2
"Haku, where's your sister?" Umino Iruka raised an eyebrow. Uchiha Haku faltered, dropping his look away from his teacher and to the empty seat beside him.
"I, ah, she's…sick, Iruka-sensei," he spoke so softly that almost none of his classmates heard his response.
"Huh, well then," Iruka dropped his grade book onto the long desk in front of the blackboard and crossed his arms over his chest. "I'll call your house later to give her the homework assignment."
"Ah!" Haku blushed. "Iruka-sensei, I can give it to her…"
"Where is she, Haku?" Iruka frowned at his student.
"Well, I…" he avoided his teacher's stare a second time. Iruka sighed and unfolded his arms, turning to the blackboard. A few of the other children glanced back at Haku and snickered. He ducked his head and began scribbling furiously into his notebook as Iruka started the lecture.
Uchiha Hana ditched her backpack in the playground and went wandering. It was exciting to see all these new faces in her city, and she saw quite a few different headband symbols too. But, for some reason, no other headband but her father's had a slash through the center symbol. She thought about it but couldn't ever remember asking why it was different or how he had gotten it that way, and she knew he never talked about his past. In fact, she recalled one time that she had asked him about her grandparents and his face had gotten dark and intense and she had been afraid of him for an instant, although she knew he'd never hurt her. Something in that look he had given her warned her and made her back off the topic, and that was when she had learned that their family was the very last of the Uciha Clan. For years after that she wondered why it was that way, but she didn't have the courage to ask again. Her deep thoughts distracted her and she bumped headfirst into a tangle of legs. With a yelp, she fell down onto her backside. The person she'd bumped into stumbled and gave a curse.
"What the hell?" he snapped, looking down at her. "Watch where you're going, brat!"
"I'm not a brat," she rose quickly to her feet, glaring daggers up at him. "You take that back!"
"Make me, brat," he grinned nastily down at her, placing his fists on his hips and bending over to come eye level with her.
Hana's fists shook but she controlled herself. "Take it back," she hissed, her eyes flashing.
"Ooh, the kid's got an attitude!" the guy's friend leaned over too and got a good look at her face. "What are you going to do if we don't apologize, brat?"
"I said, stop calling me that!" she stomped her foot.
"Somebody should teach her some respect about talking to her elders," the first punk cackled.
"Agreed," the second cracked his knuckles. Hana stood before them as they towered over her, unflinching. Inside however, she was quaking.
Haku, she pleaded to her brother. Help me!
"So you see," Iruka turned from the chalk board, "the fifteenth rule of the shinobi code states—"
Haku, who had been writing the rules off the board, made his pen stop and looked up from the white page and out of the classroom window. His white eyes shone as the sunlight coming in struck them but he didn't flinch.
"Hana…" he whispered.
The taller guy's fist came down at her and she hopped away easily, her dark eyes flaring with her temper. The crowd that had been around them dissipated but several spectators ringed around them, many from the Leaf and some from the country with the zig-zag stroke on their headbands. Whispers tossed back and forth around them:
"Hey, isn't that Uchiha's kid?"
"You mean the twin girl? What's she up to?"
"Probably causing trouble."
"Why are those guys attacking her?"
"She probably did something to piss them off."
All around her the harsh words cut and stung, and Hana fought desperately with the tears that threatened to well up in her eyes.
"You're quick," the second guy commented. "But that won't save you."
"…Haku!" she whispered fiercely.
"This will be on the test at the end of the month, so make sure you copy it all down!" Iruka snapped his pointer at the board and all the kids who had been dozing snapped to attention, some with startled cries. Haku had stopped writing or paying attention and he continued to stare out the window, his brow knitted together in agitation he seldom felt.
Why do I feel this way? He asked himself. What's gotten into me?
Haku! Hana's voice came to his head and he started, shaking it. Haku, please! Help me!
The boy got abruptly to his feet. Iruka stopped the lecture and looked up at his student. "Haku?" he called. "What's the matter?"
"I'm sorry, Iruka-sensei, but I have to go!" the black-haired boy whirled and ran to the door, bursting out into the hallway and flying toward the academy exit.
"Haku!" Iruka looked out after him but the child was long gone.
She jumped back three times, dodging the punches and kicks. On her third jump both of them attacked her at once and she flipped backward, handsprung back onto her feet, and crouched into an attack position.
"Enough!" she cried. "I'm gonna come at you!"
"You!" they laughed at her. "What can you do?"
"Just watch me!" she sprang forward like a tiger, her small fists and feet darting out and showering one of her opponents with overwhelming speed. The one tumbled back with a howl of anger and the other clapped his hands together. One, two, three, the last symbol was 'ram' and he placed his index fingers together in front of his chest. Sparking white-yellow electricity crackled out from his hands and shot forward like an arrow toward her. She turned in time to see it coming at her and froze in surprise.
The lightning jitsu exploded and Naruto and Gaara looked up at it curiously. "Gaara," the blond's eyes narrowed, "take the Tsuchikage back to the tower. I need to investigate what's going on."
"All right," the redhead nodded and Naruto rushed ahead, robes and hat forgotten. He shot unnoticed through the people, making his way quickly to the outskirts of the academy grounds. Halfway there, Sasuke appeared beside him and joined his pace seamlessly.
"What was that?" he asked.
"Lightning jitsu, I don't know exactly from where," Naruto replied and they continued on in silence, approaching the ring of people in the street.
The spectators coughed. Hana looked up from shielding herself and saw the back of her twin brother. He let out a breath and looked back at her. "Hana! Are you okay?"
"You came!" she leapt to her feet.
"Of course," he nodded.
"There are two of 'em?" the fallen teen recovered and glared at the newcomer.
"It doesn't matter!" his teammate clapped his hands in the same symbols again. "Get the girl!" They attacked. Hana flew out from behind Haku and met the taller one halfway, ducking under his long arms and delivering a string of fast punches to his stomach. The jitsu-user made another lightning bolt head for Hana, and Haku ran forward and placed himself between them, extending his hands.
"KAITEN!" he yelled and projected his chakra outward with the force of it, spinning hurriedly on the ball of his foot and making the energy surround him in a complete protective sphere. The lightning fork speared off the chakra dome and faded and Haku fell to his knees, sweating and panting. "Hana," he whispered weakly and fell over.
"Haku!" she stopped her assult on her opponent and ran to her fallen brother's side. "Are you okay? Haku!" He nodded to her but didn't speak, his mouth hanging open as he gulped in huge breaths, sweat popping from his forehead and running down his face. She held his shoulders and glared defiantly up at the two ninjas, who grinned and lunged at the children.
"Uzumaki Naruto Rendan!" a yellow flash whizzed before their eyes and one of the attackers was pummeled by a barrage of blond-haired kagebunshin. A swirl of green leaves hid the children momentarily from view and the second attacker came to a jarring halt, blood and saliva spraying from his mouth. The Anbu dropped his chakra-fused fist and the guy fell in a heap at his feet, coughing and hacking up more blood and spittle. The Hokage landed beside Uchiha Sasuke and turned on the crowd of spectators. "And you call yourself residents of the Leaf!" he spoke in an angry and commanding voice, making those it was directed at squirm. "You let two of our own be attacked and just stood by and watched! Children no less!"
"It's alright… Uncle Naruto," Haku spoke with much difficulty, using his sister's support to rise to his feet. He looked exhausted.
"No, it isn't alright!" the blond snapped, his words at the boy but his face still to the crowd. "What were you all thinking? They could have been seriously hurt! They're just academy students and these guys are genin! They could have been killed!"
"The girl was doing fine on her own," one villager thought to defend himself.
"You were fighting by yourself?" Naruto finally looked down at the twins. Hana met his stare defiantly, her eyes flickering slightly: black, amber, black, amber, black, red…
"They attacked me first, so I defended myself," she spoke unhesitantly, unafraid. "When they used a jitsu, Haku came to my defense."
Naruto's blue eyes were being muddied by a blood-red color. Sasuke quickly stepped in front of the hokage, between his wrath and the crowd, the eyeholes in his mask revealing the Sharingan eye pinwheeling and turning. "What's done is done," he stated. "Hana, take Haku to the school clinic. I want you two to stay there for the remainder of the day, until I or your mother come to get you." She thought of saying something but Haku reached up and touched one of her hands, shaking his head. She nodded and hoisted him up, leading him away. When Naruto had calmed himself, Sasuke walked behind him and grabbed the collars of the two trouble-starters. "As for these guys," he lifted them up roughly.
"Get offa me!" the first one struggled and flailed. The second could only glare daggers at the masked shinobi, a trickle of blood trailing down his chin.
"Attacking children, using elemental jitsus outside of the designated areas, fighting before your scheduled exam times," he counted off. "I'm taking them to headquarters." He glanced over at Naruto. "Then, I'm going to have a few words with their representative, and I'd like to have them formally disqualified."
"Done," Naruto said without hesitation. "Now you have no business in Konoha. Get out of my country," he glared back at the captives and then left the spectator circle, one side of it parting to let him pass.
"You heard the Hokage!" Sasuke snapped his glare around to address the bystanders. "You should be ashamed of yourselves. There's nothing more for you to see, so clear the area." Slowly at first, then like a trickle of water overflowing to a spill, the crowd dispersed and fled into the streets. The young men were still twisting and thrashing in his vice-like grip. When he was certain no one was in earshot, he pulled the boys threateningly close and flicked his head so his mask fell down onto his chest and he could glare at them outright. His Sharingan eyes turned and hummed in their sockets. The struggling kids froze and became slack-jawed and wide-eyed. "Listen up, you punks," Sasuke snarled, diplomacy forgotten. "If I even think that you're going to attack my kids again for some sort of revenge," his fists tightened, making his knuckles crack, "I will make you wish you had never set foot in the Fire Country. After I drop you off at the tower, I never want to see you here again. Never. And I remember faces." His Sharingan flared and the teens winced and tried to pull away. Sasuke did not release them. "Understand?" he growled.
"Y-yes! Yes!" the one with the bloody face whimpered.
"Don't kill us!" the second pleaded in a whinny voice.
A humorless, thin, and somehow sick smile crossed the Anbu's features. He dragged the two toward Anbu Tower. "I won't kill you," he said. "It'd be over too quickly if I killed you."