Chakra's Puppet

Chapter 16

Sorry it took so long to update and the chapter is much less then usual, the thing is I am weeks away from having to present my final project for collage. The stress got me bad as well some other stuff, in short even if I had time the stress ended my inspiration.

This is the best I could write, hopefully I will be back to my usual schedule of one chapter a week after I finish with that.

I don't own Naruto.

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It was early morning in the port village by the name of Wave, while the sun showed signs of rising it's rays found it difficult to penetrate the heavy fog that seemed to swallow the whole land.

While many would find the humid and dark weather annoying at best Haku had no problems navigating the forest looking for the medicinal herbs he would need for his companion.

As a citezen of kiri and the protege of Zabuza he found the fog comforting rather then irritating so he continued walking on his path mind full of any sounds that could present a risk to his well being.

Constant Vigilence is a concept drilled into his psyche from the early stages of his training and something that came handy many times before like now.

The Chakra user stooped hearing a faint sound that warranted further attention trough he had a fairly good ideea what was causing it.

He decided to put his self imposed task on hold he walk toward the origin of the sound before he reached a clearing occupied by an orange and blue clad ninja with a mess of spiky blonde hair panting with hand on his knees.

As if aware of his presence the ninja straightened his back and looked behind, his face brightened up instantly, a wide smile occupying his face as he still puffed air in and out of his lungs his face covered with a layer of sweat he could see all the way from where he sat.

"Haku what are you doing here?" many would find offense at the blunt question but Haku welcomed it, in this aspect the boy was a lot like his master.

"Just gathering some medicinal herbs for Zabuza-sama, I see you are back training?" he admired the diligence, it was extermly early in the morning, after the 'training' he had with his master a day before he expected him to sleep in.

"Yeah!! I am almost finished, look!!" the blonde turned around and without even a single moment of hesitation he began to climb the tree with his hands behind his head and unknown to the bloodline user a wide grin on his face.

Haku on the other hand put the basked down and slowly clapped genuinely happy that the boy grasped the exercise so quick and without any help from what he was grumbling about yesterday.

"Congratulation Naruto, it took me three days to master the Tree Climbing and you are almost there." the praise made the boy stumble and fall from the tree catching himself in the air that proved he had ways to go until he really mastered the exercise but from here on it would be just a matter of hours until he reaches that point and the sun barely rose from the horizon.

"Ah thank!! So gathering plants for Zabuza, does he really need it? He looked fine yesterday" when he was beating the crap out of both of us was left unsaid but then both knew it, the blonde didn't really care about that. He literally asked for it and it was much less embarrassing then falling of a tree right after he was congratulated for learning the exercise.

No he was not changing the subject, he was just interested alright?

"He is much better then he should have been, thankfully he didn't use up a lot of his chakra against your sensei mitigate some of the side effects of putting him in near death state. His body would heal on it's own in three weeks but the herbs should speed up the healing and he will recover in two or three days." the feminine boy stated making the blonde's eyes widen greatly, Haku was not really surprised he was that shocked at the piece of information. Most people were ignorant to the potential of medicinal herbs.

"Cool!! Can I help you gather them?" the whiskered blonde questioned looking for a break from climbing trees, it got boring after a while of doing the same stuff and he was also curious about what some plants can do.

He had a few flowers back home and he likes to take care of them but he never thought they could do anything beside being nice to look at.

"If it's not a bother." Haku wouldn't say no to his offer, he quite liked the thought of doing this with someone but he also didn't want to disturb the boy from his own business.

"Nah, I climbing trees get's boring fast and you said I am almost done either way, take that teme I am sure I learned faster then you!!" the blonde stuck a fist in the air smiling brightly at the thought of one upping the dark themed boy.

"You mean Sasuke?" Haku was very mindful of the dynamic between the members of team seven especially the odd dynamic between the two younger males and their name calling, it would be hard not to even trough most of the time he was not sure if they really hated each other or this was their way to express camaraderie.

"Yeah him." Naruto's tone become noticeably darker then it usually was making Haku rise a brow at the animosity the brightest person he knows has for his teamate.

"Ano, if it's not too much can I ask if there is some issue between you and him?" the teen asked both apprehensive of asking and curious to know, the boy with wild hair looked at him then back to the ground kicking his leg without hinting anything.

"He is an ungrateful bastard, that's the issue." the boy said contemplating for just a moment what was coming out of his mouth but couldn't really stop now that the feelings started to bubble to the surface, he didn't want to.

"He has he has a mother that loves him, the villagers are kissing the land he is steeping on and all girls like him but he acts like he doesn't care about any of that, like he is better then everyone. It pisses me off." a memory of a time long ago in a warm afternoon in front of a river come to mind. His fists tightened before he felt a hand on his shoulder and looked up.

"I understand, sorry for bringing it up." the efemine boy said with a fake smile on his face, it was not a happy smile but something in the blonde twisted seeing someone look at him like that. He looked away his eyes flashing silver unnoticed to everyone.

"Nah, it's fine who cares about the teme either way?!" the boy said his mood making a 180 "By the way where is Zabuza?" the boy said and if Haku realized he was trying to change the subject then he didn't let it show but he frowned nonetheless.

"He is with Kakashi-san, he said there is something they need to do." he spared the younger male of the details of exactly what they were doing at the moment, he looked at the sky and the heavy fog feeling both relived and ashamed. Relived he wouldn't have to kill and ashamed his master, the man he started to see as a father in the past days left him behind for this mission.

He failed as a tool.

'I am sorry Zabuza-sama I wish you luck.' the boy thought returning back to his initial task alongside the energetic boy.

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A few miles away from the two kids two elite ninja were cutting one man after another in their path towards their target, the mercenaries didn't even record as a threat to the two jounin level ninja.

Even in his weakened and chakraless state Zabuza felt cheated that this is the best he could get as a fight, suffice to say he had no need for luck to decapitate Gatou with his trusty sword.

After robbing the man to the last Ryo and propriety of course.

The two elites made a small detour to the closest body of water, it wouldn't do to scare the civilians and the kids with blood soaked clothes.

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Well that escalated quickly at the end but I think you all expected something like that, at first I wished to write the whole scene where Gato dies in more detail but I saw no reasons for it. Anyone can imagine how that massacre went trough I will go in much detail about the aftermath the next chapter whenever that might be posted.