The Intellectual Big Sister Needs Early Cultivation

Kakashi prayed anxiously inside the Water Prison, hoping they wouldn't do anything stupid.

"Oh ho? Then go ahead and try. That brat over there using weird ninjutsu is probably the strongest among you, right? He and Kakashi are both tied up by me. What can you three accomplish?" Zabuza said arrogantly.

Naruto glanced at Tazuna, waiting for his answer.

"To be honest, all of this is because of me... I'm already satisfied just surviving the last attack. Go ahead, fight to your heart's content. Don't worry about me!"

The feigned coldness and roguishness on Tazuna's face melted away as he gave Naruto a smile.

"Kids will be kids, always playing these boring ninja games." Zabuza hoisted the Kubikiribōchō and strolled slowly toward the group, like a hunter toying with his prey before the kill.

Kakashi recalled a terrifying rumor from Kirigakure. Ten years ago, the graduation exam in the Hidden Mist Village forced students to kill each other. But it was that very year's exam that made the village change the rules.

That year, a child who hadn't even become a ninja killed everyone else and survived.

That child was Zabuza...

By now, Zabuza had already made his move, kicking Sasuke flying.

"So this is a jonin..." Sasuke knelt on the ground, a coppery taste filling his mouth. In the end, he couldn't hold it back and spat out blood.

Jimo watched from the side, easily keeping pace with Zabuza's clone.

The plot was already different from what he knew. After being severely wounded twice by him, Zabuza had now split off two clones, so his chakra reserves must be running low.

The Water Prison Technique probably wouldn't last much longer.

As Jimo sparred with Zabuza, he occasionally fired chakra bullets at the Water Prison holding Kakashi.

"Useless! With that level of power, you can't break the Water Prison!" the clone restraining Kakashi taunted.

On the other side, Naruto and Sasuke used Shadow Clones and a Fuma Shuriken—Shadow Windmill—to successfully send Naruto's real body to the edge of the Water Prison.

With a kunai flying out, Zabuza was forced to withdraw his arm.

The moment his arm left, the Water Prison Technique could no longer maintain its form and collapsed.

Kakashi blocked Zabuza's attack on Naruto just in time.

The two distanced themselves, forming hand seals so fast they left afterimages.

"Water Style: Water Dragon Bullet Technique!"

Two water dragons burst from the lake's surface, tangling together.

"Burst!" Jimo clenched his fist, and Zabuza's water dragon exploded from the middle, scattering into a rain of droplets.

"How can this be!" Zabuza stared in shock at Jimo in the distance, unable to fathom how he could collapse his jutsu.

"Nice work, Jimo!" Kakashi seized the moment and drove his water dragon toward Zabuza. The dragon slammed into the water's surface, kicking up waves several meters high.

As the mist cleared, Zabuza stood on the water, bedraggled and panting heavily.

"Water Style: Great Waterfall Technique!"

Zabuza stared in astonishment at Kakashi, whose movements matched his own—even faster.

"Can he only... predict the future? This isn't the jutsu I was about to use!"

Kakashi's jutsu activated first, and a massive wave slammed Zabuza hard onto the shore.

Now, Zabuza's aura was weak, his eyes bloodshot. He glared fixedly at Kakashi and Jimo off to the side.

It was that brat who had thrown off his attack's timing.

"Zabuza, you're done for..."

Before Kakashi could throw his kunai, two senbon pierced through Zabuza's neck.

"Indeed, he's done for..." A masked figure stood on a tree trunk, unknown how long he had been there.

Kakashi approached Zabuza and felt his pulse. It had indeed stopped.

"Thanks to you all, I finally found a chance to kill him."

Kakashi looked at the pattern on the mask and the ninja insignia identifying his rank.

"Kirigakure Hunter-nin?"

"As expected of Kakashi, you recognized it." The masked figure clapped in praise.

While Naruto grumbled about Zabuza being taken down by someone around his age, Jimo's eyes roamed up and down the masked figure.

"No mistake, absolutely no mistake! That curve! Definitely not a guy from the original story!"

Jimo felt like he had uncovered a huge secret—this Zabuza was a grooming freak!

Bastard, absolute bastard! Raising a wife with his own hands! That was something only possible in the anime world!

While he was spacing out, the masked figure had already left with Zabuza.

"Jimo... is that ninja... far enough away..." Kakashi whispered softly in Jimo's ear. Jimo had already moved to Kakashi's side to keep watch.

"From his aura, he's far enough..."

The moment the word "enough" left his mouth, Kakashi collapsed. Luckily, Jimo was quick enough to catch him.

"Naruto, Sasuke, Sakura..." Jimo forced out a hoarse sentence. "Handle the rest yourselves."

The three youngsters hadn't yet understood when, with a "thump," Jimo's body went limp and collapsed to the ground.

Fortunately, Naruto's chakra reserves were enormous; he split off several shadow clones to carry Kakashi and Jimo along the way. Sasuke took charge of perimeter security, while Sakura protected Tazuna.

The group hurried along the road, finally reaching Tazuna's house before nightfall.

After a night's rest, Kakashi and Jimo gradually regained consciousness.

"Something doesn't add up no matter how I think about it..." Kakashi reviewed the previous battle.

"If it was just to prove identity, taking the head back would have been enough..."

"Teacher... Zabuza might not be dead yet," Jimo said with a feigned casualness, sending the three youngsters trembling in fear.

"It's possible... only one person from the pursuit squad showed up. That person was probably Zabuza's companion."

Everyone's faces were filled with shock.

"Why did you let them go back then!" Sakura said, somewhat anxious.

"We couldn't have stopped them even if we wanted to. Kakashi-sensei was already quite weakened at that point..." Jimo said with a bitter smile.

"And I was in a similar state back then... It was already a feat to hold them off long enough to collapse afterward." Jimo spoke as if he knew Sakura's next words would be "and Jimo too."

What Jimo said was also the truth. The two Kamehamehas had drained most of the ki from his body. The move that shattered the water dragon was astonishingly consumption-intensive; compressing a massive amount of ki into those energy bullets was necessary to keep them from dissipating in a short time.

"So! During the time I can't move, you all need to train seriously!"

Hearing Kakashi's words, Sakura complained, "But that's an opponent even you struggled with..."

"Sakura, don't forget who helped me when I was trapped in the Water Prison!"

Kakashi looked at Naruto and Sasuke.

"You're all growing quickly, especially you, Naruto!"