The Jinchuriki Alliance: A New Dream

Chapter 14: Returning Home

A few days has passed since the battle on the bridge, but for him, it still felt like yesterday. It was a successful A-ranked mission, and now he and the rest of his team, find themselves being the first ones to ever to walk across the new bridge, that was finally built after Gato's reign ended. All the villagers pitched in to help and showered them in praise, their eyes finding new hope for their future. He was happy for them, he really was...he just really wished that things didn't go the way they did, because it was truly tragic.

He looks over to Sasuke who was still bandaged up but was well enough to travel..he has to keep checking every 5 or 10 minutes just to make sure he was really there...that he really was still alive. It had turned out that Haku...had not hit any vital area's and so it turned out that Sasuke was going to pull through just fine. His heart clenches painfully, Haku was a gentle soul until the very end. After Gato had shown up that day, Zabuza, after having been given a stern talking to from him and after Gato had started messing with Haku's body, Zabuza had finally snapped and showed his true emotions, turned out the mist ninja was absolutely distraught over Haku's death.

He had to admit, Zabuza was completely bad-ass, and despite him being somewhat of a scumbag...he had managed to find a bit of respect for the guy. Zabuza, despite having no arms fought tooth and nail with merely a kunai in his mouth, storming through Gato's little army of thugs in order to kill the bastard that disrespected Haku's body. He risked everything defending the boy he cared so deeply for, however, even if he had won the battle...he lost the war, as all the damage he took from Gato's men was too much, and with Kakashi sensei's help, he died along side Haku.

He looks behind him at the group of familiar people still cheering and waving at them from the start of the bridge, he gives Inari another wave and a smile,  and to his surprise the boy calls out to him "Hey Naruto !! We chose a name for the bridge!! It's called The Great Naruto Bridge!!" he calls out

Suddenly, he finds himself laughing, because frankly, who would have thought they would name the bridge after him...it was very flattering yet embarrassing and with one last wave he turns back around and finally departs for home, looking up at the cliff where they had buried Haku and Zabuza.

'I'll achieve my dream Haku, and I will protect them all, I promise' he thinks with a sad smile.

"Come on idiot your slowing us down! I'm the one injured here and even I'm walking faster than you are...Hmph!" Sasuke groans in annoyance.

"Haha! Sorry! I'm coming!" he says and finally runs to catch up with them.

3 hours Later

They had just walked through a small marketing village on the way back to Konoha, Kakashi sensei said that he wanted to stop by for some strange reason, he almost looked guilty about something, about what though he doesn't know, but it was highly suspicious.

"Ah jeez, now what are we going to do??" Sakura sighs.

"Hmph..who knows," Sasuke says as he looks at all the shops long the street, it wasn't very big but he looked towards what seemed to be a tomato stand along with an array of other fruits and vegetables.

'Ew..' he thinks to himself as Sasuke wandered towards it and naturally Sakura follows along like a worried puppy.

"Hey! Where are you guy's going! Don't just leave me here!" he shouts at them.

"Hmph, then join us then moron, I'm going to be picking out some tomatoes.." Sasuke explains, but if he was being honest, looking at vegetables did not sound  pleasant to him at all, he hated vegetables, they were disgusting.

 "Uh...you know what? you guys go on ahead, I'm just going to go window shopping down this way, see you!" he says quickly before walking in the opposite direction. Once both Sasuke and Sakura were out of sight, he sighs in relief 'man that was close..' he thinks to himself.