Within the dense fog, a sudden furious roar echoed out.
"Wind Release: Great Breakthrough!"
A violent burst of chakra exploded, unleashing a hurricane that swept across the battlefield like a tidal wave, instantly tearing through the thick mist!
Naruto and his shadow clones appeared before everyone, their faces lit by confident grins.
Zabuza Momochi's face instantly went pale. "What... what kind of chakra is that?! How can a recently graduated genin possess such terrifying power?!"
Uzumaki Naruto made a blazing entrance. His arms crossed, his hair windswept and wild, his clothes dusty and rumpled, but his eyes sparkled with energy and unshakable confidence.
Facing Jonin Zabuza Momochi's Water Release: Hidden Mist Technique, Naruto used his Wind Release: Great Breakthrough to scatter the fog completely, directly countering his opponent's assassination technique and breaking his vision-based advantage.
Kakashi smiled with relief, his eye curved into a crescent. Hinata let out a happy gasp as she saw Naruto break through.
"Naruto-kun!"
Sasuke frowned on the surface and scoffed, "Hmph, such a show-off…" Yet, deep down, a heavy weight had been lifted from his own heart.
Everything had unfolded in a burst of intensity: the fog, the blade flashing through the mist, and the near-fatal strike on Tazuna that only Kakashi's quick defense had stopped. What truly worried them, though, was Naruto, who was caught in the thick of the mist—an obvious target for a trap.
But seeing Naruto tear through the mist with Wind Release: Great Breakthrough, both Sasuke and Hinata exhaled in relief.
Zabuza, for his part, was astonished.
"Wind Release: Great Breakthrough? He blew away my Hidden Mist Technique? How can a yellow-haired brat have this kind of power?!"
For a newly graduated genin to master a technique like this would already be impressive. But the sheer volume of chakra, the range and strength of the wind, and its violent force went far beyond anything normal—he looked like a miniature Tailed Beast.
Kakashi, still guarding Tazuna, Hinata, and Sasuke, smiled and stepped forward. "Zabuza Momochi, I warned you! Underestimate Naruto, and you'll regret it. And not just Naruto—my whole Team 7 is made up of true geniuses."
Zabuza's masked face twitched. His gaze sharpened. "Kakashi Hatake, these kids don't scare me."
Zabuza suddenly launched his attack, his form nearly blinking out of sight and reappearing behind Tazuna in a breath, swinging his executioner's blade with deadly intent.
"Die!"
Kakashi moved with lightning speed, anticipating Zabuza's move and intercepting the strike with his kunai. The clash rang out like thunder, saving Tazuna again.
"As expected of Kakashi," Zabuza sneered, but the fight was far from over.
"Kakashi-sensei, watch out!" Naruto called out.
A figure appeared behind Kakashi, swinging the executioner's blade. With a loud bang, it cleaved Kakashi in two at the waist!
"Kakashi-sensei!" Hinata gasped, eyes wide with horror.
Sasuke's brow furrowed. "Is it a water clone? Or…"
Zabuza sneered. "Got him!"
He and his water clone rushed for Tazuna. However, a kunai suddenly pierced one of the bodies.
Splatter—
Zabuza spun in shock. "Kakashi Hatake, that was a clone too?"
"When did…"
Kakashi's voice was even. "The moment you used Water Clone, I copied the technique myself."
Zabuza's clone turned into a puddle. His real body on the far side exhaled a freezing breath. "So you really are the Copy Ninja. But you've made one mistake…"
A cold, predatory grin split Zabuza's lips as he saw Kakashi's realization dawn.
Kakashi's eyes went wide. He whipped around toward the direction of the mist. "Naruto! Watch out!"
At that moment, a silent, predatory presence loomed behind Naruto. The executioner's blade sliced through the air—a perfect silent killing. Before Naruto or anyone else could react, the blade slammed toward his neck.
Crack.
Bones shattered. Naruto's head rolled onto the ground.
"Naruto-kun!" Hinata shrieked, her heart stopping.
Sasuke stared in disbelief. "What... how could this be…?"
But, the next instant—clang!—Kakashi and Zabuza's clones clashed again, then split apart. Both men glanced back.
Where Naruto appeared to have been beheaded, there was no body—just a swirl of wind that dispersed in the air, leaving only silence.
His true body had already appeared several meters away.
"Wh-what was that?!"
"Body Flicker? No… that's not a normal Body Flicker. To leave a wind afterimage behind and boost your speed with Wind Release…"
Zabuza, elite as he was, stared with growing astonishment. This was the Wind Body Flicker Technique—a new ninjutsu never before seen in the ninja world.
"You mean to tell me," he muttered, "that's a ninjutsu you created yourself, kid?!"
Kakashi, Hinata, and Sasuke's hearts pounded. They all remembered this was Naruto's own self-created technique. Naruto laughed, pleased. "That's right! How about that—amazing, isn't it? If it weren't for that move, I would've been dead just now!"
On the outside, Naruto was calm, but inside he was drenched in cold sweat. Only Kakashi's shout had spurred him to instinctively use the Body Flicker, escaping a certain death. His thoughts raced: *That's a real Jonin. I still can't take him head-on at this level.*
Zabuza clenched the executioner's blade, his hand trembling. How could the Demon of the Hidden Mist—one of the world's most feared jonin, a silent-killing specialist—fail to kill a youngster, even with the perfect ambush?
The stand-off was about to get even more intense.