Chương 1421: 12
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Chapter 12: The Sea Died Red
Kakashi stared wide eyed as blood splashed across his face and clothing, his arm shoved elbow deep in the person's flesh and moving out the back. He was so shocked that he could not even think of removing his arm from said person's chest, and instead watched as blood began to stain the cloth covering his arm.
Everything seemed to stop in that single instance as Kakashi, Sakura, Tazuna and Zabuza all stared at Haku in shock, having had used herself as a shield to protect Zabuza and taken the silver haired jonins assassination technique. None were more shocked then Zabuza himself, who could only stand there with his eyes wide and Haku's blood splattered all over his face. He had known of the girl's devotion to him, having been the one to take her away from the hellish life she had been living in Mizu No Kuni. But even he had not expected or even thought she would have taken her desire to protect him this far. He was so surprised that he could not even think of using everyone else's distracted state as an opportunity to kill Kakashi.
"HAKU!"
The near animalistic scream tore everyone's attention away from Haku and towards Naruto, who had stopped running as soon as he saw his sensei's arm through Haku's chest.
"No…" He mumbled before breaking out into a run.
"Naruto…" Kakashi tried to say, only to be ignored as Naruto grabbed Haku, pulling his sensei's arm out of her and sinking to the ground and as he attempted to shake Haku awake.
"No, no, no, no, NO! HAKU! WAKE UP!" Naruto shouted; his voice frantic and his eyes looking into her now dull ones. "C'mon Haku, you need to wake up! I need you to wake up! D-Don't…" Naruto's voice chocked. "Don't leave me…" Naruto stared into Haku's eyes looking for any sign of life. Only to find them dull, lifeless, like what you would expect of a doll.
"No…oh kami no…" tears came from Naruto's eyes, even though he didn't notice. "Not like this…I never wanted this to happen to you… why? Why did this have to happen?"
"Damn it… Haku," the blonds shoulders began to shake as sobs racked his body. Heedless of the blood that was pouring out of the wound in Haku's chest and began to stain his clothes, Naruto pulled the now still Haku closer to him, and began to rock back and forth as seeking, hoping to find that warmth that he had always felt from her before.
It wasn't there. All he now felt was the fading warmth that she had held when alive, and it was soon replaced with the cold feeling of one who had just died.
"Naruto…" Sakura mumbled, completely shocked at what she was witnessing and not at all sure what she should think at seeing the sight of the person who, even after his increase in intelligent and skills, had always seemed to be an idiot to her. Naruto, who had always been fairly cheerful, even with his recent changes, the boy had still carried that near indomitable optimism and enthusiasm.
Now he seemed to be almost broken, tears were streaming down his face as he held onto the raven haired kunoichi and was seemingly ignoring the world around him. His lips moved whispering apology after apology to the girl he was holding, even though she was no longer alive to hear them. The sight of Naruto breaking down so utterly was so foreign that the young pinkette did not know what to think.
Her thoughts were broken away from the sight as she remembered someone else who had, had his own battle here on this bridge.
"Sasuke-kun," she mumbled as she stood and began her search for the Uchiha heir. Spinning around she went to search for Sasuke, and found him unconscious and heavily bleeding under the body of one of the now dead Akuma brothers.
"SASUKE-KUN!" she ran up to him and tried to push the body off of her crush, the rest of the world forgotten to her.
The two Jonin-level ninja looked over at each other, each trying to determine if there was any real point in fighting anymore. A few minutes later, which were only broken by the sounds of Naruto's cries, the stare down ended, and both nodded as a silent agreement passed between them that the battle was now over, at least for the moment. The two ninja turned their attention back to the distraught blond.
THONK! THONK! THONK!
The pair's heads snapped over to the end of the bridge to see Gato grinning at them, along with a large horde of thugs behind him wearing the same grinning expression only tinged with bloodlust, no doubt from the thought of killing the group here and then moving on to pillage the village.
"Look at you Zabuza, all beaten up and getting your ass handed to you by a bunch of brats and a scarecrow," Gato said with a smirk, feeling pretty confident now that the battle was ended and he had a large group of mercenaries behind him for back up.
"Gato…" Zabuza growled, he was already angry at the death of Haku, he did not want to deal with this fat, greedy midget. "What do you want!"
"Such a temper Zabuza…" Gato grinned that showed how much he was savoring this moment, "I forgot to mention there's been a change in plans. You see, missing ninja like yourself are simply too expensive to pay for. I never planned on actually paying you…it's always been my plan to simply get rid of you after you did the job and were too weak to do anything. It's so easy to get rid of you missing ninja, you abandoned your village and now no one will come after me after I kill you. Hell! I usually get a bonus with your bounty when I hand you over!"
Zabuza growled at the man, "I see, so that was how you always wanted to do this."
"Of course," Gato smirked, "and now you're not going to be able to do a thing to my boys. Pft, Kiri No Kijin, more like Kiri No Koinu (Puppy of the hidden mist), I doubt you could take down even one of my boys here, though I would be appreciative if you did at least try to kill a few of them. After all, while they may not be as expensive as you, they still cost me some money."
"Looks like my quarrel with you is well and truly over Kakashi," Zabuza grunted as he grabbed the handle of his sword and prepared for another battle.
"It does seem that way," Kakashi agreed, readying a kunai. He did not know how many he could take out with how exhausted he was, but he was not about to go down without a fight.
Gato laughed as they prepared themselves. However, he blinked when he saw Naruto holding onto Haku. "Oh so the kid died eh? That's too bad; I was hoping to kill him myself."
There was a spike of killing intent that went unnoticed by everyone except Kakashi and Zabuza, both of whom turned their eyes towards Naruto who had looked up sometime during the conversation and was now glaring at the man.
"Hey kid!" Gato shouted as he walked up to them, "I don't know what kind of gay circus this is, but I'm- hold on a minute…!"
The fat midget got a closer look at Haku. Despite the amount of blood covering Haku and the blond holding her form protectively close, the fat frazzle haired business man could see something that he had not seen before due to the bindings Haku had been wearing. Now that they had come undone, he noticed she had quite a nice set on her.
"Oh hoh! So he is in fact a she!" Gatou grinned lecherously, "Well now, I'm really depressed she's dead. I could have made quite the killing after I made her my bitch! Though, she is quite the looker, so maybe I'll give her over to my boys so they can at least get some fun in before her body starts to rot! So why don't you be a good little boy and hand the bitch's body over to me?"
Naruto glared at the man through bloodshot eyes, his killing intent slowly rising. This man, this monster was talking about having a bunch filthy pigs degrade Haku-chan's body! This person was the entire reason Haku was dead in the first place, for hiring her and Zabuza for this job. Without Gato, Haku would have never come here, would have never faced him in battle and would have never gotten hit with his sensei's technique. In the blonde's mind, everything that had happened to this point was that man's fault.
'Kill them.'
Naruto blinked when he heard the voice from inside his mind, it had an odd inflection to it, the voice sounded like two people were speaking at once, though he could not tell who.
'That man is the reason she's dead…Kill him!'
Gato stopped a short distance away, not wanting to get to close to the two jonin shinobi, "Hey! Are you deaf or something you stupid fuck!"
'KILL HIM!'
Naruto snarled as he looked back up at Gato, whose eyes widened as he took a step back in fear at the eyes he was now staring at. The eyes were no longer blue, nor did they hold any of the warmth they usually did.
They were blood red, with a single black slit running down the middle.
They were eyes belonging to a demon.
"You…" Naruto whispered, his voice was harsh and ragged, carrying such rage and unbridled hate that everyone, even Zabuza could not repressed the shudder that ran down his spine. "…This is all your fault…! Because of you Haku's dead…! And now you want to desecrate her body! All of it…it's your fault! I'm gonna KILL YOU!"
A powerful bloodlust and killing intent crashed onto the bridge, being so powerful that Gato had fallen on his ass and was crab walking to get behind his men. Meanwhile a powerful red energy began to swirl around the blond. The energy began swirling around him before shooting into the air to form a column of red energy, which lashed out around him in a violent manner as if it had a will of its own. The energy covered the area around and above him, and at the top the energy took a shape. It too the shape of a grinning fox head.
Is the seal breaking! Wondered a frantic Kakashi as he jumped away from the blond, the red energy burning his skin. No! He realized, the seal is perfectly stable, it almost seems like this was supposed to happen…but I'll need to be careful since I don't know what Naruto will do in this state.
What is he! Wondered Zabuza as he was forced to jump away from the blond, after getting his skin burned from being near the energy. Such bloodlust and unbridled killing intent far more potent than my own! This much intent shouldn't even be possible!
The others on the bridge were not fairing nearly as well.
Sakura who had been facing away from Naruto and trying to futilely wake Sasuke, had been unable to do anything more then pass out on top of the Uchiha. Her body was spastically twitching and drool coming out of her mouth.
Tazuna was on his hands and knees, breathing heavily and unable to even move, since staying conscious from the feeling of power and bloodlust around was a challenge in and of itself.
The thugs who were with Gato were all shaking; some were already on their hands and knees like Tazuna. A few of the weaker willed ones had already passed out; And as for Gato.
The man had fallen onto his ass, his entire body shaking uncontrollably as he lost all motor functions and had already released his bowels. His breathing was strained, and he could see images of his death at the hands of the blond. Images of his head getting ripped off, of getting torn to shreds. Out of all the people there, the killing intent was affecting him the most, being the one it was directed at. Never before had he felt something so vile, and it was enough that he almost wished he were dead just so the feeling of his impending doom would stop.
Within the swirl of energy Naruto began to transform. His whiskers became jagged and thick, his hair stood up even spikier then before. Claws formed on both his hands and feet, and his canines turned into long fangs that jutted from his upper lips.
Naruto gently set Haku down on the ground, caressing her face before he closed her eyes. Standing up he stepped over her prone form as the energy coalesced around him. His head was down, shadows covering his eyes as his ragged breathing filled the air. Finally he looked up at the man who was responsible for Haku's death.
Gato and the mercenaries that he had brought with him took a step back in fear.
Naruto took a step forward.
And then disappeared.
He reappeared right in front of one of the bandits, plunging his hand into the man's throat without preamble, impaling two of his fingers all the way through and out the back while seemingly not caring about the blood that was beginning to stain his hand. Rotating on his heel he swung the corpse around, smashing it into three others, knocking them off balance before throwing it off and disappearing again.
Naruto appeared behind another bandit and plunged both hands straight into his back and out his chest, palms facing away from each other. The man's screams filled the air before Naruto roared and ripped the man in half, letting the blood splash across his face only to be burnt off by the malevolent energy that only one person there could identy as the Kyuubi's Yoki. A moment later the whiskered blond set his sights on the others that Gato had brought.
The sounds of screams soon filled the air as Naruto tore through Gato's men, not just killing them, but brutally slaughtering them. Many had limbs torn off, arms, legs, heads; some of the men were even ripped to nothing more than chunks of flesh that could not be recognized as having ever been human. Naruto spared no one in his gruesome quest to massacre every single individual who had come with Gato. As far as he was concerned they were all guilty of what happened to Haku, and none of them deserved any form of mercy or compassion.
When Naruto had killed all of the bandits, he turned his eyes to Gato. Said man was currently curled up into a ball, somehow still conscious despite the overwhelming bloodlust and killing intent coming from the blond, and began to stalk over to the sniveling little midget.
"P-P-please…s-s-spare me!" Gato begged as Naruto stopped in front of him, "I-I-I'll g-g-ive y-u-u-ou anything you want! Just let me go…"
The whiskered blond stopped short at Gatos words and looked at him with a sort of absent curiosity, like a lion might look at an antelope that was pinned under its paws. For a moment Gato was not even sure the blond would speak as all Naruto was doing was staring at him. Finally…
"Anything?" Asked Naruto, his voice deep and guttural, no longer sounding human but taking on the pitch and timber of something demonic in origin.
"Yes! Anything!" Gato said enthusiastically, feeling certain he could buy off this demon, "Just name it! Money, wealth, power, women! Anything at all!"
"Very well," Naruto tilted his head at the man, seemingly in thought of what he wanted, "I want you to bring Haku-chan back."
Gato's eyes widened and his face paled, "I-I can't do that!"
"No? A pity," Naruto said with a shrug before lifting the man by his throat. Gato gasped and latched onto the hand now holding his neck in a vice grip in an attempt to pull it off. He continued to beg and plead, telling Naruto of all the things he could give the blond.
"You know what I want Gato?" the demonized Naruto asked, not expecting a response, and ended up squeezing Gato's throat even tighter so he could not get a response. "I want you…DEAD!"
Naruto reared back a clawed fist, before launching it forward grabbing onto Gato's face The man screamed as the red chakra began to burn his face off, melting it like wax. With a roar of finality Naruto channeled the red chakra into his hand as he squeezed Gato's head, making the corrupt businessman's head explode in a shower of gore.
Naruto dropped the now headless body unceremoniously as the red energy began to leave him. His transformation reversed, his eyes changed back to normal, his claws reverted and his canines shortened while his whiskers went back to their original state.
With his mind now clear of the bloodlust that had taken over it he looked at the devastation he had caused, then down to his hands, his eyes wide. Despite all the blood having been burnt off by the chakra, he could still see it on his hands. He could still remember what he had done, he could see how he had slaughtered all of the thugs Gato had brought and the man himself, and could recall everything he had done in picture perfect clarity.
"What have I done…?" Naruto dropped down onto his knees and vomiting the entire contents of his stomach, as his stomach began to rebel. Even after he had finished the whiskered blond was still dry heaving, his mind and body both still feeling the overwhelming sense of nausea from what he had done.
"There's that monster."
"You are not to go near that boy again. He's nothing but a monster in disguise."
"Demon!"
"You are the Kyuubi No Kitsune!"
Naruto began to hyperventilate as the voices of the villagers washed over him, he tried shutting them out but that only seemed to make the voices louder. He tried ignoring them but the voices were not to be denied, and no matter how much he tried to tell himself otherwise he began to feel disgust for what he had done.
Oh kami…they're right…I'm nothing but a monster, a demon. I-
"Naruto…" The blond froze as a hand landed on his back. Looking up he saw Kakashi, his headband back over his Sharingan looking at him in concern.
"K-Kakashi-sensei?" He choked out, "Are the villagers right? Am I…am I really a demon?"
Kakashi's eye widened slightly before going back to its concerned look, "No Naruto, you are not a demon…do not think like that. What you are is a shinobi…"
"A shinobi?" Naruto asked unsurely, his eyes clouded and lost.
"Yes," Kakashi answered with a nod.
"But I-I killed all those people," tears began to form in his eyes, "they didn't stand a chance, I just tore through like they were paper. It was so easy, how can I be anything but a monster? How could anything other than a monster do those things?"
"A shinobi," Kakashi replied, "as a shinobi you will always be called upon to do things you may not like, things that, to a civilian would make you seem like a monster. This is the world we live in Naruto. It's what we signed up for when we became ninja, it's the same for me, and the same for Zabuza and his partner."
"Partner…" Naruto's eyes widened as he jumped up, "Haku!"
Kakashi watched as he ran back towards Haku's body and sighed, he was going to have to talk with Naruto soon.
He's not going to be doing well after this. Dealing with the guilt of killing other people in such a violent manner, and using the Kyuubi's chakra to do it. No doubt his mind will be unstable for a while after this, he looked over where Naruto was now cradling Haku. And then there's that relationship, I'll definitely have to talk to him about that. I can only hope I or maybe the Hokage or Anko can help him through this.
Naruto gently lifted Haku into his arms, standing up and ignoring Zabuza who was watching him curiously, the blond began to make his way off the bridge.
The crowd that Inari had gathered to help had only arrived a few seconds ago to see the aftermath of the battle, could only part themselves for Naruto, staring at the blond in shock as he walked right past them.
(Several Hours after the Battle…)
Naruto stared at the newly dug grave he had just made for Haku. It was in the small clearing the two of them had first met, and continued to meet for the rest of the week. The grave was not much, Naruto had used his fledging wind ability to create a wind blade and carve out a tombstone for her. The cuts were jagged and uneven, and the writing was sloppy and showed that he had cut the writing out of the stone without the use of any kinds of tools. He promised himself he would get a better tombstone for her when he came back here to visit.
His face was now set in an emotionless mask as he stared at the grave. Reaching a hand into his shirt Naruto pulled out a small chain that was attached to his neck. Taking the chain off from around his neck Naruto gazed at the center piece of the metal necklace. Attached to the chain was an odd green crystal that shined brilliantly as it was held in the middle of a snow flake.
Haku had given it to him on their last night together.
Flashback…
Taking a deep breath Naruto began to tell her something that no one in his age group knew, "The day I was born, the Bijuu known as Kyuubi attacked my village, many of our ninja forces had been killed, even a lot of our civilian population died. The Kyuubi attacked without warning, just appearing in the middle of our village before going on a rampage. Just when all hope seemed lost, the Yondaime Hokage arrived and, through the use of a powerful self-sacrificing jutsu, killed the Kyuubi."
Haku looked up at him as he paused in curiosity, wondering where her companion was going with this. She knew of this story, it had been one of the few major incidents that had spread across the elemental nations, even reaching Kiri.
"At least…that is what the history books and our teachers taught us, but that story couldn't have been farther from the truth," Naruto said in a quiet voice. "You see the Kyuubi, like all Bijuu, was simply a mass of malevolent chakra with a conscious, and was the strongest of the nine. As such the Kyuubi cannot be killed." He looked down at Haku to see her staring at him with wide eyes. "The only way to defeat a Bijuu is to seal it. And the only thing that would work against something as strong as the Kyuubi is a person."
Haku gasped as she continued listening, she already had an idea where this was going. However she continued to listen, knowing that it would be better if he told her himself.
Naruto plunged on, fearing that if he did not continue now, he would never be able to tell her, "And so the Yondaime took a new born baby, who had just had its umbilical cord cut, and used it to seal the demon. Just before he died, the Yondaime asked that the child be seen as the hero that protects Konoha each and every day by ensuring that the Kyuubi could never escape again."
He paused for a second and took a deep breath, "Suffice to say, the villagers did not honor is dying wish. From the moment the boy was born he was treated like he was less then dirt. At the orphanage he was in, the matron refused to let him play with the other children, fearing that the 'monster' would taint the others. He was only fed the scraps other children left after their meals once a day if he was lucky, once a week if he wasn't. And on his fifth birthday, they kicked him out."
Closing his eyes Naruto missed the tears that were already falling from Haku's eyes.
"For nearly a year this child lived on the streets, going through the garbage cans in order to find sustenance. On many occasions he would get tossed away from them by the people who owned the shops that used them, causing him to starve. He would live where ever he could, often in cardboard boxes and even living in the sewers of Konoha for several months just to stay warm during some of the colder seasons. It was only by chance that he happened to come upon a little ramen shop, and even more amazing luck, that the Hokage happened to be there. The Hokage, after hearing of what happened to this child, gave him an apartment of his own and a monthly stipend for his necessities and the utilities of the apartment. However even then, it was not enough."
"The apartment owner could not raise the price high enough so he could not pay, but she did make it so that he was nearly broke all the time. Not that it would have mattered. The boy was unable to buy the bare necessities anyways. Shops would kick him out, or sell rotten goods to him. Clothing stores kicked him out or charged triple the price for nearly ruined clothes. And no matter where he went, people would either glare at him, or try to ignore his existence entirely. The boy also had no friends since parents had told their children to stay away from the boy, saying that he was dangerous and could not be trusted. Eventually, the parents' hatred was passed onto their children. Even when he went to the academy to become a ninja, it was no different. Teachers would yell at him when he tried to answer questions, or throw him out for trying to 'outdo clan heirs'. Nothing he seemed to do help improve his standing in class and, eventually the child turned to pranks, hoping it would get him the attention he wanted."
A stifled sob and the feeling of a body pressing into his caused Naruto to stop his story, looking down he saw Haku crying into his shirt. Deciding that she knew enough, he stopped there and got to his point, "I don't think I need to tell you who this child was."
Haku shook her head as she looked up at him. "I don't… *Sniff* understand, how anyone *Sniff* could do something like that to an innocent child with such a burden."
"It's because they don't understand," Naruto said quietly, "humans have always held a fear of the things they don't or can't understand, and when they fear something the basic instinct of all humans is to lash out at it simply to prove that they don't fear it. You should know this better than anyone since the same thing that happened in Kiri…"
"Still…" Haku said as she placed her head on his shoulder, "I don't know how you could handle something like that without breaking."
"And I don't know how you could deal with your parents' death, or the fact that you were forced to kill one of them without breaking," Naruto replied. "I can handle it because I understand why there doing It and want to change their opinions of me. Before I found out why, I had used my pranks and hid behind a goofy smile and upbeat attitude to deal with it. I guess I figured that if they were going to ignore me, or hate me, I would give them a reason to with my pranks."
The whiskered blond ran a hand through his hair and sighed, "It wasn't until a traitor tricked me into stealing the forbidden scroll of sealing that I found out why. But now I do understand, and I'll make them change, I'll become Hokage and show everyone that I'm not the demon they think I am…"
Haku smiled as she looked up at him. "You really are an amazing person Naruto-kun," She said.
Naruto blushed, "Well, I'm not really all that… special…"
Haku shook her head and smiled, "You are, you're just too modest to realize how amazing you are." Reaching into an inner pocket where she normally carried senbon, Haku pulled out a beautiful necklace with a green crystal being held in the center of a snowflake. "My mother gave this to me, it was a family heirloom she said," the raven-haired girl placed it in Naruto's hand and closed his fingers around it, "I want you to have this."
Naruto looked at Haku in shock. Looking down at the necklace he shook his head, "I can't take something that important from you."
Haku smiled, "You can't 'take' something if it was given to you freely. Please have it, I want you to have it."
"But…I feel kind of bad," Naruto said, though he did end up putting the necklace in his pouch, "I mean, I don't have anything of real value to give to you in return."
"I know one thing you can give me," Haku said with a small blush.
Naruto tilted his head to the side quizzically as he looked at her, "Really? What's th-"
Naruto was cut off and his eyes widened in shock when he felt a pair of warm, soft lips press against his own. His entire body froze in place, and it felt like someone had lit him up with the Amaterasu flames. Every single nerve ending felt like they had been hit with a raiton jutsu, causing him to stand ramrod straight.
When she noticed Naruto was not responding Haku pulled back and gave him a pout, "You know when someone kisses you, you're supposed to kiss back."
"I…well I…that is to say we…and you…kiss…and uh…" Naruto tried, the red on his face increasing several shades.
Haku sighed at how embarrassed and shocked the whiskered blond looked, even she knew how to kiss. "Looks like this is something we're going to need to work on," feeling that there was nothing left to be said, she claimed his mouth with her own, and even after Naruto started to respond their lips had remained locked.
Flashback end…
Naruto clenched the necklace in his hand as he tried not to let any of the emotions he had been feeling overtake him. He had never imagined that after everything he had been through in Konoha, there would be something else that would hurt even worse than his loneliness. Honestly the thought that he could be feel a pain more keen then he had felt in his home village, especially after learning why he was so hated was almost laughable.
He could no longer see any amusement in that lie of thought.
"So this is where you've been eh brat?"
Naruto turned around as he heard the gruff voice to see Zabuza walking up to him. The whiskered blond turned around, not really caring what the bandaged faced man wanted, or that he could kill him if he so decided.
"What do you want?" Naruto asked in a dull voice.
Zabuza shrugged as he stopped next to the blond, "The others have been looking for you since you've left." He paused for a moment, "Well, Kakashi and the people of Nami are, I think the pink-haired girl and that Uchiha kid are still unconscious. At least, they were when I left."
Naruto said nothing as he turned around and looked back at the grave. For a while the two said nothing, choosing to simply stare at the small monument that the Konoha shinobi had created.
"You know when I found Haku, she had really been nothing more than a scrawny little thing," Zabuza said after several minutes of silence. "I had found her huddled up on a bridge with people walking past her, ignoring her existence like she wasn't even there. She had looked like she would keel over any moment, I'm sure that had I just left she would have died from starvation within a month's time. Despite that I had felt there would be some kind of use for her and so I took her with me, and trained her to be my weapon."
Naruto fists clenched even tighter and blood began to trickle from his palms as he heard about Haku training to be used as a weapon. He would not deny that a part of him blamed this man for Haku's death as well. After all if he had never found her, she would have never died, at least not here. Still he did not speak, not feeling the desire to talk and let the man continue unhindered.
"I trained her to be the best and, in many ways her abilities in combat had surpassed even mine. But the one thing she had never lost was her pure heart. Haku hated killing in every form, even to this day she had never killed someone, she would always knock them out using pressure points and her senbn instead. Yet for some reason she stuck by me through everything, even when I killed. I had always told her that her mercy was a weakness, but no matter what happened she wouldn't kill." Zabuza sighed as he closed his eyes, "Despite my disapproval of not killing an opponent, I couldn't bring myself to make her kill."
"Why are you telling me this?" whispered Naruto after several minutes of silence.
"Because kid, I have known Haku ever since she was little," Zabuza answered. "I had trained and raised her for a long time. I saw her grow into the person she was, and watched as she grew in strength," Zabuza turned to look at Naruto. "I have seen her at both her best and her worst. However in all the years I've known her, I have never seen her as happy as she had been this past week, and I know she was like that because of you." Naruto let out a small stifled sob, but otherwise didn't react. "This past week you made Haku happier then she had ever been, and for that I want to thank you."
Naruto shook his head as he looked away from Zabuza, "I don't deserve thanks. I betrayed Haku-chan's memory by going on a rampage and killing all those people…you said it yourself, she hated killing. Haku-chan would have never wanted me to do something like that."
Zabuza snorted, "Kid, I think Haku would understand. She had always been extremely understanding of others, and I've done far worse than what you did in my lifetime. She still accepted me."
"But…I killed all those people…I really am nothing more than a demon…" Naruto bit the bottom of his lip to keep more tears from spilling out.
Zabuza laughed at him, "Gaki, I go by the title Kiri No Kijin, I have been called a demon ever since I slaughtered an entire graduating class in Kirigakure and earned my place in its shinobi ranks. So I think I would know a demon when I see one, and you are too soft hearted to be a demon."
Naruto looked at the man before turning back to the grave, "… I suppose you would know…"
Zabuza made a 'hmming' sound but did not say anything. For several more moments they stood in silence, "Kid…"
"Yeah?" asked Naruto.
"I want you to do me a favor," Zabuza said.
Naruto frowned, "What kind of favor?"
"Well two actually," Zabuza paused, "I want you to always keep Haku close to your heart, make sure you never forget her. I see the same kindness and pure heart in you that I did in her, never lose that."
"You don't have to make that kind of request. Even if I wanted to I could never forget Haku-chan…not that I would want to." Naruto looked down at the necklace in his hand, "And the other request?"
"Find people who are important to you and protect them," Zabuza said simply. "Haku had always believed that true strength came from protecting the people important and precious to them. I've become more inclined to believe her after today. I want you to find that source of strength that Haku cherished, something that I couldn't do until it was too late."
Zabuza walked in front of the grave and planted his zanbatou in the ground. Pausing for a moment before he turned around and began walking away, as he did, he passed a parting comment over his shoulder. "My one regret was never telling Haku how much I loved her, that she was the daughter I never had. Do not make the same mistakes I did, or you'll live a life of regret."
Naruto watched Zabuza leave before turning back to the grave and the sword now planted in front of it.
Haku…
The door to Tazuna's house opened and everyone looked to see Naruto walk in. Tazuna, Tsunami and Inari were all sitting on the large couch, while Kakashi was sitting in a chair with his book surprisingly absent.
"Naruto!" Kakashi said as he stood up, "Are you feeling alright?"
"Yeah…" Naruto said, his eyes looking down at the floor, "I'm fine sensei, sorry for worrying you."
Kakashi walked over to Naruto and put a hand on the boy's shoulder, "Listen Naruto, if you ever need to talk about anything…"
Naruto looked up at his sensei and smiled, "Thanks sensei, but I'm feeling fine, really."
"Naruto-nii-san!" Inari shouted as he came bounding up to Naruto, "Everyone's saying you're the one who defeated Gato on the bridge! Is it true?"
Naruto winced almost imperceptibly but put on a smile for Inari, the kid didn't need to know the gruesome details or how he hated what he had done. "Yeah it's true," he ruffle the kid's hair, "I told you I'd send him packing!"
"Sugoi!" Inari said as he looked up at Naruto, "That's so cool! I'm gonna train to get stronger just like my tou-san and you Naruto-nii-san!"
Naruto gave Inari a large smile, "If you want to be as strong as I am one day then there is something very important you need to remember."
"What is it Nii-san?" asked Inari.
"When a person has something important to protect, that's when they become truly strong."
Haku, Naruto looked at Inari with a smile, "It's only when a person has something important to protect, that's when they become truly strong. Remember that."
Inari nodded enthusiastically, "I will Nii-san!"
Naruto ruffled Inari's hair one last time before looking up at Kakashi, "So sensei, where are Sakura and Sasuke-teme?"
"Sasuke has a bit of a concussion, so he's upstairs resting," Kakashi answered.
"Oh Sasuke-kun! Let me help you fluff your pillow so you'll be more comfortable!"
"Get away from me! Why won't you just leave me alone!"
"Wait! Sasuke-kun, Kakashi-sensei said you shouldn't be moving right now!"
Naruto, Kakashi and everyone else in the room sweatdropped as several loud bangs and the pair's screams could be heard.
"Well, maybe he's not getting as much rest as I thought," Kakashi sweatdropped at hearing a particularly loud scream of 'Get the fuck away from me you crazy bitch' from Sasuke. "Speaking of, you should probably get some rest too. The bridge should be finished by next week, until then we still have a job to do."
Naruto nodded as he headed up stairs, "Then I'll see you tomorrow sensei."
(One Week Later…)
The passing week had been fairy hectic for the three genin. With Gato gone and the battle of the bridge having ended in victory only because of Naruto losing control of the Kyuubi, Kakashi had decided to start training them harder than before. He had started teaching Sasuke the water walking exercise since he had already gotten tree walking down. Sakura was still on tree climbing since her reserves were simply not large enough to use water walking. Both of them had been run slightly ragged by their Jonin-sensei, Sasuke even more so since he now had his Sharingan, something he had taken to turning on and off every chance he got.
For Naruto things had been even worse, though it was by his own doing rather than his sensei. He had taken his training to a whole new level. Pushing himself far beyond anything he had ever done. To him, his time in Nami had shown him that he was too weak to protect the people he cared about. He felt that he should have been able to do something, anything that could have saved Haku. That feeling of guilt and the pain of loss was channeled into his training.
Now instead of his usual two hundred clones, he had summoned up three hundred and began to make them work on further developing his fighting style. Naruto wanted to incorporate the use of high speed attacks and fuuinjutsu into his style; hopefully it would give him an edge over others since fuuinjutsu was an obscure art.
However it had been his physical training that Naruto had worked on the most. While he had not upped his training seals, he had nearly quadrupled his workout routine, and was often so exhausted and sore that one of his clones had to take him back to Tazuna's. Kakashi and Tazuna's family became somewhat worried for him when they would see a clone carrying his bloody and beaten form into the house, but he assured them that he was fine.
Despite assuring everything that he was fine, Naruto knew the truth. He knew that each time he reassured someone when they were worrying over him after finding out he had his clones beat the crap out of him on a daily bases, that he was anything but fine. But he knew that he could not stop, the moment he stopped training, the memories he had made with Haku over this past week would come back. And each time they did, it felt like someone had taken a molten hot kunai and shoved in his heart.
That was why he trained himself into the ground everyday, the true reason he could not stop training. Why he came to Tazuna's home every night nearly unconscious. Because the moment he stopped, the pain he felt set in and he did not want to acknowledge the gaping feeling of loss he could now feel.
So long as he kept busy, he could ignore it, so that's what he did.
Another thing Naruto had done was talk to Tazuna about making an orphanage for the orphans he had found and helped. Tazuna along with a few others had helped Naruto build the orphanage; of course all they did was get supplies. Naruto had used his ability to produce ungodly amounts of clones to build the orphanage himself. They had also managed to get a few people who were childless to help take care of the orphans when Naruto left.
At the end of the week the Bridge, with more help from Naruto's clones, had been completed. Now all of the people of Nami were there, not only to celebrate the completion of the bridge, but also to see off the heroes of wave.
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."
So Here you all go, the next chapter. This one is pretty gruesome, and I have a feeling not a lot of people like me killing off Haku. But honestly, if you guys don't feel some kind of anger and sadness at this chapter than I'm calling you a douch bag. This chapter is supposed to evoke a negative emotional response, that way the happier moments to come are that much more... well happy. Remember this, those who do not understand and know what it means to feel great pain, can also never understand and feel true happiness, cuz they are likely to take everything they have for granted.
Anyways, I'm done with the philosiphical shit, review and let me know what you think, even if you hate the chapter, that way I know that my story at least got the emotional response I'm looking for.
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