Chapter 55 – End before beginning

It was over, yes. Zabuza was well aware of that fact since from the beginning of the clashing he not once had the upper hand. Now he lost his sword, so everything became even worse for him.

Was escape feasible? He looked around, then he looked at his opponents.

They were watching him closely but were not making any moves, instead were observing him as he did them.

What to do? He was in a perilous situation where capture was possible, but he was rather intelligent despite his flaw of underestimating weak looking opponents.

Then he carefully observed his surroundings, and for the first time, he saw something odd. If one did not have a perception as good as his then he would easily miss that, but Zabuza saw many strings placed on the ground that interconnected at certain intervals. They were hard to spot, thin as they were.

Such observation was useful, but not on its own. The strings were clearly place for a reason but what that reason was, he did not have enough intel to surmise. So, he made his move with the intention of gathering more intel, his life and his revenge laid on it.

Charging straight ahead, like a maddened bull, he waited for their move. Yet, even after having closed the distance between them, they still did not move.

He continued observing, his focus being the boy whose abilities were hard to grasp. He seemed to have the ability to instantly move from one place from another, but he had not heard of such a thing. At first, he thought he was an illusion user, but that wasn’t the case as every attack was real.

Wait, he realized that he did hear of such a thing. Years ago, there was someone that had a similar ability, someone once known as Konoha’s Yellow Flash, but even that man had to use his specially marked kunai as a teleportation focus. So, if that young boy in front of him could really be someone able to use a similar technique, which was hard to believe, then what would he use as a teleportation focus?

The strings on the ground came immediately to the forefront of his thoughts.

“That’s it!” Realizing that was the beginning but also the end. His body involuntarily froze, out of his control he was forced to stop as if someone was trying to control his body. He realized, that once again, he underestimated his enemy, he overlooked the three young girls that were missing. One of them had to be from the Yamanaka clan and a rather strong wan if she was able to control him, even if for a short instant.

He was then forced to witness as the boy, indeed, teleported right in front of him. He did not have anything in his hands, they were formed in punches, and he did punch. The strike caught him in the guts, no, it wasn’t a simple strike, he was bludgeoned to the far end of the cave as his vision faded in and out of darkness, but he didn’t crash as he got struck by the side this time. The strength was unnatural, as was everything about that boy, he came to realize.

As he flew, bones broken, he fell into the lake, gaze fixed on the rocky ceiling, body numb. Haku’s face came into his mind, although he would not admit that even under torture.

Who would have thought that his quest for revenge would end before it really started? He had yet to do anything detrimental to Konoha, instead he got eliminated by the first team he came face to face with. He even found ‘that’ object while escaping from Kakashi, a fortunate event that came after misfortune, it gave him the opportunity to get his revenge, but alas, he was not good enough.

Using a part of his last remaining chakra, he controlled the water to bring him that object he hid inside the lake right into his submerged hand.

All was not lost just yet, there was a last resort move. He rushed all the chakra he had left into the object. It took it all in, like a dried sponge, it took everything then it took some more.

“Argh!” A rare shout of pain left his mouth, he wanted to let go of the object, but he could not, his hand was as if sewed closed.

It took his chakra and then his life, his body shrivelled like an old corpse under the eyes of his enemies, then it turned to dust even as his mind was unwilling. His bet backfired so he paid the price, whatever happened next, he would not witness it.

The stone shined brightly, now everyone could see it. Lines of light shot through the surface of the water to the closest villagers, and they too, began to slowly shrivel like corpses.

“No!” Kurenai understood that the villagers would die, the same as Zabuza did just now. She did not think much as she sprung forth towards the stone, her intention being to throw it away.

Sango also understood what would happen to the villagers, but contrary to Kurenai, he wouldn’t go close to something so dangerous just to save their lives, but Kurenai gave him no choice, he couldn’t let her do something that would likely kill her. So, he teleported close to that shinning object with a knife tied with a string in hand, he used it like a tentacle to throw the object as far away as possible.

When the knife infused with his chakra touched the object, his chakra touched it too. The object, a glass cube the size of his palm, transformed into a ray of light and hit him right at the centre of his forehead, leaving a hole in his forehead protector.