You Touched My Student? You're Dead!!

Time seemed to freeze at that moment.

Sasuke stood frozen in place, his face splattered with warm liquid, his pupils trembling violently as his Sharingan stared fixedly at the figure blocking him.

It was Ling Yue!

With the last of her strength, she unleashed that incomplete [Shunpo]. At the critical moment, she had bodily slammed the rigid Sasuke aside and taken the fatal blow for him!

The broad, terrifying blade of the Decapitating Carving Knife had almost completely sunk into the left side of her waist and abdomen!

Blood instantly soaked her tattered ninja clothes, dripping from the blade onto the bridge.

"Urgh..." Ling Yue let out a pained groan as her body went limp and fell forward, her eyes rapidly losing focus.

"Yue!!!" Sasuke's hoarse roar finally broke free from the grip of fear, trembling with disbelief!

He instinctively reached out and caught that limp body, impossibly light in his arms.

Why? Why would this person, who was always hiding secrets and did not seem that strong... take a blade for him?

"Tch, useless trash." Zabuza snorted coldly and pulled back the Decapitating Carving Knife!

Blood spurted out again!

Ling Yue's body convulsed violently once before she completely lost consciousness, her face turning ashen in an instant.

"Bastard! I'll kill you!" Sasuke looked at Ling Yue in his arms as her breath gradually weakened, and his eyes instantly turned blood-red!

His newly evolved two-tomoe Sharingan spun wildly as unprecedented fury and killing intent erupted!

Every trace of fear was burned away by that towering rage!

He gently laid Ling Yue down and slowly rose to his feet.

His chakra surged with unprecedented violence, carrying faint traces of dark, chilling energy!

"Oh? Not a bad look in your eyes." Zabuza flicked the blood off his blade and looked at the murderous Sasuke with interest. "Does anger make you stronger? How laughable!"

Sasuke did not answer. His world contained only the enemy before him and the fallen companion behind him.

He moved! He was more than twice as fast as before! His Sharingan precisely caught the slightest signs of Zabuza's muscles tensing!

His kunai stabbed straight for Zabuza's throat!

"Too slow!" Zabuza raised his blade to block.

The kunai struck the great blade, scattering sparks!

But Sasuke's attack did not stop. Borrowing the force of the collision, he instantly changed direction, spun his body, and viciously kicked at Zabuza's side!

Zabuza shifted slightly and blocked with his arm.

A heavy thud rang out, and Zabuza was actually knocked off balance!

"Interesting!" A flash of surprise crossed Zabuza's eyes, followed by even thicker killing intent. "But it's still not enough!"

The great blade swung again, stronger and faster than before!

Sasuke pushed the Sharingan's insight to its limits. Rather than meet him head-on, he used nimble movements and precise predictions to dodge at the very limit amid the fierce blade-light, constantly searching for chances to counterattack!

Kunai, shuriken, taijutsu... every attack targeted Zabuza's vital points!

For a time, dense clashes of metal rang across the bridge! Sasuke actually managed to barely keep Zabuza occupied!

On the other side, Haku watched Sasuke's rampage and Zabuza's injury, his brow tightly furrowed beneath his mask.

He wanted to step in and help, but after glancing at the unconscious Naruto, the terrified Sakura and Tazuna, and then Ling Yue, who was on the verge of death, he ultimately did not move.

His mission was to ensure Tazuna's death, not engage in unnecessary battle.

"Sakura! Save her!" Sasuke roared amid the fierce exchange, his voice hoarse from rage and exhaustion.

Sakura was jolted awake by that shout. Seeing Ling Yue lying in a pool of blood, barely breathing, overwhelming fear and the responsibility of being needed surged into her heart at once.

"Yue! Hang on!" She screamed and threw herself forward, frantically tearing open her clothes and pressing down hard on the horrifying wound in Ling Yue's waist and abdomen, trying to stop the gushing blood. Tears streamed uncontrollably down her face. "Stop the bleeding! I have to stop the bleeding! Medicine! Right, medicine!"

Trembling, she rummaged through her ninja tool pouch, took out all her hemostatic powder, and poured it on without restraint before using all her strength to bandage the wound.

Tazuna came back to his senses and helped press down on the wound as well.

Ling Yue's body was already cold, her pulse so weak it was almost impossible to feel.

"Damn it! Damn it!" On the bridge, Sasuke's attacks grew increasingly frenzied, but the absolute gap in strength was beginning to show. His chakra was draining rapidly, the burden on his Sharingan growing heavier, and his movements began to slow.

When he failed to dodge in time, the blade wind sliced open his arm, leaving a wound deep enough to expose bone!

"The game is over, brat!" Seizing the opening, Zabuza brought down his great blade with overwhelming force! This strike was impossible to evade!

Sasuke's pupils contracted sharply. His Sharingan saw it, but his body could not keep up!

Was he going to die...?

At that moment of despair—

"Lightning Cutter!!"

A voice suppressing endless fury came from the other side!

The ear-piercing cry of Chidori's Cry tore through the air!

A dazzling streak of blue lightning shot across from the other end of the bridge at a speed beyond the limits of sight! Its target was Zabuza's back!

Fast! Too fast!

Zabuza's pupils suddenly shrank. The deadly sense of danger made every hair on his body stand on end! He had no time to finish Sasuke off. His survival instincts forced him to twist his body, raising the Decapitating Carving Knife behind him!

A deafening, terrifying impact erupted!

The lightning struck the great blade head-on!

Violent lightning-nature chakra exploded in an instant, crazily eating into the blade!

A scorched dent was blasted into the hard body of the Decapitating Carving Knife, and spiderweb-like cracks spread across it in an instant!

"Pfft!" Zabuza took the blow like a heavy strike to the chest, spraying blood as he was violently sent flying. He crashed into the bridge railing in the distance, completely smashing that section apart!

The lightning faded.

Kakashi knelt on one knee before Sasuke, panting heavily, his face pale as paper. The wound at his waist that had just been stitched shut had split open again, blood soaking through the bandages.

But the exposed Sharingan in his eye burned with an unprecedented, resolute killing intent as he stared fixedly at Zabuza, who was struggling to rise in the distance.

"You touched my student..." Kakashi's voice was terrifyingly low, every word seeming to have been pulled from an ice cellar. "You're dead!"