-1Chapter 11: Taking Nakamuru Home

Haku sat by a stream. His mind restless, running through last nights events.

'I can't take any chances!'

Would he really have killed Nakamuru? Haku stared at the sky. The floating clouds made him fill with peace. He was so close to killing Kakashi last night. Why didn't he finish the job? He didn't hit any vital spots, so why hesitate. Too many questions to answer at the moment.

haku turned to the stream. Resonably large fish swam in it. He casually threw a needle into the water, tagging one of the fish by the tail. The fish struggled and struggled. It was trying to catch up to the rest that were swimming away.

"What makes you struggle for life? What purpose does a fish have in life? All you do is swim. Yet you struggle to keep it. You struggle for a meaningless life. Why?" Haku pulled the needle out and watched as the fish swam down stream. "Why?"

xxxXxXxxx

The sun came in through the window. Nakamuru felt the warmth of it greeting her. She smiled, still asleep. Sakura walked over to the sleeping child. "Nakamuru, time to get up. We have to take you home." Nakamuru slowly opened her eyes. Sakura was on the bed, sitting next to her. She was already dressed. "Here are your clothes. I washed them for you, they had some blood on them. You weren't hurt yesterday, were you?"

Nakamuru looked down at her clean clothes. They sat in front of her. Memories of the night in the woods made her feel sad again. "No, thanks to Kakashi-sen...sei," her voice turned into a shy little whisper. Sakura felt sorry for the girl.

After nakamuru was dressed, she helped brush her hair and tie it back again. "Come on, we'll take you for breakfast. Naruto is waiting for us in the lobby." She picked the girl off the bed and held her hand to the door. Nakamuru smiled at the thought of a real good breakfast.

As Sakura said Naruto was waiting for them. He smiled at Nakamuru and then looked to Sakura. "Sakura-chan, after we take Nakamuru home, we should check up on Kakashi-sensei." Sakura nodded, wondering how her sensei was doing. "Well, Mizuki stopped by just a little while ago, wondering where we went last night. Don't worry I didn't tell her anything. But she did suggest a place for breakfast."

Naruto led the way down the streets and through town. They stopped a small resturant that was on the edge of the village. It smelled delicous. There was only one other person in the resturant. An elderly woman enjoying a cup of tea.

When they sat down a young waitress came over and handed them some menus. Before she could leave everyone had decided on what they wanted. They would get the large breakfast special. That consisted of many breakfast foods. The waitress smiled. It had been a while since a large group of people came in for breakfast.

In fortyfive minutes, the table was covered in all kinds of delcious foods. There were enough dorayaki to feed an army. They had umeboshi, tamago, tsukemono, hijiki, misoshiru, and monaka. They ate all of this. Sakura had to promise Nakamuru some taiyaki later, if she would eat some of the hijiki. Nakamuru relutantly swallowed the fresh seawood. Naruto didn't care what he ate. All he had yesterday were the bowls of ramen and the snacks at the fireworks. His half of the table was clean by the time Sakura and Nakamuru had only eaten two dishes.

When everyone was satisfied, they payed the fee; Sakura and Naruto splitting it of course. And started off down the road.

Neither Naruto or Sakura, realized how far away from town Nakamuru's house was. From the top of the hill you could just make out the induvidual houses.

It had been an hour since they left the resturant. Now they were at the very top of the hill. A small house sat in the middle of a field of flowers. There were four windows. Two in the front, and one on each side. In the front there was a door. On the side laid an extention and a garden. Next to the garden was a fence full of four chickens.

They were on the walkway from the road when the front door slid open. A young woman stood in the door way. She smiled and ran towards Nakamuru. "Nakamuru! You're alright!" She picked up the young girl and swung her around in joy. "After you went after Haku last night... I was so worried! Next time come home right away." Her eyes were tired. Sakura guessed that she was up all night worrying about Nakamuru.

Nakamuru hugged her sister. "Oh, Yuzuki, I was scared when I followed Haku into the woods. My new friends helped me though. We slept in comfortable beds, that were off the floor! Then we had a large breakfast. I had to eat hijiki!" the ten year old seemed more happy than anything else. Now that she was back home she could tell her sister everything. Yuzuki looked up at Sakura and Naruto.

"Thank you, thank you for watching over Nakamuru. Please come in. The walk must have been tiredsome. Have some tea." Sakura and Naruto both said 'arigato' and walked in behind the jumping Nakamuru. When they were all seated at the small table, Yuzuki brought some tea over. Everyone relaxed.

Nakamuru wouldn't, couldn't, stop fidgeting. She had so much to tell her sister. But she wanted to be polite and wait for her to ask. Finally she did. "So, Nakamuru, what did you do last night?"

She smiled and took a deep breath. Yuzuki prepared to listen to her ramble, "WELLLL, first I followed Haku into the woods. There he was standing with this really cool guy in black with silver hair. He had a mask on. Then Haku ran towards him and they started jumping all over the place. Throwing needles and stuff like that, then Haku threw his stuff into the bushes and a puff of smoke appeared, and then they started jumping and running again, but then the cool dude grabbed his wrist and this blue lighting stuff appeared..."

Nakamuru rambling in the background. 'Wow, this is off of one breath! How much did she see exactly?' , 'Even I couldn't talk this much! What's this girl running on? How can she talk so much? What are her lungs super sized?' Sakura and Naruto thought.

"It was right in front of me, scary yeah?- and then Haku did something with his hands and these mirrors surrounded me and the guy in black, then all of a sudden he pushed me down and covered me as these needles shot from the mirrors. I was real scared and all. After he tried to Haku to let me go, that's when Naruto and Sakura-san showed up." Nakamuru finally took a breather. She was smiling, hoping that she had gotten everything in. Yuzuki looked at her sister stunned. She was worried even more now about her.

"What were you thinking? Putting yourself in danger like that."

"But Haku was in trouble!"

"I don't care! Next time you leave it to the people fighting. Are you hurt?"

"No! Kakashi-sensei saved me."

"Who?"

Nakamuru sighed. "The shinobi that was fighting Haku. Sakura and Naruto are shinobi as well."

Yuzuki gasped. She stared at the two genins sitting at her table. "Nakamuru! We don't just make friends with shinobi! But since they brought you home safely, I guess they're ok," she turned to them, "If you don't mind, please leave. I have to talk with my sister." Sakura and Naruto stood up. Nakamuru looked at her sister. Her eyes starting to water. "What?"

"You never let me have friends! Haku was a shinobi but you didn't kick him out!"

"Haku almost killed you!"

"Because he was confused!"

"No, because he's a ninja! He doesn't care if you get hurt, as long as he killed his target!" Yuzuki stood up and went over to the door. She opened it. Sakura and Naruto could only thank her, and leave. They hoped Nakamuru wouldn't get hurt. "Don't come back!" she slammed the door in their faces. Then they heard Nakamuru screaming at her sister about how rude she was being. Yuzuki calmly talked to her.

"I feel so helpless. But we can't interfere." Sakura put her head down and started walking to the road. Naruto paused for a minute. Wondering what was going on. Then he followed Sakura. "You wonder why her mood changed so quickly?" Sakura asked him.

"Yeah, maybe something happened to them because of shinobi," he turned to Sakura to see if she knew anything.

"Nakamuru did say something about it being 'only' her and her sister." They slowly walked in silence away from the little house in the field.

xxxX(Nakamuru's house)Xxxx

"Why! Why can't we just forget about that? Naruto and Sakura didn't kill brother. Those bad ninja did!" Nakamuru stomped her foot and stood in front of her sister.

"You want us to forget brother? Is that what you want!"

"NO! Forget about the bad shinobi! Please Yuzuki, let me be friends with Sakura-san, and Naruto-kun." Nakamuru wiped the dribble that was under her nose. Tears streamed down her face. "They, they aren't bad people." She flopped down on the floor. Her sleeve was covered in snot and dried tears.

Yuzuki felt sorry for Nakamuru. She sat next to her on the floor, wrapping her arms around her. "Listen, maybe your not old enough to understand, but all shinobi are the same. They may not act the same, but they are. All of them kill for a living. Every shinobi you meet has at least killed one person."

Nakamuru looked into her sister's eyes. "But they kill bad people. Just bad people." Nakamuru leaned into Yuzuki's lap. Her eyes still sending tears down her cheeks. Yuzuki didn't want to argue any more. She let the subject go. Holding her sister, she let the night the silence continue.

xxxXxXxxx

After what had happened at Nakamuru's house they were in gloomy spirits. Both of them sighed as they entered town. Sakura popped her head up. "We still have to see how Kakashi-sensei is doing!"

Naruto looked at her and then thought about it, "You're right. Well let's go then. If they say he's not fully healed, that means we get to spend another night in the hotel. I want some ramen first. We didn't get any thing to eat back there." Naruto's stomach growled in agreement. Sakura sighed. "Don't worry I'll buy you some as well." Naruto smiled at her. She couldn't help but accept his offer.

Naruto sat at the stand slurping down his noodles. He had bought sakura some rice cakes. They sat eating away in silence. Then Naruto broke the silence, "I guess you can call this a date?"

"Hmm, I guess, if you want to think of it that way," she said while stretching. Naruto had finished his third bowl. Sakura was done with her cakes. "Do you think we should bring something for Kakashi-sensei to eat?"

"He must be hungry, yeah."

"Okay, I'll buy it since you bought me some food," Sakura smiled and ordered two rice balls. After Naruto cleaned his fourth bowl, they started down the streets. But walking was boring them, so they jumped onto the roofs and started darting to the hospital.

When they got ther is was nearing noon. The streets had filled up with people. The sun felt warm and good against their backs. They reached the hospital.

The hospital almost blined them as the sun reflected off its white surface. When they got inside it was dull and cool. Only three or four people were in the lobby. Nurses dressed in white raced up and down the hallways. Holding clipboards and running in and out of rooms. Naruto thought it felt a bit eery in the hospital. Sakura got the chills. Something wasn't right.

The nurse at the desk was talking on the phone. But she was whispering, "Ok, stop it, they're here." She turned to them and smiled. "Hi, how can I help you?"

"We're here to check up on Hatake Kakashi, we brought him in last night." Sakura said. The nurse just kept smiling, which was getting creepy.

"I'm sorry, he's not ready for discharge yet." Right after she said that a scream came down the hallway. The nurse picked up the phone again, her voice angry this time. "I said to stop it!"

xxxxxXxXxXxxxxx

I hope you like this chapter. More coming soon. Definitions for food below:

1. umeboshi-red pickles

2.tamago- rice with butter

3.tsukemono-rice with pickle sauce

4.hijiki- a fresh seaweed, good for your health

4.misoshiru- soup

5.dorayaki-a pancake like sweet with bean paste for filling

6.taiyaki-fish shaped cake w/ one of the following fillings: custard, cheese, chocolate, or bean paste

7.monaka- azuki bean filling inbetween two thin crisp waffers

Read on...