Kakashi's voice cut through the fog with sharp clarity. It wasn't a shout, he didn't even raise his tone; however, every syllable carried the weight of an indisputable command, a certainty acquired in countless battles.

"Remember the plan. No heroes. Just efficiency."

Sakura swallowed, the sound dry and amplified in the oppressive silence. Her pulse pounded in her ears, a frantic beat that threatened to drown out her thoughts, but her gaze remained steady, locked on her sensei's. She nodded, a short, precise movement. The fog was a white, damp wall that clung to the skin and muffled the world. She could feel the cold chilling her to the bone, but it was the weight of responsibility that truly made her tremble.

"Understood, sensei."

"Go."

No more words were spoken. It was the signal. An instant later, Sakura pushed forward, her breathing forcefully controlled, each exhale a cloud of vapor that dissolved into the gloom. She knew that any sound, a broken branch or a misplaced step on a leaf, could give her away and bring the delicate plan Naruto had built with his stubbornness and sacrifice crashing down.

Her hands moved with a precision practiced over and over in the forest's darkness. She unwound a thin, nearly invisible thread of chakra that shimmered for a split second before becoming transparent. With an expert flick of her wrist, she cast it upward. The end adhered to the damp bark of a high branch with not the slightest sound. She tugged gently to test its strength.

With a calculated pull, she lifted herself off the ground. It was a silent, fluid ascent that carried her above the thickest layer of fog. She moved from tree to tree, searching for the perfect vantage point, the angle from which her intervention would be a calculated action. Each landing was stealthy, her feet barely brushing the wood before she launched herself again. The plan didn't require her strength, but her intelligence and precision. And she would not fail.

Naruto and Hinata followed her with their eyes until the fog swallowed her whole. The silence that remained was charged with a palpable tension. Naruto clenched his jaw; the dull pain in his injured shoulder was a constant reminder of why they were there.

Kakashi broke the silence in a barely audible whisper.

"Our part is louder," he said, turning his head to Hinata, his visible eye reflecting the complete trust he placed in her. "Your eyes will guide us. You're this team's radar. But don't just see the enemy, Hinata. See their intent. Anticipate their chakra flow, the point where it gathers before an attack. Don't tell us where he is, tell us where he's going to be."

"Yes, Kakashi-sensei." Hinata adjusted her stance and closed her eyes to still the trembling in her hands. She opened them and activated the Byakugan. The veins at her temples bulged as her vision transformed the confusing world into a landscape of chakra flows. The fog was no longer an obstacle but a canvas on which the enemy's presence would be drawn with clarity.

"Naruto…" Kakashi glanced at him, and in that single look was a warning and a request. "You'll maintain the pressure. Distract, confuse, be the chaos they need to miss the real threat. Don't go in for the kill. Your objective is to absorb their attention. Be unpredictable. Be loud. Be a nuisance impossible to ignore. I'm trusting your instinct to keep them busy without getting yourself killed."

Naruto tightened the fist of his good arm. The pain was sharp, but it also fueled his determination.

"Don't worry, sensei. I'm not gonna let anyone touch Hinata. We'll make this work."

"My job is simple," Kakashi continued, his visible eye sharpening with intensity. "I'm going to bring the demon out to play. You two handle his shadow. Do not interfere in my fight under any circumstances, understand? Zabuza is mine."

Kakashi moved, a silver blur crossing the fog. He made no attempt to hide; each step on the damp leaves seemed like a deliberate challenge announcing his arrival.

The sound of splintering wood signaled a response. The door to Tazuna's cabin burst open before Kakashi arrived.

Zabuza Momochi appeared in the doorway. The Kubikiribōchō rested on his shoulder, its massive blade gleaming faintly. He didn't carry it like a weapon, but as an extension of his own will.

His eyes, half-hidden behind his bandages, moved first to Kakashi. Then they swept across the fog, lingering on the direction where Sakura had disappeared. A crooked smile formed beneath the cloth.

"Sending a little girl to do a man's job, Kakashi?" his voice was deep and gravelly, dripping with contempt. "Bold… or stupid. You've changed. The old Kakashi of the Sharingan wouldn't have risked such a weak piece so early."

Kakashi didn't move, planted twenty yards from the cabin.

"She's more capable than you think," his tone was flat, deliberately provoking. "But you and I have unfinished business. And I'd prefer not to be interrupted by your apprentice."

Zabuza let out a harsh, guttural laugh.

"Unfinished business? I call it finishing the job. But you're right about one thing. I don't like an audience for this sort of thing." He glanced toward the nearby waterfall, its constant murmur the only background sound. "The waterfall. The fog is thicker there… and the blood washes away quickly. A fitting stage for the death of the famous Copy Ninja."

Behind him, Haku slid out of the cabin, the hunter-nin mask of Kirigakure already in place. His presence was cold and distant, an unnatural stillness that contrasted with the tension in the air.

"Take care of the blond one and the Hyuga girl," Zabuza ordered without looking at him, his attention fixed completely on Kakashi, excluding everything else. "Don't let them interfere. I don't want any distractions. Finish them quickly."

"Yes, Zabuza-sama," Haku's voice was soft, almost melancholic, the whisper of an unbreakable loyalty.

With an agility that defied his size, Zabuza made a precise leap, landing silently halfway to the waterfall. Kakashi followed without hesitation, and both vanished into the mist. A second later, the first clash of steel on steel echoed with a metallic crash, the first note of the battle.

Naruto swallowed and turned to Hinata, his protective instinct taking over.

"Hinata… Stay close. Don't leave my side, no matter what."

She nodded, her breathing a little faster, but her white eyes were fixed on the enemy before them. Both turned to Haku, who remained motionless, watching them. The white mask revealed nothing.

"Please, don't make this any harder," Haku said, his calm voice hiding a deep sadness. "I don't want to kill you. Surrender, and I will spare your lives. Zabuza-sama only needs the bridge builder."

Naruto took a step forward, positioning himself in front of Hinata.

"Then you'll have to go through my dead body before you touch her."

Haku tilted his head slightly, a gesture of resignation.

"As you wish."

In a blink, his figure dissolved into the fog. The air swirled where he had stood. The sound of something slicing through the wind came from all directions at once.

"Above! From the branches!" Hinata yelled, her voice clear and precise in the urgency of combat.

Naruto instinctively ducked. A shower of fine, lethal senbon needles whizzed over his head and embedded themselves in a tree behind him with a repetitive thwack-thwack-thwack.

"He's everywhere!" Naruto spun around, his eyes trying to pierce the white veil.

Hinata didn't answer. Her Byakugan followed Haku's chakra pattern, a swift trail moving at breakneck speed among the trees.

"Naruto-kun, get down!" she warned again. "His attacks are coming in a fan pattern! Three yards to your left, low angle!"

Naruto obeyed without hesitation. At the same instant, Hinata took a sideways step and three senbon aimed at her neck hit the air, falling harmlessly onto the grass. Haku's voice echoed from an unseen branch above.

"Your speed is impressive. Your sight is a problem. An annoying combination."

"You're not getting away with this," Naruto growled, frustration burning in his chest. It was a maddening fight against a nearly invisible enemy.

"We'll see," Haku replied, his voice now coming from the right.

The air in front of them froze. The moisture condensed and crystallized on the ground.

—Hijutsu: Makyō Hyōshō.

In seconds, tall panels of polished ice rose from the ground. They formed a perfect circle around them, curving inward to create a dome that trapped them. A dozen reflections of Haku watched them from every surface. The light from outside filtered through the ice, creating an oppressive, bluish glow. They were in a cage.

Naruto gritted his teeth.

"Hinata, can you see him? Tell me where the real one is!"

"I'm trying…" she answered, her voice tense. "The chakra is dispersed among the reflections, flowing from one mirror to another. It's difficult… Left, high! That one has the main chakra concentration!"

A flash. Haku emerged from the indicated mirror, senbon in hand. Thanks to the warning, Naruto was already moving and threw a kunai with a chakra thread attached. He didn't aim for Haku, but for the needles. Metal clashed in mid-air, deflecting the projectiles just before they reached Hinata. She, in turn, spun and struck with an open palm toward the spot Haku was retreating to. The blow didn't connect, but the chakra wave forced him back into his mirror to avoid contact.

"You cover each other with admirable precision," Haku's voice echoed from everywhere, distorted by the dome's acoustics. "But you can't defend and attack forever. You will tire. You will make a mistake. And then you will die."

"We didn't come here to play!" Naruto shouted, frustration giving way to determination. "Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!"

Poof! Poof! Poof! Poof!

Four shadow clones appeared and lunged at different mirrors. Haku destroyed them with ease, moving between his reflections as if physical space didn't exist. But the distraction was enough.

"Hinata, now!" the real Naruto yelled.

While Haku finished off the last clone, Hinata slipped into a blind spot her Byakugan had identified. An open palm, charged with Gentle Fist chakra, struck Haku's shoulder. The blow wasn't violent, but the Jūken's effect was devastating: the chakra flow in that arm was severed. The needles he held clattered to the ground.

Haku leaped back, a choked gasp escaping his lips as he retreated into the mirrors. His shoulder felt numb.

"You can see… before I move. You don't react, you anticipate."

"It's the advantage of my eyes," she replied, her voice firm.

"Then," Haku's voice turned icy, losing its hint of sadness and taking on a deadly edge, "I will have to use something neither of you can predict. Something not even your eyes can follow."

An immense, freezing chakra began to condense around Haku's real form. The temperature inside the dome plummeted.

"Naruto-kun, he's overloading," Hinata warned, the veins at her temples throbbing from the strain. "He's going to release all his power at once. If he does, his speed will be too great!"

"Then we won't let him!"

Haku's chakra exploded in a blizzard of killing intent. Countless ice needles, finer than the senbon, materialized around all his reflections, filling the dome.

Naruto moved first, not to dodge, but to intercept. He moved in front of Hinata to block the attack. He deflected the first needles with his kunai, but the shower was too dense. The sharp pain of several cuts on his arms and legs made him grunt, but he didn't back down.

"Now, Hinata!"

Every time Naruto took a hit, Hinata's Lionheart energy burned brighter. Naruto's passive ability, Hero's Will, amplified the effect: as long as he held strong, she grew stronger and faster.

Her speed became supernatural. She slipped through the rain of needles, deflecting them with a precision that defied sight, creating a safe zone around her.

Haku, noticing this, reappeared to Naruto's right, aiming for a blind spot.

"To your right! Behind you!" she called out.

Naruto turned just in time to take a dozen needles to his good forearm instead of his neck. The blow made him take a step back, but it gave Hinata the opening she needed. Her hand moved with blinding speed and sealed two chakra points on Haku's wrist, forcing him to drop the ice weapons.

"Damn it!" Haku hissed, retreating to his mirrors, his frustration palpable.

The battle fell into a brutal pattern. Haku focused on Naruto, recognizing him as the source of Hinata's power. Naruto absorbed the damage, and each of his wounds became her fuel. She used that strength to counterattack and thwart Haku's every attempt.

Haku finally understood. He couldn't win this war of attrition. To stop her, he had to eliminate Naruto.

With a burst of speed, Haku ignored Hinata. He converged his power into his real body and launched himself from a mirror directly at Naruto, creating a single ice stylet in his hand. It was a killing blow.

Hinata saw his intention an instant before it happened.

"Naruto-kun, no!"

It was too late. Naruto, injured and slower, couldn't dodge in time. The bright, lethal stylet was aimed straight for his heart.

In that instant, an inhuman, guttural roar escaped Naruto's lips. A bubbling red chakra erupted from his body, forming a violent, visible aura. His blue eyes turned blood-red with slit pupils. The marks on his cheeks grew thicker, darker. The pain from his wounds vanished, replaced by an icy rage.

Haku's stylet shattered against the dense cloak of red chakra.

Haku froze for a moment, a hint of shock visible beneath the mask. Naruto's power surge pushed Hinata's Lionheart to its absolute limit. She felt a wave of energy so intense it nearly left her breathless.

Naruto and Hinata looked at each other with an understanding forged in blood and desperation. They lunged at once.

Naruto was raw power, a whirlwind of savage blows that cracked the ice mirrors. The dome began to collapse. Hinata was lethal precision. Using every opening Naruto's rage created, she sealed the chakra points that an overwhelmed Haku could no longer protect.

Trapped between a blow from Naruto that shattered the mirror behind him and a palm from Hinata that blocked the chakra in his chest, Haku was left exposed. The combined impact sent him flying and slammed him to the ground. His porcelain mask shattered, revealing a young, androgynous face.

Naruto's red chakra receded, and the pain of his wounds returned with an intensity that brought him to his knees, gasping.

Just then, a cry of agony echoed from the distance. A cry they recognized when Haku howled in response.

"Zabuza-sama!"

Haku's cry was heart-wrenching. He struggled to his feet, blood trickling from his forehead, his gaze filled with desperate panic. He forgot his own defeat; his only thought was to get to his master's side.

Hinata acted immediately. The power of the Lionheart had not yet faded. She appeared beside him before he could take a single step.

"I'm sorry," she whispered, with genuine compassion.

Her fingers, swift and precise, struck two pressure points on the back of Haku's knees. It wasn't a Jūken attack, but an expert application of anatomy. The nerve signals to his legs were cut off. Haku collapsed, unable to move, but conscious. She had immobilized him without causing further harm. Her duty, for now, was done.