Author's Note: I went to a trip with no Internet access, so I could only post this chapter six days later than the previous one, even though it was all ready to go and all, because it all used to be one chappie. Sucks, no? x3

Also, I don't know much about what it is that Hunter Ninja do (work-wise) when they're not tracking dangerous runaway criminals, so I just did a bit of improvising myself.

And I'm so glad you guys like Loki! xO Mwahaha. Oh, and homework IS evil indeed. X3

10. Hunters

Loki's olfactory senses screamed in alarm as they located what felt like a pile of rags tinted with strong odours of man and alcohol making its way towards their table. She shot Haku a warning glance. The boy caught her eye, glimpsed sideways and nodded to show that he understood.

"Keep eating," he muttered. "Don't look that way. If we ignore him, he might just go past."

The next few moments, however, proved that this wasn't going to be the case. The figure shambled up to the table and was now casting a menacing shadow over the duo. It decided to get straight to the point.

"Hey kids, you got money?" it asked in a gruff male voice.

The ninja-in-training just sat there, eating quietly, as though nothing was happening. Perhaps ignoring the man wasn't the brightest idea in the world, because he was getting rather annoyed by the lack of attention.

"Hey, I'm talkin' to you!" growled the man a tone louder. "You've got money, I know you have--"

"Not anymore. Spent it all on food," Haku cut in, his voice calm. He could have shown the bothersome drunk a kunai and told him to bugger off nicely before they all found out what colour his guts were (that's what Zabuza would've done, in any case), but Haku wasn't an upholder of violence when it wasn't strictly necessary. He always tried the peaceful approach first, and only chopped people to hamburger patties if the peaceful approach didn't work on the third try. Whatever a hamburger patty was.

The unfortunate man, however, had no idea whom he was dealing with. He kept on standing where he was, clearly not intending to leave empty-handed. Much to his misfortune, he had just spotted Loki and found her to be quite an attractive young girl.

"Hey girlie, what a pretty face you have," he crooned, his mouth stretching into a toothy grin. "Why don't you come with me…?"

And he put a grubby hand on her shoulder.

There was a pause, during which Loki slowly and silently put down her yakitori skewer. The man couldn't possibly know what she was, but she never forgot for one moment that the people around her were filthy humans. Well, that wasn't completely true filthy human filthy human. As far as she was concerned, the human world was divided into Haku and Zabuza, and damn filthy human dirty bastard scum everybody else. And Loki didn't have to be nice to everybody else. Dirty human scum, don't you dare touch me!

The pause was over in a few seconds. Haku slid a kunai out of his sleeve (peaceful approach was peaceful approach, but no one was going to disrespect his friend and get away with it), but Loki acted faster. With a furious "Get your hands off me, you damn filthy human!", she leaped up from her seat, swung two sets of shiny metal claws and… missed the man by a heartbeat. The shocked offender managed to dodge the blow by stumbling backwards just in time – perhaps the drunk wasn't quite as drunk as he had been trying to appear. The blades sunk into the table right behind the spot where the man had just been standing, and the wood began smouldering slightly where the claws had struck.

Haku, the barman and a couple of other drunks, roused from their sleep by the sudden disturbance, were now all watching the scene with a mixture of shock and curiosity (and, in the case of the drunks, with slight annoyance at all the noise).

Meanwhile, Loki recuperated and turned to face her victim, eyes glowing and face contorted with rage. The offender stared back at her, wild-eyed, gibbering something incomprehensible in his beard. Whatever he was expecting from the girl, it clearly wasn't that.

Loki began walking towards him, aware of every muscle in her sleek, lupine body. The wolf-shaped entity inside her mind. It was back. It was seeping into her thoughts, clouding her human-shaped common sense; you're a wolf, it said, and Loki was beginning to think like a wolf again. She could already feel fangs sprouting within her jaws and her senses gradually magnifying to their full potential. Growling softly, she was advancing on the man, who staggered backwards and fell onto his back.

Haku was watching the action develop with a growing concern. Zabuza-san could be back any minute, and he wouldn't be pleased to find out that Loki went around starting tavern-brawls while he was away (not to mention all the people that could get hurt). The feeling of responsibility for the girl had never left the young ninja ever since the day he had first dragged her battered, bleeding body onto the doorstep of their shack; and now it was reinforced even further by Zabuza's words, "make sure she behaves". Technically, Loki was defending herself; but (technically as well) she could've done that without causing so much fuss. Haku felt that he had to interfere before anything too disastrous happened.

He suddenly became aware that Loki was preparing for a second assault.

"Loki, stop th--!"

He moved quickly, but the wolf-girl had already pounced. She missed again. The man rolled out of her reach, sprang up to his feet with an agility that only fright can grant, and ran out of the diner screaming "MONSTER! BLOODY MANIACS AFTER ME!" and overturning tables along the way. Loki leaped upwards and was soon in hot pursuit of her prey, charging over the tabletops. She hadn't hunted in a long while. Oh, this was going to be fun.

Haku rushed after them, stopped in the doorway, turned around to give a nervous "Sorry about that!" and an apologetic smile to the barman, and followed the two others down the street. In the silence that followed, the sound of the little bell ringing as the door slammed shut after the boy sounded like thunder.

It's pointless to argue with a wolf when it's chasing its prey. It was therefore absolutely useless to shout out Loki's name and run the risk of attracting Zabuza's attention to the chase. Haku couldn't possibly know the truth about the girl's real nature, but he could swear that there was something positively animal about the way she was pursuing that man. It was taking the whole thing over the top just a little, in Haku's opinion; but he wasn't going to risk interfering until Loki calmed down a bit (not that he was scared. He was simply clever and also very attached to his limbs. And that drunkard was getting what he asked for, in any case).

Thus, Haku decided that it would suffice to just jog along at Loki's heels and make sure she didn't do anything too drastic-- more drastic than chasing a man down the street, that was.

He sighed and picked up speed to keep up with the girl. Loki could sure be scary when she was angry.

There was a scent in the air. It floated into the streets of the Quiet Village Hidden in the Pine Needles on a gentle afternoon breeze, among many other scents, odours and fragrances. The scent itself was very faint, however; barely a trace of a hint of a scent. Though it wasn't faint enough not to be picked up by Loki's over-excited-by-the-almost-transformation nasal glands. It was very familiar; so familiar, in fact, that the werewolf forgot all about her hunt and stopped just to sniff at it. This scent, it rang a bell… or rather an alarm. It was the scent of a special kind of paint on a special kind of wood. And it was getting stronger by the minute.

Haku, who was following at the girl's heels, almost crashed into her as she stopped suddenly. The pursued man, now at the far end of the street, turned a corner and ran yelling on, forgotten by his predator.

Haku approached his team-mate and touched her shoulder gingerly. He didn't know what caused her to become so seemingly calm all of a sudden, so he had to be very careful.

"Loki? W-what's the matter?"

"Haku…" Loki's voice was soft and tense. "Haku, I thought I just felt the scent of those mask-things… like the one Zabuza-san showed to me earlier, only different ones, not yours. The scent is very weak, but it is moving this way. I don't know if it's just me, but I think we'd better tell Master about that… But... but what do you think? Do you think that it's possible…?" she let the sentence hang in the air, the words lingering between them, and turned to look at the boy. Haku stared back, wide-eyed, as it struck him.

"You smelled the Hunter-nin masks? You think… them?" he asked, trying hard not to sound panicky. This was serious business. "But are you certain? Are you sure the Hunter Ninja are coming this way?"

Loki sniffed the air again. The scent was hovering above their heads, a barely sensible mixture of mauve and light-green threads.

"Don't know about Hunter-nin," she admitted, "but I can definitely smell the masks."

Haku's hands clenched into fists. "I think it would be better if we do inform Zabuza-san about that," he said, staring thoughtfully at nothing in particular.

Zabuza was trudging along the streets in the general direction of the caf where he'd left Haku and Loki. Having received the information he needed, the man felt that he'd accomplished his goals for this week and decided to call it a day. They could spend the night in one of the city's inns and head out in the morning, no rush. Everything was going to work out, he just knew.

He heard the sound of running feet and turned around to find his apprentices running towards him, Loki in the lead. Zabuza glared at them as they caught up.

"Didn't I tell you to wait for me in the tavern?" he growled. He didn't, as he was remembering now, but that was hardly the point. You had to be stern with kids if you didn't want them scampering wild all over places.

Anyway, judging by their faces, something serious must've happened. Haku wouldn't be looking that alarmed if it was just something trivial. Getting to the bottom of all this seemed like a good idea.

Haku told Zabuza about the scent Loki had picked up earlier and shared their suspicions with the Jounin. Zabuza frowned. What were the chances?

After a moment's thoughtful silence, Zabuza said, "Right. I don't know what it was that you sensed, Loki, but we should get away from here right now, just to be on the safe side. And since we're already all set…" he looked his apprentices over, nodded, apparently satisfied, and finished the sentence, "…we might just as well get on going now."

The Hunter-nin approached the Quiet Village Hidden in the Pine Needles. The renegade was here, they knew it. They had found some valuable clues leading to his current whereabouts. Finding him was only a matter of time now.

Into the village they came, down the streets they ran, and over the rooftops they hopped. They split into six directions, hoping to cover a greater area in a smaller amount of time. The renegade was sneaky. Well, he was a ninja, after all. But so were they. And they knew all about his dirty, sneaky little tricks.

Quiet Village Hidden in the Pine Needles wasn't a particularly large village, thus there shouldn't have been too many places to hide. And according to their tip, the renegade was supposed to still be there when they arrived – that was for certain. However, he proved to be much sneakier than they had expected. For as carefully as they had combed the village in search of him, the Hunter-nin still found no trace of the renegade.

Well, he couldn't have gone far, in any case.

Zabuza, Haku and Loki were leaping among the treetops, striving to leave the Quiet Village Hidden in the Pine Needles as far behind them as possible. Darkness was falling, enveloping the forest in a veil of sombre hues. Zabuza liked that. With any luck, nightfall would conceal their tracks and throw any possible pursuers off their tails.

The older ninja made his team take some paths and turns that were quite irrelevant to their initial course, mostly to fend off or at least confuse anyone who might have been following. It was very time-consuming, so he really hoped it would work.

It didn't.

Loki was the first one who sensed the Hunters catching up and didn't hesitate to announce that to the other two. Zabuza sighed. Oh well, no use in keeping on running and hoping their pursuers would get tired faster… The man slowed, and hopped down to the ground. His apprentices imitated him.

"No sense in running any further, they'll catch up to us later on anyway," the Jounin spoke his thoughts out loud. "We'll wait for them here and fight when they arrive. How far away are they, Loki?"

Loki sniffed. "A couple of miles away from us, sir. But they are approaching very fast."

"Well, that still leaves us some time to prepare, then. Why don't we build up our chakra in the meantime and give our friends a proper welcome?" Zabuza grinned maliciously, taking out his Cleaver.

Haku put down his backpack. The rabbit was peering up at him through an opening, one of its fluffy white ears sticking out from under the sturdy green cloth of the sack. Zabuza had told him to leave it behind because they had little time to waste, but Haku had insisted on getting it anyway while Loki and his master had gone on ahead.

He looked at the animal sadly. The rabbit was useful as a decoy, but oftentimes it was also one of the main causes of their setbacks. The boy was afraid that one day Zabuza-san would stop being tolerant and chop it up with his Cleaver. Haku wouldn't want that. He liked the rabbit.

He pushed the fluffy creature back into the knapsack, and turned his attention to his weapons instead.

When the Hunter-nin have finally caught up, the renegades were in full gear and waiting. Zabuza smirked when he saw their trackers – worthless punks, he thought. There were six of them, and he was sure that they were pretty strong since they were in the Hunter Ninja squad; but they were still punks compared to him. He could sense their chakras. Nothing out of the ordinary. Bring it on, suckers, he sneered.

The Hunter-nin weren't expecting to be expected. They were therefore very surprised to find themselves suddenly enveloped by a thick white fog and then completely surrounded by an army of watery Hakus and Zabuzas. Two of the Hunters fell right away, caught unaware by the enemy's well-preparedness; though the other four seemed to recuperate from the first shock pretty fast.

Soon, the small clearing became littered with armies of water clones fighting each other, their creators among them. Loki slipped in-between the battling ninja, pointing out the real enemy among the numerous clones to her partners, until she found herself locked in combat with one of the real Hunters themselves.

"What a bothersome brat you are," snarled the Hunter, as the steel of his giant kunai collided with Loki's blocking arm. "But not to worry, I'll silence you once and for all…"

The kunai pressed hard against the girl's flesh, spattering crimson, smouldering blood. The Hunter grinned.

"Dirty human scum!"

For the second time throughout the day, Loki became acutely aware that she was a werewolf, and her opponent – a silly human. Werewolves were supposed to outclass humans by far when it came to fighting, and yet here she was, yielding to some pathetic monkey that had to resort to a measly weapon to win a fight. What would the Chief think if he saw her now! And what about her family (if they even existed)! Offended wolf-blood boiled as the pride of heritage took over, and with newfound strength Loki deflected the blade. Before the Hunter could do any more damage, she slammed him into the stomach with a powerful fist and sent the man flying to the ground.

Well, that was it for the human. She leaped, and with the familiar metallic sliiiiinng her claws shot out from between her knuckles. She brought them down heavily, and--

--What the…?--

--sliced a block of wood in three smooth, round pieces. And right away, she felt someone re-appear behind her. And then came the swish of a weapon.

On the other side of the clearing, Haku was battling another Hunter; judging by the looks of it, a female. Unlike the ninja that attacked Loki, she didn't speak at all, but was very swift and deflected every attack with incredible (not to mention graceful) agility. It seemed to Haku that she was toying with him, hoping to wear the 'little boy' out eventually. Haku couldn't have that. He had to be helping the others - especially Loki, who had almost no chakra control whatsoever.

On the other hand, he had been perfecting a certain move for quite a while now.

There was little water around, but Haku could sense a small stream not far away from the clearing. It couldn't be too efficient, but he'd have to work with what was at hand.

Thin trickles of water slithered across the ground and sprang into the air, forming solid, glittering rectangles. There wasn't enough time or water to make many, but Haku didn't need a lot.

The female Hunter looked startled, then shocked, then horrified (or at least she would have, if it wasn't for the mask) as she saw mirrors of ice surrounding her, enclosing her in a cold dome of terror. An image of Haku appeared in the ice, repeating over and over again, until there was a Haku staring at the unfortunate Hunter from all the directions.

"You're… you're…" the woman gasped as realization dawned. "A Bloodline Trait monster…"

Those were the last words she ever said.

In the center of the clearing, amid an army of water clones, Zabuza was fighting the oldest and the strongest of the Hunters in a hand-to-hand combat. There was a lot of sword-clashing, clone-swapping and swearing involved.

"You were a clever bastard," the Hunter nin growled, "but this time you're going DOWN!"

"Don't count on it!" yelled Zabuza, one of his replications showing his opponent the finger, "You expect the Demon of the Mist to lose to this pathetic snotty-nosed trash you brought along?"

Clash! Cling! Slam!

It went on for quite some time. The Hunter was very skilled; but in the end, Zabuza was the Demon of the Hidden Mist.

…And Loki had just been assaulted by a hail of shuriken from the Hunter she had been fighting, who had replaced himself to a spot just behind her and above her head. The girl knocked them all away, and charged at the ninja again. But this time, she had a Strategy.

It was almost like fighting those intelligent machines back at the Centre: some of them were very tricky to beat. But there was always a way out, a winning move; there was always a Strategy. The tricky part was to think of it.

Loki knew that the ninja was probably going to use the Substitution and Replacement Jutsu to get behind her back again. She knew this trick from her training with Haku and Zabuza, and she wasn't falling for it the second time. (Not that she fell for it the first time. She did it deliberately, of course. Just to make the Hunter think he was so smart. Yes, that's what it was, absolutely. She was totally not tricked. What?)

The move she wanted to perform now, however, was quite complicated. Loki was going to strike the man above her with the claws on her hand (knowing that she'd hit another block of wood), while at the same time slashing the ninja that would reappear behind her with the claws on her feet.

Given, of course, that he'd reappear behind her. But that'd be no problem, would it. For some reason, humans always thought that no one would expect them to reappear behind a person. (Besides, there was no more above left to transport to.)

Loki struck.

Her claws sliced a block of wood.

The Hunter reappeared behind her. For a moment, he was unpleasantly surprised. He didn't expect the other set of claws…

The fight was finally over. One of the Hunters tried, too late, to get away and send out for help, but he didn't get very far.

Zabuza, Haku and Loki were now standing over the beaten bodies. Zabuza prodded one of them with the tip of his boot.

"Bunch of amateurs…" he muttered under his breath. "How could they even let trash like that become shinobi…?"

"Why would they send such weak warriors after you if they knew you're so powerful?" asked Loki, watching Zabuza watch the bodies. "Didn't they have anyone stronger on their squad?"

"Probably did," the man answered. "But the Hunter-nin don't just sit around in one place waiting for job offers, they often prowl all around the country looking for rebels and deserters. You wouldn't believe how many people leave those sorry places every year… The trackers do have means of communicating with their villages, though, and I expect some would always be around for specific orders… But others often spend most of their lifetimes running around doing investigations. I expect these…" he nudged the dead Hunter with his boot again, "…were also a part of such a squad... Though, frankly, I'm rather amazed that punks such as these could even find our trail…" Zabuza continued after a pause. "Must've happened by accident or something."

Haku just stood over the fallen ninja, thoughtful.

"We should burry them," he said after a while.

"Yes." Zabuza decided not to argue. It would be a lot more kind than what the Hunters would do to them had they won, but Momochi didn't much care about things that hadn't happened. Which was something he had to thank this new girl for.

He glanced at Loki. If it hadn't been for her…

"Hey, girl."

Loki caught his eye, startled by the fact that she was being addressed by her master.

"Well done, warning us about the Hunter-nin." Then, feeling that something else was needed, Zabuza added, "Good job."

Momochi wasn't much good with praises. He felt that a smile was also in order, so he twitched the corners of his mouth upwards just enough for it to be visible through the bandages.

Loki felt pride bubble up inside her chest at these words. She also felt blood rushing to her face. She also felt like running laps around the clearing screaming with joy all the way. But what ticked her off was that she didn't know what exactly made her feel all that… all… that. Zabuza was just a human, after all. Humans were bastards. They weren't supposed to make her feel so… tingly inside. Well, they did make her feel tingly inside, but it had always been a different kind of tingly. It was an angry kind of tingly, and this was, this was, well, a happy kind of tingly… in a way. He praised her. Loki didn't often get praised. And the thought that she was useful to someone, that she did her best and succeeded, the thought that her efforts were finally appreciated by someone (even if it was a stinking human) made her feel… grateful. Made her want to wag her tail and lick his face, and…

Loki decided to just stop where she was and not let her mind wander. So she had been praised by a human, big whoop. She had almost forgotten her main objective, which was finding her pack. She only tagged along with these ninja for that, after all. So there was no need to get all… tingly… about a human. About a stinking human, she corrected herself.

Loki suddenly became aware that Zabuza was speaking to her again.

"…you wanted a headband, didn't you?" the man said, his usual harsh, barking tone back in his voice.

"Eh?"

Zabuza was holding a Mist Village headband, which had been taken by him from one of the fallen Hunters. "Didn't you want a headband, girl? Well, here you go! You earned it." And he tossed it to the werewolf.

Loki caught it uncertainly. "But… but I thought I had to graduate from somewhere to get one, didn't I?" she asked suspiciously. You just never knew with humans.

"Congratulations, you have just graduated from Zabuza Momochi's Academy of Ninja Arts and Combat," Zabuza recited in a sarcastic kind of tone and rolled his eyes at the girl. Women and formalities.

Loki was still observing the headband. It belonged to the Hunter she had been fighting. His odour would linger for quite a while… The girl noticed Zabuza giving her a what-aren't-you-happy kind of look. She really didn't want to seem ungrateful (especially considering that it was her who had wanted a headband in the first place), but it was just that…

"I… I don't think I can wear that. It has the scent of that Hunter-nin all over it." Loki looked apologetic. Werewolves weren't humans, but they had their own morals.

Zabuza suddenly felt a great and inexplicable surge of generosity, which happened very rarely (and had to be exploited while it lasted). It had been a great day, and that treat therapy stuff seemed to really work. He untied his own headband.

"Would you mind my scent, then?" he asked, his eyes laughing.

Loki felt the blood return to her ears. There went her insides, feeling all tingly again, the traitors. What was it with her today?

"Yes… I mean, no! I mean…" Loki was flushing like crazy. That never happened before. It was so bloody stupid.

"Well then… you can wear mine." Zabuza tied his own headband over Loki's forehead, and took the one she was holding. He had no idea why he was doing this. Then again, life was a random thing. Not all actions had to make sense. He did, for instance, catch Haku's rabbit once when it had been trying to run away. He didn't have to, but he had caught it and had given it back to the boy nevertheless. Sometimes people just… did things like that. Even people like him. And there didn't have to be an explanation.

And if anyone deserved favours from Zabuza Momochi, Haku and Loki sure as hell did.

Meanwhile, Loki was already showing off her prize to Haku. She found that she was, despite herself, quite proud to wear something of Zabuza's around her head – a troubling thought, if you thought about it from a werewolf's point of view.

That night, Loki fell asleep with Zabuza's headband pressed tight against her cheek.

End Chapter! My my, Loki's feeling all tingly inside at the thought of Zabuza… whatever could that mean. ;)