"Since that was the case—"
Zabuza began forming hand seals.
"Wait, that seal is... the Water Dragon Bullet Technique?!"
Kakashi was preparing to step in.
But at that moment, an ice spike suddenly formed out of thin air.
"Secret Technique: Thousand Killing Water Flight."
"Damn it! Does he have a companion too?"
The incoming ice needles forced Kakashi to defend himself.
"Hm? They weren't aimed at any vital points?!"
Strange.
Kakashi could tell at a glance that although the ice needles were attacks, they were merely meant to restrain him. This sudden attacker had no intent to kill.
A masked boy appeared before Kakashi.
Kakashi could handle him, but he could no longer stop Zabuza.
And Zabuza's goal was clear: defeat Sparkle while the other person held Kakashi back.
"Stop Zabuza! That's the Water Dragon Bullet Technique!" Kakashi activated his Sharingan.
Now, it was a contest of speed.
Meanwhile, Sparkle charged forward almost immediately.
Her entire body turned into raging flames.
Mai Shiranui's ultimate move, Chō Hissatsu Shinobi Bachi.
Oh, in this world, it should be called Fire Release: Chō Hissatsu Shinobi Bachi.
"Fell for it!" Zabuza stopped forming seals.
He was not that foolish.
The Water Dragon Bullet was indeed powerful, but it also consumed a great deal of his energy.
He had begun forming the forty-four seals for that absurdly long ninjutsu only to force his opponent to come interrupt him.
"You fell for it, brat!"
Sparkle slammed into Zabuza, but Zabuza turned into a stream of water. It was the Water Clone Technique.
Zabuza himself appeared behind Sparkle.
But Sparkle did not panic. The steel cables extending from her body nailed themselves into the ground, forcibly pulling back Sparkle's still-forward momentum. She spun around and swept her leg at Zabuza.
"Dance of the Crimson Crane!"
When Zabuza blocked her, Sparkle braced herself against the ground and kicked upward with her other leg, aiming for Zabuza's head.
"Smack!"
Zabuza actually caught Sparkle's foot with one hand.
She was just a twelve-year-old brat. Once her body was restrained, then—
"—?!"
The immense force directly numbed Zabuza's hand.
"This brat is that strong?!"
[LOL, he really fell for it.]
[Wifey's move is so prpr.]
[I want to see doujins of my wife right now. Immediately. This instant.]
[Lady Sparkle, kick me! Kick me!]
The netizens were still losing their minds.
By then, Sparkle had already adjusted her posture.
She had discovered the best use for this "ODM Gear."
It was not for three-dimensional movement, but to use the pull of its wires and cables to correct her posture anytime and anywhere during battle, allowing her to face the enemy in the best possible stance.
Like someone who could never be taken down by a sliding tackle. Maintaining balance in one's posture sometimes meant standing on invincible ground.
"I was careless!" Zabuza, for example, was currently off balance.
Sparkle took the opportunity to close in and struck with her palm.
"Her combat experience is still too shallow. I can use her force to adjust my posture."
Compared to fists and ninja tools, palms had laughably low killing power.
Zabuza decided to take the hit head-on.
Yet when that palm landed on Zabuza's body, it carried almost no force at all.
Zabuza: ???
Then attacks descended like a violent storm, striking his body.
This was Hanabi Hyuga's true signature technique.
—Gentle Fist Style: Eight Trigrams Sixty-Four Palms.
Author's Note:
A lot of niche works are actually quite interesting. Even Yona of the Dawn, MUV, and Arpeggio of Blue Steel are pretty good. And there are even older works like Five Star Stories—the Fatima setting is absolutely amazing.
But none of them are particularly suitable for appearing in anime series, television dramas, or films.
Burn Mist Hidden to Ashes!
Zabuza had actually made thorough preparations.
Since relying solely on himself was not enough, he had found someone else.
—White.
An orphan Zabuza had picked up, a genius boy with the Ice Release Kekkei Genkai.
He could not defeat Kakashi, but as long as he could buy Zabuza some time, that would be enough.
Whatever the original plan had been no longer mattered. Enraged and humiliated, Zabuza intended to teach these arrogant Konoha fools a lesson.
It had worked.
Kakashi was temporarily tied down because he had to protect Tazuna.
And all Zabuza had to do was use this time to deal with the annoying brat before him.
That was how it should have been.
That was how it was supposed to be.
"Chakra... I can't mobilize it..."
What was going on?
His body had been sealed shut.
"You... you...! You're from the Hyuga Clan!"
"Bang!"
Sparkle's final blow sent Zabuza flying into a tree.
After seeing that Zabuza had been defeated, White stopped entangling Kakashi and immediately went to Zabuza's side.
"A ninja's battle is a battle of intelligence." Kakashi also breathed a sigh of relief. "Even someone like Demon of the Hidden Mist, Momochi Zabuza, can be caught off guard when he lacks information."
"Sharingan Kakashi, and then the Byakugan..." Zabuza clutched his chest.
He was strong.
But no matter how strong a ninja was, it was difficult for him to retain much combat power once his Chakra had been sealed.
"What, what? What just happened?" Naruto was still completely out of the loop.
"Sparkle used the Gentle Fist to seal Zabuza's Chakra. Zabuza can no longer mobilize Chakra now." Kakashi explained, though he was actually shocked as well. "The Hyuga Clan's Gentle Fist needs the Byakugan to display its greatest power. Yet Sparkle managed to seal Zabuza's Chakra without the Byakugan. Just how much of a genius is she...?"
Sparkle merely smiled elegantly. "I'm sorry, but although I'm from the Hyuga Clan, I don't have the Byakugan."
—Actually, she did, but she could not reveal it yet.
"How is that possible? Without the Byakugan, how can you seal acupoints?" Zabuza did not believe her.
"As long as your perception is strong enough, even without the Byakugan, you can sense the flow of Chakra within an enemy's body, right? Is that so difficult?"
[Who says you can't stab someone to death without a spearhead?]
[Damn, so Sparkle's trump card was pressure-point sealing.]
[Sunflower Acupoint-Sealing Hand, ninja edition?]
[So the Byakugan is actually used to see through meridians?]
[Chakra has meridians too?]
[So Chakra is internal energy.]
[They're still different. Chakra can be drawn upon whenever needed; it's more like stamina.]
[That opening stance just now looked kind of like Wing Chun.]
[Stop calling everything Wing Chun just because you watched Ip Man. Every unarmed fight has to be called Wing Chun now. Aren't you people sick of it?]
[So my wife really is absurd. She can use an exclusive technique despite not having that Byakugan.]
[Isn't that easy? If I memorized all the meridians of the human body in the real world, I could seal acupoints too.]
[Why don't you just fly to heaven?]
The netizens continued arguing noisily.
As long as one could find the acupoints and use the Gentle Fist to seal and cut them off, it was possible.
For example, White in the original work could use senbon needles to find Zabuza's acupoints and make him feign death.
Of course, that "finding" was limited to theory.
It was like programming. In theory, if you understood machine code, you could write strings like 010101 directly instead of using things like "else," "if," or "or."
But only in theory.
Half of this was Sparkle playing up her genius persona, while the other half was foreshadowing.
"I'm very sorry, Zabuza. It was all my fault." White blamed herself.
"I was the one who got played by this brat."
Zabuza had temporarily lost his combat ability, so there was nothing he could do now.
The situation was rather grim.
"Do we have no choice but to retreat?" Zabuza pondered.
"Unfortunately, Zabuza, I'm afraid you won't be leaving so easily."
Kakashi walked over as well.
After White appeared, Kakashi had relaxed somewhat.
—Yes, Kakashi had thought the person Sparkle wanted him to be wary of was White.
"Teacher Kakashi, this isn't the time to relax. Have you truly decided to keep them here?" Sparkle asked.
"Yeah, of course. If we let them escape now, it will be hard to say what happens next time. Your Gentle Fist can probably only catch him by surprise once. The second time, Zabuza will be on guard."
Zabuza was indeed strong, but he had never expected to encounter something like this. With preparation on one side and none on the other, his defeat had been inevitable.
Before you continue