Chapter 17: 2 Weeks later! The Beginnings of a Plan!
2 weeks later
It had been 2 weeks since the night of Inari's outbreak, and everything had changed for the better. After returning the same night, Inari took the time to apologise to the Konoha ninjas for what he had said, alongside thanking them for taking the time to help the people of Wave.
Everyone bar Naruto felt a little awkward at hearing Inari thank them. They knew they played no part in helping the civilians apart from doing their duty guarding Tazuna and the volunteer builders.
Ever since that night, Inari and Tsunami spent almost all day every day helping out at the shelter. Inari looked happier and happier each day, overflowing with the joy that an 8-year-old boy should have. Of course, he never neglected his responsibilities. He became one of Naruto's most respected helpers in the shelter, garnering a lot of admiration from adults and children alike.
A few times, some of Gato's thugs had arrived to attempt to destroy the shelter. However, the attempts stayed as attempts. Naruto's clones made quick work of anybody that had even tried to destroy what he had built, securing the safety of everyone in the shelter.
Meanwhile, Team 7 had also made a lot of progress during these two weeks.
Kakashi had long recovered thanks to Naruto's medicine and started training himself whenever he wasn't teaching the members of Team 7 or guarding Tazuna when Hayate was on break.
As of now, Kakashi and Sakura were watching the two boys spar. Sakura had already finished sparring at this point and was resting while attentively observing the two boys.
Sasuke's glowing red eyes attempted to analyse Naruto's every move, which was difficult since the blonde's speed was far faster than he had anticipated. Even if he could somewhat see the movements, his body couldn't fully react to Naruto's high speeds.
While watching Naruto's every move, he couldn't help but feel embarrassed about how he awoke the Sharingan.
Flashback
Sasuke stood in front of Kakashi, patiently waiting for the man to begin his lesson. It had been a few days since Kakashi started seriously training them. He had seen more improvement these days than in a month's training back at the Academy. The rapid increase in his strength satisfied Sasuke. He was definitely closing the gap between himself and Itachi.
"Right, this lesson will be going over your Uchiha Interceptor Style, so turn on your Sharingan, and we can begin."
"I don't have my Sharingan," Sasuke uttered, glaring at Kakashi, wondering if he was going senile. If he had his Sharingan, he would have used it by now, especially during Taijutsu classes at the Academy. Without it, he can only play about 50% of the strength of the Uchiha Interceptor Style.
Hearing this, Kakashi looked a little dumbfounded. "Eh? You don't have your Sharingan even though you should have already unlocked it?"
"Yeah, I don't have my Sharingan even though I shou- What do you mean I should have my Sharingan?" Sasuke instinctively repeated Kakashi's words before cutting himself off and asking in confusion.
"I mean what I said. You should already have the Sharingan unlocked." Kakashi explained, looking at his student's puzzled face. "You know how the Sharingan is unlocked, right?"
"Of course, the Sharingan is unlocked under powerful emotional distress. Most Uchiha unlock it during battle since that's when emotions are tightened to the fullest." Sasuke explained, still not understanding what Kakashi meant. He hadn't been in any life or death battles yet. How could he have unlocked the Sharingan?
Kakashi looked at his student, who still didn't get it. Although he didn't want to poke at old scars, he opened his mouth anyway. "Don't you understand? You have already achieved the condition of emotional distress…."
'I have…?' Sasuke dived into his thoughts before realising what Kakashi was talking about. 'That night?!'.
"Then why haven't I been able to use the Sharingan yet?" Sasuke glared at Kakashi. Whenever he thought about that night, all he felt was numbness. There's no way that it affected his emotions that much!
"Have you tried sending chakra to your eyes?" Kakashi retorts, cutting off Sasuke's argument.
"…" Sasuke averted his eyes. He really hadn't.
Channelling chakra to his eyes, Sasuke quickly noticed that the leaves that fell around him slowed down, almost to a stop. He could easily see and analyse their trajectories while precisely predicting where the leaves would fall. Sure enough, as they touched the ground, they were exactly where he expected them.
Kakashi stared at Sasuke, who was analysing everything moving around him in childlike wonder and coughed. Sasuke turned toward his teacher, the tips of his ears turning red in embarrassment. He had unlocked his Sharingan for over 6 years, and this was the first time he used it?!
Although he had never been so embarrassed and angry at himself for not checking if he had unlocked the Sharingan, Sasuke was happy that Kakashi had corrected him.
The Sharingan was a significant boost to his combat capabilities, allowing him to finally utilise the Uchiha Interceptor Style, which primarily relied on analysing the opponent's movements and counterattacking accordingly.
Kakashi wanted to poke fun at his student but decided to hold back for now and started slow contact sparring with Sasuke to get him used to his new reaction times. Of course, in the future? That was a different matter.
Flashback end
'Yet, even though I have made so much progress, he's still so far ahead.' Sasuke looked at Naruto. He was panting like crazy from the exertion of the Sharingan, yet the blonde wasn't even winded.
"That's enough!" Kakashi waved his hand, signalling the end of the Taijutsu spar. If Sasuke continued in this state, he wouldn't be learning anything and would be more likely to get injured.
Naruto and Sasuke both made the hand seal of reconciliation before their taut muscles relaxed.
"I will win next time," Sasuke muttered to himself, unconvinced.
Naruto heard this but did nothing but smile awkwardly. In the beginning, he might have had a little pride in surpassing his self-proclaimed rival. But, any pride he had was mercilessly crushed after sparring against Kakashi.
He knew what it was like to be helpless against someone with overwhelmingly higher skill, strength and speed. It didn't help that Kakashi didn't even take him seriously during their spars, always reading that damn erotica.
In addition, the fight with Zabuza woke him up. He shouldn't be focused on competing with peers. Of course, he would never underestimate their skill or talents. However, his gaze was toward the monsters that have already made a name for themselves in the ninja world.
On the sidelines, Kakashi looked satisfied with every students' progress but called it quits for the day. Although he would've liked to continue training them until they were dead on their feet, it had been roughly 3 weeks since Zabuza had appeared.
By his estimations, the man should be back on his feet in the next few days. It was a little earlier than he expected, but Naruto had noticed some healing herbs grown in the nearby forest had been recently picked. 'Zabuza's accomplice is a skilled hunter-nin if they know how to create medicine.'
Kakashi thought about his team once more. They weren't as prepared as he would've liked them to be for the fight, but he had done his best. He and Hayate would take on most of the work. If they were lucky, the Genin would be left with nothing to do. Of course, if they were unlucky…
Kakashi didn't continue that train of thought and instead led the team away.
…
A few days later, Naruto was standing at the front door waiting for Tsunami and Inari to get ready to head to the shelter. Kakashi had mentioned that Zabuza was most likely up and moving. Therefore, they would have to devote more time to protecting their clients rather than training.
Although the Genin were a little unhappy hearing this since Kakashi's training was instrumental to their recent growth, they understood their priorities.
Initially, everyone was intending to guard Tazuna. However, Naruto opted to protect Tsunami and Inari instead, with the reasoning that they had gotten in the way of Gato's plans to corrode the will of the civilians of Wave. There was a chance they may be targeted too.
Kakashi planned on leaving the other members of Team 7 to guard Tsunami and Inari, too but changed his mind when Hayate said that the main target was still Tazuna. If Gato was to target Tsunami, he would most likely send thugs at best.
"Give me a second. I am almost readyyyy!" Inari called from upstairs, staring blankly at the two hats in front of him. 'Red…? Or Blue?'. It was a tough decision.
While Inari was making the most challenging decision of his life, Naruto suddenly felt an influx of information. A clone that he had stationed in the nearby perimeter saw two armed men arrive at the nearby dock. After boarding the land, they started making their way to Tazuna's house.
Due to working at the shelter for the past 3 weeks or so, Naruto learned a lot of information about Gato's underlings. Two men stood at the top of the hierarchy, just below Gato. This was the samurai, Waraji and Zori, who were Gato's bodyguards.
Just by knowing who they were, Naruto had already drawn several conclusions about why they were here. It was to break the spirit of Tazuna.
Gato had already previously killed Wave's hope by publically executing Kaiza, who was widely respected by almost everyone.
Naruto had no doubt that if the same were to happen to Tsunami and Inari, then Tazuna, the main reason why Wave was still fighting against Gato's rule, would lose any and all hope.
'I can't let that happen.' Naruto thought to himself. Of course, it wasn't just because of his mission, but over the past few weeks, he had grown quite attached to the trio they had been protecting. Not many people treated him like an ordinary boy, and Tazuna, Inari and Tsunami had fulfilled all criteria.
"Naruto-san, is there a problem?"
Naruto turned around to see Tsunami standing behind him, holding a small backpack containing the hand puppets, spices alongside some cooking tools.
"Yeah, I need you two to hide for a bit. Just trust me and don't look outside." Naruto softly ordered.
Hearing this, Tsunami and Inari looked frightened, quickly understanding that someone was there to harm them. But their fears were alleviated after looking at Naruto. After the number of thugs they had seen him easily dispose of, they believed he would protect them.
Giving a soft nod to Naruto, Tsunami moved part of a rug before lifting up a trap door. She then took Inari and hid inside the basement, waiting for Naruto to return.
Naruto closed his eyes, entering his newly dubbed Hyperawareness mode and watched the presences. Sure enough, the samurai moved closer, glowing a slight tinge of red, before finally reaching the door.
With his sensitive hearing, Naruto could hear some faint voices whispering from the other side.
"Is this the place?"
"Yeah, do you want to do it?"
"Sure."
There was a shuffling of movement before someone knocked on the door.
Already knowing that they weren't here for a chat, Naruto opened the door before instantly sending two heavy kicks to the men in front of him, launching them across the front deck.
Upon doing so, Naruto prepared himself for a battle, yet was confused the moment the two samurai were groaning in pain on the floor, not having any intention to get up.
'Eh…?' Naruto inwardly questioned, looking down at his foot. He had just unleashed a rather normal kick with his rather normal foot. So why had his opponents gone down as quickly as they did?
He was expecting a more dangerous battle. The stories that he had heard from the civilians in Wave portrayed Waraji and Zori as highly dangerous characters that were able to cut stone walls like cutting butter.
'Maybe they are faking their injuries, so I would let my guard down?' Naruto couldn't help but think. If they could, they were terrifying characters who could deceive even his hyperawareness, just like Zabuza's accomplice was able to do. They needed to be treated with the utmost seriousness.
Not deceived by the samurai's plots against him, Naruto summoned several clones, which cautiously moved toward the downed samurai, waiting for them to unleash their surprise attack. One step. Two steps. Three steps.
…
'…' Naruto had no words at the scene before him. The clones encountered no resistance as they tied the 'samurai' up. In fact, calling them samurai was an insult to all samurai. They were civilians with very little skill in Kenjutsu at most.
"Now… How about you tell me why you are here?" Naruto questioned.
The two samurai looked at each other and remained silent. Even if the brat in front of them had managed to beat them with ease, there's no way they would spill their objectives. If they betrayed Gato and the man found out about it, with his vast reaching connections, there's no way they would be able to escape.
Naruto looked at them and scratched his head. Extracting information from prisoners wasn't something he was familiar with. He was a front-line hitter, so why would he dabble in such things? He made a mental note to add it to the 'Naruto Uzumaki's ultimate ninja training plan'.
'Step 1: If more than one person is being interrogated, then separate them.' Naruto mentally went over the basics he had learnt at the Academy, creating a clone and separating both samurai until they were out of earshot of each other.
'Step 2: Threaten them.'
Naruto looked at the samurai in front of him, who he knew to be Zori. The man was still tight lipped despite his desperate appearance earlier. He didn't believe that the boy in front of him would do anything to him.
"Now, I want you to tell me everything you know. If your story is different from your partner's, well…" Naruto smiled innocently, making a snipping gesture with his hand.
In Zori's eyes, that innocent smile was the devil's. Gato be damned, he didn't want to be tortured by such a terrifying boy. "You promise you won't kill us if what we say is true?"
"Yeah, Naruto Uzumaki never goes back on his word."
Although he didn't exactly trust what the blonde in front of him said, it was the only chance of survival that he had. Therefore, Zori spilt everything. Easily betraying Gato despite his adamant appearance earlier. After all, he wouldn't be able to live if he was dead.
To Naruto's expectations, they planned to kidnap Tazuna's family and publically execute them to make another demonstration of what happened to anyone that went against Gato.
However, as Zori continued to spill everything he was tasked to do, he had also mentioned that Gato had the intention of betraying Zabuza, causing Naruto to widen his eyes at the idiocy of the plan.
He was again reminded that civilians have no idea about the difference in strength between ninjas, even more so for a higher ranking ninja such as Zabuza, who was a mid A-rank shinobi.
Of course, suppose his team, alongside Zabuza and his accomplice, were on the verge of exhaustion, either physical or chakra. In that case, Gato's plan could work. Even if it didn't fully work, it still could lead to some casualties.
Naruto instinctively wanted to head down to the bridge to notify his team and maybe convince Zabuza to stop targeting the bridge builder, but his eyes brightened as a better idea came to mind.
"Tell me everything you know about Gato and his army."
Author's notes: Whaddup! How are y'all doing?! Edit: Sorry about re-uploading this chapter, there was a problem so I had to take it down temporarily.
This chapter heavily ties into the next one. While it isn't the most interesting read, it was the best I could do since it was pretty necessary.
Anyways, will make a few clarifications here just in case people get confused.
Sasuke actually awakened his Sharingan on the night of the Uchiha massacre but forgot, so he 'activated' it during the Haku fight. I also tried to make it so that he suppressed his memories of the massacre, so he downplayed his feelings a little (I mean, he didn't remember Itachi crying).
So I removed the Naruto vs samurai fight. I think I might have gotten myself confused when writing the fight scene, thinking that they were Chunin-level samurai (probably because I was researching the demon brothers at the time).
If there are any errors, let me know!
As always, send a PM/Review/Comment. It's really nice to have your support. I hope you all enjoyed this chapter, see ya next Sunday!
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone