It was hours later when the old man finally decided he was done making a nuisance of himself in the shopping district. By that time he was roaring drunk and barely able to walk. He frequently had to stop and use walls or street lamps as supports to avoid landing face first in the dirt, but he eventually made it to one of Konoha's seedier neighborhoods. It was obvious that nobody had paid any genin to pick trash up around these streets for a while, if ever.
Naruto lived on the opposite end of the village, but if Haruka hadn't known that she wouldn't have been able to tell the difference. The buildings in both areas were old and badly in need of repair. More than half of the street lights flickered or didn't work at all and the road was littered with debris that had never been cleaned up. Even twelve years after Kyubi's attack Konoha still bore some of the marks. Old wounds left to fester in the dark because nobody cared enough to tend to them.
The thought of simply interrogating the old drunk and then disposing of him flashed through Haruka's mind. It was unlikely anyone would notice if he went missing. Still, that seemed excessive. It would be nothing more than petty revenge for a slight that hadn't even been against her, and an entirely unnecessary risk to boot. After all, she was doing this to avoid suspicion.
Instead she moved to the other side of the street and transformed herself into a busty redhead that wore too much make-up and clothes that were too tight. She made sure to stagger a little and slur her words when she started to loudly complain about 'the blond demon child'.
The old drunk took the bait almost immediately. He was more than eager to join her on a bench in some back alley. Haruka might have thought it funny how easy the whole thing was, but instead she was horrified by what she learned. The man was wasted and bitter, so she wouldn't take his words at face value, but the claims made a terrible kind of sense.
The Yondaime Hokage, Namikaze Minato, had fought the Nine-Tails twelve years ago and because he couldn't defeat Kyubi he had sealed it instead. In Naruto. The old man, and apparently many of the villagers, were of the opinion that Naruto was nothing more than a demon waiting for another opportunity to kill all of them. When he'd shared that little tidbit Haruka had to make an actual effort not to hit him in the face. Naruto wasn't hated because he was loud, annoying, rude and liked to play pranks on people. He was hated for something he never got a say in in the first place and could do nothing about.
The blond might not be a hero, but he most certainly wasn't a demon either. He was the cage that kept all of them safe. Haruka had no idea whether or not he could let the Kyubi escape if he wanted to, but she knew him well enough to be sure that he wouldn't. For some insane reason Naruto loved this village. Despite all the anger and hatred thrown his way every day, despite the way he was ignored and neglected, he didn't want revenge. All he wanted was to be recognized as a person.
Even if Haruka didn't think she would have been satisfied to seek acceptance were she in his place, that wish she could understand. She'd lost her true name before she could even fathom what that meant. Been nothing but a number, experiment seven, for so long before Orochimaru had given her another name. It was like the worst kind of brand. She thought of herself as 'Haruka' and every time she did the snake would be there, slithering through her consciousness. Did Naruto think of himself as 'Naruto', or was he the 'demon child' in his own mind?
***
The next time Sai followed her, Haruka opted to sit on the Yondaime's stone head. The boy noted the change with nothing more than a glance towards their usual spot.
"Who is worse," she started before Sai could get a word in. "The person that does something horrible or the one that lets it happen?"
"Both," was the immediate answer. Haruka stared at him for a moment. She had expected Sai to say something that involved words like 'circumstance' or 'orders', maybe even 'greater good'.
"I guess," she agreed after a while. She had found books on the Yondaime after what the drunk had told her. Namikaze Minato had been well loved by his people. Konoha's Yellow Flash, trained by Jiraiya of the Sannin and mentor to Hatake Kakashi. He also had an uncanny resemblance to Naruto and had been married to one Uzumaki Kushina.
By rights Naruto should be treated as the son of one of Konoha's greatest heroes. Instead he was hated and condemned to live in a run down apartment, as far away from 'decent folk' as possible. Haruka didn't agree with what Yondaime had done to his own child, but she understood it. A sacrifice to save the village he loved. It wasn't a good choice, but it might have been the best one he could make at the time. Life was rarely just black and white, and when there was nothing but shades of gray to choose from, deciding which one was the lightest could be hard.
The Sandaime, however, was a different matter. He wasn't saving anyone. He wasn't making a necessary sacrifice. The only thing Sarutobi Hiruzen had done by letting people know what, but not who Naruto was, was throw a little boy to the wolves.
He was kind to Naruto, whenever he saw the boy, indulgent even and Naruto loved him for it. It disgusted Haruka because there was no way the Sandaime didn't know how the blond was treated by everybody else. A horrible kind of manipulation that reminded her so much of Orochimaru, but then the Hokage had been the snake's teacher. Maybe he was the biggest monster of them all. The kind, old grandfather sitting in his tower of lies.
"Why did you come?" Haruka asked out of the blue. She'd nearly forgotten Sai was there and the boy had the bad habit of letting her get lost in her own thoughts.
"You've been training too hard. Maybe you should rest for a few days." He told her, voice flat and even, but his chakra was agitated. With anyone else she might have called it nervous, but with Sai it came closer to a panic attack. You're drawing too much attention, he meant. I don't care, was what she wanted to say.
"I will, thank you," was what she said instead. And she would, for now at least. Konoha was home to too many monsters and Haruka was just a little girl. If she ever truly wanted to be free she needed to know more, to become stronger.