บท 23: Chapter 23 The Decisive Strike

'Kill the Kirigakure's Missing-nin?'

Sasuke raised his head and looked at Naruto, almost instinctively frowning.

'With just the three of them, how could we possibly kill an Elite Jonin on par with Kakashi?'

'Not to mention that Zabuza still has a masked boy by his side whose strength is unknown. How could we possibly achieve this?'

'It's simply insane.'

Sakura looked at Naruto in shock, almost thinking her ears were malfunctioning.

"Naruto, the three of us are still Genin! Killing a Jonin is… impossible, right?"

"No, it's not." Naruto raised his hand, and the hot Lava Release surged from his palm. "If we seize the opportunity, I can kill them."

"What is that?" Sakura was stunned for a moment.

"I don't know how I did it." Naruto scratched his head, feigning innocence, "It just came out during an emergency."

Sasuke was speechless, his eyes began to wander, 'It seemed that ever since we left the Academy, the gap between us had widened.'

'The guy seemed to have said before that the other teams are almost all clans' Shinobi, so they probably inherited their clan's Ninjutsu like the Uchiha Clan in the past.'

'But now the Uchiha clan no longer exists.' Sasuke's eyes dimmed for a moment, and a feeling of powerlessness surged into his heart and then disappeared in an instant.

"What should we do?" Sasuke raised his head and his eyes became determined.

Either he becomes stronger in battle or he dies in battle. If things continued as they were, he would never have the hope of killing that man.

"Strike while the iron is hot!" Naruto said decisively, "Kakashi-sensei was already seriously injured, not to mention Zabuza, who was at a disadvantage at the time."

"That masked boy's arm is also already useless. Now is the best opportunity!"

"Naruto!" Sakura was stunned as she listened on the side. Then, she finally understood that these two people were really planning to kill those two Missing-nin.

"But we don't know where they are."

"I know!" Naruto suddenly smiled, "They can't run far, so they must be hiding somewhere in the woods."

"Maybe it's a small wooden house, or a room in a building."

Upon hearing this, Sakura looked at Naruto and then at Sasuke, realizing that at this point, both of them had made up their minds and there was absolutely no turning back.

"Wouldn't it be too risky?"

Upon hearing this, both Naruto and Sasuke looked at her.

Sakura was a bit flustered and suddenly at a loss, and asked stutteringly.

"What's wrong?"

"It's okay." Naruto said, "Sakura, if we don't take action now, it will be even more dangerous when those two recover."

"We have no way out. Behind Zabuza is Gato. Didn't you hear what the old drunk, Tazuna, said?"

"Gato has many Rogue Shinobi and Rogue Samurai under his command. If we don't eliminate Zabuza and the masked boy, we will have to face attacks from two forces."

As he said that, Naruto held up four fingers.

"There are only four of us, one Jonin and three Genin. If we face Gato and Zabuza together, we will have no chance."

"Although there are only three of us now, we only need to deal with a masked boy with half his hand disabled. No matter how you think about it, acting now is the best strategy."

'Naruto's words made sense.' Sakura opened her eyes wide, and she had no way to refute him. Finally, she bit her lip and nodded in agreement.

Seeing this, Naruto glanced at the two of them and said seriously.

"Believe me."

"This time, we will definitely win. Once we deal with Zabuza, Gato will be just a bug."

Naruto wasn't exaggerating. Zabuza is the most powerful Shinobi Gato could hire. After all, a profit-driven and unscrupulous businessman like Gato wouldn't spend a fortune hiring a legitimate Shinobi.

It must be known that his subordinates are a group of Rogue Shinobi and Rogue Samurai, in other words, thugs. He hired Zabuza simply because he saw the advantage of his Missing-nin status. Even so, he wanted to get his services for free.

So the whole situation is easy to understand. Gato wanted to kill bridge-building expert, Tazuna. But when he learned that Tazuna had hired bodyguards from Konoha, he called in a backup hitter.

Gato, wanting to cut costs, didn't use a legitimate platform to find a mercenary, but instead privately contacted Zabuza and promised to pay him after the job was done.

However, Gato never intended to pay. He planned to swoop in and take advantage during the ensuing chaos.

…

Night.

For the first time, Team 7 undertook a solo mission, slipping into the forest under the cover of darkness.

"Found it." Naruto scouted the area, then jumped back to the others, and speaks in a hushed tone, "They're in a two-story cabin in the woods."

Hearing this, Sakura couldn't help but feel nervous.

"I'll launch a frontal attack, you flank, and Sakura, you provide Genjutsu support. How does that sound?" Sasuke quickly proposed a battle plan.

"Okay!" Naruto nodded, "But there is one thing I want to confirm."

"What is it?"

"The Uchiha Clan can awaken the so-called Sharingan, right?" Naruto said casually, "Sasuke, it's best if you go all out from the start. This way Sakura will be safer."

"The longer this drags on, the more dangerous it becomes for Sakura."

"Me?" Sakura was a bit confused, but she couldn't help but become more nervous. "You… you don't have to worry about me. I can take care of myself."

"Sakura, your strength isn't in direct combat." Naruto looked at Sakura deeply and said, "You don't need to push yourself. Sasuke and I will handle the fighting."

"You just need to support us with Genjutsu. If the situation changes, we'll rely on you to help us get out."

Hearing this, Sakura couldn't help but feel moved and nodded firmly.

"Don't worry, I can do it!"

Whether she could or not, Naruto didn't know. But he knew that Haku and Zabuza were right in front of him, and if he and Sasuke unleashed their strongest attacks from the start, Haku alone wouldn't be able to stop them.

The three took their positions, each on a different side of the two-story cabin.

After exchanging a glance, Sasuke made the first move. He ran forward, throwing three shuriken at odd angles toward the cabin.

Naruto went directly from behind, orange Chakra enveloped his whole body, the hot Lava Release heating his body. This time, he unleashed all his Chakra, aiming for a single, lethal strike.

Sakura took a deep breath and followed the trajectory of the shuriken thrown by Sasuke. At the moment when the window was broken by the shuriken, she formed a hand seal, immediately activating her Genjutsu.

Naruto directly burst through the cabin's wall, and the hot Lava Release instantly set it on fire. Haku immediately fled from the cabin with Zabuza on his back, with her blackened hand hanging uselessly in front of him.

"Sasuke!" Naruto shouted.

At this moment, Sasuke was blocking the direction of Haku and Zabuza's escape route, and his scarlet one-tomoe Sharingan suddenly unleashed!

Haku, who was still forming hand seals with one hand, was caught off guard and froze in place. Even though this time was less than a second, Sakura managed to seize the opportunity to cast another Genjutsu on him.

"Die!" Naruto was nearly frantic, his pupils were blood red.

Seizing Haku's momentary pause, he rushed towards the two of them with lava all over his body, directly piercing Haku's chest.

The scorching lava directly burned through the weakened Zabuza, who couldn't move. Both of them turned wide-eyed in disbelief, not expecting to meet their end in this unexpected ambush.

[Gato's wealth has been stored in the warehouse.]