When he arrived at the bridge he paused to examine the situation. His first observation was that he would be fighting in damp clothes which was never fun. The second observation was that Sasuke was trapped in a kekkei genkai used by Haku. The third observation was that Kakashi was unable to assist him due to Zabuza stopping him. And the final observation was of Sakura protecting Tazuna but not currently being attacked. He dismissed her as unimportant.
As soon as he thought it she began moving toward Sasuke. He should have know she would leap to Sasuke's rescue even if it endangered the mission. He pulled a kunai from his weapon pouch ready in case Tazuna was attacked while Sakura was making a fool of herself. She threw a kunai at the crystal mirrors trying to give Sasuke a weapon but her yell alerted Haku who was then able to catch it. He wondered what had happened before he arrived for Sasuke not to have his own kunai. He could find out later, for now he threw a shuriken at Haku hitting his mask and knocking him out of the jutsu.
Taking his chance he ran toward the dome intent on getting Sasuke out. He ran between two of the mirrors and grabbed Sasuke's arm so he could pull him out.
"What are you doing, Hadrian? Now you're trapped in there too," Sakura yelled, the fact she thought he was an idiot was implied.
He felt like an idiot though. He knew better than to act without thinking. He knew better than to jump into an unknown jutsu when he didn't know how it worked. But he had done it anyway. He had behaved foolishly because he had seen what he thought was an opening to help his teammate. He groaned into his hands, this is why he said forgetting to protect yourself would only result in an early grave. Thinking of others only made your own actions more reckless.
Haku stood up and entered the ice mirrors again but this time both he and Sasuke were trapped inside.
"I'll just have to destroy the mirror," Sasuke said standing.
It seemed like a good idea in theory but he wasn't sure ice created by a kekkei genkai would be that easy to break. Sasuke brought his hands together and began forming hand-signs. He brought one of his hands to his mouth and blew out a stream of fire. It bathed the mirrors in a searing heat he could feel from where he stood behind Sasuke. But the mirrors were colder than the fire was hot and when the jutsu ended the mirrors were completely unscathed.
"It won't melt with such weak fire," Haku taunted calmly, throwing senbon out of the mirrors.
He seemed to be in every mirror at once and the attack came from every direction. He tried to dodge as many as he could but it was almost impossible to avoid even one senbon needle. He felt the tearing at his skin when the needles scratched shallow wounds everywhere. Almost as soon as the wounds opened they were closing again. He only had time to feel the sting and the first trickle of blood before the wounds were gone. His clothes however were not so lucky and holes were ripped open in several places.
"Where is he attacking from?" he asked Sasuke looking at all the mirrors, "Are they all clones?"
Sasuke didn't answer him. He was too focused on his own thoughts and strategies. With a shrug he decided to test his theory. He produced several shadow clones and sent them to attack all of the mirrors.
Not one clone reached a mirror. He took in the information they sent as they were released. It seemed that the attack was indeed coming from every direction but not at exactly the same time.
"This is a travelling technique that utilizes mirror reflections that reflect only me," Haku kindly decided to answer his earlier question, "From my speed, you two look like you're standing still."
That made getting out that much harder. If Haku was able to move that quickly there was no way that they could counter him. His first thought was of Kurama. He doubted that Haku's mirrors were stronger than the red chakra but he had promised to only use it as a last resort. He had to think of something else. He hoped he could come up with something that would work. He glanced at Sasuke who was standing next to him squinting at the mirrors.
"Sasuke-kun, don't lose to a guy like him," Sakura yelled from outside the mirrors.
Her yelling broke his concentration. Next to him he heard Sasuke tsk and knew it was the same for him. She must have been reprimanded though as she didn't yell at Sasuke again. Unable to think of anything else he sent shadow clones to attack the mirrors again. He wasn't sure how much chakra Haku's technique used but when it came to stamina he was very hard to beat. As his clones were destroyed more were already there to take their place. It had the added benefit of providing him and Sasuke with a somewhat effective shield. The few senbon that slipped past his wall of clones were easy to dodge.
He kept up the pace for several minutes. As he sent clone after clone out to attack the mirrors. Sasuke began kicking up water and watching it fall with extreme concentration. He was curious but thought it was better not to ask and draw Haku's attention to what his teammate was doing. He would tell him when he was ready to put a plan into action.
After a few more minutes Sasuke randomly sent the same jutsu he had used earlier toward blank space, or at least he thought it was blank space. As he received feedback from his destroyed clones he realized that when Sasuke performed his jutsu the attacks on his clones were interrupted for a moment.
"Can you see him?" he asked Sasuke without slowing down his clone production.
"Not yet, almost," Sasuke responded still concentrating on the water droplets in the air.
Sasuke sent the justu into the air again. Once again there was a moment's pause in his clones being destroyed. Then he noticed that the reflection now had a burnt patch on his clothes. He smiled. Sasuke's jutsu had almost hit him.
He kept up the barrage of clones though he was beginning to feel the strain on his chakra. Shadow clones used up large amounts of chakra. He wasn't sure if he would be able to outlast Haku after all. He would just have to send out clones for as long as he could.
"Hadrian run," Sasuke finally seemed to have figured something out, "Get out of here and attack from the outside."
"Okay," he nodded.
He started running as soon as he finished speaking. As he got close to the wall of mirrors he felt the heat from Sasuke's blazing fireball jutsu targeting the air next to him. But Haku must have slipped past the jutsu because he was then knocked back into the centre of the mirrors. He looked to his side and saw that Sasuke had a senbon sticking out of his shoulder. Sasuke may be able to see Haku but his own techniques were not fast enough to hit him.
He made the hand signs to create more shadow clones when he suddenly realized that he had overlooked something vital. He concentrated on forming his clones outside the ice mirrors and completed the hand signs. No clones formed outside the dome. That meant that the mirrors somehow didn't let his chakra out. He was disappointed but he still had his stamina to rely on.
"That was good. Let's do it again," he looked at Sasuke like he was crazy, that had been an utter failure, "Trust me."
With a sigh he decided to trust Sasuke. He only hoped Sasuke would succeed quickly because Haku's attacks were painful and didn't heal as quickly as the shallow scratches made by the senbon needles. He ran toward the wall of mirrors and heard Sasuke's footsteps head in another direction. He heard Sasuke yell just before several senbon needles stabbed him in the back. He was not going to try this again when his clones had been working better.
From outside the dome he heard Sakura scream. He had never heard a scream filled with so much fear. It was chilling. He needed to get out of mirrors quickly. He ran toward the mirrors again but dodged toward another opening when his instincts warned him of danger. He did this two more times before senbon managed to stab him in the chest. He wheezed as he bent over. His lung wasn't punctured but he could feel the tip of one of the needles scraping against his lung every time he breathed in.
"It's impossible to get out of here. I can assure you of that," Haku said watching from the safety of the mirror.
He reached up to pull out the offending senbon needle but more were thrown into his arm. He cried out dropping to his knees. It was the most pain he had felt in a long time. His wounds weren't healing because of the needles that were holding the wounds open.
"I will put an end to this now," Haku told them.
More senbon were thrown in their direction but Sasuke had picked one up and was able to deflect the others. He took advantage of the opportunity to pull out the senbon threatening his lung and pull out as many of the others as he could reach. The needles in his back were mostly beyond his reach. Once the needles were out the wounds finally began to heal. It was slower than the scratches had healed but he knew they would be closed within a minute or two.
He watched as Sasuke deflected volleys of senbon rarely letting one hit him. It was impressive. He knew if he tried to interfere he would only make the situation worse because he could not see Haku's movements the way Sasuke could. If he interfered he would be fighting blind and that could hurt Sasuke's chances of countering.
He watched as Sasuke seemed to get better at reading Haku as the fight progressed. He was so focused on being a spectator to the battle that he didn't notice the attack meant for him until Sasuke had picked him up by his waist. He was so shocked that he was apparently easy to carry around that his brain froze for a moment. His eyes widened as he felt his face redden, he had never felt so small. This was by far the worst battle he had ever been a part of.
"Put me down," he cringed at how small his voice sounded.
Sasuke dropped him on the ground in a graceless heap. When he looked up to glare, he was once again surprised. Sasuke's eyes were red. They looked like an incomplete version of Kakashi's sharingan. He felt the fox's anxiety seeping out of the cage infecting him. When Sasuke had no sharingan him finding out about Kurama had been safe, now there was the potential that Sasuke could use his sharingan to hurt them.
He stood up ready to flee as his panic grew. And almost immediately Sasuke's back was in front of him. He heard dull thunks as the senbon needles pierced through his skin. Then the body in front of him fell to the ground. It was unmoving like a corpse.
He stood there unable to move or comprehend what had just happened.
All his life people were cruel. People went out of their way to hurt him, demean him, and deny him. Still, this boy that he knew had lofty ambitions and had always had personality issues was on the ground, possibly dead, because he tried to save him. Sasuke had risked his chance at revenge for his sake despite everything because they were teammates. He suddenly felt a rush of warm affection for Sasuke. His eyes burned as his vision went blurry and for the first time in seven years Hadrian let his tears fall. He promised himself that if they made it out of this fight, if Sasuke was somehow not dead, he would try once more to be friends. What else could he do when he was willing to die for him?
He dropped to his knees trying to feel for a pulse but there were too many needles sticking out of Sasuke. He felt himself reaching for the red chakra but Kakashi had warned him after the last fight not to use it. If he used it now Kakashi would tell the Hokage and things might become more difficult for him in the village. It was especially troubling given Sasuke's newly awakened sharingan, though he was fairly certain Sasuke would not use it to hurt them if he survived this battle. He instead reached for the deep pool of gold in the depths of his being.
The door was there waiting and unlocked. He threw it open. He felt the ebb and flow of that brilliant power around him.
'Please,' he begged it.
There was no verbal response but the gold surged around him and he knew he needed only to think about what he wanted and it would be done.
What he wanted more than anything was for the mirrors to, "Shatter."
He felt the gold rush through him filling his skin. When he opened his eyes his skin looked almost luminescent. He felt the power release from inside him like a dam giving way to the weight of the water it held back. It was amazing, wondrous and awe inspiring.
In perfect synchronization every mirror shattered. Haku was thrown through the air into the railing at the side of the bridge. Around him ice dust fell through the air sparkling in the light that managed to get through the fog. He felt his power catch on some of the larger shards of ice. He saw them freeze in the air then rotate so that their sharpest points were aimed at Haku who was slowly climbing to his feet.
"Why have you stopped?" Haku asked him taking off his mask, "You can't defeat me like that."
He pulled on his power to bring the shards of ice closer. He examined Haku who seemed to want to die. He and Haku had fought, Haku lost. In this circumstance he knew he could kill him without guilt as an enemy shinobi he had defeated. He hadn't felt anything when he had killed those thugs after all. Even Inari hadn't cared that he had killed them.
"I see," he said pulling the shards closer still, "I told you so."
He watched Haku's eyes widen as he released the shards. They flew toward Haku as fast as the senbon needles had flown at him. The shards embedded themselves into as many of Haku's vital organs as possible. He had told him, if you don't live for yourself, you will die. A pity he didn't listen. Haku fell to the ground blood pooling around his body. He felt regret that things ended this way, but no regret at killing Haku.
Now that his battle with Haku was over he felt the tension alleviate from his body. As the adrenaline vanished he also felt the golden power retreat back into the room in his mind but this time there was no door. He could feel it waiting there, ready to be called. Yet, somehow he felt that it would not come if he were call it on a whim. This power needed purpose.
He had won his battle but Kakashi was still facing Zabuza. He hurried closer to where they were so he could watch. He was too late. Kakashi's hand had gone right through Zabuza's chest. The moment he died the mist that had clung to everything disappeared. Zabuza's corpse fell to the ground in a pile of limbs as Kakashi removed his arm.
He made to move toward Kakashi when Sakura's voice distracted him.
"Hadrian, where's Sasuke?" she asked looking panicked as she ran closer and didn't see him.
He glanced at her before pointing toward Sasuke. If he was dead there was nothing they could do so it was better to leave him until everything was resolved. If he was merely in a near death state like Zabuza had been when Haku attacked him, then there was still nothing he could do at the moment and he would be better served waiting until everything was resolved. He watched Sakura's eyes follow his finger to Sasuke's body. With a cry she and Tazuna hurried over to the body. After a short time he could hear her crying.
Kakashi had also followed his finger but his gaze instead landed on Haku's body.
"Hadrian, what did you do?" Kakashi had the same look he had when they were speaking about Kurama.
"I killed an enemy in battle," he told his sensei, "I did not use the red chakra to do it."
He was tired of Kakashi always assuming the worst of him. He couldn't win.
"Kakashi-sensei, do you have something against me, personally?" he asked stopping next to Kakashi.
He made sure he kept his voice low enough that the others would not accidentally overhear them. He should have waited until they were done with the mission for the day to ask but he felt more bothered by it than usual.
Kakashi sighed, "I'm sorry, Hadrian. It has nothing to do with you. You are my student and I care about you."
"But?"
"But I can't forgive your mother for what she did to my sensei."
Of all the answers he could have imagined. Anything to do with his parents would not have been anywhere on the list.
"What?" he asked confused.
Anger crept into Kakashi's voice as he seemed to remember, "Your mother, Kushina Uzumaki, was the jinchūriki of the nine-tailed fox before you. When you were born the seal weakened allowing the fox to attack the village. As a female jinchūriki she knew the seal would weaken as she gave birth but she and my sensei wanted to start a family together so they were willing to take the risk. But as it turns out you weren't even his and they both died in the attack so the fox could be sealed into you," Kakashi said with disgust, "You look just like her, except the hair I have no idea where the hair is from."
"I never knew her, and Kurama has never spoken of her," he told his sensei through narrowed eyes, "Do I really look like a male version of my mother?"
"No, you look just like her," Kakashi defended himself, "And I told you it has nothing to do with you. You are my student and I will do everything in my power to protect and train you."
"But you'll never like me," his voice was cold.
You can't control the things you feel. He knew this because he had tried. He had tried so hard for years to stop hurting, to be happy, to forgive the villagers; but he had never succeeded, not once. He could hide his feelings and he could act against them. He had spent years at the academy smiling despite the agony he truly felt inside. Being nice to people who scorned him. Kakashi could do the same if he truly tried.
"You've been defeated, I'm disappointed Zabuza," a short man said while he stood in front of an army of thugs.
The man was directing his statement to Zabuza's corpse. He and Kakashi both shifted their attention to the new arrivals. He wasn't sure how he had missed them all climbing onto the end of the bridge but he wasn't worried about the thugs. They were simple to defeat, as the two he had encountered earlier proved. He doubted Gatoh had any more jounin within his group. He also doubted Gatoh could fight on his own, he just wasn't built for it.
He glanced at Kakashi waiting for him to decide what they would do. Kakashi glanced at Haku's body and then at him. He seemed to come to some sort of decision.
"If you cut off the head," Kakahi began.
"The body dies," he finished pulling out a kunai from his weapon pouch.
He would never trust Kakashi completely but he had been honest with him. He had never denied him training while providing it to the others. He would trust him as his teacher but outside of training or missions he would make sure to avoid Kakashi because he knew Kakashi would not be there for him outside of his designated role.
He followed Kakashi, running toward the crowd of thugs that Gatoh had just ran to hide behind when he felt their intent. Kakashi reached the thugs first and cut down any of the goons who had the misfortune to be standing near him. He used his small size to slip through the opening Kakashi had created. Gatoh hadn't gotten far as the goons weren't moving to let him through easily. In fact, they had begun to panic as Kakashi carved a chunk out of their number. He reached Gatoh easily and opened his throat with the kunai in his hand.
He watched the body fall to the ground as he and Kakashi retreated. He had killed four people during this mission. He felt more guilty about the rabbit he had killed a week ago than he did about any of the others he had killed. He felt he might have been guilty about Haku had he not wanted to die. How could he feel guilty about giving him what he asked for?
They waited to see what the thugs were planning to do now their financial backer was dead.
"Hadrian," Sakura called from behind them.
He was surprised she was done crying so quickly.
"Sasuke-kun is alive," she yelled happily.
He turned to glance at them and saw that Sasuke was standing next to her. He smiled at them and began walking over. He didn't worry about the thugs at his back. Kakashi was between them and him. The henchmen began complaining about Gatoh's death and threatening to pillage the Land of Waves in retribution. He got ready to fight them as they started running forward but an arrow landed between him and them. He smiled and turned back toward the others. Behind them Inari stood at the head of a group of furious villagers. It seemed with Gatoh dead they had finally found their courage.
The thugs had paused but there was still a chance that they were stronger than the villagers. He created shadow clones to remind them the villagers were not alone. Kakashi copied him and did the same adding more shadow clones. It was petty of him. The addition of the clones was enough to scare the thugs into running. They quickly trampled each other for the chance to get on the boat first. He imagined they would be sailing as far away as they could get. Now all they needed to do was finish the bridge and they could go back to the hidden leaf with a successful mission.
The bridge took another month to finish building and it was finally time to leave. He wasn't particularly happy to go back to the hidden leaf but he felt he was done with the Land of Waves. Inari had become oddly attached to him despite the fact he couldn't actually remember being nice to him. It was exhausting constantly needing to smile and be friendly. The whole country credited him with their freedom. He wasn't complaining but really he hadn't actually done much. Still, it never hurt to gather minions, he might need something built for him someday and Tazuna was a great builder. Inari probably would be too, one day.
He smiled smugly up at the bridge as they left. In big giant letters it stated the name of the bridge across a large archway. The bridge they helped build was now named the Great Hadrian Bridge.