Folded Hands, Chapter Seven

Pairings: Zabuza/Haku, possibly others later

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Note:

Darkrini—

"Foreign" in this story refers to the fact that Team Seven is in the Country of Water, but they are from the Country of Fire. It WOULD be cool to read a story, though, where the kids were all students somewhere (say, Tokyo U) and Naruto was American and Sakura was Chinese.

All—

I am watching the anime, not reading the manga, meaning that I don't know what kind of stuff Sakura can do these days. So I made shit up. No spoilers, I guess. I'm going to make up some stuff throughout the story, like Sasuke's and Naruto's abilities…and other things. No story spoilers either, I want to keep you guessing.

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"Okay, this should be good," Naruto said, stopping when they had reached the other side of the lake.

Haku's eyes skimmed across the water. His master was speaking with "Master" Kakashi now, and he wondered what about.

"Haku!"

He turned to see the pink-haired girl, Sakura, smiling at him expectantly.

"Yes, Sakura?" Haku asked softly. Naruto walked past him and started to talk to Sasuke.

Sakura laughed a little. "I'm sorry that I didn't really get to meet you before because of Master Kakashi's joke. I don't know what he said about me, but I'm seventeen, and I'm almost finished with my medical training." She held out her hand and he took it slowly. "I overheard your name before, but I don't know anything about you. Would you mind telling me again?"

The nervousness returned. Haku knew that the rude things in this mind tended to be spoken out when he wasn't prepared for them…

He took a breath. "My name is Haku. I'm seventeen, and I'm training to be a--"

"He's s super-strong water-nin, no doubt!" Naruto shouted as he turned his attention to Sakura, pushing her shoulder playfully. "I mean, look at his maste--"

Haku's eyes caught Naruto's. Even through his own brashness and lack of tact, Naruto could see the sudden apprehension on Haku's face.

"—his teacher," Naruto corrected himself. He watched Haku's face for a moment, and the water-nin looked away and nodded slightly. He hoped that Zabuza wouldn't hear about his new title.

Naruto continued. "That Zabuza guy looks tough. Really tough. So--"

"So you're saying that since his teacher looks tough, he has to be strong, too?" Sasuke interrupted.

Naruto rubbed the back of his head. "Well, yeah!"

"I-I just started my training," Haku said. "But I agree with you, in that my Master is very strong."

"See, you retard?" Sasuke asked, nudging Naruto in his side with his elbow. "Don't just jump to conclusions."

"Hey! It's called giving him the benefit of the doubt!"

Benefit of the doubt? Naruto thought that there was a possibility that I was strong…

Naruto turned back to him. "Sorry if I embarrassed you."

"It's okay," Haku said, keeping his eyes down.

Sakura, the polite one, started the new conversation. "Haku, do you know any water jutsu? I've never seen anyone perform a water jutsu, because almost everyone back home uses fire jutsu."

Haku nodded. "Do you want me to show you?"

The pink-haired girl nodded.

He turned to the lake, and raised his hands in front of his chest, preparing to perform the hand seals for the Water Clone Technique. He couldn't help but glance at his master across the lake, who was standing with his back to him, looking over something with the foreign teacher.

I have to do this well, because he might look over our way. Haku grinned beneath the half-mask. He might even want me to show off.

As he recited the chant and performed the hands seals, he realized that his master would not take any notice of him. Why would he, anyway? The mission was at hand.

Haku finished the hand seal pattern, and four Haku-mirroring water clones climbed out of the lake, all imitating his usual standing posture.

"Creepy…" Naruto said. "Looks like something from a horror movie."

Haku expected one of the foreign ninja to 'test' out his clones as his master had done before, but none of them stepped forward. He suddenly realized that he didn't know what to do next.

"I can do stuff like that!" Naruto said happily. He took a place near Haku. "Shadow clone replication!" the blonde ninja said after a string of hand seals and incantations.

Haku jumped back as he, Sakura, and Sasuke were suddenly surrounded by an army of blonde ninja.

"Naruto! Don't be a show-off!" Sakura said. She 'killed' the clone closest to her, and then turned to Haku. "Most people can't make this many," she said. She'd sensed his worry. "Naruto likes to make everything big. He has no restraint."

"He's a freak," Sasuke said coolly. He also began 'killing' clones close to him.

"Hey!" Naruto shouted. "Don't call me that!" He smiled at Haku. "Everyone's a little different, right?"

Naruto noticed that Haku hadn't moved. "Hey, you can kill some if you want to. It's good practice." He turned around and began 'killing' Naruto replicas himself.

Haku swallowed nervously. He had never punched anyone in his life, and now, in front of these foreign ninja…

He gathered his courage and walked up to the first clone. "Hey, sis, what's up?" the clone asked him in Naruto's voice.

"Sis?" Haku growled under his breath. He punched its face…it felt just like a person! The clone disappeared in a poof of smoke.

As he admired his now-stinging hand, Haku said, "They feel just like real people."

Deciding to be polite, Sasuke stopped his 'stress relief therapy', leaving a few Naruto clones so he could talk to Haku. "That's because they're shadow clones. The technique for making shadow clones is a secret because the clones are so lifelike. Shadow clones are usually stronger than water, air, earth, or fire clones…or any kind of clone, really."

He realized that Haku hadn't moved on. Haku blushed furiously under his half-mask, embarrassed because his hand was already hurting from nixing one clone. "Come on, you'll enjoy kicking his ass." Sasuke said.

"Sasuke, you jackass! This is the ONLY time I'll ever let you kick my ass!" Naruto said as he fought one of his feistier replicas. Sakura stood to the side, not wanting to waste time and energy getting rid of Naruto's army.

She also kept her gaze fixed on Haku, trying to glean information from his actions.

Haku knew that the others had realized that he didn't know how to fight. He didn't say anything, though, and followed Sasuke after releasing his clone technique.

Sasuke lead him to another clone. "He's ugly, isn't he?" Sasuke asked conversationally.

The clone replied, "Not as ugly as your mother!" then looked at Haku. "Hey, pretty miss, what's up?"

Haku blushed again, and then punched this one in the face, harder. His hand still hurt, but then pain seemed to have gone down. The clone disappeared in a poof of smoke.

Naruto laughed as he joined them. "Sorry, my clones are just as stupid as I am."

"It provides decent motivation," Haku said under his breath.

To his surprise, Naruto gave him a confused, shocked look, and Sasuke hid his mouth with his hand as he chuckled.

I let my mouth run again!

The clones were gone by then, so Sasuke turned to Naruto. "Make some more, idiot," Sasuke said. Naruto didn't seem to understand why, but he complied.

"Shadow Clone Replication!"

Another small army of blonde, grinning ninja appeared. Sakura pushed her way through them to Haku.

"Let me take a look at your hand, Haku," she said. He offered his right hand to Sakura, and she closed it in hers.

"Hey, hold MY hand, Sakura!"

"Girl-on-girl action!"

"Which one is prettier?"

Haku and Sakura both glared at the offending clones. Naruto held up his hands defensively. "Like I said…"

Sakura rolled her eyes and looked back at Haku's hand. "Minor healing technique," she said. Haku's hand became enveloped in a small pocket of blue chakra, and the pain stopped.

She smiled at him. "Just keep going. As soon as the pain become debilitating, have me heal you so that you can keep training."

There was an unspoken agreement between himself, Sakura, and Sasuke: don't say that I'm lacking in training. Just act friendly.

He didn't really like it…the foreign ninja (at least the tactful ones) were slowing down for him.

Sakura let go of his hand. "Come on, let's train," she said, smiling at him politely. Sasuke nodded, waiting for him. Naruto watched the exchange, trying to catch on to his teammates' plan.

Haku swallowed, and walked up to the next clone. This one was more animated.

"How are you doing, babe?" the clone asked him, putting its arm around his shoulders.

Haku grabbed the clone by the front of its robes and hurled it with strength that he didn't know he possessed.

"I'm not a girl!" He shouted at the clone as it landed a distance away and poofed into nonexistence.

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Nightfall approached, and yet their teachers (or, teacher and master) had not finished discussing the plans for the mission.

Naruto had settled down on grass near the shore, and was eating a boxed lunch that he had produced from his gear pack. "Haku, sit down for a while," he said, patting the grass next to him.

Sakura's healing had returned his strength to him, but Haku still felt exhausted. He also hadn't eaten since breakfast, and he felt unprepared when he saw the other fire-nin pulled out their own boxed lunches.

Sasuke and Sakura both noticed that Haku had nothing to eat, and Haku was prepared for their polite attempts to offer him food. As Sakura stood, though, preparing to say something along the lines of 'I'm on a diet and I shouldn't eat this much food', Naruto realized that Haku wasn't eating.

"Dude!" he said. "Oh man, you don't have anything!" He smiled apologetically. "Our master likes to be late all the time, so we knew that he'd probably take waaaaaaay longer than he needed to doing shit today, so we all knew to pack lunches."

Haku looked away, wishing that Naruto hadn't brought the subject to light.

"Here!" Naruto said, offering Haku some of his lunch. "I always eat a lot, so I packed a lot, but I can get something else in a while, too."

"You don't need to be so kind," Haku said as he stared at a patch of grass.

Naruto made a face. "It's not just kindness. We're going to be a team soon, so we need to act like a team!"

He turned to the other fire-nin. "Teamwork, right, guys?"

They gave him 'You're so stupid' looks and then Sasuke said, "Yeah…stupid fucking bell test…." This reference passed over Haku's head, but he didn't say anything.

"Here," Naruto said. He founded the lid from his lunch and placed a few of his rolled omelets on it, along with some of his rice. "Guys, give me some stuff, too," he said, passing the lid to Sasuke.

Sasuke silently took the lid and places a few sushi rolls on it. "It's an Uchiha recipe," he said proudly. He passed the lid to Sakura, who gave up some kind of fruit to complete the little tray of food.

Sakura passed this back to Haku, who stared at his new meal with surprise. Sushi? Omelets? And what was that red fruit?

He felt three pairs of eyes on his hands and realized that they were all waiting to see what he would try first.

Haku lowered his half-mask, then picked up one of the fruit and asked, "What is this?"

"The strawberry?" Sakura asked. "Oh, yeah, I forgot, they only grow back home. Try it," she said politely.

He picked it up by the green part, and took a bite of the red part. The meal continued like that, with Haku trying each person's food. The sushi was excellent, and he told Sasuke so.

Partway through the meal, Sakura decided to try polite conversation. "Why did you wear that mask?" she asked.

Haku blushed, and swallowed the omelet he was chewing. "I thought that it was the sort of thing that ninja wore." He looked down for a moment. "My master also covers his face, so I thought that it would be good for me to emulate him."

Naruto shrugged. "In the Country of Fire, there are all sorts of ninja. We're still in training, so we don't usually disguise ourselves."

Sasuke nodded. "Even among adult ninja, there are many who don't hide their faces unless they're working." He pointed to the Uchiha clan symbol on the back of his robe. "I guess this is kind of the opposite of hiding."

Sakura giggled. "Naruto used to wear orange all the time."

"Hey!"

Haku thought about that for a moment. "So, was that when Naruto was bait, or before they cured him of color blindness?"

"Hey!" Haku caught Naruto's smile.

"I mean," Haku said, "If you were trying to be bait, then orange must have been an excellent color."

"He didn't mean to be," Sasuke said, "but bait he was. So many times."

Haku smiled and set down his empty lunchbox lid. He knew that the foreign ninja were trying to be polite to him by going along with his jokes, but the attention was pleasant, all the same.

And tonight, you're going to go home with your master and tomorrow, all of them may have realized that you're a slave, and that you're not the type to provide company. Then, they can step all over you tomorrow and called you weak and slow. They're all thinking that right now. Some water-nin you are.

The smile left his face, and he watched the fire-nin talk amongst themselves about some old mission they had been on before. Something about someone from the desert or something.

"Naruto," Haku said softly. The blonde ninja turned his attention to him as Sakura and Sasuke argued about some detail of the story.

"What's up?"

He suddenly pulled Naruto close, and whispered in his ear.

"Do they know I'm a slave?"

Naruto's eyes widened, and he looked sad for a moment. He saw the fear on Haku's face, and he understood what he was worried about.

He whispered back, "No. I won't tell them, if you don't want me to." He paused, then added, "Back at the temple, we all call our teachers 'master so-and-so' out of respect. I don't think they suspect anything, but maybe you should call your master 'Master Zabuza' to hide the face that you're…" Naruto looked away, then pulled back from Haku and smiled.

"Done flirting?" Sasuke asked as he took a drink of tea from his thermos.

Naruto gave him a confused look. "Flirting? With who?"

Sakura laughed. "Stupid boys."

"Huh?"

Haku looked away.

Perhaps in realization of an error on his part, Sasuke stood up, brushing himself off. "Hey retard," he said.

"What?' Naruto asked. Sasuke laughed.

"Looks like you know your name. Want to fight, to show Haku our moves?"

Naruto grumbled as he realized that he had answered to 'retard', then said, "Yeah! Get ready for me to kick your ass!" He stood up as well, leaving Sakura and Haku sitting on the grass.

"Remember to stretch!" Sakura shouted at her male teammates. She turned to Haku, and, as soon as the others were out of hearing range, she said, "Something's bothering you."

Haku shrugged. "It's nothing."

"It looks like it's more than nothing," she said. She pushed his shoulder gently. "Don't worry about fighting," she said, startling Haku with her directness. "Maybe we'll just be assigned to stealth or infiltration or something like that. I didn't fight on any of my first three missions because I was so far behind the boys."

Sakura turned her attention to Sasuke and Naruto, who had actually taken her advice to heart and begun stretching. "Master Kakashi pulled my aside after that, and told me that I needed to work on taijutsu if I wanted to become a ninja. He said that even if I was behind the boys, I could probably still hold my own if I worked on it." She smiled. "They're both freaks anyway when they fight. That was one of the reasons that I held back…they're very intimidating."

Haku watched as Sasuke and Naruto took fighting stances. Naruto had lost his outer robe, and Haku now saw that he was wearing a fishnet-looking shirt and black pants underneath.

He looked past the fire-nin to see his master, still working out the mission strategy with Kakashi.

The fight started with Naruto charging. He summoned several clones as he ran towards Sasuke, and said, "Okay, boys, fan out!"

The clones scattered, and one jumped into the air. Sasuke waited for him coolly, and said, "Better make this good!"

Haku noticed that his master and Kakashi had turned towads them now to watch the fight. Zabuza watched in curiosity…Haku wished that he could have that attention.

Sasuke performed a set of hand seals and chants quickly, and brought his hands up to his mouth. To Haku's surprise, the black-haired young man began to breathe fire.

Several clones were sent into oblivion, leaving Naruto and his clone in the air. The airborne clone used the replication technique, resulting in a ring of clones around Sasuke.

Sasuke closed his eyes for a moment, then began a taijutsu pattern that 'killed' every last clone and shocked Haku.

The way he moved was beautiful, and skillful. Naruto had not yet demonstrated as much physical prowess, and Sakura had been less than active, but this young man…that was the sort of skill that Haku wanted. He was part killer, part gymnast, and none of his movements were wastefull.

Sasuke regained his previous stance, and waited for Naruto to charge himself.

"Only four minutes left! Damn it!" the blonde young man shouted. He created a few more clones, and began some sort of new jutsu that Haku couldn't identify.

Four minutes? Why four minutes?

The clones raced toward Sasuke, and Naruto shouted, "Again, boys!" Each clone re-replicated, and Sasuke was soon covered in blonde clones.

Two held his arms, and two held his legs. Naruto himself dove towards Sasuke, head first, nailing him in the stomach.

Sasuke crumpled. "Idiot…" he said, coughing. "Aren't you a real ninja?"

Naruto released his clones, and Sasuke stood again. They were very close now, and Naruto glanced at Haku and Sakura for a second before he attacked Sasuke.

His fighting style was not as beautiful as Sasuke's, but Haku felt envious of him, too. He was very aware of his surroundings, and he seemed to be able to take a beating, too.

Naruto caught a foot to the jaw, and stumbled backward.

"Time's up," Sakura called. She stood up and ran to Naruto. "I hope you two had fun," she said as she healed Naruto's wounds. After healing Sasuke, she said, "Boys," and prepared to scold them, but then thought better of it.

Naruto noticed that Haku was staring at him.

"Something wrong?"

Haku hugged his knees, and said, "I didn't know that you two were so good."

Naruto grinned. "You should see Sakura fight. She's like a monster."

Haku blinked. "I thought she was bad at fighting."

"Not anymore," Sasuke said. Sakura elbowed him in the ribcage, then turned to Haku. "I found a new kind of training. And, I don't like to play around like some stupid boys," she said, glaring at Sasuke.

Haku lowered his eyes. "A new kind of training?"

"Yeah, everyone has their own strong points," she said. "Sometimes, you just have to develop what you have."

Nervous again, Haku stood. "There is something I can do," he said.

The ever-polite Sakura clapped her hands together. "Show me!" she said happily.

Haku walked to the water's edge, and took in a breath.

This was his killing skill.

The foreign ninja stared at him as he began to move his hands, focusing on the water in the lake.

As soon as a long snake of water appeared, Sasuke took a step back.

He's…

Oblivious to Sasuke's reaction, Haku directed the snake to twirl upon itself, then to straighten out. He looked past the snake and saw that his master and the foreign teacher where watching him.

He took a breath, then forced the snake into the shape of a dragon. "My master…Master Zabuza is teaching me a water-jutsu that looks like this," he said as he made the dragon move. "The jutsu is a little hard, so I decided to work on the dragon first."

"Wow…" Naruto said. Haku looked over his shoulder and realized that the others were staring at him.

"What?" he asked.

"Haku…" Sasuke paused, then asked, "You didn't use any hand seals, did you?"

"No." He immediately let the dragon crash back down into the water. "This…is something bad, isn't ?"

"What's your last name?" Sakura asked.

Haku was a little surprised by the question. "Why?"

"Just curious."

Haku's brow furrowed. "I don't have one."

"Oh."

Haku looked away. I should have known better than to show them that! I should have only shown my master…

He looked across the lake to see his master staring at him. He knew that he had done something wrong, and he knew to expect punishment that night.

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Kakashi stared at Haku from across the lake. "You got any interesting 'student' there," he said, putting emphasis on 'student'.

Zabuza shrugged. "Maybe, if can learn anything."

Kakashi sent a sidelong glance his way. "Does that kid have a bloodline limit?"

"What the hell is that?"

The silver-haired man looked away. Damn hick town. Damn hick water country. "It's nothing. It's probably not one, anyway."

Zabuza said, "Whatever. He's just weird, that's all." He looked over the mission plan again.

"Can your girl handle this?"

"Sakura is very accomplished, and she knows how to handle herself."

"Can that kid take care of this by himself?"

"Sasuke is the same as Sakura. He can handle any challenge I give him."

"And can that idiot do that part right?"

Kakashi smiled underneath his mask. "I'm sure that Naruto is capable of that."

Zabuza glared at him. "I don't know if I can trust you foreigners on this mission. You're not used to the area, or how we do things around here."

"Well, that's probably why that official wanted local ninja on this mission as well." Kakashi rolled up the scroll containing the battle plan. "As for Haku…do you think he's ready for this?"

"He will be."

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