A strange new life

Chapter 3: Chunin Exams.

I sat on the same clearing I first met Haku. Haku sat in front of me.

It’s been two weeks since the battle of the bridge. I talked with Naruto about his argument with Haku after the mirror prison broke. Haku had insisted Naruto killed them. The duo had talked about Haku’s past, the persecution because of his bloodlimit, the tragedy of their own father trying to kill them, and how it was Zabuza that had given them a new purpose, how Haku was nothing more than a tool. A tool that had lost its purpose after being defeated, and prevented from sacrificing themselves for Zabuza.

I might have strongly suggested Naruto go and confront Zabuza about it. Naruto had a way of convincing others. Much hollering and man tears might have been involved. I didn’t regret it. Not one bit.

Still, the bridge would be finished tomorrow, and we would leave soon after, return to Konoha, return home.

Zabuza, contrary to my expectation, hadn’t killed the whole of Gato’s gang. After decapitating the midget gang boss, he killed about half of the present thugs, before scaring the rest away. I still thought the town would have been served best by killing them all, but as Kakashi-sensei said, we weren’t here on a assassination mission.

I poured tea for Haku, who took it silently. Then I popped my secret weapon, the last specimen of the special series: Sunshine and Orange, the cupcake. I surrendered my prized possession. Haku took it. Their eyes recovered a bit of their life.

“Is that…”

I nodded. Gave them a smile. The one I got in return was a tired, sad one.

Today was my last attempt to convince Haku, and I was willing to use meta-knowledge. I took my board, thought on my words. “He doesn’t see you as a tool,” I wrote. “It might have been like that at the beginning, he might not even realize yet, but you aren’t a tool for him anymore.”

“But if I’m not, then what I am?”

“I can’t tell you that,” I wrote, “but you have the rest of your life to find out, maybe together with Zabuza?” Haku’s emotionless and defeated face after I had prevented them from sacrificing themselves haunted my dreams for the past weeks.

“Can’t you?” They asked.

“Why don’t you ask him yourself? Naruto tells me he’s asking about you since the battle of the bridge.”

“What if I’m not useful to him anymore?” The desperation was so thick in their voice I wanted to slap them. I was also getting a bit fed up with their depression. Yeah, I was a horrible human being.

“Then you come and find me. I’ll put you to use, even if it’s to taste test my cupcakes.” I boldly wrote.

That got me a small smile, better than the last two weeks combined.

Haku got up. I did the same. I didn’t play music today, the mood didn’t seem right. Haku bowed. I was tired of the formality. I stepped closer and hugged the depressed teen. They didn’t hug me back, which was a shame, but baby steps, baby steps. We didn’t say anything else. Haku turned around and left. No idea what Zabuza would do next. He had recovered, and was leaving today.

It was a bit creepy, but I had sealed the man’s arm with a fuinjutsu storage seal, gave it back to him after the battle. I don’t know what I had expected. His strange stare wasn’t it. I bowed, fled as fast as I could. Was he still involved with that civil mess that was Kirigakure? Time would tell.

I had time to think on the battle of the bridge. My self sabotage revelation sparked many ideas I wanted to follow up.

Weight Seals: That was a good training idea, and I do think there was worth in them, but not in their current form. I needed a way to disabled them without removing it. Also a way to control how much weigh they induced. I had ideas already. Had sketched a few prototypes over the past days. Wouldn’t have the necessary tools to craft it until I was back home. I even had a name for it: The Ultimate Variable Weigh Distribution System For The Discerning Shinobi. Maybe I could sell the idea to the village?

Clone training: I had went to great lengths to acquire this cheat, and promptly didn’t use it. My excuse of not wanting to alert Kakashi was as laughable as it was dumb. No more holding back.

Fuinjutsu: Still stuck on that one, with no idea how to proceed. Who did I know was a seal master I could seek out to help me? The Uzumaki clan had dispersed, and even if there were still survivors, I didn’t knew any aside from Naruto. The only ones I could think of that I could potentially meet were the Third, mostly because he was railed as the man who mastered all jutsu, Jiraiya, who some also railed as a seal master, and… Orochimaru. Yeah, nope, that last one was out. No sir, thank you sir.

Summoned creatures: Another avenue I hadn’t considered. Another thing that was super clan secret related. Maybe I could corrupt Naruto to teach me the summoning jutsu as well? If nothing else, that is the prime space-time jutsu out there. It should help me with my dreams of Konoha’s Black Flash.

Chakra boosting: It always came back to my own younger self decisions. Lesson learned. Use chakra boost in battles!

Chakra training: For about a couple of years I had been struggling with new ways to train my control. Worse, I’d been gushing to Kakashi-sensei I wanted to follow on the fourth footsteps. And for all my fan-girl bluster, I had forgotten about Rasengan. The ultimate chakra control exercise disguised as a A-Rank jutsu. Created by the Yondaime to protect his wife. It took me seeing the Chidori, which was Kakashi’s attempt at Rasengan to remember.

I looked at my open palm. How was it again?

Rotation. My chakra surged, rotated wildly. Power. I didn’t had a rubber ball, but I had been using my chakra to manipulate things for years. The fine lines of chakra glowed, I pumped chakra into them, making it as dense as possible. It looked like a forest of thin shiny tentacles sprouting from my hand. Containment. I kept my chakra spinning, I kept the density. Compressed it in as much as I could, pressing it into a ball.

The chakra resisted, I pushed harder, put all my focus and will behind it. The world dissolved away, there was only the chakra in my hand. It felt almost like a popping sensation, like something gave way. I blinked, checked my hand. There was a ball of visible chakra there, the size of a small marble ball. It was nowhere near the size a Rasengan should be. It didn’t felt strong as it should be.

A smile broke on my face. Finally a new way to train my control. I released the chakra. Put away my picnic stuff. Packed everything and returned to Tazuna’s house. One more day before we started the week long journey home. I was excited to go back. With the mission points of this mission, I might be able to get a new C-Rank jutsu, B-Rank if I manage to wrangle Kakashi into giving me permission. I was inclined on spending those points in fuinjutsu. Maybe with more complex techniques I’d be able to break the code, and finally start creating my own seals.