It was just past noon.
After lunch, Luo Mang and the others headed toward the bridge.
A lie had to lead somewhere. Kakashi still had to teach him; otherwise, what would he say if Luo Mang discovered he could secretly read the diary? If Luo Mang stopped revealing information, what use would the diary be to him?
As for Haku, Kakashi had long since lulled him to sleep with the Sharingan. He was young, after all-he fell asleep the moment his head hit the pillow...
They couldn't possibly let him stay awake the whole time. As for why they hadn't killed him, it was naturally because of the resources Kakashi had mentioned trading him for. They had come all this way and put in all this work, with five people taking turns watching him, only to earn the pay for a C-rank mission. Split five ways, it would barely cover a bowl of ramen.
They had to keep him alive. At the very least, they needed to get the Kubikiribōchō in exchange, or hand him over to Kirigakure and make them cough up something for taking this missing-nin off their hands.
In short, they couldn't kill him; they had to keep him alive. But what if something went wrong while he was awake?
Their only choice was to lull him to sleep and hide him somewhere other than Tazuna's house.
His hiding place was extremely well concealed, practically impossible to find from outside. Even if Zabuza wanted to rescue him, he wouldn't be able to reach him.
Hiding him had been Luo Mang's suggestion.
In the original story, Naruto Uzumaki's talk-no-jutsu had convinced Zabuza to recognize his feelings for Haku: he wasn't a tool, but a companion.
But there was no guarantee he would recognize that now. If he doubled