Chapter 246: Battle of the Bridge (Sasuke Vs Haku)

Sasuke senses the chill in the atmosphere and frowns.

'An Ice Style User!'

Whoosh…

Haku quickly closes the distance between him and Sasuke while making some hand signs.

Swish… swish…

"Water Release: Secret Art: Thousand Stinging Needles of Death"

Swoosh… swoosh… swoosh…

Haku creates a thousand senbons of water from the surroundings and aims them at Tazuna, Sakura, and Sasuke.

Swish…

He waves his hands and launches the needles at the group from all directions.

'Crap! I can easily avoid them but I can't say the same for Sakura and the bridge builder. Although these needles will cause superficial injuries to a Ninja; they are quite lethal to a civilian like Tazuna.'

Tch…

Sasuke clicks his tongue and makes some hand signs.

"Fire Release: Phoenix Flower Fire Barrage"

Sasuke rapidly spats out a large number of small fireballs around to counteract the water senbons. The small fireball covers a large area and quickly evaporates the water needles.

The resulting clash creates a screen of water vapor and mist.

Using this opportunity, Sasuke throws multiple shurikens towards Haku.

Swish…

He draws a pair of metal wires from his holster and controls the movement of the shurikens.

Clang… clang…

Haku deflects the shurikens with a kunai but Sasuke controls their trajectory and continues to lock on Haku making him unable to counterattack.

Zabuza who is locked in a battle with Naruto momentarily stares at the situation and is shocked to see the battle.

"That boy… he can fight on even ground with Haku. No… he has forced Haku on defensive."

Bang…

Using this chance, the clones of Naruto punches Zabuza. Zabuza blocks the attack, but the impact sends him flying. He falls beside Kakashi, who silently walks towards Zabuza.

"It's enough Naruto."

Kakashi stops Naruto.

Swish… swish…

He makes some hand signs and taps Zabuza's forehead.

"Ninja Art: Chakra Suppression Seal"

Kakashi seals Zabuza's chakra and sits beside him as he watches Sasuke's battle.

Earlier, Kakashi received a message from Izuna to not kill Zabuza since he has some use for Zabuza.

"Kakashi Hatake…"

Zabuza stops resisting since he realized earlier.

'These bunches of kids are monsters. Then there is also the Copy Ninja.'

He turns towards Kakashi and curiously asks him.

"What's the deal with these kids? Who are they? Why are they are so strong?"

"Oh!"

Kakashi raises his eyebrow and answers.

"These kids were personally trained by Izuna Uchiha the 'Silent Shinigami'."

"Si… Silent Shinigami…"

Zabuza takes a deep breath as some terrifying memories of the Third Ninja War flashes in his mind.

He participated in the Third Great Ninja war as one of the chunnin of Kiri under the orders of the Noble Faction.

During a supply escort mission, he saw an Eight-year-old kid with a Konoha headband brutally assassinating the entire escort team.

He barely survived the massacre by jumping down a cliff.

"No wonder these kids are so terrifyingly strong. But still…"

Zabuza has a pensive gaze on his face as he stares at Haku.

"Haku has yet to use the power of his cursed bloodline, the power of his Kekkei Genkai 'Ice Release'."

He remarks.

"That kid might not be Haku's match once Haku gets serious."

"You think so…"

Kakashi shrugs his shoulder and remarks.

"Sasuke is an Uchiha. Unlike me, he possesses a complete pair of fully matured Sharingan."

"What?!" Zabuza's eyes widen in shock as he turns towards Sasuke.

"This boy has awakened his Kekkei Genkai."

"See for yourself."

Kakashi removes the mask from his eye and activates his Sharingan to watch the battle.

'Though I can't copy Ice Release, I can still learn more about its weakness and strengths.'

At the bridge,

Haku is caught in a desperate situation as he is unable to retaliate against Sasuke's relentless attacks. He is locked in a defensive stance.

Haah…

Haku riles up his chakra and deflects the shurikens and makes some One hand signs.

"Ice Release: Certain-Kill Ice Spears"

Swoosh… swoosh…

Suddenly, multiple ice spears erupt from the ground, impaling everything in its vicinity.

Whoosh…

Sasuke senses the danger and quickly jumps in the air, twisting his body to avoid the deadly spears.

Swish… swish… swish…

He makes some hand signs while mid-air.

"Fire Release: Dragon Flame Jutsu"

He spews out a large amount of flames from his mouth. The flames morph into a giant flame dragon and rams through the ice quickly melting it.

"Fire Release: Fierce Dragon Flame Jutsu"

Sasuke makes some more hand signs and the flames congeal at a spot turning into a large dragon head shaped-fireball.

Haah…

Sasuke directs the fireball towards Haku in an attempt to end the battle.

'With this, the battle will come to an end. I want to preserve my chakra for sticky situations besides this technique requires a large amount of chakra to perform.'

BOOM…

The giant dragon fireball engulfs Haku and explodes on top of him. A deafening explosion rings in the surroundings, evaporating the surrounding water.

"This Jutsu… I never saw him use it. It is at least a B-Rank jutsu."

Kakashi murmurs to himself while witnessing the sheer destructive force behind the explosion.

"Looks like this battle is over."

He shakes his head.

"No… wait!"

As if sensing something, Kakashi turns towards the battle.

A giant igloo-like dome appears in his vision. The hunter-nin boy is encased in the ice while sheltered from the explosion.

There are some faint cracks on the ice dome but it still intact after sustaining that earlier explosion.

"Such a strong defense. It is almost on par with Kazekage's sand shield."

Kakashi murmurs as he inspects the ice Igloo.

Hmph…

Sasuke snorts at the giant Igloo.

"So, this dome can distribute the force of blunt attacks over its entire surface thus greatly reducing the impact."

He quickly figures out the weakness of the jutsu.

"In that case…"

Swish… swish… swish…

Sasuke quickly makes some hand signs.

"Lightning Release: Chidori"

Chii… chirp…

Chirping of thousand bird rings in the air as Sasuke infuses a large amount of Lighting chakra in his hand.

Whoosh…

He flickers towards the ice dome and attacks it with his Chidori.

Stab… Crack… crack…

The Chidori penetrates through the thick ice barrier and shatters it into countless ice fragments.

Stab… spurt…

The momentum of Chidori dies down but Sasuke still manages to stab through Haku's shoulder.

Aaah…

Haku tightly clenches his teeth and grabs Sasuke's left arm with his right hand.

Swish… swish… swish…

He quickly makes some One-hand signs.

"One-hand signs?!"

Kakashi raises his eyebrows.

"This boy has quite the talent for Ninjutsu, unlike certain someone."

Kakashi directs his gaze towards Sakura.

Ah!

Sakura senses a gaze on her. She looks around, but Kakashi removes his gaze and turns towards the battle.

"It's getting interesting every moment. I wonder what other surprises this boy holds and how will Sasuke react to them?"

"Ice Release: Thousand Stinging Needles of Death"

Haku uses the ice version of his earlier water jutsu and summons a thousand ice senbons to pierce through Sasuke and turn him into a porcupine.

"Hmph… Not so fast!"

Chii… chirp…

Sasuke infuses some more lighting chakra in his left hand and stabs through Haku's shoulder to free himself.

ARGH!!…

Haku releases a scream of agony and lets off Sasuke's hand.

Swoosh…

Sasuke jumps in the air to avoid the ice senbons.

Stab… stab…

Still, a few ice senbon manages to stab through his left leg. Sasuke feels a numbing sensation in his leg as the senbons freeze his chakra acupoints thus, disabling his left leg for a while.

Clang… clang…

Sasuke pulls out the senbons from his legs and throws them aside.

Haah… haah…

Haku is breathing heavily as blood spurts from his shoulder.

"I can't give up at this point. For the sake of dreams of the person I respect; I will give my all."

Whoosh…

The surrounding temperature plummets rapidly. Haku freezes the wound on his shoulder and starts to make some quick hand signs.

Kakashi observes the change in Haku's resolve and remarks.

"You have got quite the sophisticated tool, Zabuza."

"The world is a big place… Kakashi Hatake. You will never understand the pain and loneliness of being rejected and feared by your very own people."

Zabuza speaks in a hoarse voice.

"When I met this boy, he was all alone; without any family, without anybody to look for him. I just offered some sweet words, and he became a tool for me."

Kakashi lifts his head and turns towards Naruto. Sakura is tending to his wounds as he grimaces in pain.

'I might not understand his pain, but someone else might.'

Swish… swish… swish… swoosh…

Haku clasps his hands as he finishes his hand signs.

"Secret Art: Ice Release: Demonic Mirroring Ice Crystals"

Shoom… Shoom…

The surrounding water vapors quickly condense in ice mirrors and surround Sasuke. The mirrors fuse to form a giant dome of ice mirrors.

Whoosh…

Haku enters one of the mirrors as his reflection appears in all other mirrors.

"Now, it's my turn to attack."