7 Chapter 7

"Haruno Kizas hi," the mustached man said as extended his hand. "Nice to meet you. I'll be accompanying you guys for the next two days."

Haru quickly shook the man's hands before letting them rest at his sides once again. Harue made sure to give a small, closed-mouth, smile.

They stood at the front gates waiting to leave. Kizashi kept throwing glances at the smiling kid next to him.

"So, I think Shisui-san will be here soon," Kizashi said, trying to start a conversation. "We are a bit early, but it's a lovely morning, isn't it?"

Haru allowed his smile to grow a bit larger.

Kizashi took that as his reply. The man shifted a bit on his feet before standing still.

After a few minutes, Kizashi once again tried to strike up a conversation. " Sooo ... I'm guessing you're an early graduate with no team. You've gotta be quite skilled then. That means you won't stay a genin for long... unlike me."

After a pause and a glance to see what the kid's response might be, which was nothing impressive, he continued. "Not that being genin is bad. No sirree . I'm happy with the lower ranked jobs I get. Brings in the money to support my family while being relatively low risk. Almost a guarantee I get to see my family again afterwards. I don't want to think what my wife would do to me if I go to the afterlife before her and she catches up to me. Plus, I don't want to leave our little girl just yet."

Silence fell.

Kizashi was about to sigh when he heard the kid speak.

"You have a daughter?" Haru asked.

Kizashi looked down once more to see the strangest expression he'd ever seen on a child. The kid had a far away, almost vacant, look. The boy's smile had disappeared. The older man just couldn't decipher what it meant. He was a bit worried that he might've broken the not-so-mute kid with all his talking, but he was going to answer the kid's question.

"Yep," the man smiled. "Her name's Sakura and she's two years old as of yesterday,"

"Sakura..." the kid muttered. "Like your hair?"

Kizashi raised an eyebrow at this. He usually styled his hair after a cherry blossom, but no one but his wife figured out he based his own daughter's name off of it. Everyone who saw his daughter would probably think he based it off actual cherry blossoms due to her own hair and its colour.

Before the man had a chance to reply, though, the kid smiled and turned his face away from the older man.

It's final! Kizashi decided. Nay, he vowed right then and there to himself that by the end of this mission he'd get the kid to put more teeth into his smiles and get him to be more talkative. More importantly, though...

"You know what? I'll introduce you to her after we come back." Kizashi said. "I'm sure she'd be happy to make another friend, though, you're probably too old to want to waste time playing with little kids... am I right?"

Silence.

Kizashi was definitely going to make this kid more talkative too. However, in that moment he was rewarded with a reply.

"It's alright," Haru said distractedly. "I sometimes play with Sasuke,"

"It's settled then!" Kizashi beamed, not thinking to ask who Sasuke was. "By the way, what's your name?"

Silence.

More silence.

Kizashi glanced at the kid and saw that he was staring beyond the gate. His eyes still contained a vacant look, but his face frozen with that smile.

"You alright kid?"

Kizashi was about to reach out to put his hands on the boy's shoulder, but then the air was displaced near him. There, to his side, stood the famed young chunin, Shunshin no Shisui.

"His name's Uchiha Haru," Shisui spoke. "One of my cute little cousins."

Shisui then walked to stand face to face with his young cousin. "You two are a bit early, but I guess we can start,"

Haru gave a simple and short nod. He then ran around Shisui and out of the village's gates and took to the trees.

"Did I say something wrong?" Kizashi asked as the two of them remained inside the gates and watched Haru go on ahead of them.

"No, I don't think so," Shisui said with some hesitance. "From what I understand, Haru gets like that sometimes. Though, I've never seen it myself. I hear another cousin of mine knows how to handle it better than I ever can."

"I see..." Kizashi said. Before looking at Shisui. "So, you were listening to our conversation the whole time?"

Shisui laughed. " Conversation? What conversation?"

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The three-man team camped that night. They had a couple more stops the next day before heading to Cha no Kuni to complete the last part of the mission. They were to bring a shipment of tea back to Konoha. An owner of a famous chain of tea houses was opening up a shop in Konoha and had made quite the large order.

Haru was tending to the well-concealed camp fire. Kizashi was pouting near the trees while at the same time watching the kid. He tried, over the course of that day, to get Haru to open up more, but had no success at all. He was beginning to think it was going to take a tad bit longer than this mission to make true to his vow.

Shisui came and sat next to the man.

"Don't be so down about it," Shisui said. "You'll have more than enough time after the mission to work on Haru,"

"I know," Kizashi sighed. "But I was kind of hoping to get him to open up more before the mission ends,"

Shisui chuckled. "I'll tell you this. Haru has a peculiar sense of humour. I've experienced it a bit over the week I've been with him."

"Really?" Kizashi asked.

"Yep," Shisui said. "But do me a favour, let me know of any jokes he might tell you. Okay?"

"Sure," Kizashi then looked back at Haru.

He was going to do his best to make Haru a bit more talkative and put more teeth into his smiles. If he can't... well that's fine too. Kizashi knew the kid was a genius and a prodigy. What he also knew was that many times that meant little to no friends. The man knew what loneliness could do to a person.

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After sealing the last of the shipment of tea away, they started on their way back to Konoha. It would have been a quick journey back too, but they just had to have an encounter with group of bandits

This would not normally pose any problem, except a couple of the bandits turned out to be missing-nin in disguise. This quickly led to a kunai in Kizashi's gut.

Shisui quickly teleported the older man a few meters away, checked him over, before he stood to quickly deal with the adversaries.

Of course, it would have been quick and easy for Shisui, but when he turned, he saw his job was already done. Both of them watched as Haru pulled his kunai out of the last of the bandits. All had been effectively neutralised and not in the way Shisui had wanted it to be done either. However, it was too late to complain.

The boy walked up to the two and glanced at Kizashi's wound.

"You are wounded," Haru calmly stated the obvious.

"I'll live," Kizashi said. Weakly smiling. "More importantly, you didn't have to deal with those thugs on your own. We could have handled things."

Haru gave his signature smile before he spoke. "Don't worry Kizashi-san, I'll do my best to try and get you home safely to your daughter."

"W-what?" the older man's eyes widened. "B-but... wait, you just ignored—"

Shisui clapped his hands together before pointing over at the bodies, giving a tight smile. "Well, I'm gonna go see if any of them had a bounty on their heads. Then we'll get you back to the village for medical attention,"

Shisui quickly flashed away leaving Haru and Kizashi alone.

The young boy smiled, but this time added some teeth.

Is he trying to make me feel better?

"Hey!" Kizashi pointed a finger at Haru's face. "That's not gonna count. You better do it again and properly back in the village,"

Haru's smile grew closed-mouth, but it was much wider than his usual smiles. The boy's eyes were filled with mirth.