As the pursuit team split up, another group of shinobi quietly left Konoha.
They headed in the same direction.
Of the pursuers, only Naruto noticed their departure. He gave it little thought. Shinobi left the village on assignments every day.
His attention was elsewhere.
Would they catch Sakura?
And if they did, should he kill her?
It was not as though he held some deep grudge against her.
Her treatment of Naruto in the original story had irritated him, but since arriving in this world, he had played more than a few tricks on her himself.
He had repeatedly used the Transformation Technique to impersonate Sasuke.
Even the kisses Sakura believed she had received from Sasuke had actually come from Naruto.
Perhaps her determination to find him had something to do with that.
Remembering it, Naruto felt his remaining irritation subside.
I'll decide when I see her.
He continued running with Hinata on his back.
I can't think of a particular reason to kill her. Leaving her alive wouldn't make much difference to me, either.
Then another thought followed.
But since when did I need a reason?
Ten minutes later, something stirred at the edge of his awareness.
Naruto lifted his head and looked ahead.
Another hour passed before the team encountered a familiar problem.
Sakura's scent had split again.
Asuma and Kurenai called Naruto over.
"She's being remarkably thorough," Asuma said, frowning. "Whatever method she's using, she can keep laying false scent trails."
He turned to Kurenai, concern showing in his expression.
"We'll split up again. You should go with Naruto. I've heard his strength is comparable to Kakashi's now. Having him with you should make things safer."
"Then take the younger shinobi with you," Kurenai replied. "Shikamaru and Shino are dependable."
"No."
Naruto's refusal was immediate.
"You two can split up if you want, but Hinata stays with me."
Asuma and Kurenai exchanged a wordless look.
Both sighed.
"All right," Asuma said. "Kurenai, take Naruto, Hinata, and Kiba. Kiba and Akamaru can keep following the scent."
"Understood."
Kurenai gestured to Naruto.
"Come on. We'll take this trail."
"No. We're going that way."
Naruto pointed ahead and to the left.
"Asuma-sensei can take the other one."
"Why?" Kurenai asked.
"I have a feeling Sakura went this way. We were teammates, after all."
He offered the explanation casually.
The two groups said their farewells and separated.
Hinata tried to climb down, but Naruto insisted on continuing to carry her.
Her face reddened.
With little else to do, she focused her Byakugan on their surroundings and kept watch for the group.
…
Half an hour later, Kiba signaled a warning from the front.
Hinata spoke quietly beside Naruto's ear.
"Four shinobi ahead. Three against one… The one they surrounded just fell."
Kurenai gave a hand signal, and the group approached under cover.
When Naruto caught sight of the figure lying on the ground, the corner of his mouth lifted.
So it really is you.
Haku.
…
Several months had passed since Naruto killed Zabuza in the Land of Waves.
Since then, Haku had wandered the shinobi world without a destination.
He had lost his family as a child. Zabuza had taken him in and given him a place, a purpose, and someone to live for.
Zabuza had been his entire world.
When that world disappeared, Haku could no longer find meaning in anything.
He traveled from place to place, scarcely caring where his feet took him.
Eventually, he began thinking of ending his life.
An old man saved him and brought him home.
Haku stayed with him for a while.
Slowly, he began to discover that an ordinary life might be enough.
He did not have to remain a shinobi. He could conceal his abilities and live somewhere far from the battles and killing that had defined his life.
So he settled in the prosperous Land of Fire.
But Kirigakure's hunter-nin had never abandoned their search for Zabuza and his companion.
They were not pursuing Haku because he had committed some unforgivable crime against the village.
They wanted his kekkei genkai.
Under Obito's control, Yagura had ordered the persecution of Kirigakure's bloodline clans.
After his death, the village began reversing the policies of the Bloody Mist era.
The elders searched for surviving members of those clans.
They wanted them brought back, their bloodlines preserved through future generations, and their families rebuilt.
Restoring the clans would restore Kirigakure's strength.
Powerful shinobi families could complicate a village leader's authority. That did not change the fact that they formed the backbone of the hidden villages.
To the elders, the benefits outweighed the risks.
Naruto had always considered their importance obvious.
Looking at the Kage of the Five Great Shinobi Villages, how many had truly risen without the support of a powerful family or influential connections?
Minato Namikaze seemed the clearest exception—a shinobi who had become the Fourth Hokage without belonging to a renowned clan.
Even the founders of the hidden villages had needed people behind them. Could one person, without a strong clan's support, really have brought order to a country torn apart by war?
Naruto doubted it.
And even Minato had possessed an extraordinary inheritance of another kind.
He had been Jiraiya's student.
He had mastered the Second Hokage's Flying Thunder God Technique.
Without those connections and opportunities, would he have reached the same strength? Would he have become the Fourth Hokage?
Naruto did not believe the answers were simple.
The shinobi world belonged to its elites.
In that respect, the world he had come from had hardly been different.
For Kirigakure, however, rebuilding its bloodline clans presented a painful problem.
After all its searching, it had found only one surviving member of the Yuki clan.
Haku.
"Haku, we haven't come to harm you."
One of the masked hunter-nin looked down at him.
"The elders want to welcome you back to the village and make amends for the past."
His voice remained calm.
"But you refused to cooperate. You've left us no choice but to take you by force. I hope you understand."
Kirigakure still had no Fifth Mizukage.
Since Yagura's death, its affairs had been managed by the elders.
In the timeline Naruto remembered, Mei Terumī would hold the title of Fifth Mizukage around three years from now, as Akatsuki's plans for the world began moving in earnest.
For now, the elders' orders stood.
Haku lay on the ground, his eyes empty.
Beyond the hunter-nin stood the body of the old man who had saved him.
Blood stained the earth beneath him.
Pain twisted through Haku's chest.
Then, slowly, he went numb.
He remembered his mother.
His father had killed her after discovering her kekkei genkai.
Then he had turned on Haku.
Only the sudden, uncontrolled eruption of Haku's Ice Release had saved him, killing his father instead.
He had never wanted to return to the Land of Water.
There was nothing waiting for him there except memories he could not bear.
Now the old man lay dead before him.
The fragile hope Haku had only recently found—the belief that he might still build a quiet life—went out.
Fine.
He stopped resisting.
There isn't a home for me anywhere.
When the hunter-nin brought him to his feet, he followed them toward Kirigakure.
…
Kiba glanced at Kurenai and made a small hand signal.
Kurenai-sensei. Do we stop them?
She shook her head.
No.
Her answering signals were firm.
They appear to be taking someone from their own village back. We have a mission. We can't afford to delay here.
She had heard about Kirigakure's past turmoil.
But Sakura remained their priority.
Kurenai signaled for the group to withdraw, then resumed following the scent trail.
What she failed to notice was that the Naruto following her was only a shadow clone.
Hinata shifted almost imperceptibly on its back.
Her lips parted, but she said nothing.
Instead, she steadied herself and tried to remain as still as possible.
The last thing she wanted was to cause the clone to disperse.
Author's note: This chapter establishes Haku's circumstances and sets up Naruto's actions later in the story.