The Fox Brothers

Ch.11 The Land Where a Hero Once Lived

It was nearing the end of another day and Sakura, Sasuke, and Naruto were working hard on the tree climbing exercise. The three are sitting on the ground in front of their respect trees looking up at their progress marks. Sasuke and Naruto's marks were very high up and withing a few marks of each other, while Sakura's were not at the same height she was catching up.

"Damn, the two of you are still pretty far ahead of me." Sakura said taking deep breaths.

"Yeah, but you are catching up. You'll reach us in no time." Naruto said, also out of breath.

"Oh, yeah. Just watch me surpass the both of you!" Sakura yelled determined to get stronger.

"Please, like that will happen." Sasuke said waving his hand in the air. The three young ninja laugh and smile at each other before giving competitive glares. Later that night, they returned to Tazuna's home for dinner. All three were scarfing down their food with reckless abandon until they all finished at the same time, stood up and shouted for seconds. Unfortunately, all three of them then vomited on the floor.

"If the three of you are going to vomit, stop eating!" Hanzo shouted smacking all three Genin in the back of the head.

"No way, I've got to eat so I can get stronger..." Naruto said wiping his mouth.

"And I cant let Naruto get ahead of me..." Sasuke said grinning.

"And if you think I'm gonna be left behind then your dead wrong..." Sakura said.

"While that is true, vomiting is different. So please stop messing up the floor." Kakashi said. Shortly after dinner, and after the vomit was cleaned up, everyone having a cup of tea. Naruto and Sasuke were laughing and telling jokes, while Hanzo was standing behind Naruto and using his head as an armrest, but Naruto didnt seem to mind. Sakura was standing at the wall looking up at a torn photograph.

"Excuse me, why is there a torn picture hanging here? Inari was looking at this all through dinner. This torn part looks like someone who was in the picture was deliberately torn off." Sakura asked. Everyone in the room goes quiet.

"Its my husband..." Tsunami said after a moment.

"He's a man who was once called a hero of this town." Tazuna said. Inari gets up from his chair and leaves with his mother chasing after him.

"What're you saying happened with Inari?" Sakura asked.

"It appears there's some kind of good reason." Kakashi said.

"Inari had a father not related by blood. It was like they were a real father and son who got along really well. Back then, Inari was a child who laughed all the time. However..." Tazuna began. Tazuna stops as he starts to tremble. Tears fall from his eyes onto the table as he continues his story. "Inari has changed... ever since that incident with his father. The word bravery was eternally taken from the people of this island and from Inari. With that day, that incident, as the trigger."

"That incident? What happened to Inari?" Hanzo asked.

"To explain the incident, I must first tell you about the man who was called the hero of this land. It was around three years ago when Inari met the man. A group of older children and taken Inari's dog. One of the boys threw the dog into the water off a dock and the dog struggled to swim. Inari couldnt jump in as he couldnt swim either. However, one of the boys had kicked Inari into the water. The dog quickly learned to swim and swam ashore, unfortunately, Inari began to drown. He sank under the water and passed out. When he woke up, he found that he was saved by a man. His name was Kaiza and he was a fisherman who'd come to this land from another country in search of his dreams. After that, Inari really took to Kaiza. It may have been because Inari had lost his real father when he was too young to remember anything. But he was very attached to Kaiza. They were like father and son. It didnt take long for Kaiza to become a member of the family. And he was a man this town needed. One day, during a terrible storm one of the town's dams broke and water began to flood a part of the town. Kaiza tied a rope to his waist and dove into the violent currents to close the dam. From then on... the people of this land called Kaiza a hero. And he became a father that Inari could be proud of. It was around that time when Gato set his sights on this land. And then, one night Gato and his men abducted Kaiza. They tortured him and crushed all the bones in his arms. They tied him to a post and strung him up for the town to see. Gato had Kaiza executed in front of the whole town. Ever since then, Inari has changed... as well as Tsunami... and the townspeople..." After listening to Tazuna's story, Naruto got to his feet.

"I'll prove it." Naruto said.

"Prove what little brother?"

"I'll prove that there are heros in this world!" Naruto declared, a fire in his eyes.