Hero

It was early in the morning when the injured Land of Sky Soldier flew shakily back to the carrier. Every few seconds, he dropped or dipped a few feet before continuing his harrowing flight home. He was exhausted, bleeding, and low on ammunition. When the soldiers on the flight deck saw him coming in, they immediately informed Master Shino about it. The whole wing wasn't supposed to come back until after destroying the bridge, so there must have been an emergency for what looked to be the messenger soldier to return in such a state.

After collapsing onto the deck, the soldier looked up to his superior, who rushed to his side along with the medical team.

"What happened? Where are the others!?" The commander yelled.

"*cough* We were ambushed. *cough* It looked like they were ninja from Konoha. I couldn't get a count on them, but they killed everyone after we bombed the village..." The soldier muttered as his eyes began to glaze over.

"Stay with me boy! Who was leading them? How did they attack you?" He yelled.

"White hair... giant... frog..." The soldier muttered before losing consciousness. The commander waved the medical team over and took the injured messenger away. After removing the damaged wing device and having it thrown into the engineering bay to be scrapped later, he thought for a long time about who a large white-haired giant frog man could be before his eyes snapped open.

"Damn it!" He muttered to himself before he turned to one of his subordinates. "Contact the fleet. It appears as Jiraya the Toad Sage has attacked us! Inform Lord Shino that he is most likely on his way!"

"Yes sir!" Said the subordinate before turning and running towards the command tower.

"Just as we were getting so close too" the commander grunted with displeasure. He knew that without the Zero-Tails, it would be impossible for them to stand up against one of the Sannin and their legendary summoning.

...

A few minutes later, after being placed on a bed in the medical ward, the injured Land of Sky soldier was looked over by the doctors. He seemed to be alright, though a few cuts and bruises were all he had, as well as extremely low chakra levels, so they decided to let him rest for the time being and left to deal with other matters.

After a minute or so, the Land of Sky Soldier sat up and crunched on something in his mouth as his wounds all healed immediately.

*POOF*

The transformation was undone, revealing a handsome young man with ash-grey hair cut to just below the shoulders, off white eyes, and a Konoha Flak Jacket, with a white shirt and grey anbu pants. Haruka had made his appearance.

"Whew... Amaru may be a hard-headed and stubborn one, but she is pretty clever when it comes down to it." He said to himself.

Her plan was simple. Disguise themselves as injured Sky soldiers and infiltrate the carrier to find Inari. Haruka disguised himself as the injured ninja after depleting his Chakra supply with hundreds of bone clones, all of whom, used the transformation jutsu to become random Konoha chunin while Amaru transformed into Jiraiya. Amaru would then summon Katsuyu and have her transform into one of Jiraiya's Tad Summons, to look like the Land of Fire had stationed a platoon in the Land of Waves.

The Daimyo of the Land of Waves was officially a subordinate Daimyo of the Land of Fire, which is why Konoha got the request rather than the Kiri, which was a little closer and cheaper, so he couldn't complain if he heard reports of Konoha ninja in his territory, especially so close to when war was about to begin.

Amaru would wait in the city, along with Haruka's other clones, and begin the attack on Gato and the Land of Sky's bases when day broke over the horizon. That was in a little more than 30 minutes. Haruka also decided to up-the-anti of the plan, by filling the 'damaged' flight device with paper bombs packed with chakra to the brim, so when he gave the release signal, the resulting explosion would cause critical damage and sink the ship.

'Heh. the flying device was only wobbly and hard to control because I couldn't use it properly. If I used too much chakra, the paper bombs would have gone off and blown me up. Oh well, I guess it's alright. I have a lot of stuff I want to get from here.' He thought as he created another clone and had it take his place as the 'injured and resting' messenger soldier.

Stealthily, Haruka began sneaking through the corridors. He used his Byakugan to look around corners and through doorways so that no one would sneak up on him and he didn't have to be especially stealthy, he just had to soften his footsteps. While he was at it, he began placing paper bombs in various inconspicuous locations, such as behind lockers or barrels, and in light fixtures.

After about five minutes, of searching, Haruka made his way to the prison area. He had to knock out a few of the guards on the way, but he just replaced them with clones. 'Senzu beans which restore Chakra are so cheaty, I can effectively have an infinite number of clones with them' he thought as he approached the cell with Inari in it.

When he stood before the cell, he was horrified. Inari was tied to the ceiling with a chain. His shirt had been removed and his face had a large bruise on it, indicating he had been punched, hard. He had a black eye and was bleeding from his mouth and forehead, where the skin was cut, probably by a punch to the face.

Haruka grimaced before breaking open the cell door with a bone blade and cutting the chain holding up Inari. As the boy fell towards the floor, Haruka caught him and pulled him into his embrace. He pulled out a Senzu bean and crushed it into powder.

"Inari-kun. Wake up! Don't you want to get out of this dirty place?" He said, slightly shaking the boy.

"Hu?" Inari looked up towards his savior for a moment before tears welled up in his eyes. He didn't say anything more and simply nodded.

"Here. Swallow this. It will make the pain go away." Haruka said as he brought the senzu powder close to Inari's mouth. After a moment of hesitation, Inari sucked it up and swallowed. After a few seconds, his wounds closed up and his skin grew to a healthier shade.

He stood up immediately and was shocked. He looked himself over a number of times before finally looking over towards Haruka, who had an amused smile on his face. Inari immediately blushed and put his head down into a half-bow.

"Thank you for saving me mister white person!" He said s Haruka tripped over nothing.

"M-my names Haruka Kaguya brat," He said in an annoyed tone.

"Haruka-sama... the hero..." Inari said as he looked wide-eyed at Haruka. He remembered Amaru's chat with him about this individual from before.

(Flashback)

Inari had just run past a teenager who was nearing his door. At the time, he was too upset at the kunoichi named Amaru who was supposed to protect her grandpa and fight Gato. If he weren't upset, he probably would have noticed that the person who was at his door wasn't another villager, as he had assumed, but he was just too frustrated.

'How can they go against Gato? Don't they know what they're doing!?! Heroes don't exist in this world, how can these people sit there and laugh when they are all about to be killed!?' He thought as he ran past the village and made his way towards a little dilapidated dock near the shore.

When he reached the end of the dock he slouched down and looked out towards the gloomy ocean. One could just barely make out the outline of the Great Bridge in the fog. The sun had just gone down and the fireflies had come out. Crickets and Frogs could be heard chirping and croaking away as they lived their little lives.

"Inari-kun!" Amaru yelled as she reached the end of the dock. She looked toward Inari who was sulking and looking at her with half-glazed over eyes. He turned his head back away when Amaru began to approach him once again.

"Go away!" He muttered.

"I'm sorry if I upset you earlier, Inari-kun."

"Whatever. You're all going to die anyway." He replied.

"Haaaaa....." Amaru sighed heavily before sitting next to him.

"Can I tell you a story?" She said.

"Do whatever you want," Inari replied, looking away for a moment.

"Once upon a time, there was a lonely girl in the Land of Fire." She began. "When she was young, everything was peaceful. Her parents were happy, she had tons of friends, and it was always warm and cheerful.

One day, for no reason at all, a new disease swept through the village. The disease was spread by a caravan of traders who wanted revenge on the town for losing money in trade deals, and everyone in the village was infected." Amaru said with a slightly somber tone. "The little girl's parents were the first to go. Then it was her friends. Finally, all that was left, was the little girl. She thought she had been spared, but since no one in the village was still alive, she had to roam the countryside, looking for food and a place to stay."

Inari was looking at Amaru for a moment, but he didn't say anything and listened intently. "The little girl eventually found her way to a small fishing village on the coast. There she found many people who were nice to her and she even managed to make friends with a girl her age.

They were best friends, inseparable. As they grew up, the two even started to live together in a house at the edge of the village. The girl even began to forget the tragedy of her past and begin to live a normal life, but all good things must come to an end.

One day, the girl got sick. It was the same sickness that her parents and village suffered from. it had somehow laid dormant in her blood for years until finally when the girl was old enough, it awakened like a cruel spell to kill the girl when she had found her new home.

The friendly villagers stopped caring and even isolated themselves from her. her friend tried to protect her, but then the villagers betrayed her too. Calling the friend a demon, with demon's blood in her veins. They began cursing the girl and her friend and would only throw rocks at them when they were seen.

This went on for three weeks. The girl was weaker and weaker with each passing day. The sickness had been untreatable, and so, not even the town's doctor would help them after finding out. Without food, with only a little water, the girl and her friend had lost all hope to live through the night." Amaru said as she fought her own tears. Inari's eyes began to water as well, but he remained silent, wanting to hear the end of this story.

"Then, one day, a hero showed up in the village," Amaru said as he looked up towards the night sky. "The hero ignored the warnings of the villagers and braved getting himself sick in order to treat her. He brought out a mystical powder found only in his clan. A rare medicine that even the Daimyo coveted." Amaru paused.

"Wh-what happened next?" Inari asked, a little excited.

"The hero gave the girl the medicine without a second thought. A medicine that could have made him richer than your wildest dreams, he handed over to the girl to make her feel better, and it did! She was healed before the night was over. After that, the hero took the girl out of the village with the mean villagers and brought her on all types of adventures. He healed the broken hearted wherever he went and brought all the people who were in the darkness into the light." Amaru said as she began getting excited.

"The girl was happier than she had ever been. The hero trained the girl to be strong. To never give up when the world goes against you. The Hero took the girl and brought peace to her world." She said before looking back to Inari.

"Haruka-sama is that hero. I want you to know that now that Haruka-sama is here, everything will be ok." She said as she put her hand on Inari's shoulder. Inari was awed at the story for a few moments and hope returned to his hopeless life.

"Hm!" He nodded "Alright then. I'll believe in Haruka-san too then." He said before running home, leaving Amaru sitting alone at the edge of the docks. He doesn't remember what happened after that, but he does remember passing out and waking up in a prison cell a while later.

"Well well well. Look who finally decided to wake up!" The man with a violet flak jacket and grey mask muttered as Inari awoke. He looked around the room and was surprised he was in a cell of some type.

"Where am I?" Inari asked.

"You are our prisoner today runt!" The large man said mockingly. "You'll make a fine weapon. Tomorrow, we're going to seal the Zero-Tails inside you and use it to destroy those annoying Elemental Nations, starting with the Land of Fire!"

"You'll never get away with this!" Inari screamed.

"Heh! Looks like there is still some fight in you yet! Looks like we'll have to break you more." The man said.

Another man came into view wearing the same uniform as the first before smiling with his eyes, looking at Inari. "Maybe we should tell him about what's happening to his village right now?" the second man mockingly gloated.

"Wh-what are you doing to them!? They didn't do anything!" Inari yelled.

"Oh not much. Were just going to burn it down. Maybe Gato could use the Land for his businesses. The villagers will be taken as slaves and the bridge will be destroyed!" The first man spoke, seemingly enjoying the agony reflected in Inari's eyes.

"No stop! My mom and the villagers will stop making the bridge! Please!" Inari said before being punched in the face by the first man. Inari was barely conscious after the hit as his eyes began to swell with tears.

"Ha! Severs him right. Yelling at me in that annoying voice of his. Too bad he is a guy. If he were a girl, there would be another way at increasing her 'despair'" the second soldier commented before both walked away laughing at what they would do to the young lady.

They left inari there, scared and alone, shaking and crying at being too weak. 'Amaru-san said that the Hero always comes when it's dark. I have to believe that he will save them. I don't care what happens to me, but I hope the hero saves mom' he thought before losing consocusness.

(Flashback End)

"Haruka-sama! You came to save me?" Inari said in disbelief before snapping back to reality. "Hero-sama! you have to help the village! They are going to take everyone as slaves! You have to save them! Don't worry about me, I can escape by myself." He yelled with a hint of determination behind his eyes.

*Flick*

"Ow!" Inari said as he held his forehead after receiving the flick from Haruka.

'Relax little guy. No need to scream at me. I'm right here. Also, who do you think I am? Yeah, they almost burned down the village, but my awesomeness was too much for them and everyone was saved. The only one who needed saving now was you." Haruka said as he mulled over Inari's words.

'They were trying to get him to dispair more to become a better host for the Zer-Tails' he thought before standing up. "Get on" he commanded, as he bent over. He was going to carry Inari in a piggy-back position since he was worried that Inari would fall in love with him if he carried him in a princess carry.

'As much as I like traps in anime, I wouldn't actually go for one' He thought as the image of a certain pink-haired male flashed through his mind.

Inari complied and once Haruka had a good grip on him, they were both teleported out of the ship to the roof of a warehouse a few hundred meters from the docked carrier.

"Hey, runt. Want to see a show?" Haruka asked.

"Hu? I guess..." Inari said as he looked about, not sure how he got where he was.

"Look at that then. That's the main base for the guys that kidnapped you" Haruka said as he pointed to the carrier. When Inari got a good look at it he was amazed by such a large ship and was even more amazed by its temple-like design.

"Now let's say goodbye to that den of villains and kidnappers," Haruka said as he made a hand sign and lit the explosive tags.

*BOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMMMM!*

*BOOM*

*BOOM*

*BOOM*

A massive explosion rocked the docks and the heat of the fire was felt several hundred meters away by Haruka and Inari. Following the first large explosion, several smaller explosions ran out through the ship, blowing debris and spilling molten metal all over Gato's reserved docks.

Inari looked at the fireball and a large smile formed on his face. Not only was his village and his mother safe, but the 'bad guys' had also been eradicated. Now all that was left was for Gato to be defeated and everything would go back to the way it was before!

Inari cheered to himself on Haruka's back while at another location, a white-haired man in a red vest with a warty nose was laughing out loud, much to the surprise of the thugs she had snuck up on.

*Bam!*

'Jiraiya' pushed the two in front of him and sent them flying through the air while dozens of Konoha 'ninja' began to raid the hide-out. Gato was here alright, they had confirmed it with a 'Hyuga' who was among them.

Tonight was the last day of the crime syndicate who had terrorized the Land of Waves for years, and most people wouldn't even know it until the next morning.

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A/N: Alright, guys. I know I implied that this chapter would be the final one in the Land of Waves sub-arc, but I decided to extend it out until the next one. There will also be a 'return to Konoha' chapter following that which will finish up the pre-war filler.

Also, just curious, if I were to write another fanfic, what would you lot prefer?

That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime (with heavily references to other works such as Overlord or Bleach)

or

Highschool DxD mixed with Fate. (The Fate portion would just be summoned servants and the 5th Holy Grail War, which would be in Kuoh a year before the canon of DxD starts).

I'm not saying I would write them now, but I would like to write one of them in the future. I also won't be doing any multiverse shenanigans to do both.