AN: Really quick note! This is for all the people out there who request a quicker change in pace. This is about what I'll be able to offer you, so let me know if this is good. I can do this, but I think it cuts a little into the story from my vantage point.

Your Mistress.

Shade grumbled under her breath as she glanced about the different boughs of trees that surrounded the Crescent Inn in slight dismay. The building had an assortment of lights that kept the perimeter well lit, along with several pathways that furnished oil lamps to keep anyone enjoying the night on some kind of paved walk way. This task shouldn't have been this hard, but in spite of her assurance that she could see auras at close distances, she came to a very disappointing reality.

She had horrible night vision and couldn't see all that far.

With both her hands holding the cinched bag, she glanced this way and that, crushing twigs and leaves underfoot like some lumbering elephant as she plunged into an ever increasing dark tundra of trees and brush.

"Where are you going, Shade- nee chan?" Naruto popped from behind her, scaring the living breath from her.

"Don't do that!" If she wasn't so freaked out at his ability to just sneak up on her, she would have been angry at him.

Why Sakura hit him so much didn't seem like such a unreasonable reaction at this point.

He grinned at her. "What's in the bag?"

"Oh, right. These are for you and Sasuke. The girls and I thought you two might like a snack while you're keeping us poor, defenseless women safe." She batted her eyes demurely at him, offering the boxed dinners.

"Yeah, defenseless," he chortled at her, knowing all to well that was a hell of an understatement. Blond head bowed low to inspect them with a peek. "Uhm...but we're not here. We're about fifty yards that way." He pointed northwest.

She was a little startled at the realization of what he was saying. "But you're right here in front of me."

"I'm a clone, so I'm just a copy of the real Naruto." he winked at her.

However, he was a little surprised at the slight turn of her lips and the epiphany like glow when he told her that.

"Uhm...Shade," He backed away a little. "What are you thinking?"

"How real are you?" She was looking him over as Chouji would a prime slice of meat or Ino at an outrageously expensive outfit on sale. She even went as far as placing a hand on his shoulder, giving a slight prod and squeeze. The young Uzumaki really began to feel mildly distraught when he felt her hand trace his ear and play with his hair.

"Ahh..." he took a cautious step back. "As real as I need to be, I suppose."

"Now that does have unlimited capacity and potential, doesn't it?" She circled him once with a very predatory smile, never taking her hand off of him.

He never felt more uncomfortable around a girl in his life...even as a copy.

"We really could go for some food right about now," The look of mild panic was not lost on Shade.

"Of course," she withdrew her hand, settling it back to the bag handle. "Well then, I guess I should be going."

Her eyes were still on him, her smiled just a little broader.

"Yeah...okay."

"That way?" She pointed northeast.

"No, that way." He pointed northwest.

She shamelessly let her eyes trail up and down the length of him. "Don't work to hard, Naruto."

"I'll be fine."

"Good, because I hope to see you soon."

He was sure he only had a part of the real Naruto's memories, abilities, and basic attributes including idiosyncrasies, but the part of him that was not afraid of battle, harsh training, or dark, moody Uchiha's was certainly afraid of the very ominous way Shade kept peeking over her shoulder at him.

Three Mist Hunter nins stalked just outside the perimeter of Zabuza's hideout, signaling to regroup one mile south of their location. The quickly disappeared in a spray of water.

"We don't know how many people he may have stationed inside the building." One asked with a diagonal red slash across his white mask.

"There has been little traffic for the last few days," one with his half his mask painted red and the other half white. "The only people coming in and out are the boy and the blond girl."

"There is that other girl with that creature." Their leader, a taller built nin with his mist symbol painted red on a rather plain looking mask responded.

"I've never seen a horse spout fire before. Maybe it's a summons?" Diagonal asked.

"Perhaps, but we do know that their visitor has been active as of late. They're planning something." Their leader scanned their environment before continuing.

"Should we report back to the village that we've found Zabuza and request assistance?" Half face asked.

"Not yet." Leader said. "We still don't know what their abilities are and what they're planning. We've lost five teams so far and all we know is that Zabuza has had help each time and his partner is an expert with Ice, sebons, and seems to be very well versed in pressure, nerve, and tenketsu points."

"He also seemed to out pace them when they either attacked or tried to escape." Diagonal added.

"Then there is the fact that they both work very well in tandem. We may need assistance." Half face remarked bluntly.

"No," Leader remarked carefully. "Five teams were lost and we're not losing anymore. We just need to be more alert and patient then our past brethren."

The other two masks nodded.

"It is imperative that we collect Zabuza. The new Mizukage is adamant about him being questioned before we kill him. Now, here's what we're going to do..."

"Are you not going to sleep, Zabuza?" Xyouln asked the brooding nuke nin who sat on his couch with his massive weapon resting on his knees. Strong fingers steepled under his chin as he seemed to meditate or gaze into space.

He didn't turn his head when he answered. "I'm going to wait for Haku."

The discussion was over and Xyouln didn't need a dismissal to know he had been so.

The old sorcerer left to his room after a polite good night.

Zabuza moved through some handsigns, bringing a condensed pool of water to life in his exact copy.

"Watch him."

The clone nodded and disappeared in a spray of mist.

Xyouln was a master of many dark arts. In the land of Qualin'Tor, he was a shaman of well repute, earning the title High Lord with just skill and experience. He had survived not only many battles between paladins and knights, swarms of hellish creatures of demonic and undead nature, but not once had he ever had to defend himself against the likes of a shinobi. There were the crafty rogues and assorted assassins, but never one who possessed the ability to mold chakra and expertly utilize it.

The High Master of Necromancy took out a thick piece of dark coal and scribbled lines on the floor of his room, measuring carefully which rune went where and then it's partnered component across from it. Lines of geometric and astrological communication broke the complicated design when he finished the process. His skilled eye glanced over everything one more time, ensuring everything was as it should be.

He decided it was and continued onto the next process.

Opening his satchel, he pulled out four small votive candles and placed them at the crossed lines of the glyph, taking special care to light them in a certain order, but not after a few spoken words that were not known to the common tongue.

A dark, thick liquid capped in a rough looking glass mason jar was pulled carefully and inspected.

"Minotaur blood is so hard to come by these days," he grumbled, but opened it and took a quick sniff. Wrinkling his nose, he nodded that it was still in an acceptable state to be used. A small brush was pulled and dipped into the jar. When it touched the floor to trace over a few marks, a small puff of smoke appeared, earning another nod of approval from the dark master.

He put it away and pulled out several pieces of bone from a rattling pouch. "No, not pegusi...not troll...unicorn?" He turned the small knob of silvery horn around to be admired with an expert appraisal. "I didn't know I had anymore left. I'll have to remember that for later."

Several more bones were inspected and then discarded until he found the one that he wanted. "Here we go...satyr hoof."

Taking a small kris from a sheath in his sleeve, he shaved a few pieces into a mortar, drizzled a measured amount of blood, then added some curiously dark sand into the mix. He waved his hand over it, hissing spidery words of some dark incantation. A swirling motion began to stir the thick pasty substance.

Nodding in satisfaction, he put it aside.

The elder sorcerer pulled out a dark granite like stone from his satchel, inspecting it several times before deciding it was good enough for it's purpose. Sitting it in an off center circle, he lit the candles and sat himself as close as he could without ruining the scribing on the floor. The stone had the faintest glow, but dimmed in a pulsing manner that matched the flicker of the candles. Seeing everything was how it should be, Xyouln nodded to himself that this part of the process was done.

"By morning it should be done," he told himself.

Carefully getting back on his feet was a little more of a struggle then he was used to. He clambered into his bed and was asleep before he could even get his satchel off his shoulder.

"He did say about fifty yards so it should be about here...I think." Shade huffed in annoyance, one hand raised high alight with a mana torch to see about five yards in diameter.

It was becoming abundantly clear that she had been very reliant on other people or things to guide her from one place to another. Her sense of direction was sure to be way off and if it wasn't for her power as a sorceress and succbus, she was almost sure that if something or someone had attempted to harm her she would start to becoming very afraid right about now. To bring her point to fruitation, the words of a spell were on the tip of her tongue when two dark figured jumped in front of her.

"I swear you two better be Sasuke and Naruto or I'm going to send you two to the fourth plane of Hell to get disemboweled!" She growled in open frustration.

"Whoa! Easy, Shade nee-chan, it's us." Naruto waved his hands disarmingly at her, ear to ear grin in place.

"Why are you here? You're drawing a lot of attention to us that is compromising our position." Sasuke not so delicately included.

"I came to bring dinner, but if it's such a hassle," she spun on her heel. "I'll be on my way."

"Don't worry about Sasuke, he's always like this." He patted her shoulder. "What did you bring?"

"I don't know," she shied away from him demurely, "I don't think you two deserve it after that little welcome."

"Puh-leeease let us have dinner," he pouted boyishly at her, big blue eyes and quivering lip to emphasize his plight. "What do I have to do to make you believe me?"

"Well," so many delicious thoughts crossed her mind, "Would you answer a question for me about your clone?"

Sasuke's eyes turned very serious and very focused on her.

"Uhm...what do you want to know?" Naruto's usually jovial smile turned curious.

"I noticed that those clones are just as strikingly handsome and thoughtful as you were. So a girl couldn't help but wonder if they are correct in every way?" Shade sauntered up to him, forcing him to fall back into a tree he was just perched on.

"Ahh...how correct do you need them?" he gulped.

"Mentally, emotionally," she dusted a few flecks of bark and leaves from his orange jumpsuit, then lingered a finger along his chin, "Anatomically."

The last word caught him a little off guard and a bit lost. He glanced over to Sasuke for help.

"She wanted to know if your clones have a penis." He announced without humor.

Naruto choked in mid breath, looking astonishingly flabbergasted at such a remark.

Shade nodded, agreeing with the Uchiha that was, indeed, what she was trying to get at.

Sasuke patted his blond team mate on the shoulder and said with mild sympathy. "Shade, I will have to tell you that, yes, they are all anatomically correct just like Naruto. But, don't expect much. He doesn't have to dick."

"What?!" Naruto barked, turning all sorts of shades of red. "I do so! Here, I'll frigg'n show-"

Naruto hands gripped the button and zipper on his orange pants, when he realized his audience was quite attentive to his actions at this point and not afraid to let him continue.

"You'd like that, wouldn't you, teme!" He put his hand on his crotch and turned away from him.

"I would." Shade raised her hand, unfazed and honest.

Naruto grumbled off, mumbling something about meat gazers and weird girls. He took off back into the trees in a huff.

Sasuke and Shade took that moment to watch him go.

"Thank you for that." Sasuke took the offered bag of dinner from Shade, who bowed her welcome. "I now have something to keep us busy while we're on watch."

"Oh? What would that be?" She politely inquired, still hearing the loud complaints of Naruto in the distance.

"His desire to prove his greatness and loud claims of becoming Hokage is just a sign of compensation." Sasuke nodded again with his bag in hand and jumped onto several low hanging branches.

Shade walked away in a fit of giggles that turned into echoing belly laughs.

The dinner consisted of light conversation and Lyseria's attempts to push little Hyuuga Hinata into other deals that were leaving her down right distraught. There was no denying she wanted to help the people, but all the tedious details were soon going to be brought to light under other mountains and mountains of paperwork that Lyseria seemed to have available for this setting.

She honestly could say she had a new respect for her father and for the Hokage.

Thinking of the Sondaime immediately brought back thoughts of her Naruto-kun. She hoped Shade was able to find them and that he and Sasuke-kun would enjoy the extra little treats she put in there. Several suishi rolls with spiced cream cheese, a mango pineapple flam, plus a few cinnamon buns as a little reminder of her. Hoping it didn't seem too selfish or arrogant to do that, she couldn't help but think he would not only be happy for it, but thank her when they saw each other again with a remarkable kiss.

Hinata ducked her head low and bunched her shoulders with quiet joy. It really was great to have her Naruto-kun in her life.

After the dinner was cleaned off and Lyseria had talked the young heiress's ear off enough about extending building codes and supplementing income through various agencies, Sakura and Hinata found their room that they were sharing and prepared for bed with appropriate pajamas. Everyone wished the other good night, and Haku closed the door behind his mistress when she crossed the threshold.

Miss Goldmeadow tapped her pen along some documents she wanted to send the young girl off with, placing them in a binder with the appropriate spreadsheets, costs analysis, and projected growth with certain fluctuation of variable influences that would not only increase public reserves, but also stream line construction and time constraints...

...but that flew out the window when she felt a very warm body press against her back, a soft hand push her hair away from her neck and intimate, hot wet kisses were trailed just a little off center from her nape.

"H-haku?" The pen fell from her nerveless fingers.

He didn't say anything.

Zabuza's faithful young apprentice's hands traced along the thin fabric of her dress, then under her blouse to feel the smooth skin of her belly. Little tremors met his palm as he continued to graze his mouth against her shoulder, her neck up to her ear. Broken breaths exhaled quickly as she braced herself against the table in front of her as she felt another hand circled around her front, unbuttoning her white top with slow, measured efficiency. She felt his knee push between her legs, parting them gently but with enough pressure to know he wasn't asking.

"...Haku...kun?" She twist to look at him, and was surprised to see his hair was down fully, his yukata untied and opened and exposing his chiseled chest and abs. What was held from sight was only done so through the grace of two fabrics placed by gravity.

She could not deny that she had been hoping this night would come. Haku had been doing more then his unusual affections today, letting his fingers graze upon her longer, coming closer to her then what he normally would, and making slight, adoring comments that made her blush and feel absolutely beautiful.

She couldn't move, couldn't think.

Her blouse was already open and one of his thumbs already grazing the thickening bud of her nipple. Another hand was sliding the skirt over her hip, in mere seconds it would join other parts of her clothing and she could do nothing to stop him. All she had to do was...

...but she didn't want to even if resistance was on her mind.

"Aah," The erotic sound escaped her lips when his other hand cup her sex from behind, his heat flush against her bottom.

Lyseria Goldmeadow let him explore her, touch her, taste her, feel her...a light glaze of sweat and color tinted her skin. For the first time since he closed the door, she looked at his warm brown eyes and saw desired passion, hungry need, and undeniable lust that he was going to feast off of her to sate him. She reached for his hands and he allowed her to lead him to the futon at the corner of the room.

"Are you sure, Haku-kun?" She noticed he wasn't just listening, but existing in this moment. His breathes were mildly labored, his lips wet with panting and from kissing her, licking her.

Haku's brown eyes followed her as she slipped under the blanket, then allowed him to follow next to her, on top of her in their mixed undressed state. Lyseria's small hands pushed the rest of his yukata from his shoulders, eventually gripping him when she felt him purposely settling himself between her parted thighs.

Miss Goldmeadow had several lovers in her life, but none of them were ever passionate, determined warriors. Businessmen, aristocrats, and wealthy playboys were all she had been exposed to. When the moment Haku had his hands on her to the moment she felt him enter her, she realized she was in the presence of another species of man, even in the body of this young boy.

Haku moved differently from them, watched her with so much intensity and deliberate forcefulness that she wasn't sure when their union began or when it ended, but she could think of nothing else but of the sweet melody their bodies created physically. Their quickening pace, the increasing volume was muffled only in slight by the blanket and their shared breath as she repeated his name over and over again in growing ecstasy.

Yes, yes! Haku! Please, lets fall together! She sang in her thoughts as she entwined her fingers with his, and her soul trilled happily that his fingers were almost painfully tight against hers. Haku, I love you! I love you so much!

Everything would have been perfect, oh so perfect for her, but in the climax of their union he had made just one, simple mistake.

"Haku!" She cried out in bliss.

"Shade-sama!" He choked out as he released himself inside of her, collapsing on her with shuddered breathes..

Their exultant voices had mingled over the other, but the look in their partners eyes were not exactly a joyous post coitus.

"Lyseria," Haku's reality of what he said slammed into him like a sparring match gone completely wrong. Guilty and embarrassed, his slack jawed expression was something she had to honestly say she never witnessed. "I'm sorry, I-"

"Get it out of me," She whispered through embarrassed, pained swollen lips. Her hips arching away from him as if to expel what was inside of her by sheer will.

"Please, I didn't mean-"

"I want you off of me and I NEED to take another shower. I don't want anything that that belongs to you inside me, Haku. Now, get off!" There was no need for him to be a shinobi to see how much he had hurt her. Large watery eyes trickled tears down the side of her face. Her hands pulled the sheets of their blanket between them in a security and protective gesture.

"Of course, Lyseria-san. Please...I-"

He never got a chance to finish.

She got up, wrapped the blanket around herself and marched over to the bathroom, slamming the door shut. Not soon after there was the sound of running water and toiletries being tossed around.

Haku ran his fingers through his hair in worried doubt as he lounged on the futon. How could he have done this? Oh, he would not deny what was in his head, but he had been so careful. The hours that had passed since him and Shade were wonderfully passionate had infected his sub conscious by feeling all of his protective measures were somehow being tested by being, what...? threatened?...endangered?...potentially life terminating?

Definitely.

The mix matched eyes that bore into him in that lustful and candid embrace had been ever present on his mind since they parted and it stirred every male part of him that could barely hold onto whatever sense of shinobi discipline that Zabuza had drilled into his being. Haku had not expected his thoughts to run away so freely and with such rapture. The soft body under him didn't have gold hair, but that of twilight, her eyes were not a pretty pale blue, but the dangerous mix of cobolt and amethyst, and her body wasn't as full as the young accountants, but slimmer, younger, more girlish then womanly. If there was one thing he had to say that did distract him was how little Lyseria had returned his affections. During their romantic tumble, she had all but laid there, so Haku couldn't help but know that had it actually been Shade underneath him, he would have not only had to fight for control, but know that they would be equal partners in their affections. Glancing down at his groin that was soaked with curious, sticky fluids, he felt an insurmountable sense of self remorse.

Yes, he had completed part of his mission to seduce Miss Goldmeadow, but he was sure that he completely failed in so many ways with just one name at the height of his climax. He had never done so before.

Zabuza is not going to be happy with him.