Repost. Originally posted sometime in 2004.
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It was with great speed that the group of ninja and ninja-wanna-bes were prepared to head off on their adventure. Tracking down Scarecrow was a bit harder, but finally accomplished with a bare fifteen minutes to go before Kakashi was to summon him. For some reason he had been hiding from Lupin-- something Momochi could sympathsize with, even if he never said anything.
"Alright," Zabuza looked at the extra three bodies coming with them, frowning, "Get a good grip on Scarecrow, and don't let go. No one's ever tried this before, and I'd rather not have to explain how I got you three killed."
"Note," Fred muttered to his brother, "How he exempts Haku."
"That's because he trusts Haku," Hermione whacked the man-shaped doll, "Mister Zabuza doesn't trust us."
"With good reason," the man interupted, "Are you going to grab hold of not-- you too, Fred."
"He's 'Sen' now," George offered helpfully, ignoring the way his brother began sputtering. Fred hated that name. Zabuza raised an eyebrow, and the older Weasley explained, "We decided we needed names that fit in. So I'm Ito, Fred's Sen, and Hermione is Yaone."
Momochi shook his head, muttering something under his breath, but whatever he was said was lost as the summoning began.
Of course, it had to be at this moment in time that one Remus Lupin came around the corner into the corridor. He gave a startled cry, lunging for the group-- only to find himself passing through smoke as they vanished. Pushing himself up off the cold stone floor, the werewolf cursed under his breath.
What the hell was he supposed to do now?
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"I'm glad you could make it," the voice came from behind them, and the three newbie-ninjas whirled to face whoever it was. Haku and Zabuza had already turned in that direction, instead of taking in their surroundings-- wherever they were, it looked like there had been one hell of a battle. The was a blonde lady, sitting at a desk, and a silver-haired man standing in front of said desk.
"Kakashi," Zabuza nodded in the man's direction, and the three teenagers finally had a face to go with the few things Haku had told them about his 'last days'. The other jounin only had a vaguely surprised look on his face, like he hadn't really expected the mist-nin to come through. Their companions were a complete surprise, but he didn't let that really get to him.
"If we may begin?" the woman's voice was dry, and as she leaned over the desk her cleveage bounced. George and Fred's eyes were immediately focused there, much to Hermione's annoyance and Haku's amusement.
"What is it you would like of us... Godaime-sama?" Haku was the one to speak, and his hesitation before the title was simply because he didn't know, for sure, if this was Konoha's fifth Hokage. The blonde smiled tightly.
"I'm offering to pay you five for your services in protecting Konoha," she looked away for a moment, battling with something in her mind, before shaking whatever it was off, "After this... mess with Orochimaru and... others, we need help. You were the obvious choice, given your reputations, Zabuza-san, Haku-san."
"On that," the demon grumbled, "How the hell did you know we were alive in the first place? Haku did an incredible job in faking our deaths."
"I had my suspicions," Kakashi informed them, smiling behind his mask, "I felt something right before I hit 'Haku' with the chidori-- and something similiar to it right before you died, Zabuza."
"The Inuzuka clan is well known for their ability to speak with dogs," Godaime continued with a faint smile, "It was due to coincidence that Sirius was summoned on a mission involving an Inuzuka."
"Sirius?" George had gone pale, turning to stare at the dog.
"Something wrong, Ito?" Hermione turned to look at her companion, frowning. The older Weasley shook his head.
"It's... it's just a coincidence, don't worry about it," he shook off the cold chill, but knew for a fact that it wouldnt go away 'until he could freely talk about this with his teammates.
The Hokage had been watching them curiously for a moment, then returned her attention to the mission at hand, "I will give you food and lodgings for period for which you remain in Konoha. I'm afraid we don't have much money to pay you with-- the majority of it has been allotted to repairs for the village."
"Understandable," Haku nodded carefully, ignoring the snort and Fred's comment of the fact that Haku's parents had been filthy stinking rich, so he probably was too. To be honest, Haku had no idea what kind of family he had come from, outside of the fact that his aunt and uncle had been horrid people, and he'd brutally slain them a decade earlier.
"Will you take this mission?" the Hokage was desperate for help, as the village needed all it could get. Too many people had died when the Sound and the Sand had attacked. There was little help to be found in other circles. That was when Zabuza laughed.
"We're here, aren't we?"
And abruptly, the atmosphere of the room had gone from tense to 'oh thank god'. The two leaders continued their discussion, as to where they would be housed and what areas they would be allowed to use for training, for quite some time before they were finally allowed to leave. Then they were shown to their temporary rooms in the Hokage Tower, allowing for them to rest and prepare for the long days ahead.
It wasn't until the twins and Hermione had changed out of their school robes and into provided clothing that the female of the group realised something. Exiting the bathroom and into the common room, she held a konoha hitae-ate in her hands, "Mis... Zabuza-san," that was going to be hard to get used to, speaking japanese like a japanese person, and not like an englishman or american trying to sound japanese, "these forehead protectors..."
"Hmm?" Zabuza looked over at her, and frowned, "Something wrong He... Yaone?"
"Well, we're not leaf-nin, nor are we mist-nin. What kind of hitae-ate are we to wear?"
Now that was a good question. Neither Yaone or Ito were 'true' ninja, so they shouldn't be wearing the hitae-ate in the first place. However, they would have to be wearing a hitae-ate if they were going to participate in the previous the chuunin exam. For a moment, he considered just letting them wear blank hitae-ate, but that was quickly brushed off. They would have to be a team, and therefore all three of them would have to wear the same village symbol, "Use the mist-nin symbol; you'll be fighting with Haku."
"Right..." pulling her wand from it's place tucked into her shuriken holster, Yaone preformed a quick transfiguration to change it into the proper symbol. Ito followed her lead shortly thereafter. Sen left his hitae-ate alone, and when his brother stared at him, Sen shrugged.
"I'm playing a doll, remember? You should probably let the strings go."
"So tiresome," Ito grumbled, but let the strings go. Watching his brother just... vanish... into the doll-shape was creepy no matter how many times it occured.
"When shall we use the time turner, Zabuza-san?" Haku turned to look at the man. Momochi shrugged.
"I suggest you use it now-- go out to one of the training grounds and shift back. You may have to 'jump' it a few times, in order to get as far back as you need."
"Right!" the four nodded, Sen climbing into his favored position of on his brother's head, before the ninja and his companions vanished out the window. Haku took the lead, guiding them towards the training grounds he had repeatedly watched Naruto-kun train in. Hopefully they wouldn't run into him either in the here and now, or the here and then. It would be hard to explain both coming out of thin air and being alive.
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"What a trip," Ito rubbed his forehead, trying to dispell the headache brought on by the multiple jumps with the time turner. It had taken Yaone a number of 'jumps' to get back to the time period in which they were needed, and in each one the time turner had played havoc with the mana strings that kept him connected to his brother and to his teammates. Sen was just dizzy from the sensation and was clinging to Ito's hair with a death grip, unaware that they had finally reached their destination.
Yaone brushed off the seat of her pants, having stumbled when they had arrived. She was about to say something when Haku raised a hand and commanded the group into the trees. It was an instinctual reaction bred from weeks of fighting alongside or against the fifteen year old-- both Ito and Yaone followed his command without a blink. It was a good thing too, for a moment later they were witness to a strange man doing battle with Naruto-kun over a little girl. Naruto got the girl back, of course, but it didn't appear to be a truly serious match at all.
Once Naruto had left to return the girl to-- the group assumed-- her parents, they dropped back out of the trees, "That was... enlightening."
"Not really," Ito folded his arms behind his head, "So how are we going to get into the Chuunin Exam, anyway?"
Haku shrugged, and began heading in the direction of Konoha at a mild pace, "We're supposed to have special applications to hand in." His teammates blinked, obviously questioning where they would get such applications. The Boy Who Lived smiled a secretive little smile, "That's where you two learn your 'genin' titles. You're going to steal the applications off of another team."
"What?!" Yaone stepped in front of him, arms crossed and eyes narrowed, "What the hell do you mean we have to steal the applications, Hakuhyou?! You know damn well than neither G... Ito or I aren't ready for any such thing."
"Then we don't get into the chuunin exam!" the hunter-nin smiled at her, "We have to make sure that you two-- and you, Sen-- have the skills and abilities to even be a genin, let alone compete in the Chuunin exam. And just think, if you two can do that after only a month of lessons, you'll be great ninja!"
Yaone scowled at him, stepping aside to let him continue onwards, "I hate you, you do realise that, right?"
"Oh absolutely."
"So who's the mark?" Two sets of curious eyes went to the doll, and Ito chuckled.
"Sen likes to watch muggle films."
"Ah..." Haku nodded, before turning to Yaone, "Use your doujutsu, Yaone. Do you see anyone who looks like the groups that... failed the first exam?" He was assuming, of course, that she had seen the exams-- she'd seen the sand-nin, after all. Enough that she'd managed to develope a crush on him.
With a blink, Yaone's warm brown eyes turned chilling purple, the pupil completely gone. None of the group was quite sure why her eyes had turned purple a week or so earlier, only that it had to be a sideeffect of her continously growing control over her bloodline, "There," she murmured, pointing to the east, "There is a group of genin approaching Konoha from that direction. They're about a kilometer outside of the village. I do not recall seeing them in the third exam."
"What village are they?"
"I... can't tell," Yaone sighed, "I need to practice more."
"You did well, Yaone," Haku clapped her shoulder, "Now let's go. We have a group of genin to... sidetrack."
His teammates nodded, and the group took to the trees, Yaone leading. It didn't take them all that long to reach the group of... well, what did you know. They were mist-nin.
Haku signaled for his team to drop out of the trees, landing lightly on the road between the mist genin and their destination.
"What the...!?" that came from their jounin companion. Haku frowned slightly-- he didn't recognise the man. Had it really been so long since he had last been to the Village of the Mist that he could no longer recognise each of the jounin by sight?
"God!" one of the genins was clutching his chest, "Don't do that, man! I thought you were an enemy nin for sure!"
"We're in Konoha territory," Yaone smiled, though it was somewhat condecending, "All ninja are enemy ninja."
"What are you three doing here?" the jounin was frowning, "I know all the Mist genin teams participating in the exam-- you are not one of them."
"We're... late entries," Ito smirked at the man, fingers twitching slightly as he wove mana strands around the genin and their instructor, "We just came to inform you of that."
The jounin frowned, "Who's your instructor, boy?"
It was Haku who answered, "Our sensei is Momochi Zabuza."
"Momo... he's a missing-nin!" the jounin cursed, jumping between his students and Haku's team. The master of ice tipped his head slightly.
"So he is. Ito! Yaone! Get what we came for. I'll take care of the jounin."
The wizard and the witch didn't even hesitate, heading straight for the genin while Haku ran at the jounin. The battle was short, sweet, and completely anticlimatic. The rookie-jounin was nothing compared to the seasoned hunter-nin-- Haku's speed had taken the jounin by surprise, and a moment later he'd sprouted a number of senbon from his throat. It was a waste of a ninja, and Haku reserved time to mourn the death later that night, but they had a purpose for being here, and nothing was to get in the way of that.
Dissolving the ice-needles, Haku turned to watch Ito and Yaone fight. Yaone was dancing around the attacks from the groups sole 'female, while Ito was using his strings to take care of the two boys. Still, the mist genin were fighting back, and Ito had the cuts to prove it. Come morning, he'd probably have the bruises to go with it.
Yaone was doing her best to simply render the younger girl unconscious, fingers flashing as she employed all the taijutsu she knew to try and strike the various shiatsu points on the girl's body. The witch didn't know enough about the tenketsu to be able to utilize them, even though she could see them.
Haku watched the two mana-users fight it out for several more minutes, the results of which being that Sen electrified the mana-strings binding the two boys. They were electrocuted to death. Yaone had launched a kick that connected with the tired genin girl's temple, sending her flying. The girl came down with a crash at Haku's feet-- and he plunged a needle into the girl's jugular.
"Ha... Haku!" Yaone stared at him in shock. Seeing deaths on the mirror shard, and seeing them in real life were two different things, "Wh... why did you do that?!"
"We can not afford our mission being compromised," Haku's words were soft, "Ito, Sen. Good job. You can pray for their souls tonight. For the time being, strip them of their belongings and weapons. Make sure we each have an application. Then..."
"Then?" Yaone looked betrayed, Ito looked sick and Sen... had gone limp. The boy had obviously locked himself into his mind, making his body appear just as it was-- a doll.
"Then we will bury them, and ask for their forgiveness."
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End Part Fourteen
Yes, I know. Crappy battle scene. Well nyah. You try writing a battle scene when your fingers are about to freeze off, and you're being repeatedly distracted. ((Damn these Canadian autumns!))
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Chapter notes: Disclaimer: Naruto is property of Kishimoto Masashi, Shueisha, and Studio Pierrot in Japan, and translated by VIZ Media and ShoPro Entertainment into English. Harry Potter is property of author JKRowling. No copyright infringement intended, these characters are not used to generate money, nor are they used with permission.