The mist rolled in fast, but it vanished even faster.
On the vast, deep blue sea, fierce winds whipped up towering waves. Three figures formed a tight, straight line, charging recklessly toward the shoreline where Hikari and the others stood.
Let's just call the two bizarre-looking guys trailing Zabuza "people" for now!
As the saying goes, distance makes things look prettier.
As Zabuza and his crew got closer to the shore, Kakashi and his team finally got a clear look at the so-called "Immortal Duo." Their faces twisted like they'd just swallowed a dead fly.
The black-and-white monster wielding a scythe was a mess—his face was so scarred and hollowed out, it was like looking at a human-shaped meat cube. The tentacle-covered freak behind him was all hair, with just a mouth and two legs, plus four pus-filled lumps embedded in his chest, each sporting a different creepy mask.
Talk about ugly!
No wonder Zabuza was too spooked to show his face. Seeing these two in the dead of night would give anyone nightmares.
"Let me give you a quick rundown on the enemy," a cool, feminine voice cut through.
Kakashi, Naruto, and Sasuke turned to Hikari. Her pale, vibrant skin glowed like fine porcelain, even under the dim, rainy sky.
After the visual assault of the Immortal Duo, their eyes practically sparkled with relief. If this were some tabletop RPG, you'd see their sanity points shooting back up.
Noticing the sudden "pleased" glint in their eyes, Hikari raised an eyebrow, puzzled.
That happy?
Did they actually like these two zombie freaks?
She nodded approvingly, thinking her friends' tastes must be as unique as hers.
The Immortal Duo had insane research potential. Compared to Sharingan eyes or the Thunder Blade, Hikari was way more intrigued by their bizarre bodies.
"Remember the fastest novel site, 101kan.com!"
Kakado's abilities were wild and unpredictable. His body was like a giant Earth Grudge Fear, sprouting tentacles by absorbing chakra, plus the ability to steal hearts—basically a budget version of Hashirama's cells. Hidan's body, on the other hand, had freakish immortality. Even if his brain or heart got obliterated, he'd keep moving.
Even Hikari, with her Kaguya bone pulse and Sage Body, couldn't pull that off.
If she could figure out what made Hidan tick and carve it into a curse seal on her real body, that'd be a game-changer.
Her "Perfect Body 2.0" only had four jutsu sealed into it so far, leaving plenty of room. Bringing these two bodies back to her original self would make her thrilled.
Imagining her real self's sparkling eyes, "Genin Hikari" cracked a smile.
Yang-Release Hikari was a genius at bloodline fusion research. Her success with reversing the Eight Gates was a huge deal.
But Hikari wasn't just some slacker either.
"See that black-and-white spiky-haired guy? That's Hidan. As long as you keep him off the shore, he'll only use taijutsu."
"Only taijutsu? Then his physical skills must be crazy strong!" Naruto's face grew serious. Every taijutsu expert he knew was a beast.
"About as strong as Gai," Hikari said casually.
"What?!" All three gasped.
"Without opening the Eight Gates, I mean."
"Phew, that's manageable!"
Kakashi and the others let out a collective sigh of relief. Naruto, the loudest, would've been dragged into a brutal training session if Gai heard him. Betraying his teacher like that? Yikes.
"It's not that simple. That guy's got a true immortal body. Rip out his heart, and he still won't die. The only way to stop him temporarily is to sever his neck," Hikari warned. "Hidan's your job. Do not let him reach the shore, or Zabuza's dead meat. And if you get hurt, you're probably toast too."
Hikari's tone was dead serious.
Hidan's curse jutsu was an instant-death move with no counter. If she was right, the evil god Hidan worshipped was on par with the Reaper from the Dead Demon Consuming Seal.
One targeted the soul, the other the body.
The Blood Ritual and the Dead Demon Seal might even be in the same league.
"Got it!"
Even without knowing what Hidan could do on land, the "immortal" part alone was enough for Kakashi's team to grasp the stakes.
"What about the hairy ninja?" Naruto asked, already conditioned to trust Hikari's intel without question.
"That's Kakado. You don't need to know about him. I'll handle him once he hits the shore," Hikari said, waving dismissively.
"You're not going out to sea?" Sasuke asked, noticing Hikari didn't seem ready to fight alongside them.
"I'm not great at water combat," Hikari admitted, looking a bit embarrassed, like Sun Wukong facing a nine-headed serpent.
Sasuke and Kakashi glanced at the ground under her ninja boots, glowing with earth-release chakra. They got it.
Ninjas could fight on water by using chakra to manipulate buoyancy, but Hikari's weight rivaled a mid-sized freighter. Just walking on water burned massive chakra. Fighting out there? She'd probably sink. Without water-release to help, she couldn't even swim.
"Haha, Hikari, you're too—"
Naruto's reckless quip was cut short as Kakashi and Sasuke lunged to cover his mouth. Hikari's floating cannons slowly turned their way, and they bolted toward the shore to face Hidan.
Clearly, Naruto needed more toughening up.
Hikari's eyes narrowed, glinting dangerously.
She decided that once they were back in the Leaf, she'd have Gai crank Naruto's training up a notch. With his Sage Body, he wouldn't die, right?
Tap, tap, tap.
As they strategized, Zabuza, the delivery boy, was nearing the shore with his two zombie pals. His breathing was ragged, blood-soaked chest and back heaving like bellows.
From a distance, he spotted Kakashi, Naruto, and Sasuke lined up on the water, with Hikari alone on the shore, her six strange shuttles aimed their way. One glance told him those air-bullet attacks were hers.
She wasn't going out to sea?
Could these three really stop the monsters behind him? Zabuza had his doubts but kept sprinting toward Hikari.
"I see the ninja shooting jutsu! It's a kid!" Hidan shouted, his mouth and throat healed, though his right eye was still regenerating. His lone left eye locked onto the cannon-firing girl on the shore, radiating murderous intent.
Black tentacles slithered from Kakado's mouth, probing something. Soon, the mostly-mouth ninja shared his intel, and it was… unique:
"The girl on the shore has no detectable chakra signature. The twin blades on her back are Mist's Thunder Blades, worth 42 million!
The orange-clad kid on the water has insane chakra levels, with Uzumaki clan symbols on his clothes. Probably a rare Uzumaki ninja—corpse worth 57 million, alive is priceless.
Wait, hold up!
The black-haired kid with red eyes has an Uchiha crest. The extinct Uchiha clan?
And the white-haired broomhead—if I'm not mistaken, that's Copy Ninja Kakashi. Three-tomoe Sharingan plus his head…" Kakado's voice grew heated, the chill of his usual tone replaced by excitement, even forgetting the rage of losing a heart.
The Thunder Blades were leagues above Zabuza's Decapitating Carving Knife—a treasure for any lightning-release ninja. The Uzumaki and Uchiha bloodlines were extinct, and transplantable Sharingan were worth a fortune. Three of them, right here.
And then there was Zabuza, now just a side gig.
"Enough! Sew my arm back on. I'll sacrifice that shore kid to the evil god. The pricey ones are all yours," Hidan snapped, fed up with Kakado's money obsession. His arm still wasn't fixed, and with the barrage of air bullets paused, he urged Kakado to hurry.
The Earth Grudge Fear's stitching was efficient.
Black tentacles wove through Hidan's arm, leaving crude stitches. Compared to Hikari's limb-reattachment expertise, it was sloppy, but Hidan let out a satisfied grunt.
"The 197 million over there is yours to stall. I'll take out the 40-million kid on the shore first," Kakado said reluctantly, but rationally dividing their targets.
Those air-bullet jutsu were too strong—priority one.
His large-scale ninjutsu and flexibility made him perfect for the shore ninja. Hidan, facing those air bullets without Zabuza as a meat shield, would just be target practice. Better to let his immortal body hold off the sea ninjas.
Once Kakado dealt with the shore threat, it'd be harvest time.
Hidan knew he wasn't the brains of the operation and trusted Kakado's judgment, nodding despite his reluctance.
Both teams had picked their targets, and they aligned perfectly.
Buzz, buzz!
With Zabuza just a few hundred meters from shore, Hikari's eyes sharpened. Her water shuttles spun faster.
"Zabuza, get down!"
No hesitation.
The second he heard Hikari's voice, Zabuza, mid-sprint, tripped like he'd been snagged by a rope, diving toward the water.
Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh!
Before his hands hit the sea, high-speed air bullets grazed his scalp, rocketing toward the Immortal Duo.
The vacuum sniper shots were too fast to react to or track. Without their human shield, the duo was in a death trap!
But Hikari's warning reached Kakado and Hidan too. With their vast combat experience and immortal bodies, they'd already started dodging.
A snarling, ghost-like mask shifted to Kakado's left shoulder, a pure white one to his right.
No hand signs needed. Two nozzles—one white, one red—opened fast. "Fire Release: Head Carving! Wind Release: Crushing Harm!
Compound Ninjutsu: Flame-Wind Chaos Wave!"
Kakado, seething, unleashed his trump card.
Whoosh!
Wind and fire intertwined, erupting into a massive wave of flames, wider than the sea itself, threatening to reduce everything ahead to ashes.
Hidan, Zabuza, Kakashi, and even Hikari on the shore were all in its path.
Hidan, closest, was swallowed first, his screams of agony piercing as the fire consumed him.
Whoosh, whoosh!
Boom!
The vacuum sniper bullets, despite their complex forms, were still wind-release at their core. The moment they hit the fire, they ignited.
But the highly condensed bullets didn't vanish. Their explosive force punched holes through the fire, transparent winds turning into orange-red streaks that slammed into Kakado's body.
Ding, ding…
The vacuum bullets, warped by the heat, lost much of their power.
The flaming sniper shots left scorched craters on Kakado's Earth Spear-hardened body, but they fizzled out into orange wisps.
The fire kept coming!
Splash!
Zabuza, already diving, plunged deeper into the sea, the flames swallowing his former position.
"Fall back!"
Kakashi, watching the fire approach, rapidly formed hand signs, calmly directing Naruto and Sasuke, who were stunned by the enemy's terrifying jutsu.
The two young ninjas snapped out of it, ignoring their shame. Kicking off the water, they retreated as blurred shadows.
Just before the fire hit, Kakashi finished his seals, slamming his hands onto the sea, pouring nearly a third of his chakra into it.
Water Release: Water Formation Wall!
Rumble!
The sea surged, a hill-like bulge rising.
A colossal water wall erupted, a hundred meters high and wider than the eye could see, dwarfing even the distant bridge.
Boom!
The tsunami-like wall blocked the flames, water and fire clashing with a sizzling roar.
The sea seemed to boil, bubbling furiously, as scalding steam filled the air, shrouding the clear sea in thick fog again.
"Damn, Kakashi-sensei, you're awesome!"
Naruto, staring at the tsunami-like wall and Kakashi's heroic silhouette, felt both ashamed of his earlier fear and newfound respect for his laid-back, book-reading teacher.
"It wasn't me," Kakashi said.
"Not him," Sasuke echoed, red eyes turning toward the shore.
Hikari stood calmly, silver hair fluttering, her floating cannons guarding her. Her porcelain face glowed faintly orange in the firelight, purple chakra pouring from a pale red barrier.
She spread her fingers, gripping the air. A slender hand emerged from the hundred-meter water wall, seizing the massive flames.
The sky-wide fire was trapped in her grasp, like holding a red ping-pong ball.
Five years ago, at Thunder Drum Mountain, Kisame Hoshigaki, the tailless tailed beast, summoned a tsunami in a storm, crushing Hikari's Yang-Release clone and a Root team. Now, with her Sage Body nearing stage three, Hikari could do the same.
"She said she wasn't good at water combat?" Naruto muttered, stunned. Even after years together, Hikari's sea-god-like power blew his mind.
Sasuke's Sharingan burned with complex emotions—envy for Hikari's effortless power, and frustration at his own weakness.
"She can't use her full strength on water, but that doesn't mean she's weak. Her water-release control is insane. One unit of her chakra moves a hundred times more water than a normal ninja's!
If not for her weight, the sea would be her domain!"
Gazing at the wave connecting sky and sea, Kakashi felt dazed. Of the thousands of tons of water, how much was his?
One-thousandth?
One-ten-thousandth?
"The gap between us and her is huge," he murmured.