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Chapter 55 - A Change in the Script
🕑 Added 2025-06-06 10:50:11 +0000 UTCI admit one of the reasons I had not pursued Haku was due to lingering, and frankly useless, sentiment from my previous life.
Every instinct I'd honed to reach jounin rank was screaming at me for letting them walk away. But hell, sometimes being smart meant being stupid, and sometimes being stupid meant having a conscience. This alternate universe had already screwed me out of any reliable future knowledge—nothing was going according to the script I remembered.
I knew Haku. Not personally, but as a character. I liked him. I liked Zabuza too. Broken things, clinging to something like hope under all that blood and steel. Their end tragic. Beautiful, sure. But it left a bitter taste in my mouth, even as a viewer.
The thing was, I'd seen this story before. Lived it vicariously through pixels and voice acting, watched these characters dance their tragic ballet toward an ending that always left something bitter in my throat. Call it sentimentality, call it weakness, but when push came to shove, I couldn't bring myself to be the one who wrote finis on their story with a kunai to the throat.
I just didn’t want that story to end the same way again.
I wanted to make a change. A change I had never been able to achieve in all my life in this world. Something to prove this life was not a mistake. As small and insignificant as it may seem. But it was significant, or at least valuable…. as valuable as one human life.
I’m not sure if I did the right thing. Or worse.
I know all the lectures about shinobi not flinching. But Haku didn’t have a killer’s soul. Just a heart molded into a weapon by someone else’s unkind hands.
And I—
I dreamed of saving something, once. Just something. Maybe this was that. It was childish, stupid, and asinine. But I had never claimed to be a better man.
We walked back to one of the carts Gendō had graciously loaned us, meaning he sighed dramatically and shoved supplies at me like I was a freelance nanny. The air still smelled like scorched chakra and bridge dust, and Naruto was favoring his right side with all the subtlety of a busted door.
Still running his mouth despite looking like he'd been used as a taijutsu practice dummy. "Tch, you worry too much! I'm totally fine, dattebayo!" He plopped down on a crate with all the grace of a sack of rice, immediately wincing.
Sai settled beside him in that eerily quiet way of his, already reaching for his medical kit with mechanical efficiency.
Sakura trailed behind us like a lost duckling, which, honestly, wasn't far from the truth these days. A pink duckling.
"Put the bandages away, Sai," I said, forming a simple focusing seal. Not that I strictly needed it, but after that hasty maneuver I pulled earlier, left quite dizzy. Green light began pooling in my palms as I reached for Naruto's face.
"You're a medic-nin?" Sai's voice carried that flat curiosity of his, like he was filing away another interesting fact about his commanding officer.
"Wait, what?!" Naruto's eyes went wide as dinner plates. "Since when can you do the glowy healing thing? And here I thought your only talent was being a pervert!"
Charming as always.
"My talents are vast and mysterious, unlike your attention span."
At some point, he learned to ignore my jabs, or not. He was just the pain.
"Ow, ow! Forget my face, fix my ribs first!" He whined, pressing a hand to his side with a grimace that was equal parts pain and theatrical complaint. "I think something's broken in there."
I paused, giving his face a critical once-over. "Nah, I think we should prioritize the face. It's looking even uglier than usual—might be a medical emergency."
“Nooo—wait, eh?! Bastard!”
Behind us, Sakura hovered like someone who couldn’t decide if she wanted to complain, apologize, or reassert control of her life. She cleared her throat once, then again, obviously thinking better of it.
“You’re really a healer?” she asked, too formally, her words laced with awkward half-hope. “I mean—that is—I didn't think healing jutsu was… I mean…”
I kept my expression pleasantly blank, continuing to work on Naruto's facial bruising. “Yeah,” I said. Just that. No dramatics. No moral speech.
She looked wanting to say more, her mouth opened and closed before she nodded and looked away.
I was starting to figure her out more and more. And I think I know what to use as a carrot after the stick.
Turns out Naruto’s ribs weren’t broken—just loudly dramatic, like the rest of him.
He winced under my hands despite the verdict, sucking air through his teeth like I was waxing his balls instead of sealing tissue. “Coulda sworn it was cracked,” he muttered, glaring at me like I owed him a refund for the lack of internal injury.
“Don’t worry,” I said, brushing invisible chakra dust off his face. “Next time, I’ll make sure Zabuza aims higher.”
He gave me a sideways look full of betrayal before I turned to Sai, who was already rolling his sleeves like he expected a full medical exam. Minimal bruising, no signs of chakra disruption. Kid was pristine. Whatever damage he had was from blunt impacts and some shallow cuts. He probably bandaged himself more for aesthetics than necessity.
“Flailing at shadows isn’t as dangerous as it looks. You’ll live,” I said, placing a hand on his arm and pulsing a light chakra touch just in case.
He said nothing. Typical. I'm not sure if he was disappointed I didn’t pat him on the head too, or just recalculating how dangerous I actually was.
My own injuries would have to wait. The ice needles had left some decent puncture wounds, a few deeper than I'd like, but the bleeding had stopped, and we were burning daylight. If we wanted beds instead of bedrolls tonight, we needed to move.
Besides, one of our mission objectives was about to wrap itself up with a neat little bow.
While the other…..
"This marks the conclusion of your assigned duties.” The merchant said once we'd crossed the bridge, straightening his expensive robes with all the self-importance of someone who'd never earned a callus in his life. “Your services are no longer required. You have my gratitude for your... adequate performance."
"You sure about that?” I frowned. “Town's still a couple of hours out."
"Yeah!" Naruto jumped in, because, of course, he did. "What if those guys come back?"
Gendo's expression soured like he'd bitten into something rotten. "I commissioned this mission, and I decide when it ends." He produced a scroll with a flourish that was probably supposed to be impressive. "My seal confirms your contract's completion."
I held up a hand, stopping Loudmouth’s protests. No point arguing with a client's ego, especially when that ego came with official documentation.
But if he thought that was enough to cut any suspicions, he was sorely mistaken. Rather, his hasty ways only brought more light and attention.
"Understood," I said, accepting the scroll. "Safe travels."
We watched them disappear down the road. Should I send a clone or just trail them myself?
"We can't just leave them!" Naruto burst out the second they were out of earshot. "What if Bandage Face comes back?"
“We could reach the town faster without them,” Sai offered in his usual robot-with-emotions-set-to-low tone. “Less than thirty minutes if we move unburdened.”
“That’s not the point, you blank-faced cactus!” Naruto barked, jabbing a finger in his face. “We can’t just let random bastards die!”
“The client released us. His seal is legally binding. Their survival is no longer our concern.”
Naruto growled. And then, predictably, he snapped. Grabbed Sai’s uniform collar and yanked him forward like a pissed-off squirrel attacking a mailbox.
“How can you say that?!” he spat. “Inari’s our friend!”
Sai just stared. Blank-eyed. “I do not understand why you're angry,” he said, steady as a stormless sea.
"Alright, children," I sighed, stepping between them before Naruto could shake Sai like a maraca. "Let's dial back the shounen testosterone before someone gets hurt."
Naruto muttered something I pretended not to hear, still glaring at Sai.
"Go ahead to town.” I turned to Sai. “Find us lodging for the night, preferably something without roaches. We’ll join you by sundown."
"What will you be doing?"
"Babysitting our former client."
"He's no longer our responsibility."
"I'll decide what my responsibilities are." My tone left no room for argument. "Now move."
After a brief flicker in his eyes, Sai nodded and vanished, shunshined away without another word.
"The blank bastard!" Naruto grumbled. "I thought he was gonna—ow!"
I'd reached over and ruffled his hair, enjoying the familiar spiky texture for exactly two seconds before my fingers found purchase and squeezed.
"Ow, ow, ow! Eishin, what the hell!"
I gripped his skull just tight enough to make him squawk, fingers pushing into his scalp like a shitty head massage from hell.
"Just a friendly reminder," I said pleasantly, "that I'm the jounin here, which means I make the calls. Pull another stunt like that without running it by me first, and you'll discover new dimensions of pain."
"Aye, aye, I get it! Let go!"
"Do you?" I kept my grip firm, letting my gaze drift meaningfully toward Sakura. She was watching our little exchange with that particular expression I'd learned to recognize—lips slightly parted, cheeks slightly flushed.
“Y-YES, SIR—!”
I released him, and he immediately stumbled back, rubbing his scalp and shooting me wounded looks, mumbling something I opted to ignore.
I couldn’t help but add, "Good boy," when I caught Sakura's eye for just a moment, long enough to see her bite her lower lip and look away, trembling slightly.
I didn’t say a word. But she remembered our last conversation. Our last encounter. Good.
"Now let's go make sure our ex-client doesn't become crow food."
“R-right.“ Naruto perked up immediately. "Let's go save Inari." He said, but his voice sounded off. His skull was too thick, I don’t believe my grip was enough ot hurt him.
I nodded, stealing one last glance at Sakura as she fell into step behind us, head down, and something told me the red in her cheeks wasn't from the setting sun.
It was getting harder to ignore. Not her—me.
I needed to finish this mission before I did something I’d regret.
Sakura was... developing in interesting ways. She was ripening nicely, it made my mouth salivate.
Not ready—not yet—but close. Unripe fruit bruises fast. And I wouldn’t need her as damaged goods.
So no. Not yet.
Besides, I still had that other little matter to deal with. Investigation. I already had a pretty good idea where to start digging, and it rhymed with 'entitled merchant prick.'
The fact that dear Gendo was related to the Fire Daimyo and such vital information conspicuously absent from our mission briefing was suspicious enough to choke on. Add in his sudden eagerness to cut us loose the moment things got interesting, and you had yourself a mystery wrapped in an expensive kimono.
What kind of daimyo's relative wandered into bandit territory without an escort home? Why hire protection for the trip in but not the trip out?
And how the hell did a local kid like Inari end up working for him in the first place?
Too many questions, not enough answers. Hopefully, those two missing-nin would have the good sense to stay out of my way while I figure this mess out. I had a feeling things were about to get complicated enough without adding more players to the board.
