Chapter 33: The Sand Trio
The four of them looked up in the direction of the sound and saw a ninja hawk flying overhead.
Kakashi nodded thoughtfully.
"Forget it, I have something else to do today. You guys can train on your own this afternoon! Dismissed!" After speaking, he vanished with a Body Flicker.
"Naruto, Sasuke! A new izakaya just opened near my house, let's go try it together! We haven't had a meal together in a long time!" Sakura said with an expectant look on her face.
"Tch, not interested!" Sasuke rejected her proposal before Sakura could even finish. "I'm eating at home!"
Ever since the Land of Waves mission, Sasuke had become particularly awkward lately, always training sullenly by himself. It seemed that seeing a ninja as young and as strong as Haku had been a big blow to him. "I've had some insights in my training recently, so I won't be joining you guys tonight! I'm leaving!"
"Hey! Wait! Damn it, he left so fast!" Both Sakura and Naruto couldn't stop Sasuke. Watching him walk away without looking back, the two of them looked at each other, at a loss.
After a long while, Naruto finally said helplessly, "Then I'll go with you!"
Sakura sighed. Naruto was a good enough friend, just that he was too dumb.
"You idiot! If the two of us go to an izakaya together, people will get the wrong idea! Let's just go to Ichiraku Ramen..."
"Alright! Let's go get ramen! Hey, why aren't you moving?"
Sakura stood rooted to the spot and said with a red face, "Naruto, um... can you give me a hand? I'm a little too tired to walk!"
"Tch, what a troublesome person!" Naruto said this sentence with a fluency as if he had practiced it many times. The contemptuous tone and disdainful look were all perfectly executed. No, based on Sakura's understanding of him, this guy had definitely practiced it secretly, just to show off in front of her and Sasuke!
"Stop copying that guy Sasuke's tone, hey!" A vein popped on Sakura's forehead, and she raised a Rasengan in her hand again! Huh, why did I say "again"?
"Sakura-chan! That's dangerous! Don't wave your hand around with a Rasengan in it! I told you, if a girl is too violent, her chest won't grow big!" Naruto was indeed a pro at angering Sakura. With just a few words, he had once again hit a sore spot.
"You jerk, I told you I don't care about things like chests and being gentle! Why do you always have to bring them up! Don't run, you stand right there! If you have the guts to say something like that, then you'd better have the guts to stand still!" Sakura said angrily. Chests and gentleness are good on other people, I don't need them!
"I'm not an idiot, of course I'm not going to stand still! Hey, didn't you say you couldn't walk? How are you running so fast!"
"The thought of being able to beat you up after I catch you fills my whole body with strength!"
At a corner, Naruto, who was running while looking back at Sakura, predictably bumped into someone. Seeing this, Sakura froze for a moment and stopped in her tracks. The person Naruto had bumped into was a strange boy she had never seen before, with peculiar paint on his face. Next to him was a tall, blonde girl. Seeing the Sand Village forehead protectors on their heads, Sakura had a flash of realization. They were Kankuro and Temari!
"Ow! Hey, I say, are all you Konoha ninja this reckless?!"
Kankuro rubbed his reddened forehead, then grabbed Naruto's collar, cursing irritably.
"Hehe... I'm so sorry, Naruto didn't do it on purpose." Sakura walked forward with an apologetic smile, nonchalantly pulling apart Kankuro and Naruto, who was looking very displeased with Kankuro's arrogance.
Kankuro was shocked.
As the girl walked forward, he had secretly increased the force in his grip. However, when the girl's seemingly delicate hand touched his, he actually felt an irresistible force that pried his hand off Naruto's collar! Kankuro had used all his strength, but against the girl's slender fingers, he felt as weak and powerless as if he were up against steel pincers!
Kankuro's pupils shrank, and his expression changed slightly. Fortunately, his face was covered in thick paint, so Sakura and Naruto didn't see it.
A taijutsu-type ninja? The moment this thought appeared in Kankuro's mind, he immediately dismissed it. No! A taijutsu-type ninja's hands are usually wider, with thick knuckles, rough, and calloused. On the contrary, the girl's hands are slender and straight, her skin smooth and fair, with only fine calluses at the base of her fingers. Even a female taijutsu ninja's hands couldn't possibly be this delicate.
A genjutsu-type ninja, then? Did she cast a genjutsu on me in that instant, making me mistakenly think I had used all my strength when in fact I hadn't used any?
Kankuro thought silently. Though he appeared boorish and acted recklessly, he was a very meticulous person on the inside. This was also a necessary quality for a puppet master!
However, in the end, the current Kankuro was still just a greenhorn.
"I was going to beat up that shorty... but since you want to meddle, I'll just beat you up first!" Kankuro said viciously!
The smile on Sakura's face instantly froze. Her emerald eyes looked coldly at Kankuro.
Want a fight? Sakura wasn't afraid of him. A puppet of average quality would be as fragile as an egg in front of Sakura. Her nin-taijutsu and monstrous strength were a natural counter to puppet masters!
"Hey, you big black pig! How dare you be so arrogant, I'll never forgive you! You idiot! Moron!" Naruto, furious at Kankuro's arrogance, shouted!
Kankuro was instantly flustered and exasperated. He raised his fist to hit Naruto, but his wrist was caught by a hand that suddenly appeared from behind—
"To act so arrogantly in someone else's village, I really don't know if you're brave or just stupid!"
Sasuke appeared behind Kankuro without a sound, looking at him coldly and speaking with a mocking tone.
Nicely done, Sasuke!
Sasuke's Body Flicker this time, whether it was the speed or the timing, was executed perfectly. He appeared behind Kankuro without any fanfare and simultaneously grabbed his hand. Even by Sakura's standards, she had to secretly praise him for a beautiful move! It seems Sasuke's individual strength has also made great progress without anyone noticing!
Kankuro was even more startled by Sasuke's sudden appearance behind him. If this were a life-or-death battle, with just that Body Flicker, Kankuro would have already been killed by Sasuke. Fortunately, the thick paint on his face concealed his momentary panic, saving his face once again.
He violently shook off Sasuke's hand and turned to glare at him.
"Another annoying guy. How dare you appear behind me without a sound! Hmph... I hate seeing guys like you acting so cocky!"
Kankuro undid the bandages on his body and slammed the half-man-sized puppet he was carrying on his back onto the ground. The heavy puppet instantly smashed a small crater in the concrete.
So this is a puppet? Sakura looked curiously at the mysterious object wrapped in bandages.
From the sound of it hitting the ground, its material seemed to be a very hard wood. The inactive puppet had no chakra reaction; in her chakra perception, it was no different from a rock on the ground. In a battle, one might be caught off guard by it. It was said that some puppet masters also liked to use puppets to disguise their real bodies to absorb damage, so puppet masters were all insidious and cunning people. But in Kankuro, Sakura could see the sinister part, but not so much the cunning.
Sakura didn't pay too much attention to Kankuro. Although he was reasonably skilled now, he was far from being able to pose a threat to Sakura. She observed him for a moment, then focused her attention on searching for someone who could threaten her.
Gaara of the Sand, where is he now?
An unusual chakra reaction behind her immediately caught Sakura's attention. Her reaction was incredibly fast, but Gaara's Sand Shunshin reached her back before she could even finish turning her head. If Sasuke's Body Flicker was worthy of Sakura's praise, then Gaara's was stunning! The unimaginable Sand Shunshin made Sakura, who instinctively sensed a threat, reflexively deploy her ultrapure water shield!
In the next instant, Sakura realized she had overreacted and quickly retracted the water shield. At this time and place, Gaara would not fight her. Just now she had been inwardly mocking Kankuro for being startled by Sasuke's Shunshin, and now she had an even bigger reaction to Gaara's!
Sakura's face turned red. Unlike Kankuro's dark face, her blush was very obvious. Fortunately, everyone's attention was drawn to Gaara, and no one noticed the girl's momentary embarrassment. Except for Gaara. He was surprised to find that even Kankuro and the others who were facing him had reacted a notch slower than the pink-haired girl who had her back to him. The girl's keen perception and extremely fast reaction speed made Gaara take a second look at her.
"She doesn't look like a strong person, more like one of those wastes who likes to dress up... a sensory ninja, perhaps! Hmph, was I mistaken?" Gaara observed Sakura for a few moments without changing his expression, came to a conclusion in his heart, and then turned to Kankuro, scolding him coldly, "That's enough, Kankuro! Are you going to use Crow as well? Haven't you embarrassed us enough?"
Kankuro hurriedly tried to explain with an apologetic smile, but Gaara didn't listen at all. "Shut up! If I see you causing trouble again, I'll kill you!"
Kankuro, who had been acting very sinister, was so scared by Gaara's words that he hastily apologized. When Gaara's eyes turned cold, Sakura instantly felt a cold, vast killing intent. Even Sakura, who had already witnessed Zabuza's presence, felt her scalp tingle from this killing intent. That terrifying presence showed that Gaara wasn't just scaring Kankuro; he might really kill him!
Such terrifying killing intent, just how many people has this kid killed?! Sakura looked gravely at the short boy carrying a giant gourd on his back. When Gaara walked past her to Kankuro's side, in the moment they brushed past each other, she could almost smell the thick scent of blood in his chakra's texture. The fierce and frenzied sand was like a wild beast trapped in the gourd, seeming as if it could rush out and start a massacre at any moment!
Gaara's vast and oppressive chakra also put a lot of pressure on Sakura.
Walking between Kankuro and Temari, Gaara said faintly, "We're not here to play... Let's go!"