Chapter 378: Probing
Haruno Sakura's delicate eyebrows furrowed slightly.
The ability to absorb chakra in large quantities and at high speed, sucking a ninjutsu dry in an instant, was troublesome enough. Coupled with its extremely strong healing ability, Samehada was simply an unsolvable existence combining offense and defense.
Looking at Kisame's vigorous appearance, where was the dying look from just now? The reason Sakura failed to detect and stop Kisame's change in time was not only because her mind was mainly on treating her own injury, but more importantly, Samehada completed the healing in just a few seconds. She simply didn't have time to react!
The unexpected situations appearing one after another made Haruno Sakura feel a little frustrated.
However, no one knew the intelligence that Samehada possessed extremely strong healing abilities beforehand. Sakura couldn't shift the blame onto anyone else, and could only express helplessness at Kisame quietly escaping his inevitable death.
"Samehada says your chakra has the taste of snowflakes, very sweet and delicious, and the quantity is also sufficient. It's rare to see it so excited!" Kisame moved his palm. The wound on his body had healed to the extent that it didn't hinder movement. His right hand seemed to move freely. Then he said leisurely, "However, your punch hurt it a lot. All the chakra it ate just now was used to heal itself and me..."
Samehada shook a few times with quite a bit of spirituality, making weird crunching sounds. The blade that was originally beaten into an L-shape had now returned to a straight blade. Did it heal itself? Sakura caught this detail out of the corner of her eye. Steel wouldn't restore itself to its original shape. This sword was indeed a living creature in essence!
"As a reward for that punch, I'll chop you a few more times!" Kisame swung the large sword in the air and said with malice.
His words implied as if Sakura was already meat on the chopping block, ready to be slaughtered.
"Shameless boasting." Haruno Sakura raised her eyebrows and scoffed.
She didn't know if Kisame's words were truly despising her or deliberately acting like this to provoke his opponent.
Haruno Sakura remained unmoved. She had no time to respond further to this, nor would she be flustered by such provocative words. Of course, she wouldn't be bewildered by the confidence Kisame displayed either.
After two rounds of confrontation, apart from consuming some chakra and confirming the opponent's intelligence, neither side achieved anything in combat. No one gained a clear advantage; instead, they returned to the starting point.
In this case, Haruno Sakura still had full confidence in defeating her opponent.
She had already deeply reflected on her mistake of underestimating the enemy due to self-inflation and nearly being killed by a trick. But this didn't mean that Sakura would go from one extreme to another, from despising the opponent and being arrogant to being overly cautious and belittling herself. The latter could be aptly described by a word: cowardly.
Taking a proper balance between the two, it should be strategically despising the enemy while tactically respecting the enemy—having complete confidence in defeating Kisame, but being cautious enough in specific tactics.
"Samehada's ability is indeed formidable." The girl said faintly.
Actually, Samehada's ability was more than just formidable. Compared to another large sword Sakura was familiar with, the Executioner's Blade, Samehada was completely strong on another level. Any taijutsu, ninjutsu, and genjutsu performed by a ninja, as long as there was external chakra release, would have its chakra absorbed by Samehada, leading to failure. So, except for those with outstanding taijutsu, more than 90% of ninja would be countered by Samehada's ability.
Compared to absorbing chakra and healing the user, the ability to only recover itself by sucking blood was simply too weak; after experiencing Samehada's ability, Haruno Sakura had only one thought: the Executioner's Blade was completely unworthy of being listed alongside Samehada among the Seven Ninja Swords of the Mist. Truly shameful, leave the group!
"However, its ability is not unbreakable. Some special ninjutsu cannot be destroyed by absorbing chakra, such as—" She dragged out her tone, staring tightly at Kisame's eyes, "—the Sharingan."
Sharingan genjutsu is mostly activated through intangible eye contact. Samehada simply cannot absorb the jutsu's chakra. traveling with Uchiha Itachi for several years, Kisame knew this fact very well. Because of this, Itachi's strength was even above his, which was also a major reason why he respected Itachi—even though he still bore the secret mission of monitoring Itachi assigned by "Madara."
However, being deliberately mentioned by Haruno Sakura like this, another thought suddenly popped up in Kisame's mind: asking him to monitor Uchiha Itachi, whose ability countered him perfectly—who was actually restraining whom?
If it were usual, such a thought wouldn't have appeared in Kisame's mind at all. It was just that Sakura's speech just now seemed to have planted a nail in his heart. Defecting from the village was to escape the ugly and false abyss of the Mist Village; joining the Akatsuki and associating with "Madara" was because of the belonging he promised. But what if the defection itself was Uchiha Madara's manipulation of him?
As a rogue ninja hiding in the dark, Kisame had lived in a dangerous environment for many years and was very suspicious; this was true for Haruno Sakura, and inevitably, he also kept a little guard against Uchiha Madara in his heart. Although out of ten sentences from Haruno Sakura, he would consider it a lot if he believed one, thinking more that this was intelligence the girl deliberately used to mislead him; but once the seed of doubt was planted in a person's heart, it was extremely difficult to eradicate.
Of course, with Kisame's firm will, this little suspicion couldn't affect his combat at all, nor would it show any clues on his face. Haruno Sakura guessed from those secret documents that there might be some hidden story in it, so she deliberately used words to probe him, but even with her almond eyes wide open, the girl couldn't see any clues on Kisame's face from such a probe, which was clumsy to him.
It seemed impossible to collect any intelligence about the Akatsuki and that mysterious person calling himself Uchiha Madara from here. An enemy of this level would only reveal intelligence he deliberately wanted you to know. To know more, unless you defeated him and then used genjutsu to pry open his mouth.
Realizing that her little scheme had failed, Haruno Sakura didn't mind, just said coldly: "Don't think that this kind of special ninjutsu is the patent of the Uchiha family..."
Speaking of intangible jutsu, her Phantom Sound Jutsu was also insubstantial; or things like high-pressure water jets, which also had extremely strong lethality without chakra enhancement. Sakura also had several jutsu that were not countered by Samehada.
The only pity was that her Nin-Taijutsu didn't play a big role against Samehada. Although Monstrous Strength was strong, the difficulty of going head-to-head with Samehada at the risk of having chakra absorbed was too high. Guy's Strong Fist style taijutsu, which only consumed physical strength without using chakra, was the nemesis of Samehada.
If it were Guy, opening up to the Sixth Gate is hard to say, but the Seventh Gate should be able to completely crush Kisame. The counter is too severe... The girl silently compared in her heart. Of course she knew that style too. Haruno Sakura's Nin-Taijutsu was essentially a combination of ordinary taijutsu and Monstrous Strength Technique, based on the martial arts of her previous life, mixed with the knowledge of Gentle Fist and Strong Fist learned from Hinata, Guy, and Tsunade in this life, and after rigorous actual combat drills, finally formed the current Nin-Taijutsu.
Sakura was a Kage-level ninja after all, and had fought against opponents of the same level many times. No matter how weak her taijutsu was, it wouldn't be that weak. Just in terms of close-quarters combat skills, she could be called a master among the taijutsu faction. But asking her to fight like Guy and Lee, with her thin arms and legs, without chakra enhancement and without using Nin-Taijutsu, she would probably be powerless.
However, even without Nin-Taijutsu, it wouldn't affect the final outcome...
"Don't underestimate people... otherwise you will make the same mistake as me!" She said faintly.
"Is that so?" Kisame grinned, revealing his sharp teeth. "Then I'll wait and see!"
He didn't take Haruno Sakura's words to heart.
Having mixed in the ninja world for so many years, except for those two people with the Uchiha name, Kisame hadn't met anyone who could truly make him fearful. Even without using Samehada, Kisame's own strength belonged to the outstanding ones among the Kage level. The titles "Tailed Beast without a Tail" and "Abyss-like Chakra Amount" were not for show; possessing Samehada, he was enough to stand at the peak of the ninja world, treating most ninja as ants under his feet, not even putting the power of Tailed Beasts in his eyes.
Kisame had seen so-called special ninjutsu before. So what about the Nara clan's shadow secret technique? Didn't he still chat and lau... ptui, didn't Samehada still absorb the secret technique's chakra, making it useless, and completely counter these so-called secret techniques?
This wasn't Kisame blowing his own horn. Countless ninja who died at his hands proved this with their lives. Kisame had also cut down many so-called clan secret techniques and Kekkei Genkai. As long as it involved chakra release, all of them fell under him and his Samehada without exception; on the contrary, pure taijutsu, or the Kaguya clan of the Mist back then, could still pose some threat to him.
Haruno Sakura's so-called special ninjutsu was probably some Ice Style with special effects, right? She just might not know that there were differences between Kekkei Genkai. Kisame had seen quite a few Ice Style ninja and Ice Style secret techniques, and he didn't feel that Ice Style had anything comparable to the Uchiha's Sharingan.
By the way, who was the last Yuki clan member chopped to death by Samehada? That was all before he defected from the Mist.
Haruno Sakura pursed her lips and did not respond.
The last round of verbal exchange before the engagement ended like this. The trash talk didn't shake each other's beliefs, and the exchange that almost decided the outcome didn't make either side lose confidence in defeating the enemy.
The two looked at each other, knowing that the power of words was pale and powerless to each other, so they fell silent tacitly.
Then, came the more intense third round of battle.
Haruno Sakura completed her Ice Style faster—Kisame confirmed this again. Sakura's ninjutsu was indeed slightly better than his. Seeing the girl's ten slender and nimble fingers dancing in front of her chest, turning into blurred afterimages, the speed of seal formation and chakra mobilization was unimaginably fast. Within one or two breaths, she completed the ninjutsu before him.
"Ice Style: Swallow Snow Storm!"
The girl's hands clasped together for the last seal, ten fingers pressed tightly together, and then the chakra on her body poured out turbulently like a gust of wind, lifting her hem and long hair fiercely upwards!
"Hah!"
Accompanied by a clear shout, the puddle beside Haruno Sakura suddenly boiled, as if scooped up by invisible giant hands, rising abruptly into mid-air. As the cold air of the Ice Style swept over, it instantly condensed into countless crystal, shining four-pointed ice shuriken! The girl raised her right hand high and swung it down forcefully. Hundreds of ice shuriken, full of adult height and emitting cold light, pierced through the air with a swish, making loud and sharp whistling sounds, shooting towards Kisame rapidly in unison!
Swish swish—
A hundred or so giant shuriken turned into streaks of cold light, rushing in front of Kisame in the blink of an eye; the brilliant shuriken seemed to contain extreme danger under their beautiful appearance. This move, originally just an ordinary Ice Style ninjutsu of the Land of Snow, under Haruno Sakura's full exertion, carried the momentum of an extremely high-level ninjutsu, overwhelmingly covering half the sky in front of Kisame!
"Water Style: Water Formation Wall!"
Kisame's ninjutsu was a beat slower. The water wall, not yet fully formed, rose hastily and only lasted for a moment before being smashed by the shuriken with extremely strong penetrating power, turning into splashes filling the sky.
"It seems not simple!" Kisame frowned his thick eyebrows, but the corner of his mouth hung a ferocious smile. He lifted Samehada and greeted Haruno Sakura's ninjutsu.
The collision of shuriken and the large sword made a crisp sound of metal hitting stone. The sensation from the sword made Kisame startled! These shuriken did not disappear after having their chakra absorbed by Samehada as he imagined, nor were they crushed into powder when colliding with the hard large sword like ordinary ice blocks; in fact, Samehada didn't absorb much chakra from the ice shuriken at all, and the hardness of the shuriken far exceeded Kisame's imagination!
"Interesting!"
The shark gill-like stripes on Kisame's face jumped. The fierce wind brought by the shuriken rushed towards his face. This burly man was only surprised for a moment before reacting.
The ice shuriken were condensed from natural water, not ice blocks mimicked by chakra, so naturally they wouldn't disappear after having their chakra absorbed by Samehada. The technique of utilizing the environment is common in Water Style. Being able to apply it in Ice Style only showed that Haruno Sakura's Ice Style nature transformation was extremely skillful and her understanding extremely deep, nothing surprising; as for why the ice shuriken could be hard to this extent, although Kisame didn't know the principle that the colder and purer the ice, the higher the hardness, nor did he know how difficult it was to extract pure water instantly and then cool it down to minus one hundred degrees, this didn't hinder him from understanding the fact that the ice shuriken were extremely hard—even much harder than Samehada itself!
He wielded Samehada. The huge pufferfish-shaped sword body seemed weightless in the hands of this Mist rogue ninja. Cold light flashed, sword shadows fluttered. Facing the brilliantly attacking shuriken swarm, Kisame advanced instead of retreating, striding forward to charge, hacking and slashing all the way, swinging dozens of times, each strike accurately and powerfully intercepting the menacing ice shuriken! In an instant, he had rushed out of the range of the Swallow Snow Storm!
Haruno Sakura formed a sword finger with her left hand, standing in front of her chest, staring tightly at Kisame's figure, always observing and preparing. As long as Kisame revealed a trace of a flaw, she would immediately chain explode the ice crystals or use Ice Body Flicker to jump over and give him a heavy blow.
But until Kisame rushed out of the range of the Ice Style: Swallow Snow Storm, the girl actually didn't find a single such opportunity. Her black-gloved left hand remained motionless on her chest, watching helplessly as Kisame wielded the heavy large sword as if it were light, swinging freely, calmly and steadily knocking down every ice shuriken, sucking their chakra dry, making them lose connection with the caster, unable to be exploded by Sakura or become coordinates for the Body Flicker Technique.
All intelligence emphasized that Kisame's Water Style was extremely strong, chakra extremely plentiful, and Samehada's ability extremely weird.
But before that, don't ignore that he was one of the Seven Ninja Swordsmen of the Mist!
"The probe... was not successful."
Haruno Sakura raised her head and murmured.
Above her head, Kisame, who had rushed through the shuriken swarm, chose not to stop but maintained his charging posture. He leaped high, slashing down at the girl from above.
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