Chapter 13 – Haku
"Even in mist, the path forward burns brightest when your hands are clean."
The warehouse was silent, unnaturally so. Not a creak from its beams, not even a whisper from the sea breeze. Just the steady sound of water dripping in the distance and the faint, cold tension that pressed like invisible fog against the skin.
Hajime stood beneath the rafters, his back to a stack of old crates. His breath was calm, but inside, his thoughts were racing.
Across from him, a slender figure in a dark robe descended from the beams with unnatural grace.
A porcelain hunter-nin mask reflected the moonlight from the cracked roof.
Haku.
Koji lay unconscious near the sealed trapdoor, his small chest rising and falling slowly. Hajime had made sure to block the tunnel the moment Haku appeared, his only exit locked behind reinforced stone and chakra.
He didn't reach for a weapon.
"You're not afraid," Haku said, voice smooth and gentle. "But you should be."
Hajime's voice was quiet but firm. "Should I be?"
His right hand hung loosely behind him, obscured by his cloak. But unseen, chakra threads were already weaving through the ground, spreading slow and wide.
"You stand between me and my mission," Haku continued. "I won't allow you to take the children."
"I'm not the one taking them," Hajime replied, his voice like still water. "That's your job, isn't it? You're helping someone who enslaves kids for profit."
There was a pause, small, but enough to mark the first fracture in the silence.
"Zabuza-sama needs funding," Haku said at last. "He needs weapons, food, medicine. Gato offers that, for a price."
"So you sell your conscience for coins you don't even spend."
Hajime stepped slowly to the side, careful not to shift his weight too quickly.
"You're not evil," he said. "But you're pretending not to care so you can keep pretending you're free."
Haku's voice hardened slightly. "You speak like you understand me."
"I understand people," Hajime replied. "I understand masks, too."
The mist began to thicken. Frost glistened faintly along the floorboards.
Still, Hajime's expression didn't change.
"You watched them cry," he said. "You watched them beg. And you did nothing."
"Survival—"
"Isn't an excuse. Not anymore."
Hajime took a shallow breath. His palm behind his cloak was glowing faintly now.
"You talk about survival like it's the only path," he continued. "But you had a choice. You still do."
"I gave my life to Zabuza-sama," Haku said. "He saved me."
"And now you live as a shadow of someone else's will."
That hit. Hajime saw it, the brief, still hesitation in Haku's stance. A twitch of silence. The faintest tilt of the head.
A seed of doubt.
Hajime leaned forward slightly, voice softer now.
"If he told you to kill every child here… would you?"
Silence.
"If you would, you're not a person. You're a weapon. And if you wouldn't… then why are you helping him now?"
The mist shifted, suddenly unstable.
That was the moment.
Earth Release: Foot-Grip Bind!
With a pulse of chakra, the wooden floor beneath Haku turned fluid, sinking like muddy water. His feet sank fast, halfway to the ankle.
Then, slam.
The earth solidified in an instant, like stone chains locking him in place.
At the same breath
Hajime's kunai flashed.
His right arm snapped forward, the blade flying fast and straight toward Haku's mask.
Haku reacted instantly, but not fast enough. He twisted, raising his arm to deflect,
Thwip.
The kunai buried deep into Haku's forearm with a sickening crack of slicing flesh.
Blood sprayed across the floor.
Haku staggered back, ripping one leg free, the other still pinned. His arm trembled, blood dripping from his sleeve, staining the wood below.
Even ninja bleed.
Hajime stood firm, another kunai reversed in his hand, breath steady. He didn't move to strike again.
"You can still use one-handed seals," he said, voice even. "But it won't stop the bleeding. You're fast, but you're still human."
The mist pulsed, suddenly bitter with cold.
Haku's tone dropped, the melodic warmth gone. "You shouldn't have done that."
"No," Hajime replied, calm and clear. "But you'll remember this, the one time someone fought you without fear. Not for power. Not for money. But because it was right."
Haku said nothing.
Only the rising mist answered.
And the battle began.
End of Chapter 13: Haku