First Encounter with Zabuza

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

"Sasuke, take my left flank. Prepare for Water Clones."

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

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

Sasuke instantly flashed to Naruto's left, drew a kunai, lowered his center of gravity, and assumed a standard interception stance.

Sakura pulled the nearly collapsed Tazuna back while her hands moved rapidly. Several kunai fitted with Explosive Tags shot precisely into the surrounding ground, forming the most basic defensive perimeter.

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

He stared at his three students in astonishment.

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

Zabuza was stunned for a moment as well. A hint of surprise flashed 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 on the lake's surface, his hands flying through seals.

"Water Release: Water Prison Technique!"

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

"Kakashi-sensei!" Sakura's scream finally burst free.

"First one." Zabuza maintained the Water Prison with one hand while forming seals with the other. A Water Clone identical to him rose from the water, carrying the Kubikiribōchō as it approached 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 within the Water Prison but could not break free. He could only 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 between their strengths.

The conclusion was... despair.

He was no match for him at all.

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

"Sasuke Uchiha."

Sasuke abruptly turned to look at Naruto.

There was no expression on Naruto's face. No fear, no panic, only an almost cruel calmness.

"Execute Plan B."

Sasuke's pupils contracted.

Plan B.

The tactic he had considered something only a madman would use during training.

A breakthrough tactic of trading injury for injury, life for life, tearing open the enemy's defenses at the lowest cost and creating an opportunity for a single killing blow from a companion.

In that plan, he or Naruto would be the "cost."

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 suppressed, and boiling blood surged into his head.

A crazed curve actually formed at the corner of Sasuke's mouth.

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

He charged forward!

"Oh? A gutsy little brat!" Zabuza's Water Clone swung the Kubikiribōchō disdainfully, stirring up a foul gust of wind.

In his opponent's eyes, Sasuke's movements were full of openings.

Yet just as the great 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 fired from a barrel, he rammed his shoulder hard into the arm holding the blade.

Splat!

The sharp edge of the Kubikiribōchō tore across Naruto's shoulder blade, leaving a bone-deep bloody gash.

Naruto did not even furrow his brow.

He had achieved his goal.

The Water Clone's slashing trajectory was forcibly shifted, 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's undefended chest with perfect accuracy.

Sizzle—

The Water Clone evaporated beneath the intense heat, turning into a useless puddle of water.

"What?!"

Zabuza's true body, still maintaining the Water Prison, let out an incredulous cry.

The coordination between those two brats...

It was not the tacit understanding between companions. It was more like two killing machines programmed in advance: one responsible for taking damage and creating an opening, the other for delivering a precise strike.

There was not the slightest hesitation, not a moment's delay.

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

He remembered what Naruto had said before.

—"Treating companions 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 agonizing pain, he pulled a strange, massive shuriken from his ninja tool pouch—a Fūma Shuriken—and hurled it fiercely toward Sasuke.

"Sasuke!"

Sasuke understood at once. He caught the shuriken, spun rapidly in place, and threw it with all his strength!

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

It was the arm he used 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 suddenly flew out!

This was the real attack!

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

Pfft!

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

A surge of searing pain struck him, and the flow of chakra was instantly disrupted.

The Water Prison shattered at once.

"Well done, Naruto, Sasuke."

Kakashi landed on the water's surface once more. He looked at Zabuza across from him, his arm wounded and his face full of shock, then looked at his two students.

One had blood streaming from his shoulder yet stood perfectly straight.

The other panted 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 grew 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 just beginning."

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

"Ninja Art: Hiding in Mist Technique."

Zabuza's figure vanished completely into the dense fog.

Silent Killing.

This was his proudest technique, the skill he relied on to make a living. 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.

In such mist, even the Sharingan could not see through it completely. He would become the Death God within the fog, silently Harvesting lives.

Sakura nervously stood in front of Tazuna, looking around in every direction, but all she could see was endless white.

Sasuke's breathing grew rapid as well. His Sharingan had lost its target, making him intensely uneasy.

Only Naruto closed his eyes.

He gave up his vision.

The perception forged a thousand times over by psychic power from the Warhammer Universe was completely 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-left, thirty degrees, seven meters away. Thrust," Naruto ordered.