08. To Become a Hero
I practically sprinted the entire way home, my little body bouncing with excitement. Mom and Dad were supposed to be home today. I had so much to tell them: how much fun I'd had on my birthday, even though they had missed it, that I had aced an academy exam this week, and that I finally learned that jutsu that Itachi-san had been teaching me and Sasuke-kun.
My little fingers turned the doorknob to our house, bursting through the door. There was a smile on my face, until the kitchen, which was the immediate room of the house once inside, greeted me. I peered around but my parents were nowhere to be seen. Keitaro was home however; he was leaning his lower back against one of the kitchen counters, his arms crossed over his chest. He looked tired, his eyes weary. His brown bangs were in a mess, revealing that he had probably been running his hands through them repeatedly all day.
Most unusual, however, was the other person standing in the kitchen. Hokage-sama was standing across Keitaro, his lined face just as weary. As the door closed behind me, it caught their attention and they glanced over to me. Neither seemed happy to see me.
"Keitaro…where's Mom and Dad?" I asked carefully, turning my violet-colored eyes on our visitor. "Why is Hokage-sama here?"
Keitaro glanced at the Hokage, who returned his look with a solemn one of his own. Dread was beginning to swirl in my chest. Something wasn't right here.
"Nakao-imouto…maybe you should sit down," Keitaro said gently, pushing himself away from the counter.
"Why?" I asked. My voice was beginning to rise in fear. Why was no one answering my questions?
Keitaro wandered over and steered me into a cushion at the table. I didn't protest, but kept my eyes on my brother the entire time.
"What's going on?" I asked.
"Nakao…Mom and Dad are dead."
My world shattered. The words seemed so foreign to me, like some kind of abstract idea I couldn't grasp. Keitaro's lips were moving, he was speaking to me, but I couldn't hear him. The world had gone silent around me, save the humming in my ears.
Keitaro put a hand on my shoulder, kneeling beside me. "Nakao…Nakao…"
"Nakao…Nakao!"
I groaned, throwing an arm over my eyes to protect them from any prodding light. I muttered sleepily. "Go away."
"Nakao, get up! This is important!" Naruto exclaimed.
I let out an aggravated sigh, dropping my arm dramatically onto the floor, gazing up at him. He was bursting with excitement.
"Come on, Nakao!"
"Alright!" I surrendered, throwing back the blanket. I sat up, rubbing at my eyes. "Someone better be dying."
I stopped, looking up at Naruto hopefully. "Is it Sakura?"
Naruto raised an eyebrow at me, frowning in confusion. "No! Kakashi-sensei's awake! I mean, I think!"
I sighed. "Well there goes my dream…alright."
I got to my feet, tired muscles protesting, and followed Naruto out into the hallway. Two doors down, Sakura and Sasuke were standing outside a doorway. Once Naruto and I arrived, the two wandered in and we followed.
Kakashi-sensei was lying in bed, a thick, weighted blanket over his form. Tsunami, Tazuna's daughter, was standing over him, hands on her hips. She looked up when the four of us entered, smiling warmly. Sakura walked over to Kakashi-sensei's left side, sitting beside him. Sasuke, Naruto and myself sat at the foot of his bed, in that order.
"Kakashi-sensei, your Sharingan is amazing, but it seems to put a lot of strain on your body. I don't know if it's good or bad," Sakura said, looking down at our sensei.
I was sitting cross-legged, right elbow resting on the respective knee, and my cheek resting in that hand. "Well, since we would have died horribly without it, I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that it's a good thing."
"I'm being serious, Nakao," Sakura looked over at me pointedly.
"So am I," I returned the look.
"Well, you defeated the ninja so we should be okay for a while," Tazuna commented. He had entered the room shortly after us and was wiping his glasses lenses with a rag.
"By the way, Sensei, who was that boy with the mask?" Sakura asked, a finger to her chin in thought.
I groaned, burying my face into my hand. You'd think surviving a life-and-death battle would have brought our group closer, but you'd be sorely disappointed. My voice came out muffled since my mouth was pressed into my hand. "I thought we already went through this."
Sakura shot me a glare. "Fine then, Nakao. Since you're all-knowing…"
I scoffed and rolled my eyes. "The kid, like he already told us, is from the Hidden Mist Tracking Unit Squad. Tracking ninja of his specialty are supposed to track down rogue ninja and erase them from existence."
"Why do they want to do that?" Naruto asked.
"A ninja's body could give away the secrets of ninja techniques and chakra of the village the ninja lived in. That includes secret medicine remedies and various other things," Kakashi continued. "For example: if I were to die, the secret of my Sharingan would be examined. The worst case would be my techniques and Sharingan being stolen. So, pursuing ninja will kill exiled ninja, dispose of the body, and stop any secrets of the village they abandoned, from being revealed."
"But hey, Kakashi-sensei, Sasuke and I were talking: aren't tracker ninja supposed to annihilate the body on the spot? I thought they only had to take the head back as proof," I quirked my head in question.
"That's true…" Kakashi-sensei trailed off. His face was full of contemplation.
"Um, Sensei?" I pulled at his blanket gently to grab his attention.
Kakashi-sensei struggled into a sitting position, still deep in thought.
"What's going on?" Sakura asked slowly, looking between myself and Kakashi-sensei.
"What did Zabuza do with the body?" Kakashi-sensei asked Sakura.
"How should we know? He took it away," she shrugged.
"But that's just it. Like I just said, they're not supposed to do that. It's against protocol," I said, glancing to the pink-haired kunoichi.
"And then there's the choice in weapon…" Kakashi-sensei went on.
"They were long needles…tracking needles," Sasuke's face was also strained in concentration. His head finally snapped up, looking at me and then Kakashi-sensei. "So…"
"What are you guys talking about?" Tazuna asked. Naruto and Sakura looked just as confused. My gut was swirling with apprehension as I pieced the situation together.
"Zabuza is alive," Kakashi-sensei stated, cutting to the chase.
"What!?" all three of them exclaimed. Tsunami's face registered fright from Kakashi-sensei's right side.
"What do you mean!?" Naruto's eyes widened, his voice rising.
"But you said it yourself, Sensei! You confirmed Zabuza was dead," Sakura insisted.
"I did say that, but he was probably in a near death state. That kind of weaponry doesn't always kill; it's usually used in medical practice," Kakashi-sensei explained.
"If that boy really was a tracker ninja, or trained in the art, it would have been a breeze for him to put Zabuza in that state," Sasuke said.
"That's true. I mean, did you see that precision he had?" I glanced over to the Uchiha.
"First off, that boy took Zabuza's body even though it was clearly too heavy. Second, he used a weapon not likely to kill. By looking at these two points it almost obvious, the boy wasn't trying to harm Zabuza, but help him," Kakashi decided.
"Maybe you're just thinking too much," Tazuna said, trying to ease his panic. Sweat was already beginning to accumulate on his face and he tried to dry it with the rag in his hand.
"No, once a ninja feels something, they must prepare themselves before it is too late. It's a ninja rule," Kakashi-sensei insisted.
"So what's the game plan?" I asked my sensei.
"I'm going to put you guys through training," he responded.
I groaned internally…I think it was internally. I was still sore everywhere. Literally everywhere. Almost every part of me was still bruised and swollen. Even my bones were bruised. Everything aside from sleeping sounded like a major pain in the ass at the moment.
"But how is training going to help us?" Sakura asked.
Now I don't know if my patience was on such a short thread because I was in pain. Or maybe I wasn't getting enough sleep. Or maybe Sakura's constant presence was just getting to me. But my hand slid from beneath my chin in shock. I gaped at her. "Did you seriously just say that? You're right Strawberry Shortcake, how on earth would getting strong help us at all? What a silly thought."
"Shut up, Nakao!" Sakura glared over at me, patches of pink rising in her cheeks.
"You shut up!" I pointed at her. "You're the one saying stupid things!"
Kakashi-sensei sighed, bowing his head. Naruto on the other hand, was now overcome with excitement. He was grinning as he pumped a fist into the air. "Alright! Now things are getting interesting!"
"No they're not."
Our entire team turned around to see who had spoken. It was a little boy, no older than eight by the size of him, standing in the doorway. With black hair and black eyes, he looked just like his mother. His name was Inari, Tsunami had told me. Because I had mostly been resting the past two days that Kakashi-sensei had been out cold, I had only seen the boy once, and that was just in passing. I had never heard him even speak, until now.
"Inari, where have you been!?" Tazuna grinned, opening his arms wide.
Inari ran towards his grandfather, embracing him. My entire team watched the exchange. Perhaps none of the others had really met Inari either. After all, we had all been keeping busy. Tazuna had rarely been home and was out and about around town, collecting supplies or checking up on the bridge. Sasuke and Naruto had been out training, doing whatever it was they did during training. Sakura had…well…actually, I've no clue what Sakura had been doing. Probably stalking Sasuke. Maybe helping Tsunami. Probably stalking Sasuke.
"Now Inari, don't be rude and say hello. These nice ninja escorted your grandpa home," Tsunami wandered towards him, hands on her hips.
"Ah, it's alright, right Inari?" Tazuna grinned, ruffling the boy's hair.
"Gee, thanks gramps," I muttered.
Sasuke elbowed me in the ribs. I hissed in pain, sending him a death glare. He didn't even look apologetic. When I looked back, I found that Inari had been watching me; his stare vacant. I blinked and glanced over to the rest of my team. They were looking at Inari with just as much interest. They must have been examined as well.
After a very awkward and uncomfortable moment, Inari moved over to his mother. Standing in front of her, he looked up into her face. "Mom, they're all going to die."
My eye immediately began to twitch. Yikes. Sasuke could teach this kid a thing or two about positivity.
"It's true!" Inari insisted. "They don't stand a chance against Gatoh!"
"What did you say kid!? Listen here, I'm a super hero!" Naruto stuck a thumb into his chest. "I'm going to be a great ninja known as the Hokage! I don't know this Gatoh but he's no match for me!"
"Hero?" Inari spat. "Are you stupid? There are no such things as heroes."
Naruto sat, stunned for a minute before quickly growing offended. He got to his feet, raising his fists. "What did you say!?"
"Naruto, sit down!" Sakura ordered, getting to her feet and preventing Naruto from doing anything stupid.
"If you don't want to die, go home," Inari said before turning his back to us and headed towards the door.
"Inari, where are you going?" Tazuna asked.
"I'm going to go look at the ocean," Inari said without looking back before exiting the room.
Tazuna sighed after he left the room. "I'm sorry about that."
"Is he…uh…alright?" I asked, looking to the old man. The look that he gave me in return told me told me that he probably…no, definitely, wasn't. I glanced back to the now empty doorway, confused.
—
It was quite a few days later when Kakashi-sensei was finally able to get out of bed. He was on wooden crutches, but was mobile. I was finally feeling better, still a little sore but nothing I hadn't worked through before. So today, bright and early, the entire squad had wandered into the woods behind Tazuna's house to train.
Sasuke, myself, Naruto and Sakura stood in a straight line, in that order, in front of Kakashi-sensei. The woods were nicely shaded thanks to the towering trees. Some of the trees could even rival Konoha's.
"We will now begin your training," Kakashi-sensei announced. "But first, I want to talk about chakra, the basis of ninja abilities."
I groaned on the inside as the droning voice of Iruka-sensei and his long-winded lectures came alive like a dreadful memory. I heard Sasuke mumble something from my left. Naruto was the one who actually said something. "We already know about catra."
My eye twitched and I peered to my right at the boy. "It's…chakra, Naruto."
"Sakura, could you please explain?" Kakashi-sensei asked.
As if this hadn't started terribly already, Sakura immediately launch into her explanation. "Chakra is energy that a ninja needs to utilize a technique. This energy comes from the body energy that is collected from every cell in the body. It also comes from spirit energy that comes from training and experience."
Lucky for me I had some catchy lyrics to mouth to.
If Sakura noticed me, she paid no mind; she just continued her relentless lecture. "In other words, techniques come from these two energies that are squeezed out of the body and molded together. This process is known as making chakra. And with this chakra, one is able to perform this technique by forming a handseal."
"That is correct; Iruka-sensei was blessed with such a smart student," Kakashi-sensei told my teammate. Sakura grinned. I made a gagging sound in the back of my throat. Look, I never said I was that mature.
"Who needs all that? Even if you don't understand all that, you can still learn it with your body," Naruto said.
"I agree, we can already use techniques," Sasuke agreed.
"No, you guys aren't using your chakra completely," Kakashi-sensei immediately shut the boys down.
"Of course we're not," I muttered irritably.
Kakashi sighed. "Just listen. Like Sakura explained, molding chakra is to extract energies from both body and spirit, then mixing them in your body. The amount of energy is different with every technique that you use. So naturally, the way you mix the energies will be different as well. You are not able to use your chakra effectively. Even if you can mold large amounts of chakra, if you cannot control the balance, your technique will be only half effective, that is, if it's effective at all. Wasting energy will become a weakness of not being able to fight for a long time."
"Okay, so what do you want us to do about it?" I asked.
"You guys are going to learn to control chakra amounts with your body. You will undergo harsh training that puts your life on the line."
I watched my sensei carefully. "What are we gunna do…?"
"Climb a tree."
My eyes shifted to my teammates in case they'd gotten a message I'd missed. However they, too, looked confused. I slowly looked back to my teacher. "Um…what?"
"This isn't normal tree climbing," Kakashi-sensei assured. "You guys are going to climb trees without using your hands."
I scratched my head. "Um…did you hit your head in that last battle?"
Naruto let out a bark of laughter. Kakashi-sensei stared at me pointedly. "Just watch."
Kakashi-sensei put his fingers into a handseal, concentrating on his chakra. Dust rose around his feet, showing that he had focused his chakra there. With support from his crutches, Kakashi-sensei walked over to a tree. He placed one foot on the tree trunk, then a crutch and repeated.
Woah! I watched as Kakashi-sensei walked vertically up the tree, his body horizontal to the trunk. He walked onto a thick tree branch, hanging upside down and glancing at our team.
"Gather your chakra to the soles of your feet and make it attach to the tree trunk," Kakashi explained.
"How will we become strong doing that?" Sakura asked, confused.
"And that leads us to the main topic. The main purpose of this training is to calculate how much chakra you need in a certain location. This can be difficult for even the most skilled ninja. The amount needed for tree climbing is quite subtle, but the most difficult area to concentrate chakra is the soles of your feet. So frankly, if you can master this, you can learn any technique. The second purpose to this exercise is to work on molding chakra. Most of the time, ninjas mold their chakra during battle. It's more difficult to mold chakra in that situation. But, it's not like anything is going to happen if I sit and lecture all day."
"I agree," I nodded.
Kakashi threw down four kunai, one landing in front of each of us. "Use that to mark how far up the tree you can make it. Then try and make more and more slashes up as you climb. You guys defiantly aren't good enough to climb by walking so get a running head start. Understand?"
My lips twisted into a skeptical frown. I bent over, plucking the kunai from the ground. I twisted the weapon with my wrist, examining it as though it might hold some answers. My teammates followed suit.
"This is going to be easy for me!" Naruto grinned, gripping his kunai.
I put my fingers into a handsign and closed my eyes. First, I need to concentrate my chakra to the soles of my feet…
I felt a surge there. Check.
I reopened my eyes. My teammates had followed my lead. Naruto set his eyes on the tree in front of him. "Alright, let's do it!"
I decided to hold back and watched my blonde teammate rush his tree. He put one foot on the tree trunk, then another. A sound like a wet sponge on a windshield emanated from beneath his shoes. Naruto slipped off of the tree trunk, whacking his head against the ground hard enough to make me wince. He began rolling around on the ground, grasping at his head.
From beside me, Sasuke took off towards his tree. I glanced at him before looking at my own tree. I took a deep breath and ran. I tried not to think about the physical illogicalness of the situation and placed one foot on the tree trunk. It was a very strange feeling as I scaled the tree. It was as if my concentrated wavered in either direction, I wouldn't be able to keep my hold.
A snapping sound came from beneath my feet. I gasped as one of my feet sunk into the tree trunk and my heart swooped as my balance faltered. I gritted my teeth together and slashed the bark where my foot had sunk in with the kunai. Before I could fall, I pushed off of the tree, back-flipping in the air and landing on the ground. Sasuke had landed seconds prior and was staring up at his tree.
I glanced up to his tree as well. I had made it just slightly higher than the Uchiha. There was a dent in his bark, just like the dent in mine when I looked back to my tree. I glanced to Naruto's. He was still rolling around on the ground, clutching at the bump on the back of his head. There was no dent in his tree. My lips twisted in thought. I see; if you use too little chakra, your feet will simply slip off of the bark. If you use too much, you'll break through the bark…
"Hey, this is easier than I thought!"
I glanced up in surprise at the sound of Sakura's voice.
"Woah, Sakura!" Naruto exclaimed.
Sakura was sitting on a high branch in her tree. She was grinning, looking down at all of us on the ground. My mouth hung open. How could it be!? How did she get that high!? How did she complete the exercise in just one try!?
"Well would you look at that," Kakashi-sensei commented, impressed. "Looks like our female ninja, is the best at chakra control."
"That's not a female! That's an it! And she's not that special!" I yelled in frustration, glaring up at Sakura. Searing anger bubbled in my stomach. Not at her. But at myself. That for all this shit I gave her, she'd beaten me.
"Wow go Sakura! I expected this from the girl I have high hopes for!" Naruto grinned up at the girl. Sasuke cursed from beside me, looking away from the girl. Sakura's smile faltered upon seeing Sasuke's reaction and it gave me some satisfaction. Was this jealousy something I needed to work on? Yeah, probably. But right now, I was going to beat this challenge so hard.
"Your knowledge is great but I'm truly impressed with your chakra control and stamina," Kakashi-sensei congratulated. "Looks like Sakura is closest to becoming Hokage right now."
Naruto's proud expression turned into an angry response.
"And looks like the Uchiha Clan isn't as great as they say," Kakashi-sensei continued.
"Kakashi-sensei, just because you're excited Strawberry Shortcake actually did something, doesn't mean you need to be a jerk about it," I snapped.
I felt oddly defensive of my two male teammates. Maybe it was because we were uniting against a common enemy; Sakura, or maybe it had to do with the insults he'd chosen. That'd he'd picked at their cores, like they weren't going to try their hardest to get to the top of their damned trees.
Kakashi-sensei turned his beady gaze on me. "Nakao, are you trying to take the attention away from your shortcomings?"
I glared coldly up at him. "I'm going to stop you right there, Sensei. You think I haven't peeked into your files?"
This made Kakashi stop short and he stared at me very vacantly for a minute. I could feel the running thoughts of my teammates. Turning away from him, I screwed up my concentration and made a run for my tree. But despite my cool demeanor, anger was humming through my veins. It played a game of tug-of-war with my concentration as I bounded up the trunk. I forced it down and saw my feet pass the slash mark in the bark.
"Don't say that to Sasuke, Sensei!"
I cursed as Sakura's high pitched voice broke through my already-flimsy concentration. I slashed at the bark, back-flipping to the ground again. I landed between my two male teammates, who were both in a glaring contest. I looked between the both of them.
"I'm not gunna lose to either of you!" Naruto exclaimed suddenly, pointing at Sasuke and me. "I'm gunna pass both of you up!"
"Ha, unlikely Naruto!" I smirked, the anger ebbing away as I pointed the tip of my kunai at Naruto. "Care to place a wager?"
"Like what?" Naruto asked, confused.
I smirked, a glint in my eye. "Whoever reaches the top of their tree last, buys the winner a bowl of ramen. You want in on this, Sasuke?"
I glanced over at the brooding Uchiha. He glanced over at me in turn, an annoyed look on his face. "No."
"Afraid you'll lose, Sasuke?" I leered.
Sasuke immediately glared. I smirked again, turning back to Naruto and whispering. "Sasuke's in!"
Naruto pumped a fist in the air. "Alright! Free ramen for me!"
"Yeah right, Naruto!" I turned away from him and ran at the tree.
—
"Uuugggghhh!" I complained as loud as I could force it out, lying on my back. I kicked my sore legs up and down against the ground.
I was utterly exhausted as I gazed up at the sky above. It was hard to see clearly with the tree canopies blocking out the sky, but it was clearly getting later in the day. The sun was continually sinking in the sky and it was turning from blue to orange and purple.
Movement from my right caught my attention. I turned my head against the ground, the grass tickling my cheek and watched as Naruto got to his feet. He glared up at his tree before wandering over to Sakura, who was leaning against her tree in a similar form of exhaustion. He kneeled down beside her and whispered something into her ear.
I turned my head the other way to look over at Sasuke. He was sitting on the grass, breathing heavily. His face was smeared with sweat and dirt, just as mine probably was. His attention had also been caught by Naruto and was glancing at him curiously.
I took a glance up at Sasuke's tree. The two of us were neck and neck, but I was beating him by just a mark or two. Not a comfortable enough advantage. Naruto hadn't yet caught up to either of us and had only reached about a foot off the ground. I sighed, forcing myself into a sitting position and glanced to my own tree in dismay.
—
I got to my feet with a spurt of energy that was forced from my very core. I was still breathing heavily from my last attempt and sweat caused my bangs to cling to my forehead. My chest felt constricted from the soreness of my muscles and bones. Sasuke, Naruto and myself had been out in the forest all day, working on getting up our trees. We'd started at dawn and now the day was turning to dusk.
Sakura had not come out with the rest of us. Kakashi-sensei had sent her to guard Tazuna on the bridge today while the three of us completed our training. I found the whole idea completely ludicrous. If someone wanted to kill Tazuna, it'd be the perfect day for it.
I wiped at my forehead, pushing the damp bangs out of my eyes. As I stood straight, ready to focus my chakra yet again, Naruto was setting off on a run, his face screwed in concentration. Just before he reached his tree, a shout rung out and he lost concentration.
"Naruto."
Sasuke's voice caught Naruto by surprise and he tripped over himself, falling flat on his face. My concentration broke as well and I let my chakra level fall, glancing curiously over at Sasuke.
"What do you want!? Don't bother me when I'm concentrating!" Naruto yelled out in frustration, getting to his knees and glaring past me to Sasuke.
"Well…uh…"
"What?" Naruto crossed his arms over his chest.
I watched Sasuke with a raised eyebrow. Was he stuttering?
Sasuke looked as though he was choking on something when he finally spit out the words. "Yesterday you asked Sakura for help; what did she tell you?"
The words came out so quickly it took me, and by the looks of it, Naruto, a minute to piece together what Sasuke had said. We blinked, then reacted differently. Naruto grinned slyly, narrowing his eyes. "I'm not telling."
I immediately ran over to the boy, grabbing his shirt in both hands. I shook him once. "No, Sasuke! Retain your dignity!"
Twitching, Sasuke pushed me off of him. I stumbled backwards and spit my tongue out at him. If he wanted Sakura's help then fine. I was going to do this on my own.
I ran at my tree again.
—
"Wow, it's been so long since I've eaten with so many people," Tazuna commented later that night at dinner.
Despite this, Tazuna's home housed a rather large table. At the heads sat Sakura and Tazuna. On Sakura's left sat Naruto with Kakashi-sensei next to him. The empty seat next to Kakashi-sensei was where Tsunami had been sitting; now she was washing dishes. To Sakura's right sat Sasuke, with me next to him, and Inari on my other side.
Dinner was simple, stew and bread, but it was delicious. Especially since my stomach was grumbling from hunger. Sasuke and Naruto were shoveling food into their mouths like they had never eaten before. Emptying their bowls, they got to their feet simultaneously. "I want some more!"
They glared at one another, before twisting in their seats and practically upchucking everything they had just swallowed. Eye twitching, I let my spoon drop into my bowl with a clatter, glaring at the two rivals.
Sakura got to her feet, slapping a hand down on the tabletop. "If you're going to throw up, don't eat so much!"
"We have to eat," Sasuke insisted.
"So we can be stronger," Naruto finished.
I glared next at Sasuke. "Honestly, have some class, Uchiha."
Sasuke shot my a glare. I rolled my eyes, picking up my spoon to finish my dinner at an acceptable rate.
After dinner, Tsunami served everyone tea. I was a bit too excited to find that Tsunami had sugar for me to sweeten the tea with. Sweet tea was something I enjoyed immensely and the taste took my mind to happier times. Naruto and I happily, and enthusiastically, sucked down our cups. Sasuke and Kakashi-sensei seemed a little bit mellower. Sakura had opted out altogether and had gotten up from her seat. She had wandered over to the wall, staring at a photograph.
The photo consisted of Tsunami, Inari and Tazuna. The picture looked recent, like it had only been taken a year or two ago. The upper, right hand corner of the photo was ripped. I could see a man's body next to Tsunami, behind Inari, but the head was torn out of the picture.
"Why do you have a torn picture on the wall?" Sakura asked. "Inari was watching it all throughout dinner."
Tsunami paused, her arms going still. Tazuna also seemed to freeze. Finally, after a long, awkward silence, Tsunami spoke. "It's my husband."
"He was known as a hero in this town…" Tazuna said quietly.
From beside me, Inari slid out of his chair. I watched as he moved towards the door of the room. Tsunami turned to watch him, worry on her face. "Inari, where are you going?"
The young boy didn't respond and opened the door, disappearing outside into the night. Tsunami quickly ran over, opening the door. Before she exited, she glared over her shoulder at Tazuna. "Father, I told you not to mention him in front of Inari!"
In a second, she was gone too. Silence overtook the room again as Tazuna stared down at the wooden tabletop. Sakura looked to him. "What's wrong with Inari?"
"Maybe you should stop asking questions," I glanced up at her. She glared. I felt a kick to my shin and glared over at Sasuke.
"Knock it off," Sasuke whispered at you.
"I'm not doing anything!" I hissed back. "She's the one causing trouble like always. Why are you taking her side?"
I glared at the Uchiha accusingly, but he'd already lost interest in the conversation and paid me no mind.
"Inari had a father, not related in blood..."
Everyone blinked and turned to Tazuna as he began to speak. He told us a tale, a tragic tale about a hero. When Inari was younger, he was rescued from drowning by a man going by the name of Kaiza. He was a man of courage who had once saved the village from flooding. Inari had looked up to him, they were really close. But then Gatoh came to the Land of Waves and when everyone else was afraid of him, Kaiza stood up. Gatoh didn't like this and overpowered Kaiza. His arms were broken and he was brought to the village square, tied up to a post to be made an example of. Kaiza was executed in front of Inari.
"Ever since then, courage has been stolen from this village...and Inari's changed...so has everyone..." Tazuna finished.
I had listened intently to the tale with my right elbow resting on the table top with my chin atop my hand. I, too, knew the pain of losing a parent. Knew the sorrows that came with it. The happiness that got sucked out of you. The memories you would never have.
The scraping of a chair against the floor grabbed my attention. I glanced over as Naruto got to his feet. He moved to take a step but instead, fell flat on his face. I looked over, concerned. "Naruto, what are you doing?"
"I'm going to prove it to him…" Naruto said, shakily trying to get to his knees.
"Prove what to who?" I asked, eyebrow quirked.
Naruto slowly got to his feet. "That there are such things as heroes in this world…"
"Hero?" Inari spat. "Are you stupid? There are no such things as heroes."
The memory came to me and my eyes softened.
"Naruto, you're going to die if you train anymore tonight," I said. He didn't even seem to hear me.
—
I don't want to do this…yes you do…I do not! Yes you do!
My brain argued with itself as I slowly and quietly slid out of bed. It was well past midnight. I'd fallen asleep immediately after dinner and had awoken with a start, realizing I had wasted the entire evening. My aching body told me it had probably been better to rest; and it clearly desired even more rest. But my emotions had control at this point. I kept seeing Naruto desperately trying to prove to a little boy that there was hope in this world. That there was good out there, if we could just be strong enough to prove it.
I shivered in the cool air as I donned my clothes and weapon pouches. I snapped on my weapons belt and glanced at the two other sleeping occupants of the room. Neither Tsunami nor Sakura were disturbed by my movements and I tip-toed past them, through the house and out into the dark.
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