First Encounter with Zabuza

"Sakura, protect the client. Set up basic warning traps around Tazuna."

"Sasuke, take my left flank. Prepare to deal with Water Clones."

These were instructions they had repeated hundreds of times at the training ground.

Without the slightest hesitation, without even needing to think, Sasuke and Sakura's bodies reacted before their minds did.

Sasuke instantly darted to Naruto's left, drew a kunai, lowered his stance, and assumed a standard interception posture.

Sakura pulled the nearly limp Tazuna back while her hands moved swiftly. Several kunai wrapped with explosive tags were precisely fired into the surrounding ground, forming the most basic defensive perimeter.

The entire process flowed like water, so fast that even Kakashi was pleasantly surprised.

He stared at his three students in astonishment.

This was no ordinary rookie Genin squad. This was a well-trained combat unit.

Zabuza paused as well, a trace of surprise flashing through his cold eyes. "Oh? Kakashi, your students seem rather interesting."

The next second, he vanished from where he stood.

"Watch out!" Kakashi shouted.

Zabuza appeared atop the lake, his hands rapidly forming seals.

"Water Release: Water Prison Technique!"

A massive sphere of water appeared out of thin air, instantly trapping the unprepared Kakashi within it.

"Kakashi-sensei!" Sakura finally let out an uncontrollable scream.

"First one." Zabuza maintained the Water Prison with one hand while forming seals with the other. An identical Water Clone emerged from the water, carrying the Kubikiribōchō as it walked toward the remaining three.

"The game is over, brats." The Water Clone grinned viciously. "Your teacher can only watch as I slice you apart piece by piece."

Kakashi struggled inside the Water Prison but could not escape. All he could do was shout anxiously, "Run! Take the client and leave! Don't worry about me! That's an order!"

Sasuke's body trembled.

Fear, excitement, and the shudder of facing a powerful enemy. His Sharingan stared fixedly at Zabuza's Water Clone as his mind frantically calculated the gap in strength between them.

The conclusion was... despair.

He was no match for him at all.

Just as that pressure was about to crush him, a calm voice sounded beside his ear.

"Sasuke Uchiha."

Sasuke abruptly turned to Naruto.

There was no expression on Naruto's face—neither fear nor panic, only an almost cruel calmness.

"Execute Plan B."

Sasuke's pupils contracted.

Plan B.

The tactic from training that he had thought only a madman would use.

A high-risk assault tactic: trading injury for injury, gambling life for life, paying the smallest price to tear open the enemy's defense and create a chance for a one-hit kill for an ally.

In that plan, he—or Naruto—was the "price."

His mind went blank.

Did he trust Naruto? No. He had never trusted anyone.

But he trusted that cold calculation. He trusted the most efficient path to victory.

Fear was forced down, and boiling blood surged into his mind.

The corner of Sasuke's mouth actually curled into a crazed grin.

He did not answer. His actions gave the answer instead.

He charged forward!

"Oh? You've got guts, brat!" Zabuza's Water Clone swung the Kubikiribōchō disdainfully, stirring up a foul gust.

In the enemy's eyes, Sasuke's movements were full of openings.

Yet at the instant the blade was about to fall, another golden figure cut in from behind Sasuke's flank at a speed even faster than his.

It was Naruto.

Like a cannonball leaving its barrel, he slammed his shoulder straight into the arm holding the sword.

"Pshk!"

The sharp edge of the Kubikiribōchō sliced through Naruto's shoulder blade, leaving a bloody gash deep enough to expose bone.

Yet Naruto did not even furrow his brow.

He had achieved his goal.

The Water Clone's slashing trajectory was forcibly altered, exposing a fatal opening.

Now!

Sasuke's Sharingan caught that instant.

"Fire Release: Great Fireball Technique!"

A blazing fireball erupted from Sasuke's mouth and struck the Water Clone squarely in its undefended chest.

"Sizzle—"

The Water Clone evaporated under the intense heat, turning into a useless puddle.

"What?!"

Zabuza's true body, still maintaining the Water Prison, cried out in disbelief.

The coordination between those two brats...

That was not the understanding between companions. It was more like two killing machines programmed in advance: one took the damage and created an opportunity, while the other delivered a precise strike.

There was no hesitation whatsoever, not the slightest delay.

Inside the Water Prison, Kakashi felt a chill run through his entire body.

He recalled Naruto's earlier words.

—"They treated their comrades and even themselves as parts that could be calculated and sacrificed."

So he had not been describing an idea.

He had been stating a fact.

At the instant Zabuza was distracted.

"Now!" Naruto growled. Enduring the searing pain, he pulled a strangely shaped giant shuriken from his ninja tool pouch—a Fūma Shuriken—and hurled it fiercely toward Sasuke.

"Sasuke!"

Sasuke understood immediately. He caught the shuriken, spun at high speed on the spot, then threw it with all his strength!

The Fūma Shuriken tore through the thick mist with a piercing howl, but its target was not Zabuza's true body.

It was the arm he was using to maintain the Water Prison Technique!

"Naive!" Zabuza snorted and easily caught the incoming Fūma Shuriken with his other hand.

But the mockery on his face quickly froze.

"Shadow Shuriken Technique!"

From the shadow of the Fūma Shuriken he had caught, another identical shuriken flew out!

This was the real attack!

The distance was too close, the angle too tricky. He had no time to dodge!

"Psh!"

The sharp shuriken sliced viciously into the arm maintaining the Water Prison.

A surge of agony shot through him, and the flow of chakra was instantly interrupted.

The Water Prison shattered at once.

"Well done, Naruto, Sasuke."

Kakashi landed atop the water once more. He looked at Zabuza across from him, whose arm was injured and whose face was full of shock, then looked at his two students.

One had blood pouring from his shoulder, yet stood straight.

The other was panting heavily, his Sharingan gleaming with excitement.

For the first time, he felt that being their teacher had truly been worthwhile.

"It seems I really underestimated you." Zabuza's tone turned grave. The way he looked at Naruto and Sasuke was no longer the way one looked at insects, but at two troublesome monsters.

"But the real show is only beginning."

He formed seals with one hand, and the surrounding mist grew even thicker, so dense that one could not see a hand in front of one's face.

"Ninja Art: Hiding in Mist Technique."

Zabuza's figure disappeared completely into the dense fog.

Silent Killing.

This was his proudest technique, the skill he lived by. During his years in the Hidden Mist Assassination Unit, if he had killed even slightly fewer people, he would never have qualified to wield the Kubikiribōchō.

Within such mist, even the Sharingan could not see through everything. He would become the god of death in the fog, silently harvesting lives.

Sakura stood tensely in front of Tazuna, looking in every direction, but all she could see was endless whiteness.

Sasuke's breathing grew hurried as well. With his Sharingan unable to find a target, he felt deeply unsettled.

Only Naruto closed his eyes.

He gave up his sight.

The perception from the Warhammer Universe, tempered a thousand times over by psychic power, was fully unleashed at that moment.

He could not sense the flow of chakra.

But he could "see."

He could see that "Chaos" aura mixed with killing intent, hatred, and the stench of blood moving rapidly through the mist.

"Sasuke, behind you to the left, thirty-degree angle, seven meters away. Thrust." Naruto gave the order.