Haku turns to Zabuza, ready to accept any decision he declares. Being Zabuza's weapon for so many years, assisting him, watching him, healing him, Haku knows everything about the wonderful man. Regardless of how brash he would like to be, Haku knows him, so when the deathly pale-skinned man grumbles, the beautiful boy realizes Zabuza's train of thought is running against his own interests.
It makes Haku smile fondly and it's no surprise when Zabuza states, "I work for the kid now. I'll stay at the black-site, but if you want my sword, the kid has to sign off on it."
"I didn't explain myself earlier, Mei-san," Haku happily begins to explain to the captivating woman with the most seductive poker face. "When I said, 'I have a home,' I didn't mean a place; I meant Zabuza-sama and Naruto-sama. They are my home." Haku then admits to the seductress, "Zabuza-sama has tasked me to make Naruto-sama's dream come true and I have every intention of sacrificing my life for his, if need be, in order to make his dream a reality."
"And what is the dream of such a captivating boy," Mei slowly asks, momentarily making Haku alert. Mei-san may be very civil and fair, but like Zabuza-sama, she graduated Kiri's academy by murdering all the other potential ninjas in her class, and with her lineage, has only grown stronger since then. Zabuza-sama himself had once admitted the stunning kunoichi was born with the potential to surpass any within their nation and possibly without.
It almost unnerves Haku to be peered at by Mei's sharp green eye and he cautiously answers, "though Naruto-sama might say, 'to be the greatest Hokage in existence,' such a dream is too small for his potential."
"I'm intrigued," Mei voices with a wicked grin she somehow manages to make charming. In front of such a devastating allure, Haku is grateful to be immune to her spell. "Then what would you claim his potential is capable of?"
"His is the strength of unity upon the world," Haku voices, though primarily to himself to affirm the truth within his heart. Focusing his chocolate eyes on a sharp green one, Haku simply states, "to unite the five nations."
"Mmmm," Mei hums, her smile growing wider. "Such a man... perhaps it would be in all our interests if I simply persuade Uzumaki-kun to join our cause."
A sudden wave of panic rushes through Haku, who quickly implores, "I'd appreciate it if you did not attempt to marry him."
XXX
MABUI
Mabui's first impression upon reading the Raikage's classified report was disgust, horror, and a mixture of overwhelming protection and sympathy. The team she was assigned to left Kumo promptly after her first read-through; leading to a cordial Mabui to observe her team lead and her fellow Chūnin throughout their entire travel. The second time she read the report, their team was waiting in the designated area within the forest to enter Konoha under Ōyashiro-san's credentials as an authorized out-of-country merchant and Mabui could barely reconcile how such obvious villainy would go unpunished, going so far as to even question the yondaime's judgment toward the Nosekai clan.
Though the Nosekais were parents as well, they were scientists first and included their children in the study. Each of the two groups had eleven children in it, however, like their daughter, Samui(8), both groups had children with some form of speech impediment; a stutter, mutism, hesitancy, or any irregularity with self-expression. Both groups were given tasks to complete and how they were treated during and proceeding the tasks was supposed to yield clinical results.
The group with the Nosekai's daughter, referred to as the Cold Group, were belittled for every little mistake they made in the process of a task. These children were constantly chastised by the Nosekais and their staff, and even the children in this group who didn't have speech impediments started to develop stutters and selective muteness as a result of all the negative conditioning.
The group the Nosekais placed their son, Atsui(7), in, referred to as the Hot Group, received positive affirmation throughout and the progress in all their tasks was publicly highlighted and complimented every step of the way. This greatly affected their confidence and even children with stutters began to speak freely and more fluently. Children in the Hot Group performed admirably under positive affirmation and participated regularly and enthusiastically.
There was a point in the experiment when the psychological therapy was scheduled to be reversed and the children from Cold Group—who were constantly belittled—were supposed to begin gaining praise and attention for their work on a task. Likewise, the Hot Group—who were always praised regardless of performance—were supposed to receive the opposite conditioning. However, the Nosekai's could not bring themselves to hamper their son's clear confidence. Placing their hope for the future on their son, they decided to continue the study as is.
Sadly, not all the tasks were of a simple nature such as shape and number recognition, but behavioral training. Of the seventeen tasks that the twenty-two children were made to take part in, there are seven tasks in total that can be considered highly unethical. I've highlighted three of the worst tasks each group was forced to perform in the summary below.
Task: Obedience.
The objective was obedience to authority despite the immorality of orders. The task asked the children to sit in front of a machine that raises the voltage of an electric chair. A prisoner from Kumo's prison system is placed in the electric chair and the authoritative figure—usually the Nosekais—would ask the prisoners interrogative questions with controlled wrong answers. When the prisoner naturally answered questions incorrectly, the interrogator would administer shocks through the machine and to the electric chair.
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