She carried his body through the woods as rain and snow poured from the clouds, soaking them, until she had to set him down. They were hidden. No human life forces were present.
She placed him on the grass, then knelt beside him. The rain was washing dried blood from his skin.

He had expended a lot of chakra for his techniques on the bridge and what remained was slowly fading from its home inside his rib cage. She placed a hand on his chest, staring into the collapsed cavity with her own chakra, and began to repair the broken bones, the ruptured lungs, the heart that had been sliced in half. Her own chakra drained from her as she pieced him together; tiredness weighed on her like a curse, her fingers shook as she drew a canteen full of water, opened it, and murmured a blessing into the liquid. When she finished, she tipped water gently into the boy's mouth, feeling her strength falter as the air began to glow.

The rain fell around them as she held the boy's head close to her chest, begging that she wasn't too late to fix him. There was a hand on his chest, right over the tear that Kakashi's fatal blow had made, feeling for a pulse.

His chest rose softly under her fingers, and she sobbed.

Her friend was alive...

Tears dripped from her cheeks and onto his collar, his skin, his eyelids. He attempted to move away, but she was shaking, and the rain was pouring, and his eyes fluttered to wake him.

"You're okay," she whispered to herself, as Haku blinked, awake, and looked up at her.

Confusion.

"Who are you?"

He stared at the girl's face. She was dripping with rain and tears were falling on his shoulders, which he could distinguish because they were warm. His lips were salty with droplets as he observed the girl's green eyes and short, dark oak-brown hair, the small nose and the pale face.

He'd seen her before.

"...Inochi-chan..?"

She was dead...did she come to take him to the Pure Land? Did he even deserve to go there? Why was it raining so hard?

...why did he have a heartbeat?

Haku felt it drumming between his lungs and ribs, felt himself shivering. He was dead, and he wasn't supposed to have a heartbeat. And she did too, he felt her pulse as her wrist wrapped around his arm. Why was she alive?

"...Haku-kun."

There was blood on her fingers from where the hole in his chest had been, so her palms were soaked in thick liquid, stained red like wine; she raised her hands in a cupped gesture as the rain poured into the folds of her palms. The blood diluted, fell away, washing the last traces of death from them both. "Do you remember me?"

She was too tired to stand, and her eyes were sliding shut despite the chill of rain, but he sat up, palms against the freezing grass, so she could lean against his shoulder and try to stay awake.

He remembered her, of course. And he had an idea of why he was alive as long as she was there.

"I thought...I thought you died." Haku's hair had come undone and it streamed down his shoulders to tangle in her hands as she inspected the bruise on his cheek from the force of Uzumaki's punch against his face. Inochi sighed.

"I thought you died too."

  She reached for a second flask filled with water and opened it, drinking with soft gulps of air as if she had expended her oxygen along with her energy, and licked her lips as if the drink had hardly helped. "...we should go somewhere warm...you'll get sick." Her voice slurred slightly with exhaustion as she forced herself to stumble upwards, all but falling against Haku as he got up and supported her weight. It was strange. He felt life in his veins, each pulse shaking his ribs. He felt stronger than he'd had in a while, like he'd just woken up from a decade's worth of sleep...

  He'd wanted Naruto to kill him. He hadn't had a purpose if he'd failed Zabuza so badly...but she'd been watching. She'd used her gift on him, when he had felt most like he didn't deserve it, when he had nothing. And here she was, all but dead on her feet, still trying to make sure he wouldn't get sick.

  Is there someone precious to you? His words to Naruto in the forest seemed to echo in his mind amidst the flapping of sparrows' wings and the falling of leaves.

  Was he really...that important? 

  The rain was barely abating as they stumbled through the brush. Every step squeezed water from the grass. Inochi was shaking beside him, tired enough that the life within the forest was blurring into a muddy palette of forces that she could no longer understand. If she was a little more alert, she would have sensed that the boy who had been watching them was still present. 

  He was following them, watching as the pair made their way through the woods. Inochi had managed something impossible. He'd seen the boy die - and now he was supporting her as she tried to take him somewhere. He couldn't lose their trail now that his curiosity had been piqued. He needed to take Inochi back to Konoha at all costs...

  Haku looked at her as she tried, again, to keep moving, but succeeded only in almost falling from his grasp. He felt like he had enough chakra for a simple transferring jutsu, and it was pretty obvious that, without extra help, they'd just get stuck, at the mercy of whatever could possibly attack them. He could already sense someone following them, just above...a cold presence. He sensed no blood lust, so he set Inochi on the ground, then stopped and drew four needles from his bag and into his right hand. "Show yourself."

  Silence.

  Haku paused, drawing one needle from his right hand and hurling it with his left, as a figure dropped from a tree in front of him. It was a young man with unruly black hair and eyes searing red, uncannily like Sasuke's -

  He has...the Sharingan...

  Haku's eyes widened and he took a defensive stance, staring down the spy with one step backwards. His fingers clenched around his senbon needles, sickened at the thought of having to kill another man. He'd already killed Sasuke...the last Uchiha.

  But the other boy had the Sharingan...so who was this?

  "Surprisingly, I'm not here to fight you."

  The spy grinned, revealing a sharp smirk as his eyes narrowed. "Damn, didn't mean to give you a heart attack, sir...erm, ma'am...?" He tipped his head and scratched at the back of his neck. He really had no idea. "I'm here for that girl behind ya."  His face flushed, slightly. "Inochi."

  It was a bad thing to imply. Haku raised his needles threateningly, ready to throw them into the spy's heart. With wide eyes, the boy stepped back. "I'm not here to hurt her...! I came to take her back to Konoha!"

 "...Konoha...where Naruto-kun is from...?" He lowered his needles, looking at the spy. He had no identification at all. No headband, just the same logo on his cloak as Sasuke had. 

  "I'm an Uchiha," the spy drawled. "Of Konoha. Inochi wasn't supposed to be here to interfere with anyone's mission, but she heard about it and came here. I needed to go get her. But she brought you back to life, so what's the relation?" He stared at Haku, the Sharingan still active. "To her you should just be a random stranger she's never seen..."

  "I know her," Haku returned, with an edge, as he looked at the spy. "My name is Haku...and I'm a boy." He tugged on one rip in his robe and sweater, where his heart had been struck, and picked up Inochi's body to carry her. She was light compared to Zabuza. "Inochi-chan and I were friends."

  The Uchiha boy blinked. This kid was a boy? He looked like he could pass for a princess...if he wasn't covered in blood and wearing torn clothes. And how the hell was he friends with Inochi, out of all people? This guy was a freaking assassin's apprentice. And Inochi was...the opposite of an assassin. He just looked at Haku neutrally, holding a hand out for a shake. "The name's Saigai." 

  Your name is 'disaster'? Haku thought bemusedly, as he took Saigai's hand. The Uchiha boy's palm was rough, ridged with scars, unlike his own. His nails were sharp, too, like they were weapons patiently awaiting use.

  He let go of Saigai's hand. Haku had always taken exceptional care of himself, knowing Zabuza was not obligated to maintain his tool beyond the basic needs of water, food, clothing and killer's education. A complaint had never left his heart; he was alive, he had a purpose, and he fulfilled his purpose by being as useful as he could. Someone who had taken him in did not need to fuss over him, baby him, show affection. That was why Haku had stood so innocently, with painted nails, geisha's hair, an effeminate manner, through every mission he had undertaken. 

  His eyes deceived the deceased, and the deceased deceived their eyes. They had never thought someone so innocent would kill...

  "You say you're from Konoha," he murmured to himself, as Inochi breathed against his shoulder. "And you're here to retrieve my friend..." He looked at Saigai, gauging his stance, as he paused.

  "...I will trust you if you let me come with you."

    The sleet was abating, although pinpricks of cold still flicked against Saigai's skin as he considered Haku. The kid was dangerous. He'd almost killed Sasuke. He'd probably killed people under Zabuza...

  But either way Saigai was strong enough to handle him.

  "Deal."