Naruto Fan Fiction ❯ The Road to Recovery ❯ Chapter 11

[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]

The surrounding atmosphere grew tense as the ninjas of Konoha waited for their enemies to emerge from the fog.

Naruto silently gritted his teeth as Samui’s team appeared before him.

“This doesn’t have to end up in war,” He stated, determined to make a last ditch effort in talking things out. “Konoha would be more than willing to work things out peacefully.”

“No, you’re absolutely correct.” Samui replied with a solemn frown. “A war between my nation and yours would be completely unnecessary.”

“W-what?” The blonde stuttered. “That is, I mean-”“The Raikage no longer holds a grudge against you,” Samui explained. “His brother returned on his own last night.”“Thank you for telling me this…I guess.”“Kumo offers you a sincere apology for all of the damage we have caused. Excuse me, but my team and I must be leaving immediately.”

Naruto’s jaw dropped as she said this, and he tried to process this information with little success. Even after Samui and her team left, he continued to stand there without making a single sound.

“Naruto,” Kakashi said hesitantly, resting his hand on the blonde’s frozen shoulder. “Are you okay? You’d better get some rest soon.”“What the hell just happened?” Naruto said to himself, not noticing Kakashi’s presence. “All of that anxiety and planning, and for nothing?!”Kakashi and the rest of the ninjas became a little alarmed as the blonde began to giggle.

“I don’t know whether I should be relieved or pissed,” He giggled, scratching the back of his head. “I guess I should go fetch the rest of the villagers from the forest now.”“I’ll be right on it.” The grey-haired nin promised.

After Kakashi and a few other ninjas left, Naruto turned to the rest of the assembled ninjas.

“Since we’re not going to war, the plan I made is pretty much useless. Go back to whatever you were doing before all of this happened.”With hesitant frowns, they did what they were told and left Naruto to his mixed thoughts.

On one hand, he was very pleased with the way things turned out, yet there was another part of him that had been anticipating for a battle against the Raikage. He was still angry at Kumo’s leader, but not angry enough to provoke him and create trouble for his own village.

Forget any personal grudges, a voice instructed. At least, for now. Think of the safety of the village.

Naruto silently pondered on his duties as Hokage while trekking towards the woods. He froze in his tracks at the sudden grumbling noises coming from nearby.

A careless enemy…?

Alarmed, he grabbed a kunai blade from his pouch and silently waited for the enemy to make another move. From the corner of his eye, he saw a large shadow melt into the surrounding fog. Before he could investigate it any further, he heard the grumbling noises again.

Where is that noise coming from?

With a blush, he finally realized that it was his empty stomach making the grumbling noises. He hadn’t eaten breakfast yet, and here he was, thinking that an enemy was nearby! He placed his kunai back into his pouch.

Are you that desperate for a fight? A voice teased him.

“Maybe I am…” He muttered to himself.

“Naruto?” Sakura asked, stepping from the foggy forest. “What are you doing here?”“There won’t be a war,” He stated with a grin. “It turns out that the Raikage’s brother returned to Kumo on his own. What are you doing here?”“I needed to grab some medicine for Kurenai, but,” She grabbed his hand and led him to the hospital clearing. “Never mind that! Come with me to look at her baby!”“Kurenai had her baby already?”“Uh huh! I had to bring the two of them here because Kurenai wasn’t doing well, but she’s fine now. Exhausted, but perfectly healthy.”

Sakura let go of Naruto’s hand once they arrived at the clearing. Although Kurenai still looked pale and woozy, she cradled her newborn baby with a smile on her face.

“Congratulations, Kurenai. What is your baby’s name?”“Thank you, Naruto. His name is Ryou.”

“Come over here, Naruto. Look at how cute Ryou-kun is.” Sakura squealed quietly.

Suddenly becoming shy, Naruto shook his head with an apologetic frown. Ryou looked so tiny and fragile, sleeping peacefully in his mother’s arms…

“Don’t be scared. See how much he looks like Asuma.” Shikamaru said, appearing by Kurenai’s bed side.

“And he has Kurenai’s curly hair.” Sakura giggled.

Not wanting to disturb Ryou’s slumber, Naruto took slow, soft steps towards Kurenai’s bed. A wide smile formed on his face as he observed baby Ryou. Although Naruto had never seen very many babies before, he considered Ryou to be the cutest of them all. He stood frozen to the spot as Ryou began to open his dark eyes. After studying Naruto for a few seconds, he began to gurgle with a happy smile.

“Would you like to hold him? He obviously likes you.”

“I-I’ve never held a baby before…”“Here, I’ll show you.”

To Naruto’s delight, he was able to hold Ryou correctly on his first try. A strange kind of warmth blossomed within Naruto’s chest as he carefully cradled Ryou. As he continued to hold him, he finally recognized the strange warmth as protectiveness. This feeling only grew as Ryou began to study his surroundings.

An unexpected wave of sorrow washed through Naruto’s being as he wondered what the child’s future would be like.

It’s up to me to be a responsible Hokage and help protect Asuma and Kurenai’s child from the evils of this world.

Although Konoha was safe from war for now, he had a sinking feeling in his gut that they weren’t safe yet. The shadow from before wanted something, and it wasn’t going to give up that easily. A shiver ran down his spine, and his arms began to crawl with goose bumps as if someone had walked over his grave.

“Thank you for letting me hold Ryou,” Naruto said, handing the bundled baby to Kurenai. “I have to go now. Goodbye.”“Bye.” Kurenai said with a weary smile, holding Ryou close to her chest.

Stop being so paranoid, stop being so paranoid, stop being so paranoid…

As he hunted for his breakfast far from the forest, he tried to calm himself down by repeating this mantra over and over again. The feeling that he had been followed earlier was beginning to really unnerve him.

I know I’m not seeing things, so who would still have a grudge against me? Should I increase the number of guards surrounding Konoha?

“No, I don’t have enough ninjas to be able to do that,” He muttered. “I need to continue reconstructing the village before doing anything else.”

After successfully hunting down a foul, he took the time to cook it the old-fashioned way. As he ate his breakfast on a nearby boulder, he was relieved to see the fog quickly dissipating under the rising sun.

I should be getting back soon before long…

His overall plan for the day was to join the villagers and help them build apartments. He personally wanted to create safe living quarters for everybody as soon as possible. If there really were enemies hiding in the forest, then it was his duty to move the villagers back to the village first.

“There you are,” Kakashi said, walking towards Naruto with his hands in his pockets. “All of the villagers are back in the forest.”

“Good,” The blonde replied. “I’ve decided to spend the day creating apartments for the villages.”

“I’ll go gather the volunteers once they’ve had breakfast, then.”

“Cool. Thanks for doing this, Kakashi.”“It’s no problem.”While Kakashi went out to the forest, Naruto proceeded to clean up the mess he had left behind. Afterwards, he left for the massive clearing that used to be Konoha. He only had to wait ten minutes until the villagers and ninjas began to arrive.

Spotting Yamato in the large crowd, Naruto approached him.

“Hey Yamato, do you know any techniques that’ll create some apartments instantly?”“Sure. I can help you with that. You’ll need everybody to clear the way, though.”After everybody else moved far away enough, Yamato began to concentrate. Naruto’s eyes widened in surprise as dozens of apartment buildings began to shoot up from the ground. It only took around five seconds for Yamato to produce a sufficient number of apartment buildings to accommodate an entire village.

“Jeez, you make building look so easy!” Naruto yelled. “Thanks Yamato! You deserve a break already.”Naruto was alarmed by how exhausted Yamato was, and allowed him to rest for the entire day.

“We’ll take it from here. I really appreciate your hard work, Yamato.”“Thank you, Naruto.”

For the rest of the day, all of the villagers took their time to move into their new apartments. Although Naruto had expected the building to take longer, he was pleased to have that over with. After consulting with Sai, he found out the number of beds needed for the villagers. With the help of a few spare ninjas, they began to gather wood and other necessary supplies from the nearby forest.

Unfortunately, they did not build enough beds for all of the villagers to sleep in that night. In the end, they gave the beds to the individuals that needed them for medical reasons, and gave everybody else cots.

Once all of the villagers had moved in, Naruto decided to look for a relatively quiet apartment building to settle into. The sun was beginning to set, and he was absolutely in need for a good night’s rest. He noticed that most of the buildings had their lights out already, except for one apartment building located in the middle of the village.

I wonder what’s going on in there…

Curious, Naruto traveled to the middle of the village and entered the plain apartment building. His curiosity only grew, for he heard a couple of voices chatting in a room upstairs. After walking up a couple of stair cases, he approached the noisy room and knocked on the door.

“Hey Naruto!” Sakura greeted, opening the door. “You can stay here if you want to! Sai and a few other ninjas are here playing a card game.”

With a tired smile, Naruto entered the room and spotted the nearest cot.

“Hey, I’m sorry to barge in like this, but I’m really exhausted, so I think I’ll skip out on whatever you guys are doing. Night.”

“Night!”

“See ya!”
Entering the spare room, Naruto closed the door behind him and turned the lights on. It was fairly small, but he definitely preferred it over the cramped tree houses. Deciding that he would take a shower tomorrow morning, he laid upon the cot without even opening the sheets. With a loud yawn, he snapped the lights off and waited not so uncomfortably for sleep.

Just as his mind was on the brink of sleep, he thought of Sasuke, still in the forest.

Oh, crap! I forgot about Sasuke!

You can take care of that issue tomorrow, a voice snapped.

Before he could decide on anything else, he fell quickly into a deep, dreamless sleep.