Small Fry Should Have the Awareness of Small Fry

"An expensive tool like you is only worth using once. I originally intended to dispose of you along with this old man and these brats after you finished them off. Now that you're clearly spent, it just saves me a bit of money."

"You... betrayed me?" Zabuza's tone was filled with incredulous rage.

"Betrayal? Don't make it sound so ugly," Gato sneered. "Our relationship was purely transactional from the very beginning. Since when does a rogue ninja wanted by his village deserve talk of loyalty?"

He waved his hand, ordering the hundred-plus thugs behind him, "Get them! Hack them all to pieces—including that Demon—and throw them into the sea to feed the fish!"

The hundred desperate outlaws shrieked and surged forward like a tide.

Gato was cunning; he didn't send his men to charge the strongest, Kakashi, but instead targeted the soft persimmons that looked easiest to crush.

A portion of the mob rushed toward Sasuke and Sakura, who were protecting Tazuna, while even more grinned viciously as they charged toward Haku, who had just dispelled the Demonic Mirroring Ice Crystals and was in a weakened state from massive chakra exhaustion.

"Haku!" Zabuza's eyes nearly split at the sight. He tried to rush over to rescue him, but Kakashi blocked his path.

"Your opponent is me, Zabuza!" Although Kakashi found Gato's actions despicable, his mission was to protect his client; he could not let Zabuza, the greatest threat, go unchecked.

"Get out of my way!" Zabuza went completely berserk, swinging the Kubikiribōchō at Kakashi with reckless abandon.

On the other side, facing a dozen charging ronin, Haku gritted his teeth and held a Senbon in each hand, preparing for a final stand. But having consumed too much chakra to trap Ling Xuan earlier, he was already at the end of his rope.

After struggling to parry a few blows, he was kicked to the ground by a ronin.

"Die, brat!" A burly warrior with a scarred face raised his katana high and brought it down viciously toward the fallen Haku.

Not far away, Zabuza, locked in a frantic exchange with Kakashi, caught a glimpse of this scene from the corner of his eye. In that instant, his heart felt as if it had been gripped by an invisible hand, squeezing until he couldn't breathe.

He roared, desperate to charge over, but Kakashi's interception kept him pinned. He could only watch helplessly as that cold blade descended toward Haku.

He had always told himself that Haku was merely a useful tool. A perfect killing instrument with a Kekkei Genkai that he had picked up from the snow. If a tool broke, he would just find another.

But... why... did his heart hurt so much?

Why was his mind filled with the image of that lonely boy in the heavy snow, looking at him with pure eyes and saying, "I want to be your tool"?

No... don't...

Just at this critical moment, a black shadow appeared silently before Haku, moving faster than any Body Flicker Technique.

Without even turning his head, Ling Xuan casually raised his right hand and used two fingers to precisely clamp onto the blade of the heavy, descending katana.

Clang!

The blade stopped less than a centimeter from Haku's neck, unable to advance a single inch further.

The burly warrior felt as if his sword had struck an immovable boulder, the vibration numbing his hand. He looked at the expressionless black-haired youth before him, his eyes filled with horror.

"Small fry should have the awareness of small fry." Ling Xuan applied a slight force with his fingers.

Snap!

The steel katana was snapped clean in two by his two fingers!

He backhanded a strike, and the broken blade tip turned into a cold light, instantly burying itself in the warrior's throat.

All of this happened in the blink of an eye.

The surrounding ronin were so frightened by this bloody and efficient display that they retreated several steps.

Ling Xuan ignored them and crouched down to look at the weakened Haku.

"Can you still stand?"

Haku stared blankly at the youth who had saved his life, then glanced at Zabuza not far away, who had visibly relaxed upon seeing him saved. He nodded gently.

"Zabuza-sama... needs me."

"Very well." Approval flickered in Ling Xuan's eyes. "I'll take you over."

"Zabuza-sama, I'm sorry, I..."

"Say no more, Haku." Zabuza interrupted, looking at Haku with a complex emotion he had never shown before. "You... did well."

Zabuza finally understood: Haku had never been a tool to him.

He was the only, and final, warmth in this hellish world.

"AAAAAAHHHHHH!!!"

The rage of betrayal, the lingering fear of Haku's near-death, and the hatred for his own helplessness completely ignited the Demon's fury.

Zabuza let out a beast-like roar toward the heavens.

He looked at the posturing Gato in the distance, his eyes holding nothing but pure killing intent.

"Brat..." He glanced at Naruto. "Can you... lend me your Kunai?"

Though still on the verge of confusion, Naruto subconsciously tossed the Kunai to him.

Zabuza caught the Kunai in his teeth, and his eyes—the eyes of the "Demon"—shed two lines of blood-red tears.

"Haku, lend me your hands."

He used his final strength to tear away the bandages on his arms that had been ruined by the battle, letting Haku use his own intact hands to grasp the hilt of the Kubikiribōchō in place of his own.

"Let us... together, carve a path of blood!"

"Yes! Zabuza-sama!"

The Demon and his tool were, at this moment, truly one with the blade, transforming into a death-dealing tornado that swept through everything as he charged toward Gato's hundreds of ragtag thugs!

This was a massacre of the most brutal and extreme nature.

Zabuza Momochi abandoned all defense, pouring every ounce of his life force and chakra into each strike. He used his own body to shield Haku behind him from every incoming attack, and wherever the blade light passed, flesh flew and screams rang out incessantly.

New wounds constantly appeared on his body, and blood stained the entire bridge red, yet his forward momentum never faltered.

In the end, Zabuza, like an Asura bathed in blood, charged right in front of Gato.

Amidst Gato's terrified and desperate gaze, he pierced the man's heart with the Kunai held between his teeth.

Thud.

Gato's short, stout corpse collapsed into a pool of blood.

Zabuza had finally exhausted his last bit of strength; he loosened his grip on Haku's hand, and his tall frame slowly tipped backward.

"Zabuza-sama!" Haku let out a shrill, mournful cry and caught him in his arms.

"Haku..." Zabuza looked at him, the violence and killing intent in his eyes having completely faded, leaving only endless tenderness and exhaustion. "I really wish... I could go... to the same place as you..."

His hand fell limply to his side.

The Demon, Zabuza Momochi, was on the verge of death.

Yet, at the very moment his flame of life was about to extinguish, a hand gently pressed against his chest.