[LMAO, the classic line]
[800,000 vs. 600,000—and the edge is mine]
[wait, isn't that a Gundam 00 line?]
[NOT. GOOD. AT. TAIJUTSU.]
[I have a feeling taijutsu is actually her hidden trump card. the OP had a close-up for a reason]
[my wife trains so hard she bleeds—absolute unit]
[Hanabi literally said it herself earlier—that kimono is a restraint robe for training. I bet she can punch a Siberian hamster into orbit]
With Kakashi behind her, Hanabi was throwing her weight around under his protection to the fullest.
Because of Kakashi's presence, Zabuza couldn't open with something like Water Dragon Jutsu or Great Waterfall—high-cost, high-drain techniques. Land one of those, flatten this annoying brat, and sure, it'd feel great—but then Kakashi walks up while he's still gasping for chakra, and it's over. He'd be the one in the dirt.
"Is—is that guy really strong?" The standoff had stretched long enough that Naruto risked a hushed question to Kakashi.
"Demon of the Hidden Mist—Zabuza Momochi." Kakashi's voice dropped low.
"Huh, so you've heard of me, Kakashi." Zabuza glanced over.
"Long ago, the Hidden Mist earned another name." Hanabi spoke before Kakashi could. A crucial piece of worldbuilding wasn't something she was willing to cede.
"It was called the Bloody Mist."
"You seem to know a lot for a little brat," Zabuza muttered, irritation sharpening in his voice.
"In the Bloody Mist, passing the graduation exam required surviving a specific test." Hanabi continued.
"What graduation exam?" Naruto asked, lost.
The atmosphere around Kakashi had shifted the moment she said it.
"...That graduation exam meant killing each other." Zabuza cut in before Hanabi could go on—he'd decided he'd rather say it himself. "Friends who'd supported each other, shared meals, and swapped dreams—split into pairs, made to fight to the death. Until one was left standing."
"What—" Naruto went pale.
"Ten years ago, the Hidden Mist was forced into a massive reformation." Kakashi picked up the thread. "Because in the year before it—there was a demon. Without hesitation. Without mercy. A single boy killed every last one of the candidates that year—more than a hundred of them."
Naruto looked at Zabuza.
And Zabuza smiled. "Now that's an interesting story."
The raw malice rolling off him hit Naruto and Sasuke like a wall. Both of them felt something cold close around their throats.
But then another voice cut through—light and unhurried:
"What a gentle person Zabuza-san is."
Zabuza: ???
Could she maybe reread what she just said.
"Have you lost your mind, brat?" Zabuza looked at Hanabi. Not a crack in her composure.
"Because after that day, the candidates of the Hidden Mist never had to kill each other again." Hanabi said. "Zabuza-san carried the sin alone—so that more people could live."
"Kid—!" Zabuza's temper spiked.
"To protect more lives, he was willing to become a demon himself—concealing himself behind a facade of ferocity. What a clumsy person, Zabuza-san."
Kakashi: ???
The degenerates in the chat: ???
[she just sees straight through him]
[is this real???]
[wait... tsundere...?]
"This guy who's such a jerk—he's really... like that?" Naruto couldn't wrap his head around it.
"If he were truly a capricious demon, who would follow him?" Hanabi turned the question back on Naruto.
"I—yeah, I guess?" Naruto's gut instinct said she was right, but something still nagged at him. "But Kakashi-sensei said he betrayed his village, didn't he?"
"Because he loved it," Hanabi said simply. "The Fourth Mizukage was a tyrant—erratic, brutal. What Zabuza-san did then is the same as what he did all those years before. He wanted to change his village. Carrying everything on his back, enduring it all, biding his time even after failing—that is a great shinobi."
[holy reversal]
[living under trash leadership, trying to fix your own country—I feel that]
[this man has conviction]
Zabuza had gone still.
...Is that really me?
Am I... really that great?
Hanabi's words left Zabuza staring into a reflection he didn't quite recognize.
That's what the brat was saying about him?
He was that kind of person—bearing everything, waiting in patience?
Hanabi simply smiled.
Whether Zabuza actually was like that—she had no idea. She was constructing a persona for the audience. A complicated, conflicted persona made for a far more interesting story.
What Zabuza privately thought didn't matter. What the audience believed about him did.
Hanabi—veteran director—had given her all for this production.
"Infuriating little brat!" The brief haze of confusion broke and Zabuza exploded.
He'd been completely led by the nose the entire time—!
"In that case—"
Zabuza began forming hand seals.
"Wait, that sequence is—Water Dragon Jutsu?!"
Kakashi moved to intervene.
But in that same moment, an ice spike materialized from thin air.
"Secret Jutsu: Thousand Flying Water Needles of Death."
"—Another one?!"
The eruption of ice shards forced Kakashi to fall back.
"Huh? They weren't aimed at any vital points?!"
Strange.
Kakashi read it immediately: the ice shards were suppressive, not lethal. Whoever had just appeared hadn't come here to kill.
A masked boy stepped into view in front of Kakashi.
Kakashi could handle him—but couldn't reach Zabuza anymore.
And Zabuza's target was obvious: pin down Kakashi with this new player, then defeat Hanabi.
"Stop Zabuza—that's Water Dragon Jutsu!" Kakashi opened his Sharingan.
He was betting on speed now.
On the other side of the clearing, Hanabi had already moved—throwing herself forward, her entire body blazing with fire.
Mai Shiranui's super move: Super Deadly Ninja Bees.
In this world, it went by: Fire Release—Super Deadly Ninja Bees.
"Walked right into it!" Zabuza stopped forming seals.
He wasn't that naive.
Water Dragon was powerful, but it drained him too. He'd started the forty-four-seal sequence for exactly this—to force her to close in and interrupt.
"You walked into it, brat!"
Hanabi slammed into Zabuza—and Zabuza dissolved into water. Water Clone.
The real Zabuza materialized at her back.
But Hanabi didn't panic. Wire shot from her body and anchored into the ground, wrenching her to a stop mid-charge. She pivoted in the same motion and drove a sweep at Zabuza's legs.
"Red Crane Dance!"
As Zabuza intercepted her, she planted one foot and snapped the other upward from below—heel aimed at his skull.
Thwap.
Zabuza caught her ankle bare-handed.
Just a twelve-year-old brat. Once the body was locked down—
"—?!"
The force that slammed into his grip was enough to make his entire hand go numb.
"She's this strong?!"
[she got him, she GOT him]
[wife's too OP, sending love]
[I need a doujin of my wife RIGHT NOW]
[Hanabi-sama, please, kick me too—]
The comments were in full meltdown.
Hanabi had already corrected her stance.
She'd found it—the real use for this "3D maneuver gear." Not aerial mobility. The wires and cords were her anchors—in combat, she could micro-adjust her position at any moment, ensuring her footing was always optimal.
Like someone who couldn't be knocked down by a sweep no matter how hard you tried. Maintaining balance was, sometimes, everything.
"Damn—!" Right now, Zabuza was the one off-balance.
Hanabi moved in and struck.
"Still fighting momentum—she's using my own force against me, adjusting her stance." Zabuza read it and decided to eat the hit.
An open-palm strike. The damage would be negligible.
He'd take it and recalibrate.
But the moment her palm landed—nothing. No force at all.
Zabuza: ???
Then the strikes came in like a storm, landing across his body in rapid sequence—each one feather-light, and yet—
This was the Hyuga's true art.
Gentle Fist—Eight Trigrams Sixty-Four Palms.