Chapter 381: Surprise and Freeze
Watching Tobi disappear into the ground of the hall, Obito stood silently for a long time, motionless, saying nothing.
His eyes were extremely cold.
After Madara's death, Obito, who inherited his will to execute the Eye of the Moon Plan, had been acting in secret. With his superb strength and White Zetsu's intelligence support, he rarely encountered setbacks.
Uchiha Itachi was the first surprise to jump out of his control.
Selecting sensitive boys, they are in an important period of establishing their three views. At this time, if given appropriate "guidance," it is easy to guide them onto the path one wants them to take.
From Madara to Orochimaru, many successful examples under their hands verified this.
However, when applied to Uchiha Itachi, Obito failed. Itachi did not, as he imagined, fall into endless darkness after slaughtering his entire clan with his own hands and become a pawn he could manipulate. Instead, he became an eyesore that might hinder the plan—although so far, Itachi had not shown signs of betraying the Akatsuki.
If Itachi was at least an outstanding talent he personally selected—although too outstanding to be easily manipulated—then Haruno Sakura's rise was a surprise that truly astonished even Uchiha Obito.
Yes, a surprise.
Conspiracies hate surprises, uncontrollable surprises. Because conspiracies are always carried out in the dark, obtaining asymmetrical advantages in intelligence and information by hiding oneself, thus being able to pry the whole world with a small force. So once a surprise appears, facing unexpected things, the conspirator's asymmetrical advantage disappears, or the plan is exposed, or difficult problems arise without prior preparation.
Haruno Sakura was such a surprise in Obito's view.
He couldn't imagine at all how a girl of fourteen or fifteen, without any clan-inherited Kekkei Genkai, without extremely brilliant teachers, without powerful secret technique inheritance, without outstanding talent, could grow to this level today. You know, at the age of thirteen, Obito was still the "dead last" of Team Minato, with combat power only slightly greater than the team's medical ninja Rin Nohara; Minato Namikaze, a prodigy of his generation, was just a slightly fast Chunin at that age.
Obito could understand figures like Hashirama Senju and Madara Uchiha having high strength at such an age. Itachi was also very strong at this age. As for himself, combining the power of Wood Style and Sharingan, and personally taught secret techniques by Madara, his strength only advanced by leaps and bounds after awakening the Mangekyo.
But Haruno Sakura... on what basis?
This did not conform to the common sense recognized by Obito.
But existence is reasonable.
Things had already happened. Closing his eyes and shouting "this is impossible" wouldn't help; since Haruno Sakura's existence had repeatedly clashed with the Akatsuki, seriously injured, killed, and might destroy one of his important pawns, Obito could only face this problem squarely.
Uchiha Obito paced into another secret room in the cave, took a not-so-thick stack of documents from the table, printed with the headshots and intelligence of masters from various countries in the ninja world. He pulled out Haruno Sakura's sheet, pinned the forehead of the girl in the picture with a kunai, and casually stuck it on the wall.
Also stuck on the wall were a dozen or so scattered sheets. The one closest to Sakura had a picture of a handsome blond man drawn on it, with a few large blood-red characters written under the headshot:
Minato Namikaze.
Processed.
"Next... is you."
Obito said coldly. He took off his mask, his brows locked tightly, his cold eyes staring at the girl smiling like a flower on the wall for a long time, killing intent drifting faintly. It wasn't until chakra fluctuations of battle came from extremely far away that Obito suddenly woke up and turned his thoughts back to the battle between Kisame and Haruno Sakura—
"Can it be felt even here?"
He muttered to himself with a little surprise.
Compared to Uchiha Obito's slight surprise, the White Zetsus peeping at the battle between Haruno Sakura and Kisame on the scene were so shocked by the move Sakura used that they were almost speechless.
The super-giant water ball created by Kisame was actually frozen into a hard ice ball by Haruno Sakura!
"H-How is this possible?!"
"Everything... frozen into ice?"
Several strange half-human half-plant beings hid on a hilltop slightly far from the center of the battlefield, carefully poking their heads out to peep at the battle between the two. Looking at the huge, crystal ice ball in front of them that stretched as far as the eye could see, their tone of voice became a little stuttering due to surprise.
—Just a few seconds ago, that cold ice ball was a shimmering water ball!
Stunned for a while, the White Zetsus came back to their senses and realized what had happened here.
"Can Ice Style actually achieve this level... That girl directly froze Kisame's Water Style into her Ice Style!"
"Compared to Samehada's ability to plunder chakra, Haruno Sakura's ninjutsu is even more domineering... In this way, no matter how strong the Water Style is, it will be completely ineffective against her, right!"
Of course, Haruno Sakura had not yet reached the level of completely ignoring the enemy's Water Style.
The difficulty of freezing ordinary water versus freezing water created by the enemy and full of chakra was worlds apart!
The Ice Style "Frost Funeral" used this time to freeze the water ball containing Kisame's chakra was specially enhanced by her. Just the preparation took a long time!
It could even be said to have been prepared for a year—counting from the first time she realized the power of Yin Release.
Yes, this was Ice Style infused with the nature of Yin Release... That's why it had such ability, able to forcibly bypass Kisame's tyrannical chakra and freeze the water in the Water Style! This was something ordinary Ice Style users could absolutely not do—Kisame was not a mediocre hand like Suigetsu! (From Chapter 320 Haku vs. Suigetsu)
The power of Yin Release is the power of will. It suppressed and stripped Kisame's chakra in the water. No, to be precise, it should be suppressing the spiritual part of Kisame's chakra, making it degenerate into power without will, thus being completely frozen by Haruno Sakura's Ice Style!
Haruno Sakura seemed to have not developed any new large-scale ninjutsu in the past year, her strength seemingly standing still.
But those who truly understood her knew that this girl had not slowed down her pace of becoming stronger... It was just that her progress was not as obvious as before.
Combat experience, application of ninjutsu... and so on.
In those invisible places, Haruno Sakura was growing quietly.
On the battlefield.
In the ice ball.
After using Ice Body Flicker, Haruno Sakura appeared on the surface of the ice ball and let out a long breath.
Under her feet was a transparent layer of ice. Through it, Kisame's figure could be seen, as small as an ant.
Kisame's ninjutsu, Super Shark Bomb Jutsu, was not frozen in the end. The huge shark created by the ninjutsu looked like a loach jumping out of a pond from the girl's height, struggling hard inside the ice ball.
The sharp teeth of the shark were still gnawing at the ice inside the ball bit by bit, converting the chakra in the ice shards into its own.
It seemed that if it continued to gnaw, it would take a long time to finish gnawing Sakura's ice ball.
The best way to deal with chakra absorption... is to use an excessive amount of chakra so that Samehada can't suck it dry all at once!
Samehada needs time.
However...
Would Haruno Sakura give it so much time?
"Then..." The girl stood on the ice ball, forming seals while speaking faintly.
Having used a ninjutsu of this magnitude, Sakura's chakra was still vigorous and bottomless.
"Time to say goodbye."
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