Raiga Kurosuki was a missing-nin from Kirigakure and had long been hunted by the village.
The only reason he had managed to live relatively peacefully was that no one knew where he was hiding.
Otherwise, he would have been forced to spend his days constantly on the run, just like Zabuza.
Zabuza himself had only learned Raiga’s location by chance.
Between a sincere offer of cooperation, the promise to split the enormous bounty, and a not-so-subtle threat involving the fact that Zabuza knew where he was hiding, Raiga finally agreed to help.
Zabuza immediately felt more confident about completing the mission.
The moment he thought about the reward waiting for him, his blood began to heat up.
Even Raiga’s irritated expression suddenly became much easier to tolerate.
Then— A mission panel appeared.
New Mission Triggered: Kill Raiga — A-rank Mission Description: Your battle with Kakashi is part of fate’s course.
Raiga’s appearance has created an unexpected variable.
You have two choices: Choice 1: Kill Raiga and follow fate’s original course.
Reward: A-rank technique — Ninja Art: Lightning Armor, Raiga Kurosuki’s signature technique.
Choice 2: Cooperate with Raiga to complete Assassinate Tazuna.
If you choose this option, the mission rank of Assassinate Tazuna will be reduced to B-rank.
Make your choice within ten seconds.
Zabuza’s face instantly darkened.
Are you kidding me?!
He had only just gone through all the trouble of recruiting Raiga.
And now the system wanted him to kill the man?
If he refused, his original mission would be downgraded.
Zabuza suddenly felt personally targeted.
Haku had received the same choice.
The two looked at each other.
“Choose the first option.” The countdown was nearly over.
Zabuza gritted his teeth and made his decision.
Haku silently looked at him.
For some reason, the image he had of Zabuza in his heart seemed to crack slightly.
“Attack!” Zabuza gave Haku a look and moved immediately.
From their brief interaction earlier, they had already learned that the boy carried on Raiga’s back was far from ordinary.
Ranmaru possessed an unusually sharp ability to sense danger.
Zabuza suspected that the instant he made his decision, some trace of killing intent had already leaked out.
There was no point hesitating now.
“Watch out!” At almost the same moment, Ranmaru urgently warned Raiga.
Boom!
The two massive blades collided.
Raiga and Zabuza locked weapons, glaring at one another.
“Zabuza!” Raiga’s face twisted in anger.
“What the hell is this supposed to mean?!” Zabuza opened his mouth.
Then stopped.
There was absolutely no reasonable way to explain this.
His frustration only grew.
“Haku!
Do it!” “Yes!” Haku immediately formed his technique.
“Ice Release: Demonic Mirroring Ice Crystals!” Inside the three-story building, Itsuki watched the projection in complete silence.
The mission had been triggered entirely by the system.
Even Itsuki had been stunned when he first saw it.
The system had refused to reward Zabuza for finding reinforcements.
Instead, the moment Zabuza finally found one, it told him to kill him.
That was downright cruel.
System…
that’s cold.
Itsuki shook his head.
Then, with a broad smile, he issued the mission anyway.
Now he sat watching Zabuza and Haku fight Raiga while offering some thoroughly hypocritical commentary.
“Zabuza’s still too inexperienced.” Itsuki sighed.
“You can’t rely on other people.
You have to rely on yourself.” He wasn’t remotely worried about either Zabuza or Haku.
In fact, Itsuki suspected that if Haku truly fought without restraint, he might have been capable of defeating Raiga by himself.
The result didn’t surprise him.
Zabuza and Haku won.
Raiga and Ranmaru died.
Itsuki looked at Zabuza’s gloomy expression on the projection and almost felt sorry for him.
The system really had bullied the man rather badly.
“System, distribute the rewards.” Itsuki leaned back on the sofa and crossed one leg over the other.
“Another two A-rank coins.” He began whistling cheerfully.
As far as he was concerned, the system was welcome to trigger more missions like this.
On the battlefield, Zabuza was indeed furious.
The entire detour had accomplished nothing except forcing him to kill the ally he had just recruited.
Then the mission panel appeared again.
Mission Complete: Kill Raiga Reward: A-rank technique — Ninja Art: Lightning Armor Claim reward?
Zabuza stared at it.
Then a strange thought occurred to him.
“Does this count as farming missions?” His expression gradually became thoughtful.
If Itsuki had heard that, he probably would have told him that this line of thinking was dangerous.
Maybe I can test it after we finish the current mission.
Zabuza rubbed his chin.
The idea seemed increasingly plausible.
Following the instructions that appeared in his mind, he silently chose: Claim reward.
A skill book appeared in his hand.
Zabuza glanced toward Haku, who was holding a similar book.
“Haku, what did you get?” Haku checked his reward.
“An A-rank technique.” “Ice Release: Ice Wall.” Then he added: “It originates from Gray’s Ice-Make Magic in the Fairy Tail world.” Zabuza’s eyes widened.
“An A-rank Ice Release technique?” His foul mood immediately improved.
The two activated their skill books.
The books dissolved into showers of light and merged into their bodies.
Zabuza quickly formed hand seals.
Crackle!
Lightning erupted across his entire body.
Electric arcs wrapped around him like armor.
Zabuza stared at himself in disbelief.
“This power…” He could feel the dramatic increase in his combat ability.
Then he looked toward Haku.
A massive wall of ice had risen before them.
It stretched for dozens of meters, forming a towering frozen barrier.
Zabuza sucked in a breath.
This barely looked like ninjutsu anymore.
What kind of Ice Release technique created something on this scale?
Haku himself looked equally stunned.
Zabuza stared at the enormous ice wall for several seconds.
Then a grin spread across his face.
“Haku.” “I don’t think we need to bother with assassination anymore.” “We can just crush them head-on.” At that moment, every trace of regret over killing Raiga vanished.
If anything, Zabuza’s thoughts had already begun drifting toward other possibilities.
Perhaps there were more people he could use to trigger missions like this.
Several days passed.
Itsuki continued spending most of his time in the virtual combat space, sharpening his fighting skills.
Meanwhile, in the Land of Waves, Team 7 escorted Tazuna to the bridge construction site every day.
The unfinished bridge remained busy.
Workers moved back and forth constantly, and construction continued at full speed.
It was almost as though Gatō had never sent anyone to assassinate Tazuna in the first place.
Every evening, Kakashi and the three Genin continued training.
They also experimented with different ways of triggering new missions.
Unfortunately, none of their attempts worked.
Until one day.
Team 7 escorted Tazuna to the bridge as usual.
But when they arrived, something was immediately wrong.
The workers who should have been there were gone.
The enormous bridge was completely deserted.
Then the mission panel appeared.
Mission Updated: Protect Tazuna …
Mission Rank Updated: A Completion Reward: One random A-rank reward.
CREATORS’ THOUGHTS Starlitmanga like it?