"Swish, swish..." Two figures leapt out, one after another, from the dust kicked up by the shattered ground.
Sakura's enraged punch carried immense power; even with the sand as a buffer, the ground was still smashed into a spiderweb of cracks.
Stones from underground were dislodged to the surface, standing upright in the sand.
Upon landing, Sakura looked at the woman opposite her, whose hair color was identical to her own, and asked cautiously, "Who are you?"
Sakura was willing to guarantee the gender of her future children that this woman had absolutely not been in the examination hall.
Those ears were far too conspicuous; once seen, they could never be forgotten.
At the same time, she felt a small thrill within her. She felt like she had encountered an alien. Humans absolutely couldn't have such ears. Someone with ears that long must be the kind of alien that Iruka Sensei talked about, invading Earth!
Naruto placed his hands on his lower abdomen, bowing with a smile, "A newly joined Valkyrie, Yae Sakura. Please treat me well."
These were Yae Sakura's original lines.
When acting, one must go all out. At the very least, before exiting, the character's persona must be fully conveyed.
"Joined? You've joined some organization?" Sakura pinpointed a blind spot.
Naruto controlled his ears to twitch with chakra, his long pink hair fluttering in the wind. He drew a long katana from his waist and, still smiling, said, "You found out, didn't you? In that case, I'll just have to silence you."
A simple set of actions perfectly embodied Yae Sakura's sweet-turned-malicious personality.
Sakura "..."
This woman, is she crazy?
You spill the information yourself, and then you silence me? What is that for? Can't you find a good excuse to kill someone?
"Cough, cough, cough..." Ino coughed as she emerged from the dust.
Ino had been jolted awake by Sakura's punch.
She had expected to wake up in the underworld again, but to her surprise, she was still alive. However, the dusty environment inside the tent clearly indicated severely excessive PM2.5 levels. Ino, covering her nose and mouth, sensed Sakura's location and rushed out.
After a few coughs, feeling a bit better, Ino asked, "What's going on?"
The person who knocked her out last night was clearly a man; how did he turn into a woman?
"I don't know. I just woke up and found her standing next to me with a syringe."
"Are you alright then?" Ino moved to stand beside Sakura, both adopting defensive stances. She glanced up and down at Sakura from the corner of her eye, then froze. "You sleep with cat ears on?"
The situation had been sudden, so Sakura hadn't had time to check what was on her head. Only now did she realize.
She raised a hand, intending to take off the cat ears.
Just then, Naruto moved, incredibly fast, like a pink flash.
Naruto hadn't interrupted the two women's conversation earlier, not saying a word. But talking was one thing, chatting was another. If you intended to take off those cat ears, that would be making a mockery of him.
Seeing Sakura make the motion to remove them, Naruto decisively launched an attack, interrupting the two women's meaningless chatter.
The speed was too great; Ino didn't react at all, but Sakura did.
Sakura first bumped Ino out of the way, then used a kunai to barely parry, altering the blade's trajectory.
One of the three medical ninja commandments was the absolute necessity of self-preservation, with the exception of those with the Strength of a Hundred Seal. To train Sakura's self-preservation abilities, Tsunade subjected her to special training every day, which basically amounted to hitting her.
So, before Sakura learned to hit people while empowered by the Strength of a Hundred Seal, she had to learn how to take a beating.
The more you're hit, the more you learn to dodge. Even if you can't dodge, you learn to take the blow with the least amount of damage.
It was very much in the Naruto-style education philosophy.
"Clink!" Naruto, having brushed past them, didn't look back, sheathing his katana. Along with the crisp sound, a line of blood appeared on Sakura's arm.
After sheathing his blade, Naruto turned back. "Good reaction."
He had indeed held back, but Sakura being able to dodge was still quite surprising to him.
Ino, who had stumbled from the collision, had just regained her balance. She straightened her arms, forming a long frame with her hands, aiming at Naruto.
This was a unique gesture of the Yamanaka clan. Once aimed, it allowed one to activate the Mind Transfer Jutsu to take over the opponent's body. Of course, if one was skilled, they didn't need to aim perfectly, like Inoichi Yamanaka, who could use it with a casual gesture and a slight glance.
Naruto was very familiar with Ino's pose. In his previous life, at anime conventions, some photographers would use this pose to get a shot.
You're so pretty, why are you taking pictures of me instead of yourself?
But then he remembered he was currently cosplaying Yae Sakura and felt relieved.
Giving Ino a sweet smile, Naruto instantly vanished from the spot.
I gave you the shot, whether you can focus or not is none of my business.
His speed was incredibly fast; the sand kicked up behind him obscured the two girls' vision.
"Gulp." Ino swallowed. The opponent's speed just now was fast, but she could still somewhat see it. Her body just couldn't react. Now, she couldn't even see a shadow.
If she couldn't see, she couldn't release her Mind Transfer Jutsu.
The Ino-Shika-Cho formation was very strong. The complementarity of their abilities and their tacit cooperation allowed them to challenge opponents beyond their level. During the Fourth Great Ninja War, Kinkaku was defeated by them despite being stronger.
However, once they were separated, they could be vulnerable to enemies who were stronger.
Their abilities were too specialized.
Ino also knew that her clan's secret jutsu couldn't be coordinated with Sakura, so she had to switch to another method.
She enhanced her perception of her surroundings and released a mental link to Sakura: "Sensory Transfer!"
She transmitted her sensory findings to Sakura.
Sakura received the information and punched forward.
Naruto ran a few circles around them, but ultimately chose to face them head-on; backstabbing wasn't his style.
Sakura's punch was very powerful, but unfortunately, it lacked speed. Naruto merely shifted one step to the left, dodging the mountain-splitting blow.
He probably wouldn't die if Sakura hit him with her full power, but his big brother-in-law would definitely die of shame and indignation.
"Swish, swish, swish."
In an instant, Naruto traversed back and forth around the two three times, always striking Sakura. Even though they were in the same team and had shared meals, he didn't have much interaction with Ino; they weren't close, so it was hard to target her.
"Clink." Naruto stopped and sheathed his katana. Three more scratches appeared on Sakura's arm, each exactly one centimeter apart. Adding the previous scratch, there were now four in total.
Sakura was forcibly turned into a Young Pioneer by Naruto.
And a captain-level one at that, with four stripes.
A certain General Captain with innate six stripes nodded with satisfaction and said, "At my speed, you two are no different from standing still."
Although he was older than before, these two girls' strength was clearly inferior to Gaara's during the last Chunin Exam. And Naruto, with his daily iron-weight training and the use of Nine-Tails Chakra, his speed even surpassed Rock Lee's when he opened the Third Gate back then.
Fighting them felt a bit like bullying, so Naruto only hit Sakura. There was no poison on his blade, and the wounds were very shallow; Sakura could heal them with any simple medical ninjutsu.
The two girls stared intently at the abnormally fast woman before them, communicating through their mental link.
Ino's voice trembled, "This... this is too strong."
"I know." Sakura clutched her arm. Despite her attempts to dodge, every scratch was perfectly even in length and spacing. Such an enemy... they couldn't fight.
"I'll distract her. You go wake Choji, and then... escape." Sakura said, clenching her fist.
Although she didn't know why Naruto only hit her, only by staying could she buy them some time. Otherwise, with the opponent's speed, wiping them out was just a matter of whether they felt like it or not.
Ino returned her a smile. "How could I possibly leave you alone?"
While they were rivals over Sasuke, apart from that, they were childhood best friends who grew up together.
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