"Sakura, protect the client. Set up basic perimeter traps with Tazuna at the center."
"Sasuke, to my left flank, prepare for Water Clones."
These were commands they had repeated hundreds of times on the training ground.
Without the slightest hesitation, and without even thinking, Sasuke and Sakura's bodies had already reacted.
Sasuke instantly flashed to Naruto's left, drew a kunai, lowered his stance, and adopted a standard defensive posture.
Sakura, meanwhile, pulled the almost limp Tazuna back, her hands moving swiftly. She accurately embedded several kunai with explosive tags into the surrounding ground, forming a basic defensive circle.
The entire process was fluid, so fast that Kakashi was pleasantly surprised.
He looked at his three students in astonishment.
This was no longer an ordinary Genin squad; it was a well-trained combat unit.
Zabuza also paused, a flicker of surprise in his cold eyes. "Oh? Kakashi, your students seem quite interesting."
The next second, he had vanished from his original position.
"Watch out!" Kakashi roared.
Zabuza's figure appeared on the surface of the lake, his hands rapidly forming hand signs.
"Water Release: Water Prison Jutsu!"
A giant sphere of water appeared out of nowhere, instantly trapping the slow-to-react Kakashi within it.
"Kakashi-sensei!" Sakura's scream was finally uncontrollable.
"First one down," Zabuza maintained the Water Prison with one hand, forming a hand sign with the other. A Water Clone identical to him emerged from the water, wielding the kubikiribōchō, and walked towards the remaining three.
"Game over, brats," the Water Clone sneered. "Your teacher can only watch as I cut you into pieces."
Kakashi struggled in the Water Prison but couldn't break free. He could only shout anxiously: "Run! Take the client and leave! Don't mind me! That's an order!"
Sasuke's body trembled.
Fear, excitement, and the thrill of facing a powerful enemy. His Sharingan stared intently at Zabuza's Water Clone, his mind frantically calculating the power difference between himself and the opponent.
The conclusion was... despair.
He was no match at all.
Just as he was about to be overwhelmed by this pressure, a calm voice sounded in his ear.
"Uchiha Sasuke."
Sasuke sharply turned his head, looking at Naruto.
Naruto's face was devoid of any expression, neither fear nor panic, only a nearly cruel calmness.
"Execute Plan B."
Sasuke's pupils contracted slightly.
Plan B.
The tactic he had considered insane to use during training.
A frontal assault tactic of trading injuries for injuries, lives for lives, using the smallest cost to tear open the enemy's defense and create a one-hit kill opportunity for a comrade.
In that plan, he, or Naruto, was the "cost."
His mind went blank.
Trust Naruto? No, he never trusted anyone.
However, he trusted that cold calculation, he trusted that most efficient path to victory.
Fear was suppressed, boiling blood rushed to his brain.
A crazy curve actually appeared on Sasuke's lips.
He didn't answer, he only gave his answer through action.
He charged forward fiercely!
"Oh? A gutsy brat!" Zabuza's Water Clone disdainfully swung the kubikiribōchō, bringing with it a fishy wind.
Sasuke's movements were full of flaws in the opponent's eyes.
However, just as the great sword was about to strike, another golden figure, moving faster than Sasuke, cut in from his rear-left.
It was Naruto.
Like a cannonball, he slammed his shoulder directly into the Water Clone's sword-wielding arm.
"Pfft!"
The edge of the kubikiribōchō sliced through Naruto's shoulder blade, leaving a deep, bone-visible gash.
Naruto didn't even flinch.
His goal was achieved.
The Water Clone's slash trajectory was forcibly altered, revealing a fatal opening.
Now!
Sasuke's Sharingan captured this instant.
"Fire Release: Great Fireball Jutsu!"
A scorching fireball erupted from Sasuke's mouth, accurately striking the Water Clone's undefended chest.
"Sizzle—"
The Water Clone evaporated under the high temperature, turning into a useless puddle of water.
"What?!"
Zabuza's main body, maintaining the Water Prison, let out an incredulous gasp.
The coordination between these two brats... it wasn't the unspoken understanding between comrades; it was more like two killing machines programmed to work together, one responsible for taking damage and creating opportunities, the other for precise strikes.
Without the slightest hesitation, without a moment's doubt.
Kakashi, in the Water Prison, felt a chill run down his spine.
He remembered Naruto's earlier words.
—"Treating comrades, and even oneself, as calculable and expendable parts."
It turned out he wasn't speaking of an ideology.
He was stating a fact.
At the very moment Zabuza was distracted.
"Now!" Naruto roared, enduring the intense pain. He pulled a uniquely shaped, large shuriken—a Fūma Shuriken—from his ninja pouch and hurled it at Sasuke.
"Sasuke!"
Sasuke understood instantly, caught the shuriken, spun rapidly in place, and then threw it with all his might!
The Fūma Shuriken whistled sharply, cutting through the thick mist, but its target was not Zabuza's main body.
It was the arm he was using to maintain the Water Prison Jutsu!
"Naive!" Zabuza snorted, easily catching the flying Fūma Shuriken with his other hand.
But the sneer on his face quickly froze.
"Shuriken Shadow Clone Jutsu!"
From the shadow of the Fūma Shuriken he had caught, another identical shuriken flew out!
This was the real attack!
The distance was too close, the angle too tricky; he had no time to dodge!
"Thud!"
The sharp shuriken deeply cut into the arm he used to maintain the Water Prison.
Intense pain surged, and the flow of Chakra was instantly disrupted.
The Water Prison shattered.
"Well done, Naruto, Sasuke."
Kakashi's figure landed back on the water. He looked at Zabuza, who stood opposite him with an injured arm and a shocked expression, then at his two students.
One had a bleeding shoulder but stood ramrod straight.
The other was panting, his Sharingan glowing with excitement.
For the first time, he felt that being their teacher was quite worthwhile.
"It seems I truly underestimated you," Zabuza's tone became serious. His expression when looking at Naruto and Sasuke was no longer that of looking at insects, but at two troublesome monsters.
"However, the real show is just beginning."
He formed a hand sign with one hand, and the surrounding mist grew thicker, becoming so dense that one couldn't see their own hand.
"Ninja Art: Hidden Mist Jutsu."
Zabuza's figure completely vanished into the thick mist.
Silent Killing.
This was his most prized jutsu, his bread and butter. In all his years in the Hidden Mist assassination unit, if he had killed any fewer people, he wouldn't have earned the right to wield the kubikiribōchō.
In such mist, even the Sharingan couldn't completely see through it. He would become the Shinigami in the mist, silently reaping lives.
Sakura nervously shielded Tazuna, looking around, but could only see a vast expanse of white.
Sasuke's breathing also became rapid; the Sharingan losing its target made him extremely uneasy.
Only Naruto closed his eyes.
He abandoned his sight.
That perception from the Warhammer universe, refined by psychic power, was completely unleashed at this moment.
He couldn't feel the flow of Chakra.
But he could "see."
He saw that "Chaos" aura, mixed with killing intent, hatred, and the scent of blood, moving rapidly through the mist.
"Sasuke, rear-left, thirty-degree angle, seven meters away, thrust!" Naruto commanded.