Chapter 88

Haru woke to the smell of Chinese style takeout. Kakashi had made a food run during the boy's involuntary nap. The older man worked his chopsticks through a box of sesame chicken.

"How are you feeling?" Kakashi eventually asked, breaking the silence.

"I feel terrible."

Having his tenketsu sealed was unpleasantly different from when he intentionally suppressed his chakra. Ninja don't ordinarily get sick except under life threatening circumstances. Haru's entire body ached as if he had an "old world" flu. Chakra exertion had masked this pain with adrenaline and endorphins but now the symptoms of his abusive training regimen were obvious and inescapable.

Now, however, was a terrible time to be convalescing under a jounin's watchful eye.

"Kakashi-sensei, do you trust me?"

"No. Have some fried rice."

Haru wondered how Kakashi was eating while wearing a mask over half his face. The food smelled good but Haru had bigger fish to fry.

"I need a human sacrifice," Haru informed his superior while still prone under the bedcovers.

"We have pork. I'm afraid they were out of human."

Haru groaned into his pillow. Apparently Tsunade and Shizune were gone, judging from the conspicuous lack of female garments on the floor. That just left his estranged godfather as his only hope.

"No, I mean, I need to kill someone."

"I wasn't aware that bloodlust was a side effect of tenketsu sealing," the silver-haired man responded without missing a beat.

Haru exhaled deeply, a pained and exhausted sigh. "I need to bring a mutual acquaintance back to life with a kinjutsu that requires a living human sacrifice in order to save the village from Orochimaru."

It was Kakashi's turn to sigh. "First of all, no. Second, you're in no condition to be performing any jutsu, kinjutsu or otherwise. Third, who were you even going to use as a sacrifice? Fourth, leave it to the Hokage and the Sannin. Last of all, no."

Haru stared at his tattered, destroyed coat lying on a chair next to the bed. "Fine. Pass me the fried noodles then."

"Too late. They're all gone."

Someone please shoot me now.

"Do you have anything in your kitchen that isn't instant or ramen?" Karin Uzumaki asked her newly discovered relative.

"I dunno. Haru always cooked for me. And what's wrong with ramen anyways?" the blond adolescent replied.

Karin gave up the argument before it started and resigned herself to buying groceries later. Despite unofficially being Konoha's captive, the village was doing it's best to make her comfortable, including giving her a decent stipend during her 'vacation'. Despite the mysterious circumstances, it was still a step up from her experiences in Kusagakure.

The boy she was staying with wasn't terrible company either. His chakra was warm and sunny and pleasant to be around. It was a severe contrast to his 'friend' with the terrifying, suffocating chakra who had killed her teammates and insisted on her extended stay in Konohagakure. It was frightening enough to encounter someone who could hide himself from her sensing abilities. That was a first. What she felt later was even worse. His chakra was like black soot that coated her lungs and desperately made her want to take a bath. Naruto insisted that Haru wouldn't hurt a fly but Karin wanted nothing to do with the non-Uzumaki redhead.

Putting that thought out of her mind, she picked out the nicest, most expensive ramen of the bunch and resolved to make the most of her vacation. In fact, a bath sounded like an excellent idea. If she recalled correctly, Konoha had some excellent hot springs...

Ino Yamanaka only flipped through the hand-written book in front of her. At first glance, it seemed an ordinary notebook. The tale within was an innocuous account of a wandering samurai who, after taking countless lives during a bloody revolution, had vowed never to kill again. Most ninja would scoff at the impractical reverse-bladed katana but Ino thought it was appropriate, albeit quaint, symbol of idealistic peace. It was more interesting than her fashion magazines which had lately lacked anything particularly useful or pertinent.

She was reading at the shop counter half out of boredom and half wistful thinking about a certain red-haired, one-eyed jerk she hadn't seen in awhile. The ordinary looking composition book had passed through the hand of countless experienced ninja but had yet to reveal anything out of the ordinary. Thus, Ino was allowed to keep the parting gift (with a bit of help from her father).

Business at the flower shop had stagnated since the announcement of the merger of Sound and Leaf. People were less concerned about roses than about the traitorous Sannin-turned-diplomat whose only legitimacy came from the disgraced Shimura Danzo who had managed to keep hold of the Hokage's ear. A small army of Sound shinobi had immigrated into the village. They were well-behaved and convincingly human. The major clans were the most skeptical, especially the Uchiha and Hyuga.

Even though nothing had happened, people were feeling restless in their bones.

As she perused the short novel, Ino noted a discrepancy in one of the character descriptions. She was sure the beautiful female love interest liked cosmoses, not bougainvilleas. She flipped through the pages, looking for mention of the flower. Sure enough, in the first chapter, the lady kendo instructor had been introduced with bouquet of cosmos blooms.

Underneath that line, there was a message from Haru that definitely wasn't there the first time she read that page.

"Ino, please keep this a secret from your father in case he is in the room. If you press a flower into these pages, they will show a message I need you to pass into Shikamaru and Choji. Between the three of you, I know you can prevent a bad ending. Don't trust any jounin. I hope you liked the story. It's one of my favorites."

Ino squashed a tulip into the middle of the notebook. It hadn't made any sense how Haru could possibly have snuck a secret message past Konoha's elite ninja. But somehow he'd done it. When she pried the pages apart, the flower had been replaced with a folded note that described where to find...a crystal ball?

Haku sat seiza style in one of the elegant sitting rooms of the Hyuga compound, gazing at the birds beyond the Japanese style veranda.

Neither Haru nor Hiashi had taken the engagement to Hinata seriously. Rather, Haku had been informally accepted into the household as Hinata's retainer. They had shown him kindness, (probably due to Hinata-san's gentle insistence,) although many people still refused to believe he was male. He gave up mentioning it unless the topic became relevant. With Haru's flight from the village, however, the teen's future was in flux.

Maybe it would easier simply to leave by himself. Everyone else in his life had left him one way or another. Family. Zabuza. Haru. Why was he even still in Konoha anyways?

Oh, right, Haru has asked him to stay. To stay with Hinata. To stay and protect someone that Haru cared about. Haru, who left on his own to do what only the kami knew.

Haku wished to be a bird. Free. Even the blackest crow could find a flock to fly with, Haku thought as he watched said bird alight and disappear beyond the treetops.

Haku wished he wasn't such a coward.