Chapter 48: The Land of Waves Trip
Thunder roared like a thousand birds shrieking in unison; brilliant lightning cracked to life in the black-haired boy's hand!
"Lightning Cutter!"
With Lightning Release juicing every cell in his body, Sasuke's speed shot to its absolute ceiling — and somewhere in the rush, his eyes had bled into a blazing crimson.
"What—!"
The tall, bandage-faced man saw the boy charging him with a technique that made the hair on his entire body stand on end. He dropped the Water Prison holding Kakashi without a second thought and blasted backward!
But —
"Sasuke!"
A clear, ringing voice came from behind him. Zabuza twisted his head just enough to catch a glimpse out of the corner of his eye.
That blond brat he'd written off only moments ago was now charging at him with a sphere of azure chakra blazing in one hand!
The chakra inside that sphere was spinning so fast and compressed so tightly it was basically a miniature typhoon stuffed into a single palm!
Another high-rank technique!
These were two genin from the goddamn Hidden Leaf?!
In that frozen instant of crisis, Zabuza nearly cracked and started cursing out loud.
"Naruto!"
The black-haired boy roared with everything he had, the massive ball of lightning in his hand howling toward Zabuza!
And in that exact moment, an almost imperceptible chime of bells rang out.
Several near-invisible senbon needles streaked toward both Naruto and Sasuke!
Sakura, posted up next to Tazuna on guard duty, didn't hesitate for a fraction of a second — she yanked four shuriken out of her tool pouch.
Just as she'd predicted: facing a crisis like this, Zabuza's accomplice couldn't help but break cover and intervene to save him.
With Enhanced Strength behind them, the shuriken hit terminal velocity instantly. They launched after, arrived first — and shredded the senbon out of the air mid-flight, clean.
"Lord Zabuza!"
A figure in deep blue garments came tearing out of cover, sprinting straight for Naruto and Sasuke. But Kakashi — even with his chakra at rock bottom from the just-broken Water Prison — wasn't about to give him a single opening.
He cut into the boy's path.
"Get out of my way!"
The boy ignored Kakashi entirely; Kakashi's kunai opened a vivid red gash across him in passing, and he kept charging straight for Zabuza, heedless of the wound.
Time seemed to freeze for a heartbeat — and then scalding-hot blood splashed across Sasuke's face!
The boy who had appeared from nowhere had thrown himself in the path of Sasuke's Lightning Cutter to save Zabuza!
Sasuke's hand was buried deep in the boy's chest. He could feel the searing heat of his blood — and the unhesitating, fearless will of someone who would give his life to protect Zabuza...
"Haku. Well done."
Zabuza spared the boy in front of him only a glance. He didn't have time for more — he wheeled around to face Naruto, who was barreling toward him with Rasengan in hand.
The Executioner's Blade swung up high, ready to come down. Zabuza was already enormous — long arms, long legs — and combined with the absurd reach of the Executioner's Blade, he could comfortably cleave Naruto in half from a full two body-lengths out, well before Rasengan ever made contact!
But right at that moment, Zabuza staggered. The Executioner's Blade jerked violently to one side. The impact ran up his arms with such force it left both hands trembling!
A sound of cutting wind — and a giant shuriken slammed deep into the ground beside him. Then poof, a puff of white smoke, and the giant shuriken collapsed back into a normal-sized one.
Zabuza had no time to figure out who had thrown it. Naruto was already on him, Rasengan in hand!
"Rasengan!"
The technique created by the Fourth Hokage Minato Namikaze slammed flush into Zabuza's chest!
The high-speed rotating chakra instantly ripped his skin, muscle, and bone to shreds; under that grinding rotational force, even an A-rank shinobi like Zabuza could not survive a clean hit. He went into the spin himself, his entire body caught up in the Rasengan's torque. Sasuke, realizing he was in Naruto's strike zone, peeled away in a flash.
Zabuza was sent spinning through the air and slammed down more than ten meters away!
Sakura watched the whole sequence calmly. The deaths of Zabuza and Haku didn't move the needle inside her in the slightest.
She'd spent four years in ANBU at Hiruzen Sarutobi's arrangement, and risen to ANBU squad captain — that captaincy hadn't been handed to her on connections. This was a light dusting of frost. Nothing more.
So Zabuza had appeared on stage and been defeated on stage — no second act, no chance to lick his wounds and come back.
The boss of the Land of Waves arc had been cleared early.
From here on, all they had to do was wait around for Tazuna to finish building the bridge.
As for the man behind Zabuza — Gatō.
Sakura knew him.
Several Days Later
Sakura walked into a brilliantly-lit private mansion tucked away in some isolated corner.
Two rows of men in matching black suits snapped to attention to receive her. Behind her trailed Kakashi, his expression complicated.
"Heh heh, Lady Haruno..."
The man at the head of the line was short and squat, dressed in a white suit, holding a jewel-tipped cane.
This was Gatō.
A man of considerable wealth.
His business methods ran on the seedy side, but his commercial instincts were genuinely sharp. During Sakura's earlier resource war, he'd been one of the few who had sniffed out the danger early and kept his hands off what looked like a delicious cake but was, in fact, lethal.
And these days, within the borders of the Land of Fire, his shadow was visible across more than a few patches of turf.
"I won't waste words. Once the Land of Waves finishes its bridge, you're going to behave yourself and collect a reasonable toll. Also, you've been squeezing them too hard."
"You understand what I'm telling you?"
Sakura's eyes were level.
His head was full of money — but those commercial instincts had saved his life once. Black-hearted merchants like him, all money and no muscle, were ultimately just plump sheep raised by the Land of Fire. When the time came, you slit one open for emergency funds.
"Yes, yes, yes — I understand completely. Does Lady Haruno have any other instructions?"
Gatō nodded and bowed and scraped, flashing his most ingratiating smile at the twelve-year-old girl in front of him.
"None. I came by to deliver the message."
Sakura gave a small wave and was about to leave — then she stopped. Those green, gem-bright eyes turned back to him without a trace of feeling.
"Oh, right. After I leave."
"That old man Tazuna — find an opportunity and kill him."
"As for his family and the rest, leave them alone."
Having dropped those few sentences, Sakura and Kakashi vanished into the night.
Tazuna had falsified the rank of his mission, submitting an A-rank as a C-rank. Whatever the reason — that was something no shinobi village could ever tolerate. That kind of precedent could not be allowed to stand under any circumstances.
On top of which, what he'd done was take the money that the entire village had pooled together — and pour the bulk of it down his own throat at bars. An old wretch like that was begging to die.
If he'd pulled this in any of the other four great villages — Wind, Lightning, Water, Earth — there was a real chance not a single member of his household, young or old, would have walked out alive.
Tazuna should be on his knees thanking Sakura for being soft-hearted.