章 91: Chapter 091

A stifled sob and the feeling of a body pressing into his caused Naruto to stop his story, looking down he saw Haku crying into his shirt. Deciding that she knew enough, he stopped there and got to his point, "I don't think I need to tell you who this child was."

Haku shook her head as she looked up at him. "I don't… *Sniff* understand, how anyone *Sniff* could do something like that to an innocent child with such a burden."

"It's because they don't understand," Naruto said quietly, "humans have always held a fear of the things they don't or can't understand, and when they fear something the basic instinct of all humans is to lash out at it simply to prove that they don't fear it. You should know this better than anyone since the same thing that happened in Kiri…"

"Still…" Haku said as she placed her head on his shoulder, "I don't know how you could handle something like that without breaking."

"And I don't know how you could deal with your parents' death, or the fact that you were forced to kill one of them without breaking," Naruto replied. "I can handle it because I understand why there doing It and want to change their opinions of me. Before I found out why, I had used my pranks and hid behind a goofy smile and upbeat attitude to deal with it. I guess I figured that if they were going to ignore me, or hate me, I would give them a reason to with my pranks."

The whiskered blond ran a hand through his hair and sighed, "It wasn't until a traitor tricked me into stealing the forbidden scroll of sealing that I found out why. But now I do understand, and I'll make them change, I'll become Hokage and show everyone that I'm not the demon they think I am…"

Haku smiled as she looked up at him. "You really are an amazing person Naruto-kun," She said.

Naruto blushed, "Well, I'm not really all that… special…"

Haku shook her head and smiled, "You are, you're just too modest to realize how amazing you are." Reaching into an inner pocket where she normally carried senbon, Haku pulled out a beautiful necklace with a green crystal being held in the center of a snowflake. "My mother gave this to me, it was a family heirloom she said," the raven-haired girl placed it in Naruto's hand and closed his fingers around it, "I want you to have this."

Naruto looked at Haku in shock. Looking down at the necklace he shook his head, "I can't take something that important from you."

Haku smiled, "You can't 'take' something if it was given to you freely. Please have it, I want you to have it."

"But…I feel kind of bad," Naruto said, though he did end up putting the necklace in his pouch, "I mean, I don't have anything of real value to give to you in return."

"I know one thing you can give me," Haku said with a small blush.

Naruto tilted his head to the side quizzically as he looked at her, "Really? What's th-"

Naruto was cut off and his eyes widened in shock when he felt a pair of warm, soft lips press against his own. His entire body froze in place, and it felt like someone had lit him up with the Amaterasu flames. Every single nerve ending felt like they had been hit with a raiton jutsu, causing him to stand ramrod straight.

When she noticed Naruto was not responding Haku pulled back and gave him a pout, "You know when someone kisses you, you're supposed to kiss back."

"I…well I…that is to say we…and you…kiss…and uh…" Naruto tried, the red on his face increasing several shades.

Haku sighed at how embarrassed and shocked the whiskered blond looked, even she knew how to kiss. "Looks like this is something we're going to need to work on," feeling that there was nothing left to be said, she claimed his mouth with her own, and even after Naruto started to respond their lips had remained locked.

Flashback end…

Naruto clenched the necklace in his hand as he tried not to let any of the emotions he had been feeling overtake him. He had never imagined that after everything he had been through in Konoha, there would be something else that would hurt even worse than his loneliness. Honestly the thought that he could be feel a pain more keen then he had felt in his home village, especially after learning why he was so hated was almost laughable.

He could no longer see any amusement in that lie of thought.

"So this is where you've been eh brat?"

Naruto turned around as he heard the gruff voice to see Zabuza walking up to him. The whiskered blond turned around, not really caring what the bandaged faced man wanted, or that he could kill him if he so decided.

"What do you want?" Naruto asked in a dull voice.

Zabuza shrugged as he stopped next to the blond, "The others have been looking for you since you've left." He paused for a moment, "Well, Kakashi and the people of Nami are, I think the pink-haired girl and that Uchiha kid are still unconscious. At least, they were when I left."

Naruto said nothing as he turned around and looked back at the grave. For a while the two said nothing, choosing to simply stare at the small monument that the Konoha shinobi had created.

"You know when I found Haku, she had really been nothing more than a scrawny little thing," Zabuza said after several minutes of silence. "I had found her huddled up on a bridge with people walking past her, ignoring her existence like she wasn't even there. She had looked like she would keel over any moment, I'm sure that had I just left she would have died from starvation within a month's time. Despite that I had felt there would be some kind of use for her and so I took her with me, and trained her to be my weapon."

Naruto fists clenched even tighter and blood began to trickle from his palms as he heard about Haku training to be used as a weapon. He would not deny that a part of him blamed this man for Haku's death as well. After all if he had never found her, she would have never died, at least not here. Still he did not speak, not feeling the desire to talk and let the man continue unhindered.

"I trained her to be the best and, in many ways her abilities in combat had surpassed even mine. But the one thing she had never lost was her pure heart. Haku hated killing in every form, even to this day she had never killed someone, she would always knock them out using pressure points and her senbn instead. Yet for some reason she stuck by me through everything, even when I killed. I had always told her that her mercy was a weakness, but no matter what happened she wouldn't kill." Zabuza sighed as he closed his eyes, "Despite my disapproval of not killing an opponent, I couldn't bring myself to make her kill."

"Why are you telling me this?" whispered Naruto after several minutes of silence.

"Because kid, I have known Haku ever since she was little," Zabuza answered. "I had trained and raised her for a long time. I saw her grow into the person she was, and watched as she grew in strength," Zabuza turned to look at Naruto. "I have seen her at both her best and her worst. However in all the years I've known her, I have never seen her as happy as she had been this past week, and I know she was like that because of you." Naruto let out a small stifled sob, but otherwise didn't react. "This past week you made Haku happier then she had ever been, and for that I want to thank you."

Naruto shook his head as he looked away from Zabuza, "I don't deserve thanks. I betrayed Haku-chan's memory by going on a rampage and killing all those people…you said it yourself, she hated killing. Haku-chan would have never wanted me to do something like that."

Zabuza snorted, "Kid, I think Haku would understand. She had always been extremely understanding of others, and I've done far worse than what you did in my lifetime. She still accepted me."