Sup, welcome to chapter 10, can't believe we're finally here. It only took a year and 8 months, some heavy modifications to the existing story, fifty reviews that are mostly negative (some for good reason while others are just your average flames.)

Which is kind of strange considering this has gathered 200 follows and favorites, I genuinely don't know what to think of that at certain times, all I know is that I'm somewhat disconnected from what's going on in that review section.

Note: Salt will be included with this chapter.

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"We're finally at wave, don't drop your guard just yet." Announced Anko as the 3 man team converged on the village wearily; in the shadows a swan masked ANBU stalked them silently.

The two girls passively followed her orders as they walked through the worn out village, both never even acknowledging how Anko's tone drastically changed throughout the mission nor the looks they were receiving from the surrounding villagers who chose to flee out of sight once in proximity of the female ninjas.

"From the way Kakashi put it in his report, Gato's thugs usually start roaming the streets around this time of day. The villagers wouldn't want to be caught dead next to a few ninjas. It puts them in danger." The special jonin explained as they walked along the streets.

"I see you're all finally here." A disembodied voice presented itself to the group, the two genin tensed due to the unfamiliarity of the speaker but their current leader was quick to ease off their tension.

"Your age must have done a number on your eye sight Pakkun." Anko was quick to reply in a deadpan, her voice void of its usual playfulness.

"Ehh? I…only count four, I thought the Hokage sent six? What's going on?" The voice sounded genuinely confused then was followed by a series of audible sniffs.

Satsuki and Yakumo still had a hard time pin pointing where the voice was coming from, that was until Yakumo spotted a small brown pug down by their feet clad in a blue jacket and a leaf village headband of matching color strapped on his head.

The two girls stared at the pug blankly as it sniffed the air in confusion.

"Did something happen?" The dog asked the group, Satsuki instinctively flinched at the question.

"Unfortunately, we'll talk later. For now just lead us to Team seven." Spoke Anko and the pug didn't press any further as he turned around and led the dysfunctional group to Team 7's location.

There are a lot of words that could describe the state of the location they found themselves in currently, depressing, absolutely trashed or maybe even fucked. It helped make the two remaining members of Team 3 how dire the situation was in this country.

It was nearing five PM and the place resembled a vacant wasteland, buildings all hollowed out and decay spread everywhere, from the shadows of the buildings one could spot a head or two peaking outside to watch their movements.

It made them sick in the stomach and one thing was a certainty to them, Gato must die.

-At Team 7's location-

The small dog guided them along a pier until they made it to the front door of a two story house.

"Here it is. Make yourselves at home." Pakkun spoke before disappearing in a cloud of smoke.

"Let's go." Said Anko as they came up at the front door, Swan chose to remain outside and guard the area.

With heavy hearts and a few quick knocks the door was quickly opened by a woman in her late twenties, two bangs framing each side of her face with her long blue hair extending down to her back.

"Ahh leaf ninjas! You must be the reinforcements that Kakashi-sensei spoke about, correct?" The woman asked cheerfully as the jonin leader nodded.

"In that case, come in! Make yourselves at home. Dinner will be ready soon but in the meantime you can join your friends in the living room." She informed them.

After a quick introduction, Anko thanked the woman for her hospitality as the team walked inside only to be greeted by the sight of a certain red headed Namikaze whose clothes were all dirtied.

Satsuki noticed the excited look in Shiro's face as she quickly scanned over the newcomers; her gaze averted somewhere else as she shamefully stared down at the floor which went unnoticed by the red head as her teammate started to feel concerned.

"Hey! You guys came here quickly!" Shiro chirped as she walked over to them excitedly.

"Yeah, I thought they wouldn't come till maybe tomorrow." Sakura chimed in flanking the whiskered red head from the right.

"Where's Naruto? Is he still outside?" Shiro tilted her head to the side as she looked at team 3 in confusion.

Nobody uttered a word.

"What's wrong? Satsuki say something? Snake lady speak out because I can't hear you!" The red head continued as an unnerving feeling crept up inside her.

"I'm sorry." Anko managed to say as she stared at the red head square in the face.

"What…are you sorry for?" Shiro asked, suddenly becoming on full alert as her eyes cautiously roamed around studying the individuals in front of her..

"Shiro slow it down a bit. You're overwhelming them."

She turned around to face her teacher who had just entered the hallway with the help of a wooden crutch.

"Kakashi sensei what is she saying? What's going on?"

Kakashi gave her a weak eye smile, one that was filled with sorrow and deep regret.

"Take it easy Shiro, Let's let our guests get some rest first."

"I understand! But where's Naruto?" She turned around to look at team 3; the two girls couldn't even stand to look at the Namikaze in the eyes.

Anko decided to just end this quickly.

"He was presumably killed in action."

Blue eyes widened in shock as they regarded the special jonin in disbelief, the air grew thick and tense as the members of team 7 took some time to process the news.

"That's not funny! Is he outside? This must be one of his pranks again right?" tears were starting to form in her eyes if their misty look was anything to go by.

Satsuki built up the courage to speak to the young red headed girl.

"Shiro I-I tried to save him but-"

"SHUT UP!"

The Uchiha flinched averting her gaze once more.

"How?" Shiro simply asked, her hair looked to be floating slightly as a faint red glow surrounded her.

Anko stepped up. "We were ambushed by Mist loyalists."

"Hold on! That is nonsense! Why would the Mist go out of their way to attack you guys? I mean aren't we neutral?" Sakura chimed in asking the million dollar question.

"Our team was mistaken for yours…for whatever reason they wanted to capture Shiro-san." Yakumo spilled slowly as she looked on with a blank expression.

Everyone suddenly felt themselves having trouble breathing as Shiro stood between both sides quietly, a deadly red aura forming around her as her fringe covered her now ruby red eyes.

"Shiro calm down!" Kakashi stepped in as he attempted to deescalate the disturbed genin, He reached into his pouch and pulled out a small paper.

"Zip it Kakashi." She fired at him with an icy tone completely contrasting her usual chirpy and cheerful attitude, those around her stiffened as Tsunami's legs finally gave out and she dropped to the floor like a sack of potatoes.

"You," She faced Satsuki who had a hard time doing anything really as she stood stiff like a log watching the red head helplessly.

"You broke your promise." Shiro bored her gaze into those coal black eyes that were filled with genuine regret and shame but she could care less about that.

Satsuki, who was on the verge of tears, was shaking in terror from the amount of killer intent she was being subjected to as she came face to face with the female Namikaze.

The two girls stared each other down as the red head studied her features carefully, Ruby red eyes bored into her soul with a contemplative gaze as they seethed with sorrow and rage and before anyone knew it a red imprint of a hand was left on the Uchiha's cheek.

Those around the demonic red head watched powerlessly as the thick killer intent of the nine tails rooted them to their spots, Even Anko who stood merely two feet away couldn't do as much as lift a finger to help.

It became much easier to breathe once the girl ran out of the house, Satsuki dropped down to the floor silently bawling her eyes out as her dark hair covered her face from everyone around her.

"Shiro…" Sakura muttered with a fear stricken expression as she watched the red head run away, Sasuke looked on with a scowl as his breathing slowly adjusted.

Yakumo who just recently regained her composure knelt down next to the distressed Uchiha and tried to help calm her down.

"Is it fair to assume she didn't take the news very well?" Swan announced stepping into the house and helping Tsunami get back on her feet.

"That would be an understatement." Kakashi chimed in with a heavy sigh.

Swan looked over her shoulder where the red headed girl ran off to then turn to the one eyed jonin. "I'm going to follow after her, there could still be dangers lurking."

"Make sure not to disturb her, just let her vent out her frustrations and if it starts becoming too much just slap this on her forehead." Kakashi told the ANBU as he threw a small pouch at the female ANBU.

Swan nodded silently as she pocketed the pouch before leaving the house, Anko sighed making her way over to the living room.

"Come on scarecrow I'll explain everything in detail, but I need to lie down first my feet are killing me." Anko told him as she made her way inside, she took notice of the old man passed out on the table.

"He was awake a second ago. Tazuna must have been knocked out due to Shiro's overwhelming chakra." Kakashi commented as he sat down on a large comfortable looking sofa.

"Imagine that, all this trouble for this old drunk." Anko scoffed as she sat down next to him.

Anko turned her head around to the hallway only to see Sasuke carrying his twin sister bridal style up the stairs who clung to him like a lifeline with tears streaming down her face, the two other female genin following behind them silently.

Tsunami walked in from behind the corner with a frown as she quickly informed the two jonin about dinner, she made her way over to the Kitchen without acknowledging her drunk and passed out father.

"So, we already established that Naruto is possibly K.I.A but what about the 6th member?" Kakashi started.

Anko propped her feet over the coffee table and crossed her arms over her rather impressive chest.

"Hiroki Muramoto, he's still out there searching for Naruto's corpse."

"He just discarded the mission and left for Naruto? Any idea when he'll be back?" Kakashi asked with a raised eyebrow.

"If he's not back in 24 hours it's safe to assume that we'll never see them ever again." Anko answered, though deep down something didn't sit right with her.

From the corner of her eyes she watched a black haired child with a striped hat scoff with a look that screamed 'I told you so' before he hid behind the corner and left.

"All ground elements be advised, our sensors have detected the use of Nanites technology. Sending coordinates now how copy?"

"TOC, This is Darkstar 0-1 actual. Full copy. Coordinates received and proceeding to marked objective."

"As usual Darkstar we are keeping low presence inside the mission area so I advise you do heavy recon before eliminating any possible elements in the AO, on the off chance that your team gets compromised expect no air support."

"Understood."

"Good luck, over and out."

"That's the first time TOC told us to go fuck ourselves."

"Alright folks! You heard 'em, time to get our feet wet. Marker 'wave' is now present on your maps."

"A good day to be conglomerate sir."

"You betcha, Hunters move out."

After a series of quick sharp whistles and faint shimmers nothing was left but a few foot prints on the mud.

"Naruto, wake up. You have to get out of here."

"Naruto can you hear me? You're in danger, enemies converging on your location."

His arms hurt, his legs hurt, his back hurts and in fact if he thought about it, everything hurts! He even had a little headache that was the icing on his cake, his arm was also bent at an awkward angle and he was still at that stage where he was consciously aware of being awake yet not making any effort to actually open his eyes and move around.

At that point he registered the need to breathe as he violently stood up coughing the water out of his lungs as he struggled to take in air, when he finally recovered the boy quickly turned over on his stomach and attempted to get up only to be stomped back into the wet sand.

"Stay down Namikaze." A toneless voice told him as he was kicked further into the ground.

Without much thinking he instantly turned around and swept the speaker's feet from underneath them, they fell forward on top of the blond boy and that was all he needed to shove a kunai in their throat killing them.

"HEY STOP IT OR WE WILL FUCKING KILL YOU." Another person spoke, still having not caught on to what just happened.

It appeared as if the two individuals on the ground stopped their scuffle as the cloaked man on top of Naruto seemed to be on his knees locking the boy down.

"Hey Mao, you okay there?" The person asked, seconds later the identified Mao fell off to the side and the speaker received 6 kunai to the chest at high velocity instantly killing him.

"DROP IT!"

In the blink of an eye 8 cloaked ninjas surrounded the Namikaze each holding a sword to his throat; it was at that point that the genin finally surrendered.

"AGH!" ripples of pain shot through his head as he fell over with a massive pain in the back of the offended area, unlucky for him it seemed that the blow wasn't enough to knock him out so he had to live with the consequences.

"That is enough." A familiar voice called out, Naruto felt that same feeling from before that urged him to run as far away as possible, white spots began appearing around the corner of his sight.

"Huh, well what do you know? Our favorite treehugger is here." The supposed leader of the group announced, The Namikaze couldn't look up to identify them.

"What appears to be the issue here Tao?"

"This sneaky fucker killed two of our guys!" One ninja spoke out of turn; Naruto felt a wave of KI flare up.

"S-sorry sir." The man who spoke before apologized.

"As previously stated, He unfortunately took two of my men by surprise and laid them to waste but that is no one's fault but theirs so nothing of value was lost."

"I see. How many of your men remain?"

"You're looking at them, eight if you include yourself."

"Bold of you Tao but it seems to me that you have forgotten who I work for again. Let me remind you one last time." The traitor spoke calmly.

From the corner of his vision he saw the leader of the group bend over at the waist and drop harshly to the ground with his head facing the blond. His eyes, nose, ears and mouth were leaking blood profusely.

"What the fuck did you just do!?" One mist ninja yelled out as they all shifted their focus to the traitor momentarily dropping their guard around the downed genin.

"I gave your leader a reminder about the terms of our collaboration, now I suggest you remember yours. We are merely partners in a temporary alliance following the orders of our superiors so if you mistake me for your tree hugger errand boy I won't be as merciful as I was to your leader."

"M-merciful?" one ninja asked in obvious fear.

"Tao may have quite possibly had the quickest and painless death of all your fallen comrades today." The traitor informed.

"Now, let the boy stand up we have places to be." He added.

And that they did, he was forcefully lifted up on his feet as he finally got a chance to look at the traitor that betrayed them.

"Well you look like you've seen better days, What don't tell me you lost your headband again?" Tsuneo spoke to him smugly as the former leaf ninja stared the boy directly into his purple eyes.

"Headband?" He muttered lowly in confusion.

"Right, But you're forgetting something even more important than that." Pigeon told him.

That pigeon ANBU, he...he was the one who..

"Your own standard issue headband." Said Pigeon.

He couldn't possibly be here and that feeling he got, he never had it with him around.

That familiar white overwhelmed his vision before it quickly washed away leaving him standing there, his eyes roaming around in a lost daze.

"Is there something wrong?" Hiroki asked him.

"Oh no, I forgot to wear my headband that's all." The genin simpered as he reached into the inner pockets of his jacket and pulled out a black headband before equipping it.

"I see, well at least you didn't lose it this time around. So wh-"

How did Hiroki know about that?

Wait.

This feeling? the white flashes, the headband...

"Cut the shit I know it's you Hiroki!" Naruto gritted through his teeth.

Tsuneo's lips turned upwards at the corners. "Oh? What gave me away so quickly?"

"Maybe next time you shouldn't ask about details you could have never known." Naruto explained as low chuckle escaped the traitor's and lips and just like that he transformed back into Hiroki himself.

"Hey! What's going on here? Who the fuck are you?" A mist ninja called out, they all got a bit more defensive.

"Relax yourselves; I'm still the same person you were dealing with for months now."

"And why the fuck should we trust you?"

"If you don't you'll die." Hiroki said asthey all suddenly quieted down; Naruto looked up and noticed that all of them went unresponsive blindly following his word without question.

With a quick look into one of the slits of a mist ninja's face mask, the blond noticed that his eyes were dull and dead looking.

"Now where were we? Ahh yes! that was rather disappointing the way you found me out, you know? we're not so different you and I." Hiroki told the boy.

"I'm nothing like you! I knew I should have trusted Yakumo's instincts, you slimy rat." The Namikaze spat as the man looked on in amusement.

"Well you were never a fan of common sense to begin with so I had no worries, that Kurama girl however? she gave me lots of trouble, had to fight the urge to dispose of her very hard but I had easier methods nonetheless." Hiroki commented as he approached the boy.

"I'm sure you're already familiar with these things." Hiroki added as his eyes started flashing various bright colors.

Amethyst orbs widened in awe as he sat there shell shocked. "N-No way...Impossible." He muttered in disbelief.

"What? You thought you were the only one?" Hiroki asked smugly.

"H-How?" Naruto let out as he couldn't take his eyes of those blasted eyes.

"A dear friend of mine, gave them to me a while ago, before you've had yours strangely enough."

"Why are you doing this?" Naruto asked, "Working for the mist."

"I'm not working for the mist, they're the ones working for me although they don't realize it."

"You see this little ninja thing we got going… It's…what do you call it? Well for the lack of better words let's just say not working." He added.

"What the fuck are you on about?" The blonde spat venomously as he glared in rage.

"Language Naruto." Hiroki scolded as the mist ninja holding him hit him in the side with the tilt of his sword.

He fell down on the ground gasping for air before forcefully being brought up again as he struggled to catch his breath.

"You see this society we created only functions on war, without it our lives are pointless. We utilize our powers to kill and harm others all day long and in the end nothing is personal because that's just how the ninja world is."

Hiroki continued as he paced around the blond. "You know I wanted to believe in the will of fire, I really did but it's just too much. I mean Child soldiers? Constant fighting? Having to sleep with one eye open because you're not even sure if you're safe in your own country? What kind of barbaric shit is that?"

"Implying that your secret friends are aiming to make things better, did they tell you that?" Naruto asked, still panting in pain.

"No, that's what I told myself. They simply reinforced my views on the matter. So with their help I devised a plan and guess what? You're gonna hear all about it! Except that your own little friend isn't gonna barge in to save the day." Hiroki spoke as his eyed suddenly glowed a cyan blue, what looked to be a burst of electricity erupted from him as it covered the area surrounding him and expanded in a bright flash before fading away.

Naruto heard a metal impact the sand as he turned his head to side to see Ada's drone fall down unresponsively, seconds later Hiroki threw a kunai at it with a paper bomb attached to it completely destroying it in a small explosion.

"For your information I could see her all along. These eyes are quiet something no? Puts the Hyuga and Uchiha to shame."

"Dammit." The genin muttered lowly as he clenched his fists in anger.

"I can tell just how frustrated you really are, I understand really."

"Fuck you."

"All that time with Shisui Uchiha and you still have a potty mouth, hit him again." Hiroki ordered and his orders were fulfilled.

"How come I haven't seen this coming at all? Why wasn't it more obvious? Is that what you're thinking?"

"You don't know what i'm thinking so shut up!" Naruto huffed as he continued to gaze at the man in front of him murderously.

Oh, But I do Naruto, I do.

Purple eyes widened in genuine horror as his mind recalled that nightmare he had back on the Hokage mountain.

"T-That voice was you...It was YOU!" He hollered as he struggled against the restraint of the mist ninjas.

"This isn't revenge for what happened at the forest of death you know? I knew everything from the get go, I even had a month to cope with the fact that you'll be leading them there to die. They said it was a sequence of events that must unfold, for what? I am not sure, but i'll tell you what, Between you and me and I don't even miss them anymore. it's for the greater good." Clarified Hiroki as he turned the man he killed over on his back and admired his work.

"And whose greater good is that? Yours? your 'Friends''? How could you trust anybody that blindly?" Naruto asked.

"Quite ironic isn't it? that thing over there, how can YOU trust it?" Retorted the dark haired jonin.

Naruto remained quiet.

"They know things nobody else knows, they have a shit load of knowledge, resources and the people to make it happen hell they can change the world overnight if they wanted to, they even did that for you."

Naruto raised an eyebrow. "What do you mean?" He asked.

"You're just a kid Naruto, you fuck up a lot. The forest of death, the liquid passion, your C-rank, someone had to interfere to get you out of trouble, guess who? me. one loose end at a time, from the ANBU you threw off your tail all the way to slowing you down so that you don't get stabbed by a thug with ninja training." Hiroki explained, at the 'slowing you down' part he thought of the flashes.

Something clicked inside Naruto's head, his eyes widened. "T-Those flashes were you, they've always been you."

"You're catching on, Let's just say that I found a way to tap into your little nanites you got inside and established a link between us, I could do whatever I damn pleased from afar and you would have never found out, the funny part? not even this heap of scrap metal knew what hit ya."

"How?" Naruto asked bewildered.

"Blood samples, tampering with your food." Hiroki nonchalantly divulged to the genin who thought back to the day he went out to grab lunch with Yakumo, that weird tasting ramen now made more sense.

"So what now? you'll kill me and start a war? is that it?" Naruto asked after having connected some of the dots.

"I trust your fate to my superiors, but no I won't kill you. The sequence wouldn't allow you to die I mean, who survives a 200 meter drop to a body of water?"

Hiroki briefly turned to the flaming wreckage of Ada's drone.

Naruto was angry but he had a lingering question in the back of his mind. "If you did all of this with relative ease then why didn't you just capture me from the start and left? There was virtually nothing stopping you from doing so, so why?"

"Ahh I knew you'd ask about that, that would have been too simple you see, Theoretically speaking I could have done that but you seem to be forgetting just how dangerous your parents are or have you forgotten your sixth birthday?"

Naruto flinched at the mention of that, which was a memory he desperately suppressed.

"I also had bigger plans in mind, taking you like that would have been too easy. I found a way to hit two birds with one stone and got the mist rebels involved in this, that way the sequence can carry on as planned and a full out war breaks out between the elemental nations like you pointed out before."

Hiroki started chuckling as he stepped closer to one of the unresponsive mist ninjas as they stood there quietly like a bunch of zombies, he removed the porcelain mask off one of them and started poking their face.

"These men are simply decoys to shift the blame over to Yagura. With a bit of my help, Anko and the rest of her team believe this is the work of the loyalists so when they send back word to the village, you better believe things are getting serious. Crazy what a bunch of freedom fighters would do for their cause right?"

"The fires along the coast were the doing of the mist village then, all those innocents killed and robbed of their homes?"

"They were collateral damage, not our fault you can't dodge a fire crawling at a snail's pace." Hiroki shrugged as Naruto felt even more angry than what was humanly possible.

"You bastard! They were sleeping at the dead of night!" He howled before being silenced but a sword hilt to the stomach.

"I am surprised you feel sympathy for others, I thought I've gotten rid of that."

"You…what?"

"Altered some of your personal traits, yes. have fun with that piece of information. what you do with it from now on is up to you."

Naruto looked broken making Hiroki sigh as he shook his head and patted the boy on the head.

"Trust me, I've done you a massive favor. that version of you? it's the worst so don't overthink it." Hiroki informed him as they all suddenly started moving, dragging the boy along.

"Now, we'll be headed over to that signal nearby and investigate then we take you to my friends sound good to you?"

Naruto perked up at the mention of that signal, just how did Hiroki know? He didn't much time to entertain that thought any further as he suddenly found himself blacked out.

"All units do not engage. We'll see where they take us first."

"They seem to be heading towards that rogue signal to the south west sir."

"Copy 0-3, we're not really in a rush so let's just wait it out and see what that signal's about."

"Let them do all the work then snatch it away?"

"You got it."

The commander of the squad seemed to pick up on something. "Wait hold on a second, we seemed to have forgotten about that drone. 0-4 go fetch it for us and see if you can salvage anything."

"Copy that."

A lovely girl with ivory skin tone with loosely worn black hair walked along the forest, she wore a sleeveless pink kimono that reached down her ankles and a black choker around her neck, her small journey came to a halt when she noticed destruction along the path that led forward so from the point forward she moved with extreme caution making sure to mind her steps.

It was until a bit of further exploration and avoiding the cinders that littered the forest that she came across the sight of a red headed girl laying unconsciously in the middle of a tiny clearing, her surroundings were untouched by the devastation the girl had previously came in contact with.

Her eyes roamed over to this girl's clothing, she wore an orange and blue jacket with a white collar, the girl sported a blue shirt underneath that didn't look like her correct size, and she also wore orange short shorts that reached the middle of her thigh and finally blue sandals.

What caught the black haired girl's interest was the hair color, whiskers and a green jeweled necklace tied around her neck.

The leaf village headband is what mostly attracted her attention though.

The girl set down her basket to the side and moved her hand slowly to the girls throat disturbing the bird's that had been nesting over the red head's body, her fingers hovered menacingly over the sleeping girl's throat for a few seconds before she came to a complete stop.

Her eyes widened as she noticed the presence of someone in the area, her hand shifted its course and she opted to wake up the unconscious girl instead.

"You'll catch cold if you sleep here, wake up." She hushed in a softly spoken tone gently shaking the red headed ninja.

"Five more minutes brother…please.." The whiskered red head stirred before slowly opening her eyes with a groan.

The two females made eye contact as Shiro suddenly stood up, a blush on her face as she admired the beauty of the girl in front of her in her dazed state.

"Oh, Hi there. Where did you come from? You know why are you out here and all that." Shiro asked blushing as she scratched her cheek.

The girl in question smiled then quickly answered. "I'm gathering herbs."

"Herbs? Someone is need of help?"

"Yes, they're for my master. I need them to treat his illness." The girl answered carefully as she kept up her innocent façade.

"But it seems to me that finding them is going to be much harder now." The black haired female added as she observed the surrounding forest with a frown.

Guilt rushed through Shiro. "I'm sorry about that."

She was internally shocked that a genin could cause such devastating damage but she masked it on the outside with a less suspicious reaction. "Oh my! was this you? Well at least I can be less worried now. I was wondering what you were doing out here because of all this damage."

Shiro blushed as she scratched the back of her head sheepishly. "Sorry, would you like my help?"

"That would be wonderful."

After a bit of time and a few shadow clones, the two females were able to collect enough herbs for the black haired girl now known as Haku. The two settled down opposed to each other and took some rest.

"You work very early huh Haku-chan?" Shiro asked as her fingers played around with a fallen leaf.

"Indeed, I like the calm during the early hours though I was not expecting to find someone out here much less the destruction. It's safe to assume you're a ninja so were you training here?"

Shiro averted her gaze with a frown. "Not…exactly no."

"Oh? Then you were venting out frustration? I can understand that, a ninja's life must be full of stress and anxiety especially at such a young age." Sympathized Haku.

"You must be really strong but I can't help not overlook this chaos. Does this frustration come from having to confront something dangerous?"

"I'm…I was just frustrated, angry and even borderline enraged at first but then I decided to develop my skills even further along the way." Shiro spoke as a frown formed on her face.

"You seem very strong now; there is even evidence to back it up so isn't that enough?" Haku questioned curiously.

"No..Apparently not." Shiro replied sadly.

"How so?"

"There is this person that I've started trying to protect for a while now, I…I'm doing it for them."

"Is this person precious to you?"

"Yes, more than anything in the world." Shiro firmly replied causing the black haired girl to go deep into thought.

'Wonder what she's thinking about.' Shiro thought in wonder as she observed the seemingly zoned out Haku.

"That is very good Shiro-chan, you see when someone has someone to protect then they become genuinely strong." Haku finally broke the silence as Shiro herself felt offended by that statement.

Her mind raced back to what that story about Inari's adoptive father, Kakashi's encouraging words when they first came across Zabuza or lastly when her brother told her to kick Mizuki's ass.

"I hear you but how can I even say that I'm strong? When I failed to protect the one person that means the world to me." Tears welled up in her eyes and Haku frowned.

"I am sorry for your loss."

"Thank you."

Haku made a move and picked up her basket before she stood back up; she turned her back to Shiro and began walking away.

"I hope you can find someone to fill that void but for now I must say goodbye, we'll meet again very soon."

"Goodbye." Shiro muttered as she watched the girl walk away until she suddenly came to a halt.

'There could never be anyone else that could come close to filling that void even for a bit, ever.' Shiro thought to herself as her attention was suddenly back on Haku.

"Oh by the way, not to ruin the moment or anything but I am a boy." He told Shiro before continuing on his way out of there.

Shiro stared at his retreating form with conflicted feelings she curled up and cried even harder as he thoughts became a jumbled mess of dead brothers and pretty feminine boys.

"Alright team, they're at the front entrance to some kind of cave system. We brought minimal equipment so we're limited to our approached, get ready to swim."

"Activate your cloaks and stay submerged no matter what. Darkstar 1-1, you and your team cover outside, if some of them slip through take 'em out."

"Copy that 0-1, make my job easier and make sure nobody lives."

"You got it, you heard 'em let's clean house. "

Edited on 09/04/2019.