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Chapter 189 Team 7's First Battle
"What?" Tazuna was shocked upon hearing this, gritting his teeth, "Damn Gato, how could he do this!"
"Zabuza-san, how about we hide for a while?" After cursing Gato, Tazuna turned to Zabuza and suggested.
"Run? Why run!" Zabuza frowned impatiently, "They dared to come looking for me, so I'll just kill a few Konoha ninjas to avenge our Kirigakure ninjas."
However, as soon as he finished speaking, the hairs on his back suddenly stood on end. He drew his Executioner's Blade and held it in front of him, protecting Tazuna.
A chakra laser cannon as thick as a thigh struck the Executioner's Blade directly, and a violent explosion exploded, instantly turning Tazuna's small house into a pile of debris.
As the smoke from the explosion slowly dissipated, Zabuza, panting heavily, looked down at the Executioner's Blade in his hand; it was now covered in cracks.
Behind him, Tazuna and the boy who had just brought the news collapsed to the ground, their faces filled with terror.
Zabuza silently pulled a vial of blood from his ninja tool pouch and poured it onto the Executioner's Blade. The moment the blade came into contact with the blood, the cracks on it caused by the earlier explosion began to slowly heal.
Zabuza, meanwhile, stared intently at the shore, where a massive wave rose, and on its crest, a large blue serpent emerged from the water. Atop the serpent's head, three teenagers, wearing Konoha headbands, stood proudly.
The leading boy had his right hand on the hilt of his sword, looking down at Zabuza: "A bunch of rogue ninja forming an illegal ninja village, since when can they represent Kirigakure?"
"Konoha ninja?" Zabuza narrowed his eyes, looking at the three boys atop the giant snake's head, brandishing his fully restored Executioner's Blade directly at Sasuke and the others. "State your names!"
"Konoha genin, Uchiha Sasuke."
"Konoha genin, Uzumaki Naruto."
"Konoha genin, Hyuga Neji."
"Hmph, just three genin?" A hint of contempt flashed in Zabuza's eyes. "Uchiha, and a member of the Hyuga main clan? Konoha has certainly given me a generous gift."
Zabuza licked his lips: "I'll take your eyes."
"What a coincidence, we were just planning to use you to exchange for the Byakugan that you rogue ninjas stole from my clan." Neji said with a cold laugh after summoning his sniper rifle.
"Heh, arrogant brat." Zabuza said, his hands rapidly forming hand seals, and a thick fog rose from nowhere, completely enveloping the area.
"The Hidden Mist Technique?" Neji calmly observed the surrounding fog. "Do you think this technique will be of any use against my Byakugan?"
Zabuza didn't say much, using the fog as cover, he instantly appeared behind Naruto. In his view, both the Sharingan and Byakugan were effective against their Hidden Mist Technique, their signature assassination technique. Therefore, dealing with this blond-haired guy without any eye techniques first, and then confronting him head-on, was the right thing to do.
"Kid, behind you." The Nine-Tails' voice rang in Naruto's mind.
"I can see!" Naruto, wearing a vision-sharing ninja tool, turned around and delivered a heavy kick to the side of the Executioner's Blade, changing its trajectory. He then used the momentum to twist his body and punched Zabuza in the temple. Zabuza raised his other hand to block, but the immense force he felt in his arm surprised him greatly.
The next instant, a cold glint of purple lightning and a hand wreathed in gusts of wind arrived in a flash. Zabuza, seeing this, could only use the Substitution Jutsu to dodge.
Back in the thick fog, Zabuza shook his hand, his face full of astonishment. These three were really genin?
However, before he could recover, several bolts of lightning descended from the sky. Zabuza hurriedly dodged, the lightning striking him and creating craters behind him.
"This fighting style..." Zabuza struggled to dodge the barrage of lightning while frowning at a figure not far away, surrounded by viscous purple lightning, its eyes flashing crimson. This figure slowly overlapped with the figure of the person who had cast a deep shadow over Kirigakure years ago.
"Sasuke, be careful, don't forget we need to capture them alive." Neji said, throwing several strangely shaped metal short rods that kept appearing around him.
"Alright." Sasuke nodded, slightly restraining his lightning. But before Zabuza could even catch his breath, a blond figure roared and charged out from the thick fog.
Zabuza slashed it down, but the next second, another blond figure rushed out from another direction.
[Shadow clones, shadow clones, shadow clones, damn it, where did this kid get so many shadow clones?!] After slashing more than ten of Naruto's shadow clones into smoke, Zabuza couldn't help but become anxious. Who in their right mind could have so many shadow clones? Moreover, if an ordinary person could create so many shadow clones, each clone should have very little chakra and wouldn't be able to unleash any decent attacks. But the attacks launched by the shadow clones that charged at him just now forced him to be on high alert.
Zabuza had no choice but to release the Hidden Mist Technique. After the fog dissipated, Zabuza looked at the surrounding yellow sea, beads of cold sweat appearing on his forehead.
Seeing the thick fog dissipate, Naruto's shadow clones swarmed forward. Zabuza, seeing this, could only rapidly form hand seals.
"Water Release: Water Dragon Bullet Technique!"
From the sea not far from Zabuza, a giant dragon formed from seawater burst forth, roaring towards Naruto's shadow clones.
Naruto's shadow clones shattered one after another under the dragon's impact. Zabuza, seeing this, breathed a sigh of relief.
[Thank goodness we're at the beach, otherwise we really would have been doomed.] Zabuza stepped onto the thick layer of water left by the Water Dragon Technique, wiping the large beads of sweat from his forehead, thinking to himself.
"You seem to be celebrating a little too soon."
Zabuza looked in the direction of the voice, and when he saw the boy also standing on the water, his long sword flashing with purple lightning, his pupils contracted.
Sasuke had plunged his purple lightning heavily into the water, and the purple lightning instantly began to spread along the surface.
During the Third Shinobi World War, a saying circulated among the Hidden Mist ninja: never use large-scale Water Release ninjutsu on Uchiha Touko, for such techniques would be a death sentence for the user.
Zabuza was too young then to understand, but now he did.
Zabuza could only leap high into the air, but in the next instant, six purple lightning dragons burst from the water, roaring towards him and sealing off all his escape routes.
Zabuza frantically looked around; even with his Substitution Jutsu, he couldn't find a place to run. Within a radius of nearly a hundred meters, the water was filled with flowing high-voltage electricity; he would likely lose all mobility the moment he landed. So, Zabuza gritted his teeth, using his Executioner's Blade to protect his vitals, intending to withstand the ninjutsu and then use the recoil to escape to a safer place.
His plan succeeded. After withstanding the attack, the shockwave from the exploding Lightning Release ninjutsu sent him flying a considerable distance. However, as the price, his Executioner's Blade was now riddled with cracks, and Zabuza coughed up a cloud of blood in mid-air, clearly suffering internal injuries from the impact.
After landing, Zabuza struggled to his feet. Ignoring the constant, excruciating pain, he turned and fled in a disheveled state.
Both of the brats he had just fought possessed the strength of elite Jonin. That Uchiha brat was practically a carbon copy of the dark cloud hanging over Kirigakure—the Uchiha Toukoku. What would happen in two years? He had to escape back to Kirigakure immediately, deliver this news to the village, and organize a hunt for them. Otherwise, once they grew stronger, Kirigakure would never have a chance to rise again.
However, before Zabuza could take two steps, a large area of strange runes suddenly appeared on the ground. His remaining chakra was instantly drained, and chains of chakra emerged from the ground, completely binding his hands and feet. Zabuza
looked up at the edge of the rune-covered area. Every few meters along the edge, a short metal rod was stuck into the ground. Zabuza finally understood the purpose of the things the Hyuga brat had thrown out.
"This thing works pretty well," Sasuke said, approaching the now completely bound Zabuza and examining the trap Neji had created—a trap that could link together to temporarily form a chakra-sealing technique.
"This is a new ninja tool developed by Tenten and Karin, still being tested. Tenten specifically asked me to bring it before we left," Neji explained.
"Let's tie him up first," Sasuke nodded, taking a bundle of special rope from his sealing scroll, intending to bind Zabuza.
However, Zabuza suddenly sprang into action, wielding a kunai and lunging at Sasuke.
"Die! You Uchiha genius brat!" A resolute glint flashed in Zabuza's eyes. Escape was impossible now, but to kill a potential Uchiha genius brat, possibly a direct disciple of Uchiha Touko, before dying would be enough.
However, Zabuza suddenly saw the three tomoe in Sasuke's Sharingan slowly shifting.
The next instant, Zabuza collapsed, lifeless.
"Hey, Sasuke, this guy seems to really think of you as his teacher." Naruto, arriving late, chuckled at the sight. "He even dared to look directly into your Sharingan."
Neji's lips twitched slightly upon hearing Naruto's words, then he warned, "Don't say things like that carelessly. If the teacher hears you, he'll probably beat you up again."
After binding Zabuza tightly, Sasuke placed two sealing jutsu on him, completely sealing off any possibility of resistance.
"Sasuke, what about the people over there?" Neji, seeing that Zabuza was completely incapacitated, turned to look at the surrounding village. The moment the battle began, Tazuna and his grandson had vanished in the chaos, and many houses had been damaged in the fight.
"We don't need to worry about that. Without the threat of ninjas, Uncle Gato will handle things," Sasuke said.
A week later, news of Zabuza's imprisonment in Konoha reached Northern Mist Village, along with the message that Uchiha Touko wanted to save his life in exchange for their Byakugan. Upon receiving this news, Terumi Mei was immediately in a panic.
Konoha 's move had struck at the heart of Northern Mist Village.
Trading their hard-earned Byakugan for the life of an elite Jonin was a losing proposition from every angle. While Zabuza was one of the strongest in Northern Mist Village, the Byakugan was a bloodline limit capable of changing the course of a war; no other village leader would agree to such an exchange. But Northern Mist Village was different.
They were barely maintaining their cohesion under the financial onslaught of Southern Mist Village thanks to Terumi Mei's constant promises. If Zabuza, even if he survived, died in Konoha because the higher-ups couldn't bear to part with a Byakugan, it would be a devastating blow to their morale.
The ninjas of Northern Mist endure daily hardships of hunger and cold, all for the bright future you, Mei Terumi, speak of. Yet now, for the sake of a Byakugan, you refuse to even save your comrades. If Zabuza truly dies, his subordinates in Northern Mist will undoubtedly mutini.
"Mizukage-sama, Zabuza's men are now gathered around the Mizukage Building. What do we do now?" Kisame Hoshigaki arrived at Mei Terumi's office, sighing deeply before asking.
"Do we have a choice?" Mei Terumi smiled bitterly. "Send Ao over." A long silence fell over Mei Terumi's office. After a while, Mei Terumi finally spoke, asking, "Do you know who Zabuza was defeated by?"
"According to the information brought back by those who escaped from the Land of Waves, Zabuza was defeated by three Konoha genin," Kisame Hoshigaki said.
"Genin?" Mei Terumi's face showed disbelief upon hearing this. "Are you kidding me?"
"One of them is an Uchiha brat, and his fighting style is very similar to Uchiha Touko. This team is suspected to be Uchiha Touko's personal disciples," Kisame said.
"So, these are Konoha's geniuses again?" Mei Terumi gritted her teeth and said, "Konoha really has a constant stream of geniuses, while our Kirigakure specializes in..."
[Insects] Kisame Hoshigaki silently completed the two words that Mei Terumi didn't say in his mind.
Although he didn't want to admit it, Mei Terumi was right. If Konoha was the cradle of geniuses, then Kirigakure could be described as a breeding ground for insects.
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