Chapter 373: Kisame
A single flower blooms into two separate tales.
On the Uchiha brothers' side, the battle had just warmed up.
On the other battlefield, the fight between Haruno Sakura and Hoshigaki Kisame had entered a white-hot stage as soon as it started.
—Or should we say, in the eyes of the Uchiha brothers, it had entered a white-hot stage? After all, moves of such magnitude had already been used.
But on the other side, after the exchange of ninjutsu ended, endless water splashes began to fall from the sky, forming a heavy curtain of rain so thick one couldn't see their own fingers. The two Water Style ninja standing in the rain did not think so.
It could even be said that, in their view, this was merely a probing ninjutsu before the battle, an appetizer before the main course.
Hoshigaki Kisame's breathing only quickened slightly, then quickly calmed down, as if the earth-shattering Water Style: Great Waterfall Jutsu just now hadn't consumed much of his stamina, merely a warm-up.
The torrential rain poured down from the sky, drenching him, quickly soaking the black cloak on Kisame's body, making it heavy and drooping.
The shark-faced ninja casually threw the cloak aside, revealing his burly and robust figure. Water flowed down his cheeks, passing over those orange-yellow and sinister eyes, but he didn't blink, only staring intently at the girl not far away.
The heavy water curtain fell on her hair, flowing down along her smooth pink hair, soaking the ninja's light short shirt, sticking obediently to the girl's body, revealing her slender and graceful figure—Haruno Sakura was focusing all her attention on the enemy in front of her, so much so that she didn't even distract herself to block the rain as she usually did.
Kisame's gaze fell on Sakura's feet.
The rainwater created by the ninjutsu clash flowed down, quickly forming a puddle under her feet. The light green clear water overflowed the grass, soaking the girl's exquisite sandals, with white foam slapping against her delicate ankles wave after wave.
He unconsciously fixed his gaze here because he felt the pressure from the opponent in that probing move just now.
Having traveled with Uchiha Itachi for many years, Hoshigaki Kisame had developed such a habit—not looking at the enemy's eyes and hands during battle.
No matter how much Kisame said Haruno Sakura wasn't strong, obviously at this moment he had already treated the girl as a figure of Itachi's level, so he subconsciously made movements to guard against Itachi.
It wasn't until he stared at the girl's fair calves for a full second that he realized the opponent wasn't Itachi, not a monster with the Mangekyo Sharingan.
But a monster proficient in Water Style.
"Interesting." Kisame sneered, pulling his gaze from the ground to Haruno Sakura's face, and said in a deep voice.
In the clash just now, he was the one who attacked first, but the opponent's counter-reaction was extremely fast. The Water Style even arrived first despite being launched later, suppressing his attack.
Even he panted heavily after using a Great Waterfall Jutsu of this level; but Haruno Sakura still looked calm and composed.
The result of the probe was that his Water Style was slightly inferior.
Her hair sticking to her head after being wet made Haruno Sakura, who claimed to be 165cm tall, two centimeters shorter; looking a bit shorter again. However, whether it was the claimed 165 or the shrunk 163 after the rain, in front of Kisame's height of nearly two meters, she was a tiny one, without much difference. It was just that the huge gap in height or body shape was not reflected in strength and chakra.
From the stance of the ninjutsu, Sakura's chakra amount was even larger than his.
It's the effect of the Yin Seal...
Kisame's heart trembled.
The cold words seen in the intelligence were never as vivid and powerful as the feeling when encountering face to face. It wasn't until he faced Haruno Sakura directly that Kisame realized what the Yin Seal meant.
How much chakra has she stored in the Yin Seal?
Not only chakra, but in terms of Water Style, this young girl's ninjutsu attainment was also faintly higher than his.
This was the first time Kisame met a ninja whose Water Style could contend with or even be stronger than his in a ninjutsu clash.
A tricky opponent.
"Your Water Style is indeed very strong..." Kisame said coldly. "However, in front of my Samehada, your ninjutsu is meaningless."
While speaking, he grinned ferociously, revealing a mouth full of dark yellow and eerie sharp teeth.
"Samehada... the ability to absorb chakra?" Haruno Sakura responded faintly, her gaze falling on the large sword in Kisame's hand.
"It seems you know my intelligence in detail. Did the Mist Village tell you? Hmph... have those blockheads started to learn to cooperate with the outside world?" Kisame spat disdainfully, snorted from his large nose, and said, "But this is nothing... it's just that the intelligence aspect is evened out. I know your intelligence just as well! What truly determines the outcome is the gap in strength between you and me..."
He lifted the Samehada sword and pointed it at Haruno Sakura.
The blade was originally wrapped in dense bandages layer by layer, tightly enclosing the large sword; at this moment, a change occurred on the sword. Sakura looked closely and saw the blade squirming constantly, as if it had life—strictly speaking, Samehada was a living organism—then the bandages quickly unraveled, revealing a dark blue blade covered with barbs. A large mouth full of sharp teeth opened at the tip of the blade, and a dark red tongue swam faintly in Samehada's mouth, making weird crunching noises.
A thick large sword wrapped in bandages instantly turned into a squirming ferocious giant fish.
"You have absolutely no chance of winning!" Kisame said with a sneer.
"So much nonsense..." Sakura frowned slightly and said with a cold face.
It seemed that many ninja had this tendency to be chatterboxes, especially the more powerful ones. When reading manga in her previous life, she thought it was just a manga expression technique to unfold settings and stories through character dialogue, but in this life, she witnessed with her own eyes that many ninja indeed talked a lot.
This was a bit different from the cool ninja image she imagined; logically speaking, for such a cruel profession as ninja, the corresponding practitioners should be serious and taciturn people.
This was where she was mistaken: the temperament of ninja corresponded not to the army, but more like mercenaries, elite, powerful, but undisciplined and full of personality. Subconsciously talking a lot was to relieve the pressure of precarious survival and combat. The more powerful the ninja, the more likely this was. Ninja like Itachi who liked to be silent were actually the minority. Ninja with excessive psychological pressure and long-term lack of release were more likely to have problems on the battlefield and in combat—that is, die faster and more often.
Some people also wanted to pressure the enemy through talking; when the number of combatants was small, this little trick was quite effective.
Kisame belonged to the first type.
The Kisame known from the manga in her previous life or the intelligence in this life was a monotonous and pale image: a pure villain who lost faith and glory, defected from his country and village, had no friends or relatives, and only wanted to survive. But from the opening ninjutsu clash and Kisame's slightly chatty words, this rogue ninja image gradually became three-dimensional in Haruno Sakura's eyes—a feeling that could absolutely not be felt just from text and images, but could only be vaguely experienced after seeing with one's own eyes, hearing with one's own ears, and fighting with one's own hands.
Haruno Sakura had such a feeling: the person in front of her was by no means the rogue ninja in the data who had betrayed everything and lost faith. His eyes were fierce and cruel, but at the same time very firm.
Seeming to firmly believe in something.
A person walking in the darkness, but without confusion.
Sakura had no intention of continuing the conversation.
On the other side, Sasuke was still holding off Itachi. She didn't have the leisure to waste time with Kisame playing pre-battle trash talk. Haruno Sakura had no interest in understanding what beliefs he still held. If Kisame was just a simple thug, then he was a fierce enemy; if Kisame firmly believed that what he and the Akatsuki were doing was right, then he was a fierce and determined enemy.
The difference was only that the latter was harder to defeat.
The girl took out a pair of black gloves and put them on her hands carefully. These were specially made ninja gloves, extremely tough, woven with silk threads of extremely high strength and excellent compatibility with chakra. Naturally, they were also extremely expensive gloves. Among the Jonin of Konoha, they were considered rare items. Without strength and status like Haruno Sakura's, one couldn't afford such things; they could protect the hands well, prevent injuries from sharp weapons, and also provide excellent protection for the Monstrous Strength Technique Haruno Sakura often used.
It was just that after reaching Haruno Sakura's level, the help that general external objects could provide was very little. No matter how good the gloves were, the added defense was not as good as adding a layer of chakra to her hands. Exquisite chakra control skills could bring the effect of this chakra enhancement to an incredible level. The skin that looked delicate and soft could become tougher and stronger than steel under her manipulation!
Therefore, unlike Haruno Sakura in the later stages of the original story, she didn't even bother to use this kind of equipment when facing ordinary enemies.
However, to defeat Kisame as quickly as possible, this bit of help was better than nothing.
What's more...
The girl narrowed her light green eyes and looked at the Samehada sword.
This large sword looked scary, but its true combat method was not to chop people, but to shave people. More precisely, shaving chakra.
The trick of enhancing the body with chakra to greatly increase its strength, allowing flesh and blood to contend with steel weapons, wouldn't work against it.
Because it would shave off the chakra along with the flesh and blood.
It would be fine if it were other places—anyway, places with the most flesh didn't have much meat, ptui, anyway, it could be restored with Yang Release medical ninjutsu—but the palms were where medical ninjutsu seals were formed. With a layer of glove protection, in any case, it could be considered a bit of comfort.
Haruno Sakura put on the gloves and moved her fingers. The black gloves were extremely thin and silky. When worn on the hands, one couldn't even feel their resistance, causing no hindrance to the seal-forming movements. Sakura glanced at her hands. Her slender and delicate fingers made various movements dexterously. If not seen with eyes, one would simply mistake wearing nothing but air.
While making these movements, she was silently mobilizing her chakra.
The massive amount of energy stored in the Yin Seal leaked out crazily under the girl's stimulation, but under her extreme control, the exterior was calm and unruffled.
Taking advantage of the gap in conversation, she quietly prepared a ninjutsu.
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