Chapter 148: Courage and Victory
Thunk!
The muffled sound of piercing flesh finally came. Facing Kakashi's ruthless follow-up thrust, Zabuza, who had been continuously harassed and struck, ultimately couldn't completely avoid it.
But Kakashi's kunai still didn't pierce his heart while dodging—instead it stabbed into the area below his collarbone.
This time, what splattered out was no longer clear water, but warm, crimson blood. The intense pain made Zabuza's face involuntarily twitch slightly, his brow furrowing tightly.
Not good!I'm injured, my movements will be affected! If this continues, I might really fall here! The strong sense of crisis instantly made Zabuza want to retreat.
He immediately endured the severe pain, trying to swing his long sword to force back the close Kakashi while gathering strength in his legs, preparing to immediately use Body Flicker to escape the battlefield.
However, just as he exerted force—
A powerful force suddenly tightened around his limbs and torso. Instantly binding him firmly!
The next moment, his entire body was yanked off the ground by this tremendous pulling force, flying backward uncontrollably, finally slamming with a "bang" against a nearby thick tree, bound tightly and unable to move!
Wires?!
Zabuza's expression changed drastically! He suddenly realized—it was those shuriken that had strangely curved in the air earlier and finally embedded in the trees!
Those shuriken were actually wrapped with extremely fine chakra threads! They hadn't missed at all, but were a trap that had been set up long ago.
He looked in shocked anger toward the source of this cunning attack—it was actually that brat in the back who had been quiet all along?!
Uchiha Satsuki had somehow already activated those crimson Sharingan, coldly locking onto him.
Her hands moved nimbly, even holding additional threads in her mouth.
Just moments ago, when that terrifying killing intent accumulated from Zabuza's countless life-and-death battles spread like a tangible force, Satsuki truly felt for the first time what Jonin-level pressure was like.
Enormous fear poured over her entire body like ice water. Her legs even involuntarily trembled slightly—that suffocating feeling of having no control over life and death...
She was almost swallowed by this fear.
Until she clearly heard Zabuza's murderous declaration—"And that brat... no wonder you were willing to let him get involved in the battle between us. It seems he indeed has the qualifications to be killed by me personally..."
He wanted to kill Naruto!
This sentence instantly pierced through all the fear in Satsuki's heart! For her, the possibility of losing Naruto was far more terrifying than death itself!
That threat and the accompanying fear instead completely activated all the courage and strength within her in a decisive way!
Absolutely... not allowed!
To protect Naruto, she could overcome any fear.
"Damn it... don't think you can trap me with something like this!"
Zabuza, bound tightly to the tree trunk by chakra threads, roared angrily. His muscles suddenly bulged as he explosively exerted brute force, actually trying to forcibly break the threads through pure physical strength!
Seeing this, Satsuki immediately bit down on most of the controlling threads in her mouth to fix them, freeing her hands to form seals—Snake-Ram-Monkey-Boar-Horse-Tiger! This was the Uchiha clan's signature Fire Style.
"Fire Style: Great Fireball Technique!"
The moment the seals completed, blazing flames immediately spewed from Satsuki's mouth! But these flames rapidly spread along those chakra threads wrapped around Zabuza! The transparent threads carried the fire racing toward the trapped target, about to engulf Zabuza.
However, just as the flames spread halfway, about to reach Zabuza's body—
Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!
Several extremely subtle yet sharp sounds of cutting air suddenly rang out. Several gleaming senbon shot from the dense forest to the side, severing the chakra threads.
The threads snapped. The flames spreading along them lost their anchor, suddenly stopping midway and dissipating.
Not good! Zabuza's reinforcements?! Alarm bells rang in Kakashi's mind.
Just as the threads fell away and Zabuza regained his freedom, Kakashi didn't hesitate—his hands had already completed another seal! He took a deep breath, his chest expanding—
"Fire Style: Great Fireball Technique!"
A fireball larger and hotter than what Satsuki had unleashed gushed from Kakashi's mouth, directly bombing toward Zabuza who had just broken free and hadn't yet stabilized his footing!
Just as another blazing fireball was about to engulf Zabuza—a thick, solid ice wall appeared out of nowhere in front of him!
BOOM!!!
Kakashi's Great Fireball struck the ice wall squarely. High temperature violently collided with solid ice, instantly producing massive white water vapor that spread out, further obscuring the already thick mist.
"Ice Release?!"
Kakashi's Sharingan clearly caught sight of that rapidly melting ice wall, his heart shaking as he immediately recognized this bloodline limit.
In the spreading water vapor and thick fog, a figure wearing a Kirigakure Anbu mask with a slender build could be vaguely seen quickly supporting the heavily injured Zabuza. The next moment, both figures blurred like melting into the mist—
Body Flicker Technique!
When the white water vapor and surrounding thick fog gradually dispersed, Zabuza's original position was already completely empty, leaving only that ice wall still dripping water and rapidly melting, along with a few drops of not-yet-dried blood on the ground.
Momochi Zabuza and his mysterious ally had completely vanished.
---
After carefully confirming that Momochi Zabuza and his mysterious ally had indeed fled far away, Kakashi's tense nerves finally relaxed. He turned around, his gaze sweeping over his three subordinates.
He first affirmed the performance of the other two main combatants, then looked at Sakura who had steadfastly maintained her post, acknowledging that she had also done well, consistently fulfilling her duty by protecting the client.
Perhaps because this time he had Naruto and Satsuki's powerful assistance sharing most of the pressure, Kakashi didn't experience the fainting from chakra exhaustion like in the original story—he was only slightly fatigued.
On the continued journey to Tazuna's home, to let his students fully understand the danger of their recent opponent, Kakashi detailed Momochi Zabuza's background for the three.
Kirigakure's rogue Jonin, Momochi Zabuza, nicknamed—'Demon.'
Famous for mastering silent assassination techniques, he was an extremely dangerous opponent. His past: on his graduation day, he single-handedly killed all his fellow graduates... This bloody incident directly caused changes to Kirigakure's cruel graduation policy.
After hearing Kakashi's account, Sakura's face was full of lingering fear. She had been secretly frustrated earlier for not being able to directly participate in combat, but now truly realized they had faced such a notoriously terrifying figure.
Satsuki's heart was similarly filled with gravity. Though the strength Naruto displayed might already exceed her own, the more this was the case, the stronger her protective instincts became.
As for Naruto, while listening to Kakashi's introduction, he was thinking about completely different matters.
Momochi Zabuza, and Haku. He was calculating what kind of persuasive tactics to use when next recruiting these two while wearing the Menma disguise...
Finally, the remaining journey proceeded without further incident. The group safely arrived at the residence of Tazuna, his daughter, and grandson.
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