Naruto's team and Tazuna had reached wave country without any issue, approaching Tazuna's house, the old man unlocked the door and entered calling out "I'm home." before getting tackled in a hug by a woman.
"Father! I was so worried!" she cried out.
Tazuna patted her back "I'm sorry Tsunami, Konoha was busy and they weren't able to get me a team until now."
Naruto coughed into his hand "You can blame that on your attitude.", "What did you say?" Tazuna asked him "Nothing, nothing." Naruto answered his hands in a placating gesture.
Naruto looked at Tsunami "It's a pleasure to meet you ma'am, My name's Naruto Uzumaki Namikaze, this (he pointed to Mito) is my younger sister and pseudo daughter Mito Uzumaki Namikaze, to her left, is Akari, and her twin sister Akira Tanaka."
"It's nice to meet you all, thank you for escorting my father home, I hope he didn't give you any trouble."
"Not really, other than being drunk and late for our departure." he shrugged, with Tsunami casting a glare at her Father.
"I see, I warned him about his drinking habit.", Tazuna flinched under her glare.
"Hey, he soaked me in water to detoxicate me." Tazuna attempted to defend himself.
Tsunami just looked amused and turned to Naruto "You did?" she asked, barely able to stifle a laugh.
"Gave the man a cold shower just before we left Konoha." he smirked, causing Tazuna to grumble and sit on the couch.
Naruto sat down across from him, Mito sitting on his right, Akira to his left, with Akari to her left "So, you want us to guard you until the bridge is finished, right?" he asked Tazuna.
"Yes." Tazuna replied
"Hmm" Naruto hummed, thinking 'that implies that someone doesn't want him to build the bridge.' he then locked eyes with Tazuna "What aren't you telling us?"
Tazuna visibly flinched and finally spoke after squirming under Naruto's suspicious gaze for a few minutes "I…I'm sorry" he apologized "There's a man named Gato." he was cut off by Naruto.
"Wait, Gato, as in the rich businessman who owns multiple ports throughout the countries? What is he doing here?" Naruto asked, visibly shocked.
"Yes, the same, he arrived here a year ago, and bought all of our shipping docks giving him full control over the people in Wave." he said in a solemn tone.
Nauro hummed at this information "Well, that changes things drastically, who knows who he'd hire to kill you." he thought for a second, causing Tazuna to worry that he might leave.
"Sensei?" Akira got his attention, causing him to look at her "What if we attacked Gato directly?"
"That's an interesting plan, but if he's bought an army of Jonin ninjas we'd be walking into a trap. However, It couldn't hurt to scout out his home and see what we're dealing with." he said.
"So, where does this Gato live?" Akari asked.
"I know wh-" Tazuna was cut off for the second time that afternoon by a kid entering the room and glaring at the four ninjas on the couch, he didn't say anything, only huffed and entered the kitchen.
"What's his deal?" Mito asked
"That's a long story." Tazuna said, shaking his head.
"Well, maybe you'll tell us after you tell us where Gato lives." Naruto said, casting a glance at the kid, noticing him flinch at the name 'Must have had a bad experience with Gato' he thought.
"Right, well, he lives in the large manor west of the village." Tazuna told Naruto.
"I see, well.." he looked at his team "Which one of you is coming with me?" he asked them
"Huh" Akari asked.
"Well, I'm going to go scout out Gato's manor, and since I can't take all three of you with me, because we need two of us here to look after Tazuna and his family I want to take one of you with me to help." he said.
"Oh, well take Mito, I want to stay with Akira." Akari said, with Akira nodding in agreement.
"Okay then, Mito, let's go." he said, standing up and leaving the house with Mito behind him.
xxx Gato's Office xxx
"What do you mean Tazuna's returned?" exclaimed A short, chubby man with spiky grey hair wearing a black suit and black sunglasses.
"Well, some of our men in the village reported that he arrived with a team of ninjas." the man said before flinching when a book was thrown at him.
"What the hell!" the small man raged "I told the two ninjas I hired to fuck off last month because they kept pestering me about paying them for wasting their time." he raged further.
"Would you like me to find them, to hire them again?" the man asked his leader.
"We don't have time to, the ninjas are already here, we'll have to deal with them ourselves." the chubby man stood up "Just hire some Jonin from the closest ninja village, hopefully, they will arrive on time." the short man said, gritting his teeth.
Naruto and Mito crouched on a tree branch outside of Gato's office "Well, it seems we arrived at a good time." Naruto whispered to Mito.
"Yeah, Granny Tsunade always said you had the devil's luck." she responded.
"I'm starting the believe her." Naruto mumbled "Well, it seems they don't have any ninjas, and I'm sure I alone could handle the majority of his thugs." he mused
"Yeah, this will be an easy mission." Mito claimed.
"Don't Jinx it." Naruto said "Well, this would be a good time to get you three used to killing." he said, looking into Mito's eyes "You think you're ready?" he asked her.
"I-I don't know, how exactly do you get ready to kill someone?" she asked with trepidation.
"Good answer, we'll return for now since it's getting late and you and the others will need rest for tomorrow." Mito nodded as they set off back toward Tazuna's house.
xxx Tazuna's House xxx
Naruto and Mito arrived and began informing them about what they found. "So, we're attacking tomorrow?" Akira asked.
"Yes, we leave at dawn, before we eat breakfast." Naruto said.
"What? Why before breakfast?" Akari asked.
"It's best you find out for yourself." he said, still not sure if he wanted to go through with this, but he knew it had to happen sooner than later and it was better if it was in an environment where he could be in control than one where he wasn't.
"Why do you try?" the boy asked, entering from the backyard and causing Naruto to look at him.
"What do you mean, kid?" he asked.
"You all are gonna die? So why try?" he asked.
"We try because we want to protect those we care about, and it also happens to be our way of life." Naruto answered calmly.
"But you'll die!" the boy yelled.
"Maybe, but I refuse to go down easily, the same can be said for my team." Naruto answered.
"Hmpf, you don't know how it feels to suffer!" The boy yelled.
The air in the room was instantly a few degrees colder, all four ninjas clearly pissed about his last statement. "Boy, I can assure you that we all have suffered."
"Oh yeah? How?" the boy asked angrily.
Naruto had to reel back his anger since he was talking to a kid "Well, for starters I saw my dad dead and watched my mom die when I was six, my younger sister Mito was born that same day and never had the pleasure of knowing our parents, she hasn't "suffered" much because I broke my back every day to make sure she didn't. So don't judge other people suffering without knowing them first." Naruto said, visibly angry, though his voice was calm.
Mito had tears forming in her eyes since the topic of their parents was always a touchy subject and to have someone claim that she hadn't suffered had hurt more than she realized.
Tsunami and Tazuna were stunned while Inari dashed outside, closely followed by his Mother.
"I'm sorry." Tazuna apologized on his grandson's behalf.
"Don't, the kid clearly is suffering about something and I've had 12 years to come to terms with my parent's deaths." he looked at Mito and pulled her into a hug.
"Yeah... that was the "long story" I mentioned earlier, Gato executed his step-father in public a few months after he arrived because the man was defying him." Tazuna explained.
"I see, so he knows how it feels to watch his parent die." Naruto stated solemnly.
"Still, it doesn't give him the right to disregard other's suffering!" Akira said angrily
"Yeah, after all, the two of us also…" Akari started before she paused and looked down, Naruto placed a hand on each of their shoulders.
"I know, but don't be too hard on the kid, he's still young." Naruto said calmly.
Tsunami entered the room, with a slightly hesitant Inari "I… I'm sorry, I d-didn't kn-know." Inari said quietly.
"We know kid, we know. Just learn not to judge others too quickly, it doesn't do anyone any favors." Naruto said.
Inari nodded and sat down next to his grandfather, with his mother sitting down next to him "So, tomorrow you four are going to kill Gato?" Tsunami asked.
"Yes, he's hiring ninjas from a nearby village, but it should take them a few days to get here, and he'll be dead by then." Naruto stated, nodding and asking "Is there a room these three can sleep in for the night?"
"Yes, we have a spare guest room." Tsunami said, pointing to the stairs "First room on the right."
Naruto nodded, okay you three, go and get some rest, I'll sleep on the couch." they looked hesitant for a second, not wanting their sensei to sleep on the couch "Go on, don't worry about me girls." he said, noticing their trepidation. They nodded before heading upstairs.
xxx Five in the Morning xxx
Naruto knocked on the girl's bedroom door and waited for one of the girls to answer, after a minute a groggy and tired Mito opened the door "What?" she asked.
"It's time." Naruto said "Wake the others and meet me downstairs in ten minutes." he then walked downstairs.
After the given time passed, Naruto was standing in front of his team "Okay girls, we're going to attack Gato's manor today, however, our goal is to do it completely silently leaving no one the wiser."
The four leaped off toward their shared destination, determined to end this town's pain "What's our strategy?" Akira whispered
"Well, You and Akari will infiltrate from the West side with a clone of mine, while Mito and I will infiltrate from the East, any guards you can't sneak past, kill. However, make sure there are no other guards around when you do so." he answered her.
"Why?" Akari asked.
"You'll see, just trust me." he said.
Akari nodded, trusting that Naruto knew what he was talking about, they arrived at the manor and instantly split up to do their assigned tasks, a clone of Naruto joining Akari and Akira.
Naruto and Mito landed a few feet away from the door leading into the manor when two guards walked out and stood on either side of the door. "You take the one on the right, aim for the back of his head." Naruto whispered to Mito, who hesitantly nodded.
The two leaped into action, Naruto burying his trench knife into one men's skull, he looked over to see Mito doing the same with a kunai, she then froze, and did a 180-degree turn, and vomited on the ground, Naruto placed his hand on her back and gently rubbed it.
"You did good." he gently said into her ear "The first one's always the hardest."
After Mito regained her composure she looked at Naruto "Is this why you wanted us to do this before breakfast?"
He nodded "I felt the same way the first time I killed a man, I had puked up my breakfast. I didn't want you three to do the same."
"Why'd you kill him, and how'd you deal with it afterward?" Mito asked, wanting to know how her brother dealt with it.
"Well, the man tried to rob Anko and me while we were returning home from a shopping trip, he got aggressive and ended up hitting Anko, in that moment I thrusted one of my tantos into his chest. However, I made a mistake." he said with a regretful look in his eyes.
"What mistake?" Mito inquired.
"I looked into the man's eyes as he died, watched the life leave his eyes." he grimly said.
"That's why you had me attack him from behind!" she said with realization.
He nodded "Lower chance of you seeing his eyes, and I refused to let you go through that." he said, with Mito nodding as the two enter the manor.
Akira and Akari were going through the same thing, both were being comforted by the Naruto clone, who was telling them roughly the same story that the original told Mito. After the two were calm again and had gathered their resolve the three entered the manor.
xxx With Gato xxx
Gato was kneeling on the foot of a bed, two women in chains in front of him, one with raven-colored hair that went down to her mid-back with emerald green eyes, the other with sandy blonde hair that went down to her shoulders with ruby red eyes, a sadistic smile adorned his face, because of what he was going to do with these two women.
He was about to get started when a tanto burst through his chest from behind, spraying his blood on the bed, some of it getting onto the two terrified women.
"You're alright now." an unknown voice spoke.
"W-Who are you?" one of the women asked, fearful of the newcomer.
"You don't need to fear me, I'm here to help you." the stranger removed the chains from the girl's arms and legs, and the younger of the two women clung to his chest too afraid to let go.
"What's your name?" the older woman, who was not clinging to his chest, asked.
"My name is Naruto, now let's get you two out of here." he said before leading the two women out of the manor, his team close behind.
"So…" Akari said, in a slight daze from all the lives she took "We killed every person in the manor, is our mission done?"
"Yes, you three did amazing, I'm really proud of you." he looked to the East and saw that the sun hadn't begun to rise yet "We have a few hours till breakfast, let's spend it training." he knew the girl's needed something to help take their minds off of what they did, even though he'd already talked to them during the walk away from the manor, explaining how they did the right thing.
"What about them?" Mito asked, gesturing to the women who were following them.
"I don't know." he hummed "...Where do you two live?" he asked them after a moment of thought.
"We don't have a home anymore…" one of the women said, looking down "Gato burned it down after killing our mother." she said, tears in her eyes.
"I'm sorry…" he said with a solemn smile "So, what would you like to do?" he asked, genuinely curious.
"I-I don't know" the younger of the two mumbled.
Naruto hummed with his hand on his chin 'I wouldn't hurt to have a helping hand around the compound, god knows we need the help.' he thought before coming to a decision "Would you two be interested in a job?"
"H-Huh?" The older of the two asked, stopping in her tracks.
Naruto stopped as did the others "Well, I was thinking, and I realized that it wouldn't hurt to have more people at home to keep the place clean since it's a huge home, not to mention the gardens but I'll hire others for that, I was wondering if you two would like to help around the house, with pay of course." Naruto explained.
"R-Really?" the younger woman asked.
"Yes, you'd even have your own rooms if you want" he smiled
"Are you sure?" the older woman asked, still hesitant about the offer.
"Yes, but first, what are your names?" he asked.
The two blinked, realizing that they had never told their savior their names, the older of the two spoke up first "I'm Himari Kato, thanks again for saving me." she stood roughly 5"4' and couldn't have been older than 20, her short sandy blonde hair messily covering her ruby red eyes, she wore a torn white short-sleeved t-shirt, with baggy black pants, and black shinobi sandals.
"My name is Sora Kato." The younger of the two said she stood slightly shorter than her sister, at 5"2', her long raven-colored hair framed her face, her emerald green eyes still puffy from crying, she wore a slightly ripped purple long-sleeved shirt, with black skin-tight pants, and black close-toed shinobi boots.
"Well, Himari, Sora, what do you think of my offer? We can discuss how much I pay you when we get back so we can include my girlfriend in the discussion." he said to the two.
The two nodded, with Himari saying "I think I'd like that." Sora agreed with her, also liking the idea of a fresh start away from this place full of painful memories.
"Okay, we're almost at Tazuna's, but before we get there I need to go buy two extra futons for Himari and Sora, and you five can share the same room, we don't want to inconvenience our client with multiple futons in his living room." the five nodded.
"We'll need to explain the situation to Tazuna when he wakes up." Akari reasoned.
"We will, after breakfast, which won't be for a while now, so while my shadow clone goes out to buy the futons you three will begin your training, and Himari and Sora can take a moment to relax, I'm sure they need it." he said, a shadow clone appearing next to him already knowing it's task.
xxx A Week Later xxx
The bridge was finished and after a long debate (A/N Mostly for me) it was named "The Great Namikaze and Tanaka Bridge" after the four who saved the town from Gato's reign. It was time for Naruto and his team to return to Konoha, he had already sent a messenger fox to inform Anko about Himari and Sora and how they agreed to become housemaids.
"So, it's time to leave already." Mito reflected
"Yeah, it has been fun, but we got other things to do at home, mainly getting Himari and Sora settled in." Naruto said.
"Hey, what happened to the army of Jonin that Gato guy hired?" Akira asked.
"Don't worry about them, they showed up a few days ago and I dealt with them, they were barely chunin-level, so I'm sure Gato had no idea what he was talking about when it came to ninja." Naruto chuckled.
"If you say so." Akari shrugged "Let's get home already!" the six said their goodbyes to Tazuna and his family and left in the direction of Konoha.