The Strength of an Elite Jonin

As a martial artist, sensing an enemy's movements did not rely solely on the eyes. Wind, breathing, sound, scent, killing intent—any number of things could reveal a person's location.

Even with his eyes closed, Li Chuan could still fight using his exceptional physique and extensive experience.

Zabuza's Silent Killing Technique was indeed formidable. He could move through dense fog without making the slightest sound, but he still could not escape Li Chuan's senses.

"Clang!"

Faced with this unexpected Zen Staff, Zabuza frowned and immediately redirected the kunai he had been thrusting at Tazuna, raising it to meet the heavy staff hurtling toward his chest.

"What tremendous force!"

The kunai collided with the Zen Staff, and his expression instantly changed. He hurriedly retreated to dissipate the force transmitted through the staff.

A Zen Staff was already a heavy weapon, and the one in Li Chuan's hands had been specially commissioned from Kino. It weighed twice as much as an ordinary Zen Staff.

Had Zabuza still been wielding the Executioner's Blade, he might have been able to clash with it. But with a kunai no bigger than a dagger, he naturally could not withstand it head-on.

On top of that, Li Chuan's physical strength as a martial artist was already extraordinary. Combined with Sage Art Chakra, which enhanced the body, and the specialized technique he used to exert force—

If Zabuza had not retreated swiftly enough with his wealth of experience when that Zen Staff struck, and had instead tried to endure it head-on, his wrist would likely have been broken by now.

Only then did Zabuza begin to take Li Chuan seriously.

In the world of ninja, intelligence was extremely important. Thus, any ninja with even a bit of skill would generally be listed in the ninja manuals of the major ninja villages.

That was why, even though Zabuza and Kakashi had met for the first time, they could immediately recognize each other and roughly understand one another's capabilities.

Likewise, if a ninja was not even mentioned in the ninja manuals, then they generally would not be particularly powerful. At least, in the eyes of an Elite Jonin like Zabuza, they were not worth paying much attention to.

What Zabuza did not know was that Li Chuan had still been the Prince of the Land of Fire eight months ago. After becoming a ninja, he had mostly remained at the Fire Temple. Aside from those at the Fire Temple, no one knew how strong Li Chuan truly was.

Even Chiriku did not actually know the extent of Li Chuan's true strength.

That was because Li Chuan had never displayed before Chiriku the ninja techniques from outside the Land of Fire that he had secretly learned. He had only practiced them privately.

Nor had he ever used the brutal and lethal techniques of a martial artist in any sparring match with Chiriku.

One always had to keep a few trump cards hidden. Otherwise, if others knew all your information, it was easy to be forced into a passive position in battle.

"An Elite Jonin indeed!"

Li Chuan turned to look at the retreating Zabuza and could not help letting out a sigh of admiration.

Just now, Zabuza had used the Silent Killing Technique to ambush Tazuna. Taking advantage of Zabuza underestimating him and focusing most of his attention on Kakashi, Li Chuan had turned and counterattacked. Was that not also an unexpected ambush?

Yet even so, Zabuza had still reacted in time and escaped the attack unharmed by retreating to bleed off its force.

"What incredible speed!"

Having just praised Zabuza's seasoned experience, Li Chuan then saw Kakashi seize the opening and appear behind the retreating Zabuza. Silently, he drove a kunai into Zabuza's waist.

"Squelch!"

Yet unexpectedly, the Zabuza whose waist had been pierced by the kunai instantly turned into a puddle of water and splashed onto the ground.

And behind Kakashi, another Zabuza appeared.

"Squelch!"

With the same sound, Kakashi also turned into a puddle of water, while a kunai appeared at Zabuza's throat.

"What exactly is going on?"

Even now, Naruto and the other two had not figured out what had happened.

From Zabuza ambushing Tazuna to Kakashi holding a kunai at Zabuza's throat, it looked as though a long time had passed. In reality, it had only taken one or two seconds.

"When I forced Zabuza back just now, he had already used the Water Clone Technique and hidden his real body in the dense fog.

"And when Zabuza used his clone technique, Kakashi copied his ninjutsu and likewise hid his real body in the fog.

"So what had been fighting just now were their water clones!"

Li Chuan explained with a somewhat solemn expression.

He had been able to see both men's movements clearly, but with his own level of mastery over ninjutsu, he could not yet instantaneously create a clone to replace his real body as they had.

To be honest, if an enemy with even slightly poorer eyesight encountered these two, they might have already been killed by their clones in the very first exchange.

"The little monk has sharp eyes, and Copy Ninja Kakashi lives up to his reputation. You saw through and copied my ninjutsu so quickly. But this ends now!"

A figure suddenly emerged from the dense fog and launched an attack toward Kakashi's back.

It turned out that the Zabuza whose neck Kakashi had pinned was still a water clone. The real Zabuza had been hiding in the fog the entire time and had never appeared.

Because of the Sharingan, most of Kakashi's Chakra was restricted, leaving him with very little Chakra available for use. And every use of the Shadow Clone Technique required splitting off half his Chakra.

Therefore, Kakashi was still very cautious about using Shadow Clones.

This differed from the Multiple Shadow Clone technique. Kakashi could create hundreds of those as well, but as he had said himself, they could only be used to bluff people.

Multiple Shadow Clone divided the Chakra in one's body evenly. Suppose Kakashi had one hundred units of Chakra. After creating one hundred clones, both the original body and each clone would have only one unit of Chakra. They might look impressive, but fighting would be out of the question.

But if he used Shadow Clone to create one clone, then the clone had fifty and the original had fifty, so their combat strength naturally would not be weak. Creating another would leave the clones with twenty-five each and the original with twenty-five, which was still manageable.

But if he continued splitting them further, it would weaken the original body's combat strength too much.

Thus, Multiple Shadow Clone was only suitable for people with massive amounts of Chakra, like Naruto. His Chakra reserves were so absurdly vast that even if he created dozens or hundreds of clones, each clone would still possess a considerable amount of Chakra.

Although Zabuza was, like Kakashi, an Elite Jonin, he did not have the burden of the Sharingan. The amount of Chakra in his body was that of a normal Elite Jonin, so creating several more Shadow Clones would not affect his strength too much.

At that moment, Li Chuan raised the Zen Staff in his hand, then lowered it again.

When Zabuza's main body remained still, the thick mist concealed him so thoroughly that Li Chuan could not detect him either. But when Zabuza charged at Kakashi, the faint airflow stirred by his body was enough for Li Chuan to pinpoint his position.

If he threw the Zen Staff in his hand now, he could naturally interrupt Zabuza's attack at once. But after thinking it over, he ultimately chose not to do so.

Because that would not fit the action plan he had laid out from the start.

Besides, with Kakashi's skills, there was no way Zabuza could kill him that easily.