c8 Meeting Again
At Tazuna's house, Kakashi realized something was wrong the moment he awoke. A true hunter-nin from Kirigakure would never leave the body intact and would normally destroy it immediately to prevent revival. Haku had used ordinary senbon, not specialized hunter-nin tools. That meant Zabuza was almost certainly still alive. This shocked the others, but with the situation already unfolding, they could only prepare. Kakashi proposed improving their combat ability through training, and although Sakura argued that catching up to Zabuza's level in such a short time was impossible, she fell silent when Kakashi mentioned the rapid progress Naruto and Sasuke had been making lately.
Just then Inari burst out, shouting, "It's useless! You're all going to die! Anyone who resists Gatō will die!" Naruto hated this kind of despair. To him, a person who gave up after one hardship was frustrating. He snapped, "Don't assume everyone is as useless as you are."
Inari tried to shout back, but Tazuna stopped him, and the boy ran upstairs in anger. Naruto didn't bother worrying about what he planned to do. In his mind, weakness should be met with effort, not complaining, and pessimism accomplished nothing.
Kakashi then led Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura into the nearby woods to begin chakra control training. The task was the Tree-Climbing Exercise using only the feet an essential technique in the manga. While it was difficult for Sakura and Sasuke, Naruto had practiced similar control methods earlier. As soon as Kakashi finished explaining, Naruto ran straight up to the treetop without hesitation, Sakura reached halfway, and Sasuke barely climbed at all. Kakashi even remarked, "So this is all the Uchiha can manage?" which nearly made Sasuke explode. He clenched his teeth and swore silently that he would surpass Naruto no matter what.
Naruto then said, "Teacher, I already mastered this long ago. Can you instruct me in other training?" Kakashi nodded. "Yes, this level isn't meaningful for you anymore. Come with me." He guided Naruto to a separate, open part of the forest.
Once there, Kakashi turned to Naruto. "Naruto, when I last saw you, you mastered the wind technique I taught you far faster than expected. Your Wind Style was even stronger than mine, since I'm not proficient in it. Your Fire Style must be similar by now. So next, I'll teach you how to combine Wind Style and Fire Style."
Naruto had long considered learning combination ninjutsu, but combining elements wasn't as simple as stacking techniques. It required chakra balance, perfect timing, and delicate control mastering it took great effort.
Kakashi himself rarely used combination ninjutsu. Not because he couldn't, but because his limited chakra made high-level combinations inefficient, especially while using Shadow Clones or maintaining Sharingan. But with thousands of copied jutsu in his memory, he still understood the theory. He began teaching Naruto the principles of elemental fusion and the proper timing to merge the two forces.
Yet learning a principle was one thing, and mastering it through practice was another. Combination training required multiple shadow clones working together, which slowed progress. Still, for Naruto, three days would be enough, especially since combining with his own clones was easier than coordinating with another ninja.
Meanwhile, Sasuke's intense training drastically increased his appetite, almost matching Naruto's bottomless hunger. Watching the two devour food, Kakashi couldn't help smiling. Sasuke's improvement was remarkable and worthy of the Uchiha name. Sakura also improved, though her naturally weaker physical abilities made progress slower and less noticeable.
As the days passed, Kakashi estimated that Zabuza would soon return. Naruto and the group followed Tazuna toward the bridge. Before leaving, Naruto created two shadow clones to guard Tazuna's family, just in case Gatō attempted a cowardly attack.
When they arrived at the bridge, thick mist was already forming. Recognizing Zabuza's signature Mist Jutsu, the group immediately became alert. Soon Zabuza and Haku stepped out of the fog. Haku's silent movements and soft voice contrasted sharply with Zabuza's killing intent, but his speed made him dangerously lethal. Naruto could handle it, but Sakura was clearly at risk.
Haku launched the first strike at Sasuke, but unlike their previous encounter, Sasuke wasn't blown away. Instead, he matched Haku's speed, blocking the attacks with improved precision. The several days of grueling training had clearly paid off. Zabuza was surprised to see Haku's attacks being resisted, although he still had confidence in Haku's superiority. But Zabuza's gaze soon drifted toward Naruto the factor that worried him the most.
After multiple failed attempts to overwhelm Sasuke, Haku activated his Kekkei Genkai: Demonic Ice Mirror Technique. The crystalline ice mirrors formed a dome around Sasuke, trapping him inside as Haku began striking at near-lightning speed. Sasuke could only defend in desperation.
Seeing that Haku used his strongest technique, Naruto prepared to support Sasuke from both inside and outside to break the ice mirrors more easily. But he suddenly felt it was meaningless to hesitate. Instead, Naruto stepped slowly into the dome. When Haku saw Naruto walk in, Zabuza laughed loudly. "At first I was worried, but now it's clear those two brats are finished. They walked into their own deaths. What idiocy."
After saying that, Zabuza swung the Kubikiribōchō toward Kakashi while simultaneously thickening the Hidden Mist Technique far beyond the density he used in their first encounter so heavy that vision dropped to zero. The purpose was clear: to obstruct the Sharingan's line of sight and recreate the ideal conditions for his Silent Killing Technique, a method Kakashi himself had described earlier using the seven points of killing.
Kakashi immediately fell into a disadvantage under the suffocating mist, and the situation was extremely unfavorable, especially with his chakra still not fully recovered from the previous battle. Every sound became a potential killing strike.
On the other side, as Naruto stepped deeper into Haku's Demonic Ice Mirror dome, he immediately noticed that Haku's speed was even faster than before, enhanced further by the reflective surfaces. Haku's movement synchronized perfectly with the mirrors of the Kekkei Genkai, and relying on pure taijutsu would be nearly meaningless. The most direct solution was to break the mirrors themselves, especially since Sasuke, though newly awakened Sharingan flickering in strain, was already overwhelmed.
Seeing this, Naruto created a shadow clone, rapidly forming hand seals. "Wind Style: Swift Wind Blade! Fire Style: Great Fireball Technique! Combination Ninjutsu Swift Wind Flame Blade!" Naruto's previous wind and fire techniques were already destructive, but with proper elemental fusion, the unleashed force tripled in intensity. Under the wind-strengthened flames, the normally durable Ice Mirrors capable of enduring kunai and fire attacks shattered with explosive force. Haku, caught mid-movement, was violently knocked out of the formation, severely injured and rendered unconscious rather than killed, his mask cracking as the flames dissipated.
Seeing Naruto's overwhelming ninjutsu, Sasuke's emotions surged, and in the chaos, his Sharingan fully awakened with two tomoe, reacting instinctively to the danger.
Sakura, watching from the outside, stared in astonishment as always, shocked again by Naruto's unexpected growth.
On the other side, Zabuza felt Haku collapse. He found it hard to believe that someone had broken the Ice Mirrors, yet in his mind, Haku was a tool raised for battle; even so, a faint flicker of anger surfaced. He continued attacking Kakashi under the cover of the dense mist, unwilling to retreat. Seeing the situation worsening, Naruto formed another seal: "Wind Style Great Tempest Burst!" A powerful gust erupted. Though lacking offensive power, the refined wind technique dispersed Zabuza's thick mist instantly, stripping away his greatest advantage.
With the fog gone, Kakashi's Sharingan regained full visibility. Reading Zabuza's movements clearly, he countered flawlessly. After several exchanges, Kakashi finally prepared his signature technique Lightning Blade, the perfected form of Chidori. It was also Naruto's first time witnessing it directly, and he could feel the sharpness of chakra with both nature and shape transformation combined. Guided by the Sharingan's perception, Kakashi charged through Zabuza's defense and struck him gravely, piercing through the chest area and ending the battle with precision.
Even as he fell, Zabuza maintained his fierce will, proving he was a formidable opponent until the end.
After Kakashi subdued Zabuza, Gatō unexpectedly arrived with a small group of hired thugs, believing Zabuza to be weakened beyond recovery. At the same moment, Naruto sensed information from the shadow clone he left at Tazuna's home Gatō's men had indeed tried attacking the family, only to be taken down by the clone before any harm could be done. Naruto always despised tyrants like Gatō, and before the thugs before him could utter more than a few threats, Naruto formed another sequence of seals and unleashed the combined wind-and-fire technique.
The gang of hired goons was engulfed by the overwhelming flames, collapsing in terror as the scorching blast sent them fleeing or incapacitated in shock and disbelief.
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