Chapter 48 - 48. The CLUE

"Can you... Can you give me a small loan of a million Ryo?"

"WHAT?!" Shiroken dumbly exclaimed. He was expecting something emotional, not this. ​​

Zabuza awkwardly replied, "To end the contract I need to return the money."

"Oh, so that's what you decided? Sure, how much do you need?" Shiroken asked him.

"1 million Ryo(about $100k)," Zabuza said.

"Hmm, well I don't have that much cash, but I got gold. Here, take this brick. It should be worth that much." Shiroken handed Zabuza a few kilograms of heavy gold brick.

*Bam*

Zabuza threw it at Gato's face, injuring him. Gato for the first time felt Money being painful. He cried, "No, you can't do that. I paid you to protect me. If you do this... Nobody will ever hire you."

Zabuza uninterestedly replied, "I don't care. I'm retiring from this mercenary life. And now I will redeem."

*SLASH*

Gato got both his arms chopped, just like what he did to Kaiza.

"Aaaaaaa... P-Please... Spare me... I-I won't do it again." Gato pleaded on the ground.

Zabuza looked at Shiroken to see if he had any plans of stopping. But Shiroken only nodded at him.

"No," Zabuza muttered and swung his sword. Another head rolled on the ground. With that Gato's head became a football.

Shiroken made some hand signs and immediately a ditch appeared on the ground. Then he used the wind element to push all the bodies into the ditch, soon filling it back as if nothing had happened there.

"Um... Lord Daimyo, can I be released?" Kaiza requested.

Shiroken nodded, jumping down from the cross and untying the man. Thankfully he was not nailed, but his arms were cut, and for some reason, Gato had tied them there too. Shiroken had fixed him long ago.

The people threw their weapons or whatever they held away. A boy ran to Kaiza and hugged him.

The people surrounded Shiroken and started to thank him.

"Everyone. Do not thank me, instead curse yourself. If I hadn't come this man would have died, the boy would have lost his father and his mother would have become a widow.

"Remember, the only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing." He scolded them.

"We... We were scared, and we had never faced anything like that. Forgive us... Lord Daimyo." Some people said.

Shiroken nodded, ~Good, they do see me as their Daimyo. Did they even know the country didn't have one?~

"Let's rebuild this country then. Gato has done too much damage, but that's limited to your ability to trade. Now that nobody can block your trading routes you can be rich again. Not just this, we shall make a bridge that connects the wave country to fire country, so you don't have to just rely on sea routes, because it's possible one day a storm would break out and stop your trade." He announced.

He turned to Zabuza, "You have done well, but you still need to repent, and what better way than doing something good for the people. You will stay here, representing me and protecting as well as helping people here."

"Me? But I am not a manager, I only know how to fight." Zabuza tried to reject.

But Shiroken didn't agree, "You are a certified Jonin, all Jonin get some administrating training. And you don't need to do too much work, keep the village safe and oversee its development. That's all."

Haku happily jumped, "Zabuza will become a big boss now?"

The village people also appreciated it. If a real Shinobi, a powerful one at that, stays in the village then no one will come to find trouble with them. The country of waves was already very small, smaller than many large shinobi villages, so it was easy for the villagers to manage the country.

Shiroken sometimes wondered why no nearby country just took over this small country, like he was now.

"Good, go back to your homes, take a bath, change your clothes and come back. I will divide you all into teams that will be responsible for various projects important for the development of the village." Shiroken sent them away.

"Let's go, we should find a place to stay too. We will live here for a week, let's not forget our main motive is to find Utakata. Shisui, you go around and ask people if they have seen Utakata, you too Zabuza. I will look around the whole country at the same time." He ordered them.

"Haku, you will have to stay here with someone. Umm... with them."

He signalled for the man he saved and his son to come to him. They were still hugging each other and their family, which included an old man and a woman, probably the wife of Kaiza.

They immediately agreed when Shiroken asked them, "Of course, Haku can stay with us for as long as he wants. My son Inari could use a big brother as a friend."

"Thank you, we will go now. I will return soon, Haku, then we will eat tasty dumplings." Shiroken patted Haku and left like a gust of wind.

...

A Forest in the Country of Waves,

Utakata had been on the run. Not from Kirigakure, but someone else, someone who had been following him since the moment he stepped outside his village.

There were 4 people in total, all wearing some kind of black cloaks with red clouds, a red interior, and a chin-high collar. All of them had orange hair of various styles, only one was bald. But each of them had some kind of black rods and spikes protruding out of their bodies.

Utakata was continuously on the run because he had tried to beat them once and had failed. He had no idea why they were after him but the only thing special about him was the tailed beast inside him, so he reckoned that must be the reason.

For some reason, the four men had to speed up their chase now, making him more careful. He had not slept in days and had been continuously running, so now he was already on edge.

"WHY ARE YOU AFTER ME?" He shouted at them.

But they didn't reply, instead, they started to surround him. The one who seemed to be the leader of the group jumped right in front of Utakata and raised his arm.

"You are just one piece in the bigger puzzle. Banshō Ten'in! (Universal Pull)" the man uttered some words and all of a sudden Utakata found himself unable to control his body.

*WOOSH*

His body started to get pulled towards the man. The speed kept on increasing and soon he found his neck in the man's grasp. Utakata tried to use a variety of his attacks but another man would just absorb all his attacks.

"What are your motives? Why are you after me?" He asked them desperately as his tailed beast chakra slowly started to cover him.

"PEACE!" All of the 4 assailants said at the same time.

"Shinra Tensei!(Almighty Push)"

*BOOM*

Utakata's body was thrown away at great speeds, he broke through countless trees and finally collided with a mountain with a loud boom. For any normal person, this was enough to turn bones into a paste.

However, a second later, an ear-shattering demonic scream resounded in the jungle.

"AAAAAAA!"

"This is what we were waiting for. Let's go." The 4 attackers rushed to the mountain.

And as expected, the tailed beast had taken control of the body of Utakata, now 6 tails showed clearly and the red-ish body of the humanoid beast was clear.

They surrounded the tailed beast from all sides. Then one of them, the one who did not have hair moved. In an instant, lots of projectiles came out of his joints and blasted on the tailed beast.

"AAAA..." The beast rushed to it at unpredicted speed. The man immediately got clawed down.

*BOOM*

But when the man was on the ground under the beast's claws, he opened his mouth wide and once again a big projectile hit the beast in the face, pushing it back.

Seeing an opportunity, the other two also moved. One summoned up giant weird creatures and one went for physical attacks.

A large battle ensued, flattening the jungle like it was a game for them. The tailed beast was strong, and two of the men were heavily beaten to the point where they were not as strong as before.

"AAAAAA!" A black ball rose over the tailed beast's mouth, aimed at the man caught in its claws.

*BOOM*

The whole body of the man turned into ashes and disappeared in an instant. The remaining three men became alert and started intensifying their approach.

...

Shiroken was looking for Utakata around the country. He was not even certain that Utakata was still here because the village was going through troubles and staying at this village at that time would not have been a very good move.

"AAAAAA...!"

Just then he heard a loud scream from much deeper into the jungle.

"SAIKEN?!" Shiroken exclaimed happily. Finally, he knew he was on the right track. Wasting no time, he ran in the sound's direction as fast as he could.

Shisui and Zabuza did the same because the scream was heard around the whole country of waves.

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STONES ARE A BLESSING!

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Special thanks to *Douglas Flower* *Umar Latif* *Julian Rocamora* *Darrien Steely* *Franklin Walley*

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