Sasuke stared straight at Naruto, who stood in front of him.
Zabuza was enormous. Compared to him, Naruto looked pitifully small.
Yet now, Naruto was truly standing in front of Sasuke, facing the Kubikiribōchō.
And he was about to team up with Kakashi-sensei to deal Zabuza a devastating blow.
Was the difference between them really that great?
However, Naruto's expression remained serious, and Kakashi's was no different.
Pfft!
The great blade burst into a puddle of water and splashed to the ground. It had only been a Water Clone.
Right after that, a four-meter-tall shadow took shape in the mist behind Kakashi.
Whoosh!
The mist churned as the great blade came down, cleaving Kakashi in half.
The smug look in Zabuza's eyes lasted only a second, because the cleaved Kakashi also burst into a puddle of water.
A Kunai extended from behind Zabuza's neck and pressed against his throat.
"Don't move," Kakashi said coldly. "It's over."
"As expected of the Sharingan. You copied my jutsu and hid yourself from the start."
Zabuza shifted his gaze to Naruto. "You've got some skill, kid."
In Zabuza's plan, from the moment he made his move, only Kakashi could respond.
If it weren't for the kid, his first strike would have been his Water Clone clashing with Kakashi.
Both of them were Water Clones with only a tenth of their strength, so it would have been easy to tell who was stronger.
But Naruto had barged in and managed to block him. That had put Zabuza at a disadvantage in his contest with Kakashi.
"I'm not going to be taken out that easily!"
Kakashi thrust in the Kunai, and, just as expected, water splashed onto the ground.
That was how a contest between ninjas went: nothing but fakes and cunning.
But Zabuza had truly expended two-tenths of his Chakra, and he had lost the first round.
He would hide in the shadows and try again.
The mist had thinned considerably.
As soon as it did, Naruto's wild instincts drew his gaze to the lakeshore.
It was like the noise in a room full of racket suddenly quieting, allowing a deep, hoarse roar to ring out and pierce his ears.
Naruto raised his arm and pointed. "Over there."
Kakashi didn't move, but a few seconds later, the sound of metal clashing erupted from the lakeshore.
The mist shuddered and cleared, revealing two figures sprinting across the surface of the lake and fiercely attacking each other.
Strangely, their movements were perfectly synchronized, like two sides of a mirror.
Naruto watched the battle with keen interest.
Sasuke, however, couldn't focus on it at all. Every so often, he glanced sideways at Naruto.
At last, the two figures on the lake broke apart and came to a stop.
"I refuse to believe it!" Zabuza roared.
"I refuse to believe it!" Kakashi echoed.
The veins on Zabuza's forehead bulged as he rapidly formed Hand Seals. "Jū, Saru, U..."
"Jū, Saru..." Kakashi matched him perfectly. "Water Release: Water Dragon Bullet!"
The lake surged skyward around the two of them, swirling together into two massive water dragons more than thirty meters long.
"Roar!"
The dragons faced each other and crashed together with a deafening roar, from head to tail.
The impact sent leaves flying through the forest. A hundred-meter-high waterfall exploded from the lake, and the rumble pounded their eardrums.
The splashing water struck Naruto like pebbles. He kept his eyes wide open and swung his arms like windshield wipers to block it. "So this is ninjutsu?"
He couldn't quite understand it, but it was happening right in front of him.
This world operated according to some kind of principle: by forming specific seals that seemed to hold no power at all, one could control Chakra and unleash power that defied the laws of physics.
If he were to compare it to a computer, it was like entering code to create all kinds of wonders.
Naruto wasn't a rigid person. He had the chance to experience two different systems of power.
Filling in the gaps and combining their strengths was the right way forward.
Sasuke and Haruno Sakura had already retreated behind a tree with Tazuna.
Watching Naruto stand in the middle of the road, waving his arms like a madman, Sasuke felt lost.
He had always worked hard, and the pressure he put on himself was suffocating. But nothing in his past had ever broken the mold; he had always followed the rules.
For instance, Naruto was willing to get hurt just to watch the battle. If Sasuke hadn't seen it for himself and had only heard about it, he would have sneered at the stupidity and quoted the rules of being a ninja.
But witnessing it firsthand filled him with fervor. That fervor made the wound on his thigh burn and his heart pound.
On the left side of the lake, Zabuza couldn't believe it. Kakashi had copied an advanced jutsu that Zabuza had spent a year mastering.
But he had already begun the contest, and there was no turning back. His only chance to win was to use a more difficult jutsu that Kakashi couldn't copy.
He formed Hand Seals again and again, so quickly that they were a blur. Even Naruto couldn't keep track of them.
But Kakashi kept copying him—faster than Zabuza, even!
Before Zabuza had finished forming his seals, Kakashi had already called out, "Great Waterfall Technique!"
The lake began spinning rapidly around Kakashi, then rose like a natural-disaster-grade tornado, sweeping up nearly half the lake and crashing ferociously toward Zabuza, who braced himself behind his blade.
The earth was plowed open and split apart. One massive tree after another snapped in half or was uprooted entirely.
Zabuza's chest caved in, and he spat out a huge amount of blood. The Kubikiribōchō plunged into the earth, carving a long furrow before it finally stopped him.
Kakashi stood on a tree and threw shuriken, pinning Zabuza's limbs in place.
Zabuza stared at him in disarray. "Why? Could it be that you can predict the fut—"
Before he could finish, two steel needles shot from somewhere and crossed through his neck.
A strange figure landed abruptly on the branch opposite Kakashi. The figure wore a Haoori robe and a Mouthless white mask. It was impossible to tell their gender.
Kakashi jumped down and pressed two fingers against Zabuza's pulse. After confirming there was no heartbeat, he looked up at the strange figure.
The figure bowed. Their voice was equally impossible to place. "Thank you very much. I've been looking for a chance to kill Zabuza."
Kakashi studied the mask. "Are you a member of Kirigakure's hunter-nin?"
"That's right." The figure nodded, two thin braids swaying against their forehead. "Zabuza's body holds a secret of Kirigakure. We have to destroy it ourselves."
Kakashi understood. After all, if he died, the Sharingan would be exposed, and Konoha would do everything in its power to reclaim it.
Most importantly, he was almost out of strength.
He didn't have Uchiha Clan blood, and using the Sharingan put an immense strain on his body.
The person before him looked young, but their strength was definitely no joke. They were probably about as strong as he had been when he became a jōnin at twelve.
Forcing himself to stay upright, he casually waved a hand and turned away. "Then I'll leave it to you."
The stranger thanked him again, then jumped down to the ground. That was when she noticed Naruto imitating Kakashi, pressing two fingers against the seventh vertebra at the back of Zabuza's neck.
She smiled. "That's not where you check for breathing. Let me show you—"
Pfft!
Zabuza's head, his eyes wide open in death, rolled away as blood gushed out like a spring and spread into a pool.
Naruto shook the blood from his fingers and smiled innocently. "A relative of mine once taught me that if your head's still on your shoulders, you're not dead."
The stranger stood frozen like a specimen. Time seemed to stop around her. As she looked at the grim face in the pool of blood, it felt as if her heart had stopped beating.
She grabbed Zabuza's wet upper arm. The cow-print sleeve was already half crimson. She draped it over her shoulder, feeling its lingering warmth.
She hefted Zabuza's body and picked up his head. Without lingering over the warmth of his blood, she put the head back on his neck and formed ice to seal the wound.
Through her mask, she glanced at Kakashi, then gave Naruto one long look before forming Hand Seals.
Leaves swirled in the wind.
The woman and the corpse vanished without a trace.
Before you continue