Author's Note: Written for CloudedCreation as part of the Naruto Fic Festival a friend and I ran recently! It was a fun challenge. :D
A Window in Time
From most people's point of view, Naruto had pretty much everything he could ever want. He had, after a lot of arguing and discussion, achieved his lifelong goal of becoming Hokage and being acknowledged by everyone in the village; Sasuke had come home after his heroic efforts in the war; he - well, okay, so he still hadn't gone on any dates with Sakura, or anyone else for that matter, but that wasn't really high on his list of priorities anymore, because he was too busy ducking out of all the omiai the village council kept trying to send him to. Geez, he was only nineteen, even if he was the Hokage that was way too young for settling down! Anyway, other than a lack of dates, there wasn't much Naruto was missing in life, at least not from an outsider's perspective.
And yet he wasn't completely happy. There was just something that wasn't quite right, he thought glumly one day as he listened to Ebisu rattle off a list of technique scrolls the village had recently acquired; he should be feeling awesome all the time, and - he didn't.
"- fire element technique that involves -"
Naruto had too many regrets for his age - from the Fourth Shinobi War, from the wasted years when Sasuke had been running around being all evil, hell, even from his earliest days as a genin. That just wasn't right! Just like omiai, he was way too young for all those regrets. If he could only go back and fix things, somehow...
"- which claims that it can successfully manipulate time, but I personally have my doubts. From Kirigakure, a water element technique that -"
And he could get away from Ebisu droning all the time, too. Geez, that guy could make anything boring, even awesome techniques like - wait. "Hold on," Naruto said, "what was that last one?"
"A water element technique which produces -"
"No, the one before that, yanno! The time one!"
"Ah, yes, from one of Orochimaru's abandoned facilities," Ebisu said, fussing with his glasses. "As I said, it's supposed to be able to manipulate time - for purposes of observing history - but I highly doubt that it's actually effective. Time techniques rarely are, and when they do work it's usually on a very small scale, or they only work on the target's perception of time, which makes them little more than -"
"Yeah, yeah, but you haven't tried this one yet, right?" Naruto looked around the office and noticed a distinct lack of scrolls. "Hey, where is it?"
"As you should already know," Ebisu said sharply, "it's stored in a secure facility with other scrolls containing unknown techniques until such time as we finish going over this list and you've authorized it to be placed in storage with the forbidden technique scrolls or released to the active shinobi of your choice, whichever you decide. Really, this is standard procedure, you should remember it by now!"
"Sorry, sorry..." Naruto leaned back in the chair with his arms behind his head and said, "Okay, let's get this finished! I'm all ears, promise!"
He could practically see Ebisu rolling his eyes behind his sunglasses, but the guy found his place in the list again and started reading. Naruto's attention wasn't on the list, however; he'd just had a whole bunch of great ideas all at once...
Technically, Naruto no longer needed to sneak into any official government building of Konoha, because it was understood that the Hokage might require access to all kinds of sensitive documents or other resources at a moment's notice. Realistically? It was still pretty exciting to pull one over on the ANBU guards and disarm the concealed wards, and Naruto just couldn't resist. It helped keep his skills sharp and spot weak points in their security, so who could complain? Anyway, they'd definitely need to increase security on the unknown technique scroll library, he decided that night as he headed for the top of the Hokage monument; he'd gotten in way too easily, and gotten out with the time manipulation scroll just as easily, which was no good. He would have a talk with the head of ANBU tomorrow.
He settled in on Hashirama's head, figuring that if people were going to look for him they would check at least two of the other heads first, and opened the scroll. After a couple minutes of scrutinizing the text, he couldn't help a small whistle of amazement. This technique was complicated as hell, and the chakra drain was incredible. No wonder people didn't mess with this stuff, especially if it didn't even work that well! Way easier to just use genjutsu or something. But hey, if it worked - and not that Naruto wanted to say anything nice about Orochimaru, but he had to admit, the creep had achieved a pretty good success rate with forbidden and difficult jutsu - there were so many possibilities... Naruto sighed, muttered "Wish I'd brought a snack, I'm gonna be reading this all night" to himself, and kept studying.
After a few hours of reading, Naruto thought he had the basics down. Bits of the technique were pretty simple, he'd just have to be extra careful with the bits that weren't, and he definitely had the chakra to handle it, though most people probably didn't. Anyway, he was sick of reading now, it was time to jump in and find out for himself how this technique was going to work! He even had the perfect target - um, time to observe - in mind...
He spread the scroll out in front of him, weighing down the corners with a couple of pebbles, and settled down to meditate and draw in some natural energy. Never hurt to have a little extra chakra on hand, just in case, plus he thought that it might help boost the power of the technique if he could use natural energy as well as regular chakra. Ten minutes later, and he was ready to start; he focused his chakra, balanced it against the natural energy he'd gathered, concentrated on his memory of the time he wanted to look at, and began to form the seals described in the scroll.
At first he wasn't sure it was going to work. As careful as he was with the seals, nothing seemed to be happening, not even a tug at his chakra. Crap, had he skipped over some necessary extra ingredients or something? Iruka and Ebisu were always getting on his case for not reading things thoroughly enough, maybe he'd missed a step... He peered at the scroll, but he didn't see any mysteriously appearing new lines with extra seals or "requires two cups of water and a pinch of pepper" instructions or anything. Okay, fine, he'd just try again, and he started forming the seals one more time. If he was doing it right, then a little window showing the past like a TV ought to show up in front of him right - about - hah! There it was! It looked more like a lopsided window than a TV, but it was definitely showing something! Naruto leaned forward to peer through it and saw just what he'd wanted to see: the day he'd met Haku in the forest and thought he was a girl. It wasn't a great view, kind of fuzzy, but he could see himself - geez, he was tiny back then - sleeping on the ground all covered in leaves, and Haku reaching out to wake him up. Wow, this was so cool!
"Huh," he said. "Wonder if I can look back before then..." He tried thinking about the first time Zabuza had ambushed his team, and the view through the window blurred, then resolved into Zabuza hacking up Kakashi - well, a water clone of Kakashi, but even so Naruto winced. Maybe this plan wasn't so great - but he still had to try! He wasn't looking back far enough, that was all. He should be able to use the technique to look at events he hadn't seen personally, too, he just had to focus the right way, remember what he was looking for... In the back of his head, Kurama stirred a little and grumbled as the technique started to pull at his chakra as well as Naruto's own, but Naruto ignored him.
The window blurred again, and this time Naruto could catch a few glimpses of various things - flashes of fighting, bits of scenery that looked like the Land of Water, more fighting - until it cleared up to show a snowy bridge in an unfamiliar city. Zabuza was standing on it, facing a ragged little kid - Naruto squinted, leaning a little closer to the window, and realized that kid had to be Haku. Man, he looked so skinny... Naruto wished he could hear what Zabuza and Haku were saying to each other, but the technique apparently wasn't strong enough for that; he could only watch Haku get up from the snow and walk over to Zabuza, and Zabuza putting a hand on tiny Haku's head. Naruto had to grin at that. Heh, he'd known that someone as nice as Haku wouldn't have liked Zabuza unless Zabuza had some good qualities somewhere. ... well, okay, he hadn't really known that until he'd seen Zabuza crying, but he'd had a feeling.
If there'd just been another way, back then. If Naruto could have found some way to save them, or just talk to them - but he'd only been a genin and there had been so much he hadn't understood, even though he'd thought he knew everything. If only he could do something... Without realizing it he'd leaned even closer to the time window, trying to hear what Zabuza and Haku were talking about as they walked around the snowy city, but he still couldn't hear a thing. Damn! If he could just get a little closer -
The tip of his nose touched the cold, glassy surface of the time window, and the steady pull of the technique on his chakra exploded into a sudden wild drain. He tried to pull back, but suddenly the technique wasn't just pulling on his chakra - it was pulling him in, too! Kurama was getting drained, too, and yelling about it, but Naruto couldn't see the scroll to look up the seals for releasing the jutsu safely. Crap, crap, crap, this was so bad, he had to stop it or he was going to lose all his chakra and die and damn, it was getting so cold - wait, why was it so cold all of a sudden? He flailed at the window, trying to push himself back from it, but the surface had turned watery and somehow sticky at the same time, and he couldn't get loose.
What the hell have you done? Kurama roared at him, but before Naruto could answer the time window swallowed him, and he vanished, leaving behind only the scroll and a few melting flakes of snow.
Naruto tumbled headfirst into a drift of snow, his head ringing and echoing with Kurama's shouting. Ugh, he felt awful, and not just from getting covered with snow - he was all dizzy and barely had any chakra, at least not without using the fox's. What the hell had gone wrong with the technique? Maybe Ebisu'd been kind of right about messing with time jutsu being a bad idea... He shivered as he dug his way out of the snowbank; he totally wasn't dressed for this kind of weather. Maybe there was somewhere around here where he could get a coat...
"Hey, you," growled a voice Naruto hadn't heard in almost seven years. "What the hell are you doing?"
"Huh?" Naruto twisted around, trying to brush some of the snow out of his hair, and found himself facing the tip of Zabuza's sword. Zabuza was at the other end of it, glaring down at him, and Haku - still looking skinny and ragged - was hiding behind him. It must have only been a few minutes since the first meeting he'd watched. "Uh, me? I'm not -"
The sword's edge touched the side of his neck, and he swallowed. "Don't play games with me," Zabuza said. "I sensed someone watching me, and suddenly you show up out of nowhere? You might be clumsy, but you're still a goddamn spy, aren't you?"
"A what?" Naruto said. "Wait, no, no way, you have it all wrong! I was just - um -" Uh, okay, so he had been kind of spying on Zabuza, but he couldn't say that he'd been spying from the future! Crap, he couldn't say where he was from at all, or who he was, or - oh, crap, this was so bad. So, so bad. He'd gone back in actual time! He could mess everything up if he wasn't careful, or - well - in a way, this was just what he'd wanted, wasn't it? To go back and find a way to change things so Zabuza and Haku didn't have to die in Wave?
The sword dug very lightly into his neck, reminding him to worry about that later, come up with a good excuse for Zabuza now. "Um, okay, I was kinda following you guys," he said, putting on his biggest smile, "but it's just because I got really lost, okay? It's my first time here -" Wherever here was, he'd have to find out sneakily somehow. "- and you looked like you knew your way around, so I was gonna ask you for directions and then I tripped, and - you really don't have to point that thing at me, yanno?"
"Hmf." Zabuza still looked skeptical, but he hefted the sword over his shoulder without actually putting it away. "Don't buy it. What's your name?"
"I'm, um -" Crap, he couldn't use his real name, that'd totally mess up the timeline or whatever. A good fake name, a really good cool fake name, something that sounded natural... "I'm Kurama! Nice to meet you, Za- um, mister?"
Kurama snorted. Really, stealing my name now?
Shut up! I had to think fast, yanno!
It's the thinking part that I question, brat. But other than a low, amused laugh, Kurama let the matter rest.
"And exactly what do you want with me, 'Kurama'?" Zabuza said. "You working for Yagura? Just trying to get in good with Mist? Earn a promotion?"
"Hey, I already told you I'm just lost," Naruto said, "I thought maybe you could help me out." He stood up, a deep shudder running through him; it was way, way too cold out here, and getting soaked through with snow wasn't helping. "Please? Uh, if you want money I can pay you, I guess..."
"Bullshit," Zabuza said, which was kind of fair; Naruto's sneaking-around clothes - a pair of old, scuffed pants and a shirt spattered with faded paint stains - were a whole lot less impressive than Hokage robes. He did have money, though, if not the full resources of the Hokage he had in the future - at least, he was pretty sure he did. He felt around quickly and was relieved to find the puffy weight of his wallet in its usual hiding spot. Good old reliable Gama-chan, he never left home without it.
There was a weird clattering sound which Naruto suddenly realized was his own teeth. Geez, he was going to freeze to death if he didn't get some warmer clothes and stuff soon... He tried to grin again, but it was hard with his face almost frozen stiff. "C'mon, please? Just show me where I can get a coat or something, yanno, then I'll be out of your hair." Okay, that last bit was sort of a lie, but it was for a good cause, so it didn't count, really.
Zabuza gave him a long suspicious look, and so did Haku, peeking out from behind Zabuza. Naruto looked as innocent as he could, and after a cold, damp minute, Zabuza snarled, "Fine. But I'm keeping an eye on you."
"Sure," Naruto said, shivering, "now let's go!"
After that, it wasn't too hard to keep Zabuza from splitting; Naruto was just careful to show how stuffed full of ryo Gama-chan was while he was buying warmer clothes, and the knowledge that Naruto could make good on his promise of money was enough to keep Zabuza interested, if not exactly happy at being hauled around for shopping. It probably didn't hurt that while he was at it, Naruto took the chance to buy Haku stuff, too - gloves, a coat, a scarf that the kid had been looking at longingly - with the excuse that hey, if he was going to get stuff for himself, he couldn't just let the people helping him freeze either, right? Zabuza didn't seem to buy it, but it made Haku smile, and it definitely made Naruto feel better to see Haku bundled up in clothes that weren't rags.
There was just something so weird about seeing Haku as a kid; in all of Naruto's memories, Haku was - well, older than him, and smarter, or at least more adult. It was strange to think that now Naruto was the adult, and not only the adult - he was older than Haku had been when he'd died. Weird all around. It was even worse with Zabuza, whose actual age Naruto hadn't known, but he'd been firmly in the category of "old" when Naruto had been twelve. Old and scary. Now Zabuza didn't seem all that much older than Naruto, one or two years older, tops, and he didn't seem nearly as intimidating after all the other terrifyingly powerful people Naruto had faced off with.
Still a little intimidating, though, he decided as he caught Zabuza glaring at him over a rack of thick winter coats. Not someone to mess around with - but that was what Naruto would have to do. Well, after he got this coat.
"You done yet?" Zabuza said while Naruto paid for the coat and the scarf he was getting for Haku. "Me and the brat have places to go."
"Actually, since you guys were so helpful, I was gonna ask if you want to get ramen with me." Naruto beamed at them both - it was a lot easier now he was properly dressed for the weather - and draped the scarf around Haku's neck. "A few nice hot bowls of ramen are great when it's cold, yanno! It's my treat, you guys totally saved me."
"You're inviting us to dinner? What the hell is your game, Kurama?" Zabuza's voice twisted viciously on Naruto's fake name.
"No game, I swear," Naruto said, swallowing and hoping Zabuza didn't decide to bust out his huge sword in the middle of the store. "Geez, how come you're so touchy? I just wanna do something nice for people who helped me out, what's so suspicious about that?"
"What's suspicious about that is -" Zabuza stopped mid-sentence as he noticed that the store clerks were staring at them, and he lowered his voice when he continued. "- is that no one acts as clingy as you unless they've got an agenda. So what's yours?"
Crap. So much for just trying to make friends. "Okay, you got me," Naruto said, "but let's not talk about it here, yanno - let's go somewhere -"
His stomach growled loudly, echoed a moment later by a softer grumble from Haku's.
"- somewhere we can get some good ramen," Naruto said decisively. "How's that sound, Haku? You like ramen, right? It's the best food ever!"
Haku nodded once, then looked up at Zabuza. "Zabuza-san? Can we?"
"Oh, hell," Zabuza muttered. "Fine. Let's go."
Over dinner - they'd ended up compromising on a restaurant that served ramen along with other food, instead of the ramen stall Naruto had been hoping for, but at least their ramen was still really good - Zabuza said, "No more playing around. What do you want?"
"Well..." Naruto took a big slurping bite of his ramen, thinking over the hasty plan he'd come up with while they looked for a place to eat. "It's like this - I ended up here by accident, yanno? I'm really not supposed to be -" In this time! "- in this town, so I kinda need someone to help me get out of here and go home. And I heard you were good at stuff like that - well, at all kinds of stuff - so I figured I'd hire you, but I wanted to get to know you first, so that's why I didn't just say so." He scooped some more noodles into his mouth, swallowed, and grinned at Haku. "Anyway, I like meeting new people!"
"Really," said Zabuza. "That's it."
"That's it!" Naruto drained the bowl of ramen, relishing every drop, and waved at the waiter so he could order some more. Man, he was starving - that technique had really taken it out of him, it'd be a day or two before his chakra was back up to normal. "So, are you gonna help?"
"Could be that I'm free for a job at the moment," Zabuza said, "if it pays well enough. I don't work cheap."
"That's okay, I have plenty," Naruto said. If he needed to, he could always figure out a way to get some more cash - maybe he could sneak off and make some seals for people or something, people would pay pretty well for stuff like that.
"And I need to know all the details up front. Where you're going, if anyone's after you, if you're going to get squeamish at a little blood..." Zabuza had unwrapped the bandages around his face to eat, though he'd barely touched his food, and now he smiled unpleasantly, displaying pointed teeth. "Last bit's pretty important."
"Definitely no one after me," Naruto said, crossing his fingers under the table. Okay, yeah, there definitely shouldn't be anyone after him, but he'd better be careful not to stand out, anyway. "I'm just headed for -" Crap, he'd come up with a good destination and now he'd totally forgotten, he couldn't believe it. "- um, for Wave Country!"
"Wave?" Zabuza raised a hairless eyebrow. "That backwater?"
Damn it! He'd meant to say anywhere but Wave. Or Konoha, obviously, because if he went to Konoha he'd totally mess up the timeline or whatever, but Wave was almost as bad - too late to back out now, though. And hey, maybe it wasn't such a bad idea after all, come to think of it... He didn't remember the seals for the time jutsu well enough to do it again, so he was stuck in this time unless he had a sudden attack of sharingan or something; Wave might just be the perfect place to settle down and figure things out. "Yeah, Wave," Naruto said, "I got business stuff there. And it's a lot warmer, haha - should be nicer than here, right?"
Zabuza looked like he didn't believe a word of it, but he shrugged and said, "Fine. Half the money up front, half once you're there, plus expenses. And you stay out of my fucking way if there's trouble."
"Awesome! It's a deal!" Naruto dug into his fresh bowl of ramen, merrily plotting away.
Naruto didn't know if he was just that lucky or if Zabuza was actually that good, but they didn't have any trouble getting out of the snowy city and heading south through the Land of Water in the general direction of Wave. Geography was definitely not one of Naruto's strong points, but he was pretty sure that Wave Country was on the other side of the Land of Fire from Water, so he spent a lot of time wondering how Zabuza planned to get them all through there secretly. Well, there had to be ways, or else Zabuza couldn't have ended up there with Haku in the first place - he had a feeling that he'd heard one of his advisors talking about smugglers' routes or something back in Konoha, but he hadn't been paying attention, and he regretted it now. Especially since Zabuza wasn't exactly a chatty traveling companion; he talked to Haku plenty while he was training the boy, which he must have decided he could do at the same time as escorting Naruto, but he barely said two words to Naruto outside of "Time to get moving" in the mornings and "We're done, get settled" at night. Well, and the occasional "pay up" when they stopped to get supplies or stayed at an inn instead of camping out, though once they'd gotten far enough way from the snowy city that the weather wasn't freezing they camped out pretty much every night, which was a relief to Naruto's wallet.
At least Haku was friendly, which was some consolation to Naruto. He was also pretty busy learning to throw kunai and focus his chakra and form seals, which made Naruto itch to help him, but as far as he could tell Zabuza didn't suspect he was a ninja, and there was no way he was going to reveal that little secret, it'd ruin everything. He just played civilian, cheered Haku on, and wondered what the hell Zabuza's problem with him was.
When they reached a coastal village and Zabuza started haggling with one of the boat owners - with Naruto's money, of course, since he'd agreed to pay expenses, but without saying a word to Naruto. That was going kind of far; before Zabuza could commit to a price, Naruto tapped him on the shoulder and said, "Hey, can we talk for a minute?"
Zabuza glared at him, but told the boat owner to wait and went out of earshot with Naruto. "What," he said flatly. "I said to stay out of the way -"
"- if there's trouble, yeah, but this isn't trouble! It's just getting around!" Naruto crossed his arms and tried to look stern and serious. "C'mon, we still have ages to go before we get to Wave, you can't just keep avoiding me and doing stuff without asking me first."
"I'm doing my job," Zabuza growled. "Doesn't make us best friends. Let me work, Kurama, because the sooner you're out of my hair the better."
"I'm still your boss for now, kind of," Naruto said, and oh man, that was a weird thought, "so you have to listen to me, yanno! I don't know what's got you so mad at me all the time, but I'm sick of it - okay, so we don't have to be friends, but you could at least talk to me, especially when it comes to stuff like the way we're getting to Wave. I just want a say in things and - I dunno, maybe you not acting like I smell bad or whatever."
Zabuza snorted, but at least he sounded amused, not homicidal. "You," he said, "are the most pain-in-the-ass client I've had yet. Fine, whatever you want, now can I finish getting us a ride or not?"
"Okay!" Naruto gave him a big smile. "So we're taking a boat, huh? Is that all the way to Wave, or -"
"No."
Naruto looked at him sadly, and after a moment Zabuza said, "No, just to the peninsula. We'll go on foot along the coast as far as the border with the Land of Fire, then cut through to the other side of the peninsula and follow the coast there to Wave. Are you fucking happy now?"
"Yeah," Naruto said, grinning again, "sounds like a plan! See, that wasn't so hard, was it? Just, uh, try and get a good deal on the boat ride part, okay?" Gama-chan still held plenty of money, but after expenses and the up-front part of paying Zabuza it was a lot skinnier.
Zabuza rolled his eyes and went back to the pier to keep haggling with the boat owner; Haku, who had been staying out of the whole thing, came over to Naruto and said quietly, "You aren't angry with Zabuza-san, are you?"
"Nah - just kinda frustrated, yanno," Naruto said. There was a bundle of planked wood nearby, and he sat down on it, beckoning Haku to sit next to him. "I can tell he's not such a bad guy, deep down, but boy, he likes to get angry all the time, doesn't he? And he really doesn't like me much."
Haku sat. "He does act angry, I suppose," he said, with a very slight smile, "but I'm still very grateful to him. Even if he is harsh sometimes, at least with him I have a purpose..." He looked up at Naruto and said, very seriously, "I know I haven't been training very long, but if anything happens, I'll help protect you."
"Heh, I get it," Naruto said, smiling. "Thanks, I feel super safe with the two of you looking out for me. You're already pretty good, yanno!"
"Kurama-san, I think that -"
"Are you two coming, or do you want to sit around and gossip like a pair of old ladies till the tide turns?" Zabuza called from the pier. "We're leaving!"
Haku jumped up at once, but before running to the boat he hesitated, then turned back to Naruto and said, "Kurama-san? It might not mean much, but - I think that Zabuza-san doesn't dislike you, really..."
"Really?" Naruto got up and stretched, his heart beating a little faster for some reason he couldn't quite put his finger on. "Well, that's something, I guess!" Maybe he was being a good influence on Zabuza and softening him up? That'd help things make things easier once they got to Wave.
As he was about to get into the boat after Haku, Zabuza grabbed his arm and pulled him aside. "What were you saying to Haku?" he hissed. "I'm warning you, you try to take that kid - or do anything else - and pieces of you will be washing up on the beaches for years."
"Nothing," Naruto said, yanking his arm back - or trying to, at least; Zabuza had a grip like a bear trap, Naruto would risk revealing himself as a shinobi if he actually broke free. "Seriously! We were just talking about you training him and stuff, yanno - I'm not going to do anything to him, geez, what's your problem?"
Zabuza stared at him for several long moments, then released him. "Sorry," he said, "just - never mind. Go pay Miyagi, it's five hundred ryo each for us and two hundred for the kid."
"I'm gonna be so broke by the time we get to Wave," Naruto grumbled, digging out Gama-chan and looking around for the old woman Zabuza had been bargaining with. It wasn't until after he'd paid her and found a place to sit on the boat, rubbing the sore spot on his arm where Zabuza had gripped it, that he realized he'd actually heard an apology out of Zabuza's mouth.
Hey, he really was making progress!
They were still a day or so away from the border of Wave Country when Zabuza called an early halt, with the sun still well above the trees. Naruto didn't bother asking for a reason, he just threw himself on the ground and sprawled out in happy laziness. They'd been traveling at a civilian's pace the whole time, which meant a journey that could have taken a few days had lasted almost two weeks; Naruto had never been on such a frustratingly slow trip in his life. It was harder on his feet than he'd expected, too, and getting to stop early and take a break felt awesome.
From his nice comfy spot in the shade, Naruto watched as Zabuza set up a couple of makeshift targets for Haku to practice kunai-throwing on while Haku warmed up with the exercises Zabuza had shown him back at the beginning of the trip. Naruto never would have thought it, but Zabuza was pretty good at teaching - well, it probably helped that Haku was a genius, practically a natural shinobi already, but Zabuza was surprisingly patient with his mistakes and hard without being too harsh. He wasn't an amazing teacher like Iruka-sensei, who was one in a million, but still... It was a side of Zabuza that Naruto had never even considered, but he liked it.
He was getting to like a lot of things about Zabuza, actually. He liked Zabuza's blunt honesty, which reminded him of Sasuke, kind of; he liked the way Zabuza was protective of Haku without even realizing it, and the way he looked when he was concentrating to show Haku how to do something. The way Zabuza looked all the time, even - he might not be pretty like Haku would be in a few years, but the lack of eyebrows had a kind of weird charm, and he did have nice muscles. Really nice muscles, which were on display a lot now that the weather was warmer and Zabuza had ditched his chuunin vest from Mist, muscles that sometimes glistened beautifully with sweat in the sunlight and wow, that train of thought had gotten away from him, what the heck was he thinking about?
"Hey," Zabuza said from beside him, and Naruto practically jumped out of his skin. Damn, he was getting sloppy - he hadn't even noticed that Haku had started practicing alone. Zabuza didn't say anything about it, though; he just settled down in the shade next to him and said, "I've been thinking."
"Yeah?"
"Once we get to Wave, I'm out of a job," said Zabuza. "But you have business there, which means money."
"Er, right..." Naruto had spent a lot of the trip trying to think of what kind of business he could have in Wave, but all he could think of was finding Tazuna to try helping him build the bridge and get in the way of Gato's plans if Gato was already around, and none of that was likely to be profitable, at least not money-wise.
"Well." Zabuza stared up into the tree branches, then looked into the forest, then glanced over at Haku practicing - anywhere but looking at Naruto. Huh, weird. "So. You might be the most aggravating client I've ever had, but - well, the kid likes you for some damn reason, and like I said, I'll be out of a job. And - so. Yeah."
Naruto blinked. "Um - are you asking me to hire you again for other stuff after we get to Wave?"
"I didn't say that," Zabuza growled.
"It kinda sounded like you were about to say it," Naruto said, starting to grin. "Yeah, that's definitely what it sounded like, yanno! No problem, it's a deal - geez, all you had to do was ask, it's not like I would say no to you guys! It'll be great, you can be my bodyguard or whatever and -"
"I said I didn't - hell, never mind." Zabuza got up with a muttered curse. "This still doesn't mean we're friends, loudmouth."
"Sure, whatever you say, Zabuza-san," Naruto said, still beaming, and Zabuza grumbled something unintelligible as he went back to correct Haku's throwing stance. Naruto leaned back against the tree he was sitting under, feeling an unexpected wave of warm contentment wash over him.
Okay, so he was stuck in the past, not Hokage, not home in Konoha, a lot poorer than he'd been before he had hired Zabuza, and he had no idea what kind of effect on the future he was having. But no matter what happened next, he was sure he had at least given Haku and Zabuza a chance at a new, better future, and that was worth it.
And whatever Zabuza said, they were totally friends now.