Chapter 543: Konan
Akatsuki's "White Tiger", Konan.
No surname, a war orphan. From the Land of Rain. Wandered together with Nagato and Yahiko in childhood, later discovered by Jiraiya and taken as disciples. One of the three founders of Akatsuki.
Strength should be above Jonin level.
The original world and the intelligence provided by Jiraiya only had this much. In the original world, Naruto and the others didn't fight Konan, and Jiraiya had also lost contact with Nagato's trio for many years, so this muddle-headed master Perverted Hermit was also unclear about many things.
But judging solely from the woman's momentum, Haruno Sakura could be certain that Konan's strength would absolutely not be weaker than the other members of Akatsuki.
Although her appearance was very deceptive.
Her pretty face was slightly cold, her appearance extremely beautiful, almost bewitching. Such a young cold beauty, putting away her smile, pursing her crimson lips, when those eyes under deep purple eyeshadow looked at Haruno Sakura indifferently, it was really hard for her to associate such an iceberg beauty with the identity of an elder of "Akatsuki", the most feared terrifying underground organization in the entire ninja world.
Coincidentally, however, the excellent female ninja Haruno Sakura had met, those with outstanding strength, usually also had appearances above the standard line, from Tsunade, Mei Terumi, Yugao Uzuki, down to Haku, Hinata, and Ino...
And even Haruno Sakura herself.
There seemed to be no inevitable connection between beauty and strength. But fundamentally, ninja is a game of chakra, and omnipotent chakra, besides being used for combat, has many other functions that can be developed—as Tsunade's disciple, Haruno Sakura knew her master was particularly adept at a certain path.
So this wasn't worth being surprised about.
What Haruno Sakura felt strange about was—she had experienced many battles, big and small, and had seen many different enemies, there were ugly melons and cracked dates like Kisame and Kakuzu, and there were also handsome male god-level figures like Itachi Uchiha and Sasori of the Red Sand, but...
A female ninja, a woman of this level, it was her first time facing one.
Before battle, she naturally wouldn't let messy thoughts of "such a beautiful lady, why be a thief" affect her brain, nor would she generate the illusion of showing tender affection for a woman because of the opponent's gender...
—After all, who is the tender and affectionate one here!
Haruno Sakura slowly raised her hand, astonishing chakra frantically surging at her fingertips, blue light suddenly appearing.
"Before we start, I want to ask a question first."
The pink-haired girl slightly raised her head, pointing her finger at Konan flying in mid-air, and said coldly.
The Angel of Paper had an indifferent expression, her exquisite eyelids drooping, looking down coldly at the girl undulating with the waves on the sea surface, remaining silent.
"Why?"
The girl asked.
Why, as Jiraiya's disciples, did they embark on this path, establish Akatsuki, stir up trouble everywhere in the ninja world, attempting to subvert the world order?
She was Jiraiya's disciple, Sakura was Tsunade's disciple, the two could even be said to have learned from the same sect, considered fellow disciples and martial sisters, yet ended up meeting in battle here.
Even in the original world, they disregarded the kindness of taking them in and educating them back then, and personally killed their benefactor Jiraiya!
Why?
For Haruno Sakura, all this was a bit hard to understand.
Jiraiya's kindness to Konan and the others was like a second creation! Teaching three wandering orphans who couldn't survive to become capable, giving them the ability to survive, was equivalent to giving them a second life! Even without mentioning the feudal concept of "a teacher for a day is a father for a lifetime", even in her previous life, this was a massive favor.
Were Konan and the others such ungrateful wretches who would kill their master?
From Jiraiya's description, they didn't seem like this kind of people.
Because of this special relationship, because of this incomprehension, Haruno Sakura verbosely asked one more question.
Unlike before, where a fight was just a fight, and why the enemy did it had not half a cent of relationship to her.
"Hasn't Jiraiya-sensei already told you everything?"
The Angel of Paper slowly flapped her wings, her voice distant, responding faintly.
Haruno Sakura frowned and said in a deep voice: "He didn't know that after he left you guys, you would actually create Akatsuki and commit so many mistakes!"
"Mistakes...?"
The corners of the woman's mouth suddenly curled into a mocking arc: "That's just your view. Our path, people like you born in large countries and large ninja villages will never be able to understand!"
Large countries and small countries huh...
A small country surviving in the cracks, an orphan whose country withered and family perished due to war, the stance and concepts of such a person would never be identical to hers.
For a moment, Haruno Sakura was actually speechless.
That woman's firm gaze made her realize how pale the power of words was.
National hatred and family feud, versus a master's kindness and friendship, which is heavier and which is lighter?
There is never a correct answer to this kind of thing. Haruno Sakura only knew that Konan stood opposite her.
She is an enemy.
"If the one standing in front of you stopping Akatsuki was Jiraiya..." Knowing the answer, Haruno Sakura still asked the final question.
"Would you fight him?"
The wings behind Konan paused for a moment.
She seemed to have thought for a long time, but answered without any hesitation.
"I would kill him."
The voice was as cold as an ice cellar, completely devoid of temperature.
The woman's exquisite face was as hard and cold as an iceberg, seemingly eternally unchanging.
Then in the next second, she was cut into fragmented pieces by a silvery-white thin line!
Swish—!
The sharp ray, carrying the master's suppressed anger, slashed down from mid-air, stretching for dozens of strikes, cutting the woman into hundreds and thousands of tiny pieces right in the sky!
When words get sour, adding words is useless.
As soon as Konan's voice fell, the battle started without warning!
—Perhaps for Haruno Sakura, this battle was not like usual; it also had the special significance of cleaning up the sect.
The paper secret technique made the woman immune to Haruno Sakura's attacks that were enough to kill ordinary people dozens of times. The severed corpse pieces in mid-air suddenly turned into paper, folded, deformed, split into countless paper shurikens, paused in the air, and then shot fiercely towards her enemy.
Swish swish swish!
Thousands of paper shurikens shot out rapidly, extremely fast, swift as lightning, stirring up sharp sounds of breaking the air. The whistling sounds were sharp and chilling, forming an unbroken stretch, as if the entire sky was howling and echoing. The vast momentum made people terrified and shocked!
The overwhelming shurikens broke through the air, occupying more than half the sky, covering all of Haruno Sakura's vitals and her entire body, even enveloping her evasion routes. Konan's counterattack was truly menacing!
Facing a move that absolutely couldn't be underestimated by ordinary ninja coming head-on, Haruno Sakura remained unruffled, her expression indifferent and unchanging.
A petty trick.
The girl's eyes seemed to say so.
Admittedly, Haruno Sakura's unique skills couldn't do anything to Konan, but Konan's attack similarly couldn't make her feel pressure!
Relying on the increasingly mature nerve modification and reaction acceleration jutsu—Sakura Dash Stage Three, and increasingly rich combat experience, ordinary attack methods had begun to lose their effect on Haruno Sakura.
Especially after the battle with the fastest man of the current era—the Third Raikage, Haruno Sakura became even more confident in herself!
The Angel of Akatsuki's lightning-fast attack seemed too slow to the girl.
So slow she even had time to flourish her sword.
Haruno Sakura didn't dodge, but stood in place unhurriedly.
A crystal-clear, icy short sword had condensed in her hand at some unknown time. Waiting until the shurikens were close, she abruptly swung her sword to meet the attack; in this instant, the girl's arm and the short sword suddenly turned into a blurry afterimage, easily parrying the high-speed incoming shuriken swarm one by one with an inconceivably fast speed!
Clang clang clang—
The hardness of the paper shurikens was even greater than steel. Clashing with the ice sword, it actually emitted the sound of metal and stone colliding.
Konan's strike didn't succeed, not even managing to force Haruno Sakura to move a step, and instantly reacted.
A sharp longsword abruptly surfaced behind the girl, slashing towards her completely unaware lower back with the momentum of shocking thunder.
It was actually the paper shuriken swarm that, after passing over Haruno Sakura, abruptly drew a large arc, gathered behind the pink-haired girl, and instantly reassembled into Konan's body.
Her body had just condensed the upper half, her graceful waist down still empty, when she fiercely slashed out this unexpected strike!
But, still not fast enough.
The instant Konan slashed out this sword, the girl turned her head as if she had noticed it long ago.
The expression on her face showed neither surprise nor anger.
The moment the longsword approached her, Haruno Sakura had already struck... or rather, kicked.
Using her right foot as the axis, waist and hips as the pivot, dropping her shoulder and leaning forward, her left half body instantly rotated ninety degrees. Her slender and powerful left leg abruptly lifted, thigh taut, calf swinging, suddenly sweeping out a sharp whip kick!
"Nintaijutsu: High Whip Kick!"
Haruno Sakura's counterattack was dazzlingly fast, actually arriving first despite launching later.
Only seeing that slender and straight calf and thigh forming a straight line, seemingly delicate and weak, but when kicking Konan, it felt like a straight, hard iron bar hitting her body, carrying an unstoppable, abundant huge force, crushing everything it kicked into bone fragments and fleshy paste!
Konan's... half body turned into a sky full of crimson fragments, flying and scattering.
Like a blood-colored rose blooming in mid-air!
...Dead?
Haruno Sakura retracted her foot and stood firm, but was somewhat uncertain.
She didn't believe from the bottom of her heart that this woman with extremely strong momentum would die so easily by her hands... or under her feet.
The girl's heart chilled, and then the next instant, she suddenly sensed a familiar chakra fluctuation slightly.
A foul wind struck from above her head.
Looking up, the sky full of flesh and bone fragments had long turned into fluttering paper, condensing again into the woman's flawless and beautiful face. Icy and exquisite eyes looked at the girl indifferently, her right hand with brightly painted nails tightly gripping a sharp sword.
Raised high, swung down fiercely!
Swish—!
In the same sea area, on a certain uninhabited island.
On this sea between the Land of Water and the Land of Fire, such small islands could be seen everywhere. Because of the Land of Water's policy of closing the country and village in previous years, a large number of small islands far away from shipping routes were scattered all over, devoid of human traces, only lush forests and flocks of seabirds landing among them.
This island was exactly like this. No human had set foot on its land for hundreds of years, until today, a skinny, skeletal man sitting on a giant wheelchair-like life-support device and a beautiful woman stepped onto the island, hiding their traces inside the trunk of the tallest and thickest ancient tree.
"How is it... did you meet the Konoha people?"
The man sat in the hollow center of the tree trunk, looking at the paper butterfly flying in from outside, and asked in a hoarse voice.
The paper butterfly flew around the tree hollow once and stopped on the woman's extended slender jade finger. The latter paused, gently closed her eyes, as if reading something.
A moment later.
"Yes, Nagato."
"The main body has already found Haruno Sakura."