Hi, and welcome back!!! --Jono'
Haku
Sakura was right, moped the sleepy teenager as he drowsed in the crisp, clean but unfamiliar comforts of his hospital bed. I WAS just being paranoid.
Pale Konoha moonlight streamed in through the half-open blinds, slanting luminously across the floor and partially up the wall of the otherwise dark room in an array of slender, pale parallelograms.
Haku had spent the entire rest of the day and well into the evening having blood drawn, taking shots and pills, being subjected to various treatments and jutsus, and generally having his entire body inspected and tested in what he considered overall to be a fairly intrusive and ungentle way by FAR too many people.
I should have gone to Kiba's house. His sister Hana undoubtedly knows enough to treat a human being and probably with a little more sensitivity, the patient couldn't help but grumble. Despite his misgivings though, Haku still had to admit that his fears about being exploited as the Uchihas had been now seemed wildly off-base.
And who are you kidding? said the young ninja to himself as he sighed and snuggled closer into his blanket. Just because someone inside the Hidden Leaf Village sought to use the Uchiha clan's stolen eggs and semen as the basis for a eugenics program doesn't mean at all that they'd be interested in yours. I mean, an army of sharingan warriors, an army of Kakashis or older Sasukes – THAT would be truly frightening. But an army of Hakus?
The teenager giggled at the idea, turned onto his back and threw a long, alabaster arm over his eyes.
Oooh! So SCARY! the former Demon's Apprentice considered mirthfully as the picture took hold in his mind. Help! Help! A legion of schoolgirls is attacking the city!
Somewhere in his thoughts brewed the idea that sure, his own kekkei-genkai which allowed him control over water and air was impressive in its own little way. Some were even frightened of it, but on the whole it wasn't anything nearly as daunting as the fabled and mysterious *sharingan*.
Plus Haku knew very well that the way he looked evoked a wide variety of reactions and emotions in people, but TERROR had thus far never been one of them (which was just as well as far as he was concerned).
And anyway, the ninja went on, fingers playing absently with the jade necklace the Hokage had lent him, even if the Uchihas HAD their genetic materials taken from them here in the hospital, it had to have been a much more sophisticated operation than just having some…some deviant sneak into their room at night!
Let's hope so, he thought finally and made a mental note to apologize to Sakura for his impoliteness.
A corner of his lips upturned. He felt sure that if the girl had forgiven him for everything else, she'll definitely forgive him for this.
Maybe I can blame it on the poison.
The black-haired teenager shifted back to laying his side, curled closer, closed his eyes then drew a deep and relaxing breath. It was late, he was tired and he knew he should be getting some sleep before taking off for Wave Country in the morning.
Just as he felt himself approach the threshold of unconsciousness, the door-lever to his room rattled slightly, breaking the stillness.
Haku noticed, but determined to ignore it.
It rattled again and this time the latch released.
The ninja's eyes flicked open then stared hard at the door – a rectangle of solid, light-stained wood with a small, translucent panel at head level. It was a 'barn style' door that hung from an overhead track by a pair of metal wheels clad with rubber to make them roll quietly.
A series of soft taps issued against the silence then a crack of light from the hallway beyond glowed softly at the door's edge as it very slowly started to open.
Haku's once-sleepy grey eyes went wide as he gaped in utter mortification. Having convinced himself that any crude and ham-handed (so to speak) violation of his body here was pure paranoid fantasy, the young ninja now found himself shocked to the core of his being that such a thing not only COULD happen but might be ABOUT to happen right now!
The teenager shook his head. Oh HELL no! he thought, borrowing a phrase his new, adoptive family liked to use on occasion.
In a flash, the Demon's Apprentice sprang to his feet and stood ready, fully upright in his hospital bed, dressed only in an unflatteringly baggy t-shirt and boxer shorts.
Fighting back anger, the ninja brushed aside ribbons of long, black hair from his face, brought his arms up with elbows pointing straight out from his sides and palms facing down as he drew a quick breath. Circling his hands wide, he inhaled deeply to charge his chakra, brought his hands back up in front of his chest then pressed them down on the exhale. The blanket flew back against the wall and concentric ripples pulsed through the bed-sheet at Haku's feet.
Though Kirigakure's 'Cannon-Fist' jutsu wasn't really the young shinobi's style, it WAS the very first technique Zabuza Momochi had ever taught him. Haku cocked his fist; whoever was about to come through this door was going to get a great big face-full of it!
But the door stopped after only a few inches and a small, dark shape appeared in the narrow opening. Haku paused then as a dog walked in…and it was not Akamaru.
This nocturnal visitor, if anything, was even smaller than Kiba's ninja-puppy and had tan fur but with a much darker terra-cotta colored patch around its flat, wide snout and coal-colored button nose. Still more puzzling was that it wore a little uniform of sorts -- a midnight blue vest and a leaf-ninja's hitai-ate.
"Oh," it said in a low, dead-pan voice; looking up with brown, languorous eyes. "Hey. I didn't think you'd still be up."
The dog turned around then shouldered the door shut. "I'm Pakkun," he continued then sat on his hinds. "Kakashi sent me to make sure nobody bothered you."
Haku blinked, blinked again then dropped his arms and flopped limply into the bed.
"What? You never saw a talking dog before?" Pakkun needled him, sounding slightly affronted.
"I was expecting someone else," Haku explained after a moment's pause then answered, "And I've seen you before, but I didn't know you could talk."
"Huh?" said the dog who gave the young ninja a curious look then sniffed the air. His expression widened. "Oh, so it's you – the kid from the bridge. Small world."
"Yes," Zabuza's former apprentice had to admit. "Yes it is."
Pakkun looked at him askance then remonstrated, "Hey, you're not going to stick me with any more senbon are you? 'Cause it hurt!"
Haku smiled sadly at his guest then shook his head. "I only did that because you and the rest of your pack of ninken attacked my master." His large, grey eyes rose. "But," continued the ninja in an offhand, genial way and pinched his undershirt's light, white cloth, "as you can see, they've disarmed me. I'm completely defenseless."
The pug raised an eyebrow. "Uh-huh," Pakkun grunted dubiously. "Well, look, I've got really sharp senses of hearing and smell so if anyone comes in here who wants to mess with you then I'll give 'em SUCH a bite. And I'll bark too which'll wake you up. Then you can do to them what you were going to do to me. Fair enough?"
Haku nodded. "Fair enough," he confirmed.
The ninja watched his visitor rise, sniff his way around the room then curl up on the floor beside his bed and close his eyes.
"Goodnight, Pakkun," the ninja offered as he collected his blanket and rested his head back on his pillow.
"Goodnight, uh --."
"Haku."
"Right, Haku."
The visiting ninja awoke the next morning to the glow of cheerful sunshine in his window and the faint sounds of activity starting to stir in the corridor outside his room.
Haku yawned and gazed at the ceiling for a moment. Overall, he felt quite relaxed and eager to begin the day. If someone HAD taken 'liberties' with him during the night, he certainly couldn't tell.
Looking then over the edge of his bed, he found Pakkun still laying there in the same position he'd taken the previous night. The ninja thought him still asleep until the little dog raised an ear then pried one eye open as if to verify that it was indeed morning before fully committing himself to consciousness.
Drowsily, Pakkun pushed himself to his paws with melodramatic labor, shook a hind leg a few times to work out the kinks, smacked his lips then went to the door.
"Thank you, Pakkun," offered Haku as he sat up, but the pug only grunted something unintelligible yet generally agreeable back.
A soft knock came at the door and Sakura entered, carrying a covered tray. "Good morning, Ha--," the pink-haired girl began then stopped in surprise at seeing Pakkun.
The dog grunted the same greeting at her then departed with the kunoichi watching him go, a puzzled look on her face.
"O…kay," she said then slid the door shut before setting Haku's breakfast down beside his bed on a side-table.
"It's your sensei looking out for me," the visiting ninja explained. "Thank you for bringing me breakfast, Sakura. You didn't have to do that."
"I wanted to," she offered brightly. "My schedule's packed today and I wanted to see you again and say goodbye."
The visiting ninja nodded his appreciation then offered guiltily: "I'm sorry for yesterday. I guess I got carried away."
"It's ok," the girl replied gently then sat on his bed. "This hasn't exactly been a relaxing vacation for you, coming here and getting attacked and all. Besides, I'd be freaking out if I was sent to the Hidden MIST Village by myself."
Haku grinned but shook his head. "That's hardly an apt comparison," he observed. "Konohagakure may have its inherent problems but compared to Kirigakure, it's Shangri-La. In any case, I think you'd come through just fine."
"I'm just glad you're ok," Sakura said then looked at him with a fondness in her emerald eyes that touched him. "I've already seen you die once, you know; that should be enough."
Haku gazed back at her, speechless for a moment, then rubbed the back of his neck. "I have to agree."
Sakura grinned, eyes crinkling, then looked toward the clock and her expression turned urgent. "I gotta get going!" the girl gasped then shot to her feet. "But it's great to see you again and to know that you found yourself a good place to call home."
Smiling cleverly, she stooped over, gave him a hug then kissed him lightly on the cheek. "Be careful, Haku," the kunoichi offered as earnest, parting advice, before she turned to go.
Blushing slightly, the teenager's face lit with a surprised, awkward smile. "You too, Sakura," he managed to say before she'd gone.
Haku had already finishing eating when again someone rapped on his door and Kakashi wandered in. His visit was not at all unexpected.
"Well, good morning, Haku," the rangy, white-haired jonin offered in his now-familiar easy-going voice then leaned against the wall and crossed his arms. "You're looking a little thin and pale," he remarked, "are they treating you well?"
The young ninja stared for a moment before he realized that the masked man was joking. His thin lips widened into a wry grin. As senseis went, it was hard to get over the striking differences in personality between Kakashi Hatake and his own master, Zabuza. Though, he supposed, having three students as wildly different as Sakura, Sasuke and Naruto, a generally tolerant attitude and a sense of humor probably went a long way.
"I don't think I can complain since that's the way I was before I came in," Haku replied glibly then added: "Thanks for sending Pakkun to watch over me."
"He's not very fearsome as guard dogs go, but I assure you he's well qualified."
"I have no doubt."
"As well as checking in on you," Kakashi continued in a more serious though somewhat apologetic air as he pulled up a chair and sat down in it backwards with his arms draped over the backrest, "I'm also supposed to debrief you about yesterday. I figured you'd rather it was me than someone you didn't know."
Haku nodded. "I understand, and yes, I don't think I could stand staring into an ANBU mask for very long."
After going through a few formalities required for the report, the young ninja told Kakashi in exhaustive detail about his encounter with Otogakure's assassins. Though Haku thought twice about passing on Eueki's assertions about having had help from inside Konoha, he did so anyway. Kakashi's reaction, subdued as it was, was enough to let him know that there was reason enough to believe it could be true.
"He might have just been trying to plant the seeds of distrust," the masked ninja allowed, having read the question in the constable's face once he'd finished, "but then again, it's possible."
Haku nodded intelligently, sensing both the history and discomfort that surrounded this topic. "What about Kaori?" he asked, declining to pursue it, as the subject of her fate occurred to him. "Is there any word on what became of her?"
"She was captured," Kakashi reported absently. "She's here in the hospital right now in the isolation ward in a quarantine cell…still strapped into a restraint chair, I think."
Haku gave him a curious look.
"She's not taking to captivity very well," the ninja illuminated, shifted slightly then waved his hand. "But I wouldn't worry about her. A delegation from the Hidden Sand Village is coming to collect her. She'll be home in a few days."
"So there really is a treaty between your two villages," Haku confirmed, brow narrowing. "That's what I remembered hearing back in Wave Country, but she seemed a little 'confused' on the subject."
Kakashi nodded. "Evidently, she has a lot invested, emotionally I mean, in the idea of Konohagakure being her enemy. I'm sure that was what motivated her through many years of training."
The young ninja looked toward the window. "Still, Kaori lived here for a few months," he said with a frown then turned back toward his visitor. "How could she not know that the war between Sand and Leaf is over?"
"I don't know for sure," said the tall, masked man with a shrug. "Getting her side of the story has been…a little problematic so far. Undoubtedly Eueki gave her a thorough and convincing alternative explanation for what she might have seen and heard."
Haku shook his head in disbelief. "But how, I mean, how could she possibly believe it? She's a ninja after all, highly-intelligent and trained in the strategies of deception."
"Because she wants to, I would guess." Kakashi canted his head in thought then continued smoothly, "Because she's predisposed to. She could either accept that her fellow ninjas had been routed by her sworn enemies and that her mighty and infallible Kazekage had in fact been murdered quite awhile ago by some maniac who'd then taken his place and manipulated the whole Hidden Sand Village into doing his bidding, OR, she could accept a simpler, sweeter-sounding lie that keeps what she wishes to believe intact."
The young ninja's expression wriggled. "It seems to make sense when you put it that way," he offered half-heartedly, unconvinced.
"There are a lot people in this world who cleave to ideology or what's more comfortable even when confronted with contrary evidence or when the reality of their own experience is at odds with it." Kakashi raised a pale eyebrow. "Haven't you noticed?"
Haku frowned but nodded, not wishing to continue the argument unduly.
Through the snug, blue fabric of his mask, the jonin smiled. "Think of it as the crucial difference between ignorance and faith," he offered instructively. "But if you're REALLY interested, maybe you could drop by Kaori's cell, untie her restraints and talk about it. Then you could find out for yourself," the leaf-shinobi suggested with an understated emphatic playfulness in his tone that was borderline smug.
Haku's expression constricted the more he thought about it. "Maybe not," he declined. "If it is as you say, I doubt my powers of persuasion would be enough to stop her from attempting to kill me again. But I'm glad she's alright, just the same." His eyes rose. "Oh, I almost forgot," the teenager began then lifted out the necklace Lady Tsunade had lent him – a small, jade ring carved with characters looped around a leather string. "It's probably time for me to give this back."
Kakashi held up his hand. "Go ahead and keep it. It's a gift."
The young ninja looked up at him. "What, really?"
"I've already talked to Lady Tsunade. She sends her apologies by the way. Generally speaking, we'd rather not let our guests get brutally attacked. Sorry about that."
"It's alright," Haku answered graciously then, with a casual, dismissive gesture, added: "I should be used to it by now."
Kakashi nodded, a curt but amiable farewell, squeezed Haku's shoulder then rose and walked to the door. But just as his hand reached the lever, he stopped.
Haku thought at first that the jonin had merely paused to remember what was next on his schedule for the day. Only after several seconds dragged past did he look at the uniformed figure with concern, tilt his head and inquire hesitantly: "Master Kakashi?"
The silver-haired man's arm dropped to his side. "I'm sure you had your own reasons for coming here Haku, beyond Magistrate Hirai's orders," his voice issued in slow, thoughtful cadence, "maybe the greatest or least of which was returning those canisters."
The young constable's chin dipped. He'd always imagined that his thoughts were his own, but he supposed that it wouldn't take much in the way of simple role-reversal for Kakashi to fathom what they were.
"After what you went through at our hands, at my hands," the leaf-ninja continued, "it couldn't have been an easy decision. But whatever the reasons, I'm glad you came. I didn't fully realize how much I regretted killing you until I saw you again, here, and alive."
Kakashi's heartfelt words brought an almost supranatural silence to the air. Haku's chest tightened at the events the man alluded to, the trauma, the lives lost, having been thrown into collision by destiny or fate – with some unaffected by their meeting (or so he'd always thought), others crippled and sent spinning off into the cosmic unknown, while others were destroyed utterly.
"I don't know if you'll fully understand this," Kakashi ventured, "but, with the many regrets I have, having one less means a great deal to me. Thank you, Haku." The man turned from the door long enough to bow.
Haku, not knowing what to say, only nodded his reply then watched him go.
Having had his uniform and weapons returned to him before his discharge, Haku left the hospital and stepped out again onto the Hidden Leaf Village's bright streets. A sense of warm relief washed over him, being free now from his well-intentioned quasi-confinement, along with what he considered to be a full reconciliation with both Sakura and Kakashi and yes, for that matter, Pakkun too.
"Hrar-rarf!" a happy bark greeted him.
The teenager's brow rose in mild surprise then he looked down as a familiar ninja-hound ran up, raced around him a few times then settled down and sat close to his feet with tail wagging furiously.
The sight of the energetic, white-furred puppy immediately brought a smile to the young ninja's face. "Good morning, Akamaru," he greeted cheerily as he knelt, patted the dog then scratched behind his grey ears. "Have you come to see me off?"
"It's not just him," answered Kiba, walking up with his two teammates in tow.
Shino and the Hyuuga girl looked much as they had yesterday, while Kiba had evidently recovered his grey, hooded jacket cuffed with black fur.
"Oh!" answered Haku who rose to meet them, "Mr. Inuzuka."
The young genin shot him a sour look at the unnecessary formality. "It's Kiba," he clarified curtly then went on: "Anyway, yesterday got a little crazy and I guess we didn't have time for a real introduction. I'm Kiba Inuzuka," he gusted then turned to his companions, "these are my friends and the greatest teammates in the whole world, Hinata Hyuuga and Shino Aburame."
"Hiroo Okame," said Haku in his lilting, contralto voice as they exchanged bows. "I'm honored, and glad you stopped by so I could thank you all, especially you, Kiba. I'm not at all sure I would have survived yesterday if not for you."
"Ah, forget it," said the leaf-ninja with an easy grin, brushing aside the visiting constable's commendation. "Listen, I gotta admit I thought you were a little weird at first, but," Kiba frowned thoughtfully then opened his arms, "looking at how everything turned out all right in the end and that it was as much because of you as me, well…you're ok in my book."
"Oh," Haku started, taken aback a little by Kiba's unexpected welcome and gregarious, wide, white and pointy-canined smile. "Uh, thanks."
"So I was thinking," the boy went on with barely a pause, "since you're our very favorite mist-ninja, numero-uno, why don't you let us show you around a little then grab a bite to eat?"
"Uh, I really should be heading home. I'm expected."
"Aw, come on," Kiba cajoled, obviously knowing he'd get his way in the end, "how many times do you think you're gonna be in the Hidden Leaf Village?"
The slender visitor looked into his host's insistent, wolfish eyes and tattooed face. Like Naruto, Kiba wore his feelings on his sleeve. "Ok," Haku couldn't help but concede.
"Ha!" Kiba barked, "that's great! Y'see," he bragged to his companions, "I told you he'd come along."
A whirlwind tour of Konoha followed that took Haku from the sinister-sounding 'Forest of Death' to the top of the Hokages' Monument. Along the way they must have stopped to talk (Kiba ninety-percent of the time) with literally dozens of people who were all intensely curious about the preceding day's fracas.
Haku was fascinated at how the story Kiba told them evolved with each telling, increasing in magnitude every time with more enemies with greater ambitions and more bizarre powers until the former Demon's Apprentice wondered what fight the leaf-genin was describing.
Annoyed at first at how far from an accurate account the ninja strayed, Haku eventually saw the genius of it. Nobody smiled as much or gaped in awe at the real story like they did at Kiba's versions. Gauging reactions, maybe without even realizing it, Kiba had a sense of what parts to breeze past and which to embellish more.
In nuances that impressed Haku with Kiba's surprising sensitivity, the boy glossed over any suggestion that their visitor from Wave Country possessed a kekkei-genkai. It was bad enough, thought Haku, that so many people here knew his true identity already without that detail being spread around. Although he'd accepted that living under an alias was part of the price he had to pay for his life in Wave Country, it was especially tough at times like this – to have to lie and to have others lie for you.
Along the way, they ran into Rock Lee who was eager to find out how Hiroo's visit had gone and was shocked at first then distraught and near to tears second to hear that the young constable he'd met the day before last had been right in the middle of yesterday's fight while he himself had missed it.
They met up with two of the ninjas Haku had seen yesterday who turned out to be Lee's teammates. The girl with the fondness for weapons was named Tenten, while the aristocratic-looking young man with the long hair was called Neji and was Hinata's cousin. Both seemed nice enough, and Haku learned from them that they'd been the ones to capture Kaori.
Finally, at the restaurant where they ended up having lunch, they shared a big table with two more members of Kiba's class, Chouji Akimichi and Shikamaru Nara. Over a meal of various appetizers, barbeque beef and scallion pancakes, Kiba told them 'the saga' in its most outlandish, improbable yet highly-entertaining form. By that time, the genin's delivery, his inflections and dramatic gestures acted almost like a powerful gen-jutsu that made even the chubby and affable Chouji stop eating (no small feat) and stare in amazement or break out in fits of uproarious laughter.
The other boy, Shikamaru, a chunin, Haku couldn't help but notice, was harder to read. The leaf-ninja, with his black hair drawn back and up into a pineapple-top-like crest, seemed so detached that the constable took him to be a blithe spirit at first, world-weary perhaps, maybe even indolent at worst. Clearly used to Kiba's stories, his reactions were much more subdued than his friend's – a chuckle here, an appreciative nod there. But every so often Shikamaru would break from his careless attitude and his eyes riveted like a gem-cutter's, his mind seizing at some aspect of his classmate's prose, especially at the missing details – like why a lowly visiting constable would warrant the Hokage's personally assigning him a ninja escort; what was important enough to bring him all the way from Wave Country in the first place, and how exactly had Kiba and Hiroo escaped from Kaori's summoned flock of demonic birds?
Finally, Hinata, Shino, Kiba and Akamaru, walked Haku to the Hidden Leaf Village's southern gate. It seemed a shame to him to have to leave now that he was so much more familiar with the place and its people.
Kiba smiled proudly, and Haku was just starting to get the idea that, somehow, yesterday's fight had done him a world of good. Shino, still unreadable, walked with his hands in the pockets of his long, cloud-grey coat while Hinata kept giving Haku nervous, darting looks.
"Miss Hyuuga," the teenager began, feeling now that he knew her well enough to ask, "Hinata, is something the matter?"
The girl wrung her fingers and started to demur when Kiba answered for her: "She's been itchin' to ask you something all morning." The leaf-genin put his arm around the girl and steered her forward. "Go on, Hinata," he offered in support, "he's cool. It's not like he's gonna be mad or anything."
"I…I was just wondering," she began, fighting her way through a stalemate between shyness and curiosity, "if, maybe, you sent by the Mizukage, to form an alliance between our villages?"
Haku's gentle, grey eyes rose at the idea, and he felt bad that he'd have to disappoint her. "I'm sorry," he began softly, "but I really am just a constable from Wave Country. The only reason I came here was to return some stolen property."
"Ah," said the girl as her face fell, "I see."
The young ninja reached out to her. "For my part, I think it's nice that you see a world of such splendid possibilities," he tried to reassure. "Perhaps, if you continue, then maybe one day it will happen."
Hinata beamed and her pearlescent eyes looked up at him as they shared a smile. "I certainly hope so."
The four continued on toward the gate awash in the friendly banter of an imminent farewell; so natural and companionable that Haku felt for a moment as if HE were a part of Team 8.
"I have to say that you surprise me, Hiroo," offered Shino in a quietly-intense straightforward voice as they came into the towering gate's shadow. Haku's attention locked immediately, because this genin had thus far said so little! "I'd always understood that shinobi of the mist were especially violent, but apparently it's not so."
Haku looked at Shino and paled, hoping the remark was only an idle compliment, but then noted how enthusiastically Kiba and Hinata too agreed. Though the teenager hated to contradict them now, of all times, he really didn't have any choice.
"You mustn't think that," the visitor corrected them sternly then stopped dead in his tracks. "I hope you understand that among mist-ninja I am quite unique, and that any you encounter over the age of twenty-four will certainly try to kill you, immediately, with only very, very rare exceptions."
The three genin and even the normally rambunctious Akamaru looked back at their guest, surprised by his sudden vehemence and dire tone, then froze to listen.
"Under the ethos on which they were trained," Haku continued, "the act of killing in itself is considered virtuous. And though the curriculum of the Mist's Martial School is a bit less savage than it was years ago, even a recently graduated genin would look upon any rival ninja with distrust at best and outright loathing at worst."
The young ninja's eyes roamed over Team 8's now serious faces and his head sank sadly. Wetting his dry lips, he swallowed then muttered, "I'm sorry to have spoiled the collegial atmosphere but I would hate to think that I've inadvertently left you misinformed."
Kiba broke the long, awkward silence that followed. "We're not collegials," he announced with a reassuring smile then took Haku by the arm, "we're friends. And friends should speak their mind."
Hinata smiled beatifically with hands clasped at her chest. "Kiba," she piped, gazing at her teammate in admiration. "What a wonderful thing to say!"
The boy looked back at her then at Shino whose left eyebrow rose almost imperceptibly.
"What?!" cried Kiba in protest. "Hey, you all don't have to look so SHOCKED! I can be NICE!" The young leaf-ninja tried to continue the argument but was drowned out by the laughter that followed.
Walking out through the gates of the Hidden Leaf Village, Haku waved goodbye to Shino, Hinata, Kiba and Akamaru then set his sights on home, feeling bittersweet. Although his mission to return those canisters had been a success, and he'd made up with Sakura and Kakashi and made new friends along the way, not getting to see Naruto again made his time spent here seem almost like a failure.
The blond genin once said to him that they might have been friends. Undoubtedly, he'd meant it. But a lot of time had gone by since then and a lot of things had changed. Feelings were funny things, so important, so much a part of the human experience and yet, as the poets say: written in water. Especially love.
Hate was easy. Call someone a terrible name, strike them, or even just slight them in some minor way and almost all people will hate you. That was universal.
Love was more elusive. Even if you showered someone with attention, gave them gifts, gave of yourself, it was no guarantee.
The ninja's thoughts turned to the musings of one Juri Chono. 'Love is a f-f-f-cking FEELING!' Haku remembered the young woman shouting into his face on that mist-veiled Wave Country bridge, 'an ILLUSION!' she had stridently argued. 'It's not REAL! Feelings change in an instant, for a thousand reasons or for no reason at all!'
And though she was right in many respects, Haku was not about to take her argument as proof of love's worthlessness. A girl's love, Mari's love, had rescued him from hell or oblivion and given him a second chance, a home, had healed and filled his heart and opened his life to endless possibilities.
As for Naruto, the last time they'd met, Haku had stuck him with needles and forced him to suffer the apparent death of his friend, Sasuke, to the point that the strange, yellow-haired ninja had released whatever terrible power it was pent up within him. All of that in total might be a bit more than one could apologize for in a single letter even if, as Sakura had claimed, Naruto wasn't the type to carry a grudge.
Haku's weakness was still that he had a soft heart, one that didn't cotton to cruel realities.
Like: not everyone precious to you can stay.
And: not everyone you care about will care back.
But he knew it wasn't all bad, in fact, with all things considered, it was quite the opposite.
You have a home and a love to return to, Haku remembered and nodded to himself, a family of sorts, and people who care about you. And even if the Hidden Leaf Village is not the pinnacle of civilization you wanted it to be, Wave Country still COULD be.
A grin sprang over his face, lighting it like the dawn. And even if it never is – it sure won't be from lack of trying.
Tsunade
Within a blurry, circular frame, Haku's thoughtful, winsome face slowly came into focus. The slender, feminine teenager turned and smiled – his grace and delicacy offset awkwardly by the mist-ninja fatigues he wore, then abruptly vanished in a burst of chakra-fueled speed.
Anko Mitarashi, her tan, open trench-coat fluttering softly in the breeze, dropped the high-powered binoculars and let them hang at her hip. Taking a step away from the high wall that encompassed Konoha's parapet, the lithe, fishnet-clad kunoichi blurted unhappily: "So you're telling me that that doll-faced string-bean is one of the Land of Water's most dangerous criminals?"
The Fifth Hokage, Lady Tsunade looked down the road in the direction their visitor had departed. "That would seem to be the case," the jade-robed woman answered then looked toward Kakashi.
The jonin crouched in the shade, elbows resting atop the shelf of his knees. "It's him," he stated. "There's no doubt about it."
Anko frowned and shook her head. "And…we're just letting him go…why?"
Kakashi spared her a one-eyed glance. "There's no point in detaining him, Anko…or worse."
"Except that he knows kind of an awful lot about us, don't you think: our relative strength, how bad we're still hurting from Sound and Sand's attack, how we respond to emergencies inside Konoha? How depressingly porous our internal security is?"
"Haku's not with Kirigakure no Sato," the copy-ninja replied in a level voice. "He never was. His coming here is proof enough of that. And if he was an opportunist, he could easily have made any deal he wanted to with any of the Hidden Villages in exchange for those canisters. But he chose to bring them to us."
"Uh-huh," asserted the tomboyish leaf-ninja with deep suspicion, "and that all seems just a little TOO neat and clean to me."
"Our labs did confirm that the seals were intact," Tsunade offered into evidence.
"May I point out that every day Kumo, Kiri, Ame or Iwa does NOT have an army of Petri-dish Itachis ready to tear the Hidden Leaf Village down is a day we need to THANK Haku," stated Kakashi with an edge of temper creeping into his voice.
"There's an idea," said Tsunade in a humorous tone to ease the tension. Kakashi had evidently taken to Haku more than she would have guessed, enough to be protective of him as if Zabuza's student was one of his own. "That would certainly give the Akatsuki something else to gnash their teeth over."
"Yeah, yeah, rah-rah," the younger woman argued. "But why take the risk? We would have lost nothing if we'd have grabbed him."
"That's true," the Hokage replied, "at least to an extent."
Anko stared at her. "What, you admit it?!" she fired off in tone far too forward to address her Hokage with. "Sorry," she mollified, "it's just that --."
"I'll admit we wouldn't have lost anything tangible if we'd have detained Haku," Lady Tsunade began. "However, I think from what Kakashi's told us that we're all better off with him free." As Anko's eyes, the color of slate, narrowed uncertainly, the Hokage added: "We have too few friends in this world, and none with any inside knowledge of Kirigakure. Even Wave County is becoming quite the hive of activity. There's a lot going on there lately and now we have at least one person we know we could talk to within the Mist's garrison." The woman sniffed then brushed a rope of her long, sandy hair from the side of her face. "Not to mention that it's just plain bad manners to kill or kidnap a guest. Unlike some, I prefer that there be more than just a nominal difference between us and our enemies."
The Fifth Hokage walked to the edge of the wall, leaned her hands on the parapet then looked down the forest-shrouded road. "Plus," she went on, "and this may sound awfully touchy-feely, I find I have a higher regard for young people than I used to." The buxom woman smiled reluctantly then warned Anko and Kakashi, "Don't EVER tell anyone, but I've started to realize that you never know who they'll turn out to be. Certainly no one would have picked ME to be a future Hokage at the tender age of fifteen, or that Jiraiya would have the kind of power and influence he has."
About Orochimaru, it went unsaid but clearly understood.
"So when I look at Haku – I see a boy who lasted eight years as Zabuza Momochi's disciple student, managed to avoid the Mist's hunter-ninja teams on his own, had no interest at all in the power and wealth he could have had by selling the stolen seed of the Uchiha to the highest bidder, had the sensibilities to pick his spot for counter-attacking his assassins in a remote corner of Senju Park, someplace out of the way so that no innocent bystanders would get hurt, and was skilled enough to pull it off (WITH a little help from Kiba). Not to mention that he had enough guts to come to the Leaf Village, not by stealth or in force, but by walking right up to the front gate, alone."
Both her jonin looked at her and nodded slowly.
"I know," Tsunade admitted as a far-away smile warmed her countenance. "My thought process is a bit more 'intuitive' than Lord Sarutobi's. With any luck," she said with a toss of her head, "that'll turn out to be a good thing."
And Finally…
"Oh, I see now, Yuudai," gasped the older man in a voice dripping with sarcasm and know-it-all middle-age as he struggled up the stairway then hunched to catch his breath when he, at last, reached the top-floor landing. "We just happen to be passing through the Leaf Village and YOU want to go on a tour of its tenements."
"Aw, would you give me a break this one time?" grumbled the younger, a sunburned wraith with calloused hands, dirty boots and hopelessly-stained work clothes, whose eyes settled on the apartment door as if it were a puzzle. "And I said you should wait for me."
"But the caravan's going to leave without us!"
"So GO, Isao! I'll catch up," Yuudai blurted then went to the balcony's questionable-looking railing, looked up squinting, and found that this was indeed as high as they could go.
"And get yelled at for losing you? No way! Not THIS time!"
"Well then MAYBE you could help."
"Help? With what?" Isao complained, then straightened his flat-topped cap and embroidered jacket. "What are we doing here?" He looked around and his nose wrinkled. "This is a place where…where spiders and pigeons go to die."
"Will you stop?" barked Yuudai with useless insistence as he looked again at the door. "This has gotta be it."
"Gotta be what?"
Yuudai rolled his eyes. "The place that Ichi-ban ramen guy told me to go – the top apartment."
"What are you talking about?
The younger man paused for a breath then glared at Isao. "Are you TRYING to drive me crazy?"
Isao watched as Yuudai un-slung his haversack and produced a stout, cardboard tube about a foot long, capped at the ends. "You still haven't delivered that?" he pestered. "You've had it for…for, well, for a long time now! Months and months!"
"Four months, I know, I know."
"Well why didn't you deliver it sooner?"
"Because there was a damn WAR going on last time we were gonna come to Konohagakure no Sato," Yuudai plead. "Even that ninja delivery service doesn't deliver to war zones, especially when it's three hidden villages going at it."
Isao frowned and rubbed his slack chin. "Alright, alright," he seemed to accept for the moment. "But listen, look at this place. Nobody could live HERE. You'd have a damn heart attack climbing all those damn stairs every day."
The younger man looked around critically. "Yeah, I guess you're right," he agreed, crestfallen, then urged at once: "Come on, let's check down one floor."
The pair went back to the stairway but ended up giving way instead to the small, wild-haired, blond boy who trudged tiredly up it then staggered past them, his youthful, peach-colored face covered in ugly, red welts.
The older man looked down at the kid's ragged expression then his blue boots, the lurid orange pants and jacket, and lastly the shock of bright yellow hair, barely contained by a blue hitai-ate, that made him the spitting-image of a living dandelion. "Sheesh," he muttered derisively to his junior, "look at this, the circus must be in town."
The boy stopped dead in his tracks then spun with surprising vigor. "WHAT was that?!" he growled.
"Nothing, kid, nothing!" Yuudai prevailed. "Forget it; this old guy's an idiot."
Frowning, the orange newcomer's mood retreated again into hibernation as he slowly turned back around.
"Yeah, kid, I didn't mean anything by it," Isao added cloyingly despite Yuudai frantically waving him off, "besides, you shouldn't be mad at me, you should be mad at whoever sold you those CLOTHES. They had a meeeeeeean sense of humor."
The old man startled then as he suddenly found the boy up in his chest yelling at him, so close that the kid's boots were almost treading on his toes. "Hey!" bellowed the blond in a voice shrill and gravelly, "don't you see this headband? That means I'm not just 'some kid' but a big-time ninja! Naruto Uzumaki! Ninja-legend and future Hokage!"
Isao, unimpressed, clutched his hands to his bosom in mock admiration. "Oooooh, I'm so impressed by the little --."
"WAIT!" said the younger companion in an urgent voice that sliced through the intensity of their altercation, then stared at the boy. "Did you say 'Naruto Uzumaki'?
"Um, yeah," a stunned Naruto replied blankly. "Have…have you really heard about me?"
The man giggled like a lunatic. "I sure have!" he crowed then thrust the cardboard tube into the boy's chest, nodded with great satisfaction then said to Isao: "Let's go."
"Wait!" said the yellow-haired leaf-ninja who stared at his unexpected present. "What is this?"
The messengers continued down the stairway. "Dunno kid!" the younger one deigned to answer. "Open it and find out!"
The genin frowned, leaned over the railing and wailed at them: "But who's it FROM?"
"Dunno!" Yuudai's voice answered back, growing ever more distant with each passing step. "Not my problem! Maybe you won a contest or something. Maybe it's a subpoena. Whatever it is, it's all yours now! Hell, you can throw it out if you want to; I've done MY job!"
The boy's bright, sapphire eyes narrowed to slits as he looked after the two men then at what they'd given him.
"Weirdoes," he grumbled then went to the door to his apartment, unlocked it and went in for the first time in several days.
Going on missions was part of ninja life and though he loved the adventure there was something he hated about being away from home for so long. He always seemed to MISS stuff, like some big fight that had happened a few days ago in Senju Park which people were still talking about.
"Figures I'd miss it," Naruto lamented, shut the door, dropped his package on his table then went immediately to the refrigerator.
Having learned the hard way NOT to eat any perishables that had more than one color and texture and to check the milk's expiration date, the boy quickly discovered that those simple rules excluded everything he had in stock. Naruto groaned, then smiled as he went to his favorite go-to food – instant ramen! It NEVER went bad!
Pouring a pot full of tap water, he put it on the stove to boil which always took FOREVER especially when he was THIS hungry. Meanwhile, he looked through the abundant medical supplies Sakura had insisted he take for anything he could put on his bee stings. The young leaf-ninja's hand settled finally on a tub of promising-looking ointment, but by then the unwatched pot was boiling over!
Once he'd eaten and had beaten down the hunger pangs, Naruto cast a sly look toward the cardboard tube he'd been given then smiled mischievously as he crept up on it like it was a cricket that might jump away. Although tired from his long trip home and really, really wanting to get some rest, the sheer novelty, the mystery of this arrival teased him.
'Open me!' said the tube in his imagination. 'It's a surprise!'
The genin giggled -- a hard, satisfying giggle that engaged his entire body. Inside could be…anything. Absolutely ANYTHING! The sense of anticipation was truly delicious, and Naruto could swear he could literally taste it!
It was a shame to open this thing really, then…then it would just turn out to be whatever it was which was bound to disappoint. How could it not? No matter what definitive 'something' lay within, it could only fall short of the broad spectrum of things encompassed by 'anything'.
The blond ninja put the tip of his tongue between his teeth, raised the tube close to his ear, closed his eyes and gave it a shake, listening intently. No rattle, just a plain old document of some kind sliding around in there.
Oh, ok, Naruto said to himself, rolled his eyes, then opened the tube and dumped out its contents – a short scroll of calligraphy paper. The boy made a face, untied the string that bound it then glossed over the admirable brushstrokes.
Naruto:
I am alive, my friend, though I know it must be difficult to believe…
"WHAT THE?!" gasped Naruto, his blue eyes popping wide, then began again. Focusing intently, the young ninja gripped the paper's edges tight and tried to slow down from trying to read faster than he could process until at last he made it through the first paragraph.
Haku, the name flashed in his mind along with a riot of intense emotions and memories. Haku is…is ALIVE!
'You'll catch cold if you sleep here, wake up,' Naruto remembered the calm, maternal voice that had roused him in that Wave Country forest, then the angelic face he'd awoken too who's grey eyes regarded him with such concern, such kindness; maybe the second person in all the world to ever look at him like that.
But it's…it's IMPOSSIBLE! his thoughts boiled. Haku…Kakashi's chidori?! Naruto tried to read on, to read the author's long list of things he apologized for but the strange, slender shinobi's voice whispered hauntingly in the boy's head: 'I have my dreams as you have yours.'
There was something written then about a girl and then the Mist's ANBU – an implacable team of five.
'When a person has something important to protect, that is when they truly become strong,' Haku advised him once again.
Senbon flashed. Sasuke grimaced, cried out then fell to his knees, punctured muscles quivering and face constricted with agony. From all around them, the Demon's Apprentice's white, masked face looked out impassively from the shimmering mirror planes of the prison his kekkei-genkai had constructed around them.
But-but-but, they BURIED Haku! I stood at his GRAVE! Naruto gulped breathlessly. Oh, MAN!
Some big fight and then, a new life under a new name.
'The whole time,' rasped Zabuza as he lay near to death, 'his heart was breaking.'
Whether an hour or a minute had gone by, it was hard to tell. But a window of blessed calm opened in Naruto's fevered mind during which his eyes lowered and read quite clearly:
…and I feel as though, no, I am quite certain I have you to thank in part for this. Throughout my recent trials you have never been far from my thoughts – your acceptance of me as I truly am; your kindness and your courage, the memory of which helped guide me through these difficult times.
So I wanted you to know, even if you cannot forgive me, how grateful I am to have met you and how very much you've meant to me.
--H
Naruto stared at the letter, face frozen, blue eyes unblinking but swimming in the euphoric turbulence of his thoughts. A shiver traveled through him as the whole world shrank down to just him and the letter he clutched, held open between trembling hands. This was much more than just a sheet of paper -- it was a bridge that spanned time, distance and even the unfathomable boundaries between life and death…connecting Naruto to the very first friend he'd ever had.
Suddenly, the young ninja bolted, fleeing in such haste that he was gone long before the fluttering, abandoned scroll came to rest on the apartment floor…with the wide-open door swaying gently in the draft.
End of Part 1.
I do hope you liked that. Thanks so much for reading. Please let me know what you think :D. 'Till next time! --Jonohex.
That concludes the first 'story arc' of Kirigakure's Shore called Mission to Konohagakure.
The next arc in this story is called Snow Angels -- An artifact left at Haku's grave leads the young ninja in a search for the secrets to his ancestry. Meanwhile, Wave Country's building-boom continues apace, but what exactly is it becoming? Chuuya and Inari continue their training, and Naruto learns that Haku is alive.
