Haku awoke to
the sound of a hyper-active male voice. Her heart felt cold as she
relived the events of the night before. She knew it was morning, the
sun was shining brightly overhead, glaring against blinding white
snow.
"Over here, Kakashi-sensei! There's a naked girl on the
ground. She's bleeding kinda badly," the voice yelled.
Haku
heard three sets of feet arrive beside the voice. Her head felt like
someone had hit her between the eyes with a hammer.
"Move aside.
We need to get her to the village. Fast," a stronger, more mature
male voice spoke above her.
She felt strong arms lift her and
panicked. It was too fresh a memory and she vividly recalled the last
time she was carried against a heavily muscled body. Haku whimpered
pitifully.
"Hush, now. I won't hurt you. I only want to help
you. What's your name, little one?," the soft voice asked against
her ear.
"H-Haku,"she answered, shivering.
She began to
feel warm, although the air was bellow freezing. Haku borrowed
closer, feeling unusually safe. Though she was aware of moving, she
fell fast asleep
again.
Haku woke up in a room filtered by scorching sunlight. She
was covered up by a cotton blue sheet and a white wool blanket.
Someone had rebandged her and dressed her wounds. They had also put
her in a long black tee-shirt.
A noise by the door startled her
into looking over. There, lounging on the door, was a tall, gray
haired man. He was wearing a mask over his mouth and a vest.
Haku
knew he was the one who had taken her to this place. She just knew
it, deep inside herself. Managing a very weak smile, she gestured for
him to move into the room.
And he did, uncrossing his arms, the
muscles rippling in his legs as they carried him towards the bed
housing her. She wished she hadn't noticed that he had a very
elegant, sexy walk.
"Hello, little one. How are you?," his
voice was soft and concerned.
"F-fine. W-where a-am I?," she
wondered aloud, mortified that she was stammering.
He gave a tiny
twitch of his mouth and said kindly," You are in Konoha, the
Leaf-village. My squad found you."
"Squad?," she asked
curiously.
"I am a jounin, a shinobi. My squad consists of three
chounin. The number-one-hyper-active-knuckle-head-ninja, otherwise
known as Uzumaki Naruto, was the one who spotted you first. I'm
Hatake Kakashi," he finished up by introducing himself.
When
Haku gasped and Kakashi chuckled, saying," Heard of me have
you?"
"Yes. Zabuza used to speak of you. The Copy Ninja. He
said how he wished he could test his strength against yours…,"she
broke off hesitantly.
"Zabuza?," Kakashi prompted
gently.
"He-he was my best friend. Or I thought he was. Mamochi
Zabuza," Haku answered brokenly.
"Oh my God," was the
stunned reply.
After an awkward silence, Haku cleared her throat
and asked," How long have I been asleep?".
"Fifteen days,"
he answered calmly.
Haku didn't take this calmly. She shouted in
bewilderment,"Fifteen days?!", and attempted to scramble out of
the bed and dress herself. If it had not been for Kakashi's arm
catching her, she'd have fallen in a
bundle.
She hadn't been aware of it, but she'd passed out. At least,
she thought she had, for when she awoke next, it was dark. She
sighed, holding her pounding head.For an unknown reason, she had one
hell of headache.
"So, you're up again? Good. Sasuke can
watch, I need to go inform Kakashi-sensei," a girl's voice said
cheerfully.
Haku looked up in time to see a pink-haired head
disappear behind the door. She sighed again, then started. She'd
just remember the girl saying about someone named Sasuke……
She
looked around the room and her eyes finally rested on a boy, not much
older than her, with spiky black hair, equally black eyes, and a
black outfit.
"H-Hi," she whispered tiredly.
A corner of
the boys mouth twitched and he stood up to go to the side of her bed.
This boy wasn't as tall as his sensei, but he was a hell of a lot
taller than her, she realized.
"I'm Uchiha Sasuke. Kakashi
will be here soon. He had to stay to see Naruto, a baka teamate of
mine, finish his training. Don't worry. I was one of your
rescurers," he said softly.
