Battle Haku

Nine-Tails chakra had an incredibly powerful healing effect. In the anime, whether Naruto had been turned into a pincushion by senbon needles or had his chest pierced through by Sasuke's Chidori, he could rapidly recover with the support of Nine-Tails chakra.

With a thought, Naruto guided the tamed Nine-Tails chakra throughout his body.

Warm energy wrapped around every wound from within, and his cells began dividing and regenerating like mad. Damaged tissue healed at a rate visible to the naked eye.

The tiny puncture wounds left by Haku's senbon needles swiftly contracted and closed after the chakra flowed through them, and the beads of blood seeping out were stopped as well.

The scrapes and bruises of all sizes left from his earlier battle with Zabuza's subordinate were wiped away in that instant like pencil marks erased by rubber, vanishing completely.

In just a few breaths, all of Naruto's injuries had fully healed.

Naruto rolled his neck, producing a crisp crack of his joints, then slowly raised his head to look at Haku ahead of him.

Haku wore a Hidden Mist ANBU mask. His slender figure looked as though it might be blown over by the wind, while his long black hair drifted gently in the morning breeze.

The surrounding ice mirrors reflected faint sunlight, shrouding Haku in a cold, pale glow.

"You're finished."

Naruto's lips curled slightly as his voice reached Haku's ears.

At the same time, beyond the battlefield.

Kakashi and Zabuza simultaneously halted their kunai. At nearly the same instant, they both turned toward the area enclosed by the Ice Crystal Magic Mirrors.

A column of dark red chakra surged into the sky there, carrying a terrifying aura that made their scalps tingle. Even the two battle-hardened elite jonin felt a chill and tremor rising from their bones.

"The Nine-Tails' chakra is going berserk?"

Kakashi's Sharingan widened sharply. His expression beneath his forehead protector changed drastically, and his body instantly shifted into a stance ready to charge toward that area.

"Kakashi, our battle isn't over yet. Where do you think you're going?"

Zabuza tilted the Executioner's Blade slightly, blocking Kakashi's path as a low, meaningful snort escaped his lips.

"This is troublesome..."

"Looks like I'll have to deal with Zabuza first!"

With that, Kakashi rapidly formed hand seals.

Within the Ice Crystal Magic Mirrors, Haku's expression visibly wavered.

The red chakra was like tangible flames, churning and rising around Naruto's body. The air warped slightly under the pressure of that power. Pebbles on the ground seemed to lose their weight and float upward, only to be crushed into powder by invisible pressure the next second.

Within the mirror barrier, the temperature was rising at an unnatural rate.

"Impossible..."

Haku's voice trembled slightly. "He actually materialized chakra to this extent..."

His words abruptly stopped.

Because he saw that the blond boy's eyes had changed.

They had held the madness of an out-of-control beast just moments ago, but now there was only an almost cruel calm.

Within those azure eyes, the dark red glow of chakra burned quietly in the depths of his pupils like tamed flames, without the slightest hint of violent energy leaking out.

Naruto had no intention of slowly explaining things to Haku.

What a joke. He had recovered from the dizziness of transmigrating less than five minutes ago, the memories of his two lives were still clashing in his head, and he had only barely managed to suppress the Nine-Tails chakra in his body with Absolute Control. The most urgent thing now was to take down Haku first, then deal with everything else afterward.

Honestly, for anyone who had just transmigrated, faced with a life-or-death battle like this, their first reaction would definitely be to run—or simply play dead and lie down.

But Naruto was different.

The Absolute Control ability gave him complete knowledge of his own body. The exertion of every muscle, the rhythm of every breath, and the path of every stream of chakra were all presented clearly within his awareness.

The sense of control brought by that omniscience canceled out most of his fear and unease.

And with Nine-Tails chakra in hand, his combat power had been pushed straight to the upper limit of his current stage. If he did not fight now, when would he?

Multiple Shadow Clone Technique.

Naruto swiftly calculated the number of Ice Crystal Magic Mirrors.

His brain operated with efficiency far beyond that of an ordinary person. The mirrors' positions, the distances between them, possible blind spots, and the most likely location of Haku's real body.

All of that information was integrated into a clear tactical map in less than half a second.

It was a habit Naruto had developed after enhancing his brain in his previous life.

Before fighting, calculate everything clearly. Once he understood it, he would act. If he did not move, then fine—but once he did, he would resolve the battle as quickly as possible.

Naruto formed a cross-shaped hand seal.

It was the first advanced ninjutsu he had learned, as well as the signature technique of "Uzumaki Naruto."

Bang, bang, bang, bang, bang...

A string of dense white smoke burst forth, and more than a dozen identical Naruto clones stepped out of it.

Each shadow clone was covered in a thin coat of dark red chakra.

The clones stood in a row, their fists cracking as they clenched them. More than a dozen pairs of eyes stared in unison at Haku within the Ice Crystal Magic Mirror formation.

"Go."

Naruto's original body calmly uttered two words.

When in doubt, send in the clones first.

That was the core tactical logic of shadow clones: simple, crude, but extremely effective.

Especially with the enhancement of Nine-Tails chakra, each clone's individual combat ability had been raised by an entire level. They were no longer mere cannon-fodder decoys like in the anime, but true combat units capable of dealing damage.

In an instant.

More than a dozen Narutos transformed into afterimages, charging toward the Ice Crystal Magic Mirrors surrounding them from different directions and angles.

Dark red chakra exploded beneath their feet. Every step stomped a shallow pit into the ground, and they moved so fast that the naked eye could barely track their paths.

The enhancement of Nine-Tails chakra was comprehensive. Speed, strength, reaction, recovery—all of it had been pushed to levels a genin could never possibly reach.

"So fast!"

Haku's pupils contracted sharply.

He saw blurry red figures weaving and darting between the mirrors, so fast that it seemed as if they occupied more than a dozen positions at once.

Haku instinctively formed several senbon needles between his fingers and hurled them fiercely at the clone charging toward him.

Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh!

The senbon needles tore through the air with piercing whistles.

The Naruto clone at the very front abruptly lowered his body while sprinting at high speed. Several senbon needles barely grazed his golden hair before embedding themselves in the ground behind him, their ends buzzing as they trembled.

"Missed!"

The clone grinned, rolling with the motion before springing back up.

And while Haku was occupied with that clone, the other Naruto clones had already reached their respective mirrors.

Without the slightest hesitation, the clones clenched their right fists. Dark red chakra rapidly gathered around their knuckles, forming a visible layer of chakra.

"Break!"

The fists of more than a dozen clones struck out at the same time.

Crack...

The first Ice Crystal Magic Mirror shattered in response.

Spiderweb-like cracks rapidly spread outward from the point of impact, followed by the entire mirror exploding into countless fragments that refracted thousands of scattered rays of light in the morning sun.

Crack...

Crack...

Crack...

The sounds of shattering rang out one after another, like someone playing a tightly paced percussion piece.