Burdened Slave

Chapter 12


Haru slowly opened his eyes. His room was filled with the soft light of a waning moon. He had had quite a peaceful sleep for once, which he found it a bit strange. Nonetheless, he began his daily routine. Before he even sat up from his resting position, habitual words of gratitude and glorification poured from his mouth in a whisper. It was spoken in a tongue completely foreign to the entire planet. However, and unbeknownst to Haru, the intention behind them seemed to resonate deeply with the planet itself. The natural energy flowing in rhythm with the words. As if finally, after a long time, someone was doing something that did not damage the nature around them.

Haru got up and made his way to fill a small basin with water. Once filled, he washed his hands making sure to get water in between his fingers and up to his wrist. He rinsed his mouth. He silently breathed water into and out of his nose and washed his face. He moved to putting water over his arms. Everytime he wiped over a limb, it was as if dark and slightly transparent wisps would exit his body with the drops of water. He continued by wiping his head and cleaning his ears. He finished by washing his feet.

When he returned to his room, he looked out of the window for a few minutes. He then turned to a small shelf holding thirty scrolls. He reached and allowed his fingers to touch them before stopping randomly. He pulled the scroll his fingers stopped at and unrolled it. It was written using a script from beyond the planet. A script from the mid-rim of a galaxy far away. The script was used to encode what Haru now holds in his hands. One part of thirty. A book of guidance for those who want it. And Haru really, really needs it. He had desperately written it out from memory among many other things. Following the book was easier than attempting to travel to where all stars end and where the upper planes of the universe begin only to potentially be shot down by the beings that reside there. Not that he had the capability to make the trip.

After a while of reading, Haru sensed it was time to leave. He rolled up the scroll and put it back in it's exact place. As he exited his room, a smiling Uchiha Mikoto stood with a small pack of food in her hands.

"Here you go," she said. "It's just a small breakfast. Just like how you like it,"

"Thank you, Nee-sama," Haru replied and Mikoto glowed, happy that she was able to get him out of the habit of calling her something that made her feel like an old woman.

"Bring your team as soon as you can. I want to meet the two who'll be protecting my little Haru-chan," she said as she bent and grabbed both of his cheeks and stretched them playfully.

As usual, Haru's face reddened in embarrassment. Not willing to be rude and feeling that telling her to stop pulling his cheeks would work just as effectively as it had last time, he went for the alternative. "I assure you, Nee-sama, I will be the one protecting them."

Mikoto grinned and she stood to her height. "Well get going then."

Haru nodded and made his way towards the door.

"Good luck, Haru," he heard another voice along the way. It was Uchiha Hana.

Haru stopped, walked and smiled. "Thank you, Kaa-san." He ignored her small flinch, but she seemed more used to it now. She breastfed him when he was little, took care of him when he was weak, so of course she was his mother. "This is the second time I hear someone mentioning luck. Do you really believe in it?"

Hana chuckled. "Not really."

Haru nodded and seemed pleased.

He exited the house, left the new Uchiha compound, and started walking towards the Hokage mountain. His emotions turned more grave as he stared at the large faces carved into the mountain with the moon shining behind them. The shadows playing tricks of all kinds and making the faces menacing. The newest face, that of Uchiha Fugaku, being the most menacing of all. With it still being dark out, the eyes of the carved face seemed like sinking caves of darkness of unknown depths. During the day, however, one would have been able to see the carved Sharingan.

He was distracted by a small noise to his side, so he stopped walking and looked. Coming down a tree, and shining in the moonlight, was a rather large white snake. It flicked it's tongue at Haru and slithered closer.

"If you are capable of understanding me," Haru said with a slight frown and the snake stopped. "I suggest you turn around and go the way you came,"

The snake flicked it's tongue and started slithering towards Haru once more, as if in curiosity.

Haru's dark eyes narrowed. "I will repeat. If you are capable of comprehension, return the way you came. There will be no warning after the third."

The snake, seemingly incapable of understanding, grew closer to Haru. So, Haru gave his third and final warning to the snake. "Begone."

With the third and final warning ignored, Haru took it to mean that the creature was not in disguise. Beyond the sensing capability of the snake, Haru flashed towards it at great speed. He extended two fingers, and with a small pulse of chakra, the snake was dead.

Haru stood and looked at it for a moment, before crouching once more. He spoke.

"You were a frightful creature. But you were beautiful too."

Haru placed his hands on the ground and sent a pulse of chakra into it. The snake was suddenly consumed by the earth and buried.

Haru got back up and continued walking. Long after he was gone, a small rustle was heard in amongst the leaves in the trees and down the trunk slithered another snake. It stopped where it's fellow snake had been buried and then looked in the direction Haru walked in. It flickered it's forked tongue.

"Curse you, child." the snake hissed. "My beloved was not even a summon,"

And with that, the snake that spoke disappeared in a small puff of smoke.


Yamanaka Yū finished climbing to the top of the Hokage rock and found her friend, Maboroshi Dan sitting quietly.

Walking up to him, she roughly landed onto her behind next to him and leaned back on to her hands.

"Hey," she greeted.

"Hm," Dan greeted with a nod.

She looked away and scowled. "Are they able to get your voice back?"

"Hm," Dan replied, but Yū understood what it meant.

"Whatever," she said petulantly. "You couldn't shut up anyway. Now I can get some peace and quiet."

She received a soft punch to her shoulder. She growled and threw back a punch ten times the power only for it to phase through Dan and off-balanced her.

She quickly stood and shouted. "Hey! That's not fair dumbass."

Dan remained seated and started laughing. She kicked at his head, but it just passed through. So she gave up.

"Tch," she said, crossing her arms and looking away. "It's a waste of time anyway."

After a few minutes she spoke up again. "What do you think about him?"

Dan made a hand sign and his scroll and brush popped into existence. He quickly wrote down his thoughts, snickering as he did.

"I think you have a crush on him," Dan's scroll voiced.

Her face darkened. "When that shithead gets here I'll show him what crush is."

"Why do you hate him so much?" the scroll asked.

Yū tried to answer, but couldn't get much more of a splutter out. So, instead she countered with a: "Why do you like him so much?"

"I don't even know him," Dan wrote.

"Good morning," Aoba suddenly appeared in front of them. "You guys got here early,"

Dan nodded.

"Where's Haru-kun?" Aoba asked, looking around.

Yū smirked. "He's late."

"Now, now," Aoba said. "There's still five seconds left,"

And just as those seconds ran out, Haru appeared next Aoba.

"Precisely on time, Haru-kun," Aoba said, impressed.

Haru gave a small smile. But it made Yū's mood all the more sour. "Showoff."

Haru blinked. Then he raised his right hand. "I have food."

Her stomach growled, but she ignored it as she looked interestedly at Haru's hand. But the sight just annoyed her further. "That's too little."

Haru was about to pull his hand away when she stepped forward and snatched the box away. "Whatever, thanks."

Haru smiled and it was a bit wider.

Dan stood up as Aoba began speaking. "Alright, listen up guys. Yesterday I said I was going to test you, but an emergency came up and Hokage-sama gave you guys a mission instead."

"Really?" Yū said as she chewed the food. "What is it?"

"I need to warn you first," Aoba said and the atmosphere became tense. "If you guys fail this mission, you'll be handed over to Torture and Interrogation."

Yū swallowed and stared at Aoba.

"Seriously?" she asked with an incredulous look on her face.

"What's the mission, Yamashiro-sensei?" Haru asked, not seeming at all disturbed.

"A spy and his accomplices have infiltrated Konoha. You have until next week at this time to locate, capture, or kill all of the accomplices and interrogate the mastermind for anything valuable,"

Aoba paused and looked at the faces of each of his genin. Yū looked as incredulous as she did when he started, but Dan seemed to have a calm air about him similar to Haru.

"Why give us a mission like this, Yamashiro-sensei?" Haru asked and Yū nodded.

Aoba leaked out some killing intent to be felt by all three genin, which did not seem to faze Haru. "Are you refusing a direct mission from the Hokage himself, genin?"

Aoba noticed a small smile on the corner of Haru's mouth.

Man, this kid knows.

So, in response, Aoba increased his killing intent.

But Yū was the first to break and shouted at Haru. "Shut it fuck face! I'm not going to fail a mission because of you."

And with that, Aoba let his killing intent disappear.

"One of the accomplices is known to Konoha and is in fact a traitor," Aoba continued.

He pulled out a file from his jacket and handed it to Yū. "Here's everything we know about him."

"Don't fail your village," Aoba said, letting another spike of killing intent out. "If you're not here next week at this time with a completed mission, we'll assume you're dead or traitors and we'll send ANBU to make sure you're the former. So make sure to show up or make it easier on the head of Torture by not."

WIth that Aoba disappeared. Leaving speechless genin. Though, Haru was not inclined to speak, so he was more quiet then speechless. However, he was thoughtful.

"Let's look at the information," Dan wrote.

Yū opened the folder and both Dan and Haru looked. A quick look of amusement flashed across Haru's face as he saw the identity of the accomplice. He couldn't help but remember—


A few weeks ago

Haru was walking back towards the Uchiha compound when suddenly a green-clad shinobi came running towards him. The shinobi leaped and sailed over Haru's head, Haru following his trajectory.

"Dynamic Entry!" the shinobi shouted at the top of his lungs.

Suddenly a great crash was heard and Haru blinked. There in the middle of the road was a spiky white-haired shinobi who had his hands in his pockets. The shinobi was rather nonchalant for the target of a rather spectacular, in Haru's opinion, attack that just destroyed a thick wooden pole.

Haru blinked.


A pale hand held out a dead mouse to the snake before him.

"My condolences," a cold raspy voice said to the snake. However, the person could have cared less. "I sense great hate in you. Do not let blind you. I want you to stay in the shadows as you continue watching him. Let your hate fuel you."

The snake hissed in displeasure before dispersing with a pop and a small cloud of white smoke.

A dark chuckle rang out from the darkness. "What an interesting child."