Zabuza's S.Adventures 40 (Patreon)

Zabuza’s S.Adventures

Chapter 40

-VB-

After a month of inactivity, Zabuza stood before his superior and waited.

“So.”

Kushina looked up and her smile was tired and weak. Whatever her decision was, it was one she deliberated on.

“Yes, Hokage-sama?”

She nodded nearly imperceptibly in approval. They both knew when to set personal feelings aside when the time came.

“The Fire Daimyo is obviously upset. His people have been used to cause tension and unrest,” she began. “His advisors are less upset and more worried. If there is no distinction between Kirigakure and the Land of Water, then a lot of obligations and agreements previously in contracts and treaties may not be enforced.”

He raised an eyebrow. “Are any of them significant?”

“Yes. A non-aggression pact would be significant, especially when we are busy trying to track and put down the mad dogs that the Akatsuki are,” she sighed.

“And what do they want with me?”

She blinked. “With you?”

“I caused this problem by attacking the metal ship and setting it on fire.”

“It is a problem,” she agreed with a frown. “But it is not Konohagakure’s problem. For now.”

“... Why not?”

She looked worked up as she responded to him. “Because you are not the Hokage. You did as you were ordered. You defended the coast of the Land of Fire. Do you honestly think that Konohagakure is a weak vassal of the Land of Fire? I’ll clear it up for you right now that we are not weak. We obey clear orders given to us by the Fire Daimyo, and the order to defend the coast was one such order. However, this village will not accept an order to punish one of our own for what was the treachery of a now obvious enemy. If anything, then it was the failure of our intelligence department,” she sighed towards the end. “We should have expected that Bloody Kiri would have done something like this. It’s one thing to hear it but it’s another to feel its effects.” She thumped her fist lightly on the table.

“... Are you sure?”

“Yes, I am sure about not punishing you for what you did, and if anyone else tries it, you are to come and tell me immediately,” she replied firmly. “This is my promise as the Hokage, ‘ttabane.”

He looked at her, saw the iron in her eyes, and nodded. “Thank you.”

She snorted, leaning back. “I’m serious. It’s not your fault. Kiri is known to use a lot of children as their genins in the first place so this wasn’t out of place at all. Like I said, we had little to no spies in the Land of Water, and that’s something I’ll have to fix soon.”

“Then what job will you have me do next?”

She hummed. “If Naruko was still here, then I would have to train her. Your genin team is more or less gone, either having moved elsewhere or with you.”

“Yes.”

“Which means that, by law, you are to not teach any genin team in any official long-term capacity barring unusual circumstances,” she hummed while tapping her finger on the table. She tilted her head, and her fiery red hair - with some strands of grey that Zabuza knew now to point out - fell off of her shoulders. “I don’t think sticking you in the academy for even a year is a good idea.”

He snorted. “I like my kids. I don’t like most kids.”

“Fair. How about …?”

She smiled as she told him.

He raised an eyebrow.

He wasn’t sure if that was a good idea.

-VB-

“So what did you and the Hokage talk about?” Tayuya asked, ever the brutally honest one. “Or did you two just fuck for half an hour or something in her office with her windows open?”

Haku didn’t react, having already gotten used to the red-hair’s vulgarity (though Zabuza overheard how Haku made it very clear that she would put senbons in Tayuya’s eyes if the first words their babies learned was a cuss word).

Eri snorted, almost spilling her dinner tea.

“No, she’s way too busy for that these days,” he replied evenly before he took a bite of rice, a sip of miso, and then a bite of yellow pickled radish. There were a few more side dishes aside from the radish. His and Haku’s favorite was the fermented herring, an import from the coastal areas (which made it expensive). It reminded them of their homes during their good times before the Bloody Mist took them all. Eri’s favorite was dressed soy sprouts, and she liked hers a little on the bland side. Tayuya liked meat. Any other side dish was tertiary. “We just talked about how my last mission will affect me.”

He noticed Haku’s hands slow almost to a stop but continued moving on.

“And?” Eri asked, worried and not used to hiding her emotions.

“Nothing.”

Haku paused and then met his eyes. “Nothing?”

“Yes, nothing. Aside from the fact that I was doing my job to the letter, there is no real impact within the Land of Fire itself. No, what the Hokage-dono worries about is the impact that event will have on the Land of Water. Something about the separation of the land and the ninja village no longer existing.”

“So, like, their ninjas rule their country now?” Tayuya asked with a raised eyebrow. “Sounds stupid. Like, what do fuckers that kill for a living know about paper pushing?”

He snorted. He agreed with her. He knew intimately how destructive ninjas were, and also knew - from experience - that most of them didn’t know how to do anything else. Most ninja’s work was their life. Hobbies helped their job, and the few administrative tasks they can perform enabled their ninja effectiveness (saving time). Even their routine helped them.

Kushina’s secretary acted as a ninja before she was a secretary. The janitor in the Hokage Tower prioritized his ninja training above his janitorial duties. The civilians … did their own things.

If the most civilian-integrated Konohagakure’s ninjas were like this and his own experience with Kiri’s ninjas being that they were so fatalistically ninja that other ninjas were disgusted with them, then what could ninjas do beyond being ninjas?

Realistically, nothing.

Which was why…

“I’m retiring.”

Everyone froze.

“Wha-?”

“Part of it has to do with the mission, yes,” he spoke up as he set his chopsticks down and made sure to look at them directly. “But some of it has to do with the fact that as I am right now, I’ll be a liability on the field.” Then he paused as words that were harder than others yet right to say came out slowly. “And I do want to be with you and our children. I want to be there for their childhood.”

He was an orphan. He killed his first person even before he got into Kiri’s ninja academy.

He didn’t want that for his family.

If he died out there, then …

Maybe it was too pessimistic that his family would be so out of luck as to become destitute but the fear was there. Haku, Eri, and Tayuya were capable kunoichi. They could survive… but survival, as he’s learned, was not always living.

No, he wanted his family to live.

He smiled, and they smiled back.

“WAAAHHH!!”

And they all sighed.

Babies don’t give a fuck about emotional scenes.

-VB-

End of Arc