***A/N.***
Just regarding where Rose is at. It's pretty similar to where Harry is at; she knows fighting spells – and a lot of them.
She knows basics like animals into furniture and all that, but nothing to complicated.
She can't heal or do runes or anything like that. But she does have a high aptitude to do wandless magic. When she does her eyes turn a different shade of green – a sickly colour. (This has to do with her Voldemort connection).
Okay? Now have fun reading! :)
The Hidden Counties;
Chapter Four-
The big fight and ditching the debt
It was tense – a massive showdown, one that Rose was glad was finally there. She had waited too long for this fight. All she needed now was for Kakashi to get placed in danger for her to somehow save him and then; she could get the scroll, kill the snake, go to England, kill Voldemort and live happily ever after. Was this too much to ask for?
Sadly in most cases the answer would be yes. The only answer to why it would be yes? She was Rose Potter and when she was concerned – nothing goes right with Rose Potter.
"Amazing... Even though your water clones were only a tenth of your strength, it was amazing that he did so well," Haku the hunter-nin said like he was telling them all the weather.
"Just remember... We're still on the offensive..." Zabuza told his dryly, like he actually needed to remind the child of this fact.
"Yes Sir," The younger boy – because he did sound like a boy – said obediently.
Haku then disappeared from Rose's sight – the speed he used was unbelievable. He attacked Sasuke but there was no hesitation on Sasuke's part. He just defended himself with a Kunai (Those knives from before), easily keeping up with the speed the slightly taller boy set.
It was something that she knew she could never achieve – to fight like they could, would probably be more of a curse than anything. Sure, it would make things easier but what about the knowledge that you could destroy lives and actually do it?
She would rather go up to Voldemort and tell him that he wins and she was going to quit and let him kill her. That would never happen.
"Sakura cover Tazuna-San, let Sasuke take his opponent." Rose heard Kakashi tell his young student. Rose wasn't sure what she should actually do – should she stop this like she knew she might be able too, or should she just let it to develop? Rose did not usually hesitate like this – but seeing how they fraught... She did have a shred of self-preservation after all.
Rose ignored most of the conversation going on between the ninja, only standing back an observing the fight. She wouldn't get involved until it was needed – knowing her she would get distracted by the fight and completely miss being able to save Kakashi's life. Yes, that sounded like her alright. She'd just jump in when it was needed... Yes.
Rose tried to watch the high speed match – she saw knives and a hell of a lot of ice, the boy – she assumed used ice as a weapon... odd choice if you asked her.
Then came the dome of ice – that was pretty wicked in a terrible way. Sasuke got trapped in the dome; Rose would have helped except everyone seemed sure that Sasuke could win... She promised herself that she wouldn't interrupt... Not unless Kakahsi was in danger or it was absolutely necessary...
Then Naruto turned up and ran into the dome... Rose had to remind herself that she was not meant to interrupt... Not until the right minute, not until – it was needed for her...
Rose continued to watch on in slight horror, as she found out how hopeless the situation would get. How utterly powerless the ninja were against them. The other two were very powerful but two against one... Kakashi was right about his students... They weren't ready to take a life... not yet...
Rose closed her eyes briefly; Kakashi could take Zubzua easily and win. Sasuke and Naruto – she wasn't sure could win and come out alive. It was then that Rose made a choice that would most likely not help her debt, but would help ease her mind... She was going to help Naruto and Sasuke.
Rose turned to the ice dome – could she melt it? Should she try cutting it down? Or explosions... She didn't know what would work and not hurt the two young boys... She would simply have to try everything. Screw not using magic in front of the ninja.
"Incendio..."
Fire whipped around Rose before circling the dome of ice – it had no effect. Rose pushed harder, she knew that her eyes were turned a sickly green colour – she'd always hated how that happened...
The fire dispersed – it had done no damage... "Diffindo..."
"Bombarda... Bombarda maxima!"
Well that got them somewhere. The explosion that was capable of taking out fully built houses did its magic on the dome leaving one of the ice panels into fine dust. At that moment she was glad that the two older ninja were fighting it out not bothering to pay attention to what she was doing.
Than Rose saw something, Sasuke was on the floor of the dome and he looked quite dead. Naruto was hovering over him looking like someone killed one of the most important people in his life. That's when the young blond boy started to glow red and push out a dark aura.
It was completely the opposite of everything she had began to accost with the boy – like rainbows and cute fuzzy things... Rose knew one thing, something wasn't right.
She watched on as the boy became more feral, his teeth sharpening, eyes going red. Rose knew something right then – she knew that Naruto wasn't in his right mind.
Rose watched on in growing horror at how savagely the boy attacked Haku. This was not something Naruto would normally do – this was not human... What was he? She needed to stop him – he was getting out of control... This wasn't Naruto.
This all needed to stop... Slipping her wand into her hand Rose as discreetly as she could bound the two children by freezing their bodies...
Both of their eyes moved around with terror, trying to figure out why they couldn't move. Rose looked around to see what was happening. Sakura was out, Sasuke appeared dead and Kakashi?
Well, the white haired ninja was killing Zubuza. His hand was coated in lighting – it looked slightly cool if it wasn't buried in the middle of the other ninja's chest. Blood dripping out of the wound... It was in short – horrifying.
Rose watched as Zubuza fell slowly to the ground his eyes wide, looking shocked the he'd been beaten. Rose quickly put her wand away, her eyes briefly flickering to the two immobile children at her feet. She noticed that Naruto's demonic aura had dimmed away.
Kakashi turned around still covered in blood; Rose found she was surprised that she didn't mind the blood as much as she should... Which was all disturbing in its own right, she should be disgusted.
"Well, he certainly made a mess of things." The sound of male laughter came closer and Kakashi instantly went to face to direction that the sound came from, as did Rose. They were the only two still able to fight... How troublesome. "How troublesome, I guess my boys will take care of you two."
Rose sighed, shit. Kakashi went into another defensive stance. But Rose knew what was needed – he looked like he was going to drop into a dead faint in any second now. "Kakashi, get back or I might hurt you - accidently."
The white haired ninja didn't question her, he just almost teleported – it was that fast – behind her, and looked at her questionably. She guessed he'd seen her little display before... They'd either have to explain things later or run... Running sounded cool.
"Incendio..."
The fire whipped around Rose's body for a minute before shooting off, along the ground like it was being led by a lot of oil to protect them like a shield. It didn't actually burn the bridge though. Rose knew her eyes were going the same sickly colour it always did when she used wand less magic...
But this way... technically... she'd saved his life...
(:~THC~:)
Rose's eye's fluttered open. She had a killer headache, and she had no idea where she was. It was just a bare room, what freaked Rose out the most? The girlish guy that was hovering over her like he was trying to see if she was alright.
"Who in the name of Merlin are you?"
The boy smiled gently as he smoothed his... dress? Rose was sure that he was a boy – he had an Adams apple, only boys had those... Then why in the name of Merlin was he wearing a dress? Was he some sort of cross-dresser? Rose felt close to hysterics – why was she in a cross-dressers room?
"I am Haku; you saved my life some days ago."
Rose blinked as the memories came back to her – oh yes, she remembered now. Hermione was going to kill her. At least she had her bloody debt settled and now she could go on her merry way and go get the scroll.
Rose pushed herself up, "Nice to meet you Haku, names Rose."
Haku's eyes widened at Rose trying to get up and he tried to push Rose back down onto the bed. "Please, Rose-San; you are not fully recovered yet. You must rest!"
Rose snorted; she was never 'fully' recovered. She found that becoming fully recovered before she moved was just something that was not possible for her, at all. It was just how she was, how almost all Gryffindors were. She could rest when she died.
"Meh, I've got places to go and people to see – sorry."
Haku's eyes widened drastically. "But Rose-San, you must recover!"
Rose sighed and looked at the kid, he had a gentle face and long brown hair, and if she didn't see his adems apple then she would be sure that he was a girl. "Listen – Haku, I'm really busy. I need to go and do... whatever it is that I do."
Haku raised his eyebrow at Rose drawing question to what she had said. Rose simply brushed him off, and got up anyway. She didn't need to make sense – she just needed to do stuff. Which in its own right didn't make sense, making sense was for old people anyway.
Rose walked past the girlish boy and opened the door and walked out trying to find where she was – the young boy following her out still pushing out protests. Rose ignored most of these anyway. It pegged the question – why did this kid care so much about her? Not that he was much of a kid, he looked about three years younger and was obviously very powerfull...
Rose walked around for a moment or two before she found the kitchen. This solved her problem of where she was. She was still in the bridge builders house still. How on earth had she gotten back there? And why was the kid with her?
"Ah, Rose-San! Your awake, Kakashi-Sensei and his students will be down in a minute if you want to see them."
Rose just nodded her head at the bridge builders daughter – what was the woman's name again? Rose seated herself down on one of the chairs and Haku – who had been following her seated himself down next to Rose with a huff, clearly irate.
Poor kid.
"Are you two hungry by any chance?"
Rose was hungry but... Rose's eyes widened when she remembered the horrible consistency of the food she had seen here previously. Rose knew she couldn't really complain about terrible food but...
"No thank-"
"Yes, we will both have some." Haku said cutting of Rose half way. Rose looked at the younger boy like he had doomed her to hell, why had he said that?
"Of course!" With that the older women went on her way and prepared them some food.
Rose looked at Haku with narrowed eyes. "Please Rose-San, you need to eat and get your strength back."
Rose wondered very briefly why this kid cared about her so much. Why was he going to force her to endure the hell of this woman's cooking? She'd become spoiled with her food presences...
"Fine," Rose said like she was a spoiled little girl. Which she was to a point – she had been spoiled when it came to food. She had always gotten nice food ever since she had left the Dursleys when she was eleven.
"Here you go."
Rose looked down at the bowl of food in front of her and she forced a smile. "Thank you."
It looked like crap, she shouldn't judge food by its looks she knew this... but still. With a sigh, Rose forced the food into her mouth like Ron would if he missed a meal. It didn't taste that bad.
Rose finished her food quickly and she looked over at Haku and he seemed to be eating his food with dignity. Rose looked at him for a few minutes before she started up a conversation.
"So Haku... Why are you here?"
Haku paused mid bite and put down his chopsticks. He looked at Rose dead in the eye. "I have nowhere else to go. Hatake-San has killed Zabuza-Sama, I have no use any more."
Rose's eyebrow furrowed, what on earth was this boy talking about? He was referring to himself like he was... a tool. "What do you mean Haku? Of course you have a use! Surely you have a place to be?"
Haku shook his head, "I have no spot in this world so far. I am a tool to be used by my master and I have no master."
Rose looked at the boy horrified. "Come on, there has to be somewhere... anywhere?"
Haku shook his head again, "I have no village... No family... I have nothing. I am a tool to be used by my Master, and I have no Master."
It was like he was a slave.
Rose felt a strange pull of sympathy; this boy was like her in a way. When she had been younger she had no-where to go, no real family to take her away from getting hurt, the entire wizarding world believed her to be the only one to save them. She would find a place for this boy, a place where he could be happy.
"Then what are you going to do?"
Haku just looked at Rose dead in the eye and shrugged his shoulders, his face not betraying any emotion. "I do not know, Rose-San."
"You could come with us!" A bright voice yelled from the doorway. Rose looked up to see Naruto bright and chipper and looking like nothing had happened to him at all. Rose was reminded about the bright red aura that Naruto had projected – that wasn't human. She needed to know what that was.
Haku shook his head, "I am sorry Naruto-Kun, but I cannot come with you back to Konoha."
Naruto looked stupefied, he marched into the room until he was opposite to Haku and he slammed his hands on the table in front of Haku. "Why not!?"
Haku sighed at Naruto, and Rose understood slightly. He didn't want to go because Kakashi had killed Zabuza and by extension Konoha had killed Zabuza. Rose could understand that, but that was the only place for him to go. He could be happy there – and not a slave.
"I simply cannot, Naruto-Kun. It would be unwise."
"Then where are you going to go? Naruto's right, you'd be welcomed in Konoha." A timid female voice asked as she entered the room with Sasuke behind her, and... Wait! Hadn't he died?
Haku simply shrugged his shoulders. "I do not know."
Sasuke sneered at Haku, looking at Haku with distaste clearly shown on his features. "We're giving you a free ride into Konoha! You could be important! You could live like a normal person. You could have a family, a life and what? You throw it away like its nothing?"
The room became silent and Rose wished that she wasn't the only adult in the room – even though she technically wasn't an adult. It was on her to stop any fighting from going on. And a fight might just happen, Sasuke was glaring at Haku like he had insulted him and Haku looked like he was trying to restrain himself. She had to intervene.
But then she was a bit of a coward as well.
"Now, now, everyone calm down – that's it, where is your teacher, Naruto?"
She had to sort a few things out. Right now Haku was too raw to go with the ninja, she could understand that. She could take him with her but not for too long, what she had to do was simply no place for a young boy. She could take him along... Until he got over Zabuza, or until she had to leave the hidden countries, and then she could take him to Konoha. It was a great idea; she just had to get Kakashi to agree to it somehow. Then Haku...
Naruto blinked like he was surprised that she had asked him, and Sakura intervened.
"In his room, Rose-San," The pink-haired girl answered her green eyes wide. Rose smiled at her as comfortingly as she could – which Rose was sure wasn't all that great. She didn't genially comfort people, or like being comforted.
"Okay, I'll be right back. Don't kill each other – trust me, it won't help at all. It would just stain the carpet and no one wants that. Because if you stain the carpet you clean it, got it?"
After Rose received nods from all of the pre-teens, Rose made her way up the stairs of the house to where she knew was the room that Kakashi slept in. This was going to be fun, not.
Stopping in front of the door, Rose knocked twice and waited for a come in. When she had received that she opened the door to see Kakashi sitting on his bead his back against the wall, reading a small green book.
If Rose looked carefully enough she could make out the name of the book being 'come come, paradise'. With little keep out signs... It was an odd name for a book, but that wasn't the reason that she was here anyway.
"Good morning, Rose-San," He said not bothering to look up from his book. It must be captivating – Rose wondered what was in it. She never liked books that much but Hermione did... Maybe she would be interested in it? Whatever it was...
"Good morning, Kakashi. I was wondering if I could talk to you about Haku and Naruto?" Rose said as she closed the door behind her, not wanting anyone else to hear their conversation.
Kakashi looked up at her as he sighed and closed his book and placed it in his pocket. He sat up straighter. "What is it you need to talk about?"
Rose tilted her head to the side and decided to go with the easier boy first. "Where Haku's going, I – he's said that he has nowhere to go... And he has said that he doesn't want to go to Konoha... I do want to take him with me, but..."
"But?" Kakashi asked, sounding extremely tired – like always. How can he be so sleepy all the time when he does nothing? Well, expect when he's fighting but he's not sleepy when he fights...
"Well, I need to do... things... And having him around for those... mightn't be the best idea. I was wondering if Haku allows it – he could come with me for a bit but before... I do my stuff... He could come to Konoha... When he fells less raw about everything?"
Kakashi nodded his head in contemplation. "It's an idea, but would he want to come considering it's the village that killed Zabuza?"
Rose just shrugged her shoulders. "I could talk him into it?"
Kakashi smiled and shrugged his shoulders, "I will talk to Hokage-Sama about it. Then I can send you his response?"
Rose full on grinned like she had won the house cup again; he was such a nice little ninja wasn't he? "Ah! Thank you, Kakashi!"
There was silence and Kakashi seemingly got more serious with the silence. "What about Naruto?"
Rose looked around for some reason beginning to feel slightly nervous. "Well, Naruto's such a nice kid. He's all rainbows and fully little bunnies and sugary things that make you sick with kindness and..."
Kakashi raised his viable eyebrow, like he was telling her to get to the point and stop delaying. Rose sighed – he was right. "What was that red aura?"
The tension in the room seemed to sky-rocket and Kakashi decided to try and play dumb. Rose knew he knew what it was. "What red aura? Naruto? He doesn't know how to project anything but clones, so many clones."
Rose felt like she should leave the topic there and get out of the house but for some reason she felt like she couldn't do that. It was in her name. "I'm not an idiot most of the time. It was... demonic, like Satan."
Kakashi raised another eyebrow. "Satan?"
Rose narrowed her eyes; she knew he was trying to change the subject. "You know Lucifer? The anti-Christ? The devil? God's bad son?"
"God? Which god?"
Rose resisted the urge to hit the man. He did look completely confused, and he might not know what she was talking about. But that didn't change the matter that he was changing the subject.
"There's only one!" Rose said with her eyebrow raised. There were more God's she was sure but they all had their names and God well – he didn't. Rose wasn't overly full of religion. She celebrated Easter and Christmas and that was about it.
Kakashi re-raised his eyebrow at her like he was questioning her intelligence again. "Don't change the subject! What is wrong with him?"
Kakashi shook his head with a sigh. "I cannot tell you. I do not have the authorization."
This time Rose was the one to raise her eyebrow. "Authorization? You mean... It's..." Rose changed what she was going to say, if it was under lock and key then she didn't want to get hunted down for knowing too much. "Never mind. I just hope he's okay – it looked like it was ripping his skin off by just using it."
Kakashi sat up even straighter. "What?"
Rose looked at him funnily. "When he was fighting. The red aura, it tore off his skin. But never mind – we shouldn't talk of it... Whatever it is."
Kakashi looked serious, like he hadn't already known that. Kakashi scratched the back of his head nervously and completely changed the subject. "When are you going to leave?"
Rose grinned, glad for the change of subject – she didn't fancy being hunted down for knowing. Rose would just have to figure it out on her own; she knew that she had pieces of the puzzle she just had to piece them together. "As soon as he finishes eating – I have a busy life you know!"
He smiled – he did that too often in Rose's mind. Stood up and walked over to the door and opened it. "Well I think they're done. We should go stop them from killing each other, possibly."
Rose's lips twitched into another smile. He was so blunt – Rose loved it.
Rose followed Kakashi out of the door and back to the kitchen, to see that Naruto was restrained an irate Sasuke and Haku had a calm face in place but looked like he was ten seconds away from killing someone.
Rose sighed. "Didn't I say to not kill each other?"
Four heads snapped to Rose and Kakashi's direction.
"I apologise, Rose-San." Haku intoned calmly as he glared daggers in Sasuke's direction. It was safe to say that the two boys were not going to be the best of friends.
Rose really thought that Haku needed some lessons in cutting lose a bit. Ron would help him with that – he'd have him yelling about spiders in no time at all.
"It's alright Haku – you coming with me?" She asked, not even bothering to sugar coat it. Bluntness was a good thing, beating around the bush annoyed Rose. Even if she did it when she was nervous – she blabbered on as well...
Haku's eyes widened drastically. "I can...?"
Rose grinned, "Say your goodbyes, cause' I have things to do! People to see!" Scrolls to find, Snakes to kill, dark lords to slay, Rose added in her head.
Haku nodded his head quickly and hurriedly said goodbye to Naruto and Sakura, completely ignoring Sasuke. Rose's lip twitched upwards.
"I'm ready Rose-San."
Rose grinned down at the shorter boy. "Let's go then Haku."
Rose walked to the door and turned around the face the room before she left. "Goodbye guys! It's been a fun week, I hope to see you all soon!"
~(:~THC~:)~
Rose and Haku sat on a rock in the middle of the forest.
"Um, Rose-San? What are we waiting for?" Haku asked Rose calmly. They had been sitting there for a good twenty minutes. Rose wasn't surprised that he was bored of waiting.
"We are waiting for my friends."
Haku's eyebrow rose. Rose sighed, "They'll be here soon, they just need to-"
"SPIDER! OH MERLIN, WHY ARE THERE SO MANY BLOODY SPIDERS! HERMIONE GET THAT THING AWAY FROM ME!"
Rose sighed again; she hadn't wanted Haku to meet them this way... Damn Ron and his spider phobia...
"SHIT! NO HERMIONE DON'T BRING IT CLOSER! AHHH! HERMIONE, DON'T!"
Rose sighed at Haku's incredulous look.
"They're actually very normal people... Very strong too..."
"HERMIONE! KEEP THAT THING- ARGHAAAA! NO!" Ron screamed like a little girl. Oh why?
Rose hit her head with the palm of her hand... What had she done to deserve this? Rose heard Hermione's trill of laughter, well. At least they were having fun...
Rose glanced at Haku's incredulous face and sighed. "They're normal most of the time. Ron just happens to be scared of spiders... And he's... a good fighter?"