Kusari no Naruto

Twenty Fifth Link

Haku shifted back, making sure never to keep off the ground for too long. Naruto had superiority in the air, so she kept her footwork light but grounded. It was a dance, in her mind at least. The nature of her sparring partner's ability meant that she was forced to chain her movements into one seamless flow to avoid being hit.

For once though, the incentive wasn't to avoid their sharp points. In fact, Naruto had actually blunted the tips of his weapons so all she would receive was the occasional bruise.

She hadn't even known he could do that.

It wasn't the only thing wrong with the training session. Naruto lacked his usual intensity. The chains moved slower, almost languidly. Far from his normal attitude, he didn't seem all that intent on pushing her. She was breezing through this exercise and he had barely ramped up the difficulty. In hindsight, it should have been a warning sign that she was noticing something off from her lack of injuries.

It was that mission yesterday. Ever since he came back he seemed different. By virtue of his dislike of socialising, he often appeared thoughtful. Now though, she could actually tell that he was deep in thought about something; troubled even. She drifted back, like a leaf in the wind, and allowed a lazy flick of the chain to skim the front of her kimono. Naruto barely even seemed to notice.

She began to subtly shift her positioning, ghosting forward in wide arcs that allowed her to continue dodging the lacklustre swipes. She pivoted her foot, allowing the ground to take a blow aimed for her chest without losing ground. Then, suddenly, she was in front of him.

"Is something wrong?"

It was a credit to how far he had come that, when startled, Naruto simply took a step back instead of – as his teammates enjoyed putting it – going full hedgehog. He blinked, as if only realising they were still training, before glancing over at where Haku should have been.

"You shouldn't have been able to get this close to me."

The girl shrugged. "You seemed distracted."

The blond seemed ready to argue, before thinking better of it and giving a half-hearted shrug of his own.

"I don't know. I suppose I was."

Haku descended gracefully to the ground, patting the spot next to her. "Something I could help with?"

He hesitated for a second before flopping down next to her, his chains catching him at the last moment and laying him down gently. "Maybe." He seemed to chew on that thought for a moment before nodding. "I want you to teach me how to heal."

Haku blinked. "That's not a decision to make lightly."

Naruto scowled right back at her. "Do I look like I make any decision lightly?"

His indignation ebbed away in the face of her soft smile.

"I didn't mean it that way," she placated. "I'm merely curious about the sudden shift in priorities." For the last few months it had been nothing but getting stronger, faster, better able to kill. The sudden one-eighty seemed completely out of left field.

"There's no shift," he shot back tersely, but again he deflated when she continued to smile magnanimously. "I just…" He frowned, looking down at his hand. A chain snaked out of his shoulder and coiled around the limb, the tip pointing back at him like an expectant snake. She hadn't seen him do that in quite some time, a remnant of his more theatrical days. "I feel like I'm only good for killing."

"That's never bothered you before." She wasn't normally this blunt, but she knew nothing less would actually drag answers out of the stubborn teen. She was well used to his mannerisms after many such discussions late at night. Rarely were they so introspective though.