Chapter 80: Rearguard
A dead corpse, of course, cannot answer questions.
But Hinata stared intently at a certain spot in the woods, as if certain she would get an answer.
Her sharp Byakugan could penetrate all obstacles. The person hiding in the shadows was easily discovered. When Hinata locked her gaze in his direction, that person finally gave up on any lucky thoughts, understanding that he was completely exposed under the Byakugan.
A white-haired youth wearing glasses leisurely walked out from the bushes. He reached up and adjusted his glasses frame, and the transparent lenses seemed to flash with a sudden glint of light.
"My, my," he said with a smile. "It seems I've witnessed the tragic scene of Konoha ninja killing each other! Oh no, am I going to be silenced, Miss Hinata?"
His tone was frivolous. Far from sounding alarmed, it carried a hint of mockery.
The black-haired girl's delicate brows furrowed slightly.
"Kabuto..." she looked at the Sound ninja forehead protector on the smiling Kabuto's head. "Put away your little tricks. In front of my Byakugan, these are just clumsy and ridiculous ploys!"
Hinata took the opening stance of the Gentle Fist, looking at Kabuto with a grave expression.
Although she had dismissed Kabuto's jutsu as a clumsy ploy, Hinata did not dare to be careless in her heart. She had heard about Kabuto from Sakura; it was said that his strength was no less than Kakashi-sensei's!
Knowing that the Byakugan could indeed see through his jutsu, Kabuto simply stopped pretending.
"The Byakugan is really useful," he said, giving Hinata's blank white eyes a meaningful look, and said with a hint of regret, "This corpse, which can still produce a faint amount of chakra after death, was my carefully prepared trump card. I never thought it still couldn't deceive the Byakugan..."
A corpse? Hinata thought to herself. That's right, Sakura said that his specialty ninjutsu is manipulating corpses!
The person disguised as Sakura just now—she actually hadn't noticed that the person, who had a chakra source, was a corpse. It was only with the help of her Byakugan that she had seen at a glance that the person's chakra meridians and tenketsu points were completely different from Sakura's. After all, she and Sakura had done many messy experiments on meridians and pressure points together back then; she couldn't be more familiar with Sakura.
If he had disguised himself as someone else, Hinata would not have been so sure and acted so decisively.
Unfortunately, Kabuto had chosen Sakura. He had truly hit an iron plate... No matter how good his technique was, it was impossible to deceive Hinata!
Of course, Hinata would not tell him the secret. She did not pick up Kabuto's topic, but only asked again:
"Where is Sakura?"
She pressed her lips together tightly, her voice a mixture of urgent expectation and a trace of worry.
Not long after the four-person squad had set out, they had been entangled by a Sound ninja invader. As the captain, Sakura had taken the initiative to stay behind as the rearguard, so that the three of them could find Sasuke as soon as possible.
Out of trust for Sakura, they had agreed to this plan. Although there were many enemies, they believed that Sakura would be able to deal with them quickly.
And at this moment, the one who had caught up from behind was actually Kabuto!
Could it be that Sakura failed? This terrible thought jumped into Hinata's mind.
No, impossible.
No matter what, Hinata couldn't imagine that Sakura, who was like a favored daughter of heaven, would be defeated so easily. With so many powerful ninjutsu at her command, she was almost in an invincible position. Kabuto must have taken a detour to get here!
Thinking this, the confusion in Hinata's eyes quickly returned to clarity and determination.
Kabuto did not pay any mind to the small fluctuation in Hinata's emotions.
He had indeed bypassed Sakura's interception. Although he didn't think he would lose to Sakura, Kabuto had to admit that it would not be an easy task to completely defeat that girl who had mastered a strange water jutsu.
Kabuto had his own mission. He had to take the opportunity to capture that child. He couldn't waste his time on a battle that was destined to be long and drawn-out.
However, if the opponent was the other girl, then that was a different matter.
Kabuto looked at the girl standing proudly before him. A determination that he found disgusting erupted from her eyes. A person with such a gaze would not easily betray their comrades, right?
In that case, the only option is to fight...
"Haruno Sakura...? Who knows?" The fake smile on Kabuto's face made it impossible to tell if he was telling the truth or not.
Under his glasses, his gaze suddenly became sharp.
"But you, before you worry about your teammate, don't you think it's necessary to worry about your own situation first?"
Kabuto's right hand reached into the ninja tool pouch tied at his waist.
Let's return to a little earlier, to the moment when Sakura separated from her other teammates.
Perhaps it was the four-person squad's forceful, straight-line pursuit that had attracted the attention of the Sound ninja invaders.
Not long after leaving the Konoha urban area, the four, who were speeding through the forest, suddenly stopped.
"Did you find something, Hinata-chan?" Sakura, as the captain, asked Hinata, who had been the first to stop.
"Something's not right. There's someone tracking us from behind!" Veins bulged next to Hinata's eyes, extending to below her temples. It was clear that she had pushed her Byakugan to its limit.
"Is it the enemy?" Naruto asked eagerly.
"I can't see too clearly from this distance, but it's very likely to be Sound ninja! There's quite a few of them. One, two... eight. Eight of them. There shouldn't be that many people who can come to support us from Konoha right now!"
"If it's the enemy... then let's set up an ambush!" Shikamaru said with a frown. "With our current personnel, if we coordinate well, we can completely annihilate them!"
"An ambush... I agree," Sakura said faintly, her gaze sweeping over the three of them one by one. "But I don't need you guys. I can do it alone."
"What?" Naruto and Hinata exclaimed at the same time.
"Why take such a risk?" Shikamaru looked at Sakura with an incomprehensible gaze. "We can completely ambush them together. That's the option with the highest success rate. There's no need for you to take a risk!"
"Listen to me, Shikamaru, and you guys too!" Sakura's voice did not have the characteristic fanaticism of a martyr. It was still as clear and calm as the silver moonlight flowing down from the sky.
"An ambush is indeed an advantageous tactic for us, but it would be too much of a waste of time for the whole team to stay behind. The one Sasuke is tracking, that Gaara among the three Sand Genin, is unfathomably strong... I'm very worried!"
Although Gaara had been beaten by Sasuke without any power to fight back during the match, how could Sakura, who knew very well that Gaara was a Jinchuriki, be careless? The plot had already been disrupted by her to an unrecognizable state. She couldn't guarantee that Sasuke would be safe and sound as in the original story.
Therefore, she had made the decision to stay behind alone as the rearguard.
"So, I'll stay behind, and you guys continue to advance to support Sasuke! This is because I believe that the threat Sasuke is facing is likely far greater than our pursuers! As the captain, I hope you will go on ahead and rendezvous with Sasuke as soon as possible, and I will catch up with you immediately after I've dealt with the pursuers!"
"Look at our squad. We have Naruto—with his superb combat power; Hinata—with her formidable strength and the Byakugan; and Shikamaru—a brilliant master of tactics," her calm, emerald eyes looked over the three people present one by one. "The three of you are already sufficient to complete the mission of supporting Sasuke. The reason you still need me is to eliminate the unexpected factors of this mission... Trust me, those Sound ninja catching up are no match for me!"
"..." The three of them stared at the confidently smiling Sakura, their hearts filled with a heavy feeling.
"Go, carry out the order!" she urged, watching the three of them turn to prepare to leave. "Hinata-chan, Shikamaru, help me look after Naruto and Sasuke!"
The two of them nodded silently, pushed off with their feet, and their figures flew forward like arrows from a bowstring. Before long, they disappeared into the depths of the forest.
Sakura stared in the direction they had left for a long time without a word. After a good while, she finally turned around resolutely, her smile gone, and looked coldly in the direction the pursuers were coming from.
The enemy's chakra, at this distance, could already be clearly perceived by her.
A great battle was on the verge of breaking out.
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