Chapter 47 – Back to Mist

“Stop! Stop!” Raito walked under the countless gazes of astonishments and shock, he stood in front of the Genjutsu mistress, Kurenai who was holding ‘Ram’ hand seal.

“I don’t like this ending. Can you change it…please?” Raito asked full of dissatisfaction but he didn’t forget to add a ‘please’. Seeing oneself killed was not a pleasant thing one would like to see. “I am definitely not that weak, you know. Why not-”

Kurenai looked at Raito in amusement as she dropped her hands. “Maybe next time.”

Kurenai looked back at Kakashi then with Kakashi looked at Zabuza whose hand was being held by Haku. The gloomy and angry aura coming from Zabuza could frighten anyone right now. Gnashing his teeth, balling his hand into a fist, Zabuza looked at the direction of Gatō and his thugs.

“Zabuza-sama, please calm down.” Haku tried his best but Zabuza finally snapped, walking towards Kurenai.

Guessing his intention, Raito used the ‘Veil’ to block the view from Gatō and his goons.

Standing in front of Kurenai, Zabuza glared at Raitogave Raito a glare then looked back at Kurenai. “If you made this Genjutsu to make…”

“Gatō is right there. You can go and ‘ask’ him.” Raito interrupted Zabuza, giving him a practical suggestion then looking at Kurenai, he again complained. “I don’t like the ending. And why was Sasuke not in it? And why does it have to be me?”

“Stop for now.” Kakashi’s heavy hand landed on Raito’s head.

“Bu-”

“No matter how I think about it, they can’t even touch you.” It was a rare kind of praise from Kakashi which made Raito curve his lips upward.

Kakashi looked at Zabuza then said, “Gatō came with his men and a missing-nin. If he wanted to support you, he would have told you before the fight.”

Zabuza looked at him for further explanation. Kakashi didn’t disappoint, “We didn’t know anything about you giving money to the rebellion party in the Mist.”

“You brat.” Zabuza glared at Raito and said, “How did you know about what Gatō was going to do?”

Raito rolled his eyes then pointed at Hinata, “Byakugan.”

After looking at the Konoha party, Zabuza walked towards Gatō, his steps heavy and aura of killing leaking out. “Gatō!” His low and heavy growl scared the shit out of Gatō and his thugs.

“Z-Zabuza don’t forget… don’t forget… who will give you money?” Gatō was so afraid that he didn’t know what he should say. The air was suffocating and the demon clad in human skin made him shiver non stop.

“What happened, big bro? Didn’t we just stab those ninjas? Weren’t they supposed to be dead? Just how?” One of the thugs cried in shock as he looked at the weapons in his hand. He rubbed the pointed end of katana and found it there wasn’t any blood.

“It’s those ninjas. Their ninja tricks.”

“Damn, those ninjas.”

Waraji looked down at the dead missing ninja that Gatō had hired, then back at his group of underlings.

Waraji looked back at Zōri and Gatō before holding his sword straight, pointing towards Zabuza, “He is just one man. Guys, let’s go.”

“Boss, give them some encouragement.” Zōri tapped at Gatō giving him a signal.

“Whoever kills Zabuza, I will give him 10 million Ryo in CASH!” Gatō immediately pointed at Zabuza and shouted.

Maybe money was more important than their life, the thugs immediately ran with their weapons, greed in their eyes. Nobody knew what these foolish thugs had for the brain.

Except for Waraji, Zōri, and Gatō, everyone charged at Zabuza.

Gatō with his two bodyguards took sneaky steps backward to the boat.

“Bring them out.” Kakashi gave Raito a meaningful glance.

Understanding the situation, Raito selected all of the bridge builders and brought them out. Although he wanted to keep secrets, he didn’t think much about it. Suddenly the bridge was filled with a hundred plus people. Then there was cacophony with hundreds of people in confusion.

Kurenai and everyone else except team seven looked in shock at Raito.

“Silence.” the voice was soft but every one of hundred people heard it and unconsciously stopped making noise.

“You see that man with a big sword? He is Zabuza, Demon of the Mist. See that. With one wave, he is killing a few of the thugs.” Raito stood beside Tazuna, his voice, heard by all.

Almost all of them gulped in fear. Seeing Zabuza kill the thugs in a matter of minutes or seconds, some of them even took a few steps back, wanting to run.

When Raito turned around to see the bridge builders, Zabuza had cut down Zōri and Waraji and was in front of Gatō, standing tall at the end of the unfinished bridge, just a couple of steps away from the edge.

“Za-za-Zabuza… you if-if you dare kill me-” Gatō fell on his buttocks. He pointed, uttering words of weak, coward and stupid.

Zabuza with his left index plunged deep above Gatō’s clavicle, causing Gatō to lose consciousness and fall on the ground.

“Haku! Come!” Zabuza’s cold and angry voice thundered on the bridge, shaking everyone’s heart.

Haku who was standing calmly nodded and immediately disappeared from the Konoha group.

Sasuke looked at Haku with anger while Naruto looked at Haku with sadness. Naruto thought about Haku telling ninja were only tools for people.

“I don’t like this,” Naruto mumbled as he looked at the fading silhouette of Zabuza and Haku.

“I don’t like this.” Raito also voiced out his thoughts, loud enough so that Kurenai could hear.

“Ho~ he is holding grudges,” Kakashi spoke softly looking at Kurenai. His eye smile making Kurenai laugh softly.

“Charge!!” Just when everyone took a sigh of relief thinking that everything was over, noisy and messy footsteps came from behind the group of bridge builders.

Cowardly men, gossipy women, snot nose children, and even undying old men ran in a group with sickles, hoe, hammer, sticks, frying pan, etc. These angry people were led by a group of children and in front of the children was Inari with a long stick.

“That’s Inari.” Naruto quickly ran to see Inari and the villagers coming.

“Hey, it’s the villagers.”

“Yeah.”

The bridge builders lead by Tazuna looked at the villagers with a smile. Years of suppression was finally lifted. Villagers had gained courage, lead by Inari who was once drowned in the depression of losing his father figure finally stood up for themselves, walking out of their weak shells.

Tazuna secretly looked behind at Naruto and Raito with gratefulness.

The ninja had done their work. Now it was his turn to do the work. Tazuna walked with the other bridge builders and calmed down the frenzied villagers. After everything was over, he didn’t take a day off to celebrate the fall of Gatō but worked extra hard to finish the bridge.

Before returning, Kakashi casually walked and took the hilt of the thunder sword.

Shino and Akamaru were on guard duty whereas everyone else went back.

Raito stayed back and took all the bodies into his inventory. His action was seen as an act of helping the bridge builders while some thought that he was crazy.

No one knew, not even Kakashi who had always been keeping eye on Raito at all times, that a small seal on a tree near the Gatō’s headquarters had activated when the bridge was in chaos. Raito’s clone came into existence, who quickly ran into the central building. The building had only women left and as for all the men, they were on the building surrounding the main building.

Walking through, taking turns, like it was his own house, Raito entered Gatō’s bedroom. Not taking a look around, he walked towards a picture frame and removed it. Pulling the knob that was hidden behind the picture frame, the part of the wall moved back then, it moved to the side.

Inside this secret chamber, there was neither money or gold or silver. The room was only filled with one set of luxurious table and chair in the center and surrounding the pair were boxes, lots and lots of boxes.

Running to a corner, Raito crouched down and destroyed the lock of one of the boxes. Inside it was paper, lots and lots of them. Although Gatō was evil, he knew what to do. The building had no real gold or silver, everything was probably turned into goods or maybe the money was used for other things.

Raito looked at the boxes in disappointment before taking out a paper from the box he had opened.

[Land deed]

Raito nodded. After keeping two land deeds he needed, he stored every single box in the inventory then disappeared in a cloud of chakra smoke.

In the middle of the forest, Gatō was bounded to the tree with ice. His face was pale and lips were tinted with bluishness. Under Haku’s merciless needles, Gatō revealed everything. “I did it… I did…”

In a fit of anger, Zabuza swung his greatsword and chopped Gatō’s head with the tree he was bonded to. After chopping off Gatō’s head, Zabuza stood in front of the body with a frown, his heart in disarray.

“Zabuza-sama, what should we do?” Haku asked. Although he knew little, he knew that Zabuza sent all of the money earned from the request from mercenary association to the rebel forces in the Mist.

“…We are leaving.” Zabuza sighed.

Looking at the decapitated body, he turned around. Walking away and gave a command. “Destroy the body.”

“Hai, Zabuza-sama.” Soon the headless body was covered in ice before being turned into ice powder.

Evening at Tazuna’s house.

“You were so awesome Inari.” Naruto complimented Inari rubbing his messy hair.

“Tazuna-san, when will the bridge be completed?” Kurenai asked after taking a sip.

“In about two weeks. If we work at the same pace as today, we can definitely finish it within two weeks.” Looking at Raito, he silently added, “If he helps it will be faster.” But no one heard it or acted as so.

“Two weeks,” Kurenai mumbled. She looked at her team then at Kakashi’s three. Raito was still glaring at her.

Knock! Knock!

“Haku and Zabuza,” Raito answered to everyone who was listening.

Tsunami who was about to open the door was pulled back by Tazuna.

Seeing that no one was moving to open the door, Naruto jumped from his seat and opened the door.

Zabuza stood in front of the door like a tower and silent like a rock. Haku by his side peeked out from behind, looking at Naruto.

“Naruto-san.” Haku bowed after some hesitation.

“Haku.” Naruto made a slightly ugly face.

“Can we talk?” Haku asked. After seeing Naruto nod, he walked towards a much quieter place.

Hinata followed Naruto to meet with Haku.

Kurenai and Kakashi also stood up, meeting Zabuza. The three nodded then walked out without any need of words.

After the four walked out, Sasuke and Kiba also walked out together to train. This time Shino also followed them for training.

At the table, only Tazuna, Inari and Raito sat eating their meal. Even though Inari eating, Tsunami called him. Inari didn’t question his mother. Looking at his grandpa nad Raito, he grabbed his bowl and plate and walked towards the kitchen.

“What do you want, kid?” Tazuna dropped his chopsticks in the bowl then asked.

Raito picked up a piece of fish and asked softly, “Say, old man…What if I wanna get a house here…in this village?”

“You want to live here, kid? There are lots of abandoned houses ready for you if you want.” Tazuna replied with a smile.

“Not really. But I want a house.” Raito said after giving a glare to Tazuna.

“…You need to wait for some time. Gatō took all the land deeds from the villagers. So the village administration has decided to renew all the documents.”

“Is the land deed important?” Raito asked looking at his inventory.

“Very much. Whoever has the land deed, owns the land, in this village. Different villages have different rules but for ‘Wave’ its that.”

“What if I have ‘all’ the land deeds?”

Tazuna made stiff smile then said after a long time, “… Don’t joke, kid. If you have ‘all’ the land deeds, you basically own this village… Hah! Do you think it will be possible? Rather it will be troublesome.”

“No, really I have all the land deed.” Raito brought out a box from nowhere in front of Tazuna then opened the cover, taking out a few papers giving it to Tazuna.

“…How?”

“From Gatō’s building, of course,” Raito answered.

“So what do you wanna do?” Tazuna asked in a heavy voice

“Return it.”

“Sure, the village head would be very glad. You are basically a hero to this village. Which house do you want? I will talk to some people.” Tazuna smiled and nodded.

“I am not a citizen of this village.” Raito looked strangely at Tazuna.

“…I’ll take the building in your place then. But it will be yours for use.”

After looking at the nonchalant Tazuna, Raito took out the land deed for the abandoned building then gave it to him.

“Children are living there. Orphans. They can live on their own… Can you go and look at them from time to time?” Raito requested, his voice a few notches softer.

“Children… are they the same one who helped the villagers with food and water, this couple of days?” Tazuna remembered the villager talking about angel-like children, who helped them. The water tasted like nourishing medical soup and food tasted like meals served in the houses of nobles. They didn’t know how what exactly tasted like but people started comparing to the things they had heard in their life.

“Yeah.” Raito nodded.

“What the heck were you doing?” Tazuna mumbled to himself looking at the teen, who was looking at the air.

Raito took out another land deed and gave it to Tazuna. “Do you know this place?”

Tazuna looked at the land division markings then nodded. “It’s a medium-size farm but… Gatō killed the owner for selling vegetables cheaply.”

“I understand.”

Raito grabbed his dishes then went to the kitchen to clean.

Naruto, Hinata, and Haku

“You may not like this but… ninja are tools. We do what we are told and nothing else.”

“Didn’t you want to protect Zabuza? Your mission was to kill us but still, you didn’t kill Sasuke, you didn’t kill Tazuna or the villagers-”

“I have killed many more.” Haku immediately shouted, cutting off Naruto.

“You didn’t want to kill them, did you? You are actually a kind-hearted person.” Naruto said with confidence as hen nodded his head. “You were doing those killing because Zabuza ordered it, right?”

“…” Haku was tongue-tied. Someone so stupid like Naruto could exist, he didn’t know. But that was indeed true… just how did they know. Haku looked at Naruto and Hinata. Naruto had a huge smile while Hinata had a shocked expression on her face.

“Raito told me about that.” Once again Raito was betrayed by Naruto’s mouth, blaming him for all the secrets about others.

Haku looked at the two then remembered the name ‘Raito’ never to be forgotten.

Kurenai, Kakashi, and Zabuza

“…”

“…”

The two groups looked blankly at each other for a long time. Kurenai was getting a headache, wanting to start.

Zabuza finally broke the silence, “How did you guys find out?”

“About what?”

“How did you find out about Gatō and his plans?”

“…We didn’t.” Kurenai answered.

“…”

Kakashi stopped himself from turning around and glaring at Kurenai.

“So, it’s indeed those Genins.” Zabuza looked in amusement at Kurenai then at Kakashi. His mouth hidden by bandages curved upwards, unknown to anyone else.

Kakashi’s smiling gaze turned slightly unkind as he looked at Zabuza.

“Don’t give me that look. Thank him for me, Kakashi.” After saying that Zabuza walked away.

“Where are you going, Zabuza?” Kakashi asked already having an answer in his mind.

“…Back to the Mist.” Soon Zabuza’s back view disappeared in the thick mist, a smaller shadow following his lonely back.