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Naruto tilted his head ever so slightly to the side in confusion. "Precious people?" The two words rolling off his tongue rather naturally.
Haku nodded his head in return. It was quite warming to think that he was guiding someone else down the part of enlightenment. The path of true strength.
"Yes, Naruto. Find people who are precious to you and you'll be truly become strong." Reading those shounen manga was really coming in handy. The real super power of friendship and teamwork cannot be beat!
With an energetic exit, courtesy of Naruto, Haku went off to tend to Zabuza wounds, they, after all, had a week or two to prepare for the upcoming fight on the bridge.
Two weeks later.
Haku and Zabuza waited. They waited. And they waited. Nothing. Nothing at all. Team 7 hadn't appeared as they were supposed to. It was an hour at this point and it seemed they weren't going to come. All that waiting upon the cold bridge and it was for nothing.
Zabuza wasn't interested in waiting any longer. "Haku place the exploding tags on the bridge, we're leaving," He ordered as he strapped the Kubikiribōchō onto his back before performing the shunshin, leaving Haku alone on the bridge. With Haku tasked with destroying the bridge, their job is as good as completed. All they had to do now was find a gig elsewhere to support themselves and their goals. And preferably not under another stingy sleazebag like Gato.
Haku surveyed the desolate bridge. For anyone else, it would've taken them quite some time placing exploding tags along the lengthy bridge, but he was Haku fucking Yuki, so he was fast as fuck. He estimated it would've taken him a mere seconds to do this.
"Haku!"
In came Naruto Uzumaki, brightly entering the scene without a single care in the world. Confusion over took over Haku as he tried to look for the other members of team 7. He couldn't find any sign of them. Haku naturally assumed that they were hiding somewhere nearby waiting for a chance to pull of an ambush. It would've been foolish for only Naruto to show up against an elite jonin and his apprentice, so due to this line of reasoning, Haku didn't dare drop his guard for a single second.
"Thanks to you Haku, I'm now pulling in the greens." To prove this, Naruto pulled out a massive wad of cash from his wallet, to which Haku eyes nearly popped out of their sockets. Without a doubt, If Zabuza had seen this, he would've killed the Uzumaki right then and there before looting him dry. Haku himself was even contemplating whether or not should he do the same. For Zabuza's sake of course! Not like he had any use for that kind of money, especially not for more sailor moon manga.
"And where did you get this money?"
"Oh that, I sold my team to human traffickers." Naruto announced somewhat flippantly. As if it was the most natural sentence one could possibly to say.
"What?"
"Yeah, I sold my team to human traffickers. You said to find valuable people. So I did; my team. And I sold them and became stronger."
A multitude of thoughts entered Haku's head, but he couldn't voice them in favour of dumbly asking, "And how does that make you stronger?"
"Simple." With a snap of his finger, the vacant bridge had now welcomed an army of 100 powerful thugs, within their numbers were even ninja. "Why become stronger myself when I can get others to do things for me? Now I have the strength of 100 men!" Naruto's spirited smile was now somewhat disturbing too Haku. This smile made Haku's cold skin crawl, and goosebumps were now littering his arms. It was as if Naruto was disillusioned and didn't comprehend what his own actions were. Didn't he have parents to teach him right from wrong?
The cold air around Haku was more pronounced than before. He didn't know whether to attribute the hitching of his breath to the cold air surrounding him or Naruto. His mind had decided to entertain a little game of thought. What was more perturbing? That Naruto without sold his own teammates for profit without a single shred of remorse, or Haku himself had a helping hand in giving rise to this. Maybe his speech about the real super power of friendship and teamwork wasn't as super special awesome as he once thought it was.
"Well Naruto, I best be going. I wouldn't want to waste your time." The bridge was going to get blown up another day, Gato can definitely wait. Before Haku could even make on step, Naruto cut him off.
"Haku wait. I have to tell you one thing." Naruto stood before Haku, looking him dead in the eyes.
"Sure thing Naruto. What is it?" The answer, he wasn't ready to hear.
His exuberant smile only got wider, showing a rather unsettling among of teeth, "I find you to be very valuable Haku."
Everything went black.
The end.
A/N The real super power of teamwork is a reference to Sonic Heroes.
And yes, I turned Haku into an Otaku. I think that's a nice addition since I don't really remember seeing an Otaku ninja before.
And I wrote this fic simply because how cringy ''precious people'' sounds.