Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh.
The Land of Waves was cloaked in thick fog that day, the kind that swallowed sight and sound. After bidding farewell to the boatman, Haruma led Tazuna along a pale, misty forest path.
Suddenly, a sharp sound sliced through the air. It wasn't quite the whistle of a kunai or a shuriken, lighter, but just as dangerous. Following the sound with his eyes, Haruma could see, without even activating his sharingan, that a dozen senbon needles were hurtling toward him and Tazuna, each one aimed precisely at vital pressure points.
"Water Style: Heavenly Weeping!"
Forming a seal with his hand, Haruma spat forth streams of water that hardened into needle-like projectiles, intercepting every incoming senbon.
"Oh? A one-handed seal, just like Haku's?"
A voice, thick with amusement, drifted out from the mist. A massive figure carrying an oversized blade stepped into view. From atop the branches of a nearby tree, another, smaller figure appeared, face hidden behind an ANBU-style mask.
Zabuza Momochi and Haku Yuki.
Unlike in the original tale, where Zabuza had hurled his massive blade toward Kakashi to announce his presence, this time he had judged his opponents differently. The one guarding Tazuna wasn't Kakashi Hatake, but a boy barely Haku's age. So Zabuza had casually assigned the assassination to his apprentice.
But Haruma's one-handed sealing had piqued his interest. Which was why he now stood here, studying the boy carefully.
Haruma, pulling a kunai from his pouch, was watched with the sly amusement of a cat playing with its prey. Zabuza sneered, "Kid, was it you who killed the Demon Brothers?"
"If you mean those two from the Mist, then yes, I killed them."
Haruma's eyes gleamed with battle spirit, and he laughed. "Never thought a private escort job would bring me face-to-face with such a big catch, Zabuza Momochi, the Rogue of the Hidden Mist, second generation of the Seven Ninja Swordsmen of the Mist."
Zabuza's eyes sharpened. His voice dropped cold. "Who are you, boy?"
To be recognized so easily, yet met with no fear, only eagerness, was unsettling. Instinctively, Zabuza felt a pang of unease.
Then he grew furious.
To think he, the Demon of the Bloody Mist, would feel even a flicker of apprehension toward a child younger than Haku? Impossible!
His fury burst forth as he unleashed his killing intent.
The suffocating pressure of a man who had survived the blood-soaked purges of Kirigakure's academy slammed into Haruma like a blizzard of knives. His skin prickled, gooseflesh rising as cold dread wrapped around him. His body trembled.
But it wasn't fear.
It was excitement.
"What a delicious aura…" Haruma whispered, his crimson eyes suddenly spinning into the fully-formed three tomoe sharingan.
"The sharingan!? You're… you're the last Uchiha survivor!?"
Zabuza's shock was instant. In his mind, only three people in the world still bore the Sharingan. Itachi Uchiha, the kinslayer, Kakashi Hatake, the Copy Ninja with just one borrowed eye, and the young, unawakened orphan, Sasuke Uchiha. To see such eyes in this boy, it could only mean one thing, he was the survivor.
"Phantom Body Flicker!"
Haruma ignored his question. Forming seals, he split into three, the real body flanked by two identical phantoms, all rushing forward.
"Arrogant brat!"
Zabuza swung his decapitating blade in a wide arc. The steel passed cleanly through the rushing figures, but there was no satisfying impact. Stranger still, the two phantoms did not vanish like ordinary clones. Instead, they countered, kunai flashing toward him.
Zabuza's unease grew. Too strange. Too real. He flickered away with Body Flicker.
Crack crack crack!
A sickening series of bone-snapping sounds echoed. Zabuza spun toward the noise and froze.
Haku, his loyal companion, was being brutalized. Haruma's hands twisted, snapping his limbs with ruthless efficiency. Yet Haku made no sound of pain, his eyes blank and lifeless.
Illusion.
Haku's consciousness had already been dragged into the sharingan's genjutsu realm. Even his genius with one-handed seals, even his bloodline, could not break free. For Haruma had woven an intricate snare, Sharingan Genjutsu + Binding Illusion + Demonic Shackling Stakes. An unbreakable prison.
To be sure, Haruma physically shattered Haku's limbs, preventing any last-minute resistance. Then his hand morphed into the Devouring Hand, clamping onto Haku's throat. With a pull, Haku's entire body was sucked into the mysterious dimension to be refined.
The moment he began the process, the phantoms faded away.
"Bastard! What have you done to Haku!?"
Zabuza's roar ripped through the fog as he charged in a frenzy, his blade raised to sever Haruma's devouring arm. He believed if he cut it, Haku would reappear.
But he was far too late. Haruma's devouring speed had already consumed the boy.
Rage clouded Zabuza's mind, leaving him blind. A warrior who lost control was doomed. He didn't even sense the yin chakra infiltrating his body.
His blade cleaved through Haruma's arm, yet again, there was no sensation of flesh. Only emptiness.
Whoosh—
Behind him, a pair of blood-red sharingan eyes snapped open in the void. His body froze.
The Binding Illusion.
Crack!
Bone after bone snapped as Haruma's illusions shattered the false world, leaving Zabuza kneeling on the ground, surrounded by four Harumas. His limbs twisted uselessly.
"I'm curious," Haruma said lightly, watching the broken man struggle more with confusion than pain. "How were you able to face my sharingan head-on for so long?"
"That… that was an illusion!?"
Zabuza's voice trembled. He scanned the clearing wildly, searching for Haku, finding nothing. Was Haku's death real? Or a trick? His mind spun in chaos, unable to grasp truth from lies.
Haruma explained slowly, "It was a genjutsu combined with the Body Flicker. What you saw was real, you were just too slow to stop me."
Had Zabuza kept his composure, the illusion would have shown him the truth: Haruma dodging with greater speed, not an illusory arm. But he hadn't. He had lost control.
And so, he lost everything.
Illusion and reality blended into one, indistinguishable, was the legendary combat style of Shisui Uchiha. Against such tactics, unless one's strength utterly eclipsed the caster's, the result was always the same: to be toyed with.
That was why Haruma, still not even an elite jonin, dared to hunt Zabuza and Haku alone. One-on-one, the sharingan was nearly invincible. Add the Phantom Body Flicker, a technique rivaling Flying Thunder God or Kamui, and the outcome was inevitable.
He pressed his hand against Zabuza's throat.
This was the one inconvenience of devouring whole living beings: they had to be restrained alive. Killing them first wasted the harvest. A difficult feat, unless one possessed Shisui's gifts.
With genjutsu and speed, Haruma could subdue equals without killing them. A perfect complement to his devouring art. Illusion + Sealing techniques, together, they were an unstoppable pairing.
Haruma smiled slightly. "For me, illusion and devouring, simply the perfect match."