Chapter 150: Probing
After leaving Haruno Sakura, Shino and Yūgao began to rush in the direction Sakura had pointed out at top speed to support Sasuke.
Is it really okay for us to leave Tobi over there?
Along the way, this question would pop up in Shino's mind from time to time.
His many years in the Anbu had made him understand one thing very well: once a decision is made, one should not easily go back on it. Sometimes, the price of going back on it would be too heavy to bear.
To regret it now and turn back would be worse than not leaving in the first place.
It was simply the worst choice.
But there was one thing he was really concerned about. Perhaps Yūgao, who was rushing at the very front, hadn't noticed, but when they were leaving, Shino had glanced at the runes spreading on their opponents' bodies. They exuded an evil aura. It was likely the enemy's secret technique.
He wasn't surprised that Orochimaru's subordinates would have a few strange and secretive ninjutsu. He was just worried whether Haruno Sakura could handle it.
Admittedly, at first, he was full of trust in the girl. Dealing with that group of ninja who were at most at the Special Jonin level should be no problem for her with her strength, but that was on the premise that the opponents did not have a secret technique.
Dealing with an enemy who possessed a secret technique was always the most troublesome thing for a ninja.
The ninja world was vast and full of strange things. Some ninja's secret techniques were extremely powerful, or their effects were bizarre. Even an enemy who was stronger than them could easily suffer an unexpected defeat.
In fact, he didn't know that Sakura had originally wanted them to stay and hold off the enemy while she went to support Sasuke. However, it was precisely because she was worried that they didn't understand the secret techniques of the Sound Four that she had changed her mind and stayed behind herself, letting them go to support Sasuke.
However, at this point, it was impossible for Shino to turn back. He could only choose to trust Haruno Sakura.
Having been teammates with this girl for two or three months, both Yūgao and Shino saw it very clearly.
The team had been constantly trying to find its synergy. The coordination mistakes between Yūgao and Shino were also getting smaller and smaller. But for Sakura to still only be taking on the role of a long-range attacker, unable to fully display her strength, there was a reason.
This girl's entire ninjutsu tactical system was designed around fighting alone. When used in team cooperation, it looked awkward no matter how you looked at it!
In team collaboration, her combat power couldn't even reach ten percent of its potential. With Tobi's fighting style, if the two of them had stayed there, they would have only gotten in her way.
"At least there's one piece of good news, and that is that Sakura is a balanced ninja," Shino comforted himself.
Both Shino and Sakura were balanced-type ninja. Such ninja rarely had any major weaknesses, were very adaptable to solo combat, and secret techniques had a far smaller effect on them than on unbalanced ninja. The most typical example of an unbalanced type was the Ino-Shika-Cho team. They were astonishingly powerful when combined, but each had fatal flaws when fighting alone.
However, Sakura's kind of balance was still a far cry from Shino's.
Shino had said before that he was an all-rounder in ninjutsu, taijutsu, and genjutsu, and he wasn't joking—
Whether it was using ninjutsu to suppress the enemy in a long-range attack, or using taijutsu to engage the opponent in close-quarters combat, or casting a genjutsu to interfere with the enemy and assist a teammate when they were entangled with an enemy, he could complete it all with ease.
He also had a rather formidable concealment ability.
So on the battlefield, he could both attack and break through, and also organize a defense. He could also assist his teammates in killing the enemy from time to time, and he had a whole set of good assassination and sneak attack tricks.
In terms of balance, Sakura was indeed far inferior to him.
In genjutsu alone, she had never studied it in depth.
In fact, Sakura did have a decent talent for genjutsu—both the original Sakura and the Sakura here. The latter, due to her powerful spiritual energy, had a much stronger talent for genjutsu than the original.
The reasons she hadn't studied genjutsu much were, one, that she was busy developing her Water and Ice Styles and didn't have the time.
And two, she lacked a famous teacher to guide her.
You might not believe it, but an elite Jonin with a three-tomoe Sharingan almost never used genjutsu against his enemies... That's right, the one Sakura was talking about was her team leader, Kakashi 50/50!
This guy had at least used genjutsu against Zabuza in the original story. But after she had transmigrated to the Naruto world, she didn't know what kind of storm her butterfly wings had stirred up, but in the whole year she had been in Team Kakashi, she had actually never seen him use genjutsu in person...
She had specifically asked Kakashi about this matter. The white-haired delinquent youth's answer was that he wasn't very good at genjutsu!
Hn~ After hearing this answer, Haruno Sakura had stroked her chin and thought for a long time.
This guy, he wouldn't be trying to trick his student again, would he?
Kakashi, of course, would not trick his student on such a question. It could only be said that the Hatake clan's ninjutsu and taijutsu were all-encompassing, but they had made no achievements in genjutsu.
So even though he had the Sharingan, he rarely used its genjutsu ability.
If the upper beam is not straight, the lower ones will go askew!
As Kakashi's student, Sakura had never received any training from him in genjutsu, so to this day, she only had the talent but not a very strong genjutsu ability.
Of course, if she wanted to learn genjutsu now, it would not be a difficult matter. Her chakra control and powerful spiritual energy were both very favorable innate conditions for casting genjutsu.
However, at this point, Sakura had no interest in bothering with such a small matter.
She already had her own combat system. Adding a genjutsu to it could only be said to be adding flowers to brocade.
But considering the efficiency of the time spent on improving her combat power, learning genjutsu at this time was already a low-cost-performance option. If she had time to learn genjutsu, she might as well use the time to develop her few core ninjutsu to Phase Two and Phase Three as soon as possible.
Of course, just like most ninja—they might not be proficient in genjutsu, but they were very good at dispelling it—Sakura was also very good at breaking genjutsu. This was due to the extremely high genjutsu resistance brought by her powerful spiritual energy. At least in Team 7's spars, Sasuke's three-tomoe Sharingan genjutsu had never worked on her.
Although, what Sakura didn't know was that Sasuke's genjutsu talent was actually not that high either, so he wasn't a very good benchmark...
In general, Haruno Sakura's resistance to genjutsu could be said to be very high.
On Haruno Sakura's side of the battlefield.
The enemy was already hidden, while she was still in the center of the battlefield, forming a disadvantageous situation where she was exposed and the enemy was hidden.
—At least, that's what the Sound ninja thought.
"The opponent's strength, in both ninjutsu and taijutsu, is very strong, so we must be very cautious and must not easily show our heads... I don't think any of you can take that water jutsu or taijutsu of hers, right!"
In a hidden corner of the deep woods, Kidōmaru said in a low voice.
"We'll fight according to the plan we used to deal with Kimimaro. I'll probe, Tayuya will support, Sakon, you'll be the main attacker... As for the fatso, according to the supplementary plan, you just watch from the side and don't cause trouble."
"Although her ninjutsu and taijutsu are very strong, the ones in the advantageous position now, the ones who have the upper hand, are us! So, summon the giant spider?... No, the giant spider is too big a target and can be easily one-shotted by her ninjutsu. Let's use this move to probe first!"
Kidōmaru, who believed he had the advantage, launched the first wave of attacks:
"Secret Technique - Spider Sticky Gold!"
The metallic spider silk hardened upon meeting the wind, turning into several hundred sharp kunai, which were shot out one after another by Kidōmaru's six arms. The sky instantly seemed to be raining kunai for a short while.
In the original story, this kind of complex and continuous attack had caused Neji a lot of trouble, but in the eyes of the current Haruno Sakura—
"A boring trick."
She said coldly.
She did not cast her usual Ice Style: Absolute Defense, nor even a defensive ninjutsu.
She just simply created a layer of crystal-clear ice, and easily blocked all the incoming kunai outside the ice layer.
"Just by using a little of the Kekkei Genkai's power, she easily blocked the enemy's secret technique..." This result was not only unexpected for the Sound ninja, but even Sakura herself was a little surprised. She had originally just wanted to use the ice layer to block one wave of attacks, but from the unmoving ice surface, it seemed that it could still withstand a few more waves of attacks!
This was a world of difference from the Neji of the original story, who had been beaten black and blue after a few waves of attacks! It wasn't that Neji was too weak, but that a taijutsu-type ninja, without effective cover and unable to get close to the enemy, would face the predicament of being beaten down.
No wonder ninja pursued the power of the Kekkei Genkai so much... In this one instant, she kind of understood the thoughts of the other ninja, and also understood why the evaluation of her from the outside world had suddenly taken a one-hundred-and-eighty-degree turn after she had mastered Ice Style.
However, in a battle where every second counted, she did not delve deeper into this topic.
Instead, she focused her attention on the next wave of attacks from the Sound ninja.
The Sound ninja didn't seem to care at all whether Kidōmaru's harassment had been effective.
Step by step, following closely behind Kidōmaru's kunai, were the special summons summoned by Tayuya: five humanoid, unknown creatures, each several meters tall, stood in front of Sakura.
They didn't look like living creatures, but seemed to be summons made from corpses. Their eyes and mouths were sewn shut, looking quite disgusting.
From them, Sakura sensed a chakra texture similar to Shikamaru's secret technique.
"It's some kind of crude application of Yin-Yang Release."
She discovered this from the mixed, impure, and turbid chakra she sensed from the summons. The effects of Yin-Yang Release were strange and powerful. Many secret techniques—such as the inherited ninjutsu of the Ino-Shika-Cho trio, especially the Nara clan's Shadow Manipulation Jutsu—all had a hint of Yin-Yang Release.
Because she had been recently learning the branch of Yang Release: medical ninjutsu, Haruno Sakura knew a little about Yin-Yang Release. She could probably guess that these summons had some kind of special ability.
It was just that from the texture of the chakra, the effect would not be too significant. It was obvious that Tayuya's research on Yin-Yang Release was not profound, and she was wasting her Yin-Yang Release talent.
These immensely strong, unknown creatures, accompanied by the sound of Tayuya's flute, leaped and brandished huge spiked clubs, charging towards the cat-faced ninja.
Like a signal, in Sakura's chakra perception, another Sound ninja also began to stir.
This time, it was no longer a summon or a kunai, but the real body... The sharp chakra perception told the cat-faced girl this information.
"Yo, so you've finally decided to show your heads, you little mice..."
The girl, with her Sakura Rush activated, said with a sneer as she easily dodged the attacks from the summons and Kidōmaru's sneak arrow attack.
A mocking arc formed on the corner of her lips.
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