Chapter 366: Conversation Before the Storm
"Lady Fifth Hokage:
"The existence of the Seven-Tails Jinchuriki has been confirmed.
"It is a Waterfall ninja named 'Fuu'. Female. Estimated to be around fourteen to sixteen years old. Short green hair, orange eyes, dark skin. About 1.6 meters tall, slim figure. Clothes are quite bold and avant-garde, wearing a two-piece crop top, shoulder-baring short top on the upper body, skirt on the lower body with an outer drape, and mesh underwear underneath. Carrying a large black scroll on her back.
"Capable of partial Tailed Beast Transformation, generating butterfly-like wings on her lower back, allowing her to fly in the air at extremely high speeds.
"It is not yet known what Tailed Beast secret techniques she has mastered.
"She has strong control over the Tailed Beast. Normally, the existence of Tailed Beast chakra cannot be felt on her body. After partial Tailed Beast Transformation, one must also be very careful to distinguish the Seven-Tails' chakra. She is a very successful and stable Jinchuriki.
"Personality is cheerful and lively, a bit frivolous.
"Showed interest in this year's Chunin Exams and may come to Konoha to participate in this Chunin Exam to avoid the Akatsuki's pursuit.
"Extremely wary of Konoha, suspecting that we also have ulterior motives for the Seven-Tails. However, she thinks we cannot discover her identity as a Jinchuriki, so she has let her guard down a little.
"That is all.
"Konoha Ninja Haruno Sakura, Uchiha Sasuke. June 10, Konoha Year 62."
Haruno Sakura finished writing this intelligence letter, unrolled the scroll and read it once, nodded with satisfaction, then put it away and stuffed it into the leg pouch of the ninja hawk.
Sasuke fed the ninja hawk jerky while saying, "Is this really okay?"
"Hn?" Sakura was squatting on the ground, carefully tying the leg pouch under the ninja hawk's leg, and responded without raising her head. Tying the string was delicate work, requiring her full attention to do it well—because if it was tied loosely, the leg pouch would fall off, and if it was tied too tightly, the ninja hawk would get hurt.
"I mean, leaving the Waterfall ninja to deal with their Seven-Tails Jinchuriki like this. We don't know what measures they will take." Sasuke gently stroked the ninja hawk's head and said faintly, "If I used genjutsu before, wouldn't I have controlled her directly? Then we could bring her back to the village for protection."
"You mean that..." Haruno Sakura cut off the excess thread on the ninja hawk's leg pouch with a chakra scalpel, raised her head and said, "There are two problems. First, isn't doing so showing too much disregard for an allied country?"
"Hmm..." Sasuke had finished feeding all the jerky in his hand, wiped his hands clean, looked back at his companion, and pondered silently.
As a ninja of a major country, most of the time he, like others, would unconsciously ignore the feelings of small ninja villages.
If they used genjutsu to take the Seven-Tails away, in the eyes of the Waterfall ninja, what would be the difference between them and the Akatsuki?
The Waterfall ninja couldn't possibly believe that Konoha would voluntarily return the Seven-Tails Jinchuriki after the crisis passed!
"You thought of it too, right?" Haruno Sakura nodded and said, "At that time, we would be just like the Akatsuki, having to face the entire Waterfall Village!"
She thought about it. The combat power of the Waterfall ninja was average except for the Seven-Tails. If a fight really broke out...
"Well, it seems it's not like we can't beat them..." Sakura stroked her smooth and exquisite chin and muttered.
"But then Konoha's reputation would be completely ruined." Sasuke curled his lips. "The three-village alliance with the Sand and Mist would fall apart. Alright... what about the second problem?"
"The second one."
The girl released the ninja hawk, watching it fly away. After a long time, she turned to Sasuke and said, "Unless you reach the level of the Mangekyo Sharingan, even genjutsu cast by a three-tomoe Sharingan cannot be maintained on a Tailed Beast Jinchuriki for a long time. Especially since you are not a ninja specialized in genjutsu to begin with."
In fact, in the original story, Sasuke, who had awakened the Mangekyo Sharingan, failed to defeat the Eight-Tails Jinchuriki with genjutsu. Instead, due to overconfidence, he almost got himself killed.
The black-haired boy was stunned, looking at Sakura with an expression of disbelief.
"Impossible! Naruto often falls for my genjutsu!" He immediately retorted.
Haruno Sakura shook her head.
"That's because Naruto couldn't communicate with the Nine-Tails before." She raised an index finger and said, "A Jinchuriki is an extremely special ninja, an existence with one body and two minds. Even if genjutsu works on the Jinchuriki, the Tailed Beast inside the Jinchuriki can still wake them up immediately."
"Look, I am almost unaffected by your genjutsu." Sakura added.
Haruno Sakura's situation was somewhat like a Jinchuriki, only she was a bit more special. Originally there were two mental cores (Inner Sakura), and then the transmigrator merged in, forming a special three-core structure. Her genjutsu resistance was very strong, besides her extraordinary mental strength, there was also this reason.
Seeing that the expression on Sasuke's face still showed no sign of being convinced, she shrugged: "Forget it, believe it or not. You can try it on Naruto later. In short, be careful when dealing with Jinchuriki."
The released ninja hawk had become a distant black dot and soon completely disappeared in the sky.
The two stood on the top of the mountain, enjoying the cool breeze blowing from high above. The Waterfall Village was right under their feet, the old-style buildings only the size of matchboxes.
"We are leaving tomorrow. I hope the Takikage and the Waterfall ninja can recognize the current situation in time and make a wise decision beneficial to them!" Haruno Sakura stepped on a rock, looking down at the village under the mountain that seemed to be stuck in decades past, and said.
"What if they are stubborn, never take the Akatsuki seriously, and refuse to cooperate with us?" Sasuke also took a step forward, standing shoulder to shoulder with Sakura, looking at her profile and said.
Haruno Sakura looked back at Sasuke. Her eyes were not filled with gentle, water-like smiles as usual, but were cold as frost.
"That would be very regrettable..."
She said faintly.
Regrettable? Sasuke didn't understand her meaning for a moment.
"Let's go." Sakura urged.
After finishing speaking, she jumped down first. With a few swish swish sounds, she disappeared among the overlapping mountains surrounding the Waterfall Village.
Sasuke followed, accelerating with a few jumps to catch up with the vigorous and light figure in front, rushing to a position neck and neck with the girl.
"What exactly do you mean?" He turned his head and asked.
When the time comes, Konoha taking forcible action regardless of the Waterfall ninja's opposition would be a regrettable thing; Konoha doing nothing, sitting and watching the Waterfall ninja being attacked by the Akatsuki and the Seven-Tails being taken away, would also be a regrettable thing.
He looked at Sakura's profile and the soft hair fluttering beside her ears, wanting to see the answer in her indifferent eyes.
"The threat of the Akatsuki is imminent. Anyway, I won't sit by and watch the Seven-Tails Jinchuriki be abducted right under my nose..." Haruno Sakura glanced at Sasuke and said coldly, "What do you think?"
Sasuke remained silent.
Dusk fell.
On the borderline of the Land of Waterfalls, someone lit a bonfire in the wild.
Two men sat by the bonfire and set up a temporary campsite.
A young man with a grim face sat quietly, staring indifferently at the burning fire in front of him without saying a word.
"A little further ahead is the border of the Waterfall Village." The burly man with a large sword standing beside him broke the silence between the two, grinned revealing an ugly smile, and said, "Itachi, we will soon be able to collect the first Tailed Beast..."
"..." Uchiha Itachi turned his head and looked at him, the expression on his face unchanged. After a moment of silence, he responded expressionlessly, "Kisame, don't be too careless. In addition, Sasori's group should have completed the Five-Tails recovery mission by now. They are the true first strike of the Akatsuki."
"Hehe, the Five-Tails is in the hands of the Stone Village. The opponent is one of the five great ninja villages after all. And Senior Sasori's team only has him and that newcomer Tobi. It won't end that quickly." Kisame poked the fire with his long sword, stirring up countless dancing sparks splashing into the air, and said slowly.
Itachi stared entranced at the flickering sparks above the fire and said faintly: "You must not underestimate Tobi..."
He is a formidable character.
Itachi didn't say this sentence out loud. Zetsu, who suddenly emerged from underground, interrupted him.
Kisame felt that Itachi hadn't finished his sentence. Doubt flashed in his heart, but he didn't pursue it. Instead, he turned his head and asked, "Zetsu, any discoveries?"
"It's really a coincidence." A malicious smile appeared on Zetsu's lips. "According to intelligence, envoys from Konoha happen to be guests in the Waterfall Village right now!"
"Just envoys..." Kisame smiled ferociously, revealing all his sharp teeth. "Just chop them all up!"
Itachi's eyes moved, and then he asked calmly: "Who are the people from Konoha?"
"All old acquaintances!"
Zetsu licked his lips and sneered: "One of them is Haruno Sakura, a ninja who has dealt with our Akatsuki many times."
"Hmph, is it her again?" Kisame gripped the Samehada in his hand tightly, swung the sword and smashed it fiercely onto the ground. The force was extremely ruthless, actually smashing a deep pit. "Annoying fly, should have made her disappear long ago..."
"Leave her to me!" He said with overflowing killing intent.
"Mr. Kisame, don't underestimate the enemy," Zetsu climbed up from the ground, sat aside warming himself by the fire and said, "That girl who uses Ice Style made Sasori suffer a lot, and even Deidara was instantly killed by her! When I went to investigate before, I was almost discovered by her..."
Kisame snorted coldly, staring straight at the fire in front of him, silent. He was not an irritable person. Although Zetsu's words sounded like underestimating his combat power to him, it was a well-intentioned reminder after all, and Kisame didn't want to refute anything.
In the eyes of outsiders, members of the Akatsuki were all unruly S-class rogue ninja; each one was terrifyingly strong, outstanding in strength, ruthless, and hard to distinguish who was stronger. But in Kisame's view, the strength stratification of ninja within the Akatsuki was very obvious!
Deidara's strengths and weaknesses were too obvious. listing him as "Kage" level was actually a bit forced. Being instantly killed by Haruno Sakura could only be blamed on his immaturity; Sasori was strong, but puppeteers happened to be countered by Monstrous Strength, and when facing the Ice Style girl, he was tied up and couldn't display his true combat power.
Even so, Haruno Sakura still fought very hard against them.
In comparison, if Kisame faced Deidara and Sasori of the Red Sand, he was completely confident in defeating these two people easily!
"Then, what about the other Konoha ninja?" Itachi asked calmly.
"The remaining one..."
Zetsu looked at Uchiha Itachi, sneered, and said slowly:
"It's Uchiha Sasuke."
The black-haired young man's eyes suddenly turned crimson.
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