Prophesied child

"Divine/large beings speaking"

'Divine/large beings thinking'

"Normal talking"

'Normal thinking'

" Action"

Disclaimer:

This work is not me trying to offend someone.

And Naruto isn't mine.

….

Naruto age:12

Sakura pov

We marched through the swampy land of Wave Country, getting through bog and other undesirable terrains of nature. 'There are a lot of hills in this part of the country.' I'm carrying extra supplies and also on guard duty in case of an attack as Naruto and Satsuki are currently busy, both of them are currently carrying two people. I've tried to tell Naruto why don't we just use his clones to carry them, but he said in an event that another sudden attack by another shinobi occurred, the person we are carrying will be an easy grab if the clones are destroyed. 'I can't fault that logic.' I did not complain about the extra baggage. But, the roads in Wave Country are severely inadequate for a major road inside a country, holes there are so many holes filled with deep "puddles" and for fuck sake what's that smell? Wave Country is a far cry from Konoha hell even the majority of fire country. 'Ugh gross' I stepped into one of the puddles and my body shuddered because of the sensation. I looked at Satsuki and Naruto. Both of them are equally disgusted with the road conditions while Tazuna-san. He just stepped into the puddle without care. 'I envied his tolerance with this kind of uncleanliness.'

"We're here, Welcome to Wave country's richest city," Tazuna said. The sight we've been presented with is a village on top of what looks like a swamp. Most of the houses are supported with wood as a support beam. 'And he said this is the country's richest city?"

"It's not much when compared to the other cities on the mainland but this is the best city inside Wave." This is barely categorized as a hamlet!!

"And the reason is..?" Asked Naruto,

"It's the only part of the country that has electricity." I mean we know that life Outside the wall is hard but this… this is inhospitable. It's like I'm back in the Sengoku era.

"Do you have any hospitals or a clinic so our sensei and it can recuperate?" Tazuna cringed when hearing Satsuki's question.

"I'm afraid no, though, we do have our local herbal shop on the other side of the village relative to my house." Yeah, that's not going to work, asking a herbal shop to take care of a shinobi is breaching operational security protocol on multiple levels not to mention the distance between the client and the shop.

Naruto sighed hearing Tazuna answer. "I guess we have no choice but to hunker down in your house, Tazuna-san. Our protocols in this kind of situation clearly stated to avoid any unregistered medicinal practice for our shinobi and also considering the distance between the place and your house it will be hard to protect you at that kind of distance. Do you have any problem with us using your house as a temporary base of operation?"

Tazuna waved both of his hands. "no, no, there's no issue. In fact, I'll feel safer if the four of you are near my house protecting me." Naruto nods in understanding.

"Then lead the way." Since when did Naruto assume control of the group? He just did it so naturally that I didn't think about it for the rest of the trip.

The 4 of us walked in the city's markets with many people seeing us with curious, calculating, and surprised stares. It's not that surprising seeing their reaction considering three prepubescent teenagers carrying, one enormous luggage, a man twice his size, and a raven-haired girl barely containing her anger, while carrying what looks like to be a being that will destroy what society perceives as the difference between a man and a woman.

"We got a lot of stares from the locals," Naruto said, amused by the situation and forming a smile. "It's not like a bizarre situation is happening in front of them." He said with a smile, but he immediately turned on his serious face. "Assume that our location is already informed to our enemy. Tazuna-san, is your house still far from here? The longer we're in public view the more likely our enemy will have an advantage."

"It's not far from here, just a couple blocks away." A look of disbelief can be seen from him. "It's weird seeing him change expressions so naturally." He shuddered

"You'll get used to it." A faraway look can be seen from Satsuki when she said it. "I'm also frustrated with his expression. Sometimes, he can be sweet like an angel, but with no warning. He can be a menace."

"Satsuki, are you still upset about me threatening you with a pizza ban?" He said plainly "from my point of view we are even. Considering how many times you've threatened me with that fanboy treatment." He's got a point there.

"Pizza?" Tazuna was confused with the new word and turned his attention to me seeking answers.

"A food that Naruto invented that he occasionally makes every week. I think it's meh but Satsuki seems to be obsessed with it, almost rivaling Naruto's love for ramen." Tazuna raised one eyebrow. "I know, they're so compatible it's frustrating. Seeing the both of them unknowingly flirting with each other is sweet at first but over time it's annoying as hell." Most of the time I felt like the third wheel from some romance novel.

"Okay…, moving on. We're here, welcome to my humble abode." Maybe too humble yet the house is…..adequate. Tazuna-san house seems to be one of the better ones in town while not comparable to the average Konoha or a major city citizen. It's a great house when you compare it to the rest of the world. 'Thinking about it made me realize the enormous wealth gap between the influential cities and villages compared to everyone else.'

Knock

Knock

Knock

"Tsunami, Tsunami open the door!" Immediately after Tazuna-san knocked on the door a black-haired lady hugged him.

"Father, you're back. I was so worried." She let out tears of relief. The now identified Tsunami noticed our presence and calmed herself while wiping out her tears with her hand. "Where are my manners? My name is Tsunami, I am Tazuna-san's daughter. And the three of you are?"

"Hello Tsunami-san my name is Naruto, this is Sakura and the one brooding in the back is Satsuki." Again since when did he assume control of the group? I heard Satsuki grumble about not brooding or something. 'Weird girl.'

"And the two that are unconscious?" She's referring to Sensei and it.

"It's their sensei and enemy that they've captured. They fought admirably without them, I'll probably never get back home alive or even as a dead man." Tsunami bowed when she heard Tazuna-san's explanation.

"Thank you for saving my father!" Naruto waved both his hands dismissively, visibly uncomfortable with the whole situation. 'What's wrong with him, isn't he supposed to be flattered when being praised? Besides, he did the majority of the work of keeping Tazuna-san safe.'

"No, no it's alright it's our job after all." Tatsumi nodded when hearing naruto answer.

"Besides it's just a job ma'am we don't have any other motive for helping him." Naruto for some reason looked extremely guilty when he heard Satsuki. 'Huh, it seems Naruto regretted not doing this for free or some bullshit like that. Typical Gary sue. 'I rolled my eyes.

"Still thank you for helping my father." She maintained her bow. "Please come in." She invited us inside the house. 'The house is normal, that's a relief.' The three of us sat on the guest floor while making sensei and it lay on the floor. While it is still tied up with Naruto's golden chakra strings. "I'll bring out some food and tatami for your sensei and….he..she?"

"We just call it, it," I said plainly

"And it… I'll be back." Even Tsunami-san is confused.

"So what should we do next? Knowing Zabuza is still out there and probably plotting something without mentioning what we should do with it." I pointed at the being.

"For now, let's scout the village." He earned a glare from Tazuna. "Sorry, this city, I'll check the village with my clones, Satsuki find a way to fortify this house and guard the outside, and Sakura you're going to interrogate It and safeguard the inside of the house."

I pointed at myself "Me?" Did he just assign me a job to interrogate the being? "I mean why me?"

"Yes, you. Satsuki is incapable of subtlety, don't you glare at me, you know it's true, and I'm a guy. What if the being is a woman? I can't just do that obscene thing that's against my nature as a person." This aghhakqjisoaha.

" How did you become a shinobi again?" I looked at him disapprovingly. "Your self-righteousness is simply ridiculous given the current situation."

"You can criticize me all you want but I'm going outside to scout the village. Also.." He made a Jutsu hand sign.

Pooft

"Pop the clone if niisan is awake or there's any problem, I'll be here instantly." He left the house in the blink of an eye. When I turned around to find Satsuki she was also gone. 'Great, I'm alone, again.' I heard the door open and saw Tsunami-san holding a food tray.

"Uh, where's your friend?" She said

I sighed in frustration. "They left the house to do ninja business. And I'm left out becoming a babysitter."

"Well at least you have some cake," said Tsunami

I smiled "at least I have some cake"

"Can I have some?" Said Tazuna

"No father, your blood pressure is high enough already!" Tazuna-san looked sad when he heard it

"Here it is Sakura dear, Wave country specialty ." She opened the tray. "Cake with sweet fish." She said with a smile and Tazuna-san was drooling at the sight.

The cake is a lie

……….

Naruto pov

The geography of Wave country eerily looks similar to Taiwan, yet smaller. With its swamps, hills, forests, and beaches it's a pretty good place to live, all things considered, if you ignore the problem that is Gato. But enough talking about the idyllic geography of Wave with their deep waters that are good for ports. Flatlands provide room for expansion in both farming and settlements, good soil for an island nation that can grow cash crops like cotton, and lots of resources like timber and metals. What am I saying again? Oh right, scouting. This place is the definition of a third-world country that is suffering from inflation as the cost of goods for transporting food over the strait is morbidly huge. ( AN:hehe morb.) Not post WW1 Germany's level, huge, but the price of goods is still affordable. If the meaning of affordability in this context is one loaf of bread is equal to 3 days' worth of wage for the average Konoha citizen, then yeah.'

But seriously, I and my clones have scouted the surrounding area in town to find anything suspicious, but I've only found friendly people asking me my purpose here. of course, I didn't answer their questions in case one of them is Gato's men that are trying to find information about us, I know they're bandits and the chance of them being highly organized to conduct a highly sophisticated spy network that can fool a ninja is very low, but there's no harm being careful about it. Don't get me wrong there are still people following me thinking that they are being discreet but in truth, it's pathetic seeing them trying to out-spy a ninja, like cmon tailgating, wearing clothes that are trying to hide your face. It's like their reference to spying is a crappy spy novel.

Seeing there is no immediate threat around the town I focused my attention inside the city."ugh, this is the worst." Finding someone or something inside a forest is a lot easier than finding them inside a human-centric place, and the reason for that is Inside a forest, you can tell if it's suspicious human activities or not, but inside a human-centric place, you'll have information overload, which limits your area of probing to a place where people gather and talk about information.'The problem is… most of that place is sinful. I can't go to a strip club or a bar. Not only im underage, but I also hate that kind of place with a passion.' It's also kinda weird seeing a teenager inside a bar.

So another place is crossed out. That only leaves me with one choice: asking individually to people about the town. No need to disguise myself, the bandits around here probably already know that there are shinobi inside the town. What are they going to do, attack me? Ha!, I like to see them try. If my hunch is true, then the Gato bandit group is probably semi-organized and they're smart enough not to attack ninja in daylight. Asking for some information I spotted a middle-aged man. "Excuse me, sir. Can I ask you a question?" He looked at me and smiled.

"Sure young man, how can I help you?" I really hope this place will turn into the Naruto world version of Singapore. The people here are so sweet.

"Do you know about Gato?" The person looked at me with a terrified look and immediately avoided eye contact with me and left. 'So the fear installed by Gato is deep-rooted into the populace. This is going to be hard.' I need to break down the image Gato has made to the villagers.

I asked multiple times with different people, achieving the same result as the first man I encountered. Not many people are brave enough to be associated with someone that is probably going to be targeted by a man like Gato. They are concerned about what will happen if they give out information about Gato's crime group. Afraid they will be targeted or worse, their family will be targeted as punishment from Gato.' This is going to be extra hard, maybe I should've disguised myself, but I doubt that will work when an outsider suddenly asks about what is akin to a taboo in your town. alarm bells probably would ring in your head if that happened.' Then a signal from God saved me. I can see movement and sound inside….

"Meow" oh no it's just a cat hm… I was excited for no reason. "Can someone at least tell me where the mayor's office is?!" I screamed and attracted some people's attention." cough, sorry." I sighed in frustration. Then I felt somebody throw a pebble at me.'ow' I turned my head around to the one throwing It and saw a man signaling with his hand for me to follow him. 'This isn't shady at all.' I followed him to an abandoned warehouse.

"Wait here," the cloaked man said, then he knocked on the door of the abandoned warehouse. "Torchbearer is here." The door opened but no one was visible opening it. 'Is this a prank?' The two of us entered the dark warehouse and the cloaked person closed the door.

"Explain or this is going to get ugly." I glared at the cloaked man.

"That's not one of your concerns, scion." He said with a sarcastic voice. I immediately summon Excalibur. The golden light illuminated the room with a caustic pattern and was the only light source in the room. When I looked around at the faintly glowing room it surprised me.'Anbu." Dozens of Anbu are standing in front of me and seeing their blank mask, it must be root.

"Now, no 23 let's not antagonize our guest. He is important for the future of Konoha after all. Right inheritor? " I heard a shadowy figure out of range of my light. Trying to see her I brought my sword slightly closer to the origin of the voice. "Now, now, let's calm down, scion." She said placating. The woman Anbu is also wearing your standard Anbu gear with a blank mask, the only difference is she has a different arm guard.

"What is Danzo-san Anbu doing here?" I split my sword and then telekinetically implanted the four swords at each corner of the square room and channeled more chakra to make the room brighter. "Is he interfering with the mission?" When the room is lit up 11 Anbu is standing with full gear adding the cloaked man, then there are three root Anbu teams inside Wave with loads of equipment and files, most of those files are wet meaning it's been transported by sea. I doubt Wave is important enough to be spied on by Root. Something is going on here. I then remembered Wave country's second closest neighbor. 'So their main job is to gather information about the civil war inside Kiri.'

"No, we will not interfere with the mission. I'm guessing you already know about the main purpose of this mission?" I nodded "Good, it seems the elder and the Hokage are right about you after all. Because of the sensitivity of the mission, we can't risk unwanted international attention so adding 3 teams of highly skilled shinobi to help what appears to be a "simple" escort mission will draw suspicion. We would like to avoid that suspicion at a minimum after we hashed the deal with Wave country leadership." She throws me a scroll. "We can't help you directly but I hope that's enough to help you to do this mission smoothly." The woman said

"And this is?" I looked at her questioningly

"Every information you would like about this country, its people, geography, important people, notable bandit camps, etc. Use it well, we spent a lot of time gathering it." I put the scroll inside my orange jacket. 'Note to self: learn basic storage skills.'

"Can I tell my teammate about this?"I asked and the woman shook her head disapprovingly.

" Just tell Kakashi" she seems to be familiar with niisan.

"Thanks, I'll get going." I left the warehouse from the main door, but before I closed the doors I snapped my finger and the lights of the room disappeared.

"He has become a fine man, last time I met him he was so small." Said a certain woman

……….

I made my way to Tazuna-san's house after I met with the root Anbu detachment in Wave. The fact that Danzo is operating in Wave blows my mind. But enough talking about the secret deep state il have to get back to review and give this information to niisan. After that, I'll probably ask Sakura about her progress in interrogating Haku. trying to be efficient I jumped from roof to roof of the wooden houses carefully so that I didn't make a hole in the roof.

When I arrived at the front door I could see Satsuki watching from on top of the roof contemplating something. "Hey, Satsuki! Let's get inside. I have intel about this place. We should discuss it inside the house." She looked at me and nodded. With grace, she jumped and landed beside me.

"What Intel do you have?" She asked

"Not Now let's discuss it when we're inside."

"Hn" I opened the door to find Sakura….laying on the floor. 'What the hell happened here?'

"Sakura, are you ok?"

"The cake is a lie." What

"Ok… has sensei woken up yet?" I asked

"Yo," I turned around to find niisan with full jonin gear sitting on the floor with a dining table.

"Sensei, I have information about the mission." I throw him the scroll.

"Hm, good job Naruto. Did anything happen when I was out of commission?" I shaped my head." Sakura told me everything after I passed out don't worry, we have 5 days until Zabuza attacks again because of the injury I gave him." That's reassuring. I thought Zabuza would attack faster this time because Haku Didn't block his nerves

"Talking about Zabuza, what should we do with it?" I pointed at Haku who is still unconscious

"It's suffering from brain commission. It will probably wake up before sundown. Oh, and it is a guy." Oh, thank God I don't have to call Haku it anymore.

"Wait, what" surprisingly it's Satsuki who's in disbelief. "That thing is a guy!! No fucking way…. The gods are dead. " she said with a depressed tone.

"There, there everything is alright. I think you are pretty cute to Satsuki so cheer up." I said with a smile. Satsuki looks away with a red face and promptly looks away from me. 'She must be really upset that her face changed color wait…. Nahhh Satsuki is not that kind of girl.'

"Hmm, I see. So that's what Sakura meant about the wheels. I get it now." Said Tazuna. 'wheels?'

Clap

We all turned our heads toward niisan." Now because Zabuza is still out there and probably plotting to accomplish his mission faster, if he cares about his subordinate we should prepare for an attack from Zabuza. We can't prepare something complex like learning new Jutsu, but… we can learn how to water walk."

"Uhm, sensei I can already do it." I raised my hand while saying it.

"Of course you do." He sighed "new plan I'll teach the both of you while Naruto safeguards Tazuna."

"Lucky bastard." I heard Satsuki

"That's not lucky." A child wearing a fisherman's head said.

"Oh, Inari, where were you?" Tazuna said with a big smile

"Welcome back, grandpa" he has to climb to get up to the floor that is so cute.

"Inari say hello to these people, they are the ninjas who protected grandpa." He hugged Tazuna-san while looking at us intently.

"Mom, they are going to die." He said innocently while pointing at us.

Satsuki seemed to be annoyed and was about to barrage him. "Don't" I stopped her before she could say anything. "Hello, you must be Inari. My name is Naruto, the pink one is Sakura, and the glaring one is Satsuki. Nice to meet you." I said with a smile.

"Hai I guess." He seemed surprised by my response. " But you're still going to die, there's no way you can defeat Gato."

"yep that's true I can't defeat Gato alone he has too many people on his payroll." I make my way toward Inari

"If you know why do you still fight!" And put my hand on top of his head. He looked me in the eyes.

"Because I still have my teammates that can help me. Besides, I can't fail if I fail. Your grandpa will die and his life's work to save his home would be all for nothing. You don't want that to happen, do you?" He shakes his head and starts to cry.

"No, I don't want that to happen. I love my grandpa but Gato is too strong and no one will ever be able to defeat him." As he started to cry I hugged him.

"It's ok what you're feeling right now is fear, it's ok to have it, but." I release my hug and put my hand on his shoulder. "You can't let it consume you, fear is necessary in life. If you let it consume every ounce of your soul it will destroy you."

"But how do I get rid of it?! How do I get rid of it if all the people I'm close to? Also, have it!"

"Simple, start being the first one to appear to have already overcome your fear. If just one person believes you don't have fear they will follow you."

"But it will be a lie! Why should we give false hope to other people when we ourselves don't have it." I hit his head with a head chop gently.

"Your name is Inari, right, do you know that inari is the fox messenger for the goddess of fertility in the Shinto religion." He nodded. I weaved a Jutsu in the palm of my hand. I made a miniature fox made out of holy golden light. The showing of my power made him awed and hopeful.

"But I don't have the strength to do it."

"Strength comes in many forms but the most important one is here." I pointed at his head. "And here the heart. Without this even if you have power whether it's money or brawn it will be useless. So Inari would you like to be this country's messenger of prosperity?"

"Yes! Will you teach me?" He said with determination.

"Good, would you like to accompany me safeguarding your grandpa?" He nodded and I looked at niisan and tsunami-san for permission. Both of them nodded. "Get to your room and tomorrow, I'll teach you the basics of becoming someone that can influence your country."

"Hai..niisan" he ran upstairs with a smile on his face.

"What just happened?" I hear Sakura

"Naruto happened." Said Satsuki

"Are you sure you're ok with Inari accompanying me to guard your father, Tsunami-san?" I said to her and shook her head approvingly.

"Inari needed that?" She said simply

"If I may ask Tsunami-san what happened to him?" Said niisan

"His step-father was killed by Gato because he dared to defy him. Inari was just 6 when that happened and ever since then, he has become cynical in life." She looked at me with a teary eye." but thanks to you Naruto my son is back, my sweet and happy son."

"It's ok Tsunami-san I like to help people in need," I said

"I knew you were Gary Sue Naruto, but I didn't know it was this bad."

"And that's a problem because?" I head Satsuki

"Have you watched a movie, women!? a guy like Naruto appearing in this world means something bad will happen in the future!" Wow that's meta

"Don't use movie logic in real life," Satsuki said plainly.

"Oh yeah, says the woman, that is the definition of weird!" Said Sakura angrily

"Hey, I'm not weird right sensei?" She looked at niisan.

"Well, how should I put this? Some basic knowledge that is common in society is lacking in you, Satsuki."

"Hah, I win."

"Shut up you banshee!"

"No, you shut up weirdo!" Imaginary lightning can be seen with them.

"Niisan, did you do that on purpose?" I whispered to his ear.

"Maybe…" he said with a half smile

'Wow, he is evil.'

"Uhm, did I miss something?" We all stopped and turned our heads to see Haku looked so confused with the whole situation. He is still tied down with rope so he can't make any hands-on or move. Already processing the situation he looked at his body and said.

"Oh… well frick."

………

Sorry guys this one is a rush. I only made it in 4 days. I did it so my writing schedule can be normal again so every Sunday a new chapter will pop out in your notifications. If you see a drop in quality in the content of the chapter please don't be mad at me. I just did an all-nighter to make this.

Originally I planned to make this chapter 10.000 words long. With Naruto teaching Inari to become what is essentially a prime minister. And there is also a conversation between Sakura and Haku that will impact the story. Sasuke Sharingan's awakening will be brutal for her like holy hell. How can I come up with such a brutal way to do It?

I'm a softie if you didn't know by just reading my writings I'm the kind of kid that will tell the server that this is a no profanity server because it's not nice and yes I'm that kind of kid you will find in religious school reciting the holy text and all that.

Sorry, no omakes this time.