He's in the Marvel universe, and his first step is marrying Scarlet Witch.

Chapter 41 The Strength of an Elite Jonin

As a martial artist, one can detect the enemy's movements not only through sight, but also by observing the wind, breathing, sound, smell, and killing intent.

Even with his eyes closed, Li Chuan could still fight thanks to his superior physique and rich experience.

Zabuza's silent killing technique was indeed formidable, allowing him to move almost silently through the thick fog, but it still couldn't escape Li Chuan's senses.

"Clang!"

Faced with this unexpected staff, Zabuza frowned and immediately redirected his kunai, which was aimed at Tazuna, to meet the powerful staff that was heading straight for his chest.

"That was incredibly powerful!"

The kunai and the staff collided, and his expression changed instantly. He hurriedly retreated to dissipate the force transmitted from the staff.

A Zen staff is a heavy weapon, and the one in Li Chuan's hand was specially made by Ji Nai, making it twice as heavy as an ordinary Zen staff.

If Zabuza were still wielding the Executioner's Blade, he could have put up a fight, but with a kunai that looks like a dagger, he naturally couldn't withstand the attack head-on.

In addition, Li Chuan himself is a martial artist with extremely strong physical strength. Coupled with the chakra of the Immortal Clan, which can enhance the physical body, he also exerts his power through special techniques.

When that staff struck, if Zabuza hadn't retreated quickly enough due to his experience and chosen to take the blow head-on, his wrist would probably be broken now.

It was only now that Zabuza began to truly value Li Chuan.

In the world of ninjas, information is extremely important, so any ninja who is even slightly skilled will generally appear in the ninja manuals of the major ninja villages.

Therefore, even if Zabuza and Kakashi were meeting for the first time, they could immediately recognize each other's identities and have a general understanding of each other's information.

Similarly, if a ninja isn't even mentioned in the ninja manual, then he/she is unlikely to be very strong, at least not in the eyes of an elite Jonin like Zabuza.

Zabuza could not have imagined that eight months ago, Li Chuan was a prince of the Land of Fire, and after becoming a ninja, he was mostly at the Fire Temple. Apart from the people of the Fire Temple, no one knew Li Chuan's strength.

Even Di Lu didn't actually know Li Chuan's true strength.

Because Li Chuan had secretly learned ninjutsu from non-Fire Country regions, he had never shown them to Jiraiya; he only practiced them on his own in private.

Some of the ruthless and deadly moves that martial artists use in their killing sprees have never been used in sparring with Di Lu.

One should always keep some trump cards up their sleeve; otherwise, if others have all the information, it's easy to fall into a passive position during battle.

"As expected of an elite Jonin!"

Li Chuan turned around and looked at Zabuza, who was retreating, and couldn't help but sigh.

Zabuza had just used a silent killing technique to ambush Tazuna, and Zabuza's counterattack, taking advantage of Tazuna's underestimation of him and his attention being mostly focused on Kakashi, was also a surprise attack.

Even so, Zabuza was still able to react in time and escape the attack unharmed by retreating to deflect the force.

"Wow, that's fast!"

Just as he finished marveling at Zabuza's experience, he saw Kakashi seize the opening, appear behind the retreating Zabuza, and silently stab a kunai into Zabuza's waist.

"Pfft!"

However, unexpectedly, Zabuza, whose waist was pierced by a kunai, instantly turned into a puddle of water and fell to the ground.

And behind Kakashi, Zabuza suddenly appeared.

"Pfft!"

With the same sound again, Kakashi turned into a puddle of water, and Zabuza had a kunai stuck to his neck.

"What exactly is going on?"

Naruto and his two companions still don't understand what happened.

From the moment Zabuza ambushed Tazuna until now, when Kakashi's kunai is pressed against Zabuza's neck, it seems like a long time has passed, but in reality, it's only been a second or two.

"Just now, when Zabuza was forced back by me, he used the Water Clone Technique to hide his true form in the thick fog."

Kakashi, on the other hand, copied Zabuza's ninjutsu when Zabuza used the Shadow Clone Technique, and similarly hid his true form in the thick fog.

So actually, what was happening just now was their water clones fighting!

Li Chuan explained with a somewhat solemn expression.

He could see both of their movements clearly with his eyesight, but with his proficiency in ninjutsu, he couldn't do what they did and instantly create a clone to replace the original body.

To be honest, any enemy with even slightly poor eyesight would probably be killed by their clones in the first round if they encountered two of them.

"The little monk has sharp eyes, and Kakashi the Copy Ninja lives up to his name, being able to see through and copy my ninjutsu so quickly. However, this ends here!"

Suddenly, a figure appeared in the thick fog and attacked Kakashi from behind.

It turns out that the Zabuza whose neck Kakashi was holding was still a water clone; the real Zabuza had been hiding in the thick fog and had not appeared.

Because of his Sharingan, Kakashi's chakra is mostly restricted, and he can only use a small amount of chakra. The Shadow Clone Technique requires him to use half of his chakra each time.

Therefore, Kakashi is very cautious about using Shadow Clones.

This is different from the Multiple Shadow Clone Technique. If it were the Multiple Shadow Clone Technique, Kakashi could create hundreds of clones, but as he himself said, it could only be used to bluff people.

Multiple Shadow Clone Technique distributes the body's chakra evenly. If Kakashi had 100 chakra, after creating 100 clones, his main body and clones would each only have 1 chakra left. It might look okay, but it would be practically useless in combat.

However, if he creates one shadow clone, then with fifty clones and fifty main body, his combat power will naturally not be weak. If he creates another, with twenty-five clones and twenty-five main body, that's still not bad.

However, if they continue to divide it, it will weaken the main body's combat power too much.

Therefore, the Multiple Shadow Clone Technique is only suitable for people with a large amount of chakra, such as Naruto, whose chakra is so abundant that even if he creates dozens or hundreds of clones, each clone still has a large amount of chakra.

Although Zabuza is an elite Jonin like Kakashi, he is not hampered by the Sharingan. The amount of chakra in his body is the same as that of a normal elite Jonin, and creating more shadow clones will not affect his strength too much.

At this moment, Li Chuan raised his monk's staff slightly, then put it down again.

Even when Zabuza's body is still, he cannot detect him due to the thick fog. However, when Zabuza rushes towards Kakashi, the slight air currents generated by his body are enough for Kakashi to discern Zabuza's location.

If he were to throw his staff at that moment, he could immediately interrupt Zabuza's attack, but after thinking about it, he decided not to do so.

Because that didn't align with his initial action plan.

Anyway, with Kakashi's skills, he certainly wouldn't be killed by Zabuza so easily.

(End of this chapter)