Kusari no Naruto

Sixteenth Link

Haku rubbed at her eyes blearily, a small yawn escaping her lips as she blinked away her sleepiness. The cool, dewy ground beneath her bare feet kept crunching as she shifted awkwardly from side to side. It was cold this early in the morning. The sun still had yet to rise, and all she had to ward off that chill was the thin, flower-patterned kimono she had been sleeping in not ten minutes earlier. The cause for the early wake up was the pacing blond a few feet in front of her, his face screwed up in thought. Haku got the distinct impression he was having some kind of internal argument.

Her confusion at the odd scenario might have been more evident if she wasn't so sleepy. As it was, her eyes were half-lidded and her shoulders sagged slightly, causing a single sleeve to creep its way down her porcelain shoulder. After their conversation the previous night, Haku had awoken to find the apartment empty with only the fading warmth on her back to prove it had all even happened. Naruto had then been conspicuously absent for the rest of the day, leaving Haku to wait about in the apartment until he returned, which he did not.

Instead, she had been rather suddenly awoken at something like three o'clock in the morning, although she hadn't the chance to check, and rudely dragged out to this random training ground. She supposed it could have been worse; Hi no Kuni nights were notoriously mild compared to Mizu's or even Nami's, and there was enough of a moon to bathe everything in a silvery glow. She did wish he had at least given her the opportunity to grab some underwear.

There was a noticeable breeze running through the clearing.

"Okay." Naruto's voice cut through the relative silence of the night, snapping the dark-haired girl out of her sleepy daze. "I've decided…" The blond seemed to pause for a moment, a thoughtful expression briefly scrunching up his features "…that from now on I'm going to train you."

There was another long silence, this time on Haku's end as the girl stared uncomprehendingly at Naruto.

"Eh?" Was the most eloquent responce to tumble from her mouth, and the only thought that managed to escape the sudden jumble that was her brain.

Naruto simply nodded resolutely. He might have looked almost comical in his teacher-esque pose if it weren't for his otherwise foreboding demeanour.

"Nezumi said it worked for her, and I once said that I was going to beat all of my teammates, in every way possible." Another nod from the chain-user lapsed the clearing into silence again.

Even Haku, who had never met Nezumi, felt incredulous at the obviously made up answer.

"You're going to… train me?" She finally managed, only to have Naruto's expression suddenly darken as his icy blue eyes snapped up to hers.

"You have a problem with it?" The Yuki could have sworn that the temperature in the clearing suddenly dropped a few degrees; a shudder even ran up the length of her spine.

"N-No, of course not." Internally she would defend that the stutter was because of the cold, despite her affinity for Hyoton Ninjutsu. Naruto nodded again, his expression losing the scathing edge; or at least the more-than-usual frightening edge.

"You're strong, but only when you run away," the blond picked up again, either not noticing or ignoring as Haku gained a mildly indignant expression. She rather prided herself on her abilities; it had been what she strived to perfect and enhance for Zabuza's sake. She was a weapon and Naruto had basically called her blunt from certain angles. But then, she had only escaped direct confrontations with him through the use of pre-laid traps. Also, he was the first person around her age to be able to keep up with her speed.

She decided at that moment to simply remain quiet while the boy that could, and quite possibly would skewer her at a moment's notice, carry on. Again, if Naruto noticed her short-lived burst of resentment he didn't comment on it, simply donning a particularly vicious grin; although it was actually a rather mild one by his standards.