Author's Note: Chapter six! Loki comes to her senses and encounters the Mist Nin for the first time! This is the last chapter I have so far, but I will be writing more shortly. I don't know what to say except that I hope that you're enjoying this. I put a lot of effort into it, you know.

6. Battle

Loki winced as she felt sunlight penetrate her eyelids, and came out of whatever realms of oblivion her mind had been floating in with an unpleasant 'bump'. She was very surprised to discover that she was lying on a large pile of something, which later turned out to be a heap of willow branches covered with a rug. She was also surprised to find herself wrapped in a blanket. What…? Eyes glazing, Loki lay still for several minutes and tried to arrange her memories in the chronological order. She was clearly missing a key piece of the puzzle. How the heck did she end up… wherever she was?

A sudden thought struck her, and Loki bolted upright in her covers. As she did so, something moist and warm slipped off her forehead and fell into her lap. It was a wet towel. The girl stared at it for a while, then drew a hand from under the blanket and pressed a palm to her forehead. And then, with another jolt of surprise, she realized that her hand had been bandaged and the silver shackle was missing from her wrist. Loki examined the wrappings more closely, and then threw off her covers completely. She wasn't at all surprised to see more bandages. The only thing that was nagging at her, the only question was - who had done all this?

But before Loki could sort out any of her thoughts to come to possible conclusions, she smelled the scent of a human approaching. A moment later, a boy appeared in the empty gap of a doorway. He had long black hair, and looked about eleven-ish, perhaps younger. He was carrying a steaming bowlful of some herbal concoction, and clenched it tighter when he saw the girl staring at him from across the room. Otherwise, he seemed quite calm.

"Ah. You're awake," he said finally, managing to make it look like this was exactly what he'd been expecting to find when he entered the room, though Loki's nose told her this was not the case. She kept watching him as he approached the bedside and put the bowl down on a broken piece of what must've once been furniture.

"Where am I?" asked Loki, getting straight to the point.

The boy seemed to have some trouble coming up with an answer.

"In a… forest?" he finally managed.

"Is this the reformatory?" the girl asked again, frowning slightly. She didn't really count that as a possibility, but she had to make sure.

"Err… 'reformatory'? Um…"

Guess not, thought Loki. Good. She was eyeing the boy curiously in the meantime. She had never seen a human child before, and this one was really quite… small.

"Who are you?" she asked.

The boy kept a straight face, though according to his scent, his inner self was close to panicking. Threads of poisonous-green odour of nervousness pierced Loki's nose-vision.

"Please, not so loud!" he pleaded in a hushed voice, hoping that Loki would get the idea and lower her tone, too. "I… I can't… answer your questions. Please don't ask anything." He cast a sideways glance at the empty doorway.

"How long have I been here? Can you tell me that?" Loki just couldn't help herself.

"Oh… a week. Please don't ask anything else."

A whole week… A lot must've happened since then. Loki had never been sick for a whole week at a time before… well, that was what silver did to you. Loki took a whiff of the air. Her senses were still in a bit of confusion to fully take in the atmosphere, but they would get sorted out eventually. With a relief, the girl noticed that the fog from her vision had lifted and her eyesight was gradually returning.

Meanwhile, the boy began changing the bandages on her hand. Loki saw him examining the metal-rimmed holes between her knuckles, but he looked away when he noticed her watching him. The boy had noticed those holes before: there were three on each of her hands and two on each foot; but he just couldn't figure out what they could be for. One thing he came to know for sure, though, or at least strongly suspect, was that this wasn't any ordinary village girl.

After the bandages were changed, the boy took the moist towel from Loki's lap and folded it up. Then he prodded the steaming bowl carefully towards the girl.

"Drink this," he said.

Loki took the bowl and sniffed at it uncertainly. She could definitely sense water and a mixture of at least fifteen different herbs, but overall the concoction seemed safe to drink. She tasted it with her tongue, like a dog. It was quite delicious; and there was the hunger again, tugging timidly at the back of her mind. Tossing any self-consciousness aside, Loki gulped the whole bowlful of liquid down and wiped her mouth.

"Good stuff, this," she commented. The boy smiled softly.

Meanwhile, someone was shouting outside. Through a gap in the wall, the wind brought the scent of a male. It was a very strong male scent, or rather the scent of a very strong male.

"Haku! Break's over, get you rear over here this instant!"

The boy glanced up, startled, almost dropping the bowl he'd picked up.

"Stay here," he told Loki, and rushed out of the room at an incredible speed. Loki was impressed. She had never thought a human could move so fast. Then her senses caught on, and remembering bits and pieces of her almost non-existing manners, Loki made to shout after him.

"Um… thank… you?"

But he was already out of earshot.

Haku and Zabuza began, or rather resumed their morning training. They started out with simple hand-to-hand-combat exercises.

"So, how are your hideous little experiments going?" asked Zabuza, ducking to dodge a kunai into the shoulder. "It's been a week!"

"Oh… er, fine," answered Haku, blocking a blow to the stomach.

"Not so enthusiastic anymore, are we?" Zabuza was surprised. Usually, Haku eagerly began rambling on and on about the recent improvements whenever asked. "Why, is she actually getting better?"

Haku leaped up, and managed to land a punch into Zabuza's jaw. "No… not really. Well, sort of. It's not that she's better, but…" He grunted as Zabuza, in turn, caught him in the ribs.

Damn, she's actually getting better, thought the older ninja. Out loud, he said:

"Is she well enough to take care of herself so that we could leave already? I'm getting tired of this rudy place."

A kunai very nearly missed his ear.

"Um, er…" was all Haku could manage. He didn't want to lie to Zabuza-san, but the girl had come to her senses so… abruptly… He felt that she needed more treatment, but if Zabuza-san found out that she was well enough to be asking questions, goodness knew what would happen to the poor girl then. Haku sighed as he deflected three more heavy blows from his master's part. Too bad it had to be over so soon…

And out of the shadows cast by the trees near the shack, a figure watched the two fighting males closely, with a calculating look in its olive-green eyes.

Loki sat on her heap of willow branches, thinking about everything that's happened so far. She'd had such grand plans back at the Centre: to run away, to find her pack… But now that she actually had run away, she really didn't know what to do next. The wolf-girl was at a loss. It had seemed so damn easy at first; but in reality, she came to realize, she knew nothing about forests or her pack. Where should she start looking first? Where should she go? Loki didn't know.

The werewolf got up from where she lay, and made a few uncertain steps towards the doorway. Her legs were still a bit shaky from being out of use for so long and wouldn't obey orders, so the girl paced a bit around the room to regain control over her muscles. Meanwhile, she could do what she called "gathering information". Loki wanted to find out more about her current whereabouts. She took a good whiff of the air around her, and soon all of the information she needed was laid out in front of her in a colourful map of scents. Well, well, well. So, there were two humans currently inhabiting this place; the boy that took care of her and the man that had called him away earlier. Apparently they were warriors, because she could sense the sharp, metallic scents of weapons and a faint, reddish scent of other humans' dried blood. This was interesting… Loki never thought that humans could become warriors. She had always been sure that this was because they lacked the physique, but this man's scent told her otherwise.

There was also a lot of nervousness in the atmosphere; she could tell that by the streaks of poisonous-green that pierced the shack's aroma cloud in thin threads. But that was all that Loki could make out so far, because there were just too many things interfering with the odours she was looking for. One of the shack's walls was almost completely destroyed, and occasional gusts of wind brought in the scents of the forest along with the battlecries of the two males training outside. Loki stepped over the gap and into the shadows of the trees to get a better view. She thought about it. She had no place to go to; and besides, there was a great chance that she might round back to the reformatory by mistake because she didn't know her way around. She wouldn't know how to act if she encountered other humans, either. Loki bit her thumb as she watched. These two people took her in, took care of her wounds and apparently had no intention of giving her back to the reformatory. They were also warriors, meaning that they made their living by fighting. Well, Loki could fight, too. She would also need some guides to show her around, at least for a short period of time while she adapted to the new environment.

Loki watched the two males from out of the shadows with a calculating look; and then, making up her mind, began to move slowly towards the ninja.

Haku and Zabuza were in the heat of the battle, their hands and legs a blur as each one tried to find an opening in his opponent's defence. They were so engulfed in fighting that they didn't notice Loki approach them and watch the training from up close.

It was Zabuza who spotted her first, and was almost sent flying by another powerful punch in the jaw when Haku, too, saw the girl. There was a moment's awkward silence as the two ninja stopped and stared and got stared back at. It was Loki who broke the silence first.

"Uh… uh… so… I'm staying, right?" she asked, not quite sure how to start but deciding to get to the point straight away.

"Wha…?" said Zabuza, staring at the skinny girl in front of him in surprise, and Haku blinked.

There was another awkward silence. A breeze swept some forlorn leaves across the glade as everybody's minds comprehended the new information. It was Haku's brain that won the race. He leaped in front of the girl, facing his master.

"No, Zabuza-san, please, you mustn't!" he begged, knowing what was coming, and then turned towards Loki. "Run, girl!"

But Loki didn't even think of running. She shivered slightly under the breeze; the girl had nothing on but a towel wrapped tightly around her groin and the bandages covering the upper parts of her body. She was still pale and worn out from her earlier adventures, and didn't look at all warrior-like. Nevertheless, she decided to take her chances.

"Can't I stay with you? You're some kind of warriors, right? Well, I can fight, too," she tried rather awkwardly.

Zabuza was the last one to come to his senses.

"Haku?" he began in a quiet, dangerous voice. "What did I say would happen if you didn't follow my conditions?"

Loki could sense the boy's panic through his mask of forced calm.

"So, can I stay...?" she tried again, scanning her mind desperately for any convincing arguments.

"You idiot! Of course you can't stay!" exploded the assassin, turning to the girl. "What is this, some kind of a kiddy-garden? I'm giving you three minutes while I'm getting my Cleaver, and if by that time you're not out of my sight-- "

Loki didn't budge. Haku raised his arm to give her a push, but she caught his hand before it hit.

"I just want to stay with you and fight," she repeated stubbornly. "I can fight, I'll prove to you that I can--"

Zabuza lifted his giant sword and tossed it lightly into the other hand. Then he glanced at Haku's determined face and sighed.

"Beat it, girl," he said at last, forcing himself to stay calm. "My apprentice here worked his butt off to get you out of the mess you were in, so all right, all right, I'll let you go. I'm feeling generous today, I guess. Go back to your village or wherever you come from and forget that this ever happened. You haven't seen anything, got that? Or I'll hunt you down and cut your throat. You have three minutes starting now. Now go!"

Loki still didn't move. "I have nowhere to go," she said simply. "And wouldn't it be so much easier to keep the secret if you just let me stay?"

"Just go, girl!" cried Haku. Loki ignored him. Instead, she took a confident step towards the assassin.

"I'm challenging you to a battle!" she shouted, outstretching a hand. "Err… right here, right now!" she added as an afterthought. She'd heard it somewhere before, though she couldn't quite remember where. It was like some kind of an activating key-phrase for humans, Loki figured, like the switches that operated the battle machines back at the Centre. It was what made them fight you. She just hoped she got all the words right.

It was indeed like an activating battle-switch; or rather like a lit match dropped into a crate of explosives. The thin strand holding Zabuza's patience together broke with a snap, and his anger exploded in a long string of curses. He had no time for this idiocy. He swung his Cleaver. He had given her enough time to escape; but now he was going to give her a taste of his downright fury, and it was her own damn fault for not getting away in time!

But suddenly, Zabuza got a better idea. He stopped cursing and lowered his sword. The man was aware of Haku eyeing his moves suspiciously, but he ignored that.

"A challenge, huh? Think you're so tough? Well, tell ya what, girlie. Why don't you fight… say, Haku over here, and I'll sit over there and watch. He's a good chap, as strong as they get. If you win, you may stay with us. But if you lose, my Cleaver here will make sure you don't go anywhere anymore, except maybe to Heaven, heh." A grin spread across Zabuza's bandage-wrapped face. "So, do we have a deal?"

"What??" cried Haku and Loki in unison.

"You can't do that, master!" protested Haku. "I won't fight her!"

Loki looked at the boy. He'd saved her life, the girl knew; and although she was never taught enough manners to feel gratitude, she realized that killing him like an enemy would be wrong. Besides, he looked kind of scrawny. She was completely unprepared for such an outcome.

"You heard me," said Zabuza, sitting down in the shadow of a nearby tree and getting comfortable. "Your time to escape is up, girlie. Now either you battle my student, or it's down for the count with you." It's down for the count with her anyway, he thought, wrapping his fingers around the Cleaver's handle.

Loki and Haku looked at each other. There was no other alternative, was there. Zabuza was watching them like a hawk watched its prey.

"All right," growled Loki.

The boy sighed. If he refused to fight her, Zabuza would kill her right away. But if he accepted, then a slim chance of saving her still remained.

"And no going easy on her!" the man yelled from under the tree, smirking, and watched his apprentice get into a battle stance. Haku frowned.

"What's your name?" he asked the girl.

"Loki," she answered.

"I'm very sorry about this, Loki," said the boy, a senbon of ice materializing in his hand, and leaped.

He was moving with an incredible speed, but Loki was prepared for the hit. The werewolf deflected his senbon and grabbed his wrist in one smooth movement. Then she butted him into the nose with her forehead, and pushed him away. The boy fell to the ground. He was obviously trying to go easy on her.

"Don't worry, I'm a better fighter than you think," said Loki.

Haku was grunting on the ground. "All right," he managed, and then unwound like a spring, with an amazing agility. He had a kunai in his hand now, and this time he struck with much more force. Once again, Loki blocked the hit.

It went on for quite some time. They rotated around the clearing, Haku attacking and Loki defending herself. Loki was trying to avoid using her metal claws. She jumped up to dodge a kick, and finally managed to get through Haku's own defence and land a punch in his chest, once again sending him flying. He was still holding back, she knew it. This was beginning to get on her nerves. She would not be underestimated by a human!

Haku got up from the ground and wiped away some blood from his lips. This girl was pretty tough, he saw. He noticed her sullen expression and smiled, guessing her thoughts. All right, he could take it to a new level, if she wanted it so bad.

For a moment, Haku just stood still; and then, in a blur of movement, he vanished. Loki blinked in astonishment. What? Where did he go?

Suddenly, her senses were screaming in alarm as the air behind her imploded in a complicated web of human scents. Loki smelled Haku reappear behind her back just in time to land another punch in his stoma-- oh no, not in time. Her fist was grabbed and her arm was twisted backwards, and Haku himself landed his infamous kick in the jaw that had worked so many times on his mentor. This time, it was Loki who got sent sprawling onto the grass. All right, she thought. Now he's getting to the point.

She got up, her jaw healing right away, to find that Haku was gone once again. The instant she was on her feet, however, she felt the web of scents reappearing again. Oh no, not again, he won't. Loki leaped out of the way with an incredible agility of her own. For just one moment she clearly saw Haku's back before he became a blur again, but that was enough. She'd gotten a hold of his scent, and she knew exactly where he'd go. The wolf-girl pounced, and they both went tumbling onto the grass. When they came to a stop, Loki was sitting on top of the boy, pinning his arms to the ground.

"You're pretty good," he said, smiling. She felt his hands move, but didn't pay this too much attention. Poor little human, struggling to get free…

But a strange new scent suddenly reached her nose. Loki sniffed the air. It felt like rain… a very sharp, very needle-like sort of rain…

"A Thousand Flying Water Needles of Death!"

…And Loki's world exploded in a powerful blast of pain as her whole body was struck by Haku's remarkable water Jutsu. She fell away onto the ground, coughing up blood. Meanwhile, Haku scrambled up to his feet, his expression a mixture of sorrow and unease.

But that was water, not silver. The girl lay on the grass as she felt a soft tingling feeling start up in her flesh; and her wounds healed themselves instantly. In a few moments she was up again, smirking at the boy's astonished look.

Under the tree, Zabuza spat out the grass blade he'd been chewing on in disbelief. He was certain that he just saw Haku use his Thousand Water Needle Jutsu, and he was absolutely positive that he'd seen the needles strike the girl. But there she was, standing again, right as rain, as though nothing had just happened. Nobody could get up as fast as she did after such an attack, nobody! Surely it was just a trick of light… He sat up a bit straighter, focusing more attention on the battle.

Meanwhile on the battlefield, Haku could only stand and gawp.

"H… How… How did you do that?" the boy managed.

She's no amateur, he thought. This was getting more interesting by the minute. What he thought would be a bloody massacre was becoming a real combat. Perhaps he could give this his best, after all.

He took a firm stance and made a sign with his hands. There was that one Jutsu he'd been practicing… He wasn't very good at it yet, but Zabuza had assured him it was going to be a very powerful move someday. It was his best invention so far, and here was the perfect opportunity for him to practice it on a real-life target.

Loki watched him curiously. She'd never seen anyone fight like this before. The training machines had barely given her enough time to react; and this human child was just standing there, waving his hands. She didn't know what he was trying to do, but if that was supposed to be hurting her, he would be sadly disappointed. Loki leaped up to the ninja and swung a fist. This whole gesturing thing was beginning to annoy her. Why couldn't he fight like normal people?

Haku jumped out of the way of Loki's punch and landed gracefully not very far from the girl. With a final gesture of his hands, he performed the last seal in summoning his deadliest attack yet - the Demonic Mirror Ice Crystals.

Zabuza was watching this with interest. Overall the girlie was pretty good, he had to admit. But the Ice Mirrors would be too much for her to cope with, that was for sure.

Meanwhile, Loki had sensed that something very wrong was going on. There was that sharp water scent again… And that kid was just standing there, looking at her, like a scientist conducting an experiment. Why wasn't he attacking? She didn't get this kind of battle, and what she didn't get annoyed her. At the moment, anyway.

In a couple of leaps, the wolf-girl approached Haku, then swiftly shifted behind his back. Haku turned just as quickly and met her attacking hand with a kunai.

"Good bye," he said.

And then she saw them. They were crystal mirrors, giant hulks of ice suspended in mid-air. They surrounded her all around in an eerie hemisphere of the sharp water scent as she stared at them in awe. And when she looked back at the boy, he wasn't there anymore.

"Over here!" called a voice from out of a mirror, and dozens of echoes from all around the wolf-girl answered the call, "Over here, over here, over here…"

This was worse than the toughest of the machines. The scents were so strong and confusing, and the boy's own scent… It was like he was nowhere and everywhere at the same time. In every mirror there was an image of him, smiling down at her as she turned her head this way and that. And then…

…a hundred senbon pierced the air in unison, flying towards Loki at an incredible speed. She gawped at them. Something stirred in her mind, a memory… A hundred pellets of silver rushing towards her, a hail of silver-tipped arrows…

She had been thinking for a moment too long. One second, and she was once again lying sprawled over the ground, the needles sticking out of her body making her look like a giant, human-shaped hedgehog. She didn't protect herself in surprise, nor did she block any needles. Any normal human would already be dead, Haku presumed, but he kept watching tensely. This wasn't over yet.

And surely enough, in a few minutes Loki rose from the ground and shook herself like a dog shaking off water. The senbon glinted in the sunlight as they shot back in all directions. And once again, the girl's wounds were miraculously healed. Haku watched closely and wondered whether she was a Kekkei Genkai user. Whatever it was, it surely was remarkable.

Loki was breathing hard. She was hungry, and still shaken from the silver arrows… and hungry! This battle was taking a lot out of her. She wasn't prepared for such a strain, but she knew she couldn't lose. It would be kind of sad to die right after she'd escaped the Centre and survived the silver arrows. All right then, this left her with no choice.

Sliiinnnng! The metal claws in her hands were out and ready for action. From the height of his mirrors, Haku observed. So that's what the iron-rimmed holes between her knuckles were for! He figured as much. But they won't be much use for her here, because it was time for his special move.

Haku's speed was truly amazing. Sunlight itself would seem slow by comparison and crawl away to hide in shame in some dark little hole. The boy sped past Loki, under her feet and over her head, from mirror to mirror and so fast that she could barely see him move. She was sure that there was only one of him, because there was only one scent trailing after him in a much slower motion, but this knowledge did little to help her. He struck her with the kunai over and over, faster than she could react, even faster than her wounds healed. At this rate, she'd get worn out soon and even her regenerating ability wouldn't save her.

And then, Loki had an idea. By this time, she was already over her first surprise and had gotten pretty used to the boy's little tricks. She could ignore the pain and the blood and act. There was only one way to beat this.

Loki retracted the claws from her left hand, and reached for her nose. The nose-filters were still there, two tiny skin-tinted metal cylinders attached to the sides of her nostrils. Once removed, they let her sense of smell magnify a thousand-fold, allowing her to see much further than any human could ever imagine…

And there it was again, the web of scents; only much more detailed, intricate and complicated than it had been a minute ago. Loki could see in detail every move the boy had made leaping to and fro, and every emotion he had felt while doing so. In a second she had learned what the ice mirrors were, how many weapons he had on himself, what he'd had for dinner last night and all that other miscellaneous information that the scents usually told. But Loki didn't need all that. She only needed one particular scent. The girl singled it out from the rest, like a single thread from a tangled knot of many other threads of all sizes and colours, and focused on it. Focused hard, with all the energy she had. If she could only analyze to where it possibly led…

In her eyes, Haku was suddenly moving in slow motion; which was very odd, because to Haku Loki appeared to be moving in slow motion. However, to Zabuza under his tree they had both been moving so fast that he had lost track of the battle a long time ago. He was just sitting there, trying to catch up on the events and figuring that Haku was probably already winning anyway, when suddenly…

…Gasp…

…two of the mirrors exploded into splinters and shards of ragged ice as a very bloody girl flew out of the hemisphere, waving a bunch of long, sword-like blades in front of her face, and fell to the ground, breathing hard.

…Five minutes before that, Loki had finished analyzing the scent she had focused on. Instantaneously, she calculated the direction of Haku's movement in her head, judging by the chemical reactions in his blood and brain where he was heading for next. And then, imitating his light-fast speed, she swung her clawed right hand through the air. Haku, who was already too close to dodge the incoming surprise-attack, tried to duck awkwardly but failed; and was sent to the ground with three deep scratches in his back.

Immediately, the other Hakus in the mirrors vanished, and the hail of senbon ceased. But Loki had little time to spare. She was already out of breath and her healing had a lot of catching up to do; but she had strength enough for one final move. She braced herself, and then leaped into the air at a running start, swinging her claws once again with every ounce of strength she could muster. Teeth gritted, the girl brought them down just as the boy on the ground rose to his feet. Metal collided with ice, and…

…two of the mirrors exploded into splinters and shards of ragged ice as a very bloody Loki flew out of the hemisphere, waving a bunch of long, sword-like blades in front of her face, and fell to the ground, breathing hard. That was it, she knew. Loki had spent the last of her strength on that move. For the next five minutes, she wouldn't be able to move a muscle. And if that boy could still stand or move, she didn't hold a candle to him.

A moment later the rest of the Ice Mirrors shattered and melted away, revealing a very shaken-looking Haku. Summoning this Jutsu took a lot out of him, and his energy levels were down as well. The boy was panting, and his back was bleeding. He made a few tentative steps towards Loki and looked up to smile at Zabuza, who was staring at the scene open-mouthed. Then, the boy's legs folded under him and, with a gentle sigh, he fell down beside the girl.

"That was… a good battle…" he whispered to Loki.

"Yeah…" was all she could reply.

Zabuza got up from under his tree and walked over to the kids lying motionless on the grass. He kneeled down beside Haku and examined the boy's wounds. That would leave a few scars, he thought to himself. The man had some bandages on him, which he used to wrap Haku's wounds to stop the bleeding. They would need a more careful tending to, but first there was the matter of this girl to deal with. Zabuza got up and, in turn, approached her.

Haku raised his head from the ground.

"Zabuza-san… It was a tie…" he mouthed.

"Lie down, boy," replied the Jounin grumpily, and prodded Loki with the tip of his boot. He had to admit, he hadn't expected such an outcome. She had bloody amazing skills, the ninja reflected, and she actually wanted to join his little group. It would be folly to kill her off when she could make such a powerful tool for his schemes… Well, he had already had Haku at his disposition, but two weapons were always better than one. Though it was still a suspiciously convenient business, he mused, but he could get to the bottom of this afterwards. There would always be time to kill her later in case something happened.

"A tie, huh?" Zabuza grumbled, still prodding the girl. "Well, get up, warrior."

Loki rolled over in the grass and scrambled up into a crouching position. Her wounds were already almost completely healed, as usual.

"I didn't win," she mumbled. "You're going to kill me, aren't you."

"It was a tie, you idiot, didn't you hear?" snarled Zabuza. He was still unsure about his decision, but he decided to give it a shot. He was always prepared to risk it all. "We didn't have any agreements on what would happen in case of a tie, but I guess you can stay after all. Hmph." He put on a death scowl as the girl gazed up at him hopefully.

"But there is one thing you'll have to remember," the nin raised his voice as Loki got up and shook off some dirt. She stopped at once and stood to attention. "From now on, you will be my tool. You will obey my every command and dedicate your life to my service. You will kill whom I tell you to kill and you'll belong to me; flesh, soul, blood and abilities an' all. If you want to stay, these are the conditions."

Zabuza stared at the girl inquiringly. She gazed back, a breeze sweeping over her face. Oh, why not, she thought. She had been somebody's weapon her entire life, after all. It didn't really make any difference to her now, especially since she wanted to stay and had figured that something of that sort was probably going to happen. Besides, what better chance would she ever get of looking for her lost pack?

"I agree to your conditions," she said at last. "I am your weapon now."

End Chapter! Dun-dun… And so, Loki became a part of Zabuza-san's squad, lucky her. Too bad poor Haku-san had to get hurt T.T Nooo Haku-san, waaaah!

Well, that's all I have so far. A lot, yes. Should I continue?