A New... Friend...

I felt like crying. I was honestly on the verge of tears.

Just when I thought we had convinced mom to let us go search for Haku,she suddenly pulled a complete reversal jutsu on us and decided no one would "run off aimlessly looking for him" as it was "too dangerous."

Several hours later, and several strict promises as to when and where we had to be to meet back up, as well as a number of threats that as to what would happen if we failed to meet these deadlines, we finally managed to convince her to let us go.

I regret trying so hard now. I had no idea what I was getting myself into.

We separated from the group around a day's journey from the village we were all headed towards initially. Instead of the original three we had planned on, we set off as a group of four. Mio, Kirihara, me... and Rintetsu.

Oh Rintetsu. He could only be described as the ultimate torture machine.

Kirihara was an incredibly interesting person. Conversing with him was truly engaging and stimulating. Perhaps due to his past experiences with loss and betrayal, he had developed an incredibly negative and pessimistic stance on life. It was incredibly refreshing.

At first, he was rather polite and reticent. He spoke only when required, and maintained a calm and neutrally polite facade. However, he quickly withdrew from this shell when he noticed that I had, to an extent, a similarly negative outlook. The finding of a companion bolstered his views. It reached a point where no matter what a person said, he would mumble back some depressing reply about how the greed of humans would get in the way of any plans or progress for humanity.

The only difference between us was that he adopted an almost nihilist perspective on these philosophical matters. Apart from anything to do with Rintetsu, to him, whatever would happen, would happen and it mattered little.

Unfortunately, Rintetsu inherited none of this bleak pessimism.

Rintetsu, or Rin as he wanted us to call him, on the other hand, had somehow managed to surpass the Sakura I knew in my previous life as the most annoying person I had ever met. Actually, he had done so fairly easily, within only a few short hours of meeting him.

He was, simply put, the most excitable person I had ever met. Similar to Kirihara, he at first seemed calm and quiet. This was only his initial shyness. In reality, he was bright and happy like the sun - the closer you got, the more it burned to be with him... Within an hour...

"How old are you? I'm older, so call me Rin-sama."

"You're so pale, do you blend into the snow? Is this what natural evolution looks like?"

"You're a Yuki... Can you make me ice cream?"

"Why are your eyes blue when Yuki's have black or brown eyes?"

"Are you and Mio dating?"

"Is Haku your secret lover? Why do you want to find him? Will Mio be left behind? Jealous?"

At first, the questions spewing from his mouth one after another like bullets from a machine gun were at least slightly relevant to our current situation. They were about me or the mission and Haku. So I told him about myself, how I grew up, how I met Mio, how we were just friends [Mio tripped on a branch when I said this for some reason], and who Haku was, that I wanted to find him because he was family [actually Haku was necessary for me to be able to form my ultimate dream team in the future if I was honest] and everything else about me he could think to ask.

Soon, however, his queries turned to the most random of possible subjects.

"Why do only certain trees lose their leaves in winter?"

"Did your parents decide on your name having something to do with 'flying' and 'sea' knowing you would have to fly over the sea to escape to Konoha?"

"What do you call the spaces between the bristles of a comb?"

"Is water wet?"

"Why was the snow I just stepped in yellow?"

It was endless. Endless pestering. Like a mosquito buzzing around your ear in the middle of the night. And the questions... I lost half my IQ points just listening to him. Whoever said there is no such thing as a dumb question... I will fight you.

Unfortunately, as I was able to answer the majority of his questions thanks to my knowledge from Earth (although the is water wet question remains an unsolvable mystery), and did so in the beginning, he became convinced that I was not only able to, but was also happy to answer his unending barrage of questions. And so, I became the unfortunate target of a series of incredibly useless and imbecilic questions for the entirety of our long journey.

I could see Mio desperately trying not to laugh beside me.

At one point, I started to seriously reconsider whether Haku was worth it.

'No! For the sake of dream team I must grit my teeth and push on... Just pretend you don't hear anything...'

It was the most laborious, taxing and draining journey I could imagine.

Finally, Kirihara grew concerned about my wellbeing when he noticed the sickly paleness of my face, the extreme twitching of my eye every time Rin asked a question... Taking pity on me, or perhaps also not wanting to have to deal with even listening to the inane questions posed by the hyperactive Hozuki, he sternly told Rin to be quiet.

"Rin. Talking should be kept to a minimum during missions."

"But-"

"Just keep your talking to a minimum!" We all roared simultaneously.

The silence that finally followed made the rest of the slow journey suddenly seem pleasantly refreshing and invigorating.

......................

Finally, as the sun was beginning to set, we reached the coastline. It was one of those magnificently stunning coasts that would imprint an image on your mind that would never fade.

The land suddenly dropped off in sheer, gray, rocky cliffs covered in lush green vegetation, rushing vertically downwards to meet the fathomless, deep waters of the ocean.

In the fading light of dusk, a vibrant array of colors splayed out across the heavens, sending streaks of pink, red and purple across the sky that seemed to spill down onto the mirror-like dark waters of the ocean in gently rippling streams. It was a sensation of enveloping, imposing majesty ad depth, yet also embracing and captivating warmth and passion.

Down some distance to our right, a small fishing village that had been left untouched by the war could be seen. Perhaps it had been under Kiri control from the start. Either way, it had what we were looking for - a boat.