Tazuna was explaining as he walked into the empty shop.
The food on the shelves was mostly counted by individual pieces, with just a couple of dry, withered carrots that looked like they could barely survive.
"The supplies here are really scarce..."
Kakashi couldn't help but frown and scratch his head. Then he turned and glanced at the kids behind him.
It had been unusually quiet back there ever since they started.
"…Ah, where's Naruto?"
Before Tazuna and the others entered the shop, Naruto had been drawn to a small door in an alley nearby.
The narrow alley was full of trash and garbage bins, a place where only kids could squeeze through.
But when Naruto looked over, he saw a skinny, frail-looking child crawling out and running joyfully past him.
Now that they were inside the Land of Waves, with so many people around, there shouldn't be any enemy attacks, right?
Naruto thought for a moment, then quickly looked around. Without hesitation, he broke away from the group and squeezed into the alley toward the small door.
Behind the door, there were several other children, all holding small bags of candy and rice.
A black-haired boy wearing a light-colored kimono, standing behind a table, blinked in surprise when he saw Naruto.
"Oh~ I didn't expect to meet you here."
Hatake Satoru sat on a nearby rooftop, sucking on a candy, looking down at the two talking happily in the alley below.
Haku was distributing supplies to people who were nearly starving.
With no jobs, no money, and very few supplies, the place hadn't exploded into a large-scale famine yet, and part of that was thanks to him handing out food.
After learning about Gato's actions, Hozuki Mangetsu had been advocating for a gradual reduction in trade with the Land of Water, subtly slowing down Gato's ability to make money.
He had also placed emergency food supplies in the shipping crates, hoping Haku would find a way to help the people in need.
To avoid being spotted by Gato's people, Haku didn't wear the Kirigakure headband and wore simple, uncommon clothes.
She looked like an ordinary neighborhood older sister.
"Hey—Naruto—where did you run off to~?"
Kakashi and Sakura's voices started calling out from outside.
Naruto snapped out of his daze and looked nervously at the small door behind him.
"Ah, my teammates are looking for me outside! I need to go!"
"Here, take this."
Haku grabbed a few pieces of candy from the table and handed them to Naruto, smiling as she tilted her head.
"Thanks, big sister! Bye!"
Naruto, eager to leave, didn't have time to refuse, so he thanked her while quickly stuffing the candy into his pocket.
Haku watched Naruto struggle to squeeze out the door, then spoke thoughtfully.
"No problem... but I'm actually a guy."
"Thud!"
Naruto face-planted directly onto the ground, and the door behind him shook before closing.
When he looked up, he saw Sasuke standing outside the alley with a disgusted look on his face, staring at him as he lay in a pile of trash.
"Why are you looking at me like I'm trash?!"
Naruto yelled and jumped up quickly.
Tazuna took Kakashi and the others back to his house. Naruto had to be sent off to take a bath before he was allowed to join the meal.
Contrary to what Tazuna had mentioned earlier, there was no cute granddaughter at his house.
Instead, there was a little boy named Iinari, who wore a hat, said nothing, and had a gloomy expression.
After dinner, tea cups were placed in front of everyone. Sakura, who was standing up to stretch, curiously walked over to the photo frame hanging on the wall.
The photo looked like a family picture of Tazuna's family, but there was a noticeable hole in the top right corner.
"By the way, during dinner, it seemed like Iinari kept staring at this photo."
"Take a closer look… the part that was torn off looks like it was a person."
As soon as Sakura said that, the room suddenly fell into silence.
Kakashi raised an eyebrow with interest—it seemed like there was more to this than they thought.
"That was my husband,"
Tsunami replied while washing the dishes, not even turning around.
"He used to be called a hero in this town."
The moment Naruto heard the word "hero," he immediately lifted his head from the table.
*Creak—*
Inari, who had been sitting in a chair, suddenly pushed it back hard, stood up without saying a word, and ran out the door.
"Inari? Where are you going?"
"I already told you not to mention that person in front of him, didn't I?"
Tsunami quickly put down what she was doing and ran out after him, not even bothering to scold Tazuna anymore.
The others sat there, not quite sure what had just happened, watching Inari and Tsunami rush out the door.
"Seems like there's something we don't know about,"
Kakashi said as he tapped the metal plate on his glove with a fingernail, turning to Tazuna—the only one left in the house.
Tazuna looked like he was remembering something painful. He took off his glasses and wiped the corner of his eyes.
After a short pause, he started talking to the group sitting at the table.
"The man who was torn out of that photo was Inari's stepfather, Kaiza."
"He was a fisherman from another country. After he saved Inari from drowning, the two of them became very close."
"Later, he became part of our family."
"Kaiza was strong and good in the water. He wasn't just important to our family—he was someone this town couldn't do without."
"This place is surrounded by the sea. Every rainy season, the floodwaters would break the dikes. Kaiza had crossed raging currents more than once to tie ropes to the riverbank."
"Everyone respected him a lot."
Naruto lay at the table smiling. Maybe because he had grown up alone, he really enjoyed these kinds of family stories.
"Around that time, Gato suddenly came here and took over all sea transport. Then he forced all the young men to build useless buildings by the coast."
"Everyone was angry about it, but Gato had a lot of armed men around him, so most people just did what they were told."
"Then Gato's oppression got worse. Many people couldn't even afford to eat. While working on the construction, Kaiza found out that trade with the Land of Water was still going as usual."
"He realized Gato was messing with things behind the scenes. So he tried to go across the sea and tell the people on the other side what was happening here."
"None of us knew Gato had spies nearby. Anyone trying to cross the sea would get caught right away."
"Because Kaiza had such a big influence in town, Gato wanted to use him as an example to scare everyone. So of course—"
"He was executed in front of everyone."
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