The Namikaze Legend by Aerotyl

The Namikaze Legend, Chapter 10

Team 7 and Tazuna had finally reached the village. If you could even call it a village. The buildings were mere shacks with broken windows and unhinged doors. The place smelt of rotten fish with a evanescent smell of blood. There were many people on the streets, beaten up and disease ridden. Most of the villagers were in rags. At the corner of the street intersection, Konohamaru caught sight of some thugs beating up a man. He quickly ran over.

"Hey! What the hell do you think you're doing!"

With that Konohamaru quickly dealt with the three thugs. Konohamaru held out his hand to the beaten man but he only scrambled away in fear. Konohamaru frowned. Naruto flashed to his side and put his hand on Konohamaru's shoulder.

"It's best if we leave right now."

"But, these people! We need to do something!-"

"We will, not now."

Konohamaru averted his eyes from Naruto and looked at the ground. Naruto walked back to the group as Konohamaru slowly followed. Sakura put her hand over her mouth to block out the stench, but, it was futile. Sasuke tried to avert his eyes from making contact with the villagers on the sidewalks. Naruto kept his face forward, unfortunately experienced with these kinds of hardships. They were just like the people at Kiri if not better. At least the dead were disposed of properly. Back in the war ridden villages of Kiri, dead bodies were left on the streets. The stench of blood and rotting flesh was more prominent. Bile and other excrements littered the streets along with rats and other fowl rodents. At least this village in Waves was clean. Naruto looked over to his genin. Konohamaru kept his face in a scowl and was clenching his fists.

When the five arrived at Tazuna's house, it was slightly better. The house was towards a better part of the village. The house was whole and inside was furnished. A young woman came out to greet the group.

"Hiya! You all must be the ninjas my father, Tazuna, requested! Welcome to our humble home, I'm Tsunami"

The whole team muttered a small greeting as Naruto returned the enthusiasm in his greeting, complete with a wave and a small smile. The five entered the house and situated themselves in the kitchen. Konohamaru slammed his hand on the table.

"What the hell is wrong with this pithole? These people are suffering!"

"Sarutobi, calm down."

"No. I've had enough! I mean, don't these people have ninjas to protect them from thugs? Where are all the law enforcements? Why is this place so devastated?"

Tazuna looked up solemnly.

"We don't have ninja. Ever since our neighboring Uzushiogakure was destroyed, we never had any ninjas, leaving this place open for all the thugs to come in, and come in they did. This man, Gato, started to take over this place, hiring the thugs to do his deeds in promise of large sums of money."

Naruto's eyes narrowed. Konohamaru's eyes widened in recognition, as well.

"Gato? No way! He's like one of the richest men in the land! I saw it in a magazine back at Konoha"

"The very same. He cut off our water trade routes by seizing it with his thugs. Without our oversea trades, our economy collapsed. Most of the money are taken by Gato's thugs who took all the jobs and the food. Our hospital, if it even is one, consists of midwives and local healers. The thugs beat up a lot of people so the hospital rarely sees patients unless its really an emergency. The thugs like to rob us, beat us up for no reason. If your family has women, hide them. These men are ruthless. But, with this new bridge I'm building, we won't need our trade routes. That's why Gato has been trying to take me out. I'm the reason why he is going to lose a lot of profit. Most of my builders are not paid, but it doesn't matter. They do it for free because they know the benefits that will come to them if this bridge is finished. They were all traders before, their businesses destroyed by Gato."