The air was heavy, thick with the iron scent of river water and the suffocating pressure of Zabuza Momochi's killing intent. Shorai took a deep, measured breath, the damp mist cooling his lungs.
I have to take out the clone, he calculated, his mind running through trajectories. If I don't ensure their plan works now, I'll be forced to reveal my own hand against the original.
Above the churned mud of the riverbank, Sasuke launched into the air. He was a silhouette against the grey fog, gripping two giant shuriken layered perfectly atop one another. Below him, Naruto watched with a desperate, burning intensity. Even Sakura had forgotten her trembling; she stood paralyzed, watching the gamble of a prankster and a prodigy unfold.
"Tsk... a mere shuriken," the Water Clone sneered, leaning into a predatory crouch. "You brats never learn."
Just as the clone prepared to swat the spinning steel from the sky, a sound tore through the rhythmic crashing of the river—a high-pitched chirp, like a thousand birds condensed into a single point, then suddenly hollowed out into a vacuum.
Shorai's hand snapped forward.
The charged kunai left his fingers not as a projectile, but as a streak of white-azure lightning. It didn't fly; it erased the distance between his hand and the target. The air screamed as it split around the bolt. For a heartbeat, there was only a blur of ionized air—then a sharp, wet hiss as the steel pulverized the Water Clone's chest.
Sparks danced across the water as the clone shattered back into a lifeless splash.
Shit, Shorai thought, his hand still extended. I misjudged the kinetic intensity. The distance was too short for that much output.
He remained motionless, eyes narrowed through the thinning spray. His weapon had traveled with such velocity that it had vanished into the dense treeline on the far bank, leaving a smoking trail in the mist.
But as the adrenaline spiked, a secondary irritation surfaced. He realized he had never settled on a name for the move. His mind flashed back to a moonlit clearing, his Shadow Clone crossing its arms and offering a title with cringe-inducing earnestness: "Shorai Style... Swift Release... Kinetic Flash Flight!"
Shorai's face twitched. The name tasted like ash in his mouth. Worse than terrible, he muttered internally, a wave of genuine disgust washing over him. I have to rename that. I refuse to die with that on my technique list.
While Shorai wrestled with his naming crisis, a stunned silence fell over the veterans. Zabuza and Kakashi both froze for a fraction of a second. They hadn't seen a kunai; they had seen a flash of light followed by the instantaneous destruction of a high-level elemental construct.
"What the—?" Zabuza's voice was cut short by the whistling of the incoming shuriken.
With a grunt of pure instinct, the rogue ninja caught the Windmill Shuriken mid-air with his left hand.
"H-he caught it!" Sakura's voice wavered between horror and despair.
Naruto's face remained grim, but a thin, jagged smile began to form. Zabuza mirrored the expression, his eyes wild and bloodshot.
"Heh... you lost, boy."
He was wrong.
At that very moment, a second spinning projectile came screaming toward him.
"Huh?" Zabuza's eyes widened, then his mouth curled into a wider grin. "Too easy!"
He jumped, letting the second shuriken pass beneath him while keeping his hand locked in the Water Prison.
Splash!
"N-no!" Sakura cried, her voice cracking as her hope collapsed and returned in the same breath.
Zabuza landed cleanly, still holding the first shuriken, still keeping Kakashi trapped.
"Heh..." Sasuke smirked.
Puff!
The "shuriken" dissolved into a cloud of white smoke. Out of the haze tumbled the real Naruto, a kunai already in mid-swing.
"Got'cha!" the boy roared.
Shorai watched the inevitability of the moment. Zabuza, the Demon of the Mist, was a master of a hundred battles, but he was still a creature of logic and lethality. He had not prepared for the sheer, illogical audacity of a ninja prank. The rogue ninja froze, his hand still submerged in the Water Prison, trapped by his own greed to keep Kakashi neutralized.
Pah!
At the final millisecond, Zabuza wrenched his hand free from the sphere to avoid Naruto's blade. The Water Prison collapsed. The surface of the river exploded as the Elite Jōnin was finally unleashed.
"You little shit!" Zabuza spun, a shallow red streak blooming on his cheek. He hurled the stolen shuriken at the falling Naruto with murderous intent.
Clash!
A soaking wet, death-serious silhouette rose from the water, blocking the steel with a metal hand guard. Kakashi Hatake had returned to the fight.
"Damn!" Zabuza hissed, leaping back.
For a brief instant, Naruto's body hit the water hard, sending up a splash as he scrambled to recover.
Then the air changed.
The "standard" skirmish was over; the battle of the elites had begun. Zabuza's temper flared like a forest fire. His hands became a blur, weaving a dizzying sequence of forty-four seals. Across the water, Kakashi mirrored him perfectly, his Sharingan spinning with a predatory red glow.
"How is he doing that?" Sakura whispered.
"The Sharingan," Shorai's voice drifted from behind her, clinical and cold. "It speeds up the brain's perception and memory. But look closer, Sakura. There's a price for that kind of theft."
Sasuke's eyes widened, his hunger for knowledge overriding his pride. "What do you mean?"
"Chakra," Shorai explained, shaking his head. "To copy and execute an unknown technique in real-time is to gamble with your life. You're spending precious energy on a move you haven't mastered, hoping your reserves outlast the man who invented it. It's a brilliant psychological weapon, but a dangerous tactical one."
The sequence ended.
Two massive torrents of river water rose into the grey sky, coiling like serpents. They took the shape of dragons, roaring with a force that made the ground tremble. When they clashed, the sound was like a mountain collapsing.
As the giants tore each other apart, the two Jonin vanished. They became blurs of grey and black, steel meeting steel in a stalemate of sword against kunai.
Shorai's gaze drifted to the shadows of the nearby trees. He could feel Haku there—a pool of cold, waiting water. The boy's hand was resting on his senbon needles, but his focus was entirely on Zabuza.
Good, Shorai mused. No secondary plan for the builder yet.
On the water, the psychological warfare reached its apex. Kakashi began to speak Zabuza's own thoughts before he could utter them, his smirk visible even through the mist.
Zabuza's eyes narrowed into slits of pure rage. "This ends now!"
He began the seals for the Great Waterfall Jutsu, but halfway through, he faltered. He stared into Kakashi's Sharingan and saw his own defeat already reflected there. That split-second of hesitation was the only opening the Copy Ninja needed.
"Water Release: Great Waterfall Jutsu!"
A horizontal vortex of white water erupted from the river, spinning with the force of a hurricane. Zabuza's scream of "Impossible!" was swallowed as the deluge swept him away, smashing him through the forest for nearly a kilometer.
"W-wow..." Sakura shielded her eyes from the spray.
Sasuke was trembling, his knuckles white. "This... this is a real ninja battle?"
"Hardly," Shorai remarked, his voice strangely condescending. "This is entry-level for those who truly walk the path. You haven't seen anything great yet."
Sasuke whirled on him, his dark eyes flashing. "What have you been doing all this time, Shorai? How do you know all this?"
"Not playing ninja," Shorai replied, his eyes scanning the treeline. "That's the only answer you're getting."
He looked at the destruction. "Sakura, Sasuke—grab Naruto. Meet me at Kakashi's side. Tazuna-san, get on my back. We need to move."
"No! I don't trust you!" the bridge-builder cried, cowering. "Not after you offered to sell me out!"
Shorai turned a gaze on him that was colder than the Mist. "Two options, old man. One: I knock you unconscious and carry your body. Two: You use your brain and realize that was an act to buy time. Cooperate."
A spark of blue static flickered in Shorai's turquoise eyes. Tazuna swallowed hard and climbed on.
They reached the clearing where Zabuza lay pinned against a broken tree. Kakashi stood over him, kunai raised. "Only death awaits you."
Woosh!
Two tiny needles hissed through the air, burying themselves in Zabuza's neck. His eyes rolled back. His heart stopped.
"Who's there?" Kakashi tensed, spinning toward the new presence.
A masked youth stood on a high branch. The mask bore the red wave pattern of the Kirigakure Hunter-nin. "Correct," the calm, detached voice said. "It is death."
Naruto began to shout, but Shorai silenced him with a hand on his shoulder. "Naruto, show some respect. That's a Hunter-nin. They exist to ensure their village's secrets never leave the borders."
Shorai watched Haku closely as the 'hunter' retrieved Zabuza's body. He noticed the slight tremor in the masked boy's fingers as he touched his master. Bonds, Shorai thought with a thin smile. Even the coldest weapons bleed.
"Take care. The first meeting is over," Haku said, vanishing in a swirl of wind and leaves.
Kakashi stood still for a long moment, then sighed and slid his headband back over his left eye.
"Finally," Tazuna exhaled. "My house is close. We can—"
"Alright, lead the—" Kakashi's voice cut off. His knees buckled.
Woosh!
Before the jōnin could hit the mud, Shorai appeared beneath him, catching the ex-ANBU captain against his shoulder.
"SENSEI!" Naruto and Sakura screamed.
Shorai adjusted the weight, his eyes scanning Kakashi's vitals. "Relax. It's just chakra exhaustion. He used that eye too long."
He looked toward the path ahead. The first act was over, but the scent of blood still hung in the air.
"Let's not linger any longer. We're not safe yet."
"R-right."
The group nodded and started to move.
Then Shorai froze.
"W-wait a moment..."
"S-shorai-kun?"
"Eh?"
"I forgot something... hold Kakashi for a minute!"
"Eh?"