Naruto, having entered Sage Mode, flashed instantly to stand in front of Tazuna. Relying on his heightened sensory perception, he locked onto Zabuza's position and the exact trajectory of the Executioner's Blade as it came sweeping down.
Clang!
Naruto thrust out his right hand and, with flawless precision, caught the blade of the massive sword in his palm.
"What?!"
Zabuza froze, disbelief written all over his face. His assassination strike—one of his sure-kill techniques—had been stopped by a mere genin from the Leaf. And not by dodging or parrying—Naruto had grabbed the weapon with his bare hand.
This was no ordinary weapon. What he wielded was one of the Seven Ninja Swords of the Mist—the Executioner's Blade. Its reputation was legendary, famed both for its unmatched sharpness and its seemingly indestructible durability. A sword that truly lived up to the phrase "cutting through iron like clay."
And yet… that same blade had been caught, barehanded, by a genin.
"This is impossible…"
Zabuza sucked in a cold breath, his thoughts spinning. None of this made sense. None of it.
According to the intel he had, the one leading this group should have been Senju Haruto of the Leaf—the man who had killed the Fourth Mizukage on the battlefield. The man whose single act had thrown the entire Hidden Mist Village into chaos.
It was because of that defeat that the newly appointed Mizukage had been forced to implement the infamous "Blood Mist Policy," brutally culling and hardening Mist shinobi in hopes of restoring their strength. Countless ninja had been forced to live in a nightmare of violence and death.
And Zabuza himself—he was one of the monsters birthed from that very hell.
And yet the architect of all that chaos was here, in front of him. Senju Haruto.
"With Haruto's level of strength, he should already be considered Kage-class… but Tazuna? He's nothing but a bridge builder from the Land of Waves…"
Zabuza clenched his teeth. How on earth had a penniless old man like Tazuna managed to hire someone like Haruto? And more than that—what the hell was going on with this blond brat?
Snarling, he tightened his grip on the Executioner's Blade. The muscles in his arms bulged as he poured all his strength into forcing the weapon down, trying to overpower Naruto. If he could push him back for even a heartbeat, he could slip through the gap and finish off Tazuna.
"As long as I'm here, you'll never harm our client!"
Naruto felt the immense pressure bearing down through the blade. But even if Zabuza was a jonin, even if he put his entire body into this strike, Naruto in Sage Mode was no ordinary opponent. At full power, he could lift a stone statue the size of a mountain toad.
And with a sharp burst of force, Naruto's grip tightened. Cracks spiderwebbed across the Executioner's Blade, racing across the steel with alarming speed.
Crack—crack—CRASH!
In less than a few breaths, the legendary sword had reached its limit. Zabuza's proud Executioner's Blade shattered into fragments, shards of steel exploding outward in every direction.
Naruto instantly released Sage Mode and shifted into his golden Nine-Tails Chakra Cloak. A glowing arm of chakra burst from his left shoulder, sweeping around to shield Tazuna like an impenetrable wall. The shards of the Executioner's Blade clattered harmlessly against it.
Even though his sensory ability was slightly weaker in this form compared to Sage Mode, Naruto could still clearly sense Zabuza's presence directly before him. He raised his right hand, spiraling chakra gathering into a visible blue sphere that whirled with destructive force.
"Rasengan!"
With a low, guttural shout, Naruto slammed the swirling sphere of chakra into Zabuza's left shoulder.
BOOM!
Zabuza's eyes widened in shock. Never in his wildest dreams had he imagined he would fall to a brat from Konoha. His body spun like a severed kite, flung violently backwards before slamming into the ground.
But Naruto wasn't finished. Another chakra arm erupted from his back, stretching several meters long before it slammed down into the earth, unleashing a wave of force that dispersed the suffocating mist Zabuza had conjured.
Only then did Sasuke and Sakura finally manage to see Tazuna again.
"What the hell just happened…"
Sasuke let out a shaky breath, clutching a kunai as he dashed to Tazuna's side. His eyes darted around the now-cleared battlefield.
Back when the mist had been thick, Sasuke had sworn to himself that he would protect Tazuna at any cost. But the truth was… his legs had felt like they were weighed down by lead.
The suffocating pressure of not knowing where Zabuza was—unable to see his comrades, unable to predict from where death might strike—had paralyzed him. For the first time in his life, he had felt certain he was going to die.
He hadn't even dared to move.
By comparison, what Naruto had just done seemed unreal. He had not only predicted Zabuza's position but had overpowered him one-on-one. And on top of that, Naruto had blown away the choking mist itself.
The realization gnawed at Sasuke's chest like acid. Both of them were genin. He was the heir of the Uchiha clan, hailed as a genius. So how—how could there be such a gap between them?
"Na… Naruto…"
Sakura was no less shaken. As the fog dispersed, she saw Zabuza slammed against a tree, clutching the broken hilt of his ruined sword. His left shoulder was twisted grotesquely, sweat dripping down his brow as his breathing turned ragged.
In only a few breaths, the man who had filled them all with suffocating dread was reduced to this pitiful state.
"This kid…"
Tazuna's throat tightened as his eyes flicked between Naruto and Zabuza. Moments ago, he had felt certain death looming over him. Zabuza's killing intent had been so overwhelming that he thought his life would end here.
But it hadn't been Senju Haruto or Kakashi who saved him. It had been the smallest, loudest, most reckless one of the group—the one he had underestimated most.
Was this the true power of a shinobi?
"How… how could a brat like this exist…"
Zabuza gasped for breath, each lungful rasping harshly. He knew the truth: if Naruto had aimed his Rasengan at his chest instead of his shoulder, it would have been over. He would already be dead.
Given the boy's height and angle, it was clear—Naruto had deliberately pulled back at the last moment. He had spared him.
"I never thought… that I, Momochi Zabuza, would end up in such a miserable sta—"
But before he could finish, three silver senbon whistled out of nowhere, embedding themselves cleanly into his neck.
The sudden impact wrenched his body sideways, and he collapsed heavily to the ground.
"What the—?!"
Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura all froze, eyes snapping around for the source of the attack.
A masked figure leapt gracefully down from the trees, landing beside Zabuza's fallen body.
"Thank you so much," the masked ninja said softly. "I've been waiting for an opportunity to finish Zabuza for a long time…"