Chapter 9: Out of hand
He couldn't see. Not a single thing apart from the blurry outline of his own hand, kunai clenched tightly in his grip.
Protect Tazuna.
That was the only thing he needed to focus on.
If he failed here, then the old man would have no one left to defend him, the bridge would never be finished. The whole town's future depended on that...and yet, Naruto couldn't help but try to see beyond his pitiful field of vision. To try and catch a glimpse of the ice prison his best friends, his only friends, were trapped fighting against someone much more skilled than they'd thought. To see if Kakashi-sensei had managed to gain the upper hand on his fight with the brow-less freak. Anxiety filled him, he could totally understand why Sasuke had looked like he was a second away from abandoning their client to jump in and help.
Naruto had done the right thing.
As much as every single part of him wanted to go and fight side by side with his friends, he'd done the right thing. It stung, but Kagome-chan had been right when she stopped him. Not only was he much more efficient in protecting Tazuna with the aid of his clones, but if what the two jounin were talking about was true, then the blond was nowhere near fast enough to be able to help. Besides, there was no power in this world capable of keeping Sasuke standing still when Kagome was so clearly in danger.
He'd definitely done the right thing.
Now he only had to stop straining his eyes in vain attempts to look at what was happening on the other side of the bridge and concentrate in his clones.
If only it was that easy.
He was optimistic, not blind. Their teamwork was flawless; whenever those two teamed up against him not a word was uttered before they were already acting on a plan to take him down. They could think up a working strategy and move accordingly, he knew that. He'd never heard Kagome scream like that though; never seen their lazy teacher look genuinely worried (frantic even) as he did that first moment he tried to pass Zabuza.
The old man fidgeted behind him, right what he needed to do now, was focus on his duty. It was fine as long as he could still hear the sound of metal against metal, it meant everyone was still fighting. Was still alive.
A soft click echoed behind him.
A rush of wind swept over him as a blur he recognized as Kakashi-sensei dashed behind him, behind Tazuna.
"Too late."
The swing of Zabuza's sword cleared the fog around them, the bright red of his teacher's blood easy to pick up against the muted ground.
"Kakashi-sensei!"
"Stay back." The words were clear and calm, and Naruto didn't understand how the hell the man was capable of speaking like that.
His grip tightened around the kunai he uselessly held. He barely had any time to react, he would've never been able to move fast enough to block the sword. Gritting his teeth, the boy stepped back, a hand signal had one of his clones grabbing Tazuna to push him back. At the very least, he could give the albino some more room to move.
"You were slow in your guard, Kakashi," Zabuza mocked them. "Your desire to save those brats blinded you."
Weak, he was so weak, it happened back on the way to Wave as well. Always having to be protected...just when thought he was becoming stronger...
"I want to enjoy this, paying you back for what you did to me will give me so much pleasure."
Whatever Zabuza planned on saying next was drowned under the loud crack that blasted throughout the bridge.
His head moved on its own, blue eyes once again straining to try and see something, anything beyond the cursed fog.
That had to be the mirrors shattering, right?
It had to mean his friends had won, right?
Surely had the fake hunter won the ice wouldn't just break like that? His friends had to be alright...right?
Before he or any of his clones could move a bark, of all things, sounded in front of them. He blinked, just to make sure the slowly lifting fog wasn't playing tricks of him. And then he blinked again.
There, midway to where the ice cage was supposed to be stood Zabuza. Dogs, big and small, and growling were biting into him, completely stopping him. Forehead protectors sporting the village symbols were tied around their collars.
"Were you not the one who warned me not to look away from your enemy?" Kakashi-sensei was walking calmly, a long opened scroll in his hand. "Should I guess and say that's not the sound of your accomplice winning."
"Th...that's not..."
For someone who had dismissed his partner as nothing more than a tool, there was genuine worry in his disbelieving tone. Oh...he'd been lying hadn't he...Zabuza had probably lied...otherwise, why was he still fighting to move towards the ice?
There was no escaping the dogs though...
"You thought them incapable of dealing a decisive blow, but those two got used to the idea of death a long time ago. You underestimated them. It's too late for regrets now, no matter how you struggle, these hounds won't let go.
"So let's finish this once and for all, shall we?" There was something oddly unsettling about hearing the lazy, disorganized man talk like that. "Your fate was sealed from the moment you spilled my blood, these summons are used for tracking, that's why I went out of my way to bleed a little during our earlier encounters. Fog or no fog, there was no way my cute little ninja pups would miss you. And now you've lost all your tools, I can see your future...and your future is death.
"Chidori!"
Loud crackling filled his ears, the sound drowning everything else as bright blue light illuminated the bridge from his teacher's hand.
"You're a loose cannon," Kakashi-sensei said, almost like he was bored. "I'd ask you to give up, but I have a feeling it would be a waste of time. If you're willing to sink low enough to work for Gatou, then you've given up what it means to be a true shinobi."
"So you're not that foolish," Zabuza laughed, the bitter sound grated ear, there was both resignation and determination as he continued. "On my own or not, I won't stop, no matter what. This is what it means to be a shinobi."
It was almost impossible to see, the blur his teacher made, rushing toward Zabuza's restrained form. Lightning traced behind him, the loud sound of the attack filled the entirety of the construction site for all of a second before it died down.
The fog around them faded in an instant to show him the sight of Kakashi-sensei's hand going through their enemy's chest. Blood pooled beneath them.
Bile rose in his throat.
Puffs of smoke exploded around him, his control over chakra unstable enough for the technique to vanish.
He'd seen death before. There was the time in the road, of course, and also that instance with Kagome's failed kidnapping so long ago. Those had been different though, they'd been...clean...a single slice or small puncture wounds. Nothing like...like this...
This was also part of the job.
Not every death would be clean, he knew that already. A part of him, at least, was well aware of it and yet...
Naruto forced himself to swallow.
Risking a glance behind him revealed a green-tinted Tazuna, his eyes blown wide but unable to look away from the gory spectacle. It was only natural, he supposed, to be horrified by the extent of the violence. The old man was a civilian, civilians were supposed to be scared easily, to be weak. Shinobis were not. Someone aiming to become Hokage was not.
"Ungh..."
"Should we stop..."
"It's fine, I'm fine. Really."
The horror was lifted in a second, those voices, he knew the voices he could hear coming from the other side of the bridge. They were alive, oh thank the gods they were alive. He turned to face the voices, his former nausea vanishing at the sound of his childhood friends. They'd won and come back.
"Hey, guys..."
His voice trailed off, words dying on the tip of his tongue as his eyes finally made out the figures the remaining mist had been hiding.
His friends were walking toward them.
No, stumbling was probably a better word.
The truth of what had happened felt like ice in his veins.
He almost lost them.
They almost died while he stood by doing nothing.
Hell, he didn't have one scratch on him, but they...
Sasuke was limping, his fancy clothes sliced to ribbons, and his left arm was dangling uselessly by his side. All his energy seemed to be focused on walking and keeping his right arm wrapped around Kagome. Kagome, who was leaning so much on the Uchiha she was barely walking herself, whose pale skin looked sickly in the few patches he could see through her equally ragged clothes. Kagome, who was leaving a thin trail of crimson behind her as she tried and failed to move by herself.
Freezing cold seemed to suffocate him, a cold he only remembered feeling once before. Back when the news of the massacre was all anyone in the village could talk about, he'd felt all warmth leave him. The fear of losing the only people who'd ever cared for him had been the worst thing he'd felt in his short life. And yet, it was nothing like this. When he finally got permission to see them in the hospital, there had been no bandages, no limping, or sign that there was anything wrong with them. If he ignored the closed off expressions on their faces, it almost didn't feel real.
Now though...there was no denying what almost happened.
"What are you staring at, moron?"
Sasuke's insult sounded tired, weak, it was still enough to pull him off his grim thoughts. At last, he left the bridge builder's side, not really caring about the mission or his duty as he rushed to his friends' side.
"Thank the gods you're alright," Kagome smiled weakly.
"We-well," Naruto stammered. "I didn't have much to do, honestly."
"No shit."
"And Haku?" Naruto almost jumped, when had Kakashi-sensei made it all the way back? He carefully kept his eyes away from his bloodied arm.
"We dealt with him." For once, he could hear no arrogance in the Uchiha's voice.
"We managed...somehow."
"Oi...oi..."Tazuna trailed of whether it was for being out of breath after running after them or the amount of blood on the two Naruto wasn't sure. "Are you two..."
"We'll be fine, nothing to worry about, really." Somehow her voice sounded firm as she smiled again. "Though it would probably be wise to stop the bleeding soon."
"Ah, right. We should go back home quickly and..."
"Well, well, that's what I call false advertisement." A mocking voice laughed from across the bridge.
A short sticky man in an elegant suit stood at the front of a big group. Dozens of bandits and rogue samurai like the ones who attempted to kidnap Tsunami-san stood behind him. Naruto would never claim to be the brightest of his class, but he had the sinking feeling he knew who these people were.
Dread pooled in his stomach. His teammates were not about to keel over but he wasn't sure they could run, let alone fight. And while Kakashi-sensei was still standing, Naruto was well aware they couldn't count on that for much longer. Intentional or not, the man had gotten injured during the fight, plus the sharingan was zapping his chakra to this very second. The only one strong enough to fight was...
"Calling himself a demon but being taken out by a bunch like this. Oh well, it's not like I'll need to change my plans. In fact, this only makes things easier for me. I guess even a failure like him can be somewhat useful, getting rid of a bunch of kids can't be too difficult when half of you already look half-dead anyway."
"Gatou," Kakashi-sensei drawled, like they weren't all but cornered. "So you planned to kill him to save yourself some money."
"Hiring skilled shinobis is always so expensive." With every word, the mobster spoke Naruto could feel his dislike against the man growing. "But unlike the top village's ninjas, rogues have no one to come collect the debt once I get rid of them. So much more effective that way."
The short man trailed off for a moment before walking towards a slumped form on the floor Naruto had failed to notice before. The mask was gone and blood pooled underneath the teen, but it was still obvious who the boy had been, the fake hunter, Haku.
"That reminds me..." Gatou stopped right next to the body. "I still have a score to settle with you...you crushed my arm until you almost shattered the bones!"
The man's enraged scream turned into a pained shrill as three long needles pierced the leg he'd raised to kick the boy's corpse. Gatou fell to the ground, hands desperately trying to grasp his leg without injuring himself further, sunglasses falling off his face with his frantic movements.
Looking to his right he gaped.
Whatever calm had been on Kagome's face had vanished, the usual gentle blue of her eyes darkened and froze in a murderous glare directed at the rich bastard. Blood dripped from the arm she raised to throw the senbons.
"You dare to touch him?" He shivered as he heard her speak, disdain dripping from every syllable in a way he hadn't thought was possible. "Trash that can't even fight their own fights have no right to disrespect him, any of us."
"Kagome."
"He's still after our client, is he not?" The girl disregarded their teacher's warning with a wave of her hand. "He has to go either way."
"You bitch!"
The short man was standing again, bloodied needles held on his hand, and his dull beady eyes found Kagome. A dark look entered into the bastard's gaze that had his hair stand on end. Greed and something he couldn't recognize shone through his eyes.
"You think you can just do this to me and be done with it?! Who do you think I am?!
"Kill everyone but the girl!" He turned to look at her again. "I'll enjoy teaching you how to show respect to your betters. When I'm done with you, you'll wish you kept your mouth shut. Hmph, maybe I'll even make some money back with you after I get bored."
Something was rising inside of him. Not bile this time though, something different, something that boiled.
"Naruto," Kakashi-sensei called with clear urgency. "Listen to me, I'll keep them busy, but you have to take Tazuna out of here."
"What but you're..."
"You're the only one with enough chakra reserves." So he was the only one who could protect Tazuna-san if things went wrong.
Worriedly he gazed at his battered teammates.
"We'll catch up with you, it's alright," Kagome smiled once again.
"But..."
"Just go," Sasuke snapped. "Unless you plan on teleporting all three of us, you're just wasting time."
Run away...he was to run away...
Just how weak was he...
Become Hokage?
When the best he could do was constantly be protected...
Everyone had fought and suffered, and even now they still intended to keep on fighting. Their bodies broken, and tired and he was supposed to just go and let this fucking bastard hurt them while he hid?
How could he protect the whole village when he couldn't even keep his closest friends safe?
"Are you done saying farewell?" Gatou mocked them before calling to the group of ronin. "Get me the girl and get rid of the others. What are you waiting for!"
"Naruto, go."
Anger surged inside him. No, it wasn't just anger. A new emotion he hadn't felt before was rising to the surface. Hatred.
Hatred towards the situation, for the fucking bastard that thought he could do whatever the hell he wanted just because of his money. Hatred against his own weakness, against the weak men that agreed to follow the mobster's commands.
A crimson haze covered his world, rage fueling him as he advanced.
He wouldn't need to be protected yet again.
He was not weak.
He was not weak and this people...no, this useless waste of space wouldn't hurt his friends again.
Heat exploded around him as he rushed ahead, right into the group of ronins. A shrill sound coming from somewhere nearby as his hands slashed through something that barely gave any resistance.
If these were the ones who threatened the ones he loved then this time, this time he'd be the one to deal with them.
Village secrets were to be prioritized.
Kakashi's hand moved before the thought finished crossing his mind. His free arm moving to catch the suddenly unconscious body of their client even as countless curses swarmed his mind.
This was bad, way worse than it had been half an hour ago, and he had no real way to stop the bright red chakra that was starting to cover Naruto. He'd barely used any jutsus, and spent less time with the sharingan active this fight, but he knew his limits and they were close to being reached. No, even if he were to stop Naruto, there would still be the issue of the samurais in front of them. And the monster goading them into a fight.
He'd known asking the blond to stand guard was going to be a difficult thing for him, his temperament not one for waiting or running away while others fought. There had been no other choice though, not then, not now.
Fuck, the chakra coming out of the boy was most certainly not human.
Before he could place the client down, Naruto was already storming into the fray. Demonic energy swirling wildly around him as he tore into the ronin bare-handed, a cacophony of screams following his path.
"Wh...what is going on..." The soft, feminine whisper snapped him back to reality.
Kakashi barely resisted the urge to curse out loud. There was no protocol about how to reveal the secret to the younger generation, it wasn't supposed to come out. The seal wasn't supposed to fail.
No, it wasn't breaking yet.
He could feel the chakra leaking through but the amount was still way too small for the seal to have actually broken. The boy's panic and fear must've pushed him too far., the demonic energy was probably a response to that. Interesting but useless information in the current situation, of course.
"Just stay back."
"Stay back..." For the first time since being assigned to this team, Kakashi wished his students were less intelligent. As it was the Uchiha was glaring at him, silent accusations loud in his ears. "You know what the hell is going on."
"I do. Which is why I'm ordering you to stay back," he snapped back, his voice leaving no room for another word.
The sound of screams and bones breaking filled the air and he still wasn't sure what to do. He still had enough chakra to use the sharingan for some ten or fifteen minutes more, but even then, what was he supposed to do?
The seal wasn't broken so there was a good chance Naruto's consciousness was still exerting some control. Not that it helped the situation all that much since the jounin refused to delude himself into thinking his relationship with the kid was good enough to try and talk him out of it. And the ones who potentially could were in no state to brave a half-crazed jinchuuriki.
Slowly, the number of screams began to dwindle. The amount of living ronin diminishing enough to be noticeable. This was bad on so many levels.
A sudden surge of energy flared behind him.
Four senbons covered in bright pink energy pierced the ground around his teacher's growling son. Reiki, he realized afterward, spread over as they touched the ground, shining bright for a second before dying down. Behind him, Sasuke grunted from the spot on the floor he'd fallen onto when Kagome pushed him back. The girl herself was barely standing on her own, her breathing ragged and loud.
"Enough..." There was something soothing about her voice, like she was talking to a scared animal instead of a furious jinchuuriki. "That's enough, Naruto-kun."
Hazed crimson eyes blinked once as the boy turned to look at them. Kakashi cursed out loud, racing to put himself between his two students. What was the girl thinking? She wasn't supposed to be the one doing stupid, impulsive things and...
The red chakra surrounding the blond's body flickered for a moment before disappearing. Enraged crimson went back to a dull cerulean before Naruto stumbled and collapsed.
He felt his own legs wobble, threatening to fail him as relief flooded him.
"What the fuck was that?" Sasuke's voice was strained as he once again wound his arm around the girl, stubbornly decided to carry her as much as he could while injured himself.
Somehow, no one within the council considered this a possibility.
Meaning it was up to him to spin an explanation for it. Once he had enough time to put his thoughts in order to avoid lying to his own teammates. "It's confidential."
"Confidential? Confidential!" The Uchiha was screaming as well as he could while panting. "Naruto just lost his..."
"Sasuke." Kagome's tired voice stopped him. "We can talk later."
"This isn't..."
"I want answers, I really do, but I'd rather not pass out from blood loss. And I'm not sure how long I have until that."
"Kagome's right, our priority right now should be to rest and heal."
For once, he wasn't just taking advantage of the situation to delay the interrogation (he wouldn't complain about it being a side effect though), the girl looked ready to fall where she stood. What little energy she'd had left must've been used in that last attack. There was exhaustion evident in her form, but her eyes made it clear she wasn't going to just let this go. Suddenly the idea of being questioned about his sharingan didn't sound like such a bad thing.
Covering the sharingan once more, the jounin sighed and went to pick Naruto and Tazuna up, the Uchiha already making his making way back to their client's house at a slow pace.
Whoever said civilians couldn't unnerve a shinobi had never had to endure the gaze of a mother staring at them with a disappointed look on her face as she helped clean and bandage multiple wounds on his young subordinates.
Still, Kakashi pretended not to notice and kept dressing his own wounds.
He didn't need her glare to know it was a bad look for the teacher to return with minimal injuries while two out of his three students looked like they barely survived being passed through a blender. And that was without adding his third student having to be carried to the house unconscious along with the actual client.
All in all, his odds to receive some sympathy from the woman were pretty much null.
At least the ragtag band of people Inari managed to wrangle together had helped his injured genins get back to the house without needing to crawl their way there. The bloody mess on the bridge would be his to take the blame for, thankfully it took too much time to convince the townspeople to move.
"Are you sure you don't want the doctor to take a look at some of these?" Tsunami san asked the girl, wincing as she hurried to cover the newly open wound with a clean bandage.
"Oh, it's alright like this, I heard some of the people in the bridge were still alive. The doctor must be busy looking after so dire injuries, if someone were to die because we went for something this mild then..." the girl trailed off and the older woman gasped in horror at the implication. "Besides, I'll have my chakra reserves up in a couple of days and then I can heal the worst one myself. As long as I don't reopen them it should be fine, I can treat Sasuke as well."
"If that's the way you see it then..."
"Ugh..."
A disgruntled groan came from the futon placed on the edge of the room. The blond seemed to be waking up, groggily moving around in an attempt to regain his bearings. Kakashi glanced around the room quickly. This could become tricky really fast, the blond was disoriented and there was a civilian in the room, as it was the only one who seemed happy to wait until they were out of Wave for answers was Kagome.
"Urgh, where..."Naruto paled as he trailed off, probably the memories of the bridge were returning.
"Naruto-kun, how do you feel? Can you sit?" the girl interjected quickly, worry lacing her words.
"I...yeah, but how did I...?" The blond didn't even struggle as he sat.
"I took out the rest of the ronin and the townspeople helped carry you all back here."
A simple lie, one that none of his genins would ever buy, but one that would be enough to both keep the village secret safe and get rid of the fall out that would follow the blond. He had enough with the villagers bullying him to add another batch of people that would look at him in fear and distaste.
"Right," Sasuke scoffed.
"But..."
"Thank you so much for the help, Tsunami-san," Kagome smiled, innocent and pure. "I can take it from here."
"Huh, you need to bandage more wounds though?"
"They're not so bad anymore, and you should take some time to rest. Today was a tiring day for you as well, running around to help the doctor and then us. Please don't worry, I know my limits." Ah, Kakashi could see why the girl had managed to defuse so many fights despite having to do damage control for her two rude teammates.
The older woman shot her an uncertain look before sighing and standing up. Uchiha Mikoto clearly taught the girl all she could about emotional and political manipulation before her untimely demise. Kagome would certainly do well dancing circles around the council once she decided to claim her place as the head of her clan.
"Don't speak of shinobi matters in front of civilians, idiot."
"But why are you..."
"We'll talk once we're out of the city." Kakashi cut him off. He'd have to be careful with how he delivered the information, at least none of them was likely to just go and spread rumors. Well, it could always be worse, he didn't have to handle the council. "That's an order."
A gloomy atmosphere descended in the room, the awkward silence so loud that Kakashi almost wished Tsunami-san was back in the room shooting him disappointed looks.
"Ouch," the girl winced as she tried to pull a long, and bloodied senbon from her right arm.
Unsurprisingly, the Uchiha's attention snapped to her, coming to her side in an instant. "Here, let me."
"Ah, thanks. It's not that bad, really, just annoying."
"Is it now?" Kakashi turned, almost gaping at the bitterness the boy was directing at Kagome.
"Sasuke," Her voice was less soothing and more cutting. "I knew what I was doing."
"Did you? Was that why you thought it was a good idea to get sliced just to act as bait?"
"Wait, Kagome-chan did what?"
At once whatever self-deprecating thoughts the blond seemed to have been harboring were pushed away. His full attention focused on the bruised girl in the center of the room. Funny, how Kagome hadn't complained out loud while Tsunami helped her take out some senbons that were lodged in more painful locations. Not even once.
"It was ok."
"You stepped right into the paths of his attacks," Sasuke snarled back at her.
"Because he wasn't aiming to kill."
That seemed to take all the pre-thought accusations out of the boy as he just gave a disbelieving "what?"
"He wasn't aiming to kill, he never did." Her voice didn't waver, but it wasn't as steady as it had been a second ago. "If that one had hit right over here," Her finger pointed to a spot two cm to the right of the needle the Uchiha had just discarded. "it would've torn through my muscle tissue and destroyed a tendon. Chances are I would've never fully recovered full mobility.
"Haku was skilled enough, he could've made the hit had he wanted. But he didn't...that's why he aimed so little at our necks. Missing and hitting a vital point would've been easy with how much we were moving. From the very beginning, he was only intending to knock us out. Otherwise, he'd have killed me with that first attack." She shook her head, a bitter laugh echoing throughout the room. "If I had to guess he probably did this all the time, knocking out anyone but the mark. Trying to spare as many lives as he could while doing the job. Saving as many people as he could...he really was kind...not suited for this job at all."
Kakashi was missing a part of the story here, something apart from the words they exchanged while they fought. Something important enough that the girl who didn't blink twice after her first kill now grew somber talking to an enemy she didn't kill.
"Had we been his actual marks we'd have probably died on the way here. After all, he could've just as easily targeted us as he did Zabuza." Carefully, the girl lied down on the futon, eyes closed by the time her head hit the pillow. "Now then, I'll probably sleep a while...a long while."
The Uchiha stared at her in the silence that followed her analysis, before giving in and lying right next to her. Whatever image they'd tried to keep by keeping to their own bedding forgotten in the aftermath of the death-defying experience they just survived.
Kakashi sighed, that was another can of worms he had no desire to touch just yet...or ever...
"Naruto, go look for Tazuna and stick to him," he said, the boy wasn't likely to benefit from being left alone with his thoughts for long right now. "We can talk later but unlikely as it is for him to still be targeted, someone should keep an eye on him until the bridge is done."
The blond opened his mouth as if to argue, only to close it, a sullen look on his face as he made his way to the door.
Letting himself follow his students' example the elite jounin fell to his futon. Exhaustion weighed heavily on his limbs, the price for using a technique his body wasn't designed to sustain finally appearing.
How could things have derailed this much?
This was only supposed to be a C-ranked mission, dealing with regular bandits lurking in the road that could easily be defeated with taijutsu should've been all the excitement they could get. He wouldn't be surprised if this didn't go above an upper B-rank. Now he had to deal with the fact that all his genins somehow managed to get their first kill in the same mission. They weren't supposed to be ready for that yet.
Kakashi wasn't ready to deal with that yet.
And let's not forget the issue with the Kyuubi chakra getting out of control during the veritable massacre in the bridge.
He was sure the only way he'd get back to the village without being interrogated would be to knock the three out and carry them to the village. For some reason, he figured it wouldn't look all that good.
Tazuna looked at the dozen of blonds moving around to help tidy up the bridge, the finished bridge. There had been a hefty price to pay. Even if the group of people his grandson had managed to convince to fight bach (and hadn't that be a surprise to hear) had managed to find and save a fair number of the injured people near the bridge, there had still been losses.
The old builder wondered if it was that that weighed in the short blond's mind or if it was the fact that even now his friends sat in his home, covered in wounds while he strolled around without a scratch.
It would only be natural to feel like that. The girl slept most of the day, and the other just stayed in the room, reading those scrolls of theirs while she slept. It was disconcerting to see them so motionless after getting used to them always being moving somewhere. As far as he could tell after stress and age had finally demanded their payment and he passed out, Naruto had been (once again) been tasked with guarding him. How nervewracking had it been for the boy to stand still as his heavily injured teammates moved to fight once again? Did it even matter that this time Kakashi was well enough to deal with the rogue samurai?
Guilt was a hard thing to get over, Tazuna would know, no doubt the reason why even as Naruto kept helping with the bridge there was a shadow lingering behind his silly smiles.
It wasn't fair.
They were all just children, they shouldn't know what this feels like and yet they did.
"So you're sure about this," his daughter smiled beside him, an amused smile on her face.
"He deserves it."
Oh, that he did. The boy may have been unable to help his team all that much during the fight but the loud and obnoxious blond had managed something else. And it was just as important and almost as difficult as facing Gatou's lackeys.
He'd given his small city it's soul back.
Somehow, the boy had managed to convince Inari to stop hiding, to stand up and fight for what is right. And his grandson, in turn, persuaded the rest of the people that it was time to stand their ground.
That was what mattered here.
Tazuna could've built a dozen more bridges but he wasn't an idiot. None of that would've mattered one bit if no one stood up, if they kept on cowering in fear. The bridge was supposed to be a symbol to rally around, but with things as they were, even an optimist like himself had begun to doubt it would be possible, regardless of the condition of the bridge.
Now, however, there was hope in the eyes of the people around him, and he just knew they would get back on their feet. If doing a silly little thing would help the blond realize that, then he was happy to do so.
And he wasn't even considering the fact that he'd saved his daughter's life. With all the alarm and worry about the threat before their eyes, no one considered his family could also be in danger. There was nothing low enough that Gatou wouldn't sink to, Tazuna thought he understood that fact but his blood had frozen when Tsunami explained what had happened in his own house.
He shivered to think what would have happened had they showed up at the bridge, his daughter tied up and held hostage. Would he have been able to keep his resolve firm? Would he have trusted his bodyguards to save her?
"Well, it is a nice bridge."
The white-haired teacher had made his way to the bridge, his students walking slowly behind him. Right, the bridge was over and now they had to leave, he'd offered his house for another week, so their injuries could heal but they'd all refused it.
Stubbornness, he was coming to realize, was the one thing all ninja seemed to have in common. "That it is."
"Are you sure you don't want to stay a couple more days?" Tsunami asked, behind her Inari was pouting.
"It's really nice of you, but we have to go back home." The girl smiled one of her polite smiles and glanced at her bandaged arms "These are mostly scratches, they won't even slow us down."
Tazuna shook his head, the less he thought about how many injuries these kids probably sustained while training the best. "Oi you runt! Get back here!"
"Who are you calling runt you..." puffs of smoke covered the bridge for a second as the original Naruto came closer. "Oh, you guys ready?"
"Yep, so say your farewells and grab your pack..."
"Not so fast, Kakashi-sensei," Tazuna smiled. "There's one thing you still need to do here."
"Huh?"
For once Tazuna finally took them for surprise, he laughed as the few workers that remained took the last equipment and made way. His cute little grandson continued to scowl as he grabbed the blond by the hand and pulled him to the center of the gates. Tsunami gently pushed the remaining ninja to join their teammate, a camera in her hand.
Grinning he took the old builder took his own place in the center as his daughter passed the camera to one of the workers and walked towards them.
"And now," he exclaimed, well-deserved pride in every word. "The great Naruto Bridge is officially inaugurated!"
Later he'd laugh at the looks of shock all ninja wore in the copy of the photo they'd retained. An undeniable proof of the loud days they spent together as they braved the threat in their doorstep.
Brave and unyielding the little group of children he got stuck with, but he wouldn't change a thing. Just like his bridge still had long days ahead that shone with the promise of better tomorrows so did these kids.
Moving hurt.
Even after a week some of her injuries had yet to fully heal. Her chakra had recovered after four days but apparently, reiki replenished at a different pace. And obviously, all the jutsus she knew that would allow her to heal both Sasuke and herself worked with reiki. Meaning the two of them still relied on bandages for the less serious injuries she hadn't prioritized.
Still, she refused to complain, this was the result of their fight, one they won. The one they'd chosen to take on their own. They'd survived and the last thing she was about to do was whine about scratches when she was practically carrying nothing on her bag. Less than an hour into their walk back, Sasuke had taken half of her load with the excuse that she was not only still injured, but also constantly using her reiki to heal them both, and thus was far more tired than him. After that Naruto had all but stolen half of Sasuke's doubled pack which lead to the Uchiha taking more of her stuff to carry himself.
Had she concentrated on healing Sasuke's injuries first, at least one of them would be able to walk without pain, but the boy was adamant that she'd received more (and considerably worse) wounds and outright refused to be treated if she persisted with her original idea. So, in the end, she'd healed the worst injuries first and left dozens of light cuts untreated in both of them. Checking more of her family's scrolls would probably be a good idea, she hadn't tried to actually learn any new jutsus for years now.
A light nudge to her right brought her gaze to familiar onyx eyes. Sasuke raised a brow, a look she'd seen many times before. Closing her eyes for a minute she held his hand, trusting him to guide her as she concentrated.
Back in Wave, there was no place Kakashi-sensei would accept as private enough to talk about what was clearly a village secret. Of course, once they were back in Konoha would only give the man more reason to avoid the issue and far more chances to do so as well. Keeping quiet had been annoying but now, two days into their way back, they were far enough from any town so they could happily threaten to boycott their return until the got the answers they wanted. Once she confirmed there was no one around.
A silent nod was all the boy needed to turn around and stop walking, scowl in place as he faced the rest of their team. She stopped with him.
Forcing Naruto to talk wasn't something she wanted to do, but things had very nearly gotten out of their hands in the bridge, it was just too important for them to know.
"We're in the middle of nowhere, and there's no one close enough to overhear us." Sasuke's voice was borderline rude still, the girl kept quiet. "So now I want to know what the hell happened in the bridge."
It was more of an order than a question, but for once Kakashi-sensei didn't seem to get annoyed about the Uchiha's blatant disrespect. If anything, Kagome would say he was expecting it.
"What do you know about the Kyuubi?" And wasn't that an ominous way to start the conversation.
"It almost destroyed the village twelve years ago and was destroyed by the Fourth Hokage..."Kagome trailed off at the odd expression in the blond's face.
"Not...destroyed...exactly," Naruto mumbled.
"What do you mean not destroyed? That's literally what was taught in our history lessons."
"Ah well..." the blonde seemed to falter at the Uchiha's slowly rising temper. "it's more like, umm...he sea..."
"It's true that Yondaime faced and fought the Kyuubi," Kakashi interrupted. "But the amount of chakra it had was far too much, human attacks were never going to be enough to destroy it. So instead, he did the one thing he could to save the village.
"He sealed the Kyuubi with a forbidden technique. Inanimate objects wouldn't be strong enough to withstand the level of power without breaking, there was only one place he could seal it...and that was inside a human being."
"But the human body would also..." Her mind whirled with protests even as a dread settled in her stomach.
"Not if it was a newborn baby," Kakashi-sensei cut her off. "A newborn would be able to adapt to the extra chakra without any fatal repercussions."
"And, of course, information of just who was the one used to make the seal would be considered classified information," Sasuke finished for the man.
She didn't need to look at their teacher to have the confirmation she needed. Without a second thought, she ran, arms wrapping around the unusually quiet Naruto with as much strength as she dared to.
Oh gods, it made sense, it all made so much sense. And yet...Naruto wasn't the fox.
He'd never been and would never be the demonic fox that almost destroyed the village. No, if anything the blond was the jailor here. A jailor that wasn't asked if he was willing to suffer all this. A sacrifice for the people's well being...and he was hated for it.
"You're not...scared...?" Her heart broke a little at the fear in those three words, silently she tightened her embrace.
"Scared?" Sasuke scoffed. "Do you have any idea of how many times I've seen you make a fool of yourself on my training grounds?
"You are you, That hasn't changed at all."
She could feel the blond's arms shakily rising to return her embrace, a watery laugh echoing through the road. She couldn't even begin to imagine how much this weighed on him, despite the fact that it wasn't his fault. He was being used and no one cared.
With her eyes closed, she could feel the mood of the group lifting even as her own darkened.
A/N: And that's the end of Wave, from here on changes are going to be more noticeable. Having these secrets revealed are going to have repercussions, plus the mental stress from enduring something that quite honestly, was quite traumatic.
I wanted to be careful about how much it cost Kagome and Sasuke to win against Haku. They are still genin and never really been in a real fight, sure the kekkei genkais gave them an advantage but while more skilled than in canon they still have no experience. The element of surprise also played a big role here, had they known what they were up against beforehand they would've probably faired better. The three of them are above average but they still have lots of room to grow
Again, thanks for reading and any review/constructive criticism is greatly appreciated!