"Sasuke-kun!"
Sakura's voice carried across the bridge, bright with surprise at his sudden reappearance.
Sasuke nodded briefly in her direction, but his attention was fixed on Kakashi. "Sensei, has Naruto come by here?"
Kakashi looked up from the worker he was examining, his visible eye showing confusion. "No. I haven't seen him since you left with Tazuna."
"Ah." Sasuke made a small, frustrated sound. "Of course he didn't."
Then he vanished in a flash.
"Sasuke, wait—" Kakashi's hand reached toward empty air, the words dying in his throat. He'd wanted to talk to his student, to ask about Flying Thunder God, about the Rasengan, about where he'd learned techniques that should have died with the Fourth Hokage.
But Sasuke was already gone.
Sasuke reappeared in a narrow alley on the outskirts of town, his Sharingan already active and tracking chakra signatures. He'd marked several locations during their initial reconnaissance of the area, including the large compound near the docks that had "crime boss headquarters" written all over it.
If his guess was correct, Naruto had gone to loot Gato's base.
And if Naruto had gotten there first...
Sasuke pushed more chakra into his technique, moving faster than he probably should have, appearing and disappearing across the town in rapid succession until he materialized in front of a large building with expensive architecture and obvious security measures.
Or what used to be security measures.
The front gates hung open, twisted off their hinges. Several unconscious guards lay scattered across the courtyard. The front door was simply gone, leaving a doorframe that opened into darkness.
Sasuke's eye twitched.
I'm too late.
He stepped inside anyway, hope dying with each empty room he checked. The place had been thoroughly, systematically ransacked. Drawers hung open. Safes had been torn from walls. Even the floorboards looked disturbed in places.
Naruto hadn't just taken the obvious valuables. He'd found every hiding place, every secret compartment, every stash of emergency funds.
Ten minutes of frantic searching later, Sasuke emerged from the building with empty hands and an expression of profound defeat.
Naruto was waiting outside.
He stood in the morning sunlight with two enormous canvas bags slung over his shoulders, each one bulging with the unmistakable shapes of treasure. His face showed mild surprise at seeing Sasuke.
"Oh, Sasuke. What are you doing here?"
Sasuke stared at him. His eye twitched again. A small vein appeared on his forehead.
Then, without a word, he turned and vanished back into the building.
He searched with desperate intensity, checking places he'd already checked, looking for anything Naruto might have missed. A loose coin wedged between floorboards. A forgotten bill in a jacket pocket. Anything.
Nothing.
When he emerged again, his shoulders were slumped, his face carrying the particular expression of someone who'd just watched their fortune disappear.
"Naruto." His voice was flat, drained of emotion. "You could have at least saved some for me."
"Ahem." Naruto cleared his throat, his expression shifting to something appropriately serious. "Sasuke, you have to understand. I need to support a large household. You, Kurama, the farm operations—none of you are exactly cheap. I have cash flow issues to consider."
"What?" Sasuke's paralyzed face actually showed emotion, his eyes going wide with indignation. "Naruto, let's be very clear about something. I live in your house, yes. But I pay rent. And I pay for my share of the food. You're not supporting me!"
Naruto didn't look even slightly embarrassed at being called out. Instead, he sighed like a man bearing the weight of the world. "I'm just a poor boy, Sasuke. I have to work hard for everything. Right now, I can barely solve the problem of daily meals. There's no budget for spiritual construction, for personal enrichment."
He gestured at his friend with obvious sympathy. "But you—you're from the prestigious Uchiha clan. Surely you're not actually short on money."
"I am short on money," Sasuke said through gritted teeth. "Very short. All of the Uchiha assets are being held by the Third Hokage. I can't access any of it until I'm older. Or stronger. Or probably both."
He spread his hands in a gesture of helplessness. "Do you think I'd be looting corpses if I had access to my inheritance?"
Naruto placed a hand on Sasuke's shoulder, his expression becoming earnest and encouraging. "Then become stronger, my friend. Get strong enough that the Third Hokage has to take you seriously. Strong enough to demand your clan's property back."
"I'm working on it." Sasuke looked at the bags over Naruto's shoulders with undisguised longing. "But in the meantime, could you maybe share some of that with me? Just a little?"
"No."
The word was delivered without hesitation or mercy.
Then Naruto vanished, taking both bags and all hope with him.
Sasuke stood alone in the empty courtyard, one hand still extended toward where his friend had been standing, his expression cycling through disbelief, resignation, and finally, grim acceptance.
This is my life now, he thought. This is what friendship with Naruto means.
Naruto reappeared in the forest just outside Tazuna's house, far enough away that no one would see him access the seal but close enough to walk back easily.
He set the bags down and focused his awareness inward. "System, I need your help. Can you store this money in the sealed space"
[Of course,]
Came the gentle reply.
[It's quite a haul. Well done.]
The bags vanished from Naruto's hands.
Inside the sealed space—which the System had remodeled at Nine-Tails' request to match Naruto's actual home—the fox was sprawled across the sofa, surrounded by scattered papers and books.
He'd been working on his cookbook again, trying to figure out why sales were so abysmal. The recipes were good. He knew they were good. But for some reason, people weren't buying. He'd had to use profits from the pig farming operation just to keep the cookbook project afloat.
It was deeply frustrating for someone of his culinary expertise.
He was just making another note about adjusting spice ratios when something heavy materialized directly above him.
Nine-Tails leaped aside with a yelp, landing in a defensive crouch as two large canvas bags crashed onto the sofa where he'd been sitting moments before.
"Naruto!" he snarled, his tails bristling. "What are you throwing at me?!"
Naruto's form materialized in the sealed space, and he took a moment to look around with satisfaction. The System had done excellent work. The space now had the same comfortable, lived-in quality as his actual house—familiar furniture, warm lighting, even a small kitchen area where Nine-Tails could experiment with recipes.
"It's money," Naruto said, his eyes practically glowing. "All money."
"Money?" Nine-Tails' ears perked up immediately. He bounced over to the bags, his earlier irritation forgotten, and tore one open with his claws.
Gold gleamed in the soft light. Coins and bills, jewelry and gemstones, all packed together in glorious abundance.
Nine-Tails made a sound that could only be described as a squeal of delight. He hugged the bag to his chest, a smile of pure avarice spreading across his vulpine features. "So much money! Naruto, is this all ours?"
"Every last coin."
"Oh, this is wonderful!" Nine-Tails was practically dancing now, his cookbook completely forgotten. As the household manager—a role he'd taken on with surprising enthusiasm—he was intimately familiar with their financial situation. This much money would ease the constant strain of daily expenses, would give them breathing room for the first time in months.
Naruto watched the fox's joy with a small smile of his own. Seeing Nine-Tails happy made the whole dangerous mission feel worthwhile.
After a moment, he closed his eyes and withdrew his consciousness from the sealed space, letting his awareness return fully to his body in the forest.
Then he walked the short distance to Tazuna's house.
The front door opened before he could knock.
"Naruto-niisan!" Inari's face lit up like the sun. "You're back!"
"Hey, Inari." Naruto ruffled the boy's hair affectionately. "How's your grandfather doing?"
"He's much better! He's even helping Mom with lunch." Inari gestured toward the kitchen, where voices and the clatter of cookware could be heard. "They're making something special."
Naruto glanced through the doorway and caught sight of Tazuna and Tsunami working side by side, the old man's color much improved from the deathly pale he'd been on the bridge.
Good. He'll be fine.
Naruto left them to their cooking and made his way to the room where Zabuza and Haku had been placed.
He found Zabuza lying on the bed, his face still swollen but the worst of his injuries already being tended. Haku sat on the edge of the other bed, his posture perfect despite his obvious exhaustion.
"Naruto-kun." Haku stood immediately and bowed, the gesture formal and precise.
"Rest," Naruto said simply. "Take care of your injuries. We'll talk later."
He turned to leave, but made it only as far as the yard before exhaustion caught up with him. Looting an entire criminal empire was surprisingly tiring work.
He collapsed into a wooden reclining chair under a tree, letting his eyes close and his body relax.
The sound of soft footsteps on wood woke him sometime later.
Naruto opened his eyes to find Haku standing beside the chair, his face pale, his expression carrying a weight that seemed too heavy for someone so young.
"Naruto-kun," Haku said quietly. "May I speak with you?"
"Of course." Naruto gestured for him to continue. "What's on your mind?"
Haku's hands clasped together in front of him, his fingers twisting with visible anxiety. "I... I don't know what you intend to do with me. I understand that I'm your prisoner now. I have no right to make demands."
He paused, his gaze drifting toward the room where Zabuza rested.
"But I still want to ask a small favor." His voice dropped even quieter. "I've lost. I'm useless to Zabuza-sama now. So I'm begging you, Naruto-kun... please execute me."
Naruto sat up, studying the young man in front of him with a mixture of confusion and concern. "Haku, what are you talking about? Don't you understand that life is precious?"
Besides, he thought, if I execute you, who's going to help manage the farm?
Out loud, he said, "You told me you wanted to find a place with no people around, where you and Zabuza could live quietly. What happened to that dream?"
Haku raised his eyes to meet Naruto's, and there was such sadness in them that it was almost painful to witness. He shook his head slowly.
"That's not possible anymore. Even if it were, I wouldn't want it. Not if it means Zabuza-sama has to give up his ambitions, his goals, everything he's worked toward." His voice wavered slightly. "I'm grateful to you, Naruto-kun. Truly. Sometimes I wonder—if I'd met you first instead of Zabuza, would my life have turned out differently?"
A bitter smile crossed his delicate features.
"But I didn't meet you first. Zabuza-sama gave me a new life when I had nothing, when I was eating garbage in alleys and waiting to die. I swore I would use my life to serve him loyally."
Haku's hands clenched at his sides, and his voice took on a quality of absolute certainty.
"That's my persistence. That's what I've held onto for all these years. Even if it means my death, I won't betray that oath."
The afternoon sun filtered through the trees, casting dappled shadows across Haku's face. In that light, with that expression of unwavering devotion, he looked simultaneously ancient and impossibly young.
Naruto was quiet for a long moment, considering the young man in front of him, this person who'd been shaped by pain and loss into something both beautiful and tragic.
Finally, he spoke.
"That's admirable, Haku. Foolish, maybe. But admirable."