Disclaimer: I do not own anything written in this fan-fic with the exception of my OC characters.

Author's Note: Reviews and comments on how to further improve are appreciated. There will be no yaoi nor will there be any lemons. Enjoy.

Chapter 8 - Part A

"Don't move," came a whisper.

Haku's eyes widened and she let out a surprised gasp. The kunai pressed forcefully against her neck, drawing little blood.

A reminder not to make any attempts to resist and she complied reluctantly.

Various possibilities of what was going on came into her mind, that the meeting had been a trap being the most plausible one.

She didn't have to wait for long for the answer.

Someone stepped in front of her and punched her in the gut, knocking the wind out of her. The man holding her released his grip and she dropped to her knees, offering little resistance as her hands were swiftly bounded by a water whip. Someone pulled her mask off and Haku's face felt the night's chill.

"Zabuza's henchman," one of her assailants spat.

Ignoring the pain, Haku fixed her gaze on her assailant in front of her and saw his face or rather a mask with thin slitted eye-holes, a wavy design in the place of the mouth and the symbol of Kirigakure on the forehead.

A Kirigakure hunter-nin.

Loyalists.

Her face wore an expression of contempt as her eyes met those of the hunter-nin though inwardly, she trembled with nervous anxiety [1] as she realized the situation she was in. She chanced a look at the other ninjas only to have someone slammed her head to the ground, pressing her hard against it, limiting what she could see. It did not prevent her from hearing the arrival of a few more ninjas. "The traitor must be nearby. I want a complete search of the docks. If you encounter him, tail him and inform the rest of us. Do not engage unless I order so."

Haku felt the presence of a few ninjas disappear as they left to carry out their tasks.

The hunter-nin who was their leader remained where he was, shifting his attention to her.

"Your squad will bring the girl back to the safe house. See what you can learn from her and deal with her as you see fit when you're done," the leader said after a while before leaving too, no doubt to join the others in search of her master.

One of her captors pulled Haku up by her hair, nearly eliciting a cry of pain from the young girl. "Get moving."

She gritted her teeth but complied nonetheless.

Three ninjas grouped round her, escorting her to the safe house their leader had mentioned.

Her head mapped out her options and none of them offered a solution to the situation she was in.

Even if she could somehow break free of the water rope around her hands, she saw no way of escaping the three ninjas without help.

But she had to try.

Zabuza must be warned of the danger.

Perhaps if she made some noise-

Her captors suddenly halted and drew their weapons.

For a moment, Haku was confused when she noticed it too.

Faint wisps of mist had appeared out of nowhere and were thickening and growing into a bank of dense white opacity.

Had Zabuza noticed her failure to return and had come to save her?

But it had not been that long for him to suspect anything.

Haku had no time to ponder this further. The mist had grown so fast and covered her and her captors, taking them all by surprise.

"Shit, he's here. We need to find a better location now - we're too exposed out here," one of the ninjas said.

"The mist is too thick. I can't see anything."

The first ninja was about to say something when footsteps were heard, causing everyone to shift their attention in that direction just to see a paper ball emerged from the mist and landed into the middle of the group with yellow gas seeping from it. "Poison!"

The Kirigakure ninjas hastily retreated away from the cloud of gas and in the attempt to preserve themselves [2], had completely forgotten about their captive. Haku felt the water whip that had held her hands loose its form and wasted no time in making her escape, running in the opposite direction of the shinobis. She held her breath until she felt safe enough though she was unsure as to whether she had managed to avoid inhaling the gas in time. But that was a thought for another time. Looking about, she tried to get a sense of direction in the mist she heard a familiar swooshing sound and twisted her body just in time to avoid a kunai that would have otherwise killed her.

"You're not going anywhere." It was the ninja that had argued on finding a better location.

Haku dropped into a defensive stance, all while she mentally debated her choices.

She considered retreating further into the mist when a wave of dizziness hit her, causing her to clutch her head as she struggled to keep her balance.

"What?" Haku muttered before coughing.

The gas - she must inhaled some of it.

Her enemy had noticed it too. Haku saw a grin formed on her enemy's face as he realized it too and the ninja approached her, eager to kill his target while she was incapable of putting up a fight. He took a step and another before stopping and turning his head ... far more than what was possible for any human.

Zabuza's henchman took a step back in shock as the Kiri-nin dropped to the ground dead, revealing someone else.

Mirikatoji Takito.

She made to speak but coughed once more, the poison doing its work.

"You," was all she managed to say before collapsing as her world went black.

She awoke to darkness and the sounds of fighting.

Groggily opening her eyes, Haku was briefly confused to find herself lying on her back on some building. She wondered what had happened when the memories came back to her.

'I was careless enough to get caught by the Kirigakure ninjas. I was being escorted to their safehouse, to be interrogated when ...'

A pungent odour entered her nose making her eyes water and Haku became aware that she was not alone.

There was someone next to her, wafting a vial of smelling salts under her nose. Weakly pushing the vial away, she looked at the stranger but it was hard to pick out any exact details in her state except that the stranger was about the same size as her. Noticing her recovery, the stranger put the vial away and gave her a bottle of water which she drank greedily from.

Feeling better, she tried to stand only for the stranger to place a firm hand on her to stop.

"How many fingers do you see?" the stranger asked, holding his hands with raised fingers in front of her. She was surprised to hear a voice of a young boy when she remembered the question. "Seven."

"Now?" the boy asked, changing the number of raised fingers. "Four."

"Good. Now stay here and rest. You're not in any immediate danger; the gas only knocks out those who inhaled it. That said, you won't be able to do much in that state of yours so I can't afford to let you go. If you're in danger, use this." The boy passed her a paper with a seal on it. "It will alert us about your situation."

"Who are you?" Haku asked.

"An ally," the boy replied as he picked up a scroll case and put it around his shoulder. "Now stay here and don't make any noise. I'll be gone for a moment."

"Wait, where are you going?" Haku said. But he was gone, swallowed by the darkness and silence answered her in return.

-Explanations-

[1] Keep in mind that Haku is 2-3 years younger at this time and would have lacked certain experience and training that would have made her as efficient and professional as we all know.

[2] Please note that not all the Kirigakure loyalists are hunter-nins. Only their leader is. Else, they would have acted more efficiently. An explanation as to why this is case will be provided in the next chapter.

-Author's Notes-

I'm back.

With that said, this update is not much and is only posted just so that I can inform you readers that the story is not dead. I'm working on finishing the rest of the update and will hopefully get this done as soon as possible.

Now, I'm going to explain the reason why I had not been working on this fanfic for almost a year. The thing is, I was suffering from a writer's block. I wasn't sure how I was going to proceed with the story without ruining it. I've written the update several times only to look at it and rewrite again. It was only yesterday that I finally had an idea of what to write without making a mess of things.

For the story, I've decided on making a few changes.

As noted, there were some of you who pointed out that the story was long-winded so I decided to try a new writing style. In future chapters, you will find the story told in different manner and perspectives depending on the topic to make the pace faster. I will also be adding a few interesting mixtures into the story and see how it turns out. As for Naruto, I've decided not to make him become one of the seven swordsmen. He also won't be making use of any special weapons like for example, the sword of the thunder god.

Well, that's it.

I really appreciate you all for being patient with me.

If there is anything that you readers feel that you do not like about the way this fanfic is being written of have any questions to ask, feel free to mention them.

Thank you for reading this story and I hope you enjoyed reading it.