He Whom Saved The World

By I.K.A. Valian

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.

Chapter: You Fell Off the Yellow Brick Road

The Hokage looked up from the letter he was writing just as several people walked into his office. He could hear them long before they arrived at his door. He had gained these auditory skill decades before and it had served him well off the battlefield as well as it had on it. Generally, he didn't like it when his own ninja were loud enough to be heard over two minutes before they arrived at his office door. But since this was Genin Team Seven, that concern might as well have been about how blue the sky was or how bright the sun could get.

After all, Uzumaki Naruto wasn't known for being quiet. Or stealthy for that matter. The only known times that didn't prove true was when a prank of epic proportions was being set up.

"-ay this could be that stupid cat mission. These D-Rank missions are stupid. I bet it's another C-Rank! Besides, why would the Old Man want to meet us up here instead of in the Mission's Office downstairs if this was just another lame mission?"

"You are correct, Naruto," the old Hokage said. His gravelly voice drew the attention of Team Seven as they lined up in front of his desk. Though the tone of his voice was grave, a tone he'd grown into in his old age, he offset this with a gentle smile that he'd learned not too long after his grandson, Konohamaru was born. "It is a C-rank."

"Hah, told ya!" Naruto crowed at Sakura who huffed and stuck her tongue at Naruto. The blond boy responded by grinning broadly, which only seemed to incense the Haruno girl further. Fortunately, she was more mature than she was letting on because she didn't act on her obvious impulse to smash her fist into Naruto's head.

"Hokage-sama," Kakashi, the tall, silver-haired man standing behind the three genin quietly planted his hands on Sakura and Naruto's heads, causing the two kids to freeze. With only one eye visible, because his left eye was covered by his Leaf Forehead protector slanted sideways, the man sent an apologetic look at the Hokage. "Please forgive my foolish students. Also, my insolence. We only returned from Wave last week. I don't think my team is prepared mentally for anything but D-Rank missions at this time."

It was at this declaration that the third Genin of Team Seven sent a withering glare at the leader of the team. Kakashi closed his sole visible eye, where upon his eyelid curved upward like a smile, as he moved his hand from the golden blond locks of Naruto to ruffle the midnight black mane of Uchiha Sasuke. The move effectively diffused whatever cool, confident, threatening look the boy was attempting to send the leader of his team.

The Hokage remained silent as he stared at the team in front of him. He was silent for so long that Naruto began to fidget. "Correct me if I'm wrong," the Hokage said, suddenly breaking the silence and causing Naruto and Sakura to jump slightly. Inwardly smiling, the Hokage continued. "I believe your report said that after defeating Zabuza of the Mist and his apprentice, you spent two and a half weeks basically resting while the Great Naruto Bridge was completed."

"They named the bridge after m-" Naruto's outburst was silenced by a Kakashi's hand falling onto his head again.

"That would be mostly correct, Hokage-sama," Kakashi said, "however, it would be disingenuous to say we only rested. The genin here maintained a patrol and set up a perimeter every day."

"I see," the Hokage said, though it was clear from the look that he was giving Kakashi that he wasn't buying the eye smiling man's explanation.

"I can't believe they named the bridge after me," Naruto muttered, a look of awe on his face as he seemed to be studying the floor. "That's so totally awesome!"

"Why would they name the bridge after Naruto?" Sakura wondered aloud. "Sasuke and Kakashi-sensei did all the work. And Zabuza was the one who actually killed Gato. Then the Villagers ran off the bandits that Gato had hired. Naruto didn't really do anything but nearly get Sasuke killed."

"Hn," Sasuke agreed, eying the blond as he visibly grew more agitated.

"I did too do stuff!" Naruto shouted.

"As you can see, Hokage sama," Kakashi said, "they are not ready for another mission of that caliber quite yet."

"Then it is fortunate that I'm only sending you on a C-Rank instead of a mislabeled mission such as Wave," the Hokage said. Naruto and Sasuke glared at each other, but even then, they didn't seem to be too standoffish because they both knew that they'd be getting another 'real' mission. Sakura, unlike her teammates, did not seem to be that excited, but after a single glance at Sasuke, it was clear she wasn't going to voice any opposition.

Kakashi sighed when he realized he wasn't going to get his way on this. He'd been hoping to keep the team in the village for the next three weeks until the beginning of the Chunin Exams. But it would appear he might not be able to enter them this time after all. With an internal shrug, Kakashi set his desire to enter his team aside. There was another exam six months from now, so he wasn't too put out about it.

"The reason I've asked you to come to my office instead of giving you the mission downstairs," the Hokage said, gaining everyone's attention, "is because the information is for your team only. There was an explosion in the middle of the forest on the coast of the Land of Fire four days ago."

"How large?" Kakashi asked, his voice tight and his back straighter than it had be moments before.

"Massive," the Hokage said. He noticed how the genin were beginning to sweat a little. Well, Sakura was beginning to sweat. Sasuke looked, if possible, pleased about the level of danger like a predator preparing to hunt. Naruto was shaking where he stood, but it was clearly from excitement because the boy's blue eyes were shining brightly. "Witnesses from a village five miles away reported seeing a ball of light that lit up the night sky like the sun for a full minute. And then they were all knocked to the ground by a shockwave of some sort. I already had an ANBU team investigate, but there was no sign of anyone having been in the area or proof that there was a secret base. Your mission is to go to ground zero and investigate from there to the surrounding villages for any information. The ANBU team from the initial investigation will meet you there and direct you further. You are not being sent out to fight anyone, just gather information. Do you understand your orders?"

"Yes, Hokage-sama," Sakura stated with a soft bow.

Sasuke gave a sharp nod.

"You bet, Old Man," Naruto said with a grin and thumbs up. "You can count of me to find out whoever is behind this."

The Hokage smiled. "Be sure not to get into any trouble this time, Naruto. This is just an investigative mission with very little danger. But the area is known for its bandit and pirate activity, so all of you keep your guards up."

"You got it!" Naruto shouted.

"Meet at the south gate in fifteen minutes," Kakashi said. "Pack for two weeks."

"Yes, Sensei," chorused the three Genin.

The journey to the coastline of the Land of Fire took all of two days. It was much faster than the week long trip to Wave, which was farther away as well as the fact that they had to walk at a slow, civilian pace instead of tree hoping at speeds much faster. There were a few mis-steps as the Genin learned to apply their Tree-Walking skills to running across tree branches without ever setting foot on the ground, but before long all three were jumping from branch to branch while dodging and weaving through even more branches. It was little wonder why others not from the Land of Fire called Konoha Shinobi 'Tree Huggers'. Of course, there were the few odd ones in the village who literally hugged trees, but they were quite few in number, very well hidden, and not spoken of in polite society.

Team Seven knew they had arrived on the scene when the forest suddenly stopped. Sakura caught herself on the last branch, sticking to it without much trouble, much as Kakashi and Sasuke. Naruto, unfortunately, wasn't fast enough to stick himself on the last branch.

With a terrified shout, "Aaahh!" Naruto flew screaming into the open air. His screams died when he landed in the branches of one of the downed trees. It took a few seconds for Naruto to pull his composure back together, and when he did, he took in his surroundings. The ground wasn't far below him, which was odd since he was sitting in what he could tell was the upper portion of a tree.

"Oh I see," the blond said as he continued to study the area, "the trees fell over from the explosion."

Naruto grunted as he heaved himself to his feet on the thin branch and began to climb out of the nest he'd created upon his landing. When he was finally clear of the branches, Naruto saw that a group of three masked ninja, ANBU, were standing on the edge of the flattened forest next to his team. Taking his time, Naruto made his way back to his team just in time to hear the ANBU finish what they were saying.

"-an higher levels of moisture in the air, there are no signs of what could have caused the explosion or the shock waves."

"Very well," Kakashi said. He tossed a scroll to one of the ANBU, a man wearing a bear mask, and said, "We'll handle the follow up. Here's your next set of orders."

The ANBU nodded and left so fast that Naruto had to wonder if they'd been there in the first place. He hoped he could be that fast some day. Or faster. Definitely faster.

"Alright team," Kakashi said, gaining everyone's attention. "Since nothing was found at the epicenter of the explosion, I believe we should head to the nearest village and start asking around for anything that could explain what happened."

"On it!" Naruto shouted before anyone could say anything. And then he was running back into the forest. It took a full five minutes before the blond reappeared, a sheepish grin on his face. "Uh… where is the village again?"

"You shouldn't run off before you know where you're going, Naruto," Kakashi chided. "Try to remember that in the future."

"Idiot," Sasuke added.

"What'd you call me, Bastard?!"

"Don't call Sasuke a bastard, you idiot!"

Kakashi slumped a little and started to walk away at a sedate pace. And here he was hoping that after what they'd experienced on the Wave Mission, they'd be a more cohesive group. But it seems like all that bonding work had gone out the window as soon as they'd returned to Konoha. Maybe it was a good idea to wait another six months to enter them in the Chunin Exams after all.

"The explosion was huge!" said the slightly overweight sailor. "And it was-" His arms, which he used to illustrate the size of the explosion, were thick with corded muscles, and his back looked like it could break a tree in half if the tree were used as a weapon. "And then it was like a sucker punch, only over my whole body-" The old sailor's impressive physique stopped there, because his legs were almost skinnier than Sakura and he had a beer gut to rival his massive arms. She was instantly glad she'd chosen to be a kunoichi instead of anything else she could have chosen to become. And the way he was leering at her as he talked sent shivers up her spine. So focused was she on the man's grotesque mixture of body types and the looks he was giving her that she missed most of what he said about the explosion.

"T-thanks for the information," she said as politely as she could. Then she started walking as fast as she could without trying to seem rude. The faster she was away from that guy, the better she felt. She never noticed a second man walk out of the shadows of the building she had been standing next to and smack the man she had been talking to upside the head.

"And the explosion destroyed some of our ships near the coast at the time, out for a night time fishing," explained the waitress as the young blond ninja in front of her at the bar ate up the fish stew she'd just produced for him.

"Uh-huh," Naruto grunted in between bites to assure the woman he was still listening instead of wishing this was ramen and not just stew.

"A couple of people died, but the ones that survived said that it was like one of you ninja had shown up and used one of your fire jutsu things, only it was bigger than the mountains and brighter than the noon sun."

Naruto slurped down the last of the broth, startling the waitress with how fast he'd eaten and practically cleaned the bowl of the thick stew that was in it just under a minute ago. When he put the bowl down, Naruto let out a content sigh. Then he turned to the waitress and said, "Thank you for the meal and the information. But I already know about the explosion. Was there anything else strange that happened?"

"Well," the waitress bit her lip and pushed her shoulder length brown hair behind one ear. "There were the lights coming from the old island ruins. But no one goes there except for the old sailors down by the bay."

Naruto frowned, but in his gut, knew that he'd caught onto something. "Lights? What kind of lights?"

"You know," the lady said as she collected Naruto's bowl and began to quickly retreat into the small food bar's kitchen. "Lights. Like what you ninja throw at each other when you're flying through the sky and stuff."

Naruto frowned. Ninja didn't fly and shoot lights at each other. At least, if they did, he would have heard about it by now. Not to mention, he'd have flying down flat. Faster than Sasuke anyway. And then Sakura would be gushing over how cool he was for a change.

Naruto dropped a few Ryu onto the counter to pay for the meal and took off for the meeting spot by the docks. He didn't notice the small glare that came from the waitress as she snatched up the money and shoved it into her pocket. She pulled her hand out of her pocket and glared further at the small bottle with a skull and cross bones printed on it.

With a frustrated grunt, the waitress tossed the bottle into the trash.

Sasuke stood at the end of the long row of docks built up on the bay. The village was rather small, but had the advantage of a rocky barrier just off shore. Perhaps it was a former island destroyed by massive storms in the past, but all that remained were a line of rocks. This let the village build up a long series of docks that served the fishing village well.

The Uchiha also had little doubt that a small, out of the way, village such as this was a port for illegal trade and pirates. After all, why would a fishing village this small need docks that could handle large, commercial transport ships? Not to mention, the Hokage did warn them about bandits and pirates in the area. The image of a small fishing village was quite obviously not the true face of this place.

Not that it mattered to Sasuke. What mattered was getting the information his team needed so they could return to Konoha sooner rather than later. Plus, he didn't like the shady look of this run down area. The wood that composed the docks looked strong enough, but the buildings appeared not to have been maintained well for at least fifty years. Not to mention, he had noticed several shady people slinking in the shadows of these old buildings. They moved clumsily, as if they thought a trained ninja of the Uchiha Clan would fail to notice them if they didn't go into the light.

Still, he was confident he was more than a match for any of them. It was why he was still on the docks now, waiting and watching. It was perhaps not wise to follow his gut, since his instincts weren't always correct, but sometimes his hunches worked out. And his hunch right now was telling him that if he stood here and waited, something good would happen.

He didn't need to wait long. The sun was slowly diving beneath the horizon when it happened. Those idiots hiding in the shadows made their move.

"Got ya!" Two arms attempted to grab Sasuke from behind, but all they got for their trouble was a log and a face full of smoke. "Wh-wh-what the hell is going on?"

"Shit, the kid's disappeared!" shouted the burly man's partner. Clearly, the two men that had tried to kidnap Sasuke were bandits. From his new position on top of the roof of one of the buildings, he could see the crappy swords they carried around like it made them some kind of badass. A disdainful sneer crossed his lips as he watched and waited.

"Damn it, those ninja are sticking their noses where they don't belong," said the man who'd tried to grab Sasuke. "The boss ain't going to be happy about this. He wanted one of them to interrogate before the shipment comes in tonight."

"Whatever, let's go see if any of the others caught one of 'em."

"Yeah."

Sasuke hid in the shadows much better than the two brutes walking down the alley did. It was probably why they didn't notice him following them as they left the docks and made toward the village. The Uchiha smirked while tailed the lead he'd picked up. Sometimes gut instinct worked out well for him.

Kakashi, initially, had wanted to go into this village, take a few statements, and leave. After all, if the ANBU team couldn't find anything, it was unlikely that he'd find anything. Even if he knew he was better at finding things that wanted to remain hidden than the average ANBU, he really didn't want to spend the energy here if he didn't have to. Even if the Hokage was right about having nearly three weeks to recover from the Wave Mission, his body still ached in places. Thank goodness Gai wasn't here, or he'd never hear the end of how much of his "YOUTH" he was wasting.

Unfortunately for Kakashi, his hopes of a quick mission were dashed when he noticed the shady looks he and his team were getting, as well as the way that the village appeared to be on lock down. Not to mention that the only visible ships were only three docked. No shipping village worth their salt would shut down during the day, let alone only have three ships. This was obviously not a fishing village.

So, in order to figure out what was really going on, Kakashi sent his team in three different directions before he vanished between two buildings. It didn't take him long to find the bandits hiding in the shadows. Interestingly enough, he found them coordinating their efforts in a fashion that didn't speak to a random raid of the town.

Someone, Kakashi reasoned, was pulling the strings behind the scenes. Intent on finding out who and where, Kakashi picked his favorite pair of bandits. He named them Fred and Doink, and followed them for the rest of the day.

Naruto groaned as he waited by the docks. The sun was almost below the horizon, and while it looked pretty, he was damn tired, hungry and annoyed. Where was his team?! Where was their sensei? Sure, Kakashi was late, but never this late. Kakashi aside, Sakura was never late and Sasuke seemed to always arrive before everyone else.

His team wasn't the only thing bothering him. After a short bout of gas, which he figured was from the crappy fish stew he'd eaten, he began to notice that this village wasn't like the one in Wave. That village had nice, if extremely poor, people in it. The people in this village all seemed like they wanted to stab him in the back.

It was a feeling he'd gotten used to in Konoha, but not one he'd ever experienced beyond the great walls around his home. He also got the feeling that these guys didn't want to stab him because of the fox, so it was actually Uzumaki Naruto they wanted to stab. On the one hand, that sort of made the indigestion a little better because they wanted to stab Naruto for Naruto. On the other hand, he really didn't wish to be stabbed. The needles Haku used were a pain in the ass and pulling on the Fox was just… No.

"Eeek!"

Naruto spun around on the spot. "That was Sakura!" Naruto shouted as he made to take off in the direction he'd heard the scream. Then the lesson he learned that morning at the edge of the blast zone came back to him. "Know where you're going, right," Naruto admonished himself. He brought his hands together in what was becoming his favorite hand-sign. "Shadow Clone Jutsu!"

Five more Naruto appeared beside him. They all took off in a different direction while Naruto ran toward where he thought he heard the voice from. It was a good idea he had done this because as he was nearing the center of the small village, he suddenly recalled jumping down into an alley where two men were holding Sakura against a wall.

Pushing a hand against his head to try and ward off the headache forming, Naruto turned and sprinted into the space between the nearest buildings. It didn't take him long to find the place where his clone had been. Sakura's headband was still lying on the ground, but Sakura wasn't anywhere to be found. Moments later all of his clones appeared, all of them looking for a fight, but only finding the original holding Sakura's headband and frowning. Quickly enough, the clones started searching the area for any clues.

"Boss, I found tracks," one of the clones said.

Naruto jogged over to the clone and grinned. There was a very obvious footprint that belonged to Sakura. Nodding to himself, Naruto said, "They took her to the docks. Let's go!"

"Right!" the clones all shouted.

One minute Sakura had been making her way toward the meeting place at the docks. The next, she was being dragged into the spaces between the buildings. She screamed and struggled. She felt her headband get knocked off during the fight and then the weight of the two men holding her against the wall pushed the fight out of her.

She was a kunoichi of Konoha and here she was being overpowered by two ugly, hideous men who couldn't even use chakra. The immediate and total terror she felt right at that moment was overwhelming and served to paralyze her. The two bandits seemed to take this as a sign of submission.

However before they could do more than leer at her, a cry of "Sakura!" rang through the air. Sakura watched as Naruto dropped from the building above and landed a dropkick perfectly on one of the bandit's heads. The blow was enough to knock the man to the ground and loose the hold he had on Sakura.

As the other bandit moved toward Naruto, he turned to her and shouted, "Sakura run!"

The command spurred the kunoichi into action and she ran out of the alley. The bandit feigned a punch at the Naruto clone but ended the clone's life by jamming his leg into the clone's guts. After that, he helped his partner up off of the ground and both of them took off after the girl.

Sakura ran blindly down the alleys, her training forgotten in the blind panic that now consumed her. She ran, and ran, and ran. Finally, she emerged from the back alleys onto the docks, where she found a boat tied. Without thinking, she ran for the boat and jumped in. There she hid herself under a tarp and tried to calm her breathing down.

A/N: And that's as far as I'd gotten on this little piece.

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~I.K.A. Valian