You know that sinking feeling that you get when you know that something bad is about to go down?
Yeah. I've got that feeling.
"A mission to the Land of Waves, eh?"
"Yep." Naruto nodded, packing a bunch of items on top of scrolls.
"Well, you have fun."
"Oh, don't worry, we will. It's a C-Rank after all, how couldn't we?"
"No idea." I said, shaking my head at him.
And in the meantime, I'll be watching.
Naruto's hand slapped the desk, and everything that he had packed on top of the scrolls promptly burst into smoke.
My eyes narrowed, temporarily obscured in the smoke.
Because I won't let anything happen to you.
I kept track of their Hearts as they left the village, accompanied by another Heart, which could only be Tazuna's.
Well, I mostly kept track of Naruto's and Sasuke's Hearts, as I wasn't that familiar with Kakashi's and Sakura's. The familiarity helped me find them easier, and Sasuke, especially, was like a beacon to me now that he was no longer surrounded by the thousands of people in Konoha.
Consequently, I noted the exact moment that they encountered the Demon Brothers. The spike of surprise and anger, which was then shortly followed by feelings of accomplishment and joy.
Given the complete and total lack of fear and pain, I assumed that none of them were hurt. Which didn't surprise me at all, since Sasuke was used to fighting faster opponents, and had the Sharingan to back him up, while Naruto regularly managed to tie with Sasuke in combat. As for Sakura...
Well, Kakashi was right there. And, despite the fact that he was a lazy porn-addict, he was still an elite Jounin more than capable of wrecking both of those Chunin. The man simply wouldn't let them hurt his genin.
Not with the Demon Brothers, and not, later on, with Zabuza himself. There was an entire roulette of emotions when it came to him. Anger, fear, caution... followed by relief, happiness and surprise, which was itself followed more anger, fear and caution.
Probably Zabuza's defeat, followed by the revelation that he wasn't dead yet.
And then, a week later...
Nothing.
Naruto and Sasuke fought Haku, and Haku was defeated... or delayed. It didn't matter, because Sasuke was never taken out of the fight, never put into a near-death state.
Naruto never used the power of the Kyuubi.
I am...
Honestly unsure as to what to think of that.
Not that I got much time to think of that, because less than 2 minutes later, an army -Gato's, of course-, and then that army was slaughtered.
Most of it all at once. I felt the fear build all at once, incomprehension, before hundreds of Hearts were simultaneously leaving their bodies.
A water jutsu, given the people there. Could have been fire, but fire usually didn't kill instantly and simultaneously. Lightning would have killed them before they had the opportunity to build fear, while most large scale wind jutsu were fairly Chakra intensive. Could have been earth, but they were on a bridge that was mostly concrete and metal. Concrete isn't the easiest thing to manipulate, and there wouldn't be enough of it to hit everything at once without also wrecking the bridge in the process.
Everything except Gato, anyway.
His Heart -greedy evil slimy disgusting corrupting- was released soon after. By Zabuza, who was currently not dead.
And remained not dead. Along with Haku, who was also not dead.
Which was good for them. And probably good for Naruto, too.
Do kind of have to wonder about how that's going to work out, though.
Wonder what they're going to do, wonder how they're going to change things.
Not that I care about that.
Canon has far and away been thrown off the rails. So many little differences that all add up, so many tiny changes that affect everything. Danzo's dead, Kakuzu's dead, Zabuza and Haku are still alive, Sasuke's not an asshole, there are still 20 extra Uchiha alive, Naruto's in a much better position, Hiruzen's been training, Shikaku has two more kids, the Sanbi is free of mind control, I have a Keyblade, and, last but not least, there's a motherfucking Heartless here.
Yours truly, of course.
Following the rails of canon has looong since stopped being an option.
Who cares if Zabuza and Haku are still alive? Their being alive can't possibly change the way things go down any more than it already has.
But, I digress.
Whatever the case, Zabuza and Haku left the bridge shortly afterwards, while Team 7 went back to Tazuna's house to rest and recover.
I didn't even need to look to feel the massive rise of elation and hope as news of Gato's death spread throughout wave.
I sincerely doubt that I wouldn't have been able to feel it, even if Sasuke and Naruto weren't over there.
That kind of thing, when an entire country of people simultaneously gain hope after feeling despair, is exactly the kind of thing that I simply couldn't miss. The rise of hope after the death of a tyrant...
No matter where I was in this World, I would have been able to feel it.
Team 7 returned within two weeks, making it back a lot faster now that they didn't have an untrained civilian slowing them down.
Admittedly, the Land of Waves wasn't that far away, but the difference was still quite massive. The difference between several days and several hours, in fact.
And now, Sasuke and Naruto were home.
I greeted them outside of their apartment building -Sasuke and Naruto coincidentally had apartments right next to each other- as they were entering, and followed them all the way into Naruto's surprisingly clean apartment.
Surprisingly green, too. Naruto did have a hobby in gardening, and he'd been nurturing his green thumb fairly well.
"So..." I began. "How was Wave?"
Sasuke groaned.