Kakashi returned to his students after a long day of watching Tazuna and his workers on the bridge only to find a scene of total chaos. Sakura and Hinata were diligently pumping chakra into their leaves on one side of the clearing, on the other side of the clearing Chizuru was doing the same, or rather, fifty Chizuru's were doing the same, while fifty more practiced taijutsu, and another ten were reading up on fuinjutsu theory. Kakashi looked in awe at the scene, before he composed himself a moment later, and cleared his throat.
"Yo." He called lazily.
"Welcome back Kakashi-sensei!" Chizuru shouted from somewhere within the horde of bunshin.
"How have you all been progressing?" He asked.
"Horribly sensei..." Chizuru muttered once she found her way to Kakashi.
"I think I almost have it down sensei!" Sakura called out while pumping her chakra into her leaf with renewed vigor.
"Um... I don't think I quite get it but... I might be making progress..." Hinata mumbled.
"Maa I don't think you all need to worry too much about it, this exercise is difficult as is, let alone for newly minted genin." He reassured.
"But Kakashi-sensei! How else are we gonna be able to help you against the Kiri-nin?" Chizuru whined.
"If I get my way, you won't need to help me with Zabuza, but instead the three of you can fight the hunter-nin together." Kakashi said.
"But-" Chizuru began.
"No buts. Are we understood?" Kakashi clarified.
"Yes sensei." His three students drawled out.
"Good, now I heard from Tazuna that Tsunami's cooking is amazing, and that tonight is no exception, so I'd recommend heading straight there to wash up and eat." Kakashi sidetracked.
"Yes sensei!" His students called as they began to rush away, he stopped Chizuru as she tried to run past him by grabbing her by the shoulder.
"Chizuru I want you to stay back for a moment." Kakashi said.
"But... Fine." Chizuru began to protest, but realized that if she just stayed quiet she'd sooner be eating.
"Good. Now Can you please tell me what's up with the bunshin?" Kakashi asked.
"Huh? Oh they're helping me train!" Chizuru exclaimed.
"Really? How so?" Kakashi asked.
"You don't know sensei? They send their memories to me when I dispel them, and if I train with them I can learn everything way way way faster!" Chizuru shouted excitedly.
"Huh. I never would have used such a method, but then again, seeing as how you have a nearly unlimited supply of chakra, it is, well, as you would put it, 'way way way' more efficient." Kakashi joked.
"Oi!" Chizuru exclaimed.
"How about dispelling them and us heading back to Tazuna's?" Kakashi asked while pointing his thumb behind him at the bunshin horde.
"Uh... Well you see... I think I've been training with them for too long, and with as many as there are, I was just gonna wait until I was about to sleep..." Chizuru muttered.
"Why's that?" Kakashi asked.
"Well... If I dispel them now, I will get anything from a massive headache, to just passing out from the amount of memories I will be taking in..." Chizuru explained hesitantly.
"Really?" Kakashi questioned, then put on a 'thinking face'. "Hmm, well, how about you dispel them in groups of, I don't know, ten?"
Chizuru took on her own thinking face, she tilted her head, and scrunched up her nose as if deep in thought, then, suddenly, her eyes brightened, her head straightened, and a massive smile plastered itself on her face.
"You're a genius sensei!" She called out, then turned to her bunshin. "Oi! New orders! Everyone stop what you're doing and get together in groups of ten!"
Kakashi washed in barely hid amusement as the bunshin scrambled together and formed their separate groups, as Chizuru walked between them and ordered more specific ones to move places. When it was all said and done, Chizuru walked back up to Kakashi.
"Alright! Every group should line up one in front of the other and when I give the order, the first group in front of me will dispel! Then once that group is dispelled, the group behind them will count to twenty before dispelling, and the group behind them will do the same once they dispel and-" Chizuru cut herself off, "I mean, you get the picture right?" She asked.
"Right!" The now 'organized' horde called out in unison.
"Good! Now group one! GO!" She shouted.
The bunshin began dispelling, while Kakashi and Chizuru began to make their way back to Tazuna's however, conversation didn't pick up again until the last group of Chizuru-bunshin dispelled, and by then they were almost there.
"Well the bunshin are done." Chizuru absently stated.
"Well, what did you get done with today?" Kakashi asked.
"Nothing much... My fuinjutsu training is stalling because we're entering a 'theory-heavy segment' and my taijutsu has stalled since I don't have a style of my own, but rather a style I made to counter Hinata's juken... And the leaf exercise... Well, I don't even want to tell you how slow that progress is going..." She explained.
"Hmm... It sounds to me like you need an actual teacher with you now... I can't help you with fuinjutsu, as you've gone further than I have in those studies... Taijutsu would have to wait until I get a little better... And someone else can teach you more... But, hey, tell me what you've tried doing with the leaf exercise so far?" Kakashi asked.
"Huh? Oh, well I've tried to use my chakra to cut the leaf. Both ways I've tried. Hell half of my bunshin were working on one way, and the other were working on the other... Why?" Chizuru asked.
"Well, do you feel as though doing it that way has helped, or?" Kakashi half explained.
"No, but... Wait. If I don't do it either of those ways then... What way is there to do it?" Chizuru asked.
"I'm not sure, I've never really been a futon ninjutsu type. But I think this might help." Kakashi began, "When I first began training my lightning affinity I couldn't really wrap my head around how exactly I was supposed to crumple paper with chakra, but then I was hit with inspiration when I watched my sensei crumple up some of his notes for a book he was writing. I thought, 'huh, if I could do that with my chakra, enclose around the center of the leaf with it, and not just focus on the leaf itself crumpling but instead the action, then maybe, just maybe, I can do it'." Kakashi explained, then watched as his student's face lit up.
"Kakashi-sensei! You're so smart! I've got it now!" Chizuru called out, then grabbed a leaf off of the nearest tree to her.
"Think about it sensei, when you tear paper, what do you have to do?" Chizuru asked, a smug smile on her face.
"Well, you would have to grab two sides, then move one one way, and the other the other way. Now let me guess, you're going to attempt to do that with chakra?" Kakashi asked.
"In a way yes, but to do it the traditional way would actually be harder than what I was thinking, to do it that way I would need to pump my chakra in more than one direction, and at fine points, but I don't think that that would be efficient in training my wind affinity, instead I think it would be better to do what I was originally doing, but this time, both ways, at the same time!" Chizuru finished.
"Do you think it would work?" Kakashi asked.
"Well, only one way to find out!" Chizuru shouted, then pumped her chakra into the leaf while focusing with all her might on rubbing the two flows against one another.
She stood there focusing on her leaf, and flowing constant chakra for about thirty seconds when finally, a small tear formed on the top part of the leaf.
"Yatta!" Chizuru exclaimed, "Sensei! Look! Look! I did it!"
"Good job." Kakashi congratulated while patting Chizuru's head, "I'm very proud of you."
"Thank you sensei!" Chizuru called out.
The next day, Kakashi again set out to watch Tazuna while his students trained. The three were once again in the clearing that they claimed yesterday, and were setting about to doing their daily stretches, and getting to their exercises, when Chizuru decided to intervene.
"Hey guys!" Chizuru called out.
"What is it?" Sakura asked, while Hinata gave her full attention.
"I learned something on my way back to Tazuna's from Kakashi." She then pulled a leaf out of her pocket and focused her chakra into it the same way as she did the day before, and the two other girls watched as the leaf got a tiny tear in it.
"Woah!" Sakura exclaimed.
"How did you do that Chizuru-chan?" Hinata asked.
"Wait, before I tell you how I did it, let me tell you how I came up with it." Chizuru began, "To come up with this I had to think, 'well, how do things normally tear', to which I remembered that to rip a piece of paper you have to move both parts away from one another, so I took that concept and modified it. Now I just run two separate channels of chakra against one another in order get the same 'rip effect'." She explained.
"So like... You're saying a good way to learn this exercise is to take from real world examples of what the intended result is, and apply that to chakra?" Sakura asked.
"Well yeah, but not as fancily as you put it..." Chizuru muttered.
"Well then I can't wait to get started on that today!" Sakura exclaimed.
"Hell yeah!" Chizuru shouted, then poofed a couple hundred bunshin into existence.
"Uh guys?" Hinata asked, getting the others attention. "What about stretches and exercising?"
"Oh right." Chizuru said.
The three girls set off to complete their morning exercises while the Chizuru-bunshin went about and got into their training groups ninety on taijutsu, ninety on the leaf exercise, ten on further calligraphy training, and ten working on fuinjutsu theory. Chizuru finished her exercises first, and moved onto fighting with her bunshin, she would improve her taijutsu by herself if she could, and the first step to improvement is finding out what you did wrong, at least, that's what the yondaime wrote a lot about in the books. Hinata and Sakura finished their morning routines at around the same time, and quickly got into their leaf exercises. Sakura took what Chizuru said to heart, and began to think of ways to get her leaf to crumble, she seemingly came to her conclusion when she set about to pumping chakra into the leaf again. Meanwhile, Hinata was doing just the same, but she had the ace of a byakugan to watch her leaf as she furthered her progress. After a couple of hours, a Chizuru-bunshin popped itself out of existence and soon after the sound of roughly ninety leafs being torn could be heard.
"Yatta!" Chizuru called out, then turned to her leaf exercise bunshin, "Alright! Remember how we dispelled yesterday? You all get to doing that while I create replacements!"
With a poof, another ninety bunshin burst into the clearing, and set off to complete the leaf exercise the way Chizuru mentally ordered it to be done. She turned back to her taijutsu partners and got back into her stance, before once more flying at them. Sakura watched in shock at the bunshin swarm repeatedly tearing leaves, quicker and quicker, it seemed, as each group of ten dispersed. Inspired by the almost mesmerizing scene, Sakura doubled down her efforts and continued pumping chakra that felt stiff into the leaf, while, at the same time, pumping out chakra that felt flowy. Sakura watched as the edges of her leaf started browning, before they fell of the leaf and turned to dust. Excited by the development, Sakura continued what she was trying until the entire leaf was gone, before she grabbed another. Hinata, who was struggling a bit more with the concept of soaking a leaf, eventually found out that the chakra she should pump the leaf full of should be fluid in nature, not stiff in any way. She was the last of the three to complete the exercise, and dampen her whole leaf, but she felt proud nonetheless. The three continued for another couple of hours, with a break in the middle for some lunch that they caught themselves, before doubling down their efforts. When Kakashi returned at dinnertime, the three were more beat than they were the day before, but they were nonetheless happy to see him.
"Kakashi-sensei!" Chizuru greeted excitedly.
"Yo." He called back.
"Kakashi-sensei, we all completed the leaf exercise!" Sakura excited, but tiredly, called to him as the three approached.
"Really now?" Kakashi said with genuine curiosity.
"You betcha sensei!" Chizuru said happily, "It's all because of your lesson to me yesterday that I was able to push them towards finding their own answer to their exercise!"
"Good job Chizuru." Kakashi said proudly.
"Ne Kakashi-sensei, what's our next lesson?" Chizuru asked excitedly.
"Well before we get to any more lessons, we should head back to Tazuna's for dinner, but I guess I'll tell you what's on tomorrow's agenda." He paused for a moment to make sure they were all listening, then began again, "Tomorrow you three be learning a jutsu each."
The three girls' eyes widened at the prospect of learning what Chizuru would have called a 'super awesome powerful new jutsu', and they all three seemed to smile brighter as they thought more on it.
"Ne Kakashi-sensei?" Chizuru broke the excited silence, "What jutsu will we learn huh huh?"
"Well, my cute little students, you'll all be learning something different from one another, but I guess I'll tell you what they are. Chizuru, you'll be learning a move I copied off a Suna-nin I fought with in the third war, it's called Futon: Daitoppa. It's an offensive jutsu that can really help out against say, I don't know, a certain Kirigakure no Jutsu?" Kakashi explained, then turned toward Hinata.
"Hinata, you'll be learning the Suiton: Suidan no Jutsu, another offensive attack, I learned this one in the third war as well, but not from an allied shinobi, but instead, an enemy-nin, well an enemy Kiri-nin to be precise." He explained, then turned to Sakura. "Sakura, you'll be learning a technique I think will be beneficial for all of us, the Doton: Doryuheki, this is a defensive jutsu which will allow for us, or more specifically, you, to hide in case a jutsu or senbon comes flying your way."
"Those all sound so cool!" Chizuru exclaimed excitedly.
"Maa I guess they do. But anyways, dispel your bunshin Chizuru, we're heading for Tazuna's now." Kakashi ordered, to which Chizuru poofed a bunshin into existence and dispelled it, not feeling the will to shout at all of her bunshin this time, and the group set off when the first ten dispelled themselves.
The next day Kakashi sent a kage bunshin in his stead to protect Tazuna on the bridge, and set out to teaching his students their respective techniques. They finished their daily routines, including Kakashi, who did a 'more-strenuous-than-Chizuru's' recovery routine, which he finished before everyone else finished theirs, they then gathered in a circle around the center of the clearing, and Kakashi got to work showcasing each technique.
"Now, Chizuru, watch closely as I preform the hand seals for this jutsu." He ordered, then slowly crawled through the hand seals, before he finished, and released a massive gust of wind at a nearby tree, which toppled the tree over.
"Woah! Alright sensei, I won't let you down!" She shouted before creating ten bunshin to help her memorize the hand seals quicker.
"Now, Hinata, activate your byakugan and watch closely what I do." He watched her byakugan flare up, and slowly went through the hand seals before taking a deep breath in and releasing it with a large blast of water at another nearby tree, which effectively pierced a hole all the way through it.
"I will do my best sensei." Hinata said, before she too began to work on memorizing the hand seals.
"Sakura, your turn." He said while turning to her. "Watch closely."
He again slowly went through the hand seals for the respective jutsu, before slamming his hands on the ground and raising a wall of earth in between them and the forest. He watched as Sakura nodded silently, before she too slid into memorizing the hand seals. He began to travel around the group as they practiced, and was not surprised when Chizuru popped her ten bunshin, and replaced them with one hundred others, all of which were spread into teams of ten and sent into the forest to practice their daitoppas. She began to approach Kakashi seemingly buzzing with energy, to which he acted like he was paying attention to his other students, which he was, he noticed Sakura and Hinata finalizing their studying of the hand seals given to them, and felt proud that his students were taking this whole situation seriously. When he turned to Chizuru again she was standing in front of him with a bright smile on her face.
"What is it Chizuru?" He asked.
"Can you help me with my taijutsu training today sensei?" She asked hopefully.
"Sure Chizuru, I can help you with that. Let's head that way a bit so we can spar." Kakashi said, while pointing to the other end of the clearing.
"Yes sensei." Chizuru chirped, then walked with him to the area he pointed to.
"Alright Chizuru, get into your stance." He ordered.
He watched her ready herself, and took in her stance in full detail for the first time. She stood in what seemed to be a modified academy stance, lighter on her feet than what the academy taught, she even seemed to bounce slightly with her heels lifting off the ground ever so slightly occasionally. He took note of all that, and looked back to her face as he got into his own stance, he watched her eyes harden, but flow from side to side, as well as up and down, scanning the area in front of her.
"We will begin the spar now, just know, I will attempt to get a solid idea of your fighting style, so come at me with all you've got." Kakashi explained.
Kakashi rushed in toward Chizuru, and watched as she dodged a strike he swung toward her center mass, he made sure to watch her foot placement during the dodge and noticed they had smoothly fallen into another sturdy placement, before he swung out again, this time hoping to feint and catch her with a kick. She dodged the initial attack, and when the kick came in, she surprised Kakashi by ducking under it and slamming her fist into the lower half of his leg. He would have been thrown off balance if he wasn't a jonin, but he caught himself and leapt away from Chizuru. Suddenly she was on the attack, she threw herself toward him, landed on one foot just in front of him, before pivoting to the side, and bringing a kick toward his side. He dodged, and watched as she caught herself, and flew at him again, this time going for an uppercut. He dodged again, but found himself stunned when she smoothly flowed from the uppercut into giving him an elbow to the chest. He leapt away from her, and called the spar when he saw her approaching for another bout.
"That's enough for now Chizuru, I think I understand what your style is and how to improve it, the only problem is, is that I'm not the right jonin for the job." He finished sheepishly.
"What? There's no way a ninja as awesome as you can't do that." Chizuru complained.
"Maa I hate to say it, but what I said is true, I can up your routine for the next few days, get you into pristine shape, but other than that, the only person I know who can help you with your taijutsu is back in Konoha." Kakashi said.
"Aw... That sucks... Well, at least I can get to more physical training if you have a new routine for me." Chizuru said.
"Good, oh, and by the way, your new routine is triple what your old routine is." Kakashi said with an eye smile.
"What!? There's no way that's the new routine! You have to be joking!" Chizuru shouted.
"I'm not joking, now get to it, or the routine will include dodging kunai tomorrow." Kakashi announced.
"What!? That can't be legal!" Chizuru exclaimed.
"It is, you're my soldier, and I get to train you however I wish, now, get to it." Kakashi said evilly.
"Fine..." She drawled out.
Kakashi watched as she began to fall into the new exercises and sighed mentally, She's going to hate me for this for a while, but it's worth it if she's going to have to train with him. Kakashi shuddered as an image of green spandex floated into his mind, and then dread set over him as he thought of his student wearing such an awful outfit. If he ever, EVER gets the idea to give her one of those abominations he calls clothing, I will neuter him. Kakashi thought darkly.
He turned to his other students and saw them progressing with their studies, what with Hinata actually achieving a small stream, albeit weak, stream of water, and Sakura slamming her hands on the ground and getting a small mound to rise up a bit away from her. He looked out into the woods to see if he could find any of the Chizuru-bunshin to see how they were progressing, and he sweat dropped at the sound of a tree collapsing in the distance. Right... He thought. She would have enough chakra to make any jutsu as powerful as I show her right off the bat... Wouldn't she... He sighed and made to following his own exercise routine.
Chizuru woke up early the next morning with a headache and sore muscles, however, that was the least of her worries, she woke up in what seemed to be a torn up clearing, and not the room she was staying in at Tazuna's. Suddenly however, the night's memories came back to her, and her nose wrinkled in anger as she thought about what Inari said about all of her teammates dying, and about how she didn't know suffering. She may have let her anger flare too much, but she still felt as though he deserved the yelling at she gave him. She sat up from where she slept and looked around the clearing she had gone to to 'blow off steam' and felt herself sweat drop at the state it was in. There were trees torn up and toppled over going out in every direction, while the ground was torn up because of the spar she had with a couple hundred of her her bunshin. Chizuru was drained, she sat against the roots of a tree she toppled the night before, and just stared off into the distance.
Her silence was disturbed by the sound of a twig snapping, at which, she swung her head in the direction it came. What she saw was a black haired girl, who appeared to be slightly older than her, wearing a sleeveless pink kimono. The two of them locked eyes for a second, before the black-haired girl broke the silence.
"Um... Is everything all right? This clearing doesn't look to be in the best shape..." She said while looking at the mess.
"Huh? Oh right. Yeah I'm fine, just got carried away training last night..." Chizuru responded while scratching the back of her neck in embarrassment.
"Training? So are you a ninja?" The other girl asked.
"Sure am! Name's Chizuru, what's yours?" Chizuru chirped.
"Haku." The black haired girl responded.
"Nice to meet you Haku! Wanna sit down and talk for a bit?" Chizuru called out.
"I'm sorry I can't, I have to find some herbs for a friend that got hurt." Haku explained.
"Really? Well, how about I help you?" Chizuru asked.
"You'll help me with that?" Haku asked.
"Yeah!" Chizuru said excitedly, while getting up.
"Alright, well, these are the herbs I'm collecting..." After showing the herbs to Chizuru the two set off to find as many as they could, and eventually conversation started up again.
"Why do you train so hard Chizuru?" Haku asked.
"Huh?" Chizuru questioned.
"You seem strong enough, so... Do you train for yourself, or others?" Haku furthered.
"I never really thought about why I train, at first I trained because Jiji allowed me to go to the academy, but then I started training to become the strongest kunoichi I could..." Chizuru explained.
"I see... Well, if you were to ask me, I think training for oneself is not the way to get stronger, but when you train to protect those you care about, those you love, only then can you become truly strong." Haku explained.
"I never thought about it that way..." Chizuru muttered.
"Do you have anyone you care about Chizuru?" Haku asked.
"Lots! I have Jiji, Baachan, Shizune, Kakashi-sensei, Hinata-chan, Sakura, Ino, Shika, Choji, old man Teuchi, and his daughter Ayame too!" Chizuru listed off, to which Haku giggled.
"I see, well, don't you want to protect them? Can't your training be used to make sure they don't get hurt? You don't want them to get hurt do you?" Haku questioned.
"I don't want them to get hurt!" Chizuru blurted out. "I-I... Well, I think you're right... If I train for them, then maybe, just maybe I can be the strongest kunoichi... In order to protect them... No. I will become the strongest kunoichi! In order to protect them!" Chizuru said with renewed vigor.
"Good. I hope to hear your name amongst the legends in the future." Haku said, as if about ready to leave, she turned toward Chizuru to say something else when Chizuru spoke first.
"You know... Back when I was a kid, things were rough, and I didn't have many friends... But I think now, that i have the friends I gained... Would you like to be my friend too Haku?" Chizuru said.
"I would like that Chizuru, but I hope you know, you still are a kid." She joked.
"No way! Not like when I was younger! Back then I pulled pranks all the time and got chased out of shops! They'd say things like 'Get the brat out of here!' or 'We can't let him destroy our business!' and I'd paint their shop bright orange the next day! Now I act much more like an adult than a kid!" Chizuru explained.
"You said 'him' just a minute ago..." Haku said, her eyes narrowing in suspicion.
"I-I did?" Chizuru said while going wide-eyed, "I meant 'her', definitely 'her', not him, m-must have tripped over my words!" Chizuru explained before laughing nervously.
"Your reaction now, could it be... Are you... Could you be like me?" Haku asked.
"Like you?" Chizuru asked while tilting her head.
"Like... Nothing... I must get going..." Haku said before turning to leave, not before Chizuru realized what she was trying to say, and gasped loudly.
"You mean there's others like me? I'm not the only one?" Chizuru asked excitedly. "Ne Haku-chan?"
"Yes Chizuru?" Haku asked while turning around slowly.
"Thank you for teaching me there's more to life than just training for myself, and that there's more people living life like me..." She said while running over to give Haku a hug.
"I... Thank you Chizuru..." Haku said awkwardly, then continued the same way. "You're the first person to call me Haku-chan you know..."
"Really? Well, they should call you it more often! This is who you are, and you shouldn't deal with people who wouldn't want you to be happy!" Chizuru shouted.
"But I... I told him not to call me that..." Haku muttered.
"What? Why? You're such a cute girl, why wouldn't you want people, no, your friends, to call you by such?" Chizuru questioned.
"Because... Well, because I don't deserve it!" Haku shouted, causing Chizuru to stiffen.
"I'm a monster that's why! I don't deserve to be happy with what I am! I should live the rest of my life as a boy, like he would have wanted!" Haku shouted angrily, before she fell to the ground and started sobbing.
"Haku-chan! Are you okay?" Chizuru asked while hugging the girl tighter.
"I-I... I just want to be happy..." Haku sobbed out.
"I want you to be happy too Haku-chan! So please, help me help you be happy, we're friends! It's the least I can do!" Chizuru exclaimed through her own tears that started falling due to her friend's unhappiness.
"I... Fine." Haku said after a few moments of quiet sobbing. "I'll tell you why I'm here..." She muttered, then took a deep breath.
"It all started when I was a kid... I was born in a snowy village in Mizu no Kuni to a family of farmers, well, my father was a farmer all his life, but my mother was a member of a clan from Kirigakure known as the Yuki clan... We have a kekkei genkai that allows us to use hyoton, and... Well... Do you know about what's happened in Mizu no Kuni lately?" Haku paused to ask.
"No... But to think, we're both kekkei genkai buddies too..." Chizuru muttered.
"Well... Wait, really? What's yours?" Haku asked.
"I have a new one, it's called fuinton." Chizuru explained.
"Fuinton? What can that do?" She asked.
"Well it turns my chakra directly into sealing ink." Chizuru said simply.
"That can be really powerful..." Haku said, before taking another deep breath and continuing her story.
"Mizu no Kuni had recently ended a war with the other great elemental nations when her people seemingly overnight began to fear kekkei genkai wielders, even our kage fell victim to the fearmongering, and soon after, what is known as the bloodline purges began. People banded together to kill those with kekkei genkai and soon it came to our town..." Haku stared off in the distance for a moment before continuing. "I was just a kid... I just unlocked my kekkei genkai and was playing around with some ice, when I showed it to my mom... She was angry that I was doing that, but I can tell now, she was just more scared that I was doing it, than mad at me... What I didn't know was that he was watching too... My father gathered up the villagers in a mob, and brought them to our home, where he killed my mother, and lunged for me right after... I-I... My hyoton flared up and... I killed him! I killed him, and all the villagers in my house with one attack! I didn't even feel sad that I killed them, I was glad to get away, I'm... I'm a monster..." She said, before full on crying again.
The two girls huddled together and hugged one another tightly as they both cried against one another. They sat there in the clearing for a while, the only sound being their sobs, and sniffles. Chizuru was the first to speak, but she started slowly.
"I... I don't think you're a monster Haku-chan..." Chizuru said softly, "If I had the strength to when I was younger, I probably would have done the same thing to the mobs that chases me around town..."
"You... You had mobs after you when you were younger too? Why?" Haku asked.
"I-I don't know... All I do know is that Jiji always ended up by my side after I got chased, and he always was there for me... That friend of yours... Is he there for you?" Chizuru asked.
"I... Don't know..." Haku answered. "I've always thought of myself as a tool for him to achieve his dreams... But I don't know anymore..."
"Did he tell you that?" Chizuru asked.
"Well... No... I kinda thought that myself..." Haku revealed.
"Did he save you from Mizu no Kuni, is that why you're here?" Chizuru furthered.
"He did... He saved me and brought me along with him, we've been traveling ever since, trying to make enough money for him to achieve his dream..." Haku told.
"Then, it seems to me like he's more than just a person using you as a tool, but I can't know for sure... You should talk with him." Chizuru explained.
"But... What if he does see me like that..." Haku asked.
"Then he's not your friend, and I'll show him why he should care, for you!" Chizuru exclaimed.
The two sat in silence at the exclamation and enjoyed each other's company. After an hour of sitting together, they both were interrupted by their stomachs growling. They laughed at it, and Chizuru got to her feet, before offering her hand to Haku to lift her from the ground.
"We should meet here again tomorrow." Chizuru said.
"I don't know if I can... I still have to take care of my friend..." Haku stated.
"Won't you need more herbs tomorrow?" Chizuru asked.
"Well yeah... But-" Haku began.
"No buts! I'll help you collect more, then we can at least talk! See you tomorrow!" She shouted while running back towards Tazuna's.
"I... Fine... See you tomorrow Chizuru-chan!" Haku called to the retreating girl, before she too turned and left.