During their training, Kakashi made sure they knew about some of the jutsu they may encounter on the battlefield …
While there were countless jutsus and variations of said jutsus, some were a staple of the battlefield for their sheer versatility …
The Elemental Bullets were of such exemple, compact, hard to dodge and eficiente, they were a staple of the battlefield …
The Earth Headhunter jutsu was another that they had to pay attention to, while Iwa ninjas were the masters of it, the ability to swim in the ground itself and being able to pull your more distracted opponents into it was an indispensable skill …
Another category of jutsus was the prison ones …
Earth prison, Water prison, Air prison … they all had a few things in common …
They made it so that it was exceedingly hard to get out, with the water prison being infamous for being the hardest of them all …
They also required a constant and strong supply of chakra to work, requiring that the caster kept at least some form of contact with the barrier …
It was a jutsu generally used in teams to neutralize a stronger target, for using a prison jutsu meant that you also became a somewhat stationary target …
For Sasuke, Sakura and Jay … that meant that to free their sensei out of the jutsu, they just had to make Zabuza move … the bigger problem was, Kakashi was being used as a shield …
Zabuza hid behind the bubble of water containing Kakashi and took a breath … the constant drain his chakra was suffering from keeping the prison active meant that he couldn't really regain much of his energy, especially since he had to toss his sword to score the hit …
Despite neutralizing Kakashi, Zabuza knew that the fight wasn't over yet … Zabuza regretted not bringing Haku this time around, his icy weapon would be able to contend with the Hound’s genins … as is, Zabuza was wary of wasting even more chakra with another water clone, seeing that the blond boy was able to hold his own against the one he was absentmindedly controlling …
Zabuza had to choose between regaining his energy and making sure he was prepared for anything that Kakashi might do to get out … or keep his momentum and use the chakra needed to get rid of the genins …
The decision was made for Zabuza when he saw the Blond Kid placing way too many explosive tags on his sword …
Zabuza's anger flared as he made the handseals needed for a beefier water clone.
[Zabuza] - GAKI, DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA OF WHAT THAT SWORD IS WORTH ?! -
Zabuza roared through his mask and Puppeted his clone to slaughter those pesky kids before they damaged his sword …
***
Sakura looked at the approaching clone and now a very angry Jonin …
[Sakura] - Is this really a good idea ?! -
[Jay] - It's an idea … -
[Sasuke] - How many of those tags did you make ? … -
[Jay] - Enough … you can never have too many explosives … -
[Sasuke] - You are just throwing money at the problem … Will this even work ? … -
[Jay] - … If the boom is big enough … -
[Sakura] - Can you even toss this thing all the way there ?! -
[Jay] - Just buy me some time … -
Sasuke and Sakura glared at him before they nodded …
When they heard Zabuza roaring insults and a water clone barreling towards them, they took position …
Sasuke strung handseals together and gathered air in his lungs, breathing out a plume of Flames towards the water clone.
Sakura on the other hand tried to break Zabuza's focus with another genjutsu, making him stumble on his control of the water clone …
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They both spent as much chakra as they could to make sure they bought enough time …
Despite this, the clone powered through the flames, but the fire slowed it enough that Jay was able to build some momentum …
***
The sword was heavy … that was no surprise … Jay's training with Rock Lee and Maito Guy gave him a very strong body, but the sword was still very heavy to quickly toss over the large distance required …
Jay spun in place, holding the cable of the sword … building up momentum like an olympic hammer thrower …
Sasuke's fire jutsu brought Jay just enough time to release the sword before Zabuza's water clone caved his ribs in with a vicious front kick …
Despite the taste of blood on his mouth and his body ragdolling through the ground inflicting bruises on his bruises …
… The sword with a dozen explosive tags placed on its massive side …
… Flew true …
… And before Zabuza could release the prison and dash away, Kakashi revealed his card …
[Zabuza] - MOTHER FUCKER ! -
Zabuza roared as his body twitched … Kakashi was in a similar situation as lightning seized the muscles of both ninjas …
***
Using lighting release while inside water wasn't the brightest of ideas … but if you had good control of the element and were used to its effects … you could make sure that you endured the shock better than your opponent …
Kakashi's development of the chidori was plagued with constant electrocution as he learned how to hold pure lighting on his hands …
That ‘training’ came in hand right now … as Zabuza was shocked and paralyzed as the sword covered in explosives came for him …
Giving Kakashi just enough time to wrestle control of the water prison and transforming it into a water barrier … keeping himself mostly safe from the explosion …
Not that it was enough, a hastily formed Ninjutsu isn't the best defence out there …
***
The air shook with a loud boom that tossed Kakashi away despite the barrier … His body bouncing and turning on top of the water as he finally came to a stop, dizzy, wet and bruised, but overall unharmed …
… Zabuza on the other hand was nowhere to be seen ... A few splashes of blood and pieces of gear littered the water, but that was all … no body and no remains of Kubikiribouchou were present to be seen …
***
Kakashi fished for a few pills in his pockets, popping a blood pill to boost his recovery …
He suffered minor damages in comparison to Zabuza, but the healing properties that the Sword granted the wielder made it almost certain that Kakashi would see Zabuza again very soon …
But that was a minor thing in the grand scheme … Kakashi saw Jay being punted like a ball, and despite knowing how durable the boy was … Jay would still take a while to recover from that …
***
The mist around them was dissipating now that Zabuza was gone … the sun glaring at them …
Kakashi covered his Sharingan eye, feeling the strain on his chakra reserves …
[Kakashi] “ This mission can't go on like this, I underestimated the danger … “
Seeing no better option, Kakashi decided that the safest place for them to recuperate would be in Tazuna's home … From his story, his family was probably being protected by some security seeing that he was the master builder of the bridge …
***
Sasuke and Sakura ran towards Jay now that Zabuza was gone … there was a mild sensation of panic in them seeing how hard he was hit …
Itachi always made sure to control his strength, even when breaking some of Jay's bones during training … but Sasuke saw Zabuza caving Jay's chest in …
***
Jay struggled to lift off the metal plate he summoned at the last second to help absorb the impact …
[Jay] - Storage seals for the win … -
Chuckling over his own joke, Jay did a small mental math over his own injuries … Ribs fractured … Lungs filling … from the taste of blood in his mouth, probably punctured … A lot of his bones were fractured …
Once more Jay thought over to Maito Guy and how much of a difference there was between them in terms of durability … Guy would eat a strike like this and ask for seconds … Hopefully Jay could find more things to entice the man into teaching Jay a bit more …
***
The overall notion that Jay had of the ninja world was that they were mostly glass cannons … rare were those that could take as much as they could dish out … and despite Itachi and Kakashi being overwhelmingly strong ninjas in their own right … Jay couldn't shake the annoyance at having to dodge everything that came his way … besides, a more durable body would make better use of his accelerated healing …
His internal musings were interrupted when Sasuke and Sakura came close …
[Sasuke] - You good ? … -
[Sakura] - Of course he isn't, look at that !?! That's broken !! He had his everything broken !!! -
Sakura didn't know where to point …
Kakashi arrived shortly after …
[Kakashi] - Jay … You're a mess … -
Kakashi said jokingly with a hint of concern.
Jay just gave him a bloody smile.
[Jay] - You should see the other guy … -
He said before coughing up some blood.
Kakashi nodded before turning to his students.
[Kakashi] - He is fine, let's place him on the cart and find Tazuna, we need a place to recover … -
Kakashi carefully picked Jay up, putting a blood pill on his mouth and placing him on the cart while Sasuke and Sakura went to find Tazuna, who was hiding close by …
The team soon was on a boat with a few mercenaries as security while they made their way to wave country and the bridge that was nearing completion …
***
The bridge started at the Fire country and was built towards wave country, limiting what Gatoh could do to it … but as the bridge came closer and closer to Wave country, the construction had to take place there …
The closer the bridge came to the shore, the more desperate Gatoh became … if the bridge was completed, the Fire nation would be entitled to defend their trade route and with a bridge to quickly transfer soldiers and supplies, Gatoh would have no other option but to abandon his investment at a loss …
The harbors built with his money, the ships built with his money, the whorehouses built with his money … the people he bought with his money …
There was a reason he was so mad at Zabuza for falling to kill Tazuna, that wasn't even supposed to be the hardest thing he wanted the supposed Jounin to do … taking care of the bridge builder was ONE of the jobs, slaughtering those cunts of the Hizao family was the other … and he did NEITHER …
[Gatoh] - Why am I even paying you ?! Those bingo book entries are nothing but fake propaganda for a BUM !! How weren't you able to kill a single drunk old man ?! That wasn't even the primary objective !?! -
Gatoh was screaming himself hoarse as Zabuza was being treated by that pretty boy-toy of his … the only thing keeping Gatoh's mouth in check was the fact that, as Zabuza pointed out, if Gatoh had controlled his pants, Zabuza would have Haku with him and the battle would have gone in his favor …
As it stood, Gatoh paid a premium to fuck the pale boy and now he was paying an unexpected extra price for his lust …
[Gatoh] “ Should have known that whores always cost more than what's on the tin … “
[Zabuza] - Shut it shorty, you paid to fuck my weapon and then sent me unarmed to deal with your bridge builder … that simple drunk old man of yours somehow got Kakashi Hatake the blood hound himself to protect him … if you open your mouth one more time, I'll show you why money isn't true power … -
Gatoh had to contain himself as he felt fear like never before … a pressure was squeezing him from all sides with the dread of death as an inevitability that would soon consume him …
Gatoh felt his bladder give out in fear …
[Zabuza] - Pathetic, go clean yourself and make sure you don't touch my money or my weapon with those filthy pathetic hands, now PISS OFF -
Gatoh couldn't get a word in despite burning with shame and anger, so he simply turned around and got out from the safe house … planning on how to get back at the renegade ninja and his boy whore …
[Haku] - Was it really necessary, Zabuza-sama ? -
[Zabuza] - I should ask you the same, who gave you permission to sell yourself ? -
[Haku] - I apologize for assuming Zabuza-sama, as your weapon I only sought to be useful … -
Zabuza grunted in pain as Haku applied ointment on his burnt skin …
[Zabuza] - … that blond gaki explosion took a lot out of me … my sword needs at least a few days and a lot of blood to repair itself … at least I'll also heal back while at it … -
Zabuza muttered, holding the almost completely fractured Kubikiribouchou … It was a close thing, using enough chakra to tank the explosion and not lose the sword on the sea … but that also meant that Zabuza had to bear the brunt of it …
[Zabuza] - Let's go to the warzone, I need to get my sword whole again … -
[Haku] - … I just finished fishing out the shrapnel from your muscles Zabuza-sama, if you would wait at least a day I would be extremely glad … -
Zabuza grunted in pain and anger as the burns pulled on his skin, but he powered through it, he would rest and wait before proceeding with the other part of his mission contract … slaughter …
***
