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Chapter 130 Heroes Don't Burn Quietly
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Sakura adjusted the straps of her kunai pouch as she stepped onto the sun-warmed wooden pier behind Tsunami. The scent of salt and citrus clung to her skin. The air was… lighter today. Less like grief and more like the pause before laughter. The Wave felt different. It breathed.
"I'll keep watch," Sakura said, stepping just behind Tsunami, who was tying a shawl around her shoulders. "But don't rush, okay? Take your time."
"I've walked this road since I was a child. Hard to believe we're safe enough now for it to feel like just… a morning errand again."
They walked in silence for a moment. The wooden homes rose along the river, blue-tiled roofs glinting in the sun. The occasional fishing boat drifted under the wooden bridges connecting the two sides of the village. The air was thick with movement… shouting vendors, wagons of produce, the low buzz of conversations.
Sakura kept an eye on the rooftops and the riverbanks, but she wasn't tense. Not today. She could feel it in the way the people walked, how their shoulders weren't hunched like they were expecting a knife in the dark. No. They were upright. Talking. Laughing. Living.
Maybe the dead could rest now.
"I still can't believe he did it," Sakura murmured under her breath.
"Hmm?"
"Nothing." Sakura smiled to herself. "Just… thinking."
They reached the edge of the market, and Sakura slowed as she took in the scene.
The square was alive. Crowded, chaotic, vibrant. Tables lined with cloth and crates stretched across the street. Former prostitutes stood at the front, organized and alert, handing out food with practiced calm. One of them stood at the center, red hair tied back, her sleeves rolled up and sweat streaking down her temples.
"Who's that?" Sakura asked, nodding toward the redhead.
Tsunami shook her head. "No idea."
They got in line. It wrapped around a collection of stone and wood warehouses near the river. Someone had painted crude signs for flour, rice, dried fish. Kids played in puddles nearby, their sticks and strings becoming bows in imaginary battles. It reminded Sakura of Konoha on a festival day, if you stripped away the lanterns and added trauma.
She watched the people.
One woman had a black eye and a baby on her hip. A man with a missing leg was cracking jokes in line, drawing laughter from nearby workers. Another woman nervously accepted a sack of barley, then bowed before hurrying off.
She felt warmth swell in her chest. This is what you did, Naruto.
They reached the front just as the last sack of food was lifted from a crate.
"You're new."
"Tsunami," the woman replied. "My father's the bridge builder."
Red nodded. "Ah. Looks like the daughter of the hero lucked out with this last batch."
Tsunami held the bag of rice with both hands but didn't move. "Where's it from?" she asked. "All this food… the organization. These people."
Red's mouth twitched into a knowing smile. "The Archer," she said.
Sakura stood behind Tsunami, silent, letting the words pass over her.
"The Archer of Providence?"
"That's the name we gave him. The Archer of Providence. I wonder what he thinks of it." She smirked. "Hope he likes it. I love it."
Sakura sweatdropped, recalling Naruto's deadpan groan when he first heard the title: Providence? Really? I don't even use a bow. Should've gone with Knight of the Wave…
"Doesn't really matter who he is. What matters is what he did. Told us to distribute what the gangs were hoarding. Just like that." She gestured to the square, full of people waiting patiently. "Word got out. Everyone showed up. Some from the other villages."
After a pause, Sakura asked quietly, "What about the other gangs? They had food too, didn't they?"
"From what I've heard?" Red exhaled, voice low. "The north went feral. The moment the gangs vanished, the villagers stormed the warehouses. They didn't just take the food… they tore the buildings down. Set fire to the boss's home. Dragged his family through the streets."
Sakura's stomach turned.
"In the east," Red went on, "they were more organized. Lined up at dawn. Took what they needed. Left the rest. Something about not wanting to disappoint the Archer since one woman claimed she saw him walk across the water." She shrugged. "I don't know about the south. Heard stories. Prayers. Some said they found his arrows in the mud, pointed toward the food."
The words settled between them like dust.
Even with the gangs gone, the weight of the past hung thick in the air. You could burn the weeds, but roots ran deep. Hope mingled with fear.
Tsunami finally spoke. "Order doesn't come easy. Especially after chaos."
Red didn't disagree. She just nodded, eyes distant. "We were taught to survive, not rebuild."
"But now?" Sakura asked softly.
Red looked up. "Now we have to learn. Fast." She didn't say it with fear. She said it like a promise.
But the devil doesn't fulfill his promises.
It began as a low groan across the water. An unnatural, grinding cough that vibrated through the bones, like thunder wrapped in metal. Then came the crack. A deep, retching roar that split the sky in half. The tallest building in the village shuddered. For a heartbeat, it held. Proud, jagged, weather-beaten and then it exploded.
Wood splintered like glass. Stone shattered. The upper floors twisted and tore away in a cloud of fire and debris before toppling into the river with a sound like the world collapsing.
People screamed.
Some ran. Others froze. A child tripped, crying for their mother. A man dropped to his knees, arms over his head. The building hit the water with a seismic splash, a wave surging outward as wooden shards rained from the sky.
Sakura turned toward the river's end and saw it.
A warship.
Gray, ugly, and monstrous. It moved with brutal purpose, slicing up the river like a hunter on the scent. Its cannon bays glinted. Another shot fired. This one crashed through a row of homes on the south bank. She saw the cannon turrets begin to shift, swiveling. They locked on her.
No… on the crowd behind her.
Her body moved on instinct. Sakura flung her kunai wide, chakra threads snapping from her fingertips, embedding metal into the ground as she formed a crude arc. Her hands blurred into seals. A barrier shimmered into existence before the crowd. A translucent wall of hardened chakra, pulsing faintly like a heartbeat.
But it wasn't enough.
The cannon fired.
It screamed as it flew. A deep, grinding roar that felt like it clawed through the air itself. Angry. Hungry. Sakura felt it. Through her barrier, through her chest, into her bones. Her legs buckled. Her skin blistered beneath her clothes.
Now.
With a scream she couldn't release, she slammed her hands together. The emergency fuinjutsu burned to life. Symbols across her arms, chest, and neck lit up in rapid sequence, igniting chakra reserves laced deep in her body.
It felt like someone had poured fire into her veins. Her back arched. Her teeth clenched. The pain was blinding. But then… stillness.
Genjutsu, she whispered. Tranquil Bloom.
The D-rank genjutsu spread over her like a balm. A fragile trick. A soft lie. It slowed her perception, numbed the pain. Bought her time.
The barrier flared again. This time into a dome. Dense. Bright. Blooming with defiance. The fire came like a tidal wave.
It smashed into the dome. A blast of heat and pressure that turned the world white. The air roared with a sound like screaming metal. Sakura's barrier held… but barely. The chakra warped. Cracks spidered across the dome's surface.
Then silence.
Sakura dropped.
Her knees hit the ground. She couldn't feel them. Her hands twitched like broken clockwork. Her lungs could only take in half-breaths, each one a knife in her ribs. It bloomed across her body like acid. Her arms felt flayed, her shoulders raw. Her back felt like it was still burning.
The smell hit her. Burned cloth. Burned hair. Her own burned flesh.
She choked on bile. She forced it down. Her vision swam. The genjutsu's fading, she thought. She glanced at her right arm. What she saw wasn't skin. It was red. Blistered. Peeling like old bark. Each second brought a new jolt… agony riding lightning up her spine.
Her teeth sank into her tongue. She tasted blood. Her chakra was gone. Her body was locking up. Her mind… a haze of pain and silence.
Am I dying? …No.
Because she could hear them. Behind her.
A child sobbing.
A woman shouting names.
A man calling out orders.
A baby screaming.
They were alive because she stood. Because she didn't run. Even as her body fell apart, Sakura Haruno was still standing between them and death. Yet Sakura knew, as the ship crept closer, the next cannon already rumbling in its chamber, that more would die. A lot more. She would die.
And what could she do?
She wasn't a monster like her sensei. She wasn't a prodigy like her teammates. A shinobi still learning how to survive… how to matter. A cog in the machine, doing her best.
The pain had dulled, but the reality had not. She couldn't hold another barrier alone.
So she did the only thing she could. With the last threads of her chakra control, she cast a genjutsu. Soft, brief, harmless. Like a whisper in the wind. Only one person in the crowd was still standing. The red-haired woman. Her sleeves were scorched. Her skin flaked where it had burned.
But her wounds… they were healing. Fast.
Sakura locked eyes with her.
In the genjutsu's hush, she spoke. "I don't have much chakra left. I'll make one more barrier. That should buy you enough time to help the people run away."
"If it's chakra you need," Red said, "I can give it to you."
Before Sakura could protest, before she could beg her not to, Red stepped forward and placed a hand on her shoulder. The touch was grounding and then Sakura felt it. Chakra. Dense. Not flowing like water, but honey. Thick. Potent. Raw. It didn't wash over the seals. It sank into them. Into her skin. Into her bones. Her fuinjutsu lit up like wildfire.
"How?" Sakura rasped.
"I don't know," Red answered. "I was born with it. Some shinobi once paid for a night… said I had more chakra than most chūnin. Just out of curiosity, he showed me how to channel it. I never learned to fight, but if you can use it, then take all of it."
Sakura's throat closed. She couldn't speak. So she didn't. She closed her eyes, focused… and then wove.
The chakra surged through her seals, through her scars, through every screaming inch of her body. And from that pain, she forced it into shape. A final wall. Massive. Luminous. A great rose-gold barricade that spread wide in front of the crowd, sealing them off like a shield from the heavens.
The next cannonball hit.
The wall held. Screams turned to gasps. Then to silence. Then to hope.
The warship paused. Its turret swiveled. It targeted the wall.
Another shot.
The barrier shook… but it endured.
Sakura's knees buckled again. Red gritted her teeth and pushed. Sweat rolled down her temple. Her hand on Sakura's shoulder trembled, but she didn't move. She didn't pull away.
She gave everything.
Tsunami, watching from the side, felt her breath leave her chest from awe.
Two women stood between death and dozens of innocents. One with no chakra left. The other with no training, no clan, no right to stand at the front of anything.
But still… they stood.
Tsunami watched, breath caught in her throat, as the barrier flared again, cracks blooming along its surface like veins of light. Red's legs were shaking. Sakura's skin looked half-melted. And still they held. Still they stood.
And then, like an echo from a life she no longer lived, her husband's voice came to her unbidden, but clear. Do I need some grand reason to stand in front of evil?
No.
No, he hadn't. He never did. He stood because someone had to. And now, watching these two women—burned, broken, dying—Tsunami felt something inside her shift.
Not like healing.
Not like forgiveness.
But like remembering what it meant to try. To stand. To fight. Even if you weren't the strongest. Even if you'd already lost too much. Because sometimes, that was the only way anything ever changed.
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[ A Few Minutes Ago ]
Naruto stood outside the house, crossbow raised, squinting down its sight. Inari stood several paces away, an apple perched nervously on his head.
"I-I don't know about this, big brother," Inari whimpered.
Naruto didn't lower the weapon. "Didn't you want to see the skills of the Archer of Providence?"
"I was hoping to see what kind of bow you used," Inari muttered. "Not... this!"
Naruto sighed. "My right hand doesn't work. This is the next best thing."
He didn't even know how to properly fire a longbow. Crossbows were easier. Point and squeeze. But he also didn't want to disappoint the kid who looked at him like a living legend. Damn whoever gave me that title, he thought.
BOOM.
Naruto's eyes sharpened. The bow was forgotten. He turned toward the coast, leapt onto the nearest rooftop, and pulled out a pair of binoculars. "...A ship?"
It loomed at the far end of the river, struggling to squeeze between the village's natural bends. Its hull creaked from the pressure of its own weight, groaning like it knew it didn't belong in these narrow waters. Too big. Too heavy. Too armed.
Another thunderous BOOM.
By the time Naruto landed, Team 7 and Team 8 were storming out of the house.
"What the hell was that?" Kiba barked, Akamaru growling at his feet.
Naruto pointed to the horizon. "Cannon fire. There's a warship crawling up the river. Big one. Headed straight for the market."
"That's Gato's," Tazuna explained grimly. "He owns half the shipping lanes in this region. That ship used to belong to the Daimyo's navy. Gato bought it when the government started selling off assets. He used it to bulldoze through our waters, sink resistance boats, and smash trade blockades when Wave tried to push back against his monopoly."
"And now," Naruto growled, eyes narrowing, "he's using it to break the people."
The others turned to him.
"Gato's got no men left to control the country," Naruto said. "So he does the next best thing. Make the people feel powerless again."
"And that village," Kakashi muttered, "probably has the most people gathered in one place. A tragedy that big... but why bring the ship so close? Why not shell from a distance?"
"Doesn't matter," Sasuke cut in, voice sharp. "Sakura and Tsunami-san are there."
Inari gasped. "Mom?!"
Tazuna held his grandson tightly, his face pale. "We have to do something!"
"We are," Kakashi said immediately. "Naruto, Sasuke. We move now. Team 8, stay behind and protect Tazuna and Inari."
Inari's lip trembled. "Big brother... please... my mom..."
Naruto knelt beside him, resting a hand on the boy's shoulder. "Don't cry. I'm going to bring her back safe and sound." He gave a grin, thin but real. "You protect Oscar. I'll protect your mom."
Inari sniffed, nodding hard. "O-okay. Okay."
Tazuna frowned. "Shouldn't you take the other team, too?"
Kurenai stepped forward, her tone calm but steely. "We don't know if this is just a distraction. Gato might try to kill you while the Leaf's attention is elsewhere."
Kiba clicked his tongue, frustrated. Hinata looked down, fists clenched. Shino remained quiet, but the air around him buzzed with restrained tension. Orders were orders.
Naruto turned to his team. "I've been to the market with Tsunami-san before. I know the layout. I've got a plan."
Kakashi and Sasuke nodded without hesitation.
"Then let's move," Kakashi said. In a blur of leaves and dust, Team 7 vanished into the trees.
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[ Personal Note: First off, thanks a ton to all of you for sticking with this story. Seriously, you guys are awesome. Now, if you're interested in supporting me on P@treon, let me just say that over there, I post these massive 5k-word chapters. But heads up, if you're jumping to P@treon, you'll need to start from Chapter 63, since that's where this chapter lines up with the content there.
To everyone here just reading along, please don't forget to leave a comment! Honestly, your comments make my day, and they let me know you're as invested in this story as I am. So yeah, thanks again, and I hope you have an amazing rest of your day!