Renewal

~18~

We were all gathered at the dining room table of Tazuna's house, eating breakfast. I shoveled a whole waffle into my mouth and smirked when I saw Sakura's face.

"Alright team, after breakfast please meet me in the forest." Kakashi-sensei said, getting up from his seat on the floor.

Naruto and I both stuffed all the food we could into our mouths, making Sasuke and Sakura give us disgusted looks. We ignored their looks and made our way out the door, me using my crutch. Kakashi waited for us by a tree, his crutch leaning against a huge tree.

"Today we will be climbing trees!" Kakashi said cheerfully.

"But I can already do that!" Naruto exclaimed.

"Hn." Sasuke agreed.

"You didn't let me finish. We will be climbing trees, without using our hands." Kakashi explained.

"But how do we do that sensei?" Sakura asked.

"Chakra control!" I interupted.

"Yuuto's right, all you have to do is channel your chakra to your feet and climb up the tree." Kakashi said.

"We already learned about catara!" Naruto yelled.

"Firstly, it's chakra." Kakashi sighed. "Secondly, doing this will make your chakra control better."

I set down my crutch and put some of my weight onto my ankle, testing it's strength. I didn't feel any pain, I walked over to a tree and channelled chakra into my feet, beginning to climb up. I hung upside down on a branch and whistled to catch my team's attention.

"Yuuto's already got it!" Kakashi yelled, loud enough I could hear him.

"I learned this a while ago!" I yelled down.

"But what about your ankle!" Sakura exclaimed.

"Feels fine!" I replied.

I slowly made my way back down the tree and stood in front of my team.

"Yuuto, you can go and train on your own, I'll have someone come get you later." Kakashi said.

"Then see you guys later!" I said, walking deeper into the forest.

I went to a quiet part of the forest and began my training, channelling my chakra into my fists and punching at a tree. The metal in the knuckles of my gloves hummed as my chakra flowed through it. Normally I would practice my kicks, but my ankle is just barely healed and I don't have a training dummy. Speaking of ankle, this splint is starting to annoy me. I sat on the ground and started taking the bandages off, tossing the sticks to the side. I stood up again and shifted my weight from foot-to-foot, testing out my ankle.

"Fucking finally it's healed!" I cheered, mostly to myself. "Time to stretch!"

I channelled chakra to my feet and ran up the tree, reaching the top in under twenty seconds. Once at the top I took off my vest and hung it in the tree again, leaving my glasses there as well. My tail snaked it's way out from under my shirt and my wings unfurled, stretching to their full wingspan. I jumped off of the tree and pumped my wings, hearing the wind rushing in my ears. I went the same way I had yesterday, practicing my barrel rolls. I felt a sudden prick in my neck, the world slowly faded around me as I passed out, spiralling towards the ground.

~??? P.O.V~

I could see that same shadow in the sky above me, I got curious as to what it was and decided to throw one of my senbon at it. The senbon made contact with the shadow and it started falling towards me. I reached my arms out and caught whatever it was, doing my best to take the impact. It landed in my arms and I looked to see what it was. I'm pretty sure it's a boy, he has long black hair, and the strangest part was he had wings and a tail. 

I carried the sleeping boy back to the base that me and Zabuza have been staying at. I looked at the boy again, thinking that I've seen him before. I walked through the mostly empty base to an empty room with a small cot in the corner. I laid him down carefully and checked to see if he was hurt. Once he was on the cot, he rolled to one side and curled his tail around his arm, snoring lightly. I smiled a little and left to go get Zabuza.

~Yuuto P.O.V~

My neck stung again and my eyes flew open.

"Shit!" I exclaimed, the last thing I remember being falling.

"Good, you didn't kill him." A deep voice said.

I looked around quickly but noticed I couldn't see very well. I could see two blurry figures, one was freaskisly tall, and the other only around my height.

"I can't see." I sighed, noticing the absense of my glasses.

"I'm sorry about shooting you out of the sky with my senbon." The smaller figure said, bowing his head.

"Can you both back up?" I asked. "I'm farsighted."

Both figures went to the other side of the room, making my vision clear up.

"Zabuza!" I shrieked.

Zabuza just chuckled.

"Relax kid, I'm not going to kill you." Zabuza chuckled.

"I'm Haku by the way," The other boy said. "And I'm not a girl."

I understood where Haku was coming from. He has long hair like my own and very feminine features.

"I'm Yuuto." I replied. "And as you can see, I'm not exactly normal."

I ruffled my feathers to get my point across.

"You certainly are a special brat." Zabuza chuckled.

"What will we do with him?" Haku asked, looking at Zabuza.

"I don't know." Zabuza replied. "You shot him out of the sky."

"Sorry again about that." Haku said, bowing again.

"I'm alright." I sighed. "But I need to go back to my team."

Zabuza glared at me, and Haku was silent.

"Haku, keep an eye on him." Zabuza ordered before leaving the room.

Haku and I sat in silence for a couple seconds until Haku turned to me.

"Can I touch your wings?" Haku asked.

"Sure." I replied with a shrug.

Haku walked closer and placed a hand on my right wing, stroking the feathers. I sat still, nothing moving, except for my tail which flicked back and forth slowly.

"If you don't mind me asking, how did you get wings and a tail?" Haku asked curiously.

"I lived with my parents until I was about four, when I had come back from the forest that day I found my parents dead. The people who killed them were still there and they decided to take me with them. A man named Orochimaru did some weird experiment on me that involved merging my DNA with the DNA of a bird and a lizard." I explained. "After that, I sort of just grew wings and a tail."

"I see." Haku said. "What's it like to fly?"

"I could show you." I said.

Haku's eyes sparkled excitedly.

"Really?" He asked.

"We just have to go outside." I replied. "I've never tried flying with someone, but you don't look that heavy."

"Let's go then!" Haku exclaimed, grabbing my hand.

~Sakura P.O.V~

Kakashi-sensei sent me out to go get Yuuto for dinner, but I've been searching for almost an hour and I couldn't find him. Finally I decided to climb a tree to get a better view. I climbed the tallest tree using my chakra and began looking around.

"Yuuto!" I called out.

I heard no reply and I kept looking. In the tree next to me I spotted a vest, one that I know is Yuuto's.

"Where is he?" I asked.

I made my way down the tree carefully and ran back to Tazuna's house to tell the others that Yuuto is missing.