This chapter is coming out after my break next week (for you, last week) which is... weird. Finishing things in advance is weird.
I've said this many times now.
Also thank you for everyone calling me a stingy boy in the reviews. It amused me greatly.
Anyways, without further ado and what not.
Chapter 64: A Hard Talk to Have
Fu wasn't quite sure where she was, which, after being knocked unconscious by a giant-blue-skinned-shark-man, was probably not a good sign.
She opened her eyes slowly, even as the jostling of her body atop what was presumably that same shark-guy was making her the slightest bit sick. Light didn't stream in like she'd initially expected, instead, tiny trickles of it shone at the edges of her vision.
They were in a large, sand-filled cavern. All around them, falls of the stuff seemed to churn endlessly from what was presumably the surface, and gathered into massive pools below them. The cavern itself seemed to be made up of sandstone that was a chalky yellow color, which blended in rather seamlessly with the rest of the space.
Speaking of the space, it was massive. A good thirty meters from end to end, the room shark-man was carrying her through was easily the size of the hotel they'd stayed in. it might've been taller than it, even, for when she looked down into a crevice lurking beneath them, she saw a bottom that was another twenty or so meters deep.
Apparently her squirming to see into that pit had alerted her captor to the fact that she was awake, for he let out a small cackle as he led them deeper into the cave.
"Not long now, Seven." He murmured with a hint of mirth. "We'll bring you back soon enough."
Her heart constricted at the words.
Shibuki… you were right… She bit down on her bottom lip, wanting to cry. I'm sorry… I shouldn't have come here…
She felt her panic rise only further as the cavern grew darker and more intimidating the further they stepped in. Stalagmites and stalactites jutted out from the floor and ceiling, looking like spines that would cut into her flesh if she approached them, and the sands around them grew higher, as if having piled up for generations.
She struggled in the shark's grip, but before she could so much as make a move, something had scraped along her back, and she felt exhaustion hit her.
"None of that struggling." He laughed slightly. "I'll use Samehada on you even more if you get uppity, so sit there quietly and be a good girl."
She tried to move, but there simply wasn't enough energy in her muscles. All she could do was extend her hand out towards the entrance to the cave, which required a titanic investment.
Shibuki… help me…
It was not Shibuki who dashed into the cavern with murder in his eyes, but she couldn't really find much else fault in the boy who'd snuck his way in. He brought his sword, a massive, two meter blade, up onto his shoulder, preparing to swing it, and nodded to her, as if letting her know not to make a sound.
She didn't, and in that next moment, the man charged.
His sword slammed down on the spot her captor had occupied only milliseconds before, a cocky smile set on the man's face as he swung his own blade back out, eyes challenging.
"D'ya think I didn't know you were following me?" The older man asked mockingly. "Cause if you didn't, I've got news."
"That doesn't matter." The new arrival spoke as he stepped up to the proverbial plate, his sword encased in an icy shell as he pointed it forward. "I'm going to finish what I started. I'm going to kill you!"
Her carrier smirked, then snickered, then howled as he grabbed her by the body. Before she even knew what was going on, she'd been tossed back into the cavern, deeper still into it.
"Here's where you're making a mistake, kid," Shark-guy spoke as he stepped forward, holding his own blade out at a distance that saw the two almost touch. "I don't need to watch over Seven anymore. Now…"
She felt a pair of arms pick her up from behind, and turned to see another man, with a black robe, and a pair of glowing red eyes.
"I've got my partner here to help out." Shark-man grinned, twirling his sword once or twice in a rather cocky showing. "So, what's yer' plan? Gonna' take on two members of the Akatsuki by yourself, kid? No offense, I don't think you've got the skill."
She didn't get to hear the boy's response, for just as he opened his mouth, the black-haired man holding onto her turned her around, and whispered a quiet word into her ear.
"My apologies."
A hit to her neck had her consciousness leaving her, and she collapsed once more, face down in the sand.
/-/
"We're close!"
It was Sasuke who said it, and while Naruto couldn't tell why at first, he soon received his answer.
A flash of killing intent flowed across all of them. Not the same kind that Sasuke had described Orochimaru as being capable of, that which rooted one in place, unable to act at all, but it was still enough to briefly cause his heart to flutter.
It felt cold, icy almost.
Haku.
He turned back towards Ino and watched her cautiously. He didn't want to be overt about it, but he'd been told more than once by more than one person that he was "the most overt person they'd ever met" so he had a feeling he might not be doing a good job.
She looked melancholic, certainly, but also determined. He couldn't fault her for either.
They came upon an opening in the ground less than two feet wide. He would've normally thought nothing of it, but for some reason, an instinct inside of him, beastly in a way that told him it's origin, informed him they were going down there.
"So… who's first?" He turned to the rest of the group, silently praying one would volunteer.
None did.
"That means I'm first, doesn't it?"
The rest of them nodded.
"Fuck."
He climbed in slowly, trying not to think about the fact that this could all be him misreading some sign from the Nine-Tails, and what he'd actually been trying to tell him was 'No, wait, don't go down there! That's a giant ant-lion den!'.
He shivered just thinking about it.
He landed in a small cave about three meters down and shrugged as he realized that was maybe less of a big deal than he'd previously thought.
"It's fine, guys, you can come d-"
The ground below him gave out.
/-/
Sakura couldn't help thinking, as she and Ino were tasked with finding an alternative route into the cave while Sasuke followed Naruto's… descent, that she was getting tired of all of their missions being interrupted by S-ranked ninja.
Like… seriously, is it destiny? Are we just fated to run into guys way stronger than us every time we leave the village? Should I keep an ear out for explosions when I take the trash out at night?
She'd already been doing that, actually.
"I'm… I'm worried about Haku."
She knew that already.
"Well… limit that." She spoke as nicely as she could as she pointed to a nearby opening, hopefully taking them into another section of the cavern. "I'm not saying don't worry, but like Sasuke said, I'm expecting you to be able to fight even if Haku's in danger."
Ino nodded as Sakura reached her hands down, cupped them below her, and nodded towards the entrance some three meters off the ground. She boosted Ino into it, and then held her hand out for Ino to help her up as well.
When they were both inside, they hopped off the small ledge they'd found themselves on and entered into a fairly massive room.
It was a chasmic hole, filled with stalagmites and stalactites as far as her eyes could see. The floor was sandstone, and sand itself fell like waterfalls along the many walls, piling up in what was presumably a lower room. Off in the distance, multiple pathways arced off of the main room, any of which could've turned into dead ends or other entire cave systems.
Most notably, however, was the blood on the ground just in front of them.
She leaned down to check it, even as Ino rushed up and did the same. The problem was, neither of them knew how to do anything with it. If Sasuke were here, he could've at least collected a sample, having studied a bit under Tsunade, but…
"Assume the best." She turned to Ino and just managed a smile. "We can't afford to assume anything else."
Ino nodded, but the motion was stifled, unsure. She bit down on her bottom lip as she turned away, wondering where they were supposed to go now.
The answer came a moment later as a figure came walking out of a nearby entrance, his face curling into a mocking grin as he drew his massive blade out in front of him.
"Oh," Kisame Hoshigaki looked them over, unimpressed. "You all again. Was that Ice guy not enough?" He snorted. "Well, I guess he wouldn't be, given what happened to him."
She heard Ino gasp, and felt a hot surge of anger running through her, her curse mark providing her with a rather simple question.
"Kill?" It seemed to ask.
In response, she removed her trench coat, unsummoning it into a scroll on her belt, and revealing what she wore beneath, a rather simple red sleeveless shirt, which had a v-like opening down her back, and spats that clung to her legs rather simply. Boots and gloves covered her extremities, but more than anything, she imagined the black marks that spiraled out from her neck were the most noticeable change.
As her skin darkened to a purplish-gray, her nails elongated, her hair hit the sandy ground beneath her, and hand-like wings grew from out of her back, she felt a small, almost manic smile come to her face.
Yeah. She answered her mark.
Kill.
/-/
Upon landing at the bottom of the cave he'd definitely purposefully walked into if anyone asked, Naruto was left with a fairly simple thought.
Where the hell am I exactly?
He'd fallen onto a ring surrounding what looked to be a giant pit of sand. From the walls around him, more sand fell into the pit, originating from the falls just above him. He could hear the muted sounds of combat, which meant the others were likely just above him.
He wished them luck, but still, he couldn't exactly scale the walls, given that sand was constantly pouring down them.
He looked around for somewhere to go, and eventually settled on the back of the cavern, where a shadowed exit hung ominously. He shrugged, figuring that, whatever was in there, even if it was some horrible monster, wasn't as bad as a member of the Akatsuki, which he was far more likely to run into…
Wait, is that a good thing, because it doesn't seem like –
A quiet, discomforted moan echoed out through the large chamber, causing him to turn his head to the edge of the sand pit.
There, a single, familiar figure was slowly sinking into the sand.
He rushed forwards quickly, scaling down the five or so foot drop into the sand. He slinked over on the uneven footing, trying to do his best to stay balanced. When he reached the figure, he grabbed him under his arms and dragged him out of the pit, lifting him up and helping him over the edge when he realized the boy was passed out.
He grabbed the sword just beside him as well, nearly passing out himself from the overexertion of lifting the thing with one hand.
He'd never understood how Haku did it.
"Oi, Haku!" He shouted, before realizing he should maybe not draw attention to himself right now, instead whispering much closer to him. "Haku, hey, c'mon man, I don't want to be stuck here when an Akatsuki guy could show up any second."
"That's probably smart."
Unfortunately for him, the voice who'd just spoken was not Haku. Nor was it Sasuke, although it did vaguely resemble his best friends in a way. He looked up into the black eyes of Itachi Uchiha, an almost amused smile on his face as he gave him a once over.
"Good to see you, Naruto Uzumaki."
He swore mentally, taking up Haku in his arms and backing away. In response, Itachi took a step forward, but in reality, Naruto wasn't super sure if that mattered. If he were already under a Genjutsu…
A murmur that seemed to emanate from his stomach struck his whole body. It came from the Nine-Tails, if he had to guess, and more than that, it felt as if… it had been laughing at him.
Are… are you saying you'll keep me awake…?
He shrugged when there was no response. He'd simply have to hope his guess was correct as he turned back towards Itachi, making sure not to watch his eyes, but his feet. There was, however, one noticeable problem.
He was rapidly realizing he had no plan.
Really, really wasn't expecting this… shit, what the hell do I do?
Just as he was about to say screw it and jump into combat, a noise echoed out across the cavern from just behind him.
He turned on a dime, keeping Itachi in the corner of his vision, but making sure he could see whatever was off on his right as well.
The figure who entered the room didn't even look towards him. He was stone-faced, eyes hard and unflinching in the face of an opponent few on the planet could hope to survive against, let alone beat.
But Sasuke Uchiha seemed to disagree.
"Itachi." He practically spat, Sharingan blazing. "It's been a while."
"Sasuke." Itachi actually had the nerve to smile. "It's good to see you as well. How long has it been… two years? That incident in the Sound Village didn't give us much time to talk, I'm afraid."
Sasuke bit down on his anger, even if he bared his fangs to the man opposite him and turned to Naruto.
"Take Haku out of here for now." He said through clenched teeth, his eyes a glowing crimson. "I can handle him on my own for a bit."
He wasn't sure what to say, what to do. Instead, he simply nodded, choosing to trust his best friend. He ran from the room in a hurry, slinging Haku onto his back in a way reminiscent of when Zabuza had given the boy to him to protect those years back.
It was not a pleasant memory, but it kept him moving.
/-/
He let Naruto leave without taking his eyes off Itachi, which, under normal circumstances, would've seemed a poor idea.
But he had a feeling Itachi wouldn't kill him so meaninglessly. The man would sit and gloat and ruin him if he got the chance. He wouldn't cast a Genjutsu and stab him while he couldn't defend himself.
That just wasn't the kind of person Itachi was, for better or, more than likely, for worse.
He drew a kunai into his left hand, taking it into a reverse grip and beginning to circle Itachi clockwise. In response, his brother mimicked the motion, circling him counterclockwise with a small smile.
He drew no weapon.
Sasuke was not fool enough to believe he needed one.
"So… what's the Akatsuki doing here?" He probed.
"Collecting Jinchuuriki." Itachi summarized rather blandly. "We intended to use the two we'd already captured to bait out the final one present, the Nine-Tails, knowing he would take it, no matter how obvious it was."
He felt a chill run down his spine, but still, he'd confirmed more with that sentence than the fact they were after his best friend.
"That girl, Fu," He decided to gather information while he still could, before this devolved into blows. "She's a Jinchuuriki, then?"
"Of the Seven-Tailed beast, yes." The man nodded, his smile growing just the tiniest bit more amused. "You plan on taking that information back to the Hokage, I suppose?"
"I do."
"I'm not terribly sure your allies from the Waterfall would want you to have it."
"I'm not terribly sure that they have much of a choice."
Itachi gave a small hum of laughter.
"How crass. I thought I'd raised my brother to be more of a gentleman."
He nearly struck then and there, only narrowly holding himself back.
"I don't think you had much of a hand in raising me."
"You'd be surprised." Itachi shot back. "Now, I do enjoy talking with you, but aren't you merely wasting time?" His brother questioned as he held his hand out, giving a 'come' gesture with two fingers. "Let me test your strength."
That did it. The reminder of that night, no matter how vague, had him breaking their little dance and charging forward, growling as he quickly built up a fireball Jutsu in his chest. He unleashed it as Itachi did the same, and their twin flames caught one another in the center of the room.
They exploded outwards from one another, bathing the formerly dim cave in brilliant orange hues. They bounced off the sand, making the tiny particles of dust and silt dance as they fell down into the pit at the center of the room.
Itachi juked back away from him, his perpetual smile still in place as he tilted his head.
"You've improved…" Annoyingly, the man looked almost proud. "And quite a lot at that."
"Yeah, well, I've had a long time to-"
A kunai struck his left thigh in the half second he'd dropped his guard, and he was barely able to dodge back before two more impacted the space he'd just been standing in.
"You shouldn't allow someone to bait you into a conversation mid-battle, Sasuke." Itachi smirked at him, spinning another kunai on the tip of his finger. "Such a thing could get you killed."
"Oh yeah?" He growled, pulling the blade out of his thigh with a sickening squelch and wincing at the pain that shot up his body. "Then how come you do it?"
"Simple." His brother stopped spinning his kunai, and instead held his hands up in what was almost a shrug. "Because you are no threat to me."
Rage overcame him, but it was interrupted as he felt an odd sensation he didn't recognize, his eyes briefly bulging. It was as if his Sharingan had, momentarily, tried to reach out to an ability he did not possess, like it'd internalized the feeling in some odd way.
What was…
He shook his head, even as Itachi seemed to regard him more closely. His head was tilted slightly, as if seeing if he'd registered whatever that was.
He wouldn't give the man the satisfaction. Before he could allow himself to be goaded any further, Sasuke stood up fully, and brought into his hand not an offensive Jutsu, but one of his newer acquisitions.
A healing art.
His hand glowed a brilliant green, and he took solace in the utter amazement in Itachi's eyes as he ran it up the wound on his left thigh, closing the gash and stopping the bleeding.
"You learned how to heal…" Itachi's eyes were wide with surprise. "I never thought you'd be interested in such a thing."
"Yeah, well," It was his turn to smirk. "Guess neither of us really knew the other, did they?"
For some reason, that comment seemed to wound Itachi. He took a step back, and Sasuke's Sharingan analyzed the expression on the man's face, the anguish within it that was concealed almost perfectly. To the naked eye, he would've looked entirely normal.
Not to Sasuke, however.
"Why do you care?" He asked, gauging his brothers response. "No, why act as if you care about me?"
Itachi opened his mouth, and Sasuke watched as a thousand emotions ran over the man's face. Guilt, longing, sadness, sorrow, pain, desolation, misery, emptiness.
Regret.
"Who knows." The man answered instead, forcing, and Sasuke could see how utterly fake the expression was, a cocky smile onto his face. "Now come, little brother…
"This fight isn't over yet."
/-/
He ran through a few rooms, coming up on an odd side room that seemed to be almost entirely barren of… anything. It was a relatively small space, but the walls looked sturdy enough, and he felt comfortable sitting it out in there.
He sat Haku down, placed the boy's sword just beside him, and went to work inspecting him for injuries.
He had a fairly grizzly wound along his front, which looked to be old and already starting to scab. If he had a guess, it'd been something he'd gotten from fighting Kisame earlier, when the two had first squared off. He could remember Ino saying something about him taking a hit or two.
Along his ripped sleeves were a few other injuries, but nothing to indicate how he'd passed out.
The answer hit him a second later.
Itachi…
The man's Genjutsu must've been responsible for Haku passing out, and Kisame, being himself, had probably kicked Haku off of a platform further above, landing him in the pit of sand he'd been about to suffocate inside.
He placed his hand in front of him, bringing it up in a standard 'release' formation, and shot his chakra through the icy boy's body.
He shot awake with a gasp.
His eyes took in the room in a fraction of a second, scanning for threats, and when he found none, he looked to Naruto, and his eyes narrowed.
"Naruto… why are…" He seemed to realize the question he was about to ask was rather dumb. "How did you find me?"
"Didn't really mean to." Naruto answered honestly. "Fell down and ended up in the same room as you by happenstance."
"Oh…" Haku shook his head, looking up at him with steel in his gaze. "Itachi Uchiha is here as well, not just Kisame Hoshigaki."
"We know." He answered. "Sasuke is fighting his brother, and Sakura and Ino are taking another route-"
"Ino is here!?" He shot up, then winced and grabbed the wound on his upper chest, which still looked back. "How… why is she here?"
"She wanted to come along, she felt that-"
"And you let her!?"
He tilted his head slightly at the man's insistence.
"Yeah. Sakura let her come. She wanted to make sure you were safe."
Haku bit down on his bottom lip, hissing slightly as he pushed himself up off of the ground, and stood.
"We don't have time… I need to finish Kisame Hoshigaki, and… and get my revenge. I won't let her stand in the way of that again!" He turned to Naruto with rage in his eyes. "She'll only be captured, and then he'll escape again… I refuse to let that happen! Tell Sakura to keep her out of here, and-"
"No." Naruto cut him off, his own eyes narrowing. "I don't think I will."
Haku's eyes widened, but before he could say anything else, Naruto cut in.
"Something weird's going on with you." He spoke simply, circling around the boy who was technically an adult. "You're acting strange."
"Yeah, well, forgive me for acting out when Zabuza's killer is-"
"It's not that."
"Wha-?" Haku seemed confused, actually physically taking a step back from him. "The hell are you talking about?"
"I mean how you're pretending like this is all for revenge."
The man before him blanched, stepping away from him again, looking down at the sword at his feet and reaching down for it. He brought it up and growled, slinging it around on his back.
"I don't have time for this." He tried to brush Naruto off. "I'm going to kill Kisame, and-"
"No, you're not." He corrected the boy, getting in front of him. "You've not got a chance in hell against Kisame on your own. You should group up with Sakura and Ino, and-"
"And what!?" He screamed. "Let them get in the way again!? I can't… I won't…"
The pieces in his head finished clicking into place, and he felt a small, sad smile blossom on his face as his eyebrows drew down.
"You don't want to put her in danger, do you?"
Haku looked up, surprised at the notion.
"That's…"
"You're not worried about Kisame…" He shook his head, remembering now what Sakura and Ino had once told him, about how Haku had given up on revenge and sought to end his own pain. "You're worried about losing Ino… like you lost Zabuza."
The young man's face across from his had hardened. In place of the bewildered expression now stood one of conviction.
A lie. One he was trying desperately to hold onto.
The question of the hour was: why?
"You're not here to kill Kisame… at least not entirely. You're here to kill Kisame so he can't threaten the people you care about any more."
Haku took a deep, shuddering breath, before looking him in the eye with a challenging expression.
"Do you have a problem with that?"
"Not if that's all." Naruto challenged the boy before him, watching as he tensed. "But that's not all, is it?"
Haku tried to step past him, but once more, he got in his way.
"Why won't you tell me, Haku?"
The young man sighed, looking away from his face and down at the sandstone floor beneath them. He kicked it idly and watched with some vague interest as particles flew a few inches, before falling back to the bottom once more.
"What do you want me to say?"
"Whatever it is that's eating you up so much." He felt a twinge of sympathy and lightened up. "I'm not telling you to spill your deepest, darkest secrets or anything… but you can at least give me a summary or something, can't ya'?"
Haku continued to stare blankly at the floor below him, and Naruto was about a second away from giving up and letting the boy past before he opened his mouth.
"I'm an idiot."
It was his turn to take a step back. Such a brief admission of how he'd thought about himself… it struck him.
"You're not-"
"I am." Haku shook his head, finally making eye-contact with him. "I'm an idiot because I've… I've let myself be pulled along again."
"What makes you think that?" He asked, trying to gauge just how beaten up about this Haku was.
Haku glanced up at him, and there was a certain lifelessness to his eyes that had him wanting to look away.
"I know Ino's using me."
The words were a blow, though not a particularly intense one. He liked both Haku and Ino, liked them quite a lot, but he had a feeling this would've struck Sakura for instance far harder. He, on the other hand, was able to keep a level-head. He hoped that would be enough.
"You… what?"
"I'm not blind." Haku smiled sadly at him, leaning against the wall just off to his left. "I can see the way Ino treats me just as much… just as much as everyone else can. I lived in one of these relationships my whole life, and it was Zabuza…" The boy choked up briefly, before steadying himself. "It was Zabuza who tried to free me from them."
He sat down on the ground where he'd been standing, content to not interrupt until Haku had finished.
"He told me one day… about a week or two before we left on that… accursed mission, that he wanted to clear the air between us. He said… he didn't want me to be his 'tool'." Haku explained, and Naruto winced as the expression on his face fell further. "At the time, I didn't understand it. I didn't understand why I wouldn't want to be his tool, but… but he said I was his 'brat', and looking back, I think… I think he…"
He meant 'son'. Naruto read between the lines.
"Hah…" Haku laughed in a depressing manner. "He was never very good with saying how he felt… I guess I picked that up from him, huh?"
The boy shook his head before continuing.
"He also said… that I shouldn't be beholden to his every request. I could… choose what I wanted to do, or mouth off every once in a while if I wanted to… little things… I didn't really understand why I'd want to do that, either."
Naruto nodded.
"But… I get why, now. He was trying to make sure that if… if he were ever gone, no one would be able to take advantage of me like he had again."
That did hurt. At the end of the day, Naruto partially considered Haku his own responsibility, even if the boy were three years older than him. Zabuza had handed him over to Naruto, after all, as much as said that it was up to him to carry him to safety.
And a part of him didn't think that mission had ended.
"And then… Zabuza died… and Ino came along and prevented me from… doing something rash." His voice trailed off slightly. "And I… I love her for that. I really do love her, but…" His fists tightened, and his knuckles went white. "But I hate that I love her! She doesn't care about me at all. She's exactly who Zabuza wanted to protect me from. She's exactly the kind of person I was supposed to avoid, and yet…"
He clenched his teeth together rather hard, and Naruto stood up to try and calm him down, or was about to, before the boy opened his mouth and screamed out.
"And yet I fell right back into that routine! I fell right back into that way of life because it was easy! Because it let me… let me avoid some of the pain and suffering I should've gone through! Let me avoid having to work through my grief! I let her walk all over me, and use me like a tool… all so that I didn't have to think for myself… and get hurt by that again…"
Naruto felt an intense melancholy flow out through him, and he walked over to Haku, effectively leaving the door unguarded if the boy decided he wanted to run.
He made no such moves. Instead, he fell to the floor, curling up with his legs in front of him, letting his sword clatter uselessly to the floor beside him.
"I… pretend that I don't know… that I'm somehow blind to it. Because… it's easier that way." Haku muttered out, looking towards him in some desperate bid for validation. "Even if it's as a tool… as a mere accessory… it's better to not have to feel such pain, isn't it?"
Naruto said nothing as the seconds ticked by, and as Haku lowered his head into his legs, curling into the fetal position as he tried to deal with the problems plaguing him.
I… I have to do this. Naruto felt a fire in his chest as he looked at Haku's curled form, the utter desolation that'd been present on his face… he refused to let it continue. I'll help free him… that's the least I can do… for the man who saved my life.
"I think… there's one thing there that you're wrong about."
Haku looked up at him weakly, his eye barely cresting the top of his arm.
"Ino does care about you."
Haku looked ready to deny that, and he could see why, but he knew for a fact that on that front, the boy was wrong.
"She's not very good at showing it, and she's…" He sighed. "She's not always the best person, either. She makes mistakes and I'm pretty sure she just doesn't have a clue what she's doing when it comes to this stuff as well, but that's no excuse for how she's treated you. At the same time, though… I think you need to tell her this."
Haku, surprising him, nodded.
"I know."
"You…" He found himself bewildered by that. "You do?"
For the first time that conversation, Haku looked vaguely amused.
"Once more, Naruto… I'm not an idiot. I can see the writing on the wall. What we have… It's not healthy, and while it might be more her fault… some of the blame lies with me as well. I let her walk all over me, I let her trample over me and treat me like an accessory without saying a damn thing about it… hell, I encouraged it at times. But…"
His voice was quieter now, and he looked forward, not towards Naruto, but the back of their little cavern, just a ways in front of him.
"But I'm scared… because I know what I have to do… I just don't know if I can stand… doing it."
He nodded at the boy's words but turned to him with a small smile.
"Y'know something? I have it in good confidence that Ino would be more than willing to speak with you about this."
Haku shot him a disbelieving look. "Somehow I doubt that."
"It's the truth!" He stressed, leaning back, and trying to figure out how to word this without outright admitting it. It wasn't really his place. "Just… you do trust in her, right?"
Haku looked towards him, his eyes unsure.
"I… I think so…"
"Then… I think more than ever, you should put your faith in her to hear you out." He placed a hand on the boy's shoulder, smiling over at him supportively. "Even if she says something crappy, you've got people all around you who can support you. You've got me, and Sasuke, and Sakura, and that's just for starters."
"I…" Naruto could tell by the man's facial expressions that he hadn't really considered that. "You're… you're right." He shook his head, dismissing his doubt. "I… I'll talk with her. I owe her that much, at least."
He smiled as Haku turned towards him, his expression bashful but assured.
"Naruto… I… Than-"
"Don't bother." He smirked, standing up and offering out a hand. "For right now, I've gotta' go help Sasuke, and you've gotta' go help Ino and Sakura. We're saving these Jinchuuriki!"
Haku nodded, just a tiny bit of fire in the icy man's eyes.
"Right."
/-/
Sakura was losing.
That wasn't… crazy, given the caliber of her opponent. Ino had a feeling about ninety-nine percent of the ninja on the planet would've lost in a straight duel to Kisame Hoshigaki, but still… it was hard to watch her best friend get utterly demolished in a fight and not be able to do very much to help.
Oh sure, Ino was providing support, she fired off kunai from the sidelines that forced Kisame to block them, giving Sakura some chances to hit blows, and she was landing them occasionally. She'd use her mind transfer to buy Sakura a few seconds of rest every minute or so, which she imagined came in handy, and she was agile enough to not get caught by Kisame, especially since someone she'd loved had gotten hurt the last time she did that. She was on her toes now more than ever.
The problem, really, was that it wasn't enough.
For every blow Sakura landed, the veritable behemoth of a man standing before them would land one of his own. Sakura was no pushover, especially in what she called her 'evolved curse mark state'. She'd taken multiple hits from the man's blade, Samehada (if the thing could even be called a blade) and come out generally alright.
But Ino could tell the girl was running on fumes now, and Kisame, through the virtue of his sword sapping Sakura's chakra, was veritably right as rain.
And in a one-on-one, Ino was fairly sure it was no exaggeration to say she'd last a few seconds, if that, against Kisame.
Sakura yelled as she was struck badly once more in the solar plexus, letting out a gasping breath as she tried to force air into her lungs. She spasmed slightly as she dodged away from Kisame, but she looked out of sorts, out of balance.
Ino shouted, drawing her hands up into her mind transfer, but before she could, a kunai caught her in her left palm, piercing an inch or so into it, and causing her to flinch backwards. Kisame had thrown it with all of the precision of an assassin, and it was her turn to remember that Kisame likely had been that very thing at one point in his life.
He charged in, preying on their inability to stop him, and brought his blade up to crush Sakura beneath him. She shouted Sakura's name, but she needn't have done such a thing, for another blade, a solid steel great sword, intercepted Samehada, and held it in place.
"Oh," Kisame honestly looked disappointed, "You again."
Instead of firing back a line at Kisame, Haku looked to her. He gave a light, sad smile. "Ino, are you alright?"
"Y-yeah, but Sakura-"
"Don't worry." Haku gave a reassuring grin, before he spun on the spot, knocking Kisame away. "I'm here now… I won't let you or Sakura get hurt."
She believed him.
"And… Ino?"
The boy's voice was tentative, as if doubting every word, but even still, he'd managed to force them past his lips.
"Yeah?"
"When this is all over… let's have a talk, okay?" He turned back to her, momentarily taking his eyes off Kisame, though likely trusting her to let him know if the man made any moves. "Just the two of us."
The words were both a punch to the gut and the reassuring push she'd needed.
"Yeah… I…" She smiled, and it was one of the first unburdened expressions she'd been able to put on her features in what felt like years.
"I think I'd like that a lot."
End Chapter 64
Chapters up, finally!
This one's been sitting in the banks for a while. I could've released it last week, but... well, I just didn't want to.
Conclusion of this arc (sort of) next week, with fallout chapters following that up for a while. Exciting stuff on the horizon, so get hyped for that.
Alright, see you all next week!