For several hours I traveled along the road with shikamaru, ino, and choji in silence. "You're not really much of a talker are you?" Shikamaru asked me this as we walked along the road. I was pulling the cart and the three children were walking alongside it. "No, not really. Iv always been more of the quiet type. Besides, is there really much to talk about?" This was my answer to the boy followed by a question of my own. "We could talk about why the hokage thinks it would only take three genin to stop you from running off." Shikamaru said this with a smile, getting a short laugh from me. "I think I'd prefer silence to answering that. But truth be told I doubt Tsunade believes I'm actually going to run, this is more than likely just to add to my punishment. Which makes me think where's Asuma, shouldn't he be with you guys as squad leader?" Quickly I would try to shift the subject, as talking about how three children could more then likely bring me back wasn't very pleasant. "When Asuma sensei heard we were going to be escorting you, he just laughed and said we could handle it without him. Commented that it would be good experience for us." Hearing that answer put a slight smile on my face, for the most part I had spent my life alone without any family to speak of. Thankfully the Sarutobi clan was extremely kind many of whom treating me as if I were one of them, resulting in me seeing Asuma almost like a brother. As we had this conversation a small town would appear when we crested the hill, it was just after midday thus i thought we would be back on the road and to the leaf by nightfall. Unfortunately despite the town being very small, the three of us searched for several hours. Yet we could not find the purchaser Kenya thus I would get the three of us a room in the inn for the night. "Don't you guys think it's a little weird that someone would order a bunch of weapons then not show to get them? Choji asked this as we all began to settle down in our room for the night. "I agree it's certainly odd, it's enough weaponry to arm a small force of shinobi." This was shikamaru's response to choji before I chimed in while removing my boots. "I could think of a few reasons, maybe this Kenta doesn't live here and is running late. Maybe bandits or whatever got the guy, or maybe senshi was just pulling my chain and wasting my time. Regardless there's nothing we can do except hope we run into the guy before we leave tomorrow." After that conversation we would all bed down for the night, and the next morning before anything else the three of us would get some breakfast. Currently the three of us sat at a table, and I watched in awe at how much food choji could eat. "Jeez kid maybe slow down a bit, there's plenty of food." I said this with a short laugh slightly shocked at how much the kid could put away. "It's no use he always eats like this, no matter how many time I tell him it's immature." Ino responded to me as she ate her own food, her final sentence sounding a bit annoyed as she elbows choji in the side. After eating the three of us made one more attempt to find kenta with no success, thus attempting to leave the town just before noon. The three of us were stopped by a group of ten barely armed men. "Ah you must be the delivery guy we were told to meet, sorry about the wait wasn't easy to get all the way over here." The man in front who was the only one properly armed with two swords said this with a smile, however these men had a dishonest and distrustful look bandits no question. "No, I'm no delivery guy and i'm certainly not selling anything to people like you." They became visibly hostile at my refusal to sell the weapons. "Look we are taking these weapons whether you want to hand them over or not, do you really think some one armed guy and some children can take us?" This insulting question got to me a bit and in response, I reached into my cart to retrieve a kuni. "You three stay back, i'm going to teach these guys a lesson." I said this to the three children who had entered their battle stances, while inspecting the kuni I had retrieved. Instantly I was rushed by one man with a sword. A quick sidestep to avoid his downwards slash followed by a cut of my own, and his throat was cut. Throwing the kuni at whom I assumed to be the leader, the man was quick to draw one of his swords. Knocking the kuni into the man standing next to him. I reached down and grabbed the fallen sword slashing the next advancing man across the chest as I ducked down and moved under his slash towards my neck. This was when the leader himself rushed forward, leaping into the air with a spin. The man aimed to slash me across my chest with both blades, only to miss his blades striking the air as I lept back. Pressing forward the man to another slash at my stomach, following it up with a slash at my left shoulder with his secondary blade. For the first slash I simply took another step back, allowing the blade to barely miss my stomach. Then stepping forward and swinging my blade up to intercept the second slash, I would redirect the man's second blade to my left as I side stepped and pivoted around him. With one finial swift slash across the man's back, q final trail of blood painted the ground as their leader fell. At this point the remaining men were afraid to advance. "You guys couldn't best me if you had one hundred years to try, let me leave while I'm still playing nice." I spoke in a cold a serious tone and after one final warning the remaining men retreated allowing team 10 and me to leave. "Holy cow that was awesome, I thought we were going to have to jump in. but he scared them off like it was nothing." Choji said this in excitement as we walked away from the small town. "Choji's right, for a guy with one arm you sure can handle yourself pretty well." ino said this following what choji had to say. "Well for a long time I strived to be a shinobi, but it didn't quite work out." We walked for several hours just like the previous day, eventually arriving back at the leaf village. Being left by team 10 i now had to figure out what to do with all of these weapons, arriving back at my home i opened up the leader shop door to my forge so I could hall the cart inside. Only i found senshi waiting for me. I was rather unhappy with my friend at the moment, this situation had struck me as odd since the very beginning. Now would be when I finally voiced my thoughts. "What the hell was that senshi you set me up.'' I accused senshi of knowing this was going to happen, based on what the leader of the bandits had said to me. "Whatever do you mean i set up a simple business deal between you and several fine looking gentlemen if something happened to go wrong that is not my fault." Senshi spoke in an amused tone, obviously not telling the entire truth. After paying for the weapons himself, Senshi provided me with another order for an exquisite sword. The depiction was of a dual blades long sword, with a very decorative hilt and guard using a wave like pattern. Additionally a strange family crest was to be set in the center of the guard. "Here if it makes you happy nothing could go wrong with this, just make the sword and take it to an old friend of mine in the land of waves. It's only a few days from here, and It's just a simple trade you're not even a shinobi any more so it's already been given approval." The sword was quick and easy to make, getting tsunade's permission was even easier thanks to senshi. "So you don't find this odd in the slightest?" I asked Tsunade as I stood before her desk, questioning about senshi's order. "Of course I do, but a bit strange isn't enough to cause worry we've done stranger deals. However just like last time I am assigning you a genie squad, team 7 to be specific. It's more of a formality, I don't believe your going to take off. But I have to make the elders happy." With our conversation over I would bow to Tsunade before returning to my home, preparing for yet another journey. The journey to the land of waves was slow and rather annoying with many questions and conversations such as. "So how did you lose your arm?" this question from naruto got the boy a swift strike in the back of the head from sakura as we walked along the road. "You idiot you don't just ask a question like that." this got a chuckle from me. "No it's alright, believe it or not I lost it to orochimaru. I'm actually a very accomplished swordsman." an answer like this caused a few moments of silence before naruto spoke up again "what orochimaru no way, i mean i know you were the guy pervy sage and grandma tsunade found but orochimaru. Besides how could i guy with one arm be a swordsmen." this caused sakura to strike naruto once more as we continued. I could hear sakura scolding Naruto behind us, but I chose to ignore them looking towards Sasuke. Who walked beside me in silence, an emotionless stare on the boys face. Everyone was well aware of the tragedy Sasuke had suffered. Yet every time that night came to mind, so did senshi. "Hay Sasuke, I need you to tell me something about senshi." I asked this question, hoping for some kind of answer as Sasuke was senshi's nephew. Making that night all the more questionable. "Uncle senshi, what do you want to know." Saskue answered me in a cold tone with a scoff. "What's he been up too lately, I'm sure you above anyone else has noticed a few oddities in his behavior." This question seemed to strike a cord as an irritated look appeared on sasukes face. "How should I know, most of the time when he's around he doesn't say anything about what he's doing. It's always training and drills with him, and when he dose talk he thinks he knows everything. But he doesn't know anything." Saskue spoke in just as an upset tone as the look on his face, and for a moment I was slightly worried. Thankfully we were interrupted by naruto. "Hay i know where we are, follow me i want to show you something." Naruto said this, leading us off the road, eventually we came too zabuza's grave overlooking a village on an island connected to the mainland by a bridge. "So this is the resting place of the Demon Of The Hidden Mist. I will wield your blade with honor." I spoke with respect as I looked over the man's grave, I retrieved Kubikiribocho, refusing to leave it in the dirt much to naruto's disappointment. "Hay, what do you think your doing!? You can't just take that!" Naruto shouted at me as I pulled the half broken blade from the ground. "I'm certainly not going to leave it buried in the dirt, such a legendary blade deserves to be treated with proper respect. By one who understands it's true value." I said this immediately shooting down what Naruto had to say as I made a makeshift holster on my back for the massive blade. It took a few more days of travel but we finally arrived at the village senshi had specified. Unfortunately I had followed the instructions on senshi's order, and went for the side entrance. This was when we were stopped by three Shinobi as we were trying to access a secret entrance to the walled village. "Hold it right there, you got leaf genin with you. What's your business here?" the shinobi in front asked this in a rather aggressive manner. "Were just here on a delivery, just let us be in and out." The Shinobi didn't seem to like that idea as he took an aggressive stance with his sword. "No one is supposed to know about this entrance, at least no one who's not important enough. Especially not some one armed trader from the leaf, we can't let you four leave here knowing this entrance location. For all we know you could be lead spy's" By this point the man speaking had identified himself as the leader with the way he was speaking, slowly the other two began to flank us and with a sigh I removed the broken blade of kubikiribocho from my back. "First blood or to the death" I asked the lead shinobi who didn't respond, to call it a fight was and over exaggeration. The lead shinobi charged in at me with a flurry of slashes, thankfully with the width of kubikiribocho deflecting these strikes was as easy as swatting them away. Shoulder checking the lead shinobi I knocked him back, and with a simple thrust. I had rammed just the jagged tip of the broken blade into the man's chest, I didn't want to kill him or cause any issues for the leaf. This the stab was just enough to draw blood. I had intended to call a stop to the fight as Naruto and saskue both engaged one of the attacking Shinobi. Unfortunately kubikiribocho began to absorb the man's blood, as the blade slowly and brutally grew through the man back to it's full length. The painful screams of the shinobi bringing a halt to the conflict. Once the blade had returned to its full size and the man died, i slid his body off the blade. "That blade there is no mistake, how did you get your hands on it.'' One of the remaining ninjas shouted at me, I was about to answer honestly when I had a thought. "I took it after I killed zabuza." this obvious lie was enough to confuse the shinobi, however Sasuke had to quickly silence an upset naruto. "Impossible, I heard he was killed by the copy ninja kakashi." One of the remaining two Shinobi shouted. "Nothing but rumors, if I didn't strike down zabuza then how would I be in possession of this blade." This statement spoken in confidence sent a wave of silence over the area, before the shinobi spoke again. "He might be telling the truth, he took out the captain like it was nothing and that arm. He must have lost it in his fight with zabuza." As the shinobi said this a smile crept across my face before I interrupted him. "Wrong, I lost this arm in a fight with orochimaru, one of the three legendary sani. Now let us pass, unless you want to end up like your Captain." After a questionable engagement we were allowed to enter the village as this statement frightened the two remaining ninja. It was not difficult to find the blacksmith the sword was for, having team 7 wait outside. I entered to see an old man forging out a complete dagger from a single hot billet in six strikes. "So you must be the smith senshi sent, well let's see what you got." the old man spoke while turning around as I handed him the exquisite blade. "I hope it meets your standards, it's one of the best swords I've ever made." I made this comment as the older man inspected the blade and my work. "Well it's definitely a high quality blade alright it would stand both the test of time and battle but it's far from a legendary blade not like the one on your back, come here i'll show you a thing or two." for several hours i would watch and listen to the old man realizing that i had far more to learn about smithing then i could have ever imagined, once finished i made my way back outside being greeted by a rather upset team 7 as i had been inside with the black smith for some time made obvious by the dark sky. To save some effort and possibly some unnecessary injuries I acquired a room for the four of us to sleep in for the night, the next morning we were quick to leave the village and on our way home.