Kusari no Naruto

Thirteenth Link

The atmosphere in the bridge-builder's house had gone beyond tense, the only sound that could be heard was Sakura's nervous breathing and the rhythmic tapping of Naruto's fingers. The blond was perched, as that was the only proper way to describe it, on the back of a chair, staring so intently at Haku that the Genin thought the faux hunter-nin's head might spontaneously combust.

Haku simply continued to stare forward at the table, usually soft brown eyes soulless and unfocused. Even when Sai walked across the room, his usual fake smile plastered on his ridiculously ignorant features, and poked Haku, Zabuza's former apprentice didn't even flinch.

"So are you a boy, or a girl?" The former ROOT operative piped up conversationally, completely ignorant of his inappropriateness. Even Naruto raised an eyebrow in his direction before returning to staring at Haku intently, as if he could will some kind of reaction to occur. Sakura was a little more vocal in her incredulity as she slapped the dark-haired boy on the back of his head.

"Read the mood baka!" She shouted irritably. The room had been far too tense for someone to do something that stupid, like lighting up a cigarette in a room full of gunpowder. She spared a glance at the metaphorical gunpowder and sighed, glad that Naruto hadn't decided to do anything but continue to glare. Sai simply rubbed the back of his head and turned to his female teammate, his expression eerily unchanging.

"But I read in my books that is only polite to start up conversations with new acquaintances; if I do not know Haku-san's gender, I might make some kind of social error." He suddenly pulled out a small book that seemed to be some kind of instructional manual and glanced down at it. "From what I understand there are quite a few of them."

For the first time since Naruto had met Sai he saw something other than that ridiculous smile on his face as the boy frowned down at the book. "They are… difficult to follow." Sakura's eye simply twitched; she had obviously been dealing with this for a while now.

"Yeah, but you don't make a social mistake just to stop yourself making a social mistake you damn idiot!" Her hands shook slightly and she looked as though she wanted to rip some hair out… preferably from Sai. She took a calming breath as Sai frowned down at his book again, obviously confused by the social hurdles that were instinctual to well-adjusted people; not that Naruto could talk. "Anyway, Haku-san is not our acquaintance; she… ah I mean, he…"

Sakura paused, blinking, and in the corner of the room where Sasuke had been loitering, the Uchiha smirked slightly.

"I am female, Sakura-san," Haku intoned blandly, her eyes remaining unchanged as she barely moved her lips to speak. She seemed so completely devoid of energy it was like something had just drained the life out of her, leaving her a blank, empty shell. For the girl in question, that wouldn't have sounded too different from how she felt.

"A-Ah I knew that!" Sakura defended, twisting a strand of long pink hair around her finger nervously with a shaky smile, before looking back at Sai, apparently her target of vented frustrations. "Exactly; she's…" However she trailed off again, blinking rapidly as her mind failed to mesh any gears into a coherent thought. "Ah, sensei? Why is Haku-san here? I-If Zabuza-san is…" She spared a glance at the girl before motioning with her hands in a vague manner "…then aren't we not enemies anymore?" From where the silver-haired Jounin had been lazily leaned back in his chair, Kakashi finally poked his head up from behind his book.

"Good question Sakura, but I'm afraid you're asking the wrong Jounin." The tall man drawled before returning to his precious reading. Naruto simply scoffed, not moving his eyes from Haku as he glared. He was sure that Kakashi would be more than happy to let Haku simply walk away if it saved him any extra work.

"I'm taking her back to Konoha," Naruto growled out lowly and that seemed to be all he had to say on the subject. However before the room could descend back into an uncomfortable silence Kakashi spoke up again, this time not even bothering to look up as he lazily turned a page.