Naruto : Chapter 92
Naruto listened to the information that Sandayu gave him and Gai. As he had already seen the movie before, he had opted out of accompanying team nine and Haku to the cinema.
He had created a hundred shadow clones to prepare a number of seals for him and get the orders from the armoury done before he left for Snow Country. It wouldn't do after all if the village didn't have enough essential seals for important missions.
And the use of seals had massively increased since he had taken over stocking up the armoury. Not to mention that more ninjas took up studying fuinjutsu as they had seen how he had successfully subdued Gaara with it in the chunin exams finals.
Gaara right now had got an addition to his seal, Jiraiya had declared the seal a right mess when he got a look at it, which allowed him to sleep for at least four hours each night without trouble from Shukaku.
Suna had had to pay a large amount of reparation to get the ninjas, which they had lost to capture from Konoha, back.
The discovery of the murder of their Kazekage before the invasion led to Suna capitulating without any conditions, and made the Fire Daimyo a bit more willing to find a compromise for the attack on the grounds of Fire Country. The economic depression of Suna was also taken into account when the demands were made.
It led to Suna having to give up information on any kind of A-rank jutsus that they had and sending Kankuro to Konoha for six months to give introductory classes in puppetry for the Konoha academy.
He would also inform the Konoha hospital about the most common poisons used with the puppets. In return Gaara, Temari and the captured ninjas were sent back to Suna. Right now Suna wasn't really a dangerous opponent and the major disturbing power in the form of Orochimaru and Oto was dealt with.
So Suna wouldn't have any ally to attack, not that they would easily do so. They were let off lightly by Konoha and they knew that.
Konoha could have extracted Shukaku from Gaara and created a new jinchuriki loyal to their village, but they didn't and let Gaara return to Suna with a stronger seal.
Then worker from the film crew came in and shouted that Yukie had run away, again. Naruto sighed. This didn't bode well for the mission. He set out to catch the wayward actress. He crossed his fingers to make ten shadow clones. The clones went off to search for the actress. No verbal orders were needed.
About half an hour later one clone had found her in a bar. Naruto went there in person to talk to the actress to get a feeling for her personality.
He found her sitting at the bar, already a bit drunk.
"So you're the next one to try and get me to go? I'll never go to Snow Country. Forget it, find another main actress," Yukie slurred.
"Sorry, not within the mission parameters. Now we have the choice of you coming peacefully, or that I have to force you to come," Naruto said calmly.
"I have no idea why you are so set against going to Snow Country, but there is no way that I would simply fail a mission because of a stubborn woman that whines like a five years old brat."
"You know nothing. Snow Country only brings death. There is no life, no spring in Snow Country," Yukie stated.
"There is life when you are willing to work for it, but I guess you'll never accept words, only actions will convince you," Naruto said and faster than Yukie could blink she fell down on the counter, a senbon sticking out from her arm on the side that Naruto sat. "This will go over so well when she wakes up."
Naruto took some money for the drinks from Yukie's pocket and left with her slung over his shoulder. Let her sleep until they were on the way. That way they wouldn't have to deal with another escape attempt.
...
Naruto had been right on his estimation how Yukie was going to react. She threw a massive tantrum when she realised that she was already on the ship on the way to the one country she never wanted to see again.
"How dare you drug me?" She laid into Naruto, who calmly leaned against the railing. "You had no right to force me to go to Snow Country!"
"Are you done yet? I couldn't care less about your tantrums. You think you had it bad? That you're the only one to suffer because power-hungry bastards ruined your life? There are hundreds if not thousands of others in this world with a fate worse than yours.
The only way to not become a bitter and spiteful person is to take things into your own hands and to work on making your situation better. I have been in Wave Country before they recovered.
A business tycoon named Gato had basically enslaved the country. He killed those that opposed him and were in the way to him monopolising the shipping market, which ensure that he could continue his criminal business without getting caught.
"I have been part of the team, a genin team at that, that freed Wave Country, but the one thing that gave that country hope was that one man, a bridge builder, refused to give up on his country.
He bravely started building a bridge to the main land to overcome the poverty and desperation of his people.
And he was made a target for assassination for it. One team managed to free a country. One team managed to help a brave man to finish his dream. You only need to have the guts to do something to have success. Otherwise you'll only be a victim for the rest of your life," Naruto pointed out and then went back under deck.
"He's right you know," Haku now spoke up, "Running away never solves problems. They will catch up to you. I nearly did that after I lost my master. I had made it my destiny to help him achieve his dreams.
When he was killed on the same mission that Naruto spoke of, incidentally by the current Hokage when he was still the jonin sensei of Naruto's genin team, I first thought I had nothing to live for anymore.
But with some support and the willingness of Konoha to help me find a new reason to live, I am now much better off than before. I'm originally from the land of water, where people with a bloodline limit like mine were hunted and killed on orders of the Mizukage.
I learned to fight to protect myself and my precious people. Since coming to Konoha I found a few more than I had before. Even if I lost the person that meant most to me, because he was the one to save me when I was a child, I realised that throwing my life away and running away from it all wasn't the way to honour his memory.
"I will fight and make my name known as the best student of the greatest member of the seven shinobi swordsmen of Kiri. My master was Zabuza Momochi. And while others call him a demon, for me he was the one to save me.
I have some friends that give me a reason to live and to fight. The opposition may appear overwhelming, but I know one thing. Never underestimate Naruto Uzumaki Namikaze. I did and I paid for it when I fought against him when he was just a genin.
Konoha ninjas don't just give up when things get hard. And his life was way harder than you could imagine. It's not my place to say anything, it's his story to tell when he wants, but know that if anybody knows how to overcome overwhelming odds, it's him."
Haku then left Yukie to think about what she had been told. It would take time to get through to her.
But if he, who had at first hated Naruto, Kakashi and Konoha for taking away Zabuza, could come to cherish them all as comrades and some as his precious people, then this woman, who probably had gone through a traumatic experience, the death of her father if the Hokage was right about her identity, could learn to stop running away and face her fears.
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The Konoha team watched in awe how completely different Yukie was when she was in her role. It was like she did a 180 turnaround. She was fully into her role, but Tenten and Lee were aghast seeing that she needed eye drops to fake crying believably.
Neji and Naruto stood at their positions, looking around for any kind of disturbance, but right now everything went as it should. They were on the open sea and it would take some time till they reached Snow Country.
So far they also didn't need to wear their warmer clothes, even if every member of the team wore long clothes already.
After the filming for the day was done, the actress stormed back into her cabin, ignoring the requests of her manager Sandayu. Well, he had been the one to arrange for this trip, so probably she was a bit justified in it.
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