Fandom: Naruto
Title: Never Ever
Part: 12 of 15
Genre: General/Action/Adventure
Rating: PG
Warning: AU
Spoilers: Manga up to Chuunin Exams
Summary: What if Naruto had sided with the Sand in the Konoha invasion?
Chapter 12: The Genius and the Loser
The Sandaime Hokage watched the boy make his way off the field. During the entire month, he was thinking on how to approach the boy, how to send for him so they could have a talk and clear up whatever happened eight years ago. Ever since the ANBU came back empty-handed, he had wondered whatever happened to Uzumaki Naruto.
He sent out messengers to every country, from the Stone Village to the Sand Village to the Mist Village. None of them were conclusive. Now he knew the Sand had been the ones who had been 'taking care' of him, but by now it was too late to demand for his return. He was officially registered as a Sand Nin and there would be no changing that. He could also never figure out why Kazekage would lie about not having Naruto in custody...
Eight years ago, they had searched his apartment for some kind of clue and they couldn't find any. The only thing sure thing was that that night, Naruto was in bed, then got up, went straight out the door, walked down the streets to Ichiraku, then vanished. How did he vanish? No one knew. Sandaime had his own theories that perhaps it was the Kyuubi who initiated the flight because Naruto's disappearance was too clean for a five-year-old to accomplish. But without proof, it was just another guess.
Back to the present, he had wanted to have a talk with Naruto. But throughout the entire month, there was the ever unanswered question, just what could he say? He couldn't just come out and ask him why he ran away. He couldn't openly tell him to meet with him either because it defied Chuunin Examination etiquette. In fact, the Chuunin Exam didn't allow him any contact at all with a genin from a rival village.
He would have to wait until the exam ended before he could get any answers.
---
"What took you so long?" Temari snapped as her 'teammate' appeared next to her.
"Sorry, sorry." Naruto replied easily. Temari usually got really nervous before a big mission and generally took her nervousness out by picking on him and Kankurou. And since this WAS the biggest mission up to date, they'd probably lose a layer of skin off the top of their heads by the time Gaara fought.
The next match would probably be between Haku and Rock Lee. If Shikamaru was anything like Naruto remembered, he'd probably surrender. Haku was the guy who fought the fat-ass in the first round and won by default because the other person was stupid enough knock himself out. So they couldn't really judge his ability yet. By now, Naruto was pretty certain that Haku was from the Mist Village. His clothing was a dead giveaway.
As for the other one, Rock Lee... all he could figure out was that this guy needed to lay off the sugar, or whatever it was that made him so hyper. And his sensei didn't help either. In fact, his sensei probably encouraged his exuberance, thus making it worse. Rock Lee didn't get a chance to fight during the preliminaries even though he had shown the greatest desire to fight.
He DID look ecstatic though. His disappointment over finding out that he would NOT be facing Dosu in the second round had worn off quickly.
'This one should be... interesting.'
---
'Kill them. Give me blood. I want some food and the last time I ate was horrible. I'm thirsty for blood, Gaara.'
Gaara winced and rubbed his head. Quickly, he turned and walked from the viewing area into another hallway. "I'll give you some fresh blood very soon, mother." He muttered as softly as he could. "Please give me a moment-"
'I WANT IT NOW YOU IMPUDENT BOY!' She shrilled in his head. 'Give me blood now!'
Hearing someone shriek in your head was completely different from hearing someone shrieking in your ear. It completely shook your mind, leaving you reeling and the resonation was much worse. There was no blocking the sound either.
"I promise I'll give you blood later." He begged silently. "And I promise it will taste very good. Just please..."
'Fine,' she snapped. "But I want it soon. And I especially want to taste the one of that Kyuubi boy.'
'Naruto?'
'Yes.' She hissed. 'I want to taste the blood of a demon. And I want it soon.'
The presence disappeared though the aftermath was still present. Mother hadn't always expressed an interest in Naruto before. He turned his heel and stalked back toward the viewing hall.
"Having another talk?"
Gaara turned his glare on the person speaking. He didn't hear him come in.
"You know Gaara; she's not your mother." Naruto said, following him back to where Kankurou was probably surrendering to Shino. "That's just a twisted representation from Shukaku of your mother."
"Shut up." He snarled, walking faster and silently thankful when Naruto stopped following him.
"Don't lose it before the signal, Gaara." Naruto finally said. But he only received a glare before the vessel of Shukaku disappearing from the blonde's eyes.
---
"You surrender?" The replacement examiner sounded dubious.
Kankurou nodded. "I surrender."
"Your loss," Genma said. "Then will Nara Shikamaru and-"
"I surrender too." Shikamaru called out hastily. Temari was already reaching for her fan and at that moment, looked particularly menacing.
Genma managed to squash the instinct of eye-rolling. Two forfeits, one from Sand and one from Leaf. Not much of a crowd pleaser if you asked him. But it didn't matter; after all, most people were here to watch the fight between Uchiha and Gaara.
---
With the two forfeits in a row, it only took a matter of seconds for Lee to realize, much to his happiness, that he would be fighting next.
'I'm ready for this. I'm ready to win this because I have the desire to prove that you don't need to be genius to defeat one.'
This was the chant Lee had been repeating through his head for the past month. He had gone on and tripled his original training. He was confident that he'd win against DOSU, but now he was facing Haku, who he knew nothing about besides the fact that he used senbon acupuncture needles in attack.
"Start the match." Once given the okay, Haku sprang back and the second he did, the entire fighting grounds began misting up.
'Nani...' Lee glanced around him, startled. How did he create mist without moisture? And he didn't see Haku perform any seals either.
What just happened?
---
"What's going on?" Ino yelled angrily along with the rest of the spectators. After all, mist meant that there wouldn't be a match to watch. She calmed down a few milliseconds later and thought up a question she turned on Sakura.
"How'd he do that?" Ino asked. "There's not a drop of water down there."
"That's his bloodline ability." Sakura answered. "Lee-san can't win this."
"You sound real confident in him."
"I am." Sakura replied. When they went to the Mist Village a little over six months ago, she didn't expect to lose a teammate and gain a new one. The four of them, Kakashi, Sasuke, her and Aozumi , had gone to the Mist Village after Aozumi had complained loudly in front of the Hokage that they weren't getting any 'important missions'.
When they had gone, they first encountered a demon named Zabuza. Kakashi barely managed to defeat him the first time around. The second time, they met his servant, Haku. They split up into three teams. Kakashi was paired off with Zabuza, Sasuke and Aozumi fought Haku and Sakura was left behind to protect their client. The battles were short and very bloody and the end only came after Aozumi's death.
As soon as Kakashi heard the body of his student fall to the floor, he unleashed everything he had at Zabuza, defeating him, but just barely. Both Kakashi and Sasuke were heavily injured and if Haku had wanted to, he probably could have killed them right then and there. But Haku had lost his will to fight after seeing his master dead. What good was a tool if it didn't have a master?
When they returned to Konoha, Haku went with them although whether he was a prisoner or otherwise wasn't decided. It was decided by the Hokage that Haku would join Team 7 even though the idea was ludicrous. It wasn't a very good match-up either and the team couldn't work efficiently because of the horrendous difference in ability. Haku was older in age and much better than Sasuke in everything from speed to stamina. And since Sakura couldn't even compete with Aozumi, who was worse that Sasuke... you get the idea.
And Sasuke also tried harder when Aozumi was here because at least he was given an opponent even if the opponent was weaker than him. When Haku replaced Aozumi, Sasuke had to settle for being the more 'worse off' half of the rivalry and even if he appeared to want to try and turn it around, Sakura thought that subconsciously, Sasuke had just given up.
Haku's ability was to manipulate water into ice, but with a little help from Kakashi-sensei, who surprisingly knew a large number of Mist jutsus, he eventually learned how to manipulate water in general. Now, for instance, he performed rapid condensation on the moisture in the air, turning it into mist. And with his added bloodline ability, he could do it without any seals.
"GO HAKU!" she shouted over the cries of the crowd. Six months ago, Haku had literally been a faceless enemy. Now, he was her friend and a kind, gentle friend at that. Often, it seemed like he was the glue holding them together and the one keeping Sasuke's ego in check.
---
There was a stinging pain in his left arm. Lee quickly closed his hand over the thin, sharp piece of metal. It was a needle, he confirmed. If Haku was planning on attacking him under the cover of his mist, there wasn't a whole lot Lee could do about it. But he could guess Haku's position from the direction the needles where coming from. All he had to do was wait for the next one.
But the curious thing was that the next few attacks came in pairs, one stabbing his right shoulder and one landing near his left toenail. Both came at exactly the same second and were in opposite directions. He had to be attacking from above then.
Lee immediately gathered strength in his legs, and jumped up, clearing the mist by a few feet. From his view, he could see that the entire fighting grounds were covered in heavy fog, and that there was no way he could see anything. Then it was a matter of seconds before gravity pulled him back into the dense prison of fog.
Since then, he was basically helpless; he did the only thing he could do. He closed his eyes and hoped his ears were good enough to hear the whoosh of flying needles and hoped that he would be able to move fast enough to avoid getting injured.
---
Gai strained his eyes, making an overall futile attempt to see through the haze created by Kakashi's student. He had heard about Haku from the more gossipy Jounins of Konoha. From what he had heard, Haku was from the Mist and had the mind set that shinobi were tools drilled into him at a very young age. He was also the last of a nameless clan with the bloodline ability of manipulating liquid and Kakashi had openly stated that Haku could probably best him in battle.
It was horrible that Lee's opponent had to be one with such a naturally advanced talent.
'Lee...'
---
Haku watched Lee wince as yet another needle pierced his body. At first, the bowl-hair boy pulled them out, but after a while, there were too many and where coming too quickly for him to have time to take them out. Now he was beginning to look something like a porcupine.
What's odd was that Lee wasn't using any techniques for counter. The only movements coming from him were jumps and flips to avoid the needles he could sense. Otherwise, he was basically a sitting duck. Yes, he did throw random punches here and there, but Haku would just jump out of the way with ease. Here was a prime example of someone who relied heavily on his gift of sight to fight.
For the past few minutes, Haku had been aiming at Lee's vital spots, but Lee actually moved quickly enough so the needles missed. There was no doubt that he was in pain, but not in as much pain he WOULD be in if the weapons had struck the desired target.
The original idea was to hit the areas that would cause the most pain, but Lee-san was doing too well even if he couldn't see. The Mist technique, no matter how advanced he was, also expended a large amount of chakra he couldn't afford to waste. He'd have to move quickly if he wanted to have a quick win. He transferred three needles to his right hand and aimed.
'Gomen, Lee-san.' He thought.
---
The arena began clearing up, much to the short-lived delight of the crowd. It was quite obvious that the match was over by then. Rock Lee was lying on the ground, face down and lifeless.
Genma rushed over without delay and examined him. Three needles had pierced his body. One was just under his collarbone, one was the mirror of the first, and one went straight through the center of his chest. The last one just barely missed hitting the area where the heart and lung met. Had it punctured just a millimeter higher...
The Examiner glanced at Haku, who was seated on the ground, panting lightly. Remarkable that he was able to aim so precisely even though he himself was enveloped in his own jutsu.
"Winner, Haku."
---
Sakura gave a sigh of relief as the winner was announced. 'He won!' she cheered silently in her head. "See?" she bragged to stupid Ino-pig. "I knew he'd win."
Ino snorted. "You didn't know what was going on either." She snapped back humorously. "And he's stronger than you too, Sakura-big-forehead." Suddenly, Ino realized that she had struck a major nerve as Sakura's head suddenly delved deep between her arms.
"Ohm gosh! Sakura, I'm so sorry!"
Gai ignored Ino's desperate, yet successful efforts to get Sakura's forgiveness. The match was horrible, not because Lee lost, but because it didn't give him a chance to show his true powers. The unfairness of it all, why couldn't Lee be born a genius?
---
"You see that?"
Kankurou and Naruto nodded. A small white puff going off on the roof of the opposite building above all the spectators wasn't that hard to miss. The ten-minute warning.
Temari began pacing again. "It's about to start." She muttered nervously. 'Only ten more minutes...'