Thanks for coming back for my exciting new installment :)
Part 7 – Hide and Go Seek
Haku
Follow me now
and you
will not regret
Leaving the life you led
before we met
You are the first to have
this love of mine
Forever with me
'till the end of time
- N.I.B., Black Sabbath
Alone, Haku huddled in the stillness mid-span upon the bridge, thin arms resting on bony knees, as the snow fell and blanketed the world in white. There was no past or future here, no angry faces or false hopes, no hunger or pain, sadness or guilt since the child was well past all of that now. All that remained were the abstracted shapes of a frozen river flanked by a forest of evergreens that were becoming ever more insubstantial, lost behind thickening veils. After the better part of a day of steady, patient work, the snow had all but recreated Water Country, transforming it from a place of turbulence, cruelty and indifference into one of cold, quiet purity - a cathedral of perfect peace.
Having settled here, worn from his travails, the raven-haired boy had become absorbed in the winter's stark and silent majesties and didn't notice the approaching stranger until he was quite close – a lone, gloomy figure striding, powerful and indifferent to the harshness of the season, such a part of the world that it seemed impossible for this to be a living man but more likely a creature of spirit. After all, a place like this at a time like this - by all sensible people fled for the warmth and cheer of the hearth, where even the birds of the air and the beasts of the wild had gone to earth - was bound to be trafficked by the supernatural.
Unexpectedly, the rhythm of crunching, purposeful footfalls ceased. The stranger had stopped.
"Well look at this," he rumbled in a voice like faraway thunder, low, rolling, resonant and every bit as threatening, "another pitiful orphan cast to the wind." The man, if that's really what he was, studied the swirling flakes. The lower regions of his face were shrouded in wraps, above them steel eyes burned dreadful to behold. But though his fearful visage and accents were those of a demon, his breath misted the air as plainly as Haku's did. "Just like the snow," the man prophesized, "you'll be gone by spring."
Feeling strangely reassured by this newcomer's humanity, no matter his dire pronouncement, even grateful for the company, Haku smiled and canted his head in his playful, unaffected way. "You know what?" the seven-year old chirped; he never would know why. "You have the same eyes as me!"
The stranger paused a moment at the little vagrant's cryptic observation then favored him with a second look – a reappraising look that understood now the same thing Haku's father had, and that what the boy had found in this white world here alone mid-span upon the bridge was not suffering…but solace. This child's heritage meant that he did not feel the cold as others did and would never die from it. Where other eyes might find in him only an orphan to be pitied or a monster to be shunned or killed, this stranger's, this shinobi's eyes beheld another truth.
"Still…a kid like you," the figure announced in a growling messianic tenor, "will not be needed by anyone, and die a beggar. Would you live a life with purpose? Can you give everything you are…to me?"
The boy, captivated by the unexpected offer and grateful beyond measure, nodded quickly, understanding the depth of the commitment he'd just made in that simple gesture despite his youth. He rose and hurried to the stranger who claimed him. In that moment their eyes met - killer and child.
Zabuza Momochi, the Demon of the Hidden Mist, dropped a battle-hardened hand on Haku's long-haired head then turned him in the direction they were bound.
"Sir!" a young, piping voice stirred Haku to unwelcome consciousness, tearing aside his fanciful dream of things past. "Sir!" it crowed again louder this time, plucking the teenager's nerves.
A groan escaped the young ninja as his cloud-colored eyes cracked open and showed him, through the slits in his ANBU mask, the pale, Mist Village sky. Much to his mortification, he found himself exactly where he'd collapsed before – in the middle of a war-ravaged courtyard, laying there in plain sight as conspicuous and defenseless as a worm forced onto the pavement by storms then left stranded to bake. The clamor of battle nearby, punctuated with unearthly roars and hellish shrieks, reminded him, uncomfortably, pointedly that there were still a great many of the 108 Demons still afoot, not to mention an entire village full of psychopathic mist-ninja!
"Sir?" the voice echoed breathlessly, much closer now along with a slapping of rushed footfalls and suddenly there was a shadow over him. A loud 'clank' rattled as a small stranger dropped something large, metal and startlingly heavy to the paving stones. "Are you ok?"
Haku focused his blurred vision in time on a concerned and amiable, boyish face – dark eyes behind thick-framed, rectangular glasses, a pronounced overbite that gave the newcomer a somewhat frog-like appearance and, crowning it all, a mop of unruly blue hair.
"Wow," the stranger started, wide-eyed, "that was so amazing, crazy! I never knew ninja could do stuff like THAT, well, I mean, I KNEW, 'cause I read about it in Martial School, I just never thought I'd actually see it. How did you DO all that - fly around and kill all those monsters and stuff? That's gotta be some beast jutsu." The kid's dark eyes slid to the ninja's masked face then lit with inspiration. "Do you think you could teach me?" he begged, his voice ragged and squeaky, then seemed to notice Haku's persisting motionlessness. "Hey, are you ok, Sir?"
So…this kid is a – a cadet? Haku tried to force some sort of response but nothing came. His mouth tasted of iron and acid. I, he realized to his dismay, I can't move. This is bad. My whole chakra system isn't responding. Pain pulsed throughout his paralyzed body, flaring vengefully in one spot only to die down and erupt with fresh agonies in another. Distantly, Zabuza's student remembered Lord Hirai's warnings, so easily put aside at the time, about the dangers of using his clan's secret jutsu, and tried not to wonder if this condition might be permanent.
The aspiring mist-ninja's hovering face wriggled with concern. "Well don't worry, Sir. I'll get you out of here, to one of the field hospitals." He reached out with pale fingers and delicately removed Haku's mask. "Oh!" the boy gasped in surprise, swallowed hard and averted his eyes. "I'm so sorry, Miss. I didn't know. I mean, I kinda took you for a guy, y'know? Wow, that's really amazing," he added, flustered and blushing shyly. "You're…you're really pretty."
Inwardly, Haku groaned, unable even to muster a comment. Thanks, he thought, not uncharitably, but I'm kinda taken. And I'm a boy.
A sudden, horrifying roar and the crescendo of an escalating battle filled both with a sense of renewed urgency. A great boom rattled the earth; streamers of fire and molten earth rocketed overhead at which Haku's savior crouched over him, offering his narrow back as a shield to the raining embers.
"I'll get you outta here!" the boy vowed with sudden, admirably chivalric focus then made to hoist Haku up, wrapping his arm around his neck. "Oh, I'm Chojuro; I don't think I said."
Before the well-meaning cadet could rise though, a strident command interrupted him: "Hey, kid! Get away from him."
The blunt, familiar anger behind that unforgettable voice thudded in Haku's head like a club. His eyes pinched shut.
"Do you have any idea WHO that is?"
Chojuro looked up meekly at the rangy, muscular ANBU crouched there atop a mound of rubble, outlined against the haze, his face hidden behind a zodiac mask emblazoned with the sign of the rooster.
"That, kid," explained the shinobi, "is Zabuza Momochi's apprentice, Haku!"
The boy froze, his mouth widening, then drew away cautiously and looked at the battle-torn figure in a new light. "Ha-Haku, really?" he muttered in an awed half-whisper. "Are…are you sure?"
"Kid!" answered the ninja brusquely as he leaped his way down from his vantage with all the grace and sure-footed power of a mountain cat, "I was hunting this guy and his boss for two years, so yeah, I'm sure.
"Well! Haku," the ANBU continued, canted his head to check the progress of the engagement between his colleagues and the rest of the 108 Demons, then took a seat on the motionless fugitive's chest. "It's been awhile."
Hi, Eiji, thought Haku with an unexpressed groan as his hunter's weight crushed down, squeezing his battered ribs and bruised, unsound organs. No hard feelings?
"Y'know," Eiji mused aloud, discarding his mask, "it's been a crazy last few days. A plague breaks out, kills a lot of people along with the Mizukage courtesy of the Tsujita Clan and some of the other blood-gifted freaks that shoulda been dead a long time ago; monsters and demons show up and start tearing up the place, and you…back from the dead!" The hunter, one of the late Pack-Leader Toru Yamashite's subordinates, turned his head in thought, his face as chiseled and fierce as the fugitive remembered. "Actually that last one shouldn't have surprised me," Eiji reconsidered seriously. "You got that cockroach knack for survival. But that's good though; that's fine. That's great that this shit sundae I've been served up at least has a real cherry on top because now," the ninja paused as he grinned then fished from his armaments a razor-honed kunai-knife then waved it's triangular blade back and forth before Haku's sweat-slicked face, drawing a slow figure-eight in the air, "I get to finish what I started."
"Hey, w-wait," Chojuro protested though timidly, waving his hands in agitation. "You're just gonna kill him after he fought all those demons and stuff?"
The ninja pretended deep thought for a moment before he answered: "Yeah, pretty much."
"Well what if Lord Hirai or Lady Inoue or somebody wants to talk to him first?"
"I guess they can hold a séance," the hunter-ninja suggested, "or maybe get themselves a Ouija board or something."
The young cadet's blue brows knitted furiously. "But you can't just kill him!"
"Kid!" barked Eiji, leveling an icy look. "You're really starting to piss me off. Just 'cause he looks like a fucking princess doesn't mean he is one. THIS asshole," he added in a guttural tone and smacked Haku's forehead thrice sharply with the flat of his blade, "was at Momochi's side when he tried to chop off Lord Oku's head; his blood-gifted Tsujita Clan friends have killed off half the city; HE'S killed way more than a few of us and almost killed me! If you're squeamish, can't stand the sight of blood or whatever your problem is then you'd better go and, while you're at it, pick another career 'cause you'll never be a ninja!"
The browbeaten cadet shifted diffidently back and forth, reclaimed his weapon - a massive object wrapped in protective bandages – then plodded away.
Haku, hearing all of this, seeing only some of it, sought again for some avenue of escape from this latest predicament but this time had no answer. All he was left with was a reconsideration of the wisdom, in woeful, teasing hindsight, of having left Eiji Tohei alive back in Wave Country.
"Hey," he remembered Eiji rasping from where he lay, weak and broken on his cot in that squalid guest house room. "I will kill you, Haku. I swear it…fucking, piece-of-shit, little faggot!" Those had not been words spoken rashly, in a fit of temper, but in a pure expression of the hatred this young man held for him - a fiery coal that had kept its white heat ever since, undiminished in intensity either by time or the intervening circumstances of the hunter-ninja's life.
Eiji glared down at him and flipped his kunai to a hammer grip. "Do you remember the last thing you said to me?"
Yes, thought Haku. Of course I do. You'd just vowed to kill me. 'Pray for us both then, Eiji Tohei,' I told you, 'for you to recover…and for me to live long enough.'
The ANBU smiled. "I guess you got your wish." His eyes, black as marbles, shifted. "Y'know, I have to admit: I'm almost curious enough about how you got Yamashite to fake your death to let you live…almost." With those final words, he raised his kunai high overhead, poised to plunge it through his prisoner's heart.
Kiba
NOW, I've gotcha! Kiba's thoughts trumpeted triumphantly as he closed fast on the heels of the unsuspecting Naruto Uzumaki. Just a little further and this insane mission to recover the hyperactive genin from Kirigakure would take one massive step forward towards a successful, hell, FLAWLESS completion. Huh, and I would've caught you even sooner if I hadn't slowed down for a Transformation Jutsu.
The leaf-ninja cracked a fanged smile. He'd realized that it was a good idea if he didn't stand out and so, taking the cue from Naruto himself, had quickly disguised his clothing to mimic a typical mist-ninja's uniform. I never would've thought of that before I recommitted to my training. I really am getting better!
But now, where the hell's HAKU?
"Naruto!" he shouted.
The blonde looked over his shoulder, landed on the next rooftop where he skidded to a stop and turned. "K-Kiba?" he offered in wild-eyed astonishment.
This break in stride was more than the pursuing leaf-ninja needed. Kiba alighted then sprang into the stunned fugitive, planting his shoulder solidly into the genin's midsection with a jarring tackle. "Can't have you running off or making it hard for us, now can we?" he offered in gritty half-apology. But the grin on his face was short-lived as the yellow-haired boy bent, doubled over and breathless from the blow then, in balloon-like fashion, popped, vanishing in a puff of dispersed chakra.
"NO!" Kiba howled as he went sprawling, empty-handed over the rooftop.
Coming up in a crouch, the wolfish ninja brought his hands to his head in a reflexive spasm of abject futility, hunched then hammered his fist hard against the roof. "SHIT! Damn Naruto and his stupid CLONES!" he roared. "It's always his STUPID CLONES!"
His three teammates were there, just a heartbeat behind, similarly, if not equally dismayed; all in similarly transformed mist-ninja garb.
"That," sputtered Chouji, "that was just a shadow-clone? Aw!"
Sakura frowned, let out a disappointed breath at the development then moved off to keep watch as Shikamaru knelt by Kiba and put a reassuring hand on his shoulder. "That was good work catching up to it so quickly, and disguising your clothes too."
The teenager wiped his mouth then looked away morosely. "For all the good it did."
"Easy, Kiba," Shikamaru offered, looking just slightly strange in the uniform of a ninja of the Hidden Mist, the metal plate of his hitai-ate embossed with the sigil of Kirigakure instead of Konoha. "Some games are fast, you can win all at once, but some are slow and you have to win those move by move, advancing your position each time. Some are both," he added offhandedly, "but that's kind of beside the point right now."
Kiba cocked his head curiously but still burned with frustration as Akamaru padded close, sat beside him and did his puppy best to console his master.
"The wind's died down," their leader observed with an upward look, "so I'll bet you can track that clone back to its source. Even if you and Akamaru can't, I'm sure there's no shortage of dogs here in Kirigakure that could help you, right?"
The leaf-ninja's wolfish eyes widened, inspiration aflame in his recovered expression. "And then I can go back to tracking the real one again!"
Shikamaru nodded. "So," he said with a clever smile, "do I qualify as the 'smart one' of the group again?"
"Yeah, well," Kiba began with a chuckle, "we'll just see how it works out."
"Guys!" cried Sakura who motioned them over, "you'd better take a look at this."
Behind the shelter of the roof parapet, the four gathered and looked out on a city at war. Not very far away, monsters raged – some towering over the buildings, others flew through the air or scuttled, squirmed or slithered their way through the Kirigakure cityscape while the Mist Village's armies of ninja assailed them, sometimes gaining victory, sometimes suffering decimation.
"What the hell?" said Shikamaru, his dark eyes lit by distant flickers of lightning-jutsu, flashes of exploding-tag flame. "It's hard to believe…like a movie or something."
Sakura nodded coolly but her voice was worried. "This is as bad as when the Sand and Sound Villages invaded us." She turned to her companions. "It looks like the Mist Village has their enemies too."
Screams drifted at them from the city, many human but some, very clearly, not. Even Kiba, who'd imagined himself steeled against whatever challenge might arise, felt a shiver travel up his back.
"We – we gotta get out of here!" moaned Chouji who crouched lower behind the parapet so that only his eyes peered over.
Kiba hissed and made a face.
"No," countered Shikamaru, "Chouji's right. We got to find Naruto quickly and get word to Lady Tsunade about all this. I'd send one of you back right now if I thought there was a decent chance of anyone making it alone.
"Come on, let's get -." The chunin's words were lost amidst the riot of a new calamity - distant flashes and rolling, rumbling echoes. The four ninja looked around and saw, from their rooftop vantage, portions of the Mist Village's aqueducts as well as all the bridges and causeways that connected it to the other islands crumble away and vanish into the sea.
"What?!" gasped Sakura. "Now what's going on?"
Shikamaru's dark eyes narrowed. "The Land of Water's marines," he offered, thinking aloud. "They've cut off the city. It's because of the plague – has to be. That explains the blockade too. The Daimyo must've ordered Kirigakure's quarantine."
"Wait a minute!" crowed Chouji fretfully. "That passageway, the one we took to get here, was in an aqueduct! That means we're trapped!"
The chunin shrugged at his friend's concern. "We're not 'trapped'. Just because there doesn't appear to be any way out doesn't mean there isn't one."
Kiba frowned and looked at him askance. "I don't think that helped, Shikamaru." Akamaru barked in agreement.
"Look Chouji, Kiba, Sakura, we have to focus on one thing at a time. We get Naruto and Haku back first then find a way home." Shikamaru's expression turned thoughtful. "Believe it or not, all this chaos is the best thing we could've hoped for. While the mist-ninja are fighting monsters, dealing with the plague and Water Country's enforcement of quarantine, they might not notice us…maybe not even Naruto. It can't last forever though, so we got to get moving."
"Right," Kiba agreed. The rest of the team nodded their concurrence.
Shikamaru looked then toward Kiba and his canine partner, Akamaru who sprang off at once, trailing Naruto's shadow-clone back from whence it came, with the rest of the team joining behind.
Haku
"Stop!" Chojuro's voice commanded, interrupting Eiji. "Get off him," he continued, nearly managing gravity in his straining voice as he unwound the protective wraps from his weapon and let them fall away, revealing an enormous double-sword – two thick blades each the size of palm leaves and sharing a common handle in the center.
"Kid," Eiji started to answer with menacing impatience as he cleared a speck from the corner of his eye.
"No!" the cadet continued shrilly, "you're not gonna kill him; I won't let you, not after he just saved Kirigakure!"
Still pinned, helpless, and suffering the aftereffects of Lord Hirai's jutsu, Haku's gaze flickered. His consciousness dimmed like a candle-flame in a draft. Leave, you idiot, his leaden thoughts pleaded, leave now before he kills you too, Chojuro!
A long, tense silence ensued, as if the air itself was pulled between the cadet's resolution and the mist-ninja's rising temper until laughter and another voice, strange and tremulous, echoed from the shadows of the ruined portico. "The boy might have a point," it said.
Chojuro's surprised face and Eiji's angry one snapped toward the sound. "Not that I care one way or the other, Mr. Tohei," the voice continued as its source moved from the darkness of the shadows into the dimness of the shade. "It's all the same to me. I just can't help but wonder if you're going to kill The Demon's Apprentice in service to Kirigakure…or just because you're angry. To what do you really owe allegiance?"
Eiji paused and simmered for a moment as rage battled with control, the manifestations of which played over his face. "Your timing sucks shit, Kurage."
The mood shifted as another mist-ninja appeared atop the courtyard wall around them and signaled to his comrades. In only a moment, the trio's private performance had a much wider audience as two five-man squads swarmed in.
Their leader stepped forward and looked back and forth between Eiji and Haku. "Shit!" he exclaimed. "You got him?! Good work!"
"You can't kill him," another was quick to add. "Orders are to take the kid alive."
Eiji's intemperate scowl softened into a grimace. "Guess it is what it is," he mused then slowly, begrudgingly dismounted his captive. Duty had prevailed.
Inwardly, Haku settled with relief. Although still very probably screwed, maybe he would get to live another few minutes, depending on how well disposed whoever was in charge of Kirigakure just now was towards him. It was even possible that Lord Hirai had returned or would soon, he supposed, but couldn't say if that would turn out to be a good or a bad development for him.
The young ninja's vision went gray for a moment then snapped back into uncertain focus, and again the Demon of the Hidden Mist's former student chafed at his miserable condition. Being so utterly powerless and immobile, no matter the reason, violated practically every tenet of his former master's commandments.
"Hey you, kid!" barked one of the mist-ninja at Chojuro who jumped. "What the hell are YOU doing here? This isn't amateur hour!"
Eiji, surprisingly, intervened. "Don't worry about him. He just didn't want to miss out on all the excitement. You can't yell at the kid for having some guts," he remarked with a snicker and casual wave of his hand, "not if he wants to be a ninja of the Hidden Mist." Only Chojuro caught his wink.
"Just the same," the older ninja continued gruffly, "clear out. Get your ass somewhere safe for now and wait for further orders. We're bound to need even cadets before this is all over."
Very much relieved, the boy nodded then bowed three times, low and profusely and started to gather up the wrappings for his curious weapon.
"Just what the hell IS that, anyway?" asked the mist-ninja at which Chojuro grinned anxiously, his face flushing under the criticism. "That contraption's bigger than you. Do you actually expect to use it in a fight?"
Eiji laughed. "Never mind that," he replied. "Just get Zabuza's girlfriend out of here before I do something I won't regret…or one of these 108 creepy-crawlers eats him up."
Haku closed his flickering eyelids with fatalistic acceptance as he heard the ninja move to secure him but his trepidation was short-lived.
"That won't be necessary," interrupted Kurage with a certain indescribable drift in his voice, "there's been a change in plans, you see."
The teenager's eyes widened then at a strange sound followed by men gasping, gurgling then the unmistakable thuds of bodies crumpling to the ground. What is that?! What's happening?
"Ch-Chojuro?" Haku forced out a rasp. Though it took the sum of his efforts, his entreaty issued barely above a whisper. "Eiji?"
The mist-ninja, Kurage, came forward into his field of vision – a shinobi with startlingly vivid blue-green eyes in an otherwise expressionless face, so pale that faint traces of blue veins flowed here and there across it like rivers over a landscape. The man knelt down, brushed stray strands of black hair from Haku's face then, to the teenager's surprise and confusion, kissed him. It was not passionate as a lover or even in a familiar way as with a friend or close relation but with reverence. The mist-ninja smiled then. "Welcome, Demon's Apprentice, Haku," he offered in hushed tones. "I knew one day you'd come back to us."
As the stranger picked the stricken shinobi up, cradled like a newborn in his arms, Haku wondered very seriously if he might not actually be safer in the more hostile yet more predictable care of the late Eiji Tohei. His beleaguered mind raced, flipping through years of memory, through all the members of Zabuza's zealous congregation but, for the life of him, could not place Kurage – neither by face nor name.
"Hey, you!"
Haku flinched at the unmistakable growl of Naruto's challenging voice just as consciousness finally abandoned him and he fell away into a world of darkness where his friend's words of challenge followed: "I don't know where you think you're going with Haku, but you'd better put him down."
Naruto
Looking down at the strange mist-shinobi, the yellow-haired boy startled as the last memories of another of his fallen clones came flooding in. Kiba! he thought. Shikamaru, Chouji and – and Sakura; what are they doing here? They can't be here, it's WAY too dangerous! The horrific implications crashed down on him: Did Granny Tsunade find out? What happened to Inari and Chuuya?
Naruto shook his head hard enough to clear it. Now was not the time. "I said: put him down!" he growled again at the man who stood there with a lifeless Haku draped in his arms and a dozen of his own comrades twitching and taking their last agonized breaths at his feet.
The ninja slowly shook his pale head. He looked up, eyes imperious, his smile cockeyed and wriggly. "Take him," he countered with little concern, "if you can."
Naruto's hands clapped together in a seal. "Shadow Clone Jutsu," he hissed as a squad of his doubles popped into existence around and in front of him then swirled forward to attack, crisscrossing dizzyingly back and forth, up and down, nearly as fast as the eye could follow only to suddenly seize, paralyzed, their faces frozen in masks of pain in that instant before they vanished.
"It was a good ploy -," the mist-ninja remarked as he looked up with his bright, glistening yet dead-seeming eyes toward the real Naruto and his clone companion who dropped toward him from the rooftop just behind, the whirling, hyper-condensed energies of a Rasengan nearly fully formed in his hand.
Naruto grimaced in shock at being spotted too early then cried out as he felt something pierce him, then again and again. There was no blood, not even a tear in his clothes yet he could feel the presence of something in his flesh, pulsing and pumping, shafts like spears, too thin to be seen but strong enough to slow his descent to a crawl. His vision sparkled; he could feel poison trickle warmly under his skin, spreading up his leg, down his arm and all through his trunk.
Haku's abductor went on: "- using your clones to distract me while you yourself circled around but as you can see, I'm well protected on all sides."
Naruto looked through his blurring vision and suddenly could see – tendrils of chakra drifting from the figure, floating in air, waiting for prey who would never notice them until too late.
"Dying should not concern you," said the man. "Both the 108 Demons and Zabuza Momochi's heir have returned to Kirigakure. You'll have plenty of company in the afterlife right soon."
Mei
"Are you sure this is where Haku fell?" asked the jonin kunoichi as she surveyed the body-strewn landscape while members of her cadre stood guard and searched for anything of note. She was no stranger to war but to find such sights as this, and far worse, here within the precincts of her own village was hard to tolerate. It reminded her of the days of the Kaguya clan's uprising, the carnage of Zabuza Momochi's insurrection.
"Absolutely sure," Captain Ao answered at once, his tone leaving no doubt.
The woman shifted. The wound on her upper arm itched maddeningly. The field dressing around it felt too tight. The 108 Demon's had felt her wrath and she had suffered theirs as well, learning the hard way of their supernatural strength, bizarre powers, wild unpredictability and that no two were the same. It was no wonder the First Mizukage had had so much trouble defeating them.
One of the monsters she'd faced had latched on and taken something from her, not blood or chakra. What exactly, she still didn't know. It worried her that, whatever it was, she would come to miss it, but now was not the time to nurse wounds or reflect; not with forty-something demons still unaccounted for.
Mei shook her head. "What a mess," the kunoichi muttered tiredly then looked toward her one-eyed companion. "What do you think happened here? Did the demons kill all these ninja and…eat Haku?"
The blue-haired jonin frowned, soldiering on masterfully in spite of his own injuries. "It doesn't look that way to me, Ms. Terumi. In any case, why would they take Haku and leave the rest? It's equally possible that Haku killed these men."
"Lady Terumi, Captain Ao," Aya Sakamoto called to them, having been brought in at Mei's request for her medical expertise, "this one's still alive."
The two drew over and looked down at the lone survivor – a young boy with a tangle of sky-colored hair.
The kunoichi's expression rose with maternal concern. "Who's this?"
"Chojuro," Ao answered without much enthusiasm, "one of the students in the Martial School. He's due to graduate soon, assuming he can pass the genin exams." The Captain expressed a soft sigh as he shook his head. "I can't say he ever showed much promise."
"Or very good judgment. What the hell is a cadet doing here anyway?" Mei offered then noticed the enormous weapon lying beside him. "Is that his? I'm amazed he can even lift it."
Aya looked up at her. "It saved his life," she supplied. "See all those pock marks in the steel? The big blades shielded him from most of the jutsu – a chakra-based attack similar to the water-style's poison fist technique. A disruptive life-energy was delivered into all the victims here through some sort of chakra barb."
Mei and Ao exchanged glances. "Chakra barbs," said Mei, raising a finger to her chin, "sounds like Kurage's jutsu."
"Why would he kill his own ninja?" Ao sneered then spat as he arrived at his own conclusions. "Unless you think -."
The boy's eyes opened slowly.
Mei leaned over the cadet and favored him with a relieved smile. "You're very lucky to be alive, Chojuro."
"Oh, I, um," he started, gaze frozen on the woman's face, his own blushing, "yes m-ma'am!"
"Can you tell us what happened?
"I see," said Mei with a knowing frown once the aspiring ninja's breathless recollection was complete. "So it was Kurage."
Ao knitted his brow. "One of Zabuza's loyalists?" he speculated grimly. "It's almost impossible to believe that there are any still around. Lord Oku had anyone even suspected of disloyalty executed. Do you think Haku rendezvoused with him; that he came back to take over Kirigakure and fulfill his master's ambitions; that they're all in league with the blood-gifted clans?"
Mei shook her head. "It's human nature to want to connect things into simple patterns, tie everything to a single point but I doubt things are so simple. Plus, if Haku has powers like he's just shown as well as the combined forces of the blood-gifted clans, Zabuza's fifth column, the 108 Demons AND a junchuuriki," she offered in playful treason, "he would have already taken over."
Ao gave an indignant sniff. "Things don't always go as planned."
"Ma'am!" one of her ninja called. "This one's alive too!"
Aya rushed at once over to the other motionless form, checked his vital signs and raised both her hands over the small figure's chest to begin chakra treatment as Mei, Ao and Chojuro followed.
"Well now, who's this?" asked Mei who looked down at the unconscious boy, noting that he was, for whatever reason, completely drenched. "Another cadet? He's in full uniform, except for his hitai-ate."
Ao shook his head and frowned. "'Never seen him before. I'm sure I'd remember yellow hair like that."
The kunoichi turned to Aya, asking gently so as not to interrupt her ministrations: "Any obvious reason he's alive while almost everyone else was killed?"
An expression of puzzlement played over the medical-ninja's face. "I…I'm not sure, Ms. Terumi. He wasn't struck with as many barbs as the others but there's something else too - he seems to be healing. His body's countering the poison chakra all on its own. I-I've never seen anything like this before."
The subject of their conversation groaned as he came around, his arms and legs starting to twitch, until he suddenly sat up and looked around wildly, not at Mei, Ao, Chojuro and Aya but past them. The blond boy's fury quickly evaporated and he grit his teeth, chin falling into his chest, heavy with disappointment. "Dammit!" he cursed savagely, looked around again and noticed all the attention. His blue eyes narrowed warily. "Who are you guys?"
Mei glanced at Ao then looked back. "My name is Mei Terumi, this is Ao, beside him is Chojuro, and the medical ninja who helped you is Aya."
"Are…are you alright?" asked Aya in suppressed amazement. "You shouldn't move around just yet. W-why is your uniform wet?"
The stranger eased at once and smiled. "Oh, it's you!" piped the boy with a cheery laugh at which the kunoichi gave him a curious look.
"Do I…do I know you?"
"Ah, that's right," he said, "the last time we met I was wearing one of those crazy masks."
Aya stared hard for a second then her expression broke into one of shock. "Ms. Terumi…this…this is him, the boy who was with Haku," she sputtered with disbelief then added in a dire, emphatic whisper: "the jinchuuriki."
The boy frowned crossly, climbed to his feet and waved his arm. "Why does everybody keep calling me that!?"
Mei gave him a puzzled look. "It means that there's a chakra monster, a demon of immense power, sealed inside you."
The young stranger was struck silent for a moment. "Oh," he muttered with a subdued intensity. "I didn't know there was a word for that."
"Hold on!" said Ao who stepped toward the boy. "So you're a shinobi from a rival village then?! Which one? Which one would dare send a jin-!"
"Hey!" the blond ninja roared, checking the ninja's advance with a forceful shove, "back off, eye-patch! I got permission to be here!"
The Captain stopped, taken aback. "What?! Ridiculous," he remonstrated, "permission from whom?"
"Just a second and you'll see!" The boy searched then through the many pockets and zippered pouches of his fatigues, his frustration mounting as he came up with knives, shuriken, smoke bombs, caltrops, flash and concussion bombs, exploding tags, wire, tape and a dozen other useful yet, in this case irrelevant articles, until at last he produced a paper which he thrust toward the aggravated shinobi captain.
"Councilor Kissohamaru Hirai?!" exclaimed Ao as he studied the document then turned to Mei. "That's his seal though I can hardly believe it."
Mei read it, nodded in agreement then looked again at the teenager, her puzzlement growing by the minute. "Naruto Uzumaki?" she began, repeating the name given in the writ, "What village are you from?"
The genin's cerulean eyes flickered for a moment as he debated whether or not to answer. "Hidden Leaf," he admitted.
"Lady Tsunade sent you?"
Naruto's expression widened in near panic. "NO! She'll KILL me if she finds out," he blurted, his expression going pale as if he was going to be sick, then sighed woefully: "She might have already found out…"
"If she didn't send you," Mei continued, "then why are you here? Was it Lord Hirai then?"
"THAT stuck-up old guy?" answered Naruto, making a face. "No, I came to help Haku. After he found out that those ninja clans were gonna attack the Mist Village, he was gonna come to try and stop them alone. I couldn't let him do that."
Ao crossed his arms. "I'm not following you, kid…why would you help Haku? And why would Haku want to help us?"
Naruto gave him an incredulous look. "Because we're friends! And what do you mean 'why would Haku want to help?' He didn't want everyone in the Mist Village to DIE is why. That's just how he is."
"Oh yes, The Demon's Apprentice is well known in Kirigakure for his kindness and charitable works." The Captain gave out a sardonic little chuckle of disbelief. "And I suppose you came all the way from Konohagakure no Sato out in Fire Country, across the sea, to a rival ninja village swamped with demons and suffering from an outbreak of plague without your Kage's approval… so you could help your friend?"
"You did, didn't you?" Mei gushed, taking her captain's observation, steeped in sarcasm, as the truth. The woman looked at Ao, clasped her hands to her chest then beamed down at the boy, enraptured for a moment by the profundity. "That is so sweet!"
"Lady!" Naruto objected, eyes bugged wide. "It is NOT sweet. It's," he sputtered dumbfounded as he thought, "it's -."
"Bold?" suggested the heretofore silent Chojuro.
"Exactly!" seconded Naruto, taking the cadet as his ally. He seized upon the word and waved a finger at Mei. "It's bold."
"Of course," Mei offered in an appeasing tone.
Ao grunted grimly and folded his arms. "That's all very well, but what about what you, Haku and your friends did at the Piazza del Carne earlier, the Tsujita's plague and everything else that's been going on? Answer me that!"
The boy frowned, glaring defensively. "I don't know everything!" he grumbled. "After Haku talked that old Tsujita guy out of attacking the city we tried to get out of here but everything kinda went crazy. Your ANBU jumped us and I guess we," Naruto paused awkwardly as he wrestled with how to say some things and how not to say others, "I guess I got a little out of hand. Sorry about that," he offered contritely. When the four around him kept silent, he seemed to take that for acceptance and was more than happy to move on. "Anyway," the teenager continued, "Grandpa Hirai came and got Haku who came and got me 'cause Rahaman had kidnapped me and taken me to an island on another planet or something so he could eat me later. And HE, um, Grandpa Hirai, I mean, said that Krishenay Rahaman was just a big dog that slipped his leash after some guy called Oku got killed by someone working for Inoue. He said too that the plague everyone's scared of, that's killing all these people, is probably a poison and it's all so that Inoue can wipe out Kirigakure and rebuild it in Wave Country."
A chorus of gasps erupted all through his small audience who stared at the young teenager as if he was a-swarm with cockroaches.
What?! thought Mei with furious alarm. Impossible! Could that really be true? She looked again at Naruto's young face, empty of guile or deceit. Even if he's not lying, he might not know the truth. Or else he could just be telling us what someone else wants us to believe. Still, she considered, a story like that!
"The plague is actually a poison?" muttered Aya.
Mei turned to her. "Is it possible?"
"It would explain why we haven't been able to isolate the strain. We just assumed it was a disease that killed through the creation of toxins within the bodies of its victims."
Ao tossed his head. "Wait! Stop!" he demanded, venting his confusion on his guest from Fire Country. "Are you seriously suggesting that the Lady Councilor Chinami Inoue is responsible for the plague, that's all part of some insane-sounding plan?"
"I'm just telling you what Grandpa Hirai said and ONLY 'cause you told me to!" argued the boy. "If you don't like what I have to say then don't ask me!"
Mei prevailed on her subordinates for calm. "Is there anything else?" she asked.
Naruto shook his head. "Oh, well," he added on second thought, remembering: "Hirai kidnapped me and put me in this big coffin but I got out 'cause Hideo rescued me when the Fire-tongue Fleet destroyed his castle. Then he made this big whirlpool that sank all the ships and changed his mind about me, let me go and even helped me get here." He turned to Aya. "That's why my clothes are wet."
"The Fire-tongue Fleet?" Mei croaked in horror. Even I'm not supposed to know about that – the Mist Village's secret flotilla armed with forbidden weapons. There's no way he could know about them unless he'd seen them firsthand as he said.
"Are we to believe this?" spat Ao.
"I'm all for the benefits of keeping an open mind, but clearly we need to find out more. We can't risk acting rashly."
"But Ms. Terumi!" chimed Chojuro. "What if it's true – that Councilor Inoue is a traitor and Castle Hirai's been destroyed?!"
"Oh," remarked Mei. "I almost forgot you were still standing there." She cleared her throat primly. "Forget everything you just heard and report to the bunkers with the other cadets," she ordered.
"WHAT?" the boy objected. "I – I can't do that. This is my village too; I have to help!"
"Chojuro!" Ao admonished and glared down at him severely. "A mist-ninja knows how to follow orders."
"Hold on a minute," said Mei as she reconsidered. "If he was willing to take on Eiji Tohei over a matter of conscience, and trespass into a war zone in case he could be of help…maybe that means something."
"Poor judgment as you pointed out before?"
"Exactly," the kunoichi agreed, "so we can't risk him spreading rumors, or facts if that's what they turn out to be."
"It'd be simpler to kill him."
Chojuro choked, his panicked eyes darted back and forth between them.
"Yes, but no. Our next step is to find Kurage and Haku." The woman gave a meaningful smirk. "We could take him along."
Ao rubbed his forehead. "We can't have a cadet with us on a mission like that."
"You're right. Chojuro," Mei announced with a touch of ceremony, "as acting Kage, I hereby promote you to the rank of genin. There you go, Ao. Train him well."
Chojuro gaped. "What…am – am I really a mist-ninja now?"
"Me?!" the captain squawked in outrage, appeared to consider the energy involved in continued disagreement for a moment, then gave in, "I…yes, Ms. Terumi."
With the matter settled, the jonin smiled and turned to their visitor from the Leaf Village. "Well, Naruto," she ventured cheerfully, "being that we're looking for Haku, as you are, what say we join forces?"
The boy shifted uncertainly for a moment, then grunted seriously and nodded.
Tohma
Unseen, unheard and unfelt under the shroud of jutsu, the five commandeered ships of Lord Tohma Nikai's Fire-tongue Fleet sailed slowly up the wide and winding waterway of the Unagi Canal toward the center of the Hidden Mist Village. The master of his ships and commander of his undead men stood at the railing and stared into the grey, mindful of the strange chakra energies fluttering out there. Clearly, something odd was afoot and Kirigakure no Sato had other things to worry about just now besides him. Details like that were beside the point though as the man's eyes sought out every detail of his former capitol, noting the unusual absence of mist and the thick smears of black smoke rising up here and there – startling differences for a city where things rarely changed.
"It's beautiful," he had to admit as he appreciated the Kirigakure cityscape, a study in pastel greys and earth tones set against a troubled, swirling sky. "I suppose I can't blame poor Tsujita for holding back his vengeance." He spared a winsome sigh.
Doubtless, his thoughts continued, most of the people of this city weren't even born when my family was slaughtered and dispossessed along with the other blood-gifted clans, innocent by any sort of reasonable way of reckoning and yet:
They've got us in the cage
ruined of grace and senses.
and the heart roars like a lion
at what they've done to us.
With a sad smile, the shaggy-haired ninja-lord turned to his zombie crew. "Prepare to fire," he announced, galvanized in his cause, "all batteries. Fire in every direction. Fire until there's nothing left…but fire."
"Wait! Stop!" a familiar voice called. "Please, Sensei!"
The man whirled then gaped as his students Gennosuke and Sakiko rushed forward, appearing from nowhere to confront him, with Tensai following more slowly behind them.
"But I," Tohma sputtered in bewilderment. "You were all supposed to go to Wave Country with the others. How is it that I didn't sense -," the patriarch cut himself short as his eyes fell on little purple-haired Gennosuke whose expression sank, laden with guilt. "Ah, right, so I see. But tell me - why should I spare the Mist Village? Why delay justice that's been generations delayed?"
"Haku is there," Sakiko pleaded, a flush coming over her pale features, "surely your conscious will not allow him to be swept up in your revenge?"
The patriarch's eyes rose then narrowed doubtfully. "Lord Aramata? How do you know this? How can you be so sure that -?" Again his eyes fell toward Gennosuke and again he found his question answered. That the boy had increased his blood-gifted abilities so much in such a short time was truly impressive, the ninja-lord noted, but, in this case, also enormously vexing.
"Please, Lord Tohma," the young Kaguya went on. "We know you well enough to know we can't talk you out of what you've wanted to do all these years, but at least give us the chance to save Haku."
The shinobi frowned, his focus pivoting to the eldest of the three. "And you, Tensai, what do you have to say?"
The young man, a statue of pale iron as always, considered for a moment. "I owe him my life, Lord Tohma," he began slowly, deliberately. "He should have killed me on Kaori no Hana Island and left me there frozen in the snow but he didn't, despite that he had every reason to. After all the trouble I caused him, he took pity on me for my…affliction." His eyes of palest blue met his master's. "You've taught me many things, sensei, for which I'll be forever grateful. But Lord Haku taught me that there is strength in mercy and nobility in restraint."
Tohma scowled at his student's implication then folded his arms. "And YOU, Gennosuke?" he said, turning now toward the youngest. "You've been uncharacteristically quiet. Surely you have an opinion?"
The lavender-haired boy's expression wriggled for a moment before he offered hesitantly: "I…well, he's one of us, sensei. We have to at least try to save him." He looked up, his expression hopeful but teetering as if balanced on a string. "Don't we?"
Tohma grimaced, flinching as if he'd been slapped, then stormed away to the railing where he glared angrily across the waterway toward Kirigakure's stone-armored shores.
"Two days," he stated without turning, nodding tensely to himself. "I'll wait two days and no more. After that, I shall destroy Kirigakure whether you're back or not." The ninja's eyes burned with conflicting emotions. "I love you all so very much…as if you were my own flesh-and-blood children. But there's no stopping this. It's come too far for that. If you test me then it's your own fault what happens," he warned. "Go."
At once, the three students vanished in blurs of motions, headed across the still waters of the canal to Kirigakure in search of their blood-gifted brother.
Thanks for reading! Please come again ^^,
p.s. – Tohma is reciting 'When the Violets Roar at the Sun' by Charles Bukowski.
