Mist and Leaves
by Wanderer D
Chapter 14
"We cannot really let this opportunity pass." Ibiki said. "Although Suna is our ally, we have reports of unsettling individuals in their midst. So you should treat this as a double mission, you need to find out as much information as you can. Suna thinks you are a missing nin of some sort, so that gives you the advantage. Do your job and get out, Suna is strong despite being so small and it wouldn't surprise me if they had something planned for you. After all, not many would think the death of a "missing nin" a bad thing."
Haku nodded as she prepared her equipment. She had gone over it carefully to disguise her dual identity and checked it almost daily. It might seem a bit much to some, but she wanted to have the two distinct personalities as different as possible.
Senbon needles were her trademark, so she would keep them. They were cheap, deadly if used correctly and could be bought anywhere. Her uniform was very different from the rest of Konoha's ANBU, so they could not trace it back to there, and her hitai-ate although a mixture of symbols didn't give any clear indication of where she really was. Her method of fighting would point more towards Mist anyway, and the rumors of her contacting Zabuza-sama would certainly move people to that conclusion.
"I will be careful Ibiki-san." Haku said. "Thank you for the information on Sunagakure."
Ibiki grunted. "Always a pleasure to help my agents. I have to warn you though, some of the Jonin have talked about bringing in the famed Mist in the Leaves, so make sure you are far from Konoha when you turn into your other self."
The kunoichi smiled as she stood up and said goodbye for the day. Keeping her identity from the Jonin of the village had been advised to her by the few that knew her identity, limited to Tsume, Kakashi, Ibiki, Jiraiya and the Hokage.
Even her parents were unaware of how much Haku did and was part of. She hated keeping secrets from them, but the ever pragmatical Shikaku had reminded her that ninja of any village had to keep secrets from their loved ones. It was part of a way of life.
She had not been a tool in so long that she had almost forgotten how that was. Now she was not a tool but an individual, and that made things more complicated.
Her thoughts went to the cylinder she had finally managed to open with a bit of Shikamaru's help. The techniques described inside were as inspiring as they were terrifying. They were designed for heavy close combat, something she would love to avoid but recognized as unlikely in the long run.
Shikamaru had been adamant on her showing the scroll to the Hokage, and she had eventually agreed. Although all of these techniques could only be used with her bloodline, since there was no way a mix-element jutsu would be fluid enough to adapt, they were best be recorded for future reference. Especially the finishing moves described there.
Haku shuddered. She had never been a fan of gore and splattering of blood, although her guess was that Zabuza-sama would love to see the Mist in the Leaves perform them. He was into that kind of thing after all.
That made her wonder, the Mist in the Leaves had a very effective silent assassin method of fighting. Although she hadn't been in a position of showing her family style to her enemies, if she did, she might be easily recognized by observers at later dates.
However, if she adopted this Ice Dragon Fighting Style into her Mist in the Leaves persona, it would make it almost impossible to relate the two unless she was forced into using her ice techniques, but if she was careful even then, people would still think that the Mist in the Leaves was male, while Haku was clearly female.
It was getting late already. Although her main job was to keep tabs on the spy network Jiraiya had set up, she was merely a nexus of a greater whole. She also had to work for Ibiki and arrange contacts, manage interrogations, train with Ibiki on interrogation resistance techniques and other things and it took most of her day sitting behind a desk when she wasn't doing special training of some sort with Tsume or Anko.
o.0.o
As she walked down the mostly empty streets of Konoha, she felt a familiar presence.
"I see you opened the cylinder." A voice said "well done."
She turned around and stared at the ninja that had given her the scroll so long ago. He had aged. Although his body still was powerful, his scarred face was lined with wrinkles. There was something new about him though, a sense that he was more, much more than he had been before.
"I did, and I thank you for those techniques, I will learn them and master them." Haku said. She struggled with the many questions she had about who he was, and how he could do the techniques that should only belong to her bloodline. "I did not know I would ever see you again." she said finally.
The ninja chuckled. "I sense a lot of improvement in you, beyond even my expectations when I gave you the cylinder, and believe me, I would not have given it to you if I had not expected much from you. You have attained a contract with powerful beings, and trained yourself thoroughly in your family art and mastered the Ice Mist."
Haku nodded. "But where have you been? From that one conversation we had I thought you believed it unlikely you would survive your trip."
The ninja nodded. "I did survive... in a manner of speaking. I have become something else, and as I become more into that which I am destined to be, my links with my previous life break one by one like dry twigs. By the time I hear the snap it's too late." he shook his head. "When I felt you had achieved control of the Ice Mist, I decided to visit you and impart the basic knowledge of the Ice Dragon Style. I am afraid I do not have the time to help you master it, but with your own family style, the basics will be easy to learn and transform into the true Ice Dragon Style."
Haku nodded thoughtfully, her mind returning to her earlier thoughts. How much of this was coincidence and how much fate or a plan? On one hand she could step away from it and try to make the best of with what she had, which was nothing to scoff at... her life as a mercenary ninja with Zabuza, the teachings of Jiraiya, the training with Kakashi and Kurenai, her brief but humbling experience under Itachi's tutelage... learning more about the human body than even her shiatsu and now more advanced medical nin training, and her experience learning with Ibiki... learning the secret shadow jutsus of the Nara Clan... she was certainly in a position to be very influential in Konoha just by those merits alone.
She could just say 'no' and walk away. What she had now could only be taken from her by death... but on the other hand she could play along and find out how far fate would take her. She was her own person now, not a tool. She was trained by some of the best ninja to have walked the land and yet, when she looked at Zabuza she knew she was not yet his equal. When she looked at Kakashi, she knew, he would still best her. When she talked to Anko and went to missions with her, she could feel the gap... the former apprentice of Orochimaru was beyond her... she had learned so much, but she could be much better. She was almost at the age where she had met Naruto for the first time and although she was stronger than any other Chunin and much stronger than she had been back then, she still had a long way to go.
She looked straight at the grey-blue eyes of the ninja before her.
Jiraiya had told her once of his brief conversation with this strange ninja, although he had not gone into specifics, he had told her that he sensed a greater purpose in him, a destiny and underlying nobility under a life full of fear, war, bloody battles and forces even he would hesitate to face.
She made her decision. There was only one way these thoughts were leading her, and she would stand by it to learn. "When do we start?"
The ninja's face was covered by his mask, but she could almost feel the smile under it. "Tonight. I will train you every night for the next two weeks at the lake where you mastered the Ice Mist. After that, it will be up to you to evolve it into its final form."
o.0.o
Shikamaru watched his sister eat breakfast. His father was on a mission and his mother had left for the market earlier, so it was just the two of them in the house.
His mother would have been worried, but would have left the issue to Shikaku. His father would have probably not said anything waiting for Haku to broach the subject.
"Your hands are bandaged." He pointed out.
Haku stopped eating for a moment, then placed the spoon into her mouth and continued.
"And you are tired." Shikamaru continued. "More so than your workload normally tires you."
"It's been a rough week. I have desert survival training later on." Haku said, smiling at him. "And don't you have to get going to the Academy?"
o.0.o
"I see." Tsume said as she trotted right next to her, Kuromaru running easily along and smirking at the struggling Yollotl, who was a member of Teyaotlani's Clan and would step in for Wiglaf for this mission.
Although Yollotl was as dark and imposing as Kuromaru, he was less used to hot climates than Wiglaf, who had been to several missions with Haku and had grown used to the weather changes and thus struggling a bit to keep up. But the fire in his eyes told Haku he would be ready for the time of her mission.
"And so I am worried about a member of the Inuzuka Clan hunting me down... I know I can fool a lot of other clans about my identity but there's no fooling your nose."
Tsume smiled. "Of course there are ways to fool our noses." she grinned and laughed when Haku looked hopeful. "But no, I'm not telling you more than that!"
o.0.o
"I'm telling you, there's something weird going on with Haku." Shikamaru said to Choji that afternoon as the rest of the Nara family started to gather.
"What do you mean?" Choji asked, lowering his voice. It wouldn't do for the Nara family to get into an uproar over their Aneki.
"She has been coming home the last few nights increasingly tired. At first her hands were bandaged, then her forearms all the way to her elbows, then her shins and feet." Shikamaru whispered back.
"Sounds like she has been training herself very hard." Shino commented, startling the both of them.
Shikamaru sighed. So much for a private conversation. "Yes, she has, but I don't know when that is happening. Her training with Anko and Tsume is not demanding in the "let's punch the wall" sense, and the interrogation department is not particularly known for taxing endeavors in combat."
"Oh... I can tell you something then!" Kiba said as he slumped down next to them, Akamaru resting on his head. "Akamaru talked to Wiglaf yesterday and he said that Haku was training hard to master a new fighting style."
Shikamaru's head shot up, eyes wide. "She wouldn't." when he noticed everyone's surprise he looked away. "I cannot really tell you guys all the story but my sister unlocked some very strong techniques."
"How powerful?" Sasuke asked from where he was leaning against the tree.
Shikamaru frowned. He didn't like the decidedly somber attitude Sasuke had taken a month or so ago. Something had happened and the family had been too busy with other things to pay attention to their own. "Very. She was not supposed to learn them."
"Power should always be welcomed." Sasuke said, glancing at everyone around him, including Naruto, who had just arrived with Hinata to join them. "If we want to become as strong as she is right now, or even as strong as the Hokage, we have to train and use the power we can find to make ourselves stronger. No strong ninja out there has ever achieved anything just with what they learn here at the Academy."
He definitely needed to keep an eye on the Uchiha, Shikamaru decided. "Regardless of that, I am worried about her well-being."
"Let her be for now." Shino said as he extended his hand. A small bug jumped onto Shikamaru's shoulder. "This bug will allow us to track her movements. We can investigate the places she has been in tomorrow and see what we can find."
"Hey, why not tonight?!" Naruto piped in.
Shikamaru shook his head. "She is too good, she would easily spot a group of genin-wannabe's trailing her." he looked at Shino with approval. "This way we can find out where she has been when she is busy at work."
"Agreed." Shino said, nodding slightly at Shikamaru. "We shall go there after classes tomorrow."
Everyone nodded.
"Make sure to lose the harem before you join us, Sasuke!" Kiba grinned.
As Hinata blushed and stole a glance at Naruto, Sasuke punched Kiba on the stomach.
Naruto for his part was almost jumping with joy. "I've always wanted to see what type of training Aneki did! I bet I can do it to and become as strong as she is!"
o.0.o
"Okay, I might not want to do the same training." Naruto said subdued.
They were standing on the opposite side of the lake where Shikamaru had helped Haku learn the Ice Mist. The day after he had planted the bug on his sister. The area was littered with fragments of training posts, and many of the pieces had red marks that could only be blood.
Rocks had been smashed to pieces and Shikamaru could follow a trail of footsteps as his sister performed some sort of Kata. It was completely different to her style, each step was done with as much force as possible unlike the smooth steps of her family style.
This was a conundrum and his mind raced through possibilities. Haku would never try to do this training on her own, at least not to this feverish level. That could mean many things... the mission she had coming could be extremely dangerous, for example. He doubted it was, as Sasuke had suggested, "a quest for power" since his sister was anything but power hungry.
Flashback
"These techniques..." Haku shook her head as she read the contents of the cylinder. "They are so destructive in nature!"
Shikamaru took a glance at them after looking at his sister for approval. "Most of these moves are for close combat. A few are useful to get away, but the training you have to do is completely different from what you have done so far, it would be like turning water into fire."
He continued reading. The techniques were mostly designed to break an opponent's body, the style other than the name Ice Dragon Style, was vaguely described, but it seemed to be a very violent way to take apart an enemy making use of ice-style jutsus.
The last few, one of which was the Ice Mist almost made him want to throw up with what they described. "Sis, you cannot do this to anyone. You should give this to the Hokage so he can seal them away."
Haku had looked at him sadly for a while before standing up and rolling the scroll and putting it into the cylinder. "I will report these to the Hokage, Shika." she promised. "But for now it is time to sleep."
Shikamaru had nodded and followed his sister home.
End Flashback
The landscape now showed a different story. Haku had indeed reported her findings to the Hokage, but she had also started training in this different fighting style. It was completely unlike her to do this and all the events pointed to her needing extra training for her upcoming mission.
"So what do we do?" Hinata asked.
"We find Haku and tell her to take it easy!" Naruto shouted.
"Yeah!" Kiba and Akamaru were quick to voice their consent.
"Idiots." Sasuke scoffed. "Look at the effort she is putting into this. She will not quit just because you two loudmouths tell her to."
"What did you say?!" Kiba was on Sasuke's face in an instant, while Naruto clenched his fists.
"You don't really care what happens to her!" Naruto shouted.
"Calm down!" Shikamaru called out. "Sigh. You guys are so troublesome. As much as I hate to admit it, Sasuke is right. She will not quit just because we tell her to, in fact she will be deeply annoyed with all of us for butting in."
As the two loudest members of the Nara Family slowly calmed down, Choji looked worriedly at his best friend. "What do you plan to do, Shika?"
"I can only talk to her and see what she has to say." Shikamaru sighed. "I- We have to trust her. She is after all much more experienced than all of us."
The Nara Family nodded solemnly.
"In the meantime we should all become stronger so that Aneki doesn't need to worry about protecting us when we graduate and can go on missions with her!" Naruto grinned.
As the group started walking away, Shikamaru looked back at the forest. He could almost feel something there... as if someone had been watching them the whole time.
Fighting back a shiver he hurried to catch up with the others.
o.0.o
Haku dropped back, breathing hard, her arms and legs on fire from the extreme workout she had gone through followed by a very violent sparring session. She looked in awe at the ninja, who had to be on the level of Jiraiya and other masters to not even show a slight change in breathing.
"This is the last lesson." the ninja said. "Unlike your family style, the Ice Dragon Style incorporates Ice differently. It is not subtle. It is not nice and although flashy in comparison with your silent and deadly skills, it is no less effective. What I have taught you is a manner of fighting that is not intended for assassination or even for subduing your opponents. This is a killing art. When you use Ice, you use it to freeze your enemy to the point where you can destroy them afterwards. I have taught you how to use your body more effectively in these brutal combat techniques. When you freeze someone even for a few seconds you will step in and demolish them. They will be defenseless."
Haku nodded.
"Master if I could ask you something?"
The ninja looked at her for a moment in silence before nodding. Because he wouldn't reveal a name, Haku had decided to call him master, since for all intents and purposes he was teaching her a martial art.
"Are we related?"
The ninja chuckled, then started laughing. Haku had always known that the ninja was cold... unnaturaly so, but seeing him laughing made him appear so human. His eyes lost some of the hardness and wariness, and what remained of his scar almost disappeared. He looked almost gentle.
"I can see why you would think that, Haku." he said, and she blinked in surprise. He had always avoided calling her directly by name. "And I would be honored to be related to you, but sadly, other than being your martial arts master, I am not."
Haku sighed. "I just figured..."
"That I would have your same bloodline because I can use Ice so proficiently?"
Haku nodded.
"There are those who can use many more elements with amazing ability without even having a bloodline." the ninja said. "My skills are concentrated on this, but I have met people that can imitate them and many others with considerable skill... the lesson here is never to underestimate an opponent." the ninja chuckled again. "I know how frustrating it might seem to you to have no other members of your bloodline about, but you do have a family, and an extensive one at that! Earlier today they arrived here to investigate your wounds."
Haku looked up at that, alarmed. "What? How?"
The ninja snorted. My guess would be the bug-boy is somehow responsible since they were following him."
Haku slid a hand down her face in frustration. "Figures."
The ninja shook his head. "Don't worry, they don't understand, but they trust you. You are lucky to have a family such as Konoha has provided for you." he seemed to be smiling under his mask. "They intend to be stronger for you."
Haku smiled. "I am glad they do and I am grateful for Konoha... but I will miss you."
The ninja chuckled. "I have a gift for you." he said, passing her a small bundle.
She unfolded the cloth to reveal two arm protectors made of black metal with silver dragons on them. "Are these..."
The ninja showed her his own. "A mark of being my apprentice. They are made from the same metal the cylinder with my techniques is made of. They are very resilient and will withstand amazing force."
Haku was so moved she didn't say anything for several minutes. She looked up at him. "Thank you. I will treasure them all my life."
The ninja nodded, and looked up. Following his gaze, Haku was surprised to notice that it had started snowing.
"My time here is over." he said. "But I will do one more thing for you, if I can. I will let another master know of you. He might not say anything, or even visit, but he will somehow keep an eye on you."
Haku swallowed a lump in her throat. There was so much she didn't know about him... and somehow he reminded her of Zabuza-sama, just a little.
The wind picked up and the snow obscured her vision for a moment. Then, as the wind settled and the snow fell once again slowly, he was gone.
"Goodbye, master." Haku said, bowing.
End Chapter 14
Next Chapter: Garaa vs The Mist in the Leaves!
Author's note: I decided to write down a bit of my ideas about the story to clear things up a bit, I hope you guys enjoy the following!
The Mist in the Leaves: The writing process
Part 1
By Wanderer D
Why did I start writing the Mist in the Leaves is a question that comes to mind whenever I sit down to write a chapter of the story. And the answer is, I want to explore Haku's life through the second chance she gets in the story. My intention is not for it to cover the daily workings of the Naruto Universe and replace all chapters/episodes of the original story with mine.
I decided early on that Haku would be female for this story. The reasoning behind the male/female Haku was because the way Haku acts in the manga is very feminine. A lot of people like to say in their fics "look at the adam's apple" but lets face it, neither in the Anime nor the Manga can you actually see it. I know. I checked.
Another important thing is that unlike Naruto, Sasuke, or any of the rookie 9, his sex was not really important to the story. Haku could have been a guy pretending to be a girl, or a girl pretending to be a guy, in the end, regardless of that, Haku's story served its purpose to build up Naruto's character.
So, if she was a girl the story would have happened exactly the same way as if he was a guy. A minor and inconsequential change in the Canon series, in turn, becomes important in a Fanfic because as the main character and interacting with the main characters of the story from an early age, she becomes important to them and how they grow and develop as persons and ninjas.
The story focus is on Haku and her experiences as a result of her soul being sent back in time. As such I created a long list of ideas and random possibilities to play with along the story. I wanted Konoha to be sympathetic to her, and the best way was for her to train with Jiraiya and be introduced to the ninja village by him.
Although being trained by Jiraiya seems a bit pretentious I tried to make it clear that he was polishing what she already knew and helping her develop her family style more than teaching her as he would later teach Naruto. For example, he never taught her the Rasengan, but thought of her as close enough to give a copy of his book to.
To my mind, Jiraiya would see her as an excellent addition to Konoha once he had heard her story. He would hope that she would learn to love Konoha and be as loyal to the village as she was to Zabuza before. It also worked in his benefit to add another, if smaller, network of spies to his own.
Zabuza was part of an attempt to bring down the Mizukage, and for a military unit such as ninja are in the Naruto Universe (from here on known as "Narutoverse") moving without information for an enterprise of such importance would have been unthinkable.
My thoughts on this is that if Zabuza (and Haku) kept being missing nin for a while and spent some of that time as mercenaries and bounty hunters, they would have a network of their own. Working on the basis that Haku would have been extremely familiar with the workings of that network, its members, locations, etc., she would be able to identify them and even contact some of them to somewhat add them to Jiraiya's network.
Being trained by Chunin and Jonin before even getting into the academy served several hidden purposes. Not only did it establish a plausible link between Kurenai and Naruto (something I had planned to happen) but also to Itachi and others. I will explain what each taught her in a bit, but for now lets start with why the Sandaime Hokage would allow this.
The Hokage is the maximum leader of the village, but he is also their protector. He has the authority to simply say "do this" regardless of the Council's opinion. Although the council is a mostly-fan-made entity, I think that the characters are a useful plot device. In my view of things, Sarutobi is playing politics all the time, and although the council doesn't hold power over HIM, they do represent the political interests of powerful individuals. So, he would have to bend a little to get them for other things later.
But I digress. The Hokage is presented with the last owner of a powerful bloodline, who despite still being an infant is strong enough to kill a person, has knowledge way beyond her years, has "trained" with a legendary ninja if only for a short time and impressed said ninja enough for him to want her in a key position in a few years time when she is deemed ready, not to mention she is a relative of yet another legendary ninja. The fact that both legendary ninja were his students also affects a bit his perception of things.
Now, the Sandaime may not be Danzo, but he is the leader of a military village (so to speak) of ninjas. Abilities such as that should not be wasted. If she was strong and smart enough at that age, how far could she go? In a village that loves bloodlines and ninja geniuses, training her from an early age would catch the eye of several powerful individuals that would have an interest in gaining her favor for the future.
In a purely mercenary way of thinking, he had a new shiny weapon and three ways of using it: letting it be and maybe becoming as strong as he wanted; letting it be taken away from him by someone else to use (Danzo, Akatsuki, Orochimaru); or forging it into the strongest weapon loyal to him and his village he could make.
I think given the fact that the man is not an idiot the choice is easy to make. So, who did he chose to train her? Our famous Jonin of the future. I decided that she should train with them a couple of weeks to a month at the most. They would then report her progress to the Hokage. Creating links for her to attach to, and asserting various role-models, the Hokage would ensure her loyalty to Konoha.
The first step to this was to get her a family. Knowing that the Nara Clan had been willing to adopt Naruto (if not for the protest of several politically powerful individuals) he chose them because Shikaku is a known expert in tactics and logistics. Key abilities for someone that would later on become Jiraiya's link to the village.
Kurenai would be ideal to gouge her level in Genjutsu and train her a bit more. Since we never truly saw Haku use Genjutsu, my assumption is that she was not too good at it (and Zabuza also wasn't so good at it to begin with, much less good enough to train her) My intention in that was to give her a bit more to work with, but not to turn her into an expert.
Itachi was a bit of a controversial choice, but there are several aspects of him I wanted and want to explore. To begin with, we all know how he killed most of the Uchiha clan. But those of us that read the manga also know the real reason behind the event. Itachi is a very interesting character, who I tied to Haku through the training he did with her. Although like Kurenai he is a natural Genjutsu expert, he is a master of all the ninja arts and as such a perfect example of what Haku should strive to be: a well rounded warrior.
I imagine Gai might have given her some tips for training (although the weight trick is something I will not use on her) but given that she is really young he wouldn't have done more than supervise her exercises from time to time. All in all Gai is someone she knows but never truly trained with.
Kakashi was the most interesting choice though, because he is her main Konoha influence, although it is not so obvious through the story itself. He is the one that defeated Zabuza, and Naruto's future sensei. He is the main reason she became part of ANBU, her assassination skills were already above average when she fought Naruto and Co. in the bridge, but under his training she became a true assassin. Working in that area would have put her in contact with Anko.
At that point (even before the ANBU gig) Haku would have known much more than any Academy Student. A fact that Sarutobi was well aware of and which he knew she was aware of too. Taking some extra classes with Kabuto's father in the hospital would have made her a much more effective assassin. And working for Ibiki was the best way for her to start separating Haku from her alternate persona: the "Mist in the Leaves" in the eyes of Konoha, a key step for her future in my story. Ibiki's mentoring in interrogation skills, along with what she had already learned from Zabuza would make her extremely effective in her role as a "free" agent.
This then brought me to the others. The Rookie Nine as they are called are of course extremely influential in the story and more so after they graduate and pass the exams. Although Haku is much more mature than any of them, she was sent back into the body of a child. Conflicting feelings and age issues and the fact that she respects Naruto so much made her insist on getting into the Academy, although it wasn't meant to last. This however allowed me to create the "Nara Family" I thought the idea of the majority of the group calling her "Big Sister" in the Yakuza style was priceless and would set a tone for their relationship early enough for it to be believable in the future.
Her interactions with the characters would affect how they would graduate, act and fight in the future. Having a group of friends a bit earlier, Naruto for example, would get a bit more help and practice, he wouldn't stop being his slacking-off, prankster self, but it would alienate him less from others.
The teams might change a bit thanks to this, but I think more in their internal dynamics than in the teammates selection. I think overall, all of the Rookie Nine are stronger at this point than they were in the original story, but for them to catch up to Haku... they will need time and lots of training and experience, she is closer to Kakashi than she is to them in fighting ability. (But not quite there yet.)
The turning point in the story will be the mission to Wave, which will happen soon, but for now we are building a character we can both believe in in the future and who will change the Narutoverse forever!
End Part 1