Chapter 21: "Zabuza’s Ultimatum"

The Ashen Dawn

The ruins of the bridge smoldered under a sky choked with ash, the air thick with the metallic tang of blood and frost. Naruto crouched in the snow, his hands trembling as golden chakra flickered erratically across his skin like dying embers. Beside him, Sakura pressed a glowing palm to Sasuke's poisoned arm, her brow furrowed as black veins retreated sluggishly from his neck. Kakashi stood at the precipice of the shattered bridge, his lone Sharingan fixed on the horizon where Zabuza's silhouette loomed—a jagged shadow against the bleeding dawn.

"He's toying with us," Kakashi muttered, tightening the bandages around his crystallized forearm. Ice still clung to his sleeve, crackling with every movement. "Regroup. Now."

Sasuke lurched to his feet, his Sharingan spinning wildly. The ice shard embedded in his palm pulsed, its edges fused to his skin like a parasitic jewel. "We're not running," he snarled, voice distorted by the shard's whispers. "Not when I can finally see—"

"You're seeing nothing but greed, Uchiha," Kakashi snapped, yanking him back. "That shard's eating you alive."

A guttural laugh echoed across the frozen wasteland.

"How touching."

Zabuza emerged from the haze, his massive sword slung over one shoulder. The blade's edge glinted with a familiar spiral symbol—a mirror of the scar burning on Naruto's cheek. Behind him, Haku materialized silently, his ice mirrors fracturing the pale light into prismatic shards.

"Surrender the Jinchūriki," Zabuza drawled, thrusting his sword into the ice. The ground shuddered, fissures spiderwebbing toward Team 7. "Or watch the rebels' families drown."

A wave of his hand, and the ice beneath their feet turned translucent. Below, trapped in glacial tombs, children and elders stared up with hollow eyes—mouths frozen mid-scream.

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The Water Dragon's Roar

Kakashi moved first.

Hands blurred through seals—Ox → Hare → Monkey—as chakra surged. A colossal Water Dragon erupted from the frozen river, its maw roaring. Zabuza grinned, mirroring the seals.

"Plagiarist," Kakashi hissed.

Their dragons collided in a cataclysmic explosion of ice and foam. Sakura dragged Naruto behind a rubble pile as shrapnel rained down.

"Get it together!" she shouted, slapping Naruto's flickering shoulder. "We need your power!"

"I'm trying!" Golden light sputtered in his veins. The scar on his cheek throbbed, memories of alternate Sakura's ash-dissolving face searing his mind. You let her die. You'll let them all die.

Across the battlefield, Sasuke lunged at Haku, kunai clashing against ice senbon.

"You're slower, Uchiha," Haku murmured, his mirror分身 multiplying. "That poison… or the shard?"

Sasuke's Sharingan flared, tracking the true Haku—but the ice shard's gold-fractured vision betrayed him. A senbon grazed his throat.

"Pathetic," Zabuza's voice slithered from the shard. "Let me in."

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The Ice Prison Gambit

Kakashi's Lightning Blade screeched through the storm, aimed at Zabuza's heart—

—only to strike Haku's ice mirror.

"Sensei, behind!" Sakura screamed.

Too late.

Haku's hand erupted from Kakashi's shadow, encasing him in a prism of unbreakable ice. "A teacher for a teacher," Haku said coldly, nodding to Naruto. "Your move, bridge builder."

Naruto's vision hazed gold. Protect them. Burn it all.

He teleported in a burst of light, reappearing behind Zabuza with Rasengan crackling—

—but Zabuza dissolved into water.

"Predictable." The real Zabuza emerged from a mirror, sword cleaving downward. Naruto barely phased out, rematerializing knee-deep in the frozen river.

"You're a parasite," Zabuza sneered, tracing the spiral on his blade. "Leaping worlds, stealing power you can't control. Sound familiar, Namikaze?"

Naruto froze. "How do you know my—"

Zabuza's laugh cut through him. "Minato begged too, when we tore his wife from that seal."

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The Fractured Rescue

The world narrowed to white noise.

Naruto's scar erupted, golden chakra melting the river into a boiling vortex. He teleported wildly—Zabuza's arm, the sword's hilt, Haku's mirrors—each strike deflected, each failure feeding the rage.

"Stop!" Sakura's chakra-enhanced fist shattered a mirror aimed at his back. "You're playing his game!"

Zabuza's blade kissed her throat. "And you've lost."

Naruto roared, channeling every flicker of power into one desperate leap. The spiral on his cheek blazed—

—and Zabuza vanished, teleported into the heart of the frozen lake.

Silence.

Then laughter.

Zabuza strode from the ice, untouched, his sword's spiral glowing in tandem with Naruto's scar. "Did you really think he wouldn't gift me protections?" He pointed skyward.

The Ōtsutsuki's golden eye stared down from the rift, its pupil a spiral mocking Naruto's futility.

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The Uchiha's Whisper

Sasuke watched from the shadows, the ice shard's venom coiling around his heart. Zabuza's voice hummed through it, sweet and corrosive.

"They'll never understand. But I do. Let me show you true power."

Black veins swallowed his Sharingan, gold cracks splintering the crimson. Kakashi's ice prison reflected his transformation—a monster wearing a boy's face.

"Sasuke, don't!" Sakura's plea fell on deaf ears.

He plunged the shard into his chest.

The world shattered.

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The Fractured Alliance

Zabuza's grin widened as Sasuke's scream tore through the battlefield. Ice and black flames erupted, consuming the ruins.

"Welcome home, Uchiha."

Naruto crumpled, his golden light guttering out. Somewhere, the Ōtsutsuki's eye blinked.

And the spiral turned.

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HI, TheSigmaWriter here

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