Chapter 401: Haku vs Konan
A deep frown appeared on Konan's face as she observed the net of ice mirrors surrounding her. She didn't want to participate in this fight and watch over Nagato's real body instead, but now she had no choice but to stay here.
Moments later, a rain of ice needles shot out of the mirrors and flew towards Konan from all sides, causing her frown to deepen even further.
She flapped her paper wings, resulting in thousands of hardened paper pieces flying out of them and colliding with the ice needles.
That move still wasn't enough to block her opponent's whole attack, so she had to create a pair of paper weapons which she used to block some of the remaining ice needles while dodging the rest.
Despite her efforts, she failed to dodge a few needles, resulting in a few scratches appearing on her skin, which she didn't care too much about at the start.
However, after a few seconds, she couldn't help but frown while observing the small wounds she received from the corner of her eyes.
'Why do I suddenly feel so cold? Just how cold are these needles? Shouldn't there be a limit to how cold water can get?'
Konan's eyes wandered over the battlefield and instantly noticed that the places where the deflected ice needles landed were all frozen over the moment the needles touched them.
'What kind of ice style is this? As far as I know, the Yuki clan's ice style doesn't work like this, but the woman reflected in the mirrors is definitely the person from the Yuki clan that I heard joined Konoha. Does she have some kind of unique mutation in her bloodline?'
Naturally, Konan was utterly wrong with her assumption about Haku's bloodline. Rather than a unique bloodline, the way Haku's ice worked changed after being taught by Yuna.
Obviously, Haku didn't simply try to imitate how Yuna's ice worked. Yuna made it very clear that Haku should try to find her own path instead of just copying what Yuna did.
Yuna's ice was, in fact, not very cold. What was so dangerous about her ice was that it would freeze over everything regardless of what it was. After all, even the so-called eternal flame, Amaterasu, was swallowed by it.
Haku took a different path, so instead of endless propagation, she went for coldness. Her strongest move were her ice mirrors, which effectively trapped her enemies within a globe of ice. That, combined with the incredibly low temperature of her ice, would quickly turn the inside of her ice mirror sphere into a death zone that would freeze everything.
Of all the people Yuna had taught so far, two people had a huge advantage compared to the others. Funnily enough, these two people became acquainted with Yuna simultaneously.
These two people are Haku and Zabuza, who both had an affinity to a combat style that had some similarities to what Yuna used when she was serious.
Zabuza used a giant sword that was somewhat similar to Yuna's primary weapon, while Haku was an ice-user, Yuna's primary cultivation element.
Naturally, that didn't mean that she had any trouble helping someone like Naruto or Hinata get stronger, but indicated that she would have an easier time doing so with Haqku and Zabuza.
Well, Zabuza was neither in Yuna's harem nor a cute little brother she doted on, nor a girlfriend of the previously mentioned cute little brother, so Yuna didn't put an equal amount of effort into teaching him than the others.
Despite that, if Kakashi and Zabuza had another fight, Kakashi probably wouldn't have had a good time, despite Kakashi having gotten stronger as well over the course of the last three years.
Another volley of ice needles shot towards Konan, but this time, instead of trying to block them with her paper, dozen of exploding tags appeared around her while she engulfed herself with her wings to protect herself.
A loud explosion echoed over the battlefield as all of Haku's weapons were blown away simultaneously. The explosions even reached her mirrors but didn't even leave the slightest scratch on them.
A little bit of fire and wind pressure would naturally deal no damage to her mirrors. Due to all the training she did, destroying her mirrors became pretty much impossible. Only people like Hinata, with the ridiculous cutting power of her water style, or Anko, with her absurdly hot, white flames, could still manage to destroy them.
Naturally, Konan noticed that her explosives didn't even put a scratch on her opponent's mirrors as well, causing her frown to deepen even further. She was someone who specialized in a massive quantity of attacks rather than good quality, which clearly wouldn't do her any good in this fight.
She couldn't destroy her opponent's blockade due to her low attack power, and neither could she deal any damage to her opponent since she had to break through Haku's mirrors first before she could reach her.
The third option, catching Haku while she was traveling from mirror to mirror, didn't even cross Konan's mind. She wasn't a speed-type shinobi, and she could barely even see Haku move, so she instantly discarded that option as impossible.
She was just about to turn this into a fight of endurance when a massive shockwave passed over the duo, causing Konan's eyes to widen.
'No way!? Did Nagato use an all-out Shinra Tensei!? This must have taken a ridiculous toll on him. I need to be by his side as soon as possible.'
Konan copied her previous move, but instead of using hundreds, she spread thousands of explosive tags in her surrounding, resulting in a massive explosion that covered everything with dust.
Instead of simply enduring the explosion with her paper wings, she allowed herself to get blasted away while slightly adjusting her flight path, so she would get tossed out between one of the gaps between Haku's mirrors instead of slapping against one of them.
Although this would undoubtedly deal some damage to her, it at least allowed her to escape Haku's trap. If she planned to continue this fight, this would have been an incredibly stupid move, since it only damaged herself without dealing any damage to her opponent, but since she spread her wing and started flying away as soon as she had some distance from Haku's mirror trap, it didn't matter.
Meanwhile, Haku could only look at the fleeing Konan with a pout on her face.
"Well, that's just rude. It seems only Naruto is still fighting, but I doubt he needs my help.. Oh well, I might as well go there and see how he is doing."
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