Chapter 80

"Yo, Haru, do you want to go to the hot springs?" Naruto asked.

"Naruto, how did you find me here?" I asked with my eyes still closed from meditating in lotus position. I had no intention of passing out from chakra exhaustion again like I did in the Chunin Exam preliminaries. When I opened my eyes, Naruto was sporting a terrifyingly friendly grin.

"You always come here when you want to take a nap," he said, leaning against a tree.

"I'm busy, Naruto. Can't it wait until after the finals? I only have a couple weeks left."

"Come on," he pleaded. "Everyone is going to be there."

"What do you mean by 'everyone'?" I had to ask.

"The whole gang! My team and your team and Ino's team. Didja hear that? Ino's going to the hot springs. So you'll come, dattebayo?"

"I'm busy training for the finals." I had a new jutsu I wanted to work on after I finished meditating. I also hadn't seen Ino since I left the hospital. I hadn't really talked to anyone since then.

"So am I but the old man says that visiting the hot springs is the perfect thing to refresh the mind when you get tired from training," Naruto said, still grinning.

I rolled onto my back and stared at the sky through the trees of Konoha's outskirts. "Fine, I'll come." It was rare for so many of us to be free at the same time. Maybe I would make some good memories there.

"Awesome! I'll see you there after dinner," he said as he began to wave goodbye.

I called out to him, "Hey, Naruto?"

"Yeah?"

"You like Sakura, right?"

He paused for a moment before he answered, "I guess it's pretty obvious, ain't it?"

"Have you ever asked her out?"

"What? I couldn't do that! You know she likes Pretty Boy."

"Why should that stop you, Naruto?"

"Wait a second. Before we start discussing my love life, maybe you should go ask out Ino. Jeez, I don't get why you two don't just get married already."

Naruto and I both paused. The plucky blonde had me there.

I sighed and relented, "Fine, I'll see you later, Naruto."

"Ahhh, what are girls doing here?!" a male voice shouted as Haku and I entered the springs area.

"It's nice to see you too, Kiba," I said.

"Oh, it's you, Haru. Wait, does that mean...she's a guy too?" Kiba asked as he pointed to Haku. His other hand was shielding the eyes of the small canine atop his head.

Haku introduced himself, "My name is Haku. It is nice to meet you. Are you a friend of Haru's?"

Kiba continued to shout, "Guys aren't supposed to have long hair and wear towels around their chest." Akamaru yipped and Kiba added, "And Akamaru says that you smell like girls."

I retorted, "He's my roommate. It's too weird to only cover my waist if he covers his whole chest. Not that he really has anything to hide. I guess. I don't know." I didn't like to think about Haku's gender if I could avoid it.

Naruto shouted from several springs away, "We're over here!"

"I'll see you around, Kiba. Let's go, Haku."

Kiba could only wave goodbye weakly. I sniffed my hair. "Smells normal to me."

Naruto, Sasuke, and Shino were sitting in a spring, quietly relaxing in the hot water. Or rather, Sasuke and Shino were trying to ignore the nearly naked blonde as he searched for a hole in the wooden barrier between the men's and women's baths.

"I want no part of this," Sasuke said.

Shino was chuckling to himself as he relaxed in the spring. I assumed it was because of Naruto's antics but it was hard to tell because of his sunglasses.

"Naruto, this is a bad idea," I warned.

"But the old man does this all the time!"

"Exactly."

"Come on, I want to find out what's so special about girls taking a bath. I'm old enough!"

I slid into the water. "I thought you said you wanted to relax, Naruto. Getting brutally murdered is not conducive to relaxation." Haku entered and sat beside me. "Oh yeah, Shino, this is Haku."

Shino seemed distracted, absentmindedly saying "Nice to meet you." Nearby, Sasuke seemed uncomfortable at the presence of the feminine boy.

Naruto pointed at me and loudly asked, "Woah, Haru, where did you get those gnarly scars?"

I held up my right arm to show Naruto the simple cross shaped scar on my wrist. "These are storage seals. I designed them myself."

"But aren't seals supposed to be made with ink?" Naruto asked.

I answered. "I've never been good with ink seals."

"Wait, does that mean you did that to yourself?"

"…yeah."

"Huh. Check this out," Naruto said as he closed his eyes and concentrated. The ceremonial seal on his stomach slowly became visible. "Isn't it cool?"

Sasuke was staring intently the seal. Haku chimed in, "I've never seen a seal like that."

Naruto grinned, "I didn't know you were into guys, Sasuke. No wonder you never went after Sakura."

The Uchiha turned his eyes away and sputtered, "Shut up."

Naruto's expression turned extra devious as he put his hands together and shouted, "Sexy Jutsu!"

At this point I splashed the proto-pervert with a bucket full of spring water, interrupting the technique. "Girls aren't allowed on this side of the springs."

"That's it!" the drenched Naruto exclaimed. "All I have to do is disguise myself and I can go see what goes on in the girls' side! I'll finally get to know whether the old man was telling the truth."

Sasuke and I both groaned and facepalmed.

"I'll see you later guys," the blond jinchuriki said as he cast the technique again, turning into a busty blonde jinchuriki and running up the divider wall between the gender segregated areas.

"No, Naruto! Wait! Stop!" I shouted, running out of the water after Naruto. I used chakra to run up the wall and to keep my towel on my body. When I reached the top of the wall, however, it was just me and a large bucket gaining the ire of dozens of kunoichi. The next thing I knew, I had been pelted with every kind of brush, bucket, and bottle. As I fell to the ground, I saw the transformed Naruto waving placidly from one of the pools.

I splashed into one of the springs. Eventually I floated to the surface and looked up to see a familiar face. "Hey, Ino. Did you know there's a beetle on your…"

"DIE, HARU," the naked Ino shouted. As I flew through the air, I was glad that Konoha had such good healthcare.

When we arrived at home for the evening, Haku closed the front door behind us and asked, "Do you really have to leave?"

"I've already told you that I'm going to leave the village," I reminded as I put away the bath things and started boiling water for tea.

"Why are you so willing to give up everything you have here?"

"It's probably because I'm a selfish person."

"But you're not a selfish person. You let me stay with you when I had nothing, when I even tried to kill you. I don't understand. You never ask anything of me..."

"I don't want anything from you, Haku."

"Why is it so easy for you to leave everything behind?

"...I suppose it's because I don't really belong here."

"But there are so many people here who would be sad if you left. You have friends here and..."

"If you're worried about them then take care of them for me."

"But I'm useless! If I were more useful...if I were a better tool...then I wouldn't get left behind...Zabuza would..."

"I already told you that you didn't kill Zabuza."

"Yes, I did. It's because of me. He was protecting me. If he didn't need to hide me, if he didn't need to take care of me, he wouldn't have died. I killed him. I was useless. I killed him. I killed him and I don't deserve to live."

"No. I killed Zabuza. I knew what was going to happen. I decided I was going to kill him. There was nothing you could have done to save his life."

"Does that mean you knew about me too? You knew that he was my whole life and..."

"Yes," I interrupted.

Haku fell to his knees and wiped tears from his eyes. Eventually he spoke, "I should hate you."

"If that's what you want, go ahead." I filled two cups of tea and set Haku's upon the table.

He slowly climbed into the chair and reached for the tea mug with a trembling hand. "I don't...understand. You took everything from me. Why can't you just take my life too? Why do you keep giving me everything except what I want?" He repeated, "I should hate you..."

"It would probably be easier if you did."

He asked coldly, "Easier for you or easier for me?"

I didn't answer and he didn't ask any more questions as we sipped tea in silence.