A/N: I finished typing up the entire fic so this is the second chapter in a massive update where I apologize for being lazy and not updating in almost two months by posting up to the finish. I don’t own anyone or anything from the Narutoverse, etc. etc.

Warning(s): Blood/gore, language, unbeta’d

Chapter 3: Not One Can Compare

Back in Kirigakure, Zabuza had just “fired” his fourteenth advisor outside the Mizukage’s office complex and was wiping the blood off of zanbatō’s massive blade in the house he had taken up residence in.

Not a single one of his advisors that held the position had been smart, strong, fast, or tolerant enough for his liking. As a result, all fourteen shinobi had been killed in under a week, whether hired willingly or forcibly.

There’s just no fucking good help anymore, he thought bitterly. Not one of them can match up to what Haku was….

“Haku…,” he muttered under his breath, pausing in his cleaning.

He shook his head to push the long-hidden emotions attached to the boy and his name away, before continuing to take off the now congealed blood.

Even though he didn’t want to admit it, Zabuza had grown to really like the kid. He hadn’t wanted Haku to go, but he figured the young man deserved a chance at a normal life. Still, there had been times over the past two months when he wanted to go hunt down his former companion and bring him back. A new and unfamiliar feeling hit him as he remembered Haku’s hurt expression and protests. It took him a while to realize he was feeling... guilty.

If he really wanted to stay, he would’ve stayed, he rationalized, but then another thought came to mind. He’s said so many times before that he’d do anything for me and he was always an obedient kid. Damn it... I told him not to argue and go.

He finally finished and stared down at his reflection, and for a moment, swore he saw Haku’s smiling face mirroring back from the gleaming steel, only for it to disappear when he blinked. Zabuza leaned his sword against the wall and lay down on his bed, staring at the ceiling for an hour before falling asleep to a torturous dream. He had gone for a walk through the woods outside of the village where he found Haku lying dead on the dirt road. The boy’s spirit had risen and asked why he had been told to go in a voice laced with pain, sadness, and betrayal. Zabuza had been unable to reply and woke up in a cold sweat and was unable to sleep for the remainder of the night.

One week of sleepless nights and two advisors later, Zabuza called up a small squad of Kirigakure’s best hunter-nin.

“You all remember what Haku looks like from the old bingo books, right?” he growled. When they nodded, he went on. “Good, because I want you to find him and tell me what he’s up to and where he is. He can’t know you’re watching him and you can’t be caught by anyone for that matter. I don’t care if you have to go into enemy territory to do it either, just find him.”

“Right Mizukage-sama!” they shouted, before vanishing.

“Then I’ll come see you for myself,” he muttered to the empty office.

A/N: Please don’t forget to review. Reviews (especially concrit) make for a happy writer.