Being a rogue ninja is worse than being Hokage.

Zabuza is another water clone!

The real Zabuza appeared behind Kakashi.

Chapter 17 Naruto's Decision

"Kakashi, I won!"

Zabuza loudly proclaimed his victory, raising his greatsword high and slashing at Kakashi.

Scalding blood splattered onto the faces of the three members of Team 7 as they witnessed Kakashi's death up close.

Kakashi's blood flowed from the tip of Zabuza's greatsword, and the white bandage covering his face was now stained crimson.

"Kakashi... teacher?"

Sakura couldn't believe what she was seeing, and she whispered Kakashi's name.

Kakashi, lying in a pool of blood, did not respond.

This time it was neither a clone technique nor a substitution technique.

Kakashi seems to be... really dead.

"hateful!"

Sasuke snapped out of his shock, gripped his kunai, and assumed a fighting stance against Zabuza.

Only Naruto stared at Kakashi's corpse, feeling as if the scene was familiar.

Is it another substitution jutsu that uses transformation magic?

This time, Team 7 wasn't facing Chunin like the Demon Brothers, so Kakashi could leisurely observe from the shadows.

Team 7's current enemy is Zabuza Momochi, who is also a Jonin like Kakashi!

Exposing Team 7, who were incapable of fighting Zabuza, to such an extreme and perilous situation—at least on the surface, as Naruto pretended—Team 7 was already in a dead end.

What exactly is Kakashi going to do?

No matter how hard Naruto thought, he couldn't find the right answer.

Naruto then looked at Zabuza in front of him. Perhaps in Zabuza's eyes, Naruto and his friends were nothing more than lowly ninja brats who posed no threat to him.

Zabuza was not in a hurry to finish them off.

He simply grinned maliciously, relishing the deep-seated fear in Sasuke and Sakura's hearts.

wrong!

Naruto felt a strong sense of unease.

An enemy is a threat as long as they are alive, and a rogue ninja like Zabuza should understand this even more.

Amid Zabuza's sinister laughter, Naruto suddenly realized something!

He immediately channeled an extremely small amount of Nine-Tails chakra into his own chakra channels and voluntarily relinquished control over the Nine-Tails chakra.

The raging Nine-Tails chakra immediately surged like a wild horse through Naruto's chakra channels.

It disrupted the flow of chakra within Naruto's body.

He regained control of the Nine-Tails' chakra and began circulating it through his meridians again.

That sense of unease finally disappeared completely.

The sinister laughter that had just been echoing in his ears stopped—no, Zabuza never laughed sinisterly!

Naruto looked at Zabuza once again.

"Zabuza, I won."

Kakashi's deep voice echoed in Naruto's ears.

The dense fog created by the Hidden Mist Technique had long since dissipated, and Kakashi held a kunai against Zabuza's neck.

With just a slight tilt of the kunai, Kakashi could have severed Zabuza's carotid artery.

It was an illusion after all!

Kakashi's hand seals in the thick fog were actually a genjutsu created by using Zabuza's Hidden Mist Technique in reverse!

Zabuza's limbs were torn apart by several ninja dogs of varying sizes, severely restricting his movement.

"You actually used my ninjutsu to cast a genjutsu, you're really bold!"

Zabuza's tone betrayed his anger as he stared at Kakashi: "Aren't you worried that I'll discover your intentions, use you against you, and kill you?"

"The truth is, you didn't even realize it, and you're the one who's about to die."

Kakashi's kunai, pressed against Zabuza's neck, pierced slightly into the muscle.

With just a small wound, fresh blood will flow continuously from the artery.

The only difference is the size of the wound, which affects how quickly Zabuza dies.

"Heh heh heh, using kunai? Why not continue with the lightning release you initially planned to use to finish me off?"

Faced with his own death, Zabuza was more interested in the way Kakashi planned to kill him.

Kakashi did not answer.

Zabuza seemed to have guessed the reason.

"Just using the Sharingan consumes a lot of your chakra, and the Lightning Release also requires a lot of chakra—it's pathetic that you're called the Copy Ninja, having copied over a thousand ninjutsu using the Sharingan's 'copy eye' feature, yet you can only use a handful of ninjutsu in battle."

Even with his face covered by bandages, Zabuza's ferocious features were still clearly visible.

He suddenly began to struggle, but his struggles only caused the ninja dog that was biting him to tear his wounds even further.

"I still have plenty of chakra! Kaka—!"

Zabuza, who had suddenly begun to fight back desperately, hadn't even finished saying Kakashi's name.

Two long needle-like senbon needles shot out from above, slicing through the air and piercing Zabuza's neck.

Zabuza glared angrily, dying with his eyes wide open.

The sudden situation immediately put Kakashi on alert.

"Please don't worry, I meant no harm."

Following the direction from which the senbon needles were shot, on a tree branch not far away, a masked boy told Kakashi that he had no hostility towards him.

Kakashi stared intently at the mask on the boy's face: "That mask... are you a member of the Hidden Mist Anbu?"

"Yes, I am a member of the Kirigakure Anbu, a member of the rogue ninja hunting unit."

The masked boy bowed slightly to Kakashi to express his gratitude: "I have been looking for an opportunity to kill the rogue ninja Momochi Zabuza, but things have not gone too smoothly... Therefore, your appearance has helped me solve a big problem, and I hope you can accept my thanks."

"..."

Faced with the masked boy's identity and the goodwill he showed, Kakashi remained silent for a moment, then put the kunai back into his ninja tool pouch: "I need to check if Zabuza is really dead first."

"Please go ahead."

The masked boy remained standing on the tree, without making any move.

Kakashi crouched down, looking at Zabuza's corpse, and reached out to check Zabuza's pulse, heartbeat, and pupils...

Zabuza's various physical conditions all indicate that he was indeed killed by the masked boy.

Upon confirming the situation, Kakashi released the ninja dog summoning.

The spell was also dispelled along with the three members of Team 7 and Tazuna, who had been controlled by his illusionary magic in his moment of panic.

After all, Kakashi infused his own chakra into Zabuza's chakra.

Kakashi blended his chakra into the mist, a tactical decision born from his exceptional combat experience.

To prevent Zabuza from noticing anything amiss, Kakashi could only ensure that Zabuza fell into the genjutsu as quickly as possible, without having time to consider the genjutsu's control range.

"what happened?"

Sasuke was momentarily confused. Wasn't he just on guard against Zabuza?

"Ah! Kakashi-sensei isn't dead!"

Sakura had found Kakashi still alive, and she finally breathed a sigh of relief, but for a moment she didn't know what had happened.

"It's an illusion."

Naruto pretended that Kakashi had broken the genjutsu and that everyone else had woken up, and then gave the two of them an explanation.

He could now openly observe the masked boy in the tree—

—Zabuza's comrade, Haku.

He couldn't help but admire Zabuza's strategy.

After discovering that Kakashi was the one protecting Tazuna, he had Haku hide.

The best-case scenario would be to kill Kakashi directly, but Zabuza, who had been in the Hidden Mist Anbu for many years, knew how troublesome Kakashi was, as he possessed the Sharingan.

Therefore, this encounter was more of a test.

If Zabuza falls into a disadvantageous position in his fight against Kakashi, Haku will appear as an Anbu member of Kirigakure and stage Zabuza's "death".

Zabuza's question before his death was his true purpose; this battle had given him enough information about Kakashi.

Kakashi will find it difficult to gain the upper hand next time.

—And on Zabuza's side, there's also Haku, an ice-style bloodline limit ninja, whom Kakashi doesn't know about.

"what happened?"

Noticing Naruto's gaze, Haku tilted his head and asked curiously.

"who are you?"

Naruto continued to pretend that he had just woken up from the genjutsu and was completely unaware of anything.

But he had a completely different thought in his mind.

Being targeted by Zabuza is too troublesome.

Kakashi will lose his fighting ability for a period of time after this battle.