Naruto: Uchiha Youngjo's Konoha Spring

Chapter 189 The First Battle of Class 7
"What?!" Dazna exclaimed in shock, gritting her teeth, "That damned Gato, how could he do this!"

"Zabuza-san, how about we hide for a while?" After cursing Gato, Tazna turned to Zabuza and suggested.

"Why are you running away!" Zabuza frowned impatiently. "If they dare to come looking for me, I'll just kill a few Konoha ninjas to avenge our Kirigakure ninjas."

However, as soon as he finished speaking, the hairs on the back of his head suddenly stood on end, and he drew the guillotine from behind him and held it in front of him, protecting Tazna at the same time.

A chakra laser beam as thick as a thigh landed directly on the Executioner's Blade, and a violent explosion rang out, instantly turning Dazna's small house into a pile of debris.

As the smoke from the explosion slowly dissipated, Zabuza, panting heavily, looked down at the Executioner's Blade in his hand, which was now covered in cracks.

Behind him, Tazna and the boy who had just brought the news had fallen to the ground, their faces filled with terror.

Without a word, Zabuza took a bottle of blood from his ninja tool pouch and poured it onto the Executioner's Blade. The moment the Executioner's Blade came into contact with the blood, the cracks on the blade caused by the explosion began to slowly repair themselves.

Zabuza, meanwhile, gazed intently at the shore where a giant wave was rising, and on the wave's head, a large blue serpent emerged from the waves. On the serpent's head, three teenagers, wearing Konoha headbands, stood proudly.

The boy in the lead had his right hand on the hilt of his sword, looking down at Zabuza: "When did a bunch of rogue ninjas form an illegal ninja village and start representing Kirigakure?"

"Ninjas from Konoha?" Zabuza narrowed his eyes, looking at the three boys atop the giant snake's head. He brandished his fully restored Executioner's Blade, pointing it directly at Sasuke and the others. "State your names!"

"Konoha Genin, Uchiha Sasuke."

"Konoha Genin, Uzumaki Naruto."

"Konoha genin, Hyuga Neji."

"Hmph, just three genin?" A hint of contempt flashed in Zabuza's eyes. "Uchiha, and a member of the Hyuga main family? Konoha has certainly given me a generous gift."

Zabuza licked his lips: "I'll accept your eyes."

"What a coincidence, we were just planning to use you to get back the Byakugan that you rogue ninjas stole from our clan," Neji said with a cold laugh after summoning his sniper rifle.

"Heh, arrogant brat." Zabuza said, his hands rapidly forming hand seals, and a thick fog rose from nowhere, completely enveloping the area.

"The Hidden Mist Technique?" Neji calmly surveyed the thick fog around him. "Do you think this technique would be of any use against my Byakugan?"

Zabuza didn't say much. Under the cover of the thick fog, he instantly appeared behind Naruto. In his opinion, both the Sharingan and Byakugan were effective against the Hidden Mist Technique, the signature assassination technique of the Hidden Mist Village. Therefore, it was the right thing to do to deal with this blond guy who didn't have any eye techniques first, and then confront him head-on.

"Kid, behind you." The Nine-Tails' voice rang in Naruto's mind.

"I can see!" Naruto, wearing a vision-sharing ninja tool, turned around and delivered a heavy kick to the side of the Executioner's Blade, changing its trajectory. He then used the momentum to twist his body and punched Zabuza in the temple. Zabuza raised his other hand to block, but the immense force he felt in his arm surprised him greatly.

The next instant, a cold light flashing with purple lightning and a palm wrapped in strong wind arrived in an instant. Seeing this, Zabuza could only use the Substitution Jutsu to dodge away.

Zabuza, now back in the thick fog, shook his hand, his face full of astonishment. Could these three really be genin?

However, before he could recover, several bolts of lightning struck down from the sky. Zabuza hurriedly dodged, and the lightning blasted deep craters behind him.

"This fighting style..." Zabuza struggled to dodge the barrage of lightning while frowning as he looked at a figure not far away, surrounded by thick purple lightning and with crimson light flashing in his eyes. This figure slowly overlapped with the figure of the person who had cast a deep shadow over Kirigakure years ago.

"Sasuke, watch out, don't forget we need to capture him alive." Neji said as he threw several strangely shaped metal rods that kept appearing around him.

"Alright." Sasuke nodded, slightly restraining his lightning, but before Zabuza could even catch his breath, a blond figure roared and charged out from the surrounding thick fog.

Zabuza swung his sword and cleaved it in two, but the next second, another blond-haired guy rushed out from another direction.

[Shadow clones, shadow clones, shadow clones, damn it, where did this kid get so many shadow clones?!] After Zabuza had slashed more than ten of Naruto's shadow clones into smoke, he couldn't help but get anxious. What normal person could have so many shadow clones? Moreover, if an ordinary person could create so many shadow clones, each of them should have very little chakra and wouldn't be able to use any decent attacks. But the attacks launched by the shadow clones that rushed towards him just now forced him to be on high alert.

Zabuza had no choice but to release the Hidden Mist Technique. After the thick fog dissipated, Zabuza looked at the surrounding yellow ocean, and beads of cold sweat appeared on his forehead.

Seeing that the thick fog had disappeared, Naruto's shadow clones swarmed forward, and Zabuza could only quickly form hand seals.

"Water Release·Water Dragon Bullet Technique."

Not far from Zabuza, a giant dragon formed from seawater bursts forth from the ocean and roars toward Naruto's shadow clones.

Naruto's shadow clones shattered one after another under the impact of the giant dragon, and Zabuza breathed a sigh of relief upon seeing this.

[Thank goodness we're at the beach, or we would have really been in trouble.] Zabuza stepped on the thick layer of water left by the Water Dragon Technique, raised his hand to wipe the beads of sweat the size of soybeans from his forehead, and thought to himself.

"You seem to be getting a little too excited."

Zabuza looked in the direction of the sound, and when he saw the boy standing on the puddles, his long sword flashing with purple lightning, his pupils contracted.

Sasuke plunged the Purple Lightning into the puddles, and the purple lightning instantly spread along the water. During the Third Shinobi World War, a saying circulated among the Hidden Mist ninja: never use wide-range water-style ninjutsu on Uchiha Touko, for such techniques would be a death sentence for the user.

Zabuza was too young to understand the meaning of those words back then, but now he does.

Zabuza could only leap high into the air, but in the next instant, six purple lightning dragons emerged from the water and roared towards him, sealing off all his escape routes.

Zabuza kept looking around. Even if he used the Substitution Jutsu, he couldn't find a place to escape. Within a radius of nearly a hundred meters, there was water flowing with high-voltage electricity. He would probably lose the ability to move the moment he landed. So, Zabuza could only grit his teeth, use his Executioner's Blade to protect his vitals, and plan to withstand this ninjutsu and then use the recoil to escape to a safer place.

His plan succeeded. After withstanding the attack, the shockwave from the lightning ninjutsu sent him flying far away. However, as a price, his Executioner's Blade was now covered in cracks, and Zabuza also spat out a cloud of blood mist in mid-air, clearly having suffered internal injuries from the impact.

After landing, Zabuza struggled to his feet. Ignoring the constant, excruciating pain, he turned and ran away in a disheveled state.

The two brats he just fought were both at the level of elite Jonin. That Uchiha brat was just like the dark cloud hanging over Kirigakure, Uchiha Tokage. What would happen in two years? He had to escape back to Kirigakure immediately, bring this news back to the village, and organize a manpower to hunt them down. Otherwise, once they grew up, Kirigakure would never have a chance to rise again.

However, before Zabuza could take two steps, a large number of strange runes suddenly appeared on the ground. His remaining chakra was drained in an instant, and chains of chakra emerged from the ground, completely binding his hands and feet.

Zabuza looked up at the edge of the area covered with runes. Every few meters along the edge of the area, there was a short metal rod stuck in the ground. Zabuza then understood what the purpose of those things that the Hyuga brat had thrown out earlier was.

"This thing works pretty well." Sasuke was the first to arrive at Zabuza's side, who was now completely bound, and examined the trap that Neji's subordinates had created, which could be linked together to form a sealing technique that briefly sealed chakra.

"This is a new ninja tool that Tenten and Karin developed, and it's still being tested. Tenten specifically asked me to take it with me before I left," Neji said.

"Let's tie him up first." Sasuke nodded and took out a bundle of specially made rope from his sealing scroll, intending to tie Zabuza up.

However, Zabuza suddenly sprang into action, wielding a kunai and lunging at Sasuke.

"Die! You Uchiha genius brat!" A resolute glint flashed in Zabuza's eyes. In the current situation, there was no way to escape, but if he could exchange his life for that Uchiha genius brat who was very likely Uchiha Tokō's personal disciple, he would die without regrets.

However, Zabuza suddenly saw that the three tomoe in Sasuke's Sharingan were slowly turning.

The next moment, Zabuza collapsed to the ground, powerless.

"Hey, Sasuke, this guy seems to really think of you as his teacher." Naruto, who arrived late, laughed when he saw the situation. "He actually dares to look directly into your Sharingan."

Neji's lips twitched slightly after hearing Naruto's words, and he warned, "Don't say things like that carelessly. If the teacher hears you, he'll probably beat you up again."

After binding Zabuza tightly, Sasuke placed two sealing techniques on him, completely sealing off any possibility of resistance.

"Sasuke, what should we do with the people over here?" Neji asked, turning to look at the surrounding village after Zabuza had completely lost his ability to resist. Tazuna and his grandson had disappeared in the chaos the moment the battle began, and many of the houses in the area had been damaged in the fight.

“We don’t need to worry about that. With the threat of ninjas gone, Uncle Gato will handle things.” Sasuke said.

……

A week later, news of Zabuza's imprisonment in Konoha reached Kitagiri Village. At the same time, news also came that Uchiha Touko wanted to save his life in exchange for the Byakugan in their possession.

Upon receiving the news, Mei Terumi was immediately in a panic. Konoha's move had completely struck at the Achilles' heel of Kitagiri Village.

Trading a Byakugan, which they had painstakingly acquired, for the life of an elite Jonin is a losing proposition from every angle. Although Zabuza is one of the strongest in Northern Kirigakure, the Byakugan is a bloodline limit capable of changing the course of a war. No leader of any ninja village would agree to such an exchange.

But the situation in Kitagiri Village is different. The current Kitagiri Village is barely maintaining its cohesion under the financial offensive of Nanigiri Village by relying on Mei Terumi's constant promises. If Zabuza dies in Konoha while he is still alive, because the higher-ups are unwilling to part with a Byakugan, it will be a huge blow to the morale of Kitagiri Village.

The ninjas of Northern Mist Village endure daily hardships of hunger and cold on marches, all for the bright future you, Mei Terumi, spoke of. Yet now, for the sake of a Byakugan, you refuse to even save your comrades. If Zabuza were to truly die, his subordinates in Northern Mist Village would definitely mutini.

"Lord Mizukage, Zabuza's subordinates have gathered around the Mizukage Building. What should we do now?" Kisame Hoshigaki asked with a sigh after arriving at Mei Terumi's office.

"Do we have any other choice?" Mei Terumi said with a wry smile. "Let's have Ao come over."

Mei Terumi's office fell into a long silence. After a while, she finally spoke and asked, "Do you know who killed Zabuza?"

"According to the information brought back by those who escaped from the Land of Waves, Zabuza was defeated by three Konoha genin," Kisame Hoshigaki said.

"A genin?" Mei Terumi's face showed disbelief upon hearing this. "Are you kidding me?"

“One of them is a brat from the Uchiha clan, and his fighting style is very similar to that of Uchiha Touko. This team is suspected to be Uchiha Touko’s personal disciples,” Kisame said.

"So, this is another genius from Konoha?" Mei Terumi gritted her teeth and said, "Konoha really seems to have an endless stream of geniuses, while our Kirigakure only produces..."

[Insect] When Kisame Hoshigaki heard Mei Terumi's words, he silently completed the two words that she hadn't said aloud.

Although I hate to admit it, Mei is right. If Konoha is the cradle of geniuses, then Kirigakure can be described as a breeding ground for insects.

(End of this chapter)