"Blah": Talking
'Blah': Demon speaking/Inner Sakura
'Blah': Naruto's Thoughts/other people's thoughts
'Blah': Harry talking to Naruto
I would like to announce that I have decided to re-write the ending scene in the previous chapter.
I now feel that when I made the homage to The Mighty Boosh last time, the joke was taken a little bit too far and I never considered the fact that not everyone in the world has seen the show. When I think back to it, the joke is much better suited for an omake than an actual chapter. Azeroth44 wanted me to stick to the silly ending and cut to when Haku and Naruto meet up in the forest, but after some careful evaluation, I thought the idea sucked and decided to change it.
AZ44: Yeah, he wanted me to poke my head in here to bare guilt.
Kvsyaoran: That's right, you convincing idiot :)
By the time you are reading this introduction, the previous chapter's ending will have been changed to develop into this new chapter. In the new version, (everything is pretty much the exact same) the Kirigakure shinobi are still humorous with how they argue with each other while lost, it's just that their argumentative humor is toned down to a much more reasonable degree, where it's not too silly and not too serious. Also, the names of the Kirigakure Triplets were dropped as they were too western/Boosh for the Naruto-Universe.
AZ44: Put it back in, dammit! I loved the way it was before!
For those of you that still want to view the Toni and Saboo dialogue scene, I will gladly re-post it in the form of an omake at the end of Chapter 6: The Land Where A Hero Once Lived. If not, please enjoy what I replaced it with :)
Well, without any further interruptions, I give you the new chapter of the AotM!
Reviews are welcome and wanted!
Disclaimer: Naruto is the property of Masashi Kishimoto,
Harry Potter is property of JK Rowling,
Chapter 7: Meeting in the Forest
Back in the village of Konohagakure, Iruka Umino was lost in the mist of the early morning field inside Training Ground Three. There were no traps set, no stray kunai to step on and accidentally stab your foot, as this place served more as a memorial site, rather than a place to train and improve your skills. Hardly anybody came down here.
Iruka could not see any further than a few feet around him, as there was a heavy rain storm the previous night, and when it rained in the summer in Konoha a thick morning mist was to be expected. The chunin slowly made his way through the endless clouds of fog until he saw the the three training posts come into view. Once he was there, he turned to the Memorial Stone where the names of his parents were engraved. It had been a long time since he had been here, so he thought it would be nice if he paid them a visit.
But then he was surprised when he saw a short figure standing before the memorial, presumably a child no older than Naruto. As he approached the memorial, the figure made no attempt to move or acknowledge him as he stood before the obsidian face of the names of people that had willing sacrificed all of their existence for the sake of those still alive in the village. Iruka wished not to disturb the child from his silent prayers, so he kept quiet and looked upon the names of his parents.
After he concluded his prayers to them, he spoke up to the young boy.
"Don't mind me asking, but who are you here to see? You lost someone precious?"
The boy did not move or flinch before he pointed to a single name that was apparently one of the more recent names engraved into the stone. It meant that someone had died in the line of duty the previous the week. Iruka looked on to the most recently engraved name, and he froze as he felt his insides become cold like he swallowed ice.
うずまきナルト
Iruka's mouth opened in horror as words failed him. The boy who was looking at the name turned and revealed his face to the chunin; it was Naruto.
The boy had a kunai protruding into his forehead, cracking the metal of his headband while shuriken were lodged into his arms, legs, and torso. He looked up to his older counterpart with crimson leaking out from every pore in his boy, coating him in a layer of oozing blood that made the older man's nose cringe at the terrible smell of rotting iron. The boy had tears rolling down his face endlessly, clearing the path of blood on his cheeks as he spoke out in a voice coming from the dead.
"Why couldn't you stop me from leaving, aniki?"
The tan-skinned teacher let out a yell and he woke up with sweat beading down his face. Iruka panted as if he had run a marathon before he sat up in his bed and let his head fall into his hands. When he had calmed down, he looked to the empty space where he once had once placed Naruto's miniature bed and sighed. It had only been only one week since Team 7 departed from their mission, but Iruka was still pretty nervous and worried about how the mission was going. He tried shaking off his worries, knowing that Kakashi would keep the students safe.
Iruka wiped the sweat from his forehead and reassured himself, "Relax... He'll be fine... Hatake-senpai will protect him... he'll be okay..."
The chunin looked to his desk in the corner and stood up as he was a little too sweaty to go back to bed. He sat down at his desk and looked at the picture he had of him and Naruto when they were making silly faces and were dressed as funky Inuits. Iruka smiled and almost laughed as he remembered that early summer day before he put the picture back down on his desk and looked out his window and to the milky-white full moon. As he stared up at the midnight sky, thinking back to the last thing Naruto had told him before his departure.
'What was that thing Naruto wanted to tell me?' he asked himself before he slowly rocked himself to sleep in his chair.
{{Meeting Aragog/The Spiders Attack/Fleeing The Spiders by John Williams}}
At that very second, the blonde-haired shinobi sneezed and almost dropped the lantern. His situation wasn't getting any better as he searched through the endless forests for the way out, even with his abundant source of light at his disposal. Naruto really began to get worried that he might run into those two men from earlier. They may not have seemed like much of a threat from what he gathered about them so far. But he had a chilling feeling that it was only because they were unaware of his presence during both of their close encounters. He still had no idea what they were capable of or how dangerous they really were. The only thing he and Harry knew about them was that they were short-tempered and easily provoked with how they started fighting each other.
He looked up and switched the lantern in his hands so that he could use a spell to see how high up the trees were.
Naruto clicked his fingers and cried, "Periculum!"
He watched as a bright jet of red light shot into the sky, growing fainter and fainter the higher it went. But at the peak of it's travel, the spell released one last burst of energy, that resembled an Independence Day firework. The light it gave off reflected off of the surfaces of the leafs and trees, giving him an idea how far in the woods he was. Naruto squint his eyes and groaned once he realized he must have been at the center of the island's forest, as these trees were the highest he had ever seen in these woods. He shook his head and closed his eyes as he tried to pick up the sounds of the coastline, hoping that he wasn't too far away from any end of the island. If he could hear the sounds of crashing waves, he would follow them until he found the bridge and then get back to the house to destroy his note before anyone could read it. To his disappointment, he could hear nothing but the sounds of chirping insects and he sighed.
Then something strange happened, the forest suddenly became quiet. The sounds of the insects chirping were silenced as if someone had pushed the mute button on a remote control. It was an unnatural silence. Naruto opened his eyes at the same time Harry focused the feeling of having his shoulder shaken and spoke to him with an urgent, almost frightened-sounding voice.
'Naruto. They've found us.'
'WHAT?'
The blonde's vision cleared up and he was horrifically surprised to see the two men he thought he had avoided standing right in front of him. They were waiting for him. One of them had his arms crossed and a sickening smirk on his pointed face. The other one was fiddling around with his removed cloth mask as he stared at the boy holding their lantern with a look on his face reminiscent to childhood curiosity. That look was disturbingly mixed with an expression Naruto had never seen on a man's face before. He didn't now what it was, but he didn't like it. It was as if these men had more sinister intentions as their fingers itched at their weapons.
"Look at what we've got here, brother... Hot little dish, isn't he?"
"I was wondering who took off with our lantern when we came back."
"I take it that you also burned our valuable map as well?"
Naruto thought offhandedly, 'Not much of a loss when you think about it...'
The nervous genin shook off his thought and looked in between the two men, trying to pick up the strange difference that developed between them since their last encounter. They seemed to have forgotten their earlier conflict and were now working together as partners to gang up on Naruto.
"Listen," he tried reasoning, "how about I give you back the lantern and we can walk away from this and never speak of it again?"
The one on the right looked to his partner and said, "You know that's not a bad idea. What if he can outrun us and gets Hatake involved?"
"You are a knob," the other shinobi insulted, "He's trying to trick us."
As they started arguing with each other upon bringing up his teacher's possible involvement, Naruto took the opportunity to start itching away from them. But then he stopped when they noticed what he was trying to make a break for it and one of the siblings threw a kunai that landed an inch away from his big toe. The boy made no attempt to move as the two shinobi caught up with him and re-entered the circle of light radiating from the lantern.
"You're not going anywhere, little boy."
The shinobi on the left asked in an antagonistic tone, "Besides... who does he have to run away to? He doesn't even know where his house is, does he...?"
"What are we gonna do with him?"
"For having stolen our only means of getting out of this maze... I say we gut this kid alive... just like a piggy at the slaughter house!"
The one who wasn't wearing his mask withdrew the curved carving knife strapped to his back and started swishing at the air for practice. Naruto gulped and the blood drained from his face at the sight of that unwashed sword. The man who started to advance on Naruto licked the blood-stained blade as if it were his favorite treat while his sibling moved around the young boy with an identical blade.
The genin began to sweat and was unable to breath as it felt like he was trapped within a small room that gradually began to get smaller. These men that once almost made him laugh were about to slaughter him like a farm animal. He took one unconscious step backward and gasped when he felt something drop out of his sleeve. He looked down for a split second to see a dark-purple ball plummet towards the ground before a cover of extremely dense smoke exploded beneath them all. Naruto didn't wait another second and ran, accidentally shoving the other two men aside in the process. As he escaped from the smoke cover, he could hear the sounds of those two missing-nin running after him, their feet stomping into the earth like a herd of rhino.
Naruto tried losing them by making sharp turns around trees, hoping that they would end up colliding with each other. But that tactic worked against him as they almost grabbed him by the back of his shirt. One of them got very lucky and managed to grasped the back of Naruto's infamous orange jacket, and tugged hard enough to break the zipper clean off. With his jacket now flowing behind him loosely, Naruto abandoned the idea of turning around trees and started gathering up as much speed as he could muster.
He jumped and even screamed when he heard the sounds of whistling weapons coming from behind him, followed by the sound of metal throwing stars thudding into the trees he zoomed by. Naruto looked down and realized stupidly that he still had the lantern in his hands. He quickly threw it away underneath a fallen tree and all the forest was dark and dense once again. The loss of light provided him with a cover as he started running uphill. But the sounds of those two men were still thundering behind him, sounding exactly like horse hooves.
"HA! WE CAN STILL SEE YOU, BOY!"
Naruto swore out loud before he clicked his fingers three times, throwing his arm back with each snap as he used whatever spells he could think of that might slow them down, "Fodio! Protego! Stupefy!"
A flash of white light zoomed right through the darkness and hit a tree, while a plasma shield was easily penetrated, and a small jet of red light narrowly missed the left ear of one of those two ninja. None of his spells had worked accurately nor effectively. Naruto cursed to himself as he wished those men would go back to arguing amongst themselves like they were back at the old campsite.
He then got a very clever idea as he put his hands together and cried out his signature jutsu, "Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!"
Naruto created fifteen shadow clones and had them all split up into different directions.
"Dammit! Shadow clones!"
As the enemy shinobi were busy dealing with the clones, the real Naruto hid behind a tree and stopped to catch his breath.
'Good job, Naruto!'
'Thanks! But now isn't the time for congratulations!'
The boy frowned because he could see his shadow clones clearly in the darkness, due to their flamboyant colors. If he could see his shadow clones from this distance, then that meant that those two men could see him as well. He got another idea and immediately removed his jacket and tossed it. He would have loved to get rid of his orange pants, but he didn't have the free spirit to go parading through a forest in his underwear. With at least half of his person hidden along with the dark of night, Naruto set off in the direction he originally intended and ran away as far as he could. He made sure to keep an eye on the siblings through the shadow clones, but the connection was soon destroyed along with the remaining shadow clones and he picked up the pace.
"You're not getting away from us, kid!" he could hear faintly.
The other shinobi yelled with a more audible voice, "We're gonna cut you up into little pieces!"
Naruto continued to run as the land finally evened out. He looked back for a split second before he realized that he could see those men clearly as if it were day, which meant he was getting out of the forest. He looked ahead and noticed the trees were spaced further apart and he almost smiled with relief. Just as he was able to see the stars and moon again, he picked up a strange scent in the air, something he took in when he first set foot in that motor boat on the way over to this country. It was the smell of the ocean and it was growing stronger with each and every passing second. Harry stretched out his senses and instructed Naruto carefully as he got further out of the woods.
'Full steam ahead! Are you ready for this?'
'Yes, Nii-san!'
A few short minutes later, those two missing-nin pursuing the blonde child started laughing as they saw Naruto having stopped at the edge of the forest, hunched over his leg and out of breath. The terrifying duo sprint at the child and tackled him down, ready to start ripping him apart, limb by limb. The boy yelled out in terror as he and the others started falling. But then something eye-popping happened as Naruto exploded into white smoke and the criminal siblings looked through the smoke and realized that they had jumped off a cliff three-hundred and seventy feet above the ocean with jagged rocks waiting to impale them both at the bottom. The men both roared out in terror as they fell to the ocean failing their arms and legs all the way down, as if it would soften their fall.
The real Naruto Uzumaki was hiding underneath a bush growing beside a tree that overlooked the whole scene. He rose out of his hiding place and carefully walked over to the edge of the cliff, checking behind him in case someone was going to push him down there too. When he looked down the cliff, he could not see any bodies or any trace that the two shinobi he had been running from were even down there to begin with. Harry couldn't sense anything but he could see the dull shine of one of their swords wedged in-between two sharp rocks.
The preteen looked down and said with a shrug, "I guess that's what you get from not bringing the right map..."
Naruto turned his back to the scene and started to head back to the forest, leaving a trail behind from him to follow back out to the coast by slashing every tree he walked by with the kunai he brought with him. He had to relocate his thrown away jacket and hopefully find the lantern he had to toss. Thankfully, those two presumably dead missing-nin left behind a trail of their own with the number of kunai and shuriken lodged into the trees he started slashing. Naruto simply followed the trail of thrown away metal and his spirits were lifted when he stumbled upon his jacket. He quickly picked it up and put it back on so he could keep warm and started searching under every fallen-over tree he came upon in search for that lantern.
'If you don't find it, just forget about it and make a torch, Little one. We have to get out of here.'
The boy nodded his head as he looked under two more trees. When he reached the fourth tree since that last communication, he spotted a faint glow emanating from under a branch that appeared to be smoking. Naruto quickly dove down under it and found the lantern and it was on fire. Naruto was quick with putting it out and saw that a good deal of it had been burned. He used a few simple spells in an attempt to repair it. Once he finished, Naruto relit the tiny candle on the inside and searched for the trail of kunai he had followed to this part of the woods. He looked for the trail but soon realized that he was lost yet again. The boy kicked a nearby tree in frustration, wishing he had stayed in bed as his sensei wanted him to. He would have loved to swear his head off for being so foolish, but he was too tired to be angry and start running his mouth off.
With no direction to guide him out of the lost woods, Naruto decided to just start wandering around the forest aimlessly, unable to locate the coast even with his older brother's outstretched senses. He walked through the woods for a solid hour before he collapsed into a soft bed of grass and fell into a deep sleep.
{{Sayuri's Theme by John Williams}}
Early the next morning, at Gatō's headquarters at the mainland, a young girl emerged from her chambers and entered the bedroom of her resting grey-skinned master. She crept towards him slowly, having removed her shoes so she wouldn't disturb his slumber, and started flexing her fingers in preparation. When she came to his side, she couldn't help but giggle softly as her master was snoring very audibly. She pulled back the heavy sheets and examined his shirtless chest. She then softly pinched at the muscles in his arms, upper-chest area and even inspected the joints in his legs. She could feel the incredible tension as they were almost as hard as bone. The girl frowned as this was a clear indication that her master was experiencing a tremendous amount of physical pain and stiffness. He probably couldn't even move in this state.
As soon as she was finished with checking him over, Haku softly stroked Zabuza's hair before she left him to rest peacefully. She then walked to the large set of windows in the room just as the sun was beginning to rise. She stared out into the pinewood forests as she slowly removed the bun on the back of her head and let her long black hair flow down to her waist. Haku closed her eyes and shook her head, letting her hair be free and loose before she opened her eyes and adopted a subtle fire in them. If she wanted her master to be relieved of the pain in his body, then she would have to venture deep into enemy territory for the correct herbs and plants she would need to brew the medicine.
She swiftly left her master to sleep and returned to her own chambers, where she started changing into her civilian set of clothes. She dressed herself in a pink sleeveless, low-cut kimono, with pale red edges and decorated with small plum-colored swirls, that went down to her ankles. Around her waist, she strapped on a simple white obi tied in a bow, and wore a pair of light brown sandals with dark straps and a dark choker around her neck.
Before she reached for her picnic basket with her senbon inside of it, she heard the sounds of a person having entered her room without permission. It was the younger of Gatō's personal samurai, the one with the ridiculous purple hat. Haku hated him and how he had been eyeing at her these past few days. He came walking in with a skimpy red dress in his hands and a perverted smile on his tattooed face. Haku glared at him coldly as she could read his intentions before he had even divulged them to her.
"Hey there, pretty little lady... What do you say, since we're letting you stay here and all, that you provide us gentlemen with some... appropriate compensation? Catching my drift?"
Haku remained cool and collective as she picked up her basket and made her way to leave. But then the samurai slammed his free hand against the frame of the door to prevent her from leaving. He looked at her with a twisted smile and the icy kunoichi cringed internally at the sight of his crooked and discolored teeth.
He asked as if he were playing a game, "Where do you think you're going, little lady?"
The pale-skinned hunter became infuriated by his inappropriate and borderline pedophiliac behavior and poorly resisted the urge to teach him a lesson. She tried to keep herself calm and gave him one more chance to let her go before he would regret it.
"Let me through." she ordered calmly.
"Ho-ho! You're not leaving until you give me a little dance, my tight little pussy-"
That last detail set the young girl right off the bat, as she grit her teeth and growled at him before she disappeared briefly and drove her powerful knee directly into his groin. The samurai's eyes almost bugled out of his skull before he let out an agonizing moan and fell to the ground, writhing in pain. Haku then kicked him out of the way of the door as harshly as she could and made her way to leave.
As she quietly walked through the corridors of the fortress, hiding in the shadows from various other thugs hired by that horrid goblin. Haku quietly crept towards the first exit she could find but was almost caught when she turned the corner and spotted Gatō talking with one of those three shinobi triplets from Kirigakure no Sato. The young girl noticed the short man in the business suit now had a cast wrapped around his arm from the incident a few days ago. She looked at him calculatingly as he looked just as furious as ever while the much taller man appeared to be reasoning with him over something. Haku barely paid attention as she searched for a way around them to sneak out for her medicine.
"Where are those idiot brothers of yours?" he outraged, "They should have returned here last night after they finished their reconnaissance of Tazuna's hometown! Don't you dare tell me that they got lost or some other crazy bullshit!"
The eldest sibling tried again, "Sir-"
"If none of you start pulling your heads out of your asses, I'm docking all of your pay!" he interrupted angrily.
The older of the triplets yelled back, "We're working on it!"
With such luck on her side, the other of the two samurai had just gotten back from the closest town carrying a large crate filled with liquor and tobacco. She took her opportunity and disappeared without a trace, reappearing outside the door just before it slammed shut and the angry yells of Gatō and the older samurai ensued along with the third shinobi triplet. Haku blew a few whisks of her black hair out of her face before she carried her picnic basket with a swing and started walking towards the direction of the Land of Waves, acting as if she were on an early Sunday morning stroll.
At Tazuna's house, Sasuke slowly woke up when his mental alarm clock went off. He groggily got up and out of bed and looked to the only mirror in the room so he could smooth his hair. He looked over to Naruto and was surprised to see his bed was empty. He failed to recall the events from last night as he marched to the bathroom to wash up.
After he was freshened up for the day, he went downstairs to see his sensei and Tazuna's family already up. He looked around and his rival was nowhere to be found.
Kakashi was sitting in the corner of the dining room and was nervously picking at the metal plates in his gloves as he stared blankly into space with a yellow note crumbled in his other hand. The Uchiha heir sat down at the end of the table and nodded his head to Tsunami when she dropped a plate of breakfast for him. Inari was currently swirling the milk in his cereal bowl when he looked up and also noticed that Naruto wasn't around. He remained quiet and to himself while he tilted his hat down over his face.
Just as Sasuke had finished up his morning meal, Sakura made her graceful entrance by walking in and yawning quiet loudly.
"Good morning, everybody..." she mumbled as she sat down.
Tsunami placed a plate down for Sakura as well before going back to the kitchen to get a plate ready for Naruto, thinking he was taking his time to get ready.
"Thank you!" she said as she looked around and noticed something off about this picture, "Where's the baka?"
Kakashi explained, "Naruto decided to sneak out and go back to training last night. He left us this note so we wouldn't worry and wonder where he was."
"Oh, you have got to be kidding me..." she started as she rolled her eyes.
Tazuna looked up from his meal as the rest of his family looked up from what they were doing out of either curiosity or concern, "He went out? But I thought he was beat from yesterday's training. You tucked him in yourself, didn't you? He should still be out cold in the state he was in last night."
"Heh! Naruto is very special kid," the teacher said confidently, "He has the best stamina and healing abilities out of everyone else on the team or anyone in his graduating class."
Sakura rolled her again as she said critically, "He's completely crazy. Climbing up trees in the dark with eyesight as bad as his. He could be lying out there dead by now for using too much of his chakra."
Tsunami looked concerned as she put the boy's food away for him to eat when he got back.
"I hope he's alright," she said supportively, "It's not good for a child to spend the night in the woods alone..."
Kakashi eye-smiled to Tsunami, reassuring the others as well as himself, "There's no need to worry too much. Naruto is a goofy kid, but he's also a fully-fledged shinobi. I'm sure that he's more than qualified to handle himself out there."
"Sakura's right," said the brooding Uchiha, "Naruto is such a loser. He could be out there lying dead somewhere."
Tazuna and Tsunami looked to each other with eyes of concern while Kakashi looked at the black-haired boy with a flat and disapproving look on his masked face before he said sarcastically, "That's a very nice thing for you to say, Sasuke."
The black-haired boy didn't seem to care as he stood up from his seat and headed towards the front door. Sakura raised her eyebrows at her crush and almost stood up herself.
"Where are you going, Sasuke-kun?" she asked.
The Uchiha did not even have the courtesy to turn around when he answered her, "I'm going for a walk. I'll be back eventually."
"But we just started eating!" she insisted.
Sasuke then answered her, "You just started eating, not me."
Before she could finish her excuse for him to stay, the black-haired boy closed the door behind him and walked off to wherever his heart told him to go. The pink-haired kunoichi looked down at Sasuke's empty plate from breakfast and one of her eyebrows twitched in surprise and irritation as she was unable to have enough time to talk to him, "That was fast..."
(A/N: I just love how in this original scene, Sakura just goes ahead and flat-out tells the civilians in the room the secrets of shinobi training methods from her village, just so she can belittle Naruto. I'm not sure if telling people outside your village hidden secrets is considered treason, but I think a move that stupid is well-deserving of a karmic hit to the head.)
{{Love Death Birth by Carter Burwell}}
(A/N: It's a very pleasing theme by itself, I felt that it would be more deserving for someone like Haku instead of the chick from the Twilight movies)
Haku eventually reached the Land of Waves within the passing hour and made her way to the deepest and most dense regions of the forests on the largest island she happened upon. She found exactly what she was looking for when she stumbled upon a vast collection of the special herbs and plants that she needed to concoct her medicine with. She calmly picked herb after the next as the sunlight came bursting through the trees and bathed her and the surrounding areas with a warm blanket of light. As Haku peacefully plucked a few more plants and flowers, several neighboring sparrows came flying in and perched on her shoulders, completely unafraid of her presence.
She smiled sweetly as one of the birds looked at her with a curious tilted head. Haku enjoyed the peaceful company as she checked her bag and gave the birds a handful of seeds to feed them with. With the birds busy feasting on Haku's generous offering, she looked over to see how many other herbs she could greedily gather when she stumbled upon an alarming sight that caused both her and the birds resting on her shoulders to jump.
It was a boy with golden hair, resting peacefully in a bed of grass with a kunai held loosely in his right hand and a burnt out lantern in the other. At first, she though he was dead but then he stirred and tilted his head towards her direction. Upon fully seeing his face and the symbol on his headband, Haku almost gasped as she recognized him as the curious boy she encountered after she ended the fight between Zabuza and the man with the silver hair. She raised her eyebrows warily and she stood up to leave her feathered friends in peace with their meal. She slowly approached the slumbering boy, watching his chest raise and fall and saw one of the veins on his neck pulse with life once she got close enough. Her expression softened bit by bit as she got closer to him. There were more sparrows here in the clearing the boy had slept in, pecking at his cheeks and clothes curiously. Haku kneeled down to his level and fought to resist the thought of finishing him off when she had the perfect opportunity. She slowly stretched her pale hand out, almost making it look like she was reaching for his exposed neck.
Naruto was completely oblivious to Haku's actions until he felt a subtle pain shoot across his forehead and woke him up at the same time Harry unexpectedly yelled in his ear in warning.
'Little one! WAKE UP!'
The boy opened his cerulean-blue eyes but remained planted on the ground as a dark figure hovered over him. Haku froze for a few seconds before she started shaking his shoulders gently to get him to fully wake up. She had paused as she was captivated by the sight of Naruto's incredible sapphire eyes, unable to believe that they were his natural color. But she quickly snapped out of it and she spoke to him with a soft and gentle voice.
"You'll catch a cold if you sleep out here."
He sat up-right as his vision cleared and then Naruto froze when he was captivated by her pale skin and long black hair. The unmasked hunter-nin was very beautiful, making it very hard to believe that she was the about the same age as the young blonde boy staring at her. Naruto immediately blushed when she smiled back at him kindly and tilted her head in an irresistibly cute fashion. He started rubbing his nose as he feared he might have some dirt on his face from sleeping in the woods.
While Naruto tried to figure out what to say to her, Harry immediately recognized the color of the girl's hair and distinct voice.
"Hi, uh..." he greeted nervously, "How's it going? W-who are you?"
'What are you an idiot?'
'Huh?'
'Can't you recognize her voice?'
Haku smiled at Naruto again and giggled before she answered him, "My name is not really important. I'm just your average everyday civilian... Heh!"
The boy froze for a split second as he recognized her distinct giggle. He tried imagining seeing a red and white porcelain mask placed over her face, wearing a different set of clothes, and a few senbon needles in between her fingers. Naruto did his best to hide what he knew using the principles of Occlumency once he put the pieces together.
'She... she's the hunter-nin that killed Zabuza...!'
'You better be careful with this one... Be ready to attack her at any second.'
'No...' the boy answered as he quickly calmed down, 'I don't think she's going to hurt me.'
'Are you high?'
'Hear me out, will you!'
'What makes you think she won't attack you?'
'You really don't see it in her eyes? And you're supposed to be a master of Occlumency.'
'What do you mean?'
'She had the opportunity to kill me when I was asleep. She saw my face that day at the lake. She knows who I am and yet she didn't kill me when she had the perfect opportunity. Why wouldn't she have killed me? If you ask me, I don't think she even wants to fight me... Give me a chance and let's see where this goes...'
'I get what you're saying... But I'll still be ready to help fuel you magic...'
'Do what you have to then, Nii-san...'
As the two kids started talking to each other, Harry slowly let himself calm down as he carefully studied the girl through her actions and mannerisms, determining that maybe his younger brother was correct. She made no nervous movements and didn't showed any indication that she meant any ill-intentions. But still, the older wizard did not let his guard down and was ready to help give his younger brother all the power he would need to use fully-powered spells.
Naruto let the girl help him up on his feet and followed her back to her picnic basket full of ingredients and belongings. When they sat down close by the basket, Naruto decided to start things off.
"Um... Don't mind me asking, but what are you doing out here all by yourself? These woods can be extremely dangerous if you're not well-prepared."
"I was gathering special herbs." she answered back.
Naruto plucked out one of the plants beneath his fingers, "Herbs? You mean these things here?"
"That's right," she smiled, "they're for treating illnesses and healing wounds. My father needs them to heal up from his injuries. He got into a spot of trouble with another dangerous man last week and needs a special medicine to heal up."
"Your father?" the raised his eyebrows as he put more pieces together, "Does he live back in town?"
The girl smiled at him, "No. He's sick in bed at the mainland. He won't be able to heal in time if I don't get the right ingredients that are only found on this island. I had to stowaway on a passing ship just to get over here."
"Whoa... That's an interesting story." he said as he could tell she lied about the stowaway.
Haku smiled again, "Well, I love my father. So I'm willing to risk getting chucked out of a ship if it will help him recover."
Naruto offered his assistance to the girl, knowing full-well that she was going to use the medicine she was planing on making to accelerate Zabuza's recovery. But it didn't matter if he helped pick a few plants, Zabuza was going to make a speedy recovery inevitably. So all he could do was help her and hopefully uncover any information he could obtain about his future opponent to give him an edge and most likely give the information to his teacher if he was able to get away and find the house. But in the meantime, he would have to be patient and careful.
"You sure do like to work early, don't you?" he asked.
The girl with black hair answered, "I like getting up early in the morning. But I can honestly say that I didn't expect to see a boy my age sleeping in the woods." Haku looked to the boy after they had gathered enough herbs to last a week, "So why were you out here sleeping in the forest?"
"I was training!" he said back enthusiastically.
She asked him curiously, "With that kind of an answer and that headband you're wearing, that means your a shinobi, correct?"
"That's right!" he answered as he started readjusting his headband, "I'm training so I can develop my skills and become stronger. But I still have a very long way to go."
"You already seem so strong now..." she blushed lightly, "Shouldn't that be enough for you, then?"
Naruto shook his head and said, "No way! I have to keep building my strength until I am stronger than anyone else in my home village. It's because I want to become a Kage, who is deemed the strongest and most powerful shinobi in all the land." he clenched his fist with excitement and continued, "Once I claim that title, everybody back in my home village that treated me like dirt will have to look up and acknowledge me as the number one shinobi in the village! The looks on their faces on that day, I can't wait to see them!"
Haku looked at Naruto with a calculating expression, she wanted to know something about this boy before they would go any further.
"Can I ask you a question?" she started.
The blonde smiled, "You already did, but I'll let you ask another one."
"Heh!" she giggled again, "Okay... You're a shinobi, right?"
He smiled again, "Now it's gonna be three questions!"
She started laughing and the barrier between enemies seemed to crumble before both of them.
"Cut it out, you goofball! What I really wanted to ask you... was why you are working so hard to become strong? Is it because you're doing it for someone you care about, or is it for your own self-gratification?"
Naruto tilted his head in slight confusion, "What do you mean?"
"Well..." she hesitated, "What I mean is... do have someone who is precious to you?"
The boy raised his eyebrow and was wondering why his future enemy would ask for such a thing from him. Haku hesitated as she took a minute to reflect upon her past, seeing herself as a recently thrown-out slave-girl sitting outside the trash cans of a local whore house. She could remember that one day when everything changed for her and she saw a man standing across from her; casting a tall dark monstrous shadow but had the same eyes as she did.
She looked back up at her new friend and said with a slightly serious voice, "When people are protecting something or someone that is truly precious to them, it is only then do they become genuinely strong..."
Naruto raised both of his eyebrows before his face softened and his memories came rushing back to him. He could remember a giant shuriken, a warm figure protecting him at the cost of his body, his current sensei looking back at him with that signature eye-smile in the mist, and a vision of Kaiza's picture restored in the photograph hanging up in Tazuna's living room.
"Yeah... I know exactly what you mean..." he said quietly.
Haku asked him, "You do?"
"Absolutely... For starters..." he said calmly, "I would have to say... my big brother... he's always been fair and kind to me... Always watching my back and keeping me out of trouble..."
Haku smiled warmly, despite her icy complexion, "Anyone else?"
"I would have to say my grandpa... my teacher Kaka-sensei, he's always been so nice to me... my female teammate Sakura-chan..."
Haku cringed when she thought of the pink-haired girl and how much she had failed to contribute in the fight that happened a few days ago. It really made her wonder why that girl was even on the team and could only hope that the boy in front of her wouldn't end up with her in the end.
"Anybody else?"
"There's one other person..." he said hesitantly, Naruto seemed almost embarrassed to admit this last part, "My other teammate... All I can really say is that, because we're both orphans... I care about him... a lot... But don't you dare tell him that, or he'll push me away even more!"
The black-haired girl giggled again as she lied, "Heh! I don't even know what he looks like!"
The two of them talked for another few minutes, exchanging jokes and even talking about similar hobbies and tastes. Together they burned through numerous topics ranging from favorite ramen flavors to comic books. Naruto almost had to slap himself in the face to make sure that this girl was real. He studied her carefully as they were talking, determining that she was being genuinely honest when they were talking about their hobbies. It was like this girl was perfect in every way a nerd could dream of. It was almost hard for Naruto to keep going with the plan on uncovering information about her and Zabuza that could give him an advantage in the future. He tried for several minutes, asking her how she would combat with superheroes or villains (Naruto choosing whichever the one he related to the most in comparison to his true abilities) to which she would answer with only the obvious choice. Haku never made her own real decision, so as not to give anything away to her new friend if he managed to make the connection to the hunter-nin with her.
After about thirty minutes, Haku started packing away her things into her basket and dusted off her clothes.
"I'd hate to keep you from your training, but I'd better get going..." she said as she bowed her head.
Naruto sat up straighter, "You're leaving?"
"I'm sorry, but my father really needs me to get back home. You know how it is with people who are precious to you, right?" she said as she reached for her basket.
Before she had a chance to stand, Naruto decided to fully break the barrier and asked her quietly,"So... is Zabuza Momochi your precious person?"
The slightly older girl froze like a statue when she heard that sentence uttered and she slowly looked at the boy who was the very first person to ever deduce her identity. She then lowered a suspicious eyebrow when said boy looked back at her with unusually calm and collecting eyes. Something in those wondrous sapphires came out and told her that there was nothing to be feel alarmed or threatened of. For reasons she felt were best left unexplained, she could feel like this boy was not going to attempt to do anything any other shinobi in his place would attempt to do.
"My name is Naruto. Can you please tell me your name?" he asked.
The girl slowly sat back down but she continued studying her soon-to-be enemy but then her face softened when she gazed into his eyes again.
"Haku."
"Don't worry," he said to reassure her, "I don't really have any intention of attacking you or anything, so long as you promise not to attack or kill me."
Haku then asked him, "Well... Why?"
"Because... I think we could settle things when we are forced to clash one another... on the battlefield... whatever you like to call it... We're not with our respected masters now, so we have no reason to feel pressured or obligated to attack each other... at least not yet."
"What do you want from me?" she asked calmly.
Naruto answered her, "I just wanna know something... I want to know why you work for someone like Zabuza... Why is he so precious to you?"
"People have their reasons for caring for the people they care about... All I can say is that he saved me..." she hesitated and then finally answered.
The boy across from her looked into her eyes and could tell just by looking at them that she didn't want to tell him about too much of her past, "You don't want to talk about it then...?"
"Not really..." she said sadly, "My mind is more set on getting back to him and giving him his medicine... He's in a lot of pain right now and it's worrying me... If someone you cared about was in the state he's in now, you would want to get through anything to bring them back to health... Wouldn't you?"
Naruto took in what she said and slowly stood up, pocketing his kunai into his right-thigh holster. Haku looked up at him with a soft look of surprise and made no attempt to reach for the weapons she knew she had hiding in her basket.
"Then I won't keep you..." he said as he thought back to his sensei, "I should probably get back to my own team anyway..."
Just as Naruto was about to turn his back to Haku, she raised her eyebrows and held out her hand to beckon for him, "Wait..."
The boy turned around again to face her and she looked at him with honest eyes.
"You helped me gathering herbs for Zabuza... I should return the favor to you..."
"Are you serious?" he asked.
Haku smiled up at him before she stood up and left her basket behind, "It would not be a fair fight when we must clash again. So I feel that you should know a good trick with mastering the tree climbing exercise."
"How did you know that I-?"
She answered him as she pointed to her left, "When I was walking through to get here, I saw the slash marks you and your friends made on the trees. It's the basic tree-climbing exercise. I practiced that just before I started working with senbon needles and secret jutsu techniques Master Zabuza helped me create."
"Oh..." he hesitated as Harry started writing what she said down and patted the boy on the shoulder.
Haku looked to Naruto and actually started blushing when she offered, "Would you like my help...? Or not?"
"Sure." he said enthusiastically.
Haku's mouth opened slightly before she smiled lightly and the two of them headed towards the nearest trees where they could practice together. At seeing this happening, Harry started to shake his head in denial as he could not believe that his younger brother had magically turned a dangerous enemy into a brand new friend.
'How he was able to do that is truly beyond me...'
For about one hour, Haku went out of her way and actually started tutoring Naruto on how to properly execute the tree-climbing exercise. She helped her new friend learn to conquer gravity and start soaring up towards the sky, using similar teaching techniques that Zabuza used to help her learn. Throughout their time together, Haku was actually having genuine fun with another human being for the first time in years. She couldn't remember experiencing this much enjoyment with another person her age since the days she lived on a farm with her original parents. She could just barely remember the sounds of her own laughter and another boy's when she used to run through the snowy fields of the village valley.
Naruto himself was having a great time improving on his exercises with this girl. In the time since she offered her help, he actually forgot that this girl was a hunter-nin set upon possibly destroying him in the not-too-distant future. All of those negative emotions and resentful feelings seemed to vanish when Haku and Naruto stared at each other once they fell back down to the earth together. They looked to each other and decided to have a race, to see which one of them would make it to the top first. As they zoomed towards the sky, Haku told Naruto that he could use his chakra to give himself a boost of power and speed if he focused it properly. Harry made sure to write all of this down and commit it to heart, while Haku demonstrated this ability flawlessly when she started jumping from tree to tree, going up higher and higher as she began beating the blonde wizard.
Naruto tried giving it a shot, but he messed it up on the first try. He focused too much chakra that caused the bark beneath his feet to crumble beneath him and he started falling to the ground at a hundred and fifty feet. Naruto almost yelled as he plummeted toward the ground, Haku vanished from the upper branches and reappeared upside-down in a branch right below him. Before he slipped from under her, she caught him by the wrist and saved him from hitting the ground and prevented serious injury.
Haku swung the boy back and forth and threw him against the tree. Naruto wrapped his arms and legs around the tree and slid down with ease, thanking his new friend for the help. That almost-accident signaled the end of their playtime as Haku grew even more nervous about her master. But before she had to take off, she gave her friend an important reminder about the exercise that could help him.
"Just remember... If you want to climb up a tree, you must climb at it without any fear of falling down. You must be headstrong and treat whatever surface you must attach your feet to without really thinking that your scaling anything."
He smiled at her and said, "I think I got it down. Thank you."
"You must not fear falling from the base of the tree. It should be the other way around." she added as she walked over to her basket.
The boy looked to her as he wrapped his jacket around his waist, "Before you go, which direction are the trees where my teammates were practicing on? I'm gonna be honest, I got lost last night and I have no idea where they are anymore."
"It's approximately... two kilometers due east from here."
"Right!" smiled the young wizard before he stopped and hesitated embarrassingly, "Which direction is east?"
Haku smiled humorously as she pointed him in the right direction.
"Oh." he smiled, "Thanks."
An awkward silence permeated in the morning air as these two children looked to each other. A very slight breeze managed to penetrate through the forest to their location. The slight wind that brushed against their faces carried a silent realization that the next time these two would every meet again would be when they're holding weapons against each others throats. Haku and Naruto were both reluctant to go back to their respective allies, fearing that their newly blossomed friendship would not be able to thrive and expand any further than it did this one memorable morning. They both kicked their feet at the ground lightly and accepted the inevitable silently with twin sighs.
Before he could turn to leave, Haku spoke up to him and asked one last question.
"Naruto-kun..." she started slowly, "You understood what I said about true strength, correct?"
"Yes." he answered.
Haku sighed and then gave the boy a slightly serious look as her grip over her basket tightened, "Then I know that you will one day become very strong."
After one more moment of silence, they were both ready to part ways on equal grounds.
"So long, Haku-chan." he said softly as he turned around and walked east.
Haku turned toward the west and looked ahead of herself sadly as she whispered, "Farewell, Naruto-kun."
It didn't take Naruto that long to find the clearing he had been searching for all of last night. He sighed in relief when he found the familiar matted grass and the rocks that he and Sasuke hit their heads upon after their first several attempts to tree-climbing (the blood stained on them was proof of that alone). He looked up at the tree he had been practicing on and sighed before he turned toward the direction of his client's home, eager to get out of these woods before something else found him. He just wanted to curl up on his futon and take a nap before he would train for even one more minute.
But before he could take his first step out of those woods, he was surprised when he was encountered by his black-haired rival. There Sasuke stood with his hands tucked away in his pockets and his head held up high. He approached Naruto with a bothersome smirk on his pale face which made both Naruto and his invisible companion cringe in disgust.
"What happened to you, dobe?" he asked, commenting on his teammate's dirt-smeared face, "Did you fall down and land on your face or were you just born that way?"
Naruto was not in the mood to be insulted or belittled by his teammate at the moment. He would have thrown back a hot retort, but instead chose to scowl at him angrily and felt like punching the ever-loving crap out of him. Once he was older and knew more about girls, he would understand where these feelings were coming from and learn to keep them in check. Naruto furrowed his eyebrows at Sasuke deeply before he let out a subtle growl in his throat and he frowned.
"I don't want to deal with you right now, teme. I'm going to bed." he said bitterly.
The younger genin gave his teammate a patented shoulder-bump as he made his way back to the house. Sasuke widened his eyes and raised his eyebrows at his rival when he walked back to the house, words failing him at witnessing his unprecedented behavior. It wasn't until after he had vanished, did the Uchiha finally find his voice.
"I was just... messing around..." he said when he was alone.
Sasuke kicked the dirt beneath him lightly before he turned to the trees and examined the marks on them both.
Early the next morning, Naruto snuck out of bed like he did the previous night and tip-toed his way downstairs to the kitchen for breakfast. He was up before Kakashi or any of Tazuna's family, so he would have to make breakfast for himself. He collected two onigiri in a napkin and carefully made his way around a slumbering Kakashi Hatake. He just barely managed to make his way out of the kitchen without making so much as a plank of wood creak beneath his feet and made it out the door, closing it behind him quietly.
Naruto looked up to the skies, to take some time in appreciating the magnificent golden colors of the breaking dawn. When he had seen enough, Naruto made sure he did not trail away from the small forest road leading to the practicing trees. Once he got there, he traveled west, to the location of the herbal bed where he and the hunter-nin met formally. When he got there, he sat down in the middle of the clearing and waited, hoping Haku would return and the two of them could spend more time together. Admittedly, he didn't really want their previous encounter to be the last one before they had to fight each other. But no matter how long he stayed there for, she never showed up.
While he waited, he took a single sample of one of the herbs that Haku had been plucking the previous day and looked down at the plant, studying it. He smelled it for a few seconds before he sighed and unconsciously tucked it into one of his pockets. As the sun slowly began to rise above the great ocean horizon and the skies turned lighter and more blue, he gave up as he was certain that she wouldn't come back. He stood up and looked out to the west for one more moment before he turned and walked back to the practice clearing.
If Naruto had only waited a few more short minutes, he would have seen an optimistic black-haired girl emerge out from nowhere and arrive with a picnic basket full of lunch instead of weapons and medicinal herbs.
The boy planted himself at the center of the practice clearing and helped himself to the first of his two onigiri. Sure he was being greedy with packing two for himself, but he wasn't sure if the second would serve him as his lunch or not. Naruto sat there on the grass and dirt, munching down on his breakfast when he was met with curious sight. It was Sasuke again and he had just arrived from the house to get started on his training for the day. The Uchiha heir approached his teammate, standing directly in front of him with his hands firmly at his sides. Naruto continued to chew on his rice and seaweed as he looked up at Sasuke with bored eyes.
The black-haired genin looked down at his rival and greeted, "Dobe."
"Sasuke." the blonde boy greeted back.
Without any hair or sign of his actions, the older genin took his left hand and hit Naruto on the head with the same amount of force as the aggressive shoulder bump from the day before. Thankfully, the black-haired student waited until after his teammate had swallowed his bite of breakfast, so that he wouldn't choke or gag on his rice.
"OW!" he outraged, "What was that for?"
The Uchiha merely grunted as Naruto dropped his food and started rubbing the top of his head as he felt a slight bump begin to swell on his scalp. He soon snapped his head up at Sasuke, expecting an explanation for his actions but then he stopped. The older genin had a very different expression on his face, the likes of which our blonde-haired champion had never seen on his face before. He appeared to have a softer look on his face as his face slowly developed a pink tint in his upper-cheeks.
He then asked hesitantly, "Do you... umm... do you want to... race to the top, Naruto?"
"Eh?" the younger genin was confused by this gesture and tilted his head before he thought to what Haku helped him realize about he cared about.
"Umm..." the boy shrugged, "Sure!"
Sasuke grunted again as he tried to suck the flush out of his face as he partner stood up.
Naruto took a quick stretch and looked up at his untouched tree and then compared it to the Uchiha's. He was astounded when he realized that there were no new slash-marks made in the amount of time Sasuke had to advance, like he never even bothered with continuing to ascend up his tree until his rival came back. The Uchiha tried to hide his face from view once he realized he had been found out and the blonde shinobi smiled ever-so slightly, feeling his resentment towards Sasuke slide for the time being.
To Be Continued
That was some piece of work I got done here, if I may say so myself!
Naruto: Pretty good!
Kvsyaoran: Thanks! Took a while, but I think I got it down just right with you meeting Haku and everything!
AZ44: I still think you shouldn't have changed the scene last chapter, I liked it when those Kiri shinobi were Toni and Saboo.
Kvsyaoran: I told you. It's more appropriate for an omake. Not an actual scene.
AZ44: But they were silly!
Kvsyaoran: You're silly!
AZ44: That's why I loved them!
Kvsyaoran: I've already explained everything in the introduction, I don't need to debate this with you again!
AZ44: I DEMAND FOR ANOTHER DEBATE!
Naruto: (Finds a frying pan and hits Azeroth44 on the head with it) Frying pans! Who knew, right?
Kvsyaoran: And without further delay, it's omake time!
AZ44: (GASP!)
Kvsyaoran: Toni and Saboo are not in it!
AZ44: Aww...
Naruto climbed into bed a little bit early that night. He dug through his beaded bag and found a few comic books to read when he felt something poking at his bottom. He dug into his back pockets and found something folded in one of them. He pulled it out and then remembered that he had taken one of the herbs that Haku had been plucking up for medicine yesterday. Naruto suddenly felt a swoop of excitement as he gathered the herb and got out of bed to talk to Kakashi. He heard Sakura in her room sleeping and he knew that Sasuke was in the bathroom brushing his teeth. He made his way downstairs and saw his sensei in his bed, flak jacket hanging on the chair with his backpack. The teacher was reading from his little orange book when he looked up at Naruto and stashed it away under his pillow.
"Sorry to disturb you, Kakashi-sensei. I just wanted to ask you something." he started.
His teacher shrugged and invited him into the living room, "Anything."
Naruto sat down on a footrest and pulled the medicinal herb out of his jacket pocket and handed it to his sensei.
"Could you help me identify this plant?"
Kakashi took the plant and examined it for several long moments. It wasn't until he started smelling it did he manage to identify it.
"This is a sample of ashwagandha."
The boy raised one of his eyebrows, "Is that bad?"
"This is a very rare herb used for medical purposes." his teacher answered impressively.
"For healing wounds?" he asked, "Maybe we can use it to help you heal up?"
Kakashi adopted a wary look in his lone eye and held his hand up in protest, "I... don't want to use this, Naruto."
"Why?" he asked curiously, "Wouldn't this stuff heal your wounds and bring you back to health?"
The jounin sighed and then informed his student, "Naruto, this is a key ingredient for anabolic steroids."
"It is?" he asked as his eyes grew wide and wary as well.
Harry whistled and rubbed the back of his head nervously, 'Oooooh, boy...'
Back at Gatō's fortress, Zabuza was currently rested in bed and adjusting to the medicine Haku had given him about an hour ago. He started to feel his muscles loosen up and the pain wore off for the time being. But then he started feeling strange when it seemed like his muscles were beginning to swell very gradually. When he tried analyzing what was happening to him in his head, he started losing control of his emotions and start switching moods from angry to sad, and then back to angry again. The weirdest and most infuriating part for Zabuza was when he started crying right when Haku walked in to check on him.
At the sounds of her master's poorly held-in weeping she looked over to him.
She asked him warily, "Are you okay, Master Zabuza?"
"Yeah. No. I'm fine..." he sniffed, "It's just... I start thinking and-ERGGGH! IT MAKES ME SO ANGRY!"
Haku's eyebrows almost flew off her face when Zabuza burst out like that and then started laughing in high-pitched wheezes and seemed to be smiling like a mad-man underneath the mask.
"What-what the hell was in that medicine?"
The young girl walked over to her basket sitting on top of the table by the window and looked over the plants she had picked with Naruto earlier that morning. She gulped and her eyes almost popped out of her skull when she realized the mistake she had made by picking the stronger variety of healing herbs. Zabuza continued to laugh as his pupils started dilating and the shadows under his eyes started to pinken as if he were punched in the face.
"What was in it?" he asked again.
Haku hid the herbs beneath a blanket in the basket and turned to her father nervously, "Nothing."
"RAHHHHHHHHH!"
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