Chapter 27
Minato and the council were watching trough the magic peeping crystal ball with wide open eyes as Naruto and the merry band of shinobis travel down the road to Wave.
“the fuck was that?!”, Tsume is the first to speak, her voice cutting through the silence.
“that, was something that should be in the hands of the Uchiha”, Fugaku says with his MS activated.
“what makes you say such a thing?”, Hiruzen asks, he would be lying if he said he was curious about that attack, “and don’t give me that elite spiel”.
“egotism apart, I must agree with Fugaku on the aspect such powerful technic shouldn’t stay in the hands of someone who openly admitted to have a shaky loyalty to the village”, Inoichi says, raising his hands, “it’s just asking for it to be used against us”.
“Inoichi has a point”, Shibi Aburame says, “however, counterpoint, his loyalty is indeed shaky, however not inexistent, we should tread carefully as to not upset the scale against the village”.
“buggy boy has point”, Tsume points, scratching her head, “Lord Third pointed out that he uses magic, I have no fucking clue what it is, but I know ninjutsu and if I have to guess that fire thing he did is probably a kage or above level”.
After she says that, the door bursts open, startling them all as a very disheveled Jiraiya walks in.
The toad sage looked like he hadn’t got any sleep in months, reeked of sweat, ink and oil, his long mane was a chaotic rats nest, his clothes where filled with gashes and dirt and the circles around his were so deep one could mistake him for a rabid raccoon high on meth.
Actually, scratch that, a rabid raccoon high on meth would look more put together then him.
“sensei!”, Minato exclaims getting on his feet, “where have you been?!”.
“Minato, where’s Naruto?!”, Jiraiya asks, his eyes blood shot red.
“Naruto?”, Haiashi asks, confused.
“the toads, the great Toad Sage”, Jiraiya says as his vision gets blurry.
Soon after he passes out and panic ensues.
Back with the merry band of misfits.
They finally make it to Wave and true to his word, Zabuza cleaned the house and fucked off. When they arrived, the small village was having a huge party to celebrate the downfall of Gato.
“this blond ass mother fucker here”, Tazuna says, drunk out of his ass after Naruto lifted the curse, “he scared Gato’s lap demon into turning coats and freeing our country!!”.
The celebrating crowd cheers loudly at that.
“no need for that”, Naruto says , dawning his sake.
“here master”, Haku says, refiling the dish.
“thanks”, Naruto dishearten thanks Haku, “you know, you are free now, you don’t have to stick with me, I’m pretty sure Kiri would love having such fine Shinobi in their ranks”.
“inded they would, if the political landscape was different”, Haku says, with the Sake bottle ready to refill Naruto’s cup, “as of right now, the blood purges are still going at full swing under the rule of Yagura and as far I’ve heard, any and all resistance is not even close to dethroning the tyrant”.
“still, why waste your freedom serving a master when you can be your own master?”, Naruto enquires.
“is it a waste of my freedom when I freely choose to follow a master?”, Haku asks, refilling Naruto’s cup.
“it wouldn’t, if you had freely chosen this life”, Naruto says, drinking again, “you sold yourself to save Zabuza’s ass and he didn’t even fought to keep you”.
“yes”, Haku admits without an ounce of shame or sadness in her voice, instead it had a hint of… pride, “ as a tool, I live to serve my master and as tool I accomplished it by offering myself to save his life, now I live to serve you, master”.
While the party was going on, Naruto, using a magic to project his mind out of his body tracks down Zabuza.
“the fuck is wrong with that girl?!”, looking annoyed he asks Zabuza as they stand in an ever extending white void.
“the fuck is this?!”, Zabuza asks nervous, last thing he remembers was falling asleep on cave in a small island between the main land and Kiri.
“I’m inside your head dipshit!!”, Naruto says, “this place is projection of the subconscious mental void that exists inside everybody’s brain. Now answer my question!”.
“she’s a Yuki, they are all have some sort of crazy!!”, Zabuza says, “look, I’m not saying this out of pure bloodiness pride, there’s records, from the Yuki clam themselves dating back centuries of how the Yuki women inherited some sort of crazy, for all intents and purposes Haku is the least crazy of the bunch!”.
“elaborate”, Naruto says, not detecting lies coming from Zabuza.
“yes I indoctrinated her into understanding she was tool, but I did nothing beyond what the ninja academy does, she was the one who escalated things where if you ask her to undress and parade around naked she would obey without question”, Zabuza says, “but she is by far not the worse. For example, look no further than Yunno Yuki, she had an obsession, with a fictional character from a children’s book that ran so deep she used to kidnap little boys that matched the character’s description and turn them into frozen dolls”.
“oh fuck!!”, Naruto says, that kind of crazy not even magic could get hid off.
“oh fuck indeed”, Zabuza says sounding relieved, “also, avoid letting her have access to you in the morning, she will molest you in your sleep… unless you are into it”.
“and how did you found that out?”, Naruto asks.
“I made the mistake of sharing a room with her when I just had found her out in wild”, Zabuza says, his eyes getting devoid of any light as he stares in the distance, “a nine years old should not know how to do that with her hands…”.
“ok, I’ll keep that in mind!!”, Naruto says, before things could go any further.
“I’m serious here you dumbass!!”, Zabuza snaps back to reality, “Haku is a master of stealth, she can pick any lock in three seconds, she’s very good with seals and don’t get me started with the ice mirrors”.
“if you wanted to avoid being molested in your sleep by a under aged girl, why did tough her how to be this good at getting to people?”, Naruto asks.
“look, I’m good, but I’m not good and lucky enough to have any delusion I will live to die of old age”, Zabuza says with a growl, “I wanted her to be able to survive on her own in case I got bested, so I went all in with her training”.
“at least you are a good teacher I’ll give you that”, Naruto says, “anything else I should know?”.
“just be good to her ok, she’s extreme talented as Kunoichi, but her heart yearns for a more domestic life, if you can give it to her do it”, Zabuza says with a sigh filled with fatherly emotion, “it is my first and last wish of you”.
“the only thing I can promise is that I’m going to try”, Naruto says, “but knowing the assholes who ran the village they’ll either try to induct her into the ranks or try to pull that CRA bullshit”.
“I like to see them try”, Zabuza says, “crazy as they are, Yuki woman are loyal to the bone, once they latch on someone they don’t let it go”.
“she let go of you”, Naruto points.
“good point, here’s my counter, she gave herself to you to save me and I have no doubts she would die for me, you know being a tool and all”, Zabuza says, “now she is your tool”.
“fuck, anyway, I gotta go!”, Naruto says, leaving Zabuza to go back to his dream.
Back at the party and with new info to go by, Naruto sighs when his eye lands on Haku.
“she’s either gonna be the death of me… or a big headache”, he thinks to himself, until his eye turns to see Sakura running with tears in her eyes.
It takes one look at the flaming constipated expression Sasuke had on his face to know what happened.
In any other circumstances, no shits would be given, Izuku wasn’t attached to those people, specially Sakura, Naruto on the other hand… the fainting echoes inside him still held the pinkette in some regard of love.
Also he wanted an excuse to get away from the party for a while.
It wasn’t that hard to find Sakura, all he had to do was to follow the sobs into an isolated part of the woods.
“what do you want Baka!?”, Sakura barks, her eyes puffy and red as tears stream down her face.
“and here she goes”, Naruto says, sitting next to Sakura, “it seems me and Mito failed in beating the cry baby out of you”.
“did you came here to mock me?”, Sakura asks, glaring at Naruto.
“you would know if I did”, Naruto says, looking at his teammate.
There’s a second of silence before he speaks again.
“that bad?”, Naruto asks.
“Sasuke he…”, Sakura says, blurting out a sob.
“said horrible things”, Naruto completes.
“h-he”, Sakura tries to speak again.
“tore you a new one and he did it so without an ounce of remorse”, Naruto once again completes her sentence.
“were you spying on us?”, Sakura asks, glaring at him.
“nope, I just saw the aftermath”, Naruto says, scooting closer to Sakura.
“then how do…”, Sakura tries to ask.
“how do I know how it feels to have someone precious to you tell to your face that you will never amount to anything in you miserable life despite the fact you worked yourself to the bone to become a better version of yourself?”, Naruto says with a dry chuckle, “you can call it experience”.
Sakura gets quiet again, remembering that in the misery Olympics, Naruto ranked above her.
“I’m s-sorry”, Sakura says, now it was her turn to scoot closer to Naruto.
“apology accepted”, Naruto says, curse his soft heart, he couldn’t stay mad at her.
“how do you did it?”, Sakura asks, curling herself into a ball.
“how do I do what?”, Naruto asks.
“how did you moved on?”, Sakura asks, her voice shaky, “how did you made the pain stop?”.
“I didn’t, it hurts, and still hurts and the scars I have are far from healing”, Naruto says, some truth in his words since the pain of betrayal and the torture still lingered in him, “but if there’s one thing I did not left behind on my grave was my determination to push forward”.
“I don’t think I have it in me to do the same”, Sakura says with another sob.
“and here is where you are wrong”, Naruto says, “you have it in you to push forward, to become a better version of yourself, to improve and to be better. Just look at you now compared with you a few months back”.
Sakura raises her hear, green eyes meeting a blue one.
“you have in you to be better, to be great”, Naruto says, “if you hadn’t, neither me, Mito or Tsunade would be so invested in helping you become the woman you can be and if that stuck up the ass duck butt haired, blue blooded asshole with a superiority complex can’t see it, then he’s as blind as a bat”.
“do you really think that about me?”, Sakura asks, raising her head.
“Sakura, you are annoying, violent and sometimes you give me the kind of headache that makes me question why I do even bother hanging around you”, Naruto says, with a serious look in his eyes, “but you are also one of the most caring, passionate and determinate persons I know”.
Sakura’s eye get wide as she stares at Naruto.
“so as your teammate, no, as your friend, I believe in you”, Naruto says, as Sakura tackles him into a hug and goes back to crying, “go on, let it all out have yourself a good cry”.
“I’m sorry!!”,, She sobs into his chest, “I’m I was so mean, I’m sorry for hitting you, for berating you and…”.
“water under the bridge”, Naruto says.
“do you really…”, Sakura asks, her head still buried on Naruto’s chest.
“yes I believe in you”, Naruto answers, “and yes, I’m not lying, I have faith in you and so is Tsunade and Mito. Now you just need to have a little faith on yourself, also, Sasuke is overrated as fuck!! Emo femboys like him are dime a dozen, you can do soo much better than Mr. Emolord Elite”.
“he is an asshole”, Sakura says, with a faint chuckle.
“see, you are finally seeing reason”, Naruto chuckles back, “now come on, let’s go back, we both could use a nap right now”.