There Had Only Ever Been One Choice!

Zabuza's eyes sharpened, and he flipped over—

Crack!

The crisp sound came from within his body. His freshly healed severed arm instantly split open, and Neji slapped him back onto the hospital bed, leaving him lying ramrod straight.

Haku beside him wanted to get up, but lacked the strength. Her injuries were far worse than Zabuza's. With the penetrating wound in her chest, she could not exert any strength at all.

This left Neji slightly displeased. "Being vigilant is good, but acting recklessly without gathering information is not a quality a ninja should have."

"Zabuza, I'm starting to question whether you were worth saving."

Cold sweat covered Zabuza's forehead. The pain of his fractured arm, combined with Neji's palm strike, left his entire body aching and powerless.

"Who are you?"

Zabuza calmed down. He had initially thought they were Mist ninja pursuit forces, but that no longer seemed possible. Then who had he seen in his final moment?

And that palm strike from earlier had felt somewhat familiar!

"Hmm! Looks like you've calmed down." Neji nodded slightly. Such a reaction was perfectly normal.

His brain probably had not suffered any damage. Haku beside him was quite calm as well. She probably put Zabuza first and let him make the decisions.

Although Zabuza had been a buy-one-get-one deal for Neji, once he got Zabuza, Haku was effectively another buy-one-get-one deal. What an interesting relationship.

Haku slowly spoke from beside him. "Are you Lord Zabuza?"

Neji was briefly stunned before understanding dawned on him. He looked at the two with a faintly amused smile. They would have to get used to this change.

"Of course I'm Zabuza. What is there to ques—" Zabuza said irritably, then suddenly realized what she meant. His voice cut off as he fell into deep self-doubt.

"But... you're a woman!"

That question from the depths of the soul, along with that finishing blow, immediately made Zabuza's body stiffen.

Neji chuckled. "Let me explain that!"

"You two were saved by me, and then you became women. Completely and naturally became women. It isn't the result of some surgery. You could say I gave you a whole new face."

"Izumi!"

Izumi placed a large mirror in front of them. Their reflections slowly rose within it.

Delicate, beautiful faces appeared in the mirror, every frown and smile clear to see. But the moment Zabuza realized the person in the mirror was himself, his mood was no longer quite so beautiful.

Haku, on the other hand, did not seem to care. Her expression barely changed; her features had simply become even more exquisite and refined.

Haku gently touched her chest, her gaze falling on Zabuza. This made Zabuza somewhat annoyed.

"What are you looking at?!"

The hot-tempered old man had become a hot-tempered old woman, snapping at people online. Haku, however, became somewhat certain. Although this was different from the usually calm Lord Zabuza, many of his subtle habits still could not escape her eyes.

Zabuza gave a soft snort and stirred the Chakra within his body, but nothing changed. He lightly bit his lower lip.

"Don't waste your effort. This isn't Genjutsu." Neji sensed Zabuza's movements and naturally understood what he was thinking.

"I'll give you a few minutes to ask questions. I can answer them. Whether you believe me is up to you."

Neji acted just as he had when he saved Izumi. There was no need to conceal many things.

"Who are you?"

Zabuza's gaze narrowed. If they could save Haku, who had basically been declared dead, they were certainly not ordinary.

Saving him could still be explained, but considering Haku's injuries and how long she had been dead, even Princess Tsunade, one of the legendary Three Ninja, might have been unable to bring her back!

"As for who we are, since you have yet to join us, you may call me Nian and her Izumi for now."

Neji answered simply, leaving Zabuza lost in thought. More than once, he had received the same message: join them!

They had saved them for their value, and they wanted them to join afterward.

This information put Zabuza somewhat at ease. At least now that he knew their purpose, he had some idea of where he stood.

"So you saved us because you want me to join you?"

"Yes, that's right."

"Why do you want us to join?"

"We're short-handed!"

The corner of Zabuza's mouth twitched. Wasn't that obvious? Naturally, people recruited others because they lacked manpower.

Still, given his current circumstances...

He sighed inwardly. Perhaps finding an organization would mean Haku no longer had to suffer so much by following him.

Only at the moment of death had he truly understood that he had once possessed something precious yet failed to cherish it. Now, they had given him another chance.

"What is your goal?"

"To live!"

Zabuza was stunned again. To live... was it merely to live?

He did not sense any lie. Instead, when those words came from Nian's mouth, they carried immense weight.

"Only to live?"

"After all, only by living can one speak of anything else!"

Neji spoke in a deep voice. In his previous life in the Pirate World, he had indeed thought of many things, many things he wanted to do...

But once a person died, everything was gone.

If he had the chance, he would very much like to return and kill his way back. But was that even possible?

He was not sure. Perhaps the system could make it possible!

Zabuza looked at Neji and said seriously, "I understand. I once had ambitions too, but I ultimately failed and barely clung to life!"

"But my inner pride kept me from bowing to anyone. Only now do I realize how ridiculous that way of thinking was."

It sounded like a self-mocking confession. He was not afraid that the other party would laugh at him. He had died once already, after all.

He had wanted to overthrow the Fourth Mizukage's rule over the Bloody Mist Village, but ultimately failed, becoming a rogue ninja drifting from place to place.

It was laughable. He had merely wanted to earn some money, yet had ended up dying for it. How tragic.

And the other side surely understood all this intelligence completely. Otherwise, they would not have dared to save and recruit them.

If they did not join them, they would probably still end up dead. From the very beginning until now, they had only ever had this one choice.

"Lord Zabuza!"

Haku looked at Zabuza worriedly and whispered softly. Zabuza looked toward her and slowly said,

"Haku, you have no objections, do you?"

"I am your tool, my lord. I will obey all your orders."

Zabuza let out a snort. A tool?

"From today onward, you are no longer a tool."

"But..."

"No buts. You won't be a tool from now on. If you have no objections, join them with me."

"Mm!"

Neji was somewhat surprised that Zabuza agreed so quickly. It seemed that dying once had made him see things much more clearly.

"Fine. From today onward, you are members of us. Your codenames will be Zan and Haku!"

Neji took out two eyeless masks with strange patterns from his inventory. They were the nth-generation version of the helmet he had once used to experiment on Izumi.

They provided vision, communication, projection, night vision, and other functions, though they had not yet been perfected.

There was a blank space in the middle. Neji directly engraved Zan and Haku onto them before tossing the masks over.

"These are the identifying items of our organization. Inject Chakra into them yourselves to learn their functions. We'll talk about the rest later; there's no need to explain for now."

"Get used to things first. Once you've recovered enough mobility, we can have a proper discussion."

Neji left with Izumi. There was still much to finish at the base, and he had no time to chat idly with them. Besides, they could not help with the work.

I recommend an old movie called "To Live," or perhaps the remake with a similar title, "Fugui." You can check it out. There should only be one chapter today. If possible, I might finish another before midnight, but don't wait for it.