Folded Hands, Chapter Thirteen
Pairings: Zabuza/Haku, possibly others later
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Notes:
I wasn't satisfied with leaving off at the last chapter, so…here ya go. Another double update.
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Haku and Naruto hid in trees near the southern side of Gatou's base. Naruto had changed into a dark gray and orange uniform, and he was carrying two weapons pouched (one on each thigh) so that he could deliver one to Sakura. He was also carrying a spare set of Fire Country-style shoes for the pink-haired medical ninja who was waiting for their signal.
The tension of the situation was beginning to get to Haku as he crouched on a branch a few feet from Naruto. He was wearing his usual training garb—the black pants, fishnet undershirt, navy robe, and heavy belt. The half-mask he'd worn on the first day with the foreigners was back on his face; he lived in this area, after all.
Naruto looked over at him, caught his eye, and gave him a thumbs-up. Haku nodded, and leapt from his branch right after Naruto leapt from his.
His fall took him ten feet forward, near a few guards at the southern entrance. Remembering his training and summoning his killing intent as best he could, he pulled a kunai from his weapons pouch (courtesy of Naruto), spun it around his middle finger, and slashed the closest guard. The slash was directed at his neck, but the man jumped back, suffering only a nick to his chin.
"Fuck!" Haku said under his breath.
The guard whistled, drawing attention to himself and to the inexperienced water-nin. Haku's heart began to pound, and adrenaline flooded his veins, as he saw more armed guards running from the base to join the man he'd attacked.
Kill them!
Haku took a breath, and charged at the man again. His wrist was caught immediately, and he struggled with the guard, accidentally dropping his kunai when the man backhanded him.
His vision spun, and the disorientation rendered Haku vulnerable. In his panic, he tried to kick the man.
As Naruto glanced at Haku, he saw something rather amazing. His new friend was being restrained by a guard one second, then…Naruto looked away for a moment so that he could kill another guard, quickly, the way that Kakashi wanted him to…and in the next second, the guard was lying on the ground, his jaw dislocated and his mouth bleeding badly. Haku lay nearby, holding his head and trying to stand up.
"Haku!" Naruto shouted. He looked around…there were about twenty guards already! "Shadow Replication Technique!" he shouted, and ten Naruto clones appeared.
"Kill 'em, boys!" Naruto growled at his clones. The guards began to back away from them, but soon every guard had been killed by a scarred, blonde ninja.
When he looked at Haku, he found that the young man was lying on the ground, covering his face with his arms. He ran to him instantly, and pulled his arms away.
"Haku…" Naruto's expression turned sour. This wasn't right, dammit! What had Zabuza been thinking when he'd sent Haku on this mission?
Haku looked around, and when he saw that all of the soldiers were dead, he said weakly, "I'm sorry, Naruto…"
Naruto was suddenly overcome by the urge to hug Haku. The water-nin was giving him his patented gentle smile, his eyes apologetic.
He shook the thought from his head. He knew of better ways to cheer Haku up. Motioning to the guard with the dislocated jaw, he said, "Looks like you just need to believe in yourself more."
Haku's eyes followed Naruto's finger as he pointed to the corpse, and he shuddered and looked away. "I did that?" he asked.
Naruto laughed a little. "I sure didn't. Not my style."
This didn't seem to sit well with Haku. "I was just struggling blindly."
Naruto stared at Haku for a moment. He hadn't sensed any other guards, though he knew that some of them may have just been hiding their chakra. He looked around then, to make sure that no one was approaching, before pulling Haku to his feet.
"Come on," Naruto said encouragingly. "I think we got most of 'em, but there will still be more in the base."
Haku nodded.
"I'll go in first, okay?" Naruto offered, talking to Haku as if they were two children sneaking into a haunted house.
"Alright," Haku said. He followed Naruto inside the base.
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Kakashi and Zabuza had long since invaded the base from its quiet north side. As they neared the VIP room, Zabuza paused, listening for any other sounds in the base.
There were screaming sounds on the floor below. As if he had sensed Zabuza's worry, Kakashi said, "It's probably Sasuke down there. I heard his battle screams a few times."
Zabuza shrugged as he turned to regard the door to what was PROBABLY the VIP room. "Thinks it's a trap?" he asked the fire-nin.
Kakashi shrugged in response before loading the door with exploding tags.
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Haku and Naruto encountered a few guards in the hallways leading to the brothel area. Each one was dealt with, quickly, quietly, and stealthily…by Naruto. Haku still felt ashamed for letting Naruto do all the work, but the blonde ninja actually seemed to enjoy his role as protector.
Said ninja chuckled as they entered the brothel area. "I wonder what Sakura's wearing," he said to Haku.
If he had been waiting for a response, he didn't let it on as Haku stared at him, blushing slightly. Instead, Naruto waltzed into the reception area. Haku followed him, lowering his mask to avoid suspicion.
It seemed as though this part of the base did not yet know about the attack. The woman working at the front smiled at Naruto and Haku politely, and said, "I'm sorry, but children aren't allowed here."
"Huh?" Naruto asked dumbly. He put his hands on his hips. "I'll have you know that I'm sixteen years old! Why, lady," he said, walking straight up to the desk and smiling, "that makes me older than you, huh?"
This was obvious flattery, as the woman was clearly at least thirty years of age. "You're such a sweet-talker, that I'll just let you go on in. Sign here, please," she said, passing him a piece of paper. Naruto looked it over while the receptionist turned to Haku.
"Young miss, were you looking for a job here?" she asked politely. Haku's face burned, and he replied in a soft voice, "No, I'm just here to watch. That's what this guy hired me for."
Naruto shot Haku a weird look, and handed the paper back to the woman. "How's this?" he asked.
The woman nearly screamed when she saw that the paper and Naruto's hand were covered in blood. She looked from one ninja to the next, and stood up and backed away from them.
The blonde ninja smiled. "Sorry about that, but I'm going to knock you out now," he said, jumping over the desk and making good on that promise.
Haku watched as Naruto looked around behind the desk. "Why are we stopping here?" he asked.
Naruto frowned as he tossed some things from a drawer to the floor. "Some of the girls here are slaves, or prisoners." He pulled out a drawer, and then another. "They're probably locked up, so I want to free them before we leave."
Haku was somewhat stunned by this naïve kindness. Naruto's determined face showed the pain that he felt, and he remembered what Sasuke had told him about Naruto.
"Well…I just mean that he has a big heart. He thinks that everyone is his best friend. And he doesn't like to see his friends get hurt, or let themselves get hurt."
"Naruto…" he said softly. Even if he had known about imprisoned girls or slaves, there was no way that Haku would have put his mission off to save them. He was a slave, after all. Not to mention the fact that he had a job to do for his Master, and his role in life now was to do Zabuza's bidding, not to think for himself.
The sound of metal hitting metal brought Haku from his thoughts, and he saw Naruto holding up a set of keys proudly. "Gotcha!"
They raced down the nearest hallway. "Don't kill any of the women here," Naruto said. "Just knock them out. They might be able to find better lives once they're away from Gatou."
So noble, and trusting, and naïve.
Naruto grinned at him then, and started to shout around the hallway, "Oh, Sakura!"
Haku stared at him like the dumbshit that he was, then decided to join him. "Miss Sakura!"
One of the door in the hallway opened then, and Sakura ran out, dressed in lingerie and heels. "What? Can't you be more like a ninja?"
Haku stopped in his tracks, then covered his eyes. Naruto, on the other hand, stared at Sakura for a moment, and grinned. "Lookin' good!"
Sakura covered herself with her arms as best she could as Naruto came closer. He gave her the weapons pouch from his left thigh as well as the pair of shoes he'd brought for her. Haku joined them, careful not to look at Sakura's body…he didn't want to make her mad at him.
The pink-haired ninja quickly put on the navy shoes and tied the pouch to her thigh. She looked at Naruto expectantly, before asking, "Clothes?"
Naruto blinked. "What clothes?"
Sakura stared at him. "Do you think that THIS is appropriate mission attire?" she asked, indicating her lingerie.
"I couldn't carry anything else!"
Haku took off his robe, and handed it to Sakura. "Please take this," he said softly with a smile.
Sakura smiled at him politely. "Thank you, Haku. I'm glad to see that Naruto hasn't let you die yet."
"Of course not, Sakura. He has been very kind to me," Haku replied, meeting her smile with his own.
Sakura threw on the robe, and Naruto was no longer distracted by her lingerie. "Okay," he said, taking charge. "I'm gonna go be a nice guy," he said, holding up the keys. "You two can go on, I'll meet up with you later."
"Be careful, Naruto," Sakura said. She tugged on Haku's arm, and began to run back down the hallway, leading Haku towards the center of the base.
As they ran, Haku noticed that Sakura looked a little excited about the mission. Unlike Naruto, she did not constantly look over him to make sure he was okay; rather, she looked ahead, waiting for enemies to appear.
A group of six guards met them when they were halfway to the VIP room. Sakura had heard the men a ways back and had prepared herself for battle. Using her chakra-amplified strength, she knocked the first guard down the hallway and kicked the next one's head into the wall.
Haku could only be fascinated for a moment, though, before he raised his mask again and drew a kunai. He was used to aiming for the throat, so he tried this method again. The guard nearest him dodged the attack, stepping back and letting Haku fall. As he tried to pick himself back up, Haku felt a boot in his stomach, then crumpled as he stared up at the guard who had kicked him.
Sakura made quick work of the other five guards, leaving the man who had kicked Haku. She turned to Haku, and asked, "You want me to kill him?"
The man looked around and saw that his companions were dead. He stared at the now passive, glaring Sakura, who met his gaze evenly. The guard started to shake as Haku picked himself up.
Haku leaned against the wall, and said, "Sorry, I don't really want to. You can kill him."
Sakura nodded, and she lunged for the guard.
She also understands how weak I am.
The guard was faster than Sakura, though, and he ran past her and Haku, down toward the VIP room. "Crap!" Sakura shouted as she ran after him. She drew a senbon from her pouch, and threw it at the man, hitting him in the neck. The guard dropped to the ground, immobilized, and Sakura stepped over his body.
"Come on," she said to Haku. He stepped over the guard as well, who stared back at him with eyes that could see yet could not move.
They met another group of guards at the next hallway intersection. Haku was faced with a swordsman this time, a tall man with grey hair.
He nervously drew a kunai and the swordsman sneered. "What are you going to do with that?" he asked.
Haku swallowed, and attacked. The guard slashed at him, narrowly missing his torso, but he landed a kick to Haku's stomach that sent the water-nin crashing into the wall.
He forced himself to pushed his body off the wall as the swordsman lunged at him with his sword this time. Seeing that his sword was stuck in the wall, Haku grabbed one of the man's wrists and twisted it behind his back. The swordsman cursed, then pulled a hidden dagger out of his robe with his free hand and plunged it into Haku's side.
Haku slumped to the floor, blood spilling out of his wound. He fought the urge to scream as the swordsman pulled his sword out of the wall and advanced towards him. Haku quickly wrenched the dagger out of his wound and prepared to fight in his wounded state.
He lunged low, striking the man's thigh with the dagger, and moving behind him. Haku thought that it was odd that the swordsman slowed down so much when he attacked…maybe it was out of confusion?
The man recovered, though, and stared at the wound on his thigh. "What the…"
Haku attacked again as the swordsman looked around slowly. This time, he used all of his strength to bury the dagger in his back, severing his spinal cord. The swordsman fell and Haku looked around for any other guards.
The wound in his side was bleeding harder now, and Haku collapsed onto the floor. He saw that Sakura was also fighting a swordsman, and it seemed that she had somehow managed to bend his sword. She made quick work of him, and turned to Haku.
Her eyes widened as soon as she saw him. "Haku…" she said, dropping down to him and looking at his wound.
Haku felt his strength drain away with his blood. "What do I do?" he asked sadly. He had been afraid of this…afraid of injury, afraid of wasting time.
Sakura helped him to stand, and she moved him to a nearby room and shut the door. "I'm going to take care of that," she said tersely. Haku fell back down to the floor as she looked through her weapons pouch.
"No antiseptics or bandages…damn that Naruto!" she hissed quietly.
Haku swallowed. No antiseptics or bandages meant no treatment, and the blood flow hadn't lessened yet. "Am I going to die?" he asked softly.
"No." she said firmly, pulling two senbon from her weapons pouch. "Don't move," she said as she inserted the senbon into his neck.
Haku would have cried out, or moved, because of the sudden betrayal, but he found that he could do neither. Instead, he was frozen just as the guard in the hallway had been, and he could see and hear but not move, breathe, or talk. He started to cry when he realized that his heart had stopped beating.
Sakura knelt by him and said, "I've put you into a temporary death state to stop the blood loss," as if that could explain the needles sticking in his neck. Maybe it did…his brain was running slowly and his head had started to hurt.
She rolled him onto his good side and held her hands over the wound. If Haku could have looked at her hands, he would have seen that green chakra was pouring out of them and into his wound, closing it. They stayed frozen like that for minutes on end, Haku because he had no choice and Sakura because she was concentrating.
Haku heard guards in the hallway. Sakura did not even look in that direction. She was so absorbed in the healing jutsu that she could not waste her concentration on anything but Haku's wound.
He began to panic. A guard had stopped outside their door, and the doorknob was turning! Sakura suddenly stopped the jutsu and slumped over Haku, her chakra drained. She slowly reached for Haku's neck and pulled out the two senbon with a flick of her wrist. Haku's eyes widened in shock as his heart began to pound, and his lungs sucked in air.
The door to the room opened and Haku sat up. Two guards were standing there, staring at the odd scene. One drew his sword and lunged for the pair.
Haku quickly pulled Sakura to him and rolled over, finding himself on his feet with Sakura in his arms. The guard stared at him (though he didn't know why) and Haku decided to take advantage of that surprise by running past him and into the hallway.
He ran at full speed, and only looked back once. He saw that the guards were running somewhat slowly…why? Haku whipped his head back so that he was facing forward, and he failed to notice Sakura's stare as she lay limply in his arms.
As soon as they came to the next hallway intersection, he stopped running and ducked down one of the hallways. There were no guards here, thankfully, and screams from down the hall told him that there was a fight nearby…he thought he heard Sasuke for a moment. Haku set Sakura down onto the floor as he tried to catch his breath and figure out what he was supposed to do.
He glanced down the hallway, in the direction they'd come from. Where were the guards that had been chasing him?
"Haku," Sakura said, startling him out of his ponderings. He knelt by her.
"Yes, Miss Sakura?" he asked politely.
She looked at him warily, and asked, "Do you know what you just did?"
Haku was taken aback. "No. Did I hurt you while I was running?" He looked over the exhausted young woman. "Are you feeling okay?"
Sakura gave him one last look before answering the second question. "I'm just drained right now. Healing wounds with chakra alone takes a lot out of me. I should be fine in a few minutes, though," she added, smiling at Haku.
"Thank you for healing me," he answered. "And I'm sorry for getting injured so quickly. I would be dead if you hadn't been there to save me."
"It's okay," she said. Sakura suddenly sat up. "Someone is coming."
Haku drew his kunai again and waited for the guards that had been chasing him. He jumped into the hallway when they had almost arrived, kunai held in front of his torso.
"Whoah!" Naruto shouted as he almost ran into the outheld blade. He pushed Haku's forward arm up above his head, and his excess momentum made him turn Haku around so that their positions had changed.
Haku stared at him. "Naruto?" He glanced back down the hallway.
Naruto rubbed the back of his head. "Are you looking for two guys? I met them on the way here, and boy, they weren't happy to see me." He smiled and looked around. "Where's Sakura?"
Haku grabbed him and pulled the foreign ninja into the hallway where Sakura was resting. Naruto immediately dropped to her side and touched her shoulder. "Sakura, what happened to you?"
Haku looked away guiltily as Sakura answered, "I had to use up a lot of chakra. Not everyone has a source like you, Naruto."
Naruto laughed. "Yeah, I guess that's what people call 'only human'." He turned his attention to Haku. "You doing alright? No cuts or anything?"
Haku shook his head, trying to cover the tear in his fishnet shirt. "Sakura has taken good care of me."
Naruto nodded. "Sounds like our girl!" He said. "Come on, let's go."
Sakura glared at him. "I can't keep up with you two right now."
The blonde ninja turned around and pointed to his back. Sakura grumbled for a moment before allowing him to give her a piggy-back ride.
Naruto took the lead again, and said to Haku, "Tell me if I run too fast. I'm a little excited right now, and I'm not really watching myself!"
Haku nodded. "I'll do my best to keep up with you."
Sakura turned for a moment to look at Haku as Naruto started to run. He shouldn't have any trouble keeping up. I've never seen anyone as fast as Haku before. It's almost as if he was amplifying his speed with chakra, but…even when I've done that before, I wasn't that fast! And he doesn't even know that he's doing it!
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When they arrived at the VIP room, they found Sasuke sitting on a desk, keeping an eye on several men who had been tied up. One of the men was Gatou himself, struggling against his bonds. The room was littered with corpses and blood stains.
Haku hoped that none of the blood belonged to his Master.
"Sasuke, you lazy ass!" Naruto shouted at his teammate. He walked up to him and pointed at him accusingly. "Stop looking like Shikamaru and do something for a change!"
Sasuke gave him a bizarre look. "You're late, dumbass. Kakashi and Zabuza went to look for any survivors, and they told me to stand guard over the prisoners."
Naruto glowered at him. "We're not late! We were doing important things!"
Sasuke smirked. "Did playing hero have anything to do with that?"
"Hey!"
Sakura ignored her male teammates as she sat in front of the desk near Sasuke. "What happened to you?" he asked, having noticed her physical condition.
She didn't look at Haku as she replied, "I had to use a lot of chakra."
Sasuke laughed. "See, Naruto, since you weren't there, Sakura had to use a lot of chakra. I told you not to do dumbass things."
"Hey!" Naruto shouted. "It's not my fault! It was probably…something else."
Haku swallowed. It was his fault and he knew it.
Sasuke turned his attention to Haku. He noticed the tear on the side of Haku's fishnet shirt and was about to ask a question before he thought better of it.
Sasuke put two and two together, Haku thought. The blood on his pants didn't help either.
Naruto sat down in a nearby chair and asked, "How long are they gonna take?"
No one answered him.
"Hey, Haku," Sakura said, smiling politely as she caught his attention. "I was wondering what you were going to do to celebrate the success of the mission."
Haku was silent for a minute, then he said, "I didn't think about it. Is it normal to celebrate the success of missions?"
Naruto joined in. "At our temple, every three-man team has there own way of celebrating good missions. We're probably going to go out for ramen later."
Haku shrugged. "I'm only doing what's expected of me. I don't think that I'm going to be rewarded for doing that much." He smiled sadly. "If my Master knew how little I'd done today, I think that I would be punished, rather than rewarded for not getting in the way any more than I did."
Sasuke's eye had caught Zabua standing in the doorway while Haku was talking, but he waited to enter the room. Sakura seemed to have noticed as well, for she changed the topic suddenly.
"So, Naruto," she said, drawing attention away from Haku, "Did any of the girls you saved fall in love with you?"
The scarred young man blushed. "No…most of them asked 'who the hell are you' and stuff like that, so I kinda just left them with the keys…"
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Zabuza had left to contact Yamamoto, leaving Kakashi to hunt down any remaining guards. He'd found the drunken official rather quickly after jumping from a tree to perch on the windowsill of his office.
"Zabuza!" Yamamoto had shouted upon seeing him, covered in blood. "Looks like things went well?"
He nodded tersely. "Have your men come over right away. We don't want to hang around there any longer than we have to."
Yamamoto nodded, and called for one of his underlings. "Soryuu!" he shouted at a nearby man. "Have our boys head over to Gatou's!"
"Yes, sir!" the man said, saluting him before he left.
The official turned his attention back to Zabuza. "So, you got Gatou?"
The assassin nodded. "Not a scratch on him, either."
Yamamoto sighed with relief. "This is one of the happiest days of my life, you know," he confessed. "Having that monster and his henchmen put away…now I can concentrate on the other problems the town is having."
Zabuza grunted. "Whatever. You need anything else?"
He watched as the official pulled a wooden box out of his desk drawer. He opened the box, which Zabuza saw contained cigars, and handed one to Zabuza.
"Victory smoke?"
Zabuza looked at the disgusting thing. "Hell no," he said, handing it back.
"Oh, that's right. Guys like you need to keep their bodies in good shape, right?" Yamamoto had asked bitterly, lighting the cigar for himself. "Oh, for the better days…"
His attention flitted back to Zabuza. "Your team can leave as soon as my boys get there," he said, giving Zabuza the send-off he'd been waiting for.
Zabuza grunted and left.
As he headed back to Gatou's, he found his thoughs straying to Haku. He knew that there was a good chance that the slave was dead now. That possibility bothered him just as much as the kiss the previous night.
His eyes narrowed as he continued to run to Gatou's, jumping into a tree now and taking the quicker route. Did he really want that? What would he have done if I had kissed him back? If I'd pulled him into bed? What that what he was after?
He knew that, even if Haku had meant for the kiss to lead them in that direction, that the slave may have only been after his Master's approval. Zabuza thought that was sick, for Haku to use his own body to try to improve their relationship. Or, worse, to try to get something from him.
What was he thinking?
He arrived at the base shortly after and approached the VIP room when he heard Haku talking.
…is it normal to celebrate the success of missions?" his slave asked. Zabuza remembered the cigar he'd been offered. He hadn't thought of rewarding Haku just yet…it was still early for that. He was secretly glad that he knew his slave was still alive, though.
The noisy blonde kid spoke up. "At our temple, every three-man team has there own way of celebrating good missions. We're probably going to go out for ramen later."
Ramen? What kind of a cheap-ass reward is that? Kids are really simple, I guess.
His slave answered now, his voice soft and sad. "I'm only doing what's expected of me. I don't think that I'm going to be rewarded for doing that much."
Zabuza's eyes narrowed. He decided to not enter the room just yet. He'd been curious as to what was going through Haku's head for a while now, and this might be the way to learn.
"If my Master knew how little I'd done today, I think that I would be punished, rather than rewarded for not getting in the way any more than I did."
Getting in the way? What did he do? I won't talk to him about it unless he tells me about it himself. I wonder what he could have done, though…well, if he'd been with me during the mission I probably would have just had him watch, anyway, and I would have given him a few kills for practice.
"So, Naruto," the girl ninja said now, "Did any of the girls you saved fall in love with you?"
…what the fuck?
The scarred young man blushed. "No…most of them asked 'who the hell are you' and stuff like that, so I kinda just left them with the keys…"
Shut up, you dumbshit, and let Haku talk again.
Zabuza saw Kakashi coming down the hallway from the opposite direction with a man slung over his shoulder. "I caught Mr. Osai," he said conversationally. "He was quite fast, though."
He nodded back, acting as though he hadn't just been eavesdropping on Haku and the foreign kids. "That's good. I didn't know what we were going to tell Yamamoto when they found out he was missing."
The younger ninjas had fallen silent, and Kakashi and Zabuza entered the room now. Kakashi casually set the incapacitated Mr. Osai down near a few other men who had been tied up, and Zabuza walked straight up to Haku.
The slave backed away from him as he came close, then realized what he'd done and returned to his original place. Zabuza looked at him for a few seconds. Haku was clearly afraid of him.
He might think that I'm still mad from last night.
Zabuza looked away to see Naruto glaring at him from his chair. He shrugged at the fire-nin and said, "Looks like you kids didn't let Haku die today."
Naruto stood up so quickly that his chair fell over. "Hey! Don't talk about him like that!"
Haku smiled at Naruto. "It's true, though. I'd be dead if it wasn't for you and Sakura." He turned his smile towards his Master, as if to admit that he didn't stand a chance and he knew it.
"I'm sorry, Master," he said softly.
Zabuza's eyes bore into him. Haku had nothing to apologize for today, so…
"I know," Zabuza replied.
Just then, a few police officers entered the room. One of them whistled after seeing the bodies scattered about the room.
Another (Soryuu, Zabuza realized) walked up to Zabuza and said, "We're taking our position here. You are free to leave."
Kakashi smiled at the man. "Thank you so much." He turned to his students, a bored expression now on his face. "Kiddoes, time to go."
Sasuke jumped off the desk and helped Sakura to her feet. Naruto gave Haku a look before joining with Sakura and Sasuke as they left the room. Kakashi followed his students, pulling out his current volume of Come Come Paradise.
One of the officers grabbed Naruto's arm on the way out. "You kids did all this?" he asked incredulously.
Naruto just rubbed the back of his head. "Yeah, don't make it sound like such a big deal…"
Haku watched his Master for a moment, and Zabuza shot him a look before turning around and leaving. Haku followed him, head down, as he lead him into the hallway, in the opposite direction from Naruto's group. Then went down another turn and Zabuza stopped him suddenly.
The slave swallowed nervously. This was what he had been afraid of. His Master was angry and disappointed. He leaned against the wall as his Master turned to face him.
"Haku," he started.
Haku lowered his eyes and replied, "Yes, Master?"
Zabuza looked over his face. Why did Haku always act so pathetic around him? He'd told the slave that that was NOT what he wanted from him…not just submission or agreement or whatever his old masters had wanted. Haku was his student now, even if their relationship was different from the foreign brats and their teacher.
That attitude made him sick.
Haku's eyes widened in surprise when Zabuza slammed his palms into the wall on either side of Haku's head. His slave's black eyes met his own, and he stared Haku down.
"Cut the crap," he growled. "What's gotten into you?" He studied the silent, frightened Haku for a moment before continuing. "Is this about today, or about last night? And make this fast, I don't have all day."
Haku tried to work his mouth, but for a few seconds no sounds would come out. His Master's face was close to his, and he could smell sweat from the man's body. There was no escape right then. The strong arms on either side of his head didn't matter…the look his Master was giving him was enough to hold him in place.
"Both," he finally said. "I…screwed up…a lot."
"Look," Zabuza growled through the bandages on his face. "About last night, that's already been dealt with. I still don't know what possessed you to do that, and I don't think you really want to tell me," he added when Haku's face colored, "but you will tell me someday."
Haku blinked. His Master actually wanted to know why he'd kissed him? Wasn't the fact that he had kissed him worry enough? His Master was actually interested in hearing about the sick, perverted reasons that Haku thought had been so blindingly obvious?
I thought you wanted to fuck me.
He started to shake, and his Master continued.
"About today, I knew you were going to screw up. I don't know what you did, but you're alive, and I don't have to catch shit from that other guy about one of his students dying to save you, so I really don't care if you screwed up because it didn't make a difference."
Haku nodded weakly. "I'm sorry for troubling you like this, Master."
His Master glared at him before slamming his palms back to the wall, harder this time, making Haku jump. "I can't stand that attitude of yours! I don't want to put up with you right now," he growled.
Haku's eyes snapped to his Master's face. "What…"
Zabuza sighed. "Go play with the other kids for a while, Haku. Come back home in a while and we'll have a talk."
He looked at Haku's face quickly. Haku had looked close to tears, but now he was staring at the wall over his Master's shoulder.
Zabuza lingered there, and Haku's mind began to play tricks on him. He had been cornered like that before.
No! The logical part of his brain screamed. That was another man, another Master! You know that Zabuza isn't thinking of that. Don't insult him by assuming that he views this position like that!
The thought would not leave his mind, though, and, to his horror…
Zabuza backed away and turned from his slave. "Just come back before midnight tonight," he said, leaving him there without another glance.
When his Master was gone, Haku slumped to the floor, completely aroused and hating himself for it.
The other voice was back.
You wanted him to do something to you, didn't you? You hoped he was going to fuck you. You're so sad now, Haku. You can't get a talking-to anymore without getting hard, huh?
He buried his face in his hands and waited for his arousal to go away. It had been so long since…
No, he couldn't do that here. Haku pulled himself to his feet and left the building. He'd just have to find the foreign ninjas and hope that his arousal would disappear, and not draw any attention to him in the mean time.
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Notes:
Hm…I hope that Haku can figure out where those damn fire-nin are!
Quick Quiz….
Are Naruto, Sakura, Sasuke and Kakashi at…
1.The Zoo
2.The mall
3.The…gift shop?
4.A strip club
5.A wedding
6.A bathhouse
7.The really, really obvious place?
Another Quick Quiz…
Naruto gets paired with….
1.Sasuke
2.Sakura
3.Itachi
4.Iruka
5.Hinata
6.Neji
7.Why are there more boys than girls on this list?...er, Ino
8.Your mom (he could so get her, and you'd have Naruto for a step-dad)
9.Kakashi
10.No one (ALONE!)
You can answers these in your reviews if you want to, but I won't post the answers in the next story. You'll just have to find out later! (Well, the answer to the first quiz is in the next chapter).
