Chapter 26 - Land of Waves(15)
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Pieces of body parts all came flying down to the ground and blood spurting everywhere as the wind dragon razed them all to the ground.
Zabuza, who was watching, simply stared at the massacre in front of him, with his eyes widened.
Kakashi, who was also watching, stared at Naruto's jutsu thinking 'That was comparable to an S-rank jutsu… He created yet another fearsome jutsu… How does his brain work?'
Sasuke, Sakura, and Tazuna had similar reactions, but Sasuke clenched his fist again seeing Naruto's prowess.
Zabuza turned to ask Naruto a question "If you were that strong why didn't you interfere earlier?"
Naruto chuckled in reply as the clones poofed out of existence as they took care of the thugs "Why would I? Even Kakashi-sensei, alone, played with you, and Sasuke needed a life and death situation to awaken his sharingan."
Zabuza's eyes twitched hearing Kakashi play with him and sighed thinking how strong Naruto would be at his prime when he was this strong at his current age. "I'll accept working for you as you've cleared my request but I'd like to ask a question."
Naruto in confusion asked Zabuza, dispelling the chains binding him "What is it?"
"What is your goal?"
"Goal?" Naruto smiled at this and exuded his determination into the answer "Isn't that obvious? If you're a man, of course it's to be the strongest!"
Zabuza who asked the question looked Naruto into the eyes and hearing his words he thought 'Absolute belief in his words and unbelievable resolve.'
Zabuza laughed like a lunatic and said "It looks like I'll have fun on your side. You're crazy. I'm in, I wanna see the journey of the strongest."
"Crazy?" Naruto turned his back to Zabuza as he replied "In this cruel world where the strong is the king and the weak is the beggar, obviously being the strongest is what you should aim for."
Zabuza, surprised at Naruto's words, just laughed again like a lunatic at his reply and followed him. He smiled as he followed Naruto and thought 'It looks like my employer this time is quite an interesting brat… no… man…'
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"We're here to help! Niichan!" Inari who was carrying crossbow shouted to the top of his lungs
"We're also here to help! Young… man…"
Seeing this sight, Tazuna smiled thinking Inari had finally become a brave man.
"..." They all were silenced as they saw the remains of the body of the thugs in the bridge.
"Yo! Inari! Too bad I already killed them all." Naruto waved his hands and said a terrifying thing with a smile like he had never done anything cruel.
"Blerghhh!" Some of the men vomited on the ground meanwhile Inari put on a pale face trying to hold his vomit inside to show courage and replied "I-is that so…"
Naruto chuckled "The thing you could do now that Gatou no longer exists and you can live your peaceful life, seeing you all take courage to help fight a huge army of thugs you can go by just fine without ninjas."
The men who have seen such sights stomached it and smiled thinking 'The philanthropist who gave food to everyone who needed it, became our hero too… I didn't expect that…'
Naruto smiled at Inari as he screamed "How was it, Inari? Did you witness a hero with strength now?"
Inari cried in happiness despite holding his vomit inside and replied "Yes! Naruto-niichan!"
Tazuna and the others also teared up at this sight as Naruto was indeed the hero of their country, now that Gatou was gone they could live much more happily out of oppression.
Naruto turned his back on them and displayed his majestic back for them to see and went towards Haku and crouched down "How are you feeling? Haku?"
Haku smiled and replied "I'm fine just a bit tingly because of Sasuke's lightning jutsu."
Naruto was put in a trance and thought out loud "maybe I should learn medical jutsu too…"
Haku lightly laughed at Naruto's caring gesture towards her and smiled happily.
Zabuza looking at this also put on a gentle mask beneath his bandage and said to Naruto patting him on the head "You better take care of Haku, If you don't, I don't care what I have to do but I will hunt you to the ends of earth."
Naruto teased as he turned his head to Zabuza "Look at you, you said she's your so-called tool and now you're acting like an overprotective parent."
Zabuza blushed but hidden inside the bandage beneath his mask and replied "*cough* Fool! Of course if you mistreat my tool that I gave you, I'll get angry."
Naruto turned his head to Haku and said "Your old man is a tsundere isn't he, Haku?"
Haku happily chuckled and replied "Indeed."
Sakura who was watching mouthed at this unbelievable sight "Our enemies a few minutes ago are now on our side? What a bizarre happening."
Kakashi explained "That's the life of a ninja. Zabuza was hired by Gatou to kill Tazuna-san, and we were hired by Tazuna-san to protect him, now that he no longer wants to kill Tazuna, we no longer have a reason to fight."
Sakura and Sasuke nodded in reply.
Zabuza heard Kakashi and nodded as such was the life of a shinobi.
Kakashi turned to Zabuza and asked "How long till you complete the bridge?"
Tazuna thought for a moment then replied "It should be complete in another week. The work has been going much smoother than expected."
Kakashi replied "I see… then we will stay for another week in case there are other enemies that come."
Tazuna nodded and said thankfully and bowed "I'm truly grateful for your help. If not for you, we wouldn't be able to complete the bridge let alone be alive to see it."
The worker behind him also approached them and bowed towards them, the ninjas that became the heroes of the country "Thank you very much!"
The men who also came to help in case they couldn't handle the thugs bowed on the top of the land and said as well "Thank you very much!"
Kakashi scratched his head in embarrassment as he replied "No need, no need for such a grand gesture. We are just doing our job that we were hired for."
They lifted their heads and smiled at their saviors that didn't want anything in return for their service.
They finished their work for the day and celebrated their freedom from Gatou's rule.
After they celebrated Naruto asked Tazuna to be left behind on the table when everyone was asleep
"What is it? Naruto?"
"If I recall correctly you have a store room in this house?"
"Yes, there's one."
"Can you lead me to it? I have to show you something."
"Alright." Tazuna nodded and stood up and led Naruto into the room. "This is it."
"What do you need in this store room?"
Naruto who saw the store room commented "It's bigger than I thought. Looks like we can store it here."
"Store what?" Tazuna asked
Naruto just gestured for Tazuna to stand near the door and said "Stand here."
Tazuna followed the request and Naruto brought out a scroll "What's that scroll for?"
Naruto replied "It's a [Generic Fuinjutsu] I stored most of Gatou's wealth here. It's about 500,000,000 ryo." and said as he opened the scroll "Release!"
Tazuna in shock asked again "How much?!"
A mountain of gold and cash appeared in the room, almost occupying all of the room beside the side which had a door in it. Naruto chuckled seeing Tazuna dumbfounded at the sight of the mountain of money and said "This is my gift to help you pick yourselves up after the bridge is built, I assume you know what to do with this for the country."
Tazuna who was in shock got ahold of himself and smiled towards Naruto and bowed sincerely "You really are the hero of our country, you have my thanks."
Naruto chuckled and replied "You can thank Gatou's death for all this money, it's all his that became mine and is now yours."
Tazuna lifted his head up and said "It doesn't change the fact that you gave it to me. Really… Thank you."
Naruto just smiled as he showed his back towards Tazuna who was still in the room and replied "Really… I'm just showing Inari a hero, a hero takes part in both the limelight and in the dark."
Tazuna nodded and thanked God for sending them this kind of hero to save their country.
1 week later…
"The bridge is now done, Tazuna-san. It's time for us to go." Kakashi said who was standing with his team, Zabuza, and Haku.
Tazuna nodded and Kakashi and others went on their way.
Tazuna and the inhabitants of the country saw Naruto and his team off for all that they've done for them.
"Thank you for showing me my courage again, Naruto-niichan!" Inari screamed at the top of his lungs while tears flowing out of his eyes
"Thank you for everything!" They bowed, sending Naruto off with a grand gesture.
Naruto who was far away heard it and chuckled and signalled to Inari 'No problem.'
Tazuna who was watching said to them "Should we name the bridge, 'The Great Naruto Bridge'?"
They lightly laughed with tears in their eyes as they saw them off and said something along the lines of "That's a good name…"
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(A/N: The arc is finally done! Although it was only a week or so it was a long ride imo. phew… Leave a power stone if you like the story. Thanks!)