Yuki Haku

The next morning.

I woke to the familiar bustle of Konoha in the early morning.

After a good night's sleep, I felt refreshed and full of energy. Every cell in my body was itching to work with chakra and ninjutsu, a sign that I had returned to peak condition. I hadn't woken up feeling this comfortable in a long time, not since the second exam began. In that moment, I felt genuinely happy to have made it safely home and slept through the night. My Rasengan training with Naruto was going smoothly. Yesterday afternoon, Naruto and I had completed three cycles of training. Controlling the movement of chakra wasn't Naruto's strong suit, but concentrating to extract chakra and increase its density was nowhere near as hard for him as making it spin. I vaguely remembered that Naruto had practiced for ages and resorted to a trick to burst the water balloon, but had succeeded in bursting the rubber ball on his first try after drawing a Konoha symbol on it.

In the original story, Naruto had ultimately only completed the Rasengan with the help of a Shadow Clone, and apparently he still couldn't perform a one-handed Rasengan later on. I thought it was because he'd trained in the wrong order in the original, tackling the hard part before the easy part and getting half the results for twice the effort!

Here, Naruto's Rasengan training had made great progress in only a few days. The chakra he concentrated could already burst the rubber ball. As expected, simply increasing chakra density was a piece of cake for Naruto! He had even started training for the second stage ahead of time. Although he hadn't officially completed the first stage, the past few days of practice had improved his chakra control, and he now needed one fewer Shadow Clone for training. Of course, was there really that much difference between seven Shadow Clones and six?

Naruto looked set to finish his training two or three days early, while I was at a complete loss about my own training plan.

I had already started making Ultra-Pure Water during this 0-day preparation period. The new method let me produce it dozens of times faster than before, and in just a few days, I had made almost as much as I could previously store up in several months. Aside from the portion I'd given Dad as a trump card for self-defense, I had enough left to use freely in the coming battle. I didn't intend to make any more for now. Producing Ultra-Pure Water was extremely exhausting, and once I had more chakra, making it would be much easier. There was no need to spend all my time on it now; that would be putting the cart before the horse.

Using the Wind Release: Rasengan, I severed the hydrogen-oxygen covalent bonds in water molecules, breaking them down into hydrogen and oxygen, then burned the gases to form water again. The most chakra-intensive part was the first step, breaking water down into hydrogen and oxygen. In fact, there were other ways to do that, the best known being to electrolyze water with an electric current.

The day before the Chunin Ninja Exams, when I enthusiastically told Kakashi the good news, he used that method to shoot me down:

"If all you want is to break water down into hydrogen and oxygen, wouldn't it be easier to electrolyze it with an electric current?"

As a Lightning Release ninja, Kakashi had extensive experience using lightning. But he had much less experience purifying water. The method sounded effective, but in reality, it faced an insurmountable obstacle.

"This is some high-purity water I distilled, Kakashi-sensei. Why don't you try electrolyzing it?"

In the end, Kakashi even used Lightning Blade, but he still didn't break down much of the water into hydrogen and oxygen.

Kakashi had taken too much for granted! If the method worked, wouldn't I have thought of it myself? When electrolyzing water with an electric current, the rate depended on the ions in the water, and those ions were impurities, all sorts of electrolytes! The more impurities there were, the more electrons there were, and the faster the electrolysis!

Water itself was a weak electrolyte. The purer the water, the lower its ion concentration and the less efficient the electrolysis! Since water purified this way would still pick up some impurities, it couldn't be purified in a single pass. So one could imagine that, as the water grew purer through successive rounds, electrolysis would slow down more and more, until it was so slow that it made no progress at all!

After that embarrassing blunder, Kakashi said he would never offer an opinion on this sort of thing again...

Sometimes I also let my imagination run wild about the Wind Release: Rasengan. What if I took the nature transformation a step further, making each wind blade of chakra that had undergone wind nature transformation powerful enough to sever not only the covalent bonds between atoms, but even the nuclear force inside atomic nuclei? Anyone who had studied even a little physics knew what that meant—a nuclear bomb!

Thanks to powerful and miraculous chakra, this ninja world had developed fairly advanced technology in many fields. But overall, it had not undergone industrialization, and the power of industry had not profoundly changed society. One direct consequence was a lack of deep understanding of the resources found on the planet. In other words, although I had long entertained the concept of a nuclear bomb, nobody knew where to find radioactive materials, much less uranium-5 or uranium-8! Heavy nuclear elements came from nuclear fusion inside stars. After a supernova, those elements were released and became part of a nebula. Then, when the nebula gave birth to the next generation of stars, they became part of the new stars and their planets. If this world had none of those elements, it meant this universe might still be very young, perhaps even in the era of its first generation of stars, making it less than five billion years old...

That line of reasoning obviously did nothing to help me make a nuclear bomb, and I had long since abandoned the crazy idea of building an atomic bomb. But after developing the Wind Release: Rasengan, I sometimes had thoughts like that during the tedious process of making Ultra-Pure Water. If it were possible, I could skip the atomic bomb stage and go straight into the realm of **... But it was only a thought. On Earth, another atomic bomb was used to detonate a **, and for me to sever the nuclear force, I'd probably need to train my Rasengan until it had the power of an atomic bomb...

Although my Azure Water Release was progressing smoothly, I now felt an urgent problem: as it gradually became my main Water Release technique, my weaknesses were growing more obvious, becoming the short planks in the barrel that held back my strength. Especially after that fight with Orochimaru, those weaknesses had been exposed beyond doubt, becoming a thorn in my heart! Many of Orochimaru's physical ninjutsu and Taijutsu attacks had actually been unable to do much to me in that battle. While it was possible that he hadn't used more powerful moves for fear of causing too much of a commotion, it still showed how powerful Azure Water Release was. Then I was defeated by Orochimaru's Fire Style and Genjutsu.

Genjutsu had always been a sore point for me. With my naturally powerful spiritual strength, I was ideally suited to learning it. Unfortunately, I hadn't been placed on Kurenai Yuhi's team, and although Kakashi had a Sharingan, he wasn't particularly gifted at Genjutsu. He was merely good at breaking it thanks to his Sharingan. As a result, I had never received proper guidance in Genjutsu, and fumbling my way through it on my own was far too inefficient.

It wasn't that I hadn't considered swallowing my pride and asking a ninja who knew Genjutsu-even Kurenai Yuhi herself-to teach me. But in this world, ninja made their living with ninjutsu. Getting someone to teach you the tools of their trade wasn't something you could accomplish just by shamelessly asking. Besides, I still had to make my way in Konoha; I couldn't get by if I had no sense of propriety at all...

That left me in the awkward position of having so much spiritual strength but only being able to use it to break Genjutsu by brute force.

My Azure Water Release also struggled against elemental ninjutsu attacks. Other elemental techniques were manageable: Lightning Release was countered by Ultra-Pure Water, which barely conducted electricity; Wind Release's cutting power had a hard time slicing through the tough surface of Ultra-Pure Water; and Water Release and Earth Release mostly created solid objects for physical attacks, which were no problem either. Fire Style alone was different. Azure Water Release was no more resistant to high temperatures than other Water Release techniques. That was why I'd learned the Ice Release nature transformation, hoping its low temperatures could counter Fire Style, even though I had known Kakashi didn't know any Ice Release ninjutsu.

Saving Yuki Haku had been a pure stroke of luck. Both Haku's personality and her fate meant she wouldn't refuse my request to learn Ice Release from her, which was why I'd strongly urged Kakashi to bring Haku back to Konoha and eagerly volunteered to vouch for her. But Kakashi's recommendation and my guarantee alone weren't enough. As a fairly powerful ninja with an Ice Release bloodline, Haku would undoubtedly be treated seriously by Konoha upon arrival. Simply put, she would be isolated and investigated until they determined she wasn't harboring ill intentions or being controlled by someone, and so on.

Generally speaking, after a month of such isolation, a person could be deemed harmless for the time being and allowed limited freedom of movement in Konoha. But I'd forgotten one thing: the Chunin Ninja Exams began shortly after we returned to the village, and Orochimaru's appearance and Gekko Hayate's death had put Konoha on high alert. Haku, who happened to have entered Konoha at just that time, had undoubtedly been caught up in it too. By the time I returned home after the second exam, a full month had passed, and I still hadn't seen her come back...

I began to worry that she wouldn't be released until after the Chunin Ninja Exams were over...

Several days later, Naruto had officially completed the first stage of his Rasengan training, and had progressed far enough in the second stage that he only needed four Shadow Clones. Success was in sight. Naruto could practice the rest by himself, so I stopped watching him train. Jiraiya was paying close attention to him anyway. Once Naruto finished learning the Rasengan, Jiraiya would teach him his own Toad Summoning Technique and how to draw on Nine-Tails chakra. I wasn't shameless enough to tag along and watch; ninjutsu training was generally a fairly private matter. I wasn't Jiraiya's disciple's disciple, so I had no standing to receive his attentive instruction...

The only person I had any right to ask for guidance was currently playing favorites and giving Sasuke one-on-one special training. Besides, he didn't know Ice Release or Genjutsu... Hmph, I didn't need his guidance anyway!

I'd also made enough Ultra-Pure Water and was now thinking about the next stage of Azure Water Release's development. But my most pressing concern was still to patch up my weaknesses. As my strength increased, those shortcomings stood out more and more. I really missed Yuki Haku...!

For the past couple of days, I'd been listless all day, with no heart to develop any derivative Release Techniques for Azure Water Release. So I gave myself a few days off and spent them playing at home. Since becoming a ninja, I'd spent far less time at home. Most of my time was taken up by missions or training at the training grounds, and when I came home, it was just to eat and sleep. This was a good chance to keep Mom company for a few days and relax my strained nerves.

One afternoon.

July was the hottest time of the year, and the ground in the afternoon was hot enough to cook an egg! After lunch, I grew drowsy. There was no air conditioning here, but as a ninja who knew Ice Release, how could I let myself suffer in that regard?

I used Ice Release to freeze a large amount of water into blocks of ice and placed them in every corner of the house, turning it into a cool ice cave. Then I summoned a Water Clone and rested my head on the clone's slender, soft, pale thighs, enjoying the clone's attentive massage... There was a saying: "Rule the world when awake, lie in a beauty's lap when drunk." At least I had more or less managed the second half!

In my drowsiness, I had a dream. Haku had finally returned and was patiently teaching me Ice Release, guiding my hands with his own. His hands felt soft and boneless in mine, and then... I didn't know what happened next, but we kissed. Haku's lips were soft and sweet...

"Mmm, Sister Haku, Sister Haku..." I kept kissing him, unable to stop, and then I felt like I was suffocating-

Then I woke up. A hand was covering my face, its fingertips pinching my nose, and a blurry figure was laughing nonstop-

"Hee-hee, Sakura, you look so funny when you sleep!" the figure said with a laugh. "You were licking my hand and calling my name at the same time!"

I pulled free of her hand and blinked hard, trying to see her clearly. The figure of a beautiful girl gradually came into focus before me-

"Ah! You're back!"

The girl held my hand and smiled at me.

"Yes, I'm back!"

"...Welcome home, Sister Haku! I missed you so much!"

Yuki Haku's face was a little pale, but his smile was radiant.

"Sister Haku, the people from the Interrogation Unit didn't mistreat you, did they?"

"No... It was all right! Compared to the Village Hidden in the Mist... I'll be a Konoha Ninja from now on, after all, so they wouldn't do anything to me! It was just boring during isolation. I couldn't do anything, and I couldn't even use chakra. It was like being in prison. And at first, Kakashi-sensei said the investigation would only take a month, but when the time was up, they still wouldn't let me out. I thought something had gone wrong, so I was a little worried..." Haku's voice grew quieter and quieter. Clearly, things hadn't been as uneventful as she made them sound.

"Some things happened in Konoha during that time..." I explained to Haku. He would be settling down in Konoha, and I didn't want him to have a bad impression of the place. "Orochimaru, one of the former Sannin and an S-rank wanted criminal of Konoha, interfered in the second exam and did a few things... So the village is on high alert now, and it isn't letting any suspicious people slip by! And you happened to enter Konoha right around that time..."

Haku smiled gently at me. "Don't worry, Sakura. I haven't gotten the wrong impression of the village... Besides, Kakashi-sensei also put in a few words for me, so I was able to come back fairly quickly."

Kakashi-sensei had finally come through for once. Although I was always saying he favored Sasuke, at least this time he'd paid some attention to my affairs. After he spoke to the Interrogation Unit, Haku had a guarantor, and his long, exhausting ordeal of interrogation came to an end. He was sent back to my house.

Although I trusted that the Interrogation Unit wouldn't torture Haku for information or cause him any substantial harm when he would be a fellow Konoha Ninja in the future, such a long period of isolation and scrutiny was itself a tremendous blow to the spirit... And Zabuza had only recently died. Haku was already deeply saddened and in poor spirits. Though she was putting on a brave face and laughing and chatting with me now, the weariness and pallor around her eyes couldn't be concealed!

"Mm, Sister Haku, you're back, and you're safe here now... You look really tired, so go get some rest first! Whatever we have to say can wait until after you've had a good sleep!"

I took Haku to my room and had him lie down in my bed, while I sat beside him.

"Sakura... I can sleep by myself. You don't have to stay here with me..."

"There's something you don't know, Sister Haku... They may have let you come back, but they secretly ordered me to keep a close watch on your every move! So from now on, whether you're sleeping, eating, or bathing, I'll be right beside you, watching you closely! Especially when you're sleeping!" I held Haku's hand and spoke with a perfectly serious expression.

My expression made Haku burst out laughing. "All right! Then you can stay here and watch me sleep!"

With that, Haku closed his eyes. Before long, her breathing grew deep and slow...

[I'm a little stuck, so I decided to fill in some things I hadn't written earlier... There were a few places where I'd originally wanted to ask our readers questions...]