Chapter 368: Encounter
"The Seven-Tails Jinchuriki seems to be interested in you!" Haruno Sakura said.
Sasuke couldn't be bothered to pay attention to her.
Girls who flocked to him for his good looks had been coming in waves since the Ninja Academy. The group of fangirls he met in the Sand Village a few days ago didn't even know who he was, but started to swoon just by looking at his appearance. To be honest, he was already used to it.
It sounded like a wonderful thing to have many girls pursuing him, but when these things happened repeatedly and even seriously affected his daily life, it became very distressing.
Sometimes he even had to take some measures to remind these superficial girls that love wasn't something where you could just stick to a handsome guy, and love wasn't that shallow.
The year before last, Sasuke did this to Ino, using genjutsu to knock some sense into her head, making her realize that she didn't really love Sasuke, but was just addicted to a love game.
Among the girls who liked Sasuke, Ino's figure and appearance were among the best, and her family background, ninjutsu, and strength were also quite good. If Sasuke didn't even like such a girl, who could he like? Many girls were really deterred by Sasuke's high requirements. For a long time afterwards, Sasuke had much more peace and quiet.
But it was only quiet for a while.
In the past year, these girls started to stir again. For one thing, Sasuke gradually grew up, from a handsome little boy to a handsome young man, entering the defensible range of more women. Not only was he liked by young girls as in the past, but he also gained the favor of young aunts and middle-aged women...
Secondly, Haruno Sakura, who was rumored to be paired with Sasuke, was proven not to be dating him; their biggest rival, Haruno Sakura, who had the huge advantage of being a childhood sweetheart and teammate, and whose strength and appearance stood out from the crowd, actually didn't capture Sasuke!
This excited those women full of gossip and romance. With these two rivals gone, the remaining women actually had similar chances...
Could Haruno Sakura be waiting for that silly boy?
Some rumors speculated this. It had to be said that some people had rich imaginations, even making Haruno Sakura feel inferior.
Team 7 had no trend of creating prime-time soap opera plots. The various melodramatic dramas, love triangles, and even N-sided loves gossiped about in private were spread miraculously, but they were actually groundless. As Team 7 became more and more famous, the few of them became well-known by people in Konoha; regarding gradually becoming the topic of gossip for everyone after meals, Haruno Sakura as the protagonist of the rumors could only express that she didn't know whether to laugh or cry.
Fortunately, her strength and status were there after all. Others dared not make up too much about her, and the rumors only stayed within a range of helplessness.
Sasuke had even less mind to put on these love-struck girls. There was no option for romance in his mind. Fuu could get a second look from him only because she was the Seven-Tails Jinchuriki.
"She doesn't like me as a person..." Sasuke said faintly. "She just likes other people's appearance."
Fuu's gaze was no essentially different from Ino and those love-struck girls in Konoha.
Fuu couldn't catch Sasuke's gaze, only seeing Haruno Sakura's gaze beside him, which had been unscrupulously sizing her up; the expectation and shyness in her eyes disappeared instantly the moment they met Sakura's gaze, turning into disdain and contempt. She glared at Sakura fiercely, then turned her head away.
Indeed very frivolous.
Sasuke saw her movement out of the corner of his eye and shook his head slightly.
Fuu used partial Tailed Beast Transformation very freely, better at using Tailed Beast power than Gaara and Naruto. Therefore, theoretically, she who could use most of the Seven-Tails' power was stronger than Gaara.
That is, "Kage" level.
As a Kage-level master, indulging in this kind of love game, this frivolous personality surprised Sasuke. Probably because her strength did not come from her own efforts.
Sasuke had also fantasized about obtaining power without working for it, such as the Cursed Seal Orochimaru gave him, but it remained only a fantasy. Power given by others could easily be taken away by others; now he preferred to improve his strength step by step through down-to-earth Lightning Style cultivation. Only this was his own power, and this steadfast feeling was reassuring.
In comparison, Fuu's personality seemed very floating and erratic.
Haruno Sakura, who was just glared at by the beautiful girl, blinked innocently: "No matter what she likes about you... I seem to be hated by her?"
She turned to look at Sasuke and said helplessly: "Just because I'm standing next to you?"
Sasuke was speechless at Sakura's teasing.
He didn't really want to pick up this conversation. Glancing at Sakura out of the corner of his eye, he said seriously: "If we are hated by the object we need to protect, our mission will be very troublesome."
The Takikage had decided to send Fuu to Konoha for refuge, going the same way as Haruno Sakura and the others, to go to Konoha together.
Speaking of this topic, Haruno Sakura also put away the faint smile on her face and became serious.
"Trouble is nothing." Sakura shook her head and said seriously, "What I worry about most is that Fuu has no self-awareness as an object to be protected."
Sasuke lowered his voice: "She is a Jinchuriki and must learn to protect herself."
The Waterfall ninja were all listening to the Takikage's speech. The boy and girl stood outside the crowd, looking at them while whispering. Except for Fuu who turned her head from time to time to peek at Sasuke and glare at Haruno Sakura, no one paid attention to them, so the two were not worried about being overheard by the Waterfall ninja.
"Looking at her, she put all her mind on being jealous." Haruno Sakura curled her lips. "Do you think she has the ability to protect herself?"
"Then we can only hope that the people of the Akatsuki won't ambush us on our way back to Konoha..."
Sasuke said with a solemn tone.
Sakura shook her head gently.
"Not much hope."
"I vaguely felt someone watching us yesterday..." She said in a deep voice.
When Sakura scouted with the Mist Servant Jutsu yesterday, she felt a strange chakra. Although that feeling was fleeting, she still recognized who it was.
A year ago, when she killed Deidara, she saw that guy who hid his head and showed his tail.
Looking like a pitcher plant, always hiding underground, with extremely weak chakra fluctuations, it was impossible to detect his existence.
That day he poked his head out to take a look, only to be touched by Haruno Sakura's chakra covering the mist. Otherwise, she wouldn't have thought that there would be Akatsuki people appearing right under the nose of the Waterfall Village!
If it weren't for the barrier covering the Waterfall Village itself, maybe he could come and go freely even inside the village, right?
"We will encounter people from the Akatsuki?" Sasuke asked in a low voice.
"To be precise, we have already encountered people from the Akatsuki." Haruno Sakura said. "They also discovered our existence. The Akatsuki's movements have always been fast..."
She wanted to say something else, but a round of loud applause rang out over there, interrupting Sakura's words. It turned out that the Takikage's lengthy speech finally ended.
A high-level Waterfall official walked onto the stage—of course not following the Takikage's topic to "say a few simple words"—but very directly began to arrange work.
"...In short, get ready." Seeing them looking over, Haruno Sakura dropped a brief sentence and ended her whisper with Sasuke.
Sasuke's jinx unfortunately came true.
As Haruno Sakura worried, the Akatsuki moved very fast.
If the Seven-Tails Jinchuriki had not been sent to Konoha for refuge, or even if Konoha had not sent anyone to visit the Waterfall Village, perhaps the Akatsuki would not have been stimulated, and their movements would not have been so fast.
They might have waited a little longer, until the right time, to launch their plan.
In short, while Konoha used various means to link up the surrounding ninja villages to fight against the Akatsuki, the Akatsuki was not a wooden man and would naturally make its response; changes happened one after another like this.
The journey of the Seven-Tails Jinchuriki leaving the protection of the Waterfall Village and heading to Konoha was the best time for the Akatsuki to strike, and also the last chance.
Haruno Sakura and her party hadn't even walked out of the border of the Land of Waterfalls.
The second day after leaving the Waterfall Village.
On the border between the Land of Fire and the Land of Waterfalls.
Haruno Sakura looked at a stone mountain in the distance and stopped abruptly.
"Aunt Ryoko," she said solemnly, "please take your students back to the Waterfall Village! Until our side confirms safety, do not set off for Konoha..."
"What happened?" The Jonin leading the team asked, puzzled.
"The people from the Akatsuki are here." Sasuke explained coldly.
A bewitching crimson emerged from his eyes. In the distance within Haruno Sakura and Sasuke's line of sight, two figures wearing bamboo hats and black robes with red clouds appeared from the top of the mountain.
"Could you trouble yourselves to hand over the Seven-Tails Jinchuriki?" The very burly man pointed his large sword at Haruno Sakura and the others and said coldly.
The vigorous and huge chakra fluctuated undisguisedly, announcing his presence.
He took off his bamboo hat, grinned, revealing a mouth full of sharp teeth and a grim and ferocious smile.
❃❃❃
⤑ Show your support with Power Stones!
⤑ Unlock a Bonus Chapter every time we hit 400 Power Stones!
❃❃❃
♕ Get early access to 30+ advanced chapters on Patreon!
🔗 https://www.pat-reon.co-m/c/Hollowborn
(Just remove the hyphen (-) to open the link!)
💬 Enjoying the story? Drop a review!
Your support really helps the series grow—thank you!