Disclaimer: Naruto, or anything connected to him, does not belong to the awesome moi!
"So Gatoh, of the 'Gatoh Industries' has been keeping your little town under the tight leash?" Sai asked, bit skeptically. Tazuna nodded feverously, feeling the hope returning to him. According to Kakashi's glinting eye it could be concluded he was interested. Not to mention the blonde kid, Naruto, was bouncing up and down in excitement. Turning his puppy eyes to his team mates, he pouted. Tazuna was glad the blonde turned his back to him; he would not survive the pout.
"K'ashi-sensei… We gotta help them!" The raven headed brat who was sticking like glue to Naruto joined in the plea; glaring of course. God forbids he pouts somewhere out of the Naruto-only space. And maybe his mother too.
"Yes. A true shinobi never abandons a mission half way."
The silver haired teacher smiled gently, feeling proud of their determination. Even Sai agreed they should continue the mission! Though, he mussed noticing the heated glances they gave the clueless Naruto, for totally wrong reasons. But oh well, he will take what he has! He just hoped Minato will not find about glomp moment Sasuke had there… Then again, looking back at the defiant look Sasuke was giving him (like he had read his thought; what the hell?), he should bet his precious book Minato will know about this. And Sasuke would most probably flaunt the information around him; knowing their Hokage could do nothing to him- unless he wanted to be introduced to Naruto's back and occasionally cold, murdering look of those twinkling eyes.
At least Naruto would be safe from assassination attempts, Kakashi concluded. However, he was not that certain about his virtue. Violently, a picture of his sensei's face entered his mind, grinning madly and holding his 'special' kunai. After what felt like hours of being tortured by a Minato hallucination, he fainted.
Far off in Konoha, the blonde Hokage cackled evilly while watching his cute little student pass out, spasming and twitching.
Don't worry, Naru-chan. As long as daddy's here, no one will dare touch you ever again.
Tunning back into the real world, he started making plans on how exactly he was going to repay the young Uchiha for his unnecessary kindness.
The Team 7 plus Tazuna, the bridge builder, arrived at a simple looking house- Sasuke and Sai carrying their sensei like a rag doll. Naruto, of course, was chatting amusedly with the old man all the way, petting some wild animals along the way.
Once they arrived, introduced themselves to the lady of the house (Tazuna's daughter), everyone quickly went their way. Sai went to explore the house, Tazuna to get himself more drinks, Kakashi was left to drool and snore in one of the rooms and Naruto went with Tsunami to the kitchen, excited to make lunch for everyone. Sasuke, duh, followed him.
It was probably around the time Kakahsi woke up and limped downstairs that a young brunette, with a glare-in-the-making walked into the dining room. Naruto, always the one for new friendships, glided to him in a second; giving a blinding smile than may or may not brought blushes to Sai's and Kakahsi's face. Sasuke too busy with glaring the young child to death. How dare he take Naruto's attention?
"Hi! You must be Inari! I'm Naruto Uzumaki Namikaze!" The boy looked stunned to be smiled at and hugged by a blonde beauty. He coughed a little.
"A-a, yes, I'm Inari. You're shinobi's grandpa hired?" Naruto grinned yet again, earning more blushes, glares and coughs.
"Yes! We are from Konoha and one day I'm gonna be its Hokage!" What that had to do with anything Inari asked didn't matter at the moment. They were all dazed.
Later in the night, where Naruto charmed away all that were present at the table, Kakashi brought up the question of Zabuza.
"What do you mean, he's not dead?" Asked Sasuke, snapping finally- Inari and Naruto together bothered him quite much. Naruto whooped.
"Yay, he's not dead!"
"A hunter-nin always finishes his task on the spot; no matter who is witnessing. Don't you think moving the body is a bother for an elite like him?"
"Well, yes, but…" Sai turned to his teammates.
"Naruto-kun, Sasuke-san; I believe the best thing we can do now is trust Kakashi-sensei. He is our superior, right?" Sasuke scoffed, giving Kakashi an evil eye, before dragging his chair closer to the blonde. Kakashi chuckled.
"Good! Then, from tomorrow on we shall commence our training; in order to prepare ourselves…" Naruto, in his euphoria, cut off whatever Kakashi was to say next.
"Hell yeah! With Kakashi-sense's training, I will become the most awesome ninja in the world!"
"You're just kidding yourselves." Inari growled out, turning everybody's attention to him; Tsunami and Tazuna looked worried.
"There's no way a bunch of weak ninjas like you can defeat Gatoh. He will kill you all." With that, he stood up and left the table. Naruto, confused by Inari's sudden surge of bipolarity, turned to Sasuke.
"Did I say something bad?" Sasuke, happy for an opportunity to talk to Naruto (or do anything with/to him) smirked.
"Don't worry Naru-chan. You did nothing." Leisurely, he dropped his arms around blonde's shoulders, and then began to lower them inch by inch.
"I'm sorry for my son's behavior." Tsunami said, sadness in her eyes over-taking her whole face. "You see, Inari's father was killed by Gatoh and his man- just because he tried to help our town. Ever since then, Inari was a bit closed-off and hateful towards Gatoh and those who act like heroes."
Everybody was silent, taking the story of what happened in; that is, before Naruto's determined voice broke the silence off.
"I don't care what everybody thinks; my mission is to protect Tazuna and his family! And if giving my life in order to save yours is the price to pay, than I would gladly give it!" He roared, his eyes burning with fire. Sasuke, freaked out by his words, quickly stood up next to him. He vowed he will take care of Naruto, save him from any harm! He will not let some petty mission take his friend/crush/future partner away from him!
Heck, if he can deal with the Blondaime, he can deal with Gatoh and Zabuza too!
"Hn. And I will be there to watch you back." Naruto gave him a grateful, shinning smile; the one that took Sasuke's breath away.
"Thanks S'uke!"
Kakashi sighed; this turned to be, dare he quote a lazy genius, troublesome. If Naruto manages to get himself killed in the near future, than neither of them could phantom to come back to Konoha. If not of fear from Minato-sensei, than from his hot, but deadly and scary as hell, wife. Her nickname served her quite well…
A/N: Soooo sorry for the late update... Very much late update; I was having problems with my arms, then there was a period of blockage in my brain (the only thing being registered there was UNI! UNI! UNI!), and whatnot. I hope you'll forgive me and please, do review this chapter... That is, if you like it!
Ja ne!