A/N: I'm super sorry for the wait on this one. Wanted to get it out yesterday, but some stuff came up, and I had less time than I thought I would. Either way, let's get to this chapter

To all those who are impatiently awaiting the end of this arc, believe me, I get it, but I also need to establish some character dynamics and a few bases of information for the rest of the story to make much sense. Bare with me, okay?

Time for Chapter 11

Enjoy!


Two slight gleams of light shown themselves distinctly among the grass. The morning sky was dull and overcast, and it was hardly past dawn. All that allowed for the reflection at all was what little sunlight could find its way through the clouds and fog of the morning dew. Despite the minority of the flashes of light, Shikamaru kept his eyes fixed on them and approached with all the conviction of a drunkard fresh off a poor night out. He was extremely tired, and much of it was attributable to the fact that he had slept a mere two hours that night.

The reasoning behind his inability to get much rest at all was laying right before his feet, right where the reflections of the dull light had come from. A pair of combat needles, known properly as senbon, laid a few inches from one another, just below the front window the humble house of Tazuna and his family. At the sight of them, every suspicion that had been nagging at his psyche since the battle upon the river snapped into frame.

'The same weapon that sent Zabuza down. Thrown right at our window. What a coincidence.' the Nara thought to himself as he knelt down to pluck the needles from the blades of grass. The moment he touched them, he recoiled slightly. They were unbelievably cold. The night had certainly been chilly, but the needles themselves were far below a freezing point. Approaching more gingerly this time, Shikamaru carefully picked up one of the needles using as little skin as possible. It was razor sharp and roughly six inches long. Just enough length to pierce a person through the broad side of their neck.

'So, I was right. There was somebody nearby last night. I think I caught the sound of their footsteps too.' Shikamaru thought to himself, a slight chill running down his spine. Silent as a cemetery, quick as a flash of lightning, there had been an assassination attempt right under their noses. It was an unsettling proposition to grapple with. Even Kakashi had been unaware of it as far as Shikamaru could tell. As he sorted his emotions, a face flashed across his mind's eye.

A face with brown eyes, fair skin, an odd smile, and long, brown hair. The girl who was apparently named Haku. The needles themselves provided no more of a case against her, not in any logical sense, but for reasons unknown to even himself, Shikamaru found his skepticism of her growing ever strong.

'I've met her literally once. The voice is all I have to work with. Other than that, I'm grasping at straws.' he thought to himself. He then shook his head and rubbed the remaining sleep from his weary eyes. Turning toward the forest that spread out for miles beyond the house, he took a step forward. Walks were an excellent way to cleanse oneself of uncertainty and stress, both of which were plaguing him.

"I've got a hunch...that I know where you are." he muttered under his breath. And so, he briskly entered the forest. Though he had originally intended to keep his pace rapid, he quickly found that he was too tired to do so. Slowing down to his usual lethargic shuffle, Shikamaru took a deep breath and held it for a moment before releasing it.

'It's probably a terrible idea for me to be out on my own, given what those needles mean, but oh well.' he mused with a dry chuckle. Fear for his own mortality was a sentiment that had crossed his mind a number of times in recent memory, but there was no room for it in the thick of things. As the sticks and leaves crunched under his feet, the Nara felt some of his nerves dissipate. Though he had largely dismissed it for most of his life, nature and its contents truly did have a serenity about it. A sort of energy that could soothe a person.

'Still prefer clouds, but I don't mind this.' he thought to himself as he traversed the forest slowly, taking time to study the trees and animals. The ground was fairly damp from the morning dew, though nowhere near as swampish as it had been after the storm several days prior. Such variance in weather spoke to a healthy ecosystem.

'I should take walks more often. Would help with my cardio.' he joked to himself. A rustling sound then caught his attention. Taking his eyes away from his surroundings to focus on the path directly ahead of him, he spotted the source of the noise. It was a deer, and a fairly large one at that.

'A male deer, huh? Not often you see one of those out and about.' Shikamaru thought to himself as he assessed the antlers protruding from the Deer's head. The animal hardly felt or looked aggressive. As with most roaming beasts, it merely looked apprehensive.

"Go on. Take your time." the Nara called lightly to the Deer. For a time, it simply stared at the genin with wide eyes. Eventually, it scampered off into a nearby brush, its footsteps growing fainter and fainter as it lengthened the distance between them. Once the deer was gone, Shikamaru cracked a smile and continued on his way. He knew deer well, and found them to be better company than people depending on his mood. He encountered no more over the next five minutes of travel, though he did catch sight of an owl along the way.

Despite how slow his pace was, and how aimlessly he let his gaze wander, he did have a destination in mind, though one that hardly held any weight beyond a gut feeling. It was a fair distance from the house, nearly three miles in total. Though the length of the trip was a few steps off from ideal, it certainly did give Shikamaru time to think.

'What do I even want to say if I'm lucky enough to be right about this? I can't exactly lead with the question. Or even pose it at all.' he pondered. Information-gathering was an active part of being a Ninja, but truth be told, Shikamaru had never even attempted it before in any non-casual setting. Beyond this, he had virtually no clue what he was up against intellectually. Haku had let very little slip about her personality aside from an apparent enjoyment of plant life and a generally humorous demeanor.

'Either she did that on purpose, or it had everything to do with time and place. No way to tell which.' he thought to himself. He was far from used to giving another person so much thought, especially one that he knew practically nothing about beyond a name and face. Shelving the train of thought for the moment, Shikamaru focused his energy on navigation. Given several minutes, and another odd encounter with a smaller deer, the Nara reached the edge of where he had intended to be.

A clearing of various exotic-looking flowers and other types of plants. Its colorful appearance and bright colors stood out starkly amongst the dull pallet of green and brown all around it. Something else stuck out, even among the flowers and greenery. A person, and exactly who Shikamaru had hoped to find for one reason or another. Haku was sitting cross-legged in the far left corner of the small clearing with a basket at her side. She appeared to be eating something small, as evidenced by the fact that she was chewing.

'I found a pretty girl sitting in a field of flowers. This is so damn cliche.' Shikamaru thought to himself as he observed her from just behind the concealing brush. She was wearing a similar sundress to the one she had been during their first encounter, and she appeared to be quite content. The longer he studied her, the less sure of his suspicions he became.

'There's no way this chick killed Zabuza. There's a literal butterfly sitting on her head, and she hasn't touched it.' he thought to himself. Before he could fall any further down into his doubts, he was snapped back to attention.

"You're free to step into the open any time you like. Just don't think you're hidden." Haku called, not changing her posture or the direction of her gaze at all as she spoke. Flinching slightly, Shikamaru reluctantly stepped through into the clearing. Once he was fully exposed, Haku finally addressed him directly with her eyes.

"If I didn't know better, I'd think that you came looking for me." she said calmly. Her expression was difficult to read. She certainly didn't look irritated, or particularly bothered in general by his arrival, but it was equally difficult to suss out any true positivity from her features. The Nara shook his head and absently scratched his cheek, which had been grazed by a leaf on his way out.

"Just looking for a place to sleep. Sorta loud back at home base." he replied. Haku tilted her head off to one side and reached into her basket. She produced a small piece of white bread, which she promptly popped into her mouth.

"If that's the case, then why were you staring at me through the bushes?" she inquired innocently upon finishing chewing. Shikamaru's left eye twitched at the question.

"I'll never get used to seeing random people deep in the forest. Not my fault you have weird habits." he shot back defensively. Haku straightened her postured and rested her hands in her lap.

"Which do you find more strange? A girl enjoying flowers and picnics, or a boy taking his sweet time looking her up and down from the shadows?" she asked while locking eyes with him. The Nara snorted and folded his arms across his chest.

"You say that like you're even worth staring at. " he said bluntly. Haku shrugged her shoulders and kept her gaze fixed on him quizzically.

"Well, you certainly don't seem to mind doing so. Posturing aside, you're free to pass through to find your resting place. I won't stop you." she said simply. When Shikamaru didn't move more than a step or two forward, she gestured to the ground near her.

"Well, if you're going to stay, at least take a seat and talk. No need to make things more awkward than they need to be." she suggested. After a few moments of resistance, the Nara did as he was told and sat himself down roughly ten feet from Haku.

"I'm guessing you spend most of your time out here?" he asked as an opener. The girl shook her head, much to his surprise. She then took another bite of bread.

"I'm quite a busy person, actually. These little adventures out in the woods are how I reward myself. I'm sure you can relate given your profession." she replied. Shikamaru mentally noted her wording and glanced up at the gray sky peaking through the treetops.

"I guess I like to watch clouds a bit. Just to clear my head sometimes. I'm new to this whole 'Ninja' thing." he said honestly. It made him somewhat uncomfortable to reveal his own personal interests and hobbies to somebody he knew so scarcely, but for the ends of confirming or denying his suspicions, building a foundation of rapport was necessary. Haku touched her bottom lip with her index finger.

"You're new, hm? You struck me as quite experienced a few days ago. Though, you are quite young, so it does make sense." she said thoughtfully. She then turned her eyes up to the sky and frowned.

"I can't really say that I understand why cloud-watching would be fun or interesting. It's just the sky. It never changes." she said. The Nara shook his head and joined her in watching the bleak cosmos overhead.

"You're just looking at it the wrong way. It changes a ton day to day. Sometimes, it's a different shade. The lineup of clouds changes a bunch too. No one sky is the same." he said. Haku looked back to him from the clouds and reached into her basket.

"That's an interesting way to look at it. It seems a bit nit-picky to me, though." she said. Shikamaru met her odd gaze and shifted in place to make himself more comfortable.

"Anybody with any sort of awareness is gonna think life is boring, so you need to look for the little things. If you think too narrowly, then people, places, days, it'll all blend into a flavorless soup." he reasoned. The girl gave a humorous smile and tossed him a piece of the bread she had been nibbling on.

"That's an odd analogy, and I don't know how much I agree with you, but whatever works to keep you lively. People can be put into boxes once you meet enough of them. Environment, upbringing, money, it all molds people. Take people from the same social groups, monetary statuses, and places, and you're bound to find that they're all painfully similar." she countered. The Nara raised an eyebrow and fiddled with the bread pensively.

"You must live a pretty dull life if you really think that." he said directly. Haku swept her hair over shoulders to let it hang over her front.

"Oh, I get plenty of excitement out of my days. Too much for my liking, and not really the type I'd like to be partaking in." she said lightly. Shikamaru raised an eyebrow and passed the bread from one hand to the other several times.

"I could take that a few different ways. But that aside, what's a 'simple village girl' going to run into often enough to tire her out? Genuinely curious." he said. For the briefest of moments, Haku's composure cracked in the form of her lips twitching at their edges. A frown nearly formed, but she pulled her mouth back into a thin line before it could.

"We come from different places. My obligations are different than yours. You travel and carry out tasks, and I do chores and keep things in order." she said calmly. Finally, Shikamaru took a bite of the bread he had been given and chewed it before swallowing.

"Gotta say, for a rural native, you speak more clearly than most of my instructors back at the academy. Where'd you even get an education way out here?" he pressed skeptically. Haku leaned her face on her palm and blew a strand of hair from her eyes.

"My father is quite a smart man. Doesn't always show it, though. He can be quite crude. He taught me most of what I know." she replied automatically. Shikamaru nodded and finished the last of the bread he'd been given. He then chose to shift his tactics.

"Not to change the topic, but honestly, half the reason I'm out here is to get away from the house. We had somebody take a shot at us last night. They tried to get rid of one of us." he said, curious to see Haku's reaction to the vague information. What he got in response was far from what he had expected. Haku's eyes widened, her expression shifted to one of concern, and she leaned forward over her knees.

"Really? That's horrible. Was anybody injured?" she asked. Shikamaru recoiled just a tad at her sudden and visible concern. In particular, her wide, dark brown eyes dug into him with a force that froze him momentarily.

"Uh, no. They missed the shot they took. We're all good." he said a touch awkwardly. Haku sighed and relaxed, folding her hands over her chest as she settled once again.

"Well, that's good to hear. If this assassin is incompetent enough to fail a task, then perhaps my home isn't in much danger." she said in a relieved tone. Shikamaru re-solidified his posture and draped an arm over his bent knee.

"Yeah, you're probably safe. Assassins don't really mass-target. If you're just a resident, they'll leave you alone. No...no worries." he said in an odd tone. Haku then stood up and stretched her arms over her head.

"Good to know. Now then, since you're here, I'd like your help. I'd like to gather one-hundred-fifty lilies. There should be more than that many here, but picking them alone would be a hassle." she said, beckoning him to his feet as she spoke. Shikamaru obliged and rose to meet her.

"And why should I help you? Sounds like a drag to me." he asked. Haku smiled and clasped her hands down by her waist as a breeze blew across the clearing.

"Because it would be very polite, and I may reward you if you do." she said in response. Sensing that arguing would be a pointless endeavor, the Nara sighed and did as he was told. Haku soon joined in a kneel on the ground to search for the lilies she had requested to be picked. They then commenced their search.

As they picked and gathered the specific flower, Shikamaru glanced at the girl scrounging only feet from him. She appeared genuinely pleased with the activity they were partaking in. Her lips were pulled into an easy smile, her features were relaxed, and she was enthusiastically searching for the lilies. At the sight, Shikamaru exhaled through his nose and returned his eyes to the ground.

'I read this wrong. I had to have. She's...a normal girl.' he thought to himself, unsure of himself on every level.

As he pondered these things, unbeknownst to him, Haku gazed at him with a triumphant smile.


Kakashi glanced around the living room of Tazuna's home to assess the looks and emotions of the remainder of Team Seven. Shikamaru, who had been absent for the entirety of the morning, had returned only minutes ago, and the first thing he had done was call for a gathering. The Nara was hardly one two enjoy group activities, and tended to strike out on his own when he could. With this in mind, it stood to reason that he had something fairly important to say.

"Could you speed this up? I wanna eat breakfast." Naruto complained, earning an elbow to the ribs from Satsuki that caused him to glare at her. Before the pair could predictably begin arguing, Shikamaru heeded Naruto's request and spoke up.

"Save your fighting for a few minutes from now. You're going to want to hear this, trust me." he said seriously, regaining the attention of the Uchiha and Uzumaki. Kakashi himself leaned forward in his seat and awaited the follow up. The Nara then took a deep breath and reached into his pocket. He then produced a pair of senbon needles, which he promptly set on the table that laid in the center of the living room.

"I found those just outside the kitchen window. I think we all remember the weird clicking sound that we heard during dinner against the glass. Well, I've got a strong feeling that these are what caused it." he began, allowing the rest of his team to piece together his logic themselves.

"What exactly are you suggesting, Shikamaru? I've got a solid idea that I know, but I'd still like to hear what you have to say." Kakashi said after a time, drawing nods of agreement from Naruto and Satsuki. Shikamaru jammed a thumb at Tazuna, who was silently sitting in a chair in the rightmost corner.

"Somebody was out to kill him. Based on where he was sitting, relative to the window, the person who threw those senbon was aiming for his neck." he said, taking a deep breath to continue on.

"And the obvious kicker is that the exact weapon that took out Zabuza was senbon. I've been skeptical of that whole sequence since it happened, to be honest. It's just too convenient. The moment Zabuza is being overwhelmed, somebody else swoops in to kill him instead. I didn't quite know what I thought of it until I found those senbon." he said. Satsuki then spoke for the first time since the meeting had begun.

"Are you saying that-" she started. Before she could finish, Shikamaru cut him off with a curt nod and a sweeping look around the room to make sure that all attention was on him and his words.

"Yeah, you've got it. Zabuza is alive, and that hunter is working with him to put Tazuna in an early grave."


Haku stared up at the ceiling of the barracks silently as the usual noise and chaos of the people around her slowly died down and succumbed to the dark of the night. For as offensively loud as it was during the day, Gato's barracks did tend to be somewhat bearable at night. Criminals and freaks though they were, the men he employed were still human. They needed rest just as much as the next person.

"You spent almost all of today out and about. Did you find anything worth using?" came the voice of Zabuza from Haku's left. The man had long been her caretaker of sorts, though their bond was less familial than a partnership of business and convenience. To Zabuza, anyway. Haku had long considered the violent man to be more akin to a guardian figure than a mere master.

"No, not really. These parts are barren, save for a few settlements." she replied, drawing a nod from the rogue swordsman leaned against the wall nearby. Zabuza then eyed her curiously.

"You went to the woods again, didn't you?" he asked. Haku initially prepared to tell a white lie of sorts, but soon decided against it in favor of honesty.

"I did, yes. Quite a nice place for such a dull country." she said. Zabuza rubbed the side of his neck, which was still bandaged from the nonfatal puncture wound that Haku herself had inflicted.

"That explains the huge flower display just outside the compound. Why do you even waste your time with that sort of thing?" he asked tiredly. Haku fiddled with a stray senvon for a few moments.

"Because flowers are beautiful, and they make me happy. I wouldn't mind being a gardener one day." she said. Zabuza snorted and began to audibly sharpen his large blade with the edge of a much smaller kunai.

"Don't get your hopes up, kid. You'll probably be dead before you get the chance to strike out on your own." he said bluntly. The huntress sighed and rolled onto her stomach.

"I know, but a girl can hope." she muttered. The rogue swordsman glanced at her from his higher vantage point and kicked aside a small bit of metallic dust at his feet.

"Women. I'll never understand them. Flowers and plants will always be around. Why care about them? Respect and reputation make a person worthwhile. Focus on those things instead." he said. Haku rolled back onto her back and folded her hands behind her head.

"If you wanted a partner who agrees with you on that, you should've found a boy, Zabuza-sama. I'll stick to my plants for an outlet. Not that I won't do my job as always, because I will." she said. When Zabuza didn't immediately respond, Haku closed her eyes and let her mind wander back to other things.

'Picking lilies was pleasant. Not the nicest day weather-wise, but that was certainly a highlight.' she reviewed within her mind. The face of the person with whom she'd gathered the flowers then returned to her, drawing a slight smile.

'I'm surprised he actually stuck around and helped me. I couldn't have stopped him from leaving while keeping up my facade. I'm glad he did, though. He's good company.' she thought fondly. A chuckle then escaped her.

'He's razor-sharp, and a stickler for details. He noticed every single one of the small holes I left in my story, and he subtly attacked each of them. His blank face certainly hides his smarts quite well.' she recalled. She then caught a pestering fly between her middle and index finger, crushing it soon after.

'...and he's exploitable emotionally. All I had to do to trip him up was lay it on thick with my concern. He doubted himself instantly. He's brilliant, but he's immature.' she thought to herself. Something specific Shikamaru had said then crossed her conscience.

"You're just looking at it the wrong way. It changes a ton day to day. Sometimes, it's a different shade. The lineup of clouds changes a bunch too. No one sky is the same."

'Is that the way you view the world, Shikamaru? With the mindset that each thing is unique, even if only in a small way? You're so naive. It's almost cute.' she pondered. She then rolled onto her side and gently pulled a lily she had saved from her original project out of the pocket of her hunter's uniform. As she gazed at it, she sighed heavily.

'Or maybe you think that way to keep yourself sane. We all have our coping mechanisms. Perhaps yours is just more productive than mine.' she thought to herself. She then began to feel her consciousness fading away under the weight of her exhaustion. As the sleep moved to claim her, she formed one final thought.

'It won't be long before it all comes crashing down, but before then, I'll find him again. Just for the fun of it.'


A/N: Once again, I am SO SORRY for the wait here. I also know that a lot of you will be mad at me for having this chapter exclusively focus on Haku and Shikamaru, but to those people, I say this:

Shikamaru is also a main character, and he deserves to be given development and time on page. The vast majority of this fic will be entirely about Naruto and Satsuki. You can handle a chapter about other characters here and there.

Tell me what you thought of this chapter in a review :)

See you next chapter! Read and Review!