Chapter 265: You Are Already... Dead
"Naruto!" Sakura couldn't help but shout.
She blinked, finding it a little hard to believe.
This figure that had appeared before her, displaying such peerless combat strength, was actually Naruto.
Wasn't he supposed to be traveling?
With Naruto's help, she could finally catch her breath.
In an instant, from walking step by step into a desperate situation to a sudden turn of events, Sakura felt the situation had suddenly brightened. The thoughts at the bottom of her heart couldn't be suppressed and surged out.
She suddenly flipped over, and without even looking, she threw out the Rasengan, smashing a puppet that was approaching into pieces. Then Sakura realized that Naruto's body had already extended a giant chakra arm, crushing that puppet in its hand.
CRACK, CRACK, CRACK—!
Caught in Naruto's chakra hand were also several other puppets that had gotten close to them!
Then, with a sudden exertion of force, he crushed them all.
The last puppet that had rushed up was cut to pieces by a water gun, and the nearby puppets were instantly cleared.
"Sakura-chan, are you alright?" Naruto asked, looking at the enemies surging from a distance, his voice deep.
As he spoke, he walked to Sakura's side and held out his hand.
His voice had already begun to change. Naruto's voice had become so different that even Haruno Sakura almost didn't recognize it.
But that feeling, that sense of trust between comrades who had been through life and death, was still the same.
Sakura grabbed his hand and used his strength to stand up.
"Hmph... Don't underestimate me. How could I not be alright!" she said with a laugh, completely ignoring the fact that when Naruto had cut into the battlefield, he had happened to see her fall on her face.
After laughing for a moment, Haruno Sakura's expression became serious. "There are two enemies on the other side. One is called Sasori of the Red Sand. He controls puppets. The puppets can use ninjutsu, have mechanisms, and are very insidious. The other one is hiding in the sky."
She raised her head and pointed at the small black dot circling in the sky. "That's him. His ninjutsu is to use white dolls to create powerful explosions. You must be careful..."
Sakura glanced back at Naruto.
The last time she had stood shoulder to shoulder with Naruto was, vaguely, still a year ago.
After being apart for nearly a year, Sakura and Naruto were no longer familiar with each other's moves. But that tacit understanding was still preserved in the bottom of their hearts.
The moment they fought side by side, it returned to their minds from the deepest part of their hearts.
Just like that time, during the mission to rescue Sasuke, the words she had said to him—"You and Naruto, in a battle, can stand in front of me without any regard for yourselves."
It was precisely because of this trust that they had such a tacit understanding.
Of course, Naruto's current fighting style was different from his past shadow clone tactics, which also made her feel a little surprised.
The dense chakra on his body had formed something like a cloak, and there were two tails behind him. In her previous life, she had seen in the manga that Naruto had used the one-tailed Jinchuriki cloak. She didn't remember the details, only that it was very strong, but Naruto hadn't been able to use it freely. And in the Naruto world she had personally experienced after transmigrating, Naruto had not used this skill of the Jinchuriki cloak before he had left on his journey. This was the first time she had seen this move with her own eyes.
The vast and dense chakra cloak, so thick it was as if it had a physical substance, was truly eye-opening.
Sakura was full of curiosity about his current state. For him to be able to use this move now, was it because he had already preliminarily mastered the use of the Nine-Tails' chakra and could use the Jinchuriki cloak state freely?
While she was using the Wind Blade Raging Stream to snipe the puppets in the distance, she also took the opportunity to glance at Naruto's battle.
Naruto in this state was rampaging like a wild beast, but his combat power was extremely strong, his strength and speed extremely fast. And with the chakra cloak protecting him on the outside, ninjutsu with slightly weaker power couldn't cause him any harm at all!
A puppet rushed over with a sword, but was pressed down by him, knocked to the ground. The chakra cloak turned into claws to bind the puppet's mechanisms, and with a few punches, Naruto had beaten it into spare parts!
What followed was a barrage of various ninja tools. With just an angry roar from Naruto, a sound wave was formed, blowing all the incoming swords and blades back!
A Wind Style: Great Wind Breakthrough followed closely behind the ninja tools, but with this one shout from Naruto, it was directly rolled back.
Another Fire Style: Flame Bullet flew over from behind him and hit his Jinchuriki cloak, but it didn't even budge.
In comparison, Haruno Sakura, who did not have sufficient defense, had been in a much more pathetic state when facing these low-to-mid-level ninjutsu just now!
However, at this moment, the battle on Sakura's side was also extremely easy. After Naruto had taken on half the pressure, she had the complete freedom to unleash her true combat power. After the Ice Style had set up the field, the Swallow Snowstorm, Ice Clones, Demonic Mirroring Ice Crystals, nin-taijutsu, Wind Blade Raging Stream, and even various water jutsu... were all at her fingertips, and she beat Sasori's puppets into a miserable state.
With the two of them fighting side by side, they were simply unstoppable. It was completely different from when Sakura was fighting alone.
The first wave of a dozen or so puppets that had rushed up was quickly cleaned up by the two of them.
When the second wave of puppets surrounded them, Sasori was much more cautious. Up to this point in the battle, he had already lost about a hundred puppets. If he continued to send them like this, his Hundred-Puppet-Drill would have to be renamed the Ten-Puppet-Drill!
The opening act of the human puppets was still a messy barrage of various ninjutsu and ninja tools.
"Nothing new," Sakura snorted through her nose and said with a sneer.
She and Naruto were either very fast and had strong defenses, or they could just instantly move to another place. Such an attack, although dense, could not cause any trouble for the two of them at all.
Then came the puppets who used Earth Style to sneak over, either launching a surprise attack from underground or using Earth Style to harass them. Then, a large number of melee-type puppets also began to charge over, charging forward without fear of death. The ninjutsu-type puppets, on the other hand, continuously cast ninjutsu from the edge of the battlefield, without any regard for the fact that their own puppets were also in the field.
This combat model had put a huge pressure on the two of them in a short period of time, but the number of Sasori's puppets was being greatly reduced because of this. The gain was really not worth the loss. This abnormal combat method made Sakura suspicious. Sasori isn't an idiot. Why would he fight like this?
She soon knew the answer.
WHOOSH—!
A familiar whistling sound, from low to high!
"Naruto, watch out above!" Sakura looked up when she heard the strange sound, and what was diving down at high speed was another puppet-bomb!
So Sasori was doing this to entangle them here, so that the other person's bomb could hit the bullseye!
"That's an extremely powerful bomb!"
She said in a loud voice, while continuing to fight: a water gun from her right hand executed a nearby enemy; her left hand, however, grabbed a puppet's leg and, with her monstrous strength, she suddenly threw it at another charging puppet. The two crashed with a roar and fell apart.
The moment she broke free from the puppet's entanglement, she used her Body Flicker to leave the spot, dashingly dodging the various ninjutsu that were coming at her.
Then she appeared behind Naruto, standing back-to-back with him. "Stop fighting. Prepare to defend against the bomb!"
As she spoke, she quickly formed hand seals. Seeing that Naruto had kicked the puppet in front of him away, she propped up the ice ball of the Ice Style: Absolute Defense, enveloping both Naruto and herself, and isolating them from the outside world.
This bomb didn't distinguish between friend and foe. Sasori's puppets would also be damaged in the explosion.
So there was no need to attack the puppets anymore!
She raised her hands high, and a large amount of chakra flowed from her arms into the ice ball, increasing the hardness and thickness of the Absolute Defense to a certain level before stopping. According to her experience, this level of defense was more than enough.
She looked up, watching the puppet-bomb fall.
Its descending speed was very fast. In less than a second after the ninjutsu was completed, the ground suddenly jolted!
BOOM—!
The third C3 No. 18 exploded right above the ice ball that was covering the two of them!
Swish, swish, swish. Pieces of broken ice continuously fell from above Sakura's head. The several-dozen-meter-thick ice layer had already been blasted bald by this one blow.
Sakura let out a breath and turned to smile at Naruto.
"That guy's explosion is very powerful, but as long as you're careful—"
She was just about to speak when she suddenly heard another familiar "whoosh" whistling sound!
Haruno Sakura's face turned pale. "There's another one!"
And, because it had been masked by the sound of the explosion, this time, when she had discovered the doll, the whistling sound of its descent was already extremely high-pitched and sharp!
"There's no time!" She reacted quickly, and immediately began to pour chakra into the Absolute Defense again to form a new ice layer for defense, but she knew in her heart that it was already too late!
BOOM—!
The fourth C3 No. 18 exploded.
Under this one blow, the ice layer of the Absolute Defense was razed to the ground, completely becoming a thing of the past.
The fierce wind quickly blew the dust away. There was a small pit on the ground.
Sakura climbed out of the small pit, unharmed.
Beside her lay Naruto. His Jinchuriki cloak had been blasted away. His back was a mess of torn flesh and blood, and he had already fallen unconscious.
Just now, it was Naruto who had protected her.
Haruno Sakura's gaze was, for the first time, this cold.
So cold it was like ten-thousand-year-old ice.
So cold it was as if it could freeze everything her gaze touched.
She separated a clone and carefully protected Naruto. "You idiot, I have my own way to dodge it..."
She said softly, and then stood up herself, looking up at the sky.
Deidara had pressed his bird very low. He was very confident in the power of his bombs. His eyes were smiling coldly as he searched the remnants on the ground after the explosion.
He soon saw him, the youth who was curled up on the side, covered in wounds and unconscious, and the girl who was standing majestically beside him; there was also one of her clones.
Their eyes met.
"You're still not dead, un," Deidara said with a sneer. "And you're still glaring at me with such terrifying eyes! Un!"
Haruno Sakura didn't want to say a single word.
She just silently formed hand seals. Her speed was extremely fast, her fingers turning into a blur.
"Ice Style: Swallow Snowstorm!"
Sakura waved her hand fiercely, and over a hundred ice shuriken shot out, shooting at Deidara with an unprecedented speed!
Thud, thud, thud—
No matter how agile the giant bird under Deidara's feet was, it couldn't dodge this dense attack. Its abdomen was hit by several shuriken.
However, this did not threaten Deidara at all.
Sakura looked coldly at the white bird high above, her hands not stopping, continuing to form hand seals. "Water Style: Wind Blade Raging Stream..."
On the ground, Sasori suddenly shouted, "Dodge it, Deidara!"
"Un?" Deidara tilted his head, not understanding. "Dodge?"
It was too late.
Just as he had sounded out the word "dodge," Haruno Sakura had already appeared behind him.
"Nin-taijutsu: Star Cannon Hammer!"
A fist pierced through Deidara's body!
"Ugh..." Deidara looked at Sakura's fist, which had emerged from his chest, as if he couldn't understand what had happened for a moment!
Am I dead?
And then...
Deidara turned into a human-shaped clay, tightly wrapping around Sakura's right hand!
—The moment Sasori had reminded Deidara, he had cast the Clay Clone jutsu!
He's not dead...
Sakura's expression didn't change. It was still as cold as an iceberg. The pair of sharp, knife-like eyes did not waver in the slightest.
Deidara's real body was hidden in the bird's belly. At this moment, he suddenly jumped out—the clay clone would desperately entangle the enemy who had attacked it, and then violently detonate, blowing the enemy who had fallen into the trap to smithereens!
You are already a dead man.
Deidara sneered, preparing to shout "Katsu!" and detonate the clay clone.
But he found...
Something was wrong...
Why am I seeing my own back? Deidara... suddenly felt very confused!
You are already... a dead man.
Haruno Sakura stood high on the white giant bird, the corners of her clothes fluttering in the high-altitude gale.
Her left hand was pointing straight at Deidara, a silver line from her fingertip cutting through the sky.
A pair of icy, frost-like eyes looked down coldly!
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