Just then, Sakura arrived at the battlefield. She was panting heavily, her eyes searching the battlefield anxiously before fixing on the ground in the distance.
"Sasuke!"
She saw Sasuke drenched in blood at a glance, her face turning pale, and she stumbled over to him.
She saw that Sasuke was lying on the ground, his body riddled with senbon, and the blood beneath him had already soaked a patch of earth.
His eyes were tightly closed, and if it weren't for the extremely faint rise and fall of his chest, he would look no different from a corpse.
"Sasuke..."
Sakura knelt beside Sasuke, her hands trembling as she wanted to pull out those Senbon, but she feared that pulling them out would make the wounds bleed even more.
"Sasuke, say something. Sasuke, open your eyes and look at me. I am Sakura. Don't scare me, I beg you..."
Just as Sakura was crying out, a discordant voice came from afar.
"Tsk tsk. Isn't this the famous Demon of the Hidden Mist, Momochi Zabuza?"
Immediately following that, footsteps approached from a distance, accompanied by the clanking sound of metal colliding.
On the other end of the bridge, a dark swarm of figures appeared. Leading them was Gato.
He was short and stout, wearing an expensive kimono as he walked at the front of the group, leaning on a gold-inlaid cane with his left hand, while his right hand was planted on his waist.
Behind him were dozens of samurai armed with various weapons. Some carried katanas, some held spears, and others had chains wrapped around their arms, each with a malicious smile on their faces as they sized up everyone on the battlefield.
Gato stopped on the bridge, first glancing at the blood-drenched Zabuza lying on the ground, then looking at Haku's corpse lying to the side, and finally, his gaze landed on Kakashi and Sakura, a mocking smile appearing at the corner of his lips.
'How did you end up in such a pathetic state? Huh?"
Zabuza leaned against a piece of rubble, his breathing heavy due to the significant blood loss from his injuries.
He raised his eyes to look at the samurai behind Gato and spoke hoarsely, "Gato, why are you here?"
"Hahahaha..." Gato threw his head back and laughed.
After a while, the expression on his face shifted to one of spite and gloom. "You ask why I am here? I am, of course, here to clean you up."
As he spoke, he paced over to Haku's corpse and kicked his body in disgust, one kick after another, as if venting some long-accumulated malice.
"Wait..." A low sound emitted from Zabuza's throat.
Gato, who was kicking Haku's corpse, didn't hear it. He was kicking with gusto, cursing under his breath.
"I told you to stop..."
Zabuza's teeth chattered and ground together. Blood spilled from the corner of his mouth and dripped onto his tattered pant.
He turned his head to look at Kakashi. "Kakashi..."
Kakashi frowned as he looked at Zabuza.
"I'm sorry. Our battle ends here."
After saying this, Zabuza tossed a Kunai high into the air.
Zabuza exerted sudden force with his legs, launching himself from the rubble, and opened his mouth to bite down on the handle of the falling Kunai, before charging straight toward Gato without hesitation.
In an instant, the mocking smile on Gato's face froze completely, and the next second, it rapidly transformed into extreme terror.
"Ahhhh! Stop him!"
"Quickly stop him, you bunch of trash, block him!"
Gato screamed while stumbling back into the crowd of samurai. Because he retreated too hastily, his gold-inlaid cane slipped from his hand and fell to the ground.
A group of samurai raised their weapons at his screams, forming a wall of blades to meet the charging Zabuza.
The lead samurai carried a katana, and looking at Zabuza, who was drenched in blood, his hands hanging limp, and charging with a Kunai in his mouth, he couldn't help but let out a mocking laugh.
"Do you think you can defeat so many of us with just your own strength?"
Zabuza answered with his actions. The next second, his figure appeared in front of the lead samurai, and with a sudden snap of his neck, the blade of the Kunai carved a silver arc through the air, slitting his throat.
Shhh!
A line of blood gushed from the samurai's neck.
The samurai's laughter came to an abrupt end, the katana in his hand falling to the ground and then he fell straight down.
Zabuza did not pause at all. He weaved through the group of samurai close to the ground.
Every time he whipped his head, every time he twisted his waist to turn his body, the blade of the Kunai would take a life.
Slitting throats, piercing hearts...
Zabuza was an elite Jonin and had once been the youngest member of the Seven Ninja Swordsmen of the Mist. Even though he was covered in wounds at this moment, and even though his hands were disabled, he still possessed battle instincts and techniques far superior to any samurai.
He knew exactly where the most vulnerable parts of the human body were, and he knew how to execute the most precise kill within the smallest space and the shortest time.
Samurai fell one after another, their lives cut short before their weapons could even be aimed at the target.
Standing in the distance, Kakashi watched Zabuza's figure, moving back and forth through the crowd, and frowned slightly.
He felt that Zabuza did not need anyone's help at this moment. A raging beast has its own battlefield.
But Zabuza was, after all, not invincible. His injuries were too severe. The loss of his hands made it impossible for him to maintain balance or disperse force, and his stamina was draining rapidly.
After slitting the throats of over a dozen samurai in succession, his speed began to slow, and openings began to appear in his movements.
A long spear thrust from the side. Zabuza could not fully dodge it, and the spearhead tore through the flesh on his waist, leaving a wound deep enough to see the bone.
Immediately after, a sword struck his shoulder from behind, and blood flowed down along the blade.
Then came an arrow, piercing through his thigh. The arrowhead protruded from the back of his leg, dragging a piece of mangled flesh along the shaft.
But Zabuza did not stop. Carrying weapons all over his body, he walked step by step through the group of samurai who had been scared out of their wits.
Bright red blood drew an intermittent red line on the ground. With every step, more blood dripped from his various wounds.
The samurai began to retreat. Many of them were seeing what a true ninja was for the first time.
The man before them was not human at all. He had more weapons stuck in his body than they held in their hands, and the wounds on him were enough to make one's scalp tingle at a single glance, yet he was still walking.
The last few samurai standing between him and Gato exchanged glances. They threw away their weapons in unison, and turned to run.
Gato sat slumped on the ground, his body scraping backward continuously until his back hit the railing at the edge of the bridge.
"Don't... don't kill me... I have money, I'll give it to you, I'll give you everything!"
Zabuza lowered his head, looking at this man who had kicked Haku's corpse.
The next moment, a cold flash of a Kunai swept by. Gato's scream was abruptly cut off and a red gash appeared on his neck.
He clutched his neck with both hands and then he was kicked away by Zabuza, flipped over the bridge railing, and plunged into the water with a splash.
A large patch of red foam appeared on the water's surface, then returned to calm.