章 93: Chapter 093

Naruto in particular had been subjected to many looks and whispered mutterings much different the ones he received in Konoha. Unlike in Konoha where people would call him monster behind his back, or glare at him with hate-filled eyes. The people here were staring at him in awe. The whispers were about how strong he was, and how he had freed them from Gato.

The first time he had been seen inside the city after the battle of the bridge as it was being called, had been an interesting and frightful experience for the young ninja. He almost understood what Sasuke had to suffer through during the academy while having to deal with a horde of fan girls proclaiming their love for him. Thankfully for the blond it was not quite that bad. But ever since it had been made known that Naruto had been the one to kill Gato and his thugs, the people had been giving him looks of awe, and many of the girls would blush and giggle as he passed, tossing shy waves to him while a few of the bolder ones would try to get dates.

One incident in particular, stuck within Naruto's mind.

Flashback…

Naruto was walking back to Tazuna's with said man and Kakashi after working on the bridge. As they did the blond noticed many people staring at him, giving him odd looks with star-filled eyes and some of the women had hearts in their eyes. The look reminded him of the way Sasuke's fan girls looked whenever he passed them by and it was really starting to creep him out. The way they were talking about him did not help either.

"Is that who I think it is?"

"They say he's the one who defeated Gato and his thug's singlehandedly!"

"Wow really! But he's so young!"

"Who cares how young he is! He's so cute!"

Naruto tried his best to ignore the stares and whispers he was receiving, as he was not really sure how to handle them. In Konoha when people did this, the whispers were ones of hate, calling him names, talking about how he should have died and other hateful remarks. These were the exact opposite and because of that he had no clue how he should react.

"Excuse me?"

The three stopped and turned around to see a group of girls around Naruto's age standing behind them.

"Is it true that you're the one who beat Gato?" asked the girl in front, a girl with black hair and green eyes, wearing a light blue yukata.

"Well…um…I had help," Naruto finished lamely, a light blush staining his cheeks at the way the girls were eyeing him like a piece of meat.

"So it's true! Oh that's so amazing! You're like a hero!"

That seemed to break the floodgates as all of the girls began to crowd around him. Asking him what it was like to be a ninja, how powerful he was, if they could get a date, and one of them even asked if she could touch his whiskers. Throughout the entire exchange, Naruto just stood there frozen stiff with a look of shock and confusion on his face. While being with Anko, Tenten and the rest of Team Nine had helped him get a little better at socializing, he still had no clue what to do in a situation like this.

It was fortunate that Tazuna and Kakashi were there to bail him out, grabbing him before running off or he likely would have died from embarrassment.

Flashback end…

"Thanks to you four we have finally completed the bridge, but do you really have to go so soon?" Tazuna said with a large smile as he placed a hand on a nearly tearing up Inari's head.

They along with the entire population of Nami were standing next to the now completed bridge. This included the many girls who had tried to mob Naruto when he had been seen in public. Said blond only took one glance at them to see the group holding up signs proclaiming their love for him before looking away with a shiver.

"Unfortunately," Kakashi replied with his book out as usual, "Hokage-sama will want a report on what happened here as soon as possible."

Naruto moved over to Inari, kneeling down he ruffled the kid's hair and gave him a large grin, "Don't worry we'll be back to visit sometime."

Inari sniffled as his eyes threatened to spill, "Promise?"

Grinning a little wider Naruto held his pinky out to the kid, "Promise of a lifetime."

Inari looked at the pinky before bringing up his own and shaking with it.

"It's ok to cry if you're happy you know," Naruto commented as he noticed the kid looked ready to burst.

As if on cue Inari smashed against Naruto, latching onto him and crying. In return Naruto just hugged the kid who had begun to call him Nii-san.

Standing back up again Naruto gave them one final grin, "We'll see you guys later, be sure to look after this place. And Inari…remember what I said."

"I will Nii-san." Inari promised.

"Then I guess this is goodbye," Kakashi said as he and the other ninja turned around.

"See ya later kid," Naruto said as he tossed a wave over his shoulder.

"Good bye Naruto-kun!" Shouted the horde of girls that had shown up to see the blond off, causing said blond to freeze up in fear before walking just a tad faster.

"That boy," Tazuna said as he looked at the retreating figure of Naruto. "That boy not only defeated Gato, but he changed Inari's heart, and Inari changed our people's hearts. Allowing us to build a bridge called "hope" for our dying country."

"Oh yeah, speaking of the bridge…" One of the people there said. "What should we call it?"

"NARUTO!" The entire group of the newly created Naruto fan club shouted.

Tazuna had to hold in a wince from all the voices shouting at once, but it was not as bad as it would have been several weeks ago. He was now almost glad he had gotten used to someone whose screeches were louder than all of these girls combined.

As his equilibrium and hearing came back he thought about the name for a second before laughing, "The Great Naruto bridge, it does have a nice ring to it, doesn't it?"

"That does sound like a fitting name father," Tsunami said with a giggle.

"Yep, I have a feeling that name is gonna bring this bridge good luck!" Tazuna stated as people began to cheer for the new bridge and the Genin who made it all possible, "Who knows, it may even bring other people good luck."