---Forest of Death - Ame Team Campsite---
"Die!"
The Ame leader's umbrella unleashed a torrent of senbon, a metallic rain aimed directly at Haku's chest. At this range, evasion should have been impossible.
But Haku didn't need to evade. He just needed to be faster.
Thwack.
The sound wasn't the impact of needles on flesh, but the sickening crunch of wood splintering against bone.
The Ame leader blinked. His umbrella was gone. His hand was empty.
"Too slow," Haku whispered.
He was standing inside the man's guard, his face inches away from the leader's rebreather mask. The umbrella lay in two pieces on the ground ten feet away.
"You..." The leader's eyes bulged in terror. He hadn't seen Haku move.
Haku didn't use Ice Release. He didn't weave a single hand sign. He simply pivoted on his heel, driving his elbow into the man's solar plexus with the force of a hydraulic piston.
Gah!
The leader folded like wet laundry, bile spraying from his mouth as the air was forcibly ejected from his lungs. Haku didn't stop. He spun, delivering a precise, surgically targeted kick to the side of the man's neck. The leader collapsed, unconscious before his face hit the dirt.
"Captain!" the other two Ame ninja screamed, shaking off their shock. They drew their scythes and rushed Haku from both sides.
"Foolish," Haku sighed.
He ducked under the first scythe, the blade whistling harmlessly over his head. In the same motion, he swept the attacker's legs. As the ninja fell, Haku caught him by the collar, using the momentum to hurl him directly into his partner.
Crash!
The two collided in a tangle of limbs and steel. Before they could untangle themselves, Haku was there.
He moved like a ghost, a blur of grey in the firelight.
Snap. Snap.
Two swift chops to the carotid arteries. No wasted movement. No flashy jutsu. Just pure, unadulterated efficiency. The remaining two ninja went limp, sliding to the ground in a heap.
The entire "battle" had taken less than ten seconds.
Haku stood over them, adjusting his gloves. He hadn't even broken a sweat. The fire cracked peacefully nearby, as if mocking the violence that had just occurred.
"Now then," Haku murmured, kneeling beside the unconscious leader.
He opened the man's pouch and dumped the contents onto the ground. His eyes widened slightly behind his mask.
"Two Heaven... three Earth..."
He picked up the scrolls, weighing them in his hands. Including his own Heaven scroll and the one he stole from the Konoha team earlier, he now possessed three complete sets.
'This is absurd,' Haku thought, shaking his head. 'Alaric-sensei always says that wealth naturally gravitates towards the capable... but this feels like cheating.'
He effectively held the fate of three other teams in his hands. He could pass, sell the extras, or simply burn them to eliminate the competition.
'I'll keep them,' he decided, sealing them into his vest. 'They might be useful bargaining chips later.'
---
Haku didn't linger. The smell of blood, faint as it was, would attract predators. He extinguished the Ame team's fire with a handful of dirt and vanished into the trees.
He moved toward the center of the forest, his speed increasing as his confidence grew. The Ashura no Mon seal hummed on his back, feeding him a constant stream of stamina.
Suddenly, a wave of killing intent washed over him... thick, heavy, and suffocating. It smelled of iron and dry earth.
Haku stopped instantly, perching on a high branch. He masked his chakra, blending perfectly with the bark of the giant tree.
Below him, in a wide clearing bathed in moonlight, a massacre was taking place.
"Please! Take the scroll! Just let us go!"
A Genin from the Hidden Rain was crawling backward, tears streaming down his face. His teammates were already gone... swallowed by the earth, leaving only crimson stains on the grass.
Standing over him was a boy with red hair and a massive gourd on his back. Gaara.
"Scroll?" Gaara tilted his head, his sea-foam green eyes void of any humanity. "I don't need the scroll. I need your blood to feed Mother."
"Gaara, that's enough," Kankuro called out from the edge of the clearing. He and Temari were leaning against a tree, looking bored and slightly terrified. "We have the scroll. Let's go."
Gaara ignored him. He raised his hand. The sand on the ground surged like a living tidal wave, wrapping around the screaming Rain Genin.
"Sand Burial."
SQUELCH.
The sound was wet and final. The sand compressed, and the screaming stopped instantly. Blood rained down, staining the sand red before it slithered back into Gaara's gourd.
Haku watched from the branch, his expression serious.
'Total offense. Total defense,' Haku analyzed, his eyes tracking the movement of the sand. 'He doesn't even move his body. The sand reacts automatically.'
It was terrifying, yes. But Haku saw the flaw.
'The sand is fast... but it has a travel time. It has to physically move from the gourd or the ground to the target.'
Haku flexed his fingers. 'I am faster.'
With the boost from Alaric's seal and his own natural speed, Haku calculated he could slip through the sand's defense and strike Gaara before the shield could close.
However...
Haku's gaze lingered on Gaara. He felt it again... that roiling, chaotic storm of chakra deep within the boy. It felt ancient and malevolent.
'A Jinchuriki,' Haku realized.
Alaric had told him about them. Vessels of the Tailed Beasts. Weapons of mass destruction.
'If I strike him, that monster inside might wake up. Fighting him isn't a battle of skill; it's a battle against a natural disaster.'
Haku slowly backed away, ensuring he made no sound.
'Useless,' he concluded. 'I have my scrolls. Engaging him gains me nothing but risk. I'll ask Alaric-sensei how to dismantle a Jinchuriki properly next time I see him.'
Haku put miles between himself and the Sand siblings. The forest grew darker as the moon dipped lower, the shadows lengthening into grasping claws.
Most Genin were likely cowering in bushes right now, terrified, exhausted, and hungry.
Haku found a massive tree with a hollowed-out section high up in the trunk. It was dry, protected from the wind, and easily defensible.
He checked his perimeter, set a few simple tripwire traps with ice-coated strings, and sat down.
He wasn't tired. The hour of rest he'd had earlier was more than enough to keep him going for another day. His body felt light, powerful.
But he lay down anyway, crossing his arms behind his head.
'Why rush?' he thought, watching a spider weave its web in the corner. 'The tower isn't going anywhere. And being the first to arrive just means waiting longer in a boring room.'
He closed his eyes, a small, contented smile playing on his lips.
For the first time in his life, Haku wasn't sleeping because he had to recover for the next battle. He wasn't sleeping because Zabuza ordered him to rest.
He was sleeping because he felt like it.
As he drifted off, listening to the screams of distant Genin echoing through the Forest of Death, Haku slept soundly, wrapped in the warm, arrogant comfort of absolute superiority.
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