Chapter 262: The One Who Waits is the Loser
Sasori's words of praise meant nothing to her—if she was defeated and died here.
Conversely, if she could defeat Sasori, then it wouldn't matter if he cursed her bloody.
This battle, having reached this point, had already entered its second half.
On the surface, she had already destroyed Sasori's Kazekage puppet and giant scorpion puppet, and had also exhausted his Fire Style.
In contrast, she was completely unharmed, and only half of the chakra stored in her Yin Seal had been consumed—which was still very sufficient.
However, the problem was that the giant scorpion puppet had been taken out only because it was coincidentally countered by her Monstrous Strength Technique and the Wind Blade Raging Stream, without having a chance to be effective.
But the Kazekage puppet had given her a lot of trouble.
And what was even more troublesome was that the human puppets Sakura had seen just now numbered one or two hundred!
Although each of them might not be one-tenth as strong as the Kazekage puppet, their numbers were sufficiently large, and their attack methods were sufficiently varied...
This was a big headache.
And, according to Sasori, he still had one last trump card in his hand, a scroll that might have an extremely powerful secret technique sealed in it.
This kind of unknown threat, it would have been better not to know. But once Sasori had said it, Sakura actually felt a little constrained.
She was afraid of falling into his trap.
Sasori still had ample combat power and trump cards. On the contrary, apart from the "Mirror Flower, Water Moon," all of Sakura's ninjutsu had been figured out by him.
This was the worst part.
"That genjutsu of yours," Sasori continued, "it's not actually a real genjutsu, is it! What's its name?"
"...It's called Mirror Flower, Water Moon," Haruno Sakura said, glancing at him, but still answering his question.
This name was very hazy and didn't have any meaningful clues. Sasori pondered for a moment and determined that this was a nonsensical name—he had seen it many times. For example, some were clearly named "Strongest Water Style," but the protagonist still desperately used Ice Style!
In order to protect the secret of a ninjutsu, this was also a necessary measure. Sasori said, "When you attacked, I didn't see any phenomenon of the image being deflected. So, 'Mirror Flower, Water Moon' only changes the environment, right! You only know Ice Style and Water Style, so this move, you must have used Water Style in some special way to change that place for a long time, so that even after the chakra is withdrawn, the illusion effect still exists!"
"Hehe... brilliant!" Although he didn't understand the principle of light refraction, Sasori could still analyze enough from the external performance. This level of intelligence and combat awareness was truly frightening.
"You've basically got it right... and then?"
"So the way to break 'Mirror Flower, Water Moon' is very simple. Use a large-scale killing ninjutsu, and the attack will not miss easily. Another method, regardless of how you did it, is to use Fire Style to cancel the effect of Water Style and destroy the illusion!"
Sakura lowered her eyelids, silent.
"Your abilities... I've basically figured them out," Sasori said faintly.
What he had figured out was this—
Her Water Style was very powerful, and her Ice Style was also very strong. Her nin-taijutsu was a strong counter to puppets, and her reaction speed was also not bad. Those few ninjutsu with good effects, Sasori had also seen through their characteristics.
In the following battle, Sakura would not be able to use any tricks and could only fight head-on.
What she had to face was one or two hundred human puppets. And her attack methods were mostly single-target offensive ninjutsu, suitable for one-on-one duels.
Unless she smashed down another Leviathan...
Sakura quickly glanced at the riverbed beside her. A gurgling stream was already flowing in the dry river channel. The main body of the river had appeared in her field of vision, and the white waves were gradually approaching.
If I wait a few more minutes... I can continue to use that level of Water Style without any effort.
Sasori keenly caught Haruno Sakura's gaze. He smiled faintly. "Are you waiting for the river water to come over?"
Sakura looked back at him with an expressionless face, not answering. That's right. The reason she had engaged in conversation with Sasori just now was precisely to stall for time, to wait for the river to flow over, and at the same time to let her meridians rest—they had now completely calmed down.
So, why was Sasori so cooperative?
A flash of inspiration suddenly came to her mind. Sasori is also waiting for something!
Sakura's face changed. A blue light flashed in her hand, and she leaned forward and slammed a fist into the ground!
"Nin-taijutsu: Cherry Blossom Clash!"
The immense power directly smashed the solid ground into chunks of giant rocks, which bloomed and scattered like cherry blossoms.
Amidst the cracked, yellowish-brown earth and stones, a dozen or so black shadows, squeezed by the rubble and struggling in the crevices, were particularly conspicuous. There were even a few that had been directly shattered by the force transmitted from this punch!
Sasori's human puppets, some of whom could use Earth Style, had actually taken the opportunity while the two were talking to sneak over from underground!
"Hmph, I've been discovered?" Sasori, who was standing in the distance and talking to Sakura, sneered. "There's more!"
Sakura quickly formed hand seals, "Ice Style: Swallow Snowstorm!" She instantly created dozens of huge ice shuriken, which turned into countless cold stars and shot towards the puppets that were exposed around her!
Papapa—
The ice shuriken reaped the puppets that were stuck in the earth and unable to move. Sakura had no time to observe the results. New puppets had already appeared in her chakra perception!
Directly in front, the puppets that were not good at Earth Style had come up through the underground passage left by the giant scorpion and had appeared in the hole left by it.
Under her feet, more puppets using Earth Style emerged from the ground.
And in the distance, several puppets using Earth Style also revealed their heads, scattered not far around Sakura, specifically responsible for shattering the ice mirrors she had created!
"Earth Style: Earth Flow Spears!" Sasori's puppets didn't even spare the ice shuriken under their feet!
Haruno Sakura's face turned pale. She sensed that the ice mirrors she had just condensed had been shattered. Faced with a swarm of puppets, she finally realized how extremely tricky the situation was.
The small tricks used in one-on-one combat were completely ineffective against an army!
Flashy techniques won't work. Then, I can only fight head-on...
Sakura's gaze suddenly turned cold.
"Water Style: Water Formation Wall!"
If there is no water source, then I'll just create water myself! Even if I only use the fighting style of a traditional Water Style ninja, I am still an unbelievably strong ninja!
The chakra in Sakura's body circulated madly. She opened her mouth and spat out a huge amount of clear water at high speed, instantly erecting a water wall nearly ten meters wide in front of her—
It clashed head-on with the various ninjutsu and ninja tools from the puppets attacking from the front!
BOOM, BOOM, BOOM!
An endless stream of fire dragons, storms, and roars of thunder all hit the wide, thick water wall, stirring up countless splashes of water, evaporating a large amount of it, and madly reducing the thickness of the water wall!
Even a water wall of this thickness could not hold on for long against hundreds of powerful ninjutsu. In just one or two short seconds, the Water Formation Wall began to totter!
However, the one or two seconds she had bought were enough.
The girl leaped up sharply, dodging the attacks launched by the Earth Style puppets under her feet. The speed of her hand seals was beyond imagination—
"Water Style: Super Water Gun Jutsu!"
As a low-level version of the Wind Blade Raging Stream, the activation speed of the Water Gun Jutsu was much faster than the Wind Blade Raging Stream, and it was ready in less than a second.
Haruno Sakura, in mid-air, her eyes cold, glanced in the other direction at the puppet that had shattered her ice mirror just now. The water line from her fingertip slashed along her line of sight!
SWISH—!
Sakura didn't even look at the puppet that had been cut in two and had fallen to the ground.
She saw out of the corner of her eye that the Water Formation Wall was in imminent danger and was about to break. Her chakra circulated rapidly. Sakura waved her arm and pointed at the gurgling stream not far away. Following the direction of her fingertip, the joyfully leaping stream water instantly condensed into ice, spreading all the way up, and the several-hundred-meter-long stream became a stream of ice.
The medium for the Demonic Mirroring Ice Crystals was ready!
Following this river downstream, it flowed into the main trunk of the Land of Wind.
Two figures, one large and one small, were advancing at high speed!
Running at the very front was a youth with orange, spiky hair. His body seemed to be draped in a red cloak, and a tail-like chakra entity was constantly swinging behind him.
"Naruto, we're close enough..." the burly ninja said, looking at the youth who was still accelerating madly. "Don't go into the two-tailed state anymore. We can make it!"
"Jiraiya-sensei," Naruto, in his Jinchuriki cloak state, turned his head. His eyes, which had already turned into vertical slits, glanced at him. "Sakura-chan is still up ahead, fighting a strong enemy!"
These two were precisely Naruto and Jiraiya, who had returned to the vicinity of the Land of Wind just before the Chunin Exams.
When they had discovered the traces of a large-scale battle, the two had just happened to be near the battlefield!
As he spoke...
A gurgling, surging chakra continued to gather behind Naruto, as if it had a physical substance, gradually condensing into a second tail.
The fox-whisker markings on his face became thicker and thicker. The high-density chakra began to corrode his skin. Pain came from all over his body, warning Naruto that his body was beginning to be unable to withstand this huge power. Naruto was completely oblivious, only concerned with one-sidedly accelerating and drawing out the Nine-Tails' chakra, until the second tail was officially formed.
"I must be faster!"
With the support of a huge amount of chakra, Naruto's speed and strength had skyrocketed. With a fierce stomp of his foot, he disappeared into the distance in an instant.
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