Blood is Thicker Than Mist

Chapter 2

However, Zabuza's smirk twisted into a scowl as he thought. If he went to the rendezvous as he was, infant-in-tow, his teammates would ask questions . They would demand him to leave it behind or outright kill it, as it would slow them down and serve no purpose. It would be simple to convince them to allow the child to return with them- if only he divulged the child's true identity, They would be all too eager to bring the infant back as a trophy, laying claim to part of the bounty with the insistence that they had all taken out the Flash as a unit and stole his child away. But, Zabuza had no intentions of splitting his bounty money- though he hadn't been the one to kill the Flash, either- or handing over the child. The Mizukage would be pleased to have the child to strengthen Kirigakure, to further secure his own reign, and that in and of itself was something that the teen could not allow to happen.

No. He needed this child for himself. Without this child, his plans would fall through and he would not have sufficient power when he made his move. Zabuza looked down at the child, realizing he'd gone quiet, and found him sucking on his own small hand. His brow furrowed and he let out a breath.

Now decided, he continued toward the village quietly and quickly as the child occupied himself, and found himself at the outskirts of a small farming community. There were no more than ten buildings in this 'town,' with one of them clearly dedicated as a shrine to their local god and another as a warehouse to store their goods. Zabuza cared for nothing there and would have continued on his way if he were alone, but he had remembered something important. Something that would greatly change things.

Most of the 'town's' people were occupied working in their fields, harvesting before the autumn shifted to winter. Good. They were good and focused, which meant that they would be even less likely to notice his presence. He stayed hidden in the outskirts, following the shadow cast by the thick forest, until he spotted what he had hoped to see– animal sheds. After glancing in each one, he chuckled and slipped inside one.

It was a small space, though he could get inside easily. The mother goat inside was not pleased to see him, but a quick press to a particular cluster of nerves on her neck and she was unconscious. Her twin kids were confused when their mother went limp in the hay, but Zabuza moved them aside to place the infant at her utter in their place. If living in the lowest caste of Kirigakure had taught him even just one thing about caring for a baby, it was that mothers without milk or fathers of newborns whose wives had died in childbirth commonly used goats' milk to feed their children. It was seen as primitive in this age, but as a child, he had seen it save many a starving, motherless baby's life.

The hungry baby awoke at the smell of milk, and, after a moment of rustling his head around, eventually latched onto the teet and began to drink contentedly.

"There. Finally quiet, you little brat?"

Zabuza leaned against the shed's side, searched through his pouch, and ate a ration pill. He kept careful watch through the shed door and listened around them, in the event any villager happened to come near. His expression twitched into a frown as the confused kids sniffed at the infant suckling their mother, but Zabuza was quick to prop his foot beside the child when the animals tried to push the baby out of their way. One low growl and the two small animals backed away to hide in the shed's back corner.

"Heh. Skittish." Zabuza chuckled quietly. He liked it best when both creatures and people knew their place and recognized whether or not they were predator or prey. He tapped his finger on his leg as the minutes passed, then exhaled and shot a look at the infant. "Are you finished yet, brat?"

The child, though, had fallen asleep while suckling, and a stream of milk dripped from the corner of his partially opened mouth. Zabuza watched the infant's chest rise and fall for some time, noticing the subtle twitching of his small expressions in slumber, and then looked away from the child. He reached a hand out to pick the child up so that they could leave, to take advantage of his sleeping, though Zabuza drew his hand back again. Perhaps... they could afford to stay a few moments longer.