Preparing for Battle!!

Something about how the fight with Zabuza wrapped up does not sit right with Kakashi. He notes that a hunter-nin normally disposes of a target's body then and there, so he presses Sakura on what the masked youth actually did with the remains. She can only say the stranger carried the whole corpse off, which is exactly the detail that bothers Kakashi: proof of a kill needs nothing more than the head. He warns Team 7 that Zabuza might not be dead at all.

The genin are stunned, and both Naruto and Sakura remind their teacher that he personally confirmed the swordsman had stopped breathing. Kakashi grants that he checked, but a convincing near-death state can fool such an inspection, especially since the masked boy struck with senbon, the fine acupuncture needles that demand deep anatomical skill to wield. Those needles can wound without killing, so the youth was very likely preserving Zabuza in a temporary deathlike condition rather than ending him. Bracing for a rematch, Kakashi resolves to drill his students in tighter chakra control.

Kakashi questions the circumstances of Zabuza's apparent death and points out that a genuine hunter would have taken only the head. He concludes Zabuza is probably alive and revived by the masked boy through precise senbon placement. To ready the team for another clash, he decides to begin chakra control training.

The chapter falls in the Land of Waves arc and sets up the survival-tree climbing exercise that follows. It also introduces the danger of Haku's medical knowledge and the deceptive potential of senbon needles.