Myst and Leaves

by Wanderer D

Chapter 17

AN: First of all, sorry for the delay! I hope to have more time to write the next chapter soon! Also, the second part of the "Writing Process" follows this chapter. Enjoy!

o.0.o

Shikamaru knew his sister was planning something big. She had been running around from the Hokage's office down to the Interrogation HQ and back non-stop for the last month.

It was almost depressing to see her so focused on one thing to the exclusion of all others. Depressing and entirely un-Nara-like.

He sighed. Their parents had taught them both better than that.

But, to get his sister to relax a bit before something mayor would require not only his skills but that of the entire Nara Family.

He had carefully laid down his plan. His sister was so focused on the one thing that she had let slip several details that he had summed up to a startling conclusion.

"Haku is going away for a while in an undercover mission that might prove fatal."

Naruto stared at him.

Kiba choked on the water he was drinking.

Sasuke raised an eyebrow.

Hinata meeped.

Choji almost bit a finger off while throwing potato chips into his mouth.

Shino shrugged a bit more than normal.

Sakura and Ino looked startled, never truly realizing just how dangerous a life his sister led and Lee...

"Yosh! I can almost feel the fires of youth burning within Haku!"

"Lee... that's disturbing." Sasuke said.

Lee choked and glared at the Uchiha.

"Regardless," Shikamaru interrupted "Haku has not had a break in a long time." he held a hand up to Lee to stop him from talking. "And although I know what you will say, the bottom line is, everyone, even you Lee, needs a break. The best laid plans you can muster while under constant pressure will amount to nothing because you have not had a good chance to sit back and look at them objectively."

"So what do you propose?" Shino asked.

"I think we should all go out on a trip." Shikamaru said. "Because of the anniversary of the Second Shinobi War we have four days free. I think it is a good chance to get my troublesome sister to kick back and watch the clouds."

"Or go fishing!" Naruto said excitedly, earning a collective blink.

"And camping." Kiba said. "Imagine the stories she could tell!"

"I wouldn't bet on that." Shino said. "Remember a lot of her work is secret."

"Still..."

"I think it would be nice." Sakura said.

"But will she be willing to do it?" Kiba asked.

Shikamaru shook his head. "No. Which is the reason I called you all." he had all their attention and spent a few seconds looking into the eyes of the others. "I am going to challenge Haku through the Hokage, if we manage to defeat her, we'll get our camping trip and training."

"And if we lose?" Sasuke asked.

"We won't." Shikamaru said, surprising the others with his conviction. "If you all follow my plan, that is. And we will need some help."

Sasuke blinked. "Help?"

The Nara genius nodded. "I have in mind exactly who we need. But I'll need Naruto to go with me to meet with their superior on our behalf."

o.0.o

Haku stared at the scroll in her lap.

"We know your secret. You escaped from Suna unscathed, but unless you meet us at training area 38, we will reveal it. All your careful planning will come to nothing."

She didn't know how it had made her way to her office. But this could mean many things. Could it be that the underground group she had discovered was aware of her investigation? It would certainly seem plausible since the meeting place was within Konoha itself.

The scroll didn't reveal any more information and only had further instructions of not telling anyone and the time for the meeting. They had timed it well: it would take place within the hour and therefore she wouldn't be able to preempt their arrival, and she was not very familiar with the layout for training ground 38.

She threw the message down to a small chimney in her office, and with a little applied chakra she watched the paper burn to ashes. Ibiki had those installed in just about every office in the building. It was the best way to get rid of sensitive information that might fall into the wrong hands.

She shook her head. She only had a few minutes to get there in time. Standing up and hastily gathering her equipment, she started formulating different scenarios in her mind.

o.0.o

When she arrived at the training grounds she was all business. Her demeanor seemed calmed, but within, she was tense, ready to spring if anything came her way. She looked around. The area seemed completely abandoned. But she knew better.

She had barely a second to dodge the first attack, a punch, delivered with enough speed and skill that it would have certainly stunned her for a few seconds, leaving her vulnerable. She immediately reacted, sending up a hand towards her attacker's abdomen, but before she could retaliate, she had to dodge a kick to the head and dropped her counter. Both her opponents were dressed in black and had their faces covered, wearing no village symbols whatsoever.

Haku was about to attack when she had to dodge, yet again. This time a rain of kunai, that embedded themselves on the floor where she was just a second ago.

o.0.o

"Are you sure this is okay, Hokage-sama?" an ANBU asked.

The old man nodded. "Haku needs to relax a bit, and I find myself agreeing with young Shikamaru's idea." he looked around him at the gathered Jonin. "These nine pre-genin are some of the most promising students from the Academy."

"I still don't know..." Iruka interrupted. "With all due respect, Hokage-sama, but Haku might not pull her punches before she realizes just who she is fighting."

"Ah, relax, Iruka." Mizuki said, patting his friend on the back. "This is better than our normal test. We can see what these guys can do and if they have learned anything from us."

"Plus they have Gai's team working with them." Asuma said. "Although I still don't know why we are here."

Sarutobi smiled at his son. "I thought you were thinking of training a genin team? Why not observe and think what type of teams we could make with a such a tight group as this one?"

"But what about their safety?" Kurenai asked. "Haku is certainly capable of killing them."

The Hokage nodded. "She'll assess the danger before she uses killing strikes. She will recognize her attackers soon."

o.0.o

The strangers walked through the streets of Konoha, drawing little attention to themselves. Although they were cloaked, they had observed that the average citizens of this town were not very distrusting, secure in the proficiency of their ninja to guard them.

It was... cute. In a way.

They stopped after a moment and looked in the direction of Training Ground 38.

"So, I guess this is the place." One of the cloaked figures said. "Are you going to find out?"

The other remained silent for a moment. "It would be... a disservice to my student not to find out if whoever is using his power is not... up to task."

"So you have given up on finding him? After all this time trying?"

The hooded man seemed to hesitate for a moment, before nodding. "If he were still alive... or here, we would have sensed him. No-one else here has the same type of energy." He started walking away, but the hand of the other man grasped his arm, stopping him.

"I'm sorry."

"It's okay my friend." the man said. "I will observe for a while. I hope you don't mind staying for a little time?"

His friend laughed. "Not at all. I'll get some food while you observe. Let me know when everything is done."

The man simply nodded as he jumped away, leaving his friend alone.

"Now," the solitary figure said aloud. "What is it that I smell? Ramen?"

o.0.o

Haku noticed several things. First, the plan seemed to be very well thought out. Second, they were succeeding in keeping her on her toes for as long as she was willing to play their game. Third... almost all of them were shorter than her.

With a growl, she stopped defending, breaking the cycle as she suddenly punched one of them in the thigh and threw another over her shoulder, the third one seemed too surprised to block the straight punch to the stomach.

"Now!" a familiar voice shouted as suddenly she was attacked by a cloud of insects.

"You'll have to try better than that, Shino!" she growled, letting a bit of cold aura surround her. The beetles still advanced, but when encountering the cold air tried to circumvent it, leaving a line straight to their master.

"Damn." Shino said as Haku sent several senbon needles flying at him. He dodged out of the way, running to the side as another brawler jumped in to fight her. The one she had hit on the stomach was up and attacking her again, while the one she had punched in the thigh was struggling to get up.

This one was a much better fighter than she expected and suddenly she was on the defensive again, the brawler she punched in the stomach suddenly hit her arm and she felt it go numb.

Hyuga! She thought. That would mean... Neji. Hinata was much shorter.

"You cannot win unless you take us seriously." he said, confirming her suspicions.

"Trust me, Neji, you don't want me to!" she said, as she jumped back, her hands flashing through seals.

o.0.o

The Jonin laughed as they watched the fight from afar. There was a running betting pool, ranging from who would hit who to who had the highest chances of bringing Haku down, with Gai's team being at the top.

Already a few Jonin were also taking notes for future ideas in Genin groups, while Iruka and Mizuki observed the fight carefully.

"It seems Haku is having fun." Sarutobi said.

"Yes, but we still have to see who will emerge victorious now that she knows she cannot hurt them." Asuma said.

The Hokage nodded. "Regardless of the result, Haku is bound to get their point."

o.0.o

Haku was smiling as she dodged kunais and jumped back, hands flashing as she called out: "Suiton: Teppōdama no Jutsu!" opening her mouth she shot out a fist-sized water bullet that hit Tenten in the stomach.

She barely had time to cross her arms in front of her to block Lee's kick, which sent her flying. She twisted in the air, and landed a few feet in front of Lee, who was panting. She made a quick check. Two brawlers, slowly circling her. Those would be Naruto and Kiba. One of them was limping from the paralyzing cold she had used on their leg.

Another brawler was on the floor groaning. Their build was slightly thinner than the others, so it would be either Sakura or Ino, since Hinata was a bit shorter.

Neji was just getting up from where she had sent him flying with a snowball. Tenten seemed to be out for now, laying down where she had landed.

She tensed and ducked, grabbing the arm of the attacker that had tried to stab her from behind, twisting, she sent whoever it was to crash against one of the two brawlers. The second one attacked, leg impeding his movements.

Haku dodged to the left and followed the motion by crouching and knocking his feet from under him with a sweeping kick. The yelp confirmed the identity of this one as Naruto.

It was then that the two new attackers came in, forcing her to move back. Choji, also dressed completely in black was attacking her with a speed that surprised her, considering his size. Out of all of them, with the exception of Lee and Neji, he packed the strongest punch.

The other one, with simple efficiency and calculated attacks could be no other than Sasuke. Haku grinned and rolled forward, and as soon as she stood up, her hands had finished another set of seals. Two clones formed next to her, and both Sasuke and Choji seemed taken aback as they attacked.

Choji didn't react in time and one of the clones punched him. Sasuke, startled, managed to dodge the attack of the second clone, but after slugging Choji, the first clone kicked him in the stomach, forcing the air out of his lungs with a painful "ooph".

"Take this!" Tenten suddenly shouted, as kunai flew in her direction. Surprised, Haku simply dodged, noticing that the kunai sliced through her water clones, destroying them.

It was then that Hinata ran out straight at her, Haku tried to bring her hands up for a seal, but suddenly she was unable to move as Hinata finally reached her and punched, stopping her hand just in front of Haku's face.

"I-I think you should surrender now, Aneki." Hinata said softly.

Haku struggled to move again, and sighed. "Fine. You got me there, Shika."

From the shadows of the forest, Shikamaru smiled. "You are too troublesome. For a moment I really thought my plan might fail."

o.0.o

"That's really impressive." Mizuki said.

"You seem intrigued, Asuma." Sarutobi said.

"Old man, I will train a Genin team if Shikamaru is in it."

The Hokage simply smiled and nodded. The other Jonin also seemed interested.

"I'd like Naruto and Ino to be in mine... still haven't decided on the third..." Kurenai said.

"No way in hell, I want Naruto. You can have Kiba." Anko smiled. "I would like to work with Shino."

"Fine. Sakura might be a good choice too, she seems well balanced, even if she needs the most practice out of all of them."

"She doesn't come from a ninja family." Sarutobi said. "Ino does, and she should be much better than she is. My guess is that someone is slacking on training her."

"Sasuke seems to be training hard." Kakashi said. "I am glad to see him working in a team like that. With the right teammates, maybe Choji or Naruto, we could have a very effective heavy combat team."

"Yosh! It's great to see you interested in teaching, my rival!"

"Only if they pass the test." Kakashi said, glancing at Gai.

The green spandex-wearing man grinned and nodded.

"Your team did pretty well too, Gai." Iruka said.

The green beast of Konoha nodded. "In battle situations they are an excellent team."

"And assuming all of them graduate, the Nara Family seems to be made of really sturdy material." Mizuki said, a strange glint in his eye.

"Well it seems its settled then." Iruka said. "We should explain the situation to Haku..."

The Hokage nodded. "Let's go. The rest of you, if you wish to discuss here the situation of the Genin prospects, you are welcome to."

As the Jonin nodded, the teacher and the Hokage left the room.

o.0.o

"So what is this all about then?" Haku asked, looking at her brother.

"Maybe we should explain."

When she heard the Hokage's voice she was very surprised, but given the effort her brother had gone through, it shouldn't have surprised her to find out several other individuals would be involved.

"I would appreciate that, Hokage-sama." she said.

As the group of pre-Genin and Genin gathered around, the Hokage smiled. "It is the general belief of these young friends of yours that you have been working too hard. An estimation which I am inclined to agree with."

"But..."

"We don't know what you have to do, or what mission you are going to now, sis..." Shikamaru started to say, only to be interrupted by Naruto.

"But we cannot let you go for a while without spending some time with you!" the energetic boy said with a big grin.

"Guys..." Haku shook her head. "You don't understand."

Sasuke snorted. "It's you who doesn't understand."

"When you come back we will be Genin already." Hinata said.

"We're all your friends, we would like to see you a bit more often!" Kiba said as Akamaru trotted up to them.

"It seems only logical to take the steps necessary to achieve that." Shino said.

While Sakura and Ino only nodded, Neji spoke up. "Although I am not a part of the Nara Family, I can tell you Haku that you should know that if you overwork yourself, you will lose sight of your objectives."

Haku seemed to consider that and Shikamaru, although surprised by Neji's input, decided to take advantage of that. "Thanks to the Second Shinobi War Anniversary, we will have a few days to relax. Come with us. It would be too troublesome to have to wait several months to see you again."

Haku laughed, her shoulders relaxed. "Maybe I have been working too much."

The Hokage nodded. "I will let Ibiki know that you..."

"There's no need for that, Hokage-sama." a voice said from nearby.

"Ibiki?" Sarutobi blinked. "What brings you here?"

The man just pointed at Haku. "You didn't think she would come over here and risk everything without reporting to me, right? If it had been a real fight, the whole interrogation department would have landed on her opponent's heads to help her."

The collective Genin gulped.

o.0.o

From the shadows the man in the cloak watched, impassive.

"Haku, huh?" he shook his head. "Playing child games... you are almost too care-free."

He noticed the old man with them tense and turn his way. He was about to leave when the man spoke. "Why don't you come out here where we can see you? You are good, I almost missed you."

o.0.o

When the Hokage spoke, immediately Ibiki, Haku and Iruka were in front of the Genins. Gai's team assumed battle stances. They all waited and soon a man in a white cloak walked out.

His face and head were covered by a hood. He was wearing simple clothes, no weapons to be seen, although the way he handled himself made it clear he was a warrior. His arms were bandaged up to the elbows, and he was as tall as Ibiki.

"My apologies." The man said, bowing low. "I heard the battle as I walked through town and decided to take a quick look. I hope I haven't gotten into too much trouble."

The Hokage looked at the man carefully. "Why are you in Konoha? You don't seem to be a ninja or a civilian."

The man chuckled. "I am neither, as you guessed. I am merely a traveling monk, I and my brother decided to partake of your hospitality by staying the night at one of your inns and also to re-supply before continuing our travels."

The Hokage nodded. "If it is indeed as you say, don't fear getting into trouble. This is only a training exercise for our young Genin-to-be."

The man bowed again, this time less deeply. "I apologize for stumbling into your exercise. I will depart now, with your leave."

The group watched the man turn and walk away in silence.

"He was way too smooth." Ibiki said. "I think he believes he could take us all and win."

The Hokage looked thoughtful, but nodded. "Ibiki, assign the best trained ANBU to follow him and his brother. Tell them only to report, and not engage unless they break the law."

"Yes, Hokage-sama." Ibiki said with a nod, before disappearing in a swirl of leaves.

o.0.o

"How did it go?"

The man shrugged, sitting down next to his friend and ordering a plate of ramen. "I got caught. And now we're being watched."

The other hooded man laughed a bit, earning a glare from his friend. "Sorry, sorry. But how was it?"

The man sighed. "She's good. Tough. Not him..." his friend could almost hear the sad smile. "I took too long to get here."

His friend shook his head. "At least his legacy lives on."

"The potential she has..." the man laughed a bit and ordered some sake. "If I had found her and trained her... but that's impossible now."

His friend seemed to hesitate. "Are you sure, maybe if you offered..."

The man shook his head. "No. She's too old now, and she has a life worth living here. I came to find him, and found that he had died a long time ago."

"Perhaps now that you know what happened she could help?"

The man seemed to think as the ramen was set in front of him. He picked up chopsticks and let them rest in the soup for a bit. "I can feel the ice inside her. She knows how to use it well. I had my chance, with my own student. We changed the face of the earth, not once... but three times. Two of them with he and his brothers at his side. My time as a teacher is ended."

"Heh. If the old master heard you. He wouldn't even laugh before he smacked you upside the head."

The man chuckled. "The old master is a busy-body. I thought I'd stay for a bit and see if I could teach her to understand her power better... but her power is not the same as mine. There's little I could teach her in the way of combat that would benefit her as it is. She is not going to be one of us."

"They knew it was too late." his friend said softly. He dug in his robe and produced a small bag. "As his heir she should at least own these mementos."

The man shifted, revealing dark blue eyes. He stared at the bag for a moment. "I can only think of her as his daughter... somehow she has his same naive idea about attachment to people that are not part of their lives anymore..."

His friend shook his head. "Really..."

The man laughed and drank some sake. "Yes, the irony of my situation is not lost on me." he sighed as he finished his cup and put it down. "Perhaps... perhaps there is still something I might teach her... to go with those messages and memories stored in these mementos." he shook the bag a little and something inside tinkled.

His friend remained quiet for a moment. "Whatever you teach or tell her, don't drag her into a life even more complicated than this. Remember she is a ninja... it is a completely different life-style than ours."

"Some would disagree..." the man started to say, but stopped.

o.0.o

"Man that fight was awesome, Aneki!" Naruto said as they walked towards Ichikaru's Ramen.

"Yes, all of you have become an impressive group of fighters." Haku said with a smile. She now had a spring to her step that she hadn't had before, Shikamaru noticed. His sister seemed to be much more relaxed now, after their fight.

"It'll be troublesome to graduate without showing you what we can do." he said with a shrug. "At least you can now see you are leaving Konoha in good hands."

Haku smirked.

Slowly all of the Nara family had left to go home, some in better shape than others. Naruto had stated his intention of getting some ramen and the two siblings, along with Choji and Sasuke had decided to join him.

As they chatted they approached the stand, and to their surprise found the man that had been watching their fight, along with another person dressed the same.

The group was immediately wary, although all the stranger did was look at them, shrug and returned to eat his ramen.

Now that she was close enough, she could see the other person was also a man, who glanced from her to the other robed man with amused jade colored eyes before returning to his meal.

The silence was broken by Ichiraku, who smiled as he saw the blonde ninja-to-be. "Ah, Naruto! Come on in and have a seat, what will you have today?" the jovial man smiled and nodded at the rest as they walked and sat down, each made an order and sat down, warily observing their neighbors.

After a few minutes of silence Naruto couldn't handle the wait anymore. "So why were you spying on us while we fought aniki?" he demanded, glaring at the tall man on the other side of the stand.

"I wasn't spying." The man replied. "Spying implies I was gathering data to report to someone. I was observing for my own benefit and therefore satisfying my curiosity. Nothing more, nothing less."

Naruto opened and closed his mouth a few times before settling for glaring at the man.

"But wouldn't you be able to satisfy your curiosity without hiding?" Shikamaru asked.

The man nodded. "Indeed. However, there was a high chance of being mistaken for an opponent if I just walk into the area of conflict. Therefore a more considerate and less obvious approach would be to my benefit."

"You seemed very confident when confronted by several ninja and the Hokage." Saskue said, looking at both men carefully. "Shouldn't you have been a bit nervous? Or do you think you can take on all of them at the same time?"

The man chuckled. "There was no reason to be nervous. The Hokage is known to be a smart and understanding man."

Haku frowned. "Are you implying that he is too soft?"

The man looked at her and froze her in place with his stare. "No. I mean that he was able to recognize that I had no ill intentions when being there. And since I had not broken any laws, I was confident that he would know that it was a misunderstanding."

His friend touched his shoulder and he looked away. Haku then remembered to breathe. That had not been killing intent. It was something else entirely... as if the weight of the world had suddenly been thrust on her with just a glance.

The man and his friend exchanged a silent glance, then they stood up. "Hey, old man." the one with jade eyes called, putting down a few golden coins on the counter. "Treat this young lady and her friends on the change from this, will you?"

Ichiraku looked wide-eyed at the coins and then up. "A-are you sure? That's enough for..."

The man with blue eyes shrugged. "They are all either ninja or ninja to be, they must have a healthy appetite." he turned to look at the surprised group. "Consider this an apology for intruding on your practice earlier. Good evening."

The group watched them walk away in silence.

"They are strong." Sasuke said with certainty. "Very strong."

Haku nodded thoughtfully, while Shikamaru shook his head. "Troublesome."

"I wonder what they are really doing here." Choji said, already looking over the menu for his next choice.

"It doesn't matter!" Naruto said suddenly. "They can't be stronger than the Hokage, right Aneki?"

Haku was silent for a moment. "No, probably not."

"Damn right!" Naruto said. "Now, bring me three beef ramen old man! I want the works!"

o.0.o

That night Haku sat in her room, thinking. She had finished packing her equipment for camping and now had time to contemplate.

It was easy for her to lose herself in the hopes and preparations for getting Zabuza-sama back... or at least help him survive. Had it been anyone but Kakashi, she was sure the outcome would have been very different... without some possible exceptions.

Although a lot of the Jonin in Konoha were exceptional, the truth of the matter was that few were as combat oriented as Kakashi was. Had Kurenai gone in his stead, Haku wasn't very sure the illusions expert would have survived the experience.

This didn't imply Kurenai was weak... only that it was a bad match against a much more experienced opponent, such as Zabuza-sama.

Her thoughts were interrupted by a knock on the door. Standing up, she slid the door open and found her brother standing there.

"You have to come to the lake." he huffed.

"What happened?"

Shikamaru sighed. "It's too troublesome to explain... come and see for yourself."

o.0.o

The box was right in the center of the lake, where the small pieces of dry land had granted enough support for it. They were covered in starch now, as the cold that emanated from the box itself was incredible. Water had frozen around it.

Haku was sure that it had not been there a few hours ago. She, along with most of the Nara elders, some ANBU and the Hokage were standing on the calm waters of the lake gazing at it in awe. It was completely made of ice. It was as tall as Kakashi, and had strange symbols etched into it. They looked slightly familiar, but she could not approach any closer with everyone around. She could see through the ice, it was that perfect... and in the center, frozen in place was a small brown bag, half open and at an odd angle, as if someone had tossed it aside only for it to be captured in the middle of the ice box.

"Hokage-sama..." one of the Nara elders approached Sarutobi with a bow. "Do you know what this is or where it came from?"

Sarutobi shook his head. "No. This is as much a mystery to me as it is for you."

She approached the structure and touched it, it was so cold it burned her hand and she quickly removed it. "It's... amazing." She looked at the letters etched into it. Then, looked inside at the small bag.

When she gasped, she drew everyone's attention.

"What is it, Haku?" Kakashi asked.

"I've seen that before..." she said, pointing straight at the bag. "It is the bag the monks had with them earlier tonight."

Sarutobi shot Kakashi a glance, and the ninja nodded, disappearing in a blur.

"Do you think they are responsible for this?" Shikaku asked.

"They seem to be involved." The Hokage answered. "What I intend to find out is the level of their involvement."

Kakashi returned within a few minutes. "ANBU reports that they are gone... no one saw them leave, except the Inn keep, who said they informed him they had decided to leave tonight and left him payment for the whole night regardless."

Sarutobi nodded. "What about the ANBU assigned to them?"

"They are fine, Hokage-sama." Kakashi reported. "They have signs of having been submitted to a Genjutsu of some sort."

The Hokage nodded. "Very well, have them go to the hospital for a check-up and organize a search for the monks."

"Already done, Hokage-sama." Kakashi said.

o.0.o

"That Uchiha kid is going to be trouble for the whole place." the man with blue eyes said, looking at the distant village.

His friend chuckled. "Maybe. Let them deal with it though."

The man sighed, letting a smile adorn his face. "Fine."

"Are you happy with your choice?"

"There's little to be done about it now." The man looked at his hands. "I left her his mementos. And I left her in the Ice Coffin itself the prospect of all the techniques she can invent of find with Ice. That will not break the flow of her life here, but will let her be closer to him... in spirit, if not power."

"Do you think she will ever figure it out?"

"The kid's smart. Either way, those belong in this world now."

The man with the violet eyes nodded and placed his hand on his friend's shoulder. "Then let us leave this place forever, and his memory in their hands."

o.0.o

Tsume frowned as she stood in front of the Hokage. She couldn't meet his gaze after giving her report. Besides her, Kuromaru shifted. Behind her, the ANBU team that had accompanied her stood. Easy for them to hide behind their masks and me. She thought.

"So their tracks and scent ended suddenly." Sarutobi stated.

Tsume nodded.

"And the only sign was this golden light you saw in the distance?"

"It was, Hokage-sama." one of the ANBU answered.

"We followed the trail a few times, just to make sure we hadn't missed anything." Tsume confirmed. "Kuromaru also told me that their smell was all around the ice box at the Nara Lake."

The Hokage nodded. "Have our experts at decryption look at it. For now, there is nothing we can do."

"What about the contents, Hokage-sama?" Tsume asked.

"We tried braking it." Sarutobi said after a moment. "It didn't work. We might have to wait until it melts."

Tsume nodded and the Hokage smiled. "Don't worry, Tsume, I am sure everything will clear up soon. Go rest now. All of you."

o.0.o

As the proud matriarch of the Inuzuka walked out, Sarutobi sighed. He had a copy of the message on the "ice box", but it was clear that it went beyond a simple code. The way it was organized indicated another language altogether.

"Send Haku in."

Haku walked into the Hokage's office lost in thought. She had almost talked to Tsume when she had seen her walk out, but the annoyed expression on her face discouraged the young kunoichi from approaching.

"Haku." Sarutobi looked hard at her. "Are you sure there were no other members of the Asano Clan?"

"None, Hokage-sama." Haku answered. "The bloodline was considered all but dead and according to the family tree I am the first one in generations to show it."

The Hokage nodded. "It is not impossible to achieve similar ice effects by mixing Wind and Water jutsu. But the strength of this one..."

"It's incredible." Haku said after a moment. "Something about the code seemed familiar, and when I touched it... it almost seemed like the power they used was similar to mine..."

"We already have our best people working on decrypting the code." Sarutobi said. "It will take some time."

"I take it from Tsume's expression that they were not able to find the monks?"

The old ninja shook his head. "They are gone. I have issued a warning about them, but until we see them again, there seems to be no way of following."

Haku nodded.

"Now. Although the last events threw everyone into a panic, I think it is time for you to relax." Sarutobi said, smiling when Haku looked surprised. "You did concede the victory to Shikamaru, and now you have to follow the rules."

"I wasn't aware there were rules." Haku said with a raised eyebrow.

"You are taking the Nara Family and Gai's team to camp out and train."

"What? But..." Haku stammered and blinked. "What about my work on the Zabuza lead?"

Chuckling, Sarutobi motioned for her to calm down, something that she achieved only to a certain extent.

"The truth is, Haku, that you need to take some time off. Enjoy life a little. Even ANBU take a break from time to time. It's not healthy to over-work yourself, regardless of your motives."

Haku sighed. "Hai, Hokage-sama."

"Cheer up, Haku. It's some time to enjoy with your brother and friends."

Haku smiled a bit at that. "Yeah, that's true."

o.0.o

When had she last done something like this? Haku smiled as she set her backpack down right next to her brother's. It seemed like forever. It had been, at two or three times at most that she and Shikamaru had done this with their parents. And mostly at their mother's insistence.

But camping with the future genin and team Gai was an experience she was sure to remember. Gai himself and Kurenai had come along to appease most of the Clan Heads since the group included just about every single clan of some importance in Konoha. Here they were: Uchiha, Hyuga, Nara, Inuzuka, Akimichi, Aburame and Yamanaka... all of them working together and having a good time. Even old fights had been forgotten as they had arrived, tired and hungry to their camping spot.

Soon tents had been set up and everyone had gathered around a fire.

"Yosh!" Gai said loudly. "You youthful students should go to bed tonight! Tomorrow morning we start training!"

There was much groaning, accompanied by some random words, "troublesome" amongst them.

"Now, now." Haku smiled. "I don't want to hear to many complaints. We won't be training all day..." she glared at Gai as he was about to say something and he prudently closed his mouth. "We won't." she repeated. "But it will benefit you guys to practice a bit with an existing team. Remember that you still have to pass the academy test to graduate!"

"Few academy students have had a chance to train with three Jonin before graduating." Kurenai reminded them. "This is your chance to get stronger and better your chances to graduate."

It was no surprise to Shikamaru to notice that Sasuke was all ears and completely concentrating on the Jonin's words. He shook his head.

"We should set the watch for tonight." Kurenai continued. "Since Naruto is out, someone else will take first watch, he'll take the second."

"I'll do the second watch with Naruto." Haku offered.

"I don't mind doing first." Shino said.

"Yosh!" Gai stood up. "I'll take first watch with Aburame-san."

After a few minutes, the shifts were decided. There would be four shifts every night. And since there were more than enough people, the rounds would be different pairs each night.

o.0.o

Naruto groaned when someone shook his shoulder. He turned, sliding deeper into his sleeping bag. When whoever it was insisted, he finally opened his eyes and looked around, confused as to where he was. Blinking to clear his eyes, he eventually focused on Haku.

"Aneki..." he yawned. "What's happening?"

Haku smirked. "Come on Naruto, it's our turn for the watch."

Shaking his head, and still more asleep than awake, Naruto followed her out of the tent he shared with Sasuke-teme and Shino. Barely registering when the bug specialist nodded in his direction as he made his way into the tent.

"Come on."

A bit more awake, Naruto finally sat down next to Haku near the remains of the fire.

"Do you think we will be attacked?" he asked, trying to hide his nervousness.

Haku shook her head. "I doubt it. But let's be alert, just in case."

Naruto nodded and stared into the forest.

Some time passed and the area was quiet. Naruto shifted and looked at Haku. "Ne, Aneki..."

When he had Haku's attention he continued. "How did you become so strong?"

Haku regarded Naruto for a while. She had a sudden image of the young ninja-to-be passed out on the flowers in the small glade a morning a life-time away. She had been trying to heal Zabuza and had gone out to gather some medicinal herbs.

Her conversation with Naruto had changed a lot of things for her.

She sighed and looked at the sky. "There are many ways of being strong, Naruto. For the longest time I thought to be strong was part of being a tool- Shinobi have dangerous lives, but we always work for someone. We risk our well-being to fulfill a contract, or to achieve a dangerous mission. Some shinobi don't see the difference between them, and say, a sword."

"But, what happens to them afterwards? Don't they feel anything?" Naruto asked with a frown.

"Yes, but it dulls over time. Eventually I understood something... the way to be strong... the strongest... is to fight for others... fight to be able to defend your friends or family, your village... when someone is precious to you, they give you a strength you can feel when you need it the most."

"Who is precious to you, Aneki?" Naruto asked after a few seconds of silence.

"You, silly." Haku laughed when Naruto's face went pink. "And everyone in this camp... my parents, the Hokage... and others."

"Ah... hehe, of course." Naruto said nervously.

"Always remember, Naruto... the strength of Konoha is on its teams for a reason... when you fight alongside others for a higher purpose than your own strength, then you will find that you are stronger than you even thought."

The pair remained quiet for the rest of their watch.

Next chapter:

We join the "Nara Family" once again at camp... and then Haku leaves to meet with Zabuza.

Author's notes:

Mist and Leaves

by Wanderer D

The Writing Process

Part 2

Gaara is one of the Narutoverse's most beloved characters. Almost always staying in the top 10 character polls and a frequent main character in more than one fic. As much as people love Naruto, Gaara seems to draw even more of an emotional reaction at times; he is the dark Naruto, in other words, he is what he could have become if he had let hatred and fear rule his life.

Each character in this story is affected by Haku's presence, and Gaara is no different. But several issues have to be dealt with carefully when writing Gaara.

He's not a teddy-bear or someone that you give a balloon to and will become your friend. (Unless you are writing comedy.) He is a merciless killer in his quest for recognition of himself and of who he is beneath the monster in the eyes of those that are closest to him. (ie. Temari, Kankuro and later on Baki.)

You cannot convince him to be on your side with simple logic. The reason that it doesn't work like that is that Gaara is too guarded against that, being betrayed by the one person he had a true connection with made him wary of simple guidance by logic, after all, logic can be twisted and words alone can be lies.

That is the reason that it took Naruto himself to bring Gaara back by pounding him onto next week. He had to see what he could become even if people feared him. He had to see what possibilities lied in controlling his anger; in learning to trust. Unless you grab Gaara at a young age in a fan fic it is almost always impossible to convincingly change him by pure logic (Gaara would have crushed them into a paste while they preached away).

And so, my task seems difficult... how will Haku affect Gaara? However, I am not trying to change him by means of logic or reasoning... Haku can do what many others can't: she can fight him and survive, maybe even win if she is tricky.

But getting them to fight is not as easy as throwing them in a rink together and waiting for someone to emerge victorious. And so, I used the Mist in the Leaves persona to create an opportunity for the Kazekage to try to get rid of Gaara for the last time before Orochimaru comes in.

So, into these calculations came Temari and Kankuro. Both of them are afraid of Gaara, but even then, when they thought Naruto was going to kill him, they were quick to try and save him.

In the end, the change to Gaara's personality until the Chunin exams will be little, despite Haku's success in defeating him.

This one instance of loyalty from his siblings will logically seem to him as nothing more than interest in a weapon, rather than in who he is. Will it cast some doubts? Yes, but it is not enough to change who he is. If anything, it will turn him into a more dangerous opponent. Haku's interference will probably affect Temari and Kankuro much more.

As the Wave mission came up, I think I hit the mother of all difficult dialogues. I have to somehow get Haku to convince the Hokage to allow him to join Zabuza working under Gatou.

Now, I hate cop-out in stories where things of such a difficult nature are solved within two lines or one paragraph. This has to be in depth, and to me, it is like playing a game of Go and the Hokage is a very tough opponent.

I hate fics that make the Hokage seem like a dimwit. In some stories I have read, he gets convinced to do something completely idiotic in the grand scheme of things, and altogether unreasonable if you stop to think about it, but it is simply done because the author of that particular fic wants to push his idea without really thinking how the characters would react.

Although it gets the story moving towards where they want it to, to me, it just means they are lazy.

This does not mean that I think all stories that do that are crap, I just feel cheated. If they have the energy to write an otherwise great story, why not spend some of it making it credible?

I mean, if we are writing fics about a show, we love it enough to show some respect to it, right? Anyway, enough ranting.

The conversation with the Hokage was difficult to manage. For more reasons than the one above. I had to decide whether to allow it to be read or simply jump forward in time and reveal what was said in a flashback.

I decided to expose the whole conversation... I think it creates a bit more interest in the resolution of the Wave Arc, and as we approached the graduation and eventually Team 7's mission to Wave, it seemed the right thing to do.

Chapter 17 took a while to write for many reasons, most of them personal, but on the other side, there is also the feeling that I have to make this one a good chapter I'm not sure I have managed that but I think it sets up for chapter 18 nicely and helped me sort through some ideas I had for the story. Although I have put this weight on my own shoulders, the truth is that Haku's character build-up must reach a true turnabout here.

Haku is going to be re-united with Zabuza, he is back in Wave, Tazuna is going to get killed but for the efforts of Team 7; Naruto will have to face the Mist in the Leaves, Kakashi will have to face Zabuza, Haku's plans will come face to face with destiny and history at the same time and along with that, Gatou has more underhanded deals seeping deep into Konoha.

But, also there was something important that had been missing, and as Lousy Poet Automaton pointed it out to me on the review, I realized how true the words were: Haku had drifted away from the gang. That was something that had to be addressed appropriately and which forced me to create an encounter with the Nara Family.

The challenge was a welcome one as it put the writing gears to work, and as the little subplot advanced I started tying up a few ideas I had into it. Meaning a new mysterious character coming into Haku's life, catching up with the wolves and well, just getting it done! It's easy to get distracted by real life when writing, especially when it throws you really big changes.

However, I digress.

Returning to the fic, this time I had to approach it with several days of not writing in between parts. As such, new ideas popped up and I ended up writing several scenes instead of a progressive story, out of which I had to make sense. Once our new characters were in it [the story] my thought process about their relation to Haku (although to me it is clear as to how they are related, how they would influence her is another matter) seeped into their dialogues- too much stuff would turn this story into, well, something that it is not supposed to be. I thought however, that it would not do to deny her the part of her heritage that she has discovered in this story.

An important part to remember is also the reason behind all these people suddenly appearing in her life that were not there before. As I am writing this, it has not surfaced in the story (although it will) and therefore I will not comment too much on it other than to say:

Yes, I do have a method to this madness, and no, they will not turn her into an über-powerful ninja capable of taking all of Akatsuki with her hands tied behind her back... although it should come as no surprise to the readers that she will be much more powerful than she was in the original story and she will be more so than she would have been had she ("he" in canon, for the puritans out there) survived. I already have certain limits that she will never cross (and that includes sage mode, for example) and I intend to stick to them.

One of the reasons that chapter 17 also took a bit of time to finish was that during the camping trip several ideas came to mind, but due to time I was half tempted to end it short with "the camping trip flashed by and before they knew it they were on their way back to Konoha" but... well, if I were in my reader's shoes I would feel cheated.

As such I left it where it felt "right" to leave it for now. Haku is reconnecting with her friends and it is setting up nicely for a couple of ideas I had been turning around in my head for the future of the story.

End Part 2