Posted: Jan 24 2014


I do not own Naruto or Naruto Shippuden


Haku woke slightly early, startled.

Shakily bringing a hand up to his heart, he sighed.

He was having the nightmares again. Memories. Reliving the night his father had mercilessly killed his mother, and how he stopped his father dead in his tracks when he lunged for the brown-eyed child. Frozen solid was the father, which left the son's heart in the same state, frozen.

Slightly tearing up at the memory. He began to pack up supplies. They traveled sparsely, always ready to leave at a moments notice, which is perhaps the reason Zabuza didn't notice the emotions his student was experiencing behind the mask he wore to sleep.

Zabuza himself was up just after Haku, he was excited.

He was always looking for a good fight, and that was exactly what he was going to get today. The fat little man, Gatō supplied him with exactly that, a good fight. The contract was to kill a bridge builder by the name of Tazuna, a simple assassination, made more complicated, and by extension more entertaining, by the fact that the engineer was being escorted by the infamous Sharingan Kakashi.

He knew of the cyclop's reputation. He was a man not meant to be fucked with. That didn't matter to the missing-nin however, he had no doubts or fears. Zabuza was the best and he knew it, that's why he wasn't afraid. Kakashi may have copied over a thousand jutsu, but Zabuza was the Demon of the Hidden Mist.

Polishing his blood-stained Kubikiribōchō, he grabbed the last of his tools and packed them into his pockets.

Speaking of tools, he looked over to the other side of the cave they were camping in and spotted his best tool, besides his own sword, Haku.

Haku was a fine weapon, of course that is to be expected of anyone he taught. It was obvious to the elder man that the Yuki in front of him was perfect in ways of emotion. He tried to kill any trace of it ever since he found the boy. From experience he knew an emotionless slave would be more useful to him than an emotional, imperfect tool.

He didn't admit he failed though, he was above failure. He had just decided it was not worth his time to try and break the child any longer. So he accepted the boys sadness after a couple years. He still had his uses, so it was fine. Still, he would have rather had a slave.

"Haku," the killer grunted out, "we're going to leave soon, but I want you to stay out of my way."

Haku nodded, understanding that the man in front of him wanted to fight without interruption or distraction.

"However," he spat, "you know what to do if..." he couldn't say the rest. "I want you to get me out of there and retreat." Zabuza wasn't pleased, from what he could tell, there were three other ninjas with Kakashi, so there stood a chance he wouldn't win. He needed to make sure he would not die if things did not go his way and the other ninjas proved to be more powerful.

Haku briefly considered just letting the man die if things went that direction. The killer was too scared to admit that he could lose. "Yes, Zabuza-sama," the last pure Hyoton user said in his best emotionless voice.

"Good," the man said grudgingly, "we should go now."

Haku nodded again, grabbing the last of his things. His thoughts went to his current situation. He was a slave. It wasn't hard to figure out. Having lost his parents at such a young age and later being taken in by an infamous murderer, he was forced to grow up quick.

He still longed for his mother's embrace. Love. It was something he believed he never experience again. He tried to still his heart, he really did, but it still beat with the sadness of his life's truth.

He always did his best to develop his own philosophies, and not merely follow what he was told. He came to his own conclusions more often than not. An example was what he thought of why people should fight.

'You fight to protect what's precious to you,' was the conclusion he reached. This only depressed him further. He had nobody who was truly precious to him. Behind the cold, expressionless mask he put up when near Zabuza, he was actually a very emotional person. It made the pain that much more intense. It was a horrible line of thought. He would have rather been not as good as reading people as he was. Perhaps the pain he felt would not be as great when saw the simple things in life he was denied.

He desperately wanted a way out, but to get one, would mean he would have to escape Zabuza. But there was a problem to that. If Zabuza were to disappear, he would be truly alone. The slave would not know where to go without it's master. He did not know how to talk to people normally. All he has known has been this life of crime and murder.

He felt so cold, even though his bloodline provided immunity to physical chill.

He just wanted someone to love him.

Perhaps the was someone out there, someone who he could open his frozen heart to, someone who would understand him, someone he would love, someone who would love him.

He would just have to wait and see, for now he had to follow Zabuza and protect him.


After a grueling seven years at the Academy, she was finally getting somewhere!

Their first C ranked mission. She was never this excited, the last time being that she actually graduated.

She had figured out after failing twice on the graduation exam what her problem was. She simply had so much chakra it was impossible to properly perform that stupid Bushin no Jutsu. It was odd though, she had merely learned that overnight, as well as the Kage Bushin no Jutsu. It was the strangest thing.

Taking the exam again she had passed with flying colors, that Bushin no Jutsu was the only thing holding her back. She did excellent at the written test, having gotten most of her knowledge during her time from books rather than the instructors.

In taijutsu she was average at best, she had a very hard time studying this topic by herself, and again, the instructors were useless to her.

Endurance was her highest grade, probably because of the Fox she reasoned. It was the reason she could heal so rapidly, so it made sense.

Jutsu she also did great it, but she did not pass the other two years because this category you are required to ace all of the various jutsu, and she couldn't getBushin no Jutsu to work, after mysteriously learning the Kage Bushin no Jutsu in her sleep, she passed. She did not have a a good idea how she had learned it. Her best guess was it had something to do with the Kyuubi.

Many did not expect her to pass, which was expected she supposed, but her passing wasn't what was on the news. After graduation, Mizuki, which was Naruto's least favorite teacher, was revealed to be a traitor to Konoha after attempting to steal the Scroll of Sealing. He was executed the next day. Naruto wasn't ashamed to admit that made her smile. Mizuki hated her unconditionally, and he got what he deserved in her opinion.

After going through all she did, and now being on her first C ranked, she knew that she was one step closer to becoming Hokage, and potentially her one true dream as well.


Within the seal, Minato and Kushina were positively ecstatic that their little girl had passed the academy because of them gifting her the knowledge of her chakra reserves and the Kage Bushin no Jutsu.

Kushina in particular was extremely happy to know that she directly helped her cute baby, but that's not to say she still didn't feel anger at Konoha and the Academy for treating her the way they did. She was plotting all the various ways she would get back at those who had wronged Naruto.

Torture into execution for the various instructors. She smiled.

Just plain murder for the people who had chased around Naruto when she was a little child.

Naruto still was a little child, she always will be, Kushina decided.

Pranks to those who should have helped her, but didn't, such as the major clans. She grinned wickedly at the thought of unleashing killer fleas within the Inuzuka compound.

Besides how the two were going to go about punishing people when they got out, they had completely figured out their situation within the seal. Minato had used a complex version of a storage seal on top of the seal which created the Kyūbi's new prison, and it had the effect of sealing them in it as well, but not within the cage.

This worked because the mindscape which was created from the original seal to house the Kyūbi interacted with the advanced storage seal in such a way that it sealed Minato and Kushina within the mindscape. They were free to interact with it as they pleased.

Since Minato held the Kyūbi's yin chakra, he had decided it best to gradually feed it through the seal, so that Naruto will contain all of the Kyūbi's power rather than only half. He began this process when his daughter reached the age of five, and finished when she was twelve. Because the Yondaime had lost his share of the Kyūbi chakra, the Shinigami-made seal on his stomach had vanished, bringing that little bit of reassurance.

Now a true jinchūriki, when she uses the Kyūbi's power, it will be that much more powerful. Of course, it will be harder to control, but Kushina agreed that that doesn't matter, since Naruto will have her and Minato to help her. The first thing they did after getting their emotions under control when they were sealed was fixing the seal the Shinigami almost destroyed on Naruto after all.

Minato had also figured out how they were going to get out of the seal. When Naruto first draws on the Kyūbi's chakra, the seal will be opened enough to where Minato and Kushina will be able to 'unseal' themselves, similar to unsealing a kunai from a storage scroll.

Kushina demanded to try and force the seal, unleashing the Kyūbi's chakra from the inside, so that they could escape, but Minato reasoned that would most likely destroy the seal because Naruto is so young. They mutually decided when Naruto was fifteen, and if she has not drawn upon the Kyūbi yet at that point, that they would force the seal, so that they could unseal themselves and finally meet their daughter. Using this process to a lesser extent they managed to teach their daughter about her chakra and the Kage Bushin no Jutsu, but they could only do it once without majorly damaging the seal, so they agreed to do that to help their daughter when she needed it.

Having fourteen years within the seal, they also figured out how to manipulate the mindscape, it was now in the image of a clearing encircled by forest. Many types of animated wildlife and flowers, even a sun and a large tree to hide themselves from it.

After fixing the wounds they both got from the Kyūbi, they also introduced an atmosphere, and later all of their senses. They found they both could still train their skills in their new environment. Since Minato had never been able to complete his elemental rasengan, he now had the chance to complete that among other things, and Kushina could become more well rounded outside of her fūinjutsu.

Fifteen years to just train was simply outrageous to Kushina. Even Minato snapped at the boredom at one point. Things happened between the two.

They were both extremely anxious to get out, at most they had to wait was six months until they would get out.

But until then, they had resigned themselves to more waiting, this time they would wait while watching their baby's first C ranked mission, Kushina summoned up popcorn out of the mindscape as they played Naruto's sight through a television while on a comfy couch.


Tazuna, Naruto decided, was still worth helping, even though he had lied to the team. Not that she had decided to voice her opinion on the matter, it wasn't exactly their problem her cold persona told her.

To the redhead's surprise, Kakashi just grunted, then sighed, then agreed to help the old bridge builder even though he deceived them. Soon after that they found themselves nearing Nami no Kuni. A thick, unnatural mist was beginning to envelop them, and Naruto and her team knew trouble was coming...


The violet-eyed girl bounced up off the loveseat with a girlish squeal, while Minato thought with a proud, fatherly smile, 'That's my girl!'


Haku sighed, Zabuza had been overconfident, took on more than he could handle. Not that the murderer would ever admit it. He leaped from the trees he was hiding in after throwing a senbon that placed Zabuza in a near-death state.

Faking that he was a hunter-nin was relatively easy, it wasn't the only time he has done it, 'Zabuza seems to like to put himself into these kinds of situations,'the Hyoton user thought impassively. He briefly looked into the eyes of each of them, weighing them.

The pink-haired girl, Haku could tell, had lived a very sheltered life, and saw that she did not do anything during their team's fight with Zabuza. Pathetic, the Yuki decided.

The last Uchiha was different, Haku was slightly intrigued. He could tell that the onyx-eyed boy had a lot of potential and fought for his own reasons.

The Jōnin was what Haku expected. Professional, calm and collected, probably could have discovered that he was faking being a hunter-nin if given more of a chance.

He turned his eyes towards the last team member for a second, but found himself staring into her brilliant blue eyes for three before breaking off.

"Thank you for helping me in retrieving Zabuza's corpse, I must be going now," the Hyoton user said, almost nervously.

Kakashi nodded as he saw the hunter-nin leave, he turned to address his team. "Well done guys," he said, rather casually as now he was out of the fight. "Tazuna I think we'll be safe for now, so take us to this bridge please."

"But hey!" Sakura shouted, annoyed. "Why did we just let that masked guy take Zabuza away?!"

Kakashi rolled his eyes before boringly saying "Because, Sakura, that was a hunter-nin."

Naruto was startled, why did that ninja look at her that way? 'It was like he was looking for something...' She was confused. The redhead shrugged it off, she had more important things to worry about. Naruto saw that her team was heading to what appeared to be a boat, she went to go catch up.


'Her eyes...' Haku thought, with an emotion he didn't quite know what.

After laying Zabuza down on one of the makeshift beds within their little cave and taking off his mask, he decided to go outside. He really needed to clear his head. Having a hard time thinking, he suddenly found himself at a pond, staring into his own reflection. He slowly sat down at the edge of the pond, bringing his right hand up to his eyes, looking into the his own reflection.

'Her eyes...' the Hyoton user gasped, staring back into his brown orbs. 'her eyes... are like mine...' he thought in shock. He frowned, noticing how his eyes were lost in water. "I need to talk to her..." he mumbled to himself in a voice he was not familiar with. He noticed the water in front of him begin to slowly freeze over. The last Yuki sighed, knowing that the environment around him typically would become colder when he lost control of his emotions. A thought formed in his head. 'Perhaps I can convince Zabuza that it would be wise for me to try and communicate with them for the sake of trying to lift information.' He shook his head, not knowing exactly why he was so interested in that redheaded girl. Perhaps... it was because of that strange warm feeling he felt while looking at her? He would find out soon.

His mind set, he spared one last glance into the now frozen pool, he stood up and headed back to the cave.


Minato had grown a little weary, thinking about how that masked ninja was obviously not an actual hunter-nin, but Kakashi did not realize it. He already planned on giving his student a piece of his mind once he was released, but now he just let a dangerous murderer get away needlessly. The former Hokage was not pleased.


She woke up again, breathing hard. A stray tear fell from her face because of the nightmare.

'Damn it!' she thought. The redhead was going mad. 'I'll just go for a walk, maybe I'll train some more too!' she decided to herself.

Getting up from her bed, she made a couple dozen Kage Bushins and sent them to help Tazuna before leaving the house, the quicker the bridge was complete, the sooner she'd be able to leave. Already being here a week, she wanted back home. The redhead was thankful she was able to avoid her team though.

Sakura's needless babbling and annoying rants were the worst. She loathed her pink-haired teammate. Sasuke typically left her alone, but she could still see the malice and hate for her in his eyes. Sakura was always trying to bash her for his sake. If Sasuke was not around, then Sakura would be more tolerable, which just served to make her hate both of them more.

Kakashi was the best of the three, seeing as whenever he looked at her, she could see pity. That did not mean he was any nicer to her however. The jōnin had instead preferred to focus on training Sasuke. He didn't care much to train Sakura either, but that did not prove to be a problem. The fan girl seemed to not actually care, and instead just wished to slave over the last Uchiha.

Slipping out of the door, she made her way into the forest.

While walking, she had let the surroundings truly envelop her. It was actually quite peaceful. The chirping of the birds, the beautiful flowers, and the wonderful weather which brought it all out.

She finally found herself in the middle of a clearing.

Slowly sitting down in the middle, she decided to meditate and clear her mind before she trained.