You Were Saving Him, Weren't You?

The Sharingan could indeed copy ninjutsu, but only after seeing the opponent form the hand seals.

Yet Kakashi had moved almost in sync with Zabuza just now—if anything, he'd been slightly faster! It made no sense! Unless he could see the future!

"How did you do that?" Zabuza couldn't help feeling a little rattled.

"I've seen through your technique." Kakashi stood amid the water mist, offering no further explanation. This kind of incomprehensible strength was itself the best way to strike at an enemy's confidence.

Behind it all was Ling Xuan's calm, unwavering Eye of Truth.

[Combat Data Exchange: The chakra execution model and Hand Seals sequence for Water Style: Great Waterfall Technique have been transmitted to Kakashi in advance. Drawing on his extensive combat experience and muscle memory, Kakashi reproduced the technique perfectly.]

[Enemy Status Analysis: Zabuza Momochi's psychological state is fluctuating sharply: shock, anger, confusion. Chakra consumption is increasing, and openings have appeared.]

"Next," Ling Xuan's voice said coolly in Kakashi's mind, "he'll be so shocked and angry that he'll abandon complicated ninjutsu. He'll switch to the Silent Killing Technique and swordsmanship he's best at and most confident in, then launch a close-range ambush. Get ready for a high-speed attack."

Sure enough, Zabuza roared. Instead of forming hand seals, he gripped Kubikiribōchō, and his entire figure vanished into the thick fog.

Killing intent filled the air once more, colder and deadlier than before.

This time, Zabuza was completely serious. He brought his assassination skills as the Demon of the Mist to their absolute limit.

Sasuke's heart was in his throat. Under such immense pressure, he activated his Sharingan. Though he had only three Tomoe in total, he still wanted to see through the battle.

But within the thick fog, he could barely catch a few blurry afterimages. He couldn't lock onto Zabuza's true position at all.

For the first time, Sasuke truly understood that even with the same Sharingan, the power Kakashi-sensei could draw from it was worlds apart from what he could manage.

As for Ling Xuan, he didn't even have a Kekkei Genkai, yet he seemed to see through everything. The gap filled Sasuke with frustration and longing.

"He's coming. Directly above!" Ling Xuan's warning rang out.

Kakashi didn't hesitate. He leaped backward.

A massive Kubikiribōchō came crashing down from above, slamming into the ground where he'd stood moments earlier and carving a deep trench into it!

His attack had missed. Zabuza vanished again.

"Left!"

"Behind you!"

"It's a clone! The real one is below and to your right!"

With Ling Xuan's all-around, blind-spot-free Battlefield Radar supporting him, Kakashi seemed to truly possess the ability to predict the future.

Zabuza's vaunted Silent Killing Technique, which had claimed the lives of countless elite jonin, became like a ridiculous play whose script had been written in advance when faced with the seemingly cheating combination of "Sharingan Kakashi" and "Ling Xuan's Eye of Truth."

Every ingenious ambush was effortlessly foiled. Every deadly trap was seen through in advance.

"Damn you! Damn you! Damn you!!!"

Zabuza went completely berserk. With a beastlike roar, he abandoned all attempts at concealment and charged straight at Kakashi, Kubikirōchō in hand. He'd decided to settle things with pure strength and swordsmanship!

"Now!" Ling Xuan's voice rang in Kakashi's mind. "His anger has thrown him off balance. This is the perfect moment to use that technique!"

Kakashi's gaze sharpened instantly, and he charged at Zabuza.

"Hell Viewing Technique!"

Genjutsu: activated!

The scene before Zabuza, who was charging forward in a frenzy, abruptly changed. He saw Kakashi easily sever his limbs. He saw himself sprawled on the ground like a dead dog.

He saw Kakashi's kunai slowly pierce his heart as he stared in terror...

"No!!!"

Zabuza let out a bloodcurdling scream. His mental defenses crumbled completely.

Though his formidable will let him break free of the genjutsu almost immediately, that split-second lapse was already enough.

By the time he came to, a cold kunai was pressed against his throat.

Kakashi stood before him like a true demon.

"It's over, Zabuza."

The victor had been decided.

But just as Kakashi was about to move in and finish off the Demon of the Mist for good—

"Whoosh! Whoosh!"

Two slender senbon shot from the distant woods at an extremely tricky angle, striking Zabuza in the neck with perfect precision.

Zabuza grunted. The light in his eyes quickly faded, and his body toppled backward, splashing into the water.

"Who's there?" Kakashi immediately turned toward the direction the senbon had come from.

A ninja in the distinctive hunter-nin uniform of Kirigakure appeared silently on a nearby branch. A white mask marked with red stripes covered his face.

"Thank you, Sharingan Kakashi." The hunter-nin's voice sounded like a boy's, clear and androgynous. "This man is a missing-nin we've been pursuing in Kirigakure. I'll take care of his body now."

With a Body Flicker, he appeared beside Zabuza's "corpse" and hoisted him over his shoulder.

Kakashi stepped forward and checked Zabuza's breathing, then felt for his pulse.

"Indeed... there are no signs of life," he confirmed.

"Then I'll be taking my leave." The masked ninja bowed slightly to Kakashi, then lifted Zabuza's corpse onto his shoulder.

"Wait." Ling Xuan's calm voice stopped the masked ninja in his tracks.

Kakashi also looked at Ling Xuan, puzzled.

Ling Xuan walked forward and pointed at the senbon in Zabuza's neck. "Hunter-nin destroy the bodies of missing-nin to prevent any information from leaking. But you deliberately prepared senbon designed to seal pressure points from a distance and induce false death."

He raised his head, his gaze seeming to pierce the mask and look directly into Haku's eyes.

"Besides, you showed up too conveniently, as if you'd been waiting nearby for this very moment. You're saving him, aren't you?"

The Kirigakure hunter-nin carrying Zabuza's "corpse" stiffened almost imperceptibly. The white mask with red stripes hid every expression, but it couldn't shield him from Ling Xuan's gaze, which seemed to see right through people.

Kakashi's one visible eye narrowed sharply. He snapped out of the slight relaxation that had followed their victory. He hadn't been entirely without suspicion, but the hunter-nin's appearance and the way he handled things both fit certain conventions of the shinobi world. Without thinking, Kakashi had accepted them.

But Ling Xuan had pointed out the flaw in those conventions from the standpoint of basic logic.

That was right... The Hunter-nin's core mission was to eliminate missing-nin and completely erase every secret they carried. Burning the body was the most standard way to do that.