The Plague Doctor’s rage hits like a switch.
Everyone on the path falls back.
Kakashi drops into a stance.
Kind as the man had been, Kakashi has never once dropped his guard.
Naruto looks at him and no longer sees the uncle who had been joking on the boat.
He sees a monster.
A huge cleaver screams toward them.
The team hits the dirt.
The Plague Doctor does not move.
He stares at the blade as it comes.
They think he is about to die.
Then something happens that leaves them stunned.
He catches the cleaver in one hand.
He does not even rock on his feet.
“Damn. Did I see that right? Bare hands—and he didn’t budge?”
“No chakra. No ninjutsu. Strength like that—he isn’t some body cultivator, is he?”
“Body cultivator? Have you ever seen one that strong? Kakashi *dodged*. I don’t think that thing is human.”
While the world is still reeling, a burly man steps out of the trees: short black hair, bandages wrapping the lower half of his face and throat.
The instant he appears, Yuan Shi of Kirigakure’s eyes go wide.
His right hand shakes as he points at the screen.
“**ZABUZA!!!**”
Zabuza.
Missing-nin of the Mist.
A jonin.
Strong enough that he once killed a Konoha tokubetsu jonin on a spy mission in Kirigakure.
One of the Second Generation Seven Ninja Swordsmen. This chapter was copied from g.com without permission.
Kirigakure threw squad after squad at him.
They all came back empty.
And here he is.
Yuan Shi’s blood is up—but he still wants to watch Zabuza and Kakashi clash.
He wants a winner.
The Plague Doctor only makes the fight stranger.
Kakashi feels the shift at once.
He pulls up his headband.
The Sharingan catches the light.
That eye is half the reason his name carries across the ninja world.
Zabuza clocks the Sharingan—and the Plague Doctor staring him down like a corpse already tagged.
He doesn’t understand how the sneak attack got caught.
He still trusts his own strength.
He starts forming a jutsu, ready to finish Kakashi’s team.
The Plague Doctor moves.
In a blink he is behind Zabuza.
Zabuza’s eyes fly open.
Before he can turn, branch-thin fingers tap his back.
*Thump.*
A jonin of his generation hits the ground.
Dead.
On the path and off the screen, no one moves.
“This… this can’t be.”
“Brother. Slap me. Tell me this is a dream.”
“That’s *Zabuza*. How does one tap put him down?”
**Kirigakure**
Yuan Shi sees the touch, sees Zabuza fall, and sits down hard.
His eyes are empty.
Poor old man.
Shock like that, at his age.
The rest of the Mist is no better.
They stand frozen, swallowing.
Other villages can guess at Zabuza’s strength.
Kirigakure *knows* it.
A man who walked out of the Mizukage’s reach—killed that cleanly?
No fight.
No resistance.
That isn’t science.
That isn’t ninjutsu.
**Konoha**
The Third is just as stunned.
He knows Zabuza’s level.
Against Kakashi it should have been even.
(Well. Anyone who fights Kakashi is even.)
A man that strong never even finished a hand sign.
How dangerous *is* this Plague Doctor?
All he can do now is pray it has no malice left for Kakashi’s team.