K~

[Kleee]

The brief fluttering of his eyes revealed a fuzzy image of a blue sky. Another slow opening of the eyelids showed him a group of white birds soaring overhead. Finally, he could open them completely just as a sharp pain filled his head, causing his hand to reflexively rise to his forehead. Where the hell was he, and why did his head hurt so badly?

Toya groaned and rolled over onto his stomach, noticing immediately that his hands were tied behind his back with ropes so tight that they were rubbing his wrists raw. He could feel a painful throbbing coming from the back of his head, probably from the wound that had knocked him out in the first place. Damn cheap bandit getting him from behind after Toya had managed to at least fight back against the two who had been in front of him.

He then noticed that the wooden floor beneath him seemed to be… well, moving. Actually it was more of a back and forth rocking motion. Looking to his left, he immediately confirmed his suspicions when the dark blue water came into sight. They were on a boat. His teammates lay close to him, with both their hands tied in the same way his were. How on earth had the three of them let this happen…

Toya’s next realization was a little more frightening. There was nothing covering his eyes. The usual sunglasses he wore as well as the rest of their weapons, supplies, and even their warm outer clothing were all gone. Toya was left with only his black light undershirt and shorts instead of the several thick layers he normally wore to protect himself from the sub-zero temperatures of Yuki. Luckily, the ocean climate seemed to be tropical and plenty warm for this type of wardrobe.

After quickly closing his eyes, thoughts raced through his mind at light speed. The bandits were probably far too uneducated to realize the importance of his eyes, but he still had to be careful. Luckily, after being genuinely blind for most of his life, he could still move and even fight effectively without his sight. But where exactly was this boat headed anyway?

Just as he was thinking about trying to wake up Kei or Ryou, Toya heard the sound of two or three sets of footsteps heading in their direction. Either someone was coming to check on the captives or they had reached land and were preparing to unload the ‘cargo’. Either way, they were tied up on boat heading to unfamiliar territory without any of their equipment… oh right, and they had already failed the mission and been beaten to the ground by the same bandits who were probably in command of this ship now. How much worse could this mission possible get?

[Kleee]

"'...'Sit morning already..."

Ryou had always been somebody who found it hard to sleep with the lights on, and as such, it was the bright glow of sunlight that had him open his eyes in frustration. The first thing he saw was the beautiful vision of sunlight and blue sky. Not a single cloud in sight...

"...Huh!?!"

Sunny days didn't exist in Yukigakure. As the logic fit itself together in Ryou's head, he suddenly snapped out of his sleepy gaze, allowing reality to sink in. He wasn't in Yukigakure, let alone any place familiar to him. He was lying on his side, on top of a floor made out of aligned planks of wood. Memories suddenly came flying back at him; the last thing he remembered was a voice informing him he was cornered, turning around to answer, and then a sharp strike across his back. And then he had fallen to the bandits. He attempted to sit up, but the attempt was futile. His hands were suspended, tied behind his back.

Ryou flailed around on the floor, trying to help himself out of the ropes when he felt the floor rock beneath him. Surprised that the floor was moving, Ryou looked up, only to find a whole ocean of blue sea clearly visible. It turned out that he wasn't even on land anymore.

His clothes, too, were mostly gone, other than his undershirt and shorts. The fact that they were gone startled Ryou the most; these bandits had a lot of hands. They had taken about three jackets, a scarf, a hat, pants and shoes, all from designer labels, nonetheless! That was like a million ryo worth of clothing. And then there was the absense of his rucksack. He certainly wasn't carrying it anymore, and if the bandits had decided to take the most of his clothes, then they probably would have taken that too....

The pieces of the puzzle were coming together now; He had somehow ended up on a boat, in the middle of nowhere, without any of his things. And all of this was still classified a D-Rank mission...

...In short, life really sucked.

Giving up on freeing his arms, Ryou rolled around, not knowing if seeing Toya and Kei also lying there was supposed to make him feel better or worse. Kei lay motionless, but Toya appeared to be awake. With a pang of annoyance, Thoughts of Ryou's current state with Toya came back to him; the pair of them weren't exactly on speaking terms after what had gone down just before the ambush ensued. But perhaps the best thing to do about it was put it behind him and try and get out of this mess.

"...Psst; Toya!"

The chances of Toya hearing them were sub-zero though, as at that precise moment, loud footsteps came coming towards them. Cursing, Ryou rolled back into his original position, shutting his eyes in a hope to pass off as unconcious. It seemed to be the only option; not only were the genin outnumbered, it was impossible to perform handsigns without access to hands. There didn't seem to be a way to fight out of it...

"Might as well start leading them off now. Wouldn't want to linger around for long. Just get rid of the kids, and run off with their possesions,"

"How much do ya reckon they'll fetch?"

"...Three young boys, they look fairly well groomed, even if this one's colorful. Should be worth a couple o' thousand."

"...A couple of thousand? I am so not worth that much! The other two might go cheaply, but I'm a couple of million, at the least!"

No, he couldn't resist bragging his own worth. In any case, it was a stupid move that earned him a nice whack on the back.

"OW!" Ryou yelled, his eyes flying open to look into the eyes of his captor. The man had a long cane, and was even bigger than the bandit they had "tortured" earlier.

"...All the better for us if you insist you cost that much, kid. Now get up! You're coming with me!"

Ryou groaned as the man forcibly stood him up by the hair. He pointed the cane in the direction of the ship's exist. Amidst a slight fog, Ryou could see what appeared to be land looming there.

"Walk!" the bandit barked. Left with no choice but to comply, Ryou walked swiftly across the deck, hearing the bandit yell similiar things to Kei and Toya. His eyes skirted around for some means of seperating his hands. There had to be a way of escaping this, now. Because if they didn't come with something, then the three of them were going to become illegal child slaves, and fast.

[Kleee]

It was warm.

Too warm. But a cool breeze came with the warmth, tugging gently at Kei's clothes and hair, completely unlike the harsh winds she was used to.

Weird.

Kei winced. Her body was sore all over, as if she'd been sleeping on the floor all night. In fact, she had been sleeping on the floor all night, Kei slowly realized. And the floor was moving. Rocking from side to side, so slightly that it was barely noticable. Last Kei had checked, the floor of her room was usually pretty stationary. Clearly, something was off here. Confused, Kei opened one eye and was met with a faceful of clear blue, cloudless sky that stretched as far as she could see. The sun was shining brighter than she'd ever seen it. Kei blinked and moved to raise a hand to shield her eyes against the glare, only to discover that they were tied securely behind her back.

What was going on here...?

"Might as well start leading them off now. Wouldn't want to linger around for long. Just get rid of the kids, and run off with their possesions."

"How much do ya reckon they'll fetch?"

"...Three young boys, they look fairly well groomed, even if this one's colorful. Should be worth a couple o' thousand."

"Hey!" Kei called out reflexively, "I'm not a--"

A familiar voice interrupted her, however.

"...A couple of thousand? I am so not worth that much! The other two might go cheaply, but I'm a couple of million, at the least...OW!"

Kei blinked, glancing over at her teammate, looking only mildly surprised to see him there next to her. "Oh hey, Ryou! You're here too?" She paused for a moment, and then realized he wasn't the only one. Toya was there was well. But Kei noticed too late, for at that moment the man who had hit Ryou earlier grabbed him by the hair, dragging him up to stand. Suddenly, it all came flooding back to Kei. The bandits, the ambush... everything.

They were prisoners.

"Ow--let go!" Kei protested loudly, as a second bandit pulled her upright. She flailed in his grip, trying to break free, but to no avail. Ahead of her, Ryou was being forced to walk across the deck in the direction of the ship's exit. Kei followed where the first bandit was pointing him with her eyes, only just now noticing the mass of land before them. It was... very green, Kei noted absently.

"Wait, what happened to all the snow?" she demanded franticly, looking over her shoulder at her bandit. "What did you do to it!?"

The bandit ignored her at first, but once he realized that Kei was dead serious, the man laughed jokingly. "What do you think, kid? We're bandits. We steal things." He moved to shove Kei off towards the exit in the same way Ryou had gone, but Kei would have none of it. First they'd trespassed on Yuki territory, then they'd ambushed her team and tied them up... Now they'd stolen all the snow from the Snow Village itself!

Unforgivable.

Kei threw herself backward with all the strength her thirteen-year-old body could muster, elbowing the bandit in the stomach. He staggered backward, only for a moment, but it was enough. Kei scrambled just out of his reach as soon as he lunged forward again, bringing the two of them dangerously close to the boat's edge. Neither noticed, however. The bandit was only focused on reclaiming his captive, and Kei only wanted revenge.

It came sooner than she'd hoped, however, as the bandit lunged forward to grab her again. She ducked to the side, and he hurtled past her. Kei blinked, glancing behind her as he fell.

Splash.

"W-we're on a boat??"

By this point, Kei was utterly confused. Somehow, the bandit had fallen off the boat and into the... ocean? So that was what the ocean looked like. Maybe they weren't in Yuki after all, Kei realized slowly, panic rising within her. That would certainly explain the odd warmth and the sunshine. Still, she had more important things to worry about at the moment. Like escaping. The other bandits had rushed to help their comrade, who was now flailing in the water... this was the perfect distraction.

"Run!" Kei shouted simply to her teammates, hoping they would get the message. And then she was off, darting across the deck of the ship and onto the dock of the strange island. The bandits wouldn't be too far behind them, but... with some luck, just maybe the three genin would make it to freedom.

[Kleee]

"...Psst; Toya!"

Toya would have jumped if he hadn’t been lying on the floor with his hands tied behind his back. He had been listening so intently to the sounds of the footsteps and trying to figure out how many bandits might be heading towards them that he had completely stopped checking to see if his teammates had woken up yet. Before he could respond to Ryou, the bandits’ voices rang out through the silence.

"Might as well start leading them off now. Wouldn't want to linger around for long. Just get rid of the kids, and run off with their possesions."

"How much do ya reckon they'll fetch?"

"...Three young boys, they look fairly well groomed, even if this one's colorful. Should be worth a couple o' thousand."

"Hey! I'm not a--"

"...A couple of thousand? I am so not worth that much! The other two might go cheaply, but I'm a couple of million, at the least...OW!"

Okay, so both of his teammates were up and about now. And already the two of them had fallen right back into their usual personalities without skipping a beat. Did they even comprehend the seriousness of the situation they had fallen into?

"Oh hey, Ryou! You're here too?"

“Well it’s not like they would capture us and then ship us off to different places…”

Toya muttered this slightly under his breath, so it was likely to not be heard by anyone as Ryou was struck by the bandits and then dragged along towards the front of the ship.

"Ow--let go!"

Unlike his more outspoken teammates, Toya allowed himself to be led towards the front of the ship without resisting or speaking. There was no point in trying to fight back and getting injured as a consequence. If they were going to escape, it would certainly have to take place off of this ship.

"Wait, what happened to all the snow?” Toya slowly opened his eyes to take a quick peek towards their destination. The shore ahead of them seemed to be covered in plant life, which made sense with the tropical weather around here. Where the hell were they? "What did you do to it!?"

"What do you think, kid? We're bandits. We steal things."

Toya only sighed at the stupid questions that Kei continued to ask. He couldn’t really blame her for being so disoriented, since none of the genin had probably ever been outside their country’s borders before now. The only question now was when they would have a chance to escape. Maybe a good time to get away would be when they entered the port after exiting the ship…

However, it seemed Kei had other plans. Though his eyes were still clamped shut for the time being, he could hear the sudden sound of Kei’s footsteps and erratic movements as she struggled with her captor. After less than a half minute of this duel, the sound of a large body hitting the ocean’s surface confirmed that the bandit had been the one to lose.

"W-we're on a boat??"

Had she really not even glanced over the side of the ship once? Normally Toya would have probably spoken up and said something sarcastic about Kei and her faulty observational skills, but this was not the time for their team’s immature bickering. With one bandit overboard and the rest rushing to figure out what was happening, this could be the perfect chance for them to escape. And luckily, Kei seemed to be on the same page as him.

"Run!"

Toya’s captor had become one of the bandits assisting their fallen comrade, so it was simple enough for him to open his eyes for another few moments and dash after Kei, following her path of escape. Besides, it wasn’t like anyone would actually be staring at him or his eyes when so much more was going on around them. He could worry about concealing them later.

For now, his mind was completely focused on putting as much distance between the bandits and his team as possible. With their nice head start and the speed that a person naturally acquired through shinobi training, it seemed like they had a good chance of getting away. But the real test would be to see if they could stay] escaped. They would need to hide out for a while to avoid being recaptured, since it was quite unlikely the bandits would just give up after being humiliated and losing their valuable ‘cargo’. And almost as importantly, they needed to get these stupid ropes off their hands. As these thoughts flooded his mind, he continued to run after Kei, hoping that Ryou would be following closely behind them.

"Don't stop, Kei! Keep running and don't look back until we can confirm that we've lost those guys!"

[Kleee]

Splash.

Ryou had come all the way to end of the boat, feeling like one of those guys in the movies who had been forced to walk the plank to their death when he heard the splash occur. The first thing he thought was crap, they're going to chuck me overboard too - but basic laws of physics had him realize that it couldn't have been one of his teammates who had been thrown off - Neither Kei nor Toya was fat enough to make a splash large enough that droplets of water ended up landing at Ryou's feet. So one of the others must have somehow thrown the bandit into the sea by surprise. A pretty risky and tricky move, considering the weight of the bandits and railing of the boat.

Who could possibly be smart and cunning enough as to come up with something like that....

"W-we're on a boat??"

...Of course. Ryou didn't even bother hesitating before turning around to see what was going on. Naturally, Kei had somehow made her way out of the mess that she didn't even realize she was in. The bandit that had held her captive was suddenly in the water, flailing around, evidently unable to swim. Another bandit, the one that had been leading Ryou on had also jumped into the sea like an idiot, with the one holding Toya soon to follow. For a moment, the three genin were left on the ship deck, close to dock, with no bandit around to stop them. There was only one thing for it...

"Run!"

Ryou didn't have to be told twice. Kei had either realized that they were indeed on a boat, or had at least come to terms with what the situation was, and broke into a run, Ryou and Toya following at her heels. The bandits too, seemed to be realizing their stupidity as the sound of loud stomps began to echo from behind the genin.

"Don't stop, Kei! Keep running and don't look back until we can confirm that we've lost those guys!"

Toya too, was simply stating the obvious. But running was one thing, hiding was another. They couldn't he keep up the pace for long; there had to be somewhere to stay covered. Ryou's eyes darted around the lush green landscape - admittedly much easier to run across than snow - for some sort of hiding place. A couple of metres ahead, up on the other side of a hill just ahead of them, he could see what looked like smoke. Signs of civillization.

"Guys! This way!"

Quickening his pace, Ryou turned on his heel, running toward the hill. It wasn't too steep - but he noted that even from the top of it, he was pretty sure he could see land borders in all directions. How small was this place? Hoping his teammates were somewhere behind him and the bandits weren't, he began descending, running toward what was indeed a small square of mismatched buildings, some letting out slight puffs of smoke and all giving off the noise of a town. Grass turned to road as Ryou came closer, now panting. C'mon... there had to be somewhere on the outskirts of this town. There were people everywhere, going about what looked like a normal day in this place, and yet they were all dressed in dark shades of grey, black or brown. Even with only their underclothes on, the three genin were going to stand out.

Ryou's hands were still tied behind his back as he came to a halt just past the foot of the town. The buildings were alot darker around here, a complete contrast the classy rich mansions he was used to. But whatever; they still needed to find a hiding place.

"...I-in here!" he called to god knows who, now completely breathless. He turned into an allyway next to him, hoping that he was completely unnoticed. He could spy what looked like an old wooden door on the end. He would have picked a better place, but with his hands in their current state, there was no way he'd be able to open any other door. With one glance to check that his teammates were still behind him, Ryou made his way to the door, tackling it with all the stregnth he could muster. Wow, it really was a weak old wooden door, as it fell with his first crash. The room ahead wasn't big, but it was there only choice now, considering they had come to a dead end. Ryou took a couple of steps forward, hearing Kei and Toya following him. He didn't even bother to shut the door, hoping somebody else would do that, he slowed down, collapsing onto a wall. The reality was beginning to sink in.

"...Did either of you manage to catch the name of this place?" he sighed, sagging before suddenly jerking up straight again "...Damnit! I forgot to retrieve my things! Argh! Stuck out here, in the middle of nowhere, with none of things! Grrrrr. How on earth am I supposed to live out here!?!?" he yelled, now not even caring for the volume of his voice, "D-Ranked mission my arse!"

He tried to pull his arms apart, once again to no avail, this time he somehow managed to twist some muscle in his wrist. Ryou cursed loudly, now half hoping that the bandits would just come along and take them away and kill them for getting into this mess.

[Kleee]

Kei had taken Toya's advice to heart; she was running for her life now, never once looking back. Rows and rows of unfamiliar buildings and unfamiliar faces blurred past her as she went, but Kei was only focused on one thing at the moment: escaping. She could worry about this weird foreign land and how to get home later, right now she just needed to get away from those bandits.

Unfortunately, the bandits were catching up. After all, they were more familiar with this island; the bandits had the homecourt advantage here. There was no way Kei and the others would be able to stay ahead of them for long if things kept on like this. Until...

"...I-in here!"

Kei blinked and suddenly Ryou was gone; he'd made a quick turn into an alleyway in order to throw the bandits off. Kei skidded to a halt and then darted after him. Hopefully Toya was following close behind. The three genin all but crashed through the doorway of the nearest building, hurrying inside before the bandits could find them.

"...Did either of you manage to catch the name of this place? ...Damnit! I forgot to retrieve my things! Argh! Stuck out here, in the middle of nowhere, with none of things! Grrrrr. How on earth am I supposed to live out here!?!?" Ryou whined, "D-Ranked mission my arse!"

"More importantly, where is 'here'?" Kei demanded. "I dunno about you guys, but I get the feeling we're not in Yuki anymore..." She trailed off, remaining silent for a moment. Thanks to Ryou's rant, Kei had realized that he was right; all their belongs were gone. Her colorful jacket and scarf, all her shinobi tools, the mission papers, and more importantly...

"...They took my cake," Kei announced gravely, looking up at her teammates. "They're going to pay for this!" She would have punched the wall for effect, if only her hands weren't still tied... Instead she kicked it in frustration, but only ended up with a bruised foot for her efforts.

Still upset over her lost cake, Kei's attention wandered and she ignored her teammates for the moment as they argued or did whatever it was they were doing. Instead, she was focused on a single closed door on the opposite side of the room. It obviously led to the front room of this building, but what that room might hold, Kei had no idea. She did, however, smell something coming from the other side. Something almost... cakelike.

And that was enough for her.

"Hey, do you think we should check this door out? It sounds like there are people on the other side..."

[Kleee]

"...I-in here!"

Toya had been right on his teammate’s heels the whole time they had been running. He had taken one quick glance over his shoulder to confirm that none of the bandits were in a position to see them before quickly following his teammates through the door. The bandits would most likely not stop to check every door and building, so they should hopefully be safe for the time being.

"...Did either of you manage to catch the name of this place? ...Damnit! I forgot to retrieve my things! Argh! Stuck out here, in the middle of nowhere, with none of things! Grrrrr. How on earth am I supposed to live out here!?!? D-Ranked mission my arse!"

"More importantly, where is 'here'? I dunno about you guys, but I get the feeling we're not in Yuki anymore..."

Kei’s honest ignorance could be easily ignored, but Ryou had already managed to ignite Toya’s fiery anger once again.

“Of course Ryou. While we were running for our lives I stopped and asked one of the friendly island natives the name of their lovely hometown. And before we sprinted off the boat before our captors managed to come after us, I stopped by the storage area of the ship and picked up all our stuff. You should be glad that you even still have your pathetic, spoiled life! So stop whining about what we’ve lost and start thinking about what we need to do from now on!”

Toya took a deep breath and stopped himself from saying anything else. The more he spoke, the more his anger grew, and that would only lead to pointless bickering that would serve absolutely no purpose for any of them. Luckily, their third teammate had something to add as well.

"...They took my cake. They're going to pay for this!"

For the first time since… well since they had been carried off to a foreign land, Toya cracked a small smile. Even though the girl was probably completely serious, he couldn’t help but find such a petty declaration humorous.

“Yes we will, Kei. When we finally figure things out here and get some weapons to replace our stuff, we will show those guys what it means to mess with us.”

Toya had finally realized that something extremely important to him had been confiscated by the bandits along with all of their other possessions. The special dagger of the Nanaya clan that his father had given him was gone. Not that he really treasured his father’s memories at all, but… it was still a family heirloom. But they would deal with stuff like that later. For now, he had suddenly thought of a way to get these pesky ropes off their hands…

“Kei, come over here for a second and turn your back to me. At my level I may only be able to inflict pain on humans, but when it comes to inanimate objects, my powers are a little more useful. You can both untie my ropes when I finish yours.”

Toya turned his head to look behind him as Kei approached him. He reached out one of his fingers and used the fingernail of his index finger to run gently across a red line that ran down the rope binding her hands. After a few seconds of moving it back and forth across the rope, it completely snapped in two. He reluctantly repeated the same process with Ryou then waited as the two managed to untie the tightly bound ropes around his hands. If only they had a few kunai or shuriken with them…

"Hey, do you think we should check this door out? It sounds like there are people on the other side..."

Toya glanced over at the door that Kei was referring to and blinked. Apparently that passage would lead to whatever building that this storage area belonged to. By now the bandits would have probably returned to their ship to regroup and plan their next search, so they should be fine to take a look for now…

“Well I guess it wouldn’t hurt to look around. Let’s go inside and see what this place is all about. The more information we have, the better.”

As he walked towards Kei and the door, he reached down to the right sleeve of his black shirt and ripped off a thin, long piece of the material. His old Tomoyuki tattoo was now almost completely visible, but luckily it wouldn’t mean anything to any of the locals around here. Besides, he needed the material for something important. Reaching up to his face, he tied the ripped piece of material around his eyes, tying the knot behind his head to form a sort of makeshift headband. It wouldn’t give him the same sight that his sunglasses gave, but it was better than being forced to concentrate on keeping his eyes closed all the time, especially if they got into another chase or battle.

“Alright, here we go…”

[Kleee]

Haha Island!

The name was less than appealing. As it was, though, the place was valuable real estate. Sunny days, long coasts, cities with villagers and bumpkins.

Rather, the people were eclectic. A strange mix of the simple rice farmers, highway bandits, and crime lords all wrapped up into one tropical package. Of course, this is why it had to be Kiri's. As always, money lubricated the transfer of possessions, and now Haha Island was Zabuza's. Having walked the island's paths and cities, Zabuza was not necessarily disappointed; there was development to be done, but that was always the case. The crime would have to bow to him at a certain point, and already his minions had infiltrated the circles of authority on the island.

But that wasn't the reason that Zabuza stood in the small aisle of Hatsujima's Bakery.

No, today was a day of relaxation. Somewhat. The grapevine had passed the news of a wonderful bakery in a dingy little corner of the city, and Zabuza had found himself there, the day's efforts done. Someone had recommended the lemon meringue pie, and he did have a bit of a sweet tooth...

'Lo and behold, the place did have a good selection. The proprietor, probably Hatsujima, had been liberal with portions, and his words were conveyed with the utmost of respect... well, Zabuza was his new landlord. Further was the giant sword on the man's back; it must've been somewhat.. convincing in terms of power.

And so it was that Zabuza found himself with a plethora of cakes. Boxed and neat. More than he could possibly eat. He did have the money for it though, and it always felt good to see the stunned face of a store owner as all his products were bought away. How would he get all this home, thou-

Scratching. Ripping. Voices. Assassins?

Not if he could help it. Putting the cakes down neatly and carefully, he unsheathed his sword. With a rapid and mighty double swing, he cut a large X through the thin wall. This was accomplished with the tip of the blade, as not to harm the 'assassins' therein; the menacing wall of steel hovering before them would.

With a voice as warm as a snow day in Yuki, he spoke.

"Who goes there? Tremble in fear; for you cross Momochi Zabuza, Demon of the Mist!"

Hatsujima fainted.

[Kleee]

"More importantly, where is 'here'? I dunno about you guys, but I get the feeling we're not in Yuki anymore..."

“Of course Ryou. While we were running for our lives I stopped and asked one of the friendly island natives the name of their lovely hometown. And before we sprinted off the boat before our captors managed to come after us, I stopped by the storage area of the ship and picked up all our stuff."

Kei's stating of the obvious was quickly drowned out by Toya jumping into another one of his rages, bringing back painful memories of the last things Toya had said to Ryou prior to the bandit incident. For somebody who had previously been something of a mute, Toya sure was talking, no wait, yelling alot now. And it was all still baseless conjecture.

"...Was I blaming you for me not having my things?! No! I was just complaning to myself, stop getting all worked up! Also, as if I was expecting you to ask someone! I thought you might have caught a signpost or something!"

"You should be glad that you even still have your pathetic, spoiled life! So stop whining about what we’ve lost and start thinking about what we need to do from now on!”

"Do you take pride in calling me spoiled or something!?! I'm not! Stop saying that! What's any of this got to do with you, anyway!?! Why're you so PMSy all of a sudden!?!"

Ryou closed his mouth, looking away from Toya. Honestly, none of this was any of his buisness anyway. He had never previously had it in for Ryou. Muttering curse words under his breath, Ryou looked at Kei as though she would be able to come up with something remotely amusing.

"...They took my cake. They're going to pay for this!"

And like always, Kei succeeded. Of course, the statement itself wasn't actually the funny part, considering Ryou had lost alot more important things aside from just a piece of cake, it was the tone with which Kei said it. It was like the bandits had taken a precious piece of her family away from her or something.

“Yes we will, Kei. When we finally figure things out here and get some weapons to replace our stuff, we will show those guys what it means to mess with us. Kei, come over here for a second and turn your back to me. At my level I may only be able to inflict pain on humans, but when it comes to inanimate objects, my powers are a little more useful. You can both untie my ropes when I finish yours.”

Ryou was still facing away from Toya, only watching what his teammate was doing out of the corner of his eye. He wasn't able to see all to clearly what Toya was doing, but he somehow managed to cut the rope binding Kei's hands together. Attempting to look as nonplussed about the feat as possible, Ryou didn't even comment as the pair of them released his own, and just stood there, resisting the urge to punch the defenseless Toya, while Kei undid the knots on his arms.

"Hey, do you think we should check this door out? It sounds like there are people on the other side..."

People. Well, that wasn't really a good thing. From the few glances Ryou had caught on the way here, none of the citizens of god knows where looked remotely like the sociable type...

“Well I guess it wouldn’t hurt to look around. Let’s go inside and see what this place is all about. The more information we have, the better.”

Well, leave it to Toya to overlook all possible dangers of actually going out there. Ryou simply leaned back even further against his wall, now folding his arms. Well, his teammates could go out there and killed; he didn't particularly care at this point.

“Alright, here we go,"

"Good luck, My money's on you lot surviving for about five minutes,"

CRASH!

"...Make that one,"

Even Ryou with all his doubts hadn't expected some kind of axe murderer to come crashing in through the walls. He jumped backwards as the smoke and rubbled left by the fallen wall cleared, revealing a silhouette he could have sworn he had seen somewhere before.

"Who goes there? Tremble in fear; for you cross Momochi Zabuza, Demon of the Mist!"

Momochi Zabuza. Of course, one of the ex-Seven Swordsmen of the Mist, an assasin. No wonder Ryou had heard of him before; he was downright famous, and downright scary. Ryou cringed in fright, slowly taking a couple of steps backward, unable to tear his glance away from the murderous face.

"You...Momochi Z-Zabuza!? Oh, I told you guys, we're screwed!"

[Kleee]

“Alright, here we go…”

Well, at least someone here agreed with her, Kei thought. Ryou had protested, but it wasn't like anyone really listened to Ryou anyways. Whether he liked it or not, they were going to see what was on the other side of that wall.

Toya's hand never reached the doorknob, however, and the three genin ended up witnessing the contents of the next room a lot sooner than they were expecting.

CRASH!

Kei blinked, still trying to process where exactly the walls had disappeared to so fast, and where all that dust was coming from when suddenly a voice called out from within the smoke.

"Who goes there? Tremble in fear; for you cross Momochi Zabuza, Demon of the Mist!"

The smoke slowly cleared to reveal a large man, wielding an even larger blade. Something about that big sword and the way he'd totally demolished the entire wall just now was starting to give Kei the idea that this guy, whoever he was, was anything but friendly.

"Never heard of you," she remarked dryly, looking him over. Funny mask, bigass sword, fond of slicing buildings open... definitely a showoff, Kei concluded inwardly. Obviously not someone she should be afraid of.

But Ryou, as usual, just had to disagree.

"You...Momochi Z-Zabuza!? Oh, I told you guys, we're screwed!"

"What, you know this guy??" Kei glanced at her cowering teammate, and then back at the sword freak. But now, for the first time, she took in her surroundings as well. It seemed the four were in some sort of... bakery? The familiar smell of cake told her everything she needed to know. And there, on the floor... the baker? He wasn't dead, was he...? Kei certainly hoped not. And most importantly, sitting neatly in a pile directly behind the sword freak...

Cake. Boxes and boxes of cake.

Suddenly, it all made sense.

"N-not another bandit!" Kei glared. "First you jerks kidnap us and send us off to who-even-knows-where, steal all of our stuff, and now you're raiding bakeries, too!?"

Unforgivable.

Kei made rapid handseals, a small ball of flame forming in one hand. Suddenly, she had forgotten all about the man and his massive sword, which had sliced through a wall earlier as if it were merely butter. Hell, the sword itself was probably twice her size, and clearly no match for herself, but she didn't care. After all, this was her chance to fulfill the promise she had made to herself. Without thinking, Kei rushed forward, poised to attack.

She was going to make those bandits pay.

[Kleee]

"Good luck, My money's on you lot surviving for about five minutes,"

Toya would have responded with a cutting retort, but it’s not like anyone took any of his pessimistic, jerkish comments seriously, right? He had been just about to open the door when the crashing sound of the entire storage room wall burst open by the power an unidentified force.

CRASH!

"...Make that one,"

Toya froze after he slowly turned his head towards the source of the wall’s destruction. Even with his sight cut to nearly zero by his makeshift blindfold, he could still get the general idea that the figure towering before them was not someone that they wanted to get into a conflict with. In fact, they probably stood a better chance against the entire group of bandits that had captured them earlier…

"Who goes there? Tremble in fear; for you cross Momochi Zabuza, Demon of the Mist!"

No way, what the hell was someone this infamous doing in a run-down shack like this in the middle of who-knows-where? Did the Momochi Zabuza somehow know that they were shinobi from a hidden village, or had he merely sensed the presence of people behind the wall and had taken a precaution against them? Either way, they needed to somehow talk their way out of this situation without starting a violent conflict…

"Never heard of you”

Of course Kei wouldn’t even recognize such a renowned Kiri swordsman.

"You...Momochi Z-Zabuza!? Oh, I told you guys, we're screwed!"

And of course Ryou immediately whined and turned into a cowardly pessimistic at the first sign of trouble.

"What, you know this guy??"

Toya sighed and was about to explain the identity of this man to Kei when suddenly she started yelling out a flurry of random accusations.

"N-not another bandit! First you jerks kidnap us and send us off to who-even-knows-where, steal all of our stuff, and now you're raiding bakeries, too!?"

Even though the dark cloth covering his eyes, Toya could see the orange, glowing mass of fire beginning to form in Kei’s palm. Wait, she didn’t really plan on running up and attacking this guy, did she? Luckily, Toya had begun to grow accustomed to Kei’s thought patterns and the most likely actions that she would take in any given situation. And right now it seemed inevitable that she planned on charging right up to the man who had just demolished a solid wall in the blink of an eye with a monstrous sword.

Before Kei could take more than a few running steps towards her intended target, Toya practically lunged forward, wrapping his right arm around the reckless girl’s abdomen and pulling her a couple of feet backwards, away from the large sword-wielding shinobi.

”Kei, calm down, he’s not one of those bandits. Momochi Zabuza is one of the former Seven Swordsmen of the Mist. Now he is the leader of Kirigakure, the Mizukage. I don’t know what he is doing here, wherever here is, but he is not one of the people searching for us. I think…”

Toya held on to his teammate, not wanting to release her until he confirmed for sure that she would not try anything else without thinking it through first. He slowly glanced up at Zabuza, wishing that he could see him in order to gauge his facial expressions. Now that he was temporarily “blind” once more, he could only hope that the man would speak up and confirm that he was not their enemy. Because if he really was allied with their previous captors, Kei would need a lot more than a little fireball to stop him…

[Kleee]

The sound of Hatsujima hitting the ground reverberated across the room, boomingly loud in the sudden silence that enveloped the room.

A scream emanated from the "assassins", or rather, just one of the boys of the lot.

"You...Momochi Z-Zabuza!? Oh, I told you guys, we're screwed!"

Well, at least one of them had the proper respect to know the severity of the situation. This, as it seemed, was sense that was not shared among his compatriots. The girl, the only girl of the bunch, had responded to the sudden threat by shouting angrily.

"What, you know this guy??" She paused, the effort of thought visible on her countenance as she glared at her friend, and turned her attention back to Zabuza. "N-not another bandit! First you jerks kidnap us and send us off to who-even-knows-where, steal all of our stuff, and now you're raiding bakeries, too!?"

Bandit? Zabuza? Really? This girl did not have the sense to realize that, if he had wanted them dead, they'd be smears against the floor by now?

The fireball that formed in her hand was small, about the size of a weak cooking fire, and she charged. Really? Her team-mate, the one who thus far had not spoken, leapt to stop her from what was a final and terrible decision.

He, barring her as much as he could, spoke. "Kei, calm down, he’s not one of those bandits. Momochi Zabuza is one of the former Seven Swordsmen of the Mist. Now he is the leader of Kirigakure, the Mizukage. I don’t know what he is doing here, wherever here is, but he is not one of the people searching for us. I think…"

There, that was about right. How sensible of the lad! Obviously, though, sense did not have much of an effect on the girl, much like beer on a hard liquor alcoholic. She wriggled intensely, breaking the young man's grip, and continued her charge across the short distance.

Zabuza had a decision to make. He could paste the kid. It wouldn't be hard, just a simply flick of the wrist to split her completely. But.. the attack was so paltry. They obviously weren't assassins. Plus he would have to resharpen the Kubikiri Houcho, and get blood out of the leather on the grip. It really wasn't worth the effort.

Instead, he grinned at the three, moving like greased lightning before they could blink; three perfectly formed Mizu-bunshin appeared, having leached the air around them for moisture. A blur of motion, and it was all over; the bunshin had acquired three perfect, delicious banana creme pies from the pile that Zabuza had placed, and a subsequent attack had happened. The girl, the fire user, stood stunned in the middle of the space between the two groups, a pie planted firmly on her face. The other two, the one cowering and the sensible one, stood stock still, menacingly looming over their respective targets with pies hovering closely.

Zabuza stood, the tip of the sword on the ground, his hands resting on the hilt.

"I think that introductions may be in order. I think also that you now know who I am. The question, now, is who are YOU?"

Hatsujima made a noise as he came around.

[Kleee]

"What, you know this guy??"

...And Kei didn't? Ryou honestly couldn't believe the girl sometimes, how could anybody not recognize that name; Momochi Zabuza. It was point enough that he was perhaps the greatest assasin to ever live, and then to add the fact that he was now the Mizukage too kinda made it very hard to see how anybody from a shinobi background could be so ignorant as to not know of his existance...

"N-not another bandit! First you jerks kidnap us and send us off to who-even-knows-where, steal all of our stuff, and now you're raiding bakeries, too!?"

Ryou's palm connected with his face. Surely Kei had a better way to spend the last few minutes of her life other than behave like a complete and utter moron. Not only was she making claims that made no sense, but judging from her creation of handsigns, she was actually planning to go head to head with the demon of the mist.

Remaining safe in his corner, Ryou watched as Kei charged, only to be stopped by a quickly moving Toya, who looked shockingly nonplussed.

”Kei, calm down, he’s not one of those bandits. Momochi Zabuza is one of the former Seven Swordsmen of the Mist. Now he is the leader of Kirigakure, the Mizukage. I don’t know what he is doing here, wherever here is, but he is not one of the people searching for us. I think…”

And here was a different kind of stupid altogether.

"Well, na-duh, genius. You'd think that if he was actually hunting us, we'd probably be dead already. But that doesn't change how he's an assasin and he just tore through some walls to come at us. Why're you acting so calm about the entire thing!?!"

Ryou didn't even bother move forward as he said this, he quite valued his life. Yet on the contrary, Kei didn't. The reckless girl was still charging forward, a ball of fire continuing to form in her hands. But naturally Zabuza wasn't just going to stand there and take it. His level of power was just as great as all the legends claimed - he moved with such terrifying force and speed. It was much like a blur to Ryou's eyes; a grin, an array of bunshins, the swing of three swords, and then PIE.

...Uh. Yeah. Pie.

Ryou had been too paralyzed by the speed and and force of these movements to even get a chance to make some kind of escape, and before he knew it, one of the bunshin were right in front of him, a flying pie right next to him as he glared into Ryou's eyes. Incredibly confused, Ryou looked around, noting that Toya was in a similar situation to him, and Kei was well... piefaced. Ryou didn't exactly know whether to continue cowering in fear, or to laugh as he looked back at the original Zabuza; now standing.

"I think that introductions may be in order. I think also that you now know who I am. The question, now, is who are YOU?"

Ryou still hadn't established whether he was in some sort of dream or not when this question came. The pie was still floating threateningly in front of him, and from the looks of things, if he chose to attack or flee, he was going to get a face full of custard, á la Kei. Nevertheless, it didn't look like the situation was actually all too deadly.

"...I'm still not sure I know who you are, actually. Famous Assasin, use Pie as a weapon? Oh please..." Ryou scoffed, folding his arms again, "...Well regardless, I'm Ryou Yutaka. Age fifteen, Genin. I'm the son of the Yukigakure Daimyou. Anyway, what do you want with us? Why on earth did you just break those walls and then start attacking us with pie when you very well could have killed Kei, there? What's your game?"

[Kleee]

Toya did his best to talk some sense into Kei, but it was useless.

She was only half-listening to him, while the rest of her was focused on freeing herself from his hold. Why was he trying to stop her, anyways? He was supposed to be on her side!

”Kei, calm down, he’s not one of those bandits. Momochi Zabuza is one of the former Seven Swordsmen of the Mist. Now he is the leader of Kirigakure, the Mizukage. I don’t know what he is doing here, wherever here is, but he is not one of the people searching for us. I think…”

"You think!? As if that helps!" Kei protested. "This guy just sliced the freaking wall open! I am not," Kei emphasized, finally managing to shove her teammate away from her, "going to just stand around and let him have his way!" Before Toya could stop her again, she charged forward for the second time, prepared her attack, and---

Suddenly, pie.

There was a blur of motion as Zabuza multiplied by three, and then he was reaching into the cake boxes and then something was flying at her, and then Kei was falling backwards, knocked back from the impact of an entire pie connecting with her face.

There was a moment of stunned silence as Kei's mind attempted to process the events that had just taken place.

"...It tastes like banana," she announced finally, for lack of anything better to say.

...

"...I think that introductions may be in order. I think also that you now know who I am. The question, now, is who are YOU?"

Kei blinked, still apparently unfazed by the man's bizarre counterattack. So he wasn't a bandit after all? Well, the bandits certainly hadn't ever cared to identify the three Yuki genin, so the fact that this pie-wielding sword freak wanted to know their names had to mean something. Maybe Toya had been right after all, Kei realized slowly.

"...I'm still not sure I know who you are, actually. Famous assassin, use pie as a weapon? Oh please...Well regardless, I'm Ryou Yutaka. Age fifteen, Genin. I'm the son of the Yukigakure Daimyou. Anyway, what do you want with us? Why on earth did you just break those walls and then start attacking us with pie when you very well could have killed Kei there? What's your game?"

Kei, who, by the end of Ryou's little speech, had mostly managed to wipe the majority of the pie from her face, rolled her eyes. If Ryou had thought Kei was about to die, he certainly hadn't seemed overly worried about it. Well, now at least she knew who not to ask for help from next time she was in trouble, Kei scoffed. Some teammate he was. But she had to agree on one point; Kei was curious too.

"Yeah. You're... not with the bandits, then?" Oops, she added mentally. Maybe she should have asked before attacking him. Kei still couldn't trust him, however. And... she wasn't so sure it was a good idea for Ryou to just go announcing his father's title all over the place like that. What if this guy decided he wanted a money and they got kidnapped again? Oh well, it was too late to worry about that. And luckily, she didn't have to worry about famous parents or clans or anything. Kei was just Kei.

"...I'm Kei. And if you're really some big important Kiri ninja like you say you are, what are you doing all the way out here?" Kei paused, suddenly coming to a realization. She'd forgotten earlier, what with all the commotion and the flying pies, but they still didn't have the slightest idea where 'here' was.

"...We're not in Kiri, are we?"

[Kleee]

"You think!? As if that helps!” Kei was fighting hard against Toya’s grip and it was getting hard to hold her steady. If he was holding an enemy, he could easily have kept her from escaping, but he couldn’t risk injuring his teammate. Especially not a female teammate. “This guy just sliced the freaking wall open! I am not," Toya stumbled backwards as Kei managed to break free and push him away."going to just stand around and let him have his way!"

“Kei, wait a…”

Before Toya could say or do anything else, he was suddenly witnessing an event taken straight out of any comedy routine. Their large assailant had just removed a pie from one of the several boxes and threw it directly into Kei’s face. And before he could even blink an eye, a clone with another pie appeared in front of both him and Ryou, staring menacingly down at the two remaining un-pied genin.

"...It tastes like banana."

Toya smirked for a moment before quickly erasing the expression from his face to avoid angering the Zabuza bunshin that stood next to him. Even though Kei’s whimsical and often nonsensical responses to most situations could be annoying at certain times, it was often a good way to ease tension. Besides, it was a thousand times better than how Ryou would have reacted to a pie in the face. Toya could already imagine the screams, threats, and references to his powerful father that Ryou would use if something like that happened to him.


"...I think that introductions may be in order. I think also that you now know who I am. The question, now, is who are YOU?"

Toya was a little taken back by this. Why would such a powerful and famous shinobi even care about the identity of three foreign genin? Obviously the man was being cautious and making sure that the three of them would be no threat to himself, but by now it seemed obvious that they were harmless compared to him and his monstrous sword. I mean seriously, that thing was more than just overkill…

"...I'm still not sure I know who you are, actually. Famous assassin, use pie as a weapon? Oh please...Well regardless, I'm Ryou Yutaka. Age fifteen, Genin. I'm the son of the Yukigakure Daimyou. Anyway, what do you want with us? Why on earth did you just break those walls and then start attacking us with pie when you very well could have killed Kei there? What's your game?"

Did Ryou really just pull his usual arrogant son-of-nobility act in front of the Demon of the Mist? Not only did he insult his methods, but he also went on to question why he spared Kei’s life? In Toya’s mind, it would have been better to accept the fact that their teammate was still alive and move on without questioning it, but of course Ryou wouldn’t do something that simple and smart.

"Yeah. You're... not with the bandits, then?"

”He wouldn’t be asking about our identities if he was one of those guys. If he was with them, we would already be back at the harbor with ropes around our wrists again.”

At least, that was probably the most logical conclusion. It was possibly that this guy was still the ally of the bandits, but he simply did not know the identity of every slave or captive that his group came across. But the Mizukage of Kirigakure wouldn’t be involved in such small-time and petty dealings such as taking foreign genin as captives, right…?


"...I'm Kei. And if you're really some big important Kiri ninja like you say you are, what are you doing all the way out here?"

”I would also like to know the purpose of your presence here. My name is… Toya."

His voice faltered slightly before saying his name as he debated whether to add a family name or not. He ended up deciding to simply use his first name to avoid any possible problems in the future.

"...We're not in Kiri, are we?"

For the first time in a while, Toya had nothing to add and nothing to correct Kei with. She had actually brought up a very good question. Maybe it was not such a big deal to see Zabuza in a place like this, because they had ended up in the boundaries of his own village. Hopefully they would find out everything when the man answered them.

[Kleee]

The cowardly one spoke first. ""...I'm still not sure I know who you are, actually. Famous Assasin, use Pie as a weapon? Oh, please. Well, regardless, I'm Ryou Yutaka. Age fifteen, Genin. I'm the son of the Yukigakure Daimyou. Anyway, what do you want with us? Why on earth did you just break those walls and then start attacking us with pie when you very well could have killed Kei, there? What's your game?"

Ah! Interesting. The son of Yukigakure royalty, with the attitude to boot. Strange how, given that he did not have a knife stuck between the ribs, he was complaining about the use of pie as a weapon. Perhaps he did not notice the other hand of the clone that loomed before him, a wickedly custom shaped kunai woven between the fingers. Perhaps he was too foolish to realize his situation? It did not matter.

The girl spoke. "Yeah. You're... not with the bandits, then?"

Zabuza shook his head negatively, even as the smart one of the group spoke. "He wouldn’t be asking about our identities if he was one of those guys. If he was with them, we would already be back at the harbor with ropes around our wrists again."

She seemed to accept this as fact, and introduced herself. "...I'm Kei. And if you're really some big important Kiri ninja like you say you are, what are you doing all the way out here?" The statement was followed quickly by the smart one, who said, "I would also like to know the purpose of your presence here. My name is… Toya." Zabuza noted that neither of them had attached family names; perhaps they did not have important families to flaunt like Ryou, or they had sense to not reveal information that a kidnapper would love.

"...We're not in Kiri, are we?"

"So many questions. I'll pose one for you to think about, though, before I answer. Why were you so ill prepared for an attack, when you are quite obviously dealing with a bandit problem?" He eyed the children, letting them think it over.

"As it were, I heard a noise through the wall. As some of the more astute of you have guessed, I am Momochi Zabuza. Being a leader, as Ryou here would probably know, given his father, means you are a high profile target. Assassins try to kill you. Assassins try to kill you in easy to access, public places. Therefore, you must respond quickly and efficiently to any sign of an attack. Some leaders use bodyguards; I do not need them. Given that you aren't assassins, I think there's been a case of mutual misidentification. So no, Kei, I am not with the bandits." He paused, letting this sink in. As this happened, the bunshin dissipated in a burst of mist, and the pies clattered to the ground save the one on Kei's face.

"I am all the way out here for a reason, and this reason is the last question you asked. If you had come here a few days ago, you would have not been in Kiri; lands change possession quite often, though, and now you are in the Kiri protectorate known as Haha Island. More specifically, you are in Hatsujima's Bakery."

He eyed the situation. Ropes. Bandits. That was it. They had escaped from bandits? Slave traders did operate in the area, and a royal youth would command a high price.

"Here's another question. What are you doing in MY bakery?"

[Kleee]

Ryou stayed put as Kei and Toya gave the Zabuza their pathetic excuses for introductions. It took a little while for it dawn on Kei that the Mizukage certainly wasn't one of the bandits, and it took Toya even longer to realize that this was blatantly obvious to everybody that wasn't Kei and that nobody wanted to hear his smartass comments.

"...We're not in Kiri, are we?"

"...No shit, sherlock. Did you see any mist on our way up here?"

Ryou rolled his eyes, looking from Kei to Zabuza, somewhat surprised that he still hadn't landed a pie to his face. After all, he himself knew that he was way overdoing the entire ego thing, but heck, he didn't really care.

"So many questions. I'll pose one for you to think about, though, before I answer. Why were you so ill prepared for an attack, when you are quite obviously dealing with a bandit problem?"

What was with all the obvious questions all of a sudden? Ryou heaved a sigh.

"...Million reasons why. For starters, we've already lost all of our possessions and aren't equipped with weapons, secondly, we just ran a mile or more to get here, and we were trying to recuperate. Thirdly, we didn't expect the so called "bandit" to come in through the wall. Lastly, we thought we would have had a bit more warning that they were coming; we've seen the bandits that are after us, and none of them are exactly what you would call agile. To keep things short, We weren't expecting the freakin' Mizukage to come at us with lightning speed!"

"As it were, I heard a noise through the wall. As some of the more astute of you have guessed, I am Momochi Zabuza. Being a leader, as Ryou here would probably know, given his father, means you are a high profile target. Assassins try to kill you. Assassins try to kill you in easy to access, public places. Therefore, you must respond quickly and efficiently to any sign of an attack. Some leaders use bodyguards; I do not need them. Given that you aren't assassins, I think there's been a case of mutual misidentification. So no, Kei, I am not with the bandits."

Well, that made sense, the whole thing about assasins being after people with power and all, Ryou thought as the clang of pie tins hit the ground following the bunshins' dissapearance. But still, there was one part that Ryou didn't exactly buy; one bit that seemed just a bit off.

"...You heard noises? Well that shows us one thing. If you actually heard us, we'd be pretty crappy assasins, wouldn't we? Like I just said, you've got that whole lightning speed thing going. Even if we were to come out and attack you, you could have just turned around and slaughtered us on the spot. Woulda saved you the effort, anyway," he stated in a matter-of-fact tone.

"I am all the way out here for a reason, and this reason is the last question you asked. If you had come here a few days ago, you would have not been in Kiri; lands change possession quite often, though, and now you are in the Kiri protectorate known as Haha Island. More specifically, you are in Hatsujima's Bakery."

...

"Haha Wha-wha!?" Ryou spat, breaking a large pause that ensued after Zabuza started talking "HAHA ISLAND?! Is this a joke!? I haven't even heard of such a place! My father doesn't even know of this place! How is his search party going to find me now?!"

Ryou punched the wall beside him in annoyance, bruising his knuckles.

"...And what kind of a name is Haha Island anyway?!"

[Kleee]

"...No shit, sherlock. Did you see any mist on our way up here?"

Now that the immediate threat was over, it seemed Ryou was back to his usual self again. Kei sighed, glancing away from her teammate. Just because they hadn't seen much mist here didn't automatically rule out Kiri... did it? It wasn't like he had any better ideas... Either way, she really was going to have to punch him one of these days. And somehow, she had the feeling that Toya would agree.

Kei looked back over to Zabuza as he began to speak.

"So many questions. I'll pose one for you to think about, though, before I answer. Why were you so ill prepared for an attack, when you are quite obviously dealing with a bandit problem?"

"...Million reasons why. For starters, we've already lost all of our possessions and aren't equipped with weapons, secondly, we just ran a mile or more to get here, and we were trying to recuperate. Thirdly, we didn't expect the so called "bandit" to come in through the wall. Lastly, we thought we would have had a bit more warning that they were coming; we've seen the bandits that are after us, and none of them are exactly what you would call agile. To keep things short, We weren't expecting the freakin' Mizukage to come at us with lightning speed!"

For once, Kei agreed with Ryou. At least, a little bit. They'd only been on this island for a short while, but it hadn't been easy, that was for sure... Running from bandits, getting attacked by scary pie-wielding kages... the three genin were quite the danger magnets, apparently. And then there was also the fact that they'd been totally outnumbered by the bandits and, as this was their first mission, they were still inexperienced but... there was no way she was going to admit that out loud.

"As it were, I heard a noise through the wall. As some of the more astute of you have guessed, I am Momochi Zabuza. Being a leader, as Ryou here would probably know, given his father, means you are a high profile target. Assassins try to kill you. Assassins try to kill you in easy to access, public places. Therefore, you must respond quickly and efficiently to any sign of an attack. Some leaders use bodyguards; I do not need them. Given that you aren't assassins, I think there's been a case of mutual misidentification. So no, Kei, I am not with the bandits."

"...You heard noises? Well that shows us one thing. If you actually heard us, we'd be pretty crappy assasins, wouldn't we? Like I just said, you've got that whole lightning speed thing going. Even if we were to come out and attack you, you could have just turned around and slaughtered us on the spot. Woulda saved you the effort, anyway,"

Ryou was just getting worse and worse. Had he honestly just reminded the Mizukage that he could kill Kei and the others any time he wanted? For someone who was overly obsessed with his own survival, Ryou sure wasn't doing to well with it at the moment...

"I am all the way out here for a reason, and this reason is the last question you asked. If you had come here a few days ago, you would have not been in Kiri; lands change possession quite often, though, and now you are in the Kiri protectorate known as Haha Island. More specifically, you are in Hatsujima's Bakery."

...

"Haha Wha-wha!?...HAHA ISLAND?! Is this a joke!? I haven't even heard of such a place! My father doesn't even know of this place! How is his search party going to find me now?!"

Not again with his father, and the threats... they should be worrying about how to get off the island themselves, not waiting for some stupid search party. It wasn't like she really believed anyone was actually looking for someone as spoiled as Ryou, anyways. His father was probably relieved he was gone, what with all his whining. Kei sighed in frustration yet again, then simply turned around and punched Ryou in the face.

"Told you we were in Kiri."

At least, sort of.

"Here's another question. What are you doing in MY bakery?"

"Hiding from the bandits, of course," Kei answered quite cheerfully, rather surprising considering the way she'd just smacked her teammate in the face moments ago. "You should really do something about those by the way, if this is your land..." Kei trailed off, glancing at the remaining boxes of cake in the pile. Zabuza's question had reminded her that this was a bakery after all...and Kei hadn't eaten in what seemed like forever. Not since before she'd left on her mission, that was for sure. And that had probably been days ago!

Her stomach rumbled audibly.

"Um, about all that cake..."

[Kleee]

"...No shit, sherlock. Did you see any mist on our way up here?"

“Give it a rest, Ryou…”

Toya had more colorful words for his male teammate, but luckily for all of them, Zabuza interrupted.

"So many questions. I'll pose one for you to think about, though, before I answer. Why were you so ill prepared for an attack, when you are quite obviously dealing with a bandit problem?”

"...Million reasons why. For starters, we've already lost all of our possessions and aren't equipped with weapons, secondly, we just ran a mile or more to get here, and we were trying to recuperate. Thirdly, we didn't expect the so called "bandit" to come in through the wall. Lastly, we thought we would have had a bit more warning that they were coming; we've seen the bandits that are after us, and none of them are exactly what you would call agile. To keep things short, We weren't expecting the freakin' Mizukage to come at us with lightning speed!"

Even though he did it in an overly obnoxious way, Ryou had actually spoken some words of truth here. How would a team of inexperienced genin ever expect an attack in a room where they had finally felt safe? Especially through a solid wall. And coming from the Mizukage of Kirigakure himself? Even Tomo himself would have been caught off guard… probably.

"As it were, I heard a noise through the wall. As some of the more astute of you have guessed, I am Momochi Zabuza. Being a leader, as Ryou here would probably know, given his father, means you are a high profile target. Assassins try to kill you. Assassins try to kill you in easy to access, public places. Therefore, you must respond quickly and efficiently to any sign of an attack. Some leaders use bodyguards; I do not need them. Given that you aren't assassins, I think there's been a case of mutual misidentification. So no, Kei, I am not with the bandits."

"...You heard noises? Well that shows us one thing. If you actually heard us, we'd be pretty crappy assasins, wouldn't we? Like I just said, you've got that whole lightning speed thing going. Even if we were to come out and attack you, you could have just turned around and slaughtered us on the spot. Woulda saved you the effort, anyway,"

Was Ryou really going back to his argument about how easily this guy could slaughter them with the twitch of his pinky? It seemed like Ryou was completely logical when it came to raw knowledge, but then he couldn’t deliver when it came to the common sense stuff. And that was pretty much the most important part of thinking or speaking…

"I am all the way out here for a reason, and this reason is the last question you asked. If you had come here a few days ago, you would have not been in Kiri; lands change possession quite often, though, and now you are in the Kiri protectorate known as Haha Island. More specifically, you are in Hatsujima's Bakery."

...

"Haha Wha-wha!?...HAHA ISLAND?! Is this a joke!? I haven't even heard of such a place! My father doesn't even know of this place! How is his search party going to find me now?!"

And off Ryou went on his ridiculous tantrums where he would basically scream a lot and throw out stuff about how rich and powerful his stupid father was. Did he really think that some randomly hired rescue party would find them way out here? Toya had finally taken enough of this nonsense. Regardless of his efforts to control his anger and act like a good teammate, he couldn’t take this anymore. Just as he was stepping towards Ryou, Kei had already beaten him to the punch. Quite literally, actually.

"Told you we were in Kiri."

Toya smirked at Kei’s stubbornness and then calmly used the backside of his palm to give Ryou a good whack across the back of his head. He had deserved a good beating for way too long, and now both of his teammates had gotten a shot at him.

“Yeah, Ryou, we are in part of Kiri.”

He just couldn't resist continuing the double-team against Ryou.

"Here's another question. What are you doing in MY bakery?"

"Hiding from the bandits, of course. You should really do something about those by the way, if this is your land..."

“Yeah, even such an unstructured island like this would be better off without guys like that running around freely and trying to sell kids like us to creeps who want slaves. But at least they seemed to have given up on us for the time being…”

Toya sighed and turned his head to “look” around the shop, though all he could see through the material of his dark headband were random blurs of light and darkness. He could distinguish sizes and shapes of people and objects, but that was about it.

"Um, about all that cake..."

Toya glanced over and saw Kei standing near a few of the cake boxes lying all over the floor of the shop. Now that he thought about it, they probably hadn’t eaten in at least a few days. Those damn bandits certainly hadn’t fed them anything, and his last meal had been his breakfast the morning of their mission’s start.

”Some cake actually sounds pretty good right now…”

[Kleee]

Ryou had been far too pre occupied by the traumatizing thought of dying stranded on a place called Haha Island, he didn't notice Kei coming at him with a sudden anger he didn't think she was capable of. The moment he looked around to identify the flesh colored blur, she got him - smack bang in the middle of the face

"OW!" Ryou cried, covering his poor red features with his hands as Kei withdrew her arm, looking somewhat satisfied.

"Told you we were in Kiri."

Ryou glared, feeling his nose and cheekbones to make sure nothing was broken. Damn that woman was strong. What had he done to deserve that anyway? He had just made a logical assumption, and had just been voicing a couple of his problems...

"Well excuse me for thinking the Land of Mist was comprised largely of mi- AAAAH!"

In Ryou's anger and confusion regarding Kei's actions, Toya had vanished into a state of invisibility again - Ryou had kinda hoped that he'd just gone back to being the silent character everybody knew and loved. But just like Kei, he too had decided to take take advantage of his poor unsuspecting teammate. Ryou's hands flew to the back of his head, which was now throbbing like somebody had hit with him with a baseball bat. But in this case, the baseball bat was just Toya's incredibly bony forearm.

“Yeah, Ryou, we are in part of Kiri.”

Ryou didn't even bother to respond again. He swiftly gave Toya the finger, not even bothering to check if Zabuza's eyes were averted, whilst using his other hand to massage his aching head. Damn those two sure packed a punch. Folding his arms again, he looked back at Zabuza, wondering where on earth this conversation was actually going.

"Here's another question. What are you doing in MY bakery?"

"Hiding from the bandits, of course. You should really do something about those by the way, if this is your land..."

“Yeah, even such an unstructured island like this would be better off without guys like that running around freely and trying to sell kids like us to creeps who want slaves. But at least they seemed to have given up on us for the time being…”

"...Not to mention you should actually put this place on the map and change it's name to something decent," Ryou added under his breath. He half expected Kei or Toya to come right at him again, but Kei simply responded with a very loud stomach rumble.

"Um, about all that cake..."

”Some cake actually sounds pretty good right now…”

Ryou rolled his eyes visibly. Oh yeah, he hadn't eaten anything for a while, now that he thought about it. All of his snacks had been lost along with the rest of his things...

"Uh-huh. Yeah, eating something might up our chance of survival at least a little bit. Count me in,"

[Kleee]

Infighting was always fun; youth were prone to it. Zabuza himself had done quite a lot of fighting with his team mates as a child, though that had ended in... well, he remained. It wasn't the same thing really, but as it seemed Yuki and Kiri were not the same places. An attitude such as Ryou's, even from royalty, would've ended in blood drawn. Especially to the leader of a foreign nation.

Kei had punched Ryou in the face; Zabuza wondered whether the child of royalty was used to being hit. Lord knows he needed more of it.

"Haha Wha-wha!?...HAHA ISLAND?! Is this a joke!? I haven't even heard of such a place! My father doesn't even know of this place! How is his search party going to find me now?!"

Zabuza turned to Toya and Kei, who quite obviously found their team-mate to be slightly obnoxious. "How do you guys put up with this kid?"

The kid, ever the genius, decided to compliment his new bruise with a snide comment. "Well excuse me for thinking the Land of Mist was comprised largely of mi- AAAAH!" Toya, the smarter boy, had hit him in the head as well. A fun bunch, these youth were...

In answering his question, each of the three had brought up a valid point.

"As it were, I acquired this land a few days ago. Like I told you." He narrowed his eyes. The attitude was infectious. "Being a leader, Ryou, has its dangers. There are such things, I might add, as bad assassins. Assassins who make noises. Assassins who, though they may be bad at what they do, may get lucky." He paused.

"I don't count on lucky. That's why I attacked the wall as I did. You're right; I could've killed you. The option stands, if you're unhappy with the way things have turned out... If anything, consider yourself lucky that things turned out as they did, and be grateful that you're here to complain about it."

His words hung in the air, the three genin staring vacantly past him.

"Um, about all that cake..."

"Some cake actually sounds pretty good right now…"

"Uh-huh. Yeah, eating something might up our chance of survival at least a little bit. Count me in."

Zabuza thought for a moment. Chances are, if they had been bandit captives, they'd probably not have been eating well. And there's so much cake... Realistically, Zabuza would not eat all of that. Gesturing to the cake, he spoke.

"Oh, that? Have at it."

Stepping aside for the inevitable rush, he threw in an afterthought.

"Leave the lemon meringue pies, though."


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

And so they ate, conversing as they went. The sad tale of the three genin and their bandit foes was told, and Zabuza felt empathy for their cause. It was without hesitation that, when mention of the remaining bandits occurred, Zabuza agreed to help kill them. These kids had potential, given time, and it would only be with his help that they would be able to off the bandits. This was his land, and these bandits didn't even pay tribute.

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