Gentle Waves

Kakashi stared blankly at his student, not even bothering to ask questions about what in the hell happened. When Adrik took off for Gato's base, he expected a kid covered in blood that wasn't his own. Instead, he was looking at his soot-stained student standing alongside a missing ninja that nearly killed his team, and a very slightly older girl that he suspected was the fake hunter ninja he caught a glimpse of.

"H-Hey, sensei... I found some friends, heh..."

Adrik rubbed the back of his head similar to Naruto's mannerisms. Perhaps he had picked up a few things from being the blonde boy's neighbor.

"... Well, now that my student brought back a missing ninja and his accomplice and is calling them friends, welcome aboard. You'll be resting until you're well enough to help around."

Hearing the conversation going on in front of the house, the rest of team 7 peeked out of the door before rushing over to their sensei in defensive positions.

"Oi! The hell did you do to my friend, you no brow freak?!"

Naruto, loud as ever, demanded an explanation. Sasuke and Sakura seemed to follow his thought process, also assuming the worst. They wouldnt necessarily call him their friend, though.

"More like what did your friend do to us, brat. He took out the entirety of Gato's forces in just under an hour. He probably dragged the bastard himself down to hell, for all I know."

The three genin next to Kakashi blinked but still didn't put their kunai down. Sakura decided to be the one to ask how, seeing as nobody else was.

"S-So, why did you let him? H-He was your employer, r-right?"

"Eh, things change. The guy would die even if I protected him. I'm still pretty busted up from the first fight. Besides, that little shit went too far."

At everyone's questioning gaze, Adrik spoke.

"I gave Zabuza an offer to get his share of Gato's stash and give the rest back to Wave. He will also go back to the village with us. Seeing as he could probably be killed by a lowlife bandit if they were sneaky enough, he wasn't really in a position to decline. Also Gato may or may not have made the worst decision of his entire existence."

At the last statement, Adrik grew a malicious smile. Everyone but Haku sweat dropped at the boy's barely contained anger at the business man.

"And who is she?"

Sasuke pointed at Haku with an eyebrow raised.

"This is Haku. You could say she's the reason I have Gato the worst death I could think of."

"That doesn't exactly explain anything, Smokes."

"Well for your information, Sasuke, she is Zabuza's...uhh..."

"Apprentice. She's my apprentice. And all of you had better remember that."

Zabuza glared at the three genin and Kakashi, sending a clear message to them.

"I don't say that as a threat of what I'd do to you, more so as a warning..."

Zabuza glanced down at an innocently smiling Adrik, who definitely hadn't cremated a small army earlier that day.

"Well, I think we should head back inside. The bridge builder's daughter is quite the cook."

Everyone's stomachs growled at the mention of food. Adrik had only now realized that it was lunch time.

X

After some explaining, everyone had sat down at the dining table, two extra seats being pulled up for Zabuza and Haku. Apparently the man was much like Kakashi, being that they both would read the "Make Out Paradise" collection written by a man named Jiraiya. The two men would chat occasionally about the events, Adrik trying to listen in. Haku, who had decided to sit between Adrik and Zabuza, lightly slapped the boy's shoulder for trying to peek at the book's contents while intently listening to the two jonin. The blush on her face made Adrik chuckle lightly.

Naruto would sometimes comment on the jonins' tastes while talking to Adrik. Sakura and Sasuke were off to Naruto's right, looking as if they weren't following a single thing being said. Well, Sakura was trying to talk to Sasuke while the emo was actually trying to figure out what everyone was saying.

Tazuna was laughing as he joined in talking about the books, Tsunami trying to make herself unseen out of embarrassment. There was one other at the table who was having none of it. Inari glared at everyone but his family, wishing they would just leave.

A few more laughs and perverted giggles later, Inari slammed his hands on the table, getting everyone's attention.

"Why... Why are all of you still here?! We're suffering right now and all you're doing is laughing and joking around! Gato tore our country apart and killed so many people and you bastards think you can just walk in here and act all happy?! Go back to your quiet little village or whatever and leave us alone! This isn't making us feel any better!"

"Hey, what's with the attitude, kid? We're protecting your gramps while he works on his bridge. What's wrong with making the most of our time here?"

Apparently, Naruto said the wrong thing as Inari's eyes teared up slightly. The boy continued his rant, not bothering to look at the ninja present.

"What's wrong?! What's wrong is Gato could kill any one of us whenever he wants! He'll kill all of you, too! Go back to your happy little homes if you don't wanna die! Wave doesn't need some wannabe ninjas who thinks they're hot stuff because they grew up without worry! The last thing we need is more people, who haven't had a hard day in their life, acting like heroes just because they got some special training in their privileged little ninja city!"

Now, Inari made the same mistake Naruto had made. He cut off any retort with his last words, not allowing anyone to explain the situation. Killing Intent flooded the room from the least expected person. Naruto, who everyone thought was a happy-go-lucky idiot with a permanent smile and optimistic attitude, was now glaring at the boy with slitted blue pupils.

"Don't you dare say that crap again, brat! There's only one person on my team who's had it as good as you! Don't talk about suffering when you still have a family that loves and takes care of you every day! That very same family is always making sure you're there tomorrow, making sure there's food on your plate! Never think for a second that you've had it the worst! There's always someone who's been dealt a worse hand! Kakashi sensei, I'm gonna get back to my training. This lunch break got me worked up."

Everyone stared as Naruto left, slightly slamming the door behind him. Inari got up and ran upstairs, hit footsteps stopping when he couldn't be seen.

"Kakashi sensei, Naruto didn't need to yell at Inari like that! I get that Inari was rude, but that didn't give him the right to-"

"-Naruto had every right, Sakura. So much more than you think."

Everyone paused to look at Kakashi for an explanation. The jonin sighed at the attention he was getting.

"I...I was assigned to protect Naruto when he was a little kid. From the day he was born up until two years ago, I watched over him with everything I had. Unfortunately, I'm only one man. Eventually, ever man has to take a break. Whether it's by choice, or if their body just can't continue, they have to rest. And during that time..."

Kakashi trailed off his sentence as he put his book away and stared down at the table.

"He doesn't look that important to protect. What's with the Hokage making you watch over a nobody like him?"

Kakashi's head snapped towards Sasuke after he made the comment, sending chills down the boy's spine.

"For your information, Uchiha, I wasn't ordered by Lord Third. I was ordered to protect him with my life as a last request by the Fourth Hokage. And god dammit do I wish I fulfilled that request."

Sakura shivered even when she wasn't the target of Kakashi's Killing Intent.

"W-What do you mean, sensei? N-Naruto looks fine to me."

"Sakura, how much of Naruto's body is visible?"

Before she could even answer, Kakashi spoke again.

"Other than his head and neck, you can only see his ankles and everything past his forearms. There's a reason he wears that jacket, and it isn't because he likes orange so much. Here's a fun fact; Naruto heals really fast, but sometimes even he can get scars. He's known that from the day he could walk."

Everyone present was smart enough to realize the implications. "You can only see everything past his forearms", and "There's a reason he wears that jacket". Even an idiot understood that Kakashi was telling them Naruto wanted to hide as much as he could. The last two statements, however, made everyone's eyes widen except for Kakashi and Zabuza, who looked down solemnly.

Naruto hid his body. His healing factor still left scars. He knew that since he was able to walk. Sakura grew teary eyed as she ran to the bathroom before her lunch could be spat back onto her plate. Sasuke's eyes widened in understanding and even sympathy. Haku tried not to let her tears fall. Adrik was remembering his conversation about what Naruto held, only now realizing what that meant. Tazuna and Tsunami broke down into tears.

"H-Hey, Kakashi, you don't mean to tell me that... There's no way they would do that to a child, right?"

Kakashi nodded towards Tazuna.

"Naruto is hated by all but a select few for something he contains. I cannot disclose his exact predicament under pain of death, but I can tell you it isn't pretty."

Kakashi sighed as he leaned back, looking at the ceiling. Sakura came back into the dining room and sat down with puffy red eyes.

"What happened to him, I wish on no man. Not even my enemies deserve even half of what he went through. Watering it down so much didn't make it any better to hear, huh?"

Kakashi looked over at the staircase with his lone eye.

"For your information, Inari, Adrik already took care of Gato and every bandit under his command."

Everyone heard a sniffle come from the stairs as footsteps slowly walked away down the upstairs hall.

"W-Wait, didn't Naruto have anyone there for him?"

Kakashi shook his head at Sakura's question, making her look down.

"He wears a mask all of the time, you know. He's had it up for so long that even I can't tell what he's really thinking most of the time. Unless his emotions line up perfectly with what he wants to say, you will never know what he truly feels. I believe Adrik can attest to that."

Adrik nodded as everyone looked at him.

"Kakashi sensei, I think I'll go check on Inari. Even after what just happened, I don't want him sulking around his own home like this."

Kakashi nodded towards Adrik. The boy gave Haku's hand a gentle squeeze underneath the table before he got up and walked up the stairs.

X

"Naruto may be one of a kind, but he's one of many when it comes to having a bad life."

Inari turned from the picture he was holding to look at Adrik.

"Is that your dad? He looks like a good man. Now, I know he'll be happy in whatever place he ended up in knowing that his precious people are safe."

"... Did you come here to annoy me?"

Adrik chuckled as he sat next to the boy on the end of his bed.

"Nah, that's not my style. I'm just here to listen to whatever you want to let out. Be mean, be harsh, be sad, it doesn't matter to me."

Inari's eyes grew watery again as he nodded.

"My dad... He saved me the day I met him. Some bullies took my puppy away and threw him in the water. I tried to swim after him, but he got out. I couldn't swim yet but Kaiza jumped in and put me back on the ground. He even taught me how to swim after that..."

Adrik grinned as he saw Inari had a hint of a smile growing on his face.

"During a flood, he went into the water to open a drain back up. Me and mom were so worried when he hadn't come back up for air. We all cheered when the water levels dropped and he swam back up."

Inari had a full-blown smile, now. Adrik lightly patted his shoulder.

"Having a hero as a dad, huh? I'd give a lot to have something like that."

Inari looked up questioningly.

"I'm from a pretty far away place. In my home town, I grew up in an orphanage. I got adopted before I turned eleven. One day something happened, though."

Adrik made a small ball of ash dance from one finger to another.

"I got locked up for my power. Months passed and my captors just vanished. Next thing I know, a man got me to work on a project to reverse the damage that was done."

Adrik paused and stared blankly at the wall. Inari nudged him out of his trance. In response, Adrik began to unwrapp his bandages on his arms. Inari's eyes began to widen as he saw the lightning patterned scars running from his palms nearly up to his elbows.

"That same man did terrible things to get what he wanted. I got scared and ran off. He caught up and we got in a fight. He left me with these scars."

"What happened to the man?"

Adrik paused.

"Stabbed through the heart. Over and over and over and over and over. It was the worst thing in the world. I still get nightmares about it. But they've been going away slowly. That's because I made new memories with the new people in my life."

Inari looked in, first in slight fear, then in understanding.

"And the new memories replace the bad ones?"

"I wish they did. I'll say this now. You won't forget the bad things. Nobody does. But I think that a single good memory is worth a thousand bad ones."

Inari looked up at Adrik in wonder.

"A bad memory will always make the good ones a thousand times better. So, what will you do? Will you keep thinking about everything bad that happened, or will you go out and make good things happen?"

Adrik looked back at Inari as he rewrapped his arms.

"I'm gonna make tons of good memories! Even if my dad brings back bad thoughts, I'll remember everything he did for me! That comes before anything."

Adrik smiled as he ruffled the boy's hair. Now, he would have to go check on Naruto, who was either fighting an army of shadow clones, or was knocked out from memory overload.

X

Team 7, Zabuza, and Haku looked back at the people of Wave. They all waved and exclaimed their gratitude, making the ninjas smile, however small those were.

Inari ran up to Naruto, who looked at the boy in surprise. He would have thought he'd come up to Adrik first, hearing how he consoled the boy. Naruto guessed that Inari had grown attached to him hearing his story. Adrik had watched as the two had begun acting like brothers by the time the bridge was nearly complete.

"Will you come back to visit us, some time?"

Naruto put on a wide smile as he nodded.

"You can count on it, kid! And we never go back on our word, Inari!"

Inari nodded back with a teary smile. Naruto turned away before anyone could see his eyes tearing up.

"Alright! Let's get going back to the village! I've got a dozen bowls of ramen with my name on 'em!"

The gathered ninja nodded, turning to walk away. They all waved back at the people they helped free from Gato's reign.

"Ah crap. I should've asked them for some names for the new bridge. Welp, anyone got any ideas?"

Inari raised his hand high up, still looking at the fading forms of the ninja.

"I say we call it 'The Great Freedom Bridge'! It's to honor all of the people who fought for the freedom of our country!"

Inari's suggesting got the crowd roaring in agreement, all of them cheering for Tazuna to agree.

"Alrighty then! I present to the people of the Land of Waves, 'The Great Freedom Bridge'!"

The happy cheers were heard late into the night as the people celebrated. Among them, one boy looked up into the starry night with a determined gaze and a smile, eerily reminiscent of a certain orange clad ninja.