Zabuza's S.Adventures 37 (Patreon)

Zabuza’s S.Adventures

Chapter 37

-VB-

Upon arriving at this garrison post, Zabuza quickly learned that there were only fifteen ninjas in charge of patrolling 100 ri (244 miles) of the northeastern coast of the Land of Fire. This was on top of their duties to patrol half-ri of land next to the coast.

Now, why was this the case?

As far as Zabuza heard from the woman herself, Kushina pulled the fifty-plus ninjas who were part of the regular patrol here to bolster the borders along the Lightning. A reasonable act considering that Zabuza nearly died in that fiasco from traitors and ambushes, but the fact remained that he arrived to find out that not only were there only fifteen Konoha-nin watching the northeastern border for potentially hostile foreign ninjas, he was the highest ranking member out of them all.

He sent a missive to the Hokage, and apparently, that had been a mix-up. There should have been at least one jounin who remained to lead the patrol.

Her response at the end of her reply was “Good thing you’re there then! You’re in charge now! With Love, Kushina.”

Woman, what the fuck?

The four chunins left with the eleven genins looked at the letter and took him as their patrol company commander.

"Why are you all so quick to accept my position? You know that I used to be a Kiri-nin and was a missing nin, right?"

"Look, you're a jounin and we're chunins at best. Forget insubordination and court martial, you're going to fuck us up if we don't listen."

"True."

"See?! What'd I tell you?" the chunin who'd walked up to him to answer and ask Sai as he turned around to face his comrades.

He was going to be here for at least two months, so he made long term plans.

The good thing about patrolling the east was that it was a target-rich environment.

Pirates.

Nobody liked pirates, and they were not stupid enough to attack towns and villages where ninjas, samurai, or even mundane professional soldiers garrisoned in broad daylight. No, they attacked at night and with the mist, which the locals were used to but not the constantly rotated ninjas.

Zabuza was going to make sure that these ninjas under him would be ready to fight on and in water.

He drilled his patrol corp for water combat used in Kiri, and made them practically live in water. They hated him for it, but they became adept at hiding in seawater and the mist when it was available. Good thing about young, low rank ninjas was that they hunkered for whatever morsels their superiors would give them, and despite the torturous training he put them through, he also made sure they learned no jutsus.

They hid and preyed upon the coastline, sinking their teeth into any stupid pirates and unsuspecting smugglers that thought the mist would provide them the cover for their raids.

Then the Black Nail Pirates came, intending to use the mists to raid coastal villages for supplies and slaves.

He used the very mist they relied on against them.

Zabuza waved at his subordinates to handle this. Sure, it was fifteen versus three hundred. Sure, some of those three hundred had some Chakra training.

No, it was not a fair fight for those three hundred.

The Black Nail pirates, supposedly an endemic problem to the area, died within the first three weeks of his stay. They wouldn't have lasted a week in Kiri with how obvious their attacks were (to any Kiri-nin).

But he didn't stop training his fifteen temporary subordinates.

"You think Kiri-nin will care if you have to breathe?! They want you to stop breathing! I will make sure you will be able to last at least two minutes underwater! Get to it!"

He made the coastline their home, the waters their playground, and the coastal inland their refuge.

By the end of the two months, he was satisfied with their amphibious skills, tactics, and strategy.

That's when he got the news from Konoha.

Kirigakure had declared war on Kumogakure.

-VB-

Zabuza thought that it had to be a joke or a misdirection of some kind.

Kiri, recovering from the latest exodus of highly trained ninjas and clans, did not have enough manpower, never mind the core elite ninjas, needed to prosecute a war against a juggernaut like Kumogakure.

Sure, Kiri controlled the deep waters, which was both their natural defense and road to everywhere, but the Land of Lightning was mountainous terrain everywhere except some flat coastlines.

It was when he heard that Kiri, despite having declared war, only waged a low war. They struck civilian targets in direct violation of the treaty signed by the daimyos.

His stay also got increased, and Kushina wanted him to watch the waters just in case some Kiri ninjas got the bright idea to raid Land of Fire fishing villages for supplies.

He was not prepared to see a steamship at the head of Kiri raids.

"What the fuck?" he uttered as he looked at the metal contraption of a boat that had been a fad among the nobles of the Land of Water.

And then he felt his blood drain from his face as his brain provided him the worst possible potential.

What if…?

What if this wasn't a ninja war? What if this was a true war between nations?

Fights between nations no longer happened because noble clans, rich merchants, and daimyos all hired ninjas to do their proxy war. It was about maintaining tax revenue and not causing instability that would see them usurped.

However, Kirigakure had been unstable. It had been in a civil war. It had been desperate. Nothing stopped them from taking control over the weak daimyo's court for their own purposes. No one knew what the fuck was going on inside that land anymore.

"I want that ship sunk," he grunted out to his patrol team. "Shinji. Make sure the base camp is aware of the situation and ready to either deploy or retreat at any given moment. Rest of you, we're going to sneak aboard that ship as soon as the sun sets."

"Hai!" five ninjas around him saluted.

As his men and women prepared, he turned back to look at the ship in the distance.

Seriously, what the fuck was going on?