The Essence of Life

by Writrgrl

The last words I had ever wanted to hear had just come from the lips of the boy leaning over me with tears in his eyes. Master Zabuza could not—should not—be dead. It was my fault. I failed him. He had counted on me, and I had let him die. Full Sum inside

Title: The Essence of Life

Genre: Hurt/Comfort/Adventure

Pairings: Will develop later, this isn't really a pairing centric story, so if you wanted HakuNaru, clear out now I won't write that pairing.

Reason: Got the idea into my head and it wouldn't leave

Rating: T for language

Summary: The last words I had ever wanted to hear had just come from the lips of the boy leaning over me with tears in his eyes. Master Zabuza could not—should not—be dead. It was my fault. I failed him. He had counted on me, and I had let him die. Blue eyes searched mine intently as if reading my mind. "He gave his life to bring you back, Haku." Naruto spoke softly, soothingly. "You didn't fail. He wanted you to live, with or without him."

This chapter goes to: Cody for reading it with such patience when I first started writing it.

Disclaimer: DNON

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Chapter one: Life for Death

Haku's POV

I was struggling through a blackness which pulled at my limbs, slowing me down until I eventually had to stop running. I didn't know where I was running, I just knew that I was supposed to be going somewhere important. Zabuza's voice was calling to me, garbled, I couldn't understand his words. I called out to him, begging him to tell me what to do. There was no reply. The blackness pressed in on me, clogging my senses. I couldn't hear. I couldn't see.

I was helpless. Alone. Noone was there.

I crouched, pulling my knees to my chest to wait. I would wait until this pressure left and I could function normally again, then I would find Zabuza.

I knew that I was dead. What I didn't know was why the afterlife was so...

Bleak.

I waited like this for what felt like hours, my legs falling asleep and my neck beginning to cramp. But I refused to change my position. Zabuza had taught me that if you were lost, you didn't go wandering around, you waited until someone found you.

Which was why I was only a little surprised when the yellow globe of light found me and hovered patiently at my eye level.

Curious, I looked up, then, seeing that I was meant to follow, stood and stretched.

My senses began to return, my hearing being the first.

"Haku! Haku! Wake up!"

That voice was familiar.

But where had I heard it?

"Haku!" the voice said again, and my sense of touch returned as well.

Something was tugging at my shoulder insistently, though when I turned my head to discover who—or what—was doing it, I saw nothing. Puzzled, I returned my head to its former position, only to find that the golden light had disappeared.

Most mysterious.

There was a pain in my chest and I tried to move my hand to the sore place, but found that my arms and legs felt as if they'd been weighted with lead.

"C'mon, Haku!"

Wait.

I knew whose voice that was.

"Naruto!" I cried in shock.

Naruto was dead as well, that was the only explanation.

"NO!" I yelled, closing my eyes tightly and clenching my fists.

Nonononononono! Naruto couldn't be—He was supposed to be Hokage, damnit!

Tears leaked out of the corners of my eyes, tickling my face as they created invisible trails on my skin.

"Kakashi! Kakashi! He's okay! He's alive!" Naruto's voice was absolutely gleeful and the pressure on my shoulder returned.

Alive?

What?

That's impossible. That man—Kakashi—had run his hand through my chest with that chirping jutsu of his. I should be dead right now.

So why wasn't I?

My eyelids were suddenly very heavy, and I found myself struggling to lift them.

I forced them open with all the power I could muster and found myself staring into Naruto's bright blue eyes.

Where was Zabuza?

"Zabuza." I croaked, my throat dry.

Above me, Naruto's eyes watered and rained on me.

Naruto's POV

I hadn't been sure that the jutsu would work. I had only given it a curious glance before, having noticed what it was supposed to do, and was rather freaked out by it because of what was needed to perform and complete it. But I had memorized it before moving on to the shadow clone jutsu, which had enabled me to pass and become a genin. You never knew when you'd have to bring someone back to life. Though for awhile there, I'd thought I was gonna use it on Sasuke after Haku—

Not the point. I couldn't bear to think of Haku being dead when there was so much he had to live for, and Zabuza had agreed with me. So I told him about the jutsu.

Unsurprisingly, he agreed to help.

The jutsu had required a part of a person's 'essence' to work, and I knew that to be the soul. Zabuza hadn't had enough left for it to work so I had had to give some of mine. A person's soul—the scroll had said—had great power when it was still young and when the person was still healthy. If the person performing the jutsu was close to death, the soul would be weaker and smaller because most of it would have already gone to the afterlife. I had known Zabuza's soul would not be enough, so I had offered to assist him. I had given some of that red chakra that I had used earlier against Haku as well, certain that it would prove useful, because a large amount of chakra was required, and Zabuza's was low. I knew that there was a lot of the red chakra, which was definitely not mine, and that there would be plenty left.

"Haku! Haku! Wake up!" I yelled, worried I hadn't remembered correctly. "Haku!" I shook his shoulder, hoping that would have some kind of effect.

Was there supposed to be a delay? The scroll hadn't mentioned that at all.

Haku's face twitched, and my eyes widened with shock.

"C'mon, Haku!" Wake up! Fight! I bit my lip so hard it began to bleed, but I didn't care. Pain was only a small discomfort by this time.

"Naruto!" Haku yelled suddenly, startling me so badly I jumped.

He said my name! Yes! It worked!

His eyes were still closed, though I had no doubt that they would open soon.

"NO!" Haku's hands and eyes twitched, and a grin spread on my face.

"Kakashi!" I yelled. "Kakashi! He's okay! He's alive!" I squeezed his shoulder gently.

Kakashi, kneeling by Sasuke's body while Sakura wept and Tazuna watched, waved half-heartedly, his fingers on Sasuke's throat.

Sasuke... My smile disappeared. I had chosen Haku over Sasuke. My enemy over my teammate.

Haku's eyes flew open suddenly and I stared at him with concern.

His eyes were roaming, searching for something.

"Zabuza." he said, his voice hoarse.

Oh, no. I'm so sorry, Haku. Tears sprang to my eyes and fell out, plopping softly onto Haku's blood-splattered face.

Behind me, Sakura gave a startled gasp and began to cry anew. I didn't know why, until I heard, very faintly, Sasuke's voice telling her her arm was heavy.

He's alive, too. My guilt lessened. Haku never meant to kill him after all. I breathed a sigh of relief.

"Haku." I spoke quietly, trying to keep my voice from cracking. "Zabuza's dead. I'm sorry."

Haku's POV

The last words I had ever wanted to hear had just come from the lips of the boy leaning over me with tears in his eyes.

Master Zabuza could not—should not—be dead.

It was my fault. I failed him. He had counted on me, and I had let him die.

Blue eyes searched mine intently as if reading my mind.

"He gave his life to bring you back, Haku." Naruto spoke softly, soothingly. "You didn't fail. He wanted you to live, with or without him."

The words helped, but it didn't soothe the sting of loss.

"How?" I wanted to know.

"After Kakashi—killed you—Gatô came with this whole gang of thugs, and said that he'd planned to kill Zabuza after he'd killed Tazuna because Zabuza was so expensive, and Zabuza—Kakashi had disabled his arms—took my kunai in his mouth and killed Gatô and a lot of the men he'd brought. But then they decided to raid the village, so we had to bluff by making clones of ourselves and then the villagers showed up armed to the teeth and scared them off. I told Zabuza about a jutsu I knew of that could bring the dead back to life—for a price—and he agreed to do it. So I helped him." Naruto wasn't looking me in the eye by the end of the explanation, and was fiddling with his hands.

I was silent for a moment. I had known that Gatô was not to be trusted, but I had never expected him to go that far and foolishly try to take down the demon of Kirigakure. Then again, he'd never been all that smart. It hadn't surprised me at all that Zabuza killed so many men with just a kunai in his mouth, either. What had surprised me was that this boy—who was only three years my junior—knew such an advanced and dangerous technique. From what I knew of techniques involving bringing the dead back to life, a lot was required for it to work and it usually resulted in the user's death.

"What did the jutsu need?" I had to know. This was a jutsu that had saved my life, I wanted to know how it worked, and I wanted to know how to use it.

"Someone's essence—their soul—and a ton of chakra. Zabuza didn't have that much of his soul left, and his chakra was nearly at zero so... I gave part of my soul and some of that red chakra I used against you before." Naruto was looking embarrassed and was finding his fingernails very interesting.

So, I have some of Zabuza in me, as well as some of Naruto.

That was interesting.

But there was a strange sensation, one that was foreign yet familiar at the same time, centering on my navel.

It was as if a new being with incredible chakra had been born...

June 18, 5:43 a.m., Naruto's apartment (Normal POV)

Thunder rumbled grouchily in the distance, breaking the near morning silence over Konoha, where the birds were already awake and trilling. But this was not what woke Haku. What woke Haku was—

"Haaaakuuuuuuu!"

That.

The voice of Sakura Haruno at the apartment door.

One brown eye cracked open blearily, adjusting to the pale, almost nonexistent, sunlight that had managed to filter through the steely gray clouds blanketing the sky and into the apartment Haku was sharing with Naruto. After a few seconds it closed tightly, as if the owner was seriously contemplating killing someone, then opened again, this time with its mate.

Shit. Haku growled low in his chest as he caught sight of the round clock on the wall opposite his bed and his displeasure at being woken intensified.

Inside him, Zabuza's piece of soul woke as well, threatening to overwhelm him in his half-asleep state. One side-effect of the jutsu Naruto had helped perform was that the piece (or pieces in Haku's case) of soul carried some of the previous owner's characteristics and could overwhelm the new host. Zabuza's soul had contained every bit of heartlessness and ruthless instincts the man had ever possessed, and often slipped through Haku's normally placid demeanor when he wasn't fully in control of his senses (which was usually when he was half-asleep, or when he was feeling certain emotions very strongly). Haku normally kept it under check, but at home, when he was with Naruto, he felt more secure, and had no problem relaxing his guard. Naruto's soul had granted him an almost infinite amount of stamina, and the red chakra he'd gifted him with meant that both he and Naruto were about equal in both (much to their delight). The two sparred often when not on missions with the rest of the team, which was one of the few occasions where Haku would let Zabuza's side help him out.

Haku had decided to return to Konoha with Naruto and the rest of team 7, and the Third Hokage had been kind enough to accept him into Konoha and allow him to remain with Team 7, though his skills were ANBU level. Haku had insisted on remaining with Naruto, and the Third Hokage had seen that he wasn't going to work with anyone else and had allowed the four man cell of team 7 to become a five man cell, which had never happened before in the history of Konoha. This made him somewhat of a celebrity amongst civilian and shinobi alike, and Haku preferred to remain out of the spotlight.

Sakura, apparently not going to leave anytime soon, rapped on the door, making Haku sigh.

Much as he enjoyed Sakura's company and having her for a teammate, he did not enjoy her clinging to him like a baby monkey. She had switched over from being a Sasuke fangirl to a Haku fangirl on the trip back to Konoha, having found that cold and distant Sasuke wasn't nearly as nice as warm and polite Haku.

Sasuke sympathized with Haku, naturally, having had to put up with her and her fangirling for years before they met Haku, but beyond that, there was almost no communication between the two boys.

Naruto, of course, could not figure out why Haku was so averse to Sakura's attentions, having tried and failed numerous times to get her to go on a date with him.

Haku sighed again and swung his legs out of bed, being careful not to kick Naruto's sleeping form as he did so. Haku's bed was separated from Naruto's by about a foot and a half of carpeting, which meant that if one of the two boys woke, the other was sure to. Usually. Naruto slept like a rock, Haku had discovered, and normally woke at the crack of dawn, after the first rays of morning sunlight hit his tanned face. This morning though, there was no morning sunlight, and Naruto had remained asleep, snoring loudly. But him sleeping in was fine with Haku, because that meant he could wake Naruto up in some very interesting ways.

But not this morning, because there was a certain pink-haired kunoichi outside the apartment door, knocking on the door so insistently that it sounded as if her life depended on it.

"Coming!" Haku called, loudly enough that she'd be able to hear, while he quashed Zabuza's portion of soul for the moment. He straightened the over-sized navy blue t-shirt he wore to bed with an old pair of Naruto's orange shorts, then stood.

"Haku, can I come in?" Sakura asked, her voice slightly muffled by the door. Even with her voice muffled, Haku could tell something was off, though he wasn't sure what.

Maybe she has a cold? Haku wondered, striding toward the door whilst simultaneously avoiding the dirty clothes and boxes of food that inevitably ended up on the floor. No matter how many times he tried to clean the apartment, it always got cluttered again. He stepped over an empty container that had once contained cup ramen and decided that it was time for another cleaning.

Calmer now, he opened the door to find a tearful Sakura. Behind her were two men, obviously not from Konoha, judging from the Iwagakure headband the blonde was wearing and the hairstyle the shorter and darker man had. Both were wearing black cloaks with red clouds on them, and, instinctively, Haku knew that these men were not to be trifled with. The Iwa nin was gripping Sakura's left forearm tightly with his right hand, and Haku winced inwardly, knowing that Sakura would have a bruise there later.

"I-I'm sorry, Haku. They said they'd kill me if I didn't bring them to Naruto's house." Sakura sobbed.

Haku stiffened, wondering who the men could be if they could reduce the normally strong Sakura to tears. He examined them closely, hoping to figure out more about them and why they wanted to know where Naruto lived.

The short one to his left (Sakura's right), was broad and flat looking, with a black cloth hanging over the lower part of his face so that only his eyes and the top of his head were visible. His black hair looked as if it had been pulled back in strips and then shaved bald in between, with no evidence of there ever having been hair there.

How odd.

Haku turned his attention to the other man and revulsion swept over him.

His hand has a mouth in it! Haku made a face and the man grinned crookedly at him.

"Like it, un?" he asked, raising his left hand so that the tongue of the small mouth lolled out obscenely. "There's one in my other hand, too, un."

Haku rolled his eyes, earning a deathglare from the blonde, whose long bangs covered the entire left side of his face.

Did he injure that eye and it's blind now? Haku wondered.

"Little brat-"

"Deidara, he's older than you."

Haku raised one eyebrow in surprise and realized that the blonde actually was younger than him by about a year or so.

"Well?" he asked. "What do you want with Naruto?" He kept his tone level, not wanting to irritate the people who currently had Sakura at their mercy. It irked him, though, that he had almost no options in this situation. How he hated to have his hands tied.

"You haven't asked who we are. Aren't you curious, un?" Deidara asked, in a superior tone of voice. Clearly his position of power over Haku was going to his ditzy little head.

"You're the assholes who hurt my teammate. That's all I need to know. Now tell me what you want with my best friend." Haku growled, releasing his control over Zabuza's essence until he was as cold and distant as his old master had ever been in his prime. The temperature dropped noticeably, Haku's kekkei genkai beginning to kick in. The strange power Naruto had displayed and gifted him with welled up inside him, more immense than it had ever been before.

As if it's growing...

Almost unconsciously, he had begun to form his ice mirrors around the three people in front of him, earning a look of surprise and relief from Sakura. She knew what Haku was planning, and she nodded her head ever so slightly to tell him that she was ready.

"Well, well, well. It seems our new friend has a kekkei genkai, Deidara." the short one said, his tone saying that he was intrigued by this turn of events.

"Sasori-danna, don't you think this is a tad dangerous? Should I use my art, un?" Deidara asked, one hand sliding into a beige pouch at his hip that had been hidden by the cloak he was wearing.

"Those pyrotechnics of yours are not art. How many times must I tell you this? Art is beautiful, captured for eternity for all to enjoy." Sasori sounded irritated, and something rustled beneath his cloak, clacking hollowly.

Is he going to attack? The movement had not escaped Haku's keen eyes and he narrowed them, trying to ascertain what had been moving, but failing.

"I beg to differ. Art is a transient beauty that fades after a moment, un." Deidara said firmly, withdrawing his hand from the pouch to reveal a small clay spider.

These two are whackjobs. Arguing about art when there is a known enemy right in front of them, it's the height of foolishness. But I can use their distraction to my advantage. Haku grinned and stepped into one of the mirrors. Deidara's one visible eye widened and his mouth fell open.

"Sasori-danna, did you see that, un?" he pointed with the hand holding the clay spider, shock still evident on his face.

"Indeed. I think we may need to tell Pein of this boy." Sasori mused. "He would be a valuable asset to Akatsuki."

Akatsuki? Haku made a note to ask Kakashi if he knew anything about the group. Judging from the way Sasori spoke of it, there were at least 4 or 5 members, which meant they posed a considerable threat to Konoha.

"Enough talk." Haku snapped, forming ice senbon and sending them at Sasori and Deidara.

A long jointed tail whipped out from beneath Sasori's cloak and blocked the senbon with ease, the black-haired man never even looking at them, still focused on Haku's image in the mirror.

Haku fought to hide the look of shock that had appeared on his face. His ice senbon moved too fast for anyone but a select few to see, yet Sasori had blocked them without even looking at them. And not only that, but the senbon (harder than most tempered metals) hadn't embedded themselves in the tail, but had deflected off. This was unheard of!

"This may not be the jinchuuriki, but he would make a very valuable addition to the group."

"Then let's forget the jinchuuriki and strike up a deal with this brat, un." Deidara suggested, tossing the clay spider, which stuck to the surface of the mirror Haku was in—Haku gave it a curious glance but dismissed it, forming more ice senbon. Deidara made a hand sign and the clay spider suddenly exploded, startling Haku so badly he fell out of the mirror, which remained unharmed.

He makes clay explosives. That's something I haven't encountered before. Haku got to his feet and dusted off his shirt and shorts before returning to his mirror.

"Ah, did you see that? I scared him, un!" Deidara said enthusiastically.

"I believe you only surprised him. He underestimated you, he won't do so again. Now please quit trying to aggravate him." Sasori snapped.

"My C1 didn't damage the mirror. I may need to use my C2, un."

Haku scowled, then left the mirror he was occupying, one arm reaching out and wrenching Sakura's arm free from the deathgrip Deidara had it in. He had his other arm looped around her waist and was on his way to the next mirror when Sasori's tail wrapped around his ankle, stopping their escape abruptly.

Shit! How'd he catch me? Even Sasuke and Kakashi have trouble doing that! Haku turned his body from his awkward upside down position so that he could give the black-haired man one of his patented deathglares. Sakura, still being held against Haku's side, shifted, and Haku turned her so that she was right-side-up and let her drop to the ground. Deidara soon had his own arm wrapped around her waist and pulled her close, much to her disgust. She stomped on his foot.
"Do that again, and I'll blow you and your friends to pieces, un."

"Bastard." Sakura spat.

"Why thank you, un."

"It wasn't a compliment you freak!"

There was a crash inside the apartment and Haku knew Naruto was awake and that he had to get rid of the two Akatsuki members quickly.

"Deidara, quit arguing with the little girl."

"Haku!" Naruto yelled, clearly unsure about whether there was trouble or not.

"Stay in there, Naruto!" Haku replied, brow furrowed in thought. He had to get Sakura and send the two men holding her captive on their way before Naruto intervened.

"Sasori-danna, the girl and the jinchuuriki called him Haku. Do you suppose he's Zabuza's protegé that Kisame is always talking about, un?"

"Sharkface?!" Haku gasped. He hadn't seen the shark-man since he and Zabuza left Kirigakure after the failed coup d'état.

"It would seem so." there was a note of surprise in Sasori's low voice.

"Sasori-danna, should we really leave the jinchuuriki because of this boy, un?" Deidara asked, putting an emphasis on 'boy'. Haku scowled at him, holding his shirt up so that it didn't fall down over his face with one hand and flipped him off with the other. Deidara scowled back, and was about to say something back but Sasori chose that moment to answer Deidara's question.

"Pein will find this boy most... interesting. Moreso because he was trained by Zabuza Momochi, famed as the Kirigakure demon and a member of the Seven Swordsmen of the Mist as Kisame was."

"Perhaps we should wait for the jinchuuriki and this boy to get stronger then, so that they will be more interesting to capture, un?" Deidara's hand immediately went back into the pouch at his hip.

Sasori nodded and the tail released its hold on Haku, who did a flip in midair and landed lightly on his feet.

"Fly us out of here, Deidara." Sasori said, the tail disappearing beneath his cloak once more.

The bomber smiled gleefully, hand withdrawing from the pouch once more and opening to reveal a small white bird.

How will they fly out of here on that? They can't escape the jutsu, only Naruto has ever succeeded, though that chakra was helping... Haku's eyes narrowed as Deidara made a handsign, and suddenly the bird was monstrously huge, more than big enough for two people.

Naruto barreled out of the apartment, nearly crashing into one of Haku's mirrors.

"Naruto!" Sakura yelled, pushing futilely at Deidara's chest in an attempt to liberate herself.

"That must be the jinchuuriki, un." Deidara said, hopping onto the bird with a very angry Sakura, who was punching every bit of him that he could reach. Sasori raised one eyebrow before joining his partner. "She's close to the jinchuuriki, she'll be a valuable hostage, un." Sakura swung at Deidara's face and he dodged her clenched fist with a grin, tapping the pressure point at the back of her neck that would knock her unconscious.

Haku's eyes widened and he made more ice senbon to throw at the pair.

"You'll be the one to take care of her then. Haku, throw those senbon, and I will take the jinchuuriki here and now."

"Give Sakura back!" Naruto yelled as the giant bird flapped its wings, clearly about to take off. He hopped to the roof and leapt at the trio, only to get sliced across the chest by Sasori's tail. Naruto screamed with rage and pain and swiped at Sasori with a kunai, managing to slice off a corner of the man's Akatsuki cloak. Haku dispelled his ice mirrors and caught Naruto as he fell. The clay bird, no longer imprisoned in the jutsu took off and hovered about ten feet above Haku's head.

"He has three days to live untreated. My tail is poisoned." Sasori told the boys. "Come after us when you're stronger."

The bird flapped its wings once more and was quickly out of Haku's range of attack.

Haku gave them a last parting glare, noting which direction the bird was heading in, then turned his attention to the boy in his arms.

"Haku, I feel numb." Naruto's hands were on the gash in his chest, probing it to test the extent of the damage, and when he pulled them away, they were sticky with blood. He gave Haku a weak smile, "Suddenly, I feel... tired. It... must..." his eyelids fluttered, and Haku's eyes widened.

"Shit. Stay awake Naruto, I'm gonna get you to the hospital," Haku peered around, brown orbs searching for something that would be crucial to the retrieval of Sakura. His eyes found the piece of Sasori's cloak that Naruto had managed to cut off and Haku shoved it into his shorts pocket before maneuvering Naruto into a more secure position in his arms and heading toward the hospital, cursing the fact that Konoha Hospital was almost on the opposite side of the village.

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A/N: First chapter of a story I started writing almost a year ago. It's undergoing major reconstruction at the moment so the wait for the next chapter may take awhile. I'm also not entirely pleased with Haku, I don't think I got his character quite right, so if he's OOC tell me, don't whine about it to your friends! R&R please!

Also, since I will be on hiatus for awhile, the next chapter may arrive in a month or so, so you have plenty of time to review and tell me what you think.