Disclaimer:
"Dialogue"
'Thoughts'
-Author notes-
Chapter 30: The Bridge of Hope
"You okay there, boy?"
Naruto opened his eyes and looked up at the figure of the old Tazuna.
"I'm fine, I was just meditating." Naruto remained seated in lotus position and gave the place another glance. There were a lot more people working now.
"It looked to me like you were sleeping. And where are the girl and the grumpy kid?" the builder asked.
"The grumpy kid is having some trouble training a new technique, and the girl refuses to go too far from the grumpy kid," Naruto answered.
"And shouldn't you be with them? That black-haired kiddo is going to steal the girl, you know?" Tazuna tried to tease him.
"I seriously doubt he has much interest in her. Besides, someone has to be here to protect you, and our teacher is still a bit under the weather."
"And you are protecting me with your eyes closed?" Tazuna gave him a look of suspicion.
"Even when I am meditating, I remain aware of my surroundings. But in any case, an attack right now is very unlikely. That ninja we fought should be at the very least severely injured and will need some time to recover."
"Wait a minute, I thought he was dead!" Tazuna exclaimed.
"Right…" They hadn't told him about Kakashi's theory. "He probably is…anyway, if you see anything, just give a shout and I will be there in a second." After saying that, Naruto closed his eyes again.
"Hey, Tazuna!" Another man approached them.
"Giichi? What is it?"
"I've been thinking…and I want to quit working on the bridge."
"What? You too?! Why do you want to quit now? We are so close," Tazuna exclaimed.
"We've been close for a long time now…but do you really think that Gato is going to let us finish? And what if he kills you next? We should all stop this…we should stop building this bridge." The man looked defeated.
"I refuse to quit! This is our bridge…this is the bridge we started building, thinking that it would improve our country's situation. I will not stop until it's complete," Tazuna said with conviction.
"If we lose our lives, it will all be for nothing!" the man shouted.
"Enough! It's already noon, so let's stop working for today…you don't have to come tomorrow." Tazuna turned around and walked away.
Naruto stopped his meditation and followed him.
He paid attention as they walked through the streets of the city. Everything looked dirty and run down. Most of the houses had been put together with old wood, tarps, and sheet metal roofs.
"Thief!"
Naruto moved his eyes around and spotted a small child running with a loaf of bread in his arms while an angry man went after him.
"Has this town always been like this, or is it also something caused by that man?" Naruto asked Tazuna.
"This has always been a humble country…but we had what we needed. Things got much worse after Gato's arrival. He monopolized most of the commerce, and that caused massive inflation. Prices continued to rise while people barely made any money…what you see now is the result."
"Mmm…" Naruto nodded. He had seen this kind of thing happening many times. Humans are greedy creatures.
He could not claim to be that different, except the source of his greed was knowledge and power, instead of money.
Although he had always tried to avoid hurting innocent people to accomplish his goals if that was a possibility. However, he would show no mercy to those who opposed him.
"Once we finish the bridge…everything will get better. You'll see!" Tazuna's eyes were filled with conviction.
Naruto noticed this but made no comment about it or about this man's goals. In his personal opinion, Tazuna's plan was filled with holes.
His team had only been hired to protect Tazuna until the construction was complete. But even if the bridge is finished, there is nothing stopping Gato from destroying it later on.
Once their job is done, Team 7 will leave this country and there will be no one left to stand against Gato's army.
It would have been better if he had hired some assassins to take out the source of this country's problems…to kill Gato instead of protecting the builder.
He wasn't sure if Konoha would have accepted the job since their leader seemed to be a very upright and righteous person.
"This country needs a symbol of courage…my bridge will serve to inspire them. To lose their fear and regain their desire to stand up for themselves."
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When they arrived at the house, Tazuna's daughter was just finishing setting up the table.
His teammates, along with Kakashi, were already sitting and waiting for dinner.
"You look terrible," Naruto said as his eyes rested on Sasuke.
The black-haired boy was dirty and covered in cuts and bruises. It appeared that he had fallen from the trees over and over while trying to learn that technique.
"Naruto! Don't say that! You have no idea how hard Sasuke has been working," Sakura snapped at him.
"Did you at least learn it?" Naruto ignored the angry girl.
Sasuke glanced at him with his usual expression of displeasure. "I'm close…I will master it tonight."
"Oh…I see." He went and sat down next to their teacher.
"So, how did your day go? Did you have fun with your bodyguard job?" Kakashi asked him.
Naruto could not see his mouth, but he was sure the man was grinning. "It was all quiet. Nothing worthy to report."
"Mmm…that's good. I should be completely fine with one more day of rest." Kakashi said. "How long until the bridge is complete?" he asked Tazuna.
"Perhaps two weeks will be enough, if we don't run into any serious issues and work as hard as we can," Tazuna said.
The builder's grandson got up from his seat and stared at them with a scowl on his face. "What are you even bothering for? You are all going to die! Gato is going to kill every single one of you!"
"Inari!" Tsunami came running from the kitchen to scold her son, but he ran upstairs.
"What's wrong with the brat?" Naruto asked.
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