Hi, again and welcome back.

-Jonohex


Haku

Waves rolled, sea breezes blew and gulls circled soundlessly in the bright sunlight under a vault of luminous, cerulean blue. Haku cast a shy glance toward Mari who walked beside him, her hand in his, her laughter in his ears. She said something then, smiled playfully and broke away, skipping down the stretch of endless, glowing beach, trailing footprints behind her. Warmed, the boy watched her, knelt, took up a handful of snow though it had all been sand before and rubbed it over his pale chest and stomach. Having a sudden thought, Haku looked after Mari, meaning to ask if she wasn't too cold but didn't get the chance.

He found himself walking still, and he'd been for quite some time, in perpetual twilight along an ancient wall of un-mortared stone just tall enough that he could almost but not quite see what lay beyond. Away from it spread a landscape dry and unspeakably bleak for as far as the eye could see. In time his constant footfalls delivered him to a door, the only opening offered in the wall's unbroken length. Stout and solid as it was, the portal yielded to his touch. The very first crack of its opening flooded the teenager with memories, garden fragrances, the promise of verdure, of respite. Glimpses of reunion.

Smiling, tearful he made to enter when a meaty hand, coarse and calloused, stayed him.

"Oh, it's you!" he remarked though he hadn't felt startled, "Pack-Leader Yamashite."

"Hello, Haku." The big mist-ninja looked the same – blue and grey camouflage, armored, high-collared vest, towering and as big around as a barrel, black, thick-framed glasses making his eyes look huge. A grin, somewhat avuncular, somewhat crocodilian appeared through his bristly week's growth of whiskers as he inquired: "What are you doing here?"

Haku thought for a moment, his face turning serious. "I have to be here," he explained, turning down the jonin's offer of anise seeds. "I'm dead."

The ANBU returned his packet of seed to a pocket, grunted thoughtfully and nodded though with an 'oh, is that so' expression that said he thought that reason lacking.

"What are you doing here?" the teenager countered.

"I choose to be here," explained Toru with arms wide open, "I'm God."

Now Haku was startled.

"Ha, come on, I'm only fuckin' with ya, kid! Lighten up," he gusted merrily, clapped his junior solidly on a slender shoulder then fell strangely quiet and still. He froze the boy with a stare. "Seriously though…I am God." Toru took note of Haku's reaction then laughed: "I got you AGAIN! I can't believe you and Momochi gave me so much trouble for so long."

"Will you stop that," Haku snapped, seriously enough that the ANBU sagged, chastened. "This is serious. I don't want to go but I have to. It – it's the way of things."

"Well, yeah, you're right, you're right. It IS the way of things…but you don't have to go right now."

Haku's face blanked. This was a revelation. "No?"

Toru shook his head, and again that smile. "Uhn-uh."


Haku awoke as if from a short, fitful sleep but with rooftop gravel as his bed hard under his back and tightness his blanket pulled painfully across his chest. In the distance a monster howled, making him think he was dreaming still. The teenager's grey eyes stared momentarily skyward into the dense Kirigakure cloud cover, his mind still in the grip of the strangest, most lucid dream he could remember, then drifted toward Aya who knelt beside him, locked in concentration with both hands hovering over him as she applied her healing jutsu.

"Try not to move, please. I'm almost finished," she offered with such delicacy it was almost as if she asked for forgiveness.

Haku's mouth hung open for a moment and he remembered that Itachi had slashed him wide open, and that was a man who knew a thing or two about slashing people open. That he was still alive struck him as beyond miraculous. "You and your pack followed me for so long trying to kill me but this is the second time you've saved my life," Haku remarked and didn't mention that he'd just talked with her dead boss.

The former ANBU nodded agreeably enough though her anxious eyes flitted. Haku was struck by just how skillful a healer she was, a rare thing among mist-ninja. Toru 'the Akita' really had been a genius at picking talent.

The former Demon's Apprentice chuckled softly at his good fortune but had to ask: "Miss Sakamoto, how did you find me so quickly? How could you even know I'd been wounded?"

Without sparing any of her concentration, she answered, "Your friend Naruto told me. He was here just a few minutes ago."

From somewhere not too far away the tumult of crashing waves, hungry flames, crumbling brickwork and eruptions of powerful chakras warned him of an ongoing battle. The Kyuubi's bestial roar washed over them – a gush of sound, energy and raw emotion that stabbed at the heart. Choujuro, standing watch at the corner of the roof, flinched reflexively then turned to give them an urgent glare.

Haku's brow knitted. "Naruto?" he muttered then looked off over the parapet. The last time he'd seen the young leaf-ninja, he'd been half possessed by the Demon Fox. "But he couldn't have -." The teenager thought for a moment and remembered then how Okino had lead Shikamaru and his team to him using his illusions. That had to be it. So, Haku concluded, the strange jonin is still alive. "Ah, right."

"You did well, freezing your cut closed so you didn't bleed to death," Aya told him. "It was very deep."

"Did I? I don't remember."

Aya's eyes again flickered toward the boy who'd been her target for almost two years following The Demon of the Hidden Mist's coup attempt. "May I ask," she began, "why would you save us from the blood-gifted clans, from the 108 Demons, from the bandaged men?"

"I suppose it's because there was no one else," Haku answered after a time, putting aside that he'd had nothing to do with destroying the Nephilim; his thoughts were elsewhere.

Okino's alive. That's a very good thing. But Naruto, he wondered. Surely Itachi and Kisame will capture him even with the Demon Fox's chakra unleashed. It's hard to believe they haven't done so already. Kisame might want to play with him awhile, test his strength, but not Itachi. Another idea occurred to him. Perhaps their fight with the Nephilim took more out of them than I thought.

The Kyuubi bellowed again at which Choujuro cringed, quit his post and fled over to them in a rushed, crouching duck-walk, collecting his absurdly-sized double-sword as he came. "So is he gonna be ok?"

Aya smiled and gave a single, confident nod, then said to Haku, "Half of Kirigakure's saying that you're our savior, Haku, our hero. Who would have believed it?"

Haku made a face and chuckled. "And what does the other half say?"

She glanced away awkwardly and spared him the answer.

"So NOW what's happening!?" Choujuro demanded, swiping stray tangles of blue hair from his face and pushing his heavy glasses back up his nose.

Haku thought for a second, trying to sort out the order of things. He'd already done his part of the plan. Assuming that Shikamaru had succeeded with his, and Haku felt sure that was more than likely, then all the rest should fall into place from here. The 'only' difficulty remaining was the Akatsuki but there was a plan for them too. Therein lay a problem that had nagged at the back of Haku's mind ever since the leaf-chunin suggested it. With everything else that had been going on, it had been easy enough to ignore until now.

"For Kirigakure…I think the worst of it's passed," he announced and wet his dry lips, "so, congratulations."

The two mist-ninja looked at him as if he'd lost his mind.

Choujuro frowned as only a child of his age could do, flung his arm toward the spectacle of a rampaging Fox Demon fighting the Akatsuki through the streets, plazas and canals of his home city. "Does THIS look like 'the worst of it's passed' to you?!"

The teenager shrugged, conceding the point. "That fight will be over sooner than later," he offered coolly then sat up, waving off Aya's protestations.

"I only just healed you. You have to rest!"

Haku looked at her squarely and returned a polite smile. "Itachi and Kisame are going to kill Naruto. That means I have to get back to work."

"Y-you're," the girl stared at him, stunned, "you're crazy!"

Zabuza's former student pouted as if deeply upset by her comment. "Eccentric at best," he corrected then his lips quirked into a grin. "I could use your help, one more time." He turned toward the newly-promoted genin, "and yours too, Choujuro."


Akatsuki

The Fox-Demon loomed over them, engulfing the two infamous shinobi in the shadow of its supernatural presence. Even motionless, staring blankly, helpless in the thrall of Itachi's Sharingan the beast radiated a menace that even the two veterans couldn't dismiss. The waters Kisame had summoned over the better part of an hour of fierce combat flowed around them as they drained away, still knee deep, filling it the pits and scars in the earth their battle had wrought.

"I sure thought he'd go down easier since the jinchuuriki's just a kid and all," said Kisame with steady satisfaction as he gathered his breath. His clothes were torn, some bones were cracked, his left arm hung all but useless. But THAT had been a really good fight! So much better than before. The jonin's blood pumped, his spirit soared from having done what he'd been created to do. His mind filled with the beatitude that war always brought him, the feeling of deep accomplishment at having overcome a real challenge. "But I guess you don't have to teach a centuries old Fox-Demon how to fight, eh!"

Itachi, battle-scarred and as winded and bedraggled as his partner had ever seen him, squeezed his eyes shut and rubbed his temple. Fighting those bandaged freaks hadn't done either of them any good, and fighting the Kyuubi almost immediately after was definitely the hard way of going about things.

"I know, it's taking too long," the former Swordsman of the Mist acknowledged, deliberately calm and professional. This was his way of soothing his partner. Whether the Uchiha required soothing was an open question. Kisame, for his part, had never seen him at any extremity of emotion no matter what the circumstances. Though he had no fear of Itachi, it seemed best to keep it that way. "Ha, who'd have thought a couple of stupid kids like Naruto and Haku would get mixed up in anything like all this?"

Stoney silence was his only answer.

"Look, Itachi," the blue-skinned giant tried again, "it's over. We got him. Yeah, it was tougher than we'd expected but so what? A week from now we'll be on to the next mission or, better yet, take a nice rest. We'll make Kukazu and Hidan go after Hachi." Kisame opened his arms wide and grinned.

"Perhaps you're right, Kisame," Itachi replied, seemingly mollified, then shouted, "Kisame!"

It was only because of Itachi's warning that his partner avoided being crushed out of existence by an enraged and awakened Kyuubi no Yoko, and was only sent flying with a following swipe of its massive paw.

After another grueling round with the beast, their fight having raged over an already leveled cityscape, their energies lashing at each other, with a Demon Fox that had grown wise to their strategies, that had learned – learned – to avoid eye-contact with the Uchiha, finally, it was over…again.

The jinchuuriki, regressed now to his human state, plunged from the sky like a shattered kite. Snatching the Uzumaki kid and getting the hell out of the Mist Village was all that was left to do and it wouldn't be too soon. But as Kisame tensed his legs to jump, pain exploded from his nearly useless left arm. He flinched violently, brought it up and found a huge eel, a creature made entirely of water, with its teeth sunk deep into his flesh, its translucent tail wriggling furiously. More joined it, and the mist-ninja discovered that he was surrounded, in the midst of a feeding-frenzy with him as the prey. Other eels bit, flew at his face, chasing after and fighting over drops of blood that dripped and flew from his wounds.

"Fuck!" the veteran shouted and whirled his sword, Samehada, slashing through the eels which burst into gushes of water. He flailed against a broken tooth of masonry, all that was left of what had been a building, and smashed it and the eels attached to his arm apart. "You're going to use a Water Style jutsu like that on ME…on ME?!" the huge ninja seethed at his unseen tormentor then put his fingers together in a jutsu of his own, summoning watery sharks from the pools around him, and sending them hunting for the eels' conjurer.

A few paces away, Itachi darted and spun, his sword dancing until he leaped clear and finished off the eel onslaught with a titanic blast of fire. Kisame covered his eyes from the glare, blinded for a moment, then looked hard as Itachi again called his name.

Through the chaos and steam and motion, he could just make out a man fleeing with the jinchuuriki kid, their hard-fought-for prize, under one arm, indistinct through the haze except for the familiar image on the back of his jacket - a round fan, red on top, white on the bottom - the crest of the Uchiha clan.

"Kisame, after them!" Itachi barked, surprising his partner with the dangerous edge in his tone.


Naruto

If he is secure at all points, be prepared for him. If he is in superior strength, evade him.

Sun Tzu - The Art of War

Drained, dazed, sick and beaten, Naruto did the best he could to hang on and help as his rescuer sped through Kirigakure's maze of narrow streets and alleys, knowing that, once again, he was being chased. The genin looked over, saw that angular, so-familiar profile, fair skin and shard-like fans of jet-black hair and gasped: "Sasuke!" but only got a quick, corrective glance in return. "Sorry…Haku," he amended, grimaced and tried to will himself to focus. "I remember now."

"It's alright," said Haku in Sasuke's voice, his aspect rendered perfectly by the ninja's transformation jutsu. "Are you alright?"

Naruto swallowed hard and frowned. 'Not really' was the truth but that was not something he could say. 'Not really' would make Haku throw the current plan out the window and improvise even with the Akatsuki scant seconds behind them. Knowing he had to feel better actually did make him feel a little better. "I'm good!" the young ninja piped raggedly with a slightly forced confidence he thought only half-convinced his friend, freed himself from under Haku's arm and ran on his own.

"You remember where to go, what to do?" Haku asked, cool as always and yet...

Naruto nodded. "I remember." There was something odd in Haku's tone, his attitude, which seemed off, that was evident even through his mimicry of Sasuke. "What's wrong?"

"Huh?" Haku/Sasuke said and shook his head, "nothing. We're almost at the split. Please be careful, Naruto."

"Don't worry about me; I got it!"

They came to a hopelessly jumbled intersection, a ganglion of streets and alleys that came in at different angles, some twisting and serpentine while others were ramrod straight. Despite the confusing clutter, Naruto knew to follow the downward-most slope and vectored off while Haku cut the other way, uphill. The leaf-ninja cast one last look back toward his friend then focused on what lay ahead – what should be his final battle with Kisame Hoshigake, member of the infamous Akatsuki, one of the Seven Swordsman, and the Scourge of the Hidden Mist.


Kisame

If your opponent is of choleric temper, seek to irritate him. Pretend to be weak, that he may grow arrogant.

Hold out baits to entice the enemy. Feign disorder, and crush him.

Sun Tzu - The Art of War

Kisame flew from the mouth of the narrow street and out onto the docks where Naruto or rather, dozens of Narutos, awaited him in the middle of a wide, stone pier that jutted into the mist-clotted, slow-moving waters of the Unagi Canal.

Injuries pulled, some flared with pain as the Akatsuki straightened, his left arm most of all. "I'll say this for you, kid, you got more guts than anyone I've ever met." He gave a glassy-eyed, shark-toothed grin, leveled his sword at them and grunted, "But guts won't save you…any more than your clones. And fighting me on a pier, right on the water? That's a stupid move."

The big jonin stalked forward then grit his teeth and charged, slashing away, cutting down clones as he went. To their credit, the yellow-haired horde tested his attention, probed for unguarded spots, parted for him, swarmed around to encircle him, flipped and leaped over him to confuse while others darted in to attack inevitably to be destroyed, dispersed and their chakra sucked into Kisame's living weapon, Samehada. The Akatsuki sliced one high out of the air, swept Samehada behind his back to ward off attacks from the rear then lashed again, too fast, too powerful to be stopped – a tornado ravaging a field of scarecrows. Three more Narutos feinted toward his rear then sprang clear over him to, absurdly, attack from the front. The Swordsman's effortless slash cleaved right through two of them while last one dropped under the blade's fatal arc in a display of unexpected, astonishing agility.

Instinct tugged at the jonin that something wasn't right and only then did he notice the icy blankness of the remaining Naruto's stare that didn't even waver as a dozen white lances burst from its body, spearing the Akatsuki through the arms and legs, piercing into his chest and belly. "K-Kaguya," he growled as he recognized the technique – Shikotsumyaku, the clan's insidious kekkei-genkai. The wounded shinobi staggered back, trailing crimson, flailing to keep this new threat back when he was struck hard from behind – a pair of blows far more powerful than Naruto could ever deliver without the Kyuubi's aid – which sent him flying forward. The Kaguya, white-faced and greyhound lean, having dropped his transformation jutsu, swiped at him with bone cleavers and machetes as he passed. The mist-ninja blocked them but even this proved to be a diversion.

Two more 'Narutos', spinning together in furious, corkscrewing unity slammed into him like a runaway train and again he went spinning through the air.

"Rasengan!" the jinchuuriki, the real one this time, cried as he tore into Kisame with his jutsu.

The world went grey for a moment from the impact then whirled in the ninja's eyes as he hit the pavement hard enough to crack stone and went skipping over it. At last he righted himself, forced the hand of his ragged left arm to claw into the pavement and he slewed to a stop, leaving a torn track of unearthed cobblestones behind him. With Samehada in his right, Kisame circled the blade all around him to force back anyone else who might be near.

This was bad. He was drained and wounded from before, from his battles with those bandaged freaks and then not just one but TWO rounds with the Kyuubi no Yoko. Now he'd been taken in, surprised, like a rookie, like a fool! Far worse than his injuries, with which he was well accustomed, was the very nearly forgotten sting of humiliation. Kisame gathered himself and sent chakra to staunch the bleeding, bind his injuries, then looked up at the revealed faces of his enemies with an expression born of nightmares.

Arrayed before him stood nothing more than a motley collection of kids: Naruto the jinchuuriki and his clones of course; a shaggy, taller boy who was accompanied by a little white dog; a young, pink-haired kunoichi; a fat kid with tattoos on his chubby cheeks, and an older-looking teenager with black hair tied up in a bushy top-knot. Bolstering their ranks was the Kaguya, a young man with the kind of cold, dead eyes that Kisame could appreciate, and a stocky shinobi whose aura radiated wrongness. Far back on the docks, two more looked on – a lean, white-haired Kaguya girl and a very skinny boy with lavender hair.

Gallingly, none had fear in their eyes. He would have to fix that.

"So, this is how you think you can beat me," Kisame growled, "with numbers? I've stood over battlefields piled high with the bloody corpses of those I've cut down. Entire nations fear me but you think you're my match?!"

Incredibly, infuriatingly, the group shifted and moved forward slowly. The younger ninja with the shaggy hair concentrated, moved his hands through a series of seals and began to change, growing, transforming into a hulking, wolf-like beast. These fools were going to attack him!

The ninja stared, hovering for a moment between mortification and wonder at this display of sheer audacity. "Worthless scum, come on then," he hissed through triangular, shark's teeth. "Come to your deaths!"

Kisame made ready to receive them, imagining that a single swipe with Samehada might finish off the lot when the skinny little kid's eyes began to glow and they all vanished in mid-stride, rendered not merely invisible but undetectable. "A Serizawa," he realized, mystified. The entire clan had been reported dead years and years ago after the civil wars and with a certainty that defied question.

The big Akatsuki made to retreat into the water where he would again have the advantage but that one ninja, in werewolf form, was already upon him. Kisame reeled from the impact but would not allow himself to be knocked down. Razor teeth gnashed, curved claws like daggers flashed into and out of the jonin's perception occluded by the Serizawa demon-child's kekkei-genkai. The wolf's relentless, savage ferocity and monstrous strength kept the mist-ninja off-balance and on the defensive, unable to use his jutsu or bring Samehada to bear until finally Kisame found his footing, pivoted sharply, butted it hard with the pommel of his sword then lashed a kick and felt it land solidly. No sooner than he had fended off the werewolf when cold arms seized him from behind – a clumsy hold even a novice ninja could easily escape from yet as soon as he felt the grip encircle his trunk, trapping his arms, a chilling, crushing nausea came upon him as what remained of chakra reservoirs began to drain away.

Moments passed - far too long! Before finally he recovered from the shock then twisted sharply, forced the ruins of his left arm around his assailant then slung him over his hip. His enemy was visible, barely, a blurry smear Kisame's eyes couldn't quite focus on, but the Swordsman knew where right where he'd be and slashed. The Serizawa's jutsu kept the shinobi hidden a second longer then faded, revealing the bisected body of the man – torso and legs separated, both lying limply in pools, not of blood, but seawater.

"Hideo!" the Kaguya girl cried though she had no reason to mourn. Hideo had been dead awhile.

Kisame frowned as he realized what the shinobi was, the product of a jutsu horrible even by his standards. Still, he was starting to get the upper hand just as he'd known he would but there was no time to delay, these little bastards were incredibly tricky. The Akatsuki's fingers flew through a jutsu and the waters all around the pier swelled to life, rising up through the mist and crashing over the pier and the docks all the way to the first row of storefronts in a great, froth-covered wave. The air filled with its roar, the smell of the sea then, lastly, the hiss of the waters rushing back into the canal.

His enemies were all visible now, exposed as the Serizawa boy lay prone and gasping on the pavement. The rest of them had fared better – the Kaguya had anchored himself to the pier with bone spears, the fat one, his arms having grown long and huge, had hung onto him as well as to his other teammates, shielding them from worst of the tidal wave, but they were still battered and half-drowned.

"Are you all out of tricks now, little ninjas?" Kisame offered coldly then fixed the Kaguya with a look. "You should have stabbed me through the heart when you had the chance! Now I'll slaughter you and the other one like I did the rest of your ridiculous clan." The Akatsuki turned then to Naruto who huddled on one knee, waterlogged, panting and gagging in the tatters of his mist-ninja's uniform with his yellow hair plastered to his head. That he was still conscious, or even alive, after everything he and Itachi had put him through was nothing less than amazing. There was something special about this kid; it wasn't just that he was a jinchuuriki. Kisame realized that now, not that it mattered. The vessel was disposable, special or not. "And YOU, jinchuuriki," he roared, "you're coming with me. But first, I'll let you watch me kill all your friends."

The fat one, with his body inflated, and the Kaguya moved to intercept him as he paced forward but then at the last second darted aside and Kisame was blinded by a flash of white light. The jonin shielded his eyes from the glare and saw that the little kunoichi with the pink hair had moved behind the taller ninja with the top knot and struck two fistfuls of magnesium flares. Immediately, the young ninja formed a seal, his shadow darkened blacker than ink and jolted toward the former mist-ninja, wrapping around and up his legs, around his arms and body, immobilizing him.

It was a strong jutsu, but not that strong.

"You-you think you can hold me with this?!" Kisame cackled while the shadow-ninja strained for all he was worth, face reddening, sweat pouring down. "You're just insulting me now and making things that much worse for you." If he'd been at his regular strength, he might have almost walked through a jutsu like this. As it was, the jonin would actually have to struggle, and that just made him angrier. Reaching within himself, the Akatsuki tapped into the primal depths of his chakra reserves, howled his rage, strained and broke free of the shadowy restraints. Top-knot shuddered and fell to the ground. There! Oh, there it was – the fear in their eyes! Now they would suffer for annoying him, that damn blond Uzumaki kid worst of all.

A toothy smile, the purest expression of malignant, wrathful glee, spread over his face. He moved to fling himself at them in savage fury but found that once again, he couldn't move. "What the -." The pier itself had grabbed a hold of his feet, the paving stones grown around them and twining their way up his body. Right there before him, the stones shifted, crawled over and around each other, their variations in color and texture sorted themselves to form the semblance of a familiar face as wide as the pier.

"Hello, 'brother'," it said. "'Nice to see you again."

"Okino!"

The stone face's lips and expression moved in eerie, mosaic likeness to the original. "It's so hard for me to project my power at this distance, but it's the least I could do since it's a special occasion, a family reunion!"

Kisame snarled and snapped at his stone shackles, testing their hold. The gang of young ninjas stared at the unfolding spectacle in shock.

"Hey!" shouted Naruto in a rasping, haggard voice, wide eyed, truly angry. "You're not supposed to be here!"

"More tricks, more genjutsu?" Kisame growled and shook his head tensely. "It won't work this time." Samehada gave him a pulse of chakra but all remained as it was.

"No, brother. No trick this time," the face explained, infuriatingly calm.

"Stop calling me that!"

Again the annoying blond brat was screaming his fool head off: "Okino! Get the hell out of here. We don't need you!" The rest of them looked at each other and scattered; the fat kid and the girl with pink hair tackled and grabbed the jinchuuriki, struggled furiously with him then followed the others, dragging their distraught teammate with them.

"Oh," the mosaic answered Kisame, "but didn't we share the same cradle, the same mother scientists, the same father test tubes?"

The jonin quivered with rage. "I'll cut you to bloody ribbons for this," he vowed, "make what I did to you before seem like a joke."

"A joke? I don't know any. How about quotations? I particularly like this one:

To the last, I grapple with thee; From Hell's heart, I stab at thee; For hate's sake, I spit my last breath at thee." The stones wound around Kisame's waist and back, flowing, swelling into a stone-like monster with Okino's face. The thing turned him bodily around to face the grim waters of the Unagi Canal.

"So what now?" Kisame challenged him, mocked him. "Do you mean to crush me, drown me, hold me here 'till I starve? I feel you weakening, Okino! You can't hold me much longer."

Hideous, cackling laughter then. "I don't have to hold you for much longer."

There in the middle of the canal, the mist faded before the big ninja's eyes, parted a bit to show a sleek section of warship obscured before now beneath layers of jutsu. Upon its deck a rocket launcher, just one of many, lowered its barrels towards him and fired.


Haku

The fleeing 'Sasuke' darted down an alleyway, running full-tilt toward the light at the end and burst into the courtyard – the same place he'd found Okino, the same place Itachi had burned the mist-ninja's Coral Pavilion to ruins which lay there in a blackened heap, smoldering still. As he made toward them, the buildings all around erupted in sheets of fire, making the teenager stagger and stop, arms cradled around his head.

Amidst the crackle and hiss of the flames, the Uchiha's icy voice issued clear and frightening: "You're obviously not my foolish little brother. Though I admit you had me doubt for a moment."

Haku lowered his arms, straightened and dropped his jutsu, then turned toward Itachi though he dared not look at his face.

The delay in the jonin's response almost made him think he was taken-aback. "And I was so certain I'd killed you."

"You did," the Demon's Apprentice assured him as the flames faded out. "You did. It just…didn't take."

"They say you've died twice already. I suppose a third time should come as no surprise but tell me: why would you disguise yourself as Sasuke?"

Haku sucked his dry, thin lips. "Because I knew you would follow," he said and bowed contritely.

"I see. Maybe it's not so strange that anyone would prefer me over my partner, Kisame. You've made me curious though; how could you be so certain that I would follow you and not him?"

Haku's expression turned bleak. He hadn't thought the man would ask.

"Tell me."

"Because you're insane," the teenager divulged reluctantly. Really, how could he lie? The Uchiha would know if he did. "There're so many stories out there about you, some of them quite fanciful, offering all kinds of complex reasons why you would kill your entire clan. But in the end, there's a simpler explanation - the price some of us pay for our kekkei-genkai."

Seconds of silence ticked by.

"That's an interesting theory. I suppose that might explain, in your case, why, knowing my reputation and having escaped death at my hands once that you would deliberately provoke me again."

Haku shrugged. He could hardly deny it.

"That was you then who gave the Kyuubi a jolt of chakra to free it from my genjutsu."

Haku nodded.

"Then you purposely lured me here, why, to defeat me? With Kisame's former teammate's help no doubt. Surely you know that he is no longer," he went on and gestured toward the rubble of The Manatee's pavilion.

Itachi had figured it out entirely. That was the plan. Though genjutsu was unlikely to work on these two again, Okino could do much more. He could bend reality to his will. And the closer he was to the earth's energy meridians, like this Friary Hill courtyard, the greater his power was. Haku could remember the substance of the plan flow from Shikamaru as he'd offered it not so long ago. And there was the flaw. Shikamaru had not taken into account the human element. In what he saw as the most likely path to victory over both Akatsuki, he was asking a man to set aside his anger against the partner, his brother, who'd betrayed him, lopped off his legs and left him blind and crippled, a mockery before the village he'd loved and served for most of his life. Shikamaru was asking Okino to forget Kisame and stand with Haku instead against Itachi.

In the intensity of the moment, they'd all glossed over it. Maybe even Okino hadn't considered this at the time he'd agreed to it; or maybe he had. On the bright side, Naruto and all the rest stood a much better chance against Kisame with Okino aiding them instead of him. On the not so bright side, the support Haku had counted on getting 'from beyond' was not coming. He was one-on-one against Hell's own Ambassador.

"Thus far, Haku," Itachi explained to him, "you've interfered with my mission on at least two occasions and now dare to cast aspersions on my sanity. Perhaps I've not dealt with you as seriously as I should have, that I have, mistakenly, been overly lenient owing to your youth and that you're moved to try and save your friend's life. Perhaps I have only myself to blame." Haku tensed, not liking where this was going. "Rest assured that both my lenience and my patience are at an end."