Author's Note: Annnd I am back, ladies and gentlemen, after, what, like a year or so of no updates? I am really sorry about this, guys, I truly am. You have no idea for how long I've been wanting to finish this, but, well, the last year of high school turned out to be tougher than I expected. Maaaaaan… At least that's over now. :)
On the bright side, I will now (hopefully) have more time to write this story. On the not so bright side, I'm afraid I am beginning to forget all of my (cross out: not very) carefully crafted plot…
In any case, if you forgot what happens in the story and do not feel like revisiting the previous chapter, here's the deal: Zabuza, Haku and Loki (a lost battle werewolf taken in by the two assassins), have to complete an 'assignment', a.k.a. kill a crazy rich old prick by the name of Nami Hidaka. Because Loki major-ly screws up her part, she is 'suspended' from the job, should we say; but she doesn't want to remain on the sidelines and wants to seem useful and her wolf-pride hurts and blah. So she tries to help in her own way, and even though this almost screws everyone over, they succeed in the end thanks to Zabuza and Haku's l33t superior assassinating skills. In the end, they get their cash and (this bit's important) Loki gets thrashed for disobedience, but Zabuza lets her stay because her help did turn out to, in fact, help. Oh, and Haku was left in a very suspicious mood by Loki's behaviour.
This was the subject of the last two chapters for those of you who don't remember, and for the rest of you… onwards with the story! :)
15. Revelation
The room was filled with empty, velvety darkness. The only available light was concentrated around a dripping tallow candle situated in the middle of the wide, circular floor. It didn't exactly diffuse the shadows as such, or make the surroundings visible to the viewer, but was rather there to add a certain touch of style to the scenery. In a way, it made the blackness around it seem a little more… emphatic.
Beyond the dim glow of the candle, a part of the emphatic blackness stirred, becoming a shape. The newly-formed figure then strode assuredly towards the light source, stopping just far enough to keep its features obscured by the shadows but close enough to make its presence known to whoever was watching.
On the other side of the candle, there was a slight shift in silence. A mere second's pause took place as more of the emphatic blackness seemed to be coming to life, and then:
"Ah, so you've come, I see," said a voice pleasantly. It was the kind of voice usually associated with steepled, fidgeting fingers and words 'excellent, excellent'. According to the outline of the darkness, which would be black on… less concentrated black, it also seemed that the owner of the voice was currently reclining in a large, comfortable armchair (unless his head was of a really funny shape).
The standing silhouette said nothing. That, in itself, was a speech.
"I believe you have received my… little assignment?" asked the armchair a question that wasn't really a question.
"Yes."
"It is going to be about… him. You know. Him." A lot of unsaid but implied information was hovering around in the atmosphere. To those present in the room, however, it seemed to be self-explanatory.
"What, him? Really?"
"No, not him. Him."
"Oh. Him, huh."
"No! You've got it wrong again."
"Him, then?"
"That's right. Him. Quite difficult, but nothing you won't be able to handle, I'm sure. Now, you know the drill – track down, destroy, kind of thing. The usual procedure. There will be a bounty, as you are already aware… extras for a clean trail, of course. Just in case any… followers are scattered about. Understand?"
"Understood." The darkness shifted again, indicating a nod. "Is that… it?" it added uncertainly after a while.
"Now, now, there's no need to get all… ambitious." The armchair savoured the word like a lollypop. "You'll have your hands full for a while, I assure you."
"Time limit?"
"Take as long as you like. Just not too long, mind you."
"I understand." The standing shape paused briefly. "Now, about that boun--"
"Excellent, excellent," interrupted the armchair in that raised, slightly mad pitch people use when they pretend they didn't hear any questions. "Do not let me detain you, now," it continued, its voice back down to acceptable levels of politeness, but this time tinged with just a hint of icy finality. This conversation was over. And, as a matter of fact, it never took place in the first place.
There was a brisk movement on the standing figure's side of the darkness; a sensation of someone's presence in a hurry to make itself no longer there; and then, just a few gently-settling dust particles.
The dim candlelight flickered and went out, engulfed by the once-again empty velvety darkness.
Rain was surging down from the skies in roaring torrents of rather dirty and unpleasantly cold water, not even bothering to apologize to Zabuza for not making his day any better. It was hard enough trying to trudge (well, pace in exaggeratedly-large steps in Haku's case and stagger along awkwardly in Loki's) through the impassable river of mud that the forest path had become after a week's unceasing downpour without anymore liquid nastiness trying to make walking mince out of him and his apprentices. Oh sure, people would say, they could have just waited it out in the forest, safe under the cover of trees, you know, on a high cliff somewhere, until jolly rays of sunlight came out to play and drove the storm clouds away, or something. The only thing that can be said for people like that in return is that they have obviously never been in a real forest during a thunderstorm before.
In other words, Zabuza was not a happy man. Lack of sleep and seeing large, slithering snakes first thing in the morning (after most of the nightly gloom and fog have dispersed) can do that to you. And yes, there had beena snake. Zabuza was sure about that. It had definitely been a snake. Very long and unusually green, and it didn't hiss or rattle or make any other warning noises as it progressed at all, but it did slither by the man through the mucky dirt and fallen, rotting leaves. It was very odd, because Zabuza was vaguely aware that since snakes were reptiles, and all reptiles went into hibernation when summer came to an end, it should have already been asleep in some dark hole underground somewhere. And yet there it was, as spry and alert as, well, a spry and alert snake. It wasn't right. Zabuza didn't like it one bit. Hunter Nin had about a thousand spying Jutsu, he remembered, and the thought was making him very uneasy.
And that, as a matter of fact, was exactly why the infamous Demon of the Mist and company were now trudging, staggering awkwardly and pacing in overly-large steps as fast as they could through rain, cold and mud towards whatever destination Momochi had on his schedule next.
Somewhere else, in the unfathomable depths of the universe's most ancient forest, blue and white sparks of electricity danced among the hidden, narrow trails blanketed with dry foliage and intertwining vines. Century-old pines creaked softly as time trickled by and timber-worms made intricate zigzags under their rough bark. Shadows slipped quietly through the brushwood, wild green eyes flickering playfully among the spidery branches (and that wasn't the kind of "playfully" that would run around after a piece of paper on a string. It was rather the type that implied, in an unobtrusive sort of way, that your fingers would be played with joyfully after they were detached from you complete with your arm).
And high up under the thick canopy of leaves, needles and poisonous thorns, a voice was singing. It warbled melodiously something soft and melancholic, like a rainfall on a quiet autumn afternoon, or a breeze sweeping forlornly through the dead rooms of an old, abandoned mansion. Or like the weeping of a little child who has lost something very precious to him (or simply dropped a lollypop). There were words, too; but they sounded indistinct and incomprehensible, as if they were sort of… worn away, in the way that ancient symbols and drawings done in charcoal in a primordial cave somewhere wear away slowly with time. It was as if the context of the song had been long lost, and only the sound, the shape of the words themselves remained. Everywhere, songs were born; and songs were sometimes forgotten, too. You could say that in a way, like living creatures, they died. But it was all the same to the universe at large; just like living creatures, new ones were soon created in their place, and the world moved on.
But sometimes, somewhere, ghosts of songs remained, sung by spectres.
Down below, the ground shook as something large and hefty lumbered through the thickets. There came the approaching crunch of dry branches and unfortunate little critters being crushed underfoot; under a really heavy, enormous foot. And after a while, a booming voice cursed not so far off.
"Crap! Why do they always have to dry out so quickly? Looking for a new one is such a damn pain in the trunk."
"I could be wrong, of course, but perhaps there would be slightly more water left in that last one if you didn't, how should I put it, jump into it from a running start, pops," pointed out a much smaller, croakier voice that would put one in mind of a toad. Given, of course, that toads could speak.
"Oh, shut up," cut off the booming voice good-naturedly, rather out of habit than actual irritation. "What else are ponds for?"
"Erm, living in?"
The thudding footsteps finally reached the overgrown glade where the melodious voice was still pouring out in mournful trills. There came a sound like steam being expelled out of a briskly-open sauna door. That was the booming voice sighing.
"…And stop your damn screeching!" it screamed at last. Lack of ponds deep enough to cannon-ball dive into seemed to rend the owner of the booming voice entirely insensitive towards the other forest-dwellers' anguish. "Netherhells, even I could sing better than that! LAAAAAAAAAAAAA LA-LA-LA-LA LA-AAAA-AAAA-A-A-A!!" roared Booming in the deepest, most deafening bass he could manage, ending on an embarrassingly croaky-sounding note.
The heart-rending song broke off resentfully. High above, two angry eyes flashed in the darkness; and then the whole glade quavered as an ear-splitting screech rang through the still air. A winged silhouette detached from the blackness, soaring upwards in a lazy spiral. Vaguely outlined in the feeble light puncturing the thick canopy overhead, it was nevertheless distinguishable to the eye of the onlooker, or onlookers, situated far below. It was a large bird, about the size and shape of an eagle. That was, if you didn't take its head into consideration.
The creature had a human head. Or, more precisely, the head of a dishevelled, savage-looking woman.
"Well, gee," commented the owner of the booming voice, otherwise known as Gamabunta, after the screeching had died away in the distance. "So much for music appreciation. It's not even like it was that bad. I was only clearing my vocal cords, anyway. What, can't you clear your vocal cords around here anymore, Gamakichi?"
"I did not need to have my vocal cords cleared," croaked Gamakichi, who, in fact, did. "Not in the middle of somebody's song. Anyway, it was kind of mean," he added reproachfully.
"What? What? Are you saying that I can't sing, is that what you're saying, now, is it? Huh?"
"That wasn't what I said at all, dad. Anyway, the new pond is that way, right? Dad?"
"Oh… Well, of course it's that way. What else did you think? I know that. You don't have to remind me. I, I, I have my own way with them trails. Yes." The thundering footsteps stopped, filling the small ecosystem with a brief pause as Gamabunta changed directions; and then resumed again, heading through the brushwood deeper into the heart of the forest.
"And my singing is not that bad!" came a departing boom from some way further off.
Back in the world populated by ninja, the sun came out to shine over three soaking, lumbering figures. Zabuza, Haku and Loki were just finishing a lengthy climb onto the top of a particularly large and muddy hill. Far below at this hill's very foot, concealed by the trees, a small and unremarkable village thrived.
"It rains all the while that we're travelling, and then it stops just as we bloody arrive. Typical," grumbled Zabuza through gritted teeth, all a picture of sodden, irritated misery.
"Which way now, sir?" asked Haku, hoping against all hope that his cheerful tone would lift the spirits. "Do we go down into that village you mentioned?"
"Oh no, no more crowded inns and bloody starin' buggers for us, no," Zabuza answered in his usual manner, and then changed direction abruptly, turning off the trail. "But there is a special little place around here that I like to call my own…"
He disappeared behind the tree trunks. His apprentices followed him, mystified.
Zabuza Momochi did indeed own a modest plot of land in the vast forests of the Water Country that, curiously enough, none of the real estate agents of the ninja world would ever remember him acquiring. Most likely it was because these forests did not, in fact, belong to anyone in particular; but even if they did, Zabuza's Cleaver would nicely see to it that those people were in no condition to object.
The trio clawed their way through the undergrowth and thorny scrub, occasionally getting smacked in the faces by erratic branches or having showers of rainwater, dislodged by an awkward movement from the aforesaid branches, drench them from above. It was not a pleasant experience; but when they finally kunai-ed themselves out of the bushes and onto a small patch of almost clear space, the smug grin that spread across Zabuza's face showed them that it all must have been worth it.
The man planted his hands onto his hips in a self-satisfied fashion, giving the surroundings a haughty look.
"Ah, this is the place," he announced, gesturing at the forest at large. "Welcome home, kiddies."
Haku and Loki examined the trees in front of them carefully, in case they were failing to spot something unobtrusive and yet very obvious, like, say, a house. But there was nothing even remotely liveable there as far as they could make out.
Zabuza noticed the goggle-eyed stares of the kind that usually indicate that their owners are desperately trying to see something that isn't there, like meaning in an abstract painting. He sighed and slapped his forehead with a kunai-free palm. These kids had yet a lot to learn about seeing through an illusion Jutsu.
The assassin made a complicated-looking sequence of hand-signs that a simple rookie wouldn't be able to follow, and watched a long chain with a knob on the end drop down seemingly out of nowhere. It hung in mid-air just a few feet above the ground, twisting ponderously this way and that. The chain was made out of iron and had once been painted gold to resemble something of more value than it actually was; but cheap dye shed away in places, revealing embarrassing patches of dark, rusty grey. A few more flakes of fake gold peeled off as Zabuza grabbed the knob and pulled down on it really hard. There was a deep metal 'clang', some creaking of old wood and a couple of gently-floating-down dry leaves. But nothing else happened.
Haku and Loki watched nothing happening expectantly for a while before Loki finally asked,
"So, what are we supposed t--"
The whooshing sensation of something large but at the same time invisible moving really quickly made all of them dive for cover instinctively. There came a 'swap swap swap' kind of noise, a couple more bangs and the 'twang' of really thick ropes stretching something extremely heavy into place. Out of the corner of her eye that wasn't hidden behind a defensive elbow, Loki could just make out the… the thing unfold. It was like watching somebody setting up a make-shift tent in fast motion; or rather more like observing an origami boat being pulled into the right shape by its corners. She had never seen anything like it in her entire life. But then again, she hadn't seen very much in her entire life at all.
In a few moments, the Momochi estate appeared before them in all of its worn down, corroded-by-time-and-beetles-but-still-holding-on glory.
The two younger ninja gawped at it, stupefied. It was definitely… a sight. There couldn't have been a better word.
"Whoa…" drawled Loki, eyes wide with amazement. "How did you do that?"
"A special little something I like to call The Secret Cabin Concealing Jutsu," said Zabuza the aspiring inventor proudly. "Completely fire-, water-, hurricane-, wild animal- and stranger-proof. Came up with it all by meself. Don't know for how long it will hold though, but's been working without fail for a couple of years this far, if I dare say so myself." The man folded his arms and grinned in a satisfied manner. He would have never admitted it himself; but he did, indeed, rather like to brag.
"But, but, but I thought you only used Jutsu for fighting," muttered Loki in bewilderment at this discovery of yet another strange way of the humans, while Haku took a few tentative steps forward and prodded the long, bridge-like wooden porch cautiously with the tip of a sandal.
"You can use Jutsu for anything," Zabuza answered in a sage, seen-it-all sort of voice one uses with novices. "Just as long as you know how."
Loki cringed a bit at that because she didn't know how, which had always mildly irritated her. But it stood to reason. Jutsu could indeed be used for anything, even for things like getting rid of pimples or conjuring harems of naked young women that caused the unsuspecting male opponent to make a ten-foot arching somersault in the air, nose-bleeding all the way.
Zabuza gave the girl a little push towards his insignificant property.
"Move it along now, we've got lots of unpackin' to do."
Haku was already at the doorway, examining the thick roping with interest. Haku was like that. He liked figuring out how things worked, and what made them go. Many unfortunate frogs would second that, if they could. (Oh no, Haku wasn't a sadist. He always froze his test subjects first before experimenting on them. On the whole, he would have probablymade a great surgeon if he pursued a medical career, and, possibly, if somebody other than Zabuza had come along the street that snowy night. This has little to do with the story, but it is relieving to know, all the same.)
What Zabuza owned could hardly be called a house, or even a cottage. It rather resembled a large but somewhat shabby old shed divided in half by a flimsy cardboard wall. One of the divisions was furnished (although "furnished" is probably too fancy a word to use for the setting in question) with a rectangular wooden table, an uncomfortable-looking couch in a corner, and something that appeared to be a sink. Soft afternoon sunshine cast yellowish squares of light onto the surroundings and illuminated pillars of gently-settling dust through a large window. The window was glazed, although you could hardly see anything through it for all the cobwebs and grime.
The other part of the dwelling was curtained off, but through the tears in the thin cloth one could catch glimpses of suspicious-looking boxes stacked one on top of another. There was a small window in there, too; although its purpose there remained unclear.
Zabuza tossed his knapsack onto the couch, which creaked.
"You kiddies unpack," he grunted and headed outside, to cast the Invisibility Jutsu – something like the Hiding Mist technique, but with several minor adjustments.
"Um, Zabuza-san? I… have a quick question," ventured Haku, who had just finished scrutinizing the little room apprehensively through narrowed eyes. He, like Loki, had never seen Jutsu being used in this manner before.
"Hm?"
"How did they stay on, you know, in the right spots and all? All of them boxes, and the couch and things? And the glass, there's not even a crack…"
"I really thought you'd figure it out by now, Haku."
"Yes, I do realize that it is some kind of a Jutsu, but how…"
"Let's just say that when you're on the run and are in need of a reliable and unnoticeable place to hide your money or… replenish your provisions very quickly, sort of thing, you learn a trick or two as you go along."
"Oh. I see."
"Indeed."
Loki watched her mentor step outside onto the shadowed porch in a kind of unbelieving awe. She could hardly get her own chakra to do more than dancing golden sparks in the air (and even thoseonly ever happened by accident), and these humans did all those neat things with it… Concealing unfolding houses and stuff… You had to admit that it was, to use Zabuza's own words, bloody amaz--
The girl's thought process was interrupted by Haku tapping her gently on the shoulder. Up until this moment he had been fussing over their knapsacks somewhere in the background; but then the image of Loki standing around uselessly caught his eye, and he rushed to fill in the gap.
"Come on, Loki, I need your help," he said, handing her a pile of stuff and leading her gently away by the elbow.
Outside, Zabuza was just finishing his last This-Is-Definitely-Not-A-House-in-the-Middle-of-the-Woods,-Go-Away Jutsu seal. The name needed some revising, he mused. It didn't exactly, as they said, roll off the tongue.
The sun rolled slowly towards the west, and a bird whooped forlornly in the distance. Inside the little hidden cottage Haku was preparing dinner, with Loki helping out with the dishes and Zabuza resting face-up on the hard couch. Things were already unpacked and the windows gleamed, now grimeless and cobweb-free.
"Loki, could you pass me some shiso, please? That's those green, roundish leaves to your left."
Haku was currently chopping up some unfamiliar to Loki vegetation on a cutting board with a kunai. Over a small, rock-surrounded earthy hole in the floor that passed for a stove, rice was steaming in an iron pot.
Loki flailed around desperately until she finally caught sight of the green, roundish leaves, and dashed to give them to the boy.
"Anything else?" she asked, out of breath. For the past couple of hours she had been running around like crazy, completing all of Haku's little errands and tasks. She had never before had to clean up or cook. In the Centre, there had always been a large tray of meat waiting for her each time she returned from her training, and her cell was generally spotless. But the girl had never wondered where the food came from, or where the dirt went. She never even thought about that kind of stuff before. It was just one of those things that you took for granted and that never bothered you until you ended up having to do them yourself. And Loki, someone raised exclusively for fighting and a very simple life in general, was not enjoying herself in this new business.
"Yes, please wash that bowl, if you would be so kind."
Loki realized that Haku didn't mean to be so… polite, but hearing him say that in such a casual, you-know-you'd-do-it-anyway kind of voice was beginning to grate on her inner wolf's patience. Humanity always did, in the end. The girl often wondered why she was still staying with these humans, following their orders. She was a free wolf now. She didn't have to return to any human dwellings anymore. Life in the wild sure seemed worth a try. One day, she was constantly telling herself, she would run off and find a pack of those like her. One day.
That was what she'd wanted all along.
And yet…
The prospect of having to cook meals all by yourself and sleeping out in the cold all the time did not seem all that appealing after you gave it some thought.
"Erm, Haku? Um, how do you do this again, exactly? Um…"
Loki was standing in front of the sink awkwardly, turning the bowl over uncertainly in her hands.
Haku sighed and put aside his kunai. Sometimes he wondered, in a mildly irritated kind of way, if Loki knew how to do anything at all other than fighting. She probably never got a chance to do it wherever she was from, he understood; but good grief, she was a girl! Girls were supposed to be goodat those kinds of things naturally (or better than boys, at least). And here she was, not being able to even rinse one small bowl on her third try…
One day, he thought, he was going to take his time and teach Loki, and he meant really, seriously teach Loki (perhaps with many Ice Needles and death glares involved) some simple, basic housekeeping skills.
"Here, you do it like this."
The bowl was taken from Loki's unresisting fingers and a little rope above the sink was pulled. When Zabuza had been building this shack, he was still too inexperienced to try and include something as complicated as plumbing; so large water reservoirs were now used instead. A trickle of slightly misty water dribbled down with a rhythmic beating sound as the dish was rotated gently under it, leaving thin tracks of clean white in the grease. Loki carefully watched Haku wipe off the oily spots with a piece of cloth, and then rub it with a finger to check for the squeak. When he made absolutely sure that the bowl was clean, he held it up for Loki to examine.
"There you go. Easy and simple."
Three more dirty dishes got handed over to the girl, who barely suppressed a groan.
But finally the dinner was ready and served, and the trio assembled around the table, using small boxes to sit on. They ate in silence for a while, both males trying hard to ignore Loki not knowing how to use chopsticks, until at last Zabuza spoke.
"I'm going out into the village tonight."
"I thought you wanted to avoid the overcrowded inns and bloody staring buggers, sir. Just repeating what you'd said earlier, sir," wondered Haku out loud, getting glared at.
"Didn't leave a lot of food supplies here," Zabuza explained after a brief moment of glowering. "Didn't know if they'd keep well; and besides, when I built this, I never figured that I'd have to bring you lot in here to feed. I didn't intend this here place to be a long-time lodge, see, just a sort of a quick base thing. Restock and leave. Come; spend one night, maybe, restock and then leave again. But we're short on everything now, and I need to find meself another job to do. Money, now, there's never enough of it for our purposes. Loki, use your bloody hands if you need to so much, but leave those goddamn sticks alone, for gods' sakes, we do not have to witness this. "
Loki put down her chopsticks, embarrassed, and moved them carefully aside with a finger. Haku added yet another point to his mental checklist of things yet to teach to the girl.
"All right, sir, you go look for that… those supplies… and we'll take care of the laundry in the meantime," he supplied, mainly to lead the conversation away from the uncomfortable topic of Loki's non-existent table manners. The rest of the dinner was consumed in a contemplative and rather awkward silence.
When he was done with his rice, Zabuza chucked the empty bowl into the sink and rummaged in his knapsack for a while before finally extracting a couple of mysterious sharp-edged devices out of its worn, leathery depths. They disappeared inside his clothing with a speed that would have made light jealous, and then the assassin straightened up. He gave Haku and Loki, who were watching him curiously, a long, stern look.
"You know the procedure," he said. "Same as always. Watch out for strangers. Don't play silly bugger with Fire Jutsu. And wait for me here, which means wait for me here, and not out in the forest or down in the village somewhere. I believe I don't have to repeat twice what will happen to you if I catch you out misbehaving." That last bit was aimed at Loki with amazing precision. She gulped as it hit the bull's-eye. Zabuza smirked in satisfaction.
And was gone. Just like that. There was a sudden, Zabuza-shaped whirlwind of dust, water vapour and, well, wind, and a prickling sensation of the man's chakra suddenly not being there.
"But we don't even know how to use Fire Jut--" was all Haku had time to say.
It was an incredibly sunny afternoon. It must have been, because so far already two new scenes in this chapter have started with the sun shining down onto some place or another. And after that they went around saying that the Water Country was a gloomy place. They had no right whatsoever to say that. The Water Country might have been poor, war-like, bloodthirsty and corrupt, but it was in no way gloomy. The sun came out to shine quite often.
At the present moment, the sun came out to shine down onto (except for a corpse-littered battlefield, a tavern-brawl elsewhere and one of Gato's enormous barges swimming down a river somewhere else) anyway, it also shone down onto a small forest glade, overgrown with withering thickets and surrounded by towering trees. A stream trickled away far below, glinting playfully in the fading, late-afternoon light. Birds were twittering again, but rather hurriedly, as though trying to fit a lengthy repertoire of songs into the not-very-lengthy period between rain and some more rain. And there, on the moss-covered rock just beside the spring, a girl was sitting with her hand cautiously outstretched, palm-up, towards something in front of her. And on the receiving side of her hand, a small grey squirrel was reaching back with its nose to sniff hopefully at the girl's fingertips. It was such a serene and peaceful moment that you couldn't help yourself but be reminded of one of those touching scenes that usually end in a musical and little cuddly animals breaking into a cute song and dance. The effect was reinforced by an incidental ray of sunshine falling right onto the squirrel's muzzle as it connected gently with the girl's soft, unfolded hand…
…Which suddenly sprouted deadly claws and enclosed around the furry victim before it even had a chance to squeak. Somewhere high above, the twittering broke off and a couple of birds took off into the skies in a flurry of wings and falling dry leaves.
"Yesssss," hissed Loki under her breath, a manic grin spreading across her face. "Fresh meat at last… Now that is what I call dinner!"
Loki might have been living with humans for most of her entire conscious life, but that never, ever stopped her from being a savage wolf at heart. It is what being a werewolf is all about. It is thus very important for people to remember that and try not to judge Loki's actions from a… human point of view.
On this particular afternoon, just like on a few others before it, animal instincts were especially hard to deny.
The girl straightened up carefully and staggered despite her best efforts. That, too, was a side effect. Loki winced. She'd been trying to keep up the cheery face and high-spirited performance the whole time that Haku and Zabuza were watching, but now the weakness was taking its toll. Just like always. Loki took a few shaking steps and sat back down onto the rock.
And all those grey little creatures scuttling around didn't help matters at all…
Loki opened her jaws. They were set with pointy little fangs.
"Loooo-kiiiii!" called a voice from somewhere behind her, and slightly to her right. Haku was out looking for her. Damn.
"Lo-ki!" The voice was coming closer. She could already hear the rustling of thickets being moved aside and, for some reason, a strong smell of old trousers, fast-approaching. Loki let go of the squirrel and watched it dash away rather regretfully.
"Loki! There you are! Been looking all over for you," panted Haku, appearing into view. He watched her pulling her hand out of the stream hurriedly before she turned to face him and sending splatters of water over her head in a neat arch; and then, for a second… For just a split second, Haku thought he'd caught a glimpse of small, pointy fangs… although surely that was just a trick of light.
"What are you doing?" he ventured.
"Oh… um… nothing?" Loki tried.
Haku rolled his eyes. They had no time for games.
"Come on. I need your help," he said wearily, and made his way back through the bushes. Loki followed him shortly.
"Some more floor-sweeping?"
"Oh, no. We're done with that. Now we have some laundry to do."
"Laundry?"
Loki noticed, only just now, the bundle that Haku had been carrying with him all along. It was a pile of clothes. Really dirty and smelly clothes.
"What are those?"
"Our clothes, of course. And this is yours, by the way."
They came out into a clearer patch of the forest, with more open space for the last-moment sunlight to shine onto. It was easier to do laundry in sunny, open spaces; and jollier, too. Haku dumped the bundle onto the ground beside them and crouched down over the stream. Loki imitated him.
"Do you know how to wash clothes, Loki? …No, I expect not. Here, let me show you how."
The boy handed her a kimono, and himself unfolded a pair of Zabuza's pants. Loki watched, transfixed, as he dipped them into cold water and waved them gently in it a few times. Haku's expectantly raised eyebrows urged her to do the same.
"You shake it gently to kind of straighten it out first, and then you grab it like that, and you rub it together… like this… no, not like that, like this…"
Loki waggled the kimono in the water uncertainly, watching Haku's movements closely all the way. Then she took it into a firm grip… with both hands, not just one… and rub it like this, see, especially under arms, so that the sweat washes away… and here's some soap…
It was an… interesting procedure, Loki thought as she waggled and rubbed the flimsy cloth some more in a desperate and rather pointless attempt to get rid of all the stains. She'd learned so much today. All those useless little things, like cleaning and dusting and laundry and passing the right greenery to Haku to chop up on his little cutting board. Humans always made her do such strange things. In a way it was… amusing. It even made her forget about tonight. Sort of, anyway.
For no reason whatsoever, Loki wanted to laugh. She felt the stupid grin stretching across her face, from ear to ear. That was all she could do to stop herself from giggling like a silly human.
Haku caught her expression.
"Oh, come on. They're just underpants," he said, squeezing the water out of a small, blue-and-white striped item of clothing and rolling his eyes with a faint smile. "Underpants need washing too, you know. These are Zabuza's, by the way."
"Zabuza's?" The word 'underpants' had little meaning in Loki's private universe, whether subtle, humorous or otherwise; but the way itself in which it was said suggested, even to Loki's untrained in this area ears, that something extremely intimate and at the same time comical was being discussed. She stared, blinked and then burst out laughing. It didn't make sense. But she'd laugh at anything now, even if it didn't make any sense at all.
Haku watched her laughing and splashing water around aimlessly with a raised eyebrow; and then, as though urged on to do so by some invisible force, found himself laughing as well, at nothing in particular. It's true what they said. Silly, pointless laughter was contagious.
They went back to the hut an hour later, smiling and carrying the large heap of moderately-clean clothing together. Well, Haku had the bulk of it, but Loki was helping. Doing the laundry turned out not to be so tedious, after all.
"Just you wait 'till I show you the ironing," Haku was saying with a slightly maniacal tone in his excited voice.
The door of the coffee-shop was thrust open and Zabuza entered the gloom. Well, 'coffee-shop' was more of a name than an actual description. There was probably a lot less coffee being served around here than, say, alcohol, or pretty much anything else having to do with drinking, for that matter. And most customers didn't really come here to have drinks, in any case.
In short, this was not a very reputable place. Especially at night.
Zabuza made his way slowly towards the counter through rows and rows of dimly-lit tables. All around, some heavy drinking and, in places, hushed, secretive conversations were going on. And in a corner behind him, further in the gloom… The assassin narrowed his eyes but went on without stopping. He was being watched…
At the counter, Zabuza tossed two coins onto the grimy tabletop and asked for a mug of beer. From behind the veil of smoke, a thick red face glared back at him with one maliciously glinting eye and a hand the size of a shovel scooped up the gold.
" 'Moment, sir."
Zabuza nodded and stood there, waiting. With each moment, he was becoming more and more aware of his watcher, and that made him tense. And Momochi hated feeling tense.
Finally, the beer arrived. Zabuza took the mug and, almost gratefully, retreated into the darkness.
Carefully feeling with just the tips of his fingers the polished surface of a kunai hidden expertly within his sleeve, the Mist-village renegade made his way back among the tables, heading for a shadowy corner. Keep calm… You just had to remember to always keep calm. Just a few more steps…
But just as he was passing by one of the countless figures stooping over a bottle of something clearly alcoholic, Momochi felt a gnarled but powerful hand grab the rim of his coat.
"Hello, old friend," somebody hissed as Zabuza whirled around, kunai at the ready, prepared to strike down the unknown enemy. "Long time no see."
There was something about the voice that made the assassin stop and, after a few seconds of careful consideration, cautiously sheathe the blade. Something about the stranger's accent seemed oddly familiar. Momochi's memory flashed a card. Ah, yes.
Almost relaxing, Zabuza placed his mug of beer onto the tabletop.
"Same as always, you are. Haven't changed one bit," he commented, eyeing his hooded acquaintance. "I'd recognize that mania for black cloaks, conspiracy and alcohol anywhere… So, how've you been?" the bandage-faced assassin pulled up a chair. After a pause, he added a tone lower: "Anything… interesting happen while I've been away?"
"Oh, not much, not much," wheezed the hood. "A few jobs here, a few trades there… you know how it is…" Here the speaker stopped to ingest a few more gulps of the foul-smelling concoction that was probably supposed to pass for sake or something of the sort. "For a moment there I thought you wouldn't recognize me, old friend," he murmured accusingly.
Zabuza raised his hands protectively into the air. "Oh, ahaha, well, that's how things are these days… Got to be careful what with all the… unrest… and all."
"Still on the run from the Hunter hounds, hmm?"
"Yes… As you know, things didn't go quite as smoothly as expected." There was a sad pause filled with more beer consumption. "And what about this place? Anything profitable turn up recently?"
"Well, it's a stale little place, I should say," croaked the hood. "Few new people… Everyone knowing everything about everyone else… Not much fun."
Zabuza stared at his grimy mug expectantly. He needed a job. And if this old scumbag was still hanging around here, it meant that there were at least a few to spare.
As if in answer to his thoughts, the hood across the bottle-littered tabletop gave a little cough.
"Although…" he said. "If you're interested…"
Zabuza became all ears and bandages.
"There's quite an interesting little deal in a neighbouring village tonight… not too far off… I and a few more boys are already in it, but one more party wouldn't hurt. The share's one fifth of the total sum, and I know you, you're an honest lad and I can always count on you to do a proper job. So, how about it?"
That was exactly what Momochi had been looking for, but nevertheless he held out a moment of thoughtful, considering silence.
"One fourth and we've got a deal. I don't see any point to join for anything less."
"One fourth? Oh, well, you know how the boys are… They never…" The voice trailed off. Zabuza waited. His pause, of course, had been well-calculated. Since the old man was asking, his group was probably really in a need of at least one other ninja in order to accomplish the task properly. And Zabuza knew exactly how to haggle with people like that.
"Oh, all right," the hood agreed at long last. He was in a pressing need of another ninja, after all; and, besides, the boys didn't have to know everything. "One fourth it is. You foul scoundrel."
"I'm in, then. You old scumbag," Zabuza parried with a grin.
"That's me," the black hood emitted a wheezing, hectic cackle. It was going to be one profitable night, for all of them.
Back in the little folding hut in the middle of the forest, Haku and Loki were already asleep. It had been a long day and Zabuza was still out in the village, and who knew how long it was till he'd get back. Besides, it was dark out already, and it was not such a good idea to keep the lights on. There were plenty of excuses and, in any case, Haku was tired. And that was always a good enough reason to go to bed early.
Though while Haku was peacefully snoozing away, Loki, on the other hand, couldn't as much as close her eyes. Well, closing her eyes and pretending to sleep was the most she could do, in any case. Her head felt as if someone had placed it on a white-hot iron stove and was slowly battering away on it with a hammer. Her senses were going haywire, and that didn't make the experience any more pleasant. It was the night of the full moon, and Loki knew that she had to get out of the hut as soon as possible.
Just a few more seconds, she thought, feeling too weak to raise as much as one inch of herself off the floor, but freshly-sprouting claws hurried her on. Careful not to make any noise, the werewolf tried to get up…
There was a soft rustle from Haku's corner of the room. Loki stopped in her tracks and sniffed. A mouse. Just a tiny mouse. Fortunately, nothing more… Taking care not to wake her comrade, the girl opened the door and, with all the necessary precautions, clambered out into fresh air. Here she was finally safe. Loki softly clicked the cottage door shut behind her and rushed to merge with the silently shifting shadows of the nightly forest.
Back in the musty darkness of the hut, Haku opened his eyes.
Through the thickets and undergrowth, Loki sped on. This was becoming somewhat of a routine now, she noted, brushing a thorny branch aside. Just your usual little jogging exercise three nights a month. It's true what they said: one could get used to anything if the circumstances obliged. She ducked to avoid another branch and jumped over a fallen log. It was becoming easier to move and breathe. That only meant one thing. The full moon was almost out.
Loki ran on for a bit longer, following a path of her own choosing. She could feel her mind emptying quickly only to fill up with wild, erratic hints at thoughts. That was the animal waking up inside her. Her senses were also waking now, sharpening up; and something was trying to get her attention at the back of her mind. It was something alarmingly familiar, but Loki didn't have time to stop and think about what it was. There was only one thing she knew she should concentrate on remembering to do, and that was running away as far and fast as she possibly could. And nothing else currently mattered.
Back in the hut, Haku was groping around madly in the darkness in a desperate attempt to find his sandals. This wasn't going to end well, he just knew it. Zabuza told them, he'd made it specifically clear that they were to stay in the hut no matter what. But Loki just left, he'd heard her, he was certain he felt her go out the door! And it wasn't just for one moment to relieve herself, Haku was sure. She'd gone. Haku could tell she wasn't around. But how could she disobey their master's orders again so audaciously, especially after everything that had happened before as a result of that? Unless, of course, she had to…
Haku suddenly remembered Loki's strange absence that he'd noticed last month, as well as her unexplained onset of weakness the day before that happened. Could it possibly be…? Haku paused with his foot half-way in the sandal. Well, first he was going to go out there and bring Loki back, in any case. And then he would find out the whole truth.
Outside the hut, Haku stopped once more. If Zabuza came back and found that his trainees weren't there, he would be livid. Something had to be done about that. The boy waved his arm vaguely in the air and watched the water from a nearby stream trickle and shape itself into the right form. That wasn't much, but it would have to do. And with that, Haku was off into the night.
A few miles away, a group of five ninja was heading through the forest, leaping silently from branch to branch. Quite soon they reached the outskirts of a village, where they jumped down and took off their black cloaks and masks. Underneath, each one of them was wearing simple villager clothes.
It was night-time and the streets were mostly deserted, except for a single shabby, rattling cart and a few pedestrians hurrying to get to the warmth of their homes. Nobody paid any attention to the curious new addition to the village's population, although it would be interesting to note that it consisted of a group of five men; or rather four men and an unidentified limping figure that looked more like a wizened old monkey. However, while in any other circumstances this group might have caused considerable suspicion, on a cold night such as this no-one was intrigued enough to stick around and ask for their papers.
And that was certainly a mistake that somebody would, quite soon, dearly regret.
Haku sped through the trees. He was able to sense a faint trail of the girl's chakra leading away into the forest, and he followed it. It felt all… weird. Normally, he wouldn't be able to sense it, being this far away from the girl, but it was almost as if her chakra was growing out of proportion, becoming something… different… and monstrous. It felt wrong. Haku was beginning to have second thoughts about going through with this; but he reminded himself that he was Zabuza's apprentice, after all, and he had to carry out his orders; but most of all, he had to be brave. Anyway, a treacherous thought was creeping into his mind, what if Loki actually was sent to spy on them and secretly inform the Hunters of their whereabouts? After all, with the renegade duo separated, this would be the perfect time to strike… But that would mean that he'd have to track Loki down and… Haku didn't even want to go there.
Suddenly, the boy's right hand gave a slight, involuntary jerk. A chakra string stretching away from his hand into the darkness ahead sparked dimly, like a cobweb that had caught sunlight, and blended with the shadows once more. Haku's vision was momentarily filled with the image of a scrawny female figure crouching among the bushes somewhere ahead; and then it cleared again, revealing a fast-approaching branch. The boy ducked to avoid it and, frowning, changed directions. That had been a sign from one of his doppelgangers, he knew. He had sent two of them ahead to cover a greater area, and also to keep an eye out for Loki without revealing his presence to her highly-sensitive nose. The clones were attached to him by chakra strings, so that Haku would know right away where the girl was, whenever she would be spotted. And now he knew exactly where to find her.
The boy destroyed his second clone, tuning in to the one that had tracked down Loki. She had stopped some way off, so Haku stopped as well, not wanting to come any closer in case any dangerous activity would be taking place. If she was going to communicate with the Hunter Nin, well…
But something was telling Haku that this was not going to be the case. Strangely, this thought wasn't making him feel any better.
His doppelganger must have been hiding among the treetops around wherever Loki was, because Haku was getting a clear view from some point high above the ground. He could plainly see the girl straighten up and sniff around suspiciously. Instinctively, he recoiled. Even though there was no possible way that Loki could smell him from where she was, you just never knew. But then her attention shifted, and Haku tuned in a bit more to get a closer look. What he saw made him frown even more.
Something strange was going on with his team-mate. Her ears seemed longer, and her hair was somehow bushier… and those were quite obviously claws… But not the metal kind that she loved to show off so much, but rather the sort that one would find on a wolf's paw… It was almost as if…
Here, Haku blushed and had to suppress the urge to look politely the other way. Loki was taking off her clothes… why? He kept watching, though, afraid that if he turned away even for one second, his quarry would vanish. He watched the girl toss her kimono into the bushes and straighten out again, completely naked. And on her back he could see, or was it just his imagination…? Greyish tufts of fur were sprouting here and there from under her bare skin. An answer seemed to hover in the boy's mind, too vague and frightening to be grasped, but he wouldn't turn and run away, he had to know the truth… whatever it was.
And then it happened. The full moon came out in all of its icy glory, its light illuminating the trees, and the girl, and an anxiously watching Haku somewhere else among the thickets.
And then the chilly air shook as a shrill, inhuman shriek pierced the velvety darkness.
Haku's eyes widened in horror as he watched the transmogrifying figure, his stomach lurching with repulsion. But he just couldn't look away, transfixed by the terrifying, revolting scene. On the ground, somewhere not far off, Loki was rolling around in a whirlwind of blood, dirt, blind rage and emergent fur. She was becoming a… a thing. A dirty, angry, screaming thing; and he, Haku, was doing nothing about it. He could do nothing. So instead, he just watched.
So this must have been it, then, the boy thought, observing with an ever-growing sickening feeling in his throat the crazed creature writhe madly on the ground. The reason for her illness. The reason for her nightly absences. The reason for what he had earlier thought was but a trick of light on her teeth. It was all beginning to make sense. Too much sense…
And yet, all the more questions were arising.
Far below the watching doppelganger, the transformation was over and the enormous dirty-white creature rolled onto its legs. It didn't even bother to take in the surrounding scents, which would undoubtedly betray not only the water-clone, but the real Haku's whereabouts as well. Still yelping in frenzy and snapping its fangs at invisible enemies, the beast sped off into the depths of the forest, shedding a dimly-glistening trail of viscous, black blood. The young ninja sat where he was, trembling lightly with terror and shock, until the creature's anguished cries faded away in the distance.
Haku did not follow it. Instead, he crouched down onto his knees and, succumbing to indescribable disgust, doubled over and vomited, again and again, into the drying brushwood.
So this was it, then. The disease.
Loki's secret was uncovered at last.
Pale morning light filtered through the barren branches, illuminating a tall man crouching down on the rocks below. By the sounds of it (rather muffled because of the bandages covering the man's mouth), he was re-counting the cash he had received earlier for a job well done. Finally, after making absolutely sure that none of the crispy bills had vanished mysteriously somewhere along the way (what with that conniving old hooded monkey around, you just never knew), the man placed his revenue into a small leather pouch and stuffed it into his coat, right over his heart (which would have told the onlookers, if there had been any around, a thing or two about this man's true values). He then got up, with a bit of a difficulty, making an involuntary hand motion towards one of his sides. It had been one rough night… But a night worth every penny.
Well, at least the assignment was accomplished successfully. Zabuza sure was glad now that he'd listened to that insensible little voice in his mind that told him not to decline the old man's offer; although, of course, he probably should have been much more cautious. The victim had seemed to be well-prepared for the last night's encounter. The guy's crew had put up quite a fight. And that was never, ever a good sign.
But that was all behind him, at least. They could all move on. And now Zabuza was quietly heading back towards his cleverly-hidden hideout, where Haku and Loki were most probably still asleep, those lazy-asses, when they should have already been up and practising…
As he was thinking this, Zabuza suddenly became aware of a faint rustle coming from the brushwood nearby. Zabuza's trusted kunai glinted in his ever-ready fingers, prepared to strike down the enemy. Over the years this had become an innate, involuntary action; much like wincing or flinching, only slightly more complex and homicidally-disposed. It just happened of its own accord whenever he felt that something suspicious was up. Or, in this case, to his left.
But before he struck down the small ball of twigs, dry foliage and blue clothing that came rolling out of the thickets, it uncurled to reveal a panting, dishevelled-looking Haku.
"Sah!" the boy straightened out in a salute, looking rather anxious in that unnerving, highly-distinct manner he had of looking anxious.
Zabuza stared at him; then smiled contentedly.
"Training already? Very good, Haku! That's the spirit I like to see in my students. And where's the girl?"
Haku shuffled uncomfortably from foot to foot. Where to begin?
"Erm. Um. You want to know where Loki is, sir," he said after a pause.
"Yes, Haku. That's what I would like to know," answered Zabuza patiently.
"Ahem."
There was some more uncertain foot-shuffling.
"Well…?"
Haku's facial muscles twitched almost unnoticeably as if wondering whether or not to stretch his mouth into an awkward grin, but then deciding against it.
"Ah, well, you see, sir… That's the problem… Loki isn't exactly, how should I put it… here. Well, she's around, but not here in this precise meaning of the word, if that is what you are asking. Um."
Slowly but surely, Zabuza's own rather faint smile slid off his face to become a quite prominent scowl. It could even be seen through the bandages.
"Around? Just what do you mean by that, boy?" the assassin asked, his voice suddenly dangerously quiet. Not Loki, not again, not after they had already had that talk… She was quite useful and all, and he would hate having to get rid of her; but if she continued… misbehaving, then she left him with no choice… Momochi could forgive a mistake or two, but he had absolutely no use or patience for constantly disobedient subordinates.
Haku was beginning to sweat under Zabuza's glower, but his face betrayed nothing. That was the strangest thing about the boy. He could have been fiddling about in uncertainty and stammering, but his face would always remain a mask of forced calm. Such control over facial muscles was undoubtedly deserving of commendation. Unfortunately, Zabuza was not in one of his complimenting moods right now.
"You see, sir, Loki is, Loki is, um, er… Last night, when I woke up, and saw her going out… well… it was crazy, sir, just crazy! Once I tell you, you'll probably think I'm crazy… but, in any case, I know what I saw and I believe you might like to know this, too."
"Of COURSE I should know!" Zabuza cut off Haku's incoherent stream of interjections, his voice a lion's roar. Needless to say, he was feeling slightly irritated at the fact that his most intelligent student was beginning to adopt Loki's usual nervous stammer. Either this was the two youngsters' constant interaction acting up and not doing the boy any favours, or something really serious was up. And, knowing that girl, it was probably the latter. "Just get bloody on with it, dammit!!"
"Yes, sir. Um." Haku desperately tried to get his act together. "You see, sir, Loki is, how should I put it… not exactly…"
And Haku, faltering and glancing around nervously every now and then, as if anticipating a sudden and vicious attack, told Zabuza the entire story of his nocturnal adventure in the woods.
As he listened, the man's face darkened. He was staring fixedly at a point just beyond Haku's shoulder, apparently lost in thought. When the boy finished, he remained silent for a long time before finally muttering one short, almost inaudible phrase under his breath.
"We must find her."
Indeed, there were many questions that Momochi wanted answered right away. And what Momochi wanted he always received. He hopped onto a tree branch, only to find that Haku wasn't following.
"I said, we are going to find her!" Zabuza barked ominously. He knew quite well Haku's almost-brotherly affection for the girl, whom the boy had once so painstakingly nursed back to health; and was thus expecting an entire array of protesting remarks. This would be unsurprising. Haku knew very well of all the possible things that could happen to Loki once she was caught. As a quick hint, if one wanted to draw a picture, he would probably have to use a lot of red and blue, and maybe even purple.
But down on the ground, Haku remained silent and grave.
"There is something I must fetch first, then," the boy said.
From the height of his branch, Zabuza scrutinized him through narrowed eyes suspiciously, to determine whether he was having any second thoughts of going off to find Loki on his own and warn her about what was coming.
"Make it quick," he growled at last, deciding that a clever kid like Haku couldn't possibly do something that stupid. But even if he did, this wouldn't do much to help Loki in any case.
Down below, Haku nodded and disappeared from view.
Back in Zabuza's little hut, Haku overturned his knapsack, tossing things out of it at random. Kunai, medicinal herbs, carrots for the rabbit and spare underwear flew this way and that. But then Haku's face lit up triumphantly as he finally caught a glimpse of what he had been looking for. Ah-ha!
Something was taken cautiously out of the leathery depths of the old rucksack. It glinted blindingly as its polished surface caught the brilliant light of the rising sun. Haku held it up in his palms, examining the thing with a solemn look.
It was a silver arrowhead.
Exhausted, Loki was shambling towards the place where, as she could vaguely remember, their hideout was situated. Her kimono was back over her bruised torso, covering the worst of the traces left by her midnight madness. She was so tired that she couldn't think. Just a few more steps, said a small but persistent voice inside her head. Just a few more steps, and then a few more, and you will soon be able to fall face-down onto your bed or haystack or whatever it is this time, and close your eyes and drift off to sleep at last. Sleep… Sweet sleep, oh, how Loki missed it. It seemed like an eternity since the last time she had slept. She was craving it now, that golden sleep, longing for it more than anything else in the entire world. That blissful moment, full of the feeling of something soft under her head and belly, and nothing but the slightly-orangey insides of her eyelids filling her vision for just a brief moment before she happily blacked out… Ohh, this would have been the greatest thing right about now.
How far away she still was from home… Oh, what the hell. So what, who cared about Haku and Zabuza possibly looking for her back at the cottage? She would only lie down for a brief moment, no longer… She was only closing her eyes for a second, remaining completely conscious the entire time. Loki was in full control of her body. She knew she would not fall asleep.
She was in absolute control of her body.
She knew she would not fall…
…Asleep.
Sleeeeeep…
Loki did not know for how long she had been out of it before she suddenly became aware of smells, loud smells that sent alarm signals up her nose and towards her shutting-down brain; but she ignored those. Sleep was more important right now, and everything else could wait. She felt pain piercing her muscles all of a sudden; sharp, metal pain that was annoying her somehow, grating on her nerves like a cat's claws on the sofa cloth, but Loki's worn-out body ignored that, too. She knew that it wasn't sensible, she realized it through her sleep, but there was nothing she could do about it. Through the strange fog of fatigue and oblivion that enveloped her, Loki could just barely distinguish voices… muffled voices… familiar voices that simply wouldn't let her sleep, that thundered heavily and unpleasantly on her groggy mind like drumsticks on a tightly-taut war drum, as if trying to bring her back into consciousness; but all of that, too, gave way and was swallowed up by the black void that was quickly engulfing her…
The world was gone.
…It reappeared again, much later and feeling somehow uncomfortable. And also, for some inexplicable reason, upside down. Slowly, up-turned furniture came into focus. There was also a window. Some light was filtering through it; though it did little to diffuse the cool darkness of the room. Yes, Loki was quite sure by now that she was in a room. Even more precisely, it was definitely the shabby room of Zabuza's little hut. But how did she get here? Did she make it all the way to this place without even noticing? How odd. Ah, the amazing things your body could do while your brain was asleep…
But something still wasn't quite right. Ah, yes, Loki was upside down. Now, to fix that…
Loki struggled to pull herself upright; but something cold and wet was firmly holding her suspended by her ankles in that awkward, overturned position. What the…?
"Haku?" Loki called uncertainly, her voice coarse from sleep. "Zabuza-san?"
"Awake already?"
Zabuza's face slowly filled Loki's vision. There was a strange look in his eyes. He looked as though he had just been told that a new, rare species of extra-poisonous scorpions had been recently discovered and that he was being the one called in to sort out the specimen. Loki didn't yet know what she was going to be yelled at for this time, but she didn't doubt for a single second the fact that she was, indeed, going to be yelled at.
"Er, yes, Zabuza-san. Um, could you please put me down on my feet, Zabuza-san?"
"Only after you answer some questions," he murmured softly. The tone of his voice did not imply any kind intentions.
Loki was pending upside-down in mid-air with a suspicious look in her eyes. What could it be this time? She hadn't done anything, or at least nothing out of the ordinary… The humans were always displeased with something. Why? She didn't understand. Humans were very strange.
"What questions?" she asked.
Unless… It was always a risk, after all.
But no. Couldn't possibly be that.
"I want you to tell me the truth about what you were up to last night," said Zabuza simply. Unlike the Chief back at the Centre, he was not a man of lengthy introductions.
"I… I was just out hunti--" the girl tried timidly.
"I want you to tell me the truth about what you were up to last night!" barked Zabuza irritably. He was not in the mood for this.
In the meantime, Loki could feel frost settling gently onto her aching insides as realization dawned. She noted the use of 'this night' instead of 'this morning'. Had he finally figured it out? Did he know for sure, or did he simply suspect her of something? In any case, Loki didn't see the point of exposing her cards until she was absolutely certain that this was what she thought it was all about. It was probably about something else, she soothed herself. Couldn't be that. If it was, they would just kill her on the spot. So, as long as she played the idiot and stuck to her usual set of excuses, the situation could still be saved…
Hopefully.
"But this is the tr--"
There was a sharp, fleshy sound as Zabuza hit her across the face.
"You should know better than lying to me," the man growled. "Answer the question!"
Loki rubbed her cheek sulkily. That hurt. The funny thing was, what she told him was the actual truth. She just never said what she went out hunting for. Or, more precisely, whom she didn't want to find hunted down in the morning.
"I really don't understand," she tried.
"All right. But what can you tell us about this?" said a soft voice from somewhere out of Loki's sight before Zabuza could interject. She recognized it as Haku's.
And then, her olfactory vision was suddenly filled with lilac-coloured fog that pinched unpleasantly at her nostrils. It didn't take her long to realize that the thing Haku was holding in his palm was…
Silver.
So they knew. Both of them; they had figured it out, after all. Otherwise, why would they ask about silver?
So, this was it, then. Game over.
In the opposite corner, Zabuza also looked somewhat surprised by his apprentice's interference. He had never seen the arrow that Haku had taken out of Loki's back on their first ever encounter.
"What is this, boy?" he asked, raising an eyebrow; or, rather, the patch of skin above his eye where an eyebrow should have been.
"Something that would have come in very handy if Loki managed to resist our Lethargy Jutsu and tried to put up more of a fight." Haku's half-smile was unusually cold. "Perhaps you could explain that better than I, Loki. I have been keeping this for quite a while, but I could just never find the right time to ask about it." The boy held up the arrowhead.
"Y-you've had this thing ever since the… the beginning?" an astonished voice blurted out, and Loki was surprised to discover that it had been her own. "But how come I never felt-- I mean, why would you do this?" She was so taken aback by this revelation that she had completely forgotten to keep up the clueless act.
"Aah, but aroma-therapy is not all those medicinal herbs are good for," Haku explained with a little smile. "You see, I figured you probably wouldn't be too happy knowing this was around, so I didn't want to… distress you. So I just kept it within a bunch of especially fragrant herbs. I thought it was curious, see. When I first found you, you were dying, Loki, bleeding to near death from arrow-wounds. Well, there was nothing surprising about that; at least not at first. But then, after I took the arrow out and your wounds have healed sufficiently, we had a battle, remember?"
Loki was watching him gravely, quietly.
"We had a battle, and we tied," continued Haku nonchalantly. "We were both pretty worn out by the end: it took me a week or so to recover properly. You were okay by evening, Loki. Admittedly, I didn't think anything of it at the time, being too busy worrying about my own gashes; but then I noticed how fast your injuries were healing after your practice-combats with Zabuza. So it made me wonder – if you could recover so quickly from fights, then why had the arrow-wounds been such a problem?
"I was curious about it, but I never got around to asking you – it felt rather… awkward, to tell you the truth. But I wondered about it anyway, because, well, anything having to do with injuries and treatment just happens to interest me. So then I figured that the reason for your lengthy sickness period probably lay in the arrow that struck you. So I went to the spot where I first found you (luckily, we haven't yet moved away by that time), and I found this and kept it, to examine it closer. I checked it for all possible poisons that I could think of, but found that it was tainted with none.
"I couldn't figure it out. But then I noticed that the arrowhead was made out of silver. I found it strange, because pure silver isn't the sort of metal you'd usually make a weapon out of (unless you are a weird rich person who knows nothing about real combat, that is). So I thought, then, that it must have been a custom weapon created, for whatever reasons, to hurt specifically you. That tied in somewhat with the story you told me later, the one about that centre place, and your escape from it…" (at the mention of the Centre Loki gave an instinctive wince, but she remembered in time that the story she had given Haku then had had no mention of werewolves in it. Not that it mattered anymore, anyway.) "…but this is beside the point. I figured out that it had to be the silver itself that actually caused you the most harm, and not the sharpness or the hardness of the edges; so I thought I had part of the mystery solved. But I still wanted to know more. Why silver? How did it affect your blood?
"And then I noticed that you kept getting this strange illness each month; and then…"
Here, Haku's lengthy speech finally broke off. "You know," he said to Zabuza.
"Indeed," the man drawled, eyeing the arrowhead in Haku's hand. Then, after a moment's reflection, he snatched it out of the boy's unresisting fingers and stomped over to Loki to wave it in front of her face.
"I want the truth," he snarled, "Right now. Because see here, I've got this magical arrow-thing and I am losing my patience. I've had it with your insolence. I took you in, and you dare to keep secrets from me? Give me one good reason why I shouldn't just hack your head off with this right here and now!"
The silver arrow-tip got shoved frantically into Loki's face a couple more times and she recoiled instinctively, trying to turn her nose away from the hated scent. Inside her head, thoughts were dashing about feverishly, like swallows over a river. The humans were threatening her… They had silver… They could kill her… What should she do? Should she try to attack them and escape? What should she do?
Yet they didn't seem to realize that she was a bloody werewolf.
Perhaps that meant that she still had a shot.
Zabuza finally stepped away, waiting for a response.
Loki was revolving slowly this way and that, still suspended in mid-air, and watching the humans thoughtfully. She was weighing her chances. She also realized that she didn't have much time. The prospect of danger could clear one's mind perfectly; and Loki's was presently as clear as the purest of diamonds. There was no angry wolf-feeling clogging her conscience this time, so she was able to think surprisingly rationally.
Think rationally. If she attacked any one of the humans now and tried to make a run for it, she would most definitely be put to death; whether by silver or other means, this made no difference. Either way it would be defeating the entire purpose of escape. The option of staying with the team then would also be ruled out. Zabuza liked to take risks; but Loki had already been trying his patience for long enough. As for Haku, the boy was fanatical about protecting his mentor. Thus, attacking the former (or any one of the humans) would win her no points with either of the two.
Well, she was a werewolf, after all. It was still a question of who was stronger, especially if she managed to fully transform. But this was the full moon period and Loki felt pretty worn out this morning, while both ninja were excellent fighters and, unlike her, in tip-top shape.
Well, Zabuza's side looked a bit torn. Loki found her hind thoughts wondering about what could have happened and nudged them in the ribs to get them to concentrate on matters more pressing. Even if Zabuza wasn't in such a great condition today, he still had Haku and the silver arrow.
And besides, even if she did manage to escape, where would she go? Finding her pack was always the long-term goal, but realistically what would Loki do with herself once she was out on her own? At least with Zabuza she knew where she stood. There was organization. There was a purpose. There were also regular meals and, every once in a while, a soft bed to sleep on. Without Zabuza, Loki's access to the latter two would no longer be guaranteed.
And the meals were always cooked. That was the good thing about being around Haku and Zabuza. Loki liked cooked meals; as well as a whole bunch of other benefits the ninjas' company provided. She might have thought herself to be tough and strong; but when it came to fulfilling the gastronomic needs of her organism, she had no idea how she would ever manage without those two.
Besides, Loki was realizing with just a hint of annoyance; she had grown rather strongly attached to these two.
In the backdrop, Zabuza began screaming something incoherently again while Haku was watching the entire thing expectantly from afar.
Finally, Loki hung her head; or rather pressed her chin to her chest with a compliant expression. She might not understand some things and be absolutely clueless about the rest, but she was not stupid. And trying to pull off an escape would be a very dramatic and a really stupid thing to do in the given situation. In any case, it was better to have them trust her for now and make a run for it only when they least expected it, if the need ever arose.
But in order to gain this trust, she would have to tell them the truth. Or, at least, as much of it as the circumstances required.
"But if I tell you everything, you will kill me anyway, won't you," Loki murmured out loud.
Zabuza stopped yelling.
"First you speak, and then we'll see," he said, his tone suddenly becoming calm, cold and business-like. The truth was that he didn't much care if she was the devil himself as long as she would prove as powerful as he had been hoping she was, and play on his side in the end. All he wanted now was to work out if she was, indeed, going to play on his side. What Zabuza needed in the end, after all, was loyal allies. And 'loyal' included 'honest' and 'truthful'. Everything else was just details, as far as Momochi was concerned. And he was not very bothered about the details.
Loki watched him some more, like a poker-player trying to figure out whether his opponent was bluffing.
At last, she reached a decision. It was final. There would be no going back, she knew. But it had to be done. It was, perhaps, the best and only option available – otherwise, there was actually more to lose than to gain, if you thought about it well. Anyway, final decisions had gotten Loki through all the way this far; so she might as well try it again.
If they attempted to kill her, Loki would defend herself. And that would be no feeble defence, either, because she too would be fighting to kill. But at least then she'd know that she'd done everything in her power to stay afloat. At least she'd know that she'd tried her best. That was all that counted in the end – whether you gave it your all before dying.
In any case, Haku and Zabuza still weren't realizing that she was a werewolf; or at least seemed to be completely oblivious to the usual human idea, which was that werewolves either had to be put down on sight, or were supposed to be subordinate to humans by default.
This made her feel slightly more comfortable. Perhaps she did have a chance.
With a soft sigh and an 'all right', Loki began her story. It was pretty much the same story Haku and Zabuza already knew, only with all of the blanks now filled in. The two assassins listened intently.
Beyond the shabby wooden walls, a bird chirruped. Somewhere outside, a new day was starting.
The game wasn't over yet.
End Chapter! Congratulations for reading thirty-four pages in a single go! (Not if you are Ash, though. I know you can make it through much, much greater parts in, like, five minutes, Ash. ;) Anyway, hope your eyes are all right. O.o Haha, the beginning wasn't very action-packed, but, well, I wanted to include a behind-the-scenes aspect of their lives that doesn't necessarily revolve around fighting. I mean, if I was reading this fic, I would wonder: if Loki is a wild girl from who knows where, how would she suddenly learn how to read or behave at dinner? And if she talks so much about running off into the wild, why doesn't she? And when does the villains' laundry get done? (A question of perennial interest for me: I mean, I cannot actually see Orochimaru or Kabuto washing their underwear or just walking casually into a cleaning house with a basketful of dirty socks. I am sorry, I just can't. And yet, they've got to wear both socks and underwear… Man, either they clean them by magic or stink a lot! …Ah, the questions of my life…)
Anyway, I enjoy developing Haku and Zabuza's characters as well as Loki's. And I am very happy with the way Haku is fleshing out. They all almost feel like my own now… :O I luff you, Haku, Loki and Zabuza, you are my new babies. :)
End rant. So long. Rant to you some more next chapter.