Chapter 424: Seeing Uchiha Itachi Again
Ever since graduating from the Ninja Academy, Haruno Sakura had never shared her training plans with her family. So when she announced she was going to learn Senjutsu, especially when she explained the dangers of Senjutsu, her mother, Haruno Mebuki, was truly startled.
She had been neurotically nagging about this for days.
"Sakura is already so capable, why does she need to learn such a dangerous ninjutsu!" At breakfast the next morning, Mama Sakura nagged again, "Really, what's the point of a girl being so powerful? Running out on dangerous missions every day, how will she find a boy to marry in the future! Dear, you have to go reason with Lord Hokage. Is there no one left in Konoha? Why do they always send my Sakura on dangerous missions? Now she even has to learn that whatever dangerous Senjutsu. It's not like she's becoming an immortal, what's the use of learning that stuff!"
"Mom..." Haruno Sakura was helpless, "I want to learn it myself!"
"You're talking back! It wasn't easy for me to raise you. Can't you be a quiet and beautiful girl like Haku Minazuki? Look how cute Haku-chan is, working as a doctor in the hospital, safe and stable, with many boys chasing her. Blah blah blah..."
Sakura shrank her head, buried her face in her food, and dared not make a sound.
Fortunately, Papa Haruno Kizashi spoke up for his daughter: "Dear, stop nagging Sakura. Sakura has grown up and is an official ninja. Isn't it normal for her to have her own ideas? Just let her be. Trust your daughter! Has Sakura ever disappointed us growing up? No, right?"
"You say no?" Mama Sakura's voice suddenly rose an octave, "She hasn't even brought a boy home yet! Wasn't that boy named Naruto pretty good? Or that black-haired one, quite handsome?"
"..." Haruno Sakura was speechless. While biting a fried egg, she hurriedly slipped (fled) out of the house.
First, she went to meet up with her students.
The Chunin Exams were in a few days.
So Haruno Sakura kept a close eye on them. However, Sakura wouldn't teach them anything new these days; it was too late to learn anyway. The content of the training was mainly repetitive combat practice, helping them consolidate their foundation through actual combat, integrate the taijutsu taught by Hinata, and incorporate it into their own combat system.
After meeting the children and training with them for a while, Haruno Sakura left a few clones to spar with them, and her main body left first.
She also had her own things to do.
Konoha outskirts.
In a remote corner. Underground.
There was a secret base built by Haruno Sakura.
Starting from some unknown time, Haruno Sakura developed a habit of building secret bases underground... Okay, she admitted Orochimaru's trick was quite useful.
However, calling it a secret base, it was actually just an underground laboratory.
The concealment was quite good. The only entrance connected to an underground river, and one had to swim to enter and exit... People who didn't know the way probably couldn't imagine it.
This was not a trouble for Sakura, who was proficient in Water Style.
Jumping into the river, the girl swam in the water like a mermaid, her slender legs swaying lightly, her waist swaying, her posture graceful; the water flow also seemed to become her arms, pushing her forward, constantly accelerating her speed. In a few minutes, she reached the location of the base.
When she emerged from the water, her wet clothes clung tightly to Haruno Sakura, revealing the girl's slender figure completely.
Haruno Sakura climbed ashore and walked barefoot on the smooth ice floor; she shook her hands, using Water Style to draw the moisture away from her clothes, and her body instantly became dry.
Deep underground, dozens of meters down, the only connection with the outside world was this underground river and a few hidden vents. Surrounding the entire base were high-strength ice walls two meters thick. The temperature of minus one hundred degrees in the middle layer and extremely high purity made the ice harder than ordinary steel by two grades. The exaggerated defense was enough to withstand S-rank ninjutsu attacks and the prying eyes of certain monsters that liked to move underground.
This base possessed unparalleled safety and concealment.
It was precisely because of this base built with such painstaking effort that Haruno Sakura dared to confidently reveal her secrets here—
For example, Shisui's Mangekyo Sharingan.
If she guessed correctly, she should be able to gather a pair.
The first one was dug out from Danzo. Haruno Sakura soaked it in a container with orange-yellow nutrient solution and placed it on the table beside her.
Then, the second one.
The girl took a deep breath, formed seals with her hands, and forced out a stream of chakra that Itachi had deeply hidden within her body—
Haruno Sakura gagged somewhat inelegantly and once again spat out the large black bird from her throat. Itachi's black crow flapped its wings like a living creature and landed on the table. Sakura focused her attention on the crow's head. As expected, a red eyeball was impressively installed in its left eye socket, with several black tomoe spinning around.
"It really is that."
Haruno Sakura smiled faintly and reached out to grab the crow, but unexpectedly, the large black bird burst into countless black feathers fluttering in the air with a crash!
"Hn?" Sakura grabbed at empty air, caught off guard, and frowned.
Then—
"Haruno Sakura?"
A man's voice suddenly came from behind.
The girl was startled, turned around abruptly, and reflexively protected her chest with the ice kunai in her hand.
"It's you..." She saw the visitor clearly and breathed a sigh of relief, "Uchiha Itachi."
No, that's not right. Haruno Sakura could sense that the person in front of her was not the real Itachi.
Accurately speaking, he was just an image of Itachi, or rather... a stream of genjutsu chakra left by Itachi in her body.
"The jutsu I left in your body shouldn't have been triggered so early..." Uchiha Itachi stood in front of Sakura, looked around, and asked, "Where is Sasuke? What happened to him?"
Haruno Sakura tilted her head and looked at him with interest.
"Sasuke?" The girl smiled, "Sasuke is not here. Probably training with Kakashi-sensei, or out on a mission. Anyway, he is fine."
"Is that so?" Itachi frowned. As a fragment of chakra left by the main body, he could only maintain his existence for a short period before disappearing, so he had no way to find out if the girl in front of him was lying, but...
Haruno Sakura should be trustworthy, he thought.
"So you actively triggered the genjutsu I left in your body? To be able to see through my genjutsu, it seems I underestimated you, Haruno Sakura."
Haruno Sakura smiled slightly without explaining.
That crow had been in and out of Haruno Sakura's mouth several times, leaving her mouth full of the taste of bird feathers; it was fine not discovering Itachi's trick the first time, but with Sakura's ability, no matter how exquisite the genjutsu was, it couldn't deceive her twice.
"Why did you leave this genjutsu and Shisui's Sharingan in my body?" She asked back, "What does it have to do with Sasuke?"
"The matter between him and me has nothing to do with you, Haruno Sakura." Itachi said indifferently.
"Fate permitting, we shall meet again."
The black-haired man raised his index finger, preparing to transform back into a crow, fly out of the base, and bring the Sharingan back to the main body—
Then, Haruno Sakura suddenly disappeared.
Perhaps the split body's strength was too weak to see clearly, or perhaps Sakura's speed was too fast. Anyway, in that instant, just as Itachi raised his chakra, he saw the girl suddenly flash in front of him, like a movie missing several frames!
"Ice Style: Demonic Mirroring Ice Crystals!"
In the laboratory with ice walls above, below, left, right, front, and back, the speed of Ice Body Flicker was simply too fast!
Giving Itachi no reaction time at all, in a time shorter than a blink, Haruno Sakura pressed close to Itachi and grabbed his hand forming seals.
"You can't run away," the girl said with a smile, the corner of her mouth curling into a perfect arc.
"Uchiha Itachi."
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