Border Sea:
Island Iceberg :
Kakashi was already on high alert following Naruto's warning. At first, Team 7 had decided to wait and intercept the enemies on their own terms, but Kakashi quickly realized that the enemies' positioning was completely wrong for a standard ambush.
One was approaching while camouflaged in a white cloak, submerged in the snow. The other two were climbing and approaching the high cliff just behind the film crew.
(...If they use explosive tags to trigger an avalanche, then...)
Thinking up to here, Kakashi didn't dilly-dally. He pulled out an explosive tag and threw it toward the side of the cliff, calculating the blast and making sure the resulting avalanche would sweep the enemies away instead.
BOOOM!
Watching the side of the cliff explode and the snow rushing toward the enemies, Kakashi stepped forward, taking the frontline.
"WHAT ARE YOU DOING, YOU HENTAI SHINOBI?!"
Hearing the director's words, Naruto laughed out loud. Sasuke and Sakura's eyes twitched, and Kakashi almost lost his footing on the ice at the title used to address him.
(...Pitiful lost little sheeps........They Just don't Understand ) Kakashi thought, pitying the oblivious civilians.
Though Considering the situation and the mission , He shouted back over his shoulder.
"EVERYONE, STEP BACK!"
Slowly, the black smoke from the explosion drifted away and From the clearing smoke, a blue-haired, blue-eyed shinobi emerged, wearing a strange, bulky chakra armor.
"Welcome to the Snow Country..... again, Kakashi."
Seeing the man, Kakashi's visible eye sharpened as recognition dawned on him. Suddenly, his eye flicked to the side as he focused on another presence standing on a nearby ice pole.
Standing there was a pink-haired kunoichi wearing the same strange armor, though hers was mostly covered with cloth. She sported a special metal box on her back and heavy metal wristguard on one hand .
The pink-haired kunoichi didn't even look at Kakashi; her eyes were entirely focused on the lead actress.
"I welcome you back to the Snow Country...... Princess Koyuki."
" huh ?? " X 100
" I hope you brought the Hexagonal Crystal back , Princess "
Hearing the words from the Snow Kunoichi's mouth, the entire crew was completely shocked. But the one with the strongest reaction was actually Kakashi, as old memories suddenly surged to the forefront of his mind.
Kakashi looked back at Yukie Fujikaze and compared her current appearance to his memories. He soon found the resemblance, matching the visage of the raven-haired, blue-eyed woman to the terrified young girl in his memories.
(...Princess Koyuki...?!)
"HAHAHAHA!"
Suddenly, Naruto, Sasuke, and Kakashi's attention drifted to the far left side. A snow mound violently collapsed as a giant, two-meter-tall Shinobi broke free from the snowfield, laughing boisterously.
"As expected of Hatake Kakashi! To think I couldn't get any closer to you than this!"
Team 7 took in the visage of the man. He was built like a tank, and his left arm was fully made of metal, ending in sharp claws. Even his armor was different, featuring a heavy chest plate, thick pauldrons, and heavy metal boots.
(......The armors seem different from before ..!! .....and on all of them )
Seeing this, Kakashi narrowed his eyes. He disregarded the hulking brute and focused his attention back on the biggest threat. Staring at the Snow Team's leader, Kakashi barked his orders.
"Sasuke, Naruto, Sakura!"
"Right!" x3.
"Go and protect Yukie-san! The client!"
Then, Kakashi took a deep breath and looked at the film crew. They had retreated a little bit, but were still standing far too close to the combat zone.
(.......Are they really that brave? Or just incredibly stupid?)
Kakashi raised his voice as he addressed the pitiful sheep who seemingly desired to become mutton.
"EVERYONE, GO!! RETURN TO THE SHIP AS FAST AS POSSIBLE!"
Seeing the civilians finally panic and start moving, the Snow Captain calmly ordered his teammates.
"Fubuki, Mizore. Get Princess Koyuki."
"Yes, yes," Mizore replied nonchalantly, though her gaze remained fixed entirely on the Snow Princess.
Finishing his orders, the leader dropped down from the high cliff. Seeing this, Kakashi also moved, intercepting him in mid-air to prevent him from touching the ground.
Seeing Kakashi intercept him, the Snow Captain found a foothold on the side of the cliff, looking at Kakashi with amused eyes.
"It's been a while, Kakashi."
Kakashi also stopped, locking his gaze on the man as he continued.
"You aren't going to run away this time, right.... Kakashi?"
Kakashi's eye sharpened dramatically at the man's mocking remark.
"Rouga Nadare."
Speaking the name was both a confirmation of recognition and a declaration of battle.
Both Kakashi and Nadare moved, engaging in a high-speed taijutsu bout while running vertically along the sheer snow walls of the icy cliff.
Left fist.
Right palm.
Knee strike.
Blocking foot.
Kakashi delivered a sharp palm strike to Nadare's left shoulder to disturb his balance, but Nadare blocked and immediately counterattacked. Kakashi easily neutralized the blow.
Suddenly, Nadare pivoted on his foot, rotating his body to deliver a high, sweeping kick aimed right at Kakashi's head. Kakashi blocked it, but because of their vertical footing on the wall, he felt how gravity heavily assisted Nadare's strike, increasing its weight.
But Kakashi was a veteran. He instantly cut off the chakra supply at his feet while blocking the heavy kick, allowing himself to drop down from the wall. He landed smoothly on the snowy ground below, looking back up at Nadare.
Both combatants took a serious look at each other as they approached once again, beginning a deadly dance over the icy cliffs.
It was also at this time that the other Snow shinobi decided to move. Seeing this, Naruto shifted his feet, addressing Sasuke and Sakura.
"....The fatass is mine."
Sasuke and Sakura watched as Naruto darted off toward the far left, where the bulky guy was waiting. Sasuke's eyes narrowed, his Sharingan flaring to life as he focused on the Snow Kunoichi.
After Zabuza , Orochimaru and Chunin Exams , Sasuke was done with holding back , Using sharingan at the beginning in every fight is something he already decided after Expericing everything .
Looking at the front , Sasuke addressed Sakura .
"Sakura, get to the Princess!"
Sakura scrambled toward the paralyzed princess, who seemed to be on the verge of a mental breakdown. Meanwhile, Sasuke's Sharingan tracked the Snow Kunoichi, Fubuki, who was already moving rapidly toward him.
Seeing her approach, Sasuke reached into his pouch, pulled out a handful of shuriken, and threw them expertly into her path.
The shuriken ricocheted. Some flew straight, while others bounced off one another mid-air. In a split second, the Snow Kunoichi found that the steel projectiles had completely surrounded her from all sides.
(....Heh. An average ninja would be forced to block or retreat here... right?)
But seeing the incoming weapons, the kunoichi merely smirked. She didn't slow down at all. Sasuke's mind was bewildered as he couldn't understand what he was seeing and why—
Cling! Cling! Cling! Cling!
Sasuke's Sharingan widened in shock. He watched as the shuriken ricocheted violently and even shattered into pieces before they could even touch her.
(....A strange jutsu that neutralizes shuriken?)
Sasuke's mind raced as his Sharingan furiously rotated. He watched as the enemy continued to effortlessly approach him And also the Princess, and Sakura, who still hadn't moved them to safety.
(...Why are they still there? The Princess is one thing, but why isn't Sakura doing anything?!)
Sasuke didn't have time to dwell on it. His hands moved again, drawing kunai this time. He threw them with lethal precision to see if the kunoichi could still tank the hits, despite kunai being significantly heavier and sharper than shuriken.
Cling! Cling! Cling! Cling!
The result was exactly the same. Seeing the kunoichi still moving forward without a scratch, Sasuke's eyes finally turned cold.
(........ANNOYING )
Sasuke's hands moved blur-fast. This time, he directly pulled out a massive Fuma Shuriken.
(...try to Take this Then )
Fubuki's eyes widened. At a distance of almost three meters, Sasuke violently rotated his waist and hurled the giant, 1.2-meter-tall Fuma Shuriken directly at her face.
Seeing the massive weapon, the kunoichi finally moved her upper body. Her gauntlet-covered arm shot forward to tank the attack directly. With a harsh screech of metal, the heavily armored kunoichi casually crushed the Fuma Shuriken right down the middle.
Feeling the heavy weapon shatter against her armor, Fubuki smirked. She looked forward—only to see Sasuke already retreating. Simultaneously, The brat also violently kicked both the Princess and the useless pink trash out in distance .
( What is that brat doing ?? )
Sasuke's blood-red eyes locked back onto the Snow Kunoichi, his Sharingan blazing as he threw his hands together in a single hand seal.
[ Genjutsu Sharingan ]
But seeing the kunoichi's eyes remain bright and unaffected, Sasuke clicked his tongue in annoyance. He looked down at the shattered Fuma Shuriken blades scattered around her feet and whispered .
"Katsu."
BOOM! BOOM!
Watching the massive explosion swallow the enmey , Sasuke turned back to Sakura and the Princess and spat out a single word.
"MOVE!"
Just as Sasuke roared at them, another voice echoed directly out of the thick smoke.
"Hyouton: Tsubame Fubuki!" (Ice Release: Swallow Snowstorm!)
Sasuke snapped his head back. His Sharingan easily pierced through the smoke, catching sight of a dense swarm of small, razor-sharp ice birds flying toward him.
(....How did she come out unscathed from that?!)
Despite his shock, Sasuke's feet moved automatically. He flipped sideways, easily dodging the lethal flock of ice swallows while keeping one eye on the battlefield, specifically on their useless client.
(...Good thing I kicked that woman away... Sakura is still totally useless.)
Seeing Sakura only just now getting up from the snow, looking completely confused, Sasuke shifted his eyes back, his Sharingan focusing entirely on the enemy.
(Forget the dead weight... let's just focus on taking out the enemy.)
Sasuke decided to prioritize eliminating the threat, even if it meant using the hostages as bait. His Sharingan spun furiously, finally noticing a subtle distortion around the enemy's body.
(....It's like a chakra wall? Is this the reason she can tank weapon explosions and even ignore Genjutsu?)
wearing Chakra armor, Fubuki felt her breathing speed up as she glared at the Uchiha. While the shuriken, kunai, and Genjutsu had been easy to deflect, the explosion was an entirely different story.
To tank that blast, she had been forced to expend almost 30% of her chakra to supercharge her armor and come out completely unscathed.
And now, seeing those blood-red eyes looking at her calmly—like she was nothing more than prey—Fubuki felt incredibly pissed.
(....Despite this armor, I am being held back by some brat! If not for the chakra armor... damn Konoha and these Great Nations!)
Fubuki immediately wove hand seals for another jutsu.
"Ice Prison Jutsu!"
Sasuke's eyes narrowed as he watched massive, dense & Transparent blocks of ice erupt violently from the ground, surging directly toward him.
Not only that, but he glanced back to see the flock of ice birds from earlier circling back around to flank him.
(...She can control those birds!)
Seeing the coordinated attack, Sasuke analyzed the threats. He focused on the birds first. Reaching into his pouch, he pulled out a kunai attached to an explosive tag and threw it calmly at the incoming flock.
Without pausing, he turned back to face the massive ice blocks surging toward him. His hands blurred through a sequence of seals.
"Fire Style: Great Fireball Jutsu!"
A massive sphere of roaring flames erupted from his mouth, intercepting the crashing ice blocks.
BOOM! BOOM!
The explosions rang out back-to-back. The explosive tag detonated perfectly in the center of the flock of ice birds behind Sasuke , shattering the majority of them.
The few that survived harmlessly flew past his sides, crashing into the massive ice block in front of him while Sasuke observed everything with His Rotating Sharingan .
(Except for some water melting and flowing down its surface, it's completely intact.)
Sasuke's eyes registered the intact ice wall. Seeing the effectiveness of her defense, Sasuke once again reached for his pouch.
Mizore smirked behind the safety of her ice block, proud that she had tanked the Uchiha's fire jutsu so easily.
She prepared to command the ice blocks and input more to crush the red-eyed brat, but suddenly, amidst the fading smoke, two ninja wires whooshed through the air, shooting to the left and right of her icy barrier.
"Wha—?!"
Before Mizore could process what was happening, the wires snapped taut. They whipped around the ice block and tightened violently around her. The ends of the wires jerked sharply as the attached kunai dug deep into the very ice block she was so proud of, pinning her in place.
But the assault was far from over. Two bright trails of flame danced along the wires, racing directly toward her.
(......THIS BRAT!!)
Seeing the incoming flames, Mizore bit her lip in frustration. The metal box on her back suddenly blew open, deploying two massive, artificial wings. The razor-sharp metal wings not only sliced through the restricting wires in an instant, but with a powerful kick of her feet, Mizore launched herself into the air just as the fire reached the ice block.
BOOM!
(...She FLEW?!)
As the smoke cleared, Sasuke's eyes widened. For the first time, he was watching a human fly away in the sky .
Sasuke analyzed the situation coldly, taking everything in. He glanced back and saw the dead weight client's servant was desperately trying to motivate the Princess, while Sakura was just standing there, staring at him with stars in her eyes.
(...This pinkie still hasn't even unsheathed a kunai.)
Sasuke gave up with a sigh
he also gave up on relying on her entirely and looked forward again. If it weren't for the client and Sakura being there, he would have loved to go on the offensive and chase the enemy down.
But in the end, despite his previous cold, tactical decision to use them as bait, Sasuke directly embraced his true tsundere nature.
His Sharingan slowly tracked the enemy kunoichi as she drifted back down, landing heavily on the snow once again, directly in front of him.
(.....It seems she can't fly easily or something )
Sasuke shifted into a solid combat stance, planting his feet firmly between the enemy and his useless teammates. He stared down the kunoichi who also seems to have activated her red eyes.
The Kunoichi's eyes were now blazing with pure anger, her focus entirely locked onto him.
(....What an amateur. She totally forgot about her real target.)
While Sasuke readied himself to continue the fight, Kakashi and Nadare were locked in a fierce clash of their own nearby.
Though there were other bunch who were courting Death too .
"Sacrifice your lives and keep on shooting!" the old fart of a director screamed at the top of his lungs, completely unhinged, as the crew hoisted him and the heavy camera onto their shoulders and sprinted for safety across the ice.
"Director, we are gonna die! Don't Mess around "
"Shut up and keep the camera rolling!"
"No way, I ain't courting death!"
" fuck your Granddaughter you OLD fart "
"I wanna go home!"
"My bladder is terrified and my pants are afraid!"
"Where am I?!"
"You better increase my pay, Senile Old man !"
Despite the sheer chaos, the cameraman worked frantically, sweating bullets in the freezing cold as he tried his best to keep the lens focused on the action.
Meanwhile, Kakashi was done with basic taijutsu. He wove a rapid series of hand seals, eager to remind his enemies that even without revealing his Sharingan, he hadn't forgotten his jutsu.
"Water Release: Water Dragon Bullet!"
Utilizing the icy environment, Kakashi summoned a roaring dragon of pressurized water and launched it directly at Nadare. His timing was impeccable—true to his title as the Copy Ninja—leaving Nadare Rouga virtually no window to counter.
Nadare watched the surging water dragon rocket toward him, but his expression remained calm because the water dragon bullet seems to stop at an invisible barrier a meter away from him , and this stopping gave Nadare the 1 second that he just needed .
Nadare leaped clear, narrowly dodging Kakashi's flawlessly timed strike.
Kakashi's eye narrowed.
"...That chakra armor"
(...They seem much stronger than before,) Kakashi concluded, evaluating how Nadare had managed to dodge a jutsu he had spent considerable mental effort to time so precisely.
Now, it was Nadare's turn to retaliate.
"Ice Release: Piercing Dragon Fierce Tiger!"
Seeing the massive ice tiger roaring toward him, Kakashi decided it was time to get serious. He drew the Sword from his back.
SLASH!
Shing!
BOOM! BOOM!
With a swift, blinding arc from Kakashi's white chakra blade, the fierce ice tiger was cleaved cleanly in two, exploding into harmless ice fragments.
Seeing Kakashi effortlessly cut through his jutsu, Nadare's face finally darkened. But rather than dampening his spirit, it only pushed him to go all out.
(........Then let's see if you can cleave this in two!)
Maximum output, Chakra Armor!
Nadare Rouga pushed his armor to its absolute limit. Combining its maximum output with the unique frozen terrain and his own mastery of Ice Release, he roared as he unleashed a monstrous technique.
"Ice Release: One-Horned Whale!"
The ground shook violently as Kakashi jumped back just in time as a colossal, ten-meter-long whale made of solid ice erupted from the iceberg, gouging out a massive hole that exposed the dark ocean waters beneath.
" ....What A strong Jutsu "
(Not good... He's taking full advantage of the environment. Fighting here is bad,)
Kakashi analyzed as he easily dodged the initial attack. However, he knew that if he didn't stop Nadare right here, that gigantic whale would be directed straight toward the film crew and their ship.
( Did they retreat though ?? )
Kakashi glanced down and noticed that, while remarkably still filming, the crew had somehow managed to board the ship during the chaos.
(...Well, that's good news at least.)
Taking a deep breath, Kakashi threw a flare in air as channeled his chakra until the sword in his hand glowed intensely. He looked back up at Nadare, who was already starting to redirect the giant whale toward him once more.
( Don't lose focus. Keep the mission in mind, Kakashi.)
Making his decision, Kakashi drove his glowing blade straight into the fractured ice beneath him, targeting the weak point created by the hole Nadare's whale had gouged out.
BOOOOOOM!
With a single, devastating strike, Kakashi cleaved the entire mini-iceberg in two. As the iceberg fractured and collapsed into the sea, Kakashi signaled his team, and they bounded across the water toward the ship, leaving a disgruntled Nadare behind.
Kakashi glanced back over his shoulder. Nadare was still holding his hand seal, but he wasn't making the whale pursue them into the open sea.
(As expected, the range of the chakra armor still hasn't been improved..... along with its multi-tasking limitations.)
Kakashi noted how Nadare was forced to freeze in place like a statue just to sustain that level of output.
(If it weren't for the collapsing iceberg, the clients, and the kunoichi by his side... I might have been able to take him out right here.)
Still, Kakashi didn't linger. Through that brief clash, he had already gathered a wealth of intelligence—and engaging Nadare in an all-out fight wasn't the objective anyway.
Closing in on the vessel, Kakashi leaped onto the deck. He looked around at the frantic crew and the shivering client he was assigned to protect—a mission that was rapidly turning out to be a Serious A- or even S-rank ordeal.
( Another mission where the client lied about the details....... What a drag,) Kakashi sighed, lowering his shoulders.
Suddenly, Kakashi noticed that a certain blonde member of his team was missing.
"Huh? Where is Naruto?"
"...Here."
Hearing a voice from outside the ship, Kakashi looked over the Ship's railing and saw Naruto slowly climbing up the hull.
But—
"HUH???!" x 100
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Author's Note :
Next will be Naruto's fight
A Little credit to Sasuke because despite all things Sasuke is also a genius and capable Shinobi .
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