A gasp of relief escapes me at the sight of my loud friend.

"Naruto Uzumaki is finally here!" Naruto calls, grinning.

"Just in time, too," I breathe, my hand patting my chest to soothe my beating heart. But couldn't you have made a sneak attack, or something...?

"You know how in stories where the hero usually shows up at the last minute and then kicks butt?" he calls. "Well, that's what I'm gonna do, right now! Believe it!" Chuckling, Naruto crosses two fingers from each of his hands against the other. "All right, you're history!"

My relief immediately flips into concern when Zabuza, from where he faces off against Kakashi-sensei, suddenly whips several shuriken at Naruto.

"Get out of the way, Naruto!" our Sensei yells at him, but he's rooted to the spot. My body instinctively tries to move to protect him, but I'm stuck inside the ice dome, unable to get out, so I remain at Sasuke's side, b-but then Haku cancels them out with his senbon...?

"Hey, what are you doing, Naruto?!" Sakura shrieks.

"This is a battle, not a talent show!" Kakashi-sensei snaps. "Don't let your opponent see your Jutsu!" Even from where Sasuke and I are, we can hear Naruto's whimper. "The Shinobi's art is deception— always keep the enemy guessing! Even when executing a single Jutsu, one must distract an opponent's attention, catch them off-balance, and out-maneuver them! You just turned yourself into a human target when you entered the battle like that!"

"Argh, I'm sorry!" Naruto exclaims, throwing his hands on top of his head. "I was just trying to rescue everybody!!"

"And it's appreciated, but Naruto, be more careful!" I call, anxious.

"I know already!" he whines at me.

"Haku! What's the big idea?" Zabuza barks. I'm nodding to myself – uh, yeah! Why the heck did he just save him?!

"Zabuza, leave this boy to me." I follow the direction of Haku's masked gaze, where it's been trained on Naruto. "Please let me fight this battle my way."

"... so you want me to leave this to you, huh?" Zabuza chuckles. "Is that it, Haku?" He doesn't respond; Zabuza scoffs. "As usual, you're too soft."

"Forgive me," Haku finally says.

Carefully and quietly, I pull the last of the senbon needles out from Sasuke's middle back and help him onto a knee. Soft? My thoughts repeat. Looking down my teammate, something clicks – when I'd been pulling out Haku's weapons, every single one of them had been strategically placed and volleyed at him, and they hadn't hit him where it really hurts, in his vitals. They'd all been soft spots.

So far, at least.

"I'm warning you!" Naruto says, pointing at Haku. "One way or another, I'm gonna rip that mask off you and take you apart! That mask, your bogus story – you were with Zabuza all along! D'you think you can get away with a stunt like that?!"

Haku bows his head toward his feet. "I'm sorry," he says.

"Huh?"

"But as your Sensei said – deceiving your opponent, catching them off-guard – that is a Shinobi's duty. Please don't take it personally."

Rather abruptly, Sasuke flings a kunai at Haku through two of his ice mirrors, but he easily dodges it, having tilted his head away in time.

"No way," I say, in unison with a gasp from Sasuke.

"I haven't forgotten about you," Haku says. "Not for an instant." He turns to us. "Some warriors accept defeat gracefully. They know when they are beaten. Others do not. So be it. Let us finish our battle, then – to the death – and watch your friend be taken down alongside you."

I swallow harshly, forcing myself onto my feet once more. I'd truly been hoping for Naruto to be able to cause a long enough distraction on Haku that Sasuke would be able to regain a little more strength, but he'd only just reminded him that we were alive and waiting on the inside. Having disappeared from in front of Naruto, he returns to the ice dome's interior, stuck behind one of the ice slabs surrounding us. Sasuke joins me on his own feet, his back quickly pressing against mine as we cover each other's – but it doesn't matter.

I'm stunned into blindness when a sudden light engulfs the entire inside of the mirror dome. Instinctively, my arms raise themselves in front of my face, the kunai I'd pulled out from the pouch on my left thigh deflecting maybe two of the dozens of senbon that are quite suddenly thrown our way. My cries harmonize with Sasuke's, the pressure from the volley forcing ourselves deeper into each other's spines. I hadn't realized it until the last second, but Haku had somehow duplicated himself within each of the ice mirrors to increase his attack power – I'm having difficultly being so bad about it when it'd been such a cool attack, but then the pain from it brings me back to earth.

I find myself grateful for Makara-sensei's teachings – if it weren't for her forcing me to toughen up and grow some thick skin, things definitely would've hurt a lot more than they had. At least I'm able to remain on my feet, but Sasuke's dropped back down into a crouch, now holding onto his left shoulder.

"Oh?" Haku hums. "It looks like your friend might outlast you here."

"Be quiet," I snap automatically, frustrated and achy.

"Kari," Sasuke says lowly, and it's so hushed that I barely hear him, let alone Haku. "We're going to attack from the inside. Let the others try from out there – I think it's the only way."

"That's fine," I whisper back, "but I barely scuffed the ice mirror I hit before, so what do you have in mind?"

"Yo!" a familiar voice suddenly calls from close by, and the two of us end up jumping from surprise.

"Naruto!" I exclaim, gaping at him as he'd appeared before us. "You're supposed to sneak up on the enemy, not us! Now all three of us are in here!"

"You complete loser!" Sasuke shouts. "You're a Shinobi! Think carefully before you move!"

"What the heck's your guys' problem?!" Naruto yells back. "You should thank me for coming in here to help you!"

"Naruto, if all three of us are inside here—!" Sasuke growls in frustration. "Forget it! I've had it with you!"

"And I've had it with your attitude!" Naruto counters. "Believe it!"

"Ugh, that's enough!" I interrupt, and Sasuke scoffs, standing. "Maybe Naruto didn't consider it as a plan, but we also didn't coordinate with him, so that's on us, too. Cool it!"

"That's it, I'm destroying these mirrors right now!" Performing several familiar hand signs, Sasuke curls two of his fingers into a circle around his mouth.

"Fire Style—""Hey! What attack are you using?" Naruto asks, interrupting the deep breath he'd started to take.

"These mirrors are made of ice," Sasuke huffs at him, "so how do you destroy ice? Figure it out!" And this time, he follows through with the Jutsu – I make sure to have cleared away from the range of it before it's executed – "Fireball Jutsu!"

A hot jet of flames spew from Sasuke's mouth, and only brush across Haku's ice mirrors. I can't blame him for assuming fire would work here, but there's very minimal damage done to them with the fire finally dissipates.

"That didn't do anything at all!" Naruto shouts, frustrated.

"You'll need much more heat than that to melt this ice," Haku tells us.

"More heat?" I end up saying aloud, though I'd only meant to in my head, and the idea comes to me more easily and dangerously than I'd care to admit.

"Kari?" Naruto says.

"More heat!" I exclaim, exasperated, looking all around me nervously. I'd begun to grow claustrophobic in this limited space, not to mention, I'm now sweating from the intensity of Sasuke's Jutsu. "Sasuke, more heat!"

He blinks at me, puzzled. Groaning in my own frustration, I tear away the bandages covering one of my injured-now-healed arms, and gesture at the pink scar licking across my skin.

"More heat," he says, nodding. Once more, we stand back-to-back, after I'd pulled a confused Naruto to be between the both of us and out of the way.

"Fire Style," we shout out, "Fireball Jutsu!"

Like a wave, the flames sweep up and around the dome, crashing up against the ice mirrors. Maybe it's because it's in the heat of the moment – no pun intended here – but I'm shocked that I don't burn myself this time; somehow, the Jutsu is perfectly executed, so much so that when on of the mirrors take more damage than the others, Haku is forced to move into the other ones!

Now, they're all more damaged than just with Sasuke's solo Fireball Jutsu, but it doesn't stop Haku from attacking a second time over. Once again, that same light blinds us, and the next thing I know, my forehead now burns – along with the rest of my body – and apparently, bleeds, from his battery.

"O-Ouch," I stammer, shakily pushing myself onto my elbows after I'd been thrown off my feet. Naruto's already back on his, whirling on the spot, his eyes moving from ice mirror to ice mirror.

"Where is he?!" he exclaims. "Where's he attacking from?! Are they clones? Where's the real body?"

"Look into every mirror as hard as you like," Haku challenges. "You'll never learn the secret."

"Oh, yeah!?" Naruto presses his fingers together – I'm already shouting, "No!" before it's completed, having recalled what Kakashi-sensei said earlier, but he goes through with the attack, anyway. "Shadow Clone Jutsu!"

Dozens of them shoot out toward each of the mirrors, relentless. They fill much of the inside of the dome, pushing Sasuke and I so far out of step as they pass us. A bizarre blur flies in and out of my line of sight so quickly that it takes a long moment for me to register that it'd taken out all of Naruto's Shadow Clones. Within seconds, our real Naruto has crashed back down next to us, wincing and grunting upon impact with the cold ground.

"This is a Teleportation Jutsu that uses mirrors that can reflect only my image," Haku explains from the mirror ahead of us. "Watching you from the speed I move, it's almost as if you aren't moving at all."

"I... I couldn't break through," Naruto says, teeth gritted. "But so what? He's not stopping me!"

Haku gasps.

"I'm not giving up, and I'm not gonna lose here! 'cause I've got a dream, and no one's gonna take it away from me. Someday, I'll be respected in my village – that's my dream! To be the greatest Hokage!"

I look up at Haku, wary and uncertain of a potential next strike that might happen the moment Naruto stops talking, but it doesn't come. I wish I could tell... just what on earth's going on behind that mask of his, I think, still shaky. And then, he speaks.

"It was... not my desire to be a Shinobi," Haku says. "It's painful. I... I don't want to kill you. But if you advance, I will have no choice. Then, I will kill the kindness in my own heart, and fully embrace the Shinobi way. There will be no mercy – no turning back. This bridge will be the battlefield where our dreams collide. Now, I must fight for my dream, just as you fight for yours.

"Please – do not blame me. I fight for someone who is precious to me. I live for him, and I face death for him, so that his dream may become reality. That is my dream. And for the sake of that dream—" at this, his tone of voice grows dark "—if I must, I will act as a Shinobi and take your lives."

Sighing, I force myself onto my feet, and stretch my aching arm away from me.

"Your feelings are honorable, Haku," I say, smiling down at my own smirking teammates, "but ours are mutual."

Updated June 4th, 2021 | 2,010 words