Scraps Haru

Disclaimer: Nothing belongs to me. No copyright infringement intended.

Okay, so this is yet another Kakashi/Harry Oneshot. It's set during the Wave Mission and about 2 or 3 years old. And I'm not particularly happy with it. But I hope you'll enjoy it regardless.

OneShot:

Kakashi noticed the unusual puddle near the road instantly when they passed it, subtly grabbing a kunai hidden on his body. A moment later, two shapes emerged from seemingly nowhere, focusing their attack on him. Good, they wanted to get him out of the way first.

Unfortunately, they had managed to "catch" him with a chain which would usually not pose a problem to a Jōnin, but Kakashi wanted to see how his cute little students reacted in such an unexpected situation.

Sasuke immediately went into an offensive, successfully defending Naruto who had surprisingly frozen up. Sakura kept a somewhat cool head and stayed by the bridge builder's side. So she wasn't as useless as the other fangirls Kakashi had encountered so far. Or at the very least she had potential to become better. Naruto disappointed him when he panicked, but it was somewhat expected.

When Zabuza appeared though, Kakashi knew their little escort mission had gone from C-to A-rank in a second. In the middle of Zabuza's monologue about Kakashi and the Sharingan, a near silent poof announced the arrival of someone else.

Friend or foe remained to be seen.

Then the Hatake's sensitive nose caught a whiff of the new arrival's scent. It took all of Kakashi's willpower to keep his eye on Zabuza. He knew this scent. Intimately.

"Ah, who might you be?" the Demon of the Mist demanded to know.

A melodic feminine voice - still carrying the unique accent Kakashi remembered so clearly - rang out as she replied: "No one of consequence, Zabuza Momoichi."

"Have we met before?" the missing-nin asked curiously.

"I doubt it."

"Why are you here? This altercation has nothing to do with you, kunoichi-chan."

Kakashi almost grimaced behind his mask. If memory served him right, she hated to be patronized.

"It's always nice to catch up with old friends, isn't it?"

Kakashi used the distraction she had provided and attacked Zabuza. With her at his back, the kids would be fine.

"Kakashi-sensei? Who is this?" Sakura questioned reluctantly when the hunter-nin had vanished with Zabuza's "body".

The silver-haired shinobi sighed, looking up from Naruto's already healing wounds. His eyes connected with his only female genin. Sakura's green eyes reminded him of her emerald ones which is why he despised how the pinkette fixated all her attention on Sasuke instead of training.

"Oh, I haven't introduced myself, have I?" She asked breezily, a smile in her voice.

"Sakura-chan, this is an old - acquaintance of mine. Nice to see you again, Haru-san," Kakashi replied before turning to her.

His breath was almost knocked out of his lungs. The last time they had met up, he'd only been fourteen to her twelve. The last nine years or so had been good to her.

She was now five feet tall, he estimated. Long, seemingly endless, toned legs were encased in black skin-tight leather, vanishing underneath a black haori decorated with little deer and white lilies. She had filled out, now sporting curves hidden beneath the loose kimono jacket. Her long black-red hair was braided back, so as not to get in the way of her fighting.

However, one thing had not changed - those emerald eyes of hers were still the most beautiful jewels Kakashi had ever come across.

A small smile did indeed tug at the corners of her mouth. "You got a new mask," Haru stated nonchalantly, "and you let your hair grow out, I see. Not changed all that much, huh?"

"You're still harping on about that?" Kakashi couldn't help but retort, a mixture of fond exasperation and surprise coloring his voice.

At this she gave him a cheeky smile. "Of course! What would we talk about if I didn't tease you about your hair? You would only grunt or call me 'brat'. Not much of a conversationalist, are you?"

The bridge builder chuckled lowly. All three of the Leaf-genins gaped in their own unique way at the beautiful woman teasing their sensei.

"Maybe we should continue this later," Kakashi muttered, ignoring her previous words. Before she could say something along the lines of him being a damsel in distress, as Haru would no doubt do to rile him up, he added: "Shut up."

Her undoubtedly exaggerated pout was almost audible.

They were sitting on the rooftop of Tenzua's house overlooking the forest and the sea. The moon was shining brightly overhead.

"Why are you really here, Haru-chan?" Kakashi asked softly.

She settled down next to him on the roof, sighing a little. Her eyes sought out the stars, a quirk of hers he had always found intriguing. "The council wanted to send me on a long-term mission after the death of Yondaime-sama. To Iwa, no less! However, Tsunade-hime's offer of an apprenticeship saved me from almost certain death. You know my Otōsan wasn't in his best shape after I graduated from the Academy, right? He was fatally ill, brought about by longterm effects from a poison combined with a strong genjutsu. If we wouldn't have specialized so much on obscure poisons, he wouldn't have lived to see another sunrise. As it was, he forced me to memorize all the clan techniques he could still remember and trained me even more relentlessly than before."

Kakashi's visible eye widened slightly, the only indication for his profound surprise. Unlike the Hyuuga, or Uchiha of old, Black-san had always shown his love for his daughter and heiress. For him to push her so strongly meant that he had suspected something else potentially going on behind his back.

Haru glared at the moon high above their heads. "We might still be new to Konohagakure, but the Black clan is considered ancient for a reason. You know of my penchant for liquid weapons, don't you?"

Kakashi grimaced, remembering the last time she had pranked him with her clan's secret weapons. His hair had turned a tomato-red to rival Kushina-san's. (Much to Minato-sensei's amusement.) However, they hadn't managed to determine what exactly had been used in the production of the elixir. Only a few herbs that had made no sense whatsoever to the analytical team. "Yes."

"Well, that's one of five major cores of general clan techniques we are taught. We might be unable to mold chakra like you can, but we never needed to. At home, the main clans had specialized in one or two areas of different jutsus. My other clan had an affinity for changing the outer nature of things and what we call Defense. My mother wasn't officially recognized as part of any clan, her ancestry is a bit blurry, but she had power in spades as well as a way to use something resembling a combination of gen- and ninjutsu. She could have been a mistress in her chosen field, you know."

This revelation astonished Kakashi even more. He had heard hushed rumors of Black-san's prowess in battle but never any details. But how could one clan possibly specialize in five major and an unknown number of minor fields?

Haru-chan sighed. "Somehow, the old geezers had gotten wind of Otōsan's promotion to Specialized Jōnin and Hokage-sama's reasons for that and decided they needed to control my life as well as trying to obtain a way to gain my Kekkei Genkai."

Kakashi whipped his head around to look at her, worry seeping deeply into his heart. She had been his closest friend for a very long time. (He never figured out how that happened in the first place.) Haru valued family like Hatake's value Pack. Anyone interfering in her clan's life or her own would only encounter a strong opposition from the headstrong, specialized kunoichi. Plus, he didn't want to even contemplate what would happen if she got sold off as a breeding mare to some disgusting male deep in the council's pocket. Or rather Danzo's.

If she wanted to, she could easily raze Konoha to the ground, Kakashi was sure. Didn't they realize that the Black clanhead was a paranoid, overprotective father who had raised his daughter to become a fearsome adversary?

Apparently not.

Although they should have concluded something from the many blanks in their files. Despite befriending her before she even entered the academy, Kakashi knew for certain that he had never seen the full potential of Haru. Never.

"Tsunade-sama offered me an apprenticeship to hone my skills in the medical field as far as she could without chakra, after getting wind of the council's plans. She taught me for the next six years before sending me out to travel and refine what I had learnt. I heard about the dismal situation around here and wanted to help those in need when I picked up on your chakra signature. So I came to investigate."

Kakashi gaped behind his mask. How had the almost painfully shy girl with the short, wild hair turned into this incredible young woman? "You managed to pick up my signature so far out?"

She mischievously smiled at him out of the corner of her eyes. "Do you still have that necklace I gave you when you made Jōnin?"

Kakashi nodded. It was one of the few personal things he allowed himself to carry around wherever he went. Mostly because no one ever saw it and those who knew of the significance to him were all dead by now. He wore it under his mask.

"I fused some of my own power into it, so if I'd ever need to track you down, I could. It's also able to transport you to a previously set location if you say the password or smear some blood on it like on a storage scroll."

"How-?"

"Clan secret. I'm not terribly good at it though and it's only for emergencies. The password is 'Fawn's Hideout'. Unfortunately, the landing can be very brutal if you're injured and the whole flight is quite disorientating. I wanted to tell you the password too but then the ANBU-san showed up to tell me about Otōsan's death. So I forgot in all the chaos. You can transport others with you if they hold onto the necklace and smear their blood on it too."

"That sounds like reverse-summoning."

She smiled. "Although it may appear so, this mode of transportation isn't instantaneous. It only lasts for seconds or a few minutes at most, depending on the distance travelled, but only brings you from Point A to B; no one can interfere with that without knowing the exact parameters. Only people who have my personal approval could enter the place, let alone find it."

Kakashi considered everything this meant. Slowly, a grateful, genuine smile appeared on his face. "Thank you, Haru-chan."

Sighing, she leaned further into him. Without thinking about his automatic reaction, Kakashi slung an arm around her shoulders.

"So what else have you been up to?" The silver-haired shinobi wondered curiously. Haru had never spoken so much in one setting.

"Well, my Taijutsu has improved tremendously. I can also channel my power longer and more powerfully than before. Tsunade-sama had me work on my speed as well as stealth, although usually to pickpocket some poor sod that had annoyed her before. Also I learned how to pack a nice punch," she counted off, grinning a little too fiercely for comfort. "I heard about you taking near constant missions, how did you get settled with three genin?"

Kakashi sighed, letting his guard down a little. He knew Haru had put up impenetrable privacy seals. Not even Kushina-san had been able to break them before. "I failed the psych-eval twice in three months and got pulled off active duty for an undetermined amount of time. So Hokage-sama thought it was a good idea for me to 'pass on my wisdom' and ordered me to test the new rookies each year. Everyone failed except those three downstairs. In the meantime I still completed a few missions and worked on restoring the Hatake compound."

"So you finally found your Chosen?" Haru asked, a strange mixture of regret, interest and happiness in her voice.

He smiled lightly at her. She had never been able to conceal her true emotions from him. Right now, she had clearly no idea who they talked about. "I've known her for a long time, Haru-chan, and she's one of the few precious people I still have left. But I've only found out about our bond when I got taken off duty and could stabilize my mind."

Somewhat, at least. He still wasn't the same as before his father's suicide.

"Oh," Haru breathed out. So she had connected the dots. "That explains a few things."

Kakashi turned towards her, now even more curious than before. "What things?"

"Well, my Mahou has always reacted to your presence in a way. Remember? Otōsan mentioned that had happened when my biological father met my mother for the first time too, although it wasn't as strong as my reaction to you after we ran into each other at the academy. Also, I can instinctively point out in which direction you are at the moment. Sometimes I even dream about what you're doing. Nothing too invasive, I promise, but I know that you decided against putting koi in your pond but planted new trees for your ninken to train with."

Both of them were staring at each other incredulously. Kakashi because he had never even considered this to be the extent of her powers. "What does that mean?"

"It means that my Mahou will most likely tie myself to you if we ever - complete the bond. You'd know instinctively if I was alright or not, sharing pain as well as other emotions and - if it's really, really strong - thoughts on rare occasions. We'd always be able to find each other, no matter the distance. If you mark me, the Mahou will probably return the gesture and put a seal on you that proclaims you as mine just as much as the mark would respectively. It's sacred to my people, a bond like that. The last of this magnitude was said to have been established by the sensei of my clan's most famous son and founder, who had the best control of Mahou we've ever recorded. Half of our techniques are adaptions of his, this sensei or even his original teachings."