Chapter 395: Danzo Shimura's Setback
Although Danzo Shimura's magnanimity was low and narrow—at least in Haruno Sakura's eyes—as a Konoha executive and spy chief, his ability was fairly commendable.
Ruthless and unscrupulous in conspiracy and power tactics; dispensing both grace and severity, rewarding and punishing clearly, and using cold methods in managing subordinates; extremely aggressive and enterprising externally; and possessing strong internal management and control capabilities. That is why, although many people didn't like him, and the Third Hokage even disbanded Root several times, Danzo and his Root could always rise again repeatedly.
As for combat, Danzo, a disciple of the Second Hokage, had also inherited some of Tobirama Senju's true skills. Even if his talent was not as stunning as the Third Hokage's, after countless battles, his combat sense was sharp, and his attacks were decisive and ruthless!
Although he had been hesitating whether to completely tear his face with Haruno Sakura, the moment his impulsive subordinate recklessly launched an attack, the battle-hardened Danzo subconsciously chose an excellent timing to strike.
The moment he shouted to attack was exactly the instant Haruno Sakura threw a punch, her old strength exhausted and new strength not yet born. According to common sense, she was at the lowest ebb of her strength, making it the best time to strike.
This was the Heavenly Timing.
And the girl happened to walk into the middle of the Root crowd at this moment, a position where she would face enemy attacks from all directions! And in the cave, the narrow and cramped environment did not allow Haruno Sakura to use her powerful Water Style proficiently, greatly limiting her strength!
This was the Earthly Advantage.
As for Human Harmony?
Danzo firmly believed that after two major battles, Haruno Sakura's strength should have dropped significantly. On the Root side, the subordinates he brought were all battle-hardened experts. Plus, with the various secret techniques on himself, defeating a newly promoted Kage-level ninja like Haruno Sakura didn't seem to be a big problem.
—Don't you see, back then, even someone as strong as the Second Hokage, Tobirama Senju, was defeated by the Gold and Silver Brothers' unit of the Land of Lightning!
In an instant, many thoughts flashed vaguely through Danzo's mind; with heavenly timing, earthly advantage, and human harmony all present, this move should be foolproof.
"Got her!"
Those turbid and sinister old eyes locked tightly on the girl, a gleam flashing in his eyes. Before the attacks of the Root crowd hit Haruno Sakura, Danzo had firmly reached this conclusion!
This was already a dead end. With Danzo's experience, he didn't think Haruno Sakura could have a way to break the game.
—Until the next moment, Sakura's figure suddenly disappeared from everyone's encirclement.
Without warning, without a trace of smoke and fire, she disappeared into the air.
He realized then that this calculation had fallen through!
In this instant, the pupils in Danzo's narrowed eyes contracted violently!
"W-What!"
Body Flicker Technique?
How could it be so fast...?!
This sinister old man, who always kept a straight face and whose expression was as stiff as ten-thousand-year-old rock, actually showed shock on his face instantly!
However, before the feeling of astonishment surfaced in the hearts of Danzo and the Root crowd, what came first was the thunderous strike from Haruno Sakura.
Within one-hundredth of a second, the girl completed her Body Flicker Technique and suddenly appeared above the blond Root member at the outermost edge of the encirclement.
Silver light exploded, drawing a beautiful arc.
"Mind Trans—"
The afterimage of the girl being surrounded still remained in the Root ninja's eyes. His head flew up, blood sprayed from his neck, and his hands were still forming the seal of the Yamanaka secret technique, but his chakra faded away sadly.
Root ninja Fu Yamanaka, down.
Danzo's reaction was extremely fast, but when he turned his gaze and realized Fu Yamanaka was dead, Haruno Sakura had long since disappeared from the spot again.
Only a headless body was left, falling down weakly.
Danzo didn't even have time to be surprised, to feel heartache for the death of his subordinate, or to feel chilled in his heart; the rhythm of the battle was so fast that even emotions couldn't keep up with her pace!
The pink-haired girl's figure flickered, appearing behind the eye-patch ninja. Her eyes were as cold as frost, and the ice blade in her hand inserted unbiasedly into the heart, coming out through the body with bright red blood.
Torune trembled all over, looked down with a bit of disbelief and confusion in his eyes, and then was frozen by a biting chill. The nano-sized poisonous insects all over his body didn't touch Sakura in the end, and he fell down dejectedly.
The girl crashed into the masked ninja's arms, lowered her body and threw a punch. Vigorous fist strength blasted in from the diaphragm between the chest and abdomen. The Root ninja's eyes suddenly went straight, pupils dilated, and black blood slowly flowed out of his nostrils, ears, and mouth.
Danzo's confidant Terai, down.
And at this time, Danzo had just discovered Fu Yamanaka's death!
Haruno Sakura used her palm as a knife, chopping on the back of a Root ninja's neck, and the latter fell silently.
Haruno Sakura sent a Wing Chun hidden kick swiftly, kicking down a Root ninja and blasting him into the mountain wall.
Swish, swish, swish!
The pink-haired girl's figure flashed continuously in this cramped cave with a frequency beyond imagination, slashing or stabbing, hitting or kicking. Her attacks were as swift as thunder and lightning, overwhelming!
Every slash, every punch, every attack ruthlessly killed or knocked down a Root ninja!
Every flash of her figure meant one less Root ninja standing on the field!
Starting from secret technique ninja and sensory ninja, Haruno Sakura called the roll one by one in order of threat level to her. Danzo's subordinates were like leeks in the field, harvested by her one by one without the power to resist.
Before Danzo even had time to react, in an instant, only his last subordinate remained on the field.
A young ninja wearing a crop top.
The pink-haired girl threw a straight punch. The fist momentum was like a fierce tiger descending a mountain, taking the face directly with biting fist wind, easily smashing the mask on the Root ninja's face into powder, and then—
"I surrender."
The Root member named Sai dropped his brush and raised his hands without hesitation. After the mask broke, the hypocritical fake smile with squinted eyes on the slender boy's face was revealed.
The fierce fist wind blew the boy's hair up in the wind, but the devastating fist finally stopped at the tip of Sai's nose.
Even Sai, trained from the inhuman Root training, secretly breathed a sigh of relief like surviving a disaster at this moment; he had every reason to believe that if this "surrender" hesitated for even 0.1 seconds longer, his head would definitely be smashed like a watermelon by this killer god-like girl with one punch!
So I can't completely ignore life and death yet...
Sai, between life and death, suddenly had this thought. His state of mind, originally as dead as an ancient well, uncontrollably gave birth to many distracting thoughts after relaxing. Then he saw the girl in front of him tilt her head slightly and glance at him.
There was a bit of scrutiny and curiosity in her eyes, much more vivid than the previous cold indifference like frost.
Then, she punched him in the stomach!
"Ugh—!"
Sai rolled his eyes, clutched his stomach, and knelt before Sakura's sandals.
Haruno Sakura didn't even look at him.
She just turned her head and looked at the last remaining enemy standing on the field.
Danzo Shimura.
And at this time, only two seconds had passed since Danzo shouted "Attack."
Two seconds later, Root... annihilated.
Danzo's mood, just beginning to be astonished, skipped furious and splitting eyes, entering the final stage of bitterness in the heart and coldness all over the body.
It was simply a mixture of five flavors, indescribable.
The sudden change was too great. Even he, who claimed his expression wouldn't change even if Mount Tai collapsed before him, felt a bit unable to accept it!
Danzo's hands and feet were cold, as if falling into an ice cave... No, this cave was a bit too cold!
He looked up and saw faint fluorescence flashing on the ceiling of the dim cave. That was...
Danzo suddenly woke up.
"So that's it...!" He spoke with difficulty, saying coldly in a dry and hoarse voice.
Haruno Sakura actually condensed ice blocks on the top of the cave, using this as a medium to cast her secret technique Demonic Mirroring Ice Crystals!
No wonder her Body Flicker Technique was terrifyingly fast.
If not for the wrong color, Danzo would have thought he saw the Yellow Flash again!
In fact, after unlocking various secret techniques, Haruno Sakura's Ice Body Flicker was only slightly slower than Minato Namikaze's Flying Thunder God; if she didn't dislike the title "Pink Flash" for being a bit too girly, Sakura might have happily accepted such a title.
And in front of this buggy Body Flicker Technique, the so-called heavenly timing, earthly advantage, and human harmony became a huge joke!
Yes, a complete joke.
The Fourth Hokage's impressive record of one against fifty was still fresh in memory. How dare these less than ten ninja under Danzo claim "Human Harmony" and numerical superiority in front of Haruno Sakura?
And facing the elusive Body Flicker Technique, where did the "Earthly Advantage" created by the narrow terrain come from?
As for "Heavenly Timing," it was just Danzo's far-fetched imagination.
Haruno Sakura... was not as weak as he imagined at all!
Although he had been collecting intelligence on Haruno Sakura, Root ninja didn't have the strength to intervene in Kage-level battles, so they could only assess Sakura's strength through distant and side observations. At this moment, Danzo finally realized that they had severely underestimated the girl's strength...
Yes, for thousands of years, being a ninja has been a man's game. Women were usually in a weaker state in battle. Even Tsunade, who became Hokage, was the weakest among the Sannin, responsible for support. Even as strong as Mito Uzumaki, she was only rated as a Kage-level ninja by relying on the power of the Nine-Tails. Therefore, Danzo and many others subconsciously underestimated Haruno Sakura's power, always thinking that her successive defeats of enemies were due to various factors.
Perhaps this deep-rooted prejudice also had its own rationality—such as women's inherently weaker physical fitness and lower combativeness, but at least in Haruno Sakura's case, prejudice was just prejudice.
"It's your turn..." The pink-haired girl raised the bloody ice blade in her hand, pointed straight at Danzo, and said coldly, "Danzo Shimura."
Several bodies lying in disorder at her feet strengthened the persuasiveness of this sentence.
Danzo remained unmoved.
He was an old man who had experienced vicissitudes of life after all. Although the sudden change just now moved him for a moment, soon, this rock-hearted old man restored the calm on his face.
"I admit we underestimated you..." Danzo's face was as sunken as water, looking at the girl with gloomy eyes and saying, "But the battle has just begun!"
"Tch."
The pink-haired girl's cherry lips curled up, revealing a disdainful sneer indifferently.
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