The Sand Ninja: Naruto Namikaze

13

In the morning when I woke up I was surprised to find that sometime in the night Veritas had cuddled up to me. He had one leg swung over my body and his face was nuzzled into my neck. I smiled. He looked so adorable. I brushed his hair away from his eyes. He groaned a little and wrapped an arm around my neck. Since it didn't seem like he wanted to wake up, I tickled him just under his ribs. He tensed and glared at me. I smirked at him. "Did you get cold?" I asked. He seemed confused for a moment before he realized how close we were. "N-no." He blushed, scrambling back. "No matter." I said, getting ready for the day. While we were traveling, Veritas kept glancing at me out of the corner of his eye, probably thinking I didn't notice. When we finished the second day of travel we stopped by a lake of about medium size. "Unlike with climbing, which takes a consistent flow of chakra, water walking requires you to fluctuate your chakra." After I told them this I sat back to watch. In the first half hour Spero and Veritas fell 6 times between them. After a hour they were all doing well. Since they were doing okay I used my water manipulation to churn the water at a slow rate. They struggled with this but by the end of the designated 3 hours they were working on water walking with me churning the water at medium speed. We continued the rest of the journey like this. Now they'd be able to walk to the land of waves even in the worst storms. We decided to get BBQ when we got to the town near the bridge. After arriving, the first thing my genin did was bombard me with questions. "Why does everyone seem to know you?" Spero asked. "What's with the way we're treated like V.I.P.'s?" Fidelitas asked. "The Great Naruto Bridge?" Veritas seemed incredulous. The other two looked at him. "It was on the sign by the bridge." Veritas explained. I sighed. "My old team and I have been here before. We had a mission to protect the bridge builder Tazuna. It was supposed to be a C-rank, but the old man lied since they couldn't afford an A-rank price. While Sakura was useless and Sasuke unconscious, Kakashi Sensei fought Zabuza, and I fought Haku. I shattered his ice mirrors and critically wounded him. Rather than dying by my hand, Haku threw himself in front of Zabuza, saving him. Gato showed up and betrayed the two, so Zabuza killed Gato but was fatally wounded. Inari chose the name of the bridge. He's Tazuna's grandson, and someone I consider a little brother." I finished speaking. "Wow." Spero said. I smiled at them. "We still have a little time before we should start crossing over to wave. Go and wreak a little havoc, m'kay?" I said. Spero and Fidelitas cheered, but Veritas was quiet. I was starting to get worried, but then I noticed his expression was thoughtful, rather than down. "Sensei, do you want to walk around with me?" He asked. "I don't see the harm." I said. Spero and Fidelitas went off somewhere, and Veritas and I started wandering around. After a little bit we ended up at the beach. There was no one around since it was nearly winter. "Naruto-sensei, there's something I need to tell you. And I want you to answer me honestly, even if it's something I might not want to hear. I'm in love with you. Do you feel the same?"