Zabuza stood up again. Sticking his great sword into the ground beside him, he quickly formed hand seals.
"Water Style! Hidden Mist Jutsu!"
His faint voice echoed through the suddenly thick fog, which completely obscured his figure. Asuma, still panting, came to Kusuo's side, his expression grim. Their worst fear had come to pass. The enemy was a powerful missing-nin from the Hidden Mist Village. In this environment, the power of Water Style ninjutsu was amplified to its peak.
In this battle, they were at a complete disadvantage.
Humans have a biological instinct to fear the unknown. Just as they fear the darkness because it obstructs their vision, leading them to yearn for light, being in a thick fog elicited the same feeling. Their vision was blanketed in white, and the helplessness and loneliness of not even being able to see their own teammates enveloped them all.
A fragile look appeared on Hinata's face. Though she was strong on the inside, even she couldn't adapt to this pace. On her first mission away from the protection of her family, she had run into such a terrifying killer. Confusion and fear crept into her heart.
A hand took hers. It was warm, large, and even had many calluses from training.
"Kusuo!" Hinata said with surprise. Instantly, all the fear, confusion, and uncertainty vanished like smoke in the wind. Although she couldn't see him, she knew that he was there. With him, she felt completely at ease.
"Don't worry. I've got this," he said, giving her hand a gentle squeeze. The warmth gave her immense comfort.
"Mm!" Hinata nodded forcefully, no longer as nervous.
...
"Water Style! Water Dragon Bullet Jutsu!"
Zabuza, who had been lying in wait, suddenly struck. He opened with a major technique. A water dragon, which in the original story took half an hour of hand seals to form, raised its high head and lunged down, its target the children.
"Chakra Blade: Kiku-ichimonji!"
SWISH! A broad back flashed forward. Asuma swung his Wind Blade, and the powerful gale and wind-natured chakra briefly blew away the surrounding mist, meeting the imposing water dragon head-on.
BANG!
With one strike, the water dragon was shattered, turning into a shower of water that rained down on them. Asuma flashed his blade again, deflecting all the water droplets.
"The Hokage's son has some tricks up his sleeve," a faint voice of praise came from the thick mist. It was hard to tell if it was mockery or confidence. After his Water Dragon Jutsu failed, Zabuza didn't try again, instead waiting for another opportunity. The situation reached a stalemate.
"My father's scrolls mentioned that Lord Second also used this jutsu. The hand seals are troublesome, and it consumes a lot of chakra," Asuma said, holding his kunai and standing in front of Tazuna and Naruto. His words, however, were directed at Kusuo.
Troublesome hand seals? High chakra consumption? Kusuo didn't know whether to laugh. The Second Hokage and the Fifth Mizukage could cast the Water Dragon Bullet instantly without any hand seals. The so-called limitations of jutsu were only constraints for the weak. The truly strong could always break through any and all restrictions.
Soon, another intense chakra fluctuation was felt. A giant sphere of water nearly ten meters in diameter descended from the sky, coming at them with immense force.
"Not good! It's the Great Waterfall Technique!" Asuma's face changed drastically as he looked up. The water sphere was absorbing the mist and water droplets along its path, growing larger and larger. The sheer volume of water was like a small waterfall crashing down on them.
"Get back!" Asuma yelled, having no effective means to counter the technique. Naruto grabbed Tazuna and ran for his life. In that moment, the old man's body was no longer frail; Naruto's wide eyes even noticed that he was running faster than him.
Hinata's first instinct was also to flee, but the warm touch of the hand holding hers told her that Kusuo was still by her side. A strange sense of security made her stop.
"Sun Breathing, Fifth Form—Fire Wheel," Kusuo whispered.
VMM!
With his other hand, Kusuo raised his katana and swung it forward gently.
One slash. Just one light, almost lazy slash. It cut through everything.
A flaming sword aura, like a charging fire wheel, rushed forward and sliced through the increasingly menacing sphere of water. Fire met water vapor. The two elements entangled, devoured each other, and turned into a sky full of steam.
The others looked up in astonishment, realizing that the Great Waterfall Technique, which they had seen as a death sentence just moments ago, had been so easily neutralized. Hinata stared blankly at the steam spreading across the sky. It was a different color from the surrounding pale mist, like white clouds, slowly rising and dancing in the heavens.
"Hinata, do you know how rainbows are formed?"
Hearing Kusuo's sudden question, Hinata let out a small "ah," not having processed it.
Kusuo, still holding her hand, continued to look at the sky. "A rainbow is formed when a beautiful and kind girl meets the boy she loves."
The moment his voice fell, the white steam in the sky was cooled by the cold mist of Zabuza's jutsu, condensing into droplets of water. The sunlight shone down, refracting through the countless tiny droplets, the light scattering in all directions and reflecting off each other. Mapped out from a specific angle, it formed a beautiful rainbow, stretching across the sky.
"It's so beautiful!" Hinata exclaimed excitedly.
Hiding within the mist, Zabuza was aware of every little thing that was happening. At this moment, his face was ashen. A pair of little brats were shamelessly showing off their affection right in front of him, as if he didn't even exist. This was a complete and utter lack of respect.
Dammit. The humiliation.
Zabuza was furious, the muscles around his nose twitching. He was going to teach them a lesson. A bloody lesson. He would make them know what fear was. The name "Zabuza, the Demon" was not just for show.
-------
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