Zabuza's S.Adventures 21 (Patreon)

Zabuza’s S.Adventures
Chapter 21

-VB-

“HUU!”

Kubikiribochu hissed through the air and struck the undefended back of a fleeing bandit. The man let out a choked scream before he fell to the ground, dead.

Zabuza pulled the giant blade out of the dead bandit’s back and whirled it around. With a snap, he brought it to a rest with the tip embedded only just on the icy ground. He pushed himself off of it for a moment to dodge four ninja stars that came down from above before he pulled the ninja string he’d already attached to his sword. The blade flew out of the ground where he’d stabbed it into and into his hands just as the missing-nin he’d been fighting mere seconds ago struck down from above with a pair of kunais.

With but a swing of his sword, he forced the ninja to disengage.

The raggedly dressed nin flipped thrice before coming to a stop in a crouch, only to jump out of the way as Zabuza fired a water lance technique on the spot.

As horrible as winter was, there was plenty of water to be had.

“Hidden in the Mist technique!”

The missing-nin cussed before he tried to leave-.

His head spun with wide eyes as it fell from his head mid-air, and both pieces of the body landed separately.

Zabuza turned to the rest of the bandits that were running.

“Get the fuck over here! I don’t have the patience to kill you in all different spots and chop off every single one of your jaw bones for identification!”

-VB-

Zabuza pulled down the map and looked at the bandit camp that had just finished butchering some unfortunate civilians.

Camp #2, worth at least fifty thousand ryo.

-VB-

Camp #3, five missing-nin (dumbasses), worth at least a hundred thousand ryo.

Actually, this camp was more missing-nin than bandit. How unusual.

-VB-

Zabuza frowned as he looked at the eleventh crossed out Kirigakure headband he’d just collected. Of the twenty-five headbands he collected from missing-nin, Kiri represented the largest portion.

What was going on?

-VB-

He stood over the burning remains of the seventh camp he just dispatched.

This was abnormal. Even the Land of Waters with its abundance of pirates, didn’t see this many camps.

Someone made these camps by direction or side effect. Could it be the Kumo’s alliance with Kiri?

Was it really an alliance?

-VB-

Iruka whistled. “You’re doing a lot of these bandit missions lately,” he told him.

“My women want me safe, and the bandit missions are the safest jobs that pay better than average. It’s been a month since I’ve been in the city, too, so they probably want me home quickly.”

“That is true enough, but that’s because most bandit mission payouts are split between team members, but you’ve been taking care of entire camps by yourself.”

“Yeah, about the camps,” he said as he pulled out the fifty-seven headbands, all crossed out.

Iruka looked at them blankly for a moment before his eyes widened. “How the hell-?!” he shouted abruptly, which got the attention of the rest of the Mission Office, who all saw the headbands and promptly flipped.

“All missing-nin, a third of whom were from Kiri,” he reported as he handed over the ribbon-tied headband weighing enough to make multiple flak vests to Iruka. The man took it and grimaced.

“I didn’t realize that there was an issue of this proportion… Do you want to report directly to the Hokage?”

“I’ll have to. Even I know that this is big shit. One big messy pile of rotting shit.”

Iruka nodded as he set the headbands aside. They would be processed into new weapons, armor, and more.

“She’s not too busy right now, just paperwork.”

Zabuza nodded before he walked out of the Mission Office and up the Hokage Tower. At its top floor, he stood outside of the Hokage’s Office, and the Hokage’ secretary knocked for him.

“Come in,” Kushina’s exhausted voice called from the other side.

He pushed the doors open, and saw her for the first time in some time.

“Oh, Zabuza. What are you doing here?” she asked before continuing her paperwork. What few words he could see from here told him that she was currently giving approval for a new squad to be assigned to the eastern shores.

“I completed nine bandit camp missions.”

“Nine. That’s a lot, even for you.”

“They were all within the same area.”

Kushina’s brush stopped and she looked up.

“All of them were in the northeast, areas closest to Kumo and Kiri.”

She really stopped as she looked down at the paperwork she almost signed away.

“That’s not good. That’s really not good. How many missing-nin.”

“Nearly sixty, a third from Kiri.”

Kushina’s eyes hardened. “Sabotage?”

“Unlikely. They were too uncoordinated, and those headed by chunin-level or above all knew to stay out of the way. It was just their misfortune that I was the one who picked this job.”

She hummed. “Thank you, Zabuza-kun. I’ll be sure to investigate this, even if I have to get the daimyo involved.”

He nodded, bowed slightly, and left her office.

“Oh, Zabuza?”

He stopped just before he closed the door.

“Could you keep Naruko company in your house? I know that she’s been lonely in her house, and her teammates have been as busy as I am.”

“... Sure. She can play with my children.”

Kushina giggled. “I’ll have to go over to your house, too. I haven’t seen them at all.”

“You’re welcome to stop by at any time.”