Chapter Twenty-Three: Falling Action

The Battle of the Land of Waves, as it would be called later, was quite large.

There had been no great number of Shinobi involved in it, of course, only bandits, ronin, and villagers. But it had been gruesome. Men had been shot down dead in vast rows by crossbows, while others were hacked up with swords. And it was not limited to the wood.

In other places, villagers had attacked Gato's garrisons. They'd shot them up wherever they found them. Lynch mobs were forged to rip up many of the businessman's underbosses, and blood ran in the streets.

Fortunately, almost all of it belonged to the thugs.

The villagers had taken them by surprise, and no plan of battle had been made, and most were killed by arrows. Kakashi had observed them in action as he returned and doubted very much that it would be easy to come back. It was technically a good thing.

But not good for the Leaf.

The Leaf preferred for the Land of Fire's satellite nations to remain weak. That way, they could act as buffer states between the others. Now the whole village had won a war with only a little help from ninja. That meant they might start getting ideas of independence.

Part of Kakashi pointed out that it wasn't a bad thing. Certainly, the people here would be much better off.

At the same time, independent nations went to war. In a few generations, the Land of Fire might feel very differently about this uprising.

"It was Inari who did it," said Tazuna afterward. The old man had his arm in a sling where he'd been badly injured. Fortunately, there were those who knew healing jutsu among the Land of Waves. It is a useful civilian skill. "When we ran to the others, we were going to ask for shelter. But Inari started telling people they had to go fight the thugs and help the ninja. Then he ran off to try and ring the alarm. We went with him to keep him safe, but then a rumor went out that we were gathering for war, and everybody came out with guns.

"We got together a few people and scattered all over town, getting together a militia. By the time the thugs realized what we were doing, it was too late.

"It was lucky we did too.

"If we hadn't, I'm afraid Sasuke would have been overwhelmed."

"I don't plan on making a habit of it," said Sasuke.

Kakashi glanced at him and considered bringing up the matter of the scroll. After a moment, he decided to put it off. There were more pressing things to attend to. But how had he gotten such a device?

"Where is Inari now?" asked Kakashi.

"I'm here," said Inari, pulling himself out of the bushes. He was holding a crossbow which had launched. "Grandpa I... well, I wanted to be a hero like you and the others, like Naruto. But, well, after I missed, I couldn't figure out how to reload and-"

"Don't worry," said Tazuna. "I'm just glad you're safe. Still, what was it that inspired you to do this in the first place?"

"Well, I..." Inari paused. "It was Naruto; he reminded me of Dad. And then I thought that Dad wouldn't want us running. With Sasuke and Naruto and all the others fighting, I knew that I had to do something.

"So, I thought...

"If we all rose up like Dad wanted us to, we'd be able to deal with Gato."

"It was well-timed," said Kakashi. "But you're lucky I was there to deal with Sasori. Still, that leaves Deidara unaccounted for." He looked to Sasuke. "Sasuke, where are Sakura and Naruto?"

"I sent Sakura to guard the bridge in case Gato tried to sabotage it. I ordered her to run if the Akatsuki showed up," said Sasuke, looking in a bad mood. "Naruto went to give her some food and never came back. The idiot is probably sleeping."

"The bridge?" asked a man. "You're friends were down there?"

"Naruto's not my friend, but yes, what of it?" said Sasuke.

"I saw all kinds of explosions that direction," said the man.

Kakashi went cold. "Explosions?

"No."

He sprinted off with all his might. The last thing he wanted was for history to repeat itself again.

There had, apparently, been a lot of fighting.

A couple of shadow clones had reported to Naruto that it was largely over. He'd only had enough chakra to summon them by the time it was well underway. So now he and Sakura were eating lunch together.

Yeah, they were covered in dirt and grime, sore from a lot of work and exhausted. But they were sitting on top of a bound and gagged S ranked ninja. So it balanced out.

"I feel like I'm back at the academy, eating my lunch after acing my exams," said Naruto, looking up at the clouds.

"Except, you never actually passed any of the tests," said Sakura.

"Well, I'm more of a learn by doing kind of guy anyway," said Naruto.

Then both of them burst out laughing, as Naruto lit a pipe he'd found in Gato's bag and smoked it. As they did, Kakashi-sensei descended, followed by a massive number of villages.

"Sakura, Naruto! Are you alright?!" said Kakashi.

"Kakashi-sensei!" said Naruto, raising a hand. "Hey, how's it going!"

Kakashi stared, and the villagers came up on the very intact bridge and stared as well. "What is... I don't..."

"YOU IDIOTS!" roared Sasuke in a fury. "You left me high and dry to fight off all of Gato's thugs, and now we come here to rescue you, and we find you smoking!"

"What, the Old Man Hokage does it?" said Naruto.

"How... how did you defeat Deidara by yourself?" asked Kakashi.

"Oh, um, it was pretty tough there," said Naruto. "We probably wouldn't have managed it, but then Sakura started making fun of his art. He flew into a rage and started throwing explosions like crazy.

"He got sloppy, though, and once he ran out of ammunition, I created dozens of shadow clones and beat him to a pulp. Then I healed him and tied him up."

And then there was a shout. "Hey, look what we have here! It's Gato!"

In a moment, the villages had surrounded the bound and cowering businessman. They were also pointing crossbows at him. "Let's take him out now."

"No, let's do to him what he did to my son in law," said Tazuna, voice cold.

"Hang on, hang on, we can't kill him," said Naruto, standing up quickly.

"Why not?" asked Tazuna.

"Sasori took control of Gato's gang, and he ran to me begging for protection," said Naruto. "He says that if we let him live, he'll testify as to all his contacts."

"The man doesn't deserve to live," said Tazuna. "He crucified Inari's foster-father."

Naruto shifted. "Alright, that's really terrible. Maybe he does deserve to die. But even if he testifies, he'll be in jail instead of dead. And we could put a lot of other bad guys in jail too.

"His thugs are all gone anyway, so he has no power.

"I think we should let him make up for what he's done, at least a bit."

"Kakashi-sensei..." said Sakura. "This could really help cut down on a lot of crime."

Naruto expected Kakashi-sensei to agree at once. However, he shifted, as if suddenly remembering something. He eyed Tazuna, then Gato, and at the sight of him, Gato's eyes bulged, and he scrambled back. As if he was more afraid of Kakashi than of the villagers.

Why?

"Tazuna, your people are the ones who have suffered the worst because of Gato," said Kakashi. "We're your employees for the moment.

"We'll do whatever you want, here."

Kakashi-sensei was supposed to kill Gato, wasn't he? That was why he was here. But he didn't want to do it in front of them. Maybe Gato had information that could hurt the Leaf?

Tazuna looked to Gato and raised a crossbow. He put it to Gato's forehead, and finally, he stopped. Then he turned to walk away. "...You're not worth the crossbow bolt, Gato.

"The Leaf can have this animal. The Land of Waves will never submit to him, or anyone like him again!"

Something had gone wrong here, even if Kakashi-sensei hid it well.

A few days later, the Team 7 Bridge was complete.

Apparently, Naruto, Sakura, and Sasuke were being hailed as heroes. They had inspired the Land of Waves to regain their courage and win through. As they walked, leading Deidara and Gato away, Kakashi sent a message to the Leaf. It described everything that had happened in glowing terms, or as close to Kakashi ever got to glowing terms. Kakashi had no doubt now that his students would have very successful careers ahead of them.

In fact, he might just recommend them for the Chunin Exams.

Gato had been silent, and so had Deidara. Gato seemed flat out terrified, but Deidara had been calculating. Kakashi was deadly afraid that Sasori might stage a rescue attempt. But at the days passed, no such attempt happened.

Perhaps the Akatsuki hadn't come after them?

What was he supposed to do here?

His orders were to execute Gato for being a rogue actor who knew too much. But if he did it now, it could crush his student's hopes. They were far more enthusiastic now.

No, no, Kakashi was overthinking things.

"So, um, Kakashi-sensei," said Sakura. "When we bring these two to the Leaf, what happens then?"

Kakashi glanced down at her and decided to use a half-truth. "Well, Sakura, the Leaf generally operates on a need to know basis. Both of these are high-ranking S ranked criminals.

"So, I expect we'll hand them over to the ANBU Black Ops somewhere. And then we'll never hear from them again."

"What does that mean?" asked Naruto.

"It means we don't need to know," said Kakashi. "You've all gone above and beyond my expectations. The Land of Waves is safe, thanks to us. Don't worry about what happens to the criminals, that's for the Hokage to decide."

"...Right, whatever you say, Kakashi-sensei," said Naruto.

Naruto had taken the point first. Sakura seemed just to believe him right away. Sasuke, meanwhile, wasn't even paying attention.

This had all gone better than Kakashi could have hoped.

So why did he feel like they were about to fall off a cliff? Something in Kakashi's heart told him that the Akatsuki Rising was only the beginning...