The boat drifted through the water, a silent ghost hugging the shadows of the giant bridge segments currently under construction. Through the gaps in the dense, unnatural mist, the towering arcs of a stone quay loomed like the ribs of a prehistoric beast. The boatman navigated with practiced skill, turning the vessel into the dark tunnel beneath the massive structure.
"Ah! Wow!"
Naruto's voice finally shattered the heavy silence. On the other side, the world opened up into bright, blinding sunlight—a stark, jarring contrast to the gloom they had just left. The group scanned the outskirts of the city as they approached a remote landing.
They disembarked in silence. Tazuna turned to his friend, offering a final word of thanks. "Now, all that's left for you... is to get me safely home." The bridge builder exhaled, his eyes nervously darting toward the cluster of fishing houses nearby.
Shorai didn't join the conversation. He was already working. His pulse-sensory field hummed, a rhythmic expansion of chakra that now reached a twenty-five-meter radius.
"Tsk..." he muttered under his breath. Nothing. "I don't believe this."
He knew they were being watched. Logic dictated it. Closing his eyes for a heartbeat, he subtly reached for the Aether, drawing a sliver of its power to warp his perception beyond human limits.
There... a hundred meters away.
His eyes narrowed, but he was careful not to look directly in that direction. He pushed his consciousness toward the hidden signatures. He could feel them now: Zabuza and Haku. The former was radiating a cold, arrogant confidence, clearly underestimating his prey and intending to strike alone. The latter was a pool of disciplined restraint, reluctantly surrendering to the role of observer, ready to step in only at the moment of grave danger.
Shorai deactivated the power, the world snapping back to its normal dimensions. As they moved onto the forest path heading toward the northern side of the island, he scanned his teammates. Naruto was becoming restless, his energy coiled like a spring. Sasuke remained calm, but he had that sharp, condescending look that always rattled Naruto. Sakura was the most visible—cautious, her knuckles white as she tried to swallow her fear.
His eyes flicked to his right, catching Kakashi. The Jōnin noticed the gaze and offered a small, knowing blink.
"I'm ready! Kakashi-sensei, Shorai, you won't need to worry! Tazuna-san, I keep my word!" Naruto announced, his fist thumping against his chest. "That's my ninja way!"
The group offered thin smiles, but Shorai remained troubled, his gaze lingering on the blonde boy as they walked deeper into the dense vegetation of the main road.
"Just empty words of an idiot," Sasuke muttered, increasing his pace until he was level with Naruto, dropping a condescending side-long glance.
That was the spark.
Naruto rushed forward, suddenly playing the part of the "professional-perceptive ninja." He whipped his head around, scanning the trees with exaggerated intensity, before hurling a kunai into the bushes with an unnecessary flourish.
"Got'cha!"
"..."
Shorai sighed, the corner of his mouth twitching. Tazuna and Sakura, already frayed by the tension, used the absurd act as an excuse to vent.
"Naruto... You could actually kill someone. Save your weapons. This is a complete waste..." Kakashi began.
But then, the world shifted. Both Kakashi and Shorai instantly snapped their heads toward a specific spot that had just pinged on their internal radars.
Fheeew!
For once, the fool's act was the wise one. Another kunai vanished into the brush in the exact location that had drawn the experts' attention. Sakura began to scold the sulking boy again, but Shorai wasn't listening.
His gaze narrowed to a slit. His right hand drifted downward, fingers lingering by the open holster on his thigh. He didn't draw, but his muscles were primed. He took a step back, positioning himself closer to Tazuna, his senses screaming.
Kakashi strolled calmly toward the spot, revealing a white rabbit, paralyzed with terror, the kunai having missed its head by a fraction. As the group devolved into bickering, Shorai's voice came as a near-whisper, pulling Kakashi out of his analysis mode.
"Kakashi-san..."
They shared a silent understanding. The air grew heavy. A sudden, sharp sound of leaves being shredded echoed through the clearing.
"Everyone duck! NOW!" Kakashi ordered.
"NARUTO, TAZUNA, GROUND NOW!" Shorai barked. He channeled chakra into his limbs, forcefully shoving the builder to the dirt before appearing by Naruto's side to do the same.
Woosh! Woosh! Woosh!
A massive, spinning blade zoomed over their heads, embedding itself with a sickening thunk into a tree trunk. A few stray strands of white and blonde hair drifted to the ground in the wake of its passage.
This fool... Shorai spared a glance at Naruto before spreading his senses. He searched for the rogue ninja, but more importantly, he looked for the observer. Just within my current radius limit... He spotted Haku's eye from the shadows, fixed on the man now standing on the sword's hilt.
The tension was a physical weight now. Sasuke frowned, reaching for a kunai. Sakura stayed frozen. Naruto, trembling with a mix of fear and anticipation, began to dash forward until Kakashi's voice stopped him cold.
"Naruto! No step further." The grey-haired man commanded. "With him in our way... this time, he is beyond your level." He slowly lifted his hand to his tilted headguard.
Shorai stepped behind Tazuna, drawing his special kunai.
"Kakashi of the Sharingan... in the flesh. Call me impressed. Sorry, but I'm in a hurry. Give me that old man." The voice was rough, metallic, vibrating through the bandages covering the man's face.
"Momochi Zabuza, the rogue ninja from Kirigakure. One of the Seven Swordsmen..."
As Kakashi revealed the Sharingan—the deep red eye with its three tomoe—Naruto shouted in confusion. Shorai cut him off, his voice calm but layered with the authority of his library studies. He explained the Uchiha trait—the perception, the counter-genjutsu, the brain-function enhancement.
"That's right..." Zabuza nodded. "But the scariest part is the copying."
"Naruto, Sakura, Sasuke! We can't risk Tazuna, help me with the formation!" Shorai ordered. The three snapped into a four-star defense.
Zabuza dived toward the river. To the Genin's amazement, he stood on the water's surface, his hands weaving a strange sign. The mist began to thicken, rolling in like a heavy curtain.
Shorai watched Zabuza, his mind racing. Hidden Mist Jutsu. He's channeling chakra with intent through the air to move the moisture... He analyzed the physics, noting the chakra buildup for a clone.
The fog swallowed them.
"He is likely to dispose of me first. But the four of you—keep focus!" Kakashi called from the whiteness.
"A silent killer?" Naruto asked.
"Fast and precise, Naruto," Shorai's voice drifted from the rear of the formation. "You won't hear him until it's too late."
"Don't lower your guard," Kakashi warned. "I haven't fully mastered my Sharingan... if we fail, it's death."
The silence that followed was absolute, eventually broken by Zabuza's disembodied voice whispering the names of vital organs.
Shorai leaned into his sensory state. A new discovery bloomed: he could feel the fear and dread from his teammates. It wasn't just a feeling—it was a literal "color" injected into their chakra signatures. Emotions color the flow, he noted, storing the data.
Suddenly, the killing intent spiked. It hit like a physical blow to the chest. Shorai felt his heart hammer against his ribs, his breath hitching. For a moment, his analytical mind fractured under the primal pressure. Anchor, he told himself, forcing air into his lungs. He struggled to maintain his thread of logic, but he pushed through, refocusing on the task.
Kakashi flared his own chakra to counter the pressure. "Relax," he reassured them. "I'll not let my comrades die!"
"..."
"I—don't—think—so."
The voice was right there. Inside the formation.
Zabuza appeared before Tazuna, his head low. "It's over."
Shorai's heart nearly stopped. Damn! He realized too late what had happened—Zabuza had infused his chakra into the mist itself, creating a dampening field that masked his pulse. The silent killer had slipped through his sensory radar as if he were made of air, only appearing on the "screen" once he was already on top of them.
Shorai's reflexes, honed by Swift Release training, took over. He didn't blink. His left hand shot out, grabbing Tazuna's collar and dragging the builder forward as he dashed. He spun mid-stride, shielding the client with his own body.
The giant sword swung. Kakashi, his Sharingan locked on the movement, intercepted with a kunai. Water began to splash against the dirt.
"Sensei, behind..." Naruto's warning was a desperate tremor.
Another Zabuza appeared behind Kakashi, slicing him in half. Sakura screamed. Shorai watched the assassin's smirk turn to shock as the "blood" turned to water.
The real Kakashi reappeared behind Zabuza, a kunai at his throat.
"It's over. Stay still!"
"Huhuhu... to actually confuse me with those words... while copying my jutsu..."
Zabuza gave a strange, hollow laugh that seemed to vibrate through the damp air. He turned his head, casting a frightful, predatory gaze toward Kakashi. The Jonin's eye blinked, a flicker of realization crossing his features just as the world shifted.
In the next moment, the real Zabuza rushed from the shadows behind. The figure in front of Kakashi didn't bleed; it simply dispersed into a heavy puddle of river water.
Years of battle-hardened experience saved the Copy Ninja. He ducked by instinct, the massive Kubikiribōchō screaming through the space where his head had been a fraction of a second before. But Zabuza didn't let him go. As the sword's immense weight touched the ground, the assassin pivoted, shifting his stance into a powerful, chakra-expulsed kick that caught Kakashi full in the chest, sending him spiraling into the air.
Without a pause, Zabuza charged toward the airborne shinobi, dragging his sword behind him like a scythe.
Grrrr...
Zabuza stopped in his tracks, his sandals skidding on the wet earth as he spotted a sharp barrier of macro-spikes rising before him.
"Really? How ridiculous!"
Splash!
He leaped into the river, vanishing beneath the surface. The Genin watched in a mixture of shock and wonder as the battle unfolded with a speed they could barely comprehend.
"How stupid of an Elite Jonin!" Shorai involuntary blurted out. The words were a low whisper, sharp and biting, caught only by Sasuke who stood closest to him.
Sasuke's eyes flicked to him, while Sakura looked over, her voice trembling with fear. "W-why you say that?"
Shorai didn't look at her. His eyes remained locked on the water. "Hiding in the river from a person that comes from a village specializing in water techniques... it's beyond ridiculous. It's straightforward suicidal."
He took a deep breath, his knuckles whitening as he tightened his grip on his special kunai. He felt the cold pressure of the mist pressing against his skin, his mind racing to calculate their odds.
"He... he actually kicked Kakashi-sensei," Naruto muttered, his hands trembling as the reality of the gap in power began to sink in.
"Whatever happens next... be ready," Shorai remarked, his voice regaining its analytical chill. "We're probably going to be forced to assist Kakashi-san."
They watched the calm, deceptive water surface. Then, their sensei rose up.
"Stupid."
In a split second, Zabuza appeared directly behind him. With a blur of hand motions, he channeled a massive volume of chakra. A heavy, dense sphere of water surged upward, engulfing Kakashi instantly.
"Water Release: Water Prison Jutsu!"
"Shit!" Kakashi hissed.
"To think that such a famous ninja would make such a rookie mistake." Zabuza was now blatantly looking down on his prisoner, his arm thrust deep into the sphere to maintain the pressure.
Kakashi didn't answer. He remained suspended in the liquid cage, his eye narrowed as he calculated his rapidly dwindling options.
Then, the rogue ninja made his next move.
Shhhhh....
The river water seemed to crawl onto the shore, disconnecting from the source and molding itself into a perfect, solid replica—a water clone. The clone opened its eyes, radiating a fresh wave of killing intent that hit the Genin like a physical blow. A new grim reaper had appeared, holding the giant sword across its back like a scythe ready to harvest.
"All of you! Run!" Kakashi barked, a few precious bubbles of air escaping into the prison. "Save yourselves! This isn't worth dying for!"
"Eh? Now you understand your situation?" the original Zabuza mocked from the water's surface.
"K-Kakashi-sensei..." Naruto uttered, paralyzed by the sight of his invincible teacher trapped.
"Sensei... but... we can't leave you here," Sakura cried, her legs shaking.
"He will kill us the moment we run," Sasuke said, voicing the grim logic. "You're out of your mind to think we'll leave you."
Shorai stood his ground, his brows drawing together into a hard line. He felt the crushing weight of the assassin's aura—dark, bloody, and suffocating. For a moment, his analytical mind flickered. Anchor, he reminded himself. He forced the logic to the front.
"Sir... Lord Zabuza," Shorai began, his voice surprisingly steady. It was a tactical feint, a move to buy seconds, but the core of it was a cold, shinobi calculation. "You're paid to kill him. Just him, right? We are just a small nuance... a nuisance in your way. For an elite shinobi like yourself, wasting time on us is clearly beneath you."
Sasuke caught the drift immediately, narrowing his eyes as he joined the play. "Y-yes. Can you ensure our survival in exchange for him?"
Sakura and Naruto gasped, looking at the two in horror. "Are you two for real?"
The clone raised a brow, the mask shifting with a smirk. "Oh... there are clever ones among you? Trying to negotiate?"
"Our lives are at stake, sir," Shorai continued, shifting his weight. "And so you know—that bastard Tazuna lied about the mission details. He swindled us into thinking this was a D-rank until it was too late. We have no loyalty to a liar."
"Ha-ha-ha!" The clone gave a hearty, mocking laugh.
"I see. No wonder," the original Zabuza added from the river, his eyes fixed on Kakashi. "Maybe I shouldn't let this rare moment go to waste..."
Just as Sasuke and Shorai prepared to push the "negotiation" further to create an opening, Naruto snapped out of his shock. His eyes landed on the frightened, weeping Tazuna.
"Naruto..." Shorai warned, glancing at his hidden seals.
"Sir, we will—" Sasuke began, trying to keep the polite mask.
"NO!" Naruto screamed. "I'll not let him and sensei die!"
The blonde boy raised his bandaged arm, forming a trembling fist as he turned to face the reaper.
"Huhuhu... Such resolve in the face of death." Zabuza's smile was visible even through the bandages. "You're too green, kid. You're yet to see the blood and reality of a true shinobi. Unlike you, I've known it since my Academy days..."
Zabuza's aura shifted. The killing intent spiked into something thick and metallic, like the smell of a slaughterhouse. Shorai felt the chill settle in his marrow, but he kept his pulse-sensory active, mapping the area.
"You!" Kakashi spoke from within the prison, revealing the truth of the Bloody Mist's graduation exam—killing one's own friends to pass.
"Such nostalgia..." the rogue ninja murmured.
The situation was now clear. The "negotiation" was dead. Naruto was in the way.
Well, that was a waste of time, Shorai thought. Dealing with Zabuza provokes Haku. How can I guarantee the client's safety without revealing my hand? He watched Zabuza move. Maybe a small nudge... an assistance to ensure they solve this together.
Woosh!
Zabuza's clone moved like a blur. He struck Naruto in the gut, grabbed his head by the metal of his headband, and sent the boy flying across the dirt.
"Just a bunch of scared brats. Calling you ninjas is an insult."
Sasuke reached his limit. He unleashed a volley of shuriken and rushed the clone.
"I told you! Run! Damn it!" Kakashi's voice was growing frantic.
"Do you have a death wish, brat?" The clone swatted the shuriken away with the Kubikiribōchō and delivered a brutal kick to Sasuke's chest.
Both boys lay in the dirt, clutching their wounds.
"No more negotiations," Zabuza growled. "Stand in my way and be executed."
Shorai stood at the rear, his right hand spinning his kunai with a practiced, rhythmic click. Chakra began to hum through the metal.
"I'll not back down!" Naruto roared, pushing himself up. He dashed toward the clone again.
"Idiot! Stop!"
Tziiin... Bam!
Naruto was swatted down again, his body carving a fresh path in the mud.
"Naruto..." Sakura's voice was a broken plea.
"Boy. Tell me. Are you courting death?" Zabuza shifted his gaze to the reckless blonde.
Naruto stood up, his body trembling with pain and adrenaline. In his hand, he gripped his recovered forehead protector—the memento he had dropped in the first scuffle.
"Tsk... all that for a head-protector?"
"T-this... is... MYNINJA WAY!" Naruto roared. He tied the leaf-symbol protector back onto his forehead, his blue eyes burning with a sudden, terrifying clarity.
Zabuza's face twitched. Shorai allowed a thin half-smile to form. He saw the shift—Naruto wasn't just acting on emotion anymore; he was acting on resolve.
"Fine," Shorai said, his voice cutting through the tension. "Naruto, do your best. I'll help you and Sasuke from here. Don't worry!"
"Hm! I'll show you! Multi-Shadow Clone Jutsu!"
The clearing exploded in white smoke. Twenty real, physical copies of Naruto appeared, surrounding the assassin.
"Shadow clones? That won't be enough. Are you underestimating me?"
Woosh! Tap. Tap. Tap.
The army of Narutos swarmed. Zabuza swung his sword in great arcs, slicing and kicking, but the sheer numbers forced him to focus entirely on the blonde whirlwind.
"Sasuke!"
Naruto, now back on his feet, reached into his bag and hurled a folded Windmill Shuriken toward Sasuke.
A smirk formed on the Uchiha's lips.
The metal began to take form.
"Uchiha Style: Shadow Windmill Shuriken"
Shorai nodded, raising his hand as chakra flooded his Kinetic Battery seals. He stepped closer to the bridge builder.
"Keep still," Shorai whispered toward his back. "And don't move out of my side, Tazuna-san."