Hi, reader. Hope you're having a great summer and that you like Chapter 19.

-Jono'


The Sacrifice

In the catacombs under the Mizukage's palazzo a lone, hooded figure dressed in a cascade of indigo robes sat in a small boat, floating along in a cavernous expanse of arch-topped columns on a mirror of black, unaided by candle or lamp. The only illumination present at all came from pale, grate-covered portals open to the bleak and baleful Water Country sky high above.

Like Charon in this underworld, the man arrived at a subterranean pier then made his way to a shrine of rough-cut stone rising from the darkness, beckoned by a flickering glow in its one corbelled opening and the sounds of someone knocking around, whistling to keep themselves company.

The man went to the portal and stopped; his tormented eyes, sleep-starved, dull and haunted, squinted hard as they adjusted to the lamplight.

Within, a series of statues, each a hellish chimaera of man and monster more horrifying than the last, twisted up the walls of the hemispherical chamber while a solitary custodian swept the floor.

As the shrouded stranger paced inside, the shrine's occupant, a gaunt and pock-mocked scarecrow of skin, bone and stained coveralls, startled with a fearful, convulsive gasp.

"Mister!" he shrieked in alarm, stammering in thick, provincial patios: "You should not be here. It is forbidden. You must leave now, Sir. You must!"

Stick skinny though he was, the lone guardian moved to enforce his words with only a push-broom for a weapon but then stopped cold with a constricted look overcoming his weathered face. The janitor threw himself down on his knees where he bowed his head thrice to the floor.

"Lord Oku!" he groveled reverently. "Please forgive me. I did not realize it was you."

With his impassive face betraying nothing, the visitor, none other than the Fourth Water Shadow of the Village Hidden in the Mist, paced past the man toward the center of the shrine where he regarded each of the ghastly statues in turn.

Raising a hand to his heavily-bandaged throat he asked in a dry croak, "your name?"

The attendant's eyes flickered around the room, as if surely someone of this lofty stature couldn't possibly be asking HIM. "Me, Sir?" he peeped in a cowed, humble whisper, but in this gloomy chamber even that echoed. "It's – it's Krishenay…Krishenay Rahaman.

"My lord," the janitor added, "may I say how very happy I am to see you alive and safe; how blessed we all are that you and your loyal shinobi were able at last to fight off that despicable Zabuza Momochi person and his gang of traitors and cutthroats. All Heaven and Earth be praised!"

The ninja lord gave a noncommittal grunt then knelt in the center of the chamber. From his robes he drew out, not a scroll but a document infinitely older - a codex dating from a time long before even the First Mizukage - then lay it open on the stone floor.

"M-m-m…my lord?" Krishenay whispered fearfully, canting his head to peer around the Mizukage's back as the shinobi pressed his hands together in a seal and began to mutter, gesturing toward the eight directions.

After a time the darkness answered him, welling at first, then rising and falling in eerie, disjointed harmony with Lord Oku's invocation. In a breath it waxed to fill the room, closing around the workman's lanterns and smothering them down to nothing but pitiful, pinprick spots floating in an enveloping sea of supernatural black that reared up to swallow both master and servant alike.

Succumbing to terror, the gangly janitor huddled on the floor with arms clutched around his head, stammering prayers while the shinobi's cryptic tones turned to conversation as he negotiated with parties unseen.

"Lord Oku, please," begged Krishenay, "you-you cannot really be speaking with the demons of this shrine, can you?"

The entire world, heaven and earth, sea and sky dissolved into a black oblivion until, much to man's relief, the shadows suddenly retreated – as if the ink, once spilled, had decided to flow back into its bottle, leaving only himself and the Mizukage who harkened then canted his head toward the monstrous gargoyles; their leering, half-hidden faces and crouching bodies brushed by dancing, orange firelight.

"You must have…" uttered the ninja lord in a sepulchral voice, "a sacrifice to seal the bargain?" Oku turned toward Krishenay, his blue robes flowing after him, and, without a second thought, raised a pointing finger at him.

Before the startled janitor's eyes could even widen, a flapping shape blurred from one of the statues, tore through both coveralls and skin then shoved itself into his body. As the Mizukage looked on, countless more shapes flew from the statues, one after another, some flapping, others crawling, slithering, skittering, galloping or hopping like frogs or fleas. From hapless Krishenay's body, a torrent of steaming, blood-drenched organs and clattering, ivory bones flew to make room for a host of occupants until all were housed within like an overstuffed sack.

At length 'Krishenay' rose…greatly transformed.

Like a rogue marionette, the giant of a figure wobbled with wooden unsteadiness, its bulging eyes swiveling in different directions, swollen arms groping at nothing, thick fingers flexing in spasms until it finally mastered the coordination necessary to come before the Mizukage and stand.

Even in its stillness, disconcerting shapes wriggled and writhed beneath the surface of the former janitor's stretched skin.

"And so, Lord Kouji Oku," it began in a voice not even close to human, "in trade for returning us to this land after so long a-time, what would you have of us?"

The ninja lord's slack cheek twitched. "Follow me," he said simply as he turned to go.


Haku

They died by the hundreds, both day and night, and all were thrown in ... ditches and covered with earth. And as soon as those ditches were filled, more were dug. And I, Agnolo di Tura ... buried my five children with my own hands ... And so many died that all believed it was the end of the world.

The Plague in Siena: An Italian Chronicle

The condition of the people was pitiable to behold. They sickened by the thousands daily, and died unattended and without help. Many died in the open street, others dying in their houses, made it known by the stench of their rotting bodies. Consecrated churchyards did not suffice for the burial of the vast multitude of bodies, which were heaped by the hundreds in vast trenches, like goods in a ships hold...

Giovanni Boccacci (1313-1375)


Behind the almost-comforting anonymity of a mist-ANBU mask and with a disguised and masked Naruto Uzumaki in tow, Zabuza's apprentice paced along the old stone and brick-paved streets of the city he'd once found so familiar. Though little had changed in the two years he'd been away, those two years since the streets, canals and even the halls of the Mizukage's palazzo had rung with the sounds of shouts, clashing steel and crackling flames of his master's rebellion, Haku couldn't help but feel like the fugitive criminal he had become.

Cutting through an alleyway that zigzagged around the Mitsumori Precincts, the two shinobi made their way along, then over a arched bridge across, the murky waters of the Juzo Canal to where a broad boulevard flared dramatically into the Piazza del Sangre'. There the Third Mizukage, remembered for all posterity in the form of a bronze titan, towered majestically against the perpetually leaden sky, compassed by an array of mythical monsters and flowing fountains.

Along the way, the Mist Village's poor citizens veered around Haku and his shorter, yellow-haired companion, crossing cautiously to the other side of the street or turning away to take a different route entirely. Most of them were so accustomed to avoiding their own village's shinobi that they weren't even necessarily aware they were doing it; the act itself had become as reflexive and natural as breathing.

How different a place this was from Wave Country, his adopted home, Haku thought, or the happier streets of the Hidden Leaf Village whose shinobi were its protectors.

Everyone here seemed to hunker - moving slowly so as not to draw attention with their energy, frowning to avoid the appearance of any emotion more suspicious, wearing drab colors in case a brighter one might warrant retaliation. And who could blame them, living year after year in such a place as this, mired in fear and poverty?

Maybe death would come as a relief, considered Haku as the grim notion, no less terrible for its subtlety, passed unhelpfully through the teenager's mind but was quickly dismissed; it was just that kind of fatalistic notion his master might have expressed. In any case, he hadn't come all this way just to change his mind now.

"Hey, uh, Haku," said Naruto in a strained whisper through the ANBU mask the young shinobi still, clearly, wasn't quite used to, "it's really weird here; a lot worse than I thought."

Without breaking stride, Haku only nodded and grunted in agreement though just hearing his teammate's friendly, reassuring voice buoyed him.

But he wondered if bringing Naruto along might have been a colossal mistake. Granted, the hyperactive blond had some skill, great reserves of power and, at times, surprising cleverness. For all of that though, the genin was still very much an unknown factor, inexperienced and not exactly suited for a mission like this one which required quiet steps, a closed mouth…and a cold heart.

So why did I do it? the young constable found himself asking. Because I didn't want to tell him 'no'? Because I didn't want to go it alone?

How weak; how stupid, a wincing Haku concluded.

If anything happens to Naruto, it will be my fault much more than his. I'm older, a veteran. I'm supposed to know better.

Another thing that weighed on the constable, other than the truly horrifying consequences should this mission fail…was that Naruto cared about him.

Why that insight should linger in his mind and suddenly seem so troubling, Haku really didn't know. He'd been Zabuza's partner on scores of missions and other equally-dangerous adventures with great success for the better part, and he'd loved Zabuza.

Maybe it's just a matter of confidence, Haku supposed. Master Zabuza would never have endangered himself or done anything foolish on my behalf were I in peril. Then too, Zabuza so rarely ever found himself in any situation from which a slice or two from his zanbato would not free him.

Behind his mask the young ninja could only smile bleakly, remembering the warm sense of security he'd felt in those days as the Demon of the Hidden Mist's apprentice. He really HAD been pretty naïve.

But if anything happens to Naruto…

"So," asked the subject of his thoughts, interrupting the fugitive's ruminations just then with a surprisingly practical question: "how're we gonna find these guys we're looking for? I mean, look at all the people! And this place is a rat-maze." The blond glanced around then growled in a whisper, "not to mention crawling with mist-ninjas. How come there's so many?"

After a few steps, Haku answered, "The Ascension Ceremonies are this week. Unlike many of the hidden villages that have formal tests and examinations for promotion to chunin and jonin, the Mist Village requires the completion of particularly difficult or dangerous missions. The new ranks are then awarded in a formal graduation. Shinobi are expected to attend, especially if they're from one of the old clans." The teenager cocked his head. "As for your first question...I was kind of hoping you wouldn't ask."

"What!" Naruto's voice cracked from beneath his mask, drawing sharp, worried looks from already-skittish passers-by. "Are you kidding me?"

"Shhh," Haku snapped.

"Are you kidding me?" the blond echoed in a tone that was softer but no less insistent. "You don't have that part figured out?"

The slender teenager let out a breath. "Well…I kind of have an idea, but it's risky." Haku stopped and looked into Naruto's masked face, catching a glimpse of his friend's blue eyes beneath. "I have to consult an old enemy – Miss Aya Sakamoto."

Naruto paused then straightened in thought. "Y'mean that medical-nin who was with Yamashite's team?"

"Yes, that's her," Haku confirmed soberly. "She ended up saving my life rather than taking it. I don't know why she did that but I'm hoping she doesn't have any regrets."

"Hmm." Sapphire eyes flickered. "And what if she does? Or what if she's not around?"

Haku was glad for his mask, doubting his yellow-haired partner would much like the troubled expression that crossed his face just then. "Let's," he demurred delicately, "cross that bridge when we come to it."


Inari

Inari awoke with the floor under his back feeling especially hard this morning. That, despite all the efforts he'd gone through to pile up Naruto's clothes into an improvised mattress. Still groggy, the black-haired Wave Country boy yawned, blinked bleary, dark eyes then pushed himself up, moaning as he did with the aches and pains of a man many decades his senior.

Swiveling his head toward Naruto's unmade bed, the ten-year old noticed that Chuuya was already up – a surprising thing because his partner was the one who usually slept in.

The two had tried to share the bed at first but Chuuya tossed and turned in his sleep, murmured and made funny sounds, all of which would have made things untenable enough for Inari even if Naruto's bed had been big enough for more than one to begin with.

Switching back and forth seemed like the only reasonable solution.

Heaven and Earth, I wish I was home, he moaned to himself.

Staggering to the bathroom, Inari caught the sounds and smells of instant ramen cooking in the kitchen and couldn't help but shudder and shake his head. Instant ramen for every meal was really getting old, but at least Chuuya was making it this time. Inari frowned then tried to count himself lucky that his 'roommate' had about as many virtues as vices.

After showering, brushing his teeth and putting on the same sink-washed clothes he'd worn every day for the last few, Inari paced to what served as the apartment's main living area – a combined living room, dining room and kitchen - then startled. He himself was already there, sitting at the table with a noodle hanging out of his mouth!

Inari stared dumbly for a moment at his identical twin who sucked up the noodle, struck a pose, opened his arms then cried: "TA-DA!"

Tazuna's grandson burst out laughing then gave his partner a short but sincere round of applause. "Nice job, Chuuya!" cheered Inari rewardingly. "You got the Transformation Jutsu."

The other Inari nodded. "I just woke up, came out here and tried it and it worked!" he said with a grin as he adjusted his teal overalls and floppy, white hat. "I guess I was still kinda tired so I couldn't force it too much like I was doing. But yeah!"

Inari leveled a look and raised his hands. "Ok, you're really creeping me out being me. Can you change back."

Inari-number-two put his hands together in a seal. "Release," he declared boldly and, in a burst of dispersing chakra, was Chuuya Tezuka once again.

The original nodded in appreciation. "That's great," he gushed hesitantly, "just…great; it's really gonna help us out."

Chuuya smiled at first then gave the smaller boy a supportive grin, reading the nuances in the other apprentice ninja's voice with shocking perspicacity. "Don't worry," he said, "I won't rest…and I won't let YOU rest either until you got Cannon Fist too."

Inari nodded in embarrassment, knowing how stupid it was to feel setback somehow at his friend's progress.

"We succeed as a team, right?" offered Chuuya with a broad, bright smile.

Inari straightened and grinned back at his partner wholeheartedly. "Right!"


Haku

The Mist Village's hospital was right where Haku remembered; a drab and imposing five-story, painfully institutional-looking building clad in grey stone with the same pediment-lintel windows repeating every few feet.

Proceeding inside, with worried looks following them everywhere they went, the two ANBU-uniformed ninjas paced through the wards and dormitories, around corridors with endless patient rooms on one side and a grid of wired-glass, factory-sash windows on the other overlooking a chain of dreary courtyards, until at last Haku found the kunoichi he was looking for.

"Miss Sakamoto," greeted Haku from behind his zodiac mask.

The medical-nin glanced up from her patient and an unsettled look passed at once over her young face. "Yes?" she began uneasily. "Is something…is something wrong?"

The petite and pretty, black-haired girl seemed so different dressed in a white lab coat rather than the militant mist-ninja garb and hitai-ate she'd worn before as part of Pack-Leader Toru Yamashite's ANBU team. Having only caught a few glimpses of her in Wave Country, Haku though it fortunate that he recognized her at all.

"May we speak in private?"

The young woman nodded then lead the two to her tiny office, making sure to close the door behind them. Even here lingered the faint stink of cleansers and antiseptics.

"Who," inquired Aya with barely-suppressed anxiety, "who are you? What's this all about?"

After a hesitant pause, Haku removed his mask at which the kunoichi startled with a quick breath.

"It's you!" she squeaked. "What are you doing here? You shouldn't -."

"I need to find someone," Haku interrupted gravely, "someone who intends to destroy this village; someone who, I've learned, is very capable of doing so."

The mist-ninja's lips quivered, fingers pressed against her chin in shocked disbelief. In a room this small, there hardly seemed room for the history they shared or what Zabuza Momochi's former student had just revealed.

"I realize this is sudden and unwelcome," Haku explained uncomfortably, "that just my being here puts you in danger and that you have no reason at all to trust me. Despite that, I've come anyway because I need your help."

Aya, finally, slumped in her chair behind a little desk cluttered with files, medical texts and charts, and slowly composed herself. "You…," she began in flustered tones as her guests sat down also, "Am I to understand - you want to save the Mist Village?"

As his grey eyes rose towards her dark ones, Haku gave an awkward smile. "I know what that must sound like. But I am not who my master was."

"I don't understand," said the kunoichi, shaking her head in confusion. "Why me? Why not -?"

"Because you're the only one I know who can help," the young constable finished. "Please, Aya. You saved my life before. You must have thought I was worth the effort; or maybe it was only because your sensei did. Is it really so strange that I would feel that way about others too?"

"Come ON already, sister!" blurted the still-masked Naruto suddenly, lurching forward with an emphatic wave of his arm. "Haku's trying to SAVE this stupid place and you're holdin' up the whole freakin' show!"

Haku shot the genin a mortified look. "Enough," he warned crossly.

The blond crossed his arms, straightened his mask then hung his head, pouting as he grumbled: "Fine."

A long, really awkward silence followed.

"Who," asked the very puzzled medical-nin in a tentative voice, "is that?"

Haku made a face then sighed. "It's really better for everyone if you didn't know."

Slumping back in her seat, the only genuine mist-ninja in the room dropped her hands into her lap. "What do you want me to do?"

The slender shinobi went to his pack and withdrew a case. Inside was an airtight evidence bag containing a handkerchief mottled with reddish brown and milky yellow crusts.

"I have some of the man's blood," explained the constable, "so I had in mind that you lend me the use of your Stalking Eels Jutsu to find him. I should warn you that this sample undoubtedly contains powerful pathogens. If I," Haku began, looked at Naruto, then amended: "if we fail…then the consequences will fall on you and your medical staff. I trust you understand now."

Aya's eyes widened in comprehension. "I…If everything you said is true then I can't just keep this a secret," the ANBU muttered gravely as she fixed her visitors with a bleak look, "even if it means letting the Mizukage know that you're still alive and that I tended your injuries back in Wave Country. This is just -. It's bigger than me."

Haku nodded in soft, hesitant acceptance. "As much as I wish you to preserve my secrets, for your sake as well as my own, I would not expect you to. All I need," explained the teenager, his thin, dark brows narrowing seriously, "is your jutsu and one day to complete this mission – my way, with as little loss of life as possible."


Inari

Sitting across from one another at Naruto's little dining room table, Chuuya and Inari stared down at 'gama-chan'. Gama-chan was a money pouch that looked just like a little green, puppet frog, the mouth of which was the opening, and was where Naruto kept what cash and coin he had.

"Ok," began Inari, stating the obvious, "we need to get some food." The Wave Country boy looked up meaningfully. "Go ahead, Chuuya, but don't take too much. We might have to live off what Naruto left us for awhile."

Chuuya returned a painful frown. "Naw," he began, reluctantly magnanimous, and shook his round, bowling-ball head. "You can go. Now that I can do the Transformation Jutsu, I can handle being Naruto if someone comes around. We should at least do rock/paper/scissors or flip a coin or something to see who gets to go." The larger ten-year old straightened adamantly before remarking: "It's only fair."

Inari smiled in appreciation of his teammate's gesture. "No, it makes more sense for you to go. I've known Naruto longer, so I can probably do him better. Plus, you've been dying to get out and see more of the Leaf Village."

Chuuya grimaced a little but nodded. He could hardly deny it.

"Go on and look around a little bit," Inari allowed with a degree of caution, "just don't get carried away, ok? And be careful?"

The other black-haired boy grinned. "No problem," he declared keenly. "I'll be back before you know it."

Taking a bit of money from gama-chan, leaving the poor frog a little skinnier, Chuuya went to the door and undid the latch followed by Inari who, turning himself into Naruto, opened it a little and checked that the coast was clear.

It's all up to Chuuya now, thought Inari with a funny look on his face. Who'd have ever thought that his first dangerous, super-top-secret solo ninja mission would be to get some groceries?


Haku

With Naruto hurrying beside him, Haku followed Aya's jutsu-conjured eel as it slithered effortlessly through the air unhindered and unnoticed by the Mist Village crowds. With the possible exception of Naruto having invited himself along, everything else was going much, much better than he'd ever expected. Still, behind his white, ANBU mask, the ninja's eyes steeled in concentration.

"Do you think Aya'll wait for us like she said?" asked his yellow-haired partner.

"I don't know, Naruto. I can only hope so, and that she won't go straight to the ANBU or the Mizukage himself. Not that I could blame her if she did.

"If I was a much cleverer shinobi," sighed Haku self-consciously, "I would have thought of a better way, but as things are we'll just have to trust her."

Something bumped against Haku's leg just then and the startled teenager whirled to look down at the small figure who'd run into him – a skinny, brown-haired boy wearing a threadbare, black coat who looked to be about Inari's age, more or less. The cuffs of his baggy, grey pants spilled out over too-big boots.

That Haku hadn't even noticed his approach said a lot about the ninja's preoccupation.

The equally-surprised boy gaped in horror as his eyes fixed wide on the fugitive and his partner's mist-ninja uniforms and zodiac-masked faces - maybe, from his experience, the faces of death itself. Backpedaling away as if from a nest of venomous snakes, the boy staggered, wheeled, then ran for his life.

Haku turned his attention back to the clots of people moving to and fro through Kirigakure's narrow streets and, of course, Aya's elusive eel.

Despite the many things lacking, possibly, in that boy's life, thought the former Demon's Apprentice, the terrified look on his face had said one thing clearly enough – that he wanted to live.

And he should have that choice, Haku concluded at once, bolstered by the encounter, then set forth with renewed determination.

As the watery eel flew on, leading the two ninjas back toward the grandest of Kirigakure's plazas, Haku felt certain he was on the right track. The man he was looking for was sure to be there - where the people were, the most fertile field in which to sew his hideous infections. And no place in the Hidden Mist Village was as crowded as the Piazza del Sangre'.


Chuuya

A thrilling sense of freedom and exhilaration filled him the instant he stepped out the door to Naruto's apartment onto the railed walkway. Never in his young life had he been cooped up like that. Having been deprived of sunshine and fresh air for so long, the joy he felt at this reunion was almost overwhelming.

The Wave Country boy gripped the railing and sucked in a deep, cleansing breath, letting the exotic and foreign Fire Country wind course over him. Sprawling out below and all around him – the sights, sounds, colors and scents of The Village Hidden in the Leaves! A toothy smile bloomed over Chuuya's round face. He couldn't wait to see it – ALL of it!

Over the next few hours, the boy wandered the lively streets, gawking at all the strange sights, the buildings, some ramshackle and others majestic, and, most of all, all the weird people. He stopped to gaze at the monument to the four Hokage's, whose giant, stone likenesses stared down on Konoha from the cliffs high above. Chuuya stopped for ice cream then went for a walk through Senju Park before being shooed away from the Hyuuga precincts after which he hung out by the fence around Konoha's Ninja Academy where he sized himself up against the Leaf's new crop of prospective genin.

And ninjas were everywhere - all shapes and sizes, leaping from building to building or just going about their business like they were anyone else! These weren't like the mist-ninjas back in the Land of Waves either, most of who were mean and screw-faced. These guys seemed pretty normal for the most part…other than the scars, the weapons, the funny clothes and that they were ninjas.

Having already lost track of time, Chuuya ambled carelessly along, almost colliding into a couple of men from behind. Stopping himself in the nick of time, the boy looked up at the pair and got ready to call them out for not looking where he was going, until he recognized, first by their Leaf Village uniforms then by one's brush of black hair and the other's bandana, that these were the same chunin who'd been standing guard at the east gate when he and Inari arrived a few days ago.

The Wave Country boy froze; his face a horrified grimace. He backed away then darted down a side-street, hoping and praying that the two hadn't noticed. Only after he'd taken a few turns and gotten a good distance away did Chuuya stop to rest, panting with relief.

I coulda been caught just now, the realization flooded him. They know I'm not supposed to be here; I coulda messed up the whole mission!

With the new-found righteousness that can only come from a sinner absolved, Chuuya walked straight back towards Naruto's apartment and the stalls two blocks away where vendors sold fresh produce. After buying a bagful, he went then to a convenience store, a mom-and-pop konbini, to pick up the REAL essentials.


"Looks like you're on a mission," a sanguine voice issued from above while the stocky ten-year old waited in line to pay.

Chuuya turned, came face to face with a belt-buckle then craned his round head up sharply at a very tall leaf-ninja with white hair who wore his hitai-ate slanted over his left eye. Blue fabric masked most of the rest of his face.

"What do you mean?" the Wave Country boy asked, deeply suspicious. In the back of his mind, Chuuya could swear he'd seen this guy before but couldn't remember where.

"Just that you have a lot of groceries there. Although," said the ninja, whose free eye gave the boy's purchases a once-over before it drifted back to his manga – one of 'those' books kids weren't allowed to look at, "I doubt mom and dad will like that you bought so much junk food."

"Huh!" growled Chuuya in indignation, thinking it was hardly any of this guy's business anyway, "a lot YOU know."

"Say," the leaf-ninja went on, "I know, or thought I knew, just about everyone in the Leaf Village but I've never seen you before. What's your name?"

Chuuya paused warily. "Um, I'm not supposed to say." His pudgy face lit with inspiration. "Mom told me not to talk to strangers."

The man nodded sagely. "Good advice. She couldn't possibly have meant ME though."

Chuuya shuddered, eye twitching as he simply turned around, paid for his items and did NOT slam a softball remark like that clean out of the park like he wanted to.

The tall ninja chuckled softly as the kid left. "It's nice to know that some of today's youth can show a little restraint," he remarked to himself then went back to his reading.


Naruto

Naruto's eyes flashed from face to face as he followed Aya's watery eel through a twisting maze of Mist Village alleyways.

I guess that's one advantage to wearing a mask, he thought, no one can see you looking!

Looking was probably pointless anyway, trying to find a ninja he'd never seen before in strange, crowded city like this.

And if he's using a Transformation Jutsu, the guy could look like anybody! the blond grumbled to himself then tried to remain focused instead on tracking that kiri-kunoichi's Stalking Eel.

The crowd parted a bit as the way opened into an expansive plaza, at which the little creature of water and chakra took off in a straight line toward the guard-wall of a bridge that overlooked one of the many of Kirigakure's dark-watered canals.

With a look of determination set on his face, Naruto took half a dozen more steps after it before he realized he'd left Haku behind. The young leaf-ninja skidded to a stop then turned to race back to his partner who'd suddenly froze.

"Hey!" he huffed, keeping the volume down to a stage-whisper minimum, "why'd you stop? We're gonna lose it."

"That's him," Haku reported then discreetly turned away, drawing Naruto with him into the shadows. "The older man in the baggy clothes and brown, traveler's cloak looking out over the Sumai Canal is Noriyasu Tsujita. He hasn't bothered to disguise himself." While Naruto resisted the temptation to turn and look, the Demon's Apprentice's voice dropped to an intense hiss. "I don't know who the young man with the heavy build standing next to him is. It's possible that it's Tohma, the Nikai Clan patriarch, using the Transformation Jutsu."

Naruto swallowed hard, feeling the uneasiness radiate from his normally placid friend.

It's 'cause, the blond realized, we're going to have to assassinate them.

Up until now, they'd been so caught up in the search that Naruto hardly had the time to really think about it. But that is what this whole mission was all about – killing a couple of people so that a lot more might live.

Of course Naruto had read about, heard about, and seen in movies and manga all kinds of other missions and stories that were like this but now that it was real, now that he was a part of it, it didn't seem nearly so simple.

Killing someone just to get your way, just because you think it's right, the genin considered; there's GOTTA be something wrong with that.

Assassination, he found himself asking as a grimace came to his whisker-marked face, it's just another word for murder, isn't it?

And it didn't seem like the ugly necessity it was sometimes made out to be, but just a complete and total failure. It meant that someone hadn't been smart enough or had the courage enough to find another way, a BETTER way. It meant that all that was left was something stupid and simple – to kill.

Didn't it?

Knowing that the lives of everyone in Kirigakure hung in the balance, it was hard not to doubt his reservations, heartfelt though they were.

Naruto glanced at his partner. Haku had spent eight years as a killer's disciple. Having gone through everything he'd gone through since Zabuza's death, the young leaf-shinobi knew that a killer was the last thing he wanted to be now. It had been the last thing Haku ever wanted to be in the first place!

Beneath his ANBU mask, Naruto's burning, blue eyes softened with concern.

No wonder this is so hard for him.

"Ok, Naruto," the former Demon's Apprentice explained severely. "I will take out the targets. You keep watch, provide backup and cover for our escape if it becomes necessary. If I succeed, then you will follow me at a distance while my water clones take the frozen bodies to a foundry about a mile northeast of here for safe disposal. Should I fail then I will attempt to keep them occupied while you get into position to kill Tsujita yourself. If we both fail then (provided either of us are still alive) we will have to inform Aya and it will fall to her to pass the situation up the appropriate channels. At that point it will be out of our hands.

"Keep in mind, Naruto, we can not afford any kind of protracted engagement or we risk discovery after which we will surely be overwhelmed. Never forget," said Haku who nodded toward the canals, "we're surrounded by both kiri-ninjas and an unlimited source of water which puts us at a great disadvantage.

"If things go bad," Haku went on, "drop smoke bombs, create as many shadow clones as you can and send them running off in every direction as a diversion. If we get separated, don't wait for me. If I fall, don't put yourself at risk to rescue me; no heroics. Do whatever you have to do to get back to the Shingen Aqueduct and from there back to Konoha. Do you understand?"

"Got it," Naruto barked convincingly, knowing it wasn't true even as he said it.

After having failed so many times in his life when it really counted, with Sasuke, with the Third Hokage, and even with Haku the first time, one thing was sure - there was no way he'd EVER leave Haku behind, not for any reason, not under any circumstances; even if it meant having to take down every mist-ninja in the place!

Though it was impossible to tell Haku's thoughts or even read his face through his ANBU mask, the older ninja's conflict over what he now had to do was pretty evident.

"Hey," Naruto whispered then dropped a comforting hand on his friend's shoulder. However the genin felt about the idea of killing someone in cold blood, even if the reasons were good, Naruto knew that this was not the time or place to have that argument. "It's ok," he offered confidently in his high, raspy voice. "I know you'll do the right thing, whatever it is."

Haku remained still for a moment, nodded then wove his fingers together for a jutsu.


Inari

After an unapologetically-loud series of knocks lasting several minutes, Inari, using his Transformation Jutsu to look like a very ill and tired-looking Naruto Uzumaki, opened the door a crack and peered out.

"Hiya, Boss!" a kind of a stupid-looking, brown-eyed kid with a thicket of spiky, brown hair greeted with a wave then abruptly pushed his way in.

Inari startled at the strange, obnoxious boy's presumptive entry…and then at his outfit! Blue-banded goggles circled this kid's forehead like a hitai-ate, and a long, LONG, blue scarf wrapped around his neck a few times, dropped down over a mustard-yellow t-shirt with the Leaf Village's sigil on it, way past open-toe booted feet to where it trailed along the ground like a tail.

Right behind him, almost on his heels, followed a buoyant red-haired girl and another, kind of lethargic-looking, boy wearing big, round glasses. And both of them wore goggles too!

"Uh, hi, hey," muttered 'Naruto' who staggered back, a little surprised, then stared in bewilderment at his trio of unwelcome visitors.

The red-head drew up to Inari, bowed and smiled. She had large, doe eyes, rosy cheeks, and wore a red vest over a pink shirt, but what was most striking was her vivid, orange hair which was pulled up into two, tall, thick, tapering columns gathered at the top to form a 'V'.

"Hi, Naruto!" she piped energetically. "We heard you've been sick and came right over to cheer you up!"

"Oh, yeah, that's, uh, that's great," the faux-Naruto rasped awkwardly while the girl's two friends wandered around the room like they owned the place.

"We just HAD to come over and see how you're doing!" the kid with the spiky hair laughed, stopped and looked down quizzically at the dining room table and all the stuff that had piled up on it since Chuuya's shopping trip. "Hey, what's all this?" he asked.

"Looks like dominoes, Konohamaru," said 'glasses'.

The girl turned toward Naruto. "Oh! I didn't know you played."

Naruto, caught a little off-balance, rubbed the back of his head and answered: "yeah, well…I-I haven't been feeling good so I got a lot of time to kill, y'know."

"You got two chairs set up…and two drinks too," Konohamaru noticed.

Inari didn't hear him because he was staring at the kid with the glasses: a sad-eyed boy with chestnut hair who wore a stiff, blue jacket worn over long, khaki shorts. From under his young nose, a thin trail of mucus glistened.

"Um," the jutsu-disguised Wave Country boy ventured, a little grossed-out, "can I get you a tissue or something?"

"Huh?" said the boy who whipped out a handkerchief, "oh, no thanks, I got my own."

"MAN!" brayed Konohamaru. "Are you drinking fruit punch AND black tea? Peanut butter, caramel corn, cherry almonds, candy bars, salty pretzels, bananas, garlic pickles – are you really eating ALL of this? No wonder you've been sick. And," he observed, noticing the gama-chan money purse and the two separate kitties, "you're playing yourself…for money?"

"Come ON, Konohamaru, don't be so stupid," the girl explained as she let her hands fall to her sides. "He's obviously been playing with one of his shadow-clones."

"Um, yeah, that's right," Naruto affirmed with a vigorous nod.

"…And your clone had his own drink and snacks?" ventured Konohamaru, his head cocked like a confused puppy.

Naruto shrugged and nodded.

"And you were playing for money."

The genin's blue eyes lifted in thought. "It's – it's more exciting like that!"

"I like to read a lot when I'm sick," the boy with the basset-hound eyes volunteered. "Actually I've never really been SICK sick, I'm kind of sick all the time. Maybe it's allergies, I don't know, but I meant whenever I get hurt training or something."

The red-head girl gave a merry giggle. "You read all the time anyway, Udon!"

"Hmm, I guess you're right."

"Look, guys," announced Naruto in a tired voice through an affected, rasping cough, "I'm still not really feeling very good. Maybe you could come back later, like, next week or something?"

Of the three, the girl was the only one who took the not-so-subtle hint. "Come on, you two," she urged in a more authoritative tone, "let's let Naruto get some rest. I hope you feel better, Naruto, 'cause we really, really miss you even if it's only been a few days."

The genin smiled weakly and gave her a grateful nod.

"Um, yeah," agreed Konohamaru after some hesitation as he joined his red-headed partner, "sure, Moegi."

Udon, realizing he was about to be left behind, hurried to get in line with his friends. "Get well soon!" he offered good-naturedly.

Konohamaru, the last to go, gave the blond a curious, upward look. "Yeah, Boss, get well soon."

As soon as the three were gone, Chuuya spilled out from the cabinet under the sink where he'd been hiding. "Man!" he crowed in exasperation, lifting his arms dramatically to the high heavens. "Those have GOT to be THE most nosey and annoying little brats on EARTH! What part of 'get the hell OUT' didn't they get?"

Inari, leaning against the door, slumped with relief. "Tell me about it," he slurred.

"Coming in here like that…when they KNOW you're sick! Are they stupid, or what?"

Inari nodded and made his way back to the table. "It was good, in a way," he said in an introspective tone as he sat and rested his cheek in his hand. "I mean, look at this place – it looks like two messy little kids live here. We're gonna have to be more careful and make sure we're ready the next time someone comes over. We were able to fool some kids our age but we'd never fool a real ninja if they came in here and saw all this."

"Yeah, I guess," agreed Chuuya, joining him. "Still, Naruto has some really weird friends."

Inari grinned. "Yeah," he said, laughing a little, "and what does that make US?"


Konohamaru

The three members of the Konohamaru Ninja Squad made their way down the series of stairs that lead from Naruto's top-floor apartment down to the Leaf Village streets. As they walked, the expression on their leader's young face grew gradually more serious. Without warning, the nine-year old stopped dead in his tracks.

Udon and Moegi, following right behind him, thudded off the brown-haired boy's back.

Udon straightened his glasses while Moegi gave Konohamaru's arm a hard, angry swat. "Hey! Whatdja do THAT for?"

Konohamaru's brow knitted as he looked back at her. "Did anything about that seem weird to you?"

"You mean with Naruto?" clarified Udon after a pause. He and Moegi shared a look. "Compared to what?"

"Yeah," the red-head agreed with a snorting snicker. "Naruto's really nice and everything, and a pretty strong ninja! But he's not exactly normal even when he hasn't been sick."

Konohamaru adjusted the lay of his lengthy scarf and crossed his arms. "Naw, there was something different about him. It's like…it's like he's KEEPING something from us." The ninja cadet turned toward his friends and pumped his fist into a palm, his little-kid face curdling with the determined scowl of a samurai lord. "There's something going on with Naruto; and WE'RE gonna find out WHAT!"

Udon winced with apprehensive concern; Moegi rolled her eyes, both knowing (like usual) that they'd just been volunteered.


Haku

Approaching on a path that would take him right past his targets, Haku, in the guise of an old porter on his way home from the docks, tried to clear his mind. The secret of Zabuza's instant-kill techniques was not to think about what you were about to do and just do it. Most ninja and even some untrained civilians were sensitive to deadly intent which could put them on guard even if they weren't aware of it. Zabuza's genius was that he could kill naturally, like a snake striking – without thought, without premeditation, pure 'mind of no-mind'.

There he is, Haku confirmed to himself as he drew close enough to notice Aya's eel circling in a high, distant orbit, and then the profiled features of Lord Noriyasu Tsujita's face. There's no mistaking it.

If the man looked awful before, he was much worse now. His hair had thinned almost to nothing. What remained had lost all trace of its' previous chestnut color, becoming no more than wispy straws of ashen grey. The sad, deep, basset-hound eyes that Haku remembered were sunken and hollow now, and the moist trickle beneath his nose was as much blood as phlegm.

Tsujita's guardian, a much younger, stockier man with a pallid complexion stood by but apparently couldn't see through Haku's Transformation Jutsu either.

The ninja was a little surprised that it wasn't Lord Nikai, (or, at least, he didn't appear to be). Haku had always assumed that the ninja lord would want to be on hand for the destruction of the Mist Village, but his absence made sense too if Tohma didn't want to risk exposure to his colleagues' plagues.

Which is just as well if it makes this easier, thought Haku.

To neutralize Lord Tsujita's kekkei-genkai, Haku repeated to himself, he would have to unleash the full power of his own with all the chakra he could summon, flash-freezing the man and his guardian solid.

Drawing closer, the Demon's Apprentice tried to put himself in the right mind-set – thinking about nothing, falling into a state of pure, moving zen. The teenager approached; sweat beading along his hairline, his heart beating faster despite all his techniques to calm it until he came to the optimal point for attack but then…and then…

He just…

Let the moment…

Slip.

Instead, he found himself walking past his targets; he just couldn't help it. And he kept walking…and walking, feeling frustration and shame burn under his skin with every departing step.

Now what was he going to do?

What happened to me? Haku demanded to know, seized by the breadth and scope of his failure – a bitter self-betrayal. If Zabuza had asked me to kill them, if they'd attacked my master I wouldn't have thought twice about it. What makes this so different?

The teenager slowed to a stop, heard the ninja lord behind him cough hard, then turned around. What he was about to do just now might be the most profoundly stupid thing he had ever done. At the same time Haku found himself resigned to it…since it seemed it was all he was capable of.

"Lord Tsujita," he inquired mildly, letting his jutsu fade. "Are you all right?"

The thickly-built bodyguard startled then interposed himself between the two, unblinking eyes fixed on Haku but -.

"Lord Aramata?" said Tsujita in amazement as the stricken, older man wiped his nose and mouth then peered out from behind his protector. "Is that you?"

Haku nodded, removed his mask, then ventured: "May I speak with you?"

"Yes, but Sir, you really shouldn't be here."

As the bodyguard begrudgingly but obediently gave way, Haku joined Tsujita as the man turned back to look out over the black-watered canal and the old buildings that flanked it, mirrored in its waters.

"May I ask how you found me?" inquired Tsujita who gave his visitor a fond, fleeting glance and grin.

"Ninjutsu."

"Ha!" the ninja patriarch laughed cheerily, noting, "you have a dry, good-natured sense of humor - very unusual for a ninja." By degrees the man's light-heartedness faded. "So," he quipped conversationally, "you decided to join us after all?"

The young constable shook his head then worried his lip. "I must ask you to reconsider."

Tsujita stifled a fit of coughing and smiled grimly. "It's come far too far for that, young master. Kirigakure must be punished. They must pay the price - the same one we paid."

Haku sucked in his thin lips and nodded. After all, what had he expected? "But look around," the raven-haired constable argued. "Look at all these people. Most of them weren't even born when our clans were destroyed."

"War is harsh," replied Tsujita, his rasping voice laden with fatalistic truth. "And it doesn't care about such trivial things as innocence or guilt. Fueled by memory it must rage until it burns itself out."

"It's not like that - some impersonal thing like a force of nature; inevitable. The reason it continues is because people make it continue." Haku looked toward the old man, trying to maintain the cool demeanor he was known for no matter how desperate he was on the inside. Even now he had to wonder if the very air around him was swarming stew-thick with the pestilential offspring of the ninja-patriarch's kekkei-genkai.

Tsujita could certainly kill him, that much was sure, the only real question was: could he kill quickly? Even the most lethal strains and species of virus and bacteria, amoeba and protozoan needed a little time to work. Although, considering the nature of the man's blood-gift, nothing could be taken for granted.

Of course, Haku assumed with a frown, Tsujita's bodyguard can probably make up for any of his master's shortcomings.

"Lord Tsujita," Haku went on in a quavering tone, "this is a horrid, lingering, agonizing kind of death you bring to all these people: innocent people, men, women and children, civilians. Please, put away the past. Let them live. Let them -." The words stopped in Haku's throat as he stared at the ninja lord. From the expression he'd just caught in the old man's face, it now dawned on the teenager that his words were wasted…but not for the reason he feared. "You," he muttered, not daring to believe himself what he was saying: "you have no intention of going through with it."

The older man shifted uncomfortably.

Tsujita's guardian, who'd been standing by so tolerantly, looked at the man in alarm, gripped him by the arm then looked into his elder's eyes with the question hard on his pale face.

"I know, Hideo," Tsujita told him. "You're upset. I don't blame you. You, of all people, deserve your revenge…and Tohma; Tohma will be very, very angry with me, and disappointed beyond all measure. I was to be the lynch-pin of his plans."

Hideo, his expression boiling with unvoiced emotion, tightened his grip.

"Stop!" the older man ordered and his bodyguard slowly complied. "I know how much this must hurt you, but your master said you are to obey me no matter what…and I'm sorry for that too."

With matters between the two settling, the ailing ninja and the constable turned again to stare out over the canal.

"I'm dying," confessed Tsujita in a matter-of-fact tone. "All these last years I devoted to storing up organisms in my own body, cultivating them like hothouse orchids even as they slowly ate away at me, looking toward a measure of revenge against the Mist Village for what they've done; looking forward to a world without the Mist Village in it…but," his voice softened, "I didn't really know how marvelous a thing life was until I'd come to the end of mine.

"And how can I go," the man continued, tears welling in his rheumy eyes, "how can I face the afterlife as a mass-murderer, with more blood on my hands than all the lords of all the hidden villages put together?"

Haku marveled, utterly speechless at the elder ninja's revelation, half-sure he had to be imagining all of this. Feeling a little faint, the young constable gripped the guard-wall's rough, stone cap to restore some assurance of reality.

"No one should have to die so far from home, family and friends," the teenager ventured in cautious sympathy, not daring to overreach.

"I know what you're trying to say, young master," answered the afflicted ninja wryly. "There's no need to be coy.

"Lord Nikai's jutsu got me inside the village." His thin, ashen brows rose. "I suppose, unlike me, since you got in too that you also have a way out?"

Haku's lips quivered with emotion as an overpowering swell of relief and elation bubbled to the surface. "Of course!" the teenager gasped breathlessly, unable to contain himself. "Of course I do!"


Thanks for reading; I hope you enjoyed. Of course, I'll understand if a 34 page chapter is a little much.

FYI, the greatest countries in the world this month, based on the only metric that truly matters – the number of total hits on stories I've written – is as follows in order: 1) United States (yay), United Kingdom (word!), and Malaysia (always did like your curry).

BTW, where you AT, Canada? You used to be good to me! ;)