Mebuki: Bonding with Haku and Neji

I have wanted to write this one for so freaking long. Holy crap.

Thank you for your support, and please enjoy Sakura sharing the braincell.

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Mebuki has no regrets moving all these random boys in. Even beyond being the son she’s always wanted, Naruto’s a delight. He’s emotional, available, loves hugs, and does so many chores she finds herself unsure of what to do when she’s not being a ninja. She’s mostly retired, so that’s most of the time. Sure she takes a bunch of D rank missions to pay basic bills and if Sakura needs something new she’ll take a C rank mission near the village but most of her day is spent trying to find something to do.

Her bills have gone up a little bit for their inclusion, but not actually that much. The electricity is up because of Haku’s constant streaming, the food bill is up because she’s feeding six additional people. Four Narutos if you include the normal Naruto, Haku, Neji, and Hanabi who is here somewhat regularly but probably should only be counted as half a person… Both because she’s tiny and doesn’t eat much, and because she’s just not here every day.

She could put her foot down about feeding the clones, and Hanabi, and possibly even Neji to some extent if she wanted to, but it’s really only a couple additional D rank missions every week and she could do a dozen of those in a single day if she wanted. She appreciates the time out of the house, it’s a positive as far as she’s concerned. Plus, Naruto’d probably dump her entire rent in her lap if she even hinted she wanted money.

At this point, she’s only even working because she wants to, Sakura has accidentally fixed every problem in her life by moving people in that are just plain useful. It reminds her of her younger years when a swish of her hand could fix pretty much anything in front of her. It’s been a long time since things were that simple. The people she relied on back then are dead, or married, or lost somewhere without a phone. Her own skills have atrophied, and she’s just a happy mother now. It’s nice.

So while she has zero regrets about her new household filled with lively activity the likes of which she’d only dreamt of during the years where Sakura would maybe leave her room for a cookie and otherwise locked herself away, she does have additional problems stemming from all this problem solving. Mainly, she’s really, really bored.

Not only is she really bored, she can’t help but notice that she barely knows some of these people? Naruto, she spends her whole day with at least one clone around her if not the original, she knows his favorite color - obviously Orange - she knows his birthday - October 10th, though again obvious - she even knows that he doesn’t really enjoy half the games Sakura makes him play and he just wants her to smile so he plays along.

But Neji?
Hanabi?
Haku?

The three of them are a mystery.
Today she’s changing that, at least for Neji and Haku, odds are Hanabi’ll show up for twenty minutes at some point and then slip out one of the doors or windows when no one’s looking. She gets the feeling if she tried actually talking to her, she might go past that and just leave.

Which is really sad but- her door opens while she’s in thought, and in walks exactly who she’s thinking about. She tries her hardest not to let excitement reach her eyes as the black haired little girl slips in and looks around. Using her Byakugan to locate Neji was deemed very rude early on so she stopped doing it after a slight scolding from the older boy. Which means that she has to manually find him, which gives Mebuki just the chance she’s looking for. “Hello, Hanabi.” She greets her before she’s even got her hand off the doorknob. Sharp pupiless eyes look at her, one hand on a cloth drying a dish she managed to sneak away so she could clean on her own time. “I’ve been thinking, you should tell me a little about yourself.”

The girl stands still, frozen in place, her eyes locked with Mebuki’s, she looks a bit like a doe caught in a hunter’s sights. “Nope.” The girl says dryly, before stepping back and closing the door.

“... Snrrk, wow.” That’s one failure, today is already shaping up to a great start.

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Later that same day she’s vacuuming the carpet in the hallway up the stairs. It’s not even something she has to do, Naruto’s taken to keeping this place spotless and she’d be surprised if she could get enough loose dirt to have to empty the bag once if she went outside and vacuumed the grass. The point isn’t to get cleaning done though, it’s to make sure Haku’s not streaming. He can be hard to get a hold of. When he’s cooking he’s in the zone, no one wants to interrupt that, and when he’s in his room he’s streaming or otherwise participating in the media.

She’d be a little more worried about getting in the way if he wasn’t making way more than he needs and spending absolutely none of it… no she’s still being very rude, she’ll apologize sometime, she should have thought this through more. Regardless, far be it for her to waste an opportunity, what’s done is done. She knocks on his door, waits a full five seconds, and then knocks again. It opens before she can knock a third time, not that she had intended to. If with a notice that long a ninja doesn’t answer they’re just not going to and there’s no point wasting either of your time. He’s dressed up today in some kind of long white and blue outfit that really accents his aesthetic, which means he was probably doing some kind of specialty stream, so yeah she has to feel guilty. Still, cold eyes focus on her with rapt attention. His focus tells her that she has the turn to talk and should start. “I was thinking we should get to know each-other a little better.” She explains with a bit of a squeak that pushes its way out of her throat despite her best efforts.

“And that requires a vacuum?” His eyes move from her to focus on the object in her hands, and she has the sheepish shame to hide it behind her back and stand up straight. Haku’s rather tall, in fact he’s a little taller than her, so she feels it’s probably reasonable to feel a little intimidated by the icy boy in her house. She’s taken absolutely zero effort to learn about him and is now insulting him by accident so she can’t even get mad if he gets snippy with her.

“No, I was an idiot.” She explains with a little bit of a tilt of her body to the side. There goes that confidence she was faking, it’s like dust in the wind.

“That checks out.” He nods slowly, “I understand, I’ve taken to understanding Sakura’s mannerisms a lot. She’s very smart but moves without thinking, impulsivity I believe is the term?”

“Yes. It’s the Haruno curse, hehe, um,” she reaches up to scratch her cheek. It’s trying to burn and she hopes she can stop that by touching it with her cold hands. “You’ve lived here for a couple of months now.”

“Thank you for allowing me to do that.” Of all things the boy takes a moment to bow. It’s a full body movement and no matter how hard she cringes she’s not unseeing that. Now she’s not sure how to feel, he’s clearly not that insulted… Did she not screw this up by being extremely inconsiderate? “As far as I can remember, I have been on the move. This is the first time I have ever had a stable place to be myself. It would be easy to think it’s just Sakura that did this for me but it’s not, you and Kizashi have also opened your hearts to me and given me a place to belong.”

She’s not ready for that kind of statement. That’s so much, errr- “Thank you, but I didn’t come to hold anything over you.” She allows herself a moment to breathe deeply, and center herself before she speaks any more. Haku waits patiently for her, so she continues as soon as her heart stops trying to beat out of her chest. “I just want to know the boys living in my home. That’s reasonable, right? You understand?”

“I do. How about lunch?” He asks, “I will pay, of course.” There’s a slight smirk on his lips, she chooses to assume it’s of a good nature.

“Right, um, it’s a date.” She smiles and nods, takes about three steps away before turning on her heel, “-err, not a date, um, I have a husband and you’re a teenager, I just mean- it’s a term?”

“I understand, Mebuki.” Haku’s small smile is slightly upturned, just enough that she can notice it with Sakura training but subtle enough she’d have totally missed it if her daughter was a normal girl. “I didn’t think otherwise.” He holds a hand up for her, stopping what was probably going to be a very long and awkward nervous rant from her.

She needs to absolutely write out her thoughts before approaching Neji. If this is how badly Haku went, Neji is going to give her a heart attack if she talks to him without a plan.

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“Neji!” She throws her arms up as he comes out of his room, confetting sprinkling from the sky, well, it’s sprinkling from the ceiling. He blows out, pushing a little that was going to land in his hair away, and stares at her with the most unamused expression any normal person could possibly muster. For Neji, it likely means he’s in an okay place right now, Hyuuga are like hard mode for expressiveness. It probably says something that Sakura ready skills work on them too, what did she do wrong to raise a child so broken she resembles the most uptight clan to ever exist.

She’s asked herself a thousand times, and she’s never been able to come up with anything in particular that she did, sometimes children are born different. She could beat herself over it or she could force feed her daughter while telling her it’s okay. Other parents might have given up, she was tempted at times to just start blurring through days and putting her efforts on a side burner… She’s glad she didn’t, and she’ll be glad she didn’t give up on these kids either once they have a better relationship. She’ll become the group mom they never even asked for! It’ll be easy, she just has to do better. “Did you want something, ma’am?” He asks dryly as the confetti finishes filtering onto the floor. “Some sort of party celebration I missed?”

“Nooo, uh, Haku invited me out for lunch so we could get to know each-other. I’d like to invite you.” She explains, “I’ll pay, uh-”

“No, you will not.” Neji asserts very forcefully. One would normally find that kind of tone rude and it still is for her, but she knows better. A lot of people who are not exactly normal do not have control over their tone. Being annoyed at her is okay, expressing it in that way isn’t, but then if he can’t control it and isn’t aware of it what’s she supposed to do? Shame him for having feelings? Screw that, she’d rather pretend it didn’t happen.

Once she has a better idea of his awareness and how to teach him, she’ll do her best, for now she gives him a questioning smile and tilts her head the best any doting mother could. “You will not be spending anything on me.” He clarifies, “I may be separated from the clan in environment and social status at the moment, but it would be truly a shame on my honor if I made my host pay for me in any way shape or form.”

She chooses not to explain to him that he’s not paying rent or for the food Haku cooks so technically she is already paying for him, but if she said that he might actually start paying for it and that’s just not what she’s trying to get out of this. “Well then, you will pay for it?” She inquires, and sees him nod stoically. He’s difficult, but well meaning, she can work with that. “Well then get ready, I will see you out front in an hour.”

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The side glances Haku and Neji keep making seem to be filled with meaning she can’t quite grasp. She tries, but she’s just never been good at that kind of thing. It’s hard to know what people are thinking, especially when it’s related to her. The most complicated things seem easy when they’re about someone else - at least most of the time - but the moment she’s in the picture she’s floundering around their booth in a diner while the two new boys in her house have an argument with their eyes. She wore like six layers, all black and flowy. It makes her look a bit old, the fake glasses probably don’t help that, but she really didn’t want anyone to get the wrong idea and think she’s doing something weird. Especially not after that mess-up earlier, even if Haku assures her he understood.

This is a cute family dinner - even if it’s only the three of them and not the whole family- and she’ll stab anyone trying to ruin it with weird thoughts. “This is a nice place, I used to come here a lot back when Sakura was little. It serves picky eaters really well.” The bristle she sees from Neji has her rewinding the tape in her head, “oh not you, I mean your standards are higher than most people but I meant like, she wouldn’t eat her lettuce and stuff. It wasn’t until I pointed out that Ino wouldn’t like it if she grew up malnourished that she started eating…”

“And she cared about what Ino thought that much?” Neji asks, a brow slightly raising as he takes in that thought.

“Yeah, they were best friends for a very long time. Now it’s more in name? They’ve really grown apart since they became ninjas. I guess they’re still best friends but it’s different?” She actively ponders that.

“I am unsure if Ino actively wandering through her mind on a weekly basis is improving or hurting that.” Haku admits he’s actually paying attention. She wasn’t sure, his eyes were so focused on the menu. He doesn’t seem to like what he’s seeing, but when she asked where they were going he asked where she wanted so that’s on him. “On one hand, they’re closer and understand each-other better, on the other there’s this strange tenseness between them. Conversations not had, words not said, love not shared. It’s disturbing.”

“I don’t think I’ve heard you say more than a sentence before.” Mebuki smiles at the frosty boy. A part of her regrets mentioning that fact as his pale skin immediately flushes and there’s the risk that he might stop talking, but…

“My voice hurts most days from streaming.” He explains, “Sakura gave me a quota to reach early on and I do my best to meet it. Saving my words is a part of that.”

“You’re not meeting it?” Mebuki asks with a bit of a slack jaw, “just how high did she set it?”

“Very, very high.” Haku decides not to elaborate on the specifics, there’s a thoughtful look in his eyes that shows a little bit of hazy stress. “I do not think she intended for me to actually meet it… She calls herself my manager but there’s not a lot for her to do so she overcompensates a lot with strange tasks and goals.”

“I mean, she does intercept and burn hate mail.” Neji points out, just as a waitress pulls up to their table. Haku chooses what they eat almost every single day, so she orders for them this time. She’s got a pretty good idea of what they like, though she has to change Neji’s order in the middle of it when he grimaces. She’s not completely blind.

Then he grimaces again - “what do you want?” Mebuki asks.

“Nothing from here, it’s a dingy place.” Neji says - “I apologize ma’am that wasn’t directed towards you.” He says to the waitress who seems like she couldn’t possibly care less. “I will try, how about some of these potato squares? I’ve never had that, I am sure they couldn’t possibly insult the noble potato.”

Mebuki holds her face in her hands and squeaks a little, her scream is successfully held back but at what cost?

“What’s wrong with her?” Neji asks with a sigh.

“I would advise you to keep insults in your head when discussing things our host likes.” Haku explains.

“I thought they wanted honesty, that’s what Sakura says, all the Hyuuga subterfuge is bad for a normal family.” Neji answers right back rather curtly, and Mebuki’s forehead hits the table.

“You can be, how do I word this in a way you might understand…” Haku does his best, contemplating with great effort. “Honesty and being a dick are not mutually exclusive, but they are also not mutually required. You can do it either way, and one will have a much greater effect on portraying your message in a way other people can correlate to a meaning they’ll understand and internalize.”

“... I guess.” Neji shrugs, “I apologize.”

“Let’s move on.” Mebuki shakily raises her head, “tell me about that little cousin of yours. She evaded me hard when I asked her about herself.”

“I’m not sure how much there is for me to say, but I will do my best.” Neji nods, and begins describing the mystery that is the temperamental Hanabi.

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The walk home is largely uneventful. Haku had them put all their left-overs in four different boxes, which was confusing at the time, but seeing him stop by alleys and place a box down each before pulling a bell from his bag and ringing it, she’s pretty sure she gets the idea. They don’t need the food, they have plenty of money and Haku’s cooking is better anyway. Whoever he sensed in those alleys might be in need though. “That seems like a waste, if you’re giving it away shouldn’t you go talk to them? It’s not like Konoha has a huge homelessness problem.” Mebuki points out.

“Those that are able to admit they need help would be helped by the programs in place.” Haku explains with soft steps and a soft tone that she has to listen closely to hear. He’s either sparing his voice again or speaking from somewhere deep and far away. “Sometimes you are not able to reach out even if you’re surrounded by open arms. It might be pride, or never having been taught people care, or in my case it was being an outlaw. Whatever the case, the worst thing I could do is walk up to them and show them pity to their face.”

“I see…” Mebuki looks back at one of the alleys, and resolves herself to check in on that situation at some point. It’s a little embarrassing that Haku has better senses and detection than her, maybe she should get back to training. “Is that something you do regularly?”

“I always make Sakura and Naruto a plate, even when they’re not home. If they don’t return within a day, I deliver the extras somewhere I know someone is hiding.” Haku says.

“Isn’t there a high chance those are criminals?” Neji asks, “why are you bothering? It can’t just be empathy. I understand you have a sordid history but that class of people is not known for benevolent respect of others…”

“In this particular case, due to Konoha having programs that go above and beyond to help the needy, yes, it is highly likely they are criminals,” Haku agrees with a nod, “but some people are forced into things they’re not ready for by circumstance or a bad hand of cards drawn from early on. I choose not to judge someone’s life circumstances. I’d likely be dead by now if not for Sakura refusing to judge my own.” Haku’s words hang in the air, and neither her nor Neji decide to comment on them.

When their house comes into view Mebuki can’t help but think that she probably could have used their time to learn a little bit more about them, but she’s happy with this.
Baby steps still get there eventually, with a few trips and falls along the way.