บท 11: Chapter 11: Haku

It was early in the morning, and after teaching Naruto how to tree walk, I moved on to help Sasuke master the technique.

Hinoka: "I see what the problem is; you're using too much power."

After providing Sasuke with some tips, he finally managed to get it right.

Hinoka: "You did it, Sasuke!" I exclaimed with a big smile.

As Sasuke looked at me, his face turned red, and he started falling. I quickly moved, barely catching him, and said, "Hey, are you sick? Your face keeps turning red! You could have gotten hurt!"

Sasuke: "Of course, I'm not sick! But anyways, thanks for catching me."

I dropped Sasuke on the ground before telling him, "I need to go train alone. See you later," and headed to the lake.

Upon arriving, I attempted to practice fighting on the water, but it proved challenging due to forgetting to control my chakra. After a few hours, I managed to do it quite well and decided to enjoy some reading. As I walked back to the old man's house, I found the perfect spot to read and ended up falling asleep.

"Hey, hey, you shouldn't sleep here or you'll catch a cold!" I woke up with a start, holding a kunai to the person's throat.

Hinoka: "Oh, sorry, I was still half asleep." I said, putting my kunai back in my pocket. "Hi, I'm Hinoka. What's your name?"

The person turned to me and said, "I'm Haku."

Hinoka: "Wow, you're super pretty for a boy."

Haku: "How did you know I'm a boy?"

Hinoka: "Well, it's pretty obvious. Do you often get confused for a girl?"

Haku: "Yeah."

Hinoka: "So, what are you doing here?"

Haku: "I'm collecting medicinal herbs."

Hinoka: "I'll help you if you like!"

Haku: "You don't have to."

Hinoka: "Just think of it as an apology for before."

Haku paused for a while before saying sure. As I helped him pick medicinal herbs, he asked me, "So what were you doing sleeping here?"

Hinoka: "I just finished training and was taking a break to read, and I guess I was more tired than I thought."

Haku: "Are you a ninja?"

Hinoka: "Yep!"

Haku: "Are you strong?"

Hinoka: "I'm not really sure, but if you want to find out, we can battle. Besides, even if we don't battle now, I'm sure we will soon. Zabuza is my enemy, and since you're helping him, we're bound to cross paths again."

Just then, I heard someone call my name, and when I turned around to see who it was, I saw Naruto and Sasuke. But when I turned back, Haku was gone. They both started competing, so I decided to go get some training done.

As I was training, I turned around and saw Kakashi-sensei, Naruto, and Sasuke looking at me surprised.

I looked at them and smiled, saying, "Hey, I know it's slow, but I think I'm progressing."

Kakashi: "I was already surprised when you could sleep on water, and now you're moving super-fast with such elegance like a dancer. I didn't think your chakra control could reach this level."

We then returned to the old man's house, but Naruto and Sasuke decided to train and finally returned at night, all battered up. As Sasuke was about to go upstairs, claiming he wasn't hungry, I asked Tsunami to pack two bento boxes for me, to which she gladly agreed.

After receiving the bento boxes, I couldn't sense Sasuke's chakra upstairs, so I tracked it to the forest where he was training. When I found him, I walked up to him and punched him.

Sasuke: "Hey! What did you do that for?"

Hinoka: "I get that you want to get stronger, but starving yourself just for training will only make you sick! Not to mention, it makes me worried, you idiot!"

Sasuke looked at me, shocked, before saying, "You're still the same as always, Hinoka." He said it with a smile, and at that moment, my heart skipped a beat. I couldn't help but think, 'Every time Sasuke truly smiles, my heart skips a beat. I don't know why.'

Hinoka: "So let's eat! Then we'll train for a while and then sleep."

Sasuke: "Sure."

I then brought out the bento boxes, and we ate, trained, before heading back to sleep.