Of Realizations, Training, and Heroes
-Of Realizations, Training, and Heroes-
Kakashi snapped awake, his body slightly tense as he realized the vulnerable state he was in. He slowly relaxed as he took in the unfamiliar room and heard the dull sound of two voices from a certain brunette and blond. After sinking back into the bedding, it was then he felt a familiar dull pain coursing through his body, causing him to give a low groan. 'Ugh... I think I over did it with my Sharingan.'
Suddenly, his view of the ceiling was blocked by a relatively young woman with long dark hair as she bent at the waist, looking down at him. "Waking up, huh? Are you alright?" She asked as she watched him struggle to sit up.
"I've been better. It'll be a week before I can move normally." Kakashi replied before letting out another low groan, the sound making the woman scowl slightly.
"See? It's better if you don't move, so just lay down." She scolded, placing her hands on her hips.
"Right..." Kakashi mumbles as he takes her advice and lays back down. His attention is soon adverted to his students and Tazuna as they walk through the door.
"Look Sensei's coming around." Naruto pointed out happily as they all sat down around the Jounin.
"Listen Sensei, your Sharingan is amazing and everything, but if it puts that much strain on you maybe it's not worth it." Sakura scolded from her spot next to his left leg.
"Sorry." The Jounin apologized, a small part of him meaning it but also not really caring.
"Old age must be a pain huh? I mean just look at Tazuna-san." Amaya simpered from his right, causing him to side-eye her for a moment as the old man bristled at her comment.
"Hah." Tazuna began, choosing to ignore the girl for a moment. "Well, you did take down one of the most powerful ninja assassins, so we'll be safe for now." He finished while fanning himself.
"Right... But you know that boy with the mask? What about him?" Sakura asked as she looked down at Kakashi curiously.
"He's from the elite tracking unit of the Village Hidden in the Mist. Those masks are only worn by the most elite shinobi." Kakashi replied as he sat up once again.
"What exactly do they do?" The pinkette asked again causing Amaya to deadpan.
'Wasn't this all explained earlier today? Hell, you explained most of it to Naruto, yourself.' The Minamoto thought with a sigh.
"The ANBU Black Ops, also known as the Inferno Squad, destroy all traces of a rogue ninjas corpse. The shinobi's body contains many secrets. Ninjutsu; chakra; special medicines used on his body. These are the secrets of his village. If his enemies find them, his people will be in grave danger. For instance, if I were to die at the hands of an enemy, he would try to analyze my Sharingan. In the worst case, my entire jutsu could be stolen and used against our home village. It is the sacred duty of our shinobi trackers to prevent this. To keep the village secrets safe. If a ninja betrays his village, the trackers hunt him down and eliminate him. Obliterate every trace of his existence. That's their specialty." Kakashi informed before holding a hand to his forehead as he thought to himself. 'What is this? If Zabuza is finished, why do I feel this way? Something's wrong. It's like I missed something...'
"Hey are you okay? Sensei?" Naruto asked concerned as the others watched on.
"Hm? Oh, yeah, to finish what I was saying, tracker ninja deal with the body immediately on the spot. So there's no room for error." Kakashi finished, trying to push down the strong sense of unease.
'But the tracker from before didn't do that...?' Amaya mused to herself curiously as she narrowed her eyes in suspicion.
"Is that really important?" Sakura asked, once again causing the Minamoto to sigh as she thought, 'Is she experiencing amnesia or something?'
"Think about it. Do you remember what that tracker did with Zabuza's body?" Kakashi asked, the feeling of unease being replaced with dread.
"We don't know what he did... I mean, I guess he took it away somewhere." Sakura replied as Naruto and Amaya nodded in agreement.
"Exactly. But why? He should've worked on Zabuza right there as quickly as possible. Think of the weapons he used for the takedown. Do you remember what they were?" Kakashi asked again causing Sasuke and Amaya to catch on to what he was implying.
"Throwing needles... No way..." Sasuke murmured in shock.
"Saa~... This situation just got a lot worse didn't it?" Amaya asked as she hung her head. 'Please don't say what I think you're gonna say...' She thought to herself.
"Exactly. None of it adds up." Kakashi agreed, prompting Tazuna to speak up.
"What are you all yammering about? You demolished that assassin."
Kakashi sighed and looked up at the elder. "Here's the truth. Zabuza is still alive." He said seriously causing the trio known as Naruto, Sakura, and Tazuna to screech in disbelief.
'He said it...' Amaya thought in dismay, a scowl painting her features.
"But we saw his body! Believe it!" Naruto yelled as Sakura added onto his statement, "Kakashi-sensei you checked him yourself! You said that his heart stopped!"
Kakashi sighed and began to enlighten them on the matter at hand. "His heart did stop. But that was just a temporary state, to stimulate death. The weapons that tracker used are called senbon. They can pierce deeply but rarely kill unless they hit a vital organ. Not in the neck. They're modified from needles used in medical treatments like acupuncture. Trackers are trained to know every detail of the human body. Causing the heart to stop temporarily while keeping the body alive is an easy matter for them. First, he carried Zabuza's body away, even though it's much heavier than he is. Second, he used senbon, which have a precise effect but are rarely fatal. From these two factors, we can conclude that the tracker wasn't trying to kill Zabuza, he was trying to save him."
"C'mon, you're overthinking this aren't you?" Tazuna asked flippantly.
"'Encountering suspicion, the ninja prepares quickly. Hesitation leads to disaster.' Every shinobi knows this saying." Kakashi replied simply before looking to the blond in front of him who was clenching his trembling fist while grinning. 'Hmph. He's actually pleased to hear Zabuza's alive. Now Naruto's got another shot at him.' The silver haired Jounin thought, smirking behind his mask.
"Sensei, you said "prepare quickly", but how can we do that when you can barely move?" Sakura asked, earning the man's attention once more. Her question also made the other three Genin curious.
Kakashi gives a light laugh before saying, "I can still train you."
"Hold on! A little last minute-training won't make us strong enough to beat Zabuza. You could barely defeat him with your Sharingan! We have to be reasonable about this!" Sakura disagreed angrily while her inner self made another appearance. 'WHAT, ARE YOU TRYING TO GET US KILLED?! CHA!'
"Sakura. Why was I able to stop Zabuza? Because, you all helped me. You've grown. Naruto..." Kakashi replied before addressing the blond, who looked up blankly. "You've grown the most." He finished with a closed eyed smile, making the boy grin triumphantly.
'He does seem stronger and more confident but...' Sakura mused to herself as she looked at the blond.
'Way to stroke his ego, Sensei.' Amaya thought while rolling her eyes, smiling nonetheless.
"So you've noticed, Kakashi-sensei, now things are gonna get better. Believe it!" Naruto replied cheerfully.
Suddenly, a voice of a young boy cut into the conversation. "I don't believe it, and nothing is gonna be good!" As this was being said, the group turned around -or in Kakashi's case, looked- towards the door.
"WHO ARE YOU?!" Naruto yelled out angrily as he pointed at the kid.
"Gah, Inari where've ya been?" Tazuna cheerfully asked, making everyone ignore the blond for a moment.
"Welcome back, Grandpa!" The little boy, now known as Inari, said cheerfully as he ran to give his grandfather a hug.
"Inari, that was very rude! These ninja helped your grandpa and brought him here safely." Tsunami, the woman from before and Tazuna's daughter, scolded her son but was waved off by the man himself.
"It's okay, it's okay. I'm rude to them too!" The old man said with a laugh.
Amaya scoffed lightly, glaring at the man as she thought, 'Tch.. old codger.'
"Mom, don't you see these people are gonna die! Gatō and his men will come back, find them, and wipe the, out!" Inari replied to his mother, as if he wanted her to think rationally.
"Saa~ Here we go..." Amaya mumbled to herself as she watched Naruto's face flush red with anger.
"WHAT DID YOU SAY, BRAT?! Listen up, you know what a super ninja is? Well that's me, only a lot better! I'm gonna be Hokage! This guy Gatō or Blatō or whatever he's called, is no match for a real hero like me!" Naruto confidently exclaimed as he fiddled with his headband. Grinning cockily at the young tyke.
"Ha, there's no such thing as a hero. You're just full of stupid ideas!" Inari rebuked, staring at the blond as if he were stupid.
"WHAT'D YOU SAY?!" Naruto roared as he stood and took a step towards the boy. Sakura in return clutched onto the blond's arm, holding him back as she exclaimed, "Naruto, clam down!"
"If you wanna stay alive, you should go back to where you came from." Inari spat, turning to walk out the door.
"Inari, wait. Where are you going?" Tazuna asked worriedly, holding a hand out to the boy.
"To look out at the ocean. I wanna be alone." Inari replied as he left the room, slamming the door as he went.
After a moment of silence Tazuna spoke to the group of ninja in the room. "Sorry about that."
"Alright, training starts now." Kakashi said to the four as they stood in a clearing.
"Right!" Naruto replied excited, wondering what kind of jutsu his sensei would teach him now.
"First, we will begin with a review of chakra, the ninjas basic source of power. Understanding chakra is essential." Kakashi informed as he slouched slightly on the crutches he was using.
"We know that." Sasuke cut in dully, completely uninterested in the subject -not that Amaya could blame him seeing as the subject alone was extremely boring.
"He's right. A long time ago we learned about.. uh catra." Naruto added, his input and mispronunciation caused Amaya to facepalm.
Giving a sigh, Kakashi corrected the blond tiredly. "Chakra. Go ahead Sakura." He motioned for the pinkette to explain.
Sakura nodded, pulled out a scroll, and began to explain. "Alright Naruto, I'll explain it simply, so you can understand it. Chakra is the elemental life energy a ninja uses in jutsu. It's the source of all his power. Now, this energy has two forms: Physical Energy, which exists in all of the cells in the entire body all working together; and Spiritual Energy, the primal source of power which is intensified through training and experience. As you see, these two types of chakra must be drawn out and brought together in order to form jutsu. Notice the inter plate between physical and spiritual power... That's the key. Finally, hand signs focus and release the chakra."
"Right on all points. Iruka-sensei really did have some excellent students." Kakashi praised, making the pinkette give a small smile.
'Saa~... I'm pretty hungry. Hmm dango... Dango sounds really good right now... Maybe I'll get Trashiaki to treat me when I get back.' Amaya thought to herself, completely zoning out through the entire conversation. Only being brought back to reality by Naruto's complaining.
"Gah, what's the deal with all these complicated explanations? The whole point is to learn jutsu isn't it?" The blond asked, squinting his eyes at his teammate and teacher.
"Naruto's right for once. We're already using chakra energy in our jutsu." Sasuke agreed dully.
"No. You have not mastered this power, you've barely scratched the surface of it." Kakashi deadpanned, letting out a sigh as Naruto exclaimed, "What do you mean?!"
"Calm down and listen. It's just like Sakura said. You have to draw on physical and spiritual energies and then combine them within yourself. But, how do you do that? Each jutsu requires different types of chakra in different proportions. You must select and combine them in exactly the right way. Up till now, you just guessed at the proportions hoping they'll come out right. Even if you produce a lot of chakra, unless you can balance and control it, it's all worthless. The jutsu either won't work at all, or just be a joke. You waste so much energy that way, then you're out of chakra and you can't fight at all. You're just a target." The Jounin informed, slouching once again on his crutches.
"Uh.. so how do I change that?" Naruto asked nervously.
"Train so hard that controlling chakra becomes second nature. To achieve this goal, you must be ready to put your life on the line." Kakashi replies.
"Why does this sound oddly familiar?" Amaya mumbled to herself, soon enough a memory of her training with her father flashes in her mind causing her to blanch.
"What do we have to do?" Naruto asks again.
"Climb a tree." Kakashi replies casually.
"Climb a tree?!" The group of Genin exclaim - except for Sasuke, who was just exasperated by this point.
"That's right. But there's just one rule, no hands." The Jounin replies with a closed eye smile.
"What? You're kidding me." Naruto said skeptically.
Kakashi suddenly turns serious, "Am I? Let's see." He then proceeds to make a hand sign before walking - more like hobbling - over to a nearby tree. Much to the groups surprise however, he places a foot flat on the trunk - shortly followed by the other - before walking up the tree crutches and all.
"He's climbing..." Naruto murmurs as he watches in wonder.
"Straight up... And he's only using his feet." Sakura adds, just as awestruck as the rest.
By this point Kakashi is standing upside down on the underside of a branch. "Well, you get the idea. Focus your chakra towards the soles of your feet and use it to connect to the tree. This is one way to apply the power of chakra."
"Wait a minute. That's a nice trick but how does it help us fight Zabuza?" Sakura questioned, causing Kakashi to roll his eyes with a sigh.
"It's the only way to fight him, Sakura. That's the entire goal of this training. First, you'll learn to draw a precise amount of chakra to a precise point of your body. This is difficult even for advanced ninja. This type of climbing requires a subtle mix of physical and spiritual energy, and the bottoms of the feet are the most difficult points to focus chakra. Are you getting the picture? If you can master this, you'll be able to master any jutsu. Well, theoretically. The second point is to learn to maintain your chakra levels. When a ninja is focused in battle, it's even harder to control and maintain his chakra levels. A deadly mistake. To avoid this, maintaining chakra must become second nature. Effortless... Well, I can stand here and talk about this all day but that won't advance your skills will it? You need to apply the power of chakra through training." Kakashi then pulls out four kunai knives and tosses them to his students. As the kunai embed into the ground in front of the four, Kakashi adds, "Use the kunai knife to mark the tree at the highest point you can climb without using your hands. Then try to get past that mark the next time, and the next. At first, you'll need to run at the tree, so your momentum can take you as high as possible. Until you get used to it. Oh, and Amaya?"
At the sound of her name the brunette looks to her sensei as she picks up a kunai. "Yeah?"
"This could also help you with your clan's technique. It requires precise chakra control as well, correct?" Kakashi asked for confirmation, and at the girl's silent nod, he turns to the group as a whole. "Ready?"
"I'm more than ready! This is gonna be no sweat, all the way! Believe it! Remember what you said, Sensei! I'm the one who's grown the most!" Naruto exclaimed as the others stared at him blankly.
"You're definitely the one who talks the most." Kakashi replied before ordering, "Now get focused and do it!"
'Well he did say that... Okay, first I need to draw the chakra to the bottom of my feet.' Naruto thought to himself as he and the others made a hand sign. Feeling that he gathered enough he called out determinedly, "I got it! Charge!"
The four then run towards their own selected tree. Naruto instantly falls to the ground while Sasuke makes his way up a little higher until the bark breaks beneath his foot, forcing him to mark his spot before he flips backwards and lands safely on the ground.
'This is harder than I thought. The balance has to be perfect, if the chakra's too strong it smashes the tree and pushes you off.' Sasuke notes to himself as he observes the damage done to the bark before turning to watch the same thing happen to Amaya, who made it a smidge higher than himself. He looks to Naruto, who is rolling around on the ground withering in pain as a lump forms on his head. He then adds, 'But if it's not strong enough you just tumble back down. Like Naruto.'
"That's about what I expected from Sasuke. Aaaand Naruto." Kakashi thought aloud to himself in amusement as he watched the two Genin try and fail to climb their trees.
"Hey this is fun!" Sakura calls out suddenly, prompting everyone to stop and look in the direction of her voice. They eventually find her sitting on a high branch of her respective tree giggling to herself.
"Sakura!" Naruto called out in awe, as he and the others stared up at the pinkette in surprise.
"Well, looks like one of the female members of the squad has the most advanced chakra control. Well done, Sakura." Kakashi praised, a plan forming in his head as he looked at the three on the ground.
"Yeah! Way to go, Sakura, I always knew you were awesome! Believe it!" Naruto cheered with a fist pump. However, on the inside he was slightly put off. 'It does sort of tick me off though.'
"Whatever." Sasuke mumbled, looking off to the side and away from the pinkette.
'I thought Sasuke would be impressed, but now he's mad at me. Why is it always like this?' Sakura thought to herself sulkily as she watched the boy pay no mind to her achievement.
"Well, not only does Sakura understand chakra, she can control and maintain it as well. We spoke about someone becoming Hokage one day, didn't we? Seems Sakura's got the best chance of that wouldn't you say?" Kakashi mused aloud causing Naruto to growl to himself. The Jounin then continued, "And as for the great Uchiha clan, maybe they're not so great after all. I also think a position of a certain someone's father is a little out of reach too..." As he said this, both Sasuke and Amaya twitched in annoyance.
"Shut up, Sensei! You talk to much!" Sakura yelled angrily from her perch in the tree before thinking, 'Sasuke's gonna hate me now.'
Kakashi however, paid the girl no mind as he continued to observe the three Genin on the ground. The two boys turned to glare at each other while Amaya sighed in annoyance. 'Alright, I think they're motivated. Of course, Naruto, Amaya, and Sasuke have far more chakra within. If this training works, their mastery of chakra will become a valuable asset.'
"Alright! First, I'll match Sasuke! Then I'm going all the way to the top! Believe it!" Naruto exclaimed determinedly, completely unaware of Inari watching from a distance.
'Saa~ Well if pinkie can do it, so can I!' Amaya thought to herself as she turned to her own tree. Blue eyes trail up to her previously made mark, observing the slightly damaged bark surrounding it. 'I keep amassing too much chakra. What was it Papa always said when we trained?... Hmm...' She mused, looking off to the side as his advice rang through her head. '"Don't force it, let your chakra flow freely... Like water"... yeah that's it!'
Opening her eyes slightly, Amaya gives the mark one more glance and takes a deep breath, kneading a small amount of chakra into the soles of her feet. "Don't force it. Don't force it." She continued to chant under her breath as she started running towards the tree. Suddenly, as soon as her foot made contact with the bark, it was like something clicked. Pushing herself further, the brunette eventually made her way up the tree a little higher than before.
After marking a place, Amaya pushes off the tree into a backflip, landing on the ground in a crouch. Steadying her breath, she looks up at the newly made mark. There wasn't much space between the two lines, the second being only a smidgen higher than the first, but progress was still progress.
'One more...'
***
An hour or so passed, maybe more, and the trio were still at it. Sakura gave up a little while ago and was currently relaxing in the shade of a nearby tree.
Amaya on the other hand, was staring up at the last mark she made, unable to stop the triumphant grin forming on her lips. Taking a small step back, the brunette wobbles slightly from the shakiness in her legs, deciding to give it another go before taking a break.
Gathering her chakra, she prepares to sprint forward. However, before she could even take another step, she spots Naruto hitting the ground with a loud thump. 'Saa~ Here comes the tantrum...' She thought with a sigh, and from the look on Sakura's face, the pinkette was thinking along the same lines.
As if on que, Naruto yells in frustration before he suddenly turns and walks towards Sakura. Once close enough, he crouches next to the confused girl, asking for advice in "hushed whispers". "Hey, you're good at this, how about some advice? But please don't tell Sasuke I asked! Please, please!"
Looking away from the two, Amaya locks eyes with Sasuke. Flinching slightly at the sudden attention, she gives him an awkward smile along with a shrug before attempting to climb her tree again.
The next day, seeing as both Sakura and Amaya proved their capability in training, Kakashi decided to have them guard Tazuna while he worked on the bridge. The two girls agreed cheerfully and left the house with the elder early that morning.
During the time span of the early morning hours, both girls helped the builders wherever they could. Sakura, however, eventually sat down to rest while Amaya continued to help Tazuna carry lumber with a few shadow clones.
The pinkette let out a loud yawn before stretching her arms above her head. Tazuna, who was walking by at the time, turned to look at her. "You always this lazy?... Where's that weird blond kid at, and the one with the attitude?"
"They're training, climbing trees." Sakura answered, still trying to shake off the sudden bout of drowsiness.
Seeing her tired state, Tazuna sends her an unimpressed look. "Too tough for you two?" He asks gruffly as four of Amaya's five clones walk past, each pair carrying large stacks of lumber.
Sakura watches the brunette's go before turning her attention back to the old man. A small tinge of annoyance filling her at the insinuation. By this point, Amaya and the fifth clone joined the two as the pinkette puffs her chest out proudly. "No. In fact, we're the best that's why sensei sent us here to guard you."
"You're joking." The elder asked with a slight snicker, angering Sakura in the process and causing Amaya and her shadow clone to stare at him blankly.
Before anything else could be said, a man called out to Tazuna as he walked over. "Tazuna...! Uh... I need to talk to you."
Tazuna turned his head slightly away from the two girls. "Huh? What about?"
The man began to fidget as he looked off to the side. "Ah... The thing is, I've been thinking a lot about the bridge, and I decided, I've pushed my luck far enough. I want out."
Tazuna spun around to face the man completely. "Now you're going to quit on me, just like that?! You're kidding!" He angrily asked, his tone making the man fidget more.
"Ya know, I stayed on because of our friendship. But I'm putting my life on the line every day I stay here. Gatō and his thugs will show up eventually. When they do, they'll kill you and the bridge will never get finished anyway. It's a lost cause Tazuna, why don't we stop now while we can still get out of this alive?" The man replied, causing Sakura and Amaya to stare in surprise and Tazuna, in anger.
"No chance. This is our bridge. Our island is poor, it will stay that way until the bridge connects us to the mainland. Commerce, trade, and hope! That's what we're building here!" Tazuna yelled, angry but determined.
"There's not going to be much hope if we're all dead." The man rebuffed pessimistically.
Tazuna stayed quiet and eyed the man for a moment before saying, "It's already noon. Let's break for lunch." He then began to walk past the man without a second glance.
"Tazuna! Let's not end it like this!" The man called out, holding out a hand as he and the two girls watched the elder walk away.
Tazuna stopped a little ways away before calling out over his shoulder, "Save your breath. Oh, and Giichi, don't bother coming back after lunch."
Amaya dispersed her clones and shared a look Sakura, both letting out a sigh.
***
The day flew by rather quickly after the earlier incident, and Sakura and Amaya found themselves walking down the street, further into the village, with Tazuna. "Um... Where are we going?" Sakura asked as they both looked around curiously.
"You wanna eat tonight don't you? I gotta pick up somethings for dinner." Tazuna answered as he gave them a small glance.
As they walk, they see a young boy run down the street, and by the sounds of a man exclaiming "Thief!" they quickly understood that he stole something.
'Probably food...' Amaya thought to herself with a sigh as they pass two children hunched over in front of a building, both looking malnourished and very hungry.
'What's wrong with these people?' Sakura thought to herself in disbelief, also taking notice of the two children.
By this point, Tazuna had led them to a stop in front of a shop. "Here we are." He says as he opens the door, it's bell giving off a light chime, prompting the owner to give out a feeble "Welcome."
The girls follow Tazuna further into the shop. Looking around, they see that the shelves were almost completely barren, save the few -and very few at that- shriveled up vegetables. 'This is a store? There's nothing here.' Sakura thought to herself.
While the small trio went on, a man walks in behind Sakura and sees her bag. Giving a sly grin, he reaches for it. However, what he didn't expect was for Sakura to feel the movement and roundhouse kick him in the face, all the while screaming "You pervert!" They all watched as the man fell to the floor, some blood and a tooth flying from his mouth as he cried out pain. "No! I was--... Gah!"
***
"Wow, you really surprised me back there. Girls around here don't fight like that." Tazuna comments as he and a snickering Amaya followed alongside the angry pinkette.
"They should! Something's seriously wrong here!" Sakura snapped angrily as she marched on. Suddenly, unbeknownst to the trio, a small hand reached out and tugged lightly on the back of Sakura's shirt. 'Again?!' She thought exasperated.
Amaya glanced at the pinkette, narrowing her eyes at the look on the girl's face. Before she could ask what's wrong, Sakura whirled around saying, "Hey buster--!"
Wondering why she stopped talking, Amaya and Tazuna turned to look behind them. There standing in the middle of the street, was a small boy holding out his hands. "Please?" He asks with a small, but cute laugh.
Sakura looks to Amaya as she searches her bag, the brunette nods in response before digging through one of her pouches. The two girls, not having any money at the time, gave the boy some candy they had on their person. "Uh.. here." Sakura stammers out to the boy as Amaya gives a closed eye smile. As they hand him the candy, he grins brightly. "Oh, thank you!" He exclaims before turning and running off.
"This is how it's been since Gatō came here." Tazuna told them as they watch the boys small figure disappear. "The children suffer, and the adults are afraid to stand up to him. They've lost all hope, and that's why we have to finish the bridge." He added, promoting the girls to look at him. He then continued, "It will bring commerce and trade, but much more importantly that bridge is a symbol of courage. We must restore the spirit of our people... When the bridge is finished, the people will start to believe again. They'll believe that they can live with dignity! We can't let Gatō stop us!"
After a moment of silence, the three turn and begin walking again. Both girls thinking along the same lines. 'Sasuke, Naruto, we have to help them!'
Later on that evening while eating dinner, Tazuna lets out a light and very sudden laugh. "This is fantastic! It's been ages since we've had so many guests around the table."
As he spoke, Amaya blankly watched as Naruto and Sasuke practically inhaled their food from her spot between Kakashi and Tazuna. 'Saa~ They even brought their competition into eating.' She thought to herself, annoyed.
Suddenly, the two boys shot up from their chairs, making their female teammates jump slightly. "I want some more!" They yelled in unison before turning to glare at each other furiously. All is silent, and Amaya could've sworn she saw lightning flash between the two until they both spun around and threw up the food they scarfed down so quickly.
"Don't eat so much if you're gonna puke it up!" Sakura scolded as she stood from her seat.
"I have to eat!" Sasuke replied, wiping his mouth as he turned to glare at Naruto.
"And I have to eat more than him! It's the only possible way I'll be strong enough to beat him!" Naruto growled, glaring back just as harshly.
"That's true. But puking won't help you." Kakashi cut in, leaning back in his chair.
"You're both idiots." Amaya deadpanned, her nose scrunching at the smell. "And you're both cleaning that up."
***
Once dinner was over and after the two boys cleaned up their mess, everyone remained seated at the table, enjoying their tea. Amaya, who had already finished hers, offered to help Tsunami with washing the dishes while Sakura stood off to the side and observed a photograph hanging on the wall.
"Excuse me, this picture is torn. Is there some reason for that?" The pinkette asks, turning her head to glance over her shoulder. "Inari, you kept glancing at it all through dinner. It looks like there was someone else in the picture, but they got torn out... I mean that's kind of strange isn't it?" She asked again curiously, her questions making the three family members tense in response.
"It's my husband." Tsunami answered simply, not once turning to look at the pinkette or Amaya who stood beside her.
"They used to call him a hero in this land." Tazuna informed, mournfully staring down at the table.
Inari stands from his seat and makes his way to the door, causing Tsunami to spin around quickly. "Inari, where are you going?!" She asks; however, he ignores her and stomps out the door, slamming it shut behind him. Tsunami then turns to her father angrily. "Father, you can't talk about him like that in front of Inari! You know that!" She yells before following her son with a huff.
"Inari's so... I mean what happened to him?" Sakura asked after a moment of silence.
Tazuna doesn't look up from the table making Kakashi lean forward slightly. "Hm... Is there a story behind this?"
Tazuna gave a sigh and began to elaborate. "He wasn't his real father. He came into our family later. And he brought so much happiness, he and Inari were close. In those days Inari used to laugh all the time. But then..."
"Hmm?" Kakashi asked again. By this point Amaya finished her task for Tsunami and made her way to the table.
"All that ended. He never laughs or smiles anymore. Ever since the day everything changed... The word courage was stolen from this island. We were left feeling powerless, hopeless and Inari suffered the most. Ever since that day. Ever since it happened." Tazuna answered, tears forming in his eyes.
"Tell us. What happened to Inari?" Kakashi asked, interested.
"First, you need to know about the man. His father. The man who taught us courage. Who was a hero in this land." Tazuna replied weakly, still looking at the table.
"A hero really?" Naruto asked, resting his head on his arms as he listened intently.
"You could decide that for yourself. He came here many years ago..." Tazuna then went on to explain that Inari was bullied once, and that the ones involved had thrown the boys dog into the sea with Inari, who couldn't swim mind you, following shortly after. "Interestingly enough, at that exact moment, pooch figured out how to dog paddle." Tazuna said while crossing his arms. He then told them about how Inari almost drowned but was saved by the man that would become his father. "His name was Kaiza. A simple fisherman who came here from another land to follow his dreams. After that Inari and Kaiza were inseparable. The boy had never known his real father, so you could imagine what it meant to him to have Kaiza in his life. He looked up to him and followed in his footsteps like a real father and son. Kaiza spent more and more time with us until he just naturally became a member of our family. And then when this town needed him, he became something more." Tazuna then explained how Kaiza basically saved the village from high flood waters by volunteering himself to close the flood gates - a seemingly impossible task. "From that time on, Kaiza was considered a hero in this land. He taught us all the meaning of courage and Inari was so proud to be his son. But it wasn't long after that Gatō showed up and took over. He terrorized the whole village, only Kaiza stood up to him... Gatō couldn't have a local hero getting in his way, it took his whole gang to stop one man." By this point, Tazuna was crying. He then told them about how Gatō had his men beat and torture Kaiza, who was later executed in front of the whole village. "Since then, Inari's changed. So did Tsunami and all our people. We lost our will."
The room was silent for a moment until Naruto stood from his seat, only to faceplant the floor roughly. The group stayed silent and stared the blond until Sakura decided to ask, "What are you doing down there Naruto?"
"You better take the day off. No more training, you've used too much chakra. Push any harder and it could kill you." Kakashi informed, leaning back in his chair once again.
"I'm gonna prove it." Naruto said determinedly as he stood up from the floor.
Kakashi let out a low "Hm?" As Sakura asked, "Prove what?"
"I'll prove that... That it's true! That in this world, there are heroes!" Naruto replied as he clenched a fist.