Chapter 35: Shattered Mirrors
At Zabuza's command, Haku's hands moved in a final, decisive flurry of seals. "Ice Release Secret Technique: Demonic Mirroring Ice Crystals!"
The air around Kamikawa Hiraoka plummeted in temperature, frosting over in an instant. With sharp, crystalline sounds, massive panels of ice erupted from the ground and the moisture in the air, forming a perfect, glistening dome around him. The surfaces of the mirrors shimmered, reflecting his image back at him from a dozen different angles.
Kakashi, momentarily distracted from his own fight, sucked in a sharp breath. "A Bloodline Limit! Ice Release!"
Zabuza seized the opening, forcing Kakashi back with a heavy swing of his blade. "Surprised, Copy Ninja? Your student is finished!"
From within the icy prison, Haku's voice echoed, cold and final. "You forced me to use this. It's over."
Hiraoka, however, simply looked around at the magnificent, deadly cage with an appreciative eye. "Impressive," he conceded. Then his smirk returned. "But don't get too comfortable. The real surprise is still coming."
A sense of foreboding, cold and sharp as the ice itself, pierced Haku's heart. He stopped talking and melted into one of the mirrors, his form becoming one with the reflective surface, impossible to pinpoint.
Uchiha Sasuke, seeing Hiraoka completely surrounded, tensed, ready to rush in.
"Stay back, Sasuke!" Hiraoka commanded without even looking at him. "An attack of this level isn't worth your intervention."
He looked up, his eyes seeming to meet Haku's in every mirror at once. "Are you ready? Because I'm about to begin."
Before Haku could process the taunt, he acted. Dozens of senbon shot from every mirror simultaneously, a blizzard of lethal needles with no escape route.
Hiraoka didn't try to escape. He became a whirlwind of motion within the confined space, his body twisting and contorting with impossible agility, every dodge a hair's breadth from death. Not a single needle touched him.
Haku watched, stunned. How is he this fast?
Hiraoka's hands flashed through a set of seals. "Fire Release: Great Fireball Jutsu!"
A roaring sphere of flame shot from his lips, slamming into one of the ice mirrors. The fire washed over the surface, steam billowing out, but the ice held firm.
"I told you," Haku's voice echoed, a note of relief in its tone. "It's useless!"
But Hiraoka wasn't finished. Even as the steam cleared, a new, far more terrifying energy gathered around his right arm. Blue-white arcs of lightning crackled to life, snapping and hissing with raw, destructive power. The air hummed, and the hair on the arms of everyone present stood on end.
Uchiha Sasuke's eyes widened. This... this is the real power of that jutsu.
Haku, from within his mirror, could feel it—a palpable, overwhelming force that threatened to shatter his very soul.
"Now, let's end this," Hiraoka said, his voice calm amidst the electric storm. "Lightning Release: Thunder Falcon Thrust!"
The chakra erupted. The lightning falcon, larger and more vividly detailed than ever before, screeched as it launched from his arm. It didn't aim at Haku; it aimed at the structure itself.
It struck the central mirror Haku had first emerged from.
CRACK.
A single, sharp sound, like a frozen lake breaking in spring, echoed through the dome.
A spiderweb of fractures radiated from the point of impact.
Haku's eyes, visible through his mask, widened in sheer, unadulterated horror.
BOOM!
The first mirror exploded. Then, as if connected by a single, fragile thread, the entire dome detonated inward in a spectacular shower of glittering, razor-sharp ice shards. The Demonic Mirroring Ice Crystals were utterly obliterated.
Haku was thrown backward by the concussive force, landing hard on the wooden planks of the bridge. His mask, cracked by a flying piece of ice, fell away, revealing a face of such delicate beauty it seemed impossible it belonged to a warrior—and it was now etched with pain and shock.
"HAKU!" Zabuza's roar was raw with a fear he'd never shown before.
The sound jolted Haku back to consciousness. Pushing through the pain, he staggered to his feet, his body trembling not just from injury, but from the sheer, devastating power he had just witnessed.
Uchiha Sasuke stood frozen, his own ambitions crumbling. He shattered a Bloodline Limit jutsu... in two moves. This... this is the gap.
Seeing his "tool" broken and defeated, a murderous rage consumed Zabuza. He turned his killing intent fully on Hiraoka.
"Don't even think about it, Zabuza," Kakashi snarled, his patience gone. He slammed the unrolled scroll onto the ground. "Summoning Jutsu!"
A pack of ninken erupted from the scroll in a puff of smoke. "Earth Release: Tracking Fang Technique!"
The ground beneath Zabuza's feet erupted as the ninja dogs surged upward, their teeth latching onto his limbs and torso, holding him completely immobile. He was trapped.
"Now," Kakashi stated, his voice cold as he raised a hand crackling with blue lightning—the Chidori. "It ends."
############
What would the new Big 3 be in your Opinion?
You know what to do now.