Zabuza's hideout, like Tazuna's new home, sat deep in the forest. The thick canopy turned even morning into twilight.
Kakashi and the two boys were hidden in brush nearby, scanning the area.
"Looks like no traps," Naruto murmured after a sweep.
Kakashi nodded. "I strike first. You two hold the masked kid. If something goes wrong, retreat immediately."
Naruto glanced sideways. Sasuke's body was trembling slightly. He chuckled. "What, you got Parkinson's?"
"No." Sasuke shook his head, eyes blazing with excitement. "That's adrenaline."
"Nice. You go fight Zabuza."
"…Not impossible."
Naruto could practically see Sasuke's imaginary tail wagging. He was honestly looking forward to seeing whether Sasuke or Haku got beaten harder.
Sasuke's current strength was way beyond canon. Normal assumptions didn't apply anymore.
Suddenly, the three heard dense movement in the woods.
Shadow after shadow erupted around them like mushrooms after rain, spreading into a search formation.
Most of them wore ninja headbands.
"Shit," Naruto muttered. The situation had diverged again. He was starting to think Gato was literally a cockroach.
How the hell did the enemy "reproduce" this fast…?
Kakashi signaled them to hold their breath and stay put.
Still too early to blow their cover.
Naruto thought quickly: Zabuza's personality wasn't the cooperative type, and his style leaned toward assassination. He wouldn't enjoy working with crowds.
Okay. If we clash, I'll talk-no-jutsu him into suspecting these guys.
Then a man in the middle, head wrapped in a cloth, shouted, "You still won't come out?"
Naruto's scalp went numb.
Is he calling us out?
No way. How could they know our timing?
Someone next to him clicked his tongue. "Chingu, you're that sure they're hiding here?"
"The Boss is godlike. He can't be wrong," the headscarf man said with fanatical certainty.
"I'll flush them out. Fire Style—"
His hands began to seal rapidly.
Naruto's hair stood on end. He hissed, "Holy— they're serious. Boss, what do we do?"
Kakashi: "Withdraw first."
The headscarf man finished. "Fire Dragon Bullet!"
Heat surged everywhere. Naruto and Sasuke sprang apart—but their movement exposed them.
Kakashi lifted his headband, about to cover their retreat—
Then felt a blade at his back.
"Heh. Your opponent is me."
Zabuza appeared from nowhere, sword tip pressed to Kakashi's spine.
"Zabuza…" Kakashi's eyes sharpened to razors.
"Don't turn around," Zabuza drawled. "If you point that Sharingan at me, I'll slice you in half."
Naruto dodged several shuriken and yelled, "Zabuza! You a dog for Gato now?!"
Zabuza snapped his head around, murder in his eyes. "The commissions I take only allow success. Failure isn't an option!"
Then he grinned at Kakashi—playful, savage. "Besides, Gato still has some use left in him."
"Don't you think so, chingu?"
Naruto knew what he meant, but still felt sick. Can you not talk like that?!
"Chingu" again?? Are you obsessed?!
Naruto gained a whole new respect for Gato's brainwashing. Give it a few more days and Zabuza would be wearing a Korean trench coat…
On the other side—
Clink! Sasuke spun and caught Haku's senbon with a kunai.
"Good speed," Haku said lightly, as if Sasuke's improvement meant nothing.
Sasuke glanced toward Zabuza and bit out, "Are you insane? You'd help a monster like Gato?!"
"I only obey Zabuza-san," Haku answered coolly. "His orders are absolute. My life itself belongs to him—"
Sasuke's irritation spiked. He flashed in with a kick to create space and sealed instantly.
"Fire Style: Great Fireball Jutsu!"
A massive fireball swallowed the nearby ninja. Compared to the one he'd shown Fugaku before, this was nearly twice as large.
His chakra control and output had leaped forward just like Naruto's.
Haku slipped through it like a phantom, reappeared in a dead angle on a tree trunk, and fired senbon at Sasuke's neck.
But Sasuke rolled aside smoothly, sneering.
"You keep chanting Zabuza this, Zabuza that—do you have any will of your own?!"
His voice was heavy with disgust.
Once, he'd followed someone blindly too—only to be betrayed, his clan wiped out. Blind faith had birthed his pain.
Now he'd use power to "correct" Haku's worldview.
He flickered in close. Haku met every strike, serene and unhurried.
"I have at least one advantage right now," Haku said calmly. "I've pinned you with only one hand. That leaves my other hand free to threaten you."
He began sealing one-handed.
Sasuke's mind flashed back to something Naruto had said during tree-climbing training.
…
"Sasuke, that masked guy's jutsu are weird as hell. I thought about it for a long time and found a universal way to break him."
Sasuke had looked down at him. "What 'universal way' could a loser like you come up with?"
"Don't act cool in front of me," Naruto had waved him off. "Listen. Zabuza's a water guy. If the masked kid grew up under him, his jutsu are probably water-style too."
"So what counters Water Style?"
…
"You missed one thing," Sasuke said coldly to Haku. "I'm also pinning you with one hand."
He yanked a nearly invisible wire in his other hand.
BOOOOM!! BOOOOM!!
The ground beneath them detonated. Smoke swallowed both figures.
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