The small clearing had become very silent, Naruto didn't know if it was his place to be here or not. The village had made quite the turn out for the event; he could feel some of the eyes of the people on them. It felt as if they were asking why are you here, he paid them no heed, Tazuna was standing at the front, the man was a shadow of his former self, barely holding himself together.

It was no surprise really, no one was meant to bury their children never mind there grandchildren. The fact he had managed to drag himself out was a testament to him.

The past two days had been rather strange; while no one was hostile towards him he was able to get the distinct feeling that he was unwanted. It's not like he cared though, the bridge wasn't finished yet and he couldn't leave until the bridge had been finished. If they wanted him gone all they had to do was continue working on the bridge.

Kiva stood to his right dressed in rather dark clothes, a balk t-shirt a dark coat and plain trousers, he wondered if that was why people were staring at him, he wasn't very well dressed for the occasion, with his brown duster orange t-shirt, the only black he had was his trousers and they had seen better days. Add the white spiral that he had taken to putting on his clothes for as long as he could remember and he really wasn't dressed for the occasion.

As the crowd began to clear out he could see someone helping Tazuna from the clearing, two men had stayed behind to finish the burial. Sighing to himself he moved through the crowd, part of him would like to believe that it was just years of practice that allowed him to move through the crowd with ease. And while it was a possibility it was more due to the fact that the villagers moved ever so slightly to stay away from him.

Reaching the mound he looked at the two men holding out his hand, they stared wondering what he was doing.

"Give me the shovel; you should go with the rest of them" Naruto told the pair. The two men stared at him. He could feel his eyebrow twitching as the two just stood there.

"You should do it, go back with the rest of them" Kiva said from his side, he wasn't sure when she had gotten beside him but it didn't matter. The two men tentatively handed over the shovels. Both Naruto and Kiva took them, and waited patiently for the men to move out of the way.

As the men left both began to cover the two graves, "Why'd you offer to help?" Naruto asked after a moment.

"Need to do something, it's either help here or sit and do nothing" Kiva answered her voice was quiet. "What about you?"

"Same, either help here or sit and wait for work to begin again." Naruto answered as he continued to shovel the dirt onto the grave, he was mostly healed after the two days, a testament to the concoctions Kiva cooked up and his own healing ability. He had reapplied the gravity rune on his chest; it was safer for him to have it on right now then to move around with it off. He wasn't use to the difference.

The graves had only simple markings on them at the moment, some wood as a place holder until the ground became solid enough to place an actual tombstone on it. The pair stood in silence looking at the recently buried mother and son.

"It's not fair" Kiva whispered out looking at the graves, "This shouldn't of happened" the image of the two bodies lying on the ground lifeless eyes just staring out blankly was all that was in her head.

"No it's not fair" Naruto answered, he wasn't too sure what he could tell her though, this is life, it is the same wherever they go, innocent people suffer, good people suffer, bad people suffer. Regardless of who you are or what you've done you will suffer at some point.

Suffering was a natural part of life for them, to alleviate suffering someone else had to take the place of your suffering. It wasn't an exact truth to the world, there were exceptions and it wasn't like there was a set of scales to keep it balanced. But there was truth to it.

Gato caused this land to suffer, and then Gato suffered and died, but that didn't mean a set of scales were balanced, there was no real balance when suffering and misery were involved, the graves in front of them was proof of that.

But that was the way of life, he didn't deal in balancing scales, he didn't deal in keeping the peace or protecting the status quo. He could do it, he could balance the scales, he could keep the peace, and he could protect the status quo.

But balancing the scales was a costly and bloody, you would never truly be able to do it because you would need to add a worth to everything, the worth of a life, the worth of the pain caused. It could be argued that he did assign worth to a life but truthfully he knew it was too complicated to deal with. The monetary value gained from working was different than actually figuring out the worth of a life, what they had done, what they could do, what they would do, too many variables to take into consideration. The scales would never be balanced and you would become nothing more than a husk of what you were, trying to fulfil something that could never be done.

Keeping the piece was also out, where do you draw the line in peace what one considers peace another could call tyranny. They're not fighting so it must be peace. That sort of life leads to the necessity of people like him. When people are held down they search for ways out, though there bodies may be broken there mind rebels and wants the oppression to end.

Tazuna was a perfect example of it, he wanted the oppression that Gato had caused in his land gone, and so he built a bridge to liberate it, when it became difficult he sought out someone who could help. Oppression wasn't as bad as some of the things in this world, while he believed in being free; oppression wasn't necessarily the absence of freedom. As long as you had a voice and could voice what you wanted you could rise against it, it was up to those who were being oppressed to choose if freedom was worth there life.

No keeping the peace was something that he could do, but like balancing the scales it became difficult, you had to be able to look at it from angles that you just couldn't always see. Gato was a good example of this, what if Gato supplied three nations with the resources of Wave that kept them from going to war with each other. So the oppression of one to keep the peace in three, would it be worth it.

It was reasons like this that made him know that he couldn't keep the peace, it wouldn't have even factored into the price of the job. Keeping the peace, maybe there were people out there who truly believed they were capable of doing it, but he wouldn't count himself among them.

The status quo was possibly the worst one for him to try and keep; it was too much like keeping the peace but unlike the attempt to justify what you were doing for some greater good you were just trying to stop change. Naruto wasn't a fan of the status quo, it wasn't that he didn't like the idea of things staying the same, it was just that everything changed.

The status quo was neither good nor evil, it was just a term made to state how things were at the moment. But the situation could be good or bad, people don't like changing the status quo, Naruto had heard people mention it before but it wasn't true, sometimes the status quo had to change.

Wave in itself was once again a good example of it, the status quo in wave was accepted by the majority of its people, they were held down, oppressed, they wanted changed but none wanted to act out because of fear. The majority of them were weak, unwilling to stand because they were afraid to fall, people who complained and did nothing to change the situation were weak. Even the simple act of getting someone else to fight the fight was better than just accepting it, knowing that they wanted change.

"What now?" Kiva's words broke him from his thoughts, he hadn't realised how much he had zoned out. They were standing in front of the freshly covered graves.

Taking a breath Naruto looked at the pair of graves, he didn't know if he should say anything. What could he say, as he stared blankly a memory surfaced in his head from when he was traveling with Clara, he had cleared out a small bandit camp where the people taken by the bandits had been killed. They had buried them and he had felt the same thing, a lack of knowledge of what to do, but she knew.

"Come away O mortal child, to the waters and the wild with a faey hand in hand for this world's more full of weeping than you can understand" he spoke.

"What is that?" Kiva asked, she didn't lift her head from the grave as she spoke.

"Words that Clara had said once" he didn't have a chance to continue his answer before another voice made itself known.

"Indeed they are child." A soft hypnotic voice spoke.

Naruto noticed that Kiva had become very stiff at the sudden voice; he could feel his own back become straighter.

"What?" Naruto could hear the disbelief in Kiva's voice as she turned to find the intruding voice. "Who's there?" she nearly shouted.

"It's a faey" Naruto said calmly, trying not to show the tension that he had felt at the sudden words.

"Listen to the child, child, he speaks the truth" the voice continued.

At the words Naruto could feel his head begin to form the beginnings of a head ache. 'That's not confusing at all' he thought.

Kiva remembered an old lesson that Clara had given her on the realms, she had mentioned that something like this was possible but she had never believed that it would actually happen.

Neither of the two spoke, they weren't too sure if the faey was even still there, it was completely possible that it had shown up and left. He felt something warm and soft on his shoulder for a moment soon followed by a soft voice.

"The lady will walk these lands again" the whisper was low and Naruto couldn't help but shudder at the sound. As soon as the warmth of the hand came it had left.

Both stood still for a period wondering if they were going to hear any more from the voice.

"Is it gone?" Kiva finally asked, when no response came Naruto released a breath he hadn't realised he had been holding in.

"Yea I think so" Naruto said.

-()-

"So why are you still here?" Kiva asked the man that was standing on the bridge with them waiting to see if any of the workers were going to show up for the day. "Do I have to worry about you trying to kill us, because I don't want to have to worry about that?"

Naruto from his position lying on the side of the bridge turned his head to look at the man, "She has a point, the first time we were on this bridge we were trying to kill each other, the second time you admitted to coming here to kill me and now your just standing there, why?" He asked, he didn't think he would attempt to kill them, he was nearly certain of it.

"Kiri will realise that something is up once the team doesn't return, standard protocol will be that they send a tracker unit, but the unit will be sent to Hi no kuni to try and pick up a trail. After a week of not finding anything they will be forced to return to avoid running into any of Konoha's shinobi." Zabuza said to the pair.

"Okay, but why not search here for the trail and that doesn't answer why you're here on this bridge" Kiva said as she cleaned her flute.

"Because they will not believe I would stay in the same place after being discovered." Most made the mistake of running and truth is in a lot of situations it is the best decision to move on and cover your tracks. But they will send trackers to the mainland to try and pick up a trail; they will send someone to investigate the area where the three disappeared.

"But why, if it was me I would come here to start the search." Naruto set up to look at the man who had decided to sit with his back against the wall. He would have to say that the entire situation had become strangely bizarre. The only thing that he could think of was that Zabuza wanted something, though what he didn't know.

"Most shinobi do not interact with civilians, the three that showed up here broke standard protocol when they talked to you, I would bet that they would most likely of attempted to kill you anyway. No one but you two has seen me since the day after the battle." Zabuza told the pair.

"The reason genin do d rank and c rank isn't just because of the job being easier, they usually have to deal with civilians who are not aware of the shinobi world. The jonin is to offer security to the people who hired them but has less interaction with the clients then the gennin do. A large part of it is just showing the right face to the employer. It's because of this lack of interaction with civilians at times that quite a few of higher ranked shinobi appear standoffish towards regular civilians." Zabuza continued.

"So wait" kiva interrupted Zabuza to get his attention, "you're telling me that the higher ranked you are in your system the harder it is for these people to get information from civilians because they appear more intimidating." That sounded absolutely ridiculous

"You can get information just by sitting in a place and being able to listen, but it is a skill that not everyone possesses." Zabuza said to the pair.

"Bullshit, it's not hard to get information in a bar, people always talk. All you have to do is sit and listen." Naruto replied to Zabuza's statement.

"You know that is a skill, it is easy to find out information when you know what you're looking for, actually being able to pick up information on hearsay. The ones who actually know how to do it either die by getting in over their heads or go very far in their career." Zabuza told them, it was rather impressive, very few were taught how to gather information like that. Even spies usually had to search for information. The people who could do that sort of information gathering were usually the people who came with a price tag.

"Okay all well and good but where getting way off topic, say that you're right and these shinobi are deftly incompetent at gathering information from hearsay. How does being here make it less likely to be caught?" Naruto asked.

He still called bullshit on the idea that these shinobi couldn't sit in a bar, tavern or inn and pick up information. You just needed to sit there, blend in and sieve through the crap.

"First not incompetent, just trying to gather useful information from civilians is difficult. When you know your target or who has the information the process is a lot simpler, usually people like you who are able to do it are paid for the information. Secondly people have a tendency to get jumpy around shinobi especially the higher ranked ones people will say anything whether it is true or not just to get them to leave. Which means that the stories here are going to be blown out of proportion so much that they would have to spend more time shifting true the information to find what is correct."

"I bet you that there is a hundred different stories of what happened on that bridge, none of which will be true at all. They know this so they won't put much stock in it, especially considering that it will be over two or three weeks until they get here. They will be chasing their tails looking for a trail and won't find any because I never left to make one. A month and a half I leave and they won't have been any the wiser." He finished.

It was a simple plan and would work just fine; it was beneficial that if he hadn't of went to confront Naruto on the bridge and just left he would of most likely be leaving a trail for them to follow. They will eventually double back to scour wave but he wouldn't be there by that time and they would be wasting even more time on him he hadn't survived this long on the run because he was stupid.

He knew the flaws in the system; he knew how to exploit them. People like Ao and Haku to an extent were good at gathering information like that, but people like them were rare in the shinobi world. The shinobi world had spies and information brokers; they had entire divisions whose job is to collect and use that information. But most informants were civilians, with low chakra reservoirs and being a half decent actor can bluff a shinobi that they are not dangerous, simply because they are not actually dangerous.

Zabuza knew that he couldn't do it, he was to imposing he had a presence about him that intimidated people, while not as many had as an intimidating presence as him a lot of ninja's were intimidating to look at for regular people.

Deception may be key but there was a massive difference in being able to steal and gather information from places that had something of value, then to be able to listen to rumours and make accurate deduction or be able to whittle out the crap and find something useful in it.

"So what is it you want from us" he was broken from his own musings by Naruto's voice, looking around he could see both teens looking at him.

"What makes you think I want something" he answered them, he could hear the girl scoff at him.

"You're here to stay hidden, but that doesn't answer why you came here to the bridge, you want something that we either have or can have" Kiva answered, she hadn't realised it at first but the longer the conversation had went on she had come to the conclusion that the man wasn't just passing time.

"You're not fishing for information which means you are wanting to propose a something" Naruto said, "the question is what?"

"Other than this" Zabuza said as he motioned to the bridge with his hand, "How much work have you found since coming to this land?" Zabuza asked, he wasn't dumb he knew that these two were from far away, even if the boy held a name of a now dead clan and the girl had a name that sounded like a boy's name, the way they spoke, the strange tongues they used, the accents that they had even the clothes they wear while similar was clearly foreign. It all pointed to the fact that they were from far away.

"None" Naruto said not sure of where he was going with this.

"Not surprising, most clients go to the villages, people like Gato aren't rare by any stretch of the imagination but there usually looking for well-known individuals." Zabuza continued talking, his plan was half baked and had every chance of failure, but there was no risk in the plan to him.

"So we need to be well known if we want to find anything is that correct." Naruto asked.

"What do you know of this land?" Zabuza asked the pair, it took only a few moments for the girl to tell them what they actually knew, which was surprisingly little, though he didn't know whether he should be insulted or laugh at how they referred to the hidden villages as mercenary villages. As true as the statement may be, he knew that shinobi would not only take offence to the claim but the Kage would want to stomp it out of them.

"So very little" Zabuza reiterated what they had told him in the simplest terms.

"I don't know what it is you want to ask but would you stop beating around the bush and just say it" Naruto finally said, he was tired of this long winded conversation that seemed to serve zero purpose. He was frustrated enough as is that the workers weren't showing up.

"There is an event called the chunnin exams that is held biannually, it's a competition where the villages show off their gennin, there are other parts to it that they want to highlight to the gennin but its main purpose is a show of force and ability. Clientele get to see them and if there impressed by them it can bring more work to the village." Zabuza told the teen.

It was a simplified version of what the exams were, but it was also the truth, you could call it what you want, an exhibition of power, a substitute for war, but at the end of the day it was a way for the villages to show off who had the best ninja.

"That's all well and good but where not one of these gennin, so what good does it do for us" Naruto replied.

"What if I told you there was a way that you would be able to enter the exam?" Zabuza asked the blonde teen.

"Okay, what's in it for you?" Naruto decided to ask not wanting to drag out the conversation any more than it already had. If no one was going to show up then he wasn't going to waste time being here.

"Think of it as sub-contracting, there are some people who won't hire me due to my own reputation, you however don't have that problem. You can get the work and be able to go to these places and once it is completed we split the profit." It wasn't the best plan but he didn't want to have to work for people like Gato again, steady work was hard if you weren't part of a village and finding employers was difficult when they were worried that he would just kill them. Which admittedly he had done before, thinking about it that could be part of the reason why he wasn't hired by more reputable sources.

"I'll think on it" Naruto said, he got up from his spot to leave the bridge, if no one was going to show up then there was no point being here.

-()-

The inn was near empty, the pair set at one of the tables at the bar, the place had nothing to offer other than a few rooms, which had one benefit for the pair. It meant that there was no one currently in the building.

"So?" Kiva asked leaning back in her seat looking at the ceiling, she had been tired all day, but sleep eluded her, she couldn't stand the dreams, every time she closed her eyes she could see them there with those blank eyes as they stared at her, asking the unspoken questions.

"I don't know, what do you think?" Naruto asked her, he wasn't quite sure what to do though the proposition warranted thought.

"Can we trust him; truthfully I don't think we can" Kiva spoke not looking at the blonde. Zabuza Moromochi was a dangerous man, there was no two ways about it.

"I think he's good for it, if we don't do it nothing changes, if we do and fail nothing changes and if we succeed then we may get something out of it." Naruto said going over the points of what he knew.

"The only way for him to see any reward in helping us with it is if we succeed, and it means that he will no longer deal with the clients, I can't imagine that he is very good at dealing with them if he is wants us to do it." Naruto continued he could feel his eyelids become heavy; he had lost sleep thanks to the same dream, he had been trying to repress it with varying degrees of success.

Sleep would come again it was only a matter of time.

"True, though I still don't like it" she said. Leaning forward she let her head rest, "so we lose nothing and gain something if we do what he asks and we succeed, or we lose nothing and gain nothing if we don't do it" Kiva reiterated what they had, "but there is one question I have" She raised her head to look at Naruto.

"If the plan is good why hasn't he used Haku for it?" She asked.

That was the crux of her problem, if this plan to use these villages big event to try and get them known is such a good idea why was it then that Haku neither included in it, nor has been used for it before.

Reaching into his duster he pulled out the hip flask before opening to take a drink, placing it down he slid it over the table, not wasting a moment Kiva lifted the metal flask to take a drink herself before sliding it back.

"I don't know, one might not be enough," Naruto said as he started to lift his fingers to show his reasons. "She might not be good enough" he lifted another finger. "Didn't want to risk losing her if something went south? I don't know there could be any number of reasons for it." Naruto said, it was a very good point though. Why had Haku not been used?

Taking another drink he put the cap back on before placing it away in his duster.

"Let's sleep on the idea for the time being, what about the bridge?" Kiva asked.

"I don't know, they are nearly finished it, and with the lack of threat now they will be able to work faster than they had. But…" Naruto trailed off.

"But no one has the motivation to do anything. Not surprising, Tazuna won't want to work now and the other workers follow him." Kiva finished, she couldn't blame the man, and he had just lost everything for that bridge.

"We'll give it a few more days, maybe see if they come by on their own, if not, we'll see what happens" Naruto said.

The pair lapsed into silence; there wasn't much to be said at this point.

-()-

The next two days had been rather boring for the pair, no one had shown up to work at the bridge, Zabuza had stayed away after the first day giving them the chance to come to a decision. They had seen Haku in the forests collecting herbs but neither had decided to talk to him. While Haku would be able to answer the question of why he hadn't been used in Zabuza's plan Naruto wanted to hear it from the man himself.

The pair found themselves back in the same inn again Naruto set with his book on runes trying to work at his task of being able to read heat signatures with his goggles, while Kiva practiced some of her music.

The inn was quiet but for Kiva's melody, the silence was broken by the sound of Naruto's voice, "Do you think he will finish the bridge?"

Kiva didn't stop playing as she thought over her answer; if she was to be truthful she would say no, she didn't think that Tazuna was in any fit state to finish the bridge. With Gato dead the blockade was lifted, so the bridge wasn't exactly needed right now. Wave could start trading again and bring in new supplies.

"No" she told him simply.

Naruto let out a sigh, he was thinking the same thing. "I guess were pretty screwed then" Naruto said.

"So we stay till there finished even if they won't continue the work?" She asked quizzically.

Sighing as he looked at the goggles deciding that he had done enough with this project for now he placed the goggles on his head he decided to move on to a new project that would be more beneficial to him. Taking out his note book he began to write up the runes he would need.

Kiva looked at the note book and could roughly guess what he was doing, "new project?" she asked, "and shouldn't you finish the current one before moving on to the next?"

Naruto couldn't help the small smile that appeared on his lips at the question, "probably, but this is one I have been putting off for a while." He told her.

"Why?" she asked.

"Truthfully while the idea of it is good, I didn't like the application, but I can't think of another way to do it, and it is too useful to not do." He sighed as he told her. The idea was solid, and if it worked the way he thought it would work then it was only beneficial.

"You know you have quite the skill of talking and yet saying nothing" Kiva told him, her expression flat.

Naruto let out a small sigh again as he reached into his pocket and withdrew a pack of playing cards. Taking the top two cards off the deck he set them aside. They would be the first ones he would have to work with.

"Why do you have a pack of cards?" Kiva asked massaging her temples with her thumb and middle finger.

"I am going to inscribe the runes onto the cards, that way I can have already made runes that I can simply activate and achieve the affects that I want." Naruto said, as he glared at the pack of cards.

"Okay" she started not understanding why he seemed to hold so much animosity towards a pack of cards. "Why cards?"

"Less suspicious in a way, I can have multiple packs to do different things and mix and match as I need. Having different backs allows me to roughly know what each pack is predominately made up of so I don't have to try and search for individual cards. I would need to base the suits for one aspect of the rune and numbers for the other" Naruto told her as he glared a whole in the deck.

"Why the animosity though, it's a good idea" Kiva asked still trying to figure out what was wrong with the plan.

"Because using a deck of cards is so clichéd it makes my head hurt, but to not use it because of that is so stupid that it makes my head hurt." Naruto nearly shouted. It was the one reason he didn't like it, it just seemed like something so many people did because they thought it would be cool, but there wasn't a better option, at least not one that he could think of.

"Alright that's all well and good, but let's gets back to the main topic. What do we do now?" Kiva asked hoping to steer the conversation away from the cards. She didn't really want to stay in the village any longer than necessary. The entire place felt hostile towards her now. No one said anything, she was pretty sure that the people were absolutely terrified if they heard what had happened on the bridge.

"I am going to go talk to someone about the bridge" Naruto said while preparing to leave the inn.

"Don't do anything stupid" Kiva said to him.

Naruto gave cheeky grin before saying, "Kiva you know I don't make promises that I don't have any intention of keeping."

Kiva sighed as Naruto left the inn, she could only hope that he wouldn't cause too much trouble.

-()-

Keeping his head down Naruto made his way through the village; he wasn't in the mood to put up with the villagers that were around at the moment. The village was not a very welcoming place now. The defeated nature that had perpetrated through the streets was still there, but there was now an undertone of anger.

He wasn't surprised by the action they all seemed to be aware of Tazuna's loss, add in the fact that the two that were dead were the wife and step son of the 'Hero of Wave' and you could see were there anger stemmed from.

It was kind of funny though, they had lain down for Gato to step all over them, and now that Gato was gone they were angry at the ones who got rid of Gato because it didn't go as they would have wanted.

They could get in line if they wanted to take their anger out on him, he was pretty sure he had wronged others in some way that would call first dibs on skinning him. Gritting his teeth he continued moving until he finally came to the home of the man that he wanted to talk to.

He would admit to being surprised that Tazuna had gone back to living at his own home after everything that had happened. Maybe it had something to do with being closer to his family, he wasn't quite sure.

Entering the house the feeling of guilt began to consume him, the place wasn't the most bustling house, and he may have had a rather rocky relationship with the occupants but it had been a home. There had been a sense of merriment in the house that was now lost.

The place itself wasn't in too bad of shape, the men most of barged in and grabbed her, the seats weren't in the same location they had been, they weren't very far off but it was possible to tell that they had been moved.

The place was eerily quiet; the hall was dark the only light in the room was that which was flowing through the entry to the kitchen. Walking to the entry he could see Tazuna, his head on the table with empty bottles around him. There was quite the smell of alcohol in the room.

'One, two, three… five… nine' Naruto thought as he counted the empty bottles that were in the room. Walking past the man at the table he went to the sink, filling a saucepan of cold water he brought it back towards Tazuna before emptying the contents over the man's head.

The man began to splutter as he raised his head, his eyes were red and blood shot, "What do you want" surprisingly his voice wasn't slurred, which meant he had been sleeping off his drink. Naruto counted himself lucky that he wasn't dealing with a drunk at the moment.

Pulling out a seat Naruto set at the table, "I think you can guess why I am here" Naruto said, he could see the man glaring at him.

"You have a bridge to finish" Naruto continued not paying the man's glare any attention.

"What is the point of finishing it now" Tazuna spat at him, "I built it to help my family and country, now my family is dead, and my county doesn't need it." Reaching for one his bottles he lifted it to take a swig, he had been shifting between crying and anger for days.

He was angry at Gato for killing his family, he was angry at Naruto for not protecting them, but he was angry at himself the most for putting them in danger in the first place.

"There's no need for the bridge now" he said to Naruto, "You've done enough." The words were filled with spite, but his eyes could not meet the blonde haired teen's eyes.

"What is it you wanted me to do, fill the place around your house with traps?" Naruto asked. "Or have stayed here in the house; maybe have left Kiva behind instead?" Naruto asked, he had played it over in his head what he could have done, and in the end there was no right answer. Not with his current strength and abilities. He didn't have to like that fact but it was something he would need to accept.

"Anything I left here would have been just as fatal to your family if they had accidently set it off, or did you not see the bridge. And if either Kiva or I hadn't been there then we would have lost." Naruto said, his eyes hardening, "As far as I am concerned we barely survived that fight, and it took both of us to do it, we all would have been killed if both of us weren't there" Naruto said through clenched teeth.

The room remained silent, the only sound was that of Tazuna drinking.

"If you stay here Gato will have won." Naruto told Tazuna as he stood up, "your country may not have to worry about him, but he will have won in the end."

"He will have succeeded at stopping you from finishing that bridge, and every day from this day forward you will have to look at that unfinished bridge knowing that Gato won." Naruto told the man.

"I only have a small idea of what you are feeling truthfully, but I will tell you it could be a hell of a lot worse" Naruto told the man.

A loud bang echoed throughout the room, originating from where Tazuna hit the table when he stood up.

"Who are you to tell me it could be worse!" The man shouted in anger, rage clear in his eyes. "I lost everything, and you have the gall to tell me it could be worse. You who would freely work for people you call scum, you who sells his soul for money, all you ever lost was a whore…" The words of anger were suddenly cut off when Tazuna's back made a very hard impact with the wall.

Naruto was gripping Tazuna's clothes as he had the man pressed firmly against the wall, he could feel anger raging through him like a storm, so much that it felt like his insides were burning. His words had had hit a little too close to home that was true, but the comment about Lisa made him want to kill the man then and there.

Pulling his arms back again he slammed Tazuna back into the wall, he wasn't sure what the cracking sound was, but at that moment he didn't really care.

"I don t care what you say about me" Naruto gritted out trough clench teeth, "I already told you I am no hero." He could feel the anger searing through him, wanting to consume him. "But if you ever!" Naruto shouted as he slammed Tazuna back into the wall, "Ever! Talk bad about Lisa again; I will leave you as a broken, beaten, blind, and mute paraplegic who will pray for death." He told him before slamming him again into the wall. "Do you understand?" He shouted as he dropped the man to the ground.

Tazuna was terrified at the moment; he couldn't feel the pain that his back was in due to the suffocating atmosphere that was in the room. He wasn't too sure but he could have nearly sworn that during the constant banging and shouting the teenagers eyes had changed.

All that he was able to do was hold his head down and dumbly nod his head and hope the teen wouldn't start hitting him.

Naruto looked at the cowering man in front of him, his teeth grit in anger, "Look at me" he said, when he got no response he spoke again with more force "Look at me." His words were slow, and filled with animosity.

Tazuna could barely raise his head to look at the teen, his entire body was sore. Looking up he saw the teen's eyes. What were once blue eyes were now red, his pupils had become slits that bore down on him. It was like looking in the eyes of an animal.

The anger that he felt at the man was near palpable, it took actual effort to not hit Tazuna. Naruto out of will alone had to force the feeling of anger down until the raging torrent of anger became more of a constant drip.

"You think that this is the lowest that you can fall, you think that what has happened is somehow special and that only you have ever suffered this way." Naruto began to speak, while he had been able to keep his anger down, it was incredibly difficult not to shout at the man before him.

"Before I came to these lands I had the great pleasure of seeing the butchering of entire villages. At least you can take comfort in the knowledge that your family rests peacefully." Naruto said, he could feel his hands clenching.

Tazuna tried to glare at the young teen at his words, fear be damned. They shouldn't be dead, if anything it should be him and the teen in front of him, not his daughter and grandson.

Reaching down Naruto grasped his hand around Tazuna's throat, that stupid look on his face the near wishing that he should be dead in their place.

"I have seen the dead rise, I have seen them attack everything around them. Take solace in the fact that they rest peacefully." Naruto said in a deceptively calm voice. "When I say it can be worse, I fucking mean it" he hissed out at the end throwing the man back one more time.

Looking at the fallen man he turned to leave the house. Upon approaching the door frame he stopped, not bothering to turn around to look at the man he left his final words.

"You" he emphasised the word, "make their deaths meaningless by sitting here, you make the sacrifices that your home has made meaningless by doing nothing." Naruto spoke quietly the anger was leaving him. "You let Gato win by doing nothing." He said simply at the end, before leaving Tazuna to be by himself.

Tazuna could only watch as the teen left the house he didn't know what to say at this point, his mind was a jumble of thoughts and pain. He just wanted to crawl into bed at the moment and sleep. But try as he might he couldn't bring himself to get up. All that he could do was sit in the kitchen wishing that the lights were out as tears began to fall from his eyes.

A.N

The words at the grave are from the W.B Yeats poem 'stolen child' I always liked it and thought it kind of fitted.

Work sucks and is long, even having time just to proof read is difficult but I will try and do more.