Chapter 144: Hayate Gekkō
When Sakura found Yūgao Uzuki on the street, she was holding hands with a thin young man, leaning affectionately against him while strolling.
It was already deep winter. Two or three months had passed since Sakura had completed her first Anbu mission.
Yūgao and the man were both wearing thick clothes. They didn't look like ninja, but rather like the lovers one could see everywhere on the street, huddled closely together.
"Yūgao, leave has been cancelled! There's an urgent mission. Come with me!"
She was squatting at the very top of a telephone pole, speaking urgently to Yūgao below, while also glancing at the somewhat listless young man who looked like Yūgao's boyfriend.
He looked a little familiar.
"So it's him!" Sakura quickly remembered. He was the proctor from the Chunin Exam preliminaries, Hayate Gekkō.
Her biggest impression of Hayate Gekkō was that he always looked sickly and would cough from time to time.
She had never expected that he was Yūgao Uzuki's boyfriend.
Was this mentioned in the "original story"? Did Yūgao even appear? Sakura had almost forgotten what the original Naruto was about.
But, shouldn't he be dead by now...
Yes, she did remember that according to the original plot, Hayate Gekkō should have been dead by now. So, was the line of fate knocked askew by her butterfly wings again?
And so it was.
In the original story, when Hayate Gekkō was eavesdropping on Kabuto and Baki's conversation, he had accidentally made a sound while moving, which had led to him being killed on the spot by Baki... However, in the timeline Sakura was in, this Hayate Gekkō had not accidentally made a sound. He had cautiously waited until Baki and Kabuto had left, confirmed it was safe, and only then had he left the scene.
It was precisely because of his discovery that Konoha had become suspicious of the Sand and Sound ninja and had raised its guard.
Before, Sakura had wishfully thought that it was her own warning that had changed Konoha's attitude. In fact, what had played a greater role was Hayate Gekkō's major discovery...
The Sakura of that time, after all, had little influence, and her words carried little weight.
Actually, there was one other small thing that Sakura's butterfly wings had changed. That was Yūgao, who should have become a cold, ice-mountain goddess due to Hayate's death, now still maintained the aura of a strong, sunny older-sister type, and her bad habit of liking to tease her juniors had also continued...
Hayate Gekkō sensed the girl's gaze, but he didn't react much, knowing that the other person was just a little curious.
He didn't recognize Sakura.
This was because the girl was wearing the Anbu uniform at this time, wearing a white mask, and her chakra fluctuation was well-restrained. It would be difficult for someone who wasn't familiar with her to recognize that this was Haruno Sakura.
What's more, compared to the Sakura of that time, in the past half a year, due to her in-depth study of Ice Style ninjutsu and the stimulation of the Ice Style Kekkei Genkai on her body, she had grown a few more centimeters.
The 164cm tall girl could already be considered tall for her age of thirteen. Ino and Hinata of the same age were still in the 150s at this time.
Her overly thin body from her childhood had also gradually taken on the appearance of a young woman.
After putting on the tight-fitting Anbu clothes, her slender but not voluptuous curves were on full display, carrying a hint of budding charm.
Hayate could tell at a glance that this Anbu teammate of Yūgao's was still a little girl.
He and Yūgao exchanged a look. The latter smiled a little apologetically. "Sorry, Hayate..." she said with a troubled expression.
"It's fine."
Although he was not an Anbu member, as a fellow ninja, Hayate also knew the Anbu's rules. There was no displeasure on his face.
At that moment, the couple, who were deeply in love, shared a passionate kiss on the street, stuffing the onlooking girl with a mouthful of dog food. Then, Yūgao took off the thick coat she was wearing and handed it to Hayate, revealing the Anbu uniform she was wearing underneath. Only then did the two reluctantly part.
"A couple in the heat of passion!" the girl complained in her heart.
However, she only complained.
In Squad 14, her current status was still on the same level as Shino's, cruelly suppressed by the older-sister-type Yūgao.
So of course, she didn't dare to provoke the top of this food chain to her face.
Of course, this was not to say that Sakura's strength was at the bottom of the squad, but because her seniority was the shallowest, and her skin was also the thinnest.
Although this world valued strength the most, in interpersonal relationships, the depth of one's seniority was also very important. What's more, generally speaking, a ninja who has lived for a long time is usually not weak, so seniority is sometimes also a side manifestation of strength.
After entering the Anbu and being teammates with Yūgao and Shino for two months, their mutual understanding had also deepened.
In general, when carrying out missions, everyone was a taciturn and strong teammate. Although because they had not been a team for long and their coordination was not very good, they had already established a preliminary trust.
Yūgao was skilled in swordsmanship and was a typical taijutsu-type ninja. Her speed and strength were both very strong, and her combat power in close-to-medium-range battles was extraordinary.
She had a sword technique called "Dance of the Crescent Moon," which Hayate Gekkō had taught her, a so-called special sword technique that integrated ninjutsu, taijutsu, and genjutsu. When the caster used this technique, they needed to create two physical shadow clones and attack the enemy simultaneously with iaijutsu sword movements. When attacking, the supporting shadow clones would also use genjutsu to interfere with the opponent. It could be considered a very insidious sword technique.
An opponent fighting Yūgao for the first time would easily be tricked if they were not careful. In the original story, even an elite Jonin like Baki was injured by this move. Of course, whether that move had actually caused any substantial damage to Baki was still doubtful...
In Squad 14's private discussions, Yūgao had also complained that this move was only effective the first time it was used, just like Sakura's Ice Clone Explosion. Against a more cautious enemy, it would be difficult for it to be effective.
It was called a secret technique that integrated ninjutsu, taijutsu, and genjutsu, but in fact, its concept was not very high. It was a messy mixture, and its creator seemed to have forcefully mixed all the little tricks he thought were useful into one ninjutsu, and then got this four-unlike secret technique.
A messy secret technique.
Haruno Sakura's personal opinion was that for an opponent of the Jonin level, if they were tricked by this move, it must be because the caster herself was strong enough.
A ninja who could be promoted to Jonin was without a doubt a person of high strength and rich experience. In a battle of this level, the little tricks of the Dance of the Crescent Moon were not enough to be seen, especially since Yūgao was a type that specialized in taijutsu, and the effect of the genjutsu she used was quite mediocre.
The reason Yūgao could become an Anbu was because of her advanced taijutsu foundation. As for her boyfriend, although he had been immersed in the Dance of the Crescent Moon for many years, because his foundation was too poor and the upper limit of his family's inherited sword technique was too low, he had never been able to cross the threshold of Jonin or enter the Anbu.
But Yūgao still liked to use this technique often.
With her Jonin-level strength using this secret technique, against an ordinary Chunin or Tokubetsu Jonin-level enemy, it was naturally always successful.
When the Dance of the Crescent Moon was performed, the trajectory of the blade in the air would curve into a crescent shape, as elegant as a dance. Then the enemy would fall in response, a flower of blood blooming. The female ninja would kill the enemy in one blow and calmly sheathe her sword. Her cold and beautiful face was like a beautiful scroll painting.
However, no matter how Sakura looked at it, she felt that even if Yūgao didn't play such flashy tricks, she could still kill the enemy just as well, and perhaps even more cleanly.
When she was asked why she always used this secret technique.
"Because it's the secret technique he gave me!" Every time she said this, she would reveal a sweet smile, stuffing Sakura and Shino with a mouthful of dog food.
—To teach a secret technique that was a family inheritance to Yūgao, in the Naruto world, was basically equivalent to putting a wedding ring on her hand.
Although the Dance of the Crescent Moon could not be considered a diamond ring, at most it was a silver ring.
In short, in squad battles, Yūgao Uzuki usually took on the role of the assault specialist.
"Tobi, did the captain say what it was about?" The assault specialist, Yūgao Uzuki, nimbly leaped onto a several-meter-high telephone pole, leaving her lover's side. She instantly transformed from a charming beauty on the street to a swift and decisive Anbu ninja.
She had a bad premonition.
The last time she had been on the street with Hayate and had been temporarily pulled away was during the Chunin Exams.
Since Tsunade had become the Fifth Hokage, the Anbu had not been short of manpower. This was the first time she had encountered such an urgent mission.
What on earth happened?
She tightened the mask on her face and thought of the missions they had been carrying out recently.
Her heart gradually sank to the bottom.
❃❃❃
⤑ Show your support with Power Stones!
⤑ Unlock a Bonus Chapter every time we hit 400 Power Stones!
❃❃❃
♕ Get early access to 30+ advanced chapters on Patreon!
🔗 https://www.pat-reon.co-m/c/Hollowborn
(Just remove the hyphen (-) to open the link!)
💬 Enjoying the story? Drop a review!
Your support really helps the series grow—thank you!