"Has that Kurosuki Raiga gone mad?!"
Within the dense fog, Zabuza suddenly heard a series of violent thunderous explosions and surging waves coming from the distance, mixed with desperate roars and maniacal laughter.
"All this commotion just to deal with a kid?"
"Or is that brat really as strong as Kakashi claimed?"
Zabuza's expression darkened. Though he despised Kurosuki Raiga and even looked down on him, he couldn't deny the man's strength rivaled his own.
'To think he's actually pushed Raiga this far...?'
Zabuza found it hard to believe. What made it even more unbelievable was that the desperate roar he faintly heard seemed to be... Kurosuki Raiga's?!
'Are all the Konoha rookies this generation monsters?'
Zabuza's face turned utterly grim.
As he glanced toward the battle between Haku, Naruto, and Sakura, he saw the dense fog beginning to dissipate. As the shattered ice mirrors crumbled, his expression grew even darker.
Suddenly, Zabuza's expression shifted again. From within the thinning fog, several massive, muscular wolf-dogs with leopard-like heads and glaring eyes lunged at him.
Their mouths were filled with sharp, gleaming white teeth, dripping with savage ferocity and a rank, bloody stench!
Zabuza's body blurred as he sprang forward, the air around him rippling with his momentum. He shot away at a speed barely discernible to the naked eye.
Howl!
The Ninja Hounds, however, were lightning-fast. Their furious howls echoed relentlessly as they pursued Zabuza relentlessly.
Retreating, Zabuza swung his blade in an impenetrable arc, protecting himself from the ravenous hounds' snapping jaws.
'These damned hunting dogs!'
His eyes hardened. With a furious swing, he slashed at the two Ninja Hounds closest to him. The chakra-enhanced blade tore through the air with explosive force, creating a deafening sonic boom.
In an instant, the two hounds were cleaved in two. Crimson blossoms of blood erupted from their midsections, mingling with bone shards and viscera. The dying hounds managed only a final, agonizing yelp before collapsing limply.
Witnessing this, Zabuza's resolve sharpened. He raised his blade once more.
But as Zabuza swung his blade again, a short sword crackling with electric energy, accompanied by a piercing, ear-splitting screech, hurtled straight toward his heart!
The blade flashed like a thunderbolt, its thunderous roar akin to a thousand birds screeching in unison, threatening to pierce through anything!
In this life-or-death moment, Zabuza had no choice but to parry. He wrenched the Executioner's Blade back and braced it horizontally across his chest to block Kakashi's sudden assault.
Clang!
The razor-sharp tip of the thrusting sword clashed violently against the thick, wide blade of the Executioner's Blade, erupting in a shower of sparks and electrical arcs.
The clash produced a piercing, ear-splitting screech of grinding metal and the acrid, metallic stench of burning steel.
'What kind of piercing power is this?!'
Zabuza's face twisted in alarm as he saw a small hole punched straight through the Executioner's Blade, which had been blocking the attack.
A similar mark had appeared on his chestplate, just a hair's breadth away from piercing his heart.
With a thunderous stomp, Zabuza channeled a massive surge of Chakra into his feet.
The surface of the water erupted like a minefield detonating, sending a towering wave surging upward and powerful shockwaves rippling outward in all directions.
Seizing the moment Kakashi lost his footing, Zabuza used the force of his stomp to dart evasively, his movements twisting and turning unpredictably through the dense mist, creating distance between himself and Kakashi.
When Kakashi tried to pursue, he found that Zabuza had vanished from sight once again.
Unlike in the original timeline, where Kakashi had subdued Zabuza with a single use of Summoning: Ninja Hounds, this battle unfolded on the open sea.
Though Kakashi could use the hounds to track Zabuza's location, he couldn't deploy his Earth Release: Tracking Fang Technique.
The hounds couldn't burrow into the seabed to ambush and restrain their foe, as they would have done on solid ground.
Kakashi wasn't without Water Release techniques similar to the Tracking Fang Technique to lock onto enemies, but their effectiveness paled in comparison.
Moreover, Zabuza was an Elite Jonin and a master of Water Release. He could instantly detect the slightest anomaly in the water.
Given Kakashi's Water Release proficiency, he couldn't possibly conceal any significant action on the open sea from Zabuza's keen senses.
"Aquino... Guruku..."
Gazing at the two Ninja Hounds cleaved in half on the water's surface, Kakashi's expression darkened with profound sorrow.
The Hatake Clan had maintained a generational pact with the Ninja Hound Clan, forging decades of partnership.
Each new member of the Hatake Clan was assigned their own Summoning: Ninja Hounds.
Kakashi's were these eight Ninja Hounds. To him, they were more than just battle companions; they were family who had stood by him during the darkest days after his father's death.
How could he not grieve at losing two members of his family in an instant?
"Zabuza!"
Kakashi's expression darkened instantly, his eyes blazing with murderous intent.
If he had merely been fighting to complete his mission moments ago, he was now fighting with the burning desire to kill Zabuza!
The battle between Kakashi and Zabuza had reached a fever pitch, escalating into a fight to the death.
Meanwhile, on the other side, Sakura and Naruto were still locked in combat with Haku.
Though shrouded by the dense fog, the violent whooshing sounds and the crisp, shattering echoes of ice mirrors being pulverized left no doubt about the intensity of the conflict.
Boom!
Another Taijutsu technique!
A hurricane-like surge of Chakra erupted from Naruto's body, creating a roar akin to an avalanche crashing into the sea. The raging force tore through the dense fog, shattering yet another cluster of ice mirrors into fragments.
"Is this guy a monster?!"
Haku stared in stunned disbelief at the tangible waves of Chakra radiating from Naruto's body.
He couldn't fathom how a ninja could unleash such immense Chakra and raw power through mere Taijutsu.
What baffled him even more was Naruto's reckless spamming of powerful techniques as if his Chakra reserves were inexhaustible.
He didn't even see the blond youth catch his breath after unleashing so many ultimate techniques.
It was as if those devastatingly powerful moves consumed Chakra as easily as an average ninja performing an E-Rank Ninjutsu.
In fact, even an average ninja performing that many E-Rank Ninjutsu would need to pause briefly, while the youth never hesitated for a moment from start to finish!
In stark contrast, Haku's face was deathly pale, his entire body trembling slightly.
Clearly, his Chakra was nearly exhausted, and his physical strength was rapidly fading.
'Even if it means death, I must hold them back!'
Haku gritted his teeth, raised his trembling hands, and performed another technique.
His deathly pale complexion flushed with a sudden, unnatural rosiness, and a small amount of Chakra surged back into his nearly depleted reserves.
But this was far from a good sign. It meant he was now suppressing his own life force to forcibly extract Chakra!
Like a dying ember flaring briefly before fading forever, the price of forcibly extracting Chakra was almost always death.
___
This Sasuke Is Strange 190 advanced chapters: (5 ch updates everyday)
Patreon.com/rashta
Be a member so you can also read:
1. 345 adv ch of Talent System In Naruto (Completed)
2. 487 adv ch of This Danzo Is Weird
3. 270 adv ch of Uchiha Madara's Cousin
4. 163 adv ch of WDQK: Divorcing Ling Qingzhu (Completed)
5. 560 adv ch of Qian Renxue's Younger Brother
6. 274 adv ch of I'm Huo Yuhao's System
7. Adv chapters of Naruto: Galgame System (Upcoming)