"Peace of Mind " by GreatGoogilyMoogily chapter two. Leaving the first four chapters untouched. I have been given permission to adopt the story, so don't ask. Aaaannnnddd… that's it. :D
It had been four years since Pein leveled Konoha and he had been forced to move into his new apartment.
It was a fairly nice place, much better than the old run down apartment he had lived in for most of his life. It wasn't an expensive place by any stretch of the imagination, but it was comfortable and reflected who he was rather well. Unfortunately, 'who he was' was a complete and total slob. He had been forced to use seven Kage Bunshin to clean the place up before he could get everything sealed away.
He stood in the doorway now, everything he owned backed into a single backpack that was hung loosely around his shoulders. Despite the fact that he never spent all that much time at his apartment, as he was always on missions, eating out, or training his ass off, there was still a pang of regret that he would never see the place again. It held some happy memories, such as his eighteenth birthday, which was the legal drinking age for shinobi and he had gotten roaring drunk with Kakashi and tried to hit on a lamp that he thought had been a shapely woman.
Still, a few good memories in a single building weren't going to keep him from remembering all the miserable ones he had from around the village. The times he had spent on the couch lamenting the death of one of his friends, the glares he had received in his youth, and the nights he spent crying himself to sleep wishing that he had parents were certainly powerful enough incentives to leave.
While plenty were faded with time, the fresh scars that had been etched in his mind only recently weighed heavily on him.
It was of simple matter of him not wanting to be in this place anymore. Not the apartment, not the village, and hell not even the damn country.
He had given up on his dream to become Hokage a time ago. The exact time was something he couldn't pinpoint, but sometime around Chouji and Ino's death he had just lost the will to put the weight of the entire village on his shoulders. After that his dream just kept slipping further away from his mind, until he couldn't really care whether or not he ever got the job.
A last glance was thrown into the house before he walked out, door slamming behind him, leaving all the memories behind as he walked towards the gates.
XXXXXXXXXX
There wasn't anybody to see him off. He had expected this though, as the only person that really knew he was leaving right now was Tsunade, and she wasn't likely to say anything about it for awhile. She had always been nice to him, and would give him some time to leave before she broke the news.
It was around five a.m when he got to the exit of the village, the sky was turning from pitch black to a dark blue, signaling the coming of dawn. Early risers were still inside preparing for a day of work, whether it be a day at the shop, a light exercise before a day off, or they were going out to kill the enemies of their country.
The guards gave him no trouble as he passed the threshold of the gate and headed out of the village for what he hoped was the last time.
He had decided while packing that he was going to head to the Land of Waves for awhile, to get his head sorted out a bit and meet with his old friends. The last time he saw Inari and Tazuna was when they had come to help with the rebuilding of Konoha, and he had promised them that he would visit them sometime after he had come back from the Kage Summit in Iron Country.
Once he had some time to reacquaint himself there he planned to wander for awhile, with no set timetable he could spend as much time in as many places as he wanted. Aside from wave, there were a few places he wanted to visit that Jiraiya him had been to on their three year training trip.
The next step after that would be to find some place permanent. While traveling was fun, it grew old rather quickly in his opinion. He wanted to find someplace out of the way, not a large city or a tiny village, but a medium sized town that wouldn't notice him moving in, but would have a population where people weren't completely unfamiliar with those around them.
He hadn't really decided how he would bring in money though. A farmer was his first thoughts, but honestly he didn't know the first thing about farming, and while he could learn it would likely be some time before he could bring in any money or food from it. The next job he came up with was finding a store owner that needed an extra hand and earn some money that way, but then he wasn't exactly going to be making enough money to own anything but an apartment.
And it likely wouldn't be a very good one either.
All that thinking was for later though, once he got out of Fire Country he could look around and see if he found any place that had what he wanted and figure out a job of some kind.
For now though, he was free. No villagers, no duties, no work, and no sour memories eating away at the inside of his skull.
And honestly, he wouldn't have it any other way.
XXXXXXXXXX
The massive structure loomed over him, cold concrete and steel beams taking on an eerie tone in the misty morning. He had finally reached the Great Naruto Bridge after four days of constant high speed travel, and he had to say that nearly eight years had not diminished it's grandeur at all. The bridge stretched on for a few miles ahead of him, and aside from a few cracks from the wet climate it was still the same as he remembered.
People went about their business about him as he stood there admiring what he had helped to create. Wave country was prospering with Gato dead and it was certainly showing, the ground near the front of the bridge was covered in cart tracks and travelers of all varieties surrounded him.
But the faces of the people was what really drove home how much things had changed.
Instead of a look of being crushed and poor, streaked with dirt and pale and hollow from starvation and sickness they held looks of happiness and contentment, well tanned and healthy skin that was stretched on one or two faces with plenty of fat. The rags that adorned most people eight years ago had been replaced with the clothes of wealthy merchants and commoners that could put food on the tables.
As he continued his walk towards the village on the other side of the bridge he felt a bit more of the weight he felt leave him. There was practically no similarities between this country and the one that had been under the heel of a tyrant not so long ago, and knowing that one was a big part of that certainly could do a lot to boost ones spirit.
'It's just too bad that the rest of them couldn't be here.'
He immediately regretted that thought, as it brought the bit of joy he had down to the ground and beat it mercilessly, then raped it and left it for dead in an alley.
Trying to tune out the bitter thoughts that had resurfaced in his mind, he looked up to realize that he was at the end of the bridge and that the village he left had changed even more than the people. What had once been a small little community that was mostly farmers and small store owners had morphed into a large town that in a few more years could easily be called a city.
With it's close proximity to the bridge, he really shouldn't have been surprised that it got this big. After all, if everyone who was coming in from land was forced to pass through here it stood to reason that it would grown at an extremely fast rate.
Still, the fact that it had grown this fast was nothing short of amazing.
While before there were only one to two story buildings and small stands that held very few wares there were now buildings as high as four stories with stands lining streets that were overflowing with people. Bright and gaudy signs could be seen every-which way and people were spending freely, no longer holding onto their meager amounts of money for the essentials.
Deciding that he had been traveling for long enough to warrant a break for food, he stepped into a nearby stand that sold various dishes and quickly looked over the menu. Seeing as they didn't have any ramen he resigned himself to an order of yakitori and a bowl of rice.
Despite it being slightly crowded due to the time of day, he still didn't see anyone he recognized and no one seemed to know who he was either. It seemed like with the rapid growth of this place a lot of new people had moved in, he could guess it had more than tripled based on the amount of people he saw in that streets, although that would only be a rough estimate.
When his order arrived he payed and ate quickly, leaving after a short trip to the bathroom.
Unfortunately he now had to deal with the problem of finding Tazuna's house. Between the huge changes to scenery and the amount of time since he had last been here he couldn't for the life of him figure out where it was.
The next hour was spent wandering the streets looking for something familiar before he came upon a sight that made him stop dead in his tracks.
It was a statue.
A statue of him.
It was bronze, about ten or twelve feet high and flanked on three sides by slightly smaller statues of his teammates in their thirteen year old forms and his teacher. He could tell that it was very well made, there was a great attention to detail and the resemblance was very strong, meaning it was likely created by someone that had seen them while they were there.
He wasn't exactly sure when it had happened, but at sometime a small grin had appeared on his face.
"Naruto? Is that you?"
Quickly turning around he found himself staring at a slightly older version of Tsunami.
She was very good looking for a woman who was coming up on forty years of age. Her hair was well kept and her face held no sign of wrinkling, but her skin had lost a bit of that youthful luster and her eyes looked a bit duller. A light green skirt that fell to about half way between her ankles and her knees clashed slightly with her dark blue shirt and by this point she was actually about four inches shorter than he himself was.
The grin he sported from seeing the monument widened into a full blown eye-closing smile and he let out a chuckle.
"Yep, it sure is!"
"Well it's been quite a while, hasn't it? I haven't seen you since you were a boy. Father said he and Inari saw you when they went to help rebuild Konoha." She was returning the grin with one of her own now.
"Well I've been busy and haven't had any time off for myself until now."
"Well it's certainly nice to see you again. I was here to get some ingredients for dinner, you're welcome to come over and eat with us if you want. I'm sure Inari would love to see you again."
"Ha, yeah that sounds awesome."
They chatted about small things, from how much he had grown to how things had been in their respective villages. Naruto made sure to leave out the fate of his team and him leaving his old life behind. Honestly he felt like he didn't want her or her family to know what he had done as it would most likely leave them with a much changed opinion about him. Thinking about it, he felt hypocritical for the things he had said to Inari about not being afraid now that he had left everything he knew behind because of some bad memories.
When the topic finally did change to his team he lied and said that he was the only one who had been given time off and that they weren't a team anymore due to changes in rank. Lying to Tsunami left a bitter taste in his mouth, as he was very sure she had told him no lies in their talk.
The shopping was over with soon and they were on their way back to the house within half an hour. He learned from her that they had moved to a larger house and had plenty of money now. Apparently Tazuna had been able to start his own construction company with the prestige from the bridge and with such a large boom in the town there was a huge number of contracts for new buildings coming his way.
Even after learning about Tazuna's new job he was struck dumb when he saw the mansion that they lived in.
It was three stories high. Constructed of a very strong and beautiful looking wood and embellished with designs of various colors shapes and sizes. The roof was shingled a dark green and brown with gold trimming on corners and the front door frame.
It looked to have three wings that surrounded a pond and collection of trees. Each wing looked like it could have ten rooms, with the one in the middle looking slightly larger than the other two.
Regaining a bit of control he muttered a single word.
"Damn."
Tsunami laughed quite loudly at this.
"Well I'm glad it impresses you."
"Saying this place impresses me is like saying I like ramen. I mean, wow, this is way bigger than I thought it would be."
"Father designed it himself, it took awhile to build and cost him a lot of money."
"I bet it did."
He followed Tsunami into the house and helped her to put the groceries away. She began making dinner afterwords and told him that Inari and his grandfather were probably out fishing right now.
"So how long are you going to be staying?"
He hadn't thought about that yet. With no pressing concerns he figured he would leave when he would leave and had left it at that. Thinking about it now that wasn't the best way to go about it, especially considering the fact that he hated hotel rooms. The god awful tackiness and impersonality of them drove him to want to ram his head into the walls whenever he stayed in one.
"I dunno, I'll probably stay a few days but I haven't really thought about it much. I'd need to see about getting a room somewhere and I would need to be leaving in about a week."
A week was just a random measurement of time he had thrown out. It would probably be good though, as there wasn't much to do here but spend time with his friends and eat.
"Well why don't you stay here? We have a guest room and more than enough money to feed another person."
"Really? I mean I wouldn't want to be a bother..."
"Please, you helped us more than enough to earn a week of food and a room. We likely wouldn't be alive right now if not for you, and if we were our lives would be miserable."
"Alright, if you don't mind than I'd be more than glad to."
"Good, now why don't you go and rest a bit, I'll tell you when Inari and father get back."
"Thanks a lot, I'll be waiting then."
A quick walk after some directions from Tsunami and he was relaxing in a double bed in a well furnished room, his shoes discarded near the door.
Upon hitting the bed he found that he was quite tired from his journey. He had woken up at roughly five in the morning after sleeping for only six hours and it was currently seven at night. All the walking and little food had left him in a bit of a bad mood, and he ended up dozing off for a little while.
XXXXXXXXXX
He was pulled from his wonderful dream of a world full of free ramen and large chested naked women and brought back into reality by a rough shaking of his shoulder.
"Hey! Naruto-nii-san wake up!"
The cause of this rude awakening was none other than a sixteen year-old Inari. The pessimistic little boy of yesteryear was gone, replaced now by a teenager that would be a man very soon.
"Mhnnnn... Lemme alone, I'hm tired."
"Come on, you don't see me for four years and all you can think of now is to sleep? Besides dinner's ready and gramps and mom want you down there."
"Alright, alright I'll be down."
He left the comfort of the bed reluctantly and stood up on shaky legs. Obviously the depth of his exhaustion had gone deeper than he thought, as he was groggy as hell and felt like a pile of shit.
Taking a good look at Inari, it was obvious that he had changed a lot more than his mother. While not as tall as him it was obvious that he was going to be a big man, being only about six inches shorter than he was and about a half an inch shorter than he had been at that age.
The striped hat he had as a child was still on his head, though it was obviously very worn. An open tunic-like shirt showed that he was used to labor, as he had a good deal of muscle. Completing the outfit was a pair of black pants that looked to be made of a very thick material, as they had obvious signs of being put through some tough conditions and hadn't ripped or worn out anywhere.
Tsunami had told him earlier that Inari had a job as a construction worker in his grandfather's company, and that he was learning the finer points of being an architect from Tazuna, and that he would be in charge of the company after the old man died. After all, a sixty seven year old man only had so long before he went down and his drinking didn't help in that respect.
After changing into some clothes he kept unsealed he made his way downstairs and into the kitchen.
"Ah, there he is! The little brat's grown up a lot I see. You're taller than I am now!"
Tazuna hadn't changed at all. He wore the exact same clothes he had seen him in four years ago when he was in Konoha, which was a copy of his outfit from eight years ago sans the stupid straw hat.
"And you're still a drunk old man!" Despite the fact that the comment was an insulting one, he delivered it with a smile, which was fully returned by the target.
"Ah whatever, you're always gonna be a brat to me. Enough of that though, let's get to the food!"
Dinner was certainly better than he had thought it would. He hadn't thought it would be bad, but the entire experience made him feel warm inside, and not for the first time he wished he had a family of his own. The food was great, Tsunami had prepared gyoza with beef, and served it with the fish that they two men had caught and rice on the side.
More importantly than that was the conversation. There was no discussion of missions or new techniques that they had made, instead they told stories of their lives and talked about what was going on in the world at large.
They were quite shocked when he told them about all his exploits as a ninja, from killing Pein when he attacked Konoha to finishing off the other members of Akatsuki and all the other ninjas he had beaten.
While Inari couldn't stop talking about how amazing it was and Tazuna was going on about how he had never thought the little shrimp that had tried to beat him up when he insulted his height had gone on to be one of the most powerful warriors in existence, Tsunami was chiding him for doing such reckless things and putting himself in danger.
It was nice to know that they cared, and the warm feeling that was in his stomach grew even stronger throughout it all. He was certain that if he had a family that they would be a perfect example of how he would want it to be.
After dinner he headed back upstairs to shower and turn in for the night, his stomach full and his mind feeling much better than it had in days.
XXXXXXXXXX
The week he spent with them seemed to go by in a blur.
From fishing with Inari and Tazuna to taking some minor cooking lessons with Tsunami he was able to forget for awhile the troubles that he still had to face. For just a short while he could not think about having to find a new home and start a whole new life.
It was a blissful experience, spending so much time with a small group of people where the objective wasn't to go out and kill someone or steal something. All that there was to do was talk and joke around, the closest thing he had to this was when he was with Ero-sennin and even then there was always thoughts of Akatsuki and Sasuke lingering in his mind, and the training was back-breaking to say the least.
He had went to visit Zabuza and Haku's graves on the third day, and unsealed Kubikiri Houcho from one of his many scrolls and put it back in it's rightful place. Suigetsu had been killed a year ago, and he been carrying around the sword. Apparently he stole it from Zabuza's grave immediately after joining up with Sasuke and had gotten it broken in their attempt to kill Danzo. How it got fixed was a mystery, but he was glad that it was so he could bring it back to where it belonged.
All too soon the good times were over and he was standing on the front porch of their large house with his pack hung on his shoulders again.
"Well, I guess it's time then..." His voice was softer than it normally was, not really liking the idea of leaving just yet. Still he couldn't just stay here forever and the less attached he got the better it would be for him in the end. Not to mention the fact that if he stayed too long he would start to be a burden on them.
"We'll miss you brat. You're welcome to come by at any time, the rest of your team is too."
"Yeah I'll be sure to tell them." 'Or not.'
Tsunami was the next one to speak.
"Don't go and do anything that you're going to regret, we want to see you again and not at a funeral alright?"
"Yeah! Then I wouldn't get to hear anymore awesome stories from you Nii-san."
"Maa, ma. Don't worry about me, I can take care of myself. I've already kicked the asses of everyone who could even think of beating me. There's not a person alive who can do more than put a scratch on me."
Inari cracked a grin and laughed a bit.
"Yeah, well someday I'll get you in your sleep. The strongest man on earth beat up by a construction worker, how cool would I be then, huh?"
"You'd be pretty damn cool."
With a final few words he started off again, setting his mind finally onto where his next stop was going to be.
'I suppose it doesn't really matter.'
And that was true. He had no real preference on where he was headed, the only thing that mattered was where he ended up staying, not what trips he would take along the way.
Thinking over his location on a map he decided to head to Water country. It would be fairly easy to get there and he had a few memories of how beautiful it was.
With a decision made, he started on his way to the bridge again, intent on reaching the ferry to get there in two days tops.
And End Chapter Two.