The boat ride to the Land of Waves was quiet, the air thick with unspoken tension. As they finally set foot on land and began their walk, Kakashi suddenly signaled for them to halt. Naruto, whose senses were on high alert thanks to Garp's constant mental nagging, had already stopped. He stared intently at a nearby bush.
Instead of throwing a kunai, he vanished in a flicker of movement. He reappeared a moment later, gently holding a trembling, white Snow Rabbit by the scruff of its neck.
"What are you doing, Naruto?" Sakura asked.
"I'm gonna keep him!" Naruto declared with a huge grin, cradling the rabbit. "I've never had a pet before!"
Kakashi's eye widened. A Snow Rabbit with a pure white coat in this season meant it was raised indoors. A substitution. "GET DOWN!"
A massive sword sliced through the air, embedding itself in a tree. A bandaged man landed gracefully upon the hilt. "Zabuza Momochi," Kakashi stated grimly, his hand already lifting to reveal his own Sharingan.
"Kakashi of the Sharingan," Zabuza's voice was cold. "Hand over the bridge builder."
"That's going to be a problem," Kakashi replied, his visible eye narrowing.
"Is that so?" Zabuza mused, his voice dripping with condescending amusement. And then, he released his killing intent.
It wasn't just a threat; it was a physical force, a suffocating pressure that promised a thousand gruesome deaths. The air grew heavy and cold. For Sakura, it was a paralyzing wave of icy dread. Her heart hammered against her ribs and her breath hitched, but through the fear, her mind raced, analyzing the source, her position, and her duty to protect the client.
Sasuke stumbled, his breath catching in his throat as the raw malice dredged up fragmented images of that night—of red eyes and fallen family. For a split second, he was a terrified child again. Then, fury burned the fear away. With a snarl, he straightened up, gritting his teeth as the single tomoe in his Sharingan spun to life in open defiance.
The wave of malice washed over Naruto, and he flinched. But then, a familiar, gruff voice echoed in his mind. "Bah! Stop hyperventilating, boy! 'Killing intent' is just what weaklings call the aura of someone who's actually ready to fight. It's nothing but a cheap trick to scare you. Are you going to let him scare you, or are you going to punch him?"
A slow, feral grin spread across Naruto's face. The fear was gone, replaced by a surge of raw, competitive energy. His knuckles cracked as he met Zabuza's suffocating aura with his own untamed battle lust.
Zabuza's visible eye widened slightly. He felt the Uchiha's defiance and Sakura's resolve, but the blond one... the blond one was enjoying it. This was not the reaction of a normal Genin.
"Interesting," Zabuza mused, deciding to end this quickly. He lifted a single hand. "Let's see how you handle this. Hidden Mist Jutsu!" In an instant, a thick, heavy mist erupted, blanketing the area.
"Manji formation! Protect Tazuna!" Kakashi ordered.
From the mist, Zabuza's voice echoed. "Eight points. Larynx, spine, lungs... Which one would be my lucky pick?"
Suddenly, Kakashi parried a sword strike from a Zabuza who appeared out of the mist, but the figure dissolved into water. A clone. Kakashi spun just in time to block another clone attacking from his blind spot. As he was occupied, the real Zabuza emerged from behind him. Kakashi twisted, but Zabuza wasn't aiming to kill. Instead, he delivered a powerful, kick that sent Kakashi flying backward into the nearby lake.
As Kakashi tried to regain his footing in the water, he felt a strange, viscous resistance. The water... it's heavy! He realized too late it was a trap.
"Fool," Zabuza's voice whispered from directly behind him. "Water Prison Jutsu!" A sphere of inescapable water erupted around Kakashi, trapping him.
"Now, Kakashi," Zabuza sneered, having a water clone maintain the jutsu while his real body stepped forward. "I'll deal with your little students."
"He's underestimating us," Sasuke muttered, his Sharingan blazing.
"Big mistake," Naruto agreed, dropping into a ridiculously low stance, putting all his strength on his legs, powering up for strong charge. "Sasuke! Distract him for me! I've got an idea!"
"Don't order me around, dobe!" Sasuke shot back, but he understood, launching a fireball at Zabuza. Zabuza dodged it easily, but it was the opening Naruto needed.
"LEAF VILLAGE SECRET TAIJUTSU OUGI!" Naruto yelled. "DYNAMIC ENTRY!"
He exploded forward, launching a full powered flying kick. Zabuza, seeing the telegraphed attack, raised his Executioner's Blade to block contemptuously.
What happened next defied all logic.
Naruto's foot connected with the flat of the legendary blade. There was a deafening CRACK! that echoed through the forest. Zabuza's smirk vanished, replaced by a look of pure, unadulterated shock. His sword, one of the famed blades of the Seven Swordsmen, didn't just block the kick. It shattered into a dozen metal fragments.
"NOW!" Sasuke yelled.
What followed was less a fight and more a systematic demolition. Sasuke, Sharingan blazing, was on Zabuza's left, landing a precise, brutal punch to his jaw. Before Zabuza could turn, Naruto was on his right, driving a knee into his gut. Zabuza gasped, trying to lash out with his free arm—Naruto caught it, twisting it into a painful joint lock. The brief moment of pain was an opening Sasuke exploited, slashing a kunai across Zabuza's thigh to cripple his stance. Naruto followed up with a brutal elbow to Zabuza's back, driving him to his knees. As he fell forward, Sasuke's fist slammed into his solar plexus, driving the air from his lungs. Naruto finished the devastating combo with a sharp axe kick to Zabuza's shoulder, pinning him to the ground.
It was a whirlwind of orange and blue, a relentless, perfectly synchronized assault.
Meanwhile, Sakura saw her chance. While Zabuza and even his clone were stunned by the shattering of the blade, she acted. With flawless aim, she hurled a kunai that pierced the water clone's arm. The clone destabilized, and the Water Prison burst, freeing Kakashi.
The newly-freed Jonin looked on, his mind reeling as his two male students stood over the battered form of a legendary S-rank missing-nin.
Zabuza, summoning the last of his strength, used a substitution to escape, appearing a distance away. He looked at the hilt of his shattered sword, then at the two Genin advancing on him, and knew he was finished.
Suddenly, two senbon needles flew from the trees, embedding themselves in Zabuza's neck. He collapsed. A tracker-nin wearing a mask appeared on a branch.
"Thank you," the masked figure said politely. "I have been hunting this man for a long time. I shall dispose of the body."
With that, both the tracker and Zabuza's body vanished. Team 7 stood victorious, leaving Kakashi to wonder what kind of monster of a Genin team he had just unleashed upon the world.