Under Haku's utterly horrified gaze, Kenya carried an iceberg weighing dozens of tons on his back.
He powered through a thousand frog jumps on the granite platform.
When he finished, he barely even panted. He merely felt a layer of warm sweat on his body, which felt wonderfully refreshing.
"All right, warm-up's over. Let's eat!"
Kenya casually tossed the iceberg on his back into the sea, sending spray more than ten meters high.
After lunch.
Kenya continued his almost self-torturous, Garp-style training.
Meanwhile, Haku took a small bamboo basket and headed for the woods at the edge of the island to pick some wild fruit, planning to make a refreshing jam to cut through the richness of their evening barbecue.
Over these past few days on the deserted island, Haku had mostly familiarized himself with the terrain.
Although the island had once teemed with vicious birds and ferocious beasts, after that baptism of Kenya's Conqueror's Haki, the vast majority of the beasts had been scared out of their wits and no longer dared approach this area.
Haku hummed an unfamiliar little tune, feeling completely at ease.
He deftly wove through the bushes, selecting ripe red berries.
Uncle said these fruits were sweet and sour, perfect with grilled meat.
As Haku thought this, he rose onto his tiptoes to reach a cluster of fruit higher up.
Just then.
"Whooom-"
A low rush through the air, carrying a thick, bloody reek, came at him from behind without warning.
The smile on Haku's face instantly froze. The vigilance honed by years of wandering made him instinctively dive forward.
Boom!
A thunderous crash rang out.
An enormous blade as broad as a door and over two meters long slammed into the spot where Haku had just stood.
A thick tree trunk was instantly cleaved in two.
The cut was smooth as a mirror, showing just how sharp the blade was and how terrifying its wielder's strength was.
Haku rolled awkwardly across the ground several times. Without stopping to wipe the dirt from his face, he looked back in terror.
The Kubikiribōchō was embedded deep in the earth.
A thick wrist wrapped in bandages held its hilt.
His gaze followed the wrist upward.
A tall man whose lower face was tightly covered in bandages was looking coldly down at him with murderous eyes.
He wore a Kirigakure Anbu uniform, but a deep slash was plainly visible across his forehead protector.
The mark of a missing-nin.
"I finally found you."
The man slowly pulled the Kubikiribōchō out of the ground and rested it on his shoulder.
His icy voice echoed through the woods.
"A brat... with an Ice Release Kekkei Genkai."
Haku shuddered all over, and fear instantly gripped his heart.
He recognized this man.
This was the Demon of the Hidden Mist, whose very name struck terror throughout the Land of Water-Zabuza Momochi!
Rumor had it that he had killed every student in his graduating class during the Ninja Academy's graduation exam. He was a cold-blooded killer through and through.
"Wh-what do you want?"
Haku tried to stand, but his legs went weak with fear.
"What do I want?"
Zabuza sneered, not a trace of pity in his eyes.
"In the Land of Water, monsters with Kekkei Genkai like you have only one fate: death."
"But your ability caught my eye."
He stepped forward, his immense killing intent pressing down on Haku as though it had physical substance.
"From today onward, you're my tool."
"A tool to kill for me."
"Your life is mine to command."
Zabuza's voice brooked no argument.
To him, all it took to handle a brat like this, wandering in fear, was a small display of power, and the boy would obediently submit.
Besides, he had just spotted a Kirigakure patrol boat fleeing in panic out at sea.
Clearly, these waters were unusual.
He needed a useful tool to clear the obstacles ahead of him, and he could plunder whatever supplies might be on this island while he was at it.
Haku bit his lip, his face pale.
A few days ago, he might truly have submitted to those words, believing this was his destiny.
But now, the man who had roughly ruffled his hair and shoved a bag of rice crackers into his hands appeared in his mind.
The man who had told him, "Around here, I'm the damn rules."
"No... I'm not a tool..."
Haku took a deep breath. Though his voice still trembled, his gaze grew firm.
"I'm... Uncle's number one chef!"
"Chef?"
Zabuza froze for a moment, then reacted as though he had heard the most ridiculous joke in the world.
"You have an Ice Release Kekkei Genkai, and you're cooking for someone?"
"What an utter waste!"
The killing intent in Zabuza's eyes intensified.
"It seems you still don't understand reality."
"If you won't obediently become my tool, then you and that ridiculous 'uncle' of yours can die here together!"
He raised the Kubikiribōchō, ready to first give this ungrateful brat a bloody lesson.
Just then.
Leisurely footsteps accompanied by crisp crunching sounds came from deep within the woods.
"Crunch... crunch..."
Zabuza frowned and abruptly turned toward the sound.
The bushes parted.
A tall, bronze-skinned young man wearing only a pair of shorts strolled out with both hands in his pockets.
The young man was chewing on a rice cracker he had gotten from who knew where.
It was Senju Kenya, who had come after hearing the commotion.
"Uncle!"
Seeing Kenya appear, Haku felt as though his savior had arrived. Most of the fear in his eyes instantly vanished.
"Hey, white-haired masked guy."
Kenya swallowed the rice cracker in his mouth. Without so much as glancing at Zabuza, he idly picked his ear.
"Who did you just say was going to die here?"
Zabuza narrowed his eyes, sizing up the completely unguarded young man before him.
He wore no forehead protector, and there were no chakra fluctuations coming from his body.
He looked like an ordinary fisherman.
Yet this "ordinary fisherman" instinctively gave him a faint sense of danger.
"You're the uncle this brat mentioned?"
Zabuza snorted coldly and drove the Kubikiribōchō heavily into the ground.
"I'm Zabuza Momochi of Kirigakure."
"Now, I'm taking this brat with me and requisitioning this island while I'm at it."
"If you know what's good for you, get out of my sight before I change my mind."
Zabuza's tone was arrogant and cold, filled with the oppressive authority of a superior.
In his eyes, giving his name was enough to make some bumpkin on a remote deserted island piss himself in fear.
Kenya's reaction, however, left him utterly astonished.
"Zabuza Momochi? Never heard of you."
Kenya took out another rice cracker, biting into it as he looked Zabuza's exaggeratedly large Kubikiribōchō up and down.
"But that blade of yours sure is big."
Kenya grinned, revealing two rows of white teeth.
"I just wonder whether a blade that big can take a headbutt from me."
Zabuza froze.
He could hardly believe his ears.
A headbutt?
Was this guy provoking him?
Or was he simply a lunatic with a death wish?
Ramming his forehead into the famous sword Kubikiribōchō?
"You're asking to die!"
Zabuza was thoroughly enraged.
Already filled with violent hostility from going rogue, he could no longer endure this almost humiliating provocation.
"If you want to die, I'll grant your wish!"
Zabuza snorted coldly, abruptly tightening both hands around the hilt.
Driving through his waist, he dragged the heavy Kubikiribōchō into motion, becoming a blur.
With a terrifying howl that tore through the air.
He slashed viciously toward Kenya's head!