Chapter 574: Another Battle
This small spar between Sakura Uchiha and Sasuke was quite lackluster in its specific details. Compared to the earth-shattering great battle in the previous volume, there were neither flashy moves nor sharp killing intent, only hand-to-hand combat that stopped exactly at the point of impact.
Sakura Uchiha, having restricted the power output of her Nintaijutsu, performed averagely in the taijutsu battle.
Indeed, Sakura Uchiha inherited all the taijutsu skills, such as the Monstrous Strength jutsu, from the original Haruno Sakura, and also inherited her years of combat experience. Theoretically speaking, she is exactly another one hundred percent cloned Haruno Sakura.
However, in practice, she encountered a predicament known as "having high standards but low abilities".
But before discussing this problem, let us temporarily shift our perspective to another place on the ninja planet, within a certain country in the middle of the continent. Here, a battle is also taking place simultaneously.
A battle with both gorgeous ninjutsu bombardments and the collision of sharp killing intent.
Boom, boom, boom—!
"Go to hell, traitor!"
Amidst the blazing firelight and the heaven-shaking roar, several tall buildings collapsed with a crash. The intricate drainage pipes attached to them were blasted into pieces, and fragments and stones splashed everywhere like shrapnel.
Rolling thick smoke rose accordingly, firmly shrouding the exploded area, making it impossible to see the scene inside.
A figure flew out from the thick smoke, flapping the wings behind her, and stood high in the air.
She was draped in Akatsuki's black cloak with red clouds, her exquisite figure faintly visible beneath the cloak. With a beautiful face and indifferent eyes, she was impressively the founding member of Akatsuki—
Konan, who considered herself the angel of God.
The battle where she was defeated by Haruno Sakura two days ago did not leave her with any physical pain, but after this battle, there was much less arrogance and a bit more caution in Konan's eyes.
At this moment, her expression was stern, and her beautiful eyes were cautiously scanning the dust-obscured area beneath her feet.
"Come out!" the woman shouted loudly, "I know you wouldn't die so easily!"
No one answered, and it was dead silent all around.
Then abruptly, a voice sounded, answering Konan—
"Fire Release: Great Fire Annihilation!"
A massive fireball charged out covertly from the gray haze, attacking the woman in mid-air cunningly and fiercely! Konan's expression changed slightly, and the paper in her hands turned into a shield, facing the fireball, but her body abruptly twisted to the side and landed on the ground—
Bang!
Following a deafening cracking sound, the paper shield was burned to ashes, and the woman's figure brushed past the fireball in a miserable state.
"You cannot escape, Konan."
The man's low voice sounded teasingly from behind the Paper Angel, and as he spoke, a kunai was already quietly pressed against the woman's throat.
"What a fast... speed."
Konan turned her head with difficulty, a trace of disbelief in her gaze, and said in shock.
Then, the instant their lines of sight met, the woman suddenly revealed a bizarre smile.
"What a pity, you've found the wrong person, Madara!"
The thick scorched smell of burning strange paper reached "Madara's" nose. His expression suddenly sank, and then a white light flashed—
Rumble!!!
The hostage woman turned into countless burning explosive tags, detonating all at once in an instant. Among the ruined buildings, a blindingly huge fireball suddenly appeared!
The vigorous and dynamic explosion dyed half the sky a bizarre rose-red color.
The woman's figure emerged from the extreme distance, her pretty face illuminated unpredictably by the firelight of the explosion.
Even at such a distance, the blazing heat of the fireball could still be felt, hot enough to cause pain. However, Konan stood unconcerned, staring fixedly at the fireball in the center of the explosion.
The man who was once considered a comrade, but had now completely torn off all pretense to become an enemy, the guy calling himself Madara Uchiha, was slowly walking out from the center of the fireball.
His footsteps were steady and powerful, and there was no ripple in his eyes.
It was as if that intense explosion hadn't harmed a single hair on his head.
Although she had expected it, seeing this scene, Konan still couldn't help but feel her heart sink.
"What a dangerous jutsu indeed, Konan!" He raised his head, looked at the woman in the distance, and said in a frivolous tone.
The woman's expression was gloomy, and she snorted coldly: "Hmph! What a pity it didn't blow you to death!"
"There is nothing to be sorry about," "Madara" shook his head, revealing a twisted smile under his mask. "Both you and I know clearly that this level of jutsu is ineffective against me!"
Konan gritted her teeth, speechless.
She knew the person in front of her was very likely not Madara, yet he possessed extremely tricky and bizarre abilities. Dealing with him might be even more difficult than dealing with an aged Madara Uchiha!
Obito continued to say: "Struggling any further is useless! Hand over Nagato's corpse. As long as I obtain the complete Rinnegan, for the sake of our past, I can spare your life!"
The woman sneered, a sarcastic look appearing on her face: "Do you think I would believe your nonsense?"
Today's battle had allowed her to completely see the true face of the person before her!
In fact, Nagato was of course not dead!
The ones who died in that world-shocking battle were only his Six Paths of Pain clones.
But Obito and Zetsu didn't know this! Obito didn't participate in that operation, and White Zetsu wasn't suited for operating in the ocean.
Thus, Nagato and Konan created an illusion.
Pretending that Nagato was dead...
To test Obito's ambition and true purpose.
Regrettably, in this small test, Obito failed, and his ambition was completely exposed.
From beginning to end, he had only treated Akatsuki and Nagato as mere tools to complete his plan! The moment he learned of Nagato's death, he made a choice—
Seize the Rinnegan!
Facing Konan, he didn't even disdain to conceal his thoughts.
And Konan, who had long suspected Obito of leaking intelligence to get Nagato killed, didn't hesitate to tear off all pretense the moment Obito made his move!
Thus, this current battle came to be.
A battle representing the complete rupture within Akatsuki!
The two groups, who already harbored ulterior motives, eventually arrived at the crossroads of parting ways under various coincidences and inevitabilities.
Of course, for a group of foreign vagabonds and S-rank wanted criminals harboring unfathomable motives and mutual distrust to unite under an ethereal goal, dedicating their lives and braving death to contribute to a dark organization—that would be a true fairy tale!
The emergence of various filthy discords, treacherous tricks, and even vicious infighting and firefights internally should be the normal direction of development.
This winter, the fairy tale named "Akatsuki" was finally disillusioned, heading towards the familiar and clichéd ending of internal strife.
Nagato's feigned death made Obito finally bare his fangs.
"You don't need to believe it," Obito said faintly. He looked calmly at Konan, as if looking at a little bird struggling in a cage.
Against her, Obito had the absolute certainty of victory.
"No matter what," his tone was calm, the three tomoe in his eyes slowly spinning, and he said, "you cannot stop me from getting what I want."
The woman's face was so dark it seemed as if water could drip from it.
"Don't even think about succeeding!" Konan shouted sternly.
After speaking, she took a deep breath, her chakra suddenly erupting, instantly condensing into countless explosive tags!
Swish, swish, swish!
The Paper Angel waved her hand forcefully, and the dense explosive tags immediately flew towards Obito, blotting out the sky and covering the earth.
Detonate!
Continuous rumbling sounds resounded violently in an instant.
Obito sneered, turning his body intangible, repeating his old trick, letting the explosive tags pass through him and explode piece by piece.
The blinding firelight lasted for quite a long time. When the explosions subsided, Konan had disappeared from Obito's sight.
Took the opportunity to escape?
"Trying to escape?" A cold arc curled up at the corner of the man's mouth. "Can you escape?"
Just as Obito was about to advance with Body Flicker, a figure suddenly emerged from underground and grabbed his clothes—
"Wait!"
Obito turned his head in displeasure.
It was White Zetsu.
"At least take this, just in case!" White Zetsu handed over a small bottle.
"Hmph, a waste of time!" Obito impatiently took it, and then hurriedly disappeared from his original spot with Body Flicker.
Pop, pop—
Following the sounds of several bubbles bursting, the White Zetsus successively popped their heads out from underground.
"This guy..." One of them was the fusion of Black Zetsu and White Zetsu. The black part looked in the direction Obito left, frowned, and said, "Too impulsive!"
"With Obito's power, dealing with Konan is not a problem," the white side retorted.
Zetsu began to talk to himself. Having two personalities, he frequently exhibited this phenomenon that seemed incredibly bizarre to outsiders.
"The problem is, what if Konan lied?" Black Zetsu said thoughtfully, "Dealing with Nagato and Konan at the same time, Obito would be in danger..."
"That is indeed true. But why would Konan lie?" White Zetsu retorted unconvinced. "What is her motive for doing that?"
Silence for a long time.
So long that the other White Zetsus thought Zetsu had truly transformed into a plant.
Black Zetsu suddenly realized: "She is testing Obito! No, Nagato is very likely not dead yet. They suddenly started distrusting Obito, so they used this fake news to test Obito's true purpose!"
"This is just your speculation, right?" White Zetsu said, "I think it's not necessarily—"
"No!" Black Zetsu interrupted his words and said quickly, "If Nagato was really dead, would Konan dare return to the base to face Obito? If I were her, I would take the Rinnegan and fly far away, hiding as far as possible! If she dares to return, she definitely has confidence backing her!"
White Zetsu suddenly saw the light in an instant: "Her confidence is that Nagato is still alive! Oh no, Obito is in danger!"
Black Zetsu narrowed his eyes.
The two most useful pawns under his command suddenly having a fallout and turning against each other made him feel a bit surprised, as well as an unexpected surge of anger.
He had originally thought he could manipulate others like marionettes, but in fact, even the humblest of people might fight back against the strings of fate manipulating them, let alone figures like Obito Uchiha and Nagato?
Not to mention, with the stunning emergence of a certain someone and their repeated actions disrupting Akatsuki, undercurrents had long begun to surge within Akatsuki: Obito was increasingly impatient with playing the role of an idiot. Seeing the Akatsuki led by Nagato repeatedly suffer setbacks and operate with low efficiency, he had long harbored the thought of replacing him and reaping the rewards. Nagato, facing some failures, especially after discovering that Haruno Sakura had grasped his classified intelligence, had also begun to develop a great sense of distrust towards a certain mysterious member within Akatsuki...
No matter how much Black Zetsu could manipulate human hearts and lay out schemes, these rifts could not be mended. This was the natural opposition between the ruling party and the opposition party.
The current development of events was nothing more than an inevitable outcome sooner or later.
Even in that world before Haruno Sakura transmigrated (the original world), if Nagato hadn't died in Konoha, the two would have had a battle sooner or later, a battle to seize the initiative of the plan.
Seeing the plan change and the pawns disobeying, Black Zetsu was naturally filled with anger in his heart.
However, in front of the other White Zetsus, he still had to honestly play the role of Madara Uchiha's will clone and maintain this deception, so he had no way to vent his anger.
"Let's go!"
Zetsu could only say this one word resentfully before diving underground.