Eight Years Later
The walls of Konoha loomed large, towering into the sky like the cliffs of Suna. They never failed to impress, no matter how many other cities and hidden villages Haku visited. This would be the first time that he would be entering through the front gate however. Traveling with Jiraiya, meant taking the road less traveled, even if it was leading home. As the man in charge of an extensive spy ring, with contacts across the continent, he tried to keep his infrequent visits under wraps. That was a policy that for the time being would be coming to an end. In Jiraiya's words "there are times when you need to be seen, it gives the illusion you're on top of things."
Haku had only been to the Leaf village a handful of times, but he loved it all the same. It was beloved by Jiraiya, and thus he couldn't help but love it himself. Jiraiya had saved him, not just from death, but from irrelevance and despair. He had given him a life of purpose and laughter. There was more to it than that though; there was a prosperous harmony to the village that most others lacked. Oh there was a darkness underneath the surface, there was in every ninja village, but Konoha didn't let the darkness spill out into the light. It was a place that Haku could love in its own right.
The chunin gate guards straightened noticeably as Haku and his master walked up to their post. The guards were in their early to mid twenties, and didn't seem especially noteworthy. The way they moved and held themselves spoke of average ability for their rank. One had a shock of hair hanging down that covered half his face, while the other had an odd bandage crossing his face across the bridge of his nose. Haku grinned, it always amused him that such personal quirks among shinobi were common. 'After all', he thought 'when you can look like anyone at any time with the art of transformation, dressing outrageously doesn't do anything to impair the performance of one's duties.' He continued to himself introspectively, 'and it's also a way of asserting that we aren't just faceless tools, for no matter what shinobi say, we are still human beings.'
"Lord Jiraiya, welcome back to Konoha!" said the man with the bandage, an excited smile on his face. "It's been too long."
"Have you come for the Chunin exam?" asked his partner, eying Haku speculatively.
"Got it one Izumo." Jiraiya replied with a hearty laugh. He slapped a hand down on Haku's shoulder and said, "My apprentice here is still technically a genin, so I thought it'd be fun for him to compete."
Haku looked up at Jirayia, who still over topped him by a good thirty centimeters, and raised an eyebrow at that. "Oh? I thought you told me that you were going to ask the Hokage to promote me straight to Special Jonin." Out of the corner of his eye he could see the guards exchange interested looks at that bit of news.
Jiraiya smiled that wide grin of his down at him, "I will, provided you do well in the exam, as I'm sure you will. It will be better for the village this way," he continued. "Shinobi do their best work in secret, but our clients only buy what they can see so you gotta give them a good show to drum up business."
"I suppose that makes sense," Haku replied dubiously, thinking 'things are rarely so simple with sensei, there's probably some foreign genin he wants information on participating in this year's exam.'
"Anyways, I'm a busy man, have to go see the Hokage and then my publisher. Keep an eye out for my new book boys, it's a doozy!" He winked at the guards and then squeezed Haku's shoulder and they flickered away, leaving a swirl of leaves and dust.
Kotetsu looked over at Izumo and smirked, "I know who I'm putting my money on."
Izumo rolled his eyes in exasperation, "You and everyone else. Lord Jiraiya trained the 4th! Any kid he enters the exam to make a splash in front of the masses has got to be a badass. To get good odds you'll have to take him against the field."
"I just might do that Izumo," Kotetsu replied, mulling it over "I just might do that."
They flickered into being on top of a supermarket a kilometer into the village and roof hopped the rest of the way to the Hokage's tower. Using the body flicker to reach that far would have cost a fair amount of chakra and drawn unwanted attention. ANBU could be twitchy about people popping in unannounced, and it was always embarrassing for them when they attacked out of reflex and then got manhandeled by the Toad Sage. Much better for both parties for visitors to be seen aproaching; unless of course the visit was supposed to be secret, then a few ANBU egos would just have to be sacrificed.
The village looked properosus as usual. Haku could see people packing the streets, happily going to and fro from one errand to the next. There was no signs of hunger or despair, like in so many other cities of the world that he saw with Jiraiya. 'It feels good to come home,' he thought with elation. 'This time I'm here to stay, ready and strong enough to protect Sensei's dream with my own two hands, in my own right.'
He followed Jiraiya up the tower in a few leaps and bounds, and entered after him through the open bay window. "Sensei!" Jiraiya crowed as he jumped in, "The great Toad Sage has returned to bless the Hidden Leaf Village with his latest disciple!" Turning in the air, he landed knees bent, arms outstretched and pointing at Haku as he climbed quietly through the red trimmed window.
Haku rolled his eyes at the display, but the Hokage seemed amused by it, a small smile on his lined face, no doubt reminiscing of bygone days. "My you've grown Haku, and not just in stature if Jiraiya's reports are accurate. From what he says you've become quite the shinobi". The Hokage spoke with a grandfatherly tone, soothing enough to almost make you forget who he was and what he was capable of. He may have looked old with his gray beard turning white, and his body not quite filling out his uniform like it had when he was young, but he was still one of the most dangerous men in the world.
"Sensei sings my praises too highly Lord Hokage," Haku answered ruefully, "I fear I have much yet to learn before becoming worthy of being spoken of in the same breath as him and his previous students."
"Humble as ever, I don't know how you manage it being around Jiraiya so much." The Hokage shook his head in wonder, "It's good to have high standards though, it gives one something to continually strive for."
"Let's not look too far ahead though," Jiraiya interjected. "All he needs to strive for right now is a successful completion of the chunin exam".
"My modesty has its limits Sensei, if the genin I've encountered before are representative, I doubt I'll have to strive too much." Haku replied, a touch of pique in is voice.
"You'd be surprised," the Hokage said dryly. "There is going to be some uniquely dangerous competition this year."
Haku cocked his head slightly at that, it seemed he was right; Jiraiya was interested in another participant.
"So, have you managed to scrape up two other genin for Haku to take the exam with?" Jiraiya asked.
"Turned out not to be necessary", the Hokage said, thumbing tobacco into the bowl of his pipe. "Team Ten ran into a chunin from Cloud turned rouge on their last C class mission. They beat him, but Choji Akimichi ended up getting poisoned. The small dose and his own mass kept it from being fatal, but he'll be out of action for the next week while he recovers." With a snap of his fingers he produced a spark and lit up his pipe. "Seeing as they did so well against that missing nin, it'd be a shame for them to have sit out the exam." He puffed on his pipe.
"The Yamanaka and Nara clan heirs, eh. Much better than I was expecting." Jiraiya said with a smile, "much better."
"I'd be honored to be their third man, Lord Hokage," Haku said, becoming more interested. He hadn't had much chance to interact with the younger generation or the great ninja clans that dominated the village. He knew of them of course, and had an idea what they were capable of, but he'd actually met more foreign shinobi of famous family lines then Konoha ninja.
"Splendid!" The Hokage said happily. Then his smile faded a little and he added, "Now, I must warn you, talented as they are, they are just rookies. We have quite a few rookies participating this time around and eight are the children of clan heads, five of them heirs and two others have already succeeded to that position."
Haku raised an eyebrow in surprise, "that's more than a little unusual isn't it?"
"Quite," the Hokage nodded, "and our enemies and our allies for that matter may try to take advantage of it." He elaborated, "the Sand have been falling behind, they fear becoming just another client village like Hidden Waterfall. Now given their intrinsic geographic advantages, I don't think that's a realistic fear for it would be impossible for outsiders to keep control of the Land of Wind in the long term. But nevertheless they fear it and frightened people do desperate things."
"And is this dangerous competitor you spoke of earlier one of these desperate measures?" Haku asked, beginning to piece things together. With all these political currents bubbling underneath the surface it seemed he really was here for more than the exam itself.
The Hokage's head tilted back in acknowledgment and a little surprise. "Yes, he is. Do you know what a jinchuriki is?" he asked the boy.
"Yes, Sensei covered them in my lessons." Haku answered with a sinking feeling, "Yagura and Killer Bee are famous examples. Then this Sand genin, he is…" he trailed off in a melancholy tone. The power of the jinchuriki was incredibly dangerous, but even more so than that it was incredibly sad. As bloodstained and cruel as the ninja world was, Haku could think of few things that could compare to sealing an eldritch abomination within a small child.
"Yes, the Kazekage's youngest son and vessel for Shukaku, the One Tailed Tanuki." The Hokage grimly stated.
"He's crazier than a shithouse rat!" Jiraiya interjected. "Way more bloodthirsty than Yagura ever was and more mentally unstable than Uchiha Itachi!"
"Well that's not good," Haku quipped with droll understatement. "Do you want me take care of him?" he asked.
"Gaara might be a little out of your league just yet Haku," Jaraiya said with a good natured chuckle, "not saying you couldn't beat him, but you'd have to have luck on your side."
"A shinobi with guts and the will to endure makes his own luck, isn't that what you always say Sensei?" Haku said with a wry smile.
"Ha, you're getting too clever for your own good kid." Jiraiya answered with a broad grin, reaching down to ruffle his hair. "Just trust me on this one, this is one ninja you just don't want to mess with."
"Then what exactly is it you want me to do?" Haku asked with a bit of confusion, "It's obvious I'm here for more than just the exam. Do you just want me to safeguard the Yamanaka and Nara from this character and make sure they make it to the finals?" It seemed a little too simple to Haku.
"Do you know the Shadow Clone technique?" the Hokage asked, seemingly changing the subject.
"Yes, but I don't use it often because of the chakra cost," Haku explained. "I can freeze my Water Clones solid, making them much more durable and stronger than anyone else's, so I just use Shadow Clones for recon in dangerous situations." 'Ah!', he thought, eyes brightening with understanding. 'Is that what he wants? It's a bit obvious now that I've thought of it'. "Do you wish me to shadow Gaara through the survival test and intervene if he attacks some of the rookies?"
"Not quite," the Hokage said. "But not too far off either," he praised. "You've trained the boy well Jiraiya." The old man took a long hit on his pipe and then exhaled, the smoke drifting away in fanciful spirals. He looked weary to Haku, as if he'd carried a heavy burden far too long and had no choice but to continue on. He focused back on Haku, "We're not just worried about Gaara. You see it's not outside the realm of possibility for some of the other villages to try to enter someone of your caliber into the exam in order to assassinate a few of the up and coming clan heirs." He elaborated, waving his pipe through the air, "It would cause significant strain to our relations, but it would be difficult to prove that the killer was a ringer, especially if he or she's young enough that they could plausibly have been denied an internal promotion up to this point."
"What we want is to avoid a repeat of the Hyuga incident." Jiraiya interrupted to the Hokage's annoyance, "the world's far too unsettled right now for war to be casually contemplated. Things are roiling beneath the surface that I don't understand, but whatever they are can only mean ill," he said ominously.
"So, you want me to have my clones shadow the other rookies then, and intervene if they get in over their head?" Haku asked.
"Exactly," the Hokage said, punctuating his statement with a jab of his pipe. "Jiraiya's told me a great deal of your ice mirrors and the space-time technique you developed for them. With them it should be possible for you to quickly teleport to their aid, should it not?"
"My range is limited to about five hundred meters, but I can just create new mirrors as soon as I exit and chain them together to form an ice road so to speak," Haku explained. "It wouldn't be instant, but I'll able to get there just a few seconds after my clone dispels."
The Hokage bobbed his head at that, "That should be good enough." He picked up four manila folders from his desk and handed them over to Jiraiya's apprentice. "These contain your orders in more detail and hold the dossiers for your team, who you'll be meeting tomorrow at training ground six at 7:00 am," he explained. "They also hold the files for the other two rookie teams, and of Gaara and everything we know about his abilities and those of previous Shukaku hosts. Do you have any questions about your assignment."
Haku took the files and wordlessly flipped each open to the front, looking at the photos tapped to the inside of the covers. They looked like normal kids, but 'Team 8 might cause a problem' he thought. "I can keep upwind of the Inuzuka, but one of his teammate's a Hyuga, she's going to know I'm following her. The Aburame's kikaichū might be able to detect me as well. I assume you're going to inform them about me?"
The Third nodded, "We'll let Hinata know just enough that she won't have her team set an ambush for you. She'll probably think it's favoritism on behalf of the Hyuga, but she won't complain even though she'll be embarrassed by it." He went on, "Shino shouldn't be a problem either, he's a very dutiful boy and good at seeing underneath, the underneath. One word to him from me and that'll be enough."
"Alright then, I'll go over this material in depth and get back to you if I have any more concerns." Haku said flipping the folders shut. "I'll be at your estate Sensei, should I expect you for dinner or will you be out…late?" he asked euphemistically.
"Don't worry about me son, I'll be out all night conducting research for my next novel!" Jariaya answered with that leering smirk of his that just screamed pervert to anyone who looked at him.
"Right…," Haku drawled in response. "By your leave Lord Hokage," he said bowing, and then flickered away.