"Sharp-tongued little brat!"
Zabuza wanted to charge in immediately.
But his Executioner's Blade was still "confiscated"—after getting overconfident earlier, which left him in an awkward position.
The girl had no killing intent whatsoever. Yet Zabuza's years of battlefield instinct were screaming at him: this one is not simple.
"Enough talk. Whatever Gato's identity really is, I still have a job to finish as a shinobi."
Kill Tazuna.
He'd sort out the rest afterward.
"Formation—!" Kakashi snapped into position with Naruto and Sasuke, forming a manji formation.
Though, only a beat later, it occurred to Kakashi—with him here, did they really need the formation?
He sank briefly into self-doubt. Had Hanabi been leading him by the nose this whole time?
Meanwhile, the mist around them was thickening, and Zabuza raised one hand.
"Ninjutsu: Hidden Mist Jutsu."
Fog swallowed the world.
"All right, enough talk."
Hanabi crouched and set her doll down on the ground.
[HERE WE GO, HERE WE GO]
[short skirt!! legs!!]
[I've been ready for this!!]
[dinner. this is my dinner tonight]
[three extra bowls of rice, minimum]
The degenerates in the comments had apparently decided that Hanabi was about to hike up a long skirt into a short one.
Unfortunately for them, Hanabi wasn't that reckless.
She simply turned around—an elegant, single pivot.
And in that one turn, her clothes had already changed into Shiranui's kunoichi combat attire.
[???]
[WAIT, the white stockings are GONE]
[wait but this goes even harder]
[it's a totally normal kunoichi outfit]
[the CORDS though, the CORDS—]
[oh wow, it really IS a rope harness]
[three lifetimes of virtue, and I've been rewarded with a rope harness in a battle shōnen—bless this]
[6666]
[my friend says he's going to be okay now]
[wait, there was a THIRD form this whole time, heheh, hehehehe]
[wife!! WIFE!! WIFE!!]
[I watched the anime, I lost my mind RIGHT NOW]
[he's gone, he's completely gone—]
The comment section exploded.
Shiranui's kunoichi attire had a built-in outfit-change function—but it swapped out the outer garment only. The rope harness underneath was always there, worn beneath everything. So the moment Hanabi changed into it, her hands, feet, and back were all exposed—and with them, the cords wrapped around her hands, feet, back, and body became fully visible.
"This is bad—with this much fog, Hanabi's genjutsu is going to suffer!" Sasuke caught something the others had missed.
Hanabi's prized genjutsu—in visibility this poor, wouldn't it be compromised?
"Hm…" Kakashi considered it.
And yet Hanabi didn't look affected at all. She had already begun forming hand seals.
From the audience's perspective, the scene cut away.
To a flashback.
In the flashback, it was Kurenai and Hyuga Hiashi.
Originally, after the discussion about Hinata had concluded, the broadcast had cut away from Hanabi entirely—she was a minor character; there hadn't been much screen time to give. But this was different now.
Inside the advancement assessment, the restrictions on Hanabi had loosened considerably.
And more importantly: the ability [Temporary Lead]—in high-impact scenes, it granted Hanabi the full treatment she was owed.
"Next—regarding Miss Hanabi." Kurenai was speaking. "Miss Hanabi has exceptional genjutsu talent, and I believe I'd be well-suited to instruct her—"
Hiashi cut her off before she could finish.
"My daughter's genjutsu ability is indeed outstanding. However, that is not her greatest strength."
Kurenai blinked. "You mean she can also use the Gentle Fist?"
Hiashi was quiet for a moment. Then: "What my daughter excels in most is Fire Release ninjutsu."
Before she'd ever received Shiranui's techniques, Hanabi had already carried the Fire-affinity gifted by Sparkle—so her Fire Release had already been formidable.
"Ninjutsu: Dance of the Heat Haze!"
Scorching, blazing heat erupted outward from Hanabi's body. Flames radiated from her in all directions, spinning and spiraling skyward.
And under the influence of that searing air current—the surrounding mist began to thin.
"There—!" Hanabi locked onto Zabuza's silhouette and flung her tessen fan.
"Nani?!"
Zabuza reeled. He'd moved toward the densest part of the mist, certain he was invisible—and yet she'd seen through him.
What he didn't know: the moment Hanabi put on her mask, she'd been tracking him with her Byakugan the entire time.
Without his Decapitating Carver in hand, Zabuza was forced to deflect with a different tool.
Boom.
But the instant the fan made contact—it ignited.
"Ninjutsu: Dance of the Water Bird."
"AHHH—!" Zabuza let out a shout—then dissolved into a puddle.
Water Clone.
"Too naive!"
The real Zabuza had already circled around from the other side, his target singular: his blade.
"Zabuza-san."
The bells on Hanabi's wrist chimed softly.
She drew the wire taut.
"—NANI!"
One step short of reaching the Decapitating Carver, Zabuza stopped cold.
The air ahead was a web of wire, pulled tight across every angle. Moving at speed into that—it might as well have been blades.
"A shinobi who gets caught by the same trick twice," Hanabi said, "is unqualified."
[still talking smack, still talking smack]
[a Jōnin, and this is all he's got?]
[this Zabuza guy—all his power's in that big cleaver, isn't it. without the weapon, he's cooked]
[that's what you get for throwing your sword around, lmao]
[I've always wondered why the main character never just takes the villain's weapon—just disarm them. and now in this long-form fic we're actually getting it. fully satisfied. hahaha]
[entertainment value through the roof]
[Zabuza and Kakashi can sit at the same table]
The audience kept clowning in the comments, but Hanabi herself wasn't letting her guard down.
Because Zabuza had only been probing this whole time.
And Hanabi hadn't pulled out her real cards either—everything she'd used had been Shiranui-style, the showier, decorative techniques.
Flashy, yes. But they served a purpose: to mislead Zabuza and give him a false read on her.
Zabuza wasn't going all-out against her.
Because Kakashi was standing right behind her.
If he exhausted himself against a Genin, then turned around to face Kakashi—that was a losing position.
In that sense, Hanabi was leaning entirely on Kakashi's presence.
The audience didn't know this, of course. More than a few of them genuinely believed Hanabi and Zabuza were evenly matched.
That was also part of Hanabi's game.
In truth, without Ice Release and her sword, winning a clean fight against Zabuza would be no easy thing.
But Hanabi had an opening—because Zabuza didn't know she had the Byakugan.
She didn't need to become stronger. She only needed to drag the enemy down to the same starting line.
"Water Release: Water Fang Bullet!"
Zabuza had slipped back into the mist and launched the jutsu from a blind angle—water missiles streaking toward Hanabi from an unexpected direction.
Hanabi leapt lightly aside, clearing all of them.
"Idiot—you can't get any leverage mid-air!" Zabuza was waiting for exactly this.
The moment she left the ground, she had no footing to work with. He was on her in an instant, kunai in hand—
And then Hanabi shot backward at an impossible angle, dodging in a way that shouldn't have been physically possible.
"Nani!"
After a brief, startled pause, Zabuza analyzed what he'd seen.
"Your cords. Your wire. You're using those tools to redirect yourself."
That was the experience of a veteran Jōnin—even seeing it for the first time, he'd figured it out.
"Guess~"
Hanabi kept her distance and kept her eyes on the Executioner's Blade.
Zabuza said nothing. He was running the numbers.
"Aerial combat is disadvantageous for me. If this brat wears me down too much before I face Kakashi, I'm going to have to retreat—and there's no guarantee I walk away clean."
"She's a girl. Strong ninjutsu. But those thin arms, thin legs—and she's been deliberate about keeping her distance. Which means she's weak at taijutsu."
"Close combat, then. That's where I have the advantage—and the edge is mine!"