“-ei! Kyoku! Bastard! Haku’s here!”
Training that I most definitely had not received from in the Academy spurred me into semi-full wakefulness as I jumped out from the futon that Tsunami had prepared for me. Ignoring funny looks from the Uchiha on my team, I sprinted to the door, a kunai in hand as I joined Naruto outside the house.
Surprisingly, Kakashi-sensei was already there, and he was a much more welcomed sight compared to the boy with the Kubikiribocho stuck in the ground next to him. Haku was still wearing his mask and was motionless, standing in the middle of the road outside of Tazuna’s residence, his hands by his side and his body perfectly relaxed.
It was as if he was trying to convince us that he was not here to fight. Or at least I think that he was, or hoped.
Sitting on the fence for that one.
Sensei gave me a small nod as I approached. “Try not to get you sleeping kimono dirty, Kyoku-chan. You only have one and there’s hardly any cleaning services out here.” He said in a joking manner, probably to ease whatever tension that was present in the air.
Well, I was hardly the one to leave my own team hanging while I changed. For the time being anyway. Besides, this kimono which doubles as my PJs were quite spacious to move about in. Father actually did know his stuff when he was picking out my clothes for me.
Regardless, I digress.
It would seem that Kakashi-sensei was rather thoughtful in easing off the tension in the atmosphere, seeing how there was a brief flare of killing intent from the boy that was aimed at me when I first appeared. It dispersed as quickly as it appeared, but I was not about to let my guard down so long as I was within fifty meters of the boy now.
“Sensei,” Sasuke said as he touched down beside me, kunai in hand and also decked out in his uchiha pajamas, which was pretty much just a black shirt and pants with his clan symbol on the back, “orders?”
“Well, that depends,” Kakashi-sensei replied cheerfully even as he eyed the boy standing right in front of us. “So, what is it that you are here for, Haku-san? While I did make an exception for you the other day, if you are here to attack Tazuna-san or any of us again,” I shivered a little at the tone of his voice as he continued. “I will not be inclined to show the same amount of leniency as I did then.”
“What?” Naruto exclaimed, “but-” Only to stop when Sasuke and I struck him over the head to shut him up. He threw us a wistful look but wisely clammed up when I threw him a glare. I suppressed a sigh, it was as though he had forgotten that I was the one who had killed Haku’s… mentor? Guardian? Superior? Whatever, I killed someone close to the boy. Meaning that if this did turn out to be some sort of revenge ploy, I was going to be on the chopping block.
Of course, the irony that I might betray Konoha anytime at the behest of Orochimaru-sama was not lost on me. It would probably be hypocritical of me to say that I didn’t want to be betrayed by my allies when I might be betraying them sometime in the future.
Eh, I’ll cross that bridge when I get to it.
“I’m not here to fight.” Haku said softly as he shook his head, breaking me out of whatever thoughts that I had immersed myself in.
“Really,” Kakashi-sensei replied cheerfully, “that’s great news then. So… what are you here for then?”
Haku did not answer, instead reaching up to remove his mask from his face. While it had only been three days since the bridge battle, I was shocked to see how much change he had undergone within so short a time period. For lack of a better word, Haku looked haggard. Bloodshot eyes and eyebags indicated that he had not been sleeping for quite awhile, not to mention how dead those eyes looked, as if it were completely devoid of all emotion. Now that I had a closer look, his hands were bandaged and dirty, like he had been digging.
Oh.
He was grieving, wasn’t he? Alone for the past few days.
But he had said that he wasn’t here for revenge, so if he was speaking the truth, why was he here at all?
“I’m here to talk.” Haku said after a lengthy silence. He looked at Kakashi-sensei, “with you.”
“Huh.” Sensei muttered before he looked at us, “escort Tazuna-san to the bridge as usual today. I’ll be along in a while.” He returned his gaze back to Haku, “or as long as it takes.” He shrugged.
“Yes Sensei,” we answered dutifully.
Sensei followed Haku off to Celestia knows where, but in all honesty, none of us were actually worried for him. After all, Kakashi-sensei was easily the strongest shinobi any of us had ever known and would probably not even lose to somebody like Haku. Instead, we found ourselves more concerned with whatever Haku was asking.
“Well, it can’t be all bad,” Naruto spouted off to me as we escorted Tazuna towards the construction site. Predictably, he believed that nuke-nin means no ill will “I mean, I don’t think Haku wants to even fight us at all!”
“Easy for you to say.” I replied, “seeing that our team was responsible for Zabuza’s death.” Mainly me. “He has enough motive.”
This was the point where I would ask our resident Uchiha for moral support. Except that he wasn’t around at the moment, as we had left him back at the house to look over Inari and Tsunami. As such, I turned to the second best option, or rather, the only option left. “What do you think, Tazuna-san?”
Tazuna merely frowned at my question, as though contemplating it as he walked with us down the road which led to the construction site. After a few seconds, he sighed and turned to us. “I can’t really say that I’m thrilled that your sensei is talking to the boy who had worked for the man who wanted to kill me,” he turned to us with a smile. “But your Kakashi-sensei had proven himself to be a very reliable man. So I’d be willing to put my faith in him, and trust that he would keep all of us safe. Besides, the bridge is almost complete, so even if the next president of Gato’s company wanted to interfere, it’d be far too late.”
Speaking of Gato’s shipping company, according to what Kakashi-sensei had managed to find out when he had scouted around, it would appear that the entire corporation was in utter chaos following its leader’s death. What with the legitimate shareholders and directors of the company forming factions in their own bid for power. Add the underground mafias and Yakuzas that Gatou was a part of and had led and the entire situation was just one big giant mess.
Not that they didn’t deserve it.
“Oh yeah!” Naruto exclaimed, jumping up and down with excitement. I looked at him incredulously. Seriously, where did he get all these energy from? “The bridge’s almost finished, right? What are you going to call it?”
Tazuna, for his part, merely smiled secretively, “well, we have chosen a name, but you’d have to wait until the day of the opening ceremony to see it.”
“Eeeehhhhh…” Naruto whined disappointedly. “Come on, just a hint? Something related to the name?”
“Hahaha,” Tazuna chuckled. “No can do. But trust me,” He ruffled Naruto’s hair, “you’ll like it.”
The day of the opening ceremony came and went. It wasn’t anything truly special truth be told. Just a simple speech by Tazuna, and the completion of the Kagami Biraki, a ceremony to represent an opening to harmony and good fortune.
Surprisingly, the one who got to break the barrel of sake during the ceremony was none other than Naruto. Seems like the villagers had really warmed up to the boy. Especially since they even went as far as to name the structure after the Jinchuuriki.
The Great Naruto Bridge. Heh, talk about originality, but then again, he probably deserved it, considering how Naruto had managed to bring back that sense of hope into the village.
Got to give credit where credit’s due, after all. Not to mention that Naruto’s expression when he heard Tazuna announce the name was just priceless. Though I would not deny that I did feel a little bit jealous that he got a bridge named after him.
One day, maybe. I promised myself.
After the entire ceremony was over (Naruto was not allowed to drink the sake from the barrel he broke, but he did get a piece of mochi from the ceremony), we were immediately informed by Kakashi-sensei that our mission was over and that we had to take our long overdue return journey to Konoha.
Naruto had raised a fuss, and so did Inari. The boy pretty much idolized him right now, a far cry from how their relationship started.
Guess people do change sometimes.
In the end, reason triumphed over whatever it was that Naruto and Inari had cooked up for their arguments and so we returned to the house to pack our things and begin the return journey back home.
Tazuna’s family accompanied us as far as the end of the bridge, with Inari sniffling the entire way. Naruto did a good job holding his tears in, but when we reached the midway point, even he started tearing up.
At least he stopped once we saw the figure standing at the end of the bridge.
“Haku!” Naruto cheered up immensely when he saw the other boy, who looked almost comical with the sword that was almost twice his height slung across his back. For the last five days before the ceremony, the nuke-nin had been meeting Kakashi-sensei on an almost consistent basis. Of course, the contents of their meeting was not something that we were privy to, despite my best efforts, but I had a sneaking suspicion as to the topic which they were talking about.
Nothing that was concrete enough to draw a decisive conclusion however, something which annoys me to no end.
“Hello, Naruto.” Haku smiled tiredly, though he shook the other boy’s hand most energetically, almost at odds with his lethargic look. Looking at sensei, he gave a brief nod. “Kakashi-san, I had contacted them, they said that they were willing.”
Them? I frowned internally, who was this ‘them’ that he was talking about?
“Well, that’s better than we had expected.” Sensei replied cheerfully as he held out his hand, “can I have it?”
Haku nodded, before retrieving a small red scroll from within his kimono. “Here it is.” He said as he handed the scroll almost reverently to Kakashi-sensei.
I had no doubt that the scroll was important, though I had no way of verifying the contents. Still, it was probably something to be able to verify that there was such a thing.
One more thing to add to the list which I had to hand in to Father when I arrived back at Konoha.
“Hey, Haku, sensei! What’s that?”
“Sorry, Naruto.” Haku said as he turned to the blond boy, “while I would love to stay and talk, I need to be elsewhere.”
“Eeeh,” Naruto pouted, before erupting into a smile. He had clearly not noticed that Haku had declined to answer his question. “Well, we will meet again, right?”
“I hope so,” Haku replied softly. “Farewell.”
I had thought that he would have turned and left at once, but instead, Haku surprised me by giving me a nod before flickering away.
What was that about?
“Well, guess it’s our turn then.” Sensei said as he nodded to Tazuna and his family before starting to walk away.
“Are you sad, Inari?” Naruto grinned, “It’s okay to cry!”
“Not crying!” Inari muttered, desperately holding back his tears. “But you can cry, Naruto!”
“In your dreams,” Naruto stuck his tongue out before smiling widely, “later!”
Unsurprisingly, he was crying when we left them, only stopping when Tazuna’s family was out of sight. Sadly, I had missed out on the chance to tease him about it, primarily because I was busy mentally collating the various events into a proper report for father as we made our way back to Konoha. There was a wealth of information to be processed, much more than I have ever accrued in the past two years.
I had thought that father would be pleased with my work.
Unfortunately, it would appear that things would not proceed in the way that I had thought it would go.