Naruto's cry of pain echoed across the battlefield. Hidden within the thick mist, the Genin-level Naruto had been unable to effectively dodge the sudden sensory assault of the Mist ninjas.
Though riddled with senbon needles, the sharp pain actually forced Naruto to calm down. Some people are simply built for the edge; the more desperate the situation, the sharper their focus. These are the natural-born shinobi.
Naruto initially thought he was done for, but he soon realized he hadn't lost his mobility. The wounds looked gruesome, but they were superficial.
Several needles hadn't even pierced his muscle layer, let alone touched his vital organs. Looking down at the blood on his orange jumpsuit, the panic in his chest was replaced by a grim determination.
As the ambush unfolded, Sasuke and Hinata reacted instantly.
The mist blinded most, but Naruto's scream acted as a beacon for Sasuke. Ignoring the fatigue of his training and the hidden threats in the fog, Sasuke charged blindly toward the sound.
Team 7's bond, forged at the Academy and tempered during this mission, had turned them into comrades who would die for one another.
However, unlike Sasuke's reckless charge, Hinata's Byakugan rendered the mist irrelevant.
Looking toward Naruto, she saw the "Demonic Mirror Ice Crystals" surrounding him. She observed the strange chakra woven into the ice and tracked a slender silhouette moving at high speeds between the panes. That is the one attacking Naruto!
She also glanced at Kakashi's battlefield. The silver-haired Jōnin had replaced himself with a log and was currently merged into the earth, playing a high-stakes game of hide-and-seek with an invisible Zabuza. Hinata realized Kakashi didn't need her help.
Kakashi had drilled a philosophy into her: as the "Eyes" of the team, her survival was the highest priority. If the scout dies, the team goes blind.
Only after ensuring her own safety should she intervene for others. This was a stark contrast to the "Will of Fire" self-sacrifice taught at the Academy, but it was the reality of the field.
Seeing Naruto in trouble, Hinata sprinted toward him. She recognized the Ice mirrors as a Bloodline Limit (Kekkei Genkai). Such techniques were far more dangerous than standard ninjutsu, but even they had weaknesses visible to the Byakugan.
The Flaw in the Ice
"Naruto!" Sasuke reached the perimeter of the ice mirrors and threw a desperate punch at one of the panes. His knuckles throbbed with pain; the thin, transparent ice was as hard as steel. It didn't even crack.
"Fire Style: Great Fireball!" Sasuke pivoted to ninjutsu, exhaling a massive sphere of flames.
Inside the mirrors, Haku—the masked boy—watched the fire hit the ice. Haku's ice was specialty-crafted; the heat melted a small portion, but the chakra within the ice instantly refroze the gap. "Pointless," Haku murmured. His focus was on the blonde boy inside.
He didn't believe a mere Genin could break his mirrors.
Inside the trap, Naruto saw the glow of Sasuke's fire and used it to orient himself.
"Rasengan!" Naruto slammed a swirling blue orb of chakra against the interior of a mirror. Boom! The impact left a web of cracks, but like Sasuke's fire, the cracks were repaired in seconds by Haku's chakra.
Naruto panted, looking around at the hundred reflections of his masked enemy. He didn't know that Haku had already slipped out of a mirror and was floating silently behind him, a kunai raised above Naruto's neck.
"Naruto! Behind you!" Sasuke screamed from outside, pounding on the glass.
Naruto spun around, but the kunai was already sinking into his flesh. Sasuke's heart hammered against his ribs—the visual of his friend being stabbed triggered a violent surge of emotion. A one-tomoe Sharingan flickered into existence in his eyes.
Poof!
The "Naruto" being stabbed vanished in a cloud of white smoke. It was a Shadow Clone.
"Got you!"
From several nearby pebbles on the ground, five more Narutos erupted. They had been hiding using the Transformation Jutsu while the clone distracted Haku with the failed Rasengan.
"When did he—?" Haku gasped. He had been distracted by Sasuke's fire for just a few seconds, and that was all Naruto needed.
The Narutos swarmed. While Haku was a master of his Bloodline Limit, his close-quarters taijutsu was his weak point. Naruto, bolstered by the stamina of the Uzumaki and the reflexes inherited from the Fourth Hokage, pressed the attack with a flurry of punches and kicks.
"Ice Style: Ice Rock Dome!" Haku released a burst of frigid air, creating a 360-degree wall of ice that crushed the clones touching him and repelled the rest. He quickly merged back into the mirrors. "I won't give you another opening. It ends now!"
The Final Strike
Haku's voice echoed, ghostly and untraceable. Naruto created dozens more Shadow Clones, a sea of orange to confuse the enemy's vision.
Haku moved through the mirrors, systematically picking off the clones with senbon. He became overconfident. He saw one Naruto standing near the center, protected by a tighter cluster of clones than the others. The original!
Haku slowed his movement, preparing a lethal throw. He was so focused on the target inside the mirrors that he completely ignored the "Eyes" outside.
"DIE!"
A sharp, furious cry erupted from behind the mirrors.
A concentrated spear of chakra—invisible to the naked eye but devastatingly precise—pierced through the ice mirror and slammed directly into Haku's Tanzhong point (the center of the chest).
It was Hinata.
She had used her Byakugan to find the exact moment Haku's physical body merged with the mirror's chakra. The Gentle Fist didn't need to break the ice; it transmitted the force through the medium, striking Haku's internal organs directly.
The senbon fell from Haku's hand. His lungs seized, and his heart skipped a beat. The ice mirrors began to shimmer and crack, losing their structural integrity.
As he began to lose consciousness, Haku didn't look at his attacker. He turned his fading gaze toward the mist where his master fought.
"Zabuza-sama..."
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