Haku ran.
It would be more accurate to say she fled in panic.
Her slender figure stumbled through the forest shrouded in morning mist, as if the most terrifying monster in the world were chasing her from behind.
But she knew that what truly terrified her did not come from outside. It came from the lake called "self" within her heart, where a massive stone had been cast.
She stopped behind a huge cedar tree, pressing her back tightly against its rough bark. The cold touch calmed her violently heaving chest slightly.
She gasped for breath. Beneath her mask, it was impossible to tell whether the moisture on her exquisitely delicate face was sweat or tears.
Almost instinctively, she raised a hand. Her trembling fingertips gently touched the blue wildflower that had been carefully tucked beside her temple.
The petals still carried the morning dew—cold and damp, yet seemingly holding a strange warmth that spread from her fingertips all the way to the deepest part of her heart.
"Tools do not feel sadness."
"You have very beautiful eyes..."
The blond boy's words echoed repeatedly in her mind like an inescapable curse.
Liar... Liar!
Of course she could feel sadness!
On that snowy night, when her parents looked at her with hatred and fear, when the villagers raised torches and farm tools and treated her like a monster, she had been so sad she had nearly died!
But from the moment Lord Zabuza picked her up from hell, she had told herself that tools did not need emotions.
Sadness, joy, confusion... Those were all useless emotions. They would only become rust upon Lord Zabuza's "sharp blade."
Her existence was to become Lord Zabuza's most useful tool.
Her life was meant to burn for the sake of fulfilling Lord Zabuza's ambitions.
That was the only meaning of her existence, the entirety of the creed she lived by!
Yet today, this boy named Naruto Uzumaki had used only a few words and a single flower to effortlessly tear apart the solid ice she had woven over more than ten years.
He had not looked at her as though she were a monster.
He had not looked at her as though she were a tool.
He had even... seen through the gender she had deliberately tried to forget herself.
With an appreciative, equal, even faintly gentle gaze, he had told her that she had "very beautiful eyes."
This feeling...
It was more intense than any blade piercing her heart, more intoxicating than any genjutsu.
[Ding! Detected that target character "Haku" has suffered a severe shake in her self-perception as a "tool"! Her suppressed "individual worth" is being awakened!] [Favorability +30! Current Favorability: 30 (A flustered first encounter)]
Beneath her mask, Haku bit her lip hard as unprecedented confusion and panic swept over her.
She feared this feeling—this unfamiliar, uncontrollable feeling—would make her no longer the pure tool who existed only for Lord Zabuza.
She suddenly plucked the small flower from beside her temple, intending to throw it onto the ground and crush it beneath her feet.
But when her gaze fell upon those fragile, beautiful blue petals, her hand froze in midair.
In the end, she could only lower her hand weakly and clutch the flower tightly, tightly in her palm, as though it were the only piece of driftwood she could grasp while drowning.
Meanwhile, Naruto walked leisurely back to the group with his hands in his pockets.
"Naruto, you're back?"
Kakashi closed Icha Icha Paradise in his hand. His dead-fish eye glanced at Naruto, carrying a trace of barely perceptible scrutiny.
"Yeah, I just took a walk. There's nothing in this dump. Boring."
Naruto yawned and casually made something up.
He had concealed his presence well, but Kakashi could never have missed the chakra fluctuation from the instant Naruto activated his Byakugan.
But so what?
That cheap teacher of his could not possibly guess that he had merely conducted a little "psychological profiling," while incidentally planting a seed called "self" within the heart of a closed-off girl.
[System Prompt: Host, your method of pursuing "Haku" seems somewhat different from your previous domineering style?]
"Heh," Naruto sneered inwardly. "Different prey requires different traps. Someone like Haku, whose heart is locked away beneath layer upon layer of shackles—if you smash it open by force, you'll only shatter the treasure inside along with it. What you need to do is find that one key and let her willingly walk out on her own."
The curve of his lips carried the confidence and amusement of a master hunter.
"Rather than simply conquering her, wouldn't it be more interesting to personally carve an uncut gem and watch her bloom with unparalleled brilliance in your hands?"
"Zabuza, Zabuza... You treat her as a tool, but you don't understand that once a tool begins to think about 'who am I,' it is no longer a tool."
Watching Naruto's thoughtful expression and slightly malicious smile, Sasuke's brow furrowed even deeper.
That dead last had become even more unfathomable, and it irritated him for no apparent reason.
The rest of the journey passed without incident.
By evening, the group finally arrived at Tazuna's home on the coast of the Wave Country.
The one who opened the door was Tazuna's daughter, the gentle and virtuous Tsunami.
Behind her hid a little boy with hostility in his eyes—Inari.
Naruto could not even be bothered to raise an eyelid at the hostility of a brat like that.
In his eyes, the resentment of the weak was the most boring and worthless emotion of all.
The night passed without incident.
The atmosphere during the next part of the journey became somewhat oppressive.
After the boat reached shore, they set foot on the land of the Wave Country.
There were few pedestrians on the streets. The occasional villagers all wore numb, fearful expressions, and when they saw shinobi like them wearing forehead protectors, they avoided them as though fleeing from a plague.
The entire country was shrouded in a lifeless gloom, as if even the air were gray.
By evening, the group finally arrived at Tazuna's home.
The one who opened the door was Tazuna's daughter, Tsunami.
She was a gentle woman, though an unshakable sorrow lingered between her brows.
Behind her hid a little boy whose eyes were filled with hostility and resentment—Inari.
"Shinobi... Shinobi can't save this country either," Inari snarled in a low voice as he glared at Naruto and the others. "You'll all die in the end! Just like Kaiza!"
Naruto could not even be bothered to raise an eyelid at the hostility of a brat like that.
In his eyes, the resentment of the weak was the most boring and worthless emotion of all.
The night passed without incident.
The next morning.
After everyone finished a simple breakfast and escorted Tazuna back onto the muddy path toward the bridge, a sudden change occurred!
Without any warning, thick white fog that seemed impossible to disperse rolled in from every direction!
The fog arrived with extreme strangeness. In barely a dozen seconds, it had completely swallowed everything around them.
Visibility instantly dropped to less than five meters.
The air became damp, cold, and viscous.
The surroundings were deathly silent. Even the chirping of insects and birds had vanished.
"Stay alert!"
Kakashi's voice became more serious than ever. He pulled Tazuna behind him, his entire body like a fully drawn bow!
Then, at that moment!
An incomparably cold and cruel killing intent, terrifying enough to freeze the marrow in one's bones, swept over them like a tsunami!
A sinister, hoarse voice, like sandpaper grinding together, echoed from every direction within the thick fog.
"Heh... Hehehe... Copy Ninja Kakashi, and you adorable little brats. My only target is that old man. Hand him over, and I can let you die quickly."
Kakashi slowly raised his left hand, his gaze instantly turning sharp as a blade!
He tore away the forehead protector covering his left eye, revealing a strange pupil as crimson as blood, with three black tomoe slowly rotating within it!
The Sharingan!
Kakashi stared into the surging fog ahead and spoke the name that represented bloodshed and slaughter in the Shinobi World, one word at a time:
"The Demon of the Hidden Mist—Zabuza Momochi!"
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