It was two days after they had begun and passed their training when Naruto announced that he was going to keep at it and vanished from sight. Not one to be outdone Sasuke followed after and Sakura was left with bridge duty. Ava and I shook our heads at this and let them do as they pleased. We had never been that motivated to train, not until we got out first C-rank mission. Now that was a disaster.


"Are you sure we're ready for this Hiroto-Sensei?" Ana, our third team mate, a girl from a civilian family, asked, pressing her lips together. Her blonde hair was in a loose bun, her blue eyes looking apprehensively at our teacher. Hiroto-sensei stood before us, dressed in the typical Jonin outfit while we three genin stood around him, watching. We were almost nine then, Ana nearing thirteen.

Ava was to my left, her blue eyes calculating while Ana was on my right, looking nervous. I was the only boy in my graduating class, in several classes in fact, with two girl for teammates. It's not as fun as it sounds. We were all in our normal outfits, our gear strapped on in various places. Ava had a deep rooted love of a dark blue hoodie that had once been our fathers, and always wore it over a black shirt and her black ninja pants, standard sandals on her feet and Hitai-ate tied around her forehead. Ana preferred a white skirts over leggings, the sandals, and a loose green shirt, Hitai-ate a necklace. I was perfectly fine with a long sleeved black shirt and the same everything else as my sister. We both had out clan symbols on our backs, an off shaped pentagon with a five curves shapes curling inside.

My mother had explained that it was supposed to look like a hand, or the fingers at least, curled in. That was the most basic form of our fighting style, not a fist, but a clawed hand. We had the ultimate defense, the unbreakable shield, and the greatest offense as well.

"I've trained you brats for long enough," he stated harshly, glaring at us through his remaining eye, a deep brown that rarely held approval. They certainly didn't now. Ava was nodding thoughtfully.

"What will our mission be, sensei?" she asked, and I looked up, waiting the answer. Hiroto unrolled the mission scroll he had brought to our training grounds and us to see, crouching on the ground and letting us gather around him.

"There's been a cougar spotted in the mountains west of here, and it's been blamed for the death of several children in the village that sent for our help. What you three will be doing is tracking it down, and killing it. We leave in three hours, pack for a week long trip. Dismissed."

We left then, Ana going home to get her things while Ava and I went to our own abode to pack up and eat quickly.

"Okaa-san! We're back!" I called cheerfully, and my then still alive mother looked in at us from the living room, book in her hands. Her eyes held a bit more light today than yesterday, and I felt my grin grow wide when I saw it.

"Did something happen to cut your training short?" she asked, and Ava pushed me towards the hallway that led to our rooms.

"Nothing bad. Sensei just got us a mission out of the village, so we'll be gone for about a week. We need to pack and meet him at the front gate in a few hours," my sister explained, and I watched the light vanish from my mother's eyes completely, replaced with apathy.

"You're leaving then."

"We'll be back," I assured her, but she was no longer looking at me, no longer seeing us. Instead her gaze was far off and I could tell she was thinking of our father. It hurt, to see her so…gone. Ava's hand closed on mine and she tugged me to our rooms.

"We'll be fine. And maybe someday she'll come back to us," Ava didn't lie, not even to make people feel better. She didn't say it would okay, she didn't say she would be back. She said she might be back. That she might move on.

"Yeah," I muttered, and let her shoo me into my room to pack while she did the same. It was a single backpack for clothes, toiletries, and anything else I could get in. I ended up with a change of clothes, toothbrush/paste, and a roll of TP. Believe me, when you go camping, always bring it with you. Always.

Extra weapons were added, though I didn't really need them, as well as equipment for traps. Ava was most likely packing the same things, as well as a brush and a few other things I had no need for. Not that I didn't need a brush, just not as much as my long haired sister did.

When she came it was with her stuff packed and her hair in a ponytail. She held out her arm and smiled at me cheerfully.

"Shall we go, dear brother of mine?" I looped my arm with her, returning the smile.

"We shall."

We didn't look at mom on our way out.

True to our word we met our team at the gate, Ana the last to arrive with more packed the rest of us. We were happy and chatty as we made our way out of the village behind out mildly irritated sensei, all but skipping ad Ana's former fear of the mission evaporated and was replaced with the same excitement Ava and I shared.

If we knew how that mission was going to go we might not have been so happy.


I had gone out to find some kind of medicine Tsunami had mentioned was in a field a few miles from where I was teaching the boys tree walking. The sun was bright and shining, warm on my back as I tried to figure out what was a weed and what was useful. It was…well, plants aren't my forte.

It was during a bout of frustration when I just decided to lay back and let the sun bake my face, thankful I wasn't as irritatingly pale in this life, that I heard someone come up to the clearing. Well, I say heard but I really felt them.

Birds had started landing on my while I rested, still as stone if not for my breathing, probably attracting their attention. They stopped over my prone body, keeping myself calm and steady. For all rights I could have been sleeping. A hand touched my neck, barely brushing it before landing on my shoulder and shaking. I cracked my eyes open, blinking a few times to re-adjust to the light.

"If you sleep out here you'll catch a cold," a soft voice told me, and I squinted to see an angel leaning over me. Or it looked like that with the light creating a halo behind the person black hair. Soft brown eyes met mine and a feminine face smiled at me. It was Haku, and with a jolt it regained several bits of my memory of him.

His parents, his life on the street, meeting Zabuza. His death.

Gato kicking the body of a boy who died too young.

I sat up as the events became clearer to me, blinking to keep reality and mind from merging.

"Ah, yeah, suppose I might. Thank you for reminding me," I smiled at the young man, crossing my legs as I sat, rolling my neck and letting it pop a few times.

"What were you doing out here?" he asked, and I shrugged a bit.

"I was trying to pick herbs for a friend of mine, but they all looked the same to me so I kinda gave up. And the sun was nice, and the air was fresh I figured why not enjoy it right?" I smiled at him, formulating a plan and sorting through memories rapidly.

"I see. I'm here doing the same thing, actually. Would you like any help?" he offered, smiling at me serenely. I was struck for a second by how pretty he as. I was nowhere near as nice looking as this boy was, not in this life and certainly not in my other one.

"That would be nice, thank you," I pushed myself up and picked up the basket of what I was pretty sure were weeds. Dandelions were in there but aside from that I had no idea.

"Here," Haku pointed a long stemmed plant on the ground, "That one is good for helping with pain. And the one next to it, with the purple in the veins, is useful in sealing injuries."

"Wow," I commented, snapping the stems of both of them, "You know what you're doing. Any particular reason a boy is out picking flowers?" I faltered for a second, "I'm sorry, that sounded pretty sexist. What you're doing is none of my business. You're better at it then me so what does gender have to with-" I cut myself off and sighed, admittedly nervous. I like Haku, and I didn't want him to die. So I could do a few things to prevent it. But I didn't want to wait for the bridge and risk his death, yet at the same time Sasuke needed to awaken his Sharingan and that was where it was supposed to happen.

"You can tell I'm a-" he laughed quietly and smiled at me, "It's alright, I know it's uncommon. But you see…there's someone precious to me that needs them."

"Ah," I smiled in return, "I know what you mean. I have people like that as well," I twirled the purple plant between my fingers, thinking.

"Oh?" Haku asked, and I nodded.

"Yes. My brothers. I have three, you see. The eldest, my twin, is normally very well behaved, but the other two… " I trailed off, making a helpless gesture.

"You care about them very much," it wasn't a statement but I nodded anyway.

"I love them dearly. I can't imagine what I would do if someone hurt any of them," I had already gotten in trouble more times than I could count for fighting on Naruto's behalf, but usually only when he wasn't fighting himself or if he was really getting hurt. So a lot actually.

Haku made a soft humming sound.

After a few more minutes I finally decided what to do.

"That was a very slick move you pulled, faking Zabuza's death," we were facing each other, both kneeling on the ground and I saw his hand stop.

"I don't know what you're talking about but-"

"No, no, of course you don't," I dismissed, "But if you were working for him and if he were working for Gato, hypothetically of course, I would warn you that Gato is more of a greedy slim ball than you already know. And that he's been known to kill people instead of pay them on more than one occasion."

"Oh?" he asked softly, and I nodded, snapping a red flower off a plant and pushing it into my hair, looking up to meet Haku's calculating gaze.

"What do you think, is it too much?" I joked, and he cracked the barest of smiles. My expression turned serious again and I pushed myself up, offering Haku a hand, which he took. I held his hand in mine, forcing him to meet my eyes. "I'm serious though, I like you, and Zabuza is important to you. But don't die doing a job for a man that would as soon kill you as pay you, okay, Haku?"

He gripped my hand tighter than I held him, threatening to break bone.

"How do you know all of this?"

I shrugged and let go at last, bending to pick up my basket.

"I'm a little bit psychic. I know when bad things are going to happen, and sometimes I see things specifically," I wasn't elaborating, but I saw something flicker in the dark depths of the too kind ninja's eyes.

"What did you see about me?" he asked softly, and I let myself look just as sad I actually felt, cast my eyes to the sky.

"The demon of the mist will shed tears for the child of ice, and both shall perish on the Great Naruto Bridge," I recited, taking in a breath and looking at the boy that was probably my own age. "Be careful." I repeated, and he nodded.

"I will."


Two days and we reached our destination at the edge of the Land of Fire, a small mountain village tucked into the side of the land form. We were given our lodgings and, after spending half of our third day gathering information, went out to find the beast that had killed five children and three adults in the past month.

We jumped through trees, eyes and ears alert as we searched for signs of the cat. For that entire day there was nothing. So in the night we took shifts, waiting, waiting, waiting for the cougar. Unfortunately he came. He came right when we were changing positions. When Ana was just waking up and Ava was sound asleep, I was almost sleeping on my feet when the roar ripped through the air and a scream followed it.

Immediately we took off, covering the entire village in less than a minute, Ava not even bothering to grab dad's hoodie. But a minute was all it took. By the time we got there the mother was sobbing and the child, and cat, was gone. We sped after them into the night, not thinking, not hesitating, just desperate to save the little girl that had brought us rice balls and asked to see 'cool ninja tricks', laughing while we showed off. Her name was Ai. She had bright blue hair in pigtails and cheery blue eyes, and lived only with her mother after her father left them for a younger woman in a caravan.

She was a person we knew.

And we were going to save her!

But when we tracked it back to its hideout, using blood on leaves and drag marks, we realized it wasn't going to happen. Inside the cave was Ai, or what was left her, ripped apart by the jaws of the predator that was easily twice as big as I was.

Ana froze, Ava curse, and I growled. My sister was the one that made the first move, muttering something about being a distraction before jumping into the clearing in front of the den and throwing a kunai at the feline. She grazed the top of its head and it snarled, launching itself out at her.

I moved in, ramming into its side and digging my Steel Released claw's into its side to rip through the muscle there. It twisted and landed on its feet while Ana dropped down to Ava's side, staring at the largest mountain lion I had ever even heard of.

It launched itself at us and while I dodged out of the way Ana froze.

Ava puched her out of the way.

And Ava got pinned, one arm between the crushing teeth of the cougar. I heard her scream and the bone snap. And then I fell upon the animal with no regard for myself, only knowing the it was hurting my sister and that I was going to make it pay for that. It was bloody mess when I finally stumbled away, or when Hiroto-sensei pulled me away, his grip like iron on my arm. I didn't even realize I was shaking as I turned to look back at my team. Ana was in the cave, cradling the body of Ai in her lap, blood soaking into her skirt. Ava was passed out, crimson liquid coating her arm and the bone sticking out where I could see it. Red covered my hands when I released the jutsu and lightheaded chakra exhaustion over took me.

The last thing I remember was Hiroto lifting me up over his shoulder and telling Ana to carry the body back.

After that Ana wore a red skirt instead of white.


I watched the boys struggle through the water walking exercise while Ava was out getting plants for Kakashi. They were progressing. Slowly. I didn't bother with the shark with them, they didn't need it like Sakura did.

"Remember to stay focused. Stop arguing and work on your footing," I called, sitting on the edge of the bridge. Sakura was in town with Tazuna, buying supplies and I stayed at the bridge to guard it and keep an eye on the boys. Sasuke grunted and Naruto spat out the water he had just landed in, treading water and glaring at me. I smiled and waved at them cheerfully.

According to Ava nothing too bad was going to happen until at least tomorrow, so we were in the clear for the time being, and I was taking advantage of that. Sakura had shown interest in learning Genjutsu, which was admittedly something I was only a bit above average in. Ava hated it and I never really gave it much thought past that. I was a heavy hitter, not an illusionist, and that was just fine.

Watching the boys stumbled I sighed and leapt down, landing in front of Sasuke and helping Naruto to stand up.

"Okay boys, clearly you need more help than you're going to ask for, so I'm going to give it to you."

I looked between and once again marveled at how like their parents they looked.

It was almost creepy.