The Death of a Hero, An Idea

Everyone sat down around a small table, eating the meal that Tsunami prepared for all of them.

While eating, Suki looked around the room out of boredom before stopping on a certain object.

It was a picture frame of Tazuna, Tsunami, and Inari, Tazuna's grandson and Tsunami's son. It was hard to tell what expression Tazuna was making in the photo, but Inari wore a large smile while Tsunami had a hand on his head while she smiled as well.

However, the upper right corner of the picture looked torn, but not enough to suggest that it was either on purpose or an accident. Despite that, she could still make out that there was another person in the picture but was no longer able to be seen.

She waited a few minutes while everyone ate and Inari got up and left after thanking Tsunami.

She waited a few moments before asking.

"What did Gato do to break this town's spirit?" She asked, bluntly.

As she expected, Tsunami and Tazuna tensed before Tazuna relaxed with a heavy sigh.

"I'm not sure if it was on purpose, but thank you for waiting for Inari to leave." He told her.

"From the way he acts and from how he looked in the picture over there, something happened and it affected him personally. I'd like to believe that none of us would bring up this topic while he was around." She explained.

Tazuna nodded.

"You're correct. The reason that this town no longer has its spirit and Inari's attitude are indeed connected." He looked around at each of them. "The person torn out isn't the one who helped create him but he was Inari's father. Once, he was known as the hero of this town. Inari used to be a happy child who loved the man as if he was family." Tazuna started to shake slightly as his eyes watered slightly. "He changed after what happened to his father."

"What happened?" Naruto asked.

"In order to tell you, I'll need to start from the beginning." Tazuna seemed to have aged several years. "It happened three years ago when Inari and the man met. Back then, Inari tried to take care of a dog he named Poochie. However, three kids cornered him and one wanted Poochie and the other two held him back. They had an argument that spiraled until the boy threw Poochie into the water. As far as Inari knew, Poochie never learned how to swim."

"He tried to save him, right?" Sasuke asked.

"Unlikely." Suki stated, getting their attentions. "Based on how Inari looks, he must be about 8-10 years old. Since this happened 3 years ago, that would make him 5-7 years old when this took place. He likely was stuck in place, possibly with fear if he didn't know how to swim."

Tazuna nodded. "Inari didn't know how to swim and was terrified. Soon after, one of the two other boys pushed Inari and he fell in. While he didn't know how to swim, apparently Poochie managed to learn the Doggy Paddle and swam to shore. The man managed to arrive and prevent Inari from drowning. They must have bonded soon after."

Taking a breath, he continued. "The man's name was Kaiza. He was originally a fisherman who planned on coming here to make a 'fortune.' From that day, Inari grew more and more attached to Kaiza. Likely due to the fact that Inari's real father died not long after he was born. Their relationship was no less than like a father and son. In no time, Kaiza became like family to us and our town. The town needed more people like him, especially with what happened 2 years ago.

"One day during our rainy season, it rained more in a day than it had the last 2 years previously. As a few of you may have seen, Wave is split into different sections, each with their own riverbank. However, the riverbank for Section D overflowed and released all of the locks, causing it to open and allow all the water to rush in. Kaiza's solution? He would swim to the other side with some rope and use it to close the gate. Once he managed to put the rope in place, the town's people helped him and pulled the gate shut, preventing Section D from being completely underwater."

"If what you're saying is right, the water must have been moving around 5 miles per hour [8km]." Suki stated.

"No way, it had to be faster." Naruto told.

Suki shook her head. "No, the fastest speed a non-ninja can swim at is 6-7 at the very best. If he wasn't swept away but too dangerous that others didn't do it, it had to be 3 at minimum and 5 at most."

"Due to that," Tazuna started again. "The people of Wave started calling him the hero and champion of Wave. Inari couldn't have felt more proud to have him as a father figure after that. Until Gato arrived."

"And the event you were talking of earlier occurred." Kakashi guessed. "So, what happened?"

"In front of the entire town, Gato...had Kaiza put to death."

That stunned Naruto and Sasuke while Kakashi didn't seem to react to that.

'Likely due to whatever he's faced as a ninja up to this point.' Suki concluded.

"When the town saw Kaiza tied to a cross, we all saw what Gato had done to him. He had cut off both of his arms just below his shoulders. He had one of his thugs execute him. Right in front of Inari."

He then looked at Suki. "That, is what happened to the Wave's spirit. From then on, Gato controlled the Wave."

Silence hung in the air before Naruto stood up.

"Going out to train?" Suki asked. Naruto nodded. "Be back before sunrise."

With that, Naruto headed out, Sasuke not far behind him.

Tazuna looked between Suki, who had placed her hand against her cheek and gained a bored look, and Kakashi, who looked like he wanted to read that book his daughter had found but was warned that if Inari managed to read a single kanji, she would burn it and throw its ashes into the river.

'Isn't he their teacher?' He thought.

"He didn't say anything because they would have gone anyways or would have tried to sneak out." Suki spoke, surprising him. "They're not as bad as me, but they become focus when they want to train."

'As bad as her?'

She leaned back in her chair. "Trust me, unless I'm assigned to protect you after tonight, you'll likely see me a lot less."

While she truly did understand that her body just can't handle as much training until tomorrow, that just meant that she had too much time on her hands and became bored quickly.

After that, 3 days went by quickly.

In that time, Naruto and Sasuke had almost perfected the water walking to the point it was almost unconscious.

They weren't the only ones training either.

Suki spent the last 2 days working on the chidori while using her Sharingan to understand why it wouldn't work correctly.

While training, she found, despite the amount of chakra she has, she can only use it 8 times before the chakra costs start to add up. While 8 is a lot of times to use it, it is limited compared to the Flame Fists, which she could keep up for nearly an hour straight, long enough for any fight.

She also understood why he warned her not to use her right hand. The reason why Kakashi had her use her Sharingan became apparent when she learned the true nature of the Chidori. While yes, it is used to pierce targets, it also speeds up the body slightly. That was the reason for the tunnel vision of the jutsu without the Sharingan. You need to have a certain level of the body before you could use it because it sends small amounts of electricity through the body, stimulating the muscles and forcing them to work quicker.

She believes that she's almost finished it and before long, her thoughts strayed.

She looked down at her left hand. 'If the Chidori is just pure lightning chakra and slight chakra control, could it be applied to the other elements as well?'

She wanted to figure it out because of her strong affinity for fire and also have something that she created.

However, she knew it wouldn't be that simple. She would have to apply chakra between the technique and herself to prevent her body from getting burned while still having no idea of what shape it would look like.

If it was something that fit in her palm, she could just send said chakra to her palm and focus on the shape. However, the fire itself would have to be forced to take a shape so that also takes more chakra control.

'Man, fire is going to need a lot of chakra control.' She thought. 'Already, there's chakra to make the fire itself, chakra control to keep it in a certain form, and chakra along with chakra control to prevent my own body from being burned.'

'If I keep it like a ball, its main property would likely be to explode with force. If it took on the properties of a blade, use enough chakra to increase the heat and it becomes something that may be able to cut through anything. I could also use it so when my hands touch someone, I could leave strong flames that attach to where I touched.'

She continued thinking about it for over an hour before deciding to focus on the first two ideas.

She spent the rest of the week training the Chidori and trying out her blade technique first.

The last night of the week, Suki laid in her bed looking at the ceiling.

Before falling asleep, a few things went through her mind. 'Tomorrow should be the day that Kakashi and Zabuza should be back up to fighting conditions. However, I worry about what may happen. Aoi and that guy from early on in the mission, they shouldn't have showed up. If they both show up at the bridge, each of us would have to fight one person each.'

'However, the boys are stronger now. I'll just have to trust in their abilities.'

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Next chapter: Rematch! Team 7 vs the Demons and Traitor.