the village because of him.
Panting, yet still somehow carrying the groceries, he followed the elusive figure to the outside of the village. On a slight incline of the earth, Haku stood sideways, carrying along his own extra weight on his hidden side.
"Haku." Naruto said in a calm tone. The boy nodded.
"Naruto." the blond nodded. Then Haku turned, showing Naruto what he was holding tucked under his arm.
His hat missing and his dark hair sticking every which way, Inari stared back at Naruto, twin streaks of fallen tears marking a path down his pale face. His lower lip trembled, and his eyes watered.
Naruto saw red. The only sound that was heard from the genin was the dull thud of the groceries hitting the ground and a low, animalistic growl that was ripped from his throat. Haku turned away and ran into the woods, only pausing long enough to make sure that his message had been made clear.
A dark figure swiftly followed, disturbing nothing but the wind that was nearly ripped to pieces from the force of his anger.
I'm already planning out the battles for the Chuunin Exam. I would like to say 'Squee!' and bounce around in a sugar haze, but my room mate would kill me. Yes, I know. One thing at a time. We still have to see what happens to Haku and Zabuza, no?