Chapter 108: Director Asama Expresses His Support for a Harem Ending!
What would Sasuke do next?
Sakura was also very curious.
She thought about it from Sasuke's perspective: Genjutsu is ineffective against my clone. As for taijutsu, with that kid's current skills, he can't do anything to that ice ball for a while. So, he really has to use that move, doesn't he?
She hadn't put too much chakra into the ice clone, so such a dense bombardment of ninjutsu couldn't be sustained for long.
In other words, if he wanted to end the battle before the clone ran out of chakra...
"Whatever you're going to do, you have to hurry up now, Sasuke!" the young girl said softly, looking down at the battlefield from the high deck.
And on the field below, the ice clone also asked the same question—
"Sasuke, what on earth are you planning to do? Are you just going to keep running away?"
Sasuke stopped abruptly. Then, his answer came in the form of his ninjutsu.
"Fire Style - Great Fireball Technique!"
The giant fireball and the clone's Water Dragon Bullet once again crashed into each other with a roar, annihilating each other into a scorching hot steam that filled the battlefield.
In the thick fog where one couldn't see their own hand, Sasuke's figure was hidden. A strange sound of chirping birds, however, rang out from far to near.
"Lightning Style - Chidori!"
A figure suddenly burst out from the thick fog, a bright and dazzling lightning glow condensed in his hand, as he charged fearlessly towards the ice ball where the clone was!
BOOM—!
The hard ice, even harder than steel, was as fragile as tofu in front of the Chidori. Sasuke's thrust, with its unparalleled piercing power and speed, pierced through the ice ball and the clone hiding inside in one fell swoop.
"It's over." The three-tomoe Sharingan had accurately made the Chidori hit the vital point on the clone's chest. Sasuke let out a soft breath, the corner of his mouth slightly curved up.
Sakura's clone finally dissipated, turning into... a pool of water.
"What... a water clone!"
"That's right."
Sasuke turned around in horror, but an ice kunai was already quietly pressed against the vital point of his neck. The ice clone's words, carrying a cold aura, were breathed onto the back of his neck—
"It's over, Sasuke. Your tactical intent was too obvious..."
"Ugh—!"
Before the ice clone's words had faded, its body suddenly stopped. It looked down in surprise. A hand wrapped in water-like lightning had already pierced through its chest, drilling a hole in its body, and then passed through.
The girl struggled to turn her head. Behind her, the black-haired youth's blood-red three-tomoe were slowly rotating.
"So, was this tactic... hidden well enough?" the youth said calmly.
Using the water mist to block the line of sight and instantly use a shadow clone, and after the clone has lured the enemy, the real body delivers the thunderous blow. This is Naruto's specialty... Standing on the deck, Sakura felt a little emotional.
"To actually be able to tame the lightning-natured chakra of the Chidori to be so quiet, no wonder I didn't hear a sound. Amazing..." the soon-to-disperse ice clone said weakly. Its body, starting from the feet, was already slowly crumbling upwards, turning into crystal ice blocks.
"No, this is Raikiri."
Sakura had long complained that the huge noise of the Chidori was actually the result of poor control of the lightning-natured chakra, so she had suggested that Sasuke strengthen his basic training and get a good grasp of the nature and shape transformations of Lightning Style. Now, seeing that Sasuke could actually tame the violent lightning to be as calm as a pool of water, Sakura knew that he had indeed put in a lot of hard work.
Sasuke pulled his hand back and said to the gradually dispersing clone, "This... is the end."
"Phew... it's finally over!" On the cruise ship, the director, who had been nervously observing the battle with high-powered binoculars, let out a long sigh of relief. "So brilliant, such an interlocking battle!"
"Director Asama, you should keep watching. This battle," Sakura smiled mysteriously, "still has one last link!"
Yes, the final blow.
Crack. The clone, its body already dispersed, with only its head not yet turned into an ice block, suddenly revealed a final, mysterious smile.
Sasuke was slightly taken aback.
Did I miss something? Damn it, this chakra is—?
Then came an explosion that shook the sky.
"Ice Style - Clone Explosion Technique!"
—"With further proficiency, by infusing more chakra into the Combat-type Ice Clone, it can be made to self-destruct upon release, turning into countless ice sabers and blades to attack the enemy..." from the report on the successful development of 'Ice Style - Ice Clone' (Combat-type, Reconnaissance-type, and Medical Research-type).
The ice clone had faithfully completed its final function. Then, the explosion gradually subsided. The calm sea surface was empty, and the figures of the pink-haired girl and the handsome youth could no longer be seen.
The stout old man's legs went weak, and he asked with a trembling voice, "Sasuke... is he dead?"
Of course not.
"His chakra can still be sensed. Not only is he not dead, he doesn't even have any serious injuries!"
Just as Sakura was speaking, Sasuke had already climbed out from under the water. His whole body was soaked, and he looked particularly pathetic.
However, he didn't look injured at all.
The ice clone still has a hard time dealing with the Sharingan, Sakura thought silently. According to the saying that a water clone's combat power is one-tenth of the original's, because a shadow clone is stronger than a water clone, and an ice clone is superior to a shadow clone, then an ice clone probably has about thirty to forty percent of the original's strength.
But Sakura didn't like the saying about an ice clone having a certain percentage of the original's strength. This was something that was extremely difficult to define. Could it be said that 10 water clones with one-tenth of the original's combat power could contend with the original? The Combat-type Ice Clone couldn't activate "Sakura Rush," its reaction speed was not fast enough, and it couldn't keep up with Sasuke's rhythm, so no matter how it fought, it was no match for him. Including the last trick it played on Sasuke, the result was that he was completely unharmed.
Just then, the black-haired youth returned to the cruise ship with a Body Flicker. His drenched appearance made Sakura unable to hold back her laughter.
As soon as he stood firm, seeing Sakura still secretly laughing, he rolled his eyes at the girl and complained, "Sakura, your ice clone is really insidious!"
The pink-haired girl covered her mouth and giggled, saying, "But didn't you still dodge it? The three-tomoe Sharingan is too amazing."
"Hmph," mentioning this, Sasuke was also a little proud. "I saw that there was still a stream of chakra in the ice clone's body that hadn't dissipated. That's when I knew something was wrong."
"By the way, Asama-san," he said, walking over to the director. "Did you film this match and the previous one? Please give us a copy of the recorded tape."
"I filmed it, I filmed it. Wait a moment," the stout old man pressed a few buttons on the machine, and a videotape popped out. He handed it to Sasuke and added, "Using video recordings to aid in training is really an advanced method. Ninja are also very up-to-date!"
Sakura smiled with narrowed eyes and explained, "Hehe, ninja won't reject any method that can truly improve them. By using video recordings, we can discover many things we can't see when we're in the middle of it, which is much more useful than our verbal summaries after training. But the cameras available on the market are too weak. As soon as we move a little faster, the recorded image becomes blurry. Only your professional high-speed cameras here can keep up with our rhythm."
"Asama-san, the data stored in here contains some of the secrets of our ninjutsu," Sasuke reminded him. "Please delete all the original data after you've extracted the suitable footage. Thank you for your trouble."
"Of course, of course," Asama Takehiko said with a smile. "I've put the crew's player in the lounge. You can use that to watch. It's better than a regular VCR."
Sakura and Sasuke nodded their thanks and walked into the ship's cabin one after the other.
"Wow, Director, I can actually see the prince and princess in person from so close," a certain staff member who had been shrinking to the side suddenly said excitedly. "So handsome, so beautiful! They have much more charisma than in the photos. They're truly a match made in heaven!"
"You idiot!" Director Asama reprimanded. "Didn't I remind you guys? Miss Sakura told me that she doesn't like us calling her princess! Don't you understand what Miss Sakura means?"
"So the princess and the prince are not a couple..." another boy said with a regretful look on his face. "What a pity!"
"I don't think it's a pity. I think the orange-haired Naruto is also very good. I like the sunny, cheerful, and smiling type!"
"Eeeek, are the sunny boy and the scorching-eyed warrior really a couple!" This was a certain young girl fangirling. But the first few people were saying that Naruto and Sakura were a couple. How did it get into her head that Naruto and Sasuke were a couple?
"It must be the sunny top with the handsome bottom. So cute~"
"What are you talking about, my Sasuke is the black-bellied, forceful top! Don't act like you know what you're talking about!"
"SasuNaru fans will reign supreme!"
"NaruSasu is the one true way!" The fujoshi began their daily internal strife.
"A bunch of idiots... with no taste at all!" Asama looked at his subordinates who had started to chirp and quarrel, and held his forehead with his hand, speechless. "Haven't they ever heard of a term called—a harem ending?"
"Sasuke is so handsome, haven't they noticed the suspicious point? A boy wouldn't grow up to be so delicate... So, the truth is, among these three people, there is only one boy. He is the master of the harem, Naruto! And Sasuke is actually a shy girl who cross-dressed to get close to Naruto!"
Inside the cruise ship's cabin, Sasuke, who had been pretending to be nonchalant and hadn't heard anything, suddenly walked headfirst into a wall.
Rubbing his forehead, Sasuke forcefully changed the subject. "Ahem, where's Naruto?"
The girl glanced at Sasuke. The light in the cabin was dim, and she couldn't see his expression clearly, but Sakura was sure that his head was full of black lines right now. When this kind of thing happened, an ordinary person would have a dark face and be speechless for a long time. For Sasuke to still be able to act nonchalant, his mental resilience was already much stronger than the sensitive and willful him from the original story.
"Him? He's still sleeping!" Sakura said, a little amused. "That guy actually ran alongside the ship all last night, and even called it special training. I really don't know what to say about him!"
Sasuke was also speechless. "Let's go wake him up. With that idiot's recovery speed, after sleeping for a whole morning, he should be fully recovered by now."
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