Chapter 7
What does he mean by that?
Sure, I know that my eyes are a bit of a unique colour, but is it that important?
"We're done here" Zabuza Sensei says before launching a jutsu.
He goes through 18 hand signs in less than three seconds and activates his Great Waterfall Technique, an A-rank jutsu.
The giant spiral of water launches straight through where the two men stood, obscuring my vision completely.
Not obscured enough however, to not see the kilometer-high gate with a face on it being smashed into by the powerful jutsu.
After a few seconds, it ends, leaving behind a trail of devastation. The trees and ground have been torn up and thrown aside, yet the gate remains standing with a giant imprint in the middle.
The gate poofs away in a cloud of smoke to reveal the two men standing in the same place, looking completely fine.
"That was rather rude, don't you think Zabuza? I just wasn't aware that the fourth Mizukage had a son…" He licks his lips and smirks.
Itachi turns around to regard us once more.
"I see. The leader of the Akatsuki would want to know about this as well. We have dealings with the fourth Mizukage"
"You what?" Zabuza Sensei's voice lowers.
"The Akatsuki operate as a mercenary group. The fourth Mizukage has hired us on numerous occasions"
"You…" Zabuza Sensei is lost for words.
"My father is dead, you must have me mistaken for someone else" I voice out, not entirely convinced by my own words.
Orochimaru clearly recognizes something in me…
Zabuza Sensei glances at me in this moment and I can see his eyes are swimming in concern.
"Ah, child. You must have been misinformed…You're the spitting image of the fourth Mizukage, Yagura Karatachi. Why, if I didn't know better, I would have thought you were him…" His voice slithers out.
"That's…" I look to Zabuza Sensei who has his back to me and then back to Orochimaru with his sickening grin.
I'm not sure what to think…
"I guess, the question would be. Why does the Missing-Nin Zabuza have the son of the fourth Mizukage as a tag along…Perhaps he kidnapped you when he abandoned the village?"
I look at Zabuza Sensei's back in silent shock.
That can't possibly be true…can it? The man that's being teaching and raising me as long as I can remember, he couldn't possibly have kidnapped me…
Though…Orochimaru is missing part of the story. Zabuza Sensei is a member of the rebellion. The rebellion is fighting the fourth Mizukage...my possible father.
…Am I a hostage?
"Regardless of his parentage, I think we're done here. As I said Zabuza, I will relay your words to the Akatsuki's leader and will return to you with his reply" Itachi breaks in.
"…Fine" Sensei replies.
"Think on your situation child…there are few in this world you can truly trust" Orochimaru sneers.
The two Akatsuki then disappear in a flash of speed into the distance.
The pressure lowers noticeably, Zabuza Sensei lowers his killer intent and Haku collapses next to me.
"Haku! Are you alright? What happened?" I panic as she seems to be sweating and panting quite heavily.
"I…I'm fine. How are you okay? T…That was…" She trails off.
Zabuza Sensei cuts in.
"The killing intent given off by three S-class Shinobi isn't small. It's definitely enough to reduce someone to Haku's state when they've only trained for six months. Likely, she was completely unable to move at all during that encounter. Truthfully, anyone below jonin should be in a similar state…" He says, looking at me with a wry smirk.
"However, if there's one thing that I have confidence in, it's my killing intent. Most don't have a physical manifestation like my own. Saizo has been exposed to that killing intent since he was a baby, there shouldn't be a killing intent out there that would make him falter anymore"
I nod, satisfied that Haku would be okay.
Though, that just leads into the next most important thing on my mind.
"Was it true?" I ask.
I can't get what Orochimaru said out of my head.
Zabuza Sensei squints and sighs.
"…Yes"
My heart drops. Why would he lie to me for all these years? Why keep it from me?
Was I truly kidnapped? Am I a hostage?
I feel betrayed. The one person I trusted more than anything…
My chest hurts.
"Saizo"
Zabuza Sensei grabs my shoulders.
"The situation behind your parents is…complicated at best. Just know this. I was ordered by your mother to keep all of this a secret. She was the one who had you go with me when you were a baby"
My mother? She's alive too?
She ordered me sent away?
Why is Zabuza Sensei looking after me when both of my parents are alive?
Zabuza Sensei rubs his forehead.
"I know Saizo, it's…complicated. I'll let your mother explain it all to you directly, since I'm still under orders"
…orders
"She's a part of the rebellion?"
A wry smirk.
"Yes…"
And if my father is the fourth Mizukage…
It's starting to make some sense.
"Take me to her" Whatever the truth, I need to know.
"We'll leave immediately" Zabuza Sensei squeezes my shoulder.
"I may have kept this from you Saizo, but…you know that I'm still your Sensei right?"
I smile, getting his hidden meaning.
"Right"
Zabuza Sensei nods.
"…By the way, why did you agree to another meeting with those two Akatsuki?"
Zabuza Sensei grimaces.
"They were both stronger than me"
"What? Really?!"
Sensei nods.
"Yes, I would have definitely lost if I had to fight them"
"They were that strong?"
"Itachi Uchiha became a genin at six and slaughtered the entire Uchiha clan at the age of thirteen. That was only a few months ago. Orochimaru of the Sannin, one of the heroes of Konoha in the Third Shinobi World War, he almost became the fourth Hokage before he defected"
Wow, two really incredible people just showed up…
"Objectively…I don't think I'd beat either of them in a one on one fight, let alone both. The best option was to not agree to join them but not completely dismissively as to start a fight"
Up until now, I thought of Zabuza Sensei as the pinnacle, yet two ninja more powerful than him that I've never heard of come out of nowhere…
Even crazier than that, one of them was only thirteen!
…It feels like the road ahead of me just got longer…
One Month Later
We've finally arrived.
The base of the rebellion.
For some reason, in my head I was picturing some sort of castle.
But of course the base doesn't look like that, these are ninja.
The base is actually a very normal looking village with kids playing and old women selling vegetables.
Yet…the kid around my age with the glasses seems to be glaring at me…
There seems to be some ninja mixed in…if they're not all ninja.
I eye the old woman selling cabbages suspiciously.
The glasses kid runs off and we continue deeper into the village, coming to a normal looking house near the middle of the village.
Zabuza Sensei walks to the door and goes through several hand signs before placing his hand on the door.
I hear a click and the door opens to reveal stairs, leading down into a dark cavern lit by torchlight.
"Now!" I hear yelled as several ninja jump out from the rooftop.
Several start to weave hand signs, while the other throw sharp objects in my direction.
An attack!
I weave my own hand signs and substitute a water clone in my place as various kunai, shuriken and water-based attacks pound my clone into a puddle.
I launch into my multiple water bullet jutsu, two for each attacker. One large one to draw their attention, and one smaller but sharper one hidden beneath it.
The water bullets launch and I manage to strike a couple of them, though most manage to dodge. They're clearly capable ninja.
Haku took a beat, but also begins to weave hand signs and shoots off a couple ice spike jutsu before Zabuza Sensei interrupts.
"Stop!"
The attacking ninja don't appear to listen as they begin to prepare another attack.
"You idiots! Stop it right now!"
A loud, angry voice shouts out, as a woman emerges from the cavern that Zabuza Sensei opened.
The attacking ninja pause to regard the woman.
"But the Mizukage is right there! We can end this war right now!" The young boy from before yells out in response.
"Chojuro! Look closer, his hair colour is completely different!" A man with an eyepatch behind the earlier woman yells in response.
They think I'm the Mizukage? Shouldn't he be a lot older than me if he's supposed to be my father?
"That's probably just a henge!" The boy, apparently named Chojuro, yells back in response.
"If he was going to disguise himself with a henge, why did he just change his hair colour!" The man yells back.
"…then who is he?" Chojuro replies, more timidly as he's clearly convinced, yet still confused.
The woman from before sighs.
"He's my son"
