Dinner was largely an uneventful affair. Ben sat away from the table while Kakashi took his food on the couch (He was still reading porn much to Tsunami's displeasure). The genins and Tazuna's family all took seats at the table. Everyone got a couple of good helpings though, because both Naruto and Sasuke seemed completely famished with their ...tree climbing and they were shoving food down their throats as if there was no tomorrow. He just hoped they didn't fell sick from stuffing so much food inside their stomach.
Everything was going well until Sakura mentioned the picture hanging from the wall. In this picture, one could see Tazuna, Tsunami, Inari and another figure, although the last one's face had been torn. Sakura noticed that, unlike the Inari she knew, the Inari of the picture looked really happy, flashing a toothy grin as the torn man was ruffled his hair.
The mood instantly darkened. Tsunami stopped cleaning and Tazuna looked at the table, not wanting to meet anyone's gaze. Inari immediately stood up and left the room. As Tazuna and Tsunami seemed a little bit too emotional for the time being, it was upto Ben to let the team of shinobis the story behind the man whose face was torn apart from that picture.
The man in the picture happened to be a fisherman by the name of Kaiza. One day, three kids were ganging up on Inari and his dog Poochi. The leader of the gang claimed Poochi for himself, and decided to torture the young boy even more by throwing the dog to the sea. Obviously, Inari couldn't swim very well at the mere age of 6. His fear got better of him and he momentarily froze right there and then. Suddenly one of the bullies kicked him to the water as well. Panicking, Inari tried to swim but the water was too deep for him and he rapidly started running out of breath. In addition to all that, his dog Poochi managed to make its way to the shore all by himself without any sort of difficulty whatsoever and ran away with the bullies behind his tail.
Inari's lungs started to become filled with water and he lost consciousness , but before anything worse could happen he was saved by none other than Kaiza.
One day, a flood was endangering this small town and the people who lived in it. The river's gate had been opened by the force of the waves, and the only way to stop them was to swim across the crazy river and reach the other side with a rope so the gates could be closed. Kaiza . Despite the huge risk and the fact that no else volunteered, Kaiza agreed to do it in a heartbeat . Managing to defy all odds without worrying for his life for a single moment, the brave fisherman reached the other side of the river. Using a rope, the villagers were able to close the gates and save the town. From that night, Kaiza became a hero not only in Inari's eyes, but for everyone.
Kaiza taught Inari to defend what was precious to him with both his arms even if he had to put his life at risk. Kakashi instantly figured out why Kaiza had been such an inspiration to everybody. For anyone out there in this world , to protect something with so much determination and ferocity would certainly be a sight to behold. After all that was what his beloved teacher, Minato Namikaze believed in.
Since that day, Inari and Kaiza became inseparable, Inari who had grown without a father at his side for all these years now had a role model and a fatherly figure. Apparently, Kaiza also never happened to had a son before and Inari was everything he could've ever hoped for as a son. It was only a matter of time before Kaiza eventually became a part of this household , with Inari as his son and Tsunami as his wife.
However, the family's joy was not to last long. The shrewd business magnet called Gatou came to the land two weeks later and took over everything in the small island his greedy little hands could gather. Kaiza, being the people's champion that he was, was considered and obstacle to Gatou. His thugs got a hold of him and proceeded to beat him senseless before sentence him to die in a public execution. People were shocked and wanted to protest, but without their hero, what could they do? Kaiza was killed by Gatou's bodyguards and everyone saw it, Inari included. The little boy changed, all hope lost to him. If his father couldn't stand up to Gatou, who could? He grew bitter and never laughed anymore. Because no matter what he did, it was all too clear to him that Gatou was invincible. He lost hope, and so did the villagers.
But Tazuna decided to brighten the mood by bringing up Ben's efforts and how he had stood against Gatou and defeated his men numerous times. Inari was a lot better than he used to be and now believed in heroes once again. He even cracked a smile every now and then, which was a major improvement. People were still afraid of Gatou but after a very long time since he started building this bridge, a small but increasing number of workers had began working alongside him.
In the end, It left Naruto even more fired up and he immediately left for training. Declaring that sooner or later he was going to prove that he was as much not if more awesome than Ben. Sasuke followed the course as well considering that he didn't want to be left behind by the dead last of all people
...xxxxxxx...xxxxxxx...
Ben awoke and noticed it was still dark outside. He tirelessly tried to fall asleep considering it was his day off and which meant he could get a few extra hours of sleep. However all of his attempts turned out to be horrible failures. Letting out a groan , he decided to wake up. He hated waking up early but in this world without videogames, internet, television and smartphones , he felt like he had now seriously taken up to become some sort of taoist monk.
Stretching his limbs following behind a popping sound, He exited his room and headed outside the door. Deciding that he might as well work out a bit and get familiar with the jutsu thingys considering he didn't have much to do and he was up this early. After arriving at the clearing team 7 was practising their tree climbing yesterday,
Ultimate Ditto
The moment young plumber uttered those words, a bright green flash engulfed the area and once it died, four look alikes of Ben appeared in his place. All three of them nodded at each other. While both of them took a fighting pose, the third one picked up the small green book Kakashi gave to him yesterday and carefully sat around in a corner. The last one just rolled over the ground and started performing push ups.
Without wasting any further moment, Ben jumped on the top of a tree, setting himself in some sort of battle stance as he signaled his copies to come at him. The duo slammed a vicious elbow into his gut, momentarily disorienting him. The quickly grabbed onto his right hand and attempted to disable him using a joint lock. However they didn't expect Ben to switch his dominant leg and slam his knees on their face by performing a backflip. One of them was a bit too quick for Ben as it retaliated with a roundhouse kick, not bothering to dodge it Ben made a familiar hand sign and disappeared in a puff of smoke. Making the duplicate hit nothing but wooden log.
Using his already increased momentum, Ben channeled chakra through his feet and land a hard punch on the duplicate's face, sending him flying away. Before he could enjoy his short lived victory, a pair of knuckles came from sideways and smacked him on the ground. Gritting his teeth in frustration, Ben rubbed his bruised head and quickly managed to climb back to his original place. The duplicate managed to duck Ben's attack and attempted to sweep Ben's right leg. Ben jumped back on another branch and charged towards it with a flying four hit combo while using both of his hands. His duplicate managed to dodge most of his attacks and striked back with a spinning wheel kick only for Ben to lower his head at the right moment. The duplicate grunted in pain as Ben aimed for his thigh with a nasty low kick. He was about to go for a knee but before he could do that, a pair of hands grabbed him from the down below and smacked his head against the tree trunk. The duplicate he punched moments ago had finally managed to get back on his feet.
Seizing an opportunity, he punched Ben both in his stomach and near his collarbone . Feeling lucky the duplicate went for another hit, only for Ben to be replaced with a wooden log.
"You really didn't think it was going to be this easy, did you?" Both duplicates blinked in confusion at hearing the familiar voice, they immediately turned around, only to see a smiling Ben standing over the surface of nearby lake. Staring at each other for a few moments, both of them followed the course and landed on the water. However their footing still needed some work as one of them ended up dropping his ankle in the water while another one tripped his legs during the take of and ended up getting submerged inside the water with the grace of a heavy rock. The duplicate paid dearly for their mistake as Ben delivered a vicious cross arm chop on his neck causing to lose his footing and fall face first inside the water. Another one emerged within underwater but he was a moment too late as Ben immediately had him facedown in the water, with both of his hands pulled back and a knee plastered on his neck.
This went on for a couple of moments, dodging, punching, kicking, substitution, hack one of them even pulled a full fledged Water Clone on him to knock him out. Since all three of them were reflections of the same person, they weren't much different from each other. They shared equal amount of strength, stamina and shared the same skill set. Even though he was aware about the moves they could pull off, towards his credit the unpredictability on their part kept him guessing. Without either of them noticing, his little sparring match with well...himself went on for more than an hour. He nearly kept going till his face and clothes were completely soaked due to sweat and he had trouble moving due to pain and fatigue he experienced. Blood, bruises and scratches were all over his body , yet Ben was satisfied. He had truly started to overcome the confines of his human body like his instructor Rook once told him to do.
After taking a few moments to catch their breath, all copies jumped on the single unharmed clone, whose dial now showed the transformation Wildvine and eventually merged into one. Absorbing the duplicate meant taking his memories, Physical trauma, Stress, Injuries etc. Easier said than done. He could have dispersed it with the help of his Ultimatrix dial and save himself from the process but then again what sort of superhero are you if you can't handle pain?
Regeneration process kicked in but so did the injuries and exhaustion. In addition to all that, the overload of information nearly scrambled his entire system. Ben took a long breath, Reminding himself that the pain was temporary soon he will be back to his fullest capacity.
As long as he managed to find a few aspirines!
...xxxxx...xxxxxxx...xxxxx...
Needless to say, Ben was exhausted both mentally and physically. He had been going non stop since he woke up and he was now beat! He entered Tazuna's home after taking a long and nice dip inside the lake in order to get the stench off him. He didn't want to reek like a hippo on such a humid day!
As he entered the hall, he ran into a yawning Sakura and always brooding Sasuke. Tsunami was serving a special herb tea to Kakashi which grew inside the forest, The copy nin accepted it with a grateful eye smile. Thoughtful as ever, She poured some for Ben as well.
"Morning everyone!" Ben greeted, Following the Asian customs as far as he could.
"Good morning, Ben-san! " Sakura greeted politely, Stretching her arms with a yawn. Ben didn't blame her, It was really that early. If he wasn't suffering from hyperactivity, He would have slept in too.
"Where is Naruto?" Ben said suddenly, looking around puzzled.
"He is not here" Tazuna replied, " Apparently he was outside all night practicing that tree climbing stuff."
Sakura sighed, "He's always doing stupid stuff like that. He's probably passed out due to chakra exhaustion."
"Are you sure he will be alright? " Tsunami spoke out with concern, " I don't like the idea of a kid spending the night on his own like that. Especially when Gato's men are patrolling outside!"
"Naruto will be fine," Kakashi said reassuringly. "Although he may not look it, he is a decent ninja." The jonin knew pretty well that Naruto had so much chakra inside of him that it was rather frightening and he wasn't even taking his tenant in consideration yet. Naruto suffering from chakra exhaustion, Nah, not a chance.
Surprisingly enough, the raven haired kid raised his voice, " Tch! Sakura has a point. The dobe is such a loser, he is probably dead somewhere."
"Oh come on dude! Do you mind not being a jerk right now? It's early in the morning." Ben retorted dryly, his ears were apparently still ringing from the spar before, he just wanted to have his breakfast in peace. He would rather go and challenge Zabuza and his assistant for round 2 than hearing the Uchiha's sarcastic and cold monosyllabic comments.
Surprisingly, The Uchiha heir just stood up in response and left the kitchen without saying anything, "Sasuke-kun, where are you going?"
"For a walk." He replied simply, leaving everyone to their thoughts.
Kakashi narrowed down his eyes. He was really sure that Sasuke was going for a walk. But the walk happened to be for finding his blonde teammate.
He knew that the dark haired avenger had trouble expressing his emotions probably due to his tragic background and he tended to be rather antagonistic towards Naruto. He most likely found his team mates annoying but at the same time he had began to care about them. Albeit in his own emo-ish way
"But we just started eating." Sakura protested, however towards her utmost surprise when she looked at Sasuke's plate, It was nearly empty except small bits of uneaten food. "That was fast." The pinkette said to herself.
Soon everyone finished their breakfast. Upon Tsunami's insistence Ben decided to join Kakashi and Sakura on their search for Naruto, considering the fact that he was a lot more familiar with the surroundings than anyone else. They tried shouting his name for next fifteen minutes to no avail. However Ben reassured them, suggesting that Naruto was nearby.
"Are you sure? The baka could be anywhere and Sasuke-kun hasn't come back either, I am really starting to get worried." Sakura spoke out agitatedly, expressing her frustration and worries about the situation.
"And I am telling you, both of them are right here." Ben shrugged nonchalantly, The moment he finished his sentence, A kunai which was clearly thrown from above buried itself near the ground. Everyone gulped and looked up only to see the figure of Naruto , who was sitting on a branch of a tree.
Kakashi was honestly surprised, "He can actually go that far up using his chakra. Amazing! He must have worked hard."
"What do you guys think? High enough for you? It's a long way down, isn't it?" Naruto said with a mischievous smile as he stood up and backtracked his steps, now hanging upside down from the branch.
"I am starting to get the hang...AARGH!..." Naruto began with a smug smile but before he could finish his statement , his feet got blasted away from the surface. The Uzumaki looked terrified but just as he was about to fall, Sasuke seemingly appeared out of nowhere and grabbed the orange clad ninja by his ankles, only for him to disperse in a cloud of smoke.
"A shadow clone!" Sasuke's eyes widened in realization.
"Geez! I can't believe you actually fell for it!" A voice came from behind, revealing the real Naruto who was standing on another branch of the same tree, playfully sticking out his tongue towards them.
"You scared the shit out of us Baka!" Sakura yelled in outrage, completely terrified with the stunt Naruto pulled back there. She was about to have a heart attack!
"Good catch, Teme!"
"Shut it, Dobe."
"These two are going to be the death of me." Kakashi let out a miserable sigh, while Ben just chuckled in response.
...xxxxxxxx...xxxxxxxx...
It was really shaping up to be a stressful evening.
Stuffing both hands deep into his pockets, Ben shuddered.
There was a nip in the air that felt almost unnatural – a cold wind steadily rising as time went on, in sharp, sudden bursts it would seem. The rain clouds looming overhead with the promise of a downpour did not help. Ben let out a groan, Shitty weather was the last thing he had to worry about right now. The air reeked with depression and atmosphere had taken a very grimm appearance. The Ultimatrix bearer was pretty much used to all this, However that didn't mean he had to like it.
Ben held a very high opinion of Tazuna, Regardless of what Naruto or others thought. He had his priorities set straight, He had to give him that much. Most men would break under that kind of pressure. Most men would crack or bow down to this grim and hopeless situation – that much was obvious, given the recent decrease in able men working on the bridge – but not their employer.
Ben narrowed down his eyes at his vastly experienced opponent. He dashed towards Kakashi while enhancing his speed using chakra, Immediately dashing forward to deliver a right hook straight to Kakashi's face. Kakashi quickly avoided the attack, simply tilting his head back to dodge the blow. He grumbled under his breath before sending a low kick that Kakashi expertly blocked .
Nearly a couple of years ago, It had taken a few days for Ben to finally believe his father when he told him that no one blamed him, and that his grandfather and his friends gave their life for him out of love for him, Because they believed only he could stop Maltruant and win the Time war. Only he could protect the human race from sinister Chronosapiens. He had vowed then to never act so brashly again, especially not when it had already cost him the life of his precious people. He forced himself to learn restraint and self-control. He even went so far as to convince plumbers to hire Tai Chi and Wushu instructors for him, hoping to achieve a level of internal peace and balance that would facilitate his efforts to become more level headed. Just so no one else would die due to his mistakes.
With a graceful roundhouse kick, Ben unleashed his full might on Kakashi. Using every kata he had learned throughout his life the Ultimatrix Bearer charged towards Kakashi. He then began a series of fluid and smooth movements. Kakashi praised inwardly while keeping a bored expression on his face. Ben was incredibly smart of what attacks to combo together and what attacks to send out to keep him guessing. Combining his mastery over Water walking and tree climbing exercise with all that, His speed was no joke either
Looks like I have to start countering
Kakashi sidestepped a kick before immediately catching Ben's leg before sliding it down his thigh and lifting. The brown-haired combatant was quickly tossed up into the air but stabilized himself by doing a flip and landing on both of his feet.
It had been nine long days since the team 7 began with the tree climbing. By now all three genins and their teacher had gotten comfortable with Ben being around. Sakura had even gotten friendlier enough to add "kun" to his name. Naruto was pretty much treating him like they had known each other for years and the orange clad ninja more often than not reminded him about none other than Lucy Mann, his notorious prankster cousin , who always appeared to be brimming with energy. Thanks to her, there was never a dull moment around during their family gatherings. Sadly, she belonged to the first response group who were slaughtered by Maltruant's sentries. And as for Sasuke...while obviously there wasn't much communication between two of them, they somewhat bonded over their annoyance with Kakashi's lazy antics and the infamous erotica he was always reading in front of them.
Apparently, Naruto and Sasuke managed to reach the very top of their respective trees after working for endless hours. In short with in six days all three genins were equal in terms of chakra control with Sakura being a tiny bit better at tree climbing but to be honest, it seemed so close that didn't make much of a difference.
However, Kakashi didn't seem much interested in teaching them anything new, believing that the only thing they could do was to master the skills they already had. Besides in all honesty there wasn't anything he could teach them which might allow his students to match Zabuza. Instead of teaching them a new technique, he just divided their time to both learn how to walk on the surface of water and continue with the tree climbing practice.
Meanwhile Ben had now managed to learn both Transformation Jutsu and Standard Clone Jutsu, it was still debatable that whether he had gotten comfortable with them to the point of using them during an actual fight but he now knew about them, regardless. The copy nin tested his resistance against minor illusions and a standard "put me to sleep" genjutsu but Ben did pretty alright against it. Making him assume that with his chakra control he wasn't going to have much issues with breaking out from illusions. Since there wasn't anything much to do, Kakashi decided to give Ben a taste of fighting against a superior opponent. Which brought him towards their current predicament.
Ben was completely taken by surprise as Kakashi delivered a shocking punch to his side, followed up by a forceful shove to interrupt his counter. Ben recovered quickly and sprung back on his feet. Dashing towards Kakashi, he placed a hand on the ground before lifting both his feet straight into the air , Flipping 180 degree in the air, He brought forth his glowing fist into the side of Kakashi's head. It did connect, However Kakashi dispersed into a splinters of wooden log which was unfortunate enough to taste his chakra encased fist.
Ben fell on his knees, Starting to pant heavily. He had now not only running low on chakra, his clothes were also soaked with dirt and sweat.
"You are really not in shape, Ben-kun! "
The Ultimatrix bearer threw a dirty look at Kakashi who decided to make his presence known. Towards his ire, Kakashi seemed completely fine and unaffected by the tirelessly long spar they'd just had. It was fourth day in row Kakashi had managed to kick his ass without breaking a sweat and something told him even if he used his transformations like Blitzwolfer , Wildmutt or even Swampfire that would have made much difference, as far as speed , strength and reflexes were concerned.
The Jonin was actually impressed with Ben, Even though he didn't outrightly declared it. His glowing fist, Which he used to call "Stone Cutter" was really nasty. It was like a miniature horse ready to kick you with its hind-legs. Who knew a teenager with very limited knowledge on Chakra could perform a variation of Legendary Tsunade Senju's super strength. Agreed, It was still imperfect but Ben was doing pretty much good on his own. Kakashi shook his head as a storm was brewing inside of him
"Calm down Kakashi. You have stumbled upon someone who has the potential to be the greatest military asset to ever exist in elemental nations. With his chakra control, transformations with monstrous strength and various abilities that I don't even know yet, He is a gold mine hunter nin, medic nin, Taijutsu and Genjutsu prospect. Big deal, it's cool… no need to get all fired up and start raving about it. You'll swell the kid's head. Besides I gotta let Lord Hokage in first. " Kakashi had to fight the urge to begin frothing at the mouth and running back to Konoha to brag about stumbling upon such rare gem just like that.
"Are you going to be alright, Ben?" Tsunami asked with obvious worry.
Ben slowly stood up, Finally gathering enough air to respond verbally. "I am fine Tsunami-san. All I need is a bath and some food, That's all. "
Tsunami didn't look completely convinced, But nodded anyways as Ben went inside. She was obviously feeling guilty to see Ben punishing himself like that just for their sake. In her eyes he was a child too but people tended to ignore it just because he had a few special abilities. It felt bad that how a child was forced to carry the burden of protecting the bridge and their family like this.
Kakashi chuckled, Knowing very well what was going on. " Don't worry Tsunami-san. He is a tough kid, He can take it. Besides he is too much stubborn to let himself be pampered by anyone like that."
"I should go preparing dinner then." Tsunami nodded and she quickly went inside
...xxxxx...xxxxxx...xxxxxxxx...
After an hour or so , Sasuke and Naruto bolted inside the house. Even though both of them were dripping wet and heavily sneezing, one of them was smirking with pride while another was grinning like there was no tomorrow.
"We did it! We managed to walk on the stupid lake for more than an hour." Naruto declared with a pride.
"Hn!" Sasuke acknowledged with a silent nod, his mouth already stuffed with food.
"Good! Starting tomorrow both of you are bodyguards of Tazuna." Kakashi responded with an affirmative shook of his head. He didn't expect both of them to actually manage to learn that but after working hard on tree climbing, water walking wasn't that much difficult. It just required a bit more concentration and ability to strike the perfect balance. Even then, their efforts were absolutely worth his praise.
After having a well deserved meal, Team 7, Tazuna and Ben started discussing the final details of this mission. There was no point in dragging the construction any longer as it provided Gatou with more opportunity to harm them by hiring more ninjas. Much to everyone's approval, It was decided that both Ben and Naruto should use their ability to create duplicates in order to make everything faster. Another was to raid Gatou's safehouses, scare away his goons and use a part of money they were going to find to both pay Konoha for an A rank mission and restore Wave's economy. Last but not the least, what Ben could do next in order to avoid the watchful eyes of bloodthirsty Mizukage. Kakashi suggested that he should go with them, with Naruto excitedly mentioning about his favorite Ramen place eleventh time in a day but the brown haired hero said that he was going to think about it once Gatou and Zabuza are out of the picture.
"I don't see why are you even bothering to work with these lousy ninjas. They are nowhere near strong enough to fight against Gatou." Inari released a frustrated sigh, making his appearance known.
"I don't think they are weak, Inari. From where I see they are pretty strong on their own. Besides everyone starts out at some point, even I was a clumsy bumbling idiot when I got this powers." Ben remarked in a calm and composed tone.
"But..you can transform into all these creatures." Inari spoke out in disbelief
"May be...but in the end they are just an outlet of my strength." Ben explained in a sincere tone, " If I didn't work my ass off back in those days, I wouldn't have turned out to be half as good of a fighter I currently am."
Kakashi nodded in silent agreement. No one in the history of the greatest shinobis were strong to begin with . Even the legends like Minato Namikaze and Hashirama Senju had to start somewhere.
"Still only strong guys like you can beat strong guys like Gatoh." Inari frowned, still holding onto his previous beliefs.
Ben was about to speak again but he was rudely interrupted by Naruto, who smacked his hands on the table
"Don't do it Ben, That's exactly what he wants. for you to fall for his whole "woe is me" stuff."
"Don't say it so easily!" Inari snapped, tears starting appear in his eyes, "All this training and talk is just a waste of time. All these words of encouragement, they don't mean anything! It's always the same, the strong survives and the weak loses! "
"Speak for yourself, It won't be like that for me, got that?" Naruto muttered dryly, he felt really sorry for the boy but listening him crying and protesting every five minutes was just plain annoying. He was starting to lose patience, if he had any.
"Why don't you stay quiet? Just looking at you makes me sick. You are always laughing and playing around, You don't have any idea what does it feels to suffer and to be treated like dirt. You don't even know how it feels to lose someone. Big brother is the only one who knows and he is the only one who cares. Only someone powerful like him can defeat Gatou!"
"Listen to yourself, bitching and moaning about your life, Thinking you have got it so hard!" Naruto voice was soft, akin to an almost unnoticeable whisper. Yet, it didn't have any trouble conveying the message across the entire room, It was filled with so much rage and anger that even sent shivers running through Ben's spine. Making him realize that he was sitting across a child soldier who was trained to combat and kill.
"You sit here in this house with your loving family, with a mom who cooks for you, worries for you and loves you most in this world. You have a grandfather who is building a bridge so you and your country can be free of Gatou's reign. You have a friend who is willing to stand against a tyrant and risk his life without asking anything in return. " Naruto snorted at the boy in disgust, "What a hard life! Oh my Tou-san died, boo hoo. It's pathetic! You can drawn in your tears for all I care ; You are nothing but a wimp."
"Naruto, you went too far!" Sakura shouted. Naruto didn't even bother to respond as he stood up and left the kitchen.
Inari has been shaking in both fury and sadness. No one, no one had been so much direct and harsh with him. The blonde ninja had basically slapped him on the face with the full force of reality making him feel smaller than ever. Not knowing what to do, he sniffled several times before he too ran out of the door.
"Well, the kid must have struck a nerve." Ben let out a sigh, he added with a raised eyebrow, "I know that the brat gets a bit annoying with his all resistance is futile speech but I never expected Naruto to have such strong reaction to that."
"Kakashi-sensei?" Sakura asked quietly, The leaf jonin didn't respond right away but when he did, it wasn't something his students wanted to hear.
"You two should go and rest. Something tells me, we have long day ahead of us tomorrow. " Kakashi spoke out in a firm tone, indicating that he didn't want to have any arguments in regards to this matter. Heaving a sigh, the leaf jonin stood and headed out from the door that Inari had disappeared off, quickly followed by Ben.
"You shouldn't blame blame Naruto-kun for what he did." Kakashi said, getting straight to the point once both of them were outside. "Besides I somewhat agree with what he said, your attempts of cheering up Inari is nothing but a futile effort and waste of your time."
"You can't blame me for going easy on the kid, he lost his father of all people." Ben let out a sigh, "He may be annoying as hell but being so much mean to him is not the right thing to do. However I don't blame Naruto, He is a kid himself and it's hard to keep emotions in check around that age." He added in a casual tone.
"Well, you are the one to talk. Aren't you around the same age as my cute little genins?" Kakashi chuckled.
"I am a "special" case" Ben grumbled, Not really happy about the dimension hopping deaging crap. Which was definitely a sore spot considering how thanks to that Ben ended up losing a few key aliens he had before. Such as Alien X, Atomix and Clockwork
"To be honest, Naruto probably understands what Inari's pain better than anyone. So do I and even Sasuke towards a certain extent " The ultimatrix bearer gave Kakashi a startled look which the copy nin pretended not to notice.
Kakashi patted on Ben's shoulders, his only visible eye taking a shadowed look, " My father was known as the White Fang of Konoha. When I was still a young boy, he committed suicide and left me all alone. Sasuke's entire clan was murdered by his brother in a single night! And Naruto...well he has also had...a less than stellar life. He lost both of his parents before he could even talk much less walk. " Kakashi stared off at the stars in the night sky, gathering his thoughts about the blonde loner and his late sensei, " Naruto-kun is despised by most citizens of our village. Even when he was barely old enough to walk, the people of the village would beat him to the point of unconsciousness. No one would let him even shop in the stores. He had to get everything he owned from third-hand shops who overcharged him even the leader of our village , myself, a ramen shop owner father-daughter duo and his academy instructor who he only bonded with recently, he hasn't made any connection, most noticeably with kids around his age. Apart from his team of course but as you can see that doesn't help much. "
"That's really strange! He doesn't seem like someone who should have a hard time making friends. " Ben blinked in confusion.
"So why is he the way he is?" The hero asked, "Why isn't he…" He trailed off, clearly not able to bring himself to put the word in this sentence.
"A crybaby like Inari?" Kakashi finished, making the young plumber wince. "Well, I imagine that at one point he was. I remember, there were times when Lord Hokage pass him on the street and he looked like a kicked puppy. Sometimes he would just hide in an alley and break down. But I suppose over time he got tired of it and decided to fight back by just hold his head high and face everything head on " Kakashi smiled. Ben didn't know how Kakashi came to know all this , but he didn't seem like someone who would lie. "Naruto just said 'enough' and quit crying. I wouldn't doubt that he hasn't shed a single tear since. On the way here, he got his hand sliced by an enemy's poisoned weapon, but he didn't even blink. He just took out a kunai and stabbed his own hand to let the poison bleed out."
"That's...pretty hardcore!" Ben spoke out in amusement. He knew the boy had a strong resolve and never give up attitude from the way he trained but this just took everything up to eleven. Besides, despite going through a few rough patches throughout his life, He just couldn't understand what Naruto, Sasuke or even Kakashi went through during their lives. To be honest, he never knew how being lonely felt. He always had his family, he always had friends who were willing to lay their lives on line for his sake. He couldn't help but lowering his head even further, a bread of sweat forming on his forehead as he leaned against a tree.
This world...it is so different from my home...at the same time it's so similar.
"I believe that Naruto sees a reflection of himself in Inari and...towards a certain extent you. " The jonin explained in a serious tone, "Despite of the situations in your homeland and the circumstances under you arrived, you decided that you don't have it so bad and decided to fight for these people. Even facing off and defeating two dangerous chunins like Demon Brothers. You fought against Zabuza with our team and played a crucial role in our survival that time and even now you are willing to continue on with this fight. Your actions represent what current Naruto would have loved to do about this situation, which explains why he is so enthusiastic to work with you. While with Inari it's the exact opposite."
"That all makes sense" Ben rose his head, eyes sharpening with assurance, "Why Naruto blew a fuse like that back then, what Inari said to him was the last thing he was going to take it from anyone."
"Precisely." Kakashi nodded in approval, flashing him a warm smile at his show of sympathy , " Anyways, you should take some rest. If I am not wrong, Zabuza must have started to return to full strength by now and from what I have seen of him, He isn't going to rest until he settles the score. And don't worry I will talk to Inari in your stead." The copy nin added in a serious tone.
Ben was about to protest considering that he was a lot more familiar with the kid than leaf jonin but ultimately decided not to. As someone who grew up without parents, Kakashi was more suited to talk to Inari than he ever could be and perhaps as someone who had been through similar situations, he might be able to talk some sense into the boy. Ben managed to reach the halfway but couldn't get the job done.
Who knows, The copy nin might end up succeeding where he failed.
But he wasn't concerned about that much. This chaotic lands...they were filled with strange people and strange abilities. And there was something in this dimension, which threatened the existence of his own home world. Something that Hamura didn't think he wouldn't be able to defeat in his current state. Even after he killed Maltruant, the nearly unbeatable bastard with god complex.
"Grampa Max..what would you have done?" He whispered while staring at the moon above the water. However the breeze coming in off the ocean didn't give him any answer.
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Haku pouted and looked over in the direction that trees started to fell one by one, Causing a loud sound of something being smashed echoed throughout the Forest. Slowly she began to walk towards a man who was dressed in camouflage pants and a sleeveless grey shirt. He had spiky brown hair and the lower half of his face was covered much like Kakashi's was only with bandages, "Zabuza-sama I told you to wait until an hour. You can still make yourself worse by being up and about early like this . Go lay back down."
"Haku…" Zabuza growled in warning, "Today is the day that we're to attack. I can't go into it all stiff and rusty. This is nothing. I've been in bed for ages, I need to get readjusted with my full range of motion here. I'm sure Kakashi wasn't just sitting around licking his wounds."
"About that!" Haku spoke as she leaned back against a still surviving tree, " It wouldn't have come to this, If you had let me interfere from the beginning. Besides you were very forthright with your intentions even though it would have served us better to sneak up on them, maybe a night time assassination. You had several options where you could have succeed against them but you chose to fight with honor, Samurais fight with honor. Not shinobis. "
Zabuza growled, The girl knew him too well. Zabuza didn't like Gatou very much, Considering the fact that bastard was ideologically similar to Yagura, but he didn't have much choice in that regards. For now the resistance was laying low, Biding their time. Given the island nature of the Land of Water, the rebels either had to stay hidden on a small island, or be capable of transporting themselves back and forth quickly and stealthily, which smuggling with the Shipping Company provided them
"It was warning! " Zabuza growled as he kept a firm gaze on his companion. " But they seem so hell bent on facing me then, I am not going to back down either. I will do anything to free my land from that monster Yagura. You're far too soft for your own good Haku. You know how useful you are to me and my overall ambition. I can tell that you don't want to kill this Ben and the boy that you met earlier in the forest but remember how close we are to our ambition Haku. With this money we're closer than ever to affording the means to fund a proper rebellion."
Haku nodded, Stiffening up a bit, "Of course Zabuza-sama, There's nothing at all to worry about. I know what this mission is to us and how important it is. But Gatou doesn't seem to be a guy whose word can be trusted! "
Zabuza flinched a bit, Even he was fearing that. Gatou wasn't a trustworthy person and it really didn't seem like he wanted to pay them.
"I know Haku, That's the risk we must take... For our cause. Let me warn you Haku, Don't hold back while striking Ben Tennyson. You may not live to regret it. "
"Hai, Zabuza-sama! "
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