"It's the end now," Haku said in a serious voice.
Satsuki and Hinata didn't doubt their enemy, especially seeing the hails of senbons flying towards them in all directions.
Even though the situation seems hopeless, Satsuki still believes that she and Hinata can survive and find a way to break free from their situation.
Meanwhile, at Zabuza and Fugaku's location, they currently temporarily stop engaging in their clashes.
Zabuza is panting, trying to catch his breath, and sweat slowly falls down from his body, and there are also a few injuries he received from Fugaku's tanto, while Fugaku remains in tip-top condition; in fact, his clothes didn't even suffer any cuts from Zabuza's Executioner Blade.
Zabuza realized that no matter how skilled he was in terms of swordsmanship, with Fugaku's Sharingan, the latter could predict Zabuza's next action, which made it easy for Fugaku to decide his next course of action.
Just as Zabuza was about to try a different method, Fugaku suddenly brought the tanto close to his face and blew out the fire, encasing the tanto in flame.
Before Zabuza could think of the reason behind Fugaku's action, suddenly Fugaku appeared in front of him and swung his flaming tanto towards his neck.
Zabuza, of course, manages to block the attack with his Executioner Blade, but before Zabuza could launch a counterattack, Fugaku once again swung his tanto at a different angle with much faster speed and stronger force behind it.
Zabuza slowly found himself in a disadvantageous position, especially due to the fact that Fugaku's attacks are completely unpredictable compared to their earlier clashes.
After clashing for a minute or two, Zabuza finally manages to find a perfect opportunity not only to hit Fugaku but also to gain distance between the two of them.
Zabuza launches a powerful kick that Fugaku is unable to dodge or block in time, which sends Fugaku skidding for more than a meter or so.
Zabuza's eyes stared at Fugaku, more specifically at the tanto he was holding. Fugaku noticed this, and a smirk appeared on his face.
"You must have noticed it earlier. Unlike other swords, this one has a black-colored blade. That's because it's made of a special kind of metal that has an incredibly high affinity for Fire Style, which is perfect for me. With this blade, I am able to do three things all at once—cut, pierce, and scorch," Fugaku explains in a calm manner, but the smirk on his face didn't disappear; in fact, it only grew bigger.
"So that's how it is, but so—"
Before Zabuza finished his response, he saw Fugaku's flaming tanto thrusting towards his face. Zabuza quickly tilted his head while weaving through a series of hand signs.
"Water Style: Water Dragon Jutsu!" A large dragon made of water rises up and roars and flies towards Fugaku.
Fugaku continued to smirk and raise the tanto above while channeling chakra towards the blade, making the fire burn stronger. Fugaku then brings down the tanto, cutting the water dragon in half.
Zabuza's eyes widen a bit after seeing Fugaku's action. Zabuza thought that the jutsu he released could at least injure Fugaku and turn the table of their fight, but it seems he still underestimated Fugaku's tanto capabilities.
Fugaku takes advantage of his opponent being in a state of shock and appears in front of Zabuza. Fugaku thrust his tanto towards Zabuza's heart and ended the battle right here and right now.
'Shit! 'Zabuza cursed inwardly as he realized that he couldn't dodge the incoming attack.
With great resolve, Zabuza decides to sacrifice one of his arms to save his life. Zabuza quickly uses his left hand to block the tanto.
"AAAAAHH!" Zabuza screams in pain and resolves as the tanto pierces his left hand.
"Cut, pierce, and scorch," Fugaku whispers coldly.
The tanto stopped moving forward while Zabuza stared at his arm and saw it being burned. In order to not increase the severity of his wounds, Zabuza swings his Executioner Blade, which Fugaku easily dodges.
With Satsuki, Hinata, and Haku.
Satsuki doesn't know what's worse. The feeling of pain plaguing parts of her body or the feeling of numbness slowly spreading through others.
Everything had been going well until the moment this dome of ice mirrors appeared. Haku had, from that point on, proceeded to attack them using waves of senbons.
Satsuki tries to melt down the ice mirror using her fire style, but the ice mirror surprisingly has great resistance to fire, and even if it melts, it is quickly rebuilt by Haku.
At first they had a better time blocking the flying senbons, but it only took a short amount of time before they failed to deflect the senbons flying towards them.
All they can do is deflect the senbon flying towards their vital area.
Currently both Hinata and Satsuki are barely standing on their feet. The only reason why they haven't fallen yet is due to their stubbornness.
'Naruto could arrive at any moment. I need to be prepared for him. It's time to end this,' Haku thought to herself with a bit of sadness.
She didn't have any ill will towards Hinata and Satsuki and, in fact, wanted to befriend them, as it was rare for her to interact with someone of a similar age and gender.
Too bad, though, Haku had to eliminate them since it was Zabuza's will, and as his tool, she must do whatever it takes to satisfy him.
Haku sends another wave of senbons towards the two girls, but unlike the previous waves, the volume of the senbons Haku releases is much larger—around 2 to 3 times.
Satsuki and Hinata notice this and stubbornly deflect the senbons. They let the senbons hit them if it wasn't in the vital area, but if it was targeted at their vital area, they tried their best to deflect it, whatever was necessary.
Hinata then noticed a senbon flying towards Satsuki's vital area, but the latter either didn't notice it or was unable to deal with it.
Without hesitation, Hinata pushes Satsuki to the ground. Satsuki landed on the ground and quickly turned her head to see Hinata standing tall, protecting her from the wave of senbons.
"H-Hi...Hinata," Satsuki whispers, unable to believe what she saw. She hopes it was an illusion, but even after disturbing her chakra, she saw the same thing. She wanted to scream, but the sight of Hinata being pierced by senbons robbed Satsuki of her voice.
Satsuki then saw Hinata falling forward, and Satsuki immediately caught her with her arms.
"HINATA!" Satsuki yelled in a horrified voice.
Satsuki is clearly trying to prevent Hinata from falling unconscious, as Satsuki believes that once Hinata closes her eyes, she will die.
Hinata struggles to keep her eyes open, and her eyes turn towards Satsuki, who has a worried expression on her face.
"You idiot... Why... Why did you do that?" Satsuki demands while tears slowly fall from her eyes.
"...Because we are teammates... and I see you as one of... my friends." Hinata struggled to respond.
"...At least that's what I think... we are friends, right...?" Hinata added, and her voice slowly lowered.
"O-Of course we are friends," Satsuki said with a small smile on her face.
"...I-I'm g-glad... to he—" Hinata was unable to complete her sentence as she felt unconscious.
"Hinata, Hinata, Hinata!" Satsuki shouts at the top of her lungs in a panicked manner. "Hinata! Open your eyes. We're supposed to keep fighting! Come on! Please..." Satsuki tightly hugged Hinata's body with her eyes closed, yet her tears fell faster like a waterfall.
"No! This can't be happening," Satsuki whispers. She is unable to bear to see Hinata lose her life, especially due to her inadequacy.
She understands that if she were more capable like Naruto, then Hinata wouldn't force herself to sacrifice her life in order to save her.
They wouldn't be in a situation where they are barely able to fight the enemy in front of them if they were strong.
Haku feels pity and guilty as she looks at Satsuki and Hinata. Though this is a perfect opportunity to finish the battle, she allows Satsuki to mourn her fallen comrades.
Haku believes that even if she provides Satsuki time to mourn, the ending will remain the same: their defeat.
Satsuki gently laid Hinata's body on the ground. She stands up and walks past it with her head down. Satsuki then looks at the mirror in which Haku hides and looks straight into her eyes.
Haku's eyes widen for a moment. She was shocked to see Satsuki's eyes change. Previously Satsuki had jet-black eyes, now turned into crimson red, with her left eye having one tomoe mark while her right eye had two tomoe marks, and the tomoe marks slowly spun.
'Sharingan?! She is an Uchiha as well?! 'Haku thoughts.
She was familiar with the Uchiha Clan; in fact, no one in the Ninja World hadn't heard of such a clan, which was once considered the strongest alongside the Senju Clan.
Haku didn't expect that Satsuki was an Uchiha.