Welcome back! Thanks for reading. Short chap (for me) this time. Let me know what you think.

-Jonohex


Aya

The Mist Village cityscape flew past as she ran, the buildings blurring into an indistinct smear of greys, her straight, black hair flowing in the rushing wind. Though the kunoichi's muscles burned and her chakra flowed she still lagged behind the determined Naruto who'd stormed off to take the lead right from the very start. Aya marveled at how fast the blond boy raced, how hard he pushed himself, with a growing inkling of just how much Haku meant to him - as much a friend to him as he'd been an enemy to her. Just behind the kunoichi and at her flanks, two full squads of her fellow mist-shinobi ably kept pace, all having been placed under her temporary command and charged with the Demon's Apprentice's capture. Young Chojuro, a field-promoted genin as of yesterday, trailed woefully, struggling to keep up and laboring hard under the weight of the ponderous sword he'd adopted as his weapon.

I really should have waited for Lady Terumi and Captain Ao to return, Aya lamented, second guessing herself, then looked ahead at the young visitor from the Hidden Leaf Village, at his thicket of dandelion hair that struck such a contrast against the drab blues and greys of his borrowed mist-ninja uniform. Before him, leading the way, the watery 'bloodhounds' created by the Aya's jutsu flashed like silver lightning.

Ah, but maybe Naruto's right. My Stalking Eels find their target by scenting their blood. That means Haku's bleeding. He could be under attack, wounded, maybe even dead!

Though having earned the rank of chunin, Aya had little experience with command outside her medical ward at the hospital and half-expected, half hoped for her departed sensei, Pack-Leader Yamashite, to suddenly appear back from the dead and take over with his sure presence and gruffly-barked orders. She thought about just how badly her superiors wanted the Demon's Apprentice alive and that Zabuza's former student was maybe the only person in the world who knew the whole story behind the spate of disasters that had befallen Kirigakure. What he and Naruto had divulged already was chilling enough! It was so strange to think how this boy, Haku, who she and her ANBU team had hunted along with his notorious sensei as traitors a year ago might be instrumental to the Mist Village's salvation today.

Did Pack-leader Yamashite foresee this?! the kunoichi wondered as her mind circled back to her sensei and the last decision he'd ever made – to spare Haku the fugitive, Haku the criminal's life. Her spirit was taken then with a tremor of awe and laughter. How easily people had underestimated and disparaged Toru's abilities as a shinobi only because he didn't look like one and rarely acted like anyone thought one should.

They were close now. Aya could feel it through the chakra connection she held with her Stalking Eels. The woman looked up at the way ahead to assess the final approach and her mouth fell open. A thick curtain of fog had suddenly arose – the unmistakable product of a shinobi having employed Kirigakure's signature technique, the Hidden Mist Jutsu. "Fan out and surround the area," she ordered her ninja, "then move in using the standard search pattern toward the center; be careful!"

The kunoichi thought furiously for a moment about her next move before she realized that the yellow-headed leaf-ninja racing ahead of her had not even slowed. "Naruto, STOP!" Aya cried loudly. But whether the genin hadn't heard her or had simply ignored her command, Naruto clapped his hands together in a seal. A moment later he and a score of shadow-clone doubles barreled headlong into the mist and were swallowed up entirely.

Dammit! Aya cursed to herself and couldn't help but remember that her former teammate Eiji Tohei had been the same way – headstrong, recalcitrant and fearless to the point of recklessness. The ninja startled then, gasping, as she felt her Stalking Eels all wink suddenly from existence. Someone had just destroyed them. "Alright," she began firmly, her expression resolute. "Everyone move in."

Her ninja, already formed into teams, took their positions then crept toward the mist when suddenly there approached the sound of onrushing footfalls. Two figures burst from the blanketing wall of clouds in a blur of movement, wove past the bewildered shinobi and were half-gone before Aya recognized the fleeing pair as Naruto and Haku.

"What in the world," Aya stammered in disbelief. "Hey, stop!" the chunin commanded then, seeing that Chojuro had finally caught up and had just rounded the block, waved her arms frantically and shouted at him: "Chojuro! Stop them!"

The blue-haired little genin, breathing raggedly and with sweat pouring from his brow, looked up in surprise, dropped into a stance then readied his weapon, not bothering to free it from its wrappings as he grit his teeth for the fight of his life. The two ninjas raced at him full-tilt but then broke sharply, crisscrossed their paths, ran up the walls of the narrow street on either side of him to the rooftops high above then leaped away, avoiding the boy altogether.

"HEY!" Chojuro howled angrily, stamping his feet and shaking his massive double-sword at them. "No fair! I don't know how to do that yet! Come BACK here!" With that he gulped a breath, whirled around and charged off in dogged pursuit.

"Everyone!" affirmed Aya who shot a pointed finger toward the fugitive shinobi, "after them!"


Mei

Grumbling to herself for her poor timing, with Ao steadfastly by her side, the jonin flew from rooftop to rooftop headed in the general direction Aya had gone. As she spied something out of the corner of her eye, Mei landed, stopped and stared harder, confirming in her own mind that she really had seen what she thought she had – a familiar blonde-haired kid in mist-ninja fatigues accompanied by a taller figure with black hair in a jade-colored robe.

"Shit!" the statuesque kunoichi offered, somewhat peeved, and gestured toward the fleeing pair. "That's Haku and Naruto right over there." In the distance, the two ninjas bounded over the maze of buildings, moving fast. Behind them an even dozen of Kirigakure's ninja gave chase along with their determined leader. "And there's Aya. Huh, I guess her technique worked after all. Come on, Ao," the woman urged, "the sooner we catch them, the sooner we'll finally know all that's behind what's been going on. Give the order for all shinobi in the center of the city to round them up, and I mean intact!"

Around the mist-veiled city, Haku and Naruto raced as the forces of Kirigakure swarmed like bees trying to corral a pair of intruding wasps. Over rooftops they sped then down into the alleyways they snaked, back and forth again until at last they barreled into a small, irregular piazza and there found themselves hopelessly surrounded. On every narrow street and narrower alleyway, multitudes of mist-ninja blocked the way or stood ready on the rooftops but refrained from moving in, waiting instead for Lady Terumi to deal with them first.

"Hey!" the auburn-haired jonin cried crossly when she arrived then marched toward the two young ninja so quickly that Ao had to rush to match her long-legged stride. "What the hell?! Naruto, didn't we treat you well? Didn't we have an understanding – mutual cooperation and all that? And you, Haku, what do you think you're doing running all around the city like a chicken with its head cut off?"

The woman lost her train of thought for a moment as Choujuro staggered in loudly from one of the side-streets, huffing and wheezing like a train, sweat streaming down his young face. The boy lurched twice then braced himself on his ridiculously oversized sword before he was able to look up and see for the first time what had developed. On quivering legs, Choujuro froze upon finding himself the new center of attention, gulped then tried to quiet his gasping breaths though his chest heaved like bellows.

Mei's jewel-bright eyes narrowed. She shook her head then turned back toward her two captives. The jonin gathered herself, pinched the bridge of her nose and adopted a calmer tone.

"Look," she began again a touch more diplomatically, "I really am starting to believe that you came to Kirigakure to help us. As for your part in Zabuza's insurrection three years ago, Haku, I can't just pretend that didn't happen. But I will guarantee that Kirigakure will deal with you fairly, and weigh your recent actions against -."

"LORD HAKU!" an interrupting voice trumpeted, echoing throughout the piazza. Hundreds upon hundreds of heads turned to behold the great traitor, Kurage, presiding grandly from a higher rooftop. "Everything has followed according to your plan. You have lead Terumi, Ao and all those who bend their knee to a feeble, bloodless Kirigakure here, and here is where we shall fight. Here is where we shall destroy them!" In time with his cadence and wild gesticulations, clusters of zodiac-masked ninja appeared at his side and along the rooftops behind those occupied by the loyal ranks of mist-shinobi immediately surrounding the piazza - a ring encircling a ring. "We await only your word, young master! LEAD us! Lead us…to VICTORY!"

Naruto and Haku, turning equally pale, looked at each other in goggle-eyed incredulity then cast their stunned gazes around the piazza and the vast assembly that had coalesced around them. The two fidgeted uncomfortably. The yellow-haired leaf-ninja nodded then toward Haku and motioned sharply with his blue eyes, prodding him to break the interminable silence.

Zabuza's student shook his head adamantly. "I don't like crowds!" he stage-whispered harshly.

"Shut up, I don't like crowds either!" Naruto whispered harshly back. "But you gotta say something!"

"You just told me to shut up! Anyway, I don't know what to say."

"You HAVE to! Just DO it. Go ON!"

The two exchanged scornful looks then broke off their bickering.

"Um…," began the Demon's Apprentice timidly as he gathered himself. He looked like he was going to be sick. "This is…this is just stupid! Can't you all see what's happened to your village? People are dying! Whatever problems you have with each other, now's the time you gotta put all that aside and work together. I mean, do you really hate each other so much that you'd kill yourselves while everything is destroyed all around you? What about the oaths you swore to protect the Mist Village, your families who live here and all the people who look to you to protect them?! Without them," Haku continued, his face flushing, his voice cracking with feeling, "without YOU working together, there IS no Kirigakure. Just…just think about that before you all do something stupid.

"That's all I got. Satisfied?" he added crabbily in a hoarse, awkward whisper to his yellow-haired partner after a long, uncomfortable pause.

Mei's expression condensed. Although taken by the poignant, raw sincerity of his simple words, there was something quite off about Haku. Though she never had known him well as the girlish little boy he'd been back when he was Zabuza's disciple, and had only exchanged a few words with him earlier, the young shinobi's mannerisms, turns of phrase and body language were not as she remembered. This was certainly not the godlike warrior who had defeated Krishenay Rahaman and broken the power of the 108 Demons. This was not even the dispassionate thirteen-year old who, at Zabuza Momochi's side, had stormed the Mizukage's palazzo.

Naruto nodded, cleared his throat and took a step forward to address the two armies himself. "I think, um, and you're gonna find out anyway," he shouted clumsily in a rasping tenor, gradually losing steam the longer he went, "that we, us two, I mean…we're – well, we're just a couple of shadow-clones…so whatever you guys decide to do, I, we, we all hope you make the right choice, ok?"

With that the two young ninjas evanesced in twin bursts of dispersing chakra.


Haku

Feeling wistful, Haku allowed his gaze to wander up the rain-and-age stained walls of the narrow, winding street, noting sparks of color from the occasional flower boxes up above, black birds flitting and flapping between the buildings, as well as the garish signs promoting the hastily abandoned little shops that occupied the bottom level. Being who they all were – The Demon of the Hidden Mist's former student, a ninja of the Hidden Leaf, and three members of blood-gifted clans understood to be at war with Kirigakure – they stuck to the most lonely and out of the way paths least likely to be patrolled as they made their way to the Unagi canal where Lord Tohma Nikai and his war machines waited invisibly at anchor. The teenager found himself warmed slightly by the remembrance of simpler times when Zabuza Momochi ruled his universe. Despite that, Haku couldn't stop from wondering if he'd ever walk these streets as a free man again or even if they would still exist once the Nikai-patriarch's thirst for revenge overcame his patience. That more than anything was what he didn't want to think about most – what he could possibly say or do that might prevent the ninja-lord from unleashing the same death on the Mist Village that the Mist Village had meant for him and those he lead and protected.

Naruto, for his part, marched unconcerned, his arms high, hands cradling the back of his head as he traded banter with Sakiko and barbs with Gennosuke. Every so often he paused to glace with fascination at Tensai who he'd said reminded him of someone he'd met before – another blood-gifted Kaguya named Kimimaro.

The young leaf-genin's interactions brought a grin to Haku's face. Sometimes Naruto really did seem at home anywhere, with anyone. Most of all, thought the constable, it felt good to have his friend back where he could keep an eye on him.

That part of the plan had worked out so perfectly it was downright frightening…


High on a fire-escape that hugged the wall overlooking a confluence of alleys with a wider street, the one island Haku had left clear of his jutsu-summoned mist, the ninja waited. As he'd suspected, he didn't have to wait long. Snake-like silvery shapes rippled toward where Haku had left the bait: a few drops of his blood. They swam through the air, darting out from the wall of fog in a flash, and were just as quickly destroyed by the young ninja's senbon. He then moved quickly to rejoin the others who waited in an open doorway that sat along the street just before the junction. Although not enshrouded by Haku's Hidden Mist Jutsu, Gennosuke had concealed them with his kekkei-genkai. No one coming through the mist would be able to see them.

To Haku's surprise, it was Naruto himself who stumbled past first, followed by two more almost at the first one's heels. All emerged slowly and slightly disoriented as they passed from the obscuring mist into clear air.

Sakiko startled.

"Shadow Clones," Haku explained to her, then grabbed the fourth one that passed by and yanked him inside faster, he hoped, than anyone who might be following could see. "Hey," he explained quickly to the surprised clone, "it's me."

Naruto settled down then beamed. "Haku!" he cried then threw his arms around the taller ninja. "You got away from that creepy Kurage guy!"

The teenager nodded, grinning back. "It's all thanks to my new friends," he answered then made with quick introductions. "But listen, we can't stay here long. We need the real Naruto here right now before Aya or any of the others find us. When you release your form he'll know."

The blond blinked at him.

"Aren't you going to vanish?" asked Haku.

"I'M the real Naruto."

"What, really?" Haku looked back out the open doorway at the Narutos that continued to stream by. "All those clones and I just happened to pick the real one?"

Real-Naruto shrugged then gave him a ridiculous, Cheshire-cat smile.

"Well, ok, I'll explain the rest as we go. We'll need a diversion though. The mist-ninja following you are after me and they won't want to let you get away either."

Naruto smirked slyly, created two new shadow-clones then used a Transformation Jutsu to disguise one of them as Haku.

The genin snickered, quite taken with his cleverness, as he sent his two minions hurrying back the way he'd come. They all then made their exit down a stairway into a moldy basement that connected with other basements and sub-level chambers that lead eventually to another stairway which took them back up to street level some blocks away.


Naruto stopped so suddenly and unexpectedly that Haku almost bumped hard into him.

"Naruto?" asked Haku, "are you alright?"

The genin turned his head toward him slowly with a strange, nonplussed look on his whisker-marked face. He smiled awkwardly, wide and mollifying. "Um, Haku?" he began in an uncertain tone, eyes flickering, "basically…y-you don't want Zabuza's old crew fighting it out with the Mist Village, right? And if you had to tell them something, you'd tell them they should put aside how much they hate each other and work together, especially seeing all the stuff that's going on right now, you know - the 108 Demons, Inoue's plague, Lord Nikai going to burn down the place?"

Haku stared, a bit mystified by the off-the-wall question. "Uh," he started as he thought about it, "sure, that's pretty-much how I feel about it…I suppose." His grey eyes narrowed quizzically. "Why do you ask that all of a sudden?"

The blond scratched behind his head and gave a loud, forced laugh. "Oh, no reason!" he stammered, blue eyes wide. "Just wanted to know, that's all."

Haku gave him a look and a tolerant smile then moved on. There was no point in worrying about it (yet). After all, Naruto being quirky was just part of the package.

The alleyway twisted this way and that then emptied into an oblong courtyard framed by brown brick buildings and occupied by wash basins and children's toys scattered about the paving stones. Laundry left to dry hung like pennons from sagging lines up above. Pulleys creaked as they swayed softly in the air.

A rubber ball the colorful stripes of which had been eroded by zealous use bounced twice along the ground then rolled the rest of the way toward the group. Naruto stopped it with his foot then turned sharply in the direction from whence it had come just as a black-cloaked man emerged from the shadows.

"What the…it's you!" Naruto snarled in surprise.

That face! Haku startled, mouth agape, as he looked at the newcomer and felt a cold trickle of genuine fear. Those eyes…but it can't be. Slowly, the young ninja's gaze swiveled toward his friend and he remembered: Naruto was being hunted and the Akatsuki had come after him before. Haku turned back toward the infamous stranger. He had only ever seen that pale visage before in the so-called "Bingo Book" of criminals but there was no mistaking it. As for those blazing, hellish eyes, he'd seen the Sharingan up close probably more than most shinobi ever had and lived to tell the tale but these were far, far different from Sasuke's or even Kakashi's.

Naruto dropped into a crouch, fists balled, teeth bared and clenched.

"Hello again," said Itachi Uchiha without emotion so that his tones echoed eerily, "Naruto."

"Ha!" cracked another voice from behind them. "And look at this – it's little Haku, Zabuza's pet, all grown up…or nearly; a couple of Kaguyas and a Serizawa too!"

Spinning toward the sound, the young ninja recognized the man at once - Zabuza-sensei's former brother-in-arms and fellow member of the Seven Swordsmen, Kisame Hoshigake. As large and terrifying as he'd always been it felt far worse this time knowing what the man wanted and that there was no way he could just surrender his friend to him…but at the same time there was no way he, or even all of them together, could stop him.

Tensai, whether through his training or his naturally cool demeanor, noted the arrival of the two ninjas impassively but warily while Sakiko gasped and Gennosuke froze, his face wide with fright. Undoubtedly, none of them had ever been in the presence of shinobi like this or felt the terrible, suffocating power of their chakras.

Haku retreated into calm, knowing that only by keeping a cool head did he stand a chance at surviving this and saving his companions. But how? his thoughts demanded.

His relatives had left imprinted in his mind a near-complete compendium of the Aramata Clan's ice-release techniques while they were a part of his consciousness but, at his level of mastery, didn't think they'd do much more than slow the two Akatsuki down. Truth be told, the full power of his unleashed energies might not even be enough to distract them.

This moment of racing thought lead him to consider another option: the unthinkable, pure suicide of calling forth the Hirai Clan's secret technique again. Only three people in history, himself included, had ever survived resorting to that jutsu even once in their lives let alone twice, let alone in successive days.

But I COULD do it, the unlikely idea simmered, boiling in his head, The House of Candlelight Jutsu…that would give me a chance. It takes time to perform but now that I'm familiar with it, I could complete the seals faster. Another look toward Naruto and Haku's mind was made.

Itachi shared a charitable grin with the trapped ninjas then brushed a hanging lock of black hair further back from his ghostly, shovel-cheekboned face as if, on some level, he appreciated and even sympathized with the plight of his victims. All the while, his chilling focus never wavered from the jinchuuriki.

"There is no way that you or any of your well-intended companions can fight us and hope to prevail, nowhere for you to run," the notorious Uchiha explained. "Your best option, your sole option, is to surrender yourself and come with us. Look at you," he observed as if to a cockroach struggling furiously on its back, "all tensed and ready for battle. How futile. There is no Master Jiraiya this time to save you, no one to come to your rescue -."

Part of the wall along one of the surrounding buildings shimmered just then and from it slithered a vaguely serpentine shape, dark and cloaked by a mantle of debris that floated close to but did not actually touch its supernatural flesh. Haku watched in revulsion as the enormous creature writhed slowly through space, passing through the lines of laundry above and even its own self in violation of physics as it twisted about.

Itachi's expression flickered with irritation at being interrupted.

"What the!" cried Kisame as he waved his arm at the unwelcome creature. "You again? What, you wanna fight after all?"

A grim, tense silence unfolded while Haku tried to keep track of both Akatsuki as well as this one of the 108 Demons that would surely bear a grudge against him for the violence he'd done to it and its cousins, for ruining their plans that had been decades in the making.

"Careful, Kisame," warned Itachi. "Something's changed with this one."

His partner's expression screwed with questions. "What do you mean…changed how?"

The attitude of both Akatsuki grew wary as four more of the demon's brethren slinked, hopped, crawled and phased into view overhead and from the adjacent alleyways, each one horrific in their own way, resembling things found in nature but fused and warped beyond recognition. Claws clicked, mouth parts whirred and spat, preternaturally strong sinews rippled and unknown energies gathered.

Haku, paying especial attention to Itachi, read his posture and those of the 108 Demons. They, he concluded with a gasp, the demons, they're not after me at all. It's only Itachi and Kisame!

Slowly, he reached out for Naruto and grasped his uniform at the shoulder with one hand while his other came to rest lightly on Tensai's back. With the subtlest of glances and motions he guided them slowly back, gathering Sakiko and Gennosuke as they inched for the mouth of the open alleyway before them.

Itachi's unholy eyes, fiery and filled with murder, flashed toward them, just a warning, one that went unheeded as Haku, Naruto and the rest broke into a run. Before the two Akatsuki could move to follow or stop them, the gathered five of the 108 Demons leaped at the nefarious pair with all the raw, unfathomable savagery that only supernatural monsters could summon.