Time inside the ice dome flowed differently—not in seconds, but in heartbeats. Ragged, panicked beats punctuated by flashes of pain and the ringing of metal.
Sasuke Uchiha was down on one knee. His chest heaved, greedily grasping for the frosty air. His body burned: thin needles protruded from his forearms, thighs, and back, turning him into something resembling a straw doll. Hot, sticky blood soaked his clothes, trickling down his skin, creating a grim contrast with the snowy puffs of steam erupting from his mouth.
He didn't see the enemy.
He saw only himself. In twenty-one mirrors, the same thing was reflected: a distorted, bloodied face. The face of a failure.
Claustrophobia squeezed his throat with icy pincers. The mirrors didn't just stand there—they pressed in, multiplying his shame, turning the space into an endless labyrinth of defeat.
"You are too slow here," Haku's voice sounded from everywhere at once, vibrating inside his skull.
WHOOSH!
The whistle of sliced air. A new needle buried itself in his deltoid muscle. Sasuke jerked, grinding his teeth to stifle a scream. The Sharingan had still not awakened, and normal vision was powerless against the speed of a Kekkei Genkai.
"Damn... damn..." the whisper mixed with blood on his lips.
Chakra was running low. Fire consumed his reserves, and the ice around him sucked away the very warmth of life.
Suddenly, the mirrored surface of one of the slabs rippled. A web of cracks raced across the perfect surface, as if the glass had been struck by a hammer.
"What?" Haku's voice wavered.
CRASH!
The sound was like an explosion. The ice slab shattered into dust, showering the bridge with a rain of sharp shards. Through the opening, along with a swirl of mist, a figure in black flew in.
Naruto Uzumaki landed in the center of the dome, standing back-to-back with Sasuke.
A kunai was gripped in his hand, but the threat didn't come from the weapon.
The air around Naruto's body trembled, distorting the light like heat haze over asphalt at noon. But it wasn't the heat of fire. It was the cold, crushing density of his will—concentrated Qi, ready to burst forth.
Sasuke stared at him, forgetting the pain for a second. A lump rose in his throat.
"You..." the Uchiha exhaled. His voice cracked into a scream that mixed disbelief with impotent rage. "What are you doing?! You were supposed to attack from the outside! Why did you climb inside, idiot?! Now we're both trapped!"
Naruto didn't even turn his head.
Qi Sensory activated.
"Shut up, Sasuke," his voice sounded frighteningly even against the backdrop of his partner's hysteria. "You aren't handling it. If I had stayed outside, in less than a minute you would be a corpse."
"I didn't ask for help!" Sasuke roared, trying to stand, but his knees buckled as if his legs had atrophied.
"I know. But we have a mission. And you are my shield, which right now is as full of holes as a sieve."
In the mirrors, Haku's reflection slowly raised a hand with a senbon. But no strike followed. The youth in the mask looked at the intruder.
He recognized this energy. A calm river flowing in the depths of a stormy ocean.
"You..." Haku's voice became quieter, carrying a note of genuine sadness. "The boy from the forest."
Naruto's gaze immediately found the correct mirror—the one where the real person, not a reflection, was hiding.
"Hello. Pity we had to meet again so soon."
"Why did you come?" Haku asked. "You are smart. You saw the structure of the technique. You could have run. Why come to die?"
"I told you this morning," Naruto shifted his grip on the kunai to reverse, muscles tensing. "I chose to be a warrior. And a warrior doesn't abandon his own. Even if 'his own' is an arrogant jerk."
Behind him, Sasuke choked on air but remained silent. Now was not the time for arguments.
Haku shook his head.
"Foolish. You understand me, yet you choose the path of pain. I do not want to kill you. You... are like me. But if you stand between me and Zabuza-sama's dream... I will destroy you too. Without mercy."
"Try it."
Naruto slowly closed his eyes.
"What are you doing?!" Sasuke hissed. "Open your eyes, he's going to attack!"
"Eyes are useless here, Sasuke. It's a mirror maze. Relying on sight, you will never catch him."
Qi Sensory: Maximum.
In the darkness of his consciousness, hundreds of reflections vanished. Only one energy source remained. Cold, fast, real.
Naruto adjusted his grip on the kunai.
I see you. You're preparing to jump from the three o'clock mirror to the nine o'clock mirror. Straight trajectory. If I strike preemptively...
His leg muscles, saturated with Qi, compressed like springs.
Naruto wasn't going to wait. He was going to intercept.
The air trembled. Haku launched himself.
But Naruto began his movement preemptively. He made a sharp lunge into the void, into the center of the dome, where no one was.
Sasuke watched in horror, convinced his partner had lost his mind.
WHOOSH!
Naruto's kunai sliced the air.
CLANG!
Sparks flew from the emptiness.
Haku, flying between mirrors, was forced to materialize for a split second to parry the blade that was aimed precisely at his shoulder. Genuine shock flashed in the eyes of the youth beneath the mask.
He saw?! Calculated the trajectory?!
Haku twisted in the air with unnatural grace, using the inertia of the block to veer aside. Naruto's blade passed a millimeter from him, severing a lock of black hair.
Damn! Naruto cursed mentally. Missed!
His mind, accelerated by meditation, saw everything. He knew where the enemy would be. But his body... His body, only at the Body Tempering stage, had failed him. The signal from the brain took too long. The muscles contracted with too much delay.
Speed gap. I "see" him, but physically I can't reach him in time. My reflexes can't handle this race.
Haku, regaining his balance, disappeared into the opposite mirror, but now his aura became sharper. He understood: this opponent was dangerous.
The air to the right densified. The killing intent became tangible. Haku would not close the distance now. He would attack from range and for sure.
Counterattack failed, Naruto stated coldly. Have to defend.
"Sasuke, move!" Naruto barked.
Without waiting for a reaction, he roughly shoved his partner in the shoulder with his elbow, knocking him off his feet.
In the same split second, three needles streaked through the air where the Uchiha's head had been, embedding themselves into the stone with a ring.
But by covering him, Naruto opened himself up. The fourth needle, fired preemptively, found its mark.
THUD.
The sound was wrong. Not the wet squelch of pierced flesh. It was the dull, dense impact of metal on solid hardwood.
The needle pierced the skin but lodged in the bundle of the deltoid muscle, failing to reach the bone. Body Tempering, pushed to the Late Stage, had turned muscle fibers into steel cables and bones into granite.
Left! the Jinchūriki noted, ignoring the foreign object in his body.
Pivot on the heels. Kunai block. An attack Sasuke hadn't even noticed was deflected. A shower of sparks fell onto the ice.
The fight turned into a frantic dance of death.
Naruto became the eye of the hurricane. Spins, blocks, dodges. Qi Sensory allowed him to predict the enemy's appearance split seconds before the attack. But Haku was faster. An order of magnitude faster.
Naruto couldn't dodge completely. He could only minimize damage, presenting the least vulnerable zones to the strikes, blocking with his bones.
Needles fell like steel rain.
They stuck into his shoulders, thighs, back. But to the horror of Sasuke watching from below, Naruto didn't fall. The needles didn't pierce him through. They stuck shallowly, as if he were hewn from bog oak.
Sasuke lay on the ice, looking up. His worldview was crumbling.
He saw Naruto taking hits meant for him. Saw the muscles on Uzumaki's neck bulge when another steel spike struck his flesh.
Naruto was a shield. Living, indestructible, mocking the laws of physics.
Why?! The Uchiha's consciousness screamed, nausea rising in his throat. Why is he so durable? Where does this strength come from? Why is he saving me?! I'm supposed to be stronger! I am an avenger! The elite! And I'm lying here like trash...
"Get up!" Naruto's rasp tore him from the abyss of self-flagellation.
The blonde yanked the needle from his shoulder and tossed it aside. There was almost no blood—the muscles instantly closed, sealing the wound.
"Don't just lie there! Watch my back!"
Staggering like a drunk, Sasuke rose. A struggle raged in his eyes, black with fury. His pupils trembled, trying to focus.
"I am not trash!" he spat along with a glob of blood, standing back-to-back with his teammate.
Haku appeared in a mirror again. Breathing ragged. The fight was dragging on. The blonde was an anomaly. His skin was like tanned hide, bones ringing upon impact. Standard attacks couldn't penetrate this defense. He needed overwhelming power.
"You are persistent," Haku's voice became sterilely cold. "But my time is running out. The games are over."
He raised both hands. Dozens of senbon glinted predatorily between his fingers. In each of the twenty-one mirrors, a reflection repeated the gesture.
Naruto tensed. His sensory perception wailed like a siren. Attack vectors covered the entire volume of the dome. No blind spots. Nowhere to hide.
"Sasuke," Naruto said quietly, concentrating all available Qi on the surface of his skin, creating invisible armor. "This is going to hurt."
"I see it," the Uchiha whispered. And he was beginning to see. The world around him was losing speed, becoming frighteningly sharp.
"Forgive me," Haku rustled. "Hijutsu: Sensatsu Suishō (Secret Art: Thousand Flying Water Needles of Death)."
The mirrors flared.
Hundreds of needles launched, breaking the sound barrier. A wall of steel impossible to dodge. Death cast in metal.
Naruto assessed the density of fire in a split second. His Body Tempering would hold. But hundreds of needles on a single point would still find a breach. Eyes, throat, groin.
And Sasuke? Sasuke would turn into a sieve instantly.
The kunai dropped to the ice.
Naruto didn't defend himself. He turned his back to the attack vector and covered Sasuke with his body, curling up, shielding vital organs.
"Naruto?!" the Uchiha's scream was drowned in the whistle of sliced air.
THUD-THUD-THUD-THUD!
The sound was terrible. Like a hail of shrapnel hitting a wooden roof.
Hundreds of needles bit into Naruto's back. His jacket instantly turned into tatters.
A growl escaped through gritted teeth. The pain was hellish, blinding. Some needles bounced off bones, but there were too many. They found gaps, pierced skin, dug into meat.
But not a single one went through. Not one reached an organ.
His spine, reinforced with Qi, withstood the shockwave without cracking.
Silence crashed down as suddenly as the attack had begun.
Sasuke lay on his back, without a scratch.
He looked up.
A heavy drop fell from Uzumaki's chin. It landed right on Sasuke's cheek. Hot. Thick. Red.
Naruto stood over him, hands resting on his knees. His back resembled a pincushion, but he stood. His body had withstood what should have turned a human into ground meat.
Naruto's lips twitched into a smile. Bloody, strained, but genuine.
"You... in one piece... 'Genius'?" he rasped, blood bubbling on his lips. "My back... seems to itch a little."
Sasuke's eyes widened to the limit, pupils flooding with red.
In that moment, looking at the person he refused to acknowledge, standing over him like an indestructible cliff and taking death in his place... the dam in Sasuke's brain collapsed.
Shame. Guilt. Shock.
And the awakening of an ancient, cursed power.