Naruto: Cautious Ninja

"Are you… the one who has been fighting for us, boy?" the old man asked in a soft voice.

Naruto smiled and nodded brightly, "Sure! You can say that. Who are you supposed to be, old timer?" The entire crowd sweat dropped at the boy's bold addressing of their voice of wisdom, while Tayuya shook her head in amusement at his naivety.

"I am Hiro… the village elder. As such, it is my duty to thank you for saving us from the heel of these vagabonds." He glanced briefly at the thugs that had been tied and lined up against the nearby wall. "These insufferable upstarts have been bullying and harassing us for months; robbing us of our livelihoods and living off of the sweat of our people," the elder stated while bowing his head to the youngster. "Thank you so, so much for what you've done."

"No problem," Naruto replied happily, looking around at the tired yet smiling villagers before focusing all his attention on the dam he could still see peaking over the rooftops. "So… what's it going to take for me to bring that thing down?" All eyes moved away from the blonde to look up at the towering eyesore responsible for the town's suffering. "That's the monstrosity that's been the real pain for you people, right? Gato's White Wall. If I destroy that thing, will your lives down here go back to the way they were?"

"Yes," the elder replied, taking his staff into two hands and leaning against it. "The river is this country's life: the blood flow to its heart. To remove the dam would mean the revival of our community and the return of order to the land. We will be able to reclaim everything we'd lost and had stolen from us."

"That's great," Naruto chirped, grinning towards Tayuya to see her return his smile with one of her own. "See. Easy."

"Maybe for you, you crazy blonde," the redhead retorted.

The elder standing before the Good Samaritan raised his hand and momentarily placed an end to his exclamations. "I must first warn you young one, it is a dangerous venture. That enormous barrier represents the full strength and hold that Gato has over this country. Anyone who dares to approach him with the intent of stopping him will be met with fierce resistance. All the brave souls who have already tried to negotiate with the man all suffered greatly at his hands and were swiftly punished. It would be selfish of us to trouble you with such a task so full of mortal peril… but…"

"Oh, it's no problem," Naruto waved dismissively, stunning the crowd.

Jaws dropped all around while Hiro's eyes widened in response to his all too casual reply. "A-Are you saying you are willing to stand against the great Mugen River Dam?"

Naruto nodded affirmatively, "I've been willing ever since I came to this village, oji-san. Hanare-oneesan told me all about what happened to this place, and I want to teach whoever this Gato person is a lesson about not taking what doesn't belong to him," Naruto stated with a firm voice and a roguish smirk. "I'll beat him black and blue like I did his cronies and bust open that wall! I can promise you, I will get your water back!"

"Y-You will?" Hiro asked, his body trembling with a mixture of delight and fear.

"That's Gato's base of operations up there. It's crawling with guards and workers," a villager spoke up from the masses.

The jinchuriki slowly glanced back up at the obstruction with a careless air in his expression. He raised his hand towards it and enclosed the wall within his fingers in a tight, vice-like grip, "It doesn't look that impressive from where I'm standing. It did before when I was up on the hill, but now it's just pissing me off." He looked down at Tayuya to see the young musician looking towards him curiously. "It's causing nothing but pain and trouble for all of you. Something that bad can't be left standing there."

"Then… you will help us? Truly?" a woman cradling a baby in her arms asked.

Naruto smiled at the mother and nodded. "I will. Believe it!"

"Th-Thank you," Hiro nearly cried, bowing gratefully to the boy. He looked back up at the child to see him grinning excitedly, "We have no money to pay you… we couldn't even afford to call for help. But should you succeed in destroying that wall, we will pay you back however we can …"

Brushing his nose and nodding in understanding, the blonde then turned and began heading down the road towards the dam, only to stop at the edge of the crowd who had parted enough to allow him passage. He tilted his head at the barrier, giving it a once over and allowing time for Tayuya to catch up to him.

The two youngsters stood side by side as the ninja in training brought his hands up and formed a square with his fingers, looking through it and up at the dam.

"What are you thinking, Naruto?" Tayuya asked, wondering what the jinchuriki had cooking up.

Naruto squinted thoughtfully, "I'm just wondering how I'm going to crack that sucker open without flooding the entire countryside. I guess I can just blow a hole out in the middle and let the water drain safely out into the dry riverbed before knocking a few more in. It looks sturdy enough," the jinchuriki murmured, rubbing his chin after analyzing the entire structure. "It's still got me scratching my head though. Gato's blocking off all the water with that thing but the river should still be flowing like normal behind it, right?"

"Yeah?"

"With all that water backed up behind the dam… it all has to go out somewhere, otherwise it would have spilled over already. Wouldn't it?" Naruto asked, surprising Tayuya at his observation.

It was a pretty solid question. What Naruto was asking was where all the excess water was going if not down the river? Gato had pretty much stopped all water flow except for a tiny stream thousands of times smaller than what the massive deluge previously was.

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