The Gamer - Naruto World Chapter 45: Chapter 45 – Meeting Haku

On the way back, Raito carried a man double his height and used 'Body Flicker' on request. If it wasn't for his 'Fast Thinking' that was activated at that time, Raito would have been covered by vomit now.

At the gates of the village, Raito stood a couple of meter distance away from Tazuna looking back at him with annoyance.

"What's with that look? I have already said 'sorry'." Tazuna made a sad face as he looked at the boy in front of him.

Seeing the boy not changing colors, Tazuna sighed, "It's quite late, huh."

"Thanks to you, old man." Raito snorted as he expanded his chakra sense covering the bridge.

There were bridge builders still working. He nodded his head then covered the abandoned building. The children were walking around the house, cleaning rooms and making beds to sleep. Hinata was there with Kurenai playing with the children. This level of freedom was toxic for Raito as he smiled happily.

But happiness didn't last long as he saw two figures running out of Tazuna's house, one was Naruto and the other was Inari.

Raito contemplated for a while before telling Tazuna, "Old man, there is some trouble."

Tazuna was instantly alarmed, "Trouble? What trouble?"

"Relax, it's just… two kids running out, crying."

Tazuna looked dumbly at Raito, then after he spat on the side, he asked "Which two kids?"

"Naruto and Inari," Raito replied casually as he walked towards the bridge. The bridge was important to complete the mission.

Tazuna sighed then shook his head. Following Raito, he also started walking towards the bridge. Although he was a bit worried about Inari, the bridge came first for him now.

"Oh, Tazuna has returned."

"Ninjboy."

"Tazuna looks like s.h.i.+t right now."

People laughed at the mess that Tazuna was right now. Tazuna glared back but it did little to the rowdy men, who had worked all day.

"Report." Tazuna glared as he walked to the desk placed in the middle of the bridge.

Raito took out a few bottles of water and distributed it to everyone around him.

"Woah, I feel that I am full of energy."

"Let's do that remaining work."

"Let's go."

Looking at the cheerful men, Raito smiled softly then walked towards Tazuna who was standing with a builder. His hands were on table and his eyes closed, his brows were pushed together seemingly in pain.

"Everything… that Gatō!" Tazuna punched the table making things fall down on the ground.

The men who were working didn't mind him, but they still had a concerned look on their faces. Many of them sighed, biting lips or gritting their teeth.

"Hey, old man Tazuna, what happened?" With a frown, Raito walked forward and asked Tazuna.

"Nothing!" After a shout, he left the bridge, helping in other forms.

Raito looked at the side, where a young man was scratching the back of his head.

Looking at him Raito asked, "Big bro, what happened?"

"…" The man looked at Raito then sighed, "It's no secret. Two men left the group."

"Why is he so angry about then?" Raito shrugged two men among a hundred fifty something was an 'okay' number.

The man sighed then pointed at everyone, "It's not just two. At first, we had five hundred and… now it's one-fifty. Our progress has been slowing down. Every single day, one or more would leave the group."

"And it's because…" Raito raised his brows.

"Gatō, it's because of Gatō." The man replied with anger on his face.

"Everyone who has left or is going to leave fears Gatō." He gave out a large breath.

"Gatō?" Raito looked at the info book then at the man in front of him, "I have been hearing his name at all time now. Tell me, what's the deal with him? He is just another man with some goons."

"If you knew what happened here… you wouldn't be saying that."

"Tell me, I have nothing to do."

"You don't but I do." The man huffed.

"Don't worry." Raito used his 'Hypnotic Wave' and used 'Shadow Clone' to transform into that man.

"Now tell me." Raito forced a little. The surrounding men gaped a little but continued in their work as if they didn't see anything.

"Well, it's a long story-" before the man could even finish, Raito had brought out two chairs and a small table, some snacks, and drinks placed on the table.

The man smiled weirdly then grabbed the bottle he was so familiar with.

"Gatō came to 'Wave' five years ago. He came and started a business from food, fish to everything. Hah… we started trusting him and some of us even joined his company. Two years went by and this small village flourished but then odd things started to happen. People started disappearing and those foreign mercenaries started appearing. Once a man fell down and the crates he was carrying broke, revealing gold and silver. A few days later he disappeared like the rest. Gatō then forbid people to fish at the sea around then, there was one time other merchants came to do business but they were beaten back."

The man looked at Raito but he couldn't see anything through.

"Then what happened?" Raito asked.

"Gatō started destroying the fields with the thugs and the people who tried to defend their fields were also beaten down. He smashed stores that sold seeds, food, and accessory. He destroyed every small business that helped the people."

"Even the Daimyō refused to help us. We had a young hero who stood for us but he was publically shamed and executed. If I had strength, I would kill that Gatō and that dog of a Daimyō." The man roared as he stood up, the chair falling behind him, causing the illusion to fade away.

"Hero." Raito mouthed the word.

"Sit down, please." Raito helped the man calm down.

"He took one for us but we couldn't even avenge him." The man sat looked down as darkness covered his eyes.

"What was that man's name?" Raito stood up as he started cleaning.

"Kaiza, we called him Kaiza. He was a hero to us, he helped everyone in this village. He always said… 'If something is truly important to you… even it's heart-breaking, even if it's sorrowful… you keep on trying and trying, even if you lose your life, you keep on protecting it with these two arms!! …Then, even if you die, you leave behind the proof that you are a man… forever…' That's what he said." The man became silent as he looked at his hand, he clenched it then unclenched, a sorrowful expression on his face. "They broke his hand hanged his body in public and Cho…"

"He stood for us. He fought for us. He… gave his life for us. But what about us… we just-" the man had unknowingly shed tears.

Raito didn't know what he should say in this situation. If Naruto was here he would have definitely said something like-

"Kaiza… did his best. Now it's your turn and it's my turn too. I don't know about others but I will definitely be a meddlesome person." His voice turning dim, Raito crouched down and said in a whisper, "Gatō will definitely die as this bridge finishes."

Raito stood up grabbed the snacks then disappeared.

The man looked at the distance Raito was walking as he stood up and returned to his work as if nothing had happened.

Raito came to the abandoned building to see the children and found that they were being taught by Hinata on how to read and write.

A child cried while rubbing his hair. "Big sis, it's too difficult."

"Um, big sis, we don't know that…" a girl timidly raised her voice.

Raito chuckled at the scene.

"You seem to be enjoying." Kurenai appeared beside Raito and said softly.

"Kurenai-sensei? Why don't you go and try." Raito teased.

"I have my hands full with three Genins already," Kurenai replied with a smile.

"How fake." Raito walked away and reached the place, where Hinata was teaching.

"Big brother." A child jumped looking at Raito coming.

"Big brother. Wah." Raito was immediately surrounded by the children.

Hinata looked at Raito with a bit of sadness. Her small nose raised a bit with anger and sadness.

"Hinata, how about I help?" Raito walked towards Hinata and asked her.

She was a bit sad but gave the book to Raito.

Raito sat down with children and started teaching them.

Hinata who looked at the children felt saddened as she saw the heads nodding and smiles on their faces.

Raito tapped her shoulder, which made Hinata jump. Raito shook his head then gave her some blankets asking her to place them in the room above.

At the distant forest, Kiba and Sasuke hanged on the branches upside down, their eyes closed.

Whoosh.

A stone flew with force aiming for Sasuke.

Opening his eyes in shock, Sasuke moved to side quickly to dodge the stone but losing the concentration made him slip forcing him to hug the tree and refocus.

Kiba dropped down and rotated at high speed aiming for the figure below.

"Tunneling Fang."

"Naruto's super spicy explosion bomb." Dodging the attack, Raito threw dozen of red b.a.l.l.s, which exploded when they contacted Kiba.

Whoosh, c.h.i.n.k.

The shuriken aimed at Raito was easily guarded by the stick.

On the side Kiba remained unconscious and other, Sasuke glared at Raito.

"Is that it?" Raito mocked.

"Clone technique." Sasuke released his hold on the tree, jumping down as an illusion of himself, appeared around him.

"Really?" Raito quickly found Sasuke hidden among his clones, then threw a stone towards him.

"Argh! Raito, fight me without using these tricks, one-on-one." Sasuke caught the weak throw, then jumped towards Raito.

"Take this." Sasuke with the running momentum jumped, aiming for Raito's face

"It's boring alright." Raito let Sasuke kick him. He stood there without even moving.

But at the last moment, Raito extended his hand blocking the kick then throwing Sasuke back.

Laughing weirdly, Raito made a hand seal and said, "I am just a clone, you know?" With that, the clone/Raito disappeared in smoke.

"Ahhh!!" Sasuke's loud shout reverberated in the forest scaring a few things.

While his clone was having fun, Raito was looking at Naruto, with s.h.i.+no by his side.

"Why are you here, s.h.i.+no?" Raito asked blandly without even looking at him.

"I was wondering why Naruto's life-"

"Why do you want to know?"

"… Naruto is special, isn't he?" s.h.i.+no asked to Raito's question.

"Everyone is special." Raito used a quote from a book then dropped down the tree.

s.h.i.+no thought for a while before going back to the house.

"Now the people who know about Naruto grew. What am I gonna do?" Kakas.h.i.+ leaned on the tree with a leaf on his hand. As the chakra pa.s.sed through it, the leaf first wrinkled, then was burnt to ashes. Plucking out another leaf, it turned into dirt.

With a smile Kakas.h.i.+ left the area, giving two boys some s.p.a.ce.

Raito who was about to confront Naruto saw what Kakas.h.i.+ did. After thinking for a while, he looked at his skills with smile.

[Chakra Control]

- Leaf Balancing

- Leaf Spinning

- Tree Walking

- Rock Walking

- Water Walking

- Water Pulsation

- Adhesion

- Propulsion

Skills unlocked - Chakra Body Enhancement, Chakra Sprint, and Chakra Thread.

Skill locked - Chakra Strength.

[Nature Transformation] (Locked)

"Naruto!" Raito shouted

When Naruto heard Raito calling him, his attention wavered, which got him to be thrashed by his own clones.

"… Sorry." Raito apologized with a smile.

"Cancel!" the clones turned into smoke. Naruto lay down on the ground, his clothes filled with dirt.

Giving him a bottle, Raito sat on the side and asked, "So, what happened?"

Naruto took a gulp then replied looking sideways, "N-nothing."

"I saw that Kakas.h.i.+ talking with that stupid hat boy. He was talking about you, you know? How only you would understand what Inari is going through and-"

"Stop, stop, you b.a.s.t.a.r.d." Raito jumped with redness in his face as he started punching the trees.

"Heh." A smile appeared in Raito's face as he disappeared from the place. "Train more."

Walking on water, chakra threads appeared in his hands and grabbing fishes in the sea.

"So easy. Only if I had learned then." Sighing Raito went back to the house where he helped Tsunami with food.

"Thank you for helping out."

"No problem." Raito waved the knife which led to Tsunami scolding him.

"Sheesh, women are dangerous." Raito sat on the roof. With 'Chakra Sense' there was nothing that he couldn't see.

Raito had decided that tonight will be a busy night for him.

At night when everyone was eating together, Hinata looked at Kakas.h.i.+ then at Raito, from time to time. She played with her food for a long time before eating.

Raito felt that he was getting gazes from all over. So, with annoyance, he replied, "Just leave him be."

Raito cleaned his plates then walked towards the door. Ready to move out, Raito looked at Hinata then said, "Hinata… I need your help."

Raito looked at Kakas.h.i.+ before walking out.

Sasuke ate his food then went out calmly. After reaching the forest, with a kunai in his hand, Sasuke continued his training. Kiba also followed Sasuke in his training.

s.h.i.+no stayed with Kurenai in the house, with his bugs helping him to express his emotion. "They are leaving me again."

Kurenai tapped s.h.i.+no on the shoulder then said, "Why don't you learn something new?"

The buzz died down as s.h.i.+no faced Kurenai.

"Genjutsu needs precise control of chakra and knowledge of human anatomy and physiology. The latter is needed for complex Genjutsu which has no criteria for amount of chakra. I a.s.sumed that you know about human anatomy and physiology."

s.h.i.+no nodded after a long pause.

"Let's start." Kurenai smiled.

Raito stood with Kakas.h.i.+ and Hinata.

Raito started explaining Kakas.h.i.+ what he was going to do. For a while, Kakas.h.i.+ was in thought before looking at two. He sighed and started, "That's not our mission."

Hearing that Raito's eye flashed.

"But we can't just ignore it." Kakas.h.i.+ patted Raito's shoulder and said, "This will not be in the record. So, do whatever you must. Everything you will do till morning will be written as 'sleep'."

"Sensei." Raito turned back and jumped leaving the house.

Kakas.h.i.+ turned to look at Hinata who was hesitating. Seeing her hesitating, Kakas.h.i.+ walked back to the housed saying, "Hinata and Raito are sleeping so early…so lazy!"

When Hinata heard that, she jumped following Raito.

Very soon they appeared in the village center. In the streets, groups of people, looking like thugs, walked like the G.o.d of the streets.

Raito searched around to find any other groups but found that this was the only group moving around. So, Raito waited for them to move around.

After waiting for a while, they finally reached a house, which had lights lit.

One of the thugs pointed to the house and looked at a man near him. The man nodded before arriving at the window, breaking it with a metal pipe. He went on around the house, destroying all the windows.

"Think carefully! We just broke your window, today. Tomorrow-"

Before he could finish speaking, a force came smacking him to the side, probably breaking few ribs.

"Who's-"

Before the others could speak, they fell down, paralyzed, unable to move their bodies.

Raito looked at them before chakra threads latched on to them, storing inside the inventory. After cleaning for a while, Raito knocked on the door, planning to say that no one is going to threaten him and such but when the door opened, Raito felt his eyes twitching.

"Little bro." The door opened to see the muscular guy, who showed Raito to the warehouse.

"Big bro? This is your house?" Raito was surprised to find this muscular man today.

"Yeah." He looked towards the window and sighed.

"Since there are no more trouble makers, why don't I help you?" Raito grabbed a few of the broken planks then took out a hammer and some nails and started repairing the windows. Hinata, who knows when started cleaning the surrounding and supporting as they had done in the other man D-Rank missions.

Looking at the Raito, the big man felt like he had done it not less than hundreds of times.

[Skill 'Repair' leveled up by 1.]

[Skill 'Repair' reached level 12.]

"Done." Raito fixed the windows then turned to the big man. "I'll be going, big bro." With that Raito disappeared in wind.

"Raito-san, what should we do next?" Hinata asked standing behind Raito.

"… Let's clean up these trashes." Raito went around the village, gathering thugs of Gatō.

"Hmph!" More and more men fell to Hinata's Gentle Fist and while she restricted the thug's movement, Raito grabbed them and threw them in the inventory.

Hinata stretched with a small smile on her face as she looked at the men fallen from her strikes.

"Raito-san, what are we going to do about them?"

Raito who was practicing his chakra threads by collecting thugs looked at Hinata weirdly and asked, "What do you mean by that?"

"… Raito-san, you can't keep all of them in the… inventory forever." Hinata explains awkwardly.

"… I know that. Well, I'll let them go, no… I'll bring them to the village." Raito said after hesitation, clearly he had not thought what to do with them.

"… Raito-san, they… these mercenaries must have done this kind of thing because of money. They must have families waiting for them… they-they…"

Hinata stopped talking when she saw Raito looking at plain air. Raito looked through their detail tab and started separating who had family and who hadn't.

"Um… Raito-san, what are you doing?" Hinata asked after a long time.

Raito turned to face Hinata then closed his inventory and explained: "I am separating them, these people who have family and who doesn't."

"Say Hinata, can you find… where this Gatō is?" Raito asked looking at Hinata.

"Raito-san, Kakas.h.i.+-sensei said not to go finding Gatō. Zabuza should be near that place and he also has an accomplice looking like Mist's hunter-nin."

"Zabuza and hunter-nin?" Raito sighed at the thought. "Why doesn't Kakas.h.i.+-sensei just go and ki-…" Raito looked at Hinata after he stopped himself but she was looking at him, waiting.

"Let's go and see Naruto. He must be hungry."

"Hai."

While Raito and Hinata were working, Naruto who was deep in the forest was sleeping happily. Not knowing a figure had come near him, its hand aiming for his neck.

The hand wavered for a bit, then it went to tap at Naruto's face. "Hey, ninjsan, wake up. Oi."

"Huh? Who? Five more minutes." Naruto turned to ignore the person.

"If I was an enemy, I could have killed you in your sleep." The figure chuckled making Naruto jump in surprise and shout. "Raito! Dark humor."

Blinking several times, Naruto pointed, "You are not Raito."

"I am indeed not." The figure chuckled. With long loose hair, she wore a pink sleeveless kimono with pale red edges, decorated with small plum-colored swirls.

"So pretty." Naruto blurted out then slapped his own mouth in embarra.s.sment.

She stood up picking up her basket, where a few herbs were present.

"Herbs?" Naruto gave a look and asked.

"Yes, you know these?" She sighed then started looking around.

"Hey, hey, if someone is injured, there is someone who can help you heal in no time. Even though he has a bad tongue, he will help." Naruto blurted out.

She stopped for a while looking at Naruto, biting her lips, she asked, "Is he a ninja too?"

"Yup, like me from Konohagakure," Naruto said with a big smile. (Not the best ninja ever.)

"He… doesn't like ninjas. So…" She shook her head.

"Oh, okay." Naruto shrank back awkwardly then looked at the basket and said, "Then I will help you collect herbs."

"Hm."

Plucking one after a long time of searching, Naruto put it in the basket, then sat down and said, "Doing such tedious work so early in the morning."

She looked up to Naruto and asked, "What were you doing so early in the morning?"

With a smile on his face, Naruto answered with enthusiasm, "Training."

She blinked her eyes a few times and asked, "Training? So early in the morning?"

"Yeah."

"But why are you training?"

"Because I want to become stronger."

The girl was silent for a while but she spoke, "But you look strong enough already."

Naruto placed his hand on his chest and said, "No, I want to become stronger and stronger." A huge smile on his face, determination in his voice.

"For what reason?"

"To become the number one ninja in my village."

"One day everyone will recognize me."

"Also, I need to prove something to someone."

Naruto's loud voice and jovial mood made anyone who listened to him, smile a bit.

The girl also seemed a little interested. She leaned forward and asked, "Are you doing that for someone else? Or yourself?"

Naruto was confused about what the girl was saying. Without any thought a "Huh?" came out from his mouth.

Naruto's confused face made her laugh.

"Hey, what's so funny?"

The girl once again ignored Naruto's question. She asked again, "Do you have someone that is important to you?"

"Important, huh? What are you-" Naruto came to a speeding halt as he thought for a while.

The same with the girl in front of him. After quite a while of silence, she stood up picked up her basket and said, "Ninjsan."

"Huh?" Naruto woke up from his daze, as he looked at the figure in front of him.

"A person is able to become truly strong when they choose to protect someone they cherish."

A smile blossomed on his face as he recalled the people in his life, as he stood up, Naruto extended his hand forward, "Yeah, I understand that."

"You will become strong." She extended her hand without hesitation, grabbed it hard and continued, "Let's meet again somewhere."

With a smile, she turned around and started walking.

"Yeah, let's meet again. I will introduce you to everyone." Naruto shouted at the walking figure.

Just as she was about to walk out of Naruto's vision. She revealed, "Oh, and I am a man."

"Huh? Huh!?"

"No way! He is cuter than Hinatchan!"

"Why? What an amazing world. This world is filled with mysteries." Naruto sat in contemplation about the mysteries of the world.

"Naruto-kun!" Hinata came shouting.

"Hinatchan!" Naruto waved back.

"We were so worried about you." Hinata sat down hugging Naruto.

"Eh? We? You mean Raito is here too? Where, where?" as Naruto looked left and right, he felt that he was falling down. Even though he wanted to support himself, Hinata had grabbed so strongly that it was difficult for him to move. So without any further ado, he fell down. (Humpty Dumpty fell on the ground.)

As for Raito, he stood in front of the pink kimono wearing man.

"h.e.l.lo." Raito started with a greeting and smiling.

"… h.e.l.lo." The man replied with some hesitation.

"You really look like a girl."

"I have been told that many times." He smiled which made him look even prettier.

Looking at the basket on her hand, he continued, "You woke up so early in the morning to gather herbs. Is it because of Gatō's thugs?"

"… Yes." What could he even say?

"Gatō's men have done all kinds of evil in this village. Doesn't they deserve to die?"

"…"

"Killing, oppression, ****, murder, torture. They did all those things but on the other side is… Tazuna and these people building the bridge."

"Bridge that represents hope, freedom, and life itself for these villagers."

"I don't know how many people have been murdered or how many have been threatened. I don't even know what Gatō is using this small village for."

"What do you think?" Raito asked the question as plainly as he could.

"…"

Raito sighed as he took out a red bottle from his pocket. "Zabuza needs this." Then he extended it in front of the man.

The man stood still looking at the extended hand. Raito sighed as he flashed like a lightning and made a cut on his hand.

Not even able to dodge, the man looked at his hand from where the blood was dripping. From nowhere, he took out a senbon holding each in between the fingers.

"I am strong, you know." Chakra threads as thick as ropes bounded the man as Raito walked forward pouring the red portion on the man's hand.

The man struggled but didn't succeed.

"Why isn't my chakra activating? That's what you are thinking, right?" Raito sound entered the man's ear as the man looked at Raito.

"Just look at your hand." Raito pointed at the man's hand.

The man gave up and slowly looked at his hand, where the skin which was cut, was already healing, and the edges st.i.tching together.

Placing the red potion on the man's hand, Raito turned around to walk away.

"I am Haku." As Raito walked by, he could hear him saying his name.

"I know." A small smile appeared on his face.

In the period of bulls.h.i.+tting with Haku, Raito had read about Haku, knowing much more about him.

A small smile hung on Raito's face as a plan grew in his head.