Decision
"What is it?" taking the suitcase with confusion, Tazuna asked.
"Open it."
Nodding, Tazuna unlatched the suitcase and opened it, almost dropping it instantly upon seeing an aberrant amount of money inside "Th-this... what is this?"
"Money, lots of money."
"..."
"Please use this money for your people" Turning his gaze to the men in the distance, Naruto continued "Give proper pay to your workers, buy the materials needed to improve the bridge, and give compensation to the families who suffered lost to Gatoh's tyranny."
"B-but this is a lot..." Shaking his head, Tazuna stammered.
"Please accept it" Earnestly, Naruto continued "Even if you are not comfortable with this, you know perfectly well how much your people have suffered and how much relief this money would bring them."
"This..." Opening and closing his mouth unable to properly process the large amount of news, Tazuna turned his gaze to the men at his back and turned his gaze back to Naruto, then bowed deeply "Although I'm ashamed to accept so much, you're right, i cannot affect them because of my prideI... promise you this will be put to good use"
"Relax, we still have to keep protecting you until the bridge is finished, by the way we make sure no one tries anything funny... after all many would lose their minds with so much money" Smiling slightly, Naruto turned his gaze towards the heads and continued "But for now I think it's best to explain the situation with Gatoh to your people... I'm sure it will cause them a great relief to know the fate of this bastard."
"Yes..." Nodding after a few seconds, Tazuna stretched the suitcase towards Naruto and continued "Could you take care of them for now? We need to find out how much money it is, see how much we'll pay people and see the families affected... there's a lot to do."
"Alright."
Nodding, Tazuna turned and walked towards the workers, then suddenly stopped and muttered audibly "Thank you..."
Shaking his head, Naruto replied "This is all thanks to Haku... and there's no better thanks than to spread the word that everyone died, including them"
"So be it."
Turning to the silent duo who were staring at him, Naruto looked at the weapons and walked over, then looked at them carefully and took the two katanas he liked the most as he commented "The rest we could leave to the villagers... it would be helpful for them to have something to defend themselves with in case a second Gatoh comes when we're gone"
"You decide."
"And those techniques..." Staring at the pile of books, Naruto continued "We can flip through them during this time and see what we can use. If anyone is interested in anything, let them rewrite a copy and keep it."
"The village would be very happy about this" Nodding, Kakashi commented.
"It's for you guys, not the village" Snorting, Naruto replied.
"This would really come in handy if we left it in the village common library" Raising his eyebrows, Kakashi continued "The Hokage himself would give you a reward"
"I'm not interested, I'd rather burn it than give it to him" Crossing his arms, Naruto continued "I still remember the time I went to the library to look for techniques to train and they kicked me out saying that I didn't exist in the village archives, in the end I had to end up stealing some books and after a few days I was discovered... The Hokage made me sweep the streets for a week, something that was incredibly difficult because while they took me out of the library, they kicked my arm and I could hardly feel it... I was eight years old"
"..."
"..." Raising his eyebrows, Sasuke turned his gaze to Kakashi and watched him silently.
"Sigh Fine, have it your way" With a heavy sigh, Kakashi shook his head and looked around "We'll continue with the mission, we'll protect Tazuna-san until the bridge is finished."
"But didn't the one who wanted to kill him die already?" looking at the main head, Sasuke asked.
"We don't know if he has more accomplices or someone who wants to avenge his death, so let's stay until we finish the mission" Turning his gaze to Naruto, Kakashi continued "Can you make more clones? We have to clean up this mess"
"Mn" Nodding, Naruto turned his gaze to the scroll on the ground and asked "That still works?"
"That's right, you should keep it, it's very useful and its quality is pretty good, it should have been Gatoh's."
"I could keep Zabuza's sword inside?"
"It is a good scroll, but it doesn't have that much space to put that sword in" Shaking his head, Kakashi replied.
"Tsk."
***
"I'm back!" entering the house, Naruto unseized the clones surrounding he and exclaimed.
After a few seconds, Sakura came down next to Tsunami and Inari as worry tinged their faces "What happened?"
"Gatoh is dead, he and all his people."
"What!?" Opening her eyes wide, Sakura asked "Did they fight them!?"
"No, Haku took care of them and left the evidence on the bridge" Shaking his head, Naruto continued "The important thing here, is that the evil that plagued this country, suffered its retribution."
"Gatoh... paid for his evil deeds" With surprise on his childish face, Inari stared at Naruto's face and muttered "He was defeated..."
"Do you know what that means, Inari?" sitting down on the ground with a slight smile, Naruto asked.
"That my grandpa will be fine..."
"That's right, but that means we can start training today, if that's what you want, obviously."
"Mn."
"Where's Kakashi-sensei?" looking at the duo, Sakura asked.
"He stayed with Tazuna in case something unexpected happened" Yawning, Sasuke answered.
"So... Gatoh won't be a problem anymore?" With relief, Tsunami came down from the stairs and asked.
"We still don't know if he had any accomplices or any stragglers, but we'll be here until the bridge is finished and we'll make sure that if there is anyone with 'fun' ideas, they disappear from this place."
Holding his hands to his chest with a relieved smile, Tsunami replied "That's good."
"Naruto-niichan, so we'll train now!?" Happily as all the fog of fear vanished from his mind, Inari ran to Naruto and asked emotionally.
"Well, if you eat first, rest a bit and your mother allows you to, I see no reason why not" Looking up at Tsunami, Naruto continued "What do you think?"
"..." Looking at Naruto's face for a moment, Tsunami looked down at her son's anxious and expectant face and nodded with a sigh "But first you will do your homework and clean your room, understood?"
"Thank you mommy!" rushing to his mother, Inari hugged her hip happily and exclaimed.
"He won't do off limits" Nodding towards Tsunami, Naruto continued "I promise I'll take care of him."
"I thank you."
'God, everyone thanks for every little thing' Sighing, Naruto nodded.
***
"I'm really exhausted..."
"It's nice not to feel the weight on my limbs anymore..." Raising his arms while lying on the ground full of sweat from training, Sasuke continued "We've become strong."
"It would be good to increase the weight once we return to Konoha"
"My chakra control is still stagnant..." Frowning slightly, Sasuke commented.
"It's normal" Rolling his eyes at the tenth time hearing the same thing, Naruto slowly calmed his agitated breathing and continued "Even if you see that I advance fast, it's because of my Uzumaki lineage, making me able to use hundreds of clones without any problems, something that makes me train at least 100 times faster than the others."
"That's cheating."
"Says the one with the eyes that can copy any technique just by looking at it, while I have to spend every little drop of my chakra and wreck my body to achieve it"
"Naruto"
"Yes?"
"You've already been training that kid for a week... why?"
"Mmmm..." Turning his gaze to the forest where he has a dozen clones to guard Inari, Naruto was silent for a moment and replied "I see myself in it."
"I figured as much... and how's he doing?"
"I'm having him train his body for now, after that I'll see if I can teach him how to handle his chakra."
"You do know that's forbidden, don't you?" turning his gaze to Naruto, Sasuke continued "Teaching techniques to foreigners is a serious offense."
"I can't teach them anything if in theory, I never learned anything" Waving his hand disinterestedly, Naruto continued "Almost everything I know, I learned on my own."
"What are your clones doing now?" turning his gaze to the numerous clones standing upside down from the tree branches, Sasuke continued "Are you training your element?"
"No, they're training chakra, it's something I came up with today and it's quite difficult but useful" Turning his gaze towards his clones, Naruto continued "I have to hang from a log using the chakra in my feet to support me, and meanwhile each finger of my hands has a leaf in the fingertips, and my job is to not only keep the leaves attached, but also to spin them all at the same time, having the right hand spinning them to the left, and the left hand spinning them to the right"
"That's... crazy."
"With the technique I learned on the way here, it's supposed to be the maximum level of chakra physical training training, but I really think it's stupid to say that, since even after learning that, I couldn't do on the first try what my clones are now training"
"Isn't what you already know enough?" Remaining silent for a moment, Sasuke continued "That technique you used to kill those assassins was... useful."
"I have ideas to improve it, and for that I need more chakra control."
"Improve it further?"
"What I did was just explode their heads because I touched their heads, something that will be somewhat difficult in combat... my idea is that no matter where I touch it, as soon as I have their skin in my hand, their whole body will be destroyed, and for that I need to spin the chakra in a spiral and quickly run through their whole body, and then compress it and practically make them explode"
"That's brutally useful... sure you don't plan to name it?"
"I already have one in mind, but I don't want to make it public... you want to know what it's called?"
"Mn"
"Hakai"
"Hakai... simple, but it can't be more correct" Remembering the bloody and brutal scene,, Sasuke nodded, then looked around and commented "Sakura again left early."
"It's normal, after all she doesn't have half the chakra you have, so her training will always go slower when this one needs a lot of chakra" Licking his dry lips, Naruto continued "Did you already read the books left by Haku?"
"The water dragon technique and the water cage interested me, but the rest is not very useful to me."
"You're not interested in the sword techniques of one of the best swordsmen in the world?"
"All of his techniques were based on using a long and heavy sword, and honestly they are not useful to me even if I had his sword" Shaking his head, Sasuke continued "Zabuza's techniques focused on brute force and rotational force to accompany the great weight of his sword, but I prefer speed a thousand times more than brute force, so there is no point in giving his techniques a second look."
"As you wish."
"I never thought that Haku would do that."
"From him I expected it, but I doubt Zabuza would have agreed."
"You say he did it without his permission?"
"Zabuza is obsessive and vengeful, it's not at all uncommon that in the future he would pursue me to kill me and get his sword back."
"Then why did you let him go?"
"Because I felt it was the right thing to do... and even if in the future he comes back to me, I'm confident that I have the ability to face him."
"You plan to face a legendary swordsman?"
"How could a ninja grow up without confrontations?"
"Do you think there are good opponents in the exam?"