Orphans of Time Ch. 22

Humans are so weak.  Anko released her grip on the man's neck as he dropped like a vegetable.  He'd wake up in twenty minutes with a headache and no answers to give.  The Otogakure embassy was small, but the guards followed one of Orochimaru's basic security patterns.  In less than a minute they were all blacked out on the floor.  Checking the quarters she was pleased to find that Dosu had come here directly after being reprimanded.  Outside a window she saw a familiar dark figure watching in the night, Danzo was having her watched.

Leaving Dosu alone, she checked the other rooms.  Zaku was in the infirmary, with his dismembered arm in a containment tube.  That gel it was suspended in would prevent any necrosis of the tissues.  She found Kin in the last room down the hall.  Using eye of the serpent, Anko saw an increased blood-flow around her eyes showed that she had been crying yesterday.

The supply closet had their things, but she needed to decide how to approach this.  Extraction was never the easiest job, let alone in a case where she was trying to keep her targets away from Orochimaru.

'No, they're not my targets.' Years of training had her thinking so cold, inhuman. Sitting in a chair next to Zaku she held his remaining hand. 'They're my family.'

Looking over the clipboard at the end of Zaku's bed she looked over his status and was pleased to see he was generally in good health.  There was severe damage to his chakra system the Aburame's insects and fractures to his air-tubes.  Taking a scroll from her pouch she sealed away his arm and a few supplies.

"Get up."  She woke Dosu first.  Not waiting to answer any question she moved to Kin's room, disarmed her of the senbon needles she had hidden under her hand, and shook her awake.  Kin reflexively moved to attack but held back in the moment her eyes adjusted.

"Anko, what are you doing here?"

"We're leaving.  Take supplies for a two-week field drill and nothing else."  She turned her head to Dosu who was looking on.  Pulling a wad of bandages from his pocket he began to bind his head with his usual style.

Zaku was a small challenge.  Putting a mild stimulant in his i.v. tubes woke him up fairly quickly.  Taking a stethoscope from the counter she monitored his heart rate and helped him up when satisfied.

She only had to help Zaku down the stairs to the lower lobby before Dosu took his arm.  Kin got the scroll containing the arm and their passports.

"You're lucky you made it to the next round of the Chuunin exams Dosu.  At this time they practically give you free reign as long as you are training.  Take the southern gate out of town and then make your way down the south-eastern highway to avoid detection.  I'm going to leave a few false trails, including ones going in the same direction.  There's a hot springs town about ten miles out, hide out there until I make contact with you tomorrow night.  If I don't show up, head west to the old Hyuuga ruins."

"You honestly expect us to get away from him?"  Zaku sounded half-defeated already.  The air was tense, they knew Orochimaru was making plans for them, they knew what failure meant.

Grabbing him by the collar she pulled the slightly taller boy down to look him in her eyes, which she felt had changed shape to look like a snake's eyes, something that was happening more often.  "Listen and listen good.  What were you when we first found you?  Miserable, street vermin, orphans of war, living off the streets, picking pockets, doing anything to survive.  Did all those years of training turn you into quitters?"

Zaku's eyes were full of pain, but there was still a fire in there, even the smallest spark that had always been there.  Looking around, she saw that same tiny bit of hope in Kin and Dosu.  "Don't give up.  Don't let one failure hold you back."  Letting go of Zaku, she turned to Dosu.  "Remember what being a Chuunin means, being a leader.  Your team is wounded, miles inside enemy territory, and you're being hunted."  Poking him in his chest to emphasize her final words, "Do you have what it takes?"

Time was short.  She now had half and hour to finish what she had come back to Konoha for.  Leaving the Sound Three behind, she ran back into the night to pay a visit to a certain money lender who had some for the exams.

The man was a pig, sleeping with his jewelry on.  One particularly skilled Anbu had seen her enter the hotel, she had to assume she would be reported, but this would be quick.  His monogrammed seal was in his pocket.  Ink on the desk served to stamp one part of the document she produced from her sleeve.  A simple katon technique lit a flame at the end of her finger the size of a candle flame to melt wax to seal the paper, and finally the seal had a wax stamp which would complete the illusion.

Such a simple task and yet it had taken her so long.  Blowing out the flame, she hid the paper up her sleeve and felt her surroundings.  Anbu was closing in… no, not Anbu.   A man was very calmly walking the hall outside and opened the doors to the room.  Through her senses she realized she recognized the man.

"Danzo, what can I do for you?"

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It was well after dawn when Zabuza had returned to the apartment.  After handing over a letter from the Mizukage and making a rude gesture at Ao he went right to sleep.

"One of these days that stand-offish attitude of his will get him killed when he finally makes the wrong person angry."  Ao muttered angrily before leaving.

Haku found Chojuro reading over the same journals Zabuza was reading for the past couple of days.  "Zabuza-san has been reading these journals like a man possessed.  I was only raised to the sword a month ago and never got the chance to read them.  If he finds something in these, I want to find it too."

Leaving the house, Haku found much less security was following him than normal.  Stopping for a moment, he took off his mask and walked around town like a normal person, even taking off his forehead protector, and turning his robe inside out so the darker blue inside would face out instead of the light blue.  With a few spare ryo in his pockets he purchased some herbs from a greenhouse along with a jar of picked garlic he found at a specialty produce store.

Breakfast at a local inn was well prepared; though the grilled mackerel was sub-par the miso soup was incredible.  Deciding to go out and see the countryside Haku checked out at the southern gate before leaving the city.  Haku had noticed it before, but the gatekeepers kept multiple sets of books, specific books kept for specific visitors – shinobi from other villages.  More a courtesy than anything else, keeping things official was a fair measure of security.

A quick run through the forest and Haku realized that he was making his way back to the town where he had been meeting Jiraiya.  There was something about the air in that town, perhaps the steam from the hot springs and thermal river that reminded him of home.  Other places were too dry for his taste, that little village just felt right.

He could not help but see the fresh trails made in the forest, apparently there was a three-man team moving through these woods.  But this close to Konoha that was nothing surprising.  A mile out of town he hopped down to the road and enjoyed the nature walk and reflected on himself.

There's a strange sort of peace found walking outside with the sun on your face, it comes naturally.  Humans seem to share a kinship with plants in that respect.  It is a different sort of peace than one has when on a mission, a peace that stills emotions by force in order to heighten focus and reflexes.  Zabuza's mind seemed to be struggling with the same problem ever since the fight with Naruto's team – how to be human and a shinobi?

For his own part Haku found the question troubled him in ways he did not have words for.  It is one thing for a person to put together the pieces of a broken life, but what was one to do with a life where there is nothing left?  Reaching the town Haku inquired at a bar Jiraiya had gone to the other day and found the Toad Sage was not there.  Deciding to leave a note, Haku began writing a note to be given to Jiraiya but stopped when he recognized someone out the corner of his eye.

It was a clever transformation jutsu, but there are clear signs that can give someone away.  Three farmers, two men and a woman, one of the men wearing an eye patch carrying a bundle of sticks the other with a "broken arm" in a sling.  Of themselves, not particularly remarkable.  It was the woman who caught Haku's eye.  A farmer with long hair, well groomed and shiny; that's what gave them away; the Team from the Sound Village, right down to the one who had lost half of his arm.

Realizing that nobody had seen him without his mask, Haku knew that they would not recognize him.  Playing a waiting game, he sat down and idly wrote on the paper, now more interested in the disguised ninja than in finding Jiraiya.  After ten minutes of acting normal, Haku realized they were going to be playing the long game when they took their injured team mate upstairs to a room, leaving the girl downstairs to start a watch rotation.

In the inn's waiting room Haku found a hostess off duty and asked to borrow her shamisen.  Sitting down he tuned the instrument and began playing a tune.  The hostess listened intently, and soon a few patrons from outside came into the host room to see him play.  Finishing his first song, Haku found it odd how comfortable he was holding a bachi.  He made a motion to hand the hostess back the instrument but the customers asked for one more song.

After four more songs he finally was able to get away from the room and return to his private booth.  Looking down on the sheet of paper he found the scribbles of half started notes and he crumpled the paper and threw it away.

"It's your eyes."  The disguised girl from the Sound Team said.  "You're not the best player I've ever heard, and when you're not playing you seem to hide your emotions pretty well."  She looked at him revealing a half-started curiosity which faded.  "But your eyes communicate the sadness of the songs when you play, especially that last song… though I don't think anyone recognized the tune."

"It's one I learned from my…" Haku stopped himself, he had forgotten all about his mother's playing when he was a child.  The shamisen was not her instrument, it was one from far to the north where the Yuki Clan had lived.  'Sad songs stop snowstorms,' she had said to him, 'Ice giants who caused blizzards would stop to listen and their hearts would break, ending the storm.'

"Are you okay?"  She asked.

"Yes, I'm fine.  I was just thinking about my mother."  Her face was different, but Haku knew it was the same girl from that forest.  He still wondered why he had made that crystal rose.  "I was just trying to do something to take up time.  I'm waiting for someone."

"So are w… so am I."  A hint of nervousness was in her voice.

"I hope you don't mind terribly, but would it be alright if we sat together.  Your companions have gone upstairs and it wouldn't be proper for a lady to sit alone."

"Well aren't you old fashioned."  She smiled and nodded.  Her false eye color changed back to her natural black from her false deep brown.  Leading him to her booth they sat down and ordered a snack.  Under the table he heard her feet shift, faint metallic sliding sound in her sandal.  "By the way, I couldn't help but notice a small bulge in your robes."  Haku realized she had a senbon needle grasped in her toes.  Her tone was part playful, but there was a hint of worry there.  "You carrying anything special."  

Reaching into his robe, Haku pulled out the picked garlic.  "A present for a friend of mine I was expecting to meet."  She sat up in her seat and the needle slid back into a special groove under her foot.  Haku prided himself of his deadpan, but it felt wrong at the same time.  He was trying to act naturally, but at the same time he was hiding who he was from a person who was hiding who she was.  At least her immediate fears were dissuaded and he did his best to have a normal conversation with her over tea.

Her disguise story was pretty good, but a part of him felt sad to have a conversation of this sort.  His mask was tucked away in a hidden pouch in his robe, but she was wearing a mask of her own.  For his part he decided to be honest.  He was a simple villager from the east country who was enjoying himself on a vacation, every word true in a way that didn't reveal the whole truth.  An interesting dynamic.

After half an hour her team mate with the eye patch disguise came downstairs and made some excuse for her to go up, an obvious change of shift.  The way her team mate let Haku go without question indicated that he would find out from her later.  Leaving the shop, Haku was greeted with a familiar voice outside.

"Impressive work with the little lady."  Jiraiya's voice was low and even.  Cutting off Haku he began to take a road out of town.  "You're becoming quite the little charmer."  Haku handed the Sage the jar of pickled garlic, which he greedily began to snack on.  It made for a decent diversion until they got out of town.

"Are you here to talk to me about the Mizukage's plan to attend the Chuunin Exams?"

"No, the Hokage already talked with Zabuza and Ao about her."  Jiraiya would get a certain look in his eye whenever he talked about women, but mention of the Mizukage did not get a reaction from him, odd.  The older man looked around, distracted, but with a calm look in his eyes he turned back to Haku.  "Haku we know that Orochimaru is plotting something, something big.  I want your help finding out what it is and also stopping it."