This is a fan continuation of A Bride of ice and steel by Storylover Vodhr. Please go to his account page for the beginning of this story. If you are reading this Storylover Vodhr then I hope you are okay with my continuation. If you aren't please PM me.
The boy was clearly nervous; she could hear him clumsily cleaning around the house over the sounds of the rushing water. Her new master was clearly the fussy type, she would show him how much she appreciated that. The bathroom was clearly owned and used by a twelve-year-old boy. The fourteen-year-old girl still had seen worse with how Zabuza cleaned himself, if he did it at all.
When she emerged from the showers she took the towel Naruto gave her beforehand, which seemed to be his cleanest one. Her master was waiting outside with his hands over his eyes while he faced the wall; Haku found herself thankful her husband was this cute. There were a pair of green pajama pants with frog prints on them along with an orange t-shirt lying on the bed.
"S-so I realized you don't have any clothes." That was true, after her capture she was dragged right back to the village with the leaf-nin with no time to retrieve what meager belongings she might have had. The pajama pants were stretchy but still pulled at her ankles while the shirt rested above her midriff.
"I'll take you clothes shopping tomorrow. I know girls like that."
Haku giggled and Naruto blushed tomato red.
"Master, not all us girls like the same things. My life as an orphan and then a missing-nin made me frugal as a matter of course. Please don't think you need to buy me that much."
"You're my wife," Naruto said with some effort. "You are also a better ninja than me too. You deserve the best I can offer you." Naruto frowned after some thought. He took his hands off his eyes slowly and faced her once realizing she was dressed.
"Don't call me your master." Naruto possessed a cross between an almost dead-pan and concerned expression.
"I owe you my life. The only reason I breathe is because you refused to let me lie with my previous wielder" Haku noted his agitated expression and feared she angered him. Did he dislike Zabuza?
"I saved you because I didn't want you to die and neither did Zabuza!" The boy was indignant. Haku would have smiled at his childish tantrum if he wasn't her new master, and he didn't brutally beat her before.
"Why?" She tilted her at him from her position on his bed.
"What?" Naruto looked more baffled than questioning.
"Why did you save me, Uzumaki Naruto? Why did you refuse to let me follow my previous master to his grave? You seemed to believe my death would be a great injustice, but rest assured I would deserve it. You do realize I was going to kill that old architect for Gato?"
Naruto flinched at that statement. Haku wondered if she should have stayed mum but realized her master deserved her complete honesty. If she gave him the necessary enlightenment to realize she was a burden to him then she could proudly say she served him faithfully. Haku had wondered if she had any right to live while Zabuza lay dead.
"I can't even offer you any dowry or political capital. You are less likely to achieve your dream of being Hokage since you will be judged for having a foreigner, a missing-nin no less, as a wife. My ancestral clan, the Yuki, were typically the Bloody Mist's elite nin. They killed many leaf-nin in the previous Shinobi wars, some of the older generation might remember the feared clan of demonic ice-users and shun you for sheltering me."
"They already do that," Naruto muttered with a bitter smirk. Haku subtly raised an eyebrow.
"You were in high enough favor with the Hokage to be granted the rights to me," Haku pointed out to him.
"Yeah," the boy muttered looking at the floor in a daze. He said nothing for several moments before looking up at her.
"I'm the Jinchuriki of the Kyuubi."
This boy kept reviving parts of her she thought numb and dead. Haku was nearly as surprised by herself as Naruto when she leapt from his bed and gasped wide-eyed. The look of pain and betrayal nearly broke her heart all over again.
"Please forgive me, master." She reached a hand out to him. Naruto sighed.
"For the last time don't call me master. I'm not your owner and I don't want to be."
"Forgive me, husband." Haku considered her words. "Zabuza and I were already familiar with another Jinchuriki." Zabuza far more than her even though she felt the effects of his actions far deeper. "I just recalled him when you said that."
"What do you mean you know another Jinchuriki?" He eyed her curiously.
"What do you know of the current history and political climate of Kirigakure?"
"I never paid attention in class," Naruto sheepishly confessed. Despite herself, Haku almost chuckled again.
"The current Mizukage is Yagura Karatachi. He is the Jinchuriki of the Sanbi," Haku let her words wash over her husband. This clearly piqued his interest.
"He was a brilliant shinobi and his tailed beast gave him great power. He rose through the ranks and achieved the rank of Jonin before he was even twenty. Many said he possessed a studious mind and a good heart." Zabuza always seemed strangely sad whenever he spoke of Karatachi. Almost as if he was disappointed. Haku came out of her reverie to Naruto's wide eyes.
"He achieved the rank of Mizukage with great expectations. Many believed he would do great things; he was the first Jinchuriki to ever attain the seat of Kage rather than be used as a mindless weapon by his village. Yagura Karatachi initially was an able ruler. He was very respectful and formal, many previous Mizukages ran the village with sheer brute power and fear." Naruto was deathly still, which ran contrary to his hyperactive nature. He clearly hung off every word she said as another Jinchuriki who aimed to be a Kage one day. She couldn't bring herself to continue speaking.
"What went wrong?" Naruto inevitably asked.
"He went crazy."
Naruto looked at her expecting her to continue again.
"Some say his seal malfunctioned and demonic chakra drove him mad. Others say he was hiding his true nature all along. For whatever reason, one day he began to see knives in every shadow. Suddenly everything and everyone was a threat unless proven otherwise. Some clans, including mine, chafed under this yolk and called Karatachi a tyrant."
"So he wiped them out." Naruto's voice was little more than a whisper.
"And labeled anyone who aided or abetted them a traitor," Haku finished for him.
She frowned. That day when she activated her Kekkei Genkai horrified her mother enough to strike her. She thought it was fear of her father lynching them but her travels with Zabuza showed her the truth. Her mother wasn't afraid of her father. Her father wasn't bigoted towards his wife and daughter for their genetics. Everything was driven by fear of the demonic Kage Karatachi coming down and slaughtering everything and everyone if he'd heard any Yuki survived. She shook the memory away with practiced ease
"Officially the Yondaime Mizukage still runs the Bloody Mist."
"Unofficially?"
"Kirigakure is in a state of civil war as the Mizukage battles the rebel army. After multiple uprising and failed assassinations, which included my late master's attempt, many Mist Nin have defected from the mad Mizukage. Most of the Seven Swordsmen of the Mist defected. Particularly, Kisame Hoshigaki."
"Whose that?"
"Arguably one of the strongest if not the strongest shinobi of the Bloody Mist. He was so feared even the Mizukage was wary of him. He was known as the Monster of Kiri." She gave a sardonic smile. She could tell from his stories of him that he was one of the few people on the planet Zabuza legitimately feared. She doubted any of the fellow Swordsmen of the Mist didn't fear that man.
"I thought you called everyone a demon down in Kiri?"
"No he was a monster," Haku darkly laughed. She knew if they ever ran across him then Zabuza would have considered running.
Naruto looked perturbed to see his usually stoic wife make such a quip. He hesitated before asking a question.
"Why didn't you and Zabuza join this rebel army if you hated the Mizukage?"
"Sharing an enemy doesn't make two friends." Haku expected the boy's confused reaction.
"My Master wanted to be crowned Mizukage himself. The de facto commander of the rebel army is Mei Terumi. Had he joined he would have had to give her his sword and pledge his support."
"Oh," the boy muttered in acknowledgement. Haku decided to return to the heart of the matter before the boy could get lost even further.
"Why did you save me? I'm not the pure soul you think I am?"
The boy looked frustrated to hear that. HE had taken off his jacket and wore only his blue shirt. The sight of the blonde boy choked with emotions in dim light that only his golden hair managed to catch made for a pretty portrait.
"Neither is Kakashi-sensei or the old man." Naruto responded petulantly. "How often did you take jobs like that?"
Haku gave his question consideration. Zabuza did have a code of conduct he tried to keep to even if he denied it on his pride as a mist-nin. Morally black missions like the ones he met his ultimate fate were a rarity and Zabuza only went along with iit due to how much money Gato was paying. She communicated as much to Naruto who looked slightly relieved to hear it.
"I won't lie, it sounds like you've done bad things." That was one way of putting it. "But you never had a choice in it. Zabuza was the only person you had left after your parents died. You didn't choose that lifestyle."
Haku often wondered what she would have done if her parents never died. Had her father never seen her use her kekkei genkai she likely would have continued being raised as a normal girl. She loved to knit and sew with her mother. She would have continued to do so as she grew older and taller until a nice village boy decided to court her. She would have moved into his house and had her own children with him and settled down. The thought had summoned a tear before she had met Zabuza.
"I still did those things."
"As a tool," Naruto insisted. "You were raised as a tool. I want to give you a chance to be a person. Zabuza would have wanted it too."
Haku was touched by the gesture, but she doubted Zabuza would have particularly wanted that. He likely wished her well since he would have no more use for her, but that was all. Being a person also meant going back to being a devastated orphan girl who had to pretend to be a boy to avoid slavers. She wasn't sure if that was something she was ever prepared to face again.
"I'm going to help you! As a friend!" Naruto's fiery temper was boiling again. "You're too pretty to be my wife anyway." He looked away with a warm face.
Haku smiled and approached him. She could feel electricity running through him when she placed a finger on his lips.
"I think you're too cute to be my husband." Haku gave her husband the smile her mother might have once given her.
"I'll sleep on the couch tonight." Naruto mumbled still red.
"It's your bed and there's more than enough space for both of us." The bed was a Full size. "I was counting on you to keep me warm, dear."
Haku blushed happily and Naruto nearly fainted. Her husband didn't say another word as mechanically drudged to the door. She thought that would be the end to the most unexpected wedding night in history.
"Haku," Naruto stopped at the door. He turned his head to face her meekly.
"Do you think I'm going to end up like the Mizukage?" He awaited her response pitifully.
"You're the one who decides that."
Naruto considered her words before exiting.