"Yo, looks like you forgot about me!" At that moment, a familiar voice rang out behind Zabuza.
"Kakashi!" A sharp kunai sliced across Zabuza's arm, and crimson blood sprayed out.
Zabuza twisted at an unbelievable angle, narrowly dodging Kakashi's killing blow.
"As expected, none of the Elite Jonin are easy to deal with. I still have a long way to go." Naruto watched the back-and-forth battle between the two taijutsu-oriented Elite Jonin and sighed.
He had thought he was fairly strong, yet even with his ability to sense malice, Zabuza had managed to get close. If his reaction had been any slower, he would have been seriously injured even if he had survived that strike.
"So he used a Water Clone to fool me. I still have a lot to train." The Zabuza who had been standing in the distance turned into a puddle of water the instant he attacked Naruto and retrieved the Executioner's Blade.
A Water Clone was a technique that possessed one-tenth of the original body's strength. It was far inferior to a Shadow Clone, but it consumed much less Chakra.
"Hey, idiot Sasuke. How long are you going to keep being scared?" Zabuza's killing intent was nothing to Naruto, who was used to seeing the Nine-Tails and feeling its terrifying pressure.
But to Sasuke, who was on his first mission outside the village, it was devastating. Someone with weak resolve could even be driven mad by killing intent.
That was no joke. During the Ninja World War, many genin had died that way. The oppression of the battlefield and the enemy's killing intent claimed countless people who seemed to be geniuses every day.
The ninja world had never lacked geniuses. What it lacked were geniuses who lived long enough to grow up.
"Idiot Naruto! I won't