CHAPTER 9
There was a crowd forming on the Earth Country side of the Kannabi Bridge, and things were getting rowdy.
A blacksmith pushed a smudged, dirty sheet of paper into the face of an Iwa jounin, who kept pushing the man back while his comrades ensured that the pathway onto the bridge, as well as the entrance, was free from the crowd.
"Lord Tsuchikage personally instructed me to make these swords!" the blacksmith shouted, motioning to his horse and cart of katana, gleaming under the midday sun. The blacksmith's young apprentice shaded his head from the hot sun, standing with the horse to keep the animal calm. "It's important I get this to Grass Country now!"
"And I told you, the bridge is closed till further notice; only essential materials are allowed to pass," as he said that, a wagon of cabbages pushed through the crowd and was allowed onto the bridge, where soon the ninjas barred entry. The jounin shoved the blacksmith and barked, "Now, stand back! I won't warn you again, old man."
The blacksmith's apprentice scowled, patting the neck of the horse, and heaved himself onto the animal's back to look over the crowd.
In a matter of an hour of the bridge closing, a massive crowd of traders and blacksmiths had formed on their side of the bridge. It was so large that the boy entertained the thought of the crowd simply rushing through the guarding shinobi and storming the bridge to the other side.
The crowd easily outnumbered the ninjas, one to thirty.
Kannabi Bridge was the line that fuelled the war, sending supplies and fresh ninjas out from Earth Country and returning profits and injured shinobi back home. Not only was it vital to Iwa's war effort, but the bridge was vital to the economy of Earth Country and kept the people who used it above starvation.
Earth Country was not wealthy by any stretch of the imagination; most of the country could not grow its food and its major export was iron ore and other solid minerals, which could be gotten elsewhere on the continent, such as Fire Country. Before the war, products from Earth Country were nearly worthless, now it was only a little better.
Earth Country, and Iwa, were always on the backfoot; the reason the Tsuchikage was waging war with Fire Country, and Konoha, was because of the severe disadvantage Earth Country suffered.
The boy winced when his master pleaded, clutching the paper the Tsuchikage had signed in both of his soot-blackened hands, "Please! If I don't get these to Grass, my family will starve!"
The jounin's comrades struggled to maintain the pathway onto the bridge, with the people crowding onto it and pushing hard against the wooden barricades in front of the bridge. Food was classified as essential supplies during the bridge's lockdown, and now the crowd wasn't even allowing any more 'essential' carts until they were allowed to pass through.
"What's the big deal, anyway?!" someone shouted to the jounin, who ignored the begging blacksmith. "Why can't we pass?!"
The jounin didn't deem the question with an answer, rather he jumped back over the barricade and helped his comrades as they pushed to keep the crowd from piling onto the bridge.
The crowd went into a frenzy.
The wooden barricade splintered from the crushing push of civilians, and that was when the ninjas guarding the bridge took out batons, beating against the crowd without regard for whom their batons were striking.
Smoke bombs were lobbed into the crowd, and a different jounin screamed into a crude, paper megaphone, but what he was yelling was lost to the deafening shouting of the crowd. The smoke bombs increased the feverish scrambling, frightening the horses and toppling many carriages as they jostled to safety. The hooves of the animals cracked against the people near the horses, cracking skulls and breaking bones, while the horses wildly panicked.
This only intensified the crowd.
The man on the megaphone managed to yell with finality, "WE WILL USE LETHAL FORCE!"
A second later, the crowd broke through the wooden barricade and trampled two ninjas who hadn't been able to leap away in time. The remaining ninjas forcefully retreated a few yards onto the bridge, and the crowd stampeded after them. A handful of Iwa chunin flicked through a long set of hand seals, dragging a large gulp of air into their lungs—
A hard shudder rocked the bridge, throwing off their aim and sending most of the crowd onto the ground, tossing a few people over the edge of the bridge into the deep canyon.
A deafening hush came down on the crowd, and the people on Grass Country's side of the bridge, on the other side, watched with wide, horrified eyes. They retreated hastily when smaller, fiery bombs went off near them, incinerating some in the flames.
The bridge groaned and another tremor shook the stone bridge, followed by a deafening explosion on the underside of Grass Country's side of the bridge. Sections of the bridge broke, widening when another heavy explosion jostled the crowd to the ground.
Hysteria finally set in and the people panicked.
The ninjas clambered over the civilians, speeding to get off the bridge.
Those civilians that somehow got to their feet stepped on others to escape the bridge and messily knocked against the fleeing ninjas, though their efforts ended when a fourth and fifth explosion blasted the middle of the long bridge, sending them to the ground and concussing more than a few people.
A sixth explosion shook the foundations of the stone bridge, and the seventh and eighth explosions destroyed the bridge.
The panic made it seem like the explosions were hours apart, but the strategically placed bombs were mere seconds in interval.
It was like watching a great titan fall.
The Kannabi Bridge had fallen, and many lives were taken with it.
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
One of Naruto's clones pursed his lips, watching the spectacle from Earth Country's side of the destroyed bridge. He looked at his watch, scrunching his face up and squinting at the sky.
Weren't there more bombs?
His unvoiced question was answered seconds later, when two bombs exploded on the edge of the Earth Country's side of the bridge, and three quaked Grass Country's side of the bridge; the blasts ate away large chunks of both sides of the fallen bridge, burning and breaking away the rock foundations and obliterating the gatekeepers' posts, ensuring that any remnants of Kannabi Bridge that remained would never be built. At least, not for a very long time.
There we go.
Naruto was nothing, if not efficient.
He ignored the mournful wailing of the handful of survivors of the last blast, moaning as they were laid out on the ground from second-degree burn wounds and broken bones from colliding with the shockwaves of the bombs. Some had concussions and a few had broken their skulls, who still unfortunately were alive.
Naruto, or rather his clone, would have felt sorry for them if he cared.
The heat of the midday sun lessened drastically, dimming as if it too was mourning the death and destruction of that day.
Still, the clone made sure his ski mask properly fitted his face, and that his chakra was suppressed into a tiny pinprick.
There was no resistance as the boy marched around the bodies, most charred beyond recognition and others mangled, suffering the throes of death. He got near the very edge of the fallen bridge, where the gatekeepers' post and entrance pathway used to be, and he took out a disposable camera from his kunai pouch.
He judged that the casualties on Grass Country's side were far less than on this side of the bridge, as his byakugan had spotted a few hundred people fleeing as soon as the first explosion shook Kannabi Bridge.
Those in Grass, returning from selling their wares, weren't as desperate to enter Earth as their Earth counterparts were frantic to enter Grass.
Tragic. The clone shook his head, snapping pictures of the fallen bridge, knowing well that the ninjas and civilians in Grass were too far to see or sense him, too busy accounting for their own injured to notice the solitary person several miles away in Earth Country taking pictures of the catastrophe.
For good measure, the clone took wide pictures of some of the decimation at the entrance of the bridge, with the tangled and burned bodies, and a few survivors weeping on the ground, too weak to get to their feet.
The clone stepped to the edge of the disaster and brought his camera down to his stomach, sticking to the ground and leaning over the edge to peer at the distant bottom of the canyon with his byakugan.
It was a blood-soaked wreck at the bottom.
Everyone was dead.
The Iwa and Kiri ninjas that had been laying in wait to ambush the original Naruto were sweeping through the wreckage, futilely searching for survivors.
The clone's camera couldn't accurately capture the picture at the bottom of the canyon, but he caught another clone close to the recovery effort at the bottom of the canyon, snapping pictures of the destruction.
The clone at the top of the canyon nodded and backtracked away from the edge, storing his camera in his kunai pouch and walking away at an unhurried pace to where Team Minato and Naruto's Snow Wolves were recuperating.
He assumed Iwa's forces would respond to the radio silence of the Kannabi Bridge's guards in five minutes, so the clone took his time.
On the ground and wracked with unimaginable pain, the blacksmith's apprentice watched the ski mask-wearing person casually leave. Disdain and hatred burned in his system, filling him to the brim and keeping his mind off the grievous wounds he sustained, both from being trampled by the crowd and the concussive effects of the bombs.
Blood poured from the young boy's grit teeth and he heaved, weeping and futilely reaching a hand out to the leaving figure.
Murderous chakra ebbed from the boy's pores.
Deidara couldn't have been older than eleven years old, that day, but the miniscule chakra he sensed from the masked person imprinted on his psyche for the rest of his life.
The person's cold, unfeeling byakugan burned into Deidera's retinas, as did the smell of his burning, broken flesh.
With every fibre of his being and every morsel of strength left in his body, he hated this person.
Hatred kept that young boy alive.
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
The camp was located in a valley ten kilometres from Kannabi Bridge—or rather, what used to be Kannabi Bridge.
At the very bottom of the valley was a natural basin, containing water collected from the infrequent rain that poured over the region, and at the edge of the basin was the camp; four tents were situated in the valley, with one being larger than the other three. A thin channel of water trickled from the basin and filtered water into a recently dug ditch, lined with plastic trash bags.
Between two tents, a campfire burned with a tripod standing over it, carrying a pot of water that hadn't yet started boiling.
Naruto's clone skidded down the steep valley, digging his right hand into the ground to slow down his descent and using his chakra to gain traction in the jagged, rocky earth. He stopped at the bottom and jogged to the channel of water trickling from the basin, inspecting the hole he had dug using his kunai some minutes ago.
The water looks clean, he mused to himself. He bent down and activated his byakugan, wincing at the dirt particles he saw. Could use some boiling, but clean enough.
He made sure that there weren't any holes in the trash bag lining the ditch of clean water, deactivating his doujutsu and scratching the side of his nose.
He looked up across the natural basin of water to the other side of the valley away from the tents, and he sighed when he noticed Kakashi.
The boy's mask was pale, looking at the water in the basin with large, traumatised eyes as he sat with his legs drawn to his chest, his knees wedged under his chin, and his arms wrapped around his legs. He was shaking and every so often, his brow twitched.
His hands were bound in bandages and his jounin vest was unzipped, showing the bandages around his torso; Kakashi had managed to survive One with only sprained fingers and a large gash in his side, where One's pressure bullet had grazed him. His wounds were healing, thanks to Rin.
Kakashi didn't move from his spot and didn't look at the clone.
Seeing the frozen terror in Kakashi's eyes, the clone felt a pang in his chest.
He felt guilty for not intervening sooner to prevent this whole mess.
But that wasn't his fault and it wasn't Naruto's intention.
One and Sandy had hidden from Naruto's detection, and the pressure bullet travelled faster than Naruto could reach Obito.
As much as the clone judged himself, and Naruto, there wasn't anything he could do to prevent what happened next. He could only react after the fact, and he did so to the extreme best of his abilities.
The clone got up, unable to face Kakashi any longer, and turned to the larger tent.
Entering, he was met with Rin crying over Obito, weeping into the boy's chest and gnashing her teeth in anguish. Her tears flowed quietly, but her breathing was ragged and her body shuddered with sorrow, barely able to keep from crying out loud.
She jerked back, instinctively making to draw a kunai from a pouch that was not on her side, but dropped her guard when she saw that it was the ski mask-wearing person standing at the entrance of the tent.
She sniffed, wiping her nose with the back of her hand and turned back to her prone teammate. She sat back on her heels, kneeling on the ground beside Obito's makeshift bed.
Obito's temple was wrapped in fresh bandages, keeping his cranium from falling apart. Other than that, and a few forgettable scrapes on his back, his body was fine.
The girl looked uninjured too, except for the psychological scars she sustained during Ao's genjutsu interrogation.
The clone gave her credit for resisting the interrogation and not exposing the team's mission, but it was to the detriment of her mental state.
The clone tentatively signed, trying to be delicate in his question, "Is he…?"
The girl, who had a basic knowledge of Universal Sign Language, shook her head. She said in a raspy, cracking voice, setting her hand on Obito's right arm, "No."
The clone chewed on his tongue, asking slowly, "What about you?" he continued, touching his head and signing, "Are you ok?"
Her murky, clouded eyes looked up at the clone, then they dipped to the floor as she contemplated how to answer. She lifted her eyes back to the clone, and she had the same tormented look in her eyes as Kakashi, shrugging and sobbing, "I don't know…"
The clone's byakugan flashed, activating and deactivating in a blip of chakra. "You need rest."
"No." Rin shook her head, clutching Obito's arm. "I need to be with him."
Before the clone decided to knock the girl out, he heard a commotion outside.
The original Naruto had arrived, carrying a heavily restrained One on his shoulders, and Kakashi lost his mind.
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
"She did this!"
The clone dashed out of the medical tent to see Kakashi sprinting over the water basin, eyes bloodshot and frothing with anger.
The original Naruto was startled by Kakashi's outburst, more so when the Hatake pulled out a kunai from a seal on his elbow, raising it above his head as soon as he crossed onto the land and sped toward Naruto, who still had One on his shoulder.
A moment before he could plunge his blade into the back of One's head, Naruto's clone tackled him to the ground, holding his weapon-holding hand over his head and barely able to keep the thrashing boy still.
Kakashi screamed, blood and spittle coming from his mouth, "This is her fault!" he thrashed harder against the clone, who was about to get Kakashi into a full-nelson but was unable to move much from on top of the Hatake with how Kakashi was struggling. "She did that to Obito! She ruined the mission! She ruined everything!"
The real Naruto carefully set One down, making sure the chains, ropes, and chakra limiters he had bound her with were intact, and that One was still blissfully unconscious.
He spied Rin as she peaked out of the tent.
She didn't say or do anything, looking from One to Kakashi.
Her frown deepened, but she didn't leave Obito.
She only watched.
Naruto then froze when he was hit with a rushed memory from a dispelled shadow clone.
The memories of the bombs on Kannabi Bridge exploding, the mayhem that ensued, the people dying, and the pictures being taken afterwards.
Everything was still as Naruto slowly turned his large, horrified eyes to Kakashi as the boy staggered to his feet, holding a pair of kunai in both of his hands. The one Kakashi had used to stab his clone was in his left hand, slicing up and into the side of the clone's stomach.
Naruto carefully pulled off his ski mask, properly showing Kakashi his face, though Kakashi already knew who he was long ago.
Kakashi seemed just as shaken at what he had done, breathing heavily and looking at Naruto warily. His bloodshot eyes hardened and he snarled, pointing a blade at One and spitting at Naruto, "I'm doing this, Nine-Nine." Naruto let his ski mask drop from his hand, shifting so that he was in front of One and holding out a hand for Kakashi to calm down, but it only incensed the boy more. "You swore you had my back."
"I do." Naruto's hands moved and he mouthed, trying to look as calm as possible to diffuse the situation. "Always, Kakashi. I'll always have your back." The mute motioned for Kakashi to calm down. "But right now, we all need to take a step back. Think about things."
"She had it out for me in ROOT, and she wanted me dead today," Kakashi said, his snarl deepening. "She dies, or I die."
"No one's dying!" Naruto snapped, signing harshly. "I'm not losing anyone to revenge. I won't!"
Ever so slowly, the blade pointing at One lowered and a slow exhale left Naruto's nose—
Kakashi threw the other blade, the one Naruto wasn't focused on, and it honed Naruto's heart.
Naruto moved his right hand as his mind words a mile a minute, and the kunai stabbed his palm. He clenched his teeth to stop the momentum of the thrown blade, getting his chest pricked as the kunai exited the back of his hand.
Distraction, Naruto swore in his head and cursed himself for not being more careful.
Kakashi blurred from his position and ran to One, as Naruto was still recovering from being stabbed in the hand. He wound his left arm back when Kakashi appeared again with the tip of his other kunai close to One's left eye, before Naruto cracked his left haymaker into Kakashi's temple, smacking him into the ground.
The blow rattled Kakashi, planting him on the ground.
Naruto stood over his brother, grunting as he pulled the kunai from his right hand and tossed it aside.
Kakashi, jarred from the punch and blinking the lights out of his eyes, felt Naruto kneel on his chest. His vision was still cloudy and he blindly brought his hands up to guard his face, ready for Naruto to begin laying fists into his face, only for Naruto to prod a nerve in his neck and darkness to fully blanket Kakashi's consciousness as he fell asleep.
Naruto gasped at the deep pain in his right hand.
Just wonderful, he muttered sarcastically, doing his best not to move his right hand and supporting it with his left. He nudged Kakashi onto his belly and sat down on the Hatake's back.
Without another word, Rin came to him and took his right hand into her hands. She slowly and carefully unwound the bandages around his hand, trying not to agitate the wound as it bled. She paused when she saw that Naruto's hand was covered in black dots, signs that the chakra points in his hands had repeatedly burst and forcefully healed, leaving behind those dot-like scars.
It was a cruel chakra control training method.
She didn't voice that opinion, though.
Her hands glowed a soft shade of green and healing chakra ebbed into Naruto's hand.
Naruto smiled appreciatively at her, but the girl shook her head. "Thank you for saving us," she cast a baleful look at One, "but make sure that thing is far away from us." She looked at Naruto with grim, sincere eyes. "Please."
Naruto looked at her with sullen eyes, flicking a look at Kakashi underneath him, and then to One. He nodded once to her request.
"Thank you."
As she attended to his hand, rewrapping it in clean bandages, Naruto took out a tri-pronged kunai from his shinobi vest with his left hand and fired a bit of chakra into the seal.
He stabbed it into the ground, summoning Minato Namikaze.
Authors note
Thoughts and opinions are always welcome.
See you when I see you.
Foy.