"That chakra—something's wrong with it!"
Even Sasuke felt the Nine-Tails' chakra the moment it leaked out.
Hanabi and Sasuke had just reached the foot of the slope, deliberately staggering their arrival to avoid detection. They'd done a quick sweep of the island first—and genuinely found no additional forces waiting.
"There's no time!" Sasuke's jaw tightened.
He'd been relieved when he realized there were only two enemies and no hidden backup. But the ritual was moving faster than he'd expected.
"Careful—!"
Hanabi caught him by the collar.
A line of ice needles shot through the space right in front of him. He went cold all over. If she hadn't pulled him back—
Another volley came. Hanabi swung the red cord around her wrist and deflected the whole cluster.
"That's far enough." Haku stepped out of the shadows.
"The Nine-Tails is not something you or your associate can control. You're playing with fire." Hanabi said.
"The Nine-Tails will become Zabuza-sama's weapon—same as me." Haku kept his gaze fixed on Hanabi. Against Sasuke, he'd be manageable. Against her, the calculus was different.
"There's no time, Sasuke." Hanabi put a hand lightly on his shoulder.
Sasuke understood without being told. A single nod.
"Don't—!"
Haku saw it the instant it happened: Hanabi was sending Sasuke past him.
"Too late! Ninja Art—Needles of a Thousand Petals!"
Something had appeared in Hanabi's hand—a red oil-paper umbrella, deployed and flung spinning into the air. From inside it, a blizzard of senbon needles erupted outward in every direction.
[THE UMBRELLA—the first episode, the umbrella, IT'S PAID OFF]
[Chekhov's Gun, look at you go]
[I love my wife so much]
This was a technique common among Rain Village shinobi. If you were carrying an umbrella, learning to weaponize it was only natural. It wasn't a secret art—anyone could study it if they wanted.
In the original series, it had done essentially nothing against Gaara. But that was Gaara.
Haku assessed instantly: the needles covered a complete arc of attack with no angle of evasion. No way to dodge.
He conjured ice pillars as cover and managed to block the volley—barely.
"They're going to get away—not happening! Secret Technique: Crystal Ice Mirrors!"
Haku formed his seals and raised the mirrors, trying to trap Hanabi and Sasuke inside.
But as Hanabi had said: too late. She'd already used the red cord to sling Sasuke clear over the perimeter.
Haku lunged to pursue—and ran into a ring of fire that had sprung up around the mirror cage from the outside.
"Take a rest." Hanabi said pleasantly.
The situation had inverted. Now it was Hanabi containing Haku.
"One Genin won't affect Yukii-san. I only need to stop you." Haku forced calm into his voice.
"Then you've underestimated those two. The bond between them." Hanabi, for her part, was in no hurry at all.
She hadn't moved much. Strategically—this was a Shadow Clone. Her real body's combat ability was identical, but she couldn't afford to take damage. The moment Haku decided to kill rather than delay, holding him would become complicated.
But Haku was a gentle soul. That wasn't nothing.
She wasn't exactly running a sophisticated manipulation. But she didn't mind using what was in front of her.
"Kakashi-sensei's engaged, by the sound of it."
In the feed: Kakashi and Zabuza had indeed clashed. But Kakashi needed to keep Tazuna in range, and Zabuza wasn't pressing for a decisive finish—just containment. Both were at less than full output. The exchange was lively but bloodless so far.
Then the feed cut to Naruto's side, and the tone shifted entirely.
Because Yukii's hands were moving across Naruto's abdomen, drawing the mark into place.
"Why—why are you doing this, Auntie?!" Naruto was shouting.
Yukii didn't answer. Her hands stayed locked in their seal formation. Around them, chaotic chakra was being drawn toward some invisible gravity.
"Don't worry, Naruto. It will be over soon." She was smiling. But out of her body—something dark was rising, dense and wrong in a way that chakra wasn't supposed to be. Something even more ominous than the Nine-Tails.
The array was almost complete.
"Then why—why does your face look so pained?!"
The one caught in the trap was him. Tied up, helpless, powerless.
So why—why did Yukii look like she was the one in pain?
The Nine-Tails was going to be extracted. What happened then? Would he die?
But she looked more anguished than someone who was about to die. More than him.
Why?
"Naruto!"
Then—two kunai sliced in from the distance.
Yukii had to break her seal and leap back.
Sasuke came through.
Her hands needed to stay free for seals, so Yukii fought with her legs alone—constantly shifting, weaving, reading angles.
"Bam!"
At his current level, Sasuke couldn't match Hanabi in a straight fight—even if she was only using her legs.
He hit the wall.
"That dark chakra—I can't let her—"
He was back on his feet almost instantly, charging again.
"Stand down, Sasuke." Yukii deflected him again with a kick.
"Like hell! Give Naruto back!"
After the surge of dark chakra, Sasuke had felt something finalizing—some ritual locking into place.
"Sasuke!"
Naruto, who'd looked gray with hopelessness a moment ago, watched Sasuke get knocked down over and over and keep getting up—and something rekindled behind his eyes.
"You know who I am—I'm the man who's going to be Hokage—Uzumaki Naruto!"
He started pulling against his restraints.
The sealed Nine-Tails chakra began to stir in response.
"This is bad—!"
In front of the feed: Yukii put on a look of alarm. She threw Sasuke aside again and turned for Naruto.
She's too fast. I need to be faster—fast enough to read her—to read every movement—
Sasuke pushed himself off the ground and charged again. His eyes fixed on the space ahead. And those black pupils—in this moment—turned red.
The Sharingan.
With it active, Sasuke read her movements before they finished forming.
"Ninja Art—Seance Jutsu."
Her hands were reaching for Naruto's stomach.
"Faster—compress the chakra into both legs, move faster—"
A wall of ice crystals rose between them.
But Sasuke, with the Sharingan, read every fraction of Ice Release as it formed.
"Give—Naruto—BACK—"
Sasuke's strike landed.
It was enough to make Yukii's hands tremble—enough to throw the seal off by a fraction. She coughed blood. Then she kicked Sasuke hard enough to send him into the wall and pressed her palm back to Naruto's abdomen.
Except—Naruto's hand caught her wrist.
And across the cave floor, the fallen Sasuke was smiling.
Because while Yukii had been blocking Sasuke's charge—Sasuke had already slipped the kunai into Naruto's ropes and cut them free.