Better Left Unsaid | By Kenchi618

Chapter 9: Turn So Cold

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto. If you see me crying it's not because I'm sad about this fact, it's because I broke my hand and then typed this shit out. But it doesn't matter, because I'm Kenchi618… and I… I rule the world.

Naruto seemed to be a ghost for the rest of his shift watching the path to the bridge as he sat against the gate and rolled through what his clone had told him of its time tailing the girl from earlier that morning. She was so nice, they had a wonderful talk it was actually one of the most pleasant conversations that Naruto had ever had with anyone around his age ever. In just a small amount of time he had thought that he'd made a real friend, but then the clone had dispelled.

The clone he had sent to tail Haku to make sure that she made it home, wherever home was, safe and unbothered by any of Gato's men found something rather interesting as it shadowed Haku from a distance.

(Flashback – That Afternoon)

'Man Haku-chan lives way out of the way.' Naruto-clone thought to himself as he continued to shadow Haku, 'I guess it's a good thing that boss sent me after all, there was way too much of a chance of some jerk trying to do something to her with all of the ground she had to cover to get here.' The sounds of something being smashed clean through before a tree fell nearby alerted Naruto-clone and startled him, 'Oh, Haku-chan's dad must be a lumberjack or something. But didn't she say that he was supposed to be sick or something?'

Haku pouted and looked over in the direction that the tree fell from as she began to walk in that direction towards a man with camouflage pants and a sleeveless grey shirt. He had spiky brown hair and the lower half of his face was covered much like Kakashi's was only with bandages, "Zabuza-sama I told you to wait until tomorrow. You can still make yourself worse by being up and about today. Go lay back down."

'Zabuza?' Naruto-clone thought to himself, 'That's the name of the guy that tried to take out old man Tazuna and Team 7 isn't it? How does Haku-chan know him?' He stayed hidden and grit his teeth as he continued to listen.

"Haku…" Zabuza growled in warning, "Tomorrow is the day that we're to attack. I can't go into it all stiff and rusty. This is nothing. I've been in bed all week, I need to get readjusted with my full range of motion here. I'm sure Kakashi isn't just sitting around licking his wounds."

"About that." Haku said, setting her basket of herbs down nearby and walking over to Zabuza, "There are more ninja now. A complete team to go with the one already here. They were able to get reinforcements. From the looks of one of the ninja I met it seems to be another squad of genin however."

Zabuza began pacing around thoughtfully, "Hmm. The numbers have the potential to be a problem, but if they're anything like the squad that came with Kakashi they would mostly be cannon fodder if they were to openly get involved." He stopped and looked at Haku, "I'm going to assume that you came across one while you were gone."

Haku nodded, "Yes Zabuza-sama. A blonde Konoha genin."

"And you didn't just finish him off then and there?" Zabuza asked incredulously, "You're far too soft for your own good Haku."

"He had me in close quarters Zabuza-sama. I didn't have any weapons to fight with and he was more skilled than I am in close." Haku said, defending herself slightly, "I simply tried to get some information from him from that point forward. I didn't learn anything substantial though other than the added squad as our enemies." She fiddled with her kimono, getting the attention of Zabuza as he had never seen her show any kind of nervous tic before, "I will be ready for whatever occurs tomorrow however."

Zabuza kept a firm gaze on her for a moment before letting it drop. There was time to talk about it later, "Good. You're my secret weapon Haku. You know how useful you are to me and my overall ambition. I can tell that you don't want to kill this boy that you met but remember how close we are to our ambition Haku. With this money we're closer than ever to affording the means to fund a proper rebellion."