Chapter 18: The Ghost's Wrath
"Fire Release: Great Fireball Jutsu!"
The roaring inferno tore through the remaining clone-smoke, its intense heat flash-boiling the moisture in the air and the residual puddles. The Zabuza water clones caught in the blast dissolved into nothing more than hissing steam.
On the shore, Tazuna stared, slack-jawed. These kids had just obliterated a tenth of that monster's power. Sakura let out a shaky cheer, a mix of awe and painful self-awareness at her own comparative helplessness.
From within his water prison, Zabuza's real body scowled, though his voice remained a drawl of contempt. "So you popped a few water balloons. Big deal. My real hand is still free. What can you brats possibly do to me?"
"We'll see," Naruto shot back, his mind calculating vectors and vulnerabilities. He locked eyes with Sasuke. "Cover me!"
Ignoring the stunned looks from Sakura and Tazuna, Naruto took a running leap and landed on the river's surface. His chakra control, refined through wind manipulation and shadow clone strain, held him firm. He didn't sink; he sprinted across the water, a blur of motion aimed straight at the immobilized Zabuza.
Sasuke didn't question. Her hands were already a blur, pulling shuriken from her pouch. With the innate, deadly grace of the Uchiha, she let them fly. They weren't thrown in a volley, but in a sequenced, interlocking pattern—one high, one low, one curving from the left, another banking from the right—a net of cold steel designed to limit evasion.
Zabuza's single visible eye narrowed. Annoying. He batted aside two shuriken with a flick of his wrist, twisted his torso to let a third whistle past his ribs. But the fourth, coming from his blind spot as he adjusted, and Naruto, now within striking distance with a kunai aimed at his kidney, presented a simultaneous threat.
He couldn't block both. Not without letting go.
With a snarl of pure frustration, he released his right hand from the water prison, using it to slap away the final shuriken. His left hand came up in a desperate parry to meet Naruto's thrust.
Naruto's attack never landed. The moment Zabuza committed to the block, Naruto's body flowed with the change. He pulled the kunai back, using the momentum to plant his foot and pivot, his other leg snapping up in a vicious, chakra-enhanced roundhouse kick that slammed into Zabuza's exposed ribcage.
THUD!
The sound was solid, wet. The force of the blow, amplified by Naruto's dense physical training and forward momentum, lifted Zabuza off his feet. He skidded backwards across the water's surface for several meters before catching his balance, the water churning around his ankles.
He stood up slowly. The casual arrogance was gone, burned away by public humiliation. Being repelled, being touched, by a genin—a child—while he held a prized jonin captive… It was an insult that scorched his pride down to the bone. Rage, cold and murderous, replaced disdain.
A new, far more intense wave of killing intent erupted from him, so potent it seemed to darken the mist around him. Chakra, dense and wild, roiled off his body, causing the river's surface to shiver and peak.
"You… little insect," Zabuza growled, his voice a promise of evisceration. His hands flashed through a series of seals—Boar, Dog, Bird, Monkey, Boar, Snake—
"Water Release: Water Dragon Bullet Technique!"
The river erupted. A colossal serpent of water, all fangs and fury, surged from the depths, towering over Naruto. It blocked out the grey sky, its maw opened in a silent roar before plunging down, a tsunami given form, aimed to obliterate the blond speck on the water.
"NARUTO!" Sakura screamed, her hands flying to her mouth.
On the shore, Sasuke's blood ran cold. This was no longer a test; this was an execution.
Naruto braced, his mind racing for a counter he didn't have. The scale of the jutsu was overwhelming.
"Water Release: Water Dragon Bullet Technique!"
The second voice came from behind Naruto. Kakashi, free and furious, stood with his Sharingan eye blazing red. An identical titan of water rose to meet Zabuza's, its form a mirror image born of copied seals.
The two elemental giants met mid-air.
KABOOOOOOOM—!
The collision was cataclysmic. A shockwave of concussive force and displaced water blasted outward. Naruto was caught in the maelstrom, a leaf in a hurricane. The torrent snatched him up, tumbling him end over end before hurling him onto the muddy bank in a soaked, gasping heap.
Cough! Splutter! He pushed himself up, dripping and shaken. The sheer, raw power of a high-level ninjutsu clash was a visceral lesson no training could replicate. I'm still far out of my league.
"Are you alright, you idiot?!" Sakura was at his side in an instant, her fear morphing into frantic concern as she helped him sit up.
Naruto wiped water from his eyes, his focus already returning. "I'm fine. Sakura, get back to Tazuna. The fight's not over." His tone was urgent, practical.
The concern on her face twisted into hurt anger. "You… you ungrateful jerk! I was worried about you!" She shoved away from him and stalked back to her post, fuming.
Naruto blinked, momentarily confused by her reaction, but the battle on the river demanded his attention. He saw Sasuke staring at him from a distance, her expression unreadable—a mix of shock at his survival, assessment of his actions, and a dawning, competitive respect.
The duel between the two jonin intensified, a breathtaking dance of water clones, taijutsu feints, and genjutsu layered upon substitution. Naruto watched, absorbing every detail, the Rasengan and Wind Cutter forgotten. This was a masterclass in applied shinobi combat.
Finally, with a combination of trickery and the Sharingan's predictive power, Kakashi gained the upper hand. Zabuza lay defeated, immobilized by Kakashi's kunai at his throat.
Just as Kakashi moved for the final stroke, a new figure materialized between them in a swirl of mist. A porcelain mask depicting a feline smile, the standard attire of Kirigakure's Hunter-Nin.
"My thanks for subduing this criminal," a gentle, androgynous voice stated from behind the mask. "He is a target of Kirigakure's Anbu Hunter Corps. I will take custody."
Haku.
Naruto knew. He felt the lie in the gentle tone, saw the protective stance over Zabuza. But he also felt the immense, icy chakra radiating from the masked ninja. To call out the deception now, with Kakashi exhausted and his team spent, was suicide. He remained silent, his face a careful mask of weary acceptance.
Kakashi, panting heavily, his Sharingan eye squeezed shut in pain, weighed the situation. He nodded wearily. "Very well. He's yours."
With a curt nod, Haku gathered the 'corpse' of Zabuza and vanished into the thickening mist as silently as he had arrived.
"Sensei… something felt off about that Hunter-Nin," Sakura ventured once they were gone.
Kakashi offered a tired, knowing smile. "Perhaps…" Then his legs buckled. The massive chakra drain of the Sharingan and the high-level water jutsu finally claimed him. He pitched forward.
Naruto was there in an instant, catching him before he hit the ground. "He's just out cold. Chakra exhaustion. He needs rest."
They made it to Tazuna's small, weathered house in the poor fishing village of the Land of Waves. The old man, profoundly grateful, gave them his best room. Kakashi now lay on a simple futon, his breathing even but deep with fatigue.
Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura sat around him in the dim light. The adrenaline had faded, leaving behind the stark reality of their situation. They were in a foreign, hostile country, their sensei was incapacitated, and two of the most dangerous missing-nin in the world knew exactly where they were and would be coming for them.
The easy rhythm of D-ranks was a distant memory. The path had led them into deep, dangerous waters, and they would have to learn to swim—or drown—together.