A month passed since their mission to the Land of Iron. The team had been regularly training and doing D-rank missions before they were finally able to go on another C-rank mission. Naruto stood at the village gate at 6am waiting for his teammates and their client.
This time, they were to escort a businessman back to his home in the Land of Hot Water. As Naruto waited, he thought back to his experiences for the past month.
Flashback
"Okay, today we will be doing elemental ninjutsu training. Since we've found out what your affinities were yesterday, it's only right to start today," Kakashi said, somehow managing to sound encouraging yet bored at the same time.
The day before, Kakashi had given Sasuke and Shikamaru chakra paper to find out their affinities. Sasuke also had two affinities like Naruto, Lightning and Fire while Shikamaru had an Earth affinity. Overall, their team was well-rounded and balanced. They each had an affinity for the five elements and worked well together.
Although Shikamaru knew his shadow ninjutsu, Kakashi did not want him to be overly dependent on them. As such he wanted him to learn elemental ninjutsu. "Sasuke and Shika, I want you guys to respectively try to burn or crumble a leaf like the chakra paper. It is a practice for your elemental chakra control. Naruto, you already did this training so I trust you are able to learn on your own. I will send a shadow clone to monitor you." Kakashi explained.
Sasuke scowled when he heard Naruto had already completed this training before him but he determined himself to not fall behind. 'I need to learn as much as I can as fast as possible. I will not fall behind if I want to kill him…'
Kakashi handed two scrolls to Naruto. The scrolls contained the steps to Futon: Reppusho (Wind Style: Gale Palm) and Suiton: Teppodama (Water Style: Liquid Bullets).
Flashback end
Naruto had mastered his elemental ninjutsu to the best of his abilities. He believed that a jutsu is truly mastered when the least amount of hand seals and chakra is used when performing a jutsu. He had managed to master his elemental ninjutsu such that he only needed one hand seal. Given that they were only C-rank ninjutsu, it was not very difficult to cut the number of hand seals and chakra.
Naruto was broken out of his thoughts when he felt a presence start to appear on either side of him. A few moments later, Shikamaru and Sasuke Shunshin beside him. He had taught them how to use the shunshin as Kakashi was too lazy. He felt that it was better and faster for everyone on the team to know the shunshin. Obviously, Shikamaru used it as much as he could because it meant that he did not have to walk everywhere.
"Yo," Naruto greeted with a wave.
"Sup. Man, it's too early for a mission…" Shikamaru complained while he got a standard Sasuke Uchiha greeting: "Hn."
"Agreed but what can we do? The client needs to be at home in four days for an opening ceremony and he can't move as fast as us. So it would take twice the time to get there." Naruto said as he saw Kakashi walking towards the gate with their client, Satoshi Kaito.
Satoshi was a businessman who owned a few restaurants around the Land of Fire. He used to live in the Land of Hot Water but permanently moved to Konoha to open a restaurant. He wore black pants and a blue short-sleeved t-shirt with a plain dark green haori over it. It made him look casual yet still have the aura of a businessman. He had hired the Konoha shinobi to escort him to the Land of Hot Water for the new opening of his sushi restaurant. He was not taking any chances with bandits that might attack him along the way.
"Good morning, everyone. Thank you for taking this mission to escort me to my hometown. I'm sorry if it's early but I have to be there in four days." He said politely.
"It's ok Satoshi-san. We have no issue. Let's get a move on shall we." Kakashi said as the team started moving. They were moving in a diamond formation with Kakashi at the back, Sasuke on the left and Shikamaru on the right while Naruto took point. It was very silent for a while before Naruto broke the silence.
"Satoshi-san, is it really hard to run a business?" Naruto asked, trying to start a conversation.
"Why do you ask Naruto-san? Do you have any intentions to open a business of your own?" Satoshi asked.
"No, it's just that I've never thought about what happens in the background." He said.
"Maybe it's because you're too busy eating to think of what happens in the background," Sasuke joked.
"I guess you always think about it then, teme." Naruto replied sarcastically.
This started an argument between the two boys. Satoshi chuckled at their antics while Shikamaru tuned them out after being used to it and stared at the clouds. Kakashi was somehow reading his book but was hearing the boys argue and was also walking at the same time. The atmosphere around had started to lighten and everyone felt comfortable as they made their way to the capital. 'He really knows how to work with people…' Kakashi thought.
Three Days Later
The villagers in the small town known as Toki were treated to the rare sight of Konoha shinobi walking through their streets. The Land of Hot Water used to have a shinobi village like Konoha but it was demilitarised after the third shinobi war. The country now only focuses on tourism, made famous for the country's plethora of hot springs. Therefore, shinobi are quite a rarity to see in the country.
As they walked through the streets at noon, they stopped at a house. The yellow house was decently sized and had 3 bedrooms and two floors. As Satoshi was about to knock on the door, an old lady around her sixties slammed opened the door and came rushing out. Team 7 were ready to defend Satoshi but stopped when they saw the woman hug him.
"Satoshi-chan! Your home!" The woman exclaimed as she grabbed Satoshi in a tight hug.
"Yes, Kaa-chan. It's good to see you again." Satoshi said as he hugged back the woman, now known as his mother.
"Kaa-chan, this is team 7. The blonde is Naruto, the pineapple-haired boy is Shikamaru, the dark haired boy is Sasuke and the man in the mask is Kakashi. They are the ones who escorted me home." He said as he introduced the team.
"Thank you for bringing back my son safely. He's quite a target for bandits nowadays. Glad to see him safe and sound. Please come inside and stay with us until after the opening ceremony ends." She offered as she bowed as a thank you.
Team 7 bowed back and thanked her for her hospitality. However, their plans were cut short when a hawk landed on Kakashi's shoulder. Kakashi took out the message that came with the hawk and read it.
"What is it, sensei?" Naruto asked the question that was on everyone's minds.
"It's a hawk from the Hokage. It looks like team 10 was on a C-rank mission and had run into some trouble. They requested backup as soon as possible and it looks like we are the most available and closest team. It's more resourceful to send another genin team and a jonin rather than a whole team of chunin," Kakashi explained.
"Looks like we will have to travel again…" Naruto sighed. He was looking forward to staying in the town and exploring it.
"Yep, looks like it. Sorry, Satoshi-san. It looks like our time here is done. Maybe we could enjoy our time here another day," Kakashi said as the whole team bowed before they departed.
"Where are we going, sensei?" Sasuke asked.
"The Land of Waves. We have to get there as fast as we can." Kakashi replied as he picked up speed.
"Troublesome…that's like a day and half more of travelling." Shikamaru said. Naruto for once had to agree with Shikamaru. They had already been travelling for three days, but now they were going to travel for another day and a half. Even though he had an absurd amount of stamina, he was not looking forward to travelling through trees for another day and a half.
The Next Day
Team 7 were currently staring at the large body of water in front of them. "It looks like the Land of Wave is across the sea. We've been resting here for an hour and no boats pass through here, which means…we have to do this the hard way." Kakashi said.
"We're gonna have to water walk across it…Troublesome," Shikamaru said. "If we're going to do this, we should do it now when the mist is thick and it's still dark out." The team all nodded in agreement and started their journey to the Land of Wave. Water walking/running was not hard but the team would have preferred to rest and take a boat there. However, they had no time to waste waiting for a boat.
Three hours later
Team 7 was standing in front of a house on an island in the Land of Wave looking exhausted . A knock on the door pulled the attention of a beautiful dark blue-haired woman who rushed to open the door. She was stopped, however, by Kiba who pulled out a kunai and went to answer the door instead of her. Opening the door with his weapon hidden, he saw three familiar faces and a tall man with silver hair and a mask behind them.
"Good morning, you must be one of Asuma's students. We are the team Asuma asked for to help," Kakashi said in his usual lazy tone.
Kiba with Akamaru, his nin-dog, on his head nodded and gestured to the woman inside the house to let her know everything was okay. She came to the door and greeted the new arrivals. "Hello, my name is Tsunami. You must be the backup team sent to help protect my father." She said as she bowed to them.
Kakashi gave her an eye smile, "My name is Kakashi Hatake. The lazy looking pineapple-shape haired boy is Shikamaru Nara, the blonde is Naruto Uzumaki and the dark-haired boy is Sasuke Uchiha. Nice to meet you, Tsunami-san." He said as the team bowed to her.
Kiba and her stood to the side to let the team in before Kakashi closed the door. "Sup, Kiba." Naruto greeted as he gave him a fist bump. "Where's everyone else?"
"Asuma is upstairs, he has chakra exhaustion from the fight. Choji was also injured and Hinata is currently trying her best to treat his injuries." Kiba said he led the others up the stairs.
"You guys fought? Who?" Sasuke asked.
"Choji got hurt?" Shikamaru asked worriedly.
"Hinata knows medical ninjutsu?" Naruto asked.
"Woah, calm down guys. Firstly, yes. We fought a jonin. Choji got hurt during the fight but his injuries isn't too bad. It will heal in a few days. Asuma-sensei had Hinata learn medical ninjutsu because of her near perfect chakra control and byakugan." Kiba answered as he opened the door to the room the rest of Team 10 were in.
Asuma and Choji were lying on futons and Hinata's hands were glowing green, a clear sign that she is using the Shosen Jutsu (Mystical Palm Jutsu) . Choji was asleep while Asuma was staring at the ceiling.
"Looks like you guys are finally here. Man, it's so not cool to be seen weak on the floor like this…" Asuma said while Choji stirred from his sleep.
"Shikamaru…Naruto…Sasuke…Glad you're here *cough*" Choji said weakly.
"Choji, please don't talk too much. You need to rest." Hinata said as she continued to heal Choji.
"What happened?" Kakashi asked.
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Team 7 were staring blankly with their jaws hanging as they heard Team 10's story. The mission started off easy. They were supposed to protect a bridge builder, Tazuna. On the way to Wave, they were attacked by two missing-nin known as the Demon Brothers but their troubles were only just starting. Asuma easily knocked them out and contacted Anbu to arrest them.
When they got closer to Wave, they were attacked by a high-jonin level missing-nin, Zabuza Momochi. Asuma had fought Zabuza head on while a water clone fought the genin of Team 10. At one point, Asuma had gotten himself trapped in a water prison made by Zabuza. Choji had used his family jutsu to make an opening for Kiba and Akamaru to attack Zabuza and force him to free Asuma. Choji was hurt as Zabuza made another clone that managed to cut into Choji's arm causing him to lose a lot of blood. Kiba and Hinata defeated the clone and healed Choji to stop the blood loss. A hunter-nin came out of nowhere and abruptly ended the fight when she supposedly killed Zabuza and took him away.
"Wait, let me get this right. We ran for two days straight to get here but can no longer go out because of the closed trade routes and the water around the land being heavily guarded." Team 10 nodded in response to Shikamaru. "Troublesome…"
"You guys fought two chunin and a jounin missing-nin in the span of two days. Then a hunter-nin comes out of who knows where and kills the jounin." Sasuke said. "Yup," was all he got in response.
"And to top off all of that, this is all because one of the world's richest men has the Land of Wave under his feet. Furthermore, he basically kills anyone who opposes him and is especially targeting the bridge builder who is your client because the bridge he's building will break his hold on the land." Naruto said to sum up the thoughts of his team. Team 10 nodded to state that he was right. "Damn. You guys got the most batshit crazy mission. Why don't we get this type of mission?" Naruto pouted. Sasuke agreed with Naruto, he would've loved to have a mission that tested his limits.
"Man, you guys are going to get me killed one day…" Shikamaru muttered.
"Why is Zabuza called the Demon of the Mist, sensei?" Shikamaru asked. Naruto gave him a bingo book flipped to the page with Zabuza on it. "He killed all his classmates. What the hell! This guy is insane."
"Yeah," Naruto said nonchalantly.
"Kakashi-sensei, the hunter-nin is a fake and Zabuza's alive isn't he?" Naruto asked.
"Yeah…Probably. A hunter-nin is supposed to dispose of a body immediately and the area where the hunter-nin's senbon hit could possibly put him in a near death state." Kakashi said.
"Looks like we have no choice but to stay and do this. We have to just be extra prepared for when they show up again." Naruto said as he punched his palm.
"Naruto's right. We can't do much since we don't know where Zabuza is or where Gato is. So we can only do one thing…train." Asuma said.
"Are you sure? Gato probably has an army, will training be enough?" Kiba said in a manner unlike him.
"Kiba, what happened to you? Where's the pumped up and energetic Kiba I know? Besides, if he has an army, I am a one-man army." Naruto said as he made the half ram seal. " Taju Kage Bunshin no Jutsu (Multiple Shadow Clone Jutsu)! " he exclaimed as 30 shadow clones appeared. "You guys know what to do, disperse!" All 30 clones disappeared in a shunshin.
Team 10 looked at Naruto in awe. Naruto's little demonstration caused Kiba to break out of his shakened up state. 'He's right. What happened to me? Am I actually scared? I am Kiba Inuzuka for kami's sake.'
"Naruto-Kun, w-what did y-you just do?" Hinata asked, although a little red faced.
"Some are hiding around the house just in case. The rest are patrolling the town." Naruto explained.
'I really need to learn that jutsu…' thought both Shikamaru and Sasuke although for different reasons.
"Alright my fellow genins. Let's go eat some lunch and let Asuma and Choji rest, Tsunami-san is calling for us. We start training tomorrow," Kakashi said as he made his way to the dining area downstairs.
Zabuza was resting on a bed and a blanket over him. Asuma had cut through his water jutsu with his wind coated trench knives. The only reason he got caught in the water prison was because he added more chakra to the water to make it too dense to swing the knives around. If only the genin weren't there, he would've drowned. He was also burned and slashed by Asuma. His chakra exhaustion will also take a few days to recover from. He couldn't wait to get his revenge and slice his head off.
Moments later, a short man dressed in a business suit entered the room with two men with swords who flanked him.
"So Zabuza Momochi, the great Demon of the Mist is crippled after facing a few kids and a ninja. I'm not sure if I'm getting my money's worth, Zabuza. Perhaps I should kill you and stop wasting my money," Gato sneered at the man in the bed.
Gato walked over to Zabuza to reach for his neck and strangle him when a hand grabbed his arm and twisted it.
"I will not let you hurt Zabuza-sama." Came the hard voice of Haku who is the fake hunter-nin. She twisted Gato's arm further to emphasise her point. Gato shrieked in pain and fell to his knees as his arm was brought near its breaking point.
"Boss! Get your hand off our boss you bitch!" One of the men unsheathed his sword and stepped forward. Haku threw a kunai which the man dodged. Seeing the man dodge, Haku threw two senbon which hit both of them on the arm. Their arm was rendered useless as they were now numb and immobile.
"I didn't hit your vital points on purpose. Don't test my limit," she said as the room's temperature dropped due to the killing intent she let off.
"Disrespectful brat! You and Zabuza better finish the job or else there will be consequences!" Gato snarled as he and his guards left the room.
"You know, I could take care of myself, Haku." Zabuza said as he played with the kunai in between his fingers.
"I know Zabuza-sama. But as your tool, I must protect my master." She said with a smile.
Zabuza sighed. "I will be back in shape in four days or so. After that I will kill those Konoha scum!"
The next day
The Konoha-nin were in the forest surrounding Tazuna's house. Kakashi was standing next to Asuma who was in crutches. Choji had also recovered slightly and could walk around normally although with a few bandages wrapped around his arm. "Alright, you guys are going to learn a skill that's important for all shinobi to know. You are gonna climb a tree using your chakra." Kakashi said.
"But sensei, we already know this," Shikamaru said.
"I know. Which is why you are teaching them, Shika. You always want to do the least work so you will be teaching them how to do it. You can laze around but if they don't make progress, you will be doing extra work from now on," Kakashi said as he gave an eye smile.
"Troublesome sensei..." Shikamaru muttered. He got what he wanted but with a cost.
"Sasuke and Naruto will follow me to protect Tazuna while the rest of you will stay here." Kakashi said as he walked towards the house followed by Naruto and Sasuke.
Naruto and Sasuke sat at the side of the work area as Naruto's clones worked as sentries around the bridge. Naruto couldn't help but reflect on what he saw as they made their way here. 'Gato's really destroyed this place. The amount of homeless and starving people on the street. The orphans along the streets begging. I can't believe someone could be so heartless like that."
"Yo, Sasuke, wanna spar to kill some time?" Naruto asked.
"I'm always down to kick your ass, dobe." Sasuke said as he got into his stance. They started their spar away from the work area to keep from disturbing them. Kakashi watched the two spar and couldn't help but smile. 'Their rivalry is so strong. It also seems Sasuke is slowly loosening up. He keeps asking about Obito during our spars and looks like he is slowly becoming like him. Obito, if only you could see them…'
While Naruto was on the bridge, he had created a hundred clones to train in a forest not too far off. He had them train the speed of their shunshin. He had read about Shisui Uchiha of the Body Flicker and hoped his shunshin could be as good. He used the shunshin to such a degree that he became known for it. In addition, some of the clones were also training to channel chakra through their swords which he had been calling Arashi (Storm) due to its blue waves. Since the sword is made of chakra metal, he could channel his chakra for the sword to take on elemental properties. For example, he could channel wind chakra to make the sword sharper.
On the way back to Tazuna's house, Naruto and Sasuke could not help but feel sympathy for the orphans. They were both orphans and knew how lonely it felt. They gave any extra food they had to the starving orphans and could see that they were very grateful. Some were just skin and bones while others looked pale and lacked energy. The town was full of suffering and pain, it was not a pretty sight.
"The children suffer and the adults are too afraid to stand up to him. They've lost hope. That's why we have to finish the bridge. It will bring commerce and trade, but more importantly that bridge is a symbol of courage. We must restore the spirit of our people. When the bridge is finished, people will start to believe again. They'll believe that they can live with dignity. We can't let Gato stop us," Tazuna said as his hands balled up into fists.
'We have to help them. Gato has to be stopped to end this suffering.' Naruto thought. "It's okay, Tazuna-san. Now that we're here, we will stop him!" Naruto said as he punched his palm. Sasuke agreed with a "Hn" and a nod. While Kakashi only nodded.
"Thank you," Tazuna said as they continued their way back to the house.
Around the same time, Kakashi, Naruto, Sasuke and Tazuna were coming from the bridge, Kiba, Shikamaru and Choji were also coming out of the forest. They converged and decided to walk the rest of the way together.
"Did you guys get it?" Naruto asked.
"Hinata got it almost immediately because of her good chakra control so Asuma-sensei took her to start on water walking. These two are having trouble." Shikamaru said as he pointed to Kiba and Choji.
"I'll get it tomorrow. Trust me." Kiba said confidently.
"Same here. Although I am really hungry right now," Choji said as his stomach started grumbling.
The group entered and saw that Hinata and Asuma were helping Tsunami prepare the table for dinner. As dinner was served, the group sat down and immediately dug in. Dinner was rather uneventful as they were all starving from the day's activities. Choji had even taken a fourth serving to replenish his energy.
"Tsunami-san, what happened to this picture? Its corner l-looks ripped out. There seems to be another person in the picture." Hinata asked as she was helping Tsunami to clean the dishes. She couldn't help but notice a picture on a shelf nearby. The picture looked like a family portrait but the top corner was ripped out.
The family all stiffened at the seemingly innocent question. "It's my husband." Tsunami answered shortly.
"Many in this land used to call him a hero." Tazuna continued.
Upon hearing that, Inari stood abruptly and ran out of the dining area and went upstairs. Inari was Tsunami's eight year old son. He wore a green jumpsuit with a yellow shirt. He also wore a blue and white striped bucket hat. Naruto noticed that he always had a sour look on his face and isolated himself from everyone else.
"Inari!" Tsunami called after him but to no avail. "Father, you know you can't talk about him when Inari's around." She then followed Inari upstairs.
"I see that there's a story here." Asuma said and Tazuna nodded. "Do you mind telling us?" He asked.
"I see no problem in telling you. Furthermore, the reason you are here is partially due to it." Tazuna said before he took a deep breath and started telling the story.
Naruto sat on a crane overlooking the build site. He was alone with Kakashi this time to let Sasuke do some training. Naruto had his clones training for him so he could join Kakashi in protecting Tazuna. He couldn't help but think about the story Tazuna told them yesterday. 'How could Inari think like that? His father was a hero. Kaiza died for Wave and stood up against Gato but he thinks heroes don't exist. Tsk, this kid is starting to annoy me. Of course there's heroes in the world. Otou-chan and Kaa-chan saved the village, Obito Uchiha saved Kakashi-sensei and many more. They are all heroes. It's been more than a year, yet he stays at home and weeps everyday. This kid…'
'Everyone moves on at different speeds, Naruto. They grief in different ways. Although, I do have to agree that he's being bitchy about it.'
'You're awake, Kurama. You've been asleep and quiet for quite awhile.'
'Well, you haven't been doing anything interesting.'
'Speaking of something interesting…' Naruto sensed a large amount of chakra signatures approaching the bridge. One of his sentry clones dispelled to show that the signatures were thugs likely hired by Gato. "Kakashi-sensei! Looks like we have company. A lot of thugs from Gato." Naruto said as he shunshin down from the crane top.
"Looks like Gato's getting impatient. Can you handle them, Naruto or do you need me to help?" Kakashi asked.
"Nah. They're only thugs. Besides, I'm awesome, remember!" Naruto said confidently as he shunshin near the thugs.
"Are you sure he'll be alright, Kakashi-san?" Asked Tazuna who heard their conversation.
"Yup."
Naruto stood in front of the group of thugs. They were equipped with many weapons, ranging from swords to knives. They were standing outside of the construction zone ready to storm the bridge. There were around 20 ready to storm the bridge while 15 more were in the town harassing the people. A few of Naruto's clones stood at the entrance of the bridge blocking them from entering. They all had Arashi unsheathed and ready.
"Get out of here brat! You don't wanna be on their side. Why are you even fighting for them anyway? It's not like it's your country anyway. It doesn't concern you. Walk away and we keep you alive."
"Really…I should be the one to say that. Walk away and I will keep you alive." Naruto said as he drew out one kunai.
The thugs snorted and started laughing. "Very well then…" Naruto threw the kunai into the air. " Ninpou: Kunai Kage Bunshin no Jutsu (Ninja Art: Kunai Shadow Clone Jutsu)! " The one kunai that Naruto threw turned into a hundred. All the Naruto clones made the snake seal and clasped their hands together. " Futon: Reppusho (Wind Style: Gale Palm) !" They announced as they thrust their hands, palm facing the thugs. The strong wind created by the clones caused all the kunai to increase in speed and hit the thugs. The kunai sliced through them at lethal speeds and blood started splashing everywhere. The kunai went through the thugs and hit their important organs. The 20 thugs were cut down to only one.
'It looks like one of them got lucky.' "Two of you, please clean this up. The rest finish those who are harassing the people. I will get this guy." Naruto said as his clones shunshin to do their tasks.
Naruto walked up to the last man standing. He could see that the man was shaking and was kneeling in the middle of many dead bodies. "Y-you monster! You think you'll get away with this? There's more where we came from!"
"I know." Naruto said coldly before he chopped the neck of the man. The man slumped forward unconscious.
Naruto picked up the man and took him to a proud Kakashi and a shocked Tazuna. Tazuna had just witnessed the kind and innocent looking boy kill 30 people in short succession with no effort. "Kakashi-sensei, what do I do with this one?"
"Bring him to Asuma, he'll know what to do. You can just leave a few clones here." Naruto nodded and shunshin to Tazuna's house.
"Kakashi-san, is he going to be okay after killing those men?" Tazuna asked.
"Yea. He accepted a while ago, actually the whole team accepted a while ago that these people bring harm when alive and are better dead. Those people would have terrorised the whole town and Naruto knew that. They still feel the awful feeling from killing but are able to manage them."
Asuma was playing shogi with Shikamaru while supervising Choji and Kiba who were sparring while sticking to a tree with chakra. Hinata was practising her water walking on the lake in the backyard of Tazuna's house.
"You're quite a smart kid." Asuma commented as he scratched his head looking at the shogi board. Shikamaru only shrugged as he checkmated Asuma. "That's the fifth time today…Do you ever lose kid?"
"A few times. Naruto and my dad are the only people who have beaten me." He said as he reset the board.
"Naruto?"
"Yeah, his play style is quite unpredictable and sometimes it's too late for me to see it. Him and Kakashi-sensei always keep on reminding me that sometimes you cannot just win with strategy and this is one way he shows me," he said in his lazy tone.
"You're right. Although I've only beaten you a handful of times," said a voice from behind Shikamaru. He turned around to see Naruto approaching them with an unconscious man slung over his shoulder. Shikamaru raised an eyebrow at the sight.
"What's with the guy on your shoulder?" He asked.
"A bunch of thugs tried attacking the bridge and this is a survivor. Kakashi-sensei asked me to bring him to you, Asuma-sensei." He said as he dropped the body on the ground.
"Very well. You guys come with me and get Sasuke too." Asuma said as he created a clone to watch Kiba and Choji before heading deeper into the forest.
"Yo, teme! Come here! We got work to do!" Naruto called out to Sasuke who was practising his shuriken jutsu.
Team 7 followed Asuma deeper into the forest where he tied the unconscious man to a tree. "You guys are gonna learn to interrogate people. As shinobi, sometimes you will have to pry information from people. A thug shouldn't be that hard to break and will make good practice. Just leave him in one piece," He said as he moved to the side to watch the genin.
Shikamaru sighed as he finally had to do work. He had been enjoying what was basically free time. He only had to tell Choji and Kiba what to do at the start of their training and he didn't need to do anything else after that. "Well, we might as well get this done as soon as possible. How do you guys wanna wake him up?" Shikamaru said.
"We'll try to be nice first and see how things turn out," Naruto said as he slapped the man awake.
"I thought you were being nice?" Sasuke asked.
"Eh, there are worse ways to be woken up," he said nonchalantly before he crouched down to the man's eye level. "Good afternoon sleepyhead, glad to see you awake again."
"Fucking brat," the man said as he tried to rub his neck which hurt from Naruto's chop. He realised he couldn't move his hands and looked down to see him tied to a tree. "What do you want?"
"Tell us everything you know about Gato! What he's gonna do with the bridge. Where he is. Everything." Sasuke said as he stared directly into the eyes of the man.
The man spat at their feet, "like hell I will tell you anything. He pays good money and I ain't turning against that. You should just let me go or kill me."
Shikamaru crouched down beside Naruto and stared coldly at the man. "Really…Let's say we do let you go, you're gonna walk back to Gato and tell him you were captured but they let you go without you telling the enemy anything. I'm sure things will go great."
"What are you talking about brat? I didn't tell you shit. " the man said but the genin realised that he was squirming in his binds.
Naruto and Sasuke smirked as they realised Shikamaru's plan. "But Gato doesn't know that. For all he knows, you told everything about him. He might kill you just because. I mean he did kill a man in the middle of town in front of many, who's to say he wouldn't kill you." Naruto said.
"And let's say he doesn't," Sasuke said as he hanged into the man. "You do not wanna find out what we can do to you. Let's see how well your life goes after that."
Naruto and Shikamaru smirked when they saw the man grow wide-eyed when he saw Sasuke transform into him. "So do you get it now? Either way, your life will be ruined. Unless of course, you tell us and we make sure you never see that asshole again." Shikamaru said with cold eyes.
"And don't even think about screwing us over. You saw what I did to the others. We are shinobi, either one of us can kick your ass with no issue." Naruto threatened as he pulled the man by the collar.
"And if you don't tell us, we'll do everything we said we would do and even worse. Then we'll drop you right in the middle for all to see. I'm sure Gato will hastily remove you and all of your chances to escape this town are gone," Sasuke said as he stared at the man in the eyes coldly.
Asuma smiled from his position. 'And that's checkmate. He's gonna vomit everything now. Those three are quite good. Granted that he was just a run of the mill thug but still pretty good. Shikamaru really can think fast and his teammates can adapt just as fast.'
After they got everything they needed, Sasuke knocked the guy out and the group headed back to Tazuna's house. "That was some good acting guys. Sure you guys dont wanna be actors." Naruto asked.
"Being a shinobi is already a lot of work. An actor is even more troublesome," Shikamaru said. Sasuke gave Naruto a look that said 'are you mentally insane?' Naruto only shrugged.
The Konoha shinobi all sat at the table eating dinner that Tsunami and surprisingly Naruto had cooked. Kiba, Choji and Hinata were eating as much as they could to replenish their energy. Hinata ate more elegantly than the other two. "Looks like training has been going well." Naruto said as the three of them nodded.
"Yup, me and Choji spent a long time sparring on that tree before we could do it for an hour straight. This food is great by the way." Kiba said as he pushed more food into his mouth.
"It better be. I've honed my cooking skills for years now," Naruto said proudly as he puffed his chest out.
"I'm surprised you knew how to cook Naruto-kun. You don't look like someone who does," Tsunami said.
"Well, it's a good life skill to have. Am I right Tsunami-san," He said.
Tsunami gave Naruto a smile. "Very true Naruto-kun."
"So, according to the intel we got from the thug my team interrogated, Gato plans to storm the town and double cross Zabuza when he supposedly kills us. That will probably happen in two days. Team 10, you guys will go to Gato's headquarters. Hinata has the byakugan and Kiba and Akamaru's sense of smell should help you. My team is more fresh so we will be on the bridge going against Zabuza," Kakashi briefed.
"We got this, guys. We will kick Zabuza's and Gato's asses and finally free this town, believe it!" Naruto said as he punched his palm. Everyone nodded and a fire lit in their eyes.
Inari was looking down at his plate when he heard Naruto's little motivational speech. When he looked up at Naruto, he immediately wished he hadn't, he had a big smile on his face. He looked so carefree and seemed to have no worries.
Flashbacks of his father triggered inside his mind. Images of their times together smiling, being happy. How he had saved him. How he cared for him. However, now, all those memories only brought pain to him. This caused something to snap inside of him. He had enough of Naruto's carefree attitude and the whole group's enthusiasm.
He slammed his hands on the table and stood up on his chair. All the attention in the room was brought to him. "Why are you trying so hard when you know you will fail. Gato will win no matter how hard you try. The weak will always lose to the strong!" Although it was addressed to all the shinobi in the room, everyone felt that most of it was aimed at Naruto.
Naruto leaned on the table and propped his elbows on it. He rested his chin on his hands and looked at Inari whose face was red from all the shouting he just did. "I don't know what you're talking about, kid. I think you're confusing us with weak people." Naruto said in a level voice.
However, Inari continued, "Shut up! Whenever I see you, I get really pissed off! You're always joking and laughing! You seem to have no care in the world! You dont know a thing about suffering or how hard life is for people like us! You'll only die to Gato!" By now, tears were streaming down his cheeks and his face was red as a tomato from shouting.
Kakashi and Asuma tensed up when they heard Inari's words. Naruto is a person who had suffered for most of his early childhood due to his tenant. Inari couldn't be more wrong. Kakashi was waiting for Naruto to lash out at Inari at the top of his lungs however what occurred was the opposite and was way worse.
'This kid needs a reality check.' "You're right, kid. The weak will always lose to the strong. However, at the same time, the strong would also defend the weak. Gato and his entire organisation are weak. They only pick fights with those weaker than them like the common people. But against us, trained shinobi, they are nothing. So, we aren't weak. Don't lump us with weak people like you who have not even a slither of hope. We're nothing alike." He said in an even voice yet it was sharp enough to deliver the message.
Inari glared heatedly at Naruto though his tear filled eyes. "I'm glad we're nothing alike! I'd hate to be like you! You don't have a care in the world! You don't know how hard life can be!"
The temperature in the room dropped significantly as Narito's killing intent could be felt by everyone. It wasn't as strong as it could be but it was significant enough for Inari's legs to lose their strength and forced him to sit down. The rage in his eyes was enough to strike fear in Inari. Sasuke and Shikamaru were quite shocked to see their usually cheerful friend have so much rage behind his eyes.
"Look at you bitching about how hard life is. Thinking you have it hard," his voice was so thick with rage, yet it was merely a whisper, loud enough to be heard by everyone. "You sit here in this warm and comfy home. You have a loving mother who cooks for you, takes care of you. A grandfather who loves you and doing all he can for a better future. Your future. Some hard life you have!"
Kakashi felt that Naruto's anger was justified. Inari pushed the wrong buttons and he's going to pay for it. Tazuna and Tsunami were shocked that Naruto could hold so much rage and anger that even they were affected by it.
"I'm willing to bet that you've never even stepped foot outside this house! News flash, there are many people with lives worse than you. In the town, kids begging, homeless with no parents. Both of them!" Naruto finally raised his voice. It caused everyone in the house to flinch, even Sasuke.
"I'm glad I'm nothing like you! Being a crybaby and a coward. You don't think I heard you cry alone in your room. Ever since I've been here, all you do is sulk around or cry! I know someone whose entire clan died in one night except for him! I know someone who lost every single one of those precious to him. Friends, comrades, family, all gone! I know someone who was shunned by an entire village and was all alone until a few people decided to care for him! Guess what kid? They all moved on in life and did not sit around whining about how hard life is or stay at home being a crybaby!"
Naruto stood up and headed for the door. "Naruto, where are you going?' Kakashi asked.
"To burn some of this anger off before I do something I regret." Naruto said as he gave a greater burst of his killing intent before closing the door behind him.
The killing intent caused the genins to sweat profusely. Tsunami and Tazuna could not move a muscle and Inari was curled up in his chair crying. After a few minutes, Inari headed out to the back.
'That was disastrous. Although, expected.' Kakashi followed Inari out the back to see him staring into the ocean. "Do you mind if I join you?" Kakashi asked startling Inari.
