Chapter 36: The End
"Well, this is troublesome," Kyosuke remarked with a strange sigh, looking at the beautiful ice mirrors surrounding them.
His words, however, received no response from Sasuke. The intense young man was currently dark-faced, silently sulking.
Kyosuke didn't need to guess; he knew Sasuke was overthinking things again.
What?! I'm not even as good as a six-year-old kid?
How can I possibly get revenge on that man like this?!
Kyosuke would bet his life those thoughts were running through his head.
"Hey, can you cut the inner monologue? The enemy is staring us down," Kyosuke said with a sigh.
"Hmph, I know. You don't need to remind me," Sasuke retorted, but his attention had returned to the enemy.
The two of them looked at the countless reflections of Haku in every ice surface, exchanged a glance, and began to form hand seals simultaneously.
Of course, Haku wasn't just going to stand by and watch them prepare their ninjutsu.
From the seemingly infinite reflections, a barrage of senbon needles was launched at them, a dense cloud of projectiles coming from all directions at once.
"Ninpou: Summoning Technique!"
Kyosuke quickly summoned countless poisonous snakes of various sizes and ordered them to swarm outwards.
He had no hope that these weak snakes could actually harm Haku. His plan was to use them as shields to weather Haku's initial assault.
The reflections weren't Shadow Clones or anything of the sort; they were merely afterimages created by Haku's high-speed movement between the mirrors. They had no attack power of their own. The reason it looked like they were attacking simultaneously was simply due to the effect of his speed.
While this method of attack was fierce, it couldn't be sustained for long. Kyosuke was confident that if they could just survive this first wave, Haku would inevitably need a moment to catch his breath.
That would be their moment to counterattack.
Sure enough, just as the snakes blocked the vast majority of the senbon, Haku's figure finally came to a halt.
"Sasuke!" Kyosuke shouted.
The instant the words left his mouth, Sasuke unleashed the ninjutsu he had been preparing.
"Fire Release: Dragon Fire Technique!"
A straight, focused line of fire shot toward Haku's position at high speed.
The biggest difference between this fire-style jutsu and the Great Fireball was its incredible speed. While the power was comparable, the speed was at least twice as fast.
Therefore, with Sasuke having locked onto the enemy with his Sharingan, there was no way this Dragon Fire Technique would miss.
Just as expected, although Haku reacted quickly and tried to dodge, his stamina was depleted, and his movements were a fraction too slow.
And that fraction of a difference was the gap between victory and defeat, between life and death.
The Dragon Fire Technique hit Haku squarely. The violent explosion not only sent him flying but also shattered the now uncontrolled Demonic Mirroring Ice Crystals.
Looking at Haku's struggling figure on the ground, the two Uchiha boys, both riddled with senbon needles, exchanged a look and smiled.
"You're not bad," the prideful Sasuke said, a rare compliment from him.
He knew in his heart that without Kyosuke, he might not have survived Haku's first attack. Haku hadn't been holding back as he did in the original story. The combination of Kyosuke and a Sharingan-wielding Sasuke was far stronger than the original duo of Sasuke and Naruto at this stage. The pressure they exerted was undeniable.
No matter how kind-hearted Haku was, he wasn't foolish enough to joke with his own life.
But in the end, he had still been defeated by the two of them.
"I'll finish him. You go check on Kakashi-sensei," Kyosuke said, a bit awkwardly, before walking toward Haku.
Sasuke watched him silently for a moment, then turned and walked toward the other battlefield without a word.
Kyosuke was unaware of the change in Sasuke's heart. Of course, with the dungeon nearing completion, he had no mind to care about the thoughts of an "NPC."
He walked up to Haku and looked down at the heavily injured boy, who was still trying to turn his gaze toward the other battle.
With a silent sigh, Kyosuke flicked his wrist and ended Haku's suffering.
Don't worry. For what happened today, I'll make it up to you in the future.
"Ninpou: Summoning Technique!"
With Kakashi's hand seals, several ninja hounds were suddenly summoned.
Caught off guard, Zabuza was instantly pinned down by the ferocious dogs.
At the same time, a crackle of lightning, so bright it seemed to pierce through the thick mist, appeared in Kakashi's hand.
This was his signature technique, the "Raikiri."
"It's over, Zabuza," Kakashi said coolly, then charged toward him at high speed.
Seeing this, Zabuza's breath caught in his throat for a moment. He knew... he probably couldn't dodge this.
At that moment, he felt as if everything around him had slowed down.
The events of his life flashed before his eyes like a slideshow.
The final image was of a boy as pure as snow.
Facing the impending fatal blow, Zabuza didn't even look. He just struggled to turn his head.
Toward the direction where that boy was.
But when he saw Sasuke arrive on the scene, his emotions surged violently.
A roar of despair erupted from his mouth:
"NO!!!"
Schlick!
A hand crackling with countless bolts of lightning pierced through Zabuza's chest.
The echoing roar came to an abrupt halt.
The mist gradually dissipated. When Kyosuke arrived, he saw Kakashi, who had already pulled his forehead protector back down.
And Zabuza, his pained expression tinged with a hint of regret.
"..."
Although the battle was won, for some reason, none of the three showed any signs of joy.
Even Kyosuke felt a touch of sadness, despite knowing that these characters were all created by the system. The scene was just too real.
After a long while, the group gathered their emotions. After giving Haku and Zabuza a simple burial, they continued on toward the heart of the Land of Waves.
The rest was simple. Gatō's mob of thugs was mostly wiped out by a single ninjutsu. The remaining few were all killed by the combined efforts of Kyosuke and Sasuke.
Finally, with a ripple of energy, Kyosuke's figure vanished from the scene.
The "Land of Waves" dungeon... complete!!!
(End of Chapter)
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