Chapter 125

******

For the next three hours, Kenshin was on edge, and when a voice came into his mind, he jumped in surprise.

"Father, we have entered a radius of forty kilometers from home. Everyone is alive. Seven has a broken rib cage, have Hitomi-san prepare to receive him," Ichiro reported, making Kenshin breathe a sigh of relief. The worst predictions had not been confirmed, and the scenario had followed an almost ideal path.

"Seventh is injured. Chest fracture, be ready to attend to him," Kenshin said, turning to Hitomi who was sitting next to him.

- Is everyone alive? What about Twenty-Second? - Hitomi asked. And although she was mentally preparing herself for the worst, her maternal instinct did not allow her to ignore the fate of her beloved son.

"All are safe except for the Seventh," Kenshin replied, noting that Hitomi's main concern was her son's health, whereas for Kenshin, they were all his sons, and he would take the loss of each one very painfully. On the other hand, he saw this as a small plus, for the last thing he wanted was for all the wives to be in mourning if one of their sons did not return alive.

Kenshin decided not to voice his thoughts and headed with Hitomi to the medical room, which currently only had five beds. He had created this room two months ago, using the hospital of his world as a prototype. The hospital beds were very technologically advanced and comfortable, but he had not been able to create any electronic devices. The system did not allow him to create even the simplest medical alcohol and aspirin, not to mention more valuable drugs. But he intended to fix this in the future.

Literally twenty minutes later, both teams returned. Team Four, led by Fifteen, stumbled upon Team One and escorted them home. Hitomi immediately took charge of Seven and began the operation, driving everyone out of the infirmary.

Kenshin looked at Ichiro silently, and slightly raised an eyebrow, waiting for the report. Ichiro immediately understood everything, and began to tell.

- We, as usual, received a task at the outpost, and went on a mission to eliminate the missing-nin who was terrorizing peaceful villages. The task said that he was a Chunin-level shinobi, so we were not worried. But at the place of the supposed hideout of this criminal, we found Momochi Zabuza, who you warned us about.

- Zabuzu?! - Kenshin exclaimed, completely shocked. - Let me see for myself. - He said, and placed his right hand on his eldest son's head.

In a minute, he saw everything from the sudden attack of the "water dragon" to the injury of the Seventh, and the activation of the "Formation of Intimidation". He once again praised himself for his ingenuity, and was finally convinced that the exhausting week had not been in vain. During the creation of this formation, he poured a huge amount of Psi energy into the formation every day, and through experience, he was able to create a piece of his consciousness in this formation with difficulty. At this stage, the formation was primitive, and the piece of consciousness contained in it was only capable of primitive actions, and could only react to common actions that the enemy was likely to use.

- You are all great! Ichiro, your arm is injured, Twenty-Second, take a look at it. Everyone else, go and rest. Hitomi will take a look at you all tomorrow. - He ordered, and all the sons, having bowed to their father, went to their rooms.

- What happened? - Kasumi asked as she approached.

- Nothing serious, our little ones just ran into one of the Seven Swordsmen of the Mist. - Kenshin answered with a smile.

- WHAT?! - Kasumi exclaimed in shock, to which he only smiled and hugged her.

"You did well. Look how well Eighteen did." He said with a smile and showed her the entire battle against Zabuza.

- My God, he almost caught up with me in skill! Their learning abilities are simply incredible, and coupled with your ability to pass on knowledge, in half a year the kid grew into a strong Chunin. If the Nara clan found out about this, any of our kids would become the number one genius of their generation! - Kasumi declared joyfully. She was filled with pride for her sons, who did not give up after any failure, but trained even harder.

"I'm surprised myself at how quickly they're progressing. However, it's too early to rejoice. It's unknown how soon they'll reach Jonin rank. Ichiro is the closest to that rank, but even he could barely withstand a few blows from Zabuza, who isn't even an Elite Jonin..." Kenshin said with a sigh. And although things were going better than he could have imagined a year ago, it was too early to celebrate.

- Zabuza asked for half a million... Will you really pay? - She asked, sitting on his lap, hugging him around the neck.

- Of course. Half a million for the lives of five is nothing. This situation will serve as excellent advertising for our family, and will create a reputation as a rich organization, ready to honestly pay for the lives of its members. - He answered with a smile, and stroked the tender back of the beautiful girl.

- Aren't you afraid that next time the price will rise to a million for each? And what if there is a bastard who decides to start hunting our children for profit?

- A million per person is still a good price. And as for all sorts of bastards, any of our teams can neutralize a weak Jonin, and there aren't that many strong ones in the world, not to mention those who are ready to risk going to the land of fire, and from a hunter turn into a victim of an Elite Jonin of Konoha.

"Aren't you afraid that Konoha will notice our family? A strong organization with several Chunin at its disposal will certainly attract attention..." Kasumi whispered.

- Ichiro already said that they tried to follow them several times. Most likely, they intended to find out where our shelter was. But since they did not take active actions, my formations threw them off the trail without any problems. I think they will take us seriously soon, and this is already a problem. We are still too weak to declare our independence... - Kenshin said with a sigh, and again caressed the incredible body of his affectionate wife.

- What do you plan to do? - Kasumi asked with interest. Over a long time, she and Kenshin had developed an excellent alliance. Her intellect greatly helped him in solving many problems. She could approach the problem from a different angle, and was an excellent opponent.

- In a good way, we urgently need to take the shelter outside and build a defensive perimeter around it. My knowledge of formations will allow us to stop and destroy any number of Chunin, and even ten Jonin will drown in blood when storming the base. However, all this takes time... - He said, and looked expectantly at Kasumi.

"Natsumi and I can help you with simple formations, and things will go a little faster. How long will it take us to move?"

- According to my rough estimates, the move and basic fortification of the perimeter will take a week, and another month will be spent on thorough fortification. I'm not sure about that month. If our shelter is discovered and they send very insolent shinobi who will have to be driven out by force - then in their place, an elite squad may come within a few days, and then we will all be slaughtered...

- As far as I know, bureaucracy is a huge problem for Konoha. Shikaku often cursed the high council for the fact that while they shake out old bones and issue the appropriate order, the situation will change, and this order will lose relevance. In theory, Hiruzen or Danzo can put pressure and issue an instant order, but our organization has an extremely positive reputation, which means we cannot be simply destroyed, even Danzo will not dare to lose influence points just like that because of an unknown mercenary organization. If he knew what kind of fate you are planning for him... However, he does not know. - Kasumi said with a smile, and purred from the feeling of being involved in something great.

- I don't have any plans yet. We ourselves need to survive and get stronger, and you're talking about eliminating Kage-level shinobi... If we hold out for the next three months, even Konoha will be forced to pay a serious price for eliminating us. That's why Zabuza decided to crawl out now? God forbid he blabbed about the Nara and Hyuga clan members in our family, then Konoha will dig more actively... - He sighed and rubbed his tired temples.