Chapter 274: White Light in the Ruins
The next evening, in the desert between the Land of Wind and the Land of Fire.
Haruno Sakura's lonely figure was trekking through the sand dunes.
No, that's not right—using the word "trekking" gives a feeling of heaviness and difficulty. The truth was that she was using her extremely advanced chakra control skills to walk through the endless yellow sand as if she were strolling in a courtyard.
Her steps were light and nimble, without the slightest sign of the hardship of trekking through the desert, leaving only a string of afterimages.
When the silver moon was hanging high and the stars were just beginning to rise.
Sakura received a message from a ninja hawk.
The Fifth Hokage and the candidates had already entered Konoha's defense range. The escort mission was successfully completed.
The Anbu who were covering the rear could return to the village on their own.
"Return to the village on my own?" Sakura read the brief in her hand by the frost-like, water-like moonlight and muttered to herself, "In other words, I don't have to be in such a hurry. I can go back leisurely."
She looked at the sky. It was probably around seven or eight in the evening.
If she were at home, at this time, she would have finished dinner, taken a shower, and be doing her nightly ninjutsu training. It wasn't so convenient when she was out on a mission. Especially for Anbu missions, which generally required covert operations, so at night, she could only eat some cold, dry rations, and sleep with her clothes on in a simple bed and a house made of ninjutsu.
But since the mission was already over, and it was now leisure time, she didn't have to follow the Anbu's rules. To build a fire, eat a hot meal, then take a shower, and build a comfortable house to sleep in—this was her preferred way of camping in the wild.
But...
"How am I supposed to start a fire without anything to burn?"
Haruno Sakura was not a Fire Style ninja. She couldn't use her chakra to create a bonfire that could burn all night. And in the desert, there was no firewood to burn.
This was the first time she had been camping alone in the wild.
In the past, these trivial matters had always been taken care of by her captain or someone else. Now she found that some small problems could also stump her, a "quasi-Kage" level powerhouse.
Tsk, strength isn't everything.
"My Ice Style has been developed quite well. In the future, I can spend some effort on other affinities," she thought to herself. "If I knew even a little Fire Style, I wouldn't be in such a bind right now."
A good thought.
With her current strength, it wouldn't be a big problem to master another basic affinity. It would only take a few days of effort. She could just treat it as another small skill. In any case, Sakura didn't plan to study it in depth.
However, that was all in the future. Distant water can't quench a nearby thirst.
She still had to find a way to solve the problem herself.
The girl stood on top of a sand dune, looking as far as she could. Apart from sand, there was only sand. There was no combustible material available.
She rummaged through the scrolls she was carrying.
"Spare clothes, the map Temari gave me..." Her luggage was very simple and was rummaged through in no time. "Even if I burn them all, they won't burn for long."
She looked at the map.
"It seems there are no oases nearby either!" Sakura spread out the map and looked at it carefully. Very quickly, a place name that Temari had circled with her eyeliner pencil came into view—
"Ruins of the Ancient Kingdom of Rouran"
"The ruins of an ancient city? It's not far from here..." Haruno Sakura thought for a moment and then made a decision. "Let's go and see!"
She sped in the direction indicated by the map. The yellow sand under her feet gradually turned into caked mud, and the desert transitioned into a gobi. The distance of a hundred or so kilometers was quickly reduced to zero at Sakura's pace, and the ruins of the ancient city soon appeared before her.
Sakura appeared in the ruins with a Body Flicker.
The collapsed, dilapidated walls had been badly weathered. The piles of sand at the corners of the walls were about to submerge the low-rise buildings. It looked as if no one had been here for at least several decades. The unmaintained ruins, in the night, gave people a gloomy and terrifying feeling.
She walked deeper into the ruins, and her footsteps suddenly stopped.
"Strange. There seems to be a faint energy?"
It wasn't like a living being's chakra. This was the first time Sakura had sensed this kind of energy. It had no sign of life and was as rigid as a rock.
Her curiosity was suddenly piqued.
It couldn't be a ghost, could it?
No matter what it is, with my strength, self-preservation shouldn't be a problem. If it really comes down to it, I can still reverse-summon to Shikkotsu Forest to take cover.
Although she was just scaring herself, the girl still activated her Sakura Rush... She looked around curiously, and following the direction she had sensed, with a few swift leaps, she soon went deep into the city.
"If I had come to see this in the daytime, it would have been quite atmospheric," Sakura muttered to herself. She was standing in a large hall. As soon as she spoke, her voice echoed all around. The energy that Haruno Sakura had sensed was right under her feet, directly below.
The energy is surging up...
Sakura's delicate brows furrowed slightly. She was ready to use the Demonic Mirroring Ice Crystals to dodge at any time.
The feeling was getting stronger and stronger!
She looked down. This inexplicable energy seemed to be able to resonate with her to some extent. It was a very complicated feeling. Although this energy did not belong to her, but—
A white light suddenly erupted!
The strong light instantly enveloped her. That inexplicable energy wrapped the girl in it. Then, she felt a sudden loss of weight under her feet, a feeling of the world spinning, as if she were undergoing a super-long-distance space-time ninjutsu!
No, that's not right. It seems to be completely different from the feeling of space travel, but rather another, more distant, familiar feeling!
Strangely, Sakura subconsciously felt that there was no danger in this, so she didn't use her Ice Body Flicker to escape at the first moment. Instead, she stood quietly, letting the white light engulf her, waiting for further developments...
The white light dissipated. Haruno Sakura landed on the ground, swayed slightly, and then stood firm.
"What happened?"
It was pitch black all around. The girl's clear and cold voice echoed faintly in the surroundings.
Sakura blinked. She found that she was still standing in the same place, in that large hall, without having moved half a step.
Obviously, the feeling of space travel just now was an illusion...
She touched her face and hands. There was no change. She sensed her chakra. There was no movement either.
No, that wasn't right. There was a strange energy in her Yin Seal. It was cold and stiff, completely unable to be mobilized. It was just that this energy had no contact or effect with her at all and had no influence.
Other than that, she just felt uncomfortable and wrong all over, as if something was pulling her. But apart from that, nothing had changed.
It was as if a white light had just flashed, and then... nothing.
"That's it?"
Haruno Sakura was a little stunned. It was as if, hn, the foreplay before a battle was already over, the trash talk had been spouted, and then the other side had chickened out and had run away...
What's the deal with leaving her hanging like this! Weren't this white light and this energy a prelude to a drastic change in events? Something should have happened!
All that had been added was a strange energy, one that she couldn't mobilize at all.
"Forget it. I won't bother with these things."
Haruno Sakura walked out of the hall. The moonlight outside was as cold as water, and the night was extremely beautiful.
She found an intact house and smashed its roof open.
Then she created a few ice clones. "Numbers One to Five are in charge of starting a fire, cooking, and cleaning up. Number Six, stay here."
Then, Sakura took off her clothes, and by the moonlight, she carefully checked her body again, but found nothing.
"I've looked all over. I didn't find anything unusual on your back either," Clone Number Six said.
Sakura immediately frowned, feeling that something was not quite right.
"Strange. Could it be that I'm really just overthinking it?" the girl muttered to herself as she washed her body with Water Style.
Was I too rash just now? Sakura thought to herself.
She quickly finished her shower. Over there, the ice clones had already prepared a simple meal, and had cleaned up a room and a bed.
She simply finished her dinner and lay down on the bed.
I feel that something is wrong... I'd better go back early tomorrow and find Master to check my body and the Yin Seal!
Thinking this, she fell into a light sleep.
The next day, Sakura woke up in the faint morning light.
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