Chapter 8: New Mission
Several days after his conversation with Tsunade in her office, Naruto was preparing for his new mission. Based on their conversation Tsunade had decided to send Naruto and a team to the Land of Whirlpools to investigate the ruins. On the surface it was a fact finding mission, but the reality was she wanted them to see if Naruto could find anything about reopening the titanium mines there. Considering the distance involved, Naruto would have to go personally rather than sending clones of himself. That is why he was currently sealing about a years worth of instant ramen in a storage seal.
The mission was a B-Ranked operation, mostly because of the timeframe of several weeks, but there could be a chance of upgrading it if there were any rouge shinobi present. Given what he knew of the island the old village was located on and the fact it was so isolated, he highly doubted that would be a factor. However, better safe than sorry, so he was also sealing a vast amount of weapons and supplies in other scrolls. It was unlikely that he would find anything or anyone on the island that could really threaten him, but he wasn't going to take any chances.
Jiraiya, before moving back in with his wife the day after Naruto spoke with her, had offered to come along, but Naruto declined. He already knew that Anko and Yugao were coming along, but had not been informed who his other two teammates would be. Not knowing how anyone else would pack, he made sure he had extras of everything as it was better to not need it than to need it and not have it. With that in mind, he finished sealing the last of his scrolls away in a simple backpack before he stepped outside his house and activated the blood seals to prevent anyone from sneaking inside while he was gone. Assured his house was secured, he walked towards the village's main gates to meet up with his team and start the mission.
A few minutes later he was silently cursing under his breath as he saw who his other two teammates would be. It was bad enough having Anko and Yugao along, their constant apologies to him were getting on his nerves, but now he had his other two headaches to deal with. Dressed in their decidedly skimpy mission clothes, Hinata and Mito were standing with Anko and Yugao at the gate waiting for him. Obviously the old hag was trying to get him to form some type of attachment to the young women, but he wasn't going to fall for that. No, Naruto would not form bonds with these women, feeling that anything they might do to gain his affection would just be an act. That wasn't what he wanted, not by a long shot.
"Fine," he grunted as he approached the waiting women, "you're my team for this mission. Let's just keep this professional and we'll all be fine. I will try to limit the time I am around you, to prevent my presence from causing any of you discomfort. In return I ask that you respect my privacy. Hinata-san, I'm sure you are aware that I signed the paperwork to finalize our marriage when we return, so you needn't worry about your family being harmed by my rejection of the contract. Mito-san, I have also signed the paperwork to enroll in the CRA and will be taking you as a wife in name only. I have already found a method that will allow you to have a child, Hinata, that will involve only token participation on my part, allowing you and Mito to have a child that you can raise together. All of that will be explained after we return and finalize the marriages."
All four women were looking shocked at how coldly Naruto was acting towards them. Sure, they had expected him to be less than happy about the situation, but had hoped they could get him to cheer up. Mito had planned on telling him that she didn't just want to be a token wife, but to give a relationship between them a try. Hinata was of the same mind, though she was still a little nervous about the thought of having sex with a man, even if it was Naruto. As for Anko and Yugao, they were confused about what they felt. Both were attracted to Naruto, but both knew it would be a hard path that led to his heart given his belief that any affection they showed him would just be because they were ordered to act that way towards him, which they hadn't been.
Not knowing what to say, unsure if there was any right thing to say under the circumstances, all four women followed Naruto as he took to the trees outside the village and made his way towards the coast. It was a silent journey, along with being an exhausting one for the four of them. Mito was proud of her huge reserves of stamina, but Naruto made her look like a fresh out of the Academy Genin. After an hour of breakneck speeds, the four women were requesting a rest stop, having covered in an hour what normally took four hours. Even Anko and Yugao were at their limit, even with their ANBU training. It wasn't the distance they had covered, they were used to running much farther without stopping, but not at the pace Naruto set. It was just crazy how fast he could move and they weren't capable of keeping up with him without causing themselves injury.
"We've got to rest, then slow down for the rest of the trip, Naruto-san," Yugao finally said when they stopped to rest. "We're not used to the pace you set. If you keep this up, one of us is going to get injured."
"Too late," groaned Anko, nursing several scrapes and cuts from running into branches. "I feel like I just got dragged across a cheese grater."
"I see," grunted Naruto, creating four clones that picked up the girls before Naruto and they took to the trees again.
The four women tried to object to being carried like civilians through the trees, but each secretly enjoyed the feeling of being held in Naruto's arms. If he noticed that fact, Naruto didn't show it. In that fashion they ran for another six hours, shocking his four teammates that Naruto was capable of such a feat. The fact that he had sped up once he didn't have to hold back meant they covered a day's worth of distance in just those six hours, reaching the small fishing village where they would hire a boat to take them to the Land of Whirlpools before noon. Naruto had just managed to cut their travel time in half, more than that really if you considered rest stops. Not to mention he barely looked tired when they arrived at the dock and he had his clones set the girls down before dispersing.
"I'll hire us a boat to take us to the edge of the whirlpool defenses," Naruto informed them before he headed off to the office next to the largest dock.
"Kami's Holy Panties!" exclaimed Anko, as she looked around at the others. "Did he really just cover the distance between Konoha and here in seven hours? Carrying us as he did it?"
"The proof is right in front of us," replied Hinata, stretching her legs after six hours of being carried. "I don't know anyone that could do that, not even Itachi and he's considered one of the fastest Jonin in the village."
"He's not even tired, or he's damned good at hiding it," added Yugao as she helped Anko treat a few scraps that hadn't healed yet. "I've had to carry comrades after they got injured on missions, but never for that long or that fast, he's a machine."
"No," Mito said watching Naruto in the distance hiring them a boat, "he's not a machine. He's just a man with a lot of power at his disposal. If he was a machine he would have just forced us to keep up with him, but instead he sacrificed his own body to make sure we were uninjured. I watched his eyes when you said you were hurt, Anko. Till then he was just going to let us rest, but once you said you had gotten hurt, that's when he stepped in to help us. He was protecting us, even if it meant he had to suffer."
"Damn, I didn't know he was going to do something like that, or I wouldn't have said anything," protested Anko, looking ashamed of herself now. "I was just teasing him, for Kami's sake."
Looking at Anko, Hinata shook her head sadly. "Naruto-kun does not seem to see that, Anko-san. He only sees someone hurt and then he acts. We all need to be careful around him right now, because I'm afraid of what he would do if we were in real danger."
The other three girls looked nervous at hearing that, but nodded in agreement as Naruto walked back over to them, saying, "We got lucky. The old man over there says all his boats are out, but there's a fisherman going out for some night fishing that will be passing right past where we need to get off. Says we would be able to hitch a ride, if we help load his nets. I already sent some clones that way, so we need to get over there."
Without saying another word, Naruto turned and headed towards where their ride was waiting. The girls were more than a little saddened by the fact Naruto seemed to feel he couldn't talk to them, but couldn't say they were all that surprised by it. In short order Naruto had the nets loaded, actually laughing and joking with the boats captain as they set sail, something that depressed the girls even more. The fact that Naruto could be so happy and carefree around others, but not them, had all of them determined to break through his emotional barriers.
"Been a long time since I've seen an Uzumaki around these parts," the old captain said to Naruto as they cleared the dock.
"How did you know I'm an Uzumaki?" asked Naruto, a little concerned that the old man might be more than he seemed.
He needn't have worried, seeing as how the old man turned a gobsmacked face to him, saying, "You're an Uzumaki, too? Damn! Never seen a blonde Uzumaki before. No, I recognized your girlfriend over there. Looks just like my dear Kasumi, Kami rest her soul."
"You were married to an Uzumaki, sir?"
The old man nodded, looking happy at the memory. "Met my Kasumi when I was seventeen and out on my first solo fishing trip. Like a damn fool I Ignored my father's warnings and steered too close to the whirlpools. Before I knew it my boat was going down and I was sure I was a goner. I woke up the next day looking up at the most beautiful girl I had ever seen, Kasumi. She found my damn near dead body floating in the water near the shore and took me home to heal me up. Couldn't get rid of me after that and we got married a year later. We lived happy, working this very boat together for five years, least till them damned cowards attacked the island."
"What happened, sir?" asked Mito, having overheard the story.
With misty eyes, the old man smiled at her before answering. "I was doing a favor for Kasumi's uncle, running his little granddaughter and her guards to the mainland. Kasumi had stayed with her family, expecting our first little one, she was. I had dropped off my passengers, still remember that little lass smiling up at me as I said goodbye, and was getting ready to sail back to the island when I saw the first of the ships sail in. Must of been a hundred of them, if not more, cutting off all access to the island. We weren't stupid, we knew what was gonna happen with that many ships and we were right. When I finally got back to the island a month later, weren't no trace of any living Uzumaki anymore. Oh, I found my Kasumi, but that just meant I got to lay her to rest the way she wanted. I laid a lot of Uzumaki to rest over the next two weeks, though I couldn't tell you anymore how many it was. Ain't stepped food back on that island since, don't imagine I will as long as I'm alive. Won't tell anyone how to get passed the whirlpools, so when my time comes I've asked for my ashes to be spread in the water near them, let a part of me rest near Kasumi at least."
"When the time comes, tell them to find me, old man," Naruto said, looking at the old man with a sad smile. "I'll make sure you get tucked in next to your wife, believe it."
With a look of surprise on his face, the old man bowed to Naruto, saying, "Thank you, son. It does my heart good to know I'll be with her again someday."
It didn't take long for them to reach the whirlpools, which the old man navigated around as if they weren't even there, meaning Naruto and the girls got dropped of in the shallows. With a wave of his hand, the old man turned his boat around and made his way out to sea leaving a thoughtful group behind him. It had been one of his worries that they would run across the remains of the long dead Uzumaki, but now he knew someone had cared enough to lay them to rest. In fact, as they left the beach they could already see a large area of land that seemed to be nothing but burial markers. Naruto turned to look at them, leading the women silently behind him.
There were hundreds of the markers, each a slab of stone that had a name and date carved on it. At first it was confusing, but then Hinata pointed out it must be their first name and the day they were laid to rest as the dates covered several weeks. It was surprising to realize that old man had known the entire clan by name, but more surprising to see how much time and effort he had put into laying the Uzumaki clan to rest. At the very center of the markers, with space enough beside it for another grave someday, stood a white stone marker. It was the only marker with two names on it, and a short message.
"Kasumi Sasaki and Baby Sasaki," Mito read, kneeling down to clean the stone off. "I'll love you both forever."
"I don't care what you do, or where you go in life, Naruto Uzumaki, you WILL keep that promise," commanded Hinata, tears running from her eyes as she picked weeds from around the stone.
"I will," whispered Naruto, wiping tears from his own eyes. "He deserves that much after what he did for our family."
Naruto may not have noticed that he included the girls when he said 'our family,' but they sure did. It fave them all a little glimmer of hope as they walked out of the graveyard and headed towards the ruins of Uzushiogakure, the shinobi village on the island that had also been the main population center. Climbing up through the trees to the top of a stretch of tall hills, all five visitors were surprised by the sight below them. Naruto had read about the village in Jiraiya's notebooks, but that was nothing compared to what he was seeing below him. It was both amazing and heartbreaking.
"Kami wept," muttered Yugao, falling to her knees as she looked at the village below her.
The entire valley below them was covered in the ruins of numerous tall buildings, most of which were anywhere from six to twenty stories tall. Naruto had seen similar building in Ame, but they were different, harder and crueler looking. These building had been covered in artwork, seals, and geometric patterns that made them look majestic. Now they just looked sad, at least to Naruto. Cutting down the middle of the valley was a river that in the light of the setting sun looked as if it was filled with blood. It was just too much too look at.
"Let's setup camp here," he finally said, turning away from the ruins and pulling off his backpack.
The girls had rather hoped Naruto would forget about his promise to leave them once camp was setup, but he didn't. No sooner was the last of the tents assembled before he vanished, leaning not a trace of his location behind. It wasn't until dawn and after they had packed their tents back away that they saw him again. Sitting on the hilltop and staring at the ruins below. He didn't even say good morning, instead he just stood up and made his way down into the ruins. This would be the pattern for the next week.
Naruto spoke as little as possible, barely saying a word unless it was absolutely required. The girls all tried to get him to speak to them, but it was like trying to catch smoke in your hands, just never as easy as you thought it should be. Making it worse was Naruto's resumed usage of shadow clones to cover more territory. You could just never be sure if you were talking to the real him or another of his clones, so the accepted practice was to act like the clones were Naruto and just keep talking. Whether or not Naruto cared was debatable, though Mito did find extra towels on he sleeping bag when she mentioned she hadn't brought any with her.
It wasn't until the tenth day after leaving Konoha that things changed. Naruto had headed off towards the western end of the valley to examine some of the smaller buildings there. The girls had split into two teams, with Anko and Hinata taking the northeast side of the valley while Mito and Yugao took the southeast. All five of them had headsets, not that Naruto usually turned his on except at the top of the hour to check in before turning it off again. Part of this was his insistence that it would spare them his company, and part was because he could only take so much girl talk before he wanted to pull his hair out. So, it was a bit of a shock when he turned his radio on and heard Mito calling his name over and over again.
"Please, don't turn your radio off before you hear this Naruto!" she was saying, sounding panicked. "Please, please, please, listen to me before you turn your radio off!"
"What's wrong, Mito?" he asked, cutting into her rambling.
"Thank Kami!" shouted the girl. "We lost contact with Hinata and Anko right after your last checkin. One moment the were saying they had just found a large opening, then they were gone. We haven't been able to reach them since and we can't fine any trace of them! Please, I know you hate us, but we need your help! Please, Naruto, help me find Hinata!"
"I'm on my way," he shouted, creating a virtual army of clones to follow behind him as he surface of the river to save time.
It took him only a few minutes to reach Mito and Yugao's location, at which point the now sobbing young redhead glomped him, burying her face in his chest. While Naruto, looking rather surprised by Mio's proximity, tried to calm the redhead down, Yugao was giving him the details. Approximately an hour before they had just heard Naruto give his standard 'I'm alive and well' announcement before signing off. After that Hinata had discovered a large opening to the north of their location and announced that she and Anko were going to check it out. That was the last they heard from either Hinata or Anko and all attempts to find them had been fruitless.
"You weren't using any tracking markers?"
"No, we were," answered Yugao. "We were using type C-3 markers while Anko and Hinata were using type B-2, so we could tell the difference if we crossed paths by accident."
Looking confused, Naruto admitted, "I don't know those, are they new?"
Kneeling down, Anko made two different types of marks in the dirt, one looked like a cats paw with and the other like a bird's claw. "Oh, I recognize those. In my world we called them Delta and Epsilon type markers. Which is which?"
"I forget things weren't exactly the same where you came from," apologized Yugao. "They were using the bird's claw markings."
"Got it," Naruto said, sending his clones off to examine the area Hinata and Anko had disappeared in. Then lifting Mito's chin with his hand, Naruto smiled at the crying girl. "I don't hate you, Mito. I don't have it in me to hate anyone, not really. I'm just trying to not come between you what you and Hinata have, ok?"
"No, it's not ok, Naruto-kun," whined the girl, burying her face in his chest again and hugging him tightly. "You're part of our family! How can we be happy if you aren't there with us? We want you to be with us, don't you get it?"
"I wish I could believe that," he whispered, more to himself than to Mito, but she heard it anyway.
"I will find a way to make you believe it, Naruto-kun, that's a promise," swore the girl, hugging him even tighter, not seeing the sad look on his face.
It took about twenty minutes for the clones to find the general area the two girls had vanished from. Making their way to the location, the three shinobi found a large circular building that was partially buried in the rubble of two other buildings. At first you would thing the domed roof was just a hill that had been paved over, at least until you noticed the writing around the outer rim of the dome. Clearing the accumulated debris of several decades, Naruto finally read what was written there.
"Hall of Justice," he read, wondering what that could have meant he looked up at Mito and Yugao. "A courthouse or something like that?"
"Possibly," agreed Yugao, looking around for an entrance. "Over there, looks like an opening."
Making their way over the tree of them found a set of large stone doors. The doors were probably fifteen feet tall by ten wide, each. From the look of the dirt around the bottom of them, they had been forced open recently, meaning this was most likely where Hinata and Anko had disappeared. Using a small burst of chakra, Naruto pried the doors open, noticing in the process that they were covered in numerous seals and a short message.
"Justice is blind. Justice fails in the face of a lie. Truth shall set you free," he read out loud as he opened the doors enough for them to enter.
Not thinking anything more of it, the three of them stepped inside. However, the moment they stepped inside the remarkably intact building, the doors slammed closed behind them. To make a bad situation worse, seals started glowing all around them and they all suddenly found they were unable to mold chakra. For the girls it wasn't much of an issue, but for Naruto it was like his body was suddenly made of lead. He crashed to the ground, for the first time remembering that Momo had long ago told him gravity was slightly higher in this world.
"I must have been channeling a small amount of chakra to my muscles to make up the difference," he explained to the two concerned women when they asked what was wrong. "Gravity is stronger here than in my world. I probably did it without even thinking."
"Will you be ok?" asked Mito, helping him to his feet.
"Sure, it's just like training back home, I'll deal with it and overcome it in time," he assured her with a smile. "For now, we've got to find Hinata and Anko."
Unable to use chakra, they could not unseal any of the torches Naruto had sealed away, but Yugao adapted by taking off her jacket and tearing it into strips. Naruto was a bit flustered to see her in just her see-through mesh undershirt, but ignored it as best he could as he watched her strike a kunai against the stone of the door to create sparks. It took her a few tries, but she managed to catch a strip of cloth on fire, which she then picked up with the kunai to use as a makeshift torch. The cloth wouldn't last long, but they hoped it would be long enough to find their missing teammates.
They were on their fifth strip of cloth when they finally entered a large open room at the center of the building. Much to their relief, especially Mito, Hinata and Anko were sitting in the middle of the room around a glowing white pillar. They enjoyed a rather happy reunion, before getting down to business. Over the course of the last hour, almost two hours now, Hinata and Anko had been looking for a way out. So far they had come up empty as it seemed there was only one way in or out of the building, through the large stone doors. Without their chakra they had been unable to open the massive doors, so had fallen back to the one light source in the whole place.
"We were afraid," admitted Anko, looking a bit ashamed at herself for saying it. "I honestly thought we might die in here if you didn't find us. Now that you are here though, I'm afraid we all might die."
"I won't let that happen, even if I'm also afraid," Naruto said, looking surprised that he had admitted he was afraid. "I didn't mean to say that, but couldn't stop myself."
"It's this place," Hinata explained, looking around the faintly illuminated room. "We noticed it right away, you can't lie in this building, not even to yourself."
Remembering the seals they had seen activate when they entered, Naruto wondered if that was the true meaning of the writing on the door. "I think the seals we activated are the cause, though they were way beyond anything I've ever seen before."
"But the doors said truth would set us free," Mito said looking confused. "If all we can speak is the truth in here, should we be free to leave?"
Naruto thought about that, giving up and sitting down on the floor, his legs no longer able to hold himself up. "I hate being weak. It reminds me of when I was a little kid and people used to beat me. Crap! I didn't mean to tell you that. I never wanted any of you to know I used to get beaten when I was a kid."
Hinata was shocked to hear that Naruto had been beaten as a child, but she also noticed that the glowing pillar had gotten brighter when he told them that. "Why were you beaten, Nauto-kun?"
Looking like he was fighting himself, Naruto tried not to answer, but in the end he had no choice. "I never knew when I was little, it was only after I graduated from the Academy that I found out it was because my father sealed the Kyubi inside me."
"Oh shit!" exclaimed everyone, even Hinata as she watched the pillar grow a little brighter.
"Fox is out of the bag now," groaned Naruto, looking down at the floor worried that the girls would hate him now.
"My father was going to seal it in me until my mom made him seal it in her," stated Mito, stepping over and sitting next to Naruto. "Sure, I didn't know that until Granny told me, but I've thought about what my life could have been like when I was little if dad had won that argument."
"We don't care if you've got a demon sealed inside you, Naruto-kun," Anko said as she sat on Naruto's other side. "Hell, my old sensei raped me as he was branding one of his Curse Seals on my neck, so I know all about having a shitty life."
"You never told us he raped you, Anko!" shouted Yugao, looking worried for her friend. "You said you didn't remember anything from before you got the seal."
"I lied," answered Anko. "Well, sort of lied. I don't remember anything from before he branded me, but I remember him suddenly on top of me laughing like a madman as he pulled away from my neck, all the while he was thrusting into me as I screamed. Maybe I was willing before he branded me, but I wasn't after he did. All I could remember was leaving the village with my kind and caring sensei, then suddenly I was in a shitty ass cave as he was holding me down and forcing himself on me. He finished, laughing the whole time, then climbed off me pulling up his pants and telling me what a disappointment I was. He walked out after that, never looking back. The last memory I have before being found by a team of ANBU was of him laughing as I passed out. I never told anyone that before."
Hinata, torn between comforting Anko and watching the pillar, finally voice her theory. "I think the pillar here represents the amount of truth we need to speak before we are free. It has gotten brighter each time we've spoken an important truth."
She paused for a moment, then summoning up her courage she looked around the group. "I love Mito, but I think I could fall in love with Naruto as well. I've been so torn up about it since I met him that I didn't know what to do. I even debated killing myself to keep him from feeling like he was being forced into marrying me. I didn't because I couldn't imagine leaving Mito and I didn't want to make Naruto feel like he cause my death."
Suddenly blushing like mad Hinata suddenly blurted out, "That and I keep dreaming about what it would be like to have sex with the both of them at the same time."
"Wow!" drawled Yugao. "That would be rather hot, especially since Naruto is hung like a horse. I hope I can join in sometime."
"Me too," admitted Anko, blushing as she said it. "Naruto treated me nice, nicer than anyone normally does in the village when I'm not wearing my ANBU mask. I've kind of had a crush on him ever since."
"Me too," admitted the other three girls.
"I was attracted to him the moment I saw him eating ramen with Itachi," Mito said, blushing. "I know he's supposed to be my cousin, or brother, something like that, but I don't really care about that so much as I just want to see if we can make a relationship work between us. That and I really like how it feels when he holds me in his arms."
"Since my boyfriend Hyate died during Orochimaru's invasion I haven't really thought about any other men," whispered Yugao. "The night we stayed at Naruto's house, when he was asleep and I stared at his body while undressing him, he pulled me into his arms at some point and I cried. It wasn't because I was sad, but because I felt safe again for the first time since Hyate died. I think I started to fall in love with you that night, Naruto-kun. I felt so bad for you when we found out about the whole mess with the alliance contract and the CRA, but secretly I wanted to be one of your wives. I wanted to wake up feeling that safe every morning."
Naruto, who had be silent since the girls started their confessions, was trying to absorb what he was hearing. His head said not to believe what they were saying, even if he knew it was the truth thanks to the seals in the building, but his heart wanted to believe them. Still, they could not make an honest declaration unless he told them the whole truth about himself. Mustering up the courage to speak, he looked around at the girls now sitting near him and sighed. This would be the make or break moment for any hope of a relationship he might have with any or all of them.
"I no longer contain the Kyubi," he finally said, looking sad as he spoke. "His name was really Kurama and he was probably the best friend I ever had, even if he was a pain in the ass when I was younger. The only way to win the war was to seal a creature called the Jubi inside myself. Things didn't go as planned though, and I ended up combining the Jubi with bits and pieces of chakra from the other eight Biju, my own chakra, and a lot of Nature chakra. It changed the Jubi into the Junibi, the Twelve-tailed Phoenix, or Momo as she calls herself. That's why I had to leave my world, I had too much chakra for my world to support, so I came here."
"That's the bird that's been flying all over the village, playing with the kids and healing them, the most powerful Biju in existence!" exclaimed Anko, smirking as she did. "Not only that, but the most powerful creature is a girl! Yeah, girls rock!"
"You so didn't say that," groaned Yugao, palming her face. "Granted, I agree completely, but still."
"You don't hate me because I didn't tell you about Momo?" asked Naruto, still a bit worried.
"Not at all," Hinata said with a grin. "I watched her playing peek-a-boo with a toddler in the park one day, it was the cutest thing I've ever seen. Can we meet her?"
"I can't talk to her right now, no chakra," explained Naruto, starting to feel like things might be looking up. "I'll introduce you all when we get out of here."
"That is so cool," Mito said as she snuggled up to Naruto's side, pulling one of his arms around her. "It will be like getting another member of the family."
"Screw anyone that can't tell the difference between a scroll and a kunai," added Yugao with a smile as she move over behind Naruto and wrapped her arms around his neck. "I could never hate you for something like that, I like you too much for it to even be a consideration."
Nodding her head and snuggling into Naruto's other side, puling his other arm around her waist Anko added, "Ditto, Naruto-kun. If you can deal with my past, I'll never leave your side."
Hinata smiled, seeing the pillar was almost a blinding white light now, laid down with her head in Naruto's lap, smiling up at him. "You are Naruto, the man I want to marry, not for the sake of a piece of paper or any amount of gold, but because you are a good man with a wonderfully large heart."
"And dick, don't forget the dick," added Anko, getting a swat to the back of the head from Yugao.
"That too, but it's just a bonus," admitted Hinata, causing Naruto to blush even worse than Anko's comment had caused.
"Thank you, all of you," whispered Naruto, tears forming in his eyes as he finally accepted that he could be loved in this world.
"Justice is served," boomed a voice, causing all of them to jump to their feet, noticing that their chakra was back now. "Go in peace, young Namikaze."