Zabuza's S.Adventures 10 (Patreon)

Zabuza’s S.Adventures
Chapter 10

-VB-

The final portion of the Chunin Exam began with a loud applause of onlookers.

Zabuza too clapped along with the crowd, but his clapping was half-hearted at best. He wasn’t the one interested in seeing this; it was his students. But an order had come down from on high, and the order stated that he should be at the arena, ready to fight to protect Konohagakure from potential invaders within and without.

Personally, Zabuza thought the idea of someone attacking Konohagakure to be the height of stupidity. It was not well known but most elites trained and learned in the art of siege warfare - which was literally everyone who achieved the rank of jounin - knew that Konohagakure was worse than Uzushiogakure, the eliminated Hidden Village in the Whirlpools. Uzhushiogakure were more pacificistic than other villages, which led to their forces being weaker while their defenses were stronger. Their seals in particular helped. 

When the seals failed, they fell because of how weak they were.

But Konoha was not weak at all. They possessed the same - and more - defensive perimeter seals that shielded the city from external enemies while also possessing a vast pool of combat veteran ninjas. On top of that, the nearly endless stretch of old forest surrounding the hidden village prevented any form of conventional siege warfare and gave Konoha ninjas plenty of room to ambush the other village ninjas or even samurais who would be unfamiliar with the terrain.

But the most important factor that made attacking Konohagakure fucking retarded was just how many powerful ninjas lived in it.

Ino-Shika-Cho, the formation used by the three clans of Yamanaka, Mara, and Akimichi not just by its clan heads but most of their clans’ frontline combatants that made any sort of attack useless unless done so with overwhelming numbers. 

The two dojutsu clans, the Uchiha and Hyuuga.

Sarutobi Asuma, A-rank, a former member of the Twelve Guardian Ninja.

Might Guy, A-rank, rumored to have mastered the Eight Gates.

Uchiha Itachi, S-rank, known to have mastered techniques used by Uchiha Madara.

Hatake Kakashi, S-rank, the “Copycat Ninja.”

Sarutobi Hiruzen, S-rank, the “Professor.”

And last but not least, Uzumaki Kushina, the Kyuubi Jinchuuriki.

‘And those are just some of its S ranks, A ranks, and clans,’ Zabuza noted. ‘An attack on Konoha when it is prepared for it? It’s an assisted-suicide.’

He looked down at the contestants - since when did they get to the second round already? - and saw that it was the blonde brat with Kakashi facing off against a Hyuuga. 

No, wait, the first round was supposed to be the Suna jinchuuriki and the Uchiha brat. Where are they now?

“Oi, what happened to the red head versus Uchiha?” he asked Eri.

She blinked. “Uh, they moved it back because Uchiha isn’t here.”

The fuck?

.... Whatever.

He looked down at the arena and observed the combatants. 

The Hyuuga was definitely distracted by those boobs.

Oof. An on-spot fist to face punch. 

Hyuuga’s not out of the count yet. He’s got his head straight now.

Ouch. 

Huh. Surprised that the kid can withstand the Hyuuga’s taijutsu techniques. 

“Hey, sensei.”

He stopped mentally commentating on the match and looked to his left, where all three of his genins were. Keito sat furthest away, Tsuyo in the middle, and Eri closest to him. It was Tsuyo who called him, though.

“Yes?” he asked with a raised eyebrow. 

“Who do you think is going to win?”

Zabuza hummed. “I’ve seen the blonde brat fight before. She has some monstrous chakra pools, but she’s also taking too many hits. Considering that she’s a genin like the rest of you, I doubt she knows any chakra healing techniques, so I would say that the Hyuuga would win at this rate.”

“So there is still a chance that Naruko-chan can still win, right?”

“A chance, but I don’t-”

He stopped. His eyes narrowed as he noticed that some of the ground that the combatants below haven’t yet touched were uneven. And they were moving.

“Ho…” he grinned. “I take that back. The girl’s going to win.”

“Really?!” Tsuyo asked excitedly.

Zabuza got back to spectating the fight.

Hold up. Was that Rasengan? One of two techniques used by the Yondaime?

Using the Rasengan was both a smart and brute force method to cancel out the Hyuuga’s Hakkesho Kaiten.

Then those slow moving earth mounds burst out, and clones of the blonde brat attacked the Hyuuga. 

Hyuuga, whose Kaiten had just been completely canceled out by the blonde’s Rasengan, attempted to fight back, but it was a five still energetic brats versus one tired brat. 

The judge called victory on behalf of the blondie, and Tsuyo cheered like someone in her family just won the grand prize or something.

“Is she your friend or something?” he asked lazily. It was an interesting match for genin-level combat, but a chunin should have seen such things coming easily. The Hyuuga was not ready to be chunin.

“She is!” the girl chattered excitedly. “Naruko-chan is so sweet, beautiful, and strong! She’s like a girl version of the Yondaime!”

Eri grunted. “She’s a little elitist, even if she means well.”

“I assume you’ve met her?”

“I did. When I said that I was an orphan, she looked at me with pity. I don’t need pity.”

“So what did you do?”

“I didn’t talk to her.”

Zabuza snorted. “The girl didn’t stop when she knew she was fighting me, a S rank ninja. I doubt a little silent treatment got her to stop talking to you.”

Eri frowned. “She didn’t stop talking.”

He snorted. “Did you at least try to suck up to her?”

Eri grimaced. “Why would I do that?”

“If she’s your friend, then she can help you with techniques.”

Eri blinked and then frowned. “But that’s not right. I don’t like her. I can tell that she wants to be good but she looks down on people like me.”

“Does she? Intentionally or instinctually?”

“There’s a difference?”

“Of course, there is. It’s like asking someone who’s had it all to have the perspective of someone who’s never had something. It’s intellectually possible but truthfully impossible. I suspect that Naruko -”

“Hey, stop talking bad about my friend!” Tsuyo interrupted from the side. 

Zabuza ignored her. “- is kind -” Tsuyo looked relieved at the turn of the conversation. “- but I also suspect that she’s been spoiled rotten by people around her.” Tsuyo opened her mouth to retort but stopped. 

“Oh, it’s the third round! It’s Aburame heir and the Suna genin.”

He hummed as he leaned back to enjoy another fight. 

Unlike the action-intense first fight, this second match was a little bland. It was a simple enough deceit on the Suna genin’s part, and the Aburame didn’t have a contingency plan or other specialties to his techniques and tactics to counter the Suna genin.

Then the third match was to begin. 

The Suna jinchuuriki was already there in the arena and the judge was starting to countdown for Uchiha’s appearance.

On the last second, there was a pop of smoke… and from there, the Copycat and Uchiha brat came out.

“Ugh, showoffs,” Zabuza grumbled but settled down to see the show.

The fight commenced, and it wasn’t long before the Uchiha brat came out with the Copycat’s signature move. Sharp, chirping bird noises dominated the arena before the Uchiha brat went on the offensive. 

In a single forward stab, he penetrated through the jinchuuriki’s sand defense.

Zabuza’s eyes narrowed when the jinchuuriki began to scream from within his spherical defense ball. 

It was not a good sign for a jinchuuriki, because it denoted instability in a host that needed a lot of emotional control to keep their biju in control.

Or the jinchuuriki was a wimp. 

Zabuza was about to comment about how boring this fight was except for the show of exotic techniques when he looked up and saw down feathers falling out of the sky. 

His eyelids slowly slid down-.

His hands reached out, pulled out a kunai dipped with Haku’s favorite stimulant, and stabbed it into his neck. His eyes shot open.

“ENEMY ATTACK!” he and several others roared out at the same time, and then he clasped his hands together and shouted “KAI!”

In a rough five meter diameter circle centering on him, everyone who had been under genjutsu suddenly awoke, his genin team included.

“I am including a counter-genjutsu training session into your training if you all survive this,” he growled before he whirled around. With a swirl of his arms, he pulled out Kubirikucho from its storage scroll, and bisected a Suna chunin that had just tried to blast him with wind ninjutsu.

“Traitors!” one of the Konoha jounins shouted as Suna chunins overwhelmed him by the dozens, killing him in seconds. Soon, they turned to the rest of the arena crowds, ready to kill.

Zabuza swung his sword and threw it. It missed the screaming civilians and sliced right into the group of Suna ninjas. It didn’t stop spinning and flying, and came right back to him. He caught it with both his hands.

That display of casual violence caught the attention of attackers, which also included the Sound ninjas. 

“It’s Momoichi Zabuza! Take him out as fast as you can!” someone shouted while other parts of the arena began to explode into bloodshed or smoke and fire of exploding explosive tags.

Zabuza would have gone on the offensive, but his genins were still psyching themselves into battle.

He clicked his tongue in annoyance -.

And then a trio of Konoha chunins landed behind him.

“We’ll be under your care, Momoichi-san!” they shouted before forming a defensive circle with his genins in the middle.

“Good. Genins, provide ninjutsu distraction! Chunins, keep the bastards away from civilians and the genins!” 

“HAI!”

And then Zabuza attacked.