Folded Hands, Chapter Twenty-Nine

Pairings: Zabuza/Haku, possibly others later

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Notes:

One of your fellow readers, SushiDemon, has drawn a beautiful Folded Hands fanart piece. Since is a bitch when it comes to linking to sites from your story, the link for the picture is posted on my profile page BUT I DID NOT DRAW IT, SUSHIDEMON DID, I'M NOT TAKING CREDIT FOR THEIR WONDERFUL WORK!

So, to see SushiDemon's picture, go to my profile, click on the link, you know the drill.

And, once again, there are more drawings on my deviantArt page.

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Something was very, very wrong at the temple.

For that first night, Haku was wracked by frustration and paranoia. He had no experience with situations like this one—he would have to take part in some sort of game if he did not want to be killed, and he was in the game not because he had chosen to be a part of it, or because someone had put him there, but because he had seen the signs and instead of turning a blind eye and staying faithful to the man he called Master, he had read every sign, and had thought about them, and they could not leave his head. There was a man at the temple now who wore his Master's face, and he knew nothing about the condition or the whereabouts of his own Master.

Haku hid the kunai as soon as the word registered. His thoughts flashed to the bookmark he'd found in his book earlier, and he opened the drawer he'd dropped it in to find that it was gone. He stared at the spot he'd last seen it for a moment before shutting the drawer. It would be safe, he knew, to get rid of the kunai as well, now that the message had been passed on.

He had three allies so far: Asuma, Sasuke, and Tsunade. It seemed as though all of them had realized on their own that the man he'd called Master for the last few days was a fraud, and they had all told him in their own way, to keep him safe, to keep the imposter from getting close to him, and to tell him that he had comrades.

There was also a chance, he knew, that if anyone else tried to tell him, that their message would be intercepted or overheard. That meant that there may have been several other people at the temple who knew that the imposter was not his Master, but that they had chosen to keep their mouths shut and their eyes down, at least for the time being, to not cause any trouble or to put themselves or Haku into danger.

Haku sat down on his bed, his hands folded in his lap, as he thought about his situation. If he wanted to remain safe, he would need to act as though he knew nothing, and he would have to obey the imposter as if he was his Master, at least until the matter was brought into the open by another party, meaning that he would no longer be able to hide, or at least that he would no longer have a reason to hide, that he knew that the man was not his Master.

There was also the subject of where his real Master was. Haku clenched his fists as he realized that his Master may have been dead, and that the body he saw was his Master's, but not the soul, or the mind, or whichever part of a human that was that created an identity.

He might also be using a transformation jutsu. I don't know how he could have made the transformed state look so real, but if he's a ninja then I suppose it's possible. His chakra signature should be different from my Master's…wait, Hinata wasn't at the gate at that time…it was…

Haku stopped breathing as realization set in. It was that medical-nin, Kabuto…he…he was the one who let the Fake in…he told the guard that he didn't need Hinata to verify his identity…but Kabuto never spent time with Master before…I didn't think of it then, because I was so excited to see Master again.

Thoughtless.

So it seems as though I've identified one of the Fake's accomplices, but I can't do anything with this information…

He sighed, and his shoulders started to shake. To avoid being found out, he would need to continue to act normally; he would have to continue being Haku the slave, property of the Fake, a young man whose sole concern was his training.

I'll find Team Ten right away tomorrow; they can't get away from me. I need to show an intense interest in my training, so that no one will suspect anything. I need to seek out the others for companionship, so that I will not be found speculating or investigating on my own. This also means that, although I want answers, I cannot try to obtain them from the Fake, even by indirect means. I already know that he is not Master, and I'll have to leave the investigation to the temple, once the Hokage begins it…if she feels that it is safe to do so.

Haku jolted into a stiff sitting position and he sucked in a surprised breath as the door to his room opened. His heart pounded in his chest as he watched Sasuke enter the room.

He forced himself to calm down. "Hello, Sasuke," Haku said with the best smile he could bring to his face.

Sasuke nodded without looking at him. It was obvious that he was tired from training, and as he pulled off his shoes, still not sparing Haku a glance, Haku began to feel…reassured.

Even if he could not talk to the others, he was not alone. Sasuke had to force himself to be quiet, too.

"How's Team Ten?" the black-haired young man asked casually.

Haku took a breath before replying. "Chouji and Ino were nice enough. I hardly saw Shikamaru at all, though."

"That's Shikamaru for you," Sasuke said, stretching before leaving his bed in pursuit of bath items. "He's the laziest guy that ever graduated from Iruka's class."

"Oh, I see," Haku said in an emotionless voice. It was difficult to act normal under the circumstances.

Once Sasuke had gathered his nightclothes and bath kit, he turned to Haku for the first time, and looked him in the eye. Haku smiled back, and Sasuke nodded before leaving their room.

His nerves nearly exploded when Sasuke left. That was a learning experience that I cannot forget for the next several days…or weeks…or the rest of my life…

Haku sighed and lay down on his bed, staring at the ceiling. He would have to operate as if he was completely alone; he couldn't rely on anyone, even his comrades, in this situation.

The night was warm, but it did not steal him away into sleep, not even after Sasuke's return, and he spent the night thinking about his plan, and the consequences he had to be prepared to face.

If the time comes that he will try to take me away from the temple, then I will no longer be silent, even if I am the only one who will admit that there is something wrong. He is not Zabuza, and he has no right to take me. I have learned that much.

Daylight broke through the sky, and Haku shut his eyes against it, half of him wishing that the night would not end, so that he would not have to enter the dangerous world in which the Fake lurked; the other half, wanting to kill the man as soon as he saw him for desecrating his memories of his Master and for making him doubt both his Master, and himself.

I will not allow my eyes to miss this. A man, an imposter, a Fake has taken the face of my Master and has attempted to live his life. I can not allow your transgression go unchecked.

You are NOT my Master.

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When Haku walked outside the temple for his morning run, he made a point of finding Shikamaru. The lazy ninja had actually shown up that day, and Haku knew that he would have to get him to stick around his team if he wanted to train with him.

As soon as Shikamaru had seen him, he turned away and pretended as though he wasn't there. This did not stop Haku, though. He had made up his mind the night before.

Haku walked around Shikamaru so that he was in his line of sight. "Good morning, Shikamaru," he said softly.

Caught, the lazy ninja made a face and sighed. "Hello, Haku," he said with the smallest amount of enthusiasm a person's voice could hold without spouting suicide threats.

Haku beamed back at him. "I was hoping that we could run together today."

A look of panic struck Shikamaru's face, and he took a step back, staring at Haku as if trying to comprehend what he'd said. "You and me?"

The water-nin smiled and nodded. "Or do you not like me?"

"Er…it's okay."

Haku nodded again. "Since the others are not here yet, would you like to start running without them?"

Shikamaru sighed in defeat. "The 'others', huh?" He looked around the area, hoping that his teammates would show up to rescue him, but they didn't and he sighed again before turning back to Haku. "Suuurre. But not too fast, okay?" he asked.

"Whatever you'd like," Haku said softly. Shikamaru shrugged, and they began their walk around the temple.

After a few minutes, Shikamaru sent Haku a sideways look. In his eyes, the foreign ninja didn't seem to mind the fact that the morning run had…not involved any running at all…

Damn it, he thought as he glared at a nearby patch of trees. Isn't he supposed to get bored of this and run off on his own?

It was at that moment that Haku turned to him and asked, "So, do you have any brothers or sisters?"

Shikamaru blinked at him.

Since when did he decide to get so damned chatty with me!

Haku smiled to himself as he dragged personal information out of the lazy, irritable ninja. If he could fill up the strained atmosphere with pointless conversation, then that would make his burden that much lighter.

"So," Shikamaru said after a while. Chouji and Ino, not to mention every other Chuunin, had lapped them by then, and Shikamaru had not budged from his slow walk. "So, what about you?"

"What about me?" Haku asked.

"Um…" Polite conversation was not a hobby of Shikamaru's. "How about your family?"

"Oh." Haku looked away from him and thought about how to answer that. Consistency is the best path. "I don't know any of my family members. I have been with Master Zabuza during all of the times of my life that meant anything, though I wouldn't call him my family."

Shikamaru stopped walking. "During all of the times of your life that meant anything? What does that mean?"

I said something too ambiguous... "I meant that I was only a child before then, and I don't remember much from that time," he answered, stopping in his tracks to face Shikamaru.

"Tch. You can't build your life around someone like that. They'll just leave it," Shikamaru said, turning from him to glare at the horizon.

Haku watched him wordlessly as Shikamaru caught his own admission; then, they began to walk again.

A silence fell between them, a silence through which Haku could smile in relief.

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The girl was in fine condition that day.

Aka awoke to the sight of Itachi sitting calmly on his bed, reading a journal of some sort. When she sat up and looked around their hotel room, she found that he had packed the bags he'd brought with him. The fire-nin was also fully-dressed and armed, but the sword on Itachi's back and the little clangs of metal on metal that came from his weapons pouch when he breathed deeply did not bother Aka.

"Good morning," Itachi said as he flipped past the last page he'd read, not taking his eyes away from the book.

She nodded, watching him soundlessly.

"There's a dress hanging in the closet. You should change into it; the weather in the Fire Country is much warmer than the weather here. Put your coat on over it until we've arrived in the warmer climate."

Aka rose from the bed and opened the closet to find a navy dress with short sleeves and a short skirt, as well as a pair of navy sandals that matched the ones that Itachi wore. She pulled these articles from the closet as the other man, the big man, as she thought of him, opened the door to the room.

Whereas she could watch Itachi, she could only stare at him.

He was so…weird.

"Hey," Zabuza said, catching Itachi's attention. The fire-nin set down his journal politely and turned his attention to Zabuza, who continued. "If you're not leaving today, then I'm leaving without you."

Itachi stared at him for a moment, and Zabuza stared back, before turning to Aka. "Do you feel better today?" he asked her.

She thought about this, and as Zabuza began to lose his patience she slowly said, "I think I do. My chest doesn't hurt like it did before."

"Can you walk?" Zabuza barked.

Aka turned to him and stared, wide-eyed. "I walked to the closet."

"Huh?"

Seeing that nothing could come of direct interaction between the two water-nin, Itachi cleared his throat. Zabuza narrowed his eyes at him and Aka watched him again expectantly.

"She should be good for travel," he said simply. "Aka, please dress. We'll leave for the temple as soon as you're ready."

The girl nodded and took her clothes before leaving the room to change.

As soon as she had exited, Itachi sighed. "We'll have to go at a quick pace," he said. "Godaime doesn't like her Jounin to take their time getting back to the temple after missions, no matter what their reason for doing so may be. Aka's condition has made that difficult, but we can't waste any more time."

Zabuza rolled his eyes and leaned against the wall, folding his arms and glaring at the door. "Why are you telling me that crap? I'm not the one who made her sick."

"I just wanted to tell you of the change in priorities," Itachi replied. "The importance of my return to the temple grows every day that I stay here. If we can get Aka back quickly, then we can have her treated sooner."

"And?" Zabuza asked irritably. "What's the point?"

"We might have to carry her."

Zabuza stared at him for a moment before shrugging. "Whatever, we'll manage."

Itachi nodded, and he sat in silence for a few minutes waiting for Aka to return.

And he sat.

And he sat.

Zabuza shifted his standing position and turned to Itachi. "Where's that brat, anyway?" he asked. "You think she ran?"

Itachi was already off his bed. He pulled on a pair of shoes and brushed past Zabuza into the hallway and towards the women's bathroom. Zabuza followed him, cursing under his breath.

Haku would know better than that. A simple threat tied him to me, and it could have done the same for her, but Itachi's been too busy nursing her to think of that.

They found the women's bathroom and Itachi waited for a moment, listening at the door.

Zabuza leaned against the hallway wall, waiting for Itachi to open the door and search for Aka already. He didn't know why the fire-nin was still waiting; he hadn't pegged Itachi as the shy or easily-flustered type.

As soon as Zabuza stood away from the wall in preparation for forcing his way into the bathroom, the door swung open to reveal a coughing Aka. She pulled her hand away from her face as soon as she recognized her caretakers, and her gaze hardened at Zabuza. Aka nodded at Itachi and walked past both men silently.

Itachi sighed as he followed her back to the room. Sasuke had been a proud kid, too.

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Haku ate breakfast with the others in as normal a fashion as he could. He had been too quiet and withdrawn the previous day, and he couldn't afford that sort of behavior.

Luckily enough, Ino found him during breakfast and plunked her food tray down next to his, taking the seat to his right. "Good morning, Haku!" she said enthusiastically. Haku noticed that she was without her teammates.

He turned to her and nodded. "Good morning, Ino."

She beamed at him and said, "Sorry that you missed us yesterday! Asuma took us out for barbeque because that fatass—I mean, Chouji—kept whining and saying that we don't spend enough time together as a team--" she started to wave her hand back and forth to illustrate the story in an ambiguous fashion "—and this and that, so Asuma…er, Master Asuma took all of us out and, you know, we realized that we forgot you when the food came out but we all figured it was too late then so we just decided to be more careful today. And that's why I'm sitting next to you." With that, Ino turned away from him, pulled her chopsticks from their protective sleeve, and began to work on the fruit bowl that comprised about half of her breakfast.

Haku turned away from the unintentionally rude ninja and smiled to himself. Looks like she's already helping me with my plan.

He was moderately surprised when Shikamaru sat down across from him. The lazy young man sent a brief, "Tch," Ino's way and grinned less-than-halfheartedly at Haku before pulling out his own chopsticks and poking at his bowl of rice with just as much enthusiasm.

Ino's eyes lit up a little and she smiled smugly. "Wow, Shikamaru," she said. "It's been a long time since you actually ate breakfast with us…"

He glared in response but said nothing as Chouji sat down to his left, completing their square. Both Ino and Shikamaru opened their mouths to say some sort of greeting, but as soon as Chouji saw Haku he smiled weakly and said, "Sorry about missing you yesterday, Haku. It was my fault."

Haku shook his head and waved at the air to dismiss his apology. "It was nothing. I had reading to catch up on, anyway."

"Really?" Chouji asked politely. He shot Ino a look and she stared at him dumbly for a moment before catching his hint and turning to Haku to ask, "Um, Haku, what kind of reading?"

"The basic books," he answered. He hadn't really spend much time reading the previous day, so he searched his memory for subjects he'd read in the last week. "Disguise techniques. I still need to look over the material again, of course."

"Oh, cool," Ino said. It was rather obvious that she hadn't actually listened, but that wasn't what mattered.

Haku was actually reassured by this kind of response—the young woman sitting with him was most definitely Ino, and not a fraud.

No no no, keep your mind on the conversation.

He turned to Shikamaru. "So, what were your plans for today?"

Shikamaru blinked. "Plans? Well…" he glanced at his teammates. "I didn't really have any. The old Sandaime plays Shogi with me every now and then…I was thinking of visiting him…" He sighed dispassionately. "Or maybe I'll take a nap."

"Are you going to have some Jasmine tea and bitch about 'kids these days' after that, you old man?" Ino asked as she rolled her eyes. Chouji shot her a look but she ignored it.

"THIS is why I don't eat breakfast with you," Shikamaru said. He threw Chouji a look before sitting back and folding his arms. "After all, talking to the world's biggest bitch takes away your appetite…"

"WHAT WAS THAT?" Ino shrilled. She glanced at Chouji and he didn't say anything, so she let a smile cross her face as she continued. "Of course I seem like a bitch to you. You can't even handle discussing chores with your mom! You're TOTALLY afraid of girls!"

"That's because there are no good girls these days."

"So are you gonna go fuck some old granny?"

As their argument escalated in both rudeness and stupidity, Haku found a smile gracing his face. The two Chuunin soon had the attention of half of the dining hall, at which point Chouji tried to calm down his teammates as he looked at Haku in exasperation. His teammates, however, continued to argue, trying to milk the crowd until an Eagle-masked ANBU with long brown hair tied back at waist-length asked them to leave.

And so they bitched their way to the practice fields, with Haku following them in good humor and Chouji following them carrying no small amount of frustration and weariness on his stocky shoulders.

Team Ten had once been a fully-functioning cell, sometimes called InoShikaChou by its members. This had ended when Ino, Shikamaru, and Chouji turned fourteen (though in staggered succession) and Shikamaru's friendship with Chouji had become strained due to a change in Ino's attitude towards Chouji.

But that was history, and the result was constant tension between Shikamaru and Ino. It was because of this, though, that they had been able to entertain Haku to try to apologize for the previous day.

At the same time, their bitching session had also allowed them to release some of the anger they'd felt for a while, thereby improving their relationship. So when Shikamaru finally called Ino a fangirly skank, and she in return said that he was a coward for not having the courage to write to 'the girl he was obviously in love with' instead of hitting each other and never speaking again, the two physically weaker members of Team Ten hit each other and began a rather raggedy taijutsu training session for two.

Now concerned, Haku watched their fight for a few minutes before Chouji put a hand on his shoulder and shrugged. "I think they got it. You still want me to train you in taijutsu, right?"

Haku nodded and walked a short distance away to train with Chouji.

Distractions will be my ally.

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Zabuza sneered under his facial bandages as he shouldered the weight of the Yukitori heirlooms he carried. He leapt from branch to branch as he followed Itachi back into the Fire Country.

The girl had been hit by another coughing fit when they were a few miles out of White Town. This fit had been less violent than most of its predecessors, but it had still led Itachi to the decision that one of them would have to carry her so that she could rest. It was because of this decision that Itachi's pack had been lightened and Zabuza's had become heavier; Itachi was strong but it was physically impossible for him to carry Aka and a full load of Haku's inheritances.

So, this makes Haku the leader of his clan, doesn't it?

Not that it will change anything. The only other clan member is that kid, anyway.

He was distracted from his thoughts when Aka looked at him over Itachi's shoulder. A chill ran down Zabuza's spine as those dark eyes refused to move away from him.

Freaky kid, what the fuck's her problem?

She fell asleep again and her head sunk below Itachi's shoulder level. Zabuza looked away before rolling his eyes at himself for being intimidated by a small, sickly girl and increasing his pace. Itachi nodded and leapt after him, hoping to make good time.

They reached Konoha Village two hours later. When the temple came in sight, a flash of light across a long thread made both ninja stop in their tracks and drop to the ground. Aka awoke and nearly screamed from the sudden change in acceleration but Itachi covered her mouth and shut her up.

Zabuza closed his eyes and tried to locate the person who'd set the wire trap they'd barely avoided. He assumed that Itachi's sudden stop meant that the fire-nin hadn't expected the wire, either, and thus it must not have been set by a Konoha ninja.

Itachi unstrapped Aka from his torso and set her onto the ground. Her legs were shaky and thus she fell. He was too absorbed in locating their target to notice, and he activated his Sharingan as soon as she hit the ground.

The three held their silence until Aka's harsh breathing broke through.

"Fuck," Itachi cursed under his breath. He pulled Aka off the ground and jumped back in time with Zabuza as a large, amorphous projectile hit the same spot they'd been standing in.

"A web?"

Zabuza stared at the mass as Itachi traced its path back up through the trees. A dark-skinned man with six arms, a ponytail, and a forehead protector displaying a musical note smirked down at them as he wiped his mouth with the back of his hand.

"Some wayward ninja, eh?" he asked cockily, noting Zabuza's and Itachi's current lack of forehead protectors and mistaking both of them for traveling ninja. The unidentified ninja jerked his head in Aka's direction. "A little girl too, eh?" He cracked his three sets of knuckles as he surveyed his prey.

To his surprise, Zabuza flashed out of his line of sight before he could respond and appeared behind him, dealing a heavy blow to his back with his oversized cleaver-style sword. The strange ninja's eyes shot open and he fell down to the forest floor.

Zabuza chased his body down the trunk of the tree he'd been perched on and was about to go for a second attack when he saw the wound he'd inflicted crack away like old pottery from the strange ninja's back.

Itachi saw it, too, and he left Aka on the ground as he unsheathed his sword and met their opponent mid-air as he began to right himself. As he'd expected, his first few sword blows cracked the man's armor and did nothing more. Itachi knew that there were a few areas of his body that could not have been protected by the armor, though, so when he was finished testing the armor he grabbed the other ninja by his shoulders and threw him against the nearest tree, hard enough to crush the lungs of a normal human but without the force required to actually harm this opponent.

The shock of the attack did leave his opponent's eyes open, though, and as Zabuza watched him wondering what he was doing and how it would help them to defeat their unidentified attacker Itachi focused his Sharingan into the strange ninja's eyes and began an advanced form of mental torture.

Zabuza watched them and waited for either man to move as Itachi stared into the six-armed man's eyes until the other man slumped down the tree trunk he'd been thrown against, shaky and now unconscious. Itachi backed away from the incapacitated man and turned to Zabuza to explain.

"The Sharingan allows me to torture my enemies' minds." He narrowed his eyes and turned toward the temple.

"Someone's taking over the temple. And they're after--"

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Uchiha Sasuke made a face as he watched Sakura and Naruto train. It had been rather helpful to have a fourth team member; that way, none of them had been idle during team training. It wouldn't have been so bad if his brother had already returned from his last mission.

Mother and Father would probably have a fit if they found out he was wasting time training me, anyway.

"Hey, kid."

Sasuke turned around to find that he had been addressed by Momochi Zabuza. A switch in his brain turned on after a millisecond reminding him that this man was not actually Zabuza, but an imposter. Another switch turned on after another millisecond telling him that he could not let on that he knew this.

And so he nodded. He didn't know Zabuza well enough to address him by any particular name.

"Are you bored or something?" the fake Zabuza asked.

Sasuke shrugged and turned back to his teammates. "Not really. If you're looking for Haku, he's not training with us anymore. He's with Team Ten right now."

"Oh, really," the fake Zabuza answered in a bored voice. "Well, whatever, kid," he said before walking away.

As soon as he was alone, Sasuke let out a breath and his fist began to shake. He'd been troubled enough when he'd realized that an imposter had been allowed into the temple grounds, but the knowledge that nothing had been done about it when there were Jounin and ANBU and other Chuunin capable of realizing that fact were present had deepened his concern.

And why would he address me? Any imposter would have a man on the inside…and that person would have told them how to act the part of the person whose identity they've taken…

"Sasuke!"

The black-haired ninja looked up to see Naruto waving at him. His scarred teammate waved both hands in the air enthusiastically and pointed to a large purple bruise on his face.

Sakura hid her face in her hands and began to walk away.

"Sakura got even stronger!" Naruto shouted loud enough for the adjacent teams to hear. Shikamaru glared at him as he walked past Team Seven in search of Ino, Chouji, and Haku. "Look! A love bump!"

"Shut up, dumbass!" Sasuke shouted in return. He glanced at Sakura and she stared back at him, her eyes widening for just a moment. They both nodded and she tore her eyes from Sasuke as if she had just heard Naruto's comment.

"Love? What are you talking about?" she shouted at her blonde teammate.

Naruto smiled and rubbed the back of his head. "You know, like pulling hair and—OW!"

Sasuke decided to join the fray when Sakura cracked her knuckles and began to attack Naruto. As he pulled her away from Naruto, he whispered in her ear, "Silence," and he dropped her on his other side so he stood in between his teammates.

"Sasuke!" Sakura mock-screamed. He nodded as he kept his back turned to her and she stormed off, shouting something akin to "Stupid boys!"

"Huh?" Naruto asked dumbly as he cocked his head to the side. "What was that about?"

Of course he hasn't figured it out yet.

"Oh, she was probably PMSing or something," Sasuke said, waving his hand in the air. "Anyway, I was getting bored over there. Fight me, you retard!"

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Shikamaru found his team in their new training spot near the lake. It was the place that Team Seven had occupied for the last week or so, and they'd taken over the location for Haku's benefit. He'd been sent to the dining hall to bring some kind of food and drinks to his team so that Chouji could spend less time taking a break and more time teaching Haku taijutsu.

When he joined his team by the lake, he found Ino sitting down, watching the training match. Shikamaru silently put down the food he'd brought so as to not remind Chouji of the coming break and make him forget about his duty.

He sat with Ino for a few minutes and neither of them said a word until Ino said in a voice so soft that it was almost a whisper, "The Flower Ball."

Shikamaru blinked at her and she kept her eyes on the fight. He looked back, too, and as he was about to ask her what the hell she was talking about, she continued.

"My family and the other florists in the village are going to throw this year's merchant ball. I want to go with Chouji." Her voice was low and agitated, and it reminded Shikamaru of the voice his mother used when he was little when she wanted to threaten him in public.

"So what?" he asked in an annoyed voice.

She rolled her eyes. "Look, stupid, I'm just saying that you shouldn't make any plans to hang out with Chouji that night. Just write to your girlfriend or something."

"Fuck you. Are you going to make him lose weight before you'll be seen with him in public, you miserable bitch?"

"No, Shikamaru, FUCK YOU, you cowardly bastard," she gritted out through clenched teeth. Her face turned red. "Why the hell would you--"

Haku dodged Chouji's punch. He knew that his current trainer was growing tired but he didn't want Chouji to feel that he had to stop just then. He'd found that his periods of speed had become less sporadic and more normal…he could almost control it now, though just in short spurts. Chouji attacked him again and he tapped into that speed. For a moment, he could see the muscles in Chouji's body flex and he could feel the air itself move with the wind and the twisting of bodies.

And in that moment, he saw past Chouji, to Sasuke and the Fake.

Haku faltered and fell from his speed state. Chouji's punch blew past his face and he fell down to the ground, unharmed but startled.

I didn't expect to see him out here. Why was he talking to Sasuke?

"Are you okay?" Chouji asked, concerned. He held out a hand for Haku.

Haku nodded and smiled as reassuringly as he could. "I think it's break time, though," he said as he motioned to Shikamaru and Ino, who fell silent when Haku pointed to them.

Chouji eyes found a bag of chips Shikamaru had brought and he nodded fervently. "Yeah...break time," he said as he left Haku to sit down between his teammates. Haku joined them as well, though he abstained from eating.

He bit the inside of his mouth as he turned what he'd seen over and over in his head. Maybe it was a coincidence or a fluke. Maybe the Fake doesn't know who Sasuke is. Or maybe the Fake is after Sasuke because he knows that Sasuke knows that he's not my Master…

Haku looked up at the others. They were in the middle of a conversation, and he'd missed it!

"…and so I think Master Asuma is going to take us out again tonight," Chouji concluded.

Ino rolled her eyes. "You know, we don't NEED him to go out. And you know, we don't HAVE to eat barbeque when we go out."

"Chouji likes barbeque," Shikamaru quipped.

"I don't think I could ever get sick of it," Chouji agreed.

"NEVER." Shikamaru added.

Ino glared back at her lazy teammate. "Well, there are other things too. New things. There are actually a lot of good foods in the world," she said, directing this statement entirely towards Shikamaru and only giving Chouji a brief nod of the head.

how am I supposed to get into this conversation? Haku wondered. It seems like they're ready to rip out each other's throats.

He glanced at Chouji and found that Chouji was just as confused by his teammates. Ino and Shikamaru turned to Chouji at the same time and he swallowed nervously.

"…What?" Chouji asked.

"Hey, Haku," Ino said, turning to the water-nin. "What do you like?"

Shikamaru turned to him too. "Yeah, do you like one kind of food, or a lot of different kinds?"

He blinked at both of them, looking from one to the other. "Well, I don't really know about many different kinds…there's not much variety in the Water Country…"

"I mean," Ino said as Shikamaru tried to interrupt her, "if you had a favorite, would you ever try anything new?"

Shikamaru shook his head before Haku could answer. "Listen to yourself. You said FAVORITE, Ino. People like what they like."

"But what if there's something better, huh?"

Chouji held up his hands as his teammates' tempers rose yet again. "Guys, what is--"

"Well you shouldn't have to look for something better—and what do you mean by better? Should he just STOP liking what he likes because it's not the only thing out there?"

"Okay, not better, but just as good--"

Haku snuck a glance at Chouji, who sighed in exasperation, before passing Haku a can of tea and shrugging.

"But you said BETTER!"

"WELL I JUST MEANT THAT THERE ARE OTHER THINGS OUT THERE!"

Across the temple grounds, Sarutobi Asuma heard two of his students bickering. He sighed and, upon remembering that his students and by extension himself had been responsible for the new students since the previous day, decided to end his smoking break early so that he could meet the new kid again and maybe teach him a thing or two before the day was completely over.

As Asuma crossed the temple grounds, he came upon an empty corridor. This was unusual for Konoha Temple, so he checked his surroundings before continuing on his way.

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Aka soon found that their attacker twitched when he was unconscious. A lot. When she decided to point this out to Itachi as he spoke with the big man, he nodded. "I'll kill him soon enough," he said humorlessly.

Her eyes widened and she nodded, backing away from the twitching man.

"So he basically confessed when you tortured him?" Zabuza asked Itachi, drawing his attention back to their predicament.

Itachi nodded. His blood raced. Sasuke. "There's a man pretending to be you back at the temple. It sounds like he's the man who defected from the temple a few years ago, and he has help from both inside and outside the temple."

"So I can't go in there," Zabuza said, jerking his head back toward the temple.

"I wouldn't say that," Itachi said as he studied the surrounding area. Neither he nor Zabuza had felt the presence of other ninja, but he knew that superficial inspections were often insufficient. After checking the area again, he turned back to Zabuza, who had closed his eyes to strengthen his sense of sound. Taking a breath, Itachi continued.

"The Uchiha clan has developed a high-level transformation technique that can only be undone by fatal or nearly-fatal injuries. Godaime is already expecting me to bring in a few kids from Haku's clan; it won't make a difference to her if I bring one or two, so I can disguise you as a child from Haku's clan."

Zabuza glared down at the shorter man. "Child? Why not an adult?"

"Godaime asked me to only bring back children," Itachi replied in a stony voice. "It would be best if you were a year or so older than Aka."

He studied Zabuza's face for a moment.

If I do this, I'll be able to see Haku soon. I don't know what could have happened to him while he was forced to stay with a fake master.

That thought made his mind up for him.

A smile graced Aka's pale face. The big man wasn't going to be so big and scary anymore.

"And I'll need to use the same technique on you, Aka," Itachi added. When she gave him a puzzled look, he put his hand over her stomach.

"It will make things easier for you."

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Haku sighed as he relaxed in the public bath tub. Dinner had already begun but he had decided to miss the beginning of dinner so that he could have the chance to bathe in private.

Team Ten would have caused him a great deal of stress if he had not already been preoccupied with thoughts of the Fake. He almost longed for Team Seven's company once again…or, someone else's.

Haku forced himself out of the bath and he changed into a second training uniform before joining the other students in the dining hall. He was surprised to see Itachi walk past him on his way to the Hokage's office with a girl and boy in tow.

The boy glanced at him and he tried to smile politely. The attention was gone as quickly as it had come, and Haku soon forgot about the boy as he prepared himself for more distractions and bickering.

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Itachi opened the door to Tsunade's office without knocking, and she scurried to hide her bottle of sake and a larger-than-usual drinking glass as he ushered his charges into the room. Tsunade glared at him, though she was not able to glare very hard because she was a happy drunk and she was most certainly drunk at the moment so she had to settle for a slightly demented stare over her current guest's shoulder.

Itachi nodded politely to the blonde man sitting in front of the current Hokage's desk. "Good afternoon, Yondaime," he said.

Yondaime nodded back and turned sideways in his chair to smile at the children who had arrived at the temple with Itachi. Without turning back to Tsunade, he asked, "Should I leave? This seems to be some sort of Hokage business."

Tsunade waved him off. "I need you right now…I mean, if I forget words…or my manners…" She shrugged happily. "'s not like you bein' here will compromise anything…"

Itachi cleared his throat and walked briskly up to the temple leader's desk. "I brought the children from the Yukitori clan, as requested," he said, motioning to the boy and girl who had come with him.

The Hokage raised an eyebrow and took her first look at Itachi's companions. The girl was a little short, quite pale, and had shoulder-length brown hair and bangs that brushed across her forehead. The boy looked a little older and was on the tall side, with short, ruffled brown hair, angry black eyes, a hard jaw line and thin, hard eyebrows. "You are…?"

"She would like to know your names," Yondaime said with a smile.

Itachi nodded. "The girl's name is Aka, and the boy is Momoiro."

Momoiro's eye twitched but he said nothing.

Yondaime turned to Tsunade. "You got that?"

She grumbled some sort of profanity about smart-assed old men and nodded. "Send the girl over to Moegi's room…she doesn't have a roommate right now, so, you know, stuff is cool. And as for the boy…heh heh…"

When she looked at Momoiro again, her eyes widened and she coughed to hide her surprise. "Uh…I don't know, I can't think of anything…" Tsunade turned to Yondaime. "You got a spare bed?"

"I have a sofa bed," he offered. Momoiro's eye twitched again.

Tsunade nodded. "It's settled. Itachi, show Aka to Moegi's room…and then show Momoiro to Yondaime's apartment, and take them both to dinner. They'll train with Team Gai starting tomorrow." She sighed. "Then, the three of you, get the hell out of here. It's after seven, and I'm not plastered." She shooed them out of the room from her desk chair and slumped forward onto her desk when the door was closed.

"Tsunade?" Yondaime asked her softly. "Something on your mind?"

She shrugged. The alcohol hadn't hazed her mind enough, it seemed.

As Tsunade began to pull her bottle of sake back out of the third drawer on her desk, Kotetsu threw her door open, causing her to drop the bottle and spill half of its contents. Ignoring this, Kotetsu strode up to her desk and announced, "Urgent news."

"I don't give a f--"

"The dead body of an unidentified ninja with…well…six arms was found outside the temple gates," he said, not quite sure of that middle part himself. "A variety of wire traps, all multi-layer, were found around the gate as well."

She narrowed her eyes as she tried to focus on the Chuunin. "And…?"

He cleared his throat. "No one is claiming the kill. Even ANBU has stated that none of their members killed the man, or knew of his existence."

"Well, ANBU might not tell the truth," she said, now oblivious to Yondaime's presence. "It might have been someone from the village, don't rule that out."

"Or Ne," Kotetsu added. Tsunade scowled.

"Start an investigation," she said after a minute. "Just see if he's not really from around here, or the surrounding villages. Then start up a list of suspects, but…" she paused.

"Ma'am?" Kotetsu asked, waiting for her command.

Tsunade scowled. "No, don't investigate. He's dead already, so…" She paused and took a breath. "Don't investigate yet. Get the body cleaned up if it hasn't been done already, and don't release any information about the death to ANYONE who hasn't heard yet. I cannot stress enough that you CANNOT investigate the death."

Kotetsu stared at her for a moment. "I think I'll come ask you again tomorrow," he said, "when you're…lucid."

"When you're not plastered," Yondaime explained. Kotetsu nodded.

She waved the Chuunin off and he left her office. When the door was shut again, Tsunade rubbed her forehead and looked over the paperwork that had accumulated on her desk.

Yondaime picked up one document. "The library wants new shelves, hm?"

Tsunade shrugged. "Whatever, there are plenty of trees around here, aren't there?" she asked, dropping her pen in one of her desk drawers and shutting the drawer dramatically before leaving her desk chair. "Come on, old guy," she said, motioning for the blonde man to join her. "If I don't get out of here I'm going to jump out of a window."

"And what will your assistant say?" Yondaime asked, not bothering to point out the fact that he was at least ten years younger than Tsunade. She ignored him as a migraine hit her full force.

So the real deal's back. This might speed things up.

What's his plan this time?

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Once he'd come upon an empty hallway, Itachi turned around to address Zabuza and Aka. The former was still holding his tongue on the subject of his name; he didn't want any information to leak out from their group.

Fucker.

Itachi first turned to Aka. "You're going to stay with a girl from Team Gai. She's about your age, though I don't know anything else about her. The temple will provide you with clothing beginning tomorrow."

When he turned to Zabuza, a small smile tugged at the corner of his mouth. Zabuza glared in response.

Fucker.

"You'll stay with the blonde man you just met."

"Fine." It doesn't really matter who he is, just as long as I have a place to go to while I'm pretending to be a kid.

"Naruto lives with him as well." The other corner of Itachi's mouth twitched in an attempt to hide his smile.

"That blonde kid?" Zabuza hissed at him, forced to look upward to meet Itachi's eyes now.

Itachi nodded. "Naruto lives with Yondaime. I take it that you've met him?"

"HEY!"

"Let Haku come over, you weirdo!"

"Hey! BANDAGE FACE!"

The now-teenaged Zabuza narrowed his eyes. "Yeah."

Itachi turned to face them both, his smile well-suppressed. "You'll both train with a team of thirteen-year-olds starting tomorrow, under the eye of Maito Gai."

That name sounds familiar…Zabuza thought.

With a quick look around the hall, Itachi stooped down to Aka's and Zabuza's level and whispered, "You two are supposed to be cousins, presumably, so stick together most of the time. That means that you two need to be together even when you're not with your team, or when there's no real reason for you to be together."

Aka sent a sideways look at the now slightly-less-scary Zabuza, a look that he met with a thin-browed glare. She stared back blankly before turning to Itachi. "You're not going to stay with me?"

"I need to check up on you about once a day for my research," he said, "but I won't be with you all the time anymore. Zabuza will look after you, so be a good girl," Itachi said as he ruffled her hair.

"I will not," Zabuza grumbled under his breath.

Itachi pulled back and stood up. "Now, Momoiro, look after your little cousin Aka. She's younger than you are, and she needs your love and attention."

Zabuza glared back at him.

Fucker.

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When Haku made his way to the dining hall, he ran into Sakura in the hallway. The medical-nin was carrying a large stack of medical records; these all fell to the floor along with said medical-nin.

Haku knelt down and began to straighten out the records with Sakura. "I'm sorry," he said. "I wasn't watching where I was--"

His black eyes found an unusual name on one of the folders and he stared at it for a moment before adding it to the stack of the folders he was holding.

FAKE

"It's okay," Sakura said. "They weren't in order, so you don't have to worry about it. These belong to the kids who visited the auxiliary nurse's office in the academy wing today." She took the stack he'd made and smiled at him warmly before standing up.

"I wasn't watching where I was going anyway," she said, brushing her skirt off as Haku stood. "You know, I just went over there and they made me put in a shift all of a sudden, the slave-drivers…" she laughed a little too brightly and was on her way to the main medical office.

Haku sighed and he resumed his journey to the dining hall.

Recovery had been a little easier this time. No casual observer would have caught the exchange that had taken place.

Haku dusted off his own robes as he entered the dining hall. He saw Itachi walking with Kakashi and Kurenai into the room reserved for teachers, and he also saw Sasuke sitting at a table with Naruto, glancing at his older brother and smiling before turning back to whatever he'd been speaking about with his teammate.

He couldn't help but hope that the person he missed would come back to him soon.

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Zabuza and Aka followed an orange-haired girl named Moegi into the dining hall. Moegi, it seemed, was well-versed in the art of conversation and spoke nonstop about clothing with Aka, who stared at her blankly and nodded whenever there was a pause in the one-sided conversation.

"Well," she said, changing the subject, "the boys on my team aren't very good-looking. Actually, they're two of the ugliest boys who ever set foot in the temple, especially Udon. Konohamaru used to be REALLY bad-looking but he's gotten a little better. He still needs a haircut but at least he bathes more than he used to, and he's not missing teeth anymore, but Udon…ew! It's like he has asthma attacks twenty-four-seven! And neither of them can dress worth--"

"Moegi!"

The orange-haired girl fell silent when her teacher loudly interrupted her rant as he dashed across the dining hall to meet her. Zabuza's eyes narrowed and a vein in his temple throbbed when he recognized the man who was supposedly going to 'train' him for the duration of his second childhood.

"How is your student? Is he burning with Youthful Power?"

"I remember the days when I watched over a team of teenagers burning with Youth!"

"Be off, and enjoy your Burning Youth!"

Gai posed once he was in front of Moegi and his new students. "Oh!" he shouted in excitement. "I see that you have brought your new teammates with you, Moegi!" Gai smiled widely at them, showing them his bright white, square-shaped teeth. He knelt before Aka. "My name is Maito Gai, Youthful Little Girl!"

When Aka said nothing in response, Zabuza died a little inside and decided to speak to Gai. "This is Aka, my cousin," he said, tapping her shoulder. She stared at his hand and he removed it.

Gai smiled at Aka. "It's nice to meet you, Aka! You must be tired from your Journey on the Path of Life! But the Fire Country Air will give you back your Spirit in no time!" He punched Zabuza's shoulder and grinned at him. "What's your name, Youthful Boy?"

Zabuza's eye twitched as he choked out, "Momoiro. Yukitori Momoiro."

His new teacher blinked at him for a moment before laughing hysterically. "Now, that is a VERY Youthful Name! For a Youthful Boy!" Gai stood up and gave them a thumbs-up. "I will eat with the other teachers, but you two should follow Moegi so she can introduce you to your other teammates!" He saluted them and left.

Moegi turned back to Aka and smiled awkwardly. "You'll get used to him, probably," she said.

As Zabuza followed the two girls to a table, he scanned the dining hall for his student and the man Itachi had spoken of, the imposter. He found Haku sitting at a table with a fat kid, a lazy kid, and a blonde girl. His eyes lingered for a moment, longer than they had when he had seen Haku in the hallway, before he pulled his focus back to Moegi.

Haku.

The orange-haired girl sat down with the boy Gai had introduced him to on his first visit to Konoha, a boy with rumpled brown hair. The boy nodded at him in an unimpressed way when Moegi introduced them.

"Hi," he said, leaning back in his chair. "I'm Konohamaru. My granddad used to run this place. And you are…?"

"Yukitori Momoiro," Zabuza said as he sat down across from Konohamaru. He didn't want to talk to kids…any kids.

Konohamaru smirked. "Momoiro?" He paused to let the ridiculousness of Zabuza's name sink in. "Well, Momoiro, me and Udon'll show you the ropes tomorrow." He indicated the boy sitting next to him, who had brown hair cut into a bowl shape and a thick pair of glasses. "I'm one of the top ninja in my year," he added smugly.

Zabuza narrowed his eyes but kept silent. It wouldn't do for him to reveal his true identity, even if he really wanted to put this little kid into his place.

Still silent, Aka let Moegi talk on as she rubbed her now-flat stomach. She still felt the same size she'd been before, and she could still feel the weight of the baby she was carrying, but she couldn't see it and that unnerved her.

"Go get some food," Moegi said to her suddenly. She nodded and tapped Zabuza on the shoulder. He followed her to the serving area.

Zabuza stopped in his tracks when he saw himself walking away from the serving area with Asuma. His eyes narrowed and he scowled before looking away. The imposter walked past him without a glance in his direction, and Zabuza turned around in time to see Haku glance at the imposter.

Haku.

Haku looked away quickly and Zabuza watched him speak with the fat kid again. The imposter disappeared into the teacher's dining room and Zabuza turned to follow Aka, who was regarding him with wide eyes.

"Very lifelike," she said blandly, waiting for a response.

Zabuza nodded.

He'd better keep away from Haku.

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Itachi took the small cup of sake that Tsunade offered him and downed it gracefully. When she tried to refill the cup, he waved his hand in the air to signal, 'no more' and she shrugged before passing the sake bottle around to the teachers who'd come to the private dining room that night.

"My my, Tsunade," Kakashi said as he swirled around the sake in the cup he'd been given. "I thought you usually horded all your alcohol. What's the occasion?"

The Hokage smiled broadly as she sat down, propping her chin up on her left arm. "Well, Shizune asked for the day off, which is a very rare thing indeed," she said, pausing to open a new bottle of sake, "so I thought, what the hell, if she gets a day off then I get a day off, so I got drunk and I'm making a lot of bad decisions right now. Yondaime was watching over me earlier but he went off a while ago…" Tsunade hiccupped.

Kurenai raised her cup in a toast. "To taking advantage of inebriated elders!" she called. The other teachers, Zabuza included, raised their cups.

Kakashi nodded at Tsunade, and she nodded back. He held his cup still in his hands as the room's occupants drank their sake…all but Zabuza, who began to raise his glass and then lowered it to the table.

Gai slammed his cup down to the table. "We must remember, though, that although Tsunade is truly quite old, she is Youthful in Spirit and…appearance."

The room broke out in giggles.

Anko, who had been silent up to that point, grinned at Itachi. "So, prodigy, how was your mission?"

"It was decent enough, I suppose," he answered flatly. "We were able to bring back a significant amount of Yukitori heirlooms as well as two children from the clan."

"That's a laugh!" Tsunade broke in, turning to Anko. "Who'd of thought that Uchiha Itachi, the people-hater, could stand to travel with two kids?"

Itachi bristled under his skin but kept a cool exterior. It would do Godaime good to watch her words while she is drunk. "Those two are the reason that it took so long for me to return to the temple," he admitted. It was true, if only half-true.

"Oh!" Kurenai said, covering her mouth with her hands. "Itachi, could it be that you're…"

"Yes," Kakashi said as Itachi began to frown at his peers. "He really has become the temple's babysitter."

Another round of giggles went around the room, and Itachi sighed as he focused his attention on keeping his eyes away from the fake Zabuza. It would be easy enough to avoid him; as his irresponsible Hokage had pointed it, Itachi did not enjoy the company of other people. The same could be said of the real Zabuza, but as for the fake…

He'd have to watch him out of the corner of his eye.

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Momoiro is Japanese for pink. Itachi would have named Zabuza this for several reasons: 1) Aka means red, and Haku means white, so naming a Yukitori boy after a color kind of makes sense. 2) Red plus white equals pink. 3) One way to annoy a tough guy is to link him to the colors pink or purple…unless he likes those colors. Which Zabuza doesn't.

Another note: I'm leaving it up to the reader to figure out who I'm talking about when I say 'Zabuza' and 'Momoiro'. If the scene is not in Zabuza's POV then he'll be referred to as Momoiro or Zabuza; if it is in his POV then he'll be Zabuza, but everyone will call him Momoiro. And if I say 'Zabuza' but you know that Zabuza is somewhere else, then I'm talking about the Fake.