Inari
Gato's men had taken Inari and his 'friends' to a large cabin in the middle of the woods, where they were often playing poker, and drinking.
The silver-haired man shoved Akane, Inari, and his two friends into a small closet with a window. "Get in there!"
"You'll never have our village!" shouted Inari at him, and the other man who had scars all over his body.
The man glared at him, scowling, and grabbed a dagger. He then shoved it into the wall, right next to Inari's head. "If you don't shut up, I'm going to cut out your tongue..."
Inari didn't flinch and sat there with a face stern. "Hmph," scoffed the man, as he and his partner walked out of the closet, closed the door, and locked it.
Akane and his two best friends started to sniffle in the darkroom, before bawling their eyes out, snot dripping out of their noses. Inari just sighed and stood up, and put the dagger between his arms and cut the rope holding his hands together.
"Huh?" the boys looked at Inari to see what he was doing.
"Crying, you know, won't get you anywhere... Brother Naruto taught me that..." Inari looked at them, almost sympathetically, understanding what it felt like, being hopeless and having no courage.
"How can you have so much bravery, Inari?"
Inari looked at him and pulled the knife out of the wall. "My tou-san was brave... Naruto-onii-san was brave and saved the village from Gato... I want to be like them..." Inari then continued to kneel by them and cut the ropes around their hands. "Let's go."
Inari and Akane opened the windows and ran out as fast as they could. Unfortunately, the men had put windchimes on the windows in case they tried to escape. "Run!"
"Men, find them!"
They ran into the woods, for about five minutes before the trio of bullies had stopped for breath. Inari looked back, to find no one behind him, before running back towards him. "We can't stay here!"
The three began to wipe their tears again as they once again, started to sob. "I don't wanna die!"
"I want to see my Kaa-san!"
Inari bit his lip slightly and told them to quiet down. Men rushed by their hiding place in the tall grass by a tree. He waited until they sprinted a little farther before whispering; "Go. I'll distract them."
Akane looked at him, wiping his face nose on his arm. "Why are you doing this, all we've ever done is be bullies to you..."
Inari looked at him. "Because I want to be a hero like my tou-san..."
They looked at him, before rushing off. Inari, watched for a minute, before dashing off towards the men and then heading off a little farther in another direction, panting and wheezing from running.
Suddenly, men rushed past him. Inari took a huge breath, before yelling as loud as he could. "Hey, over here you creep!"
The men rushed towards him drawing their katanas and slashing as Inari ran from them.
^.^
Inari was at the edge of a cliff, below him a roaring river, and sharp rocks sticking out of the water in some places. "Hey, kid..." spoke the silver-haired man. "You might as well give up! You got nowhere to go, just let me slash you..." He drew closer to Inari, an almost psychotic smile on his face, bloodthirsty. "You know... I was going to give you a quick death... but after all the work you made me go through... I'm gonna torture you!" He laughed madly and dashed at him, the rest of Gato's men following.
Inari slowly turned and faced the river, before taking a deep breath and jumping off the ledge, holding his breath, praying he'd live. plunging into the water, Inari began to be dragged with the current as re resurfaced. Gasping for air, Inari tried to swim, or even latch on to something.
The men from above began to leave to rush down.
"Inari!" Inari's eyes widened, as he was dunked under the water once more. He couldn't hear anything underwater. He resurfaced again, Naruto was standing on the end of the shore, telling Inari to come to him.
Inari coughed up some water but continued to try to swim. His luck was, that he wasn't being pulled, because of his efforts by the current, but he wasn't getting anywhere either, and if he kept up like this, he'd lose energy, and eventually be swept away. "Naruto-Nii-san, help!"
Naruto responded by ditching his shirt and creating clones to help pull Inari out of the water and jumped in, clones catching his ankles, creating a human-clone chain. "I got you, Inari..." shouted Naruto over the raging water, grasping onto Inari's wrists.
The clones holding onto the human chain began to slide, being dragged by the water's currents. Sasuke came and helped Naruto's clones to stay steady. "Naruto, why didn't you do this the easier way!"
Naruto's eyes widened and mentally facepalmed himself. Dispersing his clones, he and Inari began to be swept up in the current, Naruto holding on to him. "Inari!" gasped the villagers, trying to get them.
Sasuke stepped in front of them, blocking their way. "He's fine. Naruto has him. I may not like him that much but... I believe in him, he's fully capable." Sasuke mentally scowled, releasing the tiniest bit of Rokai's killing intent, making the some of the villagers faint, while others peed their pants.
Naruto looked at Inari, before he activated his rinnegan, and used an antigravity justu to float them up out of the water, and flying them safely, to shore. He sent Inari on the ground, who coughed up a little water, shivering. Naruto gave him his shirt and jacket to warm up with. The villagers just stared. "Thank you Naruto-san!"
Naruto shook his head. "Don't thank me yet," he responded, pointing behind them. The villagers who were still conscious turned around, and looked at the group of men, and glared. "You won't ever get this village!"
"Try and stop us!" Naruto and Sasuke just sighed and jumped up on the logs that were strapped down in piles. The area was used for a lumber mill- but outdoors, so there was plenty of it. Naruto flicked his hand, and all the traps came undone, and Sasuke pushed one off, causing them to roll down, onto the pursuers.
The villagers battled the few who remained standing. Afterward, every single one of the group that Gato hired, was tied up, weapons taken from them. "Thank you so much, Naruto-Nii-san for saving me!" shouted Inari, hugging him. Naruto laughed.
"Oh! I have something to give you!" Inari searched his pockets, but nothing was in there. "Oh no... I lost your coupon!"
Naruto frowned, then laughed at him. "It's okay, I found it, and that's partly the reason we found you! Apart from your friends there, who came to us, and told us what happened, before they went to get your townsmen." Naruto fished his pockets, to pull out the tiny piece of paper, but his eye's widened when he realized that he too, lost it. "No! My limited edition coupon from old man Teuchi! That was a birthday present..."
Sasuke looked at him. "Hn. Baka, you probably lost it when you jumped into the river instead of using ur rinnegan!"
Naruto sighed and scratched the back of his head. "Oh well."
Suddenly, the ledge that Inari jumped from collapsed. Everyone stared it, startled.
"What now!" shouted Naruto.
"Dobe. You still have your rinnegan activated," retorted Sasuke.
Naruto deactivated them and laughed nervously. "Oops... Heheheh..."
"Hn. We need to get going. We've been here for over a day."
"Oh, I'd quite agree, we've been looking for you two half the time! Bakas!"
Naruto and Sasuke flinched.
"Alright, let's get going you two," spoke Kakashi.
"Hai!"
The villagers began to wave, as they rushed past. "Bye! Thanks again!"
"Bye Naruto-Nii-san!"