But if Zabuza went all out... Kakashi felt that Sparkle might not be able to handle him.
So if they let Zabuza escape, they would probably face a serious problem next time.
"I won't hand Lord Zabuza over to you!"
White stepped forward.
Even knowing she was no match for them, even knowing there was no way to escape now, she stood her ground.
"Be careful. That youth has the Ice Style Kekkei Genkai," Kakashi reminded Sparkle.
"..." Yet Sparkle fell silent at that moment.
"Sparkle?" Kakashi found this rather strange.
What was going on?
Hadn't all the enemies already shown themselves? Why did Sparkle still look so strange?
"...It's here. That presence... it's here."
Sparkle seemed to have been on guard against something all along, and now, that presence had arrived.
"—Here? What's here?"
Kakashi opened his Sharingan again, but his eyes were filled with confusion.
"Could something else have happened?" Sasuke also found Sparkle's behavior baffling. He had seen Kakashi's Sharingan and had wanted to ask him about it.
"Why is everyone making such a fuss?" Naruto put on the air of a little adult. But at that moment, he suddenly shuddered.
"Uwaaaah."
It felt as though something dark had crawled across his spine, making goosebumps rise all over Naruto's body.
"Naruto?!"—Could the Nine-Tails be losing control?
No.
That wasn't it.
At that moment, Kakashi sensed something as well.
"What is this? This utterly evil Chakra?!"
Some kind of power was approaching.
Closer and closer.
"Fire Style."
Sparkle formed a hand seal, and flames began to ignite beneath her feet.
"Huh?!"
When Kakashi looked down, he saw that the ground had somehow frozen over.
The river had frozen.
Even the mist in the air had frozen.
"Ice Style: Ancient Mirror Reflecting Divinity."
An ominous voice rang out.
Kakashi could no longer spare any attention for Zabuza and White. He immediately retreated several steps and rushed to Naruto and Sasuke's side.
"Earth Style: Earth Flow Wall!"
A wall of earth rose from the ground.
Almost immediately afterward, a violent blizzard swept in. A massive storm, as though it wanted to freeze everything, crashed against the Earth Flow Wall with incomparably frigid ice.
In that instant, the earthen wall seemed to turn into a wall of ice.
"Get down—!!!"
Even Kakashi's earth wall could not hold. All he could do was tell Naruto and Sasuke to get down.
The next moment, the ice and snow destroyed the Earth Flow Wall and crashed down with a thunderous roar. In an instant, the season that had been on the verge of spring seemed to become the depths of winter.
Someone emerged from the ice and snow.
Kakashi froze.
He did not move at all.
It was a woman.
A woman who seemed to have blue-white hair.
She simply walked past him.
Kakashi could not move, because an indescribably violent and ferocious killing intent surged from her body. Naturally, this was Jingliu's aura, not something Kakashi could contend with.
As though sensing something, Naruto raised his head.
Someone was approaching him.
They were—crimson red eyes.
"Nine-Tails Demon Fox... so it's a child... I never expected to come here."
The other party spoke.
She seemed to be a woman.
But why was she clutching her chest the whole time? She looked to be in great pain.
"Explode."
A voice came from Sparkle.
Almost the next instant, the doll Sparkle had placed on the ground burst apart. The enormous shockwave even dispersed the blizzard in moments.
"Fire Style."
A sphere of flame appeared in Sparkle's hand, growing larger and larger.
"Flame Heaven."
Sparkle threw out the fireball, and it exploded in midair. This was one application of a Fire Style variation of the Rasengan.
Only then did Kakashi finally break free from the state of being suppressed by killing intent.
"Lightning Blade—!"
Kakashi charged forward, and a Lightning Blade pierced through the figure. However, the figure turned into ice crystals.
"An Ice Clone...? Damn it!"
Kakashi turned around.
A cloaked figure, seemingly female, had already arrived beside Zabuza and White. She even had the leisure to pick up the Kubikiribōchō.
The massive blizzard had merely been a feint.
A first-meeting kill.
Kakashi immediately realized that although the other party's presence was terrifying, she was not actually that powerful. The person engulfed by that killing intent was the woman herself; she had merely shared a small portion of her pain...
Like Zabuza, he had fallen victim to a first-meeting kill!
"Don't pursue them, Sparkle."
After the other party left, Kakashi could only give that order.
Another enemy had appeared, and this person was probably on the same level as Zabuza.
They could handle her, but it was still dangerous.
"Yes, Teacher Kakashi."
Sparkle spun around, changed back into her kimono, and returned to the others.
Of course she couldn't pursue them. If she did, wouldn't her current Shadow Clone Jutsu... be exposed?
Meanwhile, Zabuza and White had also been taken to a safe place by the mysterious woman.
"Thank you very much for your help." White was a good child and immediately bowed to thank her.
"You, who are you? What do you want?" Zabuza did not let down his guard.
Ice Style.
That meant she was from the Snow clan, very likely one of White's "kin."
But her intentions were unclear, and that did not mean she was a good person.
"Ah." The woman removed her hood, revealing ice-blue hair and crimson eyes.
But the viewers did not know that, because the camera immediately moved downward and even concealed the next line of dialogue, leaving the audience unaware.
"You may call me... Kushina Yukiei."
Kushina was pronounced exactly the same as the "Kushina" in Kushina Uzumaki.
Only then did the audience hear Kushina Yukiei's final line once more.
"As for my purpose... I will burn Kirigakure to ashes."
Author's Note:
Here's a big chapter~
It goes premium tomorrow, and there are already 1,425 blades, Orz.
There are also 10 chapters left on the click rankings.
Thankfully there isn't a bounty roast ranking. I'm still hanging on the roast ranking, damn it. Otherwise, the debt would kill me, QAQ.
It goes premium tomorrow. The bounty ends at midnight, and there'll be another bounty on the 25th with double rewards~ I'll post the group number after it goes premium, desu.
Lastly, thank you all for the donations.
A Brand-New Character, a Brand-New Story, Lovingly Produced by Director Sparkle
The three of Zabuza's group had already left. Team 7's first attack after arriving in the Land of Waves had finally come to an end.
But their expressions were far from relaxed.
"That woman noticed the Nine-Tails..."
Kakashi covered his eye patch and glanced toward Naruto, who still had not recovered.
Tazuna was also sitting on the ground nearby. He had not recovered at all from the clash between monsters just now.
And it was not only Tazuna who had yet to recover.
The viewers in front of their screens had also been stunned by what they had just seen.
From their perspective, the woman who had suddenly appeared had not only saved Zabuza's group, but before the video ended, it had also shown the conversation between Zabuza, White, and her.
Let's burn Konoha to ashes!
Let's burn the pirates to ashes!
Let's burn the Shinigami to ashes!
Because of that final line, quite a few viewers began making memes.
But even more people were still shocked by the scene.
Sparkle's plot design was very "reasonable."
First, through the conversation with Zabuza, she introduced the story of the bloody, heartless Kirigakure.
Then, she "suppressed" Zabuza's shining moment.
In Sparkle's plot design, Zabuza was no longer in the position of the primary villain, so naturally she could not let him steal the spotlight.
Finally, she had the "real" "villain" appear at the end to save them, then reveal her purpose through her conversation with Zabuza.
And having the so-called Ice Clone look toward Naruto was also a piece of foreshadowing designed by Sparkle.
Before you continue