Chapter Twelve: Trial and Error
"Mother, are you certain you wish to attempt this again?" Haku asked seriously with concern clear in his dark eyes.
Smiling fondly at her eldest, Lily nodded. She still wasn't sure how polite formality had been ground so deeply into Haku's bones at such a young age, but she'd given up some time ago trying to get him to just call her 'mom'. "I need to, Haku," she replied softly, reaching out to ruffle his long, dark hair which was immaculate, as always.
Haku ducked his head to avoid further mussing, but she caught the smile that flashed across his lips for a moment. "I am only concerned, mother; you are still healing from the last test of this… device."
"I know," Lily sighed. The burns on her left wrist and forearm were mostly healed, but the memory of the pain was still fresh. "I know what went wrong with the last halo, though," she continued, "and I fixed it."
"All right, mother," Haku murmured. "Well, Naruto will be at the Academy until this afternoon and Kakashi is away all week, so now is as good a time as any to try again. I do hope this one doesn't catch fire, though; manufacturing a second kitchen accident would almost certainly raise suspicions."
Nodding, Lily carefully picked up the thin bracelet of worked silver and placed it on her wrist, willing her fingers to stop twitching. Lying down on her bed, she studied Haku's serious face crowned by a Konoha hitai-ate as he knelt beside it. Now eleven, Haku had blown through the Academy in just two years and was already a successful genin on track to be promoted to chuunin when the next exams were held. It was still jarring to Lily sometimes how fast shinobi had to grow up, but Haku handled it well, and despite his age she'd come to rely on him as an adult.
Haku was the only person in Konoha that Lily had confided her secrets to. He had seen her work magic on the night they met, had seen her kill a kage with it – an act whose political ripples were still being felt across the Elemental Nations three years later. He'd listened to her story of meeting Naruto's mother beyond the grave and crossing over to his world with calm acceptance.
"Are you ready mother?" Haku asked politely. Lily nodded, tapping her wand on the bracelet and activating the runes engraved on its outer surface. "Then I will begin." Pressing two fingers to each side of the bracelet, Haku slowly began pouring his chakra into the metal, activating the tiny fuuinjutsu seals etched on the inner band.
Kakashi moving in had slowed the pace of Lily's research and experimentation into methods of contacting Kushina, but once Naruto started attending the Academy during the day, the Hokage had re-tasked the Copy Ninja, who was one of his best ANBU. Kakashi still lived with them, but he wasn't a constant presence anymore, which allowed Lily to get back to work.
After years of study, she'd concluded that magic alone was never going to allow her to gulf the unfathomable distance between Earth and the Elemental Nations. Kushina's memories had given her a different idea, however. She couldn't help but notice the similarities between the functionality of the magical runes she'd studied at Hogwarts, and the fuuinjutsu that Kushina had mastered in her first lifetime. Both were systems of shaping power to do a wide variety of things, limited mostly by the patience and knowledge of their practitioner.
Lily had combined the two disciplines in a series of careful experiments assisted by Haku, as Lily had no chakra of her own to manipulate fuuinjutsu seals. After numerous failures at enchanting a mirror to show her places on Earth, Lily had concluded that no material she could acquire was capable of containing the energy required. Even sturdy polished metal had melted and burned before giving her a glimpse of home.
Failure had given Lily pause, and she'd redefined the problem. She didn't really need to see Earth; she just needed some way to connect with Kushina again, as they had on the road to the afterlife. That had inspired her second experiment. Since she had all of the memories of Kushina's first life, she'd conceived of a magical device that would use those memories as a key, linking her to the only other person in any existence who also possessed them; Kushina herself.
That had led her to build the first halo. The one she now wore was the fourth iteration. The first simply hadn't worked. The second had broken into pieces, leaving Lily with vicious migraines that took weeks to fade. The third had caught fire last week as soon as Haku used his chakra to activate it, and the burns, while bad, would have been much worse if her adopted son hadn't frozen the molten silver before it could cut down to the bone.
Closing her eyes, Lily could feel the halo coming to life. Come on, Kushina… I know you're out there. The halo started humming. Lily felt a sudden and shocking chill spread from her wrist into her whole body, sinking into her bones. Something's wrong, she realized immediately. She tried to slip the halo off of her wrist, but her muscles were cold and numb, refusing to obey her. Lily experienced a sensation as though she were falling before everything went dark.
"God, we haven't spoken in a long time. Not since papa beat mama to death with his hoe and turned it on me, just for the 'sin' in our blood."
What? Lily felt sluggish, her body heavy and numb. She couldn't move, and she was so cold.
"I didn't ask you for mercy, then. It was my mistake, letting papa see what I could do. I suppose I deserved what came after. Mama didn't, but that's between you and her now."
Haku? Lily could hear her adopted son's voice. He was speaking quietly, fervently. He was praying, she realized in shock. He'd never displayed any religious inclinations before.
"God, please don't take mother. Not for this; not for wanting to make sure our brother in the other world is all right. Naruto needs her." Lily felt faint warmth, the heat of Haku's fingers wrapped around hers. A droplet of moisture fell on the back of her hand, and then another. "I need her," he choked out.
The warmth of Haku's touch spread ever so slowly through Lily's body, and she was able to move. Her fingers curled around Haku's. Her eyelids opened, gummy and crusty. The light was dim, but it still hurt her eyes. "Haku…" Lily mumbled.
"Mother?" Haku's face popped into sight, eyes damp but suddenly smiling. "Mother, you're awake!"
"What… what happened?" Lily croaked in a hoarse whisper. She still felt so weak, like all of her body's energy had been drained away.
"You've been unconscious for two days, mother," Haku told her seriously. "You fell into a deep sleep as soon as the halo was activated. I removed it when your skin started getting colder, but I couldn't wake you." Haku shivered. "I told Naruto and Aunt Mebuki that you had the flu, but… I was going to take you to the hospital if you didn't wake up tonight."
Lily winced; that would have been bad. It would have raised a lot of questions she wasn't prepared to answer.
"Are you all right mother? How do you feel?" Haku asked anxiously.
"Weak," Lily murmured, "and cold." Haku vanished for a moment, and upon returning added another blanket to the ones already wrapped around her. He helped Lily sit up and drink a cup of hot tea. It felt wonderful, warming her from the inside.
"Naruto…?" Lily managed to ask.
"He's worried about you. I convinced him that he didn't want to catch whatever you'd come down with."
Lily sighed, feeling a worm of guilt in her gut. She could see the lines of stress on Haku's young face. "I'm so sorry, Haku," she whispered.
Haku squeezed her hand gently. "I'm just glad you're back." He paused, looking at her seriously. "Are you going to try again?"
Lily closed her eyes for a moment. "As much as I'd like to make sure Harry and Kushina are doing well… I've been selfish, and unfair to you and Naruto." She glanced at the halo sitting on the side table. "I wish I knew what went wrong; it should have worked. But I've been pushing my luck. I could have died this time. I promise I won't try to use the halo again."
"Thank you, mother," Haku said, sounding relieved as he hugged her.