Chapter 049

It would only be a few seconds afterwards that Naruto realized he had managed to burn his opponent's mask clean off of him. So when the smoldering cleared and the jinchuriki was able to get a good look at his expression, and the raging waters far below still tearing away at the dam, Naruto saw a scarred man around his forties with grimy black hair and red eyes looking back at him. His face already had so many old war wounds and gashes on it, the burns and shrapnel lodged into the right side of his face from the sparkler bomb seemed like a welcome bit of make-up to his already ravaged visage.

Naruto was so shocked by the man's appearance he could only stare in silence.

What came as an even bigger surprise though, about several seconds later, instead of seeing Crow raise a weapon to strike at him or more anger well-up in his eyes promising a painful death, the jinchuriki saw the guy smile? Sure it came shortly after getting a good view of his stony glare and Naruto half-figured he was hallucinating from loss of blood; the jinchuriki was still met with a pleasant grin.

It was almost like the assassin was thanking him, which was weird considering he was an enemy ordered to kill him. Didn't samurai abide by some sort of code of honor or pride or something?

The unmasked warrior Crow nodded to the jinchuriki upon getting his attention before closing his eyes. The moment he did so, the grip around the boy's ankle slackened until the man was only hanging by a couple of fingers, literally.

"Good fight…"

Once those words were uttered, the broken warrior relinquished his hold completely.

Naruto reached out to grab him, but his instinctive response came too late and the boy could only watch as Crow, resigned to his fate, plummeted into the raging torrents of water below and vanished into the foam and jagged rapids. In the blink of an eye, he was gone.

The jinchuriki's hand fell limp after becoming fully aware of what had happened and allowed his body to hang there from the ledge, watching the river flow on by and begin to level out. After allowing some minutes to pass, in which the blonde was able to reflect on his battle, Naruto breathed out exhaustedly and, through half-lidded eyes, looked downstream to see the massive canal completely full.

A smile came to his tired face. "Good fight."

The last of the debris from the dam was chipped away, leaving behind a ruined relic of a tyrant and a monument of the destruction caused by only one boy.

While Naruto dangled where he was for a little while longer, staring down at the now calm river flowing through the ruined structure, the birds Swift and Raven up on the railing above him looked down over the side.

Having watched the entire situation unfold and upon witnessing the death of its master, the crow sitting beside the swallow cawed once out of habit, ruffled its feathers, and then took off into the sky. Swift watched its fellow bystander fly up into the clouds, following him with her gaze as he disappeared over the horizon.

This event signified the end of the fight and the liberation of the Land of the Great River.

OOO

Meanwhile…

Up in her farm and looking relatively disgruntled from all the grinding of herbs she was doing, Hanare was attempting to fill out one of her latest client orders from the stock she was able to conjure up from whatever harvest she could. Though there was not much she could gain from the crops, at least the dried up seeds had to count for something. They could be sold for a small bit in other places where they were rare, especially from this country, but she was wondering if her efforts were really going to be enough.

Nevertheless, while she was working her magic on her resources and trying to stretch out the amount as much as she could, an earth-shaking tremor coursed through the entirety of her house. The disturbance rattled fixtures and moved furniture a few centimeters out of place, startling Hanare out of her seat and forcing her towards the door.

"What in the world was that?"

Throwing the entrance open the farmer looked towards the dam further up the valley. When she looked across, expecting to see mists, construction or something else ordinary taking place, her eyes widened in surprise when she saw massive explosions rip across the surface of the great white barrier. These blasts punched a hole into the bottom half at the center of the wall, allowing water to come pouring out at an easy rate.

The next half-hour would prove to be a great show for the farmer, as one after another more gaps were blown along the entire length of the dam. The holes appeared in every space between the main weight-bearing pillars, which allowed the water to come out in a controlled flow and fill up the dried-up riverbed. By some otherworldly force, the entire world on the suffering side of the barrier began to come alive again, as water was once more allowed to flow freely through the country.

Blinking in disbelief and thinking back on the day she'd been having, Hanare eventually realized what must have happened and smiled. An amused chuckle escaped her lips as she leaned against her porch's support beam.

"That little runt… he actually did it," Hanare laughed, shaking her head. "The crazy little fool actually did it…"

Hey! Her day might just get better yet...