Zabuza's S.Adventures 26 (Patreon)

Commissioned by Kejmur

Zabuza’s S.Adventures
Chapter 26

-VB-

The next outpost stood, but he could see recently made elemental damages and explosive burn marks.

Zabuza grunted when he saw a few men on lookout, which meant that - as long as there were enough people uninjured - there was bound to be more out there.

Good.

“Jounin Zabuza reporting in,” he grunted as he reached into his pocket and intentionally pulled out a fake identification.

The guard atop the wooden walls of the outpost saw it, nodded, and led me and Jinzo into the gate. Right as I passed through the gate, I placed my hand on the right arm tattoo and then the left arm tattoo but did it in a way that appeared as if I was merely massaging myself.

Jinzo was doing the same.

And then once someone came out to meet us. It wasn’t the garrison commander, but that was the procedure. We handed him both of our tags, and waited as he processed us.

During this point in the security check, both of us made gestures to the commander with our fingers: our numerical identifications.

The commander pretended to examine the tag’s authenticity, but what he was really doing was matching our numbers to the ones on the tag in reverse from bottom to top and skipping one number every time one number was gestured with our hands.

When we finished signalling our numbers, which took all of ten seconds, he handed our tags back and nodded.

Verification complete.

This was one of the reasons why infiltrating an established Konoha operation was a bitch; there were multiple components to security and Konoha always made sure that the security checks had to do something with chakra when in truth, very few security checks involved chakra at all.

Hell, Jinzo probably believed it, because only jounins involved in security were told this. As far as the chunin was concerned, the mundane security checks he was doing was nothing more than a decoy security check.

To fool the enemy, one must first fool themself.

This was why most of Konoha’s enemies preferred direct assault on anything Konoha-related. Like Uzushiogakure. Like Konoha. Like these border outposts.

It probably helped that Land of Fire civilians also liked Konohagakure because PR was a big part of Konoha’s operation.

Why d’ya think so many Konoha kunoichis are sexy?

“Your tent is 7 Sho.”

Anyways, I hummed as I walked forward with Jinzo towards our designated tents, where our team should be waiting.

We filtered through the columns and rows of temporary housing tents, each no bigger than a small apartment living room, and entered the one with our number.

In it was the rest of the team.

“Holy shit, you actually made it out of that,” one of them - the scarred and bearded one - muttered as he sat up.

I immediately gestured for them to be at ease when I saw the rest of them try to get up.

“... Where’s Yoshirama?” someone asked.

Jinzo looked grief-stricken. “He died in battle.”

There was a palpable silence.

“Fuck.”

I didn’t say anything. Most of these guys probably knew each other, but I didn’t. Instead, I went over to an open bunk and sat down in it.

There was nothing I coul-.

“What was it like?”

I looked up. The same bearded one asked me.

“What was what like?”

“Did you see him die?”

“... No.” I didn’t see it per say, but I definitely heard the man panic and then get his head lopped off. “It happened in the Hidden Mist Technique used by the enemy.”

“Yoshirama had claustrophobia. The mist probably did him in more than whatever weapon killed him.”

The fuck? Konoha let a retard into their military?

Again, I didn’t say anything, because saying little tidbits like that always made problems within the team.

Kirigakure’s teams were infamous for backstabbing for a reason beyond a few very tight knit groups. Actually, I couldn’t remember if that was before or after the Bloody Mist started. Kirigakure’s academy didn’t quite focus on history beyond what was absolutely necessary, and everyone was expected to study on their own after graduation.

“Does he have a family?” I asked instead.

“Yeah. Both parents, two sisters, a wife, and a baby kid.”

That … actually pulled some heartstrings.

“Probably didn’t have much in the way of savings,” I muttered.

Someone winced, and I knew I hit it right on the mark.

“I’ll ask someone if they can get help.”

There were mutters of thanks.

-VB-

“Scouting mission, huh?”

Now that everyone knew the enemy was out there, the next step was finding where they were coming from. The garrison commander wanted to know if this was a one-off escalated border skirmish if any of our neighbors were pushing.

The problem, though, was the fact that this outpost’s garrison had been affected by attack on this outpost that happened almost at the same time as the no longer standing outpost. As such, the grueling task of scouting fell upon us.

“I must object, commander,” I said.

Sitting alone with the commander of the outpost - a jounin like myself - I spoke as I had to.

The commander, a thin man with bags and scars, paused in his brushwork and then looked up. “Why, Momoichi-dono?”

“The team with me is exhausted. We made a trip that was supposed to take multiple days at top speed in half that time. We will need at least a day of rest before we continue.”

“Hmm,” the commander muttered. “So much for the Demon of the Mist’s sadism.”

I didn’t react to his jab. I was bound to encounter one of these eventually, someone who didn’t like me on principle.

For it to be a garrison commander was … inconvenient.

“Just one day?”

“Yes, sir.”

It also sucked that I had to give him respect and deference because I was in his outpost.

“Very well. Make sure you kill your ex-comrades tomorrow for me.”

Another jab at my status.

Whatever. He’s just a small fry.

I left that room and made sure to slam the sliding rice doors shut with more force than necessary. Petty, yes, but it was the little things in life that I had to take when I could.

-VB-

A/N: please note that I am trying to speak like a veteran warrior who is from a medieval/industrial age of a distinctly non-Western society, because Zabuza is all of those.