33 A Hero
"Looking good you two!" Naruto whistled at Sakura and Satsuki who were wearing a bikinis while he showed off the top half of his body and had a pair of orange shorts on him.
'Sakura is an A-cup while Satsuki's a B.' Naruto thought to himself while maintaining a smug expression. The reason why he was able to tell was because of him reading too much Icha Icha novels.
There was this one part in the novel where Jiaraiya of the Sannin, the author of the adult novels teaches you how to measure a woman's busy size just by looking at them once. Naruto learned it and he was now a bust measuring pro.
But Naruto won't be an open pervert, he can be a pervert somewhere else. For example under the sheets.
"Th-thanks, you l-look g-good too." Sakura whose blush was as bright as her hair, stuttered back while staring at Naruto's six pack intensely. Satsuki had a crimson blush on her face as she was also staring at Naruto's torso. Her blush was as bright as the color of her Sharingan.
"Damn, those abs are kinda hot. You two were hiding that all this time?" Naruto whispered while looking at Satsuki's and Sakura's toned stomach.
"O-oi! Watch what you say, idiot! I'll k-kick your balls!" Satsuki threatened but it wasn't really that much of a threat since she was flustered about Naruto's comment, she is a girl after all.
"L-let's get started everyone! We're wasting daylight here!" Sakura suggested. Naruto chuckled before nodding.
"Alright! Let's do this!"
.
.
It was afternoon and team 7 did not make that much progress. No one was mad about it as their lack of progress was to be expected. But Sakura was ahead of Satsuki and Naruto. She was the one who had the least of amount of chakra out of the three of them.
Currently, they were taking a break. Sakura was writing down something on her journal. It was apparently her training plan. Since She does have a lot of chakra, she plans to increase it by working on chakra control exercises but going for endurance rather than simply learning the exercise.
Satsuki was having a small snack while she was watching Naruto training with a group of 30 Shadow Clones on the Water Walking Exercise. They were still in their bikinis.
"He's lucky he has chakra reserves of a Bijuu." Satsuki grumbled. Sakura giggled as she stayed focused on writing in her journal.
"Well he did promise to teach it to us when we have enough chakra for it." Sakura replied to her. Satsuki huffed.
"Yeah, but how long will it be? It could probably take years to create our first Shadow Clone." Satsuki mumbled. Sakura shook her head.
" You should probably go through endurance training in the chakra control exercises like I am right now. It helps a bunch since Kakashi sensei told me about it. My chakra reserves went from the size of a pool to the size of a lake in a matter of months." Sakura explained. Satsuki nodded.
"Share the training plan with me, Sakura. "
" Will do, just let me add in the finishing touches go it."
" Hn. "
" You're welcome, Satsuki. "
"Who said you could slack off?" Kakashi asked them in an amused tone while walking slowly towards them. Sakura and Satsuki looked at him.
"Ah sensei! Don't worry, we're just taking a small break!" Sakura assured him. Kakashi raised an eyebrow at them.
"Really Sakura? This is your excuse for watching Naruto?" Kakashi asked her as Sakura blushed. He then looked at Satsuki.
" What about you Satsuki? What's your excuse for slacking off?"
" As Sakura said, we're just taking a break. We've been at it for hours now." Satsuki explained simply.
" Uh huh, sure." Kakashi mumbled as Satsuki scowled at him.
"So what do you guys like about Naruto?" Kakashi suddenly asked after a while of silence. Sakura was surprised by his question and so was Satsuki although she didn't show it.
Sakura smiled a little as she figured out her answers to his question. "The first one is gonna be a little weird, but I like the way he calls me. The way he just says 'Sakura-chan!' just lifts my mood whenever I feel down." Sakura answered as she looked at the Satsuki who blushed at her sudden gaze.
"What?! "Satsuki asked her. Sakura smiled and pointed at her.
"Let's take turns talking about what we like about Naruto. How about that?" Sakura suggested. Satsuki huffed.
" There's not a lot I like about the idiot. He's loud, he's reckless which makes things a lot harder for us than it should be and worst of all, he is aware of his faults and sometimes he acts strong to mask his embarrassment and frustration about them. " Satsuki stated with no mercy, making Sakura sweat drop and Kakashi chuckle at her words. Satsuki suddenly smiled a little.
"But I like that he builds meaningful relationships that he lacks when he was younger through acts of kindness. He was there when I was in my weakest points in my life. I kinda regret rejecting his proposal for friendship between us when he asked me the first time." Satsuki muttered.
" My turn now, what I like about Naruto is that he knows how to take care of himself and his house. He isn't like most guys who rely on girls to do the cleaning."
" It's because he grew up all alone Sakura, when you're alone you tend to mature faster than kids your age." Kakashi added. Sakura nodded, already knowing that.
" I like that he's hard working. The effort he puts into certain things is unmatchable." Satsuki commented as she looked at the real Naruto who fell into the water while his clones were laughing at his misery.
"Yeah. Aside from Ino-pig, he's my best friend that's for sure." Sakura whispered with a warm smile on her face. Satsuki silently agreed. Kakashi smiled at the girls.
'These three are more like family than just teammates.' Kakashi commented before shaking those thoughts off.
"Well, I think that's enough discussion about you guys' crush. Go back to training." Kakashi ordered. With a flustered blush on their faces after hearing Kakashi's words, they got up and headed towards the lake to join Naruto in training.
.
.
Later that night the Konoha ninja were sitting at the dinner table with Tazuna and his family. Naruto, Satsuki and Sakura were shoving food down their throats, not caring about table manners as they were hungry from all of the intense training they did.
Kakashi much to the displeasure of Tsunami, was reading his adult novel right in front of her, even Inari. Naruto secretly still had Clones training outside.
"Sakura. Since you seem to be much farther than your teammates, I was hoping you could go with Tazuna-san tomorrow." Kakashi requested. Sakura nodded.
" Sure thing sensei." Sakura looked at Tazuna seriously.
"Don't worry Tazuna-san, I'll protect you with my life if it comes down to it." Sakura promised. Tazuna chuckled and nodded back, no longer doubting them after seeing her and her teammates' performance during the fight with Zabuza.
Everyone continued eating for a little while longer, until Sakura noticed something about the picture hanging on the wall behind Tazuna.
"Tazuna-san, what's with that picture on the wall over there? It looks like a piece of it is missing." Sakura commented while pointing at the picture of Tazuna and his family. The three family members tensed at the mention of the picture. An air of sorrow seemed to fill the air.
"It's my husband... Kaiza...." Tsunami replied after several minutes of tense silence, her voice sounding a little choked up.
"The man they called the hero of the Land Of Waves." Tazuna added in a solemn tone. Inari suddenly stood up after hearing that and ran up the stairs.
"Inari!" Tsunami called out for her son but it was too late. She looked back at her father.
"Father! I've already told you, don't talk about Kaiza in front of Inari! " Tsunami scolded Tazuna who shrugged nonchalantly.
"What's wrong with Inari?" Sakura asked, feeling a little sad for causing such obvious pain to someone else.
" He lost someone didn't he? That man was very important to him right? " Naruto asked. Kakashi hummed as he shut his adult novel.
" There seems to be a story behind this, care to explain?" Kakashi asked, getting interested too. Tazuna sighed as he began to tell his tale.
It was about three years ago, after saving Inari from drowning, he taught the boy everything he knew about life, stressing that he must protect the things that were precious to him, saying to always do so 'with these two arms'.
He eventually married Tsunami and became Inari's stepfather as well as role model. When Gato tried to take over the Land of Waves, Kaiza tried to stop him. But Gato decided to use Kaiza to intimidate anyone who hoped to stand against him.
To do this, he had his bodyguards cut off Kaiza's arms mocking his statement of 'protecting the things you love with both arms' and then executed him in public, traumatizing Inari, who was watching the execution.
"From that day, Inari changed....As did Tsunami and the whole city...." Tazuna ended his tale while clenching his fists tightly. Naruto was listening to this calmly.
He suddenly got up, gathering everyone's attention. He slowly walked towards the exit of Tazuna's house.
"Naruto, what are you doing?" Sakura asked him while Kakashi watched silently. Satsuki narrowed her eyes at him.
"If you're thinking about training then forget about it. You're exhausted. Don't try to act strong again because that's not gonna work on me." Satsuki warned him. Naruto looked back at her with a confident smirk on his face.
"Sorry Satsuki, but I need to get some more training in. Otherwise I won't be able to prove to Inari that heroes still do exist!"
To be continued...
