Chapter 12: Catching the Wave:

“So, where are we headed first, Jiji?” Naruto asked, adjusting his new forehead protector as it draped loosely around his neck. He glanced aside at the oddly dressed old man he was walking with, and grinned, “Are we going on a cool mission? Are you taking me somewhere awesome to train? Am I going to have to spar with you while standing on the back of a shark?! Oh, that would be cool! Do the sharks have lasers on their heads, and will they be fighting with each other for the ultimate supremacy of all shark-hood while we heroically battle on top of them?”

“…Um…No.” Jiraiya gave his godson a look, “No more caffeine for you today - where do you come up with these things?...and what are lasers?”

Naruto blinked and shrugged. “Well, where are we going then? We’re heading towards the coast.”

“I’ve heard some funny rumors about a little country called, ‘Wave’. You’ve never been there because it doesn’t have any good gambling locations or anything, though it used to be a pretty hot tourist spot. You’ll like it, the scenery is really nice and there’s not a lot of trees because everything is built on or around the water.” Shrunken for ease of carrying around Naruto’s bicep, Ivy rustled happily to hear she wouldn’t have much competition where they were going. Ever since he’d gotten his great-grandfather’s necklace from his mother, she’d been a lot more convenient to have around – almost like they were communicating on the same wave-length sometimes instead of her just doing whatever-the-hell she felt like doing or acting instinctively to his moods as sensed through his chakra.

Jiraiya tugged at his red jacket aimlessly as they walked, then pulled a few bits of metal half-covered in what looked like tiny intricate seals out of his pocket and started fiddling with them to pass the time.

“It sounds pretty, why isn’t it a tourist spot anymore?” The genin mused aloud.

“Huh? Oh, well, that’s one of the things I’d like to check out. My contacts say the businessman, Gato, moved in, and completed his monopoly on the shipping industry, choking the funds out of the whole country. It’s kind of a shit-hole now. Really poor.” The hermit muttered, half lost in his project as they walked.

“Wow, sounds…awesome…I can definitely see why you’d want to go there.” Naruto drawled in his mother’s sarcastic monotone as he rolled his eyes. “If it’s such a hell-hole, why don’t they hire ninja or something to clean it up?”

“Did you not hear me? They’re all poor! Even the daimyo doesn’t have a pot to piss in.” Jiraiya whapped him upside the head, “use your brain. Jeeze. As for the main reason we’re going there, I’ve heard there’s a weird organization called Akatsuki setting up a base nearby, and I’ve been trying to track them for a couple of months now. It’s a perfect spot for them since they don’t have to worry about officials or anything near a place like that.”

“Great. I suppose you’re just going to set me some stupid training task and go off to investigate, leaving me on my own again, aren’t you Ero-Jiji?”

“If this organization is who I think it is, with the goals I think they have, then yeah. It’s way out of a rookie genin’s league, and especially dangerous for someone like you.” He grinned sheepishly at his godson, “besides, your mom would kill me if she knew I was even taking you anywhere near these guys. You’re lucky I’m not leaving you in another country while I investigate here.”

Naruto sighed, “yeah, yeah – whatever. If it weren’t for the fact that you said this place was so poverty stricken, I’d be tempted to accuse you of ditching me to go peep at girls again!”

Jiraiya looked indignant. “I’m a master of my trade! The world depends on me for that research! You should show some respect brat! You’re lucky to have such an awesome godfather and mentor! Maybe if you’d give me my due, I’d even consider passing on to you my secrets of the trade!”

“I’m telling Kaa-san you’re trying to corrupt me!”

“No, no! You little brat, you can’t tattle; what are you, 4? She’ll KILL me!”

“Hahahahaha! Loser! Perverted Loser! You are so dead!”

“Just wait until you hit puberty you little…”

†

Naruto wandered aimlessly through the streets crowded with homeless people and the unemployed begging for work. Everywhere he looked there were kids younger than him trying to con a few coins out of passers-by so they could afford a bit of bread or rice. It was really sad. He had to keep a sharp watch on his gama-chan or the frog-shaped wallet was likely to be stolen. He’d seen three people get pick-pocketed in the last two hours.

Ero-jiji had dumped him off on the outskirts of town with directions to an inn he’d thought would probably still be open with the directives to stay out of trouble and try to cut a leaf in half with his chakra until he came back in a week or two. Unfortunately, he’d been wrong about the inn. It looked like it had been closed for at least a couple of months, and the old guy he’d stopped to ask about other lodgings had laughed in his face. This totally sucked.

He was just passing by the only sign of progress he’d seen in this lousy city – a huge, partially completed bridge – when he noticed a scuffle seemed to have broken out among the workers. He heard upraised voices and the clash of falling building materials, and hurried over to investigate.

He was short and ninja trained, so it wasn’t really any problem pushing his way past the people gathering in a small crowd in order to see what was going on. Ivy was her usual “help”, nudging taller adults out of the way or outright lifting them so he could worm through. Surprised “eep!”s followed his progress towards the front of the throng.

Out on the newest section of bridge, a couple of wannabe thugs with delusions of samurai-hood judging from their weapons, looked like they were trying to intimidate the work crew. The workers were lined up behind an old guy in a hard hat who Naruto guessed was the foreman, and the bad-guys stood facing them about three feet away.

“Look, Gramps! We told you, you’d better stop working on this bridge! Construction sites like this are dangerous for people your age.” The jackass on the right said, pausing to kick in a crate filled with bars of some sort. The metal tubes spilled onto the bridge’s surface in a painful clanging racket that lasted for several seconds.

The other guy’s hand slid down to his katana and the weapon clicked slightly as he thumbed the guard, sliding it out an inch, “if you don’t listen to us, Tazuna, I can definitely foresee some…accidents…happening around all this hazardous equipment…”

“Jeeze, where do you guys get your lines? From the back of a cereal box?” Naruto’s eyes got wide as soon as he realized he’d said that aloud. “…crap.”

The first thug immediately turned around and took a menacing step towards the little punk who dared speak up to them and made a quick grab at the front of his shirt, but the little bastard easily skipped backwards, and a strange vine uncurled from around his arm, beginning to sway protectively in front of him.

“Hey! So, you guys even pick on little kids now?” The old bridge builder evidentially didn’t know when to keep his mouth shut either. That made Naruto feel a little better, even though he’d called him both ‘little’ and a ‘kid’.

Up to that point, he’d just been evading Thing 1’s swipes and holding Ivy back with a great deal of concentration, but Thing 2 made a move towards the old dude, so there was nothing for it. Naruto leapt straight up, landing on his assailant’s head, and using it as a spring board to deliver a freakish-strength kick right to the face of the other guy. Thing 2 went spinning comically over the edge of the partially finished structure to land several feet out in the water. It took him a long time to surface.

Naruto landed nimbly in front of the foreman, pivoting cat-like to face the attack he expected to follow from Thing 1, only to see the thug hadn’t even managed to peel his face off the pavement yet. It looked like Ivy had added a good bit of force to his face plant after Naruto had jumped off of him, and everyone in the crowd was staring at the ninja with gaping mouths and hugely wide eyes.

“…What the hell are you, kid?”

The statement from random observer number 3 seemed to set off the rest of them and suddenly the silence was broken by loud chattering speculation.

…maybe he’d over done it a little…He glanced at ivy and wrestled her back down to drape loosely around his waist. She always made everything seem so flashy!

“Wow, thanks kid! That was super cool!” Naruto felt a hand come to rest on his shoulder, and he turned to face the beaming old guy and his work crew. “I’m Tazuna, the Bridge Builder, and this is my bridge! You just saved us a lot of time and money! It always takes ages to repair and clean up after these punks get done with us. What’s your name, kid?”

“Er, no problem!” Naruto scratched the back of his head and grinned sheepishly. He had a feeling Ero-jiji was going to kill him for this. “I’m Senju Naruto – genin ninja of Konohagakure!”

Naruto heard one of the workers turn to whisper to the man beside him, “Holy crap – a ninja that can do that, so young? What are they feeding them in Fire Country?”

“I dunno, maybe it’s something in the water? Did you see how far he kicked that guy, and what about that whippy vine thing?”

Naruto sweat-dropped. So much for staying out of trouble.

“A Ninja huh?” Tazuna rubbed his chin and stared down at the blond punk in front of him, before nodding definitively, “I guess that explains it. All ninja must be able to do stuff like that, huh? If even runts like you are that strong. HAHAHAHAHA!” he threw his head back and laughed boisterously. “We sure are lucky you were passing by!”

“Must. Resist. Urge. To Kill…” Naruto muttered.

Tazuna slapped him on the back in a friendly manner and somehow managed to pull it back without ivy ripping it off. He didn’t even seem to notice how close he’d come to losing a limb. “You’re pretty far from home, aren’t you, kid? All the way from Konoha! You got a place to stay?”

He knew he would regret this later, but the genin tentatively shook his head, “No, your inn was closed and—“

“SUPER! You can stay with me, my daughter, and cute grandson! HAHAHAHA!”

“Er, no, that’s okay—“

“Nonsense! I insist! It’s the least I can do, right boys?”

A sound of general agreement rose up behind Tazuna, and he grinned. Naruto had a really bad feeling about this. Somehow, he knew he’d be spending a lot of time at this freaking bridge until Ero-jiji decided to show back up.

†

A short balding man in a business suit stormed into the hospital room of Faceless Minion(FM) 1 and Faceless Minion 2 flanked by FMs 3 through 4. “What’s this?! How the hell did you get beaten by that pathetic old man and his cowardly workers?! What am I paying you for?! You didn’t even manage to slow down the construction on the bridge! They’re back at it and working even faster after seeing you get so thoroughly crushed!”

FM 1, as FM 2 had his jaw wired shut, decided the question was directed at him and tentatively answered, “It wasn’t like that, boss! The bridge builder and his men didn’t lay a finger on us! It was all that dorky looking blond-kid—“

“You got your asses handed to you by a ‘DORKY LOOKING BLOND KID’?!”

“NO!...well, yes, but it’s not what you think! He had a leaf forehead protector and some weird jutsu that animated a vine he carried around! He was definitely a ninja! No normal brat could have beaten us!...and he was HUGE, right?” He turned to his cohort who groaned in pain to show his agreement. “big as five-no, TEN normal guys. Definitely.”

“A large ninja kid, huh? Maybe it’s time to bring in bigger guns. Pathetic thugs like you don’t even deserve NAMES, there’s no way you could be expected to beat a title character.” Gato muttered in disgust.

His minions blinked at him in confusion. ‘Title character? Has the boss lost it?’

“There’s nothing for it. You need ninja to fight other ninja. I’ll have to hire some missing-nin.”

†

Naruto paused and hurriedly turned away from the table as he was suddenly taken by a sneezing fit. Man, what if he really WAS becoming allergic to Ivy?!

“What’s the matter, Naruto-kun? I hope you aren’t having a bad reaction to something in the food!” Tazuna’s daughter asked in concern.

“No way! This stuff is great! You’re an awesome cook! Someone must be talking about me.” He muttered, setting his bowl down where it would be safe if he had to sneeze again.

“Well, it’s no wonder after you did such a totally great job saving us at the bridge today!” The bridge builder chuckled. “You should have seen it, Inari. He sent that thug flying and planted the other guy’s face right into the ground!” he poked his grandson who was sitting beside him in a fisherman’s hat and overalls.

“I’m glad I missed it. It’s stupid to fight Gato! He’s just going to get himself killed and make everything worse!” The little boy erupted. “No one can stand up to him! It’s just dumb to try!”

Naruto blinked, “Er, if you don’t try to get rid of him, how are things ever going to get better? You think he’s going to get distracted by something shiny and wonder off someday, forgetting about you?!”

The kid’s whole body trembled and his fists clenched and unclenched in his lap, bunching up the fabric of his clothes. “You’re such a moron! Just like him! Stop trying to be a hero! The only things heroes are good for is dying!” His voice shook and tears began to fall from his eyes.

“Inari—“ the boy’s mother reached out to put a hand on his shoulder, but he quickly shrugged it off. He was about to stand and storm from the room, when Naruto began to giggle.

The rest of the table turned to stare at him like he’d lost it, but his giggles just turned into full fledged laughs.

“Umm, Naruto, are you alright?” Tazuna asked. He hoped the kid wasn’t going to go crazy and kill them all in their sleep. He’d heard ninja did that sometimes.

“Huh?” the genin struggled to calm himself down and wiped a tear of laughter from his eye, “Oh, yeah. Sorry about that…it’s just, tee hee, he sounded just like my kaa-san for a minute there, when she tells me not to be like my dad. I couldn’t help but laugh because I was picturing her in that dumb hat!”

“You-your D-dad?” Inari stuttered, shocked.

“Yeah.” Naruto’s grin turned sad, “he died sacrificing his life to save a village from something really bad. He was a really great hero.”

Inari burst into tears all over again and fled the room.

“…was it something I said?” Naruto blinked, baffled. He’d never understand civilian kids.

†

Tazuna told him Inari’s story the next day, after dragging Naruto to the bridge to ‘see how it’s done’ and not for anything like protection, because they’d have to pay for that, ‘shut up and learn something, gaki! It’s educational! You never know when you might have to build a bridge!’

“Damn! No wonder the kid’s so upset. That Gato killed him right in front of everybody, huh?”

“Yeah. It hit us all really hard. No one has had the nerve to stand up to Gato or his men since it happened until you came along yesterday.” The old man sighed and used the towel around his neck to wipe at the sweat that had gathered under his hat. Naruto was pretty comfy – Ivy had taken to fanning him. She was occasionally good for more than getting through crowds. “Being hungry and poor has sucked the hope right out of the whole country…but this bridge will fix all of that if we can only get it done.” He grinned and looked around at the men hauling and hammering and constructing. “Since your stunt yesterday, I’ve got three times the usual amount of workers, though! I thought it would take another eight months or more to finish it with my old crew and that’s if we hit no major snags and I lost no one else, but if this keeps up, it’ll be done in two!”

†

“What do you mean, the Demon of the Mist isn’t available!?” Gato slammed his hand down on his desk in frustration and glowered at his secretary.

“Um, well, sir – he’s currently employed by a man named Gates who is trying to keep a hold of his monopoly in Apple Country…His assistant Haku – a really nice boy – said he should be available in a few months if you’d like to be put on his client waiting list…”

“Damn it! Did you SEE the bridge this morning? They’ll be done by the time he can get here! Who else is there?”

“Well…It seems it’s a very busy time for nuke-nin, sir. Most of them are already booked…The only people who I could get to return my calls were the Shark of the Pool Table, and some guy named Tobi who I was assured is also very good boy. Tobi-san is currently interviewing with another organization though, and may not be available long term.”

Gato sighed. It was impossible to find good disposable help these days. “What about Zabuza’s flunkies, the Marks Brothers?”

“Demon Brothers, sir. I didn’t inquire about them. Would you like me to call back?”

“Yes, they’ll do for now. We’ll just have to step up FM recruitment. If worse comes to worst, we’ll just mob him. How hard can it be to defeat one dorky looking blond kid, no matter how big? I want you to find out everything you can about him. Maybe we can just pay him off or something.”

“Um, yes, sir…er, you do know Senju Naruto is barely 4 foot tall, don’t you?”

“WHAT?!”

†

Elsewhere, Uchiha Madara chuckled and pulled Tobi’s swirling orange mask back on his face. It was hard to use the phone with it on – it muffled his voice too much. It was bitterly ironic that one of the most feared shinobi in history was reduced to this, but oddly amusing at the same time. He really hadn’t had this much fun in decades.

On top of the amusement factor, he’d also learned something very interesting from the conversation with Gato’s secretary…The Senju clan wasn’t gone after all; Tsunade had a son with leaf markings on his cheek and shoulder… Could it be possible that Hashirama had a true heir in the boy? It would bear looking into. If this ‘Naruto’ could be useful for his plans, it would be a huge coup against Senju’s memory to turn him and make him his own loyal soldier the same way that bastard had tried to turn Madara’s own family against him. He had always been fond of irony, and the Shodaime was beyond any other type of retribution now. Besides, Konoha didn’t deserve ninja of that caliber. If the boy had Mokuton, he could be extremely useful to his plans with Akatsuki.

If nothing else, the child might eventually prove to be an adversary worthy of respect, something else Madara had been lacking since Senju’s death. It would be unbelievably satisfying to crush the last legacy of the Senju clan.

†

“So…did anything exciting happen while I was gone, brat?” Jiraiya asked, sipping from his sake cup while Naruto happily munched on dango across the table. He’d been gone a little over two weeks, and had found very little that might prove useful except a small time-sensitive lead that could be extremely dangerous, so they were moving on.

“Well, you know that Gato-jerk you mentioned?” The kid looked a bit sheepish, bringing that up; it couldn’t be good.

“Yeah…you didn’t piss him off did you? He could be a powerful enemy.” Jiraiya frowned. Tsunade would kill him if he’d gone and got her son a bounty on his head already.

“Um…well…he’s sort of dead.”

“He’s…dead.”

“Yeah…it’s kind of a long story, but hey, they’re naming that awesome bridge after me!”

“So, basically, while I was gone, you overthrew a criminal organization, killed its boss, freed a country from economic ruin, and got a major landmark named after you.”

“Well, I didn’t technically kill him! He tripped after the Shark of the Pool Table bet me 30,000 ryo that he could beat me at 9 ball, or I’d have to leave and stop interfering with their faceless minions! We were playing on the end of the bridge, and the Shark threw his pool cue when he lost. Gato tried to dodge it, but he fell over the Demon Brother’s chains! I think Ivy might have nudged him a little, but I didn’t tell her too! That was it! Whoosh! Right over the edge.”

“Er, that’s kind of anti-climactic. Why the hell would he try to get you to leave on a BET?”

“It wasn’t that anti-climactic when his army of goons attacked me afterwards for killing their meal ticket! I had to make like a gazillion Bunshin, and poor Ivy-chan was all bruised up from blocking weapons by the time we got done! I guess he did research on me or something and found out about Kaa-san’s reputation. Maybe he thought being the biggest loser in the universe was genetic? I don’t know.”

“Your luck should be another bloodline. It’s not natural. When you get listed in some county’s Bingo Book someday, they’re going to list that under ‘special abilities’ and there will be warnings to flee rather than wager with you.”

Naruto shrugged. What could he do?

Jiraiya sighed, “Well…let’s just not mention this to your mother.”

†