I don't own Naruto but I'd love to meet a girl who can combo kick someone in the air.
"Speech"
'Thoughts'
CHAPTER 7: DEMONS FROM THE MIST
"You're coming with us?" asked Naruto.
"Yeah, but I'm only tagging along halfway. I got some business to take care of near that area," answered Reiji. "You don't have a problem with that, do you?"
That question was directed at Kakashi who looked as if someone had asked him to commit suicide. No answer at first but after seeing that glint from Reiji's eye and that strange gesture he did with both hands, he quickly nodded.
"There you go. He says its okay then it should be okay with the rest of you," said the hooded man.
Everyone else stared at Kakashi who had broken out in a cold sweat. He looked as if he had a brush with death.
Both Tazuna and Naruto wondered what caused this reaction.
Sasuke and Sakura knew why though. But they couldn't really understand why Kakashi went along with it.
"Hey, Kakashi-san! Are you okay?" asked Tazuna as he waved his hand in front of the Jounin's face.
"Yeah… Let's just go," answered Kakashi as he tried to pull himself together.
---------
"So what are you up to? Is it something like rescuing a princess? Guarding a daimyo? Sneaking into a secret enemy base?" asked Naruto.
"Nope. My organization only trades information. We don't do anything risky like that. We leave that for you people like you, Makito," answered Reiji.
"Makito? What's that?" asked the blonde.
"Huh? Isn't that your name?" inquired the hooded man.
"No, it's Naruto. Uzumaki Naruto," said the boy.
"Ah? Really? You look like a Makito to me. Plus… your name is kinda hard to memorize," said Reiji.
"What do you mean hard to memorize? It's only three syllables. Even Konohamaru got it right the first time," retorted the blonde.
"You don't really have the right to say that. You've been getting my name wrong too," replied Reiji.
"What's that got to do with remembering my name? Say it with me Reiki, Na-Ru-To," spelled out the boy.
"See! Right there! You said Reiki instead of Reiji!" pointed out Reiji.
"No you must have misheard me. I definitely said Reido!" defended Naruto.
"That's even farther off than just now!"
Sakura was getting a little annoyed with the pair in front of her and decided to distract herself with her own conversation.
"Tazuna-san, where is your country anyway?" asked Sakura as she brought out a map.
Tazuna looked at the girl and her map. He pointed to specific part of the map.
"Right here. It's not too far from your village but it took me 5 days to get there."
Sakura looked at the map.
"But judging from this, it looks like we'll have to take a boat ride," said Sakura.
"Well you won't need to once I finish my SUPER-bridge," said the old man.
"Don't worry Sakura. I already got the route all planned out," stated Kakashi.
While they were walking, Kakashi had regained his composure. He finally got his mind of the threat to his treasures. It could be attributed to Sasuke's strangely calming yet silent presence by his side negating Reiji's presence behind.
SPLOOK
Kakashi and the others looked back at Naruto who had just stepped in a puddle of water hence making that noise.
Kakashi already knew what was in the puddle while Sasuke realized that something was wrong. The others didn't seem to notice it as they were pestering Naruto for stepping in it.
Suddenly, two figures leaped out of the puddle of water towards Kakashi. A chain linked both man by the metal devices on their arms.
Kakashi found himself bound by that chain in less than a second and everyone else saw him get ripped to shreds in the same amount of time.
Reiji and Tazuna just watched along with Naruto and Sakura. Tazuna started looking for cover while Reiji did nothing to protect himself choosing to be a spectator. Sasuke quickly leapt into action pinning the chain between the two assailants to a tree.
The chain seemed to snap as both assailants ran off in two different directions. One went off to fight Sasuke while the other dashed towards their target.
Sakura with kunai quickly went into a guarding position as this happened and Naruto pulled out several kunai and shuriken and threw them at the enemy.
The missing-nin quickly brought up his right hand which was encased in some metallic object and made to deflect the oncoming weapons.
He would've succeeded in doing so if he wasn't distracted by the screams of his brother who was set on fire by Sasuke.
The device on his arm managed to deflect 3 of the throwing weapons but a kunai and a shuriken embedded themselves in his abdomen and his left forearm respectively.
The former mist-nin grunted in pain and made to pull out the kunai in his abdomen.
He didn't get to that because two Narutos suddenly grabbed hold of his arms while a third kicked the kunai plunging it further into the ninja's gut.
Blood seeped through the man's face mask and through his shirt. Intense pain filled him as all three blondes threw equally hard punches towards his head knocking the man out cold.
Making sure that the ninja was really out cold, Naruto's brain went a mile a minute thinking of what to do in this situation. He turned towards Sakura who's looking around for any further attackers.
"Sakura, what do we do?! Kakashi-sensei's dead!" shouted the boy.
"I don't know!" shouted the girl. "What can't continue the mission like this! We'll have to go back!"
"What?! This is our first real mission! We can't give up now! If we do we won't get another one for a long time!" said the blonde.
"Tch!" said Sasuke. Everyone looked at him. "Naruto, she's right. As much as I hate to admit, we can't do this on our own. We may even lose our lives if we continue this mission."
Naruto didn't want to admit it.
"But doesn't the mission come first?" said the boy. "Besides Raikou could come with us."
"Maybe… but don't you think that your friends are more important than your duty, Naruto?"
That voice had come from behind Naruto.
Everyone shifted their eyes to the source of the voice and were startled to see Kakashi still alive. Well everyone except Reiji. He was smirking.
"Well… that was fun. Should we get a move on?" asked Reiji.
"Kakashi-sensei!" shouted Sakura and Naruto simultaneously. Sasuke chose not to join them in their surprise and decided to say, "Was that a Kawarimi?"
"Hey! What was that?! Do you ninjas know how to come back from the dead?!" shouted Tazuna. "Don't do things that could give me have a heart-attack!"
"No, Tazuna-san. We can't bring the dead back to life but we do now how to trick other ninjas," said Kakashi. "As for you, Reiji-san. Why didn't you help these kids?"
The hooded man smiled.
"Konoha losing a ninja or two has nothing to do with me. If they died, it means that your leader has gone senile," said the man. "Besides if they got into trouble, you would have leapt into action. It'll take more than that to get useful data on me you know."
Kakashi stared at Reiji while the teenagers considered the reality of that statement.
"Seeing as you guys have to take care of things here, I should probably go on ahead since I have an date to keep. I'll see you guys there after I'm done," said the man as he walked away from them.
"What does he mean by that Kakashi-sensei?" asked Sakura.
Kakashi looked a Sakura and said, "We have to send these two back to the village for interrogation and medical care. Although… judging from charcoal over there, he won't be talking much."
"But what about the job I paid you for?" asked the old man.
"Don't worry Tazuna-san. We'll just send these guys to the village first then we'll continue with the mission," said Kakashi. "You can wait here with my team if you'd like."
"… Fine," said the old bridge builder.
"Naruto, please make a couple of kage bunshin to carry the burnt over there. I can't really carry them all by myself," said the jounin.
"Okay…"
---------
"Now then, Naruto. I'd like to ask you a question," said Kakashi.
The two Naruto clones turned their heads towards the older man who was carrying the still unconscious missing-nin.
"Huh? What is it?" asked both Narutos together.
'Woah, stereo. Creepy,' thought Kakashi. "Why did you want to continue with the mission? You know Sasuke was right about the danger."
"Well, it's just like I said earlier. The mission comes first. Besides I can recover from almost anything," said both clones confidently.
"Where did you get that idea? You may have that 'burden' in you but you're still human."
"Didn't the old man tell you? Well he just told me a few days ago but I thought he'd tell you that before he put me on this team. He said that I heal faster than most people. I even checked to make sure. Want me to show you?" said both as one pulled a kunai out of his pouch.
"That won't be necessary. Besides, you are both clones so you'll just disappear as soon as that sinks in," pointed out Kakashi. "But what do you mean you checked?"
"Well when I got home after he told me, I was still angry at him so I punched my mirror and it broke. I got a few small cuts on my hand but after I licked off the blood, the cuts were gone."
Kakashi was a little surprised to hear that. That was fast. Even most medical jutsus don't work that quickly.
"When I was small, I was always the first to recover from sparring matches. The other kids said that they wished that could bounce back as fast as I could but even then I never healed that fast. It was like my body wanted to do it was faster after I knew that I could do it."
Kakashi's surprise was piling up.
"After that I tried making more cuts. Every time I cut myself, they healed up faster. I even accidentally cut one of my wrists too deep and a lot of blood came out but it didn't even take a minute to heal up. It hurt though."
Kakashi was still being surprised. But this time he also got worried. The creepy double voices didn't help.
"I tried hurting myself using one of my kunai. Arm, leg. stomach. Anywhere I thought I could heal, I'd make a hole there and it'd heal. I even tried breaking my arm and it healed. It took nearly an hour to heal and it hurt like hell though. I actually tri-"
"That's enough," said Kakashi in a commanding voice. It startled both clones. "I get the picture. You not still doing that are you?"
"Well of course not. It hurt a lot. Even if I probably could come back from the dead, I wouldn't want to feel that kind of pain."
"I see what you mean about that but what if someone died on that mission?"
"Weren't you listening? I can recover from almost anything. I could probably come back to life. Even if the fox puts me on the top of everyone's most hated list, living forever would let me become more powerful than even my dad."
"I wasn't talking about your own life I was talking about your friends, Sasuke and Sakura."
The clones looked surprised.
"Well, I guess I could just wait for a new team," said the clone holding the missing-nin by the leg. "I mean I can always get new friends, can't I?"
It shocked Kakashi to hear that. He was now really worried about Naruto. He was considering what to say to him when he heard Naruto's voice again.
"I wouldn't want someone to die because of me. I won't let them get hurt just because of the mission."
This time it came from the clone at the other end and he looked angry. Once again, Kakashi was surprised.
"But the mission comes first. I want to be the best even if it means I have to lose someone," said the other clone.
"You can't mean that! They're important to us! The old man also said that we'd need friends to beat the other hokages!" shouted front one.
"You know I can! You're me! You also know that it might be the opposite someday!" shouted back the one in the rear.
"…"
The other clone stayed silent.
"We don't need friends to become strong…"
It was getting harder for Kakashi to see Naruto growing up to be like his father. He had to say something. He was about to but then he heard Naruto's voice again.
"But if we didn't have friends, what would be the point?" asked the clone in the front.
"Huh? What?" said the clone at the rear.
"You should be able to remember. Why did we want power for in the first place?"
"… to protect them. To protect Daikyou-niichan. To protect Anko-neechan. To protect our friends."
"And now it's not just them. We have more friends now."
Both clones smiled at that.
Kakashi was currently at loss for words as the pair beside him had just figured out what he was trying to tell them.
Both clones then turned their heads towards Kakashi.
"Thanks Kakashi-sensei! I get it now!" shouted both clones in harmony while grinning.
Kakashi stumbled a bit when they said that. The conversation that just took place could be described as scary and hearing people saying the same things at the same wasn't exactly good for the heart. Forget horror movies or enemy ninja. For Kakashi this experience was one of the most nerve wracking things he'd been through.
"You okay Kakashi-sensei?" asked both clones in stereo.
"I'm okay. It's just that I suddenly realized that I really am getting older," said the jounin."
Both clones looked puzzled.
"Well in any case Naruto, glad to see that you understand how important your friends are," said Kakashi. "In fact there's a saying that a friend of mine once told me that fits it perfectly."
"What's that?"
"A ninja who breaks the rules is trash," said the man. He was smiling underneath that mask of his.
Both clones were puzzled at this contradictory statement. It cleared up though.
"But a ninja who abandons his friends is even worse trash."
---------
It was now nighttime and the party of people were now setting up camp near the borders of fire country.
Naruto was talking to Kakashi. He's been wondering about something since he came back.
"But it's weird. I know I was with the old man at the time but now I'm not sure whether I was there with him or with you," said Naruto.
"Well Naruto, that's a side effect of the Kage Bunshin. You'll remember everything the clone went through even if you weren't there yourself," said Kakashi.
"But it's so confusing!" said Naruto as he ruffled his hair. "Are there any other side effects of this jutsu?"
Kakashi thought about for a moment.
"None that I can recall but I suggest you don't make too many at the same time or cancel them all at the same time. Kage bunshin splits up your chakra evenly between you and your clones and remembering too much at one time can tire out your brain. That's why it's a kinjutsu."
"What?!" shouted Naruto. Kakashi noted that he looked shocked. "So that means I have less chakra for each clone that I make?! Doesn't this mean that I'll get stupider every time I use the jutsu?!"
The other three who were focused on making dinner watched Naruto hold his head as he jumped around. It was strangely entertaining.
"Calm down Naruto. When I said that it'll tire out your brain, I didn't mean you'll get stupider from using the jutsu," clarified Kakashi. "Although, if you didn't realize that your chakra kept diminishing when you used, then you might be right about that."
"GAH!"
Kakashi was only partially joking when he said that. Another reason for Naruto not realizing it would be that he has a lot of chakra. He chose not to mention that as it was entertaining to watch Naruto act like this. But he had other things he needed to discuss with the bridge builder.
"Tazuna-san," called out Kakashi.
"Yes?" responded the old man.
"About the enemy ninja earlier…"
It was important that everyone knew exactly how dangerous this mission was.
---------
"Brrr… It's chilly here," said Sakura. Naruto nodded with her. He was shivering.
The other three paid no mind to the temperature and focused on finding their way through the mist. It seemed to be getting thicker.
"Man… I haven't felt this cold in a long time…" said Naruto.
"Long time? But the village is always warm. Even at night. So how can you say that you've been in a place this cold before?" asked Sakura.
"Well, it's strange," started Naruto. His tone had a somewhat nostalgic tone to it. "Every time Anko-neechan hunted me down in the past I'd always feel this sudden feeling of coldness whenever she tried to shoot her kunai at me. She always somehow made feel really cold even though it was a really hot day."
"Eeeh! You have a sister? I didn't know that. Introduce her to me sometime," said Sakura. "Or rather, do I really want to meet someone who throws weapons at their family members."
Naruto went on to clear up Sakura's misunderstanding.
Kakashi was listening to them talk all the while.
'Hmm? Cold? Come to think of it… this cold feels uncomfortable… Damn it! This isn't regular cold!' thought Kakashi.
It was years of ninja training and experience that let him anticipate the oncoming attack.
"EVERYONE! GET DOWN!"
The flying piece of metal cut through the air and the very tip of Naruto's sea urchin-like hair.
The sound of metal meeting tree rang out through the air.
Kakashi looked at the giant sword that was embedded into the tree and recognized it as the sword of a very powerful adversary. He lifted up his forehead protector and saw where this adversary was.
"Naruto thanks for bringing that up. Just so you know, the cold you were feeling was actually killing intent coming from that man up there," said Kakashi as he pointed towards the man who was standing on top of a tree ahead of them.
Everyone looked up to see a muscular man who had a dark skin tone with spiky hair. He was only wearing a pair of trousers and was wearing a bunch of bandages around his jaw like Kakashi's facemask. What drew the attention of the ninja was the fact that he had a mist forehead protector that had a horizontal gash cutting through it.
"Well, well. Look who we have here. If it isn't Hatake Kakashi, the copycat-nin of Konoha. Looks like he brought along a pack of greenhorns and that old man with him too," said the man. "What's a celebrity like you doing here?"
"I'm here to make sure that this man finishes his bridge," answered the copycat-nin. "The bigger question should be why would a missing-nin like yourself be here of all places. Last I heard, Zabuza, the demon of the mist was spotted in cloud territory."
"Heh. You should have figured out the answer by now," said the missing-nin.
Zabuza started to form handseals. The mist around them started to thicken into fog.
"I'm here to make sure that bridge never gets built," said Zabuza as he disappeared from their sights under the cover of fog.
"Everyone into defensive positions!" ordered Kakashi.
The three genin surrounded the old man with their backs to him alert for any oncoming attacks. Kakashi stayed where he was trying to figure out where exactly their opponent was.
For the three genin, they all felt the coldness in the air intensify. Each one started to shiver.
"You know, copycat," came Zabuza's voice. It rang out through the air. "The real surprise for me is seeing you taking on a bunch of brats. Especially ones this green."
The tension in the air thickened.
"They may be green but they were more than a match for those Demon Brothers of yours," retorted Kakashi who still trying to locate Zabuza.
"Really? Not bad… but look at them," came Zabuza's voice. "They're still shaking from just this much killing intent. They really are green, aren't they?"
The coldness intensified further along with fear and a sense of impending doom.
"Hey kids! Do you know why I'm called the demon of the mist?" rang out Zabuza. "It's because I kill my all my victims silently while they're blinded by my mist."
Sasuke swallowed down his saliva.
"That only explains the mist in my title though. I got the name demon for a different reason," said the man. "You see, I became a genin by killing a hundred kids."
The urge to throw up was starting to overwhelm them.
"That moment when I killed that little girl… That was when they marked me down as a demon."
Sasuke was close to puking now. He would have too if it wasn't for Kakashi's words.
"Don't worry Sasuke," said the man calmly. He then smiled at him. "I'll never let my allies get hurt even if it costs me my life."
"HAHAHA!" came Zabuza's barking laugh. "Well you know what kids? That captain of yours must be retarded! Cause as far as I know…"
A figure emerged in front of Sasuke. It was holding a large object to its side.
"… I'LL BE SENDING YOU ALL TO MEET THEM!"
Metal cut through the air as Sasuke closed his eyes.
CLANG
Metal met metal as Sasuke opened his eyes to see Kakashi single-handedly blocking the large sword with a kunai.
Pushing the sword and Zabuza away, Kakashi then cut through the demon of the mist's body with another kunai in his other hand seemingly splitting the man in half.
SPLASH
Unfortunately the two halves of the man suddenly turned into water.
"Mizu Bunshin?!" exclaimed Kakashi in surprise.
The mist was staring to clear up a bit. Just enough to see another Zabuza swing his sword into Kakashi from behind.
Kakashi also seemed to be split in two when the two halves revealed themselves to be water.
"When did you copy m-!" said the Zabuza as it too turned into water after being attacked by Kakashi.
The mist had finally cleared enough for them to see Zabuza standing on of the surface of the lake up ahead.
"Not bad, copycat!" said Zabuza. "Now come at me!"
Kakashi dashed off towards the man standing on the lake's surface. As Zabuza brought up his sword in front of him.
Once they were close enough, they began a series of attacks that were all expertly avoided or countered.
All of a sudden Zabuza threw his sword at Kakashi who sidestepped it while pushing it to the side.
It would have been pushed to the side if it didn't suddenly turn into water.
Kakashi stumbled from the momentum he had put into it so that the sword would miss his team.
The Zabuza in front of him suddenly tackled him bursting into water upon contact. The water from the mizu bunshin formed into a sphere trapping Kakashi inside.
A hand was attached to that sphere of water. The person it was attached to was trying to push himself off the surface of the lake.
It was the real Zabuza.
Kakashi banged his fist on the walls of the sphere attempting to escape.
"It's no use copycat, it isn't called the water prison for nothing."
Zabuza then looked towards the kids.
"Look kids. I've got your captain in the palm of my hand now. There's no way you can win. So why don't you just hand that old man over to me and I'll spare the rest of you," said Zabuza.
The genin looked at Tazuna and then at Kakashi .
"No! Retreat! Forget about me!" said the man in the water bubble.
Sasuke thought it over for a moment and said, "Sakura take Tazuna-san with you. Naruto and I will stall for time here!"
Sakura gave a reluctant nod as she took the old man by his hand preparing to retreat.
"I don't think so!"
That came from a Zabuza that suddenly dashed out from the trees at the side of the path.
Sakura didn't have time to react.
Sasuke did however as he used a large foldable shuriken to block the blow from the sword.
In the blink of an eye, Sasuke swerved around this Zabuza and cut him in two only to find it turning into water.
While this happened Naruto took the liberty to shoot a wind jutsu at the missing-nin on top of the lake.
Zabuza didn't realize it at first but he instinctively leaned his body to the side avoiding the bullet of compressed air that collided with a tree on the other side of the lake.
"A wind jutsu?" said Zabuza as he reevaluated the genins' strengths. "Well copycat, maybe they aren't as green as I thought."
Zabuza created two more water clones in front of him and sent them towards the genin.
Naruto in turn made twenty Kage bunshin and sent them after the Zabuza clones.
"What's this copycat?! Are you training your students to be copycats too?!" said one of Zabuza's clones.
It took a swipe at the Naruto clones and took out 3 of them.
All Zabuzas looked surprised at the way the clones popped into white smoke.
"That's not mizu bunshin…" said the original Zabuza.
The Naruto clones surrounded the Zabuza clones and they all exploded in a powerful burst of smoke and wind taking them all out and blocking the genins from Zabuza's sight.
"What the hell was that?!" shouted Zabuza.
Zabuza didn't have time to get an answer from Kakashi as Sasuke jumped out the smoke and fired a giant ball of fire that was bigger than Zabuza himself towards him.
Zabuza stepped to the side raising his sword above his head and bringing it down in front of him cutting the lake's surface and forming a wall of water in front him.
Despite the resistance from the water wall, the giant ball of fire still managed to singe his right arm and heated up his sword.
Zabuza grunted in pain as he kneeled down and immersed his burnt arm and sword in the lake water to remove the heat.
Unfortunately for him, the genin had sent a barrage of kunai and shuriken at him forcing to release his hold on the copycat-nin so that he could escape.
Both men soon stood up on the surface of the lake glaring at each other.
Kakashi gave a thumbs up to the genin as he said, "Good work team, but now I'm going to show you why they call me the copycat-nin."
And so began a great water ninjutsu battle.
---------
Both men were hanging onto their last reserves while each one did their best to complete their jutsu first.
"Suiton: Suiryodan no jutsu!" shouted Kakashi a large dragon of water shot out of the lake towards Zabuza.
Zabuza didn't let the oncoming assault bother him as he continued to work on his attack.
"SUITON: SUIRYODAN NO JUTSU!" roared out Zabuza.
Zabuza's own water dragon shot off towards Kakashi's.
Both men gritted their teeth as the two dragons slammed into each, fighting for supremacy.
It seemed as though Kakashi was about to win he suddenly felt his Sharingan eye hurt.
'Damn! Been using too much chakra!' thought the jounin.
With his focus averted to his eye, Zabuza took advantage of situation and pushed even harder with his dragon overcoming Kakashi's.
A great wave of water slammed into Kakashi sending him crashing into a tree on the side of the lake opposite his genin.
The genin felt helpless as they watched Zabuza walk over to Kakashi.
"Don't worry copycat, I'll be sending them along to see you soon enough," taunted Zabuza as he raised his sword into the air.
Kakashi glared at his opponent as Sakura screamed for Kakashi to get up.
What he saw next seemed very odd to him. Instead of seeing the blackness that was supposed to come with death, he saw white.
That was followed by hearing Zabuza's grunts of pain and seeing blue float down on covering the white.
What everyone else saw was more surprising.
Someone had run up in front of Kakashi and kicked Zabuza up into the air. This person then started kicking Zabuza repeatedly while maintaining the juggling effect of the kicks.
Sasuke had estimated that this person had kicked Zabuza into the air more than several hundred times before giving one that sent the man flying high in the air.
Amazingly enough Zabuza still held onto his sword all the while.
This person who saved Kakashi then stepped onto his face using his head a stepping stone to quickly run up the tree than Kakashi was sitting against.
This time however Kakashi saw black. He had finally lost consciousness.
This savior of his then kicked of the tree throwing a powerful double legged kick at Zabuza launching him towards a bunch of trees at one of the sides adjacent to both sides of the lake.
This was highly impressive as the lake was at least several hundred meters in diameter.
Seeing no sign of movement, this person walked up to Kakashi and carried him over from the other side of the lake towards the genin. Apparently she could walk on water as well.
As this person dumped Kakashi onto the ground in front of them, the genin finally got a good look at her.
This young woman had long grey hair let down to her waist. She had dark piercing eyes and wore an equally dark headband on top of her head. She was wearing what appeared to be a blue and white and white uniform that fit her so well that it was hard for Sakura not to envy her for that hour-glass figure. Underneath her blue skirt, were long white leg-stockings that went up to her thigh. Her blue gloves matched her shoes and uniform.
She sighed and put her left hand on her thigh.
She had a tired look on her face, not from kicking someone several hundred times but the kind of tired look that you'd see on busy people. She was incredibly beautiful and gave them all the impression of seriousness.
She then looked at them, smiled and extended her hand towards them.
"Nice to meet you. My name is Tomoyo," greeted the young woman. "Reiji told me that I'd meet you all around here."
Well that's it for this chapter. Can you figure out which series I got Tomoyo from? Should be easy enough for people following Kyoto Animation's works. No side-story this time since I felt that this chapter was good enough on its own. There should be one next chapter about Itachi but with school holidays ending I'm not sure exactly when I'll be able to put that chapter out. I'd like to thank SSHiei for sending in that review. Really gave me some motivation. I wonder if a girl I know will be able to kick someone a hundred times in the air when school starts again. Hopefully I'll be able to finish the wave arc in the next four chapters like I planned.
