Naruto: A Different Path
I do not own anything related to Naruto

Summary: Kushina survived her childbirth on that faithful night and had an adopted daughter before she married to Minato. How will Naruto's life changed with a family that loved him and his status as Jinchuuriki never revealed? NaruSaku AU

Chapter 7

Team 7 arrived in front of Tazuna's house, a simple two stories tall house in a set of platforms as it was located off the shore.

"Well, here we are. Please make yourselves at home," said the bridge builder. He knocked the door to his house and called out. "Tsunami, I'm home!"

Some moments later, the door opened and revealing a woman with black hair and black eyes in her late twenties. She then hugged Tazuna and said with huge relief in her voice. "Thank god you're alright, Father!"

"I'm fine thanks to these people, Tsunami," Tazuna said as he hugged her and motioned to Team 7.

"Thank you so much for protecting my father," the woman said as she bowed Konoha shinobis.

"No need to thank us, we're just doing our mission," replied Setsuna as she waved her hand lazily.

"My name is Tsunami, Tazuna's daughter," the now identified Tsunami said. "Please come in, you all must be tired from the trip."

An hour later, we found Team 7 was resting at the living room of Tazuna's house. Naruto was sitting in a couch gazing off to the ceiling with both of his hands folded behind his head, Sakura was reading a book about medics, Satsuki was also reading a book but a novel instead, while Setsuna was lying on her back in another couch and stretching her body. Tsunami was cleaning the dishes and Tazuna was sitting on the dining table, drinking a glass of water. As they relaxed themselves,they can't help but felt that they were missing something.

"Hey, did you guys felt that we're missing something important?" asked Sakura as she looked from her medic book.

"Yeah, and it really bothers me. But what was it?" replied Satsuki as she closed her novel.

Naruto was still gazing off when his eyes suddenly widened and snapped off from his stupor. "Did that hunter-nin used senbons back then?"

"Yeah," answered Sakura when something clicked on her mind. "Wait, senbons...?"

Setsuna also broke from her stupor and sat up. "Damn it! Why did I miss it?" the Jounin shouted and everyone's attention turned to her. "A hunter nin was supposed to dispose the body of their target on the spot regardless of any witnesses saw him or her. That hunter didn't dispose Zabuza's body, instead he carried his body and left..."

"So you're saying that hunter-nin is Zabuza's accomplish somehow?" the Uchiha girl inquired as she narrowed her eyes.

"Most likely," answered the Jounin.

"But, isn't that masked ninja killed Zabuza with those needles?" asked Tazuna, as he grew worried.

"Senbon or needle was not a weapon that meant to kill, but rather to paralyze the target. It also used in the world of medic as acupuncture therapy to stimulate the nerves. Even if it seems that the fake hunter-nin killed Zabuza, he merely put him into near death state," answered Sakura, as she recalled the things she had read in her book.

"So we will face Zabuza again, huh?" murmured Naruto.

"Judging from the wound I gave to him and the time he needed to recover from the near death state, it is safe to assume that it will take about one week and half or two before Zabuza and his accomplish is going to after you again, Tazuna-san," explained the Jounin grimly as the room grew silent.

The atmosphere in the room suddenly grew heavier. Tsunami was gripping the plate she holding as her concern toward her father grew while the bridge builder chugged down another glass of water to calm his wrecked nerves. The three genins of Team 7 looked at one another before turning to their teacher who was also deep in thought. No doubt that she was thinking about how they would deal with the missing ninja and his accomplish. Setsuna let out an audible sigh and then looked at her charges.

"We will go to train tomorrow before we escort Tazuna-san to the bridge. Hopefully our reinforcement will come tomorrow," explained Setsuna. "Have a good rest for the rest of the day because tomorrow we will get up early for the training."

The three Genins nodded and made their way to the room that Tsunami had prepared for them, right when door opened, revealing a boy around nine years old boy who was wearing a white bucket hat with blue stripes, yellow shirt, and green overall.

"Welcome home, Inari," said Tsunami.

"I'm home, mom," replied the boy. He then noticed the guests and asked to his mother. "Who are those people?"

"They are ninjas hired by grandpa to protect him," said the woman gently.

Inari looked at the ninjas before he narrowed his eyes and said, "They are going to die."

He then left to the upstairs, ignoring his mother's shout or the irritated and confused look from the ninjas.

"What's his problem?" asked Naruto, annoyed by the brat's act.

Tazuna sighed in response. "He's always like this, ever since Kaiza's death."

"Kaiza?" inquired Sakura.

"A hero of this country," answered Tazuna as he looked up to the torn picture on the wall. "He was a great man. He first appeared when Inari drowned to save a bullied puppy. He then become a brother figure to him and later on married with Tsunami, becoming a father that my grandson never had," here Tazuna paused for a while. "He loved this country so much that he would do anything to it. When Gato had his hand on this country, Kaiza stood up against him along with several other villagers. That bastard of course didn't like that so he did something before Kaiza and his men had the power to overthrow him. One day, Kaiza didn't return home after he went for fishing and on the next day, he was crucified, badly beaten and almost dead, along with another men who helped him by none other than son of bitch Gato. He mocked Kaiza and told anyone who oppose him will ended up like him. Ever since then, this village fell into Gato's clutch and Inari never smiled again. His believe on heroes had been crushed since then."

As the bridge builder finished his story, Team 7's anger toward the shrewd businessman fueled even more. They swore to themselves that they will liberate this country and return the lost hope.

The next day, Team 7 started their day early to train in a forest clearing near Tazuna's House before they escorted Tazuna to the bridge if their reinforcement hadn't arrived yet. The training was about refining the Genins' skill along with adding several trick to them. Setsuna taught Naruto a support technique for his kenjutsu technique called Shunpo, saying that he would need it in the future. Sakura was training to increase her chakra capacity and refining her control by sparring with her Jounin Instructor's Kage Bunshin at a nearby lake's surface so that she can use the Tsunadean strength properly. Satsuki was practicing her ninjutsu using the pointers on the scroll given by Setsuna. Three hours later, they finished their training and head back to Tazuna's house. There, they also met their reinforcement which was none other than Team 6.

"Hey there, Kakashi. I take it your team is our reinforcement?" greeted Setsuna.

"Well, the other team was busy when your letter came in, so yes we are," answered the one eyed Jounin.

"Not so high and mighty, aren't you Namikaze? To think that you needed a back up for a C-Ranked mission like this," remarked Sasuke snidely.

"It was Setsuna-sensei's decision to had a reinforcement for this mission and for your information, this mission is a A-Rank bordering B-Rank mission. You really need to pay more attention instead of brooding all the time Sasuke," retorted Naruto with straight face, causing his teammates to giggle.

Sasuke snorted angrily and silently cursing that Namikaze bastard.

"Anyway, what's your plan Setsuna?" asked Kakashi..

"I think it's wise to split the team in two so that we can watch over Tazuna-san and the bridge while the other team trains to take on Zabuza and his accomplish when he returns," answered the raven haired female.

"Sounds a plan to me. So who will watch over Tazuna-san today?"

"I think me and my teammates will do the job. Sasuke and his teammates looked like that they could use some training," said Naruto.

"Alright, I'm counting on you Naruto. Don't disappoint me, okay?" said Setsuna.

"Don't worry, Setsu-nee. You can count on me," replied the blond as he and his teammates left along with Tazuna.

The things at the bridge were rather uneventful. At first the workers were a bit skeptical at Naruto and his teammates because of their age, but they quickly changed their opinion when Naruto used his Kage Bunshin no Jutsu to create over than fifty clones to help their job at the bridge. It was during their visit to the town to buy the dinner where they actually saw what Wave Country actually looked like. It was more horrible than they first thought, children were looking for food at the garbage can while men were trying to find jobs or just sitting on the ground while gazing off to the sky. There were also almost had nothing to bought for the dinner because the merchant almost had nothing to sale.

When they were going back to Tazuna's house, Sakura felt someone on her back. She was about to lash out at that person thinking that it was a pervert or a pickpocket. Her expression changed from fury to pity when she saw was a little girl looked at her with a slight fear on her face.

"Hello, little girl. What do you need," said Sakura as she knelt to her level.

"E-Excuse me, O-Onee-chan. D-Do you have some food to s-share ? M-Me and my b-brother h-hadn't eaten anything for three days," the girl pleaded.

Sakura smiled sadly as she took out her bento and gave it to the girl. "There you go. You can have it."

"T-Thank you, Onee-chan!" the girl said with tears flowing from her face. She then quickly turned around and left, but not before waving to Sakura who returned the gesture.

"This is worse than I imagined," said Satsuki.

"None of these people deserve to live like this," added Sakura.

Naruto looked around the town before talking with so much resolve in his voice. "We're going to take Gato down and save this country. I promise on it."

One week had passed since Team 7 arrived in Wave. They also had trained themselves hard so that they will be able to face against Zabuza and his accomplish. Sasuke and his teammates were also doing some training, although their wasn't as as rigorous as Team 7's. They were very sure that they would be able to take down Gato and what he had for them in store. For now, the ninjas were resting after a day of training and helping things at the bridge . However, the peaceful and relaxing moment will be soon over.

"Why are you trying so hard?" yelled Inari out of blue.

The other residence of the house looked at him bewildered.

"You're just going to die in the end, so just give it up!"

"Inari! Behave yourself!" scolded Tsunami.

Just when the boy going to add more, he felt stinging pain on his left cheek. He then looked up to see Satsuki before him with her hand raised.

"Are you done with your whining?" she asked with her eyes as cold as steel, causing the boy to flinch. "If you are then let me say something to you. You have no rights for what you have up for now."

"W-What?"

"I said you have no rights for you have up for now because you're just wasting it. You have a mother and a grandfather who loved you, a house to stay, a comfortable bed to sleep, foods to eat, but yet you acts like you're the one who suffered the most. It disgusted me so much to see a person who had everything but they act like he didn't had anything at all. I've seen so much another kids in this country who don't have any luxury like you have but they are fighting for their life and to protect anything they have. If anyone deserve those rights, it would be those kids."

Inari seemed that he was fed up with the Uchiha's girl remark. "What do you know about suffering? You guys probably never knew how it feels to lose someone precious to you!"

Satsuki laughed dryly at the young boy's statement. "Oh, so now you're telling me that I never suffered before? That's rich brat, that is so rich."

Both Naruto and Sakura knew where this was going and they went to stop their teammate, only to had her motioning to them to let her continue.

"Tell me, how do you feel when you witnessed your own family massacred before your very eyes, leaving only you, your brother, and your mother? And what's worse, the one who killed them was the person you looked up to, your own elder brother," said Satsuki, who did a great effort not to breakdown at the mention of Itachi and Uchiha Massacre.

Hearing that, the boy and his family to gasp in surprise.

"Do you understand now? You're not the only one who had suffered in a point of your life, everyone had suffered too and some of they even had it worse than you had. But they never give up, they never mop around their sadness, they stood and fight so that they or anyone else will never have to suffer again. If you go around and telling that what we and your grandfather do is useless, then you're mocking us, him, and even mocked Kaiza-san."

At the mention of his father, Inari's eyes widened in surprise and his body shook in rage. "Don't you dare say I mocked my father! I always cherished him and—"

"By doing nothing but crying around and telling people to stop to fight? Your words and what you did do are contradicting each other. If your father saw you right now, he would be ashamed with you because you never succeeded his will to fight against Gato," said the black haired girl.

She then left a stunned Inari to the door and opened it as she spoke to the others without looking at them. "I'm going out for a bit," she then left without waiting for response from her teacher and her teammates.

As the Uchiha girl left, silence enveloped Tazuna's house before Tsunami spoke first. "Is what she says true?"

"It is, Tsunami-san. In fact, my student Sasuke is her twin," answered Kakashi, as he motioned to his student who was brooding after his sister left.

"Actually, saying about that incident around her is a taboo. It must be took a lot of her not to breaking down in front of us," added Setsuna.

"Should I go after her? I'm worried with her," said Sakura.

"Satsuki is a strong girl, Sakura-chan. I'm sure she will be alright," assured Naruto.

"But, still..." the rosette didn't sound that she was convinced.

"If it makes you better, then I'm going to after her. After all, we're teammates and we supposed to look out for each other," added the blond. He then turned to his teacher and asked, "Is it alright with you, Setsu-nee?"

The Jounin nodded in response and Naruto left to after his teammate.

It took Naruto a while where to find Satsuki was, but he remembered the clearing where he and his team trained for the past week so he went there. When he arrived, he found Satsuki sitting on the ground while she hugged her knee and he could hear that she was crying. Seeing his teammate looked like that reminds him when he and Sakura went to see her one month after the massacre. He walked slowly at Satsuki who was still crying and didn't notice that Naruto was approaching her. It was when she felt someone tapped her shoulders she realized that she was followed by none other than her blond haired. Unable to contain her sadness any longer, she hugged Naruto who was caught of guard by her act as she cried even harder. As his teammate poured all of her sadness and pain, all Naruto could do was returning the hug as he rubbed her back gently.

"It's alright, Satsuki-chan. Just let it out, all of it," said Naruto as he tried to calm her.

Satsuki just cried for next twenty minutes before she finally calmed herself down. She then looked at Naruto with still red and puffy eyes. "Thank you, Naruto. You were always there for me, huh?"

"It's all a friend always for. Besides, we're teammates now, aren't we?" replied Naruto with his trademark grin.

Satsuki smiled at him in response. This was the reason why she liked Naruto more than a friend. He was a kind soul, radiating warmth like the sun and calmness like the moon. If anyone that she should be fall in love with it was the young Namikaze heir.

"Let's go back to Tazuna's house. Everyone was worried with you, especially Sakura-chan," said the blond.

"Actually, I'd rather to stay here and cool off for a moment before heading back. You don't mind, do you?" replied Satsuki.

"Just make sure you'll return soon, okay?"

"Yeah, I will."

As Naruto left, Satsuki leaned her back to a tree and gazed off to the starry night sky. She remembered one night when Itachi took her to camping back then when she was 7 years old. It was fun, they built the tent together, gathering the firewood, gathering the food for dinner, having the dinner, and then stargazing. Itachi told her about the constellations and the legends behind them. Little Satsuki was fascinated by her brother's story so she listened intently to it. Her Ita-nii was so cool and smart, that's why she always looked up to him and one day she will be a great ninja like he was. A lone tear streaked down on her cheek as she reminisced those times she shared with her Ita-nii. She missed those times, yet her heart was hurting every time she remembered those bittersweet moments. The Uchiha girl then fell asleep as more memories of her and her beloved brother flow back to her.

Morning came and a figure entered the scene. It was a beautiful girl with long black hair and brown eyes. She was wearing pink sleeveless kimono and she had a basket that contained some herbs within. The girl then knelt and pick some herbs with her before put them to the basket she carried. As she picked more herbs, she then noticed another girl was sleeping with her back leaned to a tree. Noticing the hitai-ate on her forehead, the herb picking girl put her basket aside and slowly approached the other girl who was still fast asleep. As she approached her target, the said target stirred a bit causing the first girl to halt her advance before tears started to cascading her cheek and she said something in her sleep.

"Ita-nii...why...?"

Realizing that the other girl was having a bad dream, the first girl then slowly reached to her and shook her body lightly.

"Hey, wake up. You will caught a cold if you sleep here."

Satsuki's eyes opened slowly before yawning and stretching her body a little bit. After rubbing her eyes to shake off any lingering sleepiness, the ebony haired girl looked at the person who just woke her up. It was a girl, a bit older than she was, and had the same color of hair like hers. She hated to admit it, but this girl was prettier than her.

"Oh, sorry to trouble you and thanks for waking me up, miss," said Satsuki.

"It's alright, but I'm curious though. What are you doing here?" asked the girl.

"I was cooling myself down after I had a fight last night and the next thing I knew I fell asleep here," answered the Uchiha girl sheepishly.

"I see. Do you have a fight against your teammates?" inquired the mysterious girl.

"Huh? Why did you know I'm a ninja?" asked Satsuki back warily.

"It's your hitai-ate. If you're wearing that, it means that you're a ninja, right?" answered the girl.

"Uh, yeah. Right, sorry," apologized Satsuki with a blush.

"It's quite alright," replied the other girl with a smile. "So, do you have a fight against your teammates?"

"No, I don't. Having a fight against my teammates was the very last thing I would ever thought. In fact, having a fight against my twin brother is much more possible than my teammates," explained Satsuki, thinking about her and Sasuke's strained relationship.

"I see. So you had a fight against your twin instead?"

"No, I had a fight against my client's family. I'm just fed up with his I'm-the most-suffering-people-in-the-world attitude," replied the younger black haired girl with a huff. "Me and my teammates will save this country while kicking a certain midget named Gato in the place where the sun never shines, even if the odds are against us."

The older girl was giggling in response. "It seems that you have a lot of faith in your teammates."

"I am. Without them, I wouldn't be what I am right now," replied Satsuki with a smile as she thought about her teammates, especially a certain blond haired boy. "They are my precious people."

"I'm sure you can do it. After all you had your precious person with you," the girl said as she stood up and walked away with a smile on her face.

"Thank you, um...Miss..."

"Haku, my name's Haku," the girl said as she turned her face to Satsuki with a mischievous look. "...By the way, I'm a boy."

Satsuki's eyes widened in shock and her mind went blank as she watched the girl/boy left. It was five minutes later that she was out from her stupor with her screech of disbelief echoing loudly in the forest, startling the animals there. Her loud screech made her teammates rushed to her place and found that she was still shocked at the 'revelation'.

"Satsuki-chan, are you okay?" asked Sakura, but her Uchiha teammate didn't response.

"Oi, what made you scream like that Satsuki-chan?" asked Naruto trying to get a response from her.

After a whole minute, she finally back to the earth.

"There's no way someone as pretty as that is a boy!" shouted Satsuki.

A/N: Finally! This chapter is done! Sorry for the long wait, but I was very busy coupled with several difficulties...Tests, accident, broken arm, fried laptop, tests again...do I need to say more? Dealing with Inari is also difficult since the main characters were having rather good life, especially Naruto, so that's why I had Satsuki dealing with him. Also, we got a little look on Satsuki's past and her close relationship with Itachi. Expect the update will be a bit slow because of these difficulties. Sorry for Bleach reference here, can't resist it. Once again, I'm so sorry! Please leave a review but no flames please.

Sky Zephyrus