The second day of the Trials begins in the same vein as the first, only Haku makes sure to pack extra supplies, including a basic medkit. The ratcheting stress in the candidates on the training field grates on Haku's senses, but it's no worse than Zabuza was on a good day, so he pulls a veil over it and sorts his senbon again, arranging and rearranging them.
0500 comes with a snap of chakra and the whump of scrolls falling to the ground. Haku glances up from his task to see the twenty or so proctors from yesterday, then joins the other candidates in front of the scroll pile and slides into attention.
Monkey wastes no time. "Good morning, candidates. Your task today is to find two of forty-four scrolls hidden in the land surrounding Konoha. The first twelve to return with the two assigned to you will proceed to the next stage, but after thirty-six hours, those who have not completed the objective will be escorted back. Each of you will pick one scroll off of this pile. It contains a clue as to the location of its companion, which should be no further than 100 kilometers from Konoha. As always, death disqualifies you."
Haku can't read any emotion in Monkey's posture or his voice, but if he had to guess, he would say that the ANBU Commander is as pleased as a pig in shit. When it's his turn, he picks a scroll from the bottom of the dwindling pile, mind already racing through strategies.
A jounin's steady run is roughly sixteen kilometers to the hour. If Haku runs straight out from Konoha, it wouldn't take him more than seven hours to get to the edge of the specified range. Either the scrolls are hidden extremely well, or the candidates are going to be waylaid. Probably, both.
"Open your scrolls, but wait for my whistle," Monkey says, and there's the sound of rustling paper before he continues. "You do not have to find the scroll your painting depicts, however, if you do find another one, leave your clue in that location."
Some people are probably going to be sent on a wild goose chase.
Haku studies his scroll. On it is a minimalist painting depicting a field of charred trees near a ravine. So, the badlands, southeast of Konoha, but that ravine is at least twenty kilometers long, and he doesn't know it well enough to say for certain where this particular organization of trees is. Best to get to the north edge as fast as possible and work his way south.
Haku vibrates with anticipation, waiting for the Commander's signal. Just when it seems like Haku is about to burst, a sharp sound cuts the air, and he takes off at a sprint, cutting across the top of Hokage Mountain and leaping over the east wall into the forest. Konoha's namesake greets him, caressing him as he moves swiftly through the shadows. He runs due southeast for three hours, about halfway to the boundary, before he decides to break for food and sunscreen. Haku munches on an apricot flavored rat bar and looks at his scroll again, trying to pick out identifying marks. A tree seems to have fallen over into the ravine, creating a sort of ramp down.
There's a rustle in a nearby bush and Haku doesn't waste time checking if it's just an animal. He shoves the scroll into his belt and translocates before breaking into a run.
Finally, after another three hours, he reaches the edge of the forest and is met with gray dirt and the harsh noon sun. Twenty-nine hours left to find the scroll and get back to Konoha. The northern tip of the ravine is just at the edges of his vision, growing hazy with heat. Before he leaves the safety of darkness, he takes a long swig from his canteen.
Haku takes a deep breath, cleaves off enough chakra for two substantial clones, then sprints into the light with both clones on his right. Anyone who watches would suspect them to be on his left, covering for his missing hand. At least, that's what he hopes an observer is thinking. The thirty minute run to the ravine uncovers nothing but ashy dirt and sprouting grass.
"Alright, split off and search the ravine," he tells his clones, "Kill yourselves if you find anything interesting, but stand and fight otherwise." They salute him and flashstep down the branching paths where the small river forks. He refills his canteen from the river and inspects this section of the ravine for fallen logs.
Haku moves at an incredibly slow pace for a ninja, only clearing about six kilometers of the ravine in the next four hours, checking every nook and cranny for scrolls. The heat becomes more oppressive with each passing kilometer and he feels his water affinity rising its head in response. There's about to be a storm, and he needs to find shelter, quickly. Twenty-four hours remain.
Suddenly, a rush of memories clouds his brain. One of his clones found the fallen log, another ten kilometers downstream. An easy translocation and a pull of chakra lands him and his surviving clone near the log. The banks of the ravine stand concave, providing a small overhang as shelter. Haku risks threading out some more of his chakra, hoping that the scroll will have some embedded in it.
The good news? It does. The bad news? The scroll itself is embedded in the dirt at the point of the log, as if buried by an earth jutsu. The worse news? A distant roll of thunder, coming closer, makes the hair on the back of Haku's neck stand up. He sets his jaw and sifts through his mind's archives for a simple earth jutsu that won't use a lot of chakra.
Haku whips through modified seals and sets his hand to the ground, feeling a lurch as the scroll is pushed up to meet him. He sighs with relief, decidedly making good time (unless everyone else is faster, because they've all grown up here and I'm just a-), and since he hasn't eaten since roughly 0800 that morning, he deserves a goddamn rat bar.
It's halfway into his mouth when the sky behind him lights up in flames.
Haku risks the chakra and translocates to the edge of the forest. He's not running low, yet, but he needs to watch himself, especially if he keeps bending space-time like this.
Fire burns in his vision for a second as the scalding death of his clone snaps back to him. He shakes it off, but that moment of distraction is all he needs to be caught in an ANBU's grip. A voice in his ear whispers, "Hello, pretty boy. Heading home so soon?"
Haku's blood runs cold as he drops and twists out of the other man's arms, right hand already reaching for his senbon. Boar evades neatly and continues to jibe him, pressing him out of the trees' cover and back towards the surging fire. It must be chakra-flames, says a voice in the back of Haku's head, regular fire doesn't spread that quickly.
"What's the matter? Not one for small talk?"
Haku bares his teeth in a snarl, a habit he picked up from Zabuza, and then the rain comes pouring down, but it doesn't quash the fire. Haku is truly in his element, now. He threads chakra through the stump of his left arm and continues flinging weapons at Boar, purposely missing, forcing him into an opening. As Haku dodges a round of shuriken, his right hand shapes cold and sharp and many behind his back. The rain shivers in the air, elongating, and at Haku's command it embeds itself at key points in Boar's neck and shoulders, glancing off of the body armor elsewhere.
Boar drops like a rock. Haku doesn't waste any time, because as far as he knows there could be more ANBU ready to attack him, and he translocates a good thirty kilometers closer to Konoha.
Katsuko was just adding more fuel to her chakra flames to keep them roaring despite the rain when the chakra flare of combat draws her attention to the edge of the forest. Boar is pushing Yuki back out of the trees. She clicks her tongue. It'd be a shame, if the kid washed out now, but then something surprising happens. Boar goes down.
"Shit," she says, flicking on her throat mic, "Looks like Yuki killed Boar, then rabbited. I'm heading to investigate. Tanuki, on my six."
"Copy that," comes the response from base.
"Roger," comes Genma's voice, tinny and muffled by rain. He's behind her in a few steps, and they reach Boar in a few more.
Genma kneels down and puts two fingers to Sato's wrist. "No pulse, but he might not be gone yet, if these needles weren't poisoned. I've seen this technique before." He works to remove the senbon stuck in Sato's throat.
Normally, Katsuko would say the creepy bastard deserved it, but they have bigger problems on their hands if a former Kiri-nin just killed an ANBU. Well, that's not entirely fair. The kid had never had a formal relationship with Kiri. Though why Yuki would pick now of all times to turn traitor is utterly beyond her, and above her pay grade. Unable to perform medical jutsu, she leaves Genma to his fiddlings and creates five kage bunshin to stand guard over them.
There's a sigh of relief behind her. "Again, Boar? You'd think after the first time this happened you'd learn to dodge," Genma says, voice extremely disapproving.
"Fuck you, Shiranui," Sato says, groaning, "You got an eye on the Mist bastard?"
"Base is working on it," Katsuko replies firmly, "That little trick of his was well within the rules. You're not dead or crippled, so up and at 'em." Then, to Genma, "You recognized this technique?"
Genma nods. "Sleep of Death. From almost every point of view, the victim is dead, but when the senbon are removed and chakra is pulsed through the system, the victim will come to. It doesn't last forever, of course, and you need perfect aim, or you'd actually kill your target instead of making it look like you did. All in all, a clever diversion. If Yuki's found and opened his scroll, he should be headed for the next one already."
Katsuko turns her throat mic on again. "False alarm, Base. Boar was just sleeping on the job. No need to use lethal force on the Yuki brat, just Trials-level use of force."
Ginta's laugh chimes over the speakers. "What a devious little shit. Tanuki, you owe me 500 ryou for having too much faith in Boar. The rest of you, keep pushing our lovely test subjects towards home."
Genma is unreadable, as usual, and Katsuko finds herself wondering if she should try to curb her lieutenant's gambling habits, but that's a problem for later. The rain pounds down harder, and the thought of chasing more skittish candidates back towards Konoha has joy bubbling up in her. She whoops, unsheathing her katana and kodachi, and plunges into the forest.
Haku really pushed it too far, this time. He's down to twenty percent of his reserves, but at least he seems to have outpaced his pursuer. He shields his chakra down to the smallest glimmer and opens the new scroll. There's a haiku on it.
At the bottom of
Konoha's swimming hole is
My dear companion
If Haku had to guess, he would say that Monkey wrote that particular piece of poetry. He groans internally and clips the scroll back to his belt. The rain hasn't reached this region yet, but he'll have to move fast to stay out of it. At least the river is closer to Konoha's borders, if further north of center. He knows exactly where the aforementioned swimming hole is, too. The river's source.
Based on the position of the sun, Haku estimates it to be 1900. Twenty-two hours left. He pours on the speed and travels west and steeply north, with roughly eighty kilometers to cover between him and his goal and not wanting to waste chakra on another translocation. At the rate he's currently traveling, he should reach the pool before midnight.
Dinner consists of a single rat bar, eaten while leaping from branch to branch. Chocolate chip, this time. There will be fish at the river, if he wants to risk getting caught for a more substantial meal.
He reaches the eastern side of the riverbank around 2330 and cuts north to follow it upstream. With the sun down, and without a watch, it's harder to keep track of time, but every jounin knows how to use heartbeats and footfalls to do so. Counting repetitively can help keep the mind busy, as well, with nothing better to do on long runs like these. Paranoia attempts to seep in, as it's been a while since Haku has seen any ANBU or candidates. No news is not always good news.
Once Haku reaches the swimming hole, he strips out of his clothes, leaving a kunai tucked in the waistband of his supportive briefs, and hides his gear with a henge, making it look like the other ferns dotting the banks of the pool. He spares some of his precious chakra for one of the earliest jutsu he learned - Bird Monkey Dog Horse Hare Bird Rat - and dives into the churning water, which breaks over his head like an air bubble. It's cold with snowmelt, but that makes it the perfect temperature, in Haku's opinion. He swims deeper and lets his chakra bloom out, searching for the scroll like a radar blip.
There's a small fish nibbling on its end, and Haku is hungry enough to let his Kiri-nin shine through. He pops the bubble around his face to bite down on the fish, feeling it squirm in his teeth before he severs the major artery with a canine. Its blood tastes metallic and real in his mouth. He has maybe one minute until he needs to surface, now, so he takes the scroll, only to find that it's tied to a rock.
Well, that's what kunai are for. Haku makes quick work of the rope and kicks up to the surface, cutting through the water like a needle despite missing one hand and the other being occupied.
Haku hoists himself out and chakra-walks on the surface of the water to his gear. He spits the dead fish onto a clean leaf and takes a moment to expel the water from his skin and briefs before canceling the henge and donning his gear. Quickly, he cleans and fillets the fish, dumping its entrails back into the river for food. While raw fish is not as nutritious as cooked, it settles the hunger pangs in his stomach and clears his head. He savors eating the eyeballs, always his favorite part of any fish dish.
0200 now, it's time to head out.
Or it would be, if someone didn't have their kunai laid at his neck. Haku looks up at the man calmly, then smiles, his bloody teeth and lips looking quite the sight.
"You're a little late to join me for dinner, you know, but plenty of fish are feeding at the surface."
"Give me the scroll," the man says. Haku catalogues details about his body as he shapes seals behind his back, out of the man's line of sight. Probably a taijutsu specialist, someone Haku would barely be able to fight on a good day. A water clone of his recent acquisition settles in his belt, the real version settling in his hand. He tucks it into his waistband.
The smile doesn't drop from Haku's face. "How about a trade? Give me your clue, and I'll give you the scroll I just found."
The other man hesitates, then pulls the kunai away from Haku's neck and hands over his haiku scroll.
Haku takes one of his from his belt and trades with the man. "See you back in Konoha." Haku gives the dumbfounded expression a bastardized salute before translocating five kilometers southwest - a risky move, considering he's running dangerously low on his reserves. There would still be another five to run before he gets to the Wall, but he deigns to check the third scroll just to make sure he kept the right one.
It requires a thread of chakra to open, and then Haku is yanked through the universe.
He lands on the far west side of the village, just outside of the gate. The jounin standing guard don't seem to be surprised at his appearance, so he must not be the first one back. Haku is starting to feel a little faint, but he gives them the password and steps through the gate, reading the scroll.
Aside from the Hiraishin seals, it says:
Congratulations on making it back to the Wall. Violent attacks are discouraged inside the village, but don't expect to not be detained by calmer methods. You might want to start running, now.
Haku swears under his breath and cuts through the shadowed alleyways, shielding his chakra. Rooftops would be quicker, but he wants cover. Konoha itself is a good ten kilometers long in the west-east direction, twice the amount he would've had to run from the point he translocated to. Its citizens are still asleep, but they won't be for much longer. For some, the day starts before the sun comes up.
It's been twenty-four hours since Haku last slept.
Without the aid of caffeine, he'd normally be passing out, but adrenaline is doing a wonderful job keeping his eyes open. A warm sinew of chakra teases his senses just as he reaches the shinobi district of town, two kilometers from the base of Hokage Mountain. Haku doesn't think, he just acts, blindly flinging senbon behind him and losing the tight grasp on his chakra - theres no point holding it in now that he's been spotted.
The chase is short and vicious, Haku's heart pounding in his ears as he ducks under awnings and into crevices that most full-sized shinobi can't follow. His downfall comes at Hokage Mountain, where the run is long and exposed. He takes a senbon to his right shoulder and his entire arm falls limp.
Haku snarls and empties the last of his weapons holsters, kunai and senbon, onto his pursuer like some sort of gruesome rain. Thunder rumbles in the distance, a reminder of the coming storm. Haku flares his chakra, then leaps over the side of Yondaime-sama's head and sprints the last hundred meters to ANBU Training Field One, where he collapses less than gracefully into the shinobi's kneel, panting.
It occurs to him, somewhere in the back of his mind, that his mouth is still bloodstained.
"Sakamoto-sama. Shibata-fukushirou," Haku says, throat dry. Tanuki stands at parade rest and watches the proceedings.
"Yuki." The ANBU Commander tilts his head. "Had a snack on the way here? Even in ANBU, cannibalism is frowned upon."
Haku licks his lips, tasting dried blood. Gods, he just wants them to get on with it already. Is he moving on to the next stage or not? "It was just a fish, sir."
Monkey makes an amused sound and holds out his hand. Haku threads as little chakra as possible into the stump of his left arm and gives him the four scrolls in his possession. Monkey opens each of the scrolls and looks them over.
"Now, Yuki, you only had to return with three scrolls. While I can appreciate that you're fond of my poetry, how did you come across this one?"
"It was a gift," Haku says smugly. At least one person won't be making it back to Konoha in the next twelve hours.
Monkey nods, seemingly satisfied. "You placed fifth. An ANBU agent will find you when it is time to begin the final stage. Dismissed."
A wave of fatigue and relief washes over Haku, but he pushes himself to his feet and gathers his composure enough for a left-stumped salute. "Commander."
"Brush your teeth, Yuki."
Haku nods in acknowledgement and casually walks towards the stairs that lead down Hokage Mountain. He's not going to use his chakra, for a while. Tanuki walks beside him, masked face pointedly looking at Haku's limp arm.
"Do you want me to remove the senbon?"
Haku's mouth thins, but he looks away and presents his shoulder. Tanuki quickly takes out the senbon holding his pathways closed and Haku feels the slow trickle of chakra and feeling return, flexing his hand automatically. He poorly stifles a yawn.
"Would you like me to escort you back to your apartment?" Haku thinks he hears concern in Tanuki's voice, does he think Haku is a child?
"No, thank you," Haku says coolly, gesturing with his stump towards his window. "It's right there. I just need to sleep. Don't you have other candidates to chase?"
Tanuki snorts. "If you're sure." He translocates away to deal with whoever is roaming through the streets now.
The walk back to his apartment is long and laborious. The sun is supposedly rising at Haku's back when he finally reaches the building's entrance and trudges up the two flights of stairs, but the last ten minutes of his walk left him drenched. He fiddles clumsily with his keys and slaps a chakra lined hand to his door, disabling the wards.
Haku knows he should clean up, but without anyone to nag him, and with the threat of chakra exhaustion clawing at his bones, he drops onto his bed like a felled tree and is asleep before his head hits the pillow.